"All right, everyone, let's settle down." Ms. Darbus threw one end of the large, flamboyant wrap she wore around her shoulder in a frustrated gesture as she entered the room. She scanned the faces of her class, sighing.

"Okay. So we're already settled down, I see." Nobody was talking or moving around at all. They all sat slumped in their seats, staring blankly.

"Anyhow," Ms. Darbus continued, rolling her eyes, quite used to this routine by now. She didn't know why she bothered to make her entrance the way she did. "Just a quick announcement. Afterschool rehearsals for the winter musicale have been changed from four days this week to all five. So anyone involved in the production, please be in the auditorium right after school today."

"Oh em gee!" Gabriella hissed, sinking lower in her seat. "Frickin' –"

"Miss Montez?"

"Yeah?"

"Care to share?"

"Um, no."

She sighed, looking over at Troy. He looked depressed about it too, until their eyes met. Gabriella allowed herself to flutter her eyelashes for a second before looking down.

A moment later, she heard a loud "Pssst." She looked up from the dull and redundant pattern of her desk to meet Troy's eyes again. He glanced up at Darbus, who was babbling endlessly and scrawling her "Steps to Theatrical Success" on the board, and reached back to Gabriella, handing her a small folded piece of paper. Quickly, she grabbed it from his hand, smiled, and sat back in her seat.

Holding the paper down in her lap and looking up again to make sure she wasn't being watched, she then looked down and unfolded it.

In the middle of the creased paper were two hand drawn robots with hearts surrounding them. One was colored black, the other pink. Underneath the black one was an arrow pointing to it and "Me", and under the other was an arrow and "You".

Gabriella looked back up at Troy, trying not to giggle insanely. Only he could do this to her. Everyone else was a fake who could only break her heart. Sigh.

Troy looked back at her, smiling just a little.

At that particular moment, the classroom door opened again and Eyeliner Queen, followed closely by Chunky Rim Glasses King, made their grand entrance.

Ms. Darbus turned towards the distraction and sighed, hands on her hips. "Sharpay and Ryan Evans. Do you realize this is the third time this week you've been tardy?"

"My eyeliner broke?" Sharpay tried.

"My lip ring fell out and was bleeding everywhere, like my broken heart?" Ryan attempted.

Darbus just stared at them.

"Just take your seats," she sighed.

"Dude, you got a lip ring?" Chad asked Ryan.

"Yeah. No big," Ryan replied, shrugging.

"I pierced something too," Chad replied. Taylor, sitting in behind him, raised her eyebrows.

"Really?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. My…"

"Boys, quiet please!"

Chad waited until Darbus was turned back around. "…Eyebrow." He lifted up his huge hair to show it off.

"Dude, that's… hot."

"Did you just call me hot?" Chad inquired.

"No, I called your piercing hot," Ryan corrected him. "Gosh…"

"Shut up," Sharpay told both of them without turning around, holding up a compact mirror as she improved on her eyeliner.

"Make me," Ryan replied dully, crossing his arms over his chest.

Still applying eyeliner with one hand, Sharpay reached over with the other and gave her twin brother a furious noogie.

"Oh my gahhh!" Ryan exclaimed, putting his hands over his head. "Shar, it took me like four and a half minutes to straighten thissss!"

"Cry me a river, doll," Sharpay mumbled, rolling her eyes.

"I will," Ryan sulked.

"Oh for heaven's sake! It's quiet as a tomb in here and as soon as you two show up, mayhem breaks loose!" Darbus exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"Uhh…" Chad began. "Don't you mean he –"

The bell rang, and everyone dragged themselves slowly from their desks.