The school was uneasily quiet come Monday. It didn't seem like anyone was really off, the air didn't feel thick with tension, like anyone was being worn away by the events that had come to pass over the weekend. But for some reason, the gossiping seemed softer, the laughter felt in shorter supply, and it appeared no one was moving anymore than they had to, thought that part wasn't uncommon; it just made the situation feel worse.

They tried to enter like there was nothing different, but Sharpay was pretty sure it was obvious there was something wrong. She clenched Zeke's hand and had an itching worry her makeup would be disturbed at any moment, if it had not been so already. Zeke was obviously nervous, but only for Sharpay's sake—he was still worried about her. He was a good boyfriend, and what good boyfriend wouldn't be worried in this situation? And as for Ryan, he just slouched behind them, hands in his pockets, eyes on the ground, shuffling his feet as he continued his lapdog routine to his sister. He tried all he could to concentrate on something of little importance, trying to keep himself from actually thinking, from staying so worried. But then, he was a good boyfriend, too.

It was decided they'd tell no one. Sharpay and Zeke had felt differently, but Ryan was still very worried about Troy, and wanted no reason for them to be separated, which was a possibility if the police became involved. Besides, they couldn't just go and tell some random person what had happened. Aside from the few bruises, which could have happened in dozens of different ways, they had no other evidence; there was no real evidence without Troy.

In the end it was concluded they could handle it themselves. After Ryan had finished his story, starting from detention, and Sharpay had assured him she was only upset he hadn't told her sooner—though she would not deny being slightly jealous later, after Zeke had been snuck out—they disposed of anything broken, put the door up on its hinges—they'd call about getting a replacement later—and then applied at gracious amount of cover up to their bruises. The worst part was that, all weekend, Troy hadn't called, or made any kind of contact, and Ryan was beginning to feel as depressed as he was worried; no more smile to reassure Sharpay that the world wasn't all that bad. She'd lost an unknown safety net, and she felt naked without it; it felt so wrong she hurt.

Inside, they were greeted by the usual group, which was composed of a couple of Zeke and Troy's teammates giving high fives, and a small group of drama kids, Kelsi included. Some gave the trio hugs, and even many of the Jocks gave Ryan back pats; in no time at all, people seemed to have accepted him after years of ridicule, all because Troy hung out with him and Sharpay.

Once they were on their way to homeroom, Ryan fell back in place behind his sister, while everyone else chatted and continued on with their lives. He wanted so bad to make pretend that everything was okay, but how could he? In one night, he may have lost everything that he and Troy had risked working for, all because of their stupid hormones! He couldn't slip into character this time, even when Sharpay kept up her appearance of being a fearless Queen Bee, waving to friends as they passed, smile firmly in place. He hoped that maybe, no one noticed. Maybe the rest of the world was as oblivious as the group was nervous.

Then Gabriella showed up. Ryan could feel it coming, and he desperately hoped she would keep her mouth shut. If she said his name, he knew he'd go from the bottom of the hill, through the crust of the earth. He prayed she would keep quiet, but at the back of his mind, he knew something was coming, and he could barely brace himself for impact.
The greeting was normal. Gabby happily chatted small talk with Sharpay, arranged for voice practice in the choir room later in the week with Kelsi, and asked Zeke about his newest concoction, always the supportive one. When she got to Ryan, they smiled and traded hellos, and even did air kisses on each other's cheeks—A first, Ryan thought to himself, slightly surprised.

Nothing was out of place until, "Hey, Ry, have you heard from Troy? I haven't seen him all weekend." And Ryan stopped, and tensed up. A Jock boy nodded his agreement. "Yeah, me neither. You guys seem pretty tight now a day. Know where he's at?"

"No," Ryan mumbled, shoving past them all. He began fast walking to homeroom away from the group, most of who were stunned motionless. God he hated that he had to be so immature about it, so very Drama King, as Troy would say. It wasn't that he was meaning to be so moody and distant about it, but he couldn't help but get angry about it. No one could really understand what he was going through, least of all Gabriella, and here she was, unknowingly rubbing salt in the figurative wound. Sharpay, as always, was the only one who could come close to understanding him, and that was only because she'd actually been there, actually suffered some of what he'd had to.

