Freaky Friday -- Part III

by phoebenpiper

It took Kelsi the entire passing period to find the right hallway, and she was still searching for the right classroom when the bell rang. Finally tracking down the correct room number, she rushed inside, hoping Zeke wouldn't get in too much trouble for her tardiness.

As the door slammed shut behind her, all eyes in the room turned to her.

"Sorry," Kelsi mumbled under breath, feeling very exposed as the teacher -- Mrs. Cavanass, according to Zeke's schedule -- scornfully looked her up and down.

"Glad you could bother to join us today, 'MS. Baylor'," Mrs. Cavanass scoffed before turning to the rest of the class to comment snidely, "But at least we won't all die of testosterone poisoning today!"

As the students laughed at her expense, Kelsi fought the urge to run from the room. Instead, she looked around the strange classroom, taking in the numerous kitchen bays with their individual sinks and ovens. The students -- all girls, Kelsi noted -- were seated on high stools at the counters. Eventually her eyes came to rest on an empty stool, and she noticed the goth girl next to it nodding her over.

Kelsi hurried across the room to take her seat as Mrs. Cavanass continued, "As I was saying, before I was so RUDELY interrupted, since there are so many visitors to our class today, I thought we'd make something that doesn't require knives or ovens." She began walking by the bays, placing a sheet of paper on the counters as she explained, "So we'll be making refrigerator cookies today, which should be ready by lunch."

The girl who had nodded Kelsi over whispered to her, "That's the only reason to take this class -- the 'homework'." The girl winked, rubbing her tummy, and Kelsi couldn't help but laugh.

"'Ms. Baylor', do you have a comment you want to share with the class?!"

"What?!" Kelsi felt like a deer in the headlights. "No. I didn't…it wasn't…."

"Save it for detention, 'Ms. Baylor'," Mrs. Cavanass said. "You can regale me with excuses after school, when you come in to clean the ovens and scrub out the refrigerators."

Kelsi wanted to protest but was sure it'd only make things worse. So she just sat there quietly, hoping she could survive the rest of the class period without completely ruining Zeke's reputation.

---

Taylor walked out of the locker room and stood awkwardly by herself. Three years ago, she'd rejoiced on her last day of freshman P.E., knowing that she'd never again have to compete in stupid Wildcat intramurals. Yet now here she was. Taylor quietly cursed Gabriella -- why hadn't her friend bothered to get her P.E. requirement completed before now?!

Of course, Taylor knew why -- Gab had gone to so many different high schools, she'd never had a chance to fulfill her P.E. credits. Unfortunately, it meant that Taylor was now stuck in a class full of stupid freshmen she didn't even recognize.

A whistle was suddenly blown practically in her ear, making Taylor jump.

"Okay, class, let's settle down and get lined up for role call," Coach Bolton hollered. Instantly, the other students rushed to sit down in rows on the gym floor, laughing as they tried to figure out their places for today. Taylor took the logical approach and walked to the center row, knowing "Montez" would be somewhere in the middle, and started asking her classmates, "Where does Gabriella sit?"

But everyone was so caught up in their own silly confusion over their Freaky Friday seats that her question was repeatedly ignored.

Taylor was not used to being ignored, and she certainly wasn't used to being lost! After all, she was Taylor McKessie, Student Body President! She was used to being in charge and in control.

"'Ms. Montez', is there a problem?" Coach Bolton asked.

The room sniggered, and Taylor suddenly noticed that everyone else had spontaneously found their seats, leaving her standing alone in the middle of the room. She felt her face growing red and instantly sat down where she was, figuring Coach would mark her "present", even if she wasn't in the right place for role call.

Coach Bolton continued, thankfully removing the focus from her. "Due to Freaky Friday, we're gonna put off the rest of the tournament till next week."

The class gave a collective moan, and Taylor noticed several of the students glaring at her, as if it was all HER fault.

Coach raised his hands to quell the disruption. "Instead, I've decided we'll play Medic today."

This elicited a loud cheer from the freshmen, who completely drowned out Taylor's quiet moan of dispair.

