AN: WE'RE HORRIBLE UPDATERS WE KNOW. Thank you for being patient with us. :P

The one year anniversary of this fanfic is coming up – it's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we saw that music video and this story popped into our heads. We'll definitely have an update on the anniversary. Until then, enjoy this chapter!

—

"Just move the desk over there - no, the other left - no-" the teacher sighed, putting her hand to her face. "Nevermind. Just leave it."

Sam shrugged and went back over to where his friends were. Caine and Diana were perched on desks, Quinn and Edilio were having a very in depth discussion about whether black was really a color, Astrid was flipping through one of the text books they'd be using next year, and Drake and Kira were standing so close together that they were practically merged into one person.

"... Comfortable there?" Sam raised an eyebrow at the two, rolling his eyes a bit. He figured they should've known things would get back to normal so soon. Kira smiled and nodded. Astrid looked up and frowned, "Guys, we have two years of school left after today." She looked...sad. Everyone else cheered.

Astrid tightened her lips. "But after those two years, we'll be thrown into the real world! We'll have to fend for ourselves! No more teachers and parents to fall back on! No more tests! No more learning! No-"

"Woah, calm down," Sam said. Astrid, who looked as though she was about to begin hyperventilating, took a deep breath.

"If it was a color, it'd be on the color wheel," Edilio was saying to Quinn. "But it's not, man. The wheel doesn't lie."

Quinn rolled his eyes. "You just can't see past the conventional, brah. It's called an open mind." Drake thumped Quinn and Edilio on the back of the head. "Black is a shade." He concluded. Neither of them argued. Diana kicked her legs back and forth, not seeming to be in a very talkative mood today. Caine was considering asking her what was wrong, but was far too scared she was in a 'I wanna hit Caine' mood.

"We should do something this summer," Astrid said, having calmed down a bit. "Something really fun."

Drake and Kira looked at each other suggestively. Caine snorted.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Not what I meant. "

Sam opened his mouth. "I know some fun things-"

Astrid slapped his arm. "Not what I meant."

"Well then, what did you mean, Astrid?" Kira rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed that Astrid couldn't seem to take a joke. "I don't know... We should go to the beach... And other stuff I guess." They all nodded in agreement.

"I liked my ideas better..." Sam mumbled.

"SWIMMY." Quinn cried from across the room. He had left the group momentarily because he was helped to clean out the coat closets, and it appears he had found the long-missing class Goldfish - Swimmy - under a crate. Dead.

Drake rolled his eyes. "What did you think happened to that thing?"

"Our teacher said it joined the carnival!" Quinn said, sniffling.

Edilio was obviously struggling to hide his laughter. "I'm sure there was no pain involved, Quinn."

Drake smirked. "There was," he said. "I stepped on it."

"Drakeee." Kira whined, swatting him on the arm. "He did not." She shot him a glare before patting Quinn on the back. "He was a good fish."

Edilio nodded. Sam, Drake, Caine, and Diana exchanged annoyed glances, while the others comforted Quinn, who was crying now.

"Aw he's in a better place, Quinn." Astrid assured him. "Now he can't get eaten by sharks."

Drake smirked again.

"Moving on," Diana said dryly. "I can't do anything on Wednesdays."

"Why not?" Caine asked, moving a bit closer.

"I have to take anger management classes," Diana said through clenched teeth.

Drake snickered. Kira raised an eyebrow.

"What for?" she asked.

Diana's eyes flashed. "None of your business. But I have a plan to get out of it."

"Such as...?" Astrid said.

"It involves a tube top and a mini skirt. Do you really want me to elaborate?"

Sam opened his mouth, but Astrid smacked him before he could say anything.

"You two!" The teacher suddenly snapped at Caine and Diana. "Off the desks! You're going to break them." She was usually pretty cranky, which was only made worse by the stress of the last week of school.

Diana rolled her eyes and slid off, but Caine raised his eyebrows. "Are you calling me fat?" he asked.

Drake scoffed. "You are fat."

Caine's eyebrows rose, "Excuse me? You're fat."

Kira laughed at Caine's comeback, "Not really."

Sam interrupted them, "ten more minutes." He smiled, eyes focused on the old clock on the wall.

Everyone but Astrid whooped, but she just whimpered a bit.

"We should go camping!" Edilio said. Everyone turned to look at him. "Earlier, we were talking about doing something fun," he explained, "we should go camping. I used to go with my parents all the time when I was a kid."

"As in, alone? In the woods? With all of you?" Diana scoffed. "No thanks."

"I think it's a good idea," Astrid said. "There are all kinds of unobserved specimens-"

"But what about the fish!" Quinn exclaimed. "If I'm away from the ocean for too long they'll get sad."

