Just Coming Of Age

Chapter 2

Chad came home early that night. He was too anxious to hear about the chiropractor to concentrate on his work very long.

"How did it go?" he asked the second he was through the door.

His mother looked up from her book and smiled. "Wonderful." She waited for him to take the seat next to her on the couch before elaborating. "He was so much better after this guy worked on him. He didn't even need my help getting in the car."

"Wow," Chad said, smiling.

"I know. The problem is, he doesn't want your father riding in a car at all."

"It messes with his equilibrium," Chad said with a nod. "That's what the neurologist said when it first happened."

Mrs. Danforth sighed happily. "The chiropractor wants to come to the house next time. He says that will be better for your father."

Chad smiled. "This is great. How's he feeling now?"

"He's asleep. We took a walk through the park afterward … without the wheelchair," she added.

Chad pulled her into a hug. After a moment she pushed him away.

"Now, I don't want you getting your hopes up. Even if this works he still won't be --"

"I know. But if he could just go a whole day without being dizzy, without having to stop because it hurts so badly … it would make a big difference."

She nodded, quickly making her way into the kitchen so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. "I saved you some dinner. I figured you'd be home early." She pulled a plate wrapped in aluminum foil from the oven. "Meat and potatoes for my little carnivore," she said as she set his place at the table.

"Thanks," he said, coming into the kitchen and giving her a peck on the cheek.

As he cracked open his potato she loaded the dishwasher. "How was your day?"

"Interesting," he said around a mouthful of beef. "I found out Ms. Darbus actually owns most of the Regal."

"Your old drama teacher?"

"Yeah, Sharpay's been helping her out at the school ever since we graduated. I guess they wanted to go in on the theater together."

Mrs. Danforth mulled that over for several moments. "And today was your lunch with Sharpay?"

Chad made a sound of affirmation and his mother said no more on the subject. She had made the mistake once of saying that it sounded like Sharpay had become "a very sweet girl," hopeful that Chad's relationship with her was a sign that he was opening up a bit more. Chad hadn't mentioned Sharpay again for nearly three weeks.

"So how soon until you're done with this project?" she asked.

"The end of the month, but I think Sharpay's going to rope me into making her sets."

Mrs. Danforth was very glad that her back was to her son so he couldn't see her laughing smile. She quickly changed the subject to the Teller twins down the street and their new obsession with extreme sports.

"Jimmie?" Chad said, wondering if that strange feeling in his extremities was what a stroke felt like.

"Oh," Jimmie Zara said, jogging down one of the theater's aisles, "dude! Long time no see!"

He slapped Chad's shoulder, forcing Chad to come quickly to his senses or risk falling over. Chad's eyes slowly traveled from the slightly askew beret on Jimmy's head, to his Redhawks' sweatshirt, to the mismatched socks on his feet.

"What?" Chad asked, unable to form a more complicated sentence.

"Oh, Sharpay won't let us wear our shoes on the stage yet. Something about not wanting to ruin the beauty of it …. If you ask me," he added conspiratorially, "she's even crazier than she was in high school. But what are you doing here, man? I didn't think you were all that into the theater."

Chad leaned to the side to look around Jimmie to Sharpay's seat on the edge of the stage. One of her legs was hanging over the side into the pit and Boi was curled up in the curve of her other ankle. She caught his eye and shrugged before turning her attention to the performers on the stage. Chad sighed and looked at Jimmie once more.

"What are you doing here?" he asked slowly.

"I'm in the show! I'm playing Dogberry. Isn't that great?"

"You? You're in the show?"

"Well, Tiara got me really into drama."

Chad took an involuntary step back. "Tiara … and you?" he asked, not quite managing to keep the revulsion out of his voice.

"Yeah," Jimmie said dreamily. "She went off to L.A. after high school though, so we broke it off. Long distance thing, you know."

Chad nodded, he did know. "But you're … in the play?"

"I really like it," Jimmie said, as if still surprised by that fact himself.

There was a bark from the stage. Boi and Sharpay were looking at them expectantly.

"Oh," Jimmie said, "guess I'm on."

As Jimmie raced up to the stage Chad followed at a more leisurely pace. Jimmie began going through an elaborate comedic routine composed mostly of tripping over his own two feet. Chad leaned against the wall behind Sharpay. "If he pees on the carpet …," he warned her.

She bent her head back to look at him upside-down. "I hope you mean Boi."

Chad dared a glance at Jimmie. "Me too." After a moment he asked, "Is he really good?"

"Not as good as you," Sharpay teased, "but he's very good at the comedy. Perfect for Dogberry."

"Well, at least he's found his calling. What did you need?"

"There's a leak in the bathroom."

"That's what plumbers are for."

"But I can't mock plumbers mercilessly. Plus I wanted to see your face when you found out Jimmie was in the cast."

