Author's Note: Hey! Hope you're enjoying this so far. Just wanted to say thanks again for the reviews and to everyone who liked this story enough to want to follow it. Especially want to thank TocoGirlHills, your review was very sweet and was what made me decide to update today. Also, I'd like to point out that I don't own the lyrics to the song "10 Minutes Ago", it really is from Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella. I also don't own the lyrics to the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You", it was a bonus track on the first Highschool Musical CD. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
"Nate!" I pulled my hands out of Stephen's so fast he almost fell over. He was quickly up on his feet though, grinning happily.
"Hey, I believe we spoke on the phone just a little bit ago." Stephen smiled at Nate and stuck out his hand. Nate shook it slowly, his face looking like a storm cloud.
Then his eyes turned to Michelle, who had sat up suddenly when he walked in. His eyes widened, but he didn't make a comment. He turned back to me. "Ella, can I talk to you in the hall for a second?"
"Well-" But Nate had already grabbed my hand and practically hauled me from the room.
Once we were safely in the hall he turned to face me, looking angry. "Who the heck are these people?"
"People?" I said, trying to sound innocent.
"You know, the tricked out Barbie doll hanging on your dad in the living room, the super model lounging on your bed like she's posing for the cover of Star Power, and the jerk who somehow brainwashed you into being his girlfriend in the space of two minutes."
I smiled at Nate's description of them then rolled my eyes. "Okay, the 'tricked out Barbie doll' is one of my dad's friends from highschool named Sharpay. And if you're wondering, no, I have no idea what kind of sick parents would saddle their precious baby with a name like that. But anyway, Stephen and Michelle are her kids. And just for the record," I added, a little angry myself, "Stephen did not 'brainwash me into being his girlfriend'! I agreed to go out to dinner with him."
Nate scoffed. "How long have you known this guy, like two seconds? How do you know he's not a creep?"
"I don't. But I think he's okay. I mean his mom was a Broadway star. They sound like upper class people. I don't think he's the type who secretly sells drugs on street corners or anything."
Nate shook his head. "You know that's not what I meant."
"Nate, my dad wouldn't have been friends with someone who would raise their kids to crawl all over their dates."
"People change since highschool Ella. You really have no idea what this woman or her children are like."
"Nate," I said, getting frustrated, "I don't know why you don't want me to go out with this perfectly nice, gorgeous guy, but honestly, I'm not really comfortable with you being all up in my personal life like this. So please, skip the protective older brother act, I can take care of myself."
I turned to go, but Nate caught my arm. "Ella! Wait..." He sighed and pulled me back towards him. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make you feel like I don't believe you can take care of yourself. I know you can. It's just, we've been friends for a long time, and I don't want to see you get hurt. That's all."
I sighed. "I know Nate. But sometimes it's like you act like I'm your own personal property." Nate winced. "And not to be mean, but I'm not. You're my best friend. I'll always value your opinon. But you don't get to make my decisions for me."
Nate sighed. "I know." He straightened. "But if that guy hurts you I'm going to kill him."
I laughed. "You do that." Nate pulled me into his arms and I hugged him, laying my head on his shoulder. As his arms drew protectively around me, I realized I felt almost, well, safe.
"Michelle, Stephen?" Sharpay walked up, causing us to jump apart. She stopped and looked us both up and down, an amused smile on her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
"Interrupt what?" Stephen walked out of my room, smiling easily.
"Nothing." I said quickly.
Sharpay shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. Michelle, Stephen, you guys ready to go?"
"I'm more than ready." Michelle walked out of my room and glared at me. Then she sent a sweet smile Nate's way. I held back a laugh. In your dreams Michelle.
"Well, goodbye Stephen." Not knowing what else to do, I hugged him quickly. "See you tomorrow."
He grinned. "I'll pick you up at seven."
"Fine." I smiled at him. "Goodbye Michelle. It was nice meeting you."
"Yes, I'm sure it was." Michelle nodded, then went back to examining her nails.
"Goodbye Mrs..." I trailed off.
Sharpay giggled. "It's Evans-Leverett. Or just Leverett. But you can call me Sharpay."
"Alright. Well goodbye Sharpay."
Sharpay stood for a moment, as if waiting for something. When I didn't move, she opened her arms wide. "Hugsies!"
"Oh!" I hugged her, my face once again smashed against rhinestones. When she released me I tried to discreetly gasp for air.
