Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or its characters.

Author's Note: So here's the next chapter… please review as usual. (I'm getting close to breaking my personal record which, sadly, is only 49.)

High School Drama
Based on 'High School Musical'
By Fiyero Oberon
Chapter Four
Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'

She knew before she was even out of bed that the day was not going to be a good one.

The lime-green digital numbers of her alarm clock flashed 6:23 – she had already hit the snooze button twice and then lay in bed, still not wanting to wake up. The nightmare that had come with the cast list had not been a good one, and waking up and going back to sleep brought about fluffy dreams that involved ruby shoes and golden roads and bright, florescent cities made up of green and emerald and lime and jade shades.

Sharpay rolled out of bed and onto the floor, dragging her blanket and sheets with her. She stood, untangling herself, and left them on the floor for the housekeeper to pick up later.

Jumping into the shower, Sharpay let out a shrill scream as the ice-cold water attacked her bare back. And no matter how hard or how far she turned the hot water knob, the freezing temperature would not go away. The bitter water burned her scalp because it was so cold.

She had already worn all of her shoes once this month, so she had to start back at the beginning – and starting back at the beginning of her shoe collection was never an especially wonderful moment for Sharpay. She was forced to wear one of her pairs of plain, white tennis shoes. Furthermore, none of the clothes that she especially liked were clean, so she was reduced to wearing some obscure combination involving a lime shirt and multiple belts.

At breakfast, Ryan had taken the last of the Fruit Loops and Sharpay hated every other kind of cereal. The bagels wouldn't thaw themselves out and for some reason the toaster had decided to burn itself out and refused to heat up anything Sharpay put into it.

And to make matters worse, Sharpay had forgotten to lay out Ryan's clothes for him the previous night. So he was wearing a pair of jeans that she suspected had been bought in the third grade from their length and a shirt that Sharpay wasn't exactly sure of the color of because it was covered with stains in various shapes, colors, and sizes. And he didn't even have a hat.

"What good is a boy without a hat," Sharpay told him, but he just shrugged.

"I don't care what I look like," he said. "That's why you pick my clothes out."

"Right."

It wasn't until Sharpay had tripped her way up the school steps that she realized her socks didn't match – and it wasn't even that they were both white socks but one had little hearts at the top and the other had little stars. One was striped pink and orange and the other was solid black.

And she had two left shoes on too.

The water fountain broke and shot her in the eye, but worked fine when Ryan used it right after her.

She tripped at lunch. And it wasn't a little, "Oops, I stumbled," type thing. She tripped over someone's leg that had shot out just as she was walking past. She was sent sprawling to the floor and the contents of her tray emptied themselves on her chest and stomach. She had maintained her dignity, however, for the sake of Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton, whose eyes were watching her every move.

The fortunate thing about being rich was that you could afford to leave a shirt or four in your locker at school, and that was just what Sharpay Evans did. So right after lunch, Sharpay got a pass out of English and changed to one of her locker shirts.

Sharpay passed Troy on the way back to class and she stopped him in the hall.

"Are you in the musical?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"No," said Troy, smiling. "My family is going on a trip to New York the weekend of performances."

But Sharpay's mind had stopped at "New York."

"Are you seeing any shows in New York?"

Troy's brow furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure… not that I know of."

Sharpay let out an exaggerated, Miss Drama Queen, Prima Donna gasp. "You're going to New York and not seeing a Broadway show? That's… that's an insult!" She turned away, flipping her hair. "You disgust me, Troy Bolton," she spat over her shoulder as she walked back to class.

"See you later!" he called after her.

Sharpay failed her science class for the day because she was more concerned about her nails than her grades, and dissecting an assortment of bugs and animals was just not something she was interested in. She let Ryan do all the work and, although Professor Leo-Butz told her that she would receive an F for the day, she really didn't care.

She was just ready to go home, pull on some cute, flannel pajamas and crawl into her warm bed until the next morning.

Except that there was rehearsal scheduled right after school.

