My God, it's February already! Huge tremendous apologies for the wait. I hit a real wall with this one, although that could be due to the fact that I was listening to Machine Head continuously while writing it. Not really a HSM mood-setter. Anyway, here it is. Thank you for being so patient!

Disclaimers, warnings and other stuff: See previous chapters. Thanks.

Competition day.
It was buzzing through Chad's ears. It had been ever since he woke up that morning. Competition day…competition day…it's today, it's today! He didn't hear a single word anyone said to him in class or at lunch; it was impossible to concentrate on anything other than spins and steps. He was terrified, but excited. He was sure the nausea churning in his gut was the good kind of nerves, but he kept dashing into the bathroom, just to be sure. It was on one of these emergency trips that he bumped into Ryan, who was washing his hands in one of the basins.
"Nervous?" the blonde asked, clocking Chad's clammy complexion and ashen face.
"A little." he replied.
Ryan smiled. He wasn't usually one for pre-show jitters – Sharpay disapproved of such apparent weakness – but he had to admit even he was a little queasy about this one. He could only imagine how a newbie like Chad must be feeling.
"So…" Chad reached behind his head and scratched – a nervous habit universal to most teenagers. "How are you and Sharpay doing?"
"Good." Ryan nodded. "Pretty good. We've been going at it non-stop. Sharpay's come up with this 'killer move'. She thinks it'll make you crap your pants."
"That's…great."
"Yeah."
An awkward cough. "It's funny, I kind of forgot we were in competition with one another."
"Yeah…me too…"
The conversation lulled. Neither boy really knew what to say. Eventually Chad broke the silence.
"Do you think me and Gabriella will be okay?"
Ryan sighed, not really sure how to answer. His mind drifted back to that fateful day when he had first seen Chad dancing, in this very bathroom, and what he had been thinking as he watched him. Instantly he knew.
"Yeah, I think you'll be great."
He was rewarded by a huge grin from Chad, who suddenly felt considerably less nauseous than before. A month ago Ryan Evan's opinion wouldn't have meant squat. Now it was everything.
"Hey," Ryan looked up and met Chad's eyes directly for the first time since he had re-taught him the tango. He was smiling, reassuring. "Break a leg out there tonight." he said.
Chad laughed and held out his hand. Ryan shook it without hesitation.
"You too, man."

"So what are you going to do about this Ryan thing?"
Troy asked the question just as he sat down next to Chad at lunch. Chad visibly froze – the issue hadn't been raised since his 'outing'. Gabriella couldn't help but pull a face at her boyfriend's lack of tact. Noticing this, Troy immediately backtracked.
"Never mind. You don't have to answer. Pretend I never said anything!"
"No, it's cool." Chad insisted. "I guess I've gotta get used to talking about it, right?"
Gabriella shrugged. "Only if you want to."
"I do. I think it'll make it easier."
"Okay then. So what are you going to do about this Ryan thing?"
Chad sighed. "I have no idea. I know it's not a mutual thing. I guess I'm gonna do absolutely nothing."
"Do absolutely nothing about what?"
All three teenagers looked up to see Taylor standing there with a food tray in her hands and a curious expression waiting on her face. Chad suddenly lost the power of speech and seeing this, Gabriella stepped in.
"Chad just twisted his ankle last night, during practice. He has to rest it."
"Oh." Taylor bought it and sat down, smiling. "Well this is an unusual sight, seeing you guys at lunch. It seems like not a minute of free time goes by that you two don't spend practising for the dance contest."
Chad laughed. "Yeah, it's been intense."
"I bet you're excited about tonight."
"I'm terrified!" said Gabriella.
"I'm a bit of both." Chad admitted.
Troy clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, at least you'll wake up tomorrow and it'll all be over."
Chad grimaced. If only that were true…