My dad walked up as Sharpay said, "Well, toodles!" and moved away from Nate and I. I heard him say, "I'll walk you to the door."
Sharpay flushed. "Such a gentlemen!"
I rolled my eyes and could have gagged. I knew my father was just being polite, but she seemed to think he was flirting with her. Which was gross cause she was married.
When Nate and I were once again standing alone in the hall I turned toward him, my thoughts suddenly returning to something that had happened earlier in the Leverett's visit, when I had seen my dad reading the mysterious document in his study. I told Nate what had happened, then said, "I'm wondering if there's a chance we could get our hands on it."
Nate looked genuinely shocked. "You mean, go through his desk and read something that's probably very private?"
"Well, yeah."
"Oh!" Nate said sarcastically, "That sounds like a good idea!"
"Well, if he won't talk about it, then I have to find out some other way right? Come on, you promised to help me with this didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I didn't think that meant snooping through your dad's stuff."
"Well, it does!" I said, smiling.
"Awesome." He muttered.
Just then my dad walked back toward us. "Well that was... frightening." He smiled at us both. "You two did well."
"Thanks Dad." I smiled at him.
"Well, I think after that much Sharpay Evans-Leverett, I need some fresh air. I'm going to take a run. It might be kind of long, I need to get in shape for basketball camp, it's coming up soon. I'll probably be gone for a couple of hours." He eyed us both. "Can I trust you two to keep your hands to yourselves while I'm gone?"
"DAD!" I yelled, feeling myself blush.
"What?" he said, totally oblivious to the fact that he had just said the most embarrassing thing in the history of embarrassing things to say.
"Hey, Ella, chill." Nate grinned. "I'm actually kind of flattered."
"Well I know if you're flattered than I've got nothing to worry about." My dad laughed at my red face.
"Anyway, have fun. There's cold pizza and a veggie platter in the fridge in case you get hungry."
"Okay, thanks."
"Well, I just gotta go change into my running clothes and then I'll be good to go." My dad jogged off to his bedroom.
"Here's our chance!" I whispered to Nate. "Once he's gone, we go into his study and look at whatever he looked at. It's that simple."
"I don't know... I still don't feel right about this."
"Nate, come on," I said pleadingly.
"Fine." He muttered. "Let's at least go watch TV till your dad leaves and we can go into criminal mode.
"Yay!" I kissed him on the cheek, twice, then grabbed his hand and pulled him to the couch. I tried to ignore the silly grin that popped up on his face, and the way he slowly put his arm behind my head on the couch. It wasn't even touching me, but it still felt a little too much like a move. I shifted awkwardly.
He moved his arm.
My dad walked in in his running clothes. "I'll be back in a bit! Bye!"
"Bye!" I said, my eyes still fixed on the TV. I waited till I heard the door shut then sprang to my feet. "Let's go!"
Nate shook his head. "No, let's wait at least half an hour. What if he comes back for something? It would be safer to wait. He said he'd be gone a couple of hours, so we'd still have plenty of time to look."
I sighed. "Alright. But hey, instead of watching TV, do you want to rehearse together?"
"Sure." He smiled and turned off the TV. I got my script so we could share it and we started in on the ballroom scene.
Finally, we got to one of my favorite songs in the whole play called "10 Minutes Ago". It was a beautiful, yet faster paced, love song. Nate started singing.
Ten minutes ago, I saw you,
I looked up when you came through the door,
My head started reeling,
You gave me the feeling,
The room had no ceiling or floor.
Ten minutes ago, I met you,
And we murmured our how do you dos,
I wanted to ring out the bells and fling out my arms and sing out the news.
I have found her, she's an angel, with the dust of the stars in her eyes.
We are dancing, we are flying, and she's taking me back to the skies!
In the arms of my love, I'm flying,
Over mountain and meadow and glen.
And I like it so well that for all I can tell I may never come down again.
I may never come down to earth again.
I had been looking down at the script to follow along with Nate's singing. When it came time to sing my part I looked up at him to smile because Kelly said we needed to work on having romantic chemistry onstage. As soon as I looked at him though, the words I had been about to sing died on my lips. He was staring at me so hard, I felt as if he were looking straight through me. His eyes were soft and bright. For some reason, my gaze suddenly slid to his lips. I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. And suddenly, I really wanted to know how it would feel to kiss him. I felt my heart begin to pound. What's happening to me? This is Nate for crying out loud.
