"You know, volleyball captains usually act like volleyball captains."

In the past, almost no one at East High knew they had a girl's volleyball team, as opposed to everyone knowing they had a boy's basketball team. That is, until Coach Elener named Tiara Gold as captain of East High's girl's volleyball. Oh, Tiara made sure the volleyball team got all the recognition—she—wanted.

Currently, she was re-applying her manicure. It always chipped during games, and even practices holding the ball. Even though it's a hassle, she had a true motive for being captain. It was ever since she found Jimmie Zara and Charmaine Lendoza in front of Miss Darbus' room the other day. Tiara noticed a new-found confidence in Charmaine, not that Tiara was affected, at least, not yet. Excluding beforehand at gym class, Charmaine paid the price, she got hurt in the end. But when she found out four-eyes was working her ass off for a spot on the volleyball team as captain this year, Tiara Gold could't pass up an opportunity to crush her once again.

Tiara snapped her fingers to one of the girls at her side and nodded. With a fierce growl, her lackey spiked a spare volleyball straight into the practice game.

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"Ow! The hell!?"

"What was that…?" Elena asked, scoping the room, trying to find out who threw the volleyball at her friend's head.

"A brutal hit." Charmaine said icily, grabbing the lone volleyball at her feet. "As I was saying, Tiara may play surprisingly good, but she isn't captain material!" She huffed, hitting the volleyball in her hand with a fierce swipe. Wincing, she gripped her left arm tightly, she didn't tell the gym teachers it hadn't completely healed, but she just had to play. She was so bored, two weeks was enough.

"Oo, someone's jealous!" her friend teased. "But you may have a point." She put a finger to her bottom lip in a thoughtful manner. "But we're doing pretty well, actually. We won the last three games!"

"The only reason that happened is because I forced the reasonable part of this team to breathe, live and love volleyball for the past month!" Black loose strands of hair escaped from her ponytail, as if everything about her was going out of control. "And what's the point of having a captain who dosen't bother to act like one!?"

"Well," Elena spoke calmly. "We have you to lead us."

"Me!?" Charmaine repeated in distaste. "Well, it isn't my job. I wasn't picked captain! I shouldn't even bother! I'm not even co-captain! Let Tiara be blamed! My life is impossible and where the hell is Coach Elener? Dammit, if she was doing her job and coming to volleyball practice, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"Yolahnden! Lendoza! Get your head in the game!" Charmaine froze; did Coach Elener decide to get here just now?

"You serious?" Charmaine hissed. "Now she decides to act like a coach!"

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The next day, Elena made sure she kept away all conversation involving volleyball or Tiara Gold. In some way, she had to agree, Tiara wasn't captain material. It wasn't her problem, but she wanted to help her friend. Charmaine could have a spaz attack at any point, or break in tears.

She just didn't understand.

Charmaine used to be so calm and collected, and on rare occasions, she'd freak out. But at volleyball practice, she was practically bouncing off the walls! "You have ranting problems." She announced to her friend, who was apparently zoned out for a large amount of time. Great, so much for collected, so much for energetic, hello dreamy!

"You say something?" Charmaine asked offhandedly.

Elena shook her head in defeat, pushing a dark-brown lock behind her ear. "Never mind." She silently led the emotionally-unstable girl to their class. Pushing her to her desk, she got in her own took out her homework from Miss Darbus last night. Charmaine was still in a different world, staring at the front of the room with dull eyes. Elena sighed, the tardy bell was about to ring. "Where is he?"

Charmaine blinked hard, finding some feel of being in her desk and turned to her side. "Who's he?" Elena didn't answer, because just as the bell rang, he was here. Jimmie Zara slid to his desk fluidly, just in the nick of time.

"What took you so long, Rocket Man?" Elena droned, banging her head to her desk. "My job is so tiring."

Jimmie looked at Elena in curiosity. Turning around to face the desk behind him, he smiled at the girl sitting in it. She had a vague expression, staring at nothing but above. "Hey Charms, what's up?" Apparently, he decided that 'babe' was too much of a strong nickname on his friend. ("Also a strong nickname on every girl you try to flirt with." Charmaine noted.)

