How is everyone today? ^^ Personally, I hate driving in the snow. And it's really hard to get the car out when it's stuck between snow almost completely around. For those of you who live somewhere where they don't get snow, like Florida or Hawaii, or [insert other places that are too warm to get snow here] the be happy. Anyway, I'm happy with how the last chapter went over and I'm glad everyone who read it enjoyed it. C= If you have more suggestions feel free to suggest them! Speaking of suggestions, I did manage to get another one. I promise, it will come in due time. Did I say that right, or did I mix it up somehow? o_0 Ah well. Anyway, I need to ask for some assistance here; I'm thinking of introducing a new character. Now you may be asking, who is it? A puppy? A new friend? A parent? Who knows but me. 0=) So all I ask is what the character should be: male or female? Other than that, I ain't giving anything away. But don't worry, you will know who the new character is when it's revealed. But not now, I;m asking for a future chapter. So, if you may offer your opinions, please? =3
Disclaimer: Yeah, I wish.
Chapter Eight Summary: A little less than a year since Kelsi and Ryan had their baby. They're invited to eat out with their friends while all the kids keep an eye on the baby. In the meantime, it starts to make Cheryl wonder what Dylan was like as a baby. And Zeke starts to wonder when it'll be his turn to become a father.
Chapter Eight
"Are you sure they're going to be ok?" Kelsi asked as she sat in the van with her friends and husband on the way to the restaurant. "Maybe we should turn back around..."
"Kelsi, relax." Sharpay rolled her eyes. "He'll be fine. It's not like he'll be crying for his mom all the time like Ryan was when he was a baby."
"Uh...Shar?" Ryan spoke, raising a finger. "You don't remember that. And when we got older you were always the one crying to Dad."
"Busted." Chad chuckled.
Sharpay sent him a death glare and pointed at him. "You'd better keep your mouth shut." she warned him. She turned back to her brother in the other seat, "And you, never downgrade me like that."
Ryan blinked. "I...I wasn't."
"Maybe we should go back." Gabriella agreed from the back seat where she, Troy, Chad, and Taylor were squeezed. "And get a sitter for the kids."
"Relax guys." Zeke sighed. "Dylan's watching all of them. And Gina's an expert with the babies after being raised with three younger siblings. She can handle all the diaper stuff."
"He's got a point. When she was four and we were still trying to get Corrie to switch from diapers to pull-ups, she changed her sister's diaper in under five minutes." Troy couldn't help but show off.
"Troy, you know how long she was watching me the whole time I did it all." Gabriella stated.
"Yeah well...she picked up really fast." Troy replied.
"Oh no, what if they run out of diapers!" Kelsi exclaimed. "Zeke turn this van around. I wanna bring Travis home."
"The only place we're going to is dinner." Zeke said calmly. They had been planning this a long time, too; since Kelsi first had Travis. But now he was almost a year old and Kelsi was still being a worried mother. And how could they get together like old times if they had all the kids with them? Save it for birthday parties.
"But what about Travis?" Kelsi begged.
"Kels, calm down." Ryan said as he rubbed Kelsi's shoulders. "He'll be fine. He's with a bunch of responsible kids. We'll be back to get him in a few hours, he's going to be fine."
Kelsi sighed. "Can we at least call them during dinner to check up on them all?"
"After we order dinner and before we leave." Ryan promised.
"Yeah. Besides, it's not like they're gonna trash the house." Chad joked.
Zeke stopped at a red light and he joined the others in staring at Chad. As usual, his jokes weren't helping. Especially not Kelsi.
"Zeke, turn around!" she begged.
"How about I just throw Chad out of the car?" Zeke suggested.
The entire group, aside from Chad, exchanged glances and shrugged. "Works for us."
"Wait...what?" Chad gasped.
-RK-RK-RK-RK-RK-
Corrie cocked her head as she looked into the crib at her house while the baby was sleeping. Gina was beside her, looking over her shoulder, while Dylan was upstairs with the other kids. The girls just stared down at the baby and watched him move his arms and legs a little.
"He doesn't do much." Corrie noticed.
"Well...he's a baby. What's he supposed to do?" Gina wondered.
"I dunno." Corrie shrugged. "Stuff?"
"Hey girls." Dylan greeted as he came downstairs. "How's Travis doing?"
"He's fine." Gina replied, admiring the baby.
Dylan looked over Gina's shoulder to see the latest addition to the extended family. Travis was so much like both of his parents. He had Ryan's hair and face, and Kelsi's eyes and smile. He seemed like a rather happy infant.
