Chapter 12

Ryan walked into the empty pool building five minutes before he was supposed to be meeting Chad there. Sharpay and Kelsi had assigned them a song and dance duet, which Ryan needed to teach Chad in the week they had left before the show. Chad was athletic, but he was not a dancer. Ryan knew he would need a lot of work, and secretly he was looking forward to it.

Chad arrived on time for once. He greeted Ryan with a bright smile. 'Hey Evans,' he said. 'Ready to be blown away by my incredible dance skills?'

Ryan laughed. 'Show me what you've got!'

Ryan put some music on and gestured for Chad to dance, he wanted to see what level Chad was at and he was also hoping to see Chad embarrass himself a bit.

Chad flailed around like he was in a club.

Ryan turned the music off immediately. 'You're gonna make my eyes bleed,' he joked.

Chad pretended to be offended. 'I thought that was very good actually,' he said, but he was smiling.

'You've got to listen to the music,' Ryan reminded him. 'And you need to do actual moves, not just wave your arms. Luckily I've already choreographed our routine.'

Ryan played the music they were dancing to and danced Chad's part to show him. Chad's face fell.

'Ryan, that looks hard,' he said. 'I'm never going to learn that in time.'

'You will!' Ryan said. 'Come on, I'll show you. Stand in front of me.'

Chad turned around to stand with his back to Ryan.

'OK, I'm going to move your arms for you, so just concentrate on the feet,' Ryan said. 'Left, right, cross over, then turn at the end of the fourth bar, got it?'

'Er...sure,' Chad said.

It was all going surprisingly well for the first two bars of the music. Ryan could even feel that Chad was starting to learn the arm movements. But he didn't let go yet, keeping a gentle grip on Chad's forearms as the third bar started.

'Again,' he instructed. 'Left, right, cross over, then-'

He was cut off by Chad turning suddenly. Ryan hadn't been ready to step back so as he turned he crashed into Ryan, accidentally brushing their lips together.

They jumped apart quickly, as if they'd had an electric shock. Ryan's face burned.

'Oh shit, I'm so sorry!' Chad exclaimed.

Ryan lifted a hand to touch his lips. He couldn't think. 'Uh,' he said, eloquently. The moment replayed over and over in his mind. 'What just happened?' he asked, looking at Chad.

'Sorry,' Chad said again. 'Honestly I don't really know what a bar is so I just guessed when to turn around.'

Ryan laughed, which made Chad start laughing too. 'We could try again?' he suggested. 'I'll tell you when to turn this time.'

Chad smiled. 'OK,' he agreed.

They continued their practice, although Ryan couldn't help but hope that it would happen again. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed when they finished their practice with no more mishaps. Chad had made a lot of progress with learning the dance and Ryan was starting to think that they would be able to pull this off.

As they packed up and left the pool, Chad told Ryan the story of his disastrous first appearance in the talent show. He had tripped over someone's foot and pulled half of the scenery down with him.

'It was a food and drink theme that year,' he said, shaking his head. 'Taylor got hit by the giant fork.'

Ryan couldn't help laughing. 'What about the year after that?'

'The year after that I played a wasp in a show about summer,' Chad said. 'The audience actually booed when I came on stage, and they weren't told to.' He laughed as well this time.

Ryan patted him on the arm. 'Well your bad shows are over, this year they'll be blown away!'

Chad smiled. 'Is it weird that I'm actually a little nervous about it? Like, I only did this so we could make money and stay open. Now I actually want it to be good.'

'Classic pre-show jitters,' Ryan said. 'You'll be fine though. I have a good feeling about it.'

They stopped walking. Ryan realised that they had already reached the main reception, where they would part ways. He didn't want to.

'Well, see you tomorrow,' Chad said.

Ryan smiled. 'See you tomorrow.' He watched Chad walk away towards his apartment.

When Ryan got back to his family's apartment, he was exhausted from rehearsing all day. He put on his oldest pair of plaid pyjama bottoms and a faded T-shirt from his high school production of Starlight Express. Sharpay was already lounging on the sofa in the living room in pink satin pyjamas and a matching fluffy eye mask.

