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

Author's Note: Just wanted to say thanks – I broke 50 reviews, and my personal record. Thanks for so much response:-)

I also wanted to let you know that I did go through and change the chapter titles – they now all correspond with a song from a Broadway show. Points if you can name all the shows. :-P

High School Drama
Based on 'High School Musical'
By Fiyero Oberon
Chapter Five
Something Bad

"We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oooooooz!"

Sharpay sat in the back row of the auditorium, pouting firmly as Gabriella, Troy, Ryan, and Zeke skipped around the stage and up the aisle, each of them wearing a wide smile across their face.

Darbus, at the front of the auditorium, turned and called the quartet back in. "That was marvelous!" she told them. "Simply marvelous! Troy, I am so glad your trip got cancelled, you are simply incredible!" She winked at him and he grinned back at her.

Troy had come to rehearsal a few days ago with Gabriella with news that his family's trip to New York had been cancelled. Darbus kicked Josh Brown out of the show immediately and Troy was instantly assigned his position as the Scarecrow.

And to make matters worse, Kelsi and Darbus had decided to take liberties on the music. The traditional melodic "Off to See the Wizard" song had been turned into a four-part harmony sung by the famous quartet. "Over the Rainbow" was now a dance number for Gabriella, "The Merry Old Land of Oz" had become an enormous, twenty-minute-long musical number that involved pyrotechnics and flying harnesses that Sharpay suspected were not in the school's budget.

The only positive tidbit that had come out of tampering with the score of the show was that Sharpay had talked them into doing the "Jitterbug" number that had been cut from the original Oz movie and she personally went through and altered it to feature the Witch heavily.

"Sharpay!" snapped Darbus. "You're up!"

Sharpay let out a sigh, grabbed her script, and headed up to the stage. Luna Barnes was already up there, crouched over in her Flying Monkey position.

Sharpay's lengthy rehearsal skirt jutted out from her hips, sweeping the floor with its inky folds. Zeke hurried over with an old broom and held it out for her – she snatched it away and wrapped her arm around it. "Are we going?" she asked Darbus.

"Go on," Darbus said, waving her hand; she was busy discussing costume issues with Gabriella.

Sharpay let out a wicked cackle. "So! You won't take warning, eh? All the worse for you, then." She turned to consult the crystal ball that was currently being represented by a basketball sitting in a bowl that rested on a small table. "I'll take care of you now instead of later. When I gain those slippers, my power will be the greatest in – Ms. Darbus are you even watching?"

"What? Oh, yes, dear, you're wonderful! Keep going!"

Sharpay was not pleased. She dropped the broom and ripped off her rehearsal skirt. Sitting down cross-legged on the floor, Sharpay sped through her lines, monotone and flat and dull as can be. Luna the Monkey just stood there, watching.

"We're done."

"All right, next scene!"

Sharpay let out a scream and stormed down the steps and up the aisle – Darbus didn't even care. All she was worried about was ensuring that Gabriella would have braids and Troy would be able to perform right and Gabriella would sing well and Troy would have just the right amount of straw and Gabriella this and Troy that.

How very infuriating.

Sharpay sat down on the floor and burst into tears.

"You OK?"

Sharpay jumped at the sound of Zeke's voice. She wiped her eyes and sat up. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long." He lowered himself to the linoleum ground. "I know this is hard for you," he said. "Not being the lead and –"

"It's not even that!" Sharpay cried. "I don't even care about being Dorothy anymore. Darbus is just so focused on Montez and Bolton that she doesn't even care about the show. The Munchkins are all walking around their knees – do you know how absolutely retarded that looks? Ryan is up there doing the robot during his song and she's not even paying attention, just telling Gabriella that her braids should be behind her shoulders because it looks more 'farmgirl.' The music is being changed and that's illegal. And she's not concerned in the least about costumes, except, of course, for Gabriella's and Troy's. Ryan's getting a gray sweat suit that has little silver sequins glued to it. But Gabriella? A cute blue-and-white miniskirt, red chunks, and flowers woven in her hair."

"It'll all come together in the end," said Zeke. "Remember, there are no small parts, only small actors."

"What?"

"It's a theatre figure of speech."

"I know. But it has nothing to do with this."

"Oh. I don't know what it means. I just thought that some theatre quotes might help you feel better. 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but Juliet – Juliet is the sun and I am the east, the opposite of which is the West, of which Sharpay is the Witch."

Sharpay smiled.

"To be or not to be? Water, water, everywhere, and it's going to make Sharpay melt."

"Says the Lion."

"Want to go out for coffee sometime?"

Sharpay wrinkled her nose at Zeke's proposal. "Um, no."

Zeke's face fell. "Oh… okay… yeah, okay, that's fine."

Someone screamed from inside the auditorium; Sharpay and Zeke leaped up, running toward the doors. They were greetedby a roomof empty blackness.

"The switch!" Darbus shrieked from somewhere in the dark auditorium. "Where's the light switch?"

"I found it!"

"Well for goodness sakes, turn the lights on!"

"It's not working!"

"Ouch, that was my foot."

"Rehearsal is cancelled for tonight – be here tomorrow after school."

"Ouch, that was my – nevermind."

"Go home!"

Please review!