"The ceiling, the sky, an eternity of everything." Charmaine murmured, her fist digging in her cheek as a state of tiredness. She let her head loll to her desk, closing her dark chocolate brown eyes.

"Your arm cool?"

"Not really."

Jimmie was about to ask her to elaborate, but was cut of by a certain English teacher. "Mr. Zara! How many times to I have to tell you to turn around?"

"Um—"

"Exactly!" Miss Darbus smiled that… smile. "Now that I can't argue that Miss Lendoza is a pretty girl, but like you, she needs to copy the assignment on the board!" Jimmie attempted to cover the heat rising to his ears. He pushed his forest green beanie farther down his head, and swiped his notebook open. "That's the idea. And if I have to tell you to turn around again, fine. You can turn your desk to the wall, every morning."

Elena turned her head to Charmaine, who was smirking at the back of Jimmie's head. At least she knew her friend would be sane with Rocket Man around.

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"Hm." Charmaine had her palm under her chin again, gazing at her empty space on the lunch table. Her thoughts were slowly clearing away, but she still didn't feel well enough to have a decent lunch. Lunch break was winding down, and her friends at her table were piling trash onto one bright scarlet tray.

"Even though you didn't eat lunch, it doesn't mean you can still pass on your day." Elena chided, pushing the trash-infested tray to Charmaine's side.

"Sure." Carefully picking up the tray of trash, she shuffled to the trash bins, all the way on the other side of the lunch room. One milk carton was tipping dangerously to the ground. With a shaky hand, the girl missed, and the carton surprisingly didn't fall anyway.

"Whoa, Charmaine! Have a big lunch?" Jimmie laughed, gesturing to the lunch tray the girl was trying to level. He caught the milk carton at the last second. He swung an arm casually around his friend, flipping his brown bangs in the process.

"Not really, it's just my turn to throw out lunch for my table." Charmaine said. She watched in awe as he threw the milk carton perfectly in one of the trashcans. "You're the reason basketball is more bearable. I thank you for that."

"Though I am royally pissed you hate basketball—"

"Royalty?" scoffed Charmaine jokingly. "More like court jester."

"—we have something even more serious to talk about, Princess." Jimmie finished, not missing a beat. "So, you know how friends hang out, right?"

"I have heard friends do that." Charmaine marveled sarcastically.

"And they do," the basketball player agreed. "Basically, I'm saying we like, need to hang out. You know, scope the mall, tell me what the girls are thinking, example…" Jimmie let go of his arm and put on some 'swag' as he approached Tiara's table. "Hey, Baby." he bobbed his head up.

Charmaine continued to walk alone with a blank stare. She watched over her shoulder as Tiara folded her hands, expecting Jimmie to do back flips or something. Said boy snuck a glance at her, and she shrugged, having no idea what she could help him with. Jimmie didn't seem to notice, and whipped out a bottle of cologne, and sprayed a bit it on his arm. Tiara and her friends sneezed, clearly not buying it, and practically ran away.

Charmaine pursed her lips in a thin line, eyes still on Jimmie's now glum face. At least she spotted Donny coming to the rescue, probably saying, "Dude, don't worry. There's more fish in the sea."

"…Shit!" the lunch tray leaned to the left, and then Charmaine tried to swerve it to the right, then forward. And yeah, it did go forward, right into Tiara Gold's designer cardigan. "Oops." She murmured softly, this time, she was truly not after her. Just distracted by the moment, an unfortunate event. Charmaine dropped to the floor, picking up the fallen trash that bounced off the floor.

Tiara let out a shrill cry, causing the whole lunchroom to stop silent. Elena rolled her eyes at the scene. Charmaine couldn't even throw out trash without something bad happening. "Though, this a show that redirects the Montez and Evans lunch incident."

