Deduction: Secrets and Revelations

"Yay! It's official. We are going together!" Taylor paraded the halls of East High, sparkling with excitement. "Chad and I are going together to the Spring Dance! He asked me out!"

"That's great news!" Gabriella commented. "But it's not news, anymore. Taylor, you have been talking about that for the last two hours!"

"Isn't it plain great!" the Decathlon captain cried once again. "He has invited me to the Spring Dance."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…" Gabriella cut her off. She didn't seem very happy.

"What happened?" Kelsi asked. "Are you ok?"

"It's nothing… Troy just hasn't invited me to the Dance yet. I'm kind of melancholic, that's it. I hope he would remember! I told him how important this is for me."

"Now that you mention it," Kelsi let out a sigh. "Jason didn't invite me to that Dance either. He has been acting strange these past few days. Not only has he acted like he doesn't care about me, but the last time he was talking nonsense about a smoothie!"

"I'm sure that blonde bitch is to blame!" Gabriella remarked, showing Sharpay who, once again was isolated, at the other side of the cafeteria. Well, she wasn't exactly isolated, as she was too busy handing out autographs to her fans, which were literally the entire male population of East High.

"Stop being mean, and don't call her like that!" Taylor insisted. "The fact that you had some difficulties in the winter musical and she had to step in for you in almost all of the shows doesn't make her a blonde bitch!"

"No!" Kelsi protested. "Even though I don't approve of Gabriella calling the leading actress in my musical a bitch, then playing nice in front of her, Sharpay might have to do something with Troy's and Jason's behaviour. The other time I was in her car I found something strange, a book that belonged to Jason. She said nothing was wrong, but I am now confused."

"And yesterday, while Troy and I were on a date," Gabriella started, "he addressed me as Sharpay, seriously. At first, he pretended he hadn't said a word, and then went on inventing some weird story on how he thought he'd seen her across the road. Mind my words, Sharpay is a man-eater!"

In the other side of the cafeteria, the blonde was bombarded with offers of going to the Spring Dance by potential partners. More than ten potential partners had even invited her to the Senior Prom! Still, she wasn't happy, you'd better not call her ungrateful, it is just that sometimes, like every girl, she wishes the one who matters, her crush would invite her. And, wouldn't it be great if her crush was her secret admirer, which she might not know at the time who he was, but who apparently knew her very well?

"Hi Sharpay," Evelyn, the cheerleader captain approached the blonde. "What are you up to?"

"Em… signing autographs?" the thespian replied ironically. It was clear the two girls hated each other, continuing the ever-lasting feud for the spotlight between drama queens and cheerleaders.

"I was just wondering who you are going to the Spring Dance with. Rumour has it a certain basketball player has a real crush on you and will ask you to know together."

"Really?" Sharpay's face brightened. "Who is it?"

"Oh, I don't remember! For the record, I'm hoping about asking your brother Ryan, to come with me…"

"Don't you ever say that again, girl!" Sharpay warned, changing her tone to an angry one. Why did she say that, really? Oh, no she became overprotective with her twin too! Or, the picture of her brother with a shallow and vain cheerleader made her quite uncomfortable.

"Ha, got you! I'm just kidding. Why should I ask some hat weirdo to come with me? He's cute, but guys like Troy Bolton and Mark Sindall are way hotter. Maybe one of them will agree to join me!"

As the head cheerleader left, Sharpay couldn't but help feeling a little uncomfortable. That girl had absolutely no right to call her brother a hat weirdo. Still, what had hurt the most was that little comment about Troy Bolton and Mark Sindall…

"And so, he knows!" Chad concluded at the team's meeting. "This means, we're screwed for good. He wants this competition to end."

"But we can't!" Mark urged. "The competition is close to finishing indeed! Look what we've done, so far because of him. In order for Mr. Sneaky not to spy on us, we've changed the location of our meetings!"

