Chapter 3

Ryan woke up. Again. He must have woken up five times during the night when he usually slept right through. The bed was the least comfortable piece of furniture that he had ever experienced and also Sharpay snored. This time he had woken up to banging and crashing and was definitely not getting back to sleep. Ryan got up and left the bedroom to see Troy hitting the sofa bed with a hammer.

'Troy? What the hell are you doing at this time of the morning?' he snapped.

'I'm not Troy, sir,' Troy said. 'I'm Trey, the maintenance supervisor.' He looked up and Ryan saw that he was wearing a fake moustache. 'Also it is 1pm.'

Troy turned back to what he was doing, hitting nails into one of the legs. 'Your mum and dad woke up right after I started repairing their bed. They've gone to the shop.'

'Oh,' said Ryan.

'And Coach Wildcat wants to see you. He said something about how you guys have to get jobs here so you're not just scrounging off the Bontins budget.'

'Do you have any vacancies for a choreographer?' asked Ryan hopefully.

'Is that the same as a dishwasher?' Troy asked, now hitting the sofa bed's mattress with the hammer.

'Um...no.' Ryan sighed. 'What vacancies do you have?'

'Dishwasher.'

'Is that it?'

'Yep!' said Troy, popping the p.

Ryan shook his head. There was absolutely no way he would ever wash dishes, especially not someone else's. If he had to work and that was the only vacancy then maybe they could swap some of the other staff around? He was sure that no one would mind being demoted for him to have a nicer job.

They suddenly heard a loud scream from Ryan and Sharpay's room. Ryan ran over (it was about three steps) and found his sister sitting bolt upright in bed, looking around at her surroundings.

'Was this seriously not a dream?!' she said.

'Fraid not,' Ryan said.

She flopped back down and pulled the covers over her head.

'I'm never coming out again, leave me here to die,' she said. 'Ryan get me some breakfast.'

'But you just told me to leave you to die? What is the truth?'

Sharpay screamed again and threw her phone at him. Ryan caught it before it hit him in the head but he caught a glimpse of the screen which showed no new messages. That was odd for Sharpay. If she even left her phone for five minutes she would usually have a few texts.

'I told everyone back home what our stupid accountant did and now they're ignoring me,' she said, her voice muffled by the duvet she still had over her face.

'If it makes you feel better, I haven't got any texts either,' Ryan said, sitting on the end of her bed. 'I haven't heard from Julliard since we got here.'

Sharpay slowly lifted the covers away from her face. 'Ryan,' she said. 'I think we're really on our own out here.'

Ryan nodded.

'If we die here from one of the diseases these beds definitely have, nobody will even know.'

At that moment, Troy poked his head in the room.

'Absolutely no one has ever died here, nobody dies at Bontins,' he said very seriously. 'It's a place of fun.'

'Get OUT,' yelled Sharpay. 'I haven't even brushed my hair!' Troy scarpered.

'Why is he even here?' she asked Ryan.

'He's 'fixing' the sofa bed. And apparently we have to get jobs here?'

Sharpay looked like she was going to burst into tears.

'I think we can probably convince them to let us take over the entertainment?' he continued. 'I'm going to talk to Coach Wildcat about it later, do you want to come too?'

'Coach Wildcat?' Sharpay raised her eyebrows. 'Is that his real name?'

'Just...don't ask,' Ryan said.

Three hours later, when Sharpay and Ryan had finally finished their morning (afternoon) routine and left the apartment, they made their way to Coach Wildcat's office to explain to him that they were far too important to be dishwashers but would be willing to take over the entertainment if he asked nicely.

'Don't mess this up for us, Ryan,' warned Sharpay before she knocked on Coach's door. 'Don't do the jazz squares.'

'But jazz squares are a crowd favourite!'

'I don't think this place has attracted a crowd in a long time.'

The door swung open and the twins barged in. Ryan hit play on his phone and music blasted out. They began their most popular song and dance routine. Well, it had been popular whenever they had performed it at the country club. Coach Wildcat sat behind his desk silently throughout the performance. Of course the fact that he was wearing the wildcat costume made it difficult to judge his facial expressions, so they had no idea if he was impressed.

The dance ended as it always did, with the splits and jazz hands. They then stayed sitting on the floor in awkward silence, waiting for Coach to clap. That had never happened before.

Ryan recovered first.

'Uh, Coach Wildcat, Troy told us that you wanted us to work in exchange for staying here and we thought that it would be best if we took over the entertainment.'

'As you can see, we are very talented,' continued Sharpay as she stood up. 'Much more talented than whoever must be running it already. And we can start immediately!'

Coach folded his arms and shook his head. Ryan's heart sank. No one had ever said no to them before. He didn't want the first person to reject them to be a furry.

'I don't need any more entertainers, but I do need dishwashers,' he said.

Sharpay stamped her foot. 'Then make the current entertainment managers be dishwashers and we'll take over!'

Coach Wildcat laughed. 'I don't know where you kids have worked before, but that's not how it works here at Bontins, we value our employees!'

Sharpay and Ryan said nothing. They had never worked anywhere before now.

'I need you both to turn up at the cafeteria at 5pm and report to Zeke. He'll tell you what to do. Goodbye!'

'But-'

'Goodbye!' said Coach again with a harder voice. Sharpay and Ryan decided not to push it and quickly walked out.