'Ryan,' she said as he came out of their bedroom, not bothering to remove her eye mask or face him, 'don't talk to me for the next hour. I'm trying to remember what it was like to go to a spa.'

'Are you OK?' Ryan checked.

'I'll be fine,' she replied. 'This show is taking a lot out of me right now. I think I just need to get a really good sleep tonight.'

'Yeah, me too,' Ryan agreed.

'Have you seen my earring?' Peaches asked, sounding panicked as she burst out of the bathroom.

Sharpay sighed, this wasn't relaxing at all.

'Which earrings?' asked Ryan.

'Is this it?' Digby pulled something out of a kitchen drawer, which on closer inspection turned out to be a rusty nail.

'No!' wailed Peaches. 'Oh, I can't go out like this! We'll have to cancel!'

'You look great Mom,' Sharpay said, still wearing an eye mask.

'Where are you going anyway?' asked Ryan.

'The Silly Squid Snackateria and Arcade. We've got a business meeting,' said Digby.

'Why would you have a business meeting there?!' Ryan said incredulously.

Digby sighed. 'It wasn't our choice of restaurant. Coach Wildcat picked the place.'

Yeah that sounds about right, thought Ryan.

'I've found it!' Peaches exclaimed, holding the earring aloft. It was covered in dust from where it had been hidden under the sofa. 'Dinner is back on!'

Digby hustled Peaches out of the apartment and suddenly all was calm again.

Ryan and Sharpay had been asleep for about an hour when Ryan woke to the sound of the front door slamming. Uh oh, he thought. The business meeting must have gone really badly. It took him a moment to register that it was not his parents' voices that he could hear but two male voices. He quickly shook Sharpay awake.

'We're being robbed!' he whispered to her urgently.

Sharpay yawned. 'Don't be stupid Ryan, we have nothing to steal.'

'No, listen!'

They stopped and listened. All was quiet for a few moments, then suddenly there was the sound of Digby's makeshift folding table desk collapsing. Sharpay gasped.

'Shit!' said a voice from outside.

'See?' Ryan whispered.

Sharpay picked up a shoe and stood by the door.

'What are you doing?' asked Ryan.

The door burst open and two balaclava clad men charged in. Sharpay swung and smacked her shoe over the head of one of them, making him stumble, but the other grabbed her and bundled her out of the room.

'Sharpay!' Ryan yelled.

The one that Sharpay had whacked righted himself and grabbed Ryan. Ryan struggled but the guy was pretty strong and was able to drag him kicking and screaming out of the apartment. Once outside, a bag was put over Ryan's head and his kidnapper made him walk somewhere. He tried to keep a map of where they were going in his head but he couldn't be sure if they'd turned around.

'Where are you taking us?' he asked desperately but wasn't given an answer. He could hear Sharpay screaming in the distance, at least they seemed to be going to the same place.

Ryan was led into a building, it smelled weird, like the pool?

Suddenly the bag was ripped off his head, the light was blinding.

'Surprise!' yelled the entire cast of the talent show.

'What the FUCK!' screamed Sharpay. She turned around to her captors, who had removed their balaclavas. It was Zeke and Troy. Zeke was rubbing a sore spot on his head.

'You were so scared!' Troy laughed. 'It was so funny!'

'It wasn't funny!' Ryan yelled. 'We thought we were going to get murdered!'

'Why?' asked Troy. 'We wouldn't murder you?'

'We didn't know it was you!'

'Ohh.' Troy nodded slowly. 'Right, the balaclava.'

Kelsi came over then carrying two drinks, which she handed to Ryan and Sharpay. 'Sorry guys, but we had to do it. It's tradition.'

Taylor nodded. 'It happened to all of us our first pre-show sleepover.'

'Pre-show sleepover?' asked Sharpay.

'It's a bonding experience!' Kelsi said. 'It means you're part of the crew now.'

Ryan would be touched if he wasn't still getting over his terror.

'You expect me to sleep after that!?' he exclaimed. Everyone laughed but he wasn't joking.

'That's what the booze is for!' said Taylor.

Sharpay took a very long drink. 'All right,' she said. 'I'm in.'