Eleventh Grade Social
Chapter #3: Dancing The Night Away
Disclaimer: Congratulate me. I've just won the rights to HSM in a chook raffle! NOT.
A.N: I have succumbed. I have joined the Dark Side. (Their cookies are delicious, by the way.) I have written an AU HSM fic. Usually I'm rather reserved about these things. But now I've written one. Those are awesome cookies.
At the high school dance
Where you can find romance
Maybe, it might be love!
'We Go Together' – Grease
"Have you seen your brother?" a frazzled Ms Darbus asked Sharpay a while later. "He's supposed to be inside already; he's the DJ."
The party-princess façade dropped for a minute and Gabi knew she didn't have to ask if Sharpay was bothered about Ryan. "He never told me he was going to be the DJ," Sharpay said, frowning slightly.
"Well, if you see him, tell him to go in, would you?" Ms Darbus stalked off, looking at the bling-y high-heels of various girls with obvious distaste. Well, she was the drama teacher at EGC. She was meant to have an eye for detail.
Meanwhile, back in the circle, Gabi and Taylor were hard-pressed not to giggle. What was the deal with boys? On finding that there were five boys to ten girls (Sharpay had dragged some of her drama buddies over) Troy and Chad had had the bright idea of making a game of, whichever gender had the highest tally at the time that the doors opened, would win. Oddly, the prize was never specified.
"Aw, crap," said Martha ten minutes later. "Now we're out-numbered." True enough; the entire basketball team of EBC was standing around just Martha, Kelsi, Taylor and Gabi.
When numbers evened themselves out again, Troy hit on the even more brilliant idea of making the circle boy-girl-boy-girl, since Martha and Kelsi were standing right next to each other, looking like deer caught in headlights since they were surrounded by extremely tall guys (especially petite little Kelsi) and Zeke and Jason were just standing there.
"You two look like stunned mullets. Talk," commanded vice-captain Chad. Jason continued to talk to Kelsi about classical music, while Chad repeated his strictures on basketball to Taylor, helped out by Zeke. Troy and Gabi discussed Batman again.
Finally the doors opened, and the crowd surged towards them. Troy, Chad and Jason immediately commandeered one of the pool tables on the other side, Taylor, Gabi and Kelsi hanging in the background. Oh, wait, Taylor had a few shots. Gabi and Kelsi not so much. Zeke and Martha were the first on the dance floor, soon joined by Sharpay.
Once all the balls had been sunk (if that's the correct terminology) Troy turned to Gabi. "Wanna dance?"
It was like everything else shut down and disappeared. The music, other people's conversation, everyone else in the room. All gone. All there was, was Troy standing there in front of her, looking hopeful.
"Sure," Gabi smiled, and handed her bag to Kelsi.
Unfortunately for Gabi's feet, Ryan was only playing house music, and mixes of pop music. This meant that that the mass of dancers were really only, well, bouncers – or boppers. Whichever. Maybe moshers … anyway, jumping in heels is never a good idea and Gabi had already seen one girl limp to the bathroom with a bloody toe, though whether it was a stab from a stiletto heel or just silly, too-tight shoes she didn't know. It looked painful enough.
Kelsi and Sharpay made their way to the bathroom when their own shoes became too much for them. An unlikely pair they made, but shoe-induced pain makes all girls equal. "I love this bathroom," Sharpay commented as they flumped onto the delicately-upholstered sofa in one corner. "It's so pretty." It certainly was better-decorated than the ladies' room at the average shopping mall. Everything was cream marble, blonde wood and white stucco. The mirrors above the sinks were intricately carved, and the plastic soap bottles were elegantly painted with pale pink roses. A stream of girls flowed in, complaining about the pain in their feet, leaving when they felt up to bouncing in heels again.
"This is what they guys don't see," Kelsi commented to Sharpay, who nodded.
Up on the dance floor (the bathrooms were on the floor below the function room), Taylor was beginning to frown. A familiar tune was beginning to blare out over the speakers, under Ryan's current bass beat. As soon as Taylor was assured that, no, she wasn't going crazy, Ryan Evans was indeed mixing this particular song, she stalked off the dance floor as fast as she could, not being used to high heels, and went to sit on the terrace. Chad followed her.
"What's the problem?" he asked. "Why did you leave so suddenly?"
"He was mixing Living On A Prayer," Taylor spat. "You just don't do that!"
"You're a rock chick?" Chad queried, eyebrows raised. "I wouldn't have picked it."
"Actually, I'm into death metal," Taylor told him frankly. "I can see you're surprised."