"You!" Tiara accused, pointing a pink-polished finger at the culprit. "I have been lenient with you, but you, you always have to 'accidentally' push it!" She snapped her fingers twice. One girl was dabbing some milk that spilled off of Tiara's sleeve. The other advanced on Charmaine, and let a cup of grape juice—slip—on her orange t-shirt. "Oops!" Tiara drawled loudly. "Sorry, it was an 'accident'!" But the audience didn't even 'Ooh!' they just stared.

"Say something." Elena whispered urgently.

"She can't say anything!" Tiara responded aloud, laughing.

Charmaine's body shook. Her voice cracked. "J-just… j—"

"J-j—j-j-ju-ju." Tiara imitated, cupping her ear and leaning forward. "I'm sorry; I can't hear you… not."

Charmaine shook her head, as if shaking away a nightmare. She bit her tongue, thinking it would overwhelm the pain she was going through now. She took a breath, she took a thought, she took everything hitting her head like a home run.

"Just, shut up."

Her tone wasn't loud. It was just defiant, with its own penetrating fierceness. She strode away, head held high and shoulders back. She didn't even dare to turn back, look back at the scene she and Tiara made. Elena jogged to catch up with her, her brown braid of hair bouncing with each step. "You okay?" Charmaine nodded feebly, looking like her neck was weak as a newborn chick. "Alright, I got twenty minutes before I have to go to drama class. If you're better by then, we'll break a new record.

Charmaine's small giggle bubbled up her throat. "Come on, to the roof!"

When they got there, school passes to the roof in their hands, Charmaine watered each plant with a watering can individually. Then she showered the big hanging plants with the hose. She set it on 'sprinkler' and lightly doused everything like a drizzle. Elena sat at a double desk, going over choir practice songs.

"Tell me if this is high enough." Elena ordered her friend, gesturing her to sit down.

She turned off the hose, and lifted a piece of music in her hands. The lyrics on it sounded familiar. "Okay. Count and… go."

"Even if we're miles apart!" Elena sang.

"Higher." Charmaine instructed. "You're not an alto."

"Even if we're miles apart!" The girl belted.

Charmaine winced, as if she was hearing nails dragging on a chalkboard. "Lower."

"Gah!" Elena simmered, as if she was eggs frying on a hot Summer day. "You do it!"

Charmaine skimmed the sheet music thoughtfully, pushing her glasses up a tad farther. "You sure?" Elena nodded, trying to keep her face the usual placid form. "I haven't sang since fifth grade—"

"GO!"

"Fine! Let's see… Even if we're miles apart!" Elena lifted her hands up—higher. "Even if we're miles apart!" Elena pulled her hands down—lower. "Even if we're miles apart!" Charmaine repeated, Elena now moving her arms rapidly up and down. "Even if we're miles and miles and miles apart!"

"Very Sharp—ay." Elena noted, letting her voice pop at the p and glide all the way through. "Well, my twenty—twenty-one minutes are up, gotta ask Darbus if I can find some non-Troyella songs."

Charmaine nodded in understanding. "Kay, I'll just hang here for a bit, finish watering—" she sneezed, tilting her head to the side. "The plants."

"Ew, ew. I'm going now." Elena announced, skimming down the steps. "You should consider choir! If you're interested, practice that song I left!" a small pause. "Oh, you sneezed! Someone's thinking about you!" her voice soon faded in the distance, leaving Charmaine to herself.

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Jimmie wanted to slap himself. He looked around the whole school, nearly twice trying to find Charmaine. He wanted to somewhat, apologize for not sticking around with her just to get a lunch date (again) with Tiara Gold. But the way she told Tiara to shut up, in front of the entire school! Soon enough, he spotted her friend Elena, and grabbed her shoulders. "Hey!" he never talked to Elena much, unless it was about their only connection to each other—Charmaine. "'Lena, know where Charms went? I've been around the school… twice!"

She backed up a bit, finding some breathing room. "Roof." She muttered curtly. "And shouldn't you be in class?"

"I should, if I didn't have free period right now." He said, but he watched Elena ignoring him, suddenly looking frantically in her pocketbook and going 'Ah!'.

"Oh, here!" she handed Jimmie two plastic cards. "Those are passes from the environmentalist club. Get there quickly, I took both of them by accident, so hurry up, if a teacher sees her upstairs without one, she'll get detention."