---

"No no no, tenors!" Ms. Gough pounded a note on the piano, insisting, "You should be on the FIFTH, not the tonic!"

Sharpay sighed frustratedly -- singing tenor was HARD! Not the pitches themselves -- there were only a few notes that were out of Sharpay's range -- but all her life she'd sung soprano. Sopranos usually sang the melody, which meant she rarely had to actually read the music. And singing the highest part meant the audience could hear her fabulous voice over the rest of the choir.

But no one EVER heard a tenor standing out from the crowd, even though they had a much harder part to sing. Sharpay now realized that being a tenor meant lots of effort for very little payoff. Poor Ryan, she thought, stuck having to sing tenor all the time! Too bad his voice had to change.

Not that anyone would notice today! He'd been showing off his ridiculously high range over in her normal section all class period. He'd even sung the high descant in the Schubert, just because he could! Show-off!

"Tenors, let's just try your part alone." As Ms. Gough began to plunk out the tenor line, Zeke flashed Sharpay a sympathetic smile from his seat on the piano bench next to the director. Sharpay couldn't help but smile back. She wasn't sure who looked more uncomfortable -- Zeke, who'd probably never set foot in the choir room before, or Ms. Gough, who was struggling to play the piano in Kelsi's absence!

Sharpay turned her attention back to the music and sang along with the piano, concentrating hard to learn the convoluted tune so she'd be able to sing it once the other parts rejoined.

"Better," Ms. Gough said as they finished the line. "Let's add everyone else back in, starting at measure 16."

Focusing all her might on the notes on the page in front of her, Sharpay managed to sing the tenor part perfectly, as did the boys around her. Sharpay was filled with pride, pleased with herself that she'd done it so well.

However, not everyone had been so perfect.

"Altos, what happened?!" Ms. Gough asked, clearly annoyed.

As the teacher began pounding out the alto line, Sharpay felt a friendly elbow in her side.

"Now THAT'S the Ryan we know and love," Malcolm teased.

Sharpay turned and gave the boy a wary look, not sure what he was implying but ready to defend her brother if necessary.

But the boy on her other side, who was wearing a nametag proclaiming that HE was "Malcolm" for the day, explained, "Most of us tenors don't read music, so we always just follow Ryan. That's why we were so lost earlier!"

"Yeah. Without 'you'," the real Malcolm said, pointing to Sharpay's nametag, "there'd BE no tenor section."

Sharpay smiled, pleased with both her brother and herself, as Ms. Gough brought the entire choir back in.

---

As Kelsi measured out the brown sugar, she asked Zeke's cooking partner, "So why didn't you do Freaky Friday today?"

Alanna shrugged. "I don't need to experience someone else's life in order to appreciate the one I have," she stated matter-of-factly.

Kelsi nodded in understanding, causing Alanna to burst into laughter.

"I'm just joking," the goth girl explained. "The truth is, I didn't trust any of MY friends not to skip class, and I can't afford detention."

Kelsi smiled. "Makes sense," she agreed as she started to pour the sugar into the mixing bowl.

"No no NO!" Mrs. Cavaness scolded, hurrying over to Kelsi and snatching the measuring cup out of her hand. "This isn't how we measure brown sugar, 'MS. Baylor'! Haven't you ever been in a kitchen before?!"

Kelsi felt her cheeks burning as she stared down at her feet.

"Brown sugar is measured by packing it down," Mrs. Cavanass continued in a harsh tone as she demonstrated the proper technique. "See? You'd only measured out HALF a cup! Just imagine how awful your cookies would've tasted with only HALF the sugar! Now do it right!"

Under's the teacher's watchful eye, Kelsi self-consciously spooned more brown sugar out of the bag, packing it down into the measuring cup. Once the cup was full, Kelsi asked hesitantly, "Is this right?"

Mrs. Cavanass gave an annoyed sigh and stomped off.

Kelsi felt awful. "I hope Zeke doesn't pay the price for my failures today! I know how much this class means to him."