"You'll call me down if there's any problems, right?" Dylan wondered.
"Not unless it's diaper changing." Corrie giggled, remembering the story she was told of when Dylan first attempted to babysit Cheryl.
"Uh-huh..." Dylan nodded slowly. That was something that would probably haunt him for a long time. The seventeen-year-old headed back upstairs to the three remaining children. Timothy and Cheryl were playing a board game and Justina was flipping through channels. Justina turned her head as soon as she saw Dylan come back in.
"My turn to help Gina watch Travis?" she asked hopefully.
"Sure." Dylan nodded with a smile. "Get Corrie to come up here."
"Oh man," Cheryl sighed. "Now we're gonna hafta start a new game and set everythin up all over again."
"Quick, let's finish before Corrie gets here!" Timothy gasped as they raced to finish their current game.
Dylan couldn't help but chuckle. Even though Corrie, Timothy, and Cheryl were best friends, there were times when only two of them would want to play together instead of all three. They were already like their own little group even though Tim was the oldest by two years. He was the down-to-Earth one, Cheryl was the troublemaker, and Corrie was...well, maybe just a little clueless sometimes. But she'd catch on eventually.
"Dylan, can you fix Travis a bottle?" Gina called from downstairs a minute later. "I think he's hungry!"
"I'll be right down." Dylan called back. He waited until Corrie got upstairs, then he pointed at the three. "Play nice you guys."
"Do we hafta?" Cheryl moaned.
"Not unless you want me to tell Mom and Dad you've been a bad girl." Dylan replied. "You may not get to play with your basketball this week..."
Cheryl pouted and folded her arms.
Timothy chuckled. "Somebody's in trouble."
"Yeah, somebody's in trouble." Corrie repeated with a giggle.
Dylan just shook his head at the kids and made his way downstairs. He had to hurry and work on that bottle, or else when everyone called to check on them later someone was going to be very cranky.
-TG-TG-TG-TG-TG-
"Maybe we should call them now..." Kelsi started less than ten minutes after the adults sat down at their assigned table.
"We are not calling them until after we order dinner and that's final." Sharpay insisted as she folded her arms. "Kelsi, stop being such a worry-wart. Travis is in good hands. Do you honestly think I'd leave my nephew with irresponsible children?"
The group slowly looked at each other, not sure how to answer that. Gabriella decided to break the awkward silence a minute later.
"So, did you finally rearrange the house the way you guys wanted?" she asked Kelsi and Ryan, remembering how just months before Travis was born they had found a house just outside of Albuquerque that they decided to settle down in.
"Yeah." Ryan nodded. "Three bedrooms, one for me and Kelsi, one for Travis, and a guest bedroom; a living room and dining room; a kitchen with a view of the backyard; a basement, a study that we've almost completely converted into a small music room, and possibly a porch in the front or back in a couple of years."
"That's really great guys. You settled down fast." Troy stated.
"We had everything planned. What can we say?" Ryan shrugged innocently.
"And you previous job at East High?" Taylor inquired.
"Back in action." Ryan grinned. "And the online hat store, still wide opened for customers."
"Typical." Sharpay had to roll her eyes. "But don't come crying to me when you decide you want to open a real store and need the money for it."
"I won't Sharpay." Ryan sighed.
"Kelsi, what about you?" Gabriella wondered. "How's the new job?"
"Travis is fine." she answered right away, thinking they were still talking about the eleven month old. She rubbed her forehead, knowing her head still wasn't with her friends. "I mean..."
"It's ok, Kelsi." Gabriella promised, rubbing her friend's shoulder. "You just can't watch him forever. He has to grow and develop into his own."
"This comin from the woman who took longer than anyone else to wean her kids off of breast milk?" Chad muttered, fooling around with his glass of water.
As usual, Taylor hit Chad on the arm when he made a comment like that.
"Hey!" Gabriella gasped.
Kelsi giggled faintly. "I'm fine, really. And I know Travis is, too. But to leave him on his own for three whole hours..."
"He'll be sleeping soundly when we go to pick him up." Ryan finished calmly. He snapped his fingers as though he had just remembered something. "By the way, one of your co-workers left a message the other day. They want you to bring Travis into work again. The girls are just falling all over him."
"And where is this work of which you speak?" Gabriella asked with a smile.
"Senior's center." Ryan answered for his wife. "Kelsi gets to play the piano for the senior citizens while they eat or do certain activities. They think she's a doll."
"Well of course she is." Sharpay shrugged. "Why else would she have worked the piano at Lava Springs Country Club that summer in high school?"
