Chapter 9

Two days later and Ryan still felt guilty. Sure, he didn't exactly want to be involved in the trainwreck of the century but he didn't like letting people down either. He'd tried bringing the subject up again with Sharpay but she would shut down the conversation every time. Go big or go home was the motto she lived by, if she wasn't in charge there was no point. He didn't have work until the afternoon, so he decided to take a walk to clear his head. He had almost forgotten Bamber Sands had a beach; it's not like the weather had been nice enough to enjoy it. He didn't see it improving any time soon though.

The wind whipped up the sand so he kept his head down as he trudged along the beach. There was no one else around except for the odd dog walker and one hopeful ice cream salesman. Ryan couldn't stop thinking about the look on Kelsi's face at the end of the first show rehearsal. He didn't want to offend her but Sharpay was right - the show was awful. It definitely wasn't going to save Bontins. He sighed. He had to find some way to nudge the show in the right direction without further offending the cast. Easier said than done.

He was just about to turn around and go back when something big crashed into him, bowling him over. He was suddenly on his back on the sand with the wind knocked out of him. Whatever had crashed into him was trying to scramble up from where it had fallen on top of him. Ryan felt a weight lift from his chest and looked up to see Chad kneeling in front of him, shaking sand out of his hair. Now he was breathless for a completely different reason.

'Um...sorry,' Chad said quickly.

Ryan noticed Chad had a long scratch on his face. That wasn't there when he was trying not to look at him at the show rehearsal. He reached towards him.

'You're bleeding,' he said, worried. Maybe the knock on the head had made him brave, because he already had a hand on Chad's cheek, his thumb stroking gently along his jaw before he remembered what he was doing. Chad flinched away and stood up quickly.

'Watch where you're going next time,' he snapped, suddenly angry. Ryan's heart lurched. He had clearly totally misread the situation.

'Sorry,' he said quietly, getting up from the sand. 'I wasn't looking where I was going.'

Chad didn't answer.

'Are you OK?' Ryan asked.

'Fine,' Chad snapped. He was untangling his earphones, about to put them back in and carry on running.

'Is this about the show?' Ryan guessed. He didn't really understand why Chad would be upset that he and Sharpay weren't in the show anymore, but he couldn't think of anything else it could be. Chad had been so nice when they met at the party but now he was acting completely the opposite.

'Yeah. Yeah it is actually,' Chad began, dropping his earphones. 'Some of us don't have some family property to run off to if they have no money, OK? I know you think Bontins is a huge fucking joke but some of us are actually depending on it for our jobs. You know, to live?'

Ryan looked at the ground. He didn't really know how to respond to that.

'This show is it. Taylor told me yesterday. If this doesn't bring in enough money we're all gone. Though I guess you'd probably like that, wouldn't you? You and your family can finally have the place all to yourselves.'

Ryan was left gaping. He was actually starting to get angry at the accusations Chad was throwing at him.

'You don't even know me, how can you be so sure what I think about Bontins?' Ryan snapped, balling his fists at his sides.

Chad just scoffed and shook his head dismissively.

'I don't have any reason to believe otherwise,' he said. He put his earphones in and started running again, leaving Ryan standing alone on the beach, feeling embarrassed and frustrated.

The entire walk back, Ryan couldn't stop thinking about their heated exchange. How could Chad judge him so quickly? He didn't even know Ryan, or the things he had been through that brought him and his family to Bontins. Bontins was Ryan's only hope right now as well.

Then why aren't you helping? He thought to himself.

He stopped in his tracks, almost causing his second collision today.

He was being selfish wasn't he? This was about more than not being in charge of a show, this was about all of their livelihoods, and it was time he started pulling his weight.

Fuck what Sharpay thinks, he thought. He wasn't going to let Chad be right about him.

Ryan marched off with renewed vigour.

Kelsi had been leading line dancing for forty minutes, and she was starting to lose the will to live. The five guests who had showed up could barely stand in a line, let alone dance in one. She turned around to turn the music back on.

'OK this time I need everyone to remember what we just learned,' she said gently. 'It's step, toe, step, cross, OK? Then we'll move on to the next bit.'

The song had barely started playing when the door burst open and Ryan stormed in. All of Kelsi's dancers stopped and turned to look at him.

'Ryan!' said Kelsi. 'What a lovely surprise. Everyone, this is Ryan from the kitchen.'

'Hello Ronan,' said one old lady.

Ryan grabbed Kelsi's hand and marched them behind the stereo.

'Take five everyone!' Kelsi said quickly. 'What do you want?' she whispered to Ryan.

'I need you to sign me back up for your show.'

'Really? But you and Sharpay-'

'Yeah I know. I'm really sorry. We were terrible. But I'm going to make it up to you. I really want to do the show, I promise.'

Kelsi beamed. 'Oh thank you, Ryan! We really need you guys!'

Ryan grimaced. 'It's just me. Not Sharpay. Yet. I'll work on it.'

Kelsi wasn't sure if she should be relieved or not that Sharpay still didn't want to be involved.

'We are going to make this the best show Bontins has ever seen!' she vowed. 'I should get back though,' she added, gesturing to her line dancers.

'Sure, yeah,' Ryan said. He started to walk towards the door.

'Rehearsal's at eight!' Kelsi called after him.

As Ryan closed the door, he could hear Kelsi telling the line dancing class about how great the talent show was going to be. Now he just had to make sure that it was.