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Popular!
Chapter 6.
--
To be popular
I'll help you be popular!
You'll hang with the right cohorts
You'll be good at sports
Know the slang you've got to know
So let's start
'Cause you've got an awfully long way to go:
--
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Sharpay?" Gabriella questioned, looking at the outfit Sharpay had made her put on, "I'm not very coordinated, I'll just fall on my butt and not hit the ball. I'm gonna look like an idiot. What does this have to do with being popular anyway?"
"It has to do with…" Sharpay said, trailing off a bit, "You're only known for you work on the Scholastic Decathlon team, and that's not very loved on the school. That and… screwing up our musical. Therefore, you need to have something else to be known for. And since Ryan and I play this game about three or four times a week, I figured you might want to do too."
"But it's tennis, Sharpay." Gabriella said, holding out her racquet, "This'll never do. I'm not good at this!"
"But you will be!" Sharpay smiled, finally finishing braiding her hair, "This is one of the best tennis clubs in the country. If you want to go somewhere, it's a good place to start, whether it's tennis you want to do or not. A lot of all the very rich people in Albuquerque plays here from time to time. I know some pretty good people. The right people."
"Fine," Gabriella said, giving in to Sharpay's pesters, simply because she had no chance of winning this argument, "You're gonna go easy on me though, right?"
"Of course," Sharpay said, flashing her a big smile. She then grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the changing room, and towards the tennis field. She signed Gabriella in as her guest, and gave her one of the two racquets she'd brought with her, "It's easy," she begun, "I'll teach you for awhile, and then we'll try and play over the net, 'kay?"
"Sure," Gabriella nodded, a bit insecure, "Just don't… hurt me, please?"
"Gabriella," Sharpay said, turning even more serious, "I'll need to learn you some serious slang too. The way you're talking is just… too princess-y, and for royalty. Get it?"
"Okay, can we do this while playing?" Gabriella suggested, not understanding how it could be important which way she talked and spoke, but apparently it could be very important.
"First, I used OMG the other day," Sharpay said, "What's that short for…?"
"Oh," Gabriella said, clutching her hand, "You told me… Brother pocket, I can't remember."
"Shit, Gabriella," Sharpay said, "It's shit I can't remember."
"Does OMG stand for that?!" Gabriella's face lit up, "I thought it'd be something along the letters… slang is weird."
"NO!" Sharpay said, almost pulling her hair out, but that would be a shame, since it was so beautiful, "In stead of brother pocket, you're supposed to say shit. And OMG is short of Oh my God."
"But you're not supposed to say God's name." Gabriella questioned.
"No, but we do, got it?" Sharpay simply said, now decided to learn her some tennis instead, because that whole slang thing was really exhausting. How could that girl not know stuff like that? Wasn't she supposed to be a braniac or something?
"Yeah, I think I do." Gabriella said.
Sharpay shot a ball to her. Gabriella tried to hit it, but missed.
"OMG, this is harder than I thought." Sharpay mumbled to herself. She shot another ball, which Gabriella hit into the net. "Try again. It was better this time."
Gabriella nodded. The ball hit the net.
"What are you doing here?" Sharpay suddenly exclaimed.
Gabriella spun around, her eyes landing and a blonde guy. Ryan, oh no, he shouldn't see me play like this. This is so not good, Gabriella thought.
"Uhm, I just wanted to rehearse my serve." Ryan explained.
"Oh, Ryan could you help me out here. Gabriella is hopeless at tennis. I promised to teach her. Please?" Sharpay begged him.
He looked insecurely at Gabriella. He didn't really want to. Not that Gabby wasn't nice or anything, it was just…
"Please Ry?" Sharpay begged again.
"Okay, I'll do it. If you really want me to." Ryan said, hating when she gave him that look.
Sharpay's face lit up and she mimed 'Thank you' to him.
"But how do you want me to help?" Ryan asked.
"Hmm… If I shoot her some balls, could you correct her when she is doing something wrong?" Sharpay suggested.
"Okay, fine. Then start." Ryan said.
Gabriella had just been staring at Ryan the whole time, so when Sharpay shot a ball towards her she didn't even notice.
"Gabriella, you have to look at the ball, not me." Ryan said.
Gabriella snapped out of her gaze and tried to concentrate on the balls. She hit the next ball and it smacked right into the net. "I am never going to learn this. It is too hard!" Gabriella exclaimed.
"That is because you give up too easily. Here let me show you how you have to hit the ball." Ryan approached her. He placed his racquet on the ground. "See, take your racquet in your left hand and hold it out from your body. Then you take your right hand and say hello to your racquet." Ryan explained.
"Like this?" Gabriella questioned, doing the 'trick' Ryan was teaching her.
"Yeah..." Ryan nodded. "Then you place yourself with your side to Sharpay. You have to hit the ball on your side. So the stroke gets right. Like this." Ryan showed her.