"It's not the class, it's the subject matter," Alanna pointed out as she took the measuring cup from Kelsi and started stirring its contents into the batter. "And besides, YOU'VE been paying for Zeke's 'failure' all day."

"'Failure'?" Kelsi repeated. "But Zeke's a GREAT baker!"

"Yeah, but he also happens to have a Y chromosome, and as far as Cavan-ASS is concerned, THAT'S a failure."

Kelsi was confused. "But aren't most of the world's most famous chefs men?"

Alanna nodded. "I think that's why she despises Zeke so. She KNOWS he's a better baker than her, so she punishes him for it. Why else do you think she calls him 'MS. Baylor'?"

"I thought she was just calling ME that because I'm obviously NOT a boy," Kelsi said, glancing down at the oversized basketball uniform she was wearing. "Poor Zeke!"

Alanna nodded. "Yep. Cavan-ASS is just that -- a total asswipe!"

"But that's TERRIBLE," Kelsi continued. "Zeke shouldn't have to put up with that. I mean, how can he even stand to come to class every day?" Just spending ONE day in this class was making Kelsi miserable.

But Zeke's partner shrugged as she handed Kelsi the wax paper. "In case you haven't noticed, Zeke's EXTREMELY patient. I mean, just look at his love life. Anyone else would've given up on Sharpay YEARS ago!"

Kelsi laughed. "You know Sharpay?" She couldn't imagine this goth girl, in her choppy black hair and raccoon eyes, going anywhere NEAR the perpetually pink diva.

Alanna rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? I get 50 minutes of the 'Sharpay update' every day! 'Sharpay LOVED my eclairs!' 'Sharpay is wearing a really short skirt today -- I wished I sat in front of her in at least ONE of my classes!' 'Why won't Sharpay say yes to the Back-to-School dance?'"

Kelsi laughed. "Forget Zeke -- poor YOU!"

Alanna shrugged. "It's more entertaining than listening Cavan-ASS bitch at us. And as you said, Zeke's a great baker, which means I always get good grades…AND good food to eat afterwards."

"Well, I can't guarantee the quality of the food TODAY," Kelsi said as she started to scoop mounds of the batter onto the wax paper.

"They're refrigerator cookies -- how badly can we screw them up?"

Kelsi wished she could be as optimistic as the girl in black.

---

"'Montez', get Baumgarn! Get him!"

Taylor frantically looked across the center court line, trying to guess which boy on the other team was "Baumgarn" so she'd know who to throw the ball at. But she hesitated too long, and a red playground ball flew through the air and hit the medic on her team. Coach Bolton blew his whistle, indicating the other team had once again won.

Taylor's team regathered in a huddle and the captain, whose nametag read "Craig", started barking out orders:

"Nguyen, you be the medic again -- you're little and quick, so you're our best bet."

The small girl, who'd been the medic for their first game, nodded her assent.

"Garcia and Foster, you can still be our powerhouses up front -- you have the best aim and the strength to knock others out. Paparelli, you mind being the decoy this time?"

A skinny boy with bad acne agreed.

"As for you, 'Montez'," Craig began, turning to Taylor, "aren't you good at ANY position?"

"All you gotta do is throw the ball at people," Garcia criticized. "How hard is that?"

"How I am supposed to target the people you tell me to when I don't know anyone's name?" Taylor asked defensively. "And I TOLD you that first loss wasn't my fault -- how was I supposed to know to protect the medic? No one bothered to tell me the rules."

"That's 'cuz EVERYONE knows the rules to Medic," Foster said.

"Obviously not EVERYONE," Nguyen said snidely, nodding towards Taylor and rolling her eyes.

This sent Taylor over the edge.

"So I don't know how to play -- who cares?! You think college admissions staff are gonna care about the rules to some stupid P.E. game? Besides, I probably know more than all of you little brats put together! I mean, do you even KNOW who I am?!" Taylor couldn't believe they were treating the StuCo president with such disrespect!