Ryan opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it. "Never mind." he decided against the counter.
"Ok, enoguh worrying about babies." Chad said. "Can we eat?"
"Yeah, and call the kids while we're at it?" Kelsi asked hopefully.
"Can we please not think about babies or the kids for five minutes?" Troy asked. "We're here to have fun like we used to while the kids have fun with each other. And come on, when was the last time we were a group like this?" He smiled and clapped his hands together. "So, let's see what we can get here."
Everyone nodded in agreement with Troy and picked up their menus. But Zeke didn't do so right away. He just kept tapping his finger against the table. He took a deep breath, wanting to get this over with. He had to talk to Sharpay about it while the subject was still open for discussion.
"So Sharpay...um, I kind of need to talk to you about something...about kids..." Zeke started nervously. Well can you blame him? He was afraid of her reaction to the idea.
Sharpay just held up a hand as she continued scanning through the menu. "We're going to call the kids later, Zeke. Stop worrying, you'll sound just like Kelsi."
"Sharpay, I don't mean the kids. I'm talking about hav-" Zeke started again.
"Talk to me later when we're home for the night." Sharpay interrupted again. Her eyes lit up at one of the dishes. "Oooh, caviar on the side of a Caesar salad...."
-SZ-SZ-SZ-SZ-SZ-
Dylan yawned as he let himself fall down onto the couch in the living room. He moved some hair out of his face, glad that after all the struggling they went through to get Travis to eat something he finally took his bottle. And then Gina had to change his diaper for the third time that night. But at least aside from that he was an easier load. Hardly at all that night did he hear Travis crying or see him give anyone a hard time. He was pretty well-mannered for a baby. Dylan wondered how long that would last.
"Tired?" Cheryl asked as she came up to her brother.
Dylan picked up his head and looked at her. "Not that tired." he shook his head. "Just a little whipped, I guess. Especially after going in at six-thirty instead of seven-thirty for that extra help session to ace my history exam."
"You never fail. Least, no one ever says." she shook her head.
"Yeah well, just making sure this time. It was a hard test, too." Dylan admitted. "Where's everyone else?"
"Justy's tryin to learn to read more from Gina." Cheryl answered, jumping onto the couch. "And Corrie fell asleep on her bed so Timmy's goin through her stuff."
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing that for?"
"He said she stole his ken doll from him again." Cheryl shrugged.
Dylan sighed. He really was too tired to deal with this. After all, he hadn't watched all the kids at once. They had worn him out. "You know what, let his parents deal with it later." he decided. "I'm not getting involved in any sibling rivalry tonight again."
"What bout when Justy and Corrie started fighting over the last cookie after dinner?" Cheryl cocked her head.
"It was easy. Just split it in half for the two of them to share." he shrugged. "How come you're not tired?"
"I dunno." she replied. "But Travis is sleepin, too. So it's only us and Justy and Timmy and Gina that are up. When do we go home?"
Dylan looked up at the clock on one of the walls. "Everyone should be coming back here in less than an hour." he answered, remembering the call from fifteen minutes or so ago, just before Travis had most likely fallen asleep. "I think Kelsi calmed down a little after that first call before, cause she wanted to talk to Travis."
"But he can't talk." Cheryl said.
"I know." Dill nodded. "But at least he said, 'boo'. That's something, so I say we take it while we can."
Cheryl just shrugged as she sat down on the couch and swung her legs back and forth. "Were you ever that much trouble?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, picking his head up slightly.
"Were you ever a bad baby?" Cheryl replied.
Dylan paused for a minute. He had never told Cheryl that he was adopted, even though his parents promised they'd still be a family no matter what. So if Dylan could barely even remember what he was like when he was three, how was he supposed to tell her that he was pretty much on his own when he was a baby, from what he knew?
"I don't remember." he answered, which wasn't a total lie.
"So you never gave Mom and Dad a hard time?" Cheryl asked.
"I don't know." he shook his head quickly. "Let's talk about something else."
"But I wanna know." Cheryl moaned.
"You'll know later."
"When's that?"
"Later."
"When's later?"
"Just later!"
Cheryl made a pouting face again and Dylan fell back to lay down on the couch. He rubbed his head, but it didn't last more than two minutes.
"We're home." Troy whispered as he walked in. "Who's asleep?"
Dylan picked his head up just an inch or so to see Troy. "Apparently Travis and Corrie are." he replied. "Everyone else is wide awake."
"They weren't any trouble, right?" Troy asked.