I looked down at my script again and bit my lip nervously. "Uh, sorry." I laughed, trying not to sound as awkward as I felt. "I think I lost my place there. It's harder without music."
"Yeah." I could tell he was still staring at me. I felt my cheeks grow warm.
"Listen, why don't you sing your part again." I hated saying that, but I couldn't think of any other way to do it. I knew I couldn't sing at that moment, especially not all that lovey dovey stuff, especially not to Nate.
Nate started to sing again, though quieter than before. I kept my eyes firmly fixed on my script. Then came the lines I hated so much right at that moment.
I wanted to ring out the bells and fling out my arms and sing out the news.
I have found her, she's an angel, with the dust of the stars in her eyes.
We are dancing, we are flying, and she's taking me back to the skies!
When he sang, "she's an angel" I felt my eyes slide up to his without thinking. He was looking at me so earnestly, and I remembered how I had felt earlier, in his arms. I wanted that back. The safe, friendly feeling. Not this heart-stopping, awkward, inconvenient, fire-in-the-veins stuff I was feeling now. This was Nate. We were just friends. I could never, or at least, should never like him that way. But still...
When Nate finished his verse, neither of us even kept up the pretense. He sang it again, softer. Then slowly, he bent down. Our lips connected.
Zing! Zing! Woah. For a minute I was so lost in it I forgot who I was kissing. I forgot this was Nate, the boy I had eaten pop rings with in the first grade, the boy I had played with in the kiddy pool, the boy who had given me guy advice and steadied me when I got too stressed out over school assignments. For just a minute, he truly was my Prince Charming. I was his Ella. His Cinderella. And then I woke up.
I pushed him away. The kiss had been pretty brief, and not at all sloppy, closer to a peck than anything else, and yet we were both breathing as if we had just run a marathon.
"Nate," I said unsteadily, "you can never do that again!"
Nate blinked, he looked stunned. "I thought you wanted me to! You were looking at me like,like-"
"Like I'm going to look at Stephen. I was just practicing for our date tomorrow. It didn't mean anything." As soon as I had said it I realized it was completely and totally the wrong thing to say. Nate's eyes looked as if I had just torn a hole in his heart.
"Well, I'm glad I'm your practice run then. Really, I am. I'm always so happy when a girl decides I'm good enough to lock lips with. Particularly when it's just practice for the 'perfectly nice, gorgeous guy' you're going out with tomorrow." Nate shoved my script back into my hands. "I'm out."
"Nate! I'm sorry, you know that's not what I meant!"
"No," Nate stared at me, "it's exactly what you meant. So thanks. I'm glad at least I finally got to see your true colors. You know," he continued, "I would have been embarrassed to tell you this when I thought you were perfect, but I spent three years of my life praying you'd kiss me like that. But being a set of practice lips so Stephen can have an even better one? Yeah, wasn't part of what I was wishing for."
"Nate!" I realized I was crying, but I couldn't help it. "I'm sorry!"
"Here." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small notebook. "Enjoy reading those. They're the perfect punchline to the joke you evidently think I am."
He threw the notebook on the ground, turned, and yanked open the door. Without a backward look he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
For a minute, I stood in the middle of the living room, tears blurring my vision of the door that now stood between me and the best friend I had ever had. Then, slowly, I picked up the notebook and sat on the couch. I opened it and started to read.
You never know what you're gonna feel, oh
You never see it comin' suddenly it's real
Oh, never even crossed my mind, no
That I would ever end up here tonight
All things change
When you don't expect them to
No one knows
What the future's gonna do
I never even noticed
That you've been there all along
Chorus
I can't take my eyes off of you
I know you feel the same way too, yeah
I can't take my eyes off of you
All it took . . . Was one look
For a dream come true
Yeah, we got a good thing goin' on
Oh, right here is right where we belong
You never really know what you might find
Now all I see is you and I
You're everything I never knew
That I've been looking for
I couldn't read anymore. I was crying too hard.
AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Lot's of Natella in it! Also, for anyone who's interested, I'm having a CONTEST! Here's the deal: There is a reason I named Sharpay's kids "Michelle" and "Stephen". It involves the real names of some of the actors in HSM. The first person to leave a review giving the correct reason (and believe me, it's pretty obvious), will get a character named after them in a later chapter! In the review just give what you think the reason is and your first name. If you're not comfortable giving out your first name on the internet, feel free to leave a middle name. Good luck! :)