Craig, however, calmly pointed to Taylor's nametag. "No matter WHO you normally are, TODAY, you're 'Montez'. And more importantly, you're a member of this team. So you better just get over yourself and start being a team player or else we won't bother rescuing you if you get knocked out. Understand?"

Taylor felt as if she'd just been slapped in the face. Being reprimanded by a lowly freshman -- it couldn't get much worse. Especially since she knew he was right.

Taylor now realized that she was used to getting her own way because all her classmates knew and respected her. But here, she was just the "new girl", who didn't know the rules or where to sit or even the names of her teammates. Taylor had only ever been the new girl once, twelve years ago, but it was a role Gabriella had played more times than she could count. No wonder Gab was always so nice and accommodating to everyone -- she was all too often in the position of EARNING people's respect instead of automatically expecting it.

"Understand?!" Craig repeated, and Taylor nodded, finally understanding far more than he knew.

---

As the bell rang, the choir members began to scatter. Zeke bounded over to Sharpay, eagerly asking, "So, what class do you have next?"

Glancing at the bowler hat on his head, Sharpay snapped, "Why do YOU care, 'Kelsi'?"

At Zeke's hangdog expression, Sharpay realized she'd been harsher than she'd meant to be. But she was tired -- she'd never worked so hard in choir before! However, she knew that was no reason to take it out on Zeke, who, like always, was just being friendly.

"Sorry, Kels," she said. "I'm not even sure what class I have next."

As she and Zeke headed for the door, Sharpay pulled her brother's folded class schedule out of her back pocket, realizing how lost she felt without a purse to carry all her stuff in. But before she had a chance to unfold the schedule, she heard a voice behind her ask, "'Ryan', aren't you going to help me rearrange the chairs for freshman choir?"

Sharpay turned to stare at her teacher. "Why would I do that?"

Ms. Gough smiled, explaining, "Because you do it every day."

Sharpay sighed -- how typical of Ryan to randomly suck up to his teachers. Though now that she thought about it, sucking up to the choir teacher wasn't such a bad idea! After all, sometimes Ms. Gough assigned solos in certain songs, and obviously Ryan must've realized this. Far be it from Sharpay to sabotage her brother's attempt to get some recognition just because she didn't want to move a few chairs!

Turning back to Zeke, Sharpay said, "I guess I'll catch you later, 'Kelsi'."

Zeke nodded. "Okay, later, Shar-- I mean 'Ryan'."

Once he was gone, Sharpay joined Ms. Gough in the middle of the room and began helping her rearrange chairs.

"I really appreciate the help," Ms. Gough said.

"No problem, Ms. Gough," Sharpay said, trying to sound polite like her brother.

"You know, you're quite a good sight-reader," the teacher continued. "Have you ever considered joining the alto section? They could really use a strong singer like you to help them stay on pitch."

Sharpay just stared, not sure whether she should feel flattered or offended. On the one hand, she'd just been complimented on her musical ability, praise that was usually reserved for her brother. But on the other hand, Ms. Gough was suggesting that Sharpay work harder merely to hide her fabulous voice in the alto section.

So Sharpay responded the only way she could: as Ryan. "No thanks, Ms. Gough -- I'm happy staying in the tenor section."

Sharpay watched her teacher's expression slowly change from confusion to understanding to disappointment.

"Very well, 'RYAN'," Ms. Gough sighed. "But if you ever change your mind…"

"I'll let you know," Sharpay finished for her. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she added, "See you later, Ms. Gough," before hurrying out of the choir room.

---

"Hey, 'Chad'!"

Troy turned around to see Sharpay batting her non-mascara'd eyelashes at him. It made him uncomfortable that she still insisted on flirting with him, even though she knew he and Gabriella had been together for months. However, some of his discomfort stemmed from the fact that he still found Sharpay cute, despite all the things she'd done to him.

"Wanna go make-out behind the bleachers?" she asked coyly.

"What?!" Troy couldn't believe that she was making such a direct pass at him! What was she thinking?!

Evidently she was thinking about the names on their nametags for she added with a smile, "C'mon, 'Chad', don't you want some quality alone time with your boyfriend?"

