The next day at school was chaos. Ryan got so many weird looks. The weirdest part was when Chad came and sat with him at lunch.

"Hey, dude!"

"Hey, Chad!"

"Mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all."

"So, what are you doing Saturday night?"

"Um…I don't know, why?"

"Jason's holding a huge party. Wanna come?"

"Um…sure."

Chad turned to Sharpay. "You wanna come too, Sharpay?"

Sharpay pulled out her cell phone. "I'll check if Zeke can come."

Chad turned back to Ryan. "So, you on the team?"

"…Yep."

"Cool!"

Ryan smiled. He and Chad talked basketball for a couple minutes, when Jessica, the head of the cheerleading squad, walked up to him.

"Hey, Ryan!"

"Hi, Jessica."

"Are you going to Jason's party?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Sweet…wanna go with me?"

"Um…sure."

Sharpay fake threw up in her salad. Kelsey laughed.

"Cool! Here's my number."

Jessica gave Ryan a piece of paper, then turned around, causing her long blonde hair to flip. Sharpay snorted.

"She gives blondes a bad reputation." Sharpay commented, wrinkling her nose.

"Dude!" Chad screamed.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"That's Jessica! I can't believe she asked you out!"

"Neither can I."

Kelsey shook her head. "I've never liked that girl."

"Me neither." Sharpay said.

Then the bell rang, leaving Ryan staring at the piece of paper, head spinning.

At 3:30 that day, Ryan found himself coaching Zeke, who had asked for advice.

Swish.

Bang, Bang, Bang.

Swish.

Boom!

"Good one." Ryan said, congratulating Zeke on his successful shot. "But try to position your hands like this." He said, showing the example.

"Like this?"

"Perfect.'

Swish.

"Yes! Thanks, Ryan!"

"No problem."

"Hey, Troy!" Zeke said, indicating Troy, who was walking through the gym doors. "What are you doing here? Need advice from Ryan? He's great, look at this!" He took a shot at the hoop and made it perfectly. Troy cocked his head.

"Wow, great job, you made a basket. We should hold a parade." Troy said sarcastically.

Zeke looked hurt. "Whatever, man." He dropped the ball and left.

"What the hell was that?" Ryan demanded. "You know Zeke has problems with free shots, can't you be happy he finally got better?"

Troy looked confused. "Listen, Ryan, I… this is my team."

"And what's your dad, chopped liver?"

"Yeah, sure he's the coach…but I'm the captain. I…you haven't convinced me that you deserve to be on this team. If you really love the sport, why haven't you been playing this whole time?"

"You heard the story about my dad!"

"Yes, how very touching! But don't you think you owed it to your dad his whole time?"

"I'm the one playing, not my dad! What about you? About the singing thing, the play?"

"I never knew I could sing, or act for that matter! If I had, I wouldn't have been a coward about it!"

"Oh, please. You would've been to scared about your stupid reputation as a jock!"

"Like you? Too worried about your reputation to commit to anything but drama?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"And I'm in the musical!"

"Yeah, because of your girlfriend!"

"Don't bring girls into this, you'll just embarrass yourself."

"If you were to take your stupid little head out of your fantasy world for about two seconds, you'd see that I don't care about any insults you throw at me, and I'm not scared of you."

Troy took a strep towards Ryan and spoke in a low tone. "Yeah, well, maybe you should be."

"Troy, This is my time to show this school what I can do. I may be interested in drama more than anything else, but that doesn't mean I'm not tough. I'm not afraid to stand up to you. I've been through things your perfect little head doesn't even have the brain capacity to think about. So, you know what? If you don't think I deserve to be on this team, go ahead, throw me off! See what happens to you! You think people will like you then?"

The gym was silent for a moment, when Ryan spoke again.

"This isn't just your team anymore, Troy." He dropped the basketball and stormed out, leaving Troy standing there, pondering his last words.