The evening came in a flash. Chad barely had time to register the journey home before his mom was giving him food he didn't feel like eating and picking out dress shirts he didn't even know he owned.
"Do you know what colour Gabriella is wearing?" she asked. Chad could only shrug. "Oh well, never mind. Wear the black. You can't go wrong with black – it goes with everything. And you'll look so smart!"
It was all such a blur. Before he knew it, Chad was dressed, groomed and on his way to the school auditorium. He had a brief notion that maybe nobody would turn up and it wouldn't be so embarrassing, but when he pulled up outside East High and saw all the cars and kids swarming around, he knew most of the student body were there. Of course they were. Who would miss the chance to see one of the stars of the basketball team make a fool of himself ballroom dancing? He knew he wouldn't…
"Hey, Chad!" Gabriella came up to him in a swirl of glitter and red. She was wearing the same dress she wore to the callbacks, and she looked radiant. Troy was a lucky guy.
"Hey Gabriella!" Chad enveloped her in a huge hug and realised she was trembling. It wasn't cold out – she was scared. Chad was once again incredibly grateful that she was doing this for him. He waved goodbye to his mom and led Gabriella inside.
"We'll be okay." she said, ducking behind the stage. Her voice lacked the conviction it carried with such force in training.
"I know." Chad replied, his own voice only slightly wavering. In the corner of his eye he spied the Evans twins, decked out in glorious matching purple outfits. Sharpay was harassing one of the stagehands, demanding that he increase the floor space on the stage by at least ten inches. Ryan was hovering by her side, chewing nervously on a nail and looking…lost? Distracted? Guilty, almost. That didn't seem right. Something must be wrong…
"Chad?" Gabriella was gently pulling on his arm, dragging his attention away from Ryan. "If you stare any more his ears will start burning."
"Right. Sorry."
They moved away quickly and found a quiet spot to regroup in. Gabriella briefly suggested that they try and practice one last time before the contest, but neither really felt up to it. The nerves were really starting to take hold.
"Hey Chad, Gabriella!" Kelsi came at them from behind, brandishing a clipboard and a smile. "I have your numbers. You're couple number five."
"How many couples are there?" Chad asked.
"Five. You're on last."
"Oh. Is that good?"
Kelsi shrugged. "You have longer to wait, so the nerves will probably get worse, but at least your routine will be freshest in everyone's minds!"
"Well that's something I guess." said Gabriella.
Chad wasn't so sure. His head was swimming with visions of failure and ever-lasting humiliation.
Kelsi fidgeted with her clipboard. "Anyway, I have to go. I've got a million things to do. I can't believe I let myself get roped into helping out with this thing! I'm rooting for you guys, by the way."
She gave the pair a shy smile before disappearing amongst the throng of activity that was going on backstage. Chad was amazed she was able to survive back there; he was having a panic attack just watching everyone buzzing around. Or was that the nerves again?

Suddenly Ms Darbus' voice was ringing out from the stage, welcoming the audience to the competition. Chad peeked out from behind the curtains. Yep, it was a full house. Shit.
"And now, without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our first couple: Sharpay and Ryan Evans!"
The room erupted into applause and Chad thought he heard Zeke yelling 'Go Sharpay, baby!', though that could have been anybody. Wait, no. It had to have been Zeke.
"Somehow I knew they'd go first." Gabriella whispered, just as the opening beat of their song started up. Within seconds the Evans twins had exploded into a fury of movement. Later Gabriella would tell him they moved with a cold precision and accuracy, but all Chad could recall was Ryan spinning, round and round so fast it made him dizzy. He was a blur – a breathtaking, purple blur, and Chad couldn't take his eyes away, even when Ryan moved back for Sharpay to take a ridiculously long solo. By the time they finished, he was breathing almost as hard as they were. He never even noticed the 'killer move'.
"And that is how you do it." Sharpay gloated as she sashayed past the other couples to her 'dressing room' (which was essentially the girl's bathroom with a makeshift sign stapled to the door.) Ryan hung back, giving a smile of thanks when Kelsi congratulated him on his performance, and just getting his breath back.
"Okay, couple number two, you're up!"
Kelsi ushered them onto the stage and motioned for Ms Darbus to introduce them, then disappeared again (but not before giving the couple a thumbs up for good luck). Chad couldn't help but smile at that. She really was a sweet girl.
"Hey." Ryan tapped him on the shoulder and grinned.
"Hey. Nice, uh…nice work out there."
"Thanks. I can't wait to see you guys make me proud."
Gabriella gave a nervous laugh. "We hope." Ryan made a face at her negative tone.
"Come on, you'll be great! I know it."
"Really?" Chad asked.
"Yeah." Ryan replied, and Chad's nerves eased a little again because Ryan really sounded sure, and that meant a lot.
"Anyway, I have to go. Sharpay…"
"You don't have to finish that sentence." Chad interrupted. "Just the word 'Sharpay' is enough."
Ryan laughed, then ran off to join Sharpay in her 'dressing room'. Once he'd gone, Gabriella placed a bracing arm around Chad's waist and squeezed.
"It'll get easier over time." she said.
Chad sighed. "Yeah, I know."