"Okay, got it, thanks." Jimmie nodded with a grin, looking at the green and white guest pass, Garden Club/Environmentalist Department. Then he looked at Charmaine's flowed and lucid signature on the next card, there were butterfly wings on one side of the 'C' in her name.

"Hey, Rocketman?" Elena muttered impatiently, as she might as well be tapping her foot.

"Wha?" Jimmie said, ripping his eyes off Charmaine's name, almost reluctantly.

"GO!" Elena barked, watching Jimmie stupidly going 'Oh, right!' and leaving in a run. "I swear," she breathed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Charmaine and Rocket Man just have to… go."

Jimmie thought as soon as he got upstairs, the air was suddenly comfortably cool and refreshing. Then he noticed that everywhere you looked, there was a plant. There was an open roof above him, but everything was open to the sun at the far area. He spotted Charmaine there, spraying her hair… with water.

"Oh, hi Jimmie! Nothing like a cold hit of water to wake you up!" she turned off the water, and sped up to him, water droplets flying off her hair. "Hold my glasses."

He couldn't help but watch her wring her hair out, the sun burning the tip of her head deep brown. Her glasses were off, and she was focusing her brown eyes on the concrete, water puddles forming at her feet. And the thing was, she was laughing. It was the first time Jimmie has seen her look so, vibrant… happy. "You've gone crazy, haven't you?"

"Oh, I've been crazy!" she nearly screamed. "Oh, what I did back at lunch, felt so damn—GOOD!" She suddenly bounced up and down the place, until finally coming back to Jimmie, almost leaning on him. "And I'd like to thank you for that."

He flinched, and wiped some water that came on his face. "Me?" he asked, disbelieving. "I didn't do anything."

"Yes you did!" Charmaine protested, grabbing back her glasses. "Remember when we met? You said not to let Tiara get to me. And hopefully, nothing like that happens again." she sat back on the double desk. "Thank you." She repeated, now almost sullen. "Thank you so much."

Jimmie sat next to the girl, there elbows brushing against each other. "Even though, it was you who stepped up to her."

"I guess." She replied, still unconvinced.

Jimmie heaved a sigh, looking up. "Well, you know the spring musical last year?" Charmaine nodded silently, facing Jimmie with her head resting on her crossed arms. "The way I acted—singing with Sharpay. Though I loved every minute with it, I danced with a hot girl, and all these people laughing along with me, I still had a sour feeling in the bottom of my gut."

Charmaine nodded thoughtfully. "Why would you expect Sharpay to enjoy it…?" she asked, merely out of curiosity.

"I expected her to, because Troy said she liked me." He said carefully. Charmaine perked her head up, surprised. "Yeah, I suppose everything's sour when the person you look up to stabs you in the back."

"It must have sucked." Charmaine admitted, her tone blunt.

"Big time."

"I can't believe you'd share such a touchy moment with me." She confessed, getting up and running her hands through her wet black tresses.

"Why not? You're one of my closest friends." Jimmie said, making her sit back down. He slowly descended his head on her shoulder, enjoying the comfort. "Well, what do you think?"

"I… I think Sharpay and Tiara are somewhat connected by the same link. Why would they both hate you? Is there a trigger?" Charmaine managed to say, starting to feel overwhelmed by the extra weight on her shoulder.

After a long pause, he reasoned with, "I don't think so."

The girl in the room closed her eyes, thinking back to lunch. "What did you spray on your arm before?" she asked, receiving a confused look, but Jimmie anyway pushed a bottle of cologne on her palm. She sniffed it lightly. "Ew!" The pungent odor dominated her air, causing her to cough uncontrollably. She only sniffed it! "What is this!?"

Jimmie smirked proudly. "My secret weapon, Babe Magnet."

"Babe Magnet?" repeated Charmaine, raising her eyebrows, then scoffed. "More like, Babe Repellent! You will not get any girl with that. And do the atmosphere a favor and never spray it again!"