The cast was meeting in the drama classroom. Sharpay and Ryan made a point of sitting on one end of the couch and throwing their jackets and backpacks all over the rest of the sofa so no one else could sit beside them. Gabriella and Troy were sitting on the bright red loveseat, their hands entwined in each other's, and Zeke, Alexandra Heady, and three senior boys that Sharpay didn't know were sitting on the floor and folding chairs.

"Zeke?" Sharpay asked. "You're in here?"

He shrugged. "I thought I'd give it a try."

"Welcome," Darbus announced, entering the intricately-decorated classroom, "to the first rehearsal for this year's musical! I'm sure you all heard the announcement in final period, no? Well, for Miss Heady and Mr. Blake's sakes, I asked for only the leads to come to this rehearsal, so we don't overcrowd the drama room." She chuckled a bit and took a seat in a hideous floral, overstuffed chair.

"Um, Ms. Darbus?" said Sharpay. "I really don't think that it's necessary for non cast members to be at this rehearsal." She stared pointedly at Troy.

"Oh, Miss Evans," said Darbus, chuckling, "I don't think it's necessary. Mr. Bolton isn't going to hurt anything, are you, Troy?"

Troy smiled. "No, Ms. Darbus, of course not." Darbus giggled, obviously thinking that Troy was flirting with her.

"He makes me sick," Sharpay muttered into Ryan's ear. "The little golden boy, never doing anything wrong. I don't buy it."

"Does everyone know everyone?" Darbus asked. Everyone shook their heads. "All right then, we'll go around and have everyone introduce themselves. Say your name and part… and your favorite ice cream flavor!"

"Favorite ice cream flavor?" Sharpay repeated. "Why do we need to say that?"

"It makes it more fun," Darbus said with a nod. "Gabriella, why don't you start?" Sharpay gave out an angry huff.

"All right… well, my name is Gabriella Montez and I'm playing Dorothy and… I don't really know what my favorite ice cream is. Maybe chocolate?"

"Real original," Ryan coughed. Sharpay smirked.

"And, of course, Troy is not in the cast," Darbus said, "so, Zeke?"

"Um, hi, my name is Zeke Debbler… I'm playing the Lion and Zeke," said Zeke. "Oh, and my favorite ice cream is, um, I don't know, come back to me."

The first senior boy was Josh Brown and he was playing the Scarecrow and Hunk – the second was Anthony Hopkins and he was playing Uncle Henry and the Guard of the Emerald City – the third was Jim Blake, who was playing Professor Marvel and the Wizard. Alex Heady announced that she was playing Aunt Em and Glinda the Good Witch of the North.

"I'm Ryan Evans, I'm playing the Tin Man, I like cookies 'n' cream ice cream."

Sharpay stood up and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Hello, everyone! I am Sharpay Evans and I will be playing the Wicked Witch of the West in this production as well as Miss Almira Gulch. In my opinion, the most fantabulous flavor of ice cream on this planet is strawberry cheesecake. Thank you." Sharpay bobbed quickly in and out of a curtsy and sat back down on the couch.

And a massive fart exploded from beneath her. The senior boys erupted into laughter and Troy chuckled as well. Gabriella was sent into fits of giggles and even Darbus let out a twitter. Sharpay burned pink and she slapped Ryan went he snickered.

Darbus managed composed herself: "And Mr. Debbler?"

"Yeah?" asked Zeke – he was as red in the face as Sharpay was.

"Ice cream?"

"Oh… uh… strawberry cheesecake."

Sharpay's eyes narrowed – Zeke had definitely just copied her choice of ice cream.

Darbus passed out bright green scripts to everyone. "Now, let's get this show on the road!" she said. "Please open to page 5, and Gabriella, you can start us off."

There was a shuffling of papers and a pause, then Gabriella spoke: "She isn't coming yet, Toto. Did she hurt you? She tried to, didn't she? Come on – we'll go tell Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. Come on, Toto."

It had definitely not been a good day.

Not at all.

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