"Oh..." Gabriella said and tried. "Like that?"
Ryan shook his head. He approached her and placed his arm around her and placed his hands on hers. Gabriella was taking in his nice smell and the warmth from his body.
"See you have to do it like this." Ryan did the stroke without any mistakes.
Sharpay was smiling all over her lips. They looked pretty cute together.
"Sharpay could the come with a ball?"
She nodded and shot a ball towards them. Ryan who was still holding around Gabriella made the stoke so Gabriella could feel how she should hit the ball. "Now you try on your own." He let go of her and Sharpay shot another ball.
Gabriella hit it right and it got over the net. "Yes, I did it! Ryan you are the best!" Gabriella ran over and gave him a big tight hug.
"Okay Gabriella could you let go off me?!" Ryan said. He didn't feel comfortable when she hugged him. Gabriella loosened her grip and took a step back, a little sign of hurt written over her face. "I'll better get home. See you guys later." Ryan took off in a hurry.
"Why did he leave?" Gabriella asked, turning to look at Sharpay, a hurt look still plastered on her pretty face, "He doesn't like me, does he?"
"Of course he does!" Sharpay said, but for the first time, she wasn't sure. She hadn't been able to read Ryan's actions all through their game. He had been acting weird, and he was so reluctant to help Gabriella. It didn't seem like him.
"Are you sure?" Gabriella asked, "He was so stiff when I was holding him!"
"I bet he's just nervous around you!" Sharpay suggested, trying more to convince herself than Gabriella.
"Do you think this is way out of hand?" Gabriella asked, "Am I really changing for the better here, or am I just changing for the worse?"
And with an assist from me
To be who you'll bee
Instead of dreary who-you-were: are:
There's nothing that can stop you
From becoming popu-
Ler: lar:
"I've got it covered Gabby," Sharpay said, quickly running onto the other side of the net, "With my help you'll be the most gorgeous girl at East High… well, except for me, 'cause y'know, nothing can top that, but really! You will be so popular, all the guys will run around you."
"Seriously?" Gabriella asked, not sure if she really liked that idea. All she wanted was to go out with Ryan. But apparently, a lot of stuff had to happen before that was possible.
"You'll be so much better than you used to be, Gabriella." Sharpay said, placing an arm around her, "We're on our way, girl. You made one right stoke today. And when you get better… you can come with me out here on Saturdays when Ryan and I play. I'll dress you up in a cute green tennis outfit – green's your colour, and then… he'll not be able to take his eyes off of you."
"You think so?"
"That green's your colour, of course." Sharpay said.
"Not I meant… he's not gonna be able to take his eyes off of me?"
"Oh baby, he already can't…" Sharpay smiled, pulling her towards the girls changing room.
"Sharpay?" Gabriella questioned, "I just want to thank you once again for helping me. It means a lot to me."
"I'm actually a very nice person," Sharpay reminded her, "And you intended to take the package, remember?"
"I do." Gabriella said, shooting her a cocky grin.
"Goodie," Sharpay just replied, giggling like mad.
"You say goodie a lot, don't you?"
"Goodie is my word." Sharpay said, "I almost invented it."
"I like it," Gabriella mumbled, "It's so Sharpay-ish… which is not a bad thing."
"Goodie." Sharpay said, her face serious.
They looked at each other for a second, wanting to see who would crack up first. Gabriella eventually broke into a giggle, and Sharpay joined her quickly after. They laughed their craziness off, and sat down on the benches to take their tennis shoes off. Then they started taking off their clothes to hit the showers. They were the only two people there, which was good, because Gabriella was kinda shy.
"Oy girl," Sharpay said, giving her a look-over in the shower, "You really need to do something about your bikini line!"
Gabriella dropped her jaw and quickly turned away from Sharpay, the shy side of her, once again taking over.
"Gabby," Sharpay said, "I'm a girl too, I've seen other girls naked before. Why are you so shy? How are you gonna let a guy see you naked someday if you can't even let me see you naked?"
"A guy's gonna see me naked!?" Gabriella shrieked, turning around to look at Sharpay, a wild look in her eyes.
"Uhm yeah," Sharpay said, shaking her head slightly, "That's the whole point of having sex, y'know? You take your clothes off and mostly you're in a bed with your partner, and then you have sex. Please don't tell me I have to teach you that too!" Sharpay paused, "One thing's for sure…! I'm not gonna let you watch!"
Okay, so yet another update out of the way. We hope you enjoyed this as much as we enjoyed writing it. Actually, I (Stessa) had imagined this chapter to turn out a lot different then it did, but I guess this is cool too. I dunno, Noukka had a flow and I let her go with it, so please review! And by the way, for any tennis references, please ask Noukka too – she plays tennis, and she wrote all the stuff in the middle with all the terms and grips on a racquet.
Toodles, Noukka and Stessa.
Peace out!