"Well, yeah," Chad admitted. "You don't exactly look like a Goth. On the other hand, I probably shouldn't judge you. Don't tell Zeke, but I actually prefer country music to hip hop."
It was Taylor's turn to raise her eyebrows. "Come here." She drew Chad into a corner and offered him an earphone. For the duration of the travesty of Living On A Prayer, they listened to Dear God by Avenged Sevenfold, which is a song that sounds country-ish but is by a heavy metal band.
Back inside, the moshers were punching the air and yelling along. "Whoa-oh, we're halfway there," Troy bellowed at Zeke.
"Whoa-oh, living on a prayer," Zeke bellowed back.
"Take my hand, we'll make it I swear," Martha sang to Gabi.
"Whoa-oh, living on a prayer," Gabi sang back. At that point, some random guy came up to her and started dancing right in front of her. Troy shoved him away.
"Piss off," added Martha for good measure.
The rest of the night passed in varying degrees of speed for various people. Taylor and Chad listening to Taylor's iPod on the far end of the terrace, talking about guitar riffs and basketball, only coming back in when someone started to zip around, telling people the final song was about to be played. Sharpay, Martha, Gabi, Troy and Zeke danced in a group to Ryan's music. Poor Kelsi had developed a headache from the bass that was pumping so hard that the ceiling of the bathroom was reverberating, so she sat on a bench outside the ladies' room, staring out a window into the carpark and watching boys and girls walk past her to get to their respective bathrooms, and back to the stairs that led to the dance-floor.
The glass was semi-reflective, and one boy came out of men's room, adjusting his collar around the neck of his vest. "Do I look presentable?" he shot at Kelsi.
Kelso looked around. Oh, he was talking to her. "Oh – uh, you look fine," she answered.
The guy grinned. "Thanks," he said, and dashed up the stairs.
The next person to walk past Kelsi was Ms Darbus, who was holding a bottle of antiseptic fluid and a roll of bandages. "Are you all right, Ms Nielsen?" she asked.
"I have a headache," Kelsi admitted.
"Let me tend to –" Ms Darbus named a girl Kelsi didn't know, "– she's just sprained her ankle, and then I'll give you an aspirin."
"Thank you, Ms Darbus," Kelsi muttered.
Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, the aspirin kicked in just in time for Kelsi to brave the dance floor, join her friends and dance to the final song – Love Generation by Bob Sinclar. The dance floor hadn't expanded during the course of the night so, with virtually all the eleventh graders on it, it currently resembled an extremely large mosh-pit.
The song ended, and everyone applauded. Ryan stepped out from behind the DJ booth and took a bow; even the teachers were clapping. The gang held back, avoiding the mass exodus onto the terrace. Only when the teachers began to chivvy them out did they head towards the exit.
For all that most people had gone out onto the terrace five minutes ago, it was still utter pandemonium. People were running around, finding people to say goodbye to or finding their places in last-minute photos. It seemed like virtually no one had left yet, which was a shame considering the traffic jam of a car-park, emitting harmful greenhouse gases like nobody's business.
Sharpay took out her own camera, and persuaded a passing acquaintance to take a photo of the whole group. "I'll email it to you all," she promised.
The group began to disperse, but Taylor and Martha held Troy and Gabi back. "We wanna take photos of you," Martha explained. Troy put his arm around Gabi's shoulder and she leaned into him. They smiled and squinted in the flash, then finally they were all good to go.
"That marks how many photos of the two of you tonight?" Kelsi asked as they piled into Taylor's mother's SUV. (Taylor was holding a sleepover for the five of them that night.)
"Uh…," Gabi replied intelligently as she tried to count. "More than twenty, if you include the professional photo."
"Was it that pose all the time? You know, with his arm around you?" Sharpay probed.
"Yeah," Gabi admitted.
"How did he say goodbye to you?" Martha queried.
Gabi blushed. "He kissed me on the cheek."
"One, two, three," said Taylor.
"Aww!" chorused the girls.
A.N: Based on true events! Gabi's experience wasn't my own, but my friend's. This includes the many, many photos. (I have one on my phone, and they are very cute together.) And she'll never know about this story, because the only part of Disney she likes is Kingdom Hearts. Anyway, another friend had a headache, and as I sat with her some random boy came out of the bathroom and asked us if he looked presentable. The DJ – not a student, but a professional one – did mix Living On A Prayer, but although my headache-friend and I were offended, we stayed and danced. As regards shoes, one girl in my Maths class actually broke a toe from being trodden on. My own shoes pinched a bit, and they weren't even stilettos.
The next chapter of this will be the final one, but I would really love some reviews before I put it up, please!