"No way! Try it again." He almost pressed the nozzle—

"No more!" she laughed, inching away from him. "Seriously! Just get another one—hold on." She ran up and grabbed a water can, going to the more opened area of the roof. "Almost forgot to water these."

"Whatever." Jimmie slipped 'Babe Magnet' back in his jeans pocket.

"We'll be alright…" barely audible, Charmaine sang a little at a time in-between watering.

Jimmie's emotions flickered a little. Sharpay sang that song last year with him—sort of. In the end, it was all laughs. No little spark between them, just an 'ah-choo!' that came from Sharpay. He finally noticed the paper on the table, and scanned over it. He looked over Charmaine, and walked over to her, making sure his footsteps were silent.

Charmaine quenched the last tulip's thirst, setting the water can by the plant's side with a small 'clang'. She instantly sensed Jimmie's presence looming toward her; the shadows she could peek at the corner of her eye were coming closer and closer. "Even if we're miles apart."

She whipped her body around, obviously not noticing beforehand that their shadows were touching by now. Now she and Jimmie, no space apart, eyes locked, not daring to look away, or too scared to.

"All I wanna do, is be with you, be with you." Jimmie countered, the lyrics surprisingly softer compared to the outgoing voice he used with Sharpay during last year's musical. "Come on," he urged.

Charmaine looked at her feet, what was she doing? Was she really singing? Singing no less with the Rocket Man of East High?

"There's nothing we can't do, just wanna be with you… only you." Jimmie and Charmaine continued, there voices coming out little by little. A grin escaped up both their lips, almost subconsciously, the singing sort of turned, fun. "No matter where life takes us, nothing can break us apart… I just wanna be with…" Charmaine blushed, unable to sing the rest.

"You." Jimmie finished, backing up a few inches, but sill relatively close. "You're really good."

"No, that's you." Charmaine muttered. "In my opinion, that was the best version. It made you seem more, charming."

"I would never be able to sing that with Sharpay." He shook his head, denying the thought of singing with her again. "Are you thinking of doing the Spring musical this year?"

"No… I don't know. I got a volleyball team to control anyway."

"That's Tiara's job though." Jimmie knitted his eyebrows together in snafu. "And you're not co-captain either." Yes, the volleyball team got enough popularity to reach the boys' basketball team thanks to Tiara. It was the only thing they could count on from her, recognition.

"Yeah, but—"

"Miss Lendoza and Mr. Zara, please put some air in-between you two!"

Both pairs of brown eyes widened, both in embarrassment, and split apart, and faced the front to Darbus. "I wondered why Miss Yolahnden was telling Mr. Zara to go to the roof…"

"Yeah!" Jimmie said quickly, whipping out a pair of passes from his back pocket he almost forgot about. "Sorry, I forgot to get these, so I rushed up down there, and here… and yeah." Miss Darbus snatched them away, checking for authenticity. "Then I saw a bug in her hair."

Charmaine pretended to look at the top of her head, disgusted, as if a bug was actually there before.

"Well," Miss Darbus went on brusquely, "Whatever the matter, I want you both downstairs and in class, now." She handed back the club passes, which Jimmie dived for, but was handed to Charmaine anyway. "Now, hurry up, I'm keeping my students waiting." She went down the stairs, Jimmie and Charmaine soon following.

"We'll talk later, see ya!" Jimmie waved, almost jogging away to the study hall.

Charmaine stared at the back of his retreating form before barking back, "We have study hall together!"

Jimmie slowed down a bit, letting Charmaine catch up. He soon draped an arm around her; they almost looked like the perfect couple, until he checked out a girl who just got out of the bathroom.

"Idiot!" Charmaine pushed Jimmie away, who just grinned.

"What?"

Charmaine stated the obvious. "You don't check out girls when you got an arm around another girl!"

Elena seeped out of the classroom, watching Miss Darbus continuing to stare at the two. "So, Miss Darbus? What did you think of the two?"

"As you said, they were awesome!" she replied to her student, adapting some slang. She thought back minutes ago, they were singing on the roof, as if they were the only people on the face of the earth, no one but each other. "Yes, they make the perfect duet."