Dylan just smiled and shook his head. "Nah. Gina took care of all the diaper changing. I was just the entertainment and cook for the night." He turned his head to the other adults, mainly Zeke, when they walked in. "Too bad I can't compare to Mr. Zekery over there." he joked.
"Very funny." Zeke muttered, most likely still not in the best mood. He took off his coat and went out of the room right away; pretty much everyone just assumed he was going to the bathroom.
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "What's eating him?"
"He's mad that his bakery might actually have some competition with the restaurant we ate at." Chad replied.
Taylor rolled her eyes and hit his arm again. "That's not true and you know it." Besides, knowing Zeke it was probably something to make much a bigger deal out of.
"How was Travis?" Kelsi asked right away as soon as she got a turn to speak.
"He was fine the whole time." Dylan promised. "He should be asleep in the crib in the other room."
"Thanks Dill." Kelsi smiled thankfully, then left the living room.
Ryan nodded in agreement and turned to Troy and Gabriella. "Thanks for keeping one of the cribs around here. Never thought we'd need a spare one."
"It's fine, Ry. No big deal." Troy promised. "If you've got any problems with the crib at home, you can have this one."
"Or even if you want to drop Travis off here or when you come to visit, it'll be there for him." Gabriella added.
Ryan smiled and nodded again. "Thanks guys."
Troy shrugged and grinned, "Always here to help a friend."
"You guys can have your mushy friend time later." Chad joked as he picked up Cheryl. "We're gonna head out for the night."
"Already, man?" Troy asked.
"Yeah." Chad nodded. "Dill's exhausted and Cheryl should get to bed soon anyway."
"But I'm not tired." Cheryl sighed.
"She says that now." Taylor muttered as she helped Dylan off the couch.
"You sure you're not the one who's tired?" Chad teased.
Taylor smiled and rolled her eyes. "We'll be waiting in the car." she said as she and Dylan walked out of the house, after saying a quick good night to everyone else of course.
"And that would be your cue to leave before your head gets shaved, huh?" Ryan made a joke of his own. He tried getting Troy and Gabriella to laugh, but neither even let out a giggle. Neither did Cheryl.
Chad just shook his head as he pat Ryan on the shoulder before walking out. "Not funny man."
-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-
"You should really get to bed if you're so tired." Taylor suggested to Dylan as the four of them walked into the house.
"I will soon." Dylan promised.
Chad raised an eyebrow. Something just didn't sound completely right about that response. "You sure you're not just tired?" he asked.
"Yeah." Dylan nodded after almost a minute. "I'm good."
"Cept he wouldn't tell me bout when he was a baby." Cheryl complained, folding her arms.
Chad and Taylor exchanged glances. They looked at Dylan, and were able to judge from his expression that Cheryl's complaint was his reason for being more than just tired.
"Um, I'll go put Cheryl in her room. I'll be right down." Taylor decided, knowing it would just have to be the three of them talking. She picked up her daughter and headed upstairs.
Chad nodded and turned to Dylan. "What happened tonight?"
"Nothing." Dylan lied.
"Ok, don't pull that on me." Chad shook his head. "You know better than that."
"Dad, not now. I don't want Cheryl to hear." Dylan sighed.
"She won't." Chad promised.
"Ok, Cheryl is upstairs changing, I told her we'd be back up in ten minutes." Taylor said quickly as she walked downstairs. she turned to Dylan. "So start talking."
"It's nothing to worry about." Dylan tried lying again.
"You can't pull that off anymore. We know something's up and you're gonna tell us one way or another." Chad insisted.
"Can we just drop it?" Dylan asked. He didn't feel like talking anymore.
Taylor folded her arms. "Dylan McKessie-Danforth, do not make me pull out the middle name."
Dylan gulped. He did not want to hear that. His parents hardly ever used his last name let alone his middle one. So he knew he was in trouble if he didn't talk. He sighed reluctantly and faced the two of them. "Cheryl asked me how I was when I was a baby. She wanted to know what you guys thought."
Chad raised an eyebrow. "Dill, is that all?" he asked. "You can tell her, you know."
"But she doesn't know." Dylan sighed. "She doesn't know I'm not really her brother. What am I supposed to tell her?"
"It doesn't matter what you say." Taylor shook her head. "What matters is that she knows whether you're related or not you're always there for each other. If Cheryl knows that then it won't matter if you're adopted or not. Don't worry about what people think of you otherwise."
Chad nodded in agreement. "And you're gonna have to tell her sometime."
"I know." Dylan reluctantly realized. "But I'm not ready to tell her."
"Then tell her when you are ready. At least try before you start college?" Taylor suggested.