"Does he still have a crush on you?"

"I hope not. His girlfriend's in the cast too. You see the girl in glasses over there?" Sharpay asked, nodding towards the front row of seats.

"The nerd?"

"Actually, she's a model. She's the one in those ads in the mall for the new shoe store."

"She's that girl?" Chad demanded, giving the girl a second glance. "Why is she …?"

"She's playing Hero and I'm still not sure how I want her to look, we're trying some things out."

Chad shrugged and began walking in the direction of the bathroom.

"Oh!" Sharpay called. "And someone broke the light in the sound booth." Jimmie flubbed his line at that, making Chad chuckle.

"On it," Chad called with a wave over his shoulder.

The leak in the bathroom was small and required a simple tightening of the fixture. That done he headed into the sound booth to clean up the broken glass and replace the light. When he had become Sharpay's handyman he wasn't sure and he still wasn't sure he liked it. Sharpay was still pushy and overbearing, especially when she insisted that he get some semblance of a life. But it was nice to have someone to talk to who didn't work for him and who wasn't family. And they'd fallen into a nice, non-dramatic friendship-like-acquaintance, which was more than he'd imagined when she'd popped back into his life all those months ago.

Chad waited for the door to close before sighing and dropping his forehead to the desk. He was so sure they were going to get the Orion Project. Building the new office building downtown would have been a huge plus for Danforth Construction, which needed all the help it could get. Most of the workers he had left were only hanging on out of loyalty to Chad's father and most of those had known Chad when he was three and running around in a diaper and hardhat looking for two boards to nail together with his plastic hammer. But one of the men had just come in to tell him that they weren't likely to get the project. When Chad pressed the man he admitted that his son had just dumped the daughter of the Orion CEO.

A whistle of approval brought Chad's head up. It was followed closely by an, "Oh yeah!" Before Chad had time to wonder what had his men so worked up the door swung open to reveal Sharpay Evans. Every cell in Chad's body froze. He hadn't seen Sharpay since he very abruptly left U of A. He slowly took in her appearance. She was wearing a grey skirt that could have been dubbed conservative if it had fallen a few inches lower, a matching grey business jacket, pink pumps, and a pink dress shirt, the collar of which came spilling out of the jacket in frilly waves. She closed the door firmly behind her before opening her mouth to speak.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chad demanded, jumping to his feet.

She held up a hand and smiled. "Chad Danforth, it's good to see you. You've changed since the last time I saw you."

He slowly lowered himself back into his chair, giving in to his curiosity to know what insanity had brought her to his door.

"I bought the Regal."

"That old theater downtown? The one the police are always raiding?"

"The very same. And I need someone to do the construction work."

"You're kidding."

"Nope," she said and he realized she was beaming the way she had been on prom night when she walked in on Zeke's arm. He had never seen her this happy before or since. "Will you do it? I want it to be someone I can trust."

He folded his arms. "How did you even know I was running the company?"

She frowned at him. "You built that new music room at Lava Springs, remember?"

He winced. "I didn't know you were there."

"I wasn't, but Emma was. She always thought you were cute."

Chad rolled his eyes. He had never been happier to be dating Taylor than when Sharpay's friend was around.

"So?" Sharpay pressed. "Will you take the job?"

"I have to see your plans and the property and make an estimate, which you have to approve--"

She waved that last off and leaned over the desk. "Will you take the job?"

Chad sighed, thinking about the last time he'd seen her and all the things she knew that he didn't want their mutual friends to ever hear about. "High school was the last time we saw each other, right?"

She smiled sadly and nodded her agreement. "Right before I whisked Kelsi off to New York to make sure she had an acceptable wardrobe."

Chad chuckled. "I forgot about that. Ryan was not happy."

"He forgave me. It took three hats and seeing Kelsi in a little black dress, but he got over it. I'll meet you at the theater tomorrow at ten. You're gonna love it, I know you will!"

He did not love it, at least not at first sight the way Sharpay did. But now … now he was really proud of what had been done here. As he looked out over the seats appreciatively he heard a muffled chime. Looking down he saw a faint glow coming from the recesses of Sharpay's purse. As he reached inside he told himself that it could be something important that she would need to know right away. The minute he saw the name flashing on the tiny screen, however, he dropped the phone as if it had bit him.

Taylor. He had almost answered a phone call from Taylor McKessie. Which meant that Sharpay was talking to Taylor. Obviously Sharpay was talking to Taylor. He knew that.

Chad looked down at the phone. It had gone to voice mail. It would be wrong to listen to the message. That fact did not stop his hand from reaching for the phone. A high pitched bark echoed through the theater, making him jump away from the phone and purse.

He sighed deeply, called himself a dozen different kinds of stupid, and hurried away from temptation.

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