Author's Note: Here's chapter eight! Enjoy!
Chapter Eight: Mates, Dates, Oh My!
Ryan's hand shook as he placed down his cellphone, and then picked it back up again, ready to dial Haylie's number, but didn't.
He didn't know who to turn to for these turn of events.
His dad was always good with these "boy" problems, but he was never around, and Ryan didn't want to bother him during his travels or meetings.
His mother would most likely tell him to call his dad, even though she was always around more often, being a yoga instructor for the two, and a mother too.
And that left Sharpay...
Ryan shivered.
Never would he ask Sharpay about Haylie.
Sharpay disliked Haylie from the start, so who would he turn to?
He never really made any "friends" at all because everyone feared Sharpay, but it never hurt to dial a random number. Besides, everyone has a group of friends they didn't pal around with, but most certainly rely on, right?
Ryan dialed Troy's cellphone number, something Haylie had given him by "accident". (Well, it wasn't really an accident. He saw it on her cellphone while he was talking to her secretly)
"Hello?" he heard Troy ask.
"Troy, it's Ryan...Evans." Ryan told the boy nervously.
"Hey, Ryan! What's up?" he asked, surprised.
Well, who would have thought that Ryan Evans would be calling Troy, the basketball boy at his house!
"I got a problem...it invovles Haylie." he replied.
He could tell Troy was smiling.
"I'm sorry...I must be a fool if a girl liked Haylie ever thought-" Ryan broke off, as he heard Troy laughing.
"Ryan, don't be sorry! Haylie must like you, I'm sure. What's your problem?"
"I want to ask her out, but I don't know how...I don't do these kinds of things, you know. Sharpay, and the productions.."
"Did you try dialing her phone? Sometimes a phone call would help." he replied.
He looked at his phone, and then at Haylie's number.
"Yes...but, I'm afraid I wouldn't get her." Ryan explained.
"Uh...e-mail?" Troy asked.
"I would, but how do you ask a girl over the internet?" Ryan asked.
"Dude, I'm sorry, but you are clueless! Why not ask her in person if you can't do it by phone or e-mail? It worked for Chad and Taylor, and me and Gabriella." Troy explained.
"But, you and Chad are basketball players! I'm not! I'm a..." He trailed off.
"Your a what, Ryan?" Troy asked gently.
"Drama geek." Ryan told him, saying the term that McKenize used on Haylie.
"Ryan, your not a drama geek! No girl can like a basketball player, and not every girl can like a drama...whatever you said you were."
"Geek." Ryan said.
"Every girl has her own taste in guys. Maybe Haylie doesn't even have a type of guy." Troy explained.
"But, she's like Sharpay. She can have any guy she wanted, and still, she likes me. I never had that happen to me before."
He wasn't the type of guy who'd be surrounded by girls. That would be Troy, the Wildcats' captain. Even though he's dating Gabriella, girls still like to hang around him, including Ryan's sister, Sharpay.
"Maybe you got lucky. Alot of guys would kill you to have Haylie." Troy told him.
Ryan heard some shouting, and he winced.
Did he call at a bad time?
"Was it alright if I called you? I heard shouting."
Troy shook his head.
"Not at all. I got pulled away from a basketball game on television. The shouting you heard was my dad."
Ryan sighed in relief.
So, nothing bad was happening at the Bolton household.
"Okay, good."
"Have you talked to Haylie at all?" Troy asked.
"Secretly. I don't want Sharpay to find out. You know how she gets."
"Yeah, I do...but, you have to tell Sharpay how you feel about Haylie, Ryan. Haylie already decided she didn't want to join."
Ryan's heart skipped a beat.
"Huh?" he asked. "When she did you that?"
"At lunch. She said she didn't want to join."
"Well, I'll make her join." Ryan explained.
"Ryan, you can't force someone to do something." Troy pointed out, prefering probably to his basketball obsessed father.
"She says she liked drama, didn't she? The spring musical is just what she needs to feel welcome." Ryan stated.
"The only reason why she didn't want to is because of Sharpay, Ryan. She would if Sharpay didn't make such a big deal out of the winter musical."
The winter musical.
Ryan couldn't bring himself to tell Haylie about it, even though Sharpay told Haylie that herself, in her own words.
"Haylie already knows about the winter musical, Troy. Sharpay told her and her sister on their first day at school. I was there." he replied.
"Sharpay tells that to everyone so they won't forget that it was suppose to be you and her on that stage..." Troy was broken off by yelling.
Ryan thought it was someone yelling Troy's name, and he was right.
"Listen, Ryan, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
Troy hung up, and Ryan heard the dial-tone.
Sighing, Ryan placed the cellphone on his dresser, and looked at himself in the mirrior.
It was time for him to do what he should have done in the first place: ask Haylie out.