At that very same moment, Sharpay was pacing the toilets, absolutely fuming. She had grown tired of waiting for Ryan (he should never be more than two seconds behind her, dammit!) and had gone to fetch him herself. She was greeted by the sight of her brother talking to the competition – the bad-haired basketball jock and her…the one who stole her show. At first she assumed it was merely a continuation of Ryan's little plan to eliminate them. He must have been filling them with false hope, offering fake encouragement. Except that wasn't his fake face. That was genuine affection! And then Sharpay realised that Ryan's little plan had never been a plan at all – just a cover up to hide the fact that he had been doing the unthinkable. Helping! Ugh, just the thought of it made her see red!
She had run back to her dressing room before Ryan could see her watching him. She had barely reached the basin when Ryan burst in behind her, making his apologies.
"I got waylaid." he said.
Sharpay snorted. "I bet you did."
She rummaged through her make-up bag with a little more vigour than was entirely necessary, ignoring the look of confusion on Ryan's face. Her hand closed around her miniature mirror and she pulled it out, turning it over in her fingers. Apparently she was going to have to do everything herself.

Couples two through four had been good, but none had even come close to rivalling Sharpay and Ryan. This was no surprise. It was their competition after all.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, our last and…probably our least, couple of the evening. Chad Danforth and Gabriella Montez!"
The crowd went wild, cheering twice as loud as they had for Ryan and Sharpay. However, Chad couldn't help but feel a little chafe at Ms. Darbus' less than complimentary introduction, though he soon forgot about it after Kelsi had given him and Gabriella a little nudge onto the stage. Suddenly he was blinded by dazzling lights, and his heart seemed to be trying to jump clean out of his chest. He felt himself freeze up and cursed. He couldn't do this. He wasn't ready.
Gabriella, forever calm and collected, pulled them into their starting position and leaned in close to whisper in Chad's ear.
"Just think of it like a big basketball game."
Amazingly that really helped, and when the first note of their music rang out, Chad's feet immediately traced the steps that had been drummed into his very nervous system. He led Gabriella around the stage and before long, they forgot their nerves and just started enjoying the routine, putting everything into their performance. It was going without a hitch, and the audience were loving it just as much as they were.
Without even realising it, they reached The Dreaded Sequence. Suffering from only the briefest of butterflies, Chad launched into the spin. Neither fell over, and they moved smoothly into the lift. Chad had his arms positioned exactly right, and Gabriella was at perfect balance. Both had huge grins on their faces as they moved onto the toss: they were pulling it off!
Then, disaster struck.
Chad had just launched Gabriella into the air when a bright light from somewhere in the audience shone straight into his eyes. Blinded, he failed to catch Gabriella properly, and she landed on top of him at such an angle that they both ended up crumpled in a heap on the floor.
The room went silent. Even the music had spluttered to a stop.

It was over. They couldn't even try and recover, it had been such a bad fall. They'd blown it.
He'd blown it.

"Well, that could have gone better."
Ms Darbus came bustling onto the stage and helped Chad and Gabriella onto their feet. She didn't look nearly as smug as Chad expected her to be.
"Let's have a round of applause for our final couple." she muttered. The audience complied and there was an awkward smattering of applause, but then a figure in the front row stood up and started cheering. It was Troy, of course – a fact that warmed Chad's heart a little despite the crippling failure that was currently burning through his veins. Slowly, the applause became more enthusiastic as the crowd joined in with him, until Chad couldn't make out which whoops were Troy's, and his ear-drums were actually hurting from the sound of the clapping echoing through the auditorium.
"Excuse me!" Ms Darbus struggled to regain order. "Could we calm down, please? Excuse me!"
Eventually the applause died down enough for her to be heard above the noise, and she called all the couples back onto the stage so she could announce the winners. Chad was bemused to see Sharpay trotting over from the direction of the audience, rather than backstage. Also, Ryan wasn't with her. In fact, Ryan wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Hey, Kelsi!" Chad hissed towards the curtain.
A head popped through. "What's up?"
"Where's Ryan?"
"I don't know. I think I saw him leaving."
"When?"
"Just after you finished. He looked a little…"
Kelsi paused and Chad's heart sank. He didn't like where this was going. "A little what?"
"Well, I thought he looked a little…disappointed. I don't know why."
Chad figured he had a pretty good idea why, and it made him feel sick. He'd let him down. After all that hard work, he'd let him down.
"Shit."

The next chapter should be the last. I'm not sure. I think the plot I have in my head allows for just one more, but it might spill over into two. I don't know. Anyway, we can all pray that the next chapter doesn't take as long as this one. Possibly the longest wait yet, am I right? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Reviews give me reminders to get damn well writing.

Love xXx