DISCLAIMER: The beginning of this chapter contains dialogue taken from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Series 1 Episode 9, which I obviously don't own in any way shape or form.

. . .

HEAD IN THE GAME

EJ stared purposefully into the dressing room mirror, taking breaths to recover from the exertion of 'Get Your Head In The Game', allowing some of the performance adrenaline out of his body so he could refocus his mind ready for Act 2.

He was a little mad and shaken up by something that happened in the number - he noticed something weird going on with Ricky, when he suddenly seemed really shaken by something towards the end of the song and totally messed up the last section of choreography. EJ felt annoyed that the entire show could have been jeopradized, although he did feel a basic level of sympathy for the curly-headed boy, having experienced first hand an 'oh shit' moment on stage when you suddenly blank out and lose track of everything you're meant to be doing. Either way, he couldn't let that distract him, he had to stay focused on his own performance. His parents, for once, were here to see him perform and he had to make sure everything he did was perfect to make them proud.

"Hey!" EJ heard someone call, turning to see the star of the show entering the dressing room. Before he could even fully process the other boy entering the room, Ricky quickly lifted his vest off over his head, and EJ couldn't help but stare for a couple of seconds at the naked upper body he was presented with. He wasn't gay, or even bi, but as an athlete he had learnt to appreciate and admire bodies.

Whilst the skater wasn't quite as built and muscular as he himself was, EJ did find himself somewhat enjoying the view of his lean, toned chest and strong-looking abs which held the faint outline of a 4-pack and had a strong v-line, pointing down into the white waistband of his underwear sticking out from the top of the red costume basketball shorts. Ricky had defined collar bones and slim shoulders, and there was enough definition on his arms to make them look strong without being too big for the rest of his body. EJ found himself with a hint of a smile on his face as he concluded that everything on Ricky's body looked perfectly in proportion.

He was snapped out of it, though, as Ricky continued to walk towards him. "Listen," he said as he reached the older boy.

"What's going on?" EJ asked in confusion at his castmate's actions.

Ricky looked to the side at first, not being able to bring himself to look directly at EJ, as he confessed "You need to do the second act." He paused, eyes briefly flicking to EJ's. "As Troy."

The senior's confusion only grew, his eyes narrowing as he replied "Are you sick?"

Ricky shook his head as he responded "No, I'm good. Just not good enough to help Nini get to where she wants to go."

EJ remained confused as he saw the other boy's eyes go a little glassy, almost as if tears were about to appear in them threatening to spill out. "What are you talking about?" EJ asked, taking half a step towards Ricky. Although the two boys had gone through quite the rivalry in the early stages of the show, EJ had finally had to admit that Ricky was cast as Troy because he was simply better for the part, and he had made peace with that. He didn't understand why the lead was suddenly wanting to back out.

Ricky glanced frantically around the room as he let his fears and insecurities about his performance flow from his mouth. "I'm messing up out there, I can't blow this for Nini. There's someone in the audience who could change Nini's life." He finally made full eye contact with the more experienced performer. "She needs her best shot to impress them." He quickly looked away again, holding out the Troy Bolton vest for EJ to take. "Will you do it?"

EJ hesitated, looking down at the vest and then back up at the worried boy's face, his heart aching as he saw Ricky clearly struggling to hold himself together. Whatever he saw in the audience that spooked him must have really got to him. "Go on," Ricky prompted when the older boy had been silent for a few seconds, "take it."

A small, disbelieving smile came to EJ's face as he gently shook his head. "Ricky, you are the best shot." He said, gently but firmly. "You wouldn't have been cast in the role if you weren't."

"Dude, did you not see me out there?" Ricky replied, clearly internally giving himself a good kicking as he thought back to his onstage mishaps. "I'm completely fucking up the whole show!"

EJ took another half step towards the younger boy, looking in his eyes to try and reassure him. "So you had one bad number, so what? That happens to all of us."

"Yeah, well not 'all of us' have our moms' new boyfriend suddenly turn up in the middle of the show to watch, and not 'all of us' are exactly able to deal with that." Ricky responded angrily, squeezing the vest he was still holding out tightly to relieve some of his anger.

'Oh shit', EJ thought to himself. That makes a lot more sense as to why Ricky suddenly fell out of his character on stage. "Okay," he replied calmly after taking a second to process that new information, "I see why that makes you feel uncomfortable. But, this is just one of those difficult times as a performer you have to block out everything that's happening in the audience and just channel everything you're feeling into your character." He tries with the encouraging pep talk, but seeing the state Ricky's in he pretty much already knows it's gonna be a futile attempt.

This incling is proven correct when Ricky just looks down at the floor, shaking his head. "I just can't do it."

There is one other potential solution that crosses EJ's mind, an old trick of the trade for clearing your mind before a performance that he himself had been introduced to by some of the other guys at theatre camp. It was a long shot, and it could either go really well or just make things even worse, but EJ was willing to try it for the good of the show.