The Wildcats looked once more around them. They were not in their usual classroom near the stairs but… in the supplies locker for the cleaners. It was rather uncomfortable, but Ryan couldn't spot them here, at least.

"Again, I've got a question," Zeke remarked. "Even though I didn't know cleaner's supplies closets were so big, how come six people can get in at the same time?"

Nobody took the time to answer. "You are hurting my elbow!" Jason cried instead, even though it wasn't clear who he addressed.

"Relax, boys," Jack tried to calm down the spirits. "It probably is our last meeting. "Because I understand you want it to be short and sweet, let's try to be quick with it. That doesn't mean we'll skip the how-do-you-feel routine we've established at the past meetings!"

"Alright, I start first," Jason said. "It's the first time I'm in this position, and frankly I'm not stressed at all. I tried and I did my best, but if I don't win, that's fine with me. After all, I have to invite someone in the Spring Dance. I hoped it would be Sharpay but Kelsi is sweet and funny too."

"Oh my God, the Spring Dance!" Troy realized. "Gabriella has told me a zillion times how important this is for her and… great, I'm dead. Still, I don't want to go with Gabriella half as much as I want to go with Sharpay. You may believe that I'm just a wannabe Casanova with girls but I have feelings for her!"

"Fine," Mark was about to announce the results. "Jason, I believe that you should ask Kelsi to the Dance. Troy, congratulations! You'll join me in the final, where everything is possible."

"This time, Troy" Coach Bolton said, "you won't choose the theme. We want a final round fair and square. Traditionally, in such competitions the final round has one plain task: Kiss the girl. There won't be any time limit and there won't be any voting. Whoever kisses Sharpay first gets Sharpay. It's as easy as that."

"Easy? That's not easy at all!" Mark and Troy remarked in unison.

"You'll have to make a good plan. Years ago, when I was competing for Lenora, it was my strategy that didn't help. Not to frighten you, people, but after that loss I met my wife! See you!" Jack opened the cleaner's cupboard and everyone went out.

Jason rushed to the cafeteria, the drama kids table. He was sure he would find Kelsi there. For some strange reason, losing was not as bad as it seemed. Well, maybe that proved that Sharpay was out of his league but who cared? Kelsi was just the sweetest short person he knew!

"Kelsi, will you come to the Spring Dance with me?" It was as simple as that.

"I'm not Kelsi," a voice replied. Jason opened his eyes. Crap! He shouldn't have closed them in the first place. That love magic was to blame! Great, now he had invited Ryan Evans to the Spring Dance.

"Have you seen Kelsi?" Jason asked at last.

"I'll tell you where she is, if you tell me what you were up to. Actually, I know what you were up to, so your task is easier: just keep me updated."

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't," Ryan shook his head. "I'll tell Kelsi everything. I'm sorry Jason, but I have no other choice."

Jason bit his lip. After all, he had taken an oath not to tell anyone about the competition. Still, he wanted to go out to the Spring Dance with Kelsi so badly, he found it difficult to resist. Plus, Ryan seemed to know, which meant that technically he was out of trouble.

"Only Mark and Troy remain in the competition," he finally muttered. "Their last task is to kiss Sharpay! And whoever succeeds the first is the winner."

"Thanks, Jason," Ryan smiled. "I knew you'd cooperate. Kelsi is in the piano room; she practices with Sharpay and a couple of other girls a song. Go find her now!"

Jason rushed to the piano room, while Ryan left alone in his thoughts. He had a plan…

Author's Note: So, this is the newest chapter. Sorry I didn't make an update yesterday but these are busy days… You see, I'm having my graduation ceremony tomorrow. Yep, bye bye high school, Hello College! And, I'm class Salutatorian, so… yay me! Whatever, I'll try to update once again today or tomorrow. The winner will be announced in two chapters, so start voting. Who do you want to win Sharpay's heart: Mark or Troy? Tell me! Also, the funniest review this time belonged to Christy (chris tea xx). It was absolutely hilarious!