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

Author's Note: Not the best chapter ever... oh well, here it is. If you could please include the word rent in your review, it would be appreciated. I'm trying to see who reads the Author's Note and who doesn't... just a little stats thing I'm doing. Thanks so much. :-)

High School Drama
Based on 'High School Musical'
By Fiyero Oberon
Chapter Six
No Good Deed

Sharpay dropped the Wicked CD into her stereo and pushed the forward button to the sixteenth track and pressed play. Idina Menzel's voice filled the room. "FIYERO!" She broke into a bewitching chant.

Sharpay turned the volume down severely and Velcro'd her rehearsal skirt into place. She wrapped an enormous beach towel around her shoulders and pulled a witch's hat onto her head. "Ryan? Are you coming?"

"Yeah! Just a sec!"

"Hurry up!"

Ryan came hurrying in. "Sorry, sorry, I was watching the Spelling Bee video."

"Again?"

"What can I say, it's good!"

"The script is on the bed." Sharpay began pacing up and down, listening to the voice coming from the stereo, trying to get into character.

Ryan fingered his way through the script's pages. "What scene is it?"

"I don't know," she snapped. "Do the one with Dorothy where I torture the dog. Right before I melt."

"Okay. Um… okay, found it. You're first."

"Uh… what is it?"

"What a nice little dog."

"Oh right." Sharpay opened her closet and began digging for a broom. "What a nice little dog! And you, my dear. What an unexpected surprise! It's so kind of you to visit me in my… loneliness, is that right?"

"Yeah, loneliness."

"Okay, that's what I thought."

"What are you going to do with my dog?" Ryan read. He looked up. "Why do I have to read Dorothy's parts?" His voice was all high and whiny. Sharpay hated it when he got all annoyingly pouty like that.

But then, she was rather annoyingly pouty as well.

"All in good time, my pretty," said Sharpay, starting to get into character. "All in good time."

"Sharpay!" Ryan whined.

"What?" she snapped. The CD had changed songs and she hurried over to switch it to Defying Gravity. Ryan crossed his arms. "Fine, don't read it."

He grinned in triumph.

"I hope you're happy!" Sharpay sang along with Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda on the CD. "I hope you're happy now! I hope you're happy how you hurt my role forever; I hope you think you're clever!" Naturally, Sharpay took certain liberties with the words of the song.

Ryan rolls his eyes. "Every time!" He picked up the script. "Oh, please give me back my dog!"

…

"Now, just because the rehearsal was sabotaged yesterday does not mean the show is coming to a close!" Darbus announced.

"Ms. Darbus, it was just a power failure," Kelsi said.

"Nonsense!" Darbus screeched. "It was sabotaged! And I suspect someone in this very room is guilty!"

Sharpay rolled her eyes – even for a drama teacher, Darbus was sometimes a bit over-the-top.

The entire room was filled with tension, and not just from Darbus's lecture; something not-so-pleasant had happened between Gabriella and Troy over the weekend, something that Sharpay had not yet managed to poke her nose into. Chad had suddenly decided to show up at rehearsals "to support Troy," although Sharpay had a suspicion that had something to do with the fact that Taylor was attending as well, "to give Gabriella some confidence." And to top it all off, Zeke was avoiding Sharpay, making everything all the more awkward.

Such drama is impossible to escape during high school musicals.

Sharpay had been weaving her way from person to person, begging questions about Troy and Gabriella from everyone but Kelsi, Zeke, Chad, Taylor, and the leading couple themselves – feeling around for any little, loose thread that could pull the entire cloth apart and push Sharpay into the spotlight.

Unfortunately, the loose thread was still tucked in, and Sharpay couldn't find it.

"Kelsi, let's run through Off to See the Wizard." Kelsi hurried up onto the stage, spreading her sheet music out on the piano. Gabriella, Zeke, Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay filed up the steps.

"Sharpay, you aren't in this song," said Darbus.

"Oh, I know, I just wanted to listen closer," she said.

Darbus rolled her eyes. "Very well then."

"Thanks, Ms. Darbus!" Sharpay giggled. "Snot," she muttered under her breath.

Sharpay listened carefully as the quartet sang their harmonies, but yelled at Kelsi to stop half-way through. "You were flat," she told Gabriella. "See that note there? Where you sing, 'If ever a whiz there was'? That was flat. Play that for her, Kelsi." Kelsi played it. "See, on whiz you need to be up just a little more and it'll be better." Stepping back, she smiled prettily. "Go on."

Kelsi played the opening chords. "Oh, we're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!"

"Stop! Troy, you went sharp that time."

"Sharpay, just stop," Troy said.

"I'm just trying to make it sound good. So bite me." Troy gnashed his teeth at her, sending the cast into fits of giggles. Sharpay turned on her heel, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and stomped down the stage steps and up the aisle to a seat in the back.

"No good deed goes unpunished," she muttered.

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