Sharpay, Zeke, Kelsi, and Gabriella all picked up pace and caught up to him, and Sharpay tried to take his arm. He pushed her away. Dramatic as he knew it must seem, she just couldn't walk in his shoes. Not this time. No one could really understand, no matter how much he wished they could. Something's just couldn't be helped, not even by someone as close as a twin. The only person Ryan felt would really understand was the one person he was most upset over.

"Um, Ry?" Gabrielle ventured tenderly. "Are you…alright?"

"Fine," he said briskly. Shut up, shut up, shut up. God, how could it be this difficult just to keep cool?

Gabriella sighed, her frown showing how deeply concerned she was. Why the hell did she have to care so much? "Did I say something?" She meant well, but not all the world thought talking could solve everything. So she was practically East High's goddamn Peace Core, that didn't mean sharing and caring chased away the Hell of high school, of being gay.

Was that what it all came down to? Being gay? Maybe. If it weren't for being gay, this would have never happened. If one of them had just been born a girl or something, and they'd still fallen for each other, things would be different. But no. Ryan knew he couldn't just blame his sexuality. The fact of the matter was that he was a boy, he was gay, and because of it, with Troy he'd been the happiest he'd ever been before in his whole life.

"No," he answered, voice now leveling to monotone. The least he could do was try and sound somewhat civil.

"Gabby, I don't think—" Sharpay started, but for once, the diva was cut off. Under normal circumstances, she would have lashed out physically without a second thought, but today, she was just too weary.

"Ryan, please tell me what's wrong," Gabriella pleaded. "I only asked if you'd seen Troy—"

Ryan stopped dead and spun around to her, causing Gabriella to take a step back. "And I told you, no!" he boomed. He glared at her, huffing, eyes burning, before storming away. There. He'd known it was coming. As much as he tried to avoid it, it had happened, and at least it was now done.

Sharpay and Zeke hurried after him, but Gabriella just stood, soaking in all that had just happened. She knew something was up with Ryan. Who wouldn't? He was always the good guy, the great guy. Part of her, the part that wasn't still in love with Troy, had always hoped Ryan would fall for he ex, and that they could be together, because she knew they'd be close to perfect for one another.

It took a few minutes of standing in the middle of hallway traffic, but after a few minutes, a plan formed in her head, and she marched off to homeroom; Sharpay wouldn't hide from her, but getting the information from her would be another thing entirely.

Sharpay ducked into the gym. She was huffing, gasping for air, her hair puffing up to twice it's normal size, and her skirt twisted half way around her waist, so the back was on one of her hips and the front on the other. Putting a hand to her chest, she leaned again the bleachers and sighed as she regained her breath.

For the past three days, she'd been doing everything in her power to avoid Gabriella. She'd even jumped into the boys' bathroom just earlier yesterday, though the sudden entrance of a female with her body into a room full of bodies with dicks wasn't very detested by the majority.

But why was she going through so much trouble to avoid her friend? Not long after the Gabriella/Ryan incident, Zeke had caught Sharpay between classes to let her know that the once timid science geek was hunting her down. With a bit more persuasion—just a little trick of playing with his hands a few inches from her cozy bundles of cleavage—she found Gabriella had confided within her boyfriend—as well as Taylor—that she had the suspicion there was a little more going on between the Playmaker and Sharpay's brother than they were letting on to the public, and that that was why her twin freaked. So of course, not wanting to betray her sibling, Sharpay had been playing hide-and-stay-hidden with Gabby until Troy arrived and she could talk it out with the lovebirds. But there was a tiny problem—

Three days had gone by, and still no Troy.

The situation wasn't favorable, to say the least of the least. Half the school was falling over themselves with worry for the basketball star, even if it wasn't all for the same reason. Sure, Troy was probably the nicest guy in the entire school—maybe the entire school district—and yes, just about everyone was his friend, but that group of everyone's didn't all always have pure intentions. Sharpay knew that at one time, she'd been amongst a group of girls who were play easy to get for the boy, and some kids simply wanted him to make baskets.

Then there was, of course, Ryan, who'd stopped eating the second day he'd arrived at school to find Troy was still missing. He'd been slouching around, spacing off in class, and skipping gym all together; not that Sharpay couldn't blame him, as she now liked to spend said class period camped out backstage of the auditorium. Sharpay knew if things didn't turn around, or at least up, fast, people were going to start talking about the Evans twins too, and that was the very last thing any of them needed right now.