He sighed, considering how to go about his suggestion. "Look, Ricky, you just need to get your confidence back and clear your head." He begins, earning a scoff from the boy in front of him.

"Gee, thanks, great advice." He replied sarcastically - EJ decided to let him off the hook for this one considering the tough mental state he was battling. "And how exactly do you suggest I do that?"

EJ refrained from giving one of his standard sarky replies, knowing he had to be careful about this to avoid freaking out the skater boy. "There is 1 method I can think of that's known to help clear your mind so you can focus on the show. And it's gonna be weird as fuck for both of us, but I need you to just trust me and go with it, okay?"

EJ had locked eye contact with Ricky as he spoke, and it was now the younger boy's turn to look confused. "What are you talking about?"

The senior realised trying to verbally explain what he was about to do would not help the situation, so instead he just gently pushed Ricky back by the hips so he was leaning against the dressing table, then took the bright red vest from the junior's hand and threw it away over his shoulder carelessly, before slowly sinking to his knees in front of the curly-haired boy.

Ricky looked down at the older boy now on his knees in front of him, eyes wide and eyebrows pointing down in confusion, as he quickly got the idea of what EJ was suggesting but was struggling to actually process the situation. "Uh, EJ, I-I'm not..."

Ricky didn't need to finish that sentence for EJ to shake his head and comment "So what, neither am I. But the show needs you and if this is what it takes for you to be able to do it, then so be it."

EJ then turned his attention fully to the task in hand, reaching out and gently pulling down the legs of Ricky's basketball shorts to his knees, a sizeable bulge in the boy's tight white boxerbriefs coming into view. The senior raised his hand and slowly began to palm and rub the other boy through the thin material, instantly getting a sharp intake of breath from the junior above him and quickly feeling a response beneath his hands, Ricky's member eagerly responding to the stimulation.

After a few seconds EJ reached his hands up to the waistband of the boxers, quickly looking up to Ricky for permission to continue, which he recieved in the form of a quick nod, before staring back at the task in front of him so as not to make this experience any weirder than it already was for both of them by holding eye contact any longer than necessary.

The senior slowly pulled the white boxerbriefs down, seeing first a reasonably neat bush of hair before the first inches of his once-rival's dick appeared. EJ continued to pull the material down to Ricky's mid-thighs, releasing his 4.5 inch semi-hard member.

At this point EJ found himself immensely grateful knowing that Big Red would stay at the tech board through the intermission, and that it was unlikely Seb and Carlos would come in as they would probably spend the time together going over choreography and being hopelessly in love, so he and Ricky were unlikely to be barged in on too soon. However, EJ also realised that given the state the younger boy was in at the end of the first act, it was only a matter of time until someone else from the cast came to check on him, so the senior knew he couldn't waste any time and had to get this done before anyone came to investigate.

With that in mind, he looked up at Ricky one more time, getting approval to carry on in another nod, before reaching out and grabbing the skater's dick in his strong hand and starting to pump it, long and firmly, encouraging it to grow. It didn't take much, the junior's member quickly growing to its full hard length of a very respectable 6.5 inches with a decent thickness to it.

The soft moans from above let EJ know that his actions were being appreciated, the older boy not allowing himself to hesitate, quickly licking his lips to lubricate them and bringing his mouth towards the hard cock in front of him.

Grabbing it at the base with one hand, EJ licked a long line from the base right up to the tip of Ricky's cock, then licking back down and repeating the action back up, before bringing the head into his mouth and sucking, running his tongue over the slit, earning a louder moan from the boy he was pleasuring, reassuring him that he was doing a good job so far. EJ was in no way the most experienced at giving blowjobs, going off only his experiences of being introduced to this method of stress relief at theatre camp and trying to replicate what he remember enjoying from his own (admittedly few) times receiving one himself.

EJ started trying to bob up and down the length of Ricky's dick, continuing to swirl his tongue around it as he did. His inexperience meant he could only get 3 or 4 inches into his mouth without gagging on it, so he used his hand to stroke the bottom part that he couldn't get to, getting a string of soft but intense moans from the younger boy.

Ricky was in a world of pleasure, gripping tightly onto the table behind him as he felt EJ's mouth work it's magic over his cock. He too had very limited experience in being sucked off, it being the furthest he ever got in his year-long relationship with Nini, and even then those times being few and far between, the girl being somewhat shy when it came to intimacy and sexuality with a partner, which EJ had also experienced, only himself receiving oral from her once in the span of their relationship.

Ricky threw his head back and kept moaning, which he was trying to keep as quiet as possible to avoid drawing any attention from outside the room, but this was not easy when he felt EJ temporarily bring his mouth off his dick to suck on his hanging balls, continuing to rub the now-lubricated member with his hand.