"Ok." Dylan compromised.
"You should get to bed." Chad said, disrupting the odd silence. "Get a good night's sleep ok?"
"Yeah." Dylan nodded. He gave them each a quick hug and then headed upstairs.
Meanwhile Sharpay and Zeke walked into their own house. Sharpay had been nagging him almost the entire ride home, and Zeke was getting tired of it. He had no idea how much longer he could hold it in.
"Will you stop jumping down my throat?" Zeke sighed.
"No I will not!" Sharpay insisted. "You kept trying to bring up the kids which made Kelsi constantly worry about Travis. We were trying to avoid talking about the kids unless it was about asking them how they were doing or something. Can't you take a hint?"
"Why can't you take a hint?" Zeke gasped. "Sharpay, do you know what I've been trying to ask you all night?"
"What, you want to babysit them next time or something?" she assumed.
"No, I wanted to know when it's our turn!" Zeke replied.
"Our turn for what?" Sharpay questioned.
"When it's our turn to have kids!" he blurt out.
Sharpay's jaw dropped. Did she just hear him right? He was asking her about kids? As in, kids of their own? as in her getting pregnant?
"Are you as nuts as your coconut cream creme brulée?" she exclaimed, practically throwing her arms in the air. "Why on earth would we have kids?"
"So we're just supposed to grow up together in a lonely house?" Zeke asked doubtfully. "I've always wanted kids, at least one! I wouldn't even care if they got sick or something or didn't have their legs! Any one kid I'd be happy with. Why can't you understand that?"
"Why have kids at all, Zeke?" she demanded. "Isn't a nephew enough?"
"But he's never going to be my kid." Zeke replied. "Don't you want an heir or heiress of your own, to someday take over everything you've known if they grow up to be just like you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Shrapay lied, shaking her head.
"Sharpay, I love you and I don't know what I'd do without you. But what if something ever happens to you? The closest thing I'll have left is your favorite dessert dish, your brother, and his family." Zeke insisted. "How would you feel if you were me?"
"I'd get a new wardrobe." she muttered.
Zeke shook his head. "I can't believe you." He started storming up to his room.
Sharpay pushed some hair away from her face and sighed heavily. As much as she hated to admit it, she could understand where Zeke was coming from. And she got angry enough times as it was; it was time to start calming down and talk like a real family...or a real dysfunctional one.
"Zeke wait." she forced out.
Zeke sighed and turned to his wife.
"I just don't want to be fat." Sharpay confessed.
"Having a baby won't make you fat. It'll just give you a little extra weight and bigger belly for nine months." he replied.
"That makes me feel so much better." Sharpay said sarcastically.
"So you wouldn't go through nine months of losing your figure for a lifetime of happiness for both of us?" he asked doubtfully.
"Ok, so it's selfish, I know." Sharpay moaned. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Not entirely." Zeke shook his head. He folded his arms and looked away, then turned his head back to Sharpay less than a minute later and smiled. "But it helps."
Sharpay sighed with relief. She knew what it was like to have so many people hate her growing up, even if it didn't bother her as much as it would now. "I'm not ready to think about going through that and everything that comes with it." she explained. "Maybe we can talk about it some other time."
"So, the child card isn't off the table?" he wondered.
"Not completely." Sharpay gave in, shaking her head. "But I'm willing to go through it if you're willing to deal with everything that comes with it."
Zeke smiled and nodded. It started off rocky, but it turned out so much better than he thought. Maybe he couldn't have even picked a better night to do it. He just thought about his friends and how happy they were with their kids. And Zeke loved them all like family, but not his own. An extended family, or cousins, or something along those lines more likely, but not that they'd ever be his own kids. But they were still like family to him, and that'd make Zeke happy until he could have a child of his own. Biologically or maybe even adoptive. But that could all be talked about later.
"I'm in a hundred and ten percent." he smiled.
So how was it? Sorry, I know that question much be getting old by now. XD This wasn't my favorite chapter, but maybe because there wasn't much C&T in there. hey, not my fault I love em so much. =P But I said they wouldn't be the only couple in these oneshots so that's why I mixed it up here. Maybe the chapter also seemed better in my head till I typed it. XD And sorry for not naming this chapter, I kind had a writers block on a good title. -_-' So anyway, that will do it for now, but we'll see. And don't forget about your opinions. New character - male or female? You decide and I'll see which one wins (with more votes of course). And as far as making suggestions for oneshots you'd like to see here, feel free to share them! ^^ This should all do it for now, so this is my cue to shut up.