a/n: She's baaaaaaaack...with chapter twelve. Wow. So this is yet another part of the Angie-Sharpay-scheme-till-you-can't-scheme-no-more plan, which will be revealed as it is carried out. So, no, I'm not saying anything else about it.

The Evans household, thanks to Sharpay, was often filled with noise. And when she wasn't complaining, ranting, gushing or chattering away on the phone, she sang. On that particular day, she had a very specific collection of songs as she walked back and forth from her bedroom to the kitchen, taking her time and making sure Ryan heard every word.

"Do you have to, do you have to let it linger?" Her voice echoed slightly off of the walls of the large living room, where Ryan sat looking through an old photo album.

"Heart and soul...So completely, I love...The way you love me..." She tossed a spoon back and forth, peering over at her brother.

"If I could say what I want to say...I'd say I want to blow you away...Be with you every night...Am I squeezing you too tight?" She stopped for a moment, looking through the cabinets below the kitchen counter. "If I could see what I want to see...I want to see you down on one knee...Marry me today...Guess I'm wishing my life away...These things I'll never say."

Sharpay turned on the sink to wash her hands. As she dried off, Ryan called from the living room. "What are you doing in the kitchen?"

She hesitated for a moment. "I'm...I'm baking," she said, hoping it was a believable enough excuse. "Yeah, Zeke's been giving me pointers."

"Don't break anything. Or set the kitchen on fire," he joked, smiling slightly.

"Give me an excuse to break something and I will," she threatened, giving him a look behind his back so that he couldn't see her.

As she pulled out ingredients, she started singing again. "I don't mind spending everyday...Out on you corner in the pouring rain...Look for the girl with the broken smile...Ask her if she wants to stay a while, and she will...be loved..."

The way they had planned it, both Angie and Sharpay would play confidante. Once Angie got Kelsi to confess, Sharpay would force it (brutally, if necessary) out of Ryan.

"I want you to want me...I need you to need me..."

She stopped charging her phone's battery and left it on the counter in case someone tried to contact her.

"I never wanted anyone like this...It's all brand new...You'll feel it in my kiss..."

Careful not to spill water everywhere, she stirred everything in a large bowl, checking on Ryan every now and then to make sure he could still hear her.

"Can you feel the love tonight...?"

"So." Sharpay took a seat next to her brother, who was now busy with his phone. "Who are you interested in right now?"

"Right now," Ryan raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm wondering why you're interested."

She put a hand to her chest, gasping in an exaggerated manner. "I am hurt you would ever think I'm not interested in what's going on in your life!"

"Well Sharpay," he reasoned, thinking for a moment, "the last time you even asked how I'm doing was over four months ago, when I was in bed with a fever."

"Yeah, that's not really the point." She waved her hand aside indifferently. "So who do you like? Jayla from chemistry class? Cindra from math? Bridget from English?"

Ryan gave his sister a puzzled look. "I have no idea who any of those girls are."

"Oh." She paused for a while, wondering who else was out there. She decided to dare herself to ask the insane. "Do you like Angie?"

He looked at her like she had just asked him if he enjoyed freefalling off of tall buildings. "Angie...She's just really...She's...Angie isn't really...My type of girl." He finished awkwardly. "She's a little too...Uh, her life is a little too crazy for me.

Sharpay smirked to herself, strumming her fingers against the coffee table. "So what do you look for in a girl? A not-so-crazy lifestyle?"

"I look for...talent," he began. "And she'd have to be honest...Uhm, able to really express how she feels...I mean, I don't really want anyone rich and famous, but it would be nice to have someone I can just talk to."

"Someone like Kelsi?" She asked, looking up at him expectantly.

"Well, yeah – but Kelsi's just a friend."

"But Kelsi's a girl."

"Yes."

"So she's your girlfriend?"

"What? No!"

"So she's a girl, she's a friend, but she's not a girlfriend?"

"Where is this going?" Ryan asked impatiently.

"Do you like her?"

"No."

"But you just said she's your friend."

"I thought you meant – "

"– Like her."

"Yes."

"You do?"

"I don't!"

"You do."

"I do?"

"See? Told you so. You do."

Ryan ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I'm confused."

"Oh don't worry," Sharpay grinned. "It's normal for people who've been hiding a major crush since kindergarten."

"WHAT?"

She pulled out one of the photo albums stored underneath the coffee table and dropped it onto her lap, then started flipping through pages. She pointed at one of the photos. Ryan looked over and saw himself almost ten years younger, sitting at a table with Sharpay, Troy, Zeke and Kelsi. The next one she pointed to was a shot of him a few years later, seated uncomfortably in one of the theater chairs in between Sharpay and Kelsi.

"Those don't prove anything," he said confidently.

Sharpay's smile widened even more. "Oh, but I know of a few that might."

She put that album back and pushed around for a more recent one. Finally, she found the one they had been keeping pictures in starting when they first entered high school. She flipped it over and started turning pages from the back. There were pictures he didn't even know were taken.

"There's you and Kelsi arriving at the afterparty together," she said, pointing at the picture. She moved on to the next one. "And that's you two at the afterparty again...And again...and again... and – "

"Wait a minute," Ryan interrupted. "These are all at the afterparty."

"Hey," she stood up and shrugged at him. "I had a camera, why waste it?" Without another word, she darted off to the kitchen to check the oven.

When she returned, she brought a slightly burnt cookie in a napkin with her.

"Here, tell me what you think." Without waiting for a reply, she stuffed it forcibly into her brother's mouth. His eyes widened and he chewed quickly then swallowed so that he could gasp for air.

"How was it?" Sharpay asked, crumpling the napkin in her hand.

"Aside from the fact that it's still burning through the roof of my mouth, it's fine," he replied. "Did you miss that part at the end that tells you to 'cool for thirty minutes'?"

She shrugged again. "I must have overlooked it."

When Sharpay entered the kitchen again, she went straight to her phone, picked it up and sent Angie a message. "He's at the denial stage, but sure as hell he's fallen hard."

A few minutes later, she received Angie's reply.

"Fallen hard? You should hear Kelsi right now. She must have met him at the bottom."

a/n: Yes, I know it took long. Don't pester me. Just review. I love you all. Poodles!

PS. I have changed my name from Kat to Nina.

- - - Nina