Ricky's hands instinctively flew down to stroke into EJ's hair as he worked, gently guiding the older boy away from his balls and back onto his dick, his eyes rolling back in his head as EJ worked his mouth even further down Ricky's cock than he had before, getting almost the entire length in before he felt it jabbing at the back of his throat, and then starting to bob back and forth on the member faster and deeper than he had before.

EJ found himself strangely loving the strained moans and groans of pleasure he was drawing from the skater boy as he continued his fast paced sucking, his tongue working constantly wrapping itself around as he went down and circling around the sensitive head as he drew back up to the top. Occasionally he would flick his tongue over the slit on the head of Ricky's dick, causing the younger boy to let out an extra loud moan and sometimes even a "fuck!"

The tactic was certainly doing its job, Ricky's head full only of the immense pleasure he was feeling at the hands (or, more specifically, the mouth) of EJ, all his previous worries and anxieties seeming a million miles away. The older boy's mouth and tongue and hand were working pure magic on him, he was feeling wave after wave of euphoric pleasure as his dick was masterfully worked by the senior he once called his enemy.

EJ, oddly, wasn't disliking sucking Ricky off like this as much as he had thought he might, feeling pride and satisfaction at hearing how much the younger boy was enjoying what he was doing. It only inspired him to take the boy's member even deeper, pushing himself to get the entire 6.5 inch length into his mouth and throat, which he finally managed when he felt his nose rub into the skater's pubic hair, pausing his actions and holding the rock hard cock in his mouth like that before pulling back to continue his bobbing actions.

EJ's success in deepthroating Ricky's dick caused a chain of actions to occur; as his cock was fully encompassed in the warm wetness of EJ's mouth, Ricky's hands scrunched a bit tighter in the older boy's hair, and he let out his biggest moan yet and a cry of "Unn! EJ!" This was the first time since he began that Ricky had called EJ's name, causing him to for a moment look up, which he had been avoiding doing so he could focus on getting Ricky off and avoid any awkward eye contact.

However, as EJ looked up for the first time, Ricky just so happened to look down for the first time, and for some reason, seeing EJ's wide eyes staring up at him as he continued to work his mouth around his dick sparked something in Ricky and pushed him over the edge. The younger boy managed to get out a "Mnnh! I'm gonna cum!" before he climaxed, throwing his head back again and moaning loudly as he fired his load, ropes of thick white cum shooting out from his dick into EJ's mouth.

The older boy had braced himself for Ricky to explode, accepting all of it into his mouth, and wincing slightly as he forced himself to swallow it all when the younger boy's cock finally stopped firing. EJ didn't particularly like the taste or feeling of Ricky's cum in his mouth and throat, but he knew it was by far the least messy and most practical option given their circumstance.

As Ricky released his hands from the senior's hair and leant back fully against the table, breathing heavily and recovering from the intense high he'd just experienced, EJ quickly licked the last, residual drops of cum from the head of the junior's dick before finally letting it out of his mouth as it slowly deflated from its rock hard state.

What surprised EJ, however, was that he had felt his own member giving the occasional twitch throughout the entire experience, and when he had made eye contact with the younger boy as he moaned his name, there had been a definite strong reaction in his shorts and he had felt himself growing semi-hard.

Desperate to avoid Ricky noticing this and the situation becoming awkward, EJ quickly pulled back up the skater's boxerbriefs and basketball shorts, before saying simply "Your mind more clear now? Get your head back in the game" and standing up, subtly adjusting himself in his shorts and walking out of the dressing room, heading for the restroom so he could let himself calm down and not have to talk to Ricky about what they had just done.

Ricky was left standing there, head still slightly spinning as he recovered from what might have been one of his most intense orgasms ever, wondering what the fuck just happened. And, although he couldn't believe it had worked, Ricky somehow found himself feeling focused and ready to get on with Act 2 of the show.

Just at that moment, there was a sharp knock at the door before Nini came bursting in to see the sweaty, topless Ricky looking still a bit dazed and confused. "Kourtney told me you were freaking out, what's going on?" She asked, worried.

"Uh, it's nothing, I just had a mind blank on stage and got a bit worked up about it." Ricky answered nervously, lying to minimise the situation and avoid having to talk, and therefore think, about why he was such a mess before.

"Are you okay? Don't worry, it happens to all of us." Nini said comfortingly, taking a few more steps into the room towards her co-star.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine now. EJ helped me work it out." He answers, trying his best to act casual.

"Is that why you're all sweaty? What was he doing with you?" Nini asked, noticing the discared Bolton vest on the floor.

"Oh, he just led me through this workout routine he does to relieve stress." Ricky lied, but Nini seemed to buy it as she just nodded her acceptance and wished him a great second act before heading out to finish her own preparations for the second half since the boy seemed to be feeling much better now.

When she finally left and shut the door, Ricky turned around to look at himself in the mirror. He remembered the famous lyrics and the words EJ had said to him, saying them confidently at himself and getting in the zone to continue the show... "Get your head in the game!"