Troy laughed uncomfortably, pretending to play along with the joke. While he was relieved that Sharpay wasn't throwing herself at him, this wasn't much better. He didn't like to actually think about the whole Ryan/Chad relationship -- the abstract idea of them being "boyfriends" was one thing, but picturing the two boys actually "making out" made Troy a little queasy.

But since Sharpay had opened the door to the discussion, he suddenly felt the need to discuss it. After all, he had had no one to talk to about how he felt. He couldn't talk to Chad because he wanted to show his support to his best friend. And he certainly couldn't talk to Gabriella because she'd be so disappointed in him. Sharpay was different -- she herself was so blunt and forward, he suddenly felt compelled to talk to her.

"So how long have you known?" he burst out. After the words were out, though, he worried that she'd have no idea what he was asking.

"Known about 'me'?" she asked, pointing to her "Ryan" nametag. "For years, of course," she said, as if the answer were obvious.

But Troy shook his head -- maybe having this conversation on Freaky Friday was a bad idea. "No, I meant how long have you…I mean Sharpay…how long has SHE known about 'you' and 'me'?" he asked, pointing to each of their nametags in turn.

Sharpay smiled. "Oh, THAT! Sharpay's known since July or so."

"July?! How did she figure it out so soon?" Troy asked, thinking back to his own slow discovery.

"She walked in on 'us'."

Troy was horrified at the image. "Doing WHAT?!" he asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Making out during a dance lesson. It's practically all 'we' did this summer."

Troy involuntarily shuddered at the image of the two boys kissing -- it just seemed so…so GROSS!

Sharpay must've noticed his look for she asked, "And what about Troy? How is HE dealing with all of this?"

"Troy's doing okay, I guess. I mean, he loves 'me'," he said, pointing to his nametag, "loves 'me' like a brother, and he wants to see 'me' happy, so he's totally supportive of 'our' relationship. But…I don't know…I guess the whole idea of two boys kissing just…you know…kinda grosses Troy out," he finished in a rush.

While talking in the third person was kind of confusing, Troy also found it almost freeing. He had never admitted how he felt to ANYONE, and it was a relief to finally get it off his chest.

He expected Sharpay to react with some sort of protective rampage, but instead she responded with a wicked grin. "Do me a favor," she said. "Just for a moment, I want you to picture Gabriella and Sharpay kissing."

Troy wasn't sure what she was up to, but he did as he was told…and a slow smile started to spread across his face as the image took form in his brain.

"Not bad, huh?"

Not bad at ALL, Troy thought to himself.

"Now," Sharpay continued matter-of-factly, "why should THAT be any different than 'you' and 'me' kissing?"

The image in Troy's mind switched and he once again shuddered. Perhaps it SHOULDN'T be different, but somehow it was.

Sharpay must've seen his reaction for she merely commented, "You know, Troy's been very supportive so far, and Sharpay's sure he'll eventually come around. After all, Troy's a good guy." She smiled at him meaningfully, and somehow her belief in him made Troy feel better.

"Talking about how awesome 'I' am again, huh?" Chad teased as he bounded up and put an arm around his best friend's shoulders.

Troy froze in place, petrified that Chad had heard more than he should've.

But Sharpay didn't seem at all worried, merely replying, "Of course, 'Troy'. That's all we ever talk about -- how much we idolize you. In between playing Wii and making out, that is. Right, 'Chad'?" she teased, winking at Troy.

Chad laughed, and Troy relaxed, allowing himself to join in the laughter.

"So 'Troy'," Sharpay continued with a mischievous glint in her eye, "where's Gabriella? She and 'I' have a kissing scene to practice before drama class."

Although Troy knew she was speaking as Ryan, his mind once again returned to the image Sharpay had put in his head earlier.

'Maybe if I continue thinking about that image, I'll get more used to the idea of Ryan and Chad kissing,' Troy justified, hoping this thought would prevent him from feeling guilty when he returned to the image again later tonight in his bedroom.

END OF PART III