Finally, Sharpay stopped sweating and she dabbed at her moist neck and chest with the scarf she had around her neck. "God, I can't keep this up. Troy Bolton, where the fuck are you?"

"Here." The familiar voice echoed through the gym, even when the voice sounded flat and tired, with no feeling in the single word. Sharpay spun around and saw Troy slugging across the gym from a room with a small amount of light seeping from the door held ajar by a hockey puck shoved underneath it, the room Sharpay knew to be as Coach Bolton's office.

Troy was holding a basketball under one arm, and was carrying his backpack with the other, and seemed to be looking straight ahead without really seeing anything. The only emotion he showed came from his eyes, which were clouded; it was clear he was definitely feeling something, but just what that might be was a mystery to Sharpay.

In a flurry of movement, beginning with the dropping of Sharpay's jaw, the girl closed the remaining distance between them and threw her arms around the boy's neck, huffing all over again. For a moment she felt a wave of temptation, but quickly dismissed it, for Ryan's sake. Instead, she simply squeezed him. "Oh my God, Troy! Where have you been?"

It took him a moment to answer, like his brain needed extra time to process her words. "Home," he said simply. He wasn't trying to hug her back, wasn't even readjusting his bag or the basketball held in place by his armpit. When she stepped away, he showed no relief, nor any sign that he cared either way that she had showed any sign of affection towards her close friend.

Sharpay wanted to slap him. Plain and simple, she wanted to throw her hand back past her head and then slam it forward, across the boy's cheek. He was acting like he didn't care about all the thoughts that he must know were going through her head, all the ideas she'd had about why he hadn't returned to school. Who the hell just stood there? It was like when someone dropped their books in the hallway, and instead of stopping and trying to help them, stepping on the scattering papers like the person and their things didn't exist; and that was so not Troy Bolton. "Is that all you're going to say? 'Home'? Damn it Troy, you better start talking, now."

A clacking sound filled the room, the sound of the gym door slipping back into place. Troy's eyes darted to something behind Sharpay, and for the first time since she'd seen him, his face contorted with emotion; a sort of sad, repressed glee and giddiness. When she turned around, she saw her brother staring blankly at the both of them, mouth open slightly. She heard Troy speak. "Ry…"

Troy brushed Sharpay's shoulder as he passed her hurriedly, looking back over his shoulder and across the gym. Sharpay followed his eyes to the door she figured he must have entered from, but saw nothing. When she looked back, Ryan had his arms tightly around Troy, who at least returned the hug, however restricted it appeared to Sharpay. She stood and watched, her arms crossed over her chest, as Troy guided Ryan back a few steps away and began to whisper something. Every few seconds, he would glance toward Sharpay—or maybe the office over her shoulder—and then look away. Ryan would interject every few sentences, but all Sharpay could see from her angle were his lips moving. After a few minutes, Troy again glanced at Sharpay, then at the office door, and then leaned forward, looking daring and timid, and kissed Ryan's cheek. Then he turned and walked out of the gym.

Confused yet again in the short period of 72 hours, Sharpay marched up to Ryan, who had his head turned towards the door, but bowed so he couldn't see it. She stood close to him, expectantly, she hoped, but when he said nothing, she sighed out, "Well?"

Ryan sighed. She could hear him biting his lip, and he twisted at his sleeve with one of his crossed arms, seeming stressed. He turned his head to her, and she saw a few tears making a slow journey down his cheeks. Before she could ask, he choked out, "He dumped me," and then turned on his heel and marched out of the gym with monster steps.

In a complete state of utter shock again in the past 72 hours, Sharpay stood frozen on the spot. Dumped? Dumped? Troy fucking Bolton had dumped her brother? "Oh, Hell no." Immediately, out of habit, a plan began developing in her head, something involving lots of playgirl magazines, Troy's locker combination, a dildo, other assorted sex toys, and Troy's public humiliation. But then Sharpay heard a sound that caused her to turn her head—a small chuckle. She looked in the direction Troy had appeared from, to his father's office on the other side of the gym. Coach Bolton was just then turning away, closing the door behind him, face smug, and a mad grin just visibly playing on his lips.