"There are lakes in forests, Quinn." Kira rolled her eyes. "I guess it could be cool…"

"FIVE MINUTES." Sam yelled.

"I have mosquito allergies." Diana lied.

"There's no such thing," Astrid shook her head.

They continued arguing back and forth about camping, until Diana finally gave in, and Drake didn't really seem to care as long as he got to share a tent with Kira.

Finally, the bell rang. Sam jumped up into the air, shouting gleefully. He fell back to the ground and tripped, landing on his face.

The teacher rushed them all out of the door, glad to be rid of them for the summer. "Come on, out - Temple, why are you on the floor?" She sighed, and closed the door behind the gang once they'd exited.

—

"So what now guys?" Edilio asked as they stood outside the school, hands in their pockets.

"Lets go to shake shack." Quinn suggested happily.

The others agreed, and they set of towards their destination, chatting happily as they did.

Astrid, on the other hand, seemed on the verge of tears.

"No more tests," Sam sighed happily.

"No more detention," Drake said, draping his arm over Kira.

They reached Shake Shack, and they sat down at their regular table, dragging a few extra chairs up to it as usual.

They talked for a while, until Astrid had to go to the bathroom and Kira and Diana went with her. Sam went to go spy on them, Drake went to argue with the cashier about their order, and Caine and Edilio went to the bathroom, as well. Quinn was the only one left at the table. He took a pencil out of his pocket and started drawing artistic nudes of fish on his napkin.

"Hello, sir?" said a perky looking man who had been sitting at a nearby table for a while.

Quinn looked up at him. "Yeah?"

The man opened his mouth to speak, then saw Quinn's napkin drawing and hesitated. "Uh…you and those people who were sitting at the table with you, you're all friends, right?"

"Yep."

"Well…" He smiled. "How would you all like to be in a musical?"

Quinn's expression brightened. "What kind of musical?"

"High School Musical," the man replied.

"Can I be a fish?"

"No."

"Can I take my fish with me? He gets lonely."

"….sure."

Quinn smiled. "We'll do it!"

Meanwhile, while Quinn was being an idiot and signing up his friends and himself for this sketchy re-make of "High School Musical", Drake had been rude enough to have security called out, and those in the bathroom were doing what they did best: gossiping about how dumb Caine is.

"So I caught Caine under my bed last night," Diana rolled her eyes, leaning against a marble tiled wall.

"Wow, shocker," Kira said, fixing her hair in a mirror, "hey guys do you think I should dye my hair pink?"

"Anyway," Astrid ignored the question, "what'd you do?"

"Have you not noticed the limp in his step all day?"

The three laughed, and Sam – who was hiding at the entrance – had to stifle a giggle.

" - HOOLIGAN. PEEPING TOM. SECURITY WE HAVE A PEEPING TOM!"

"NO. LADY. STOP. NO DON'T. OW – WHAT THE HELL IS IN THAT PURSE – LADY THIS IS NOT NICE,"

"HOOLIGAN GET OUT OF THE WOMANS ROOM"

"IM NOT IN THE WOMANS ROOM IM OUTSIDE OF IT"

Astrid, Kira, and Diana sighed, and Kira ran out to see the problem.

"I'm sorry for this miss, our friend Sam here is a bit… mentally challenged."

"OW OW OW KIRA DON'T. OW." Sam yelled as Kira pulled him back to their table by the ear.

" – Such a nice girl." An old lady murmured as she clamored into the restroom.

Astrid and Diana exchanged glances as she entered, and walked swiftly out.

"So, you didn't burn the place down while we were gone?" Caine asked Quinn in mock surprise. "I'm impressed."

"Nope." Quinn was grinning ear to ear, but he refused to tell anyone why.

—

The next day, Quinn had declared that he had a surprise for everyone. He tried to blindfold them all, but Drake kicked him where the sun don't shine and refused to have Quinn put anything on his face. The others rejected him in a similar fashion, except Sam, who liked the blindfold so much that he insisted on walking everywhere with one on.

"Just tell us where we're going," Caine whined as Quinn walked them there.

"You'll find out," Quinn said.

Diana rolled her eyes.

They soon arrived at a very sketchy looking warehouse. Sam's eyes opened wide.

"Dude, is that like, a prostitute place?" he asked excitedly.

Edilio was freaking out. "Man, I saw this movie where they went in this warehouse to, like, meet these people, but it was really a set up by a serial killer, and man, they all—"

"Shut up," Caine hissed. He turned to Quinn. "I'm not going inside until you tell me—"

"That'll ruin the surprise!" Quinn insisted.

"You guys are such babies…" Kira rolled her eyes and kicked the door open first, pulling Drake by the wrist right behind her.
The rest of the gang followed in behind them, Quinn all but bouncing with joy. Soon enough, they were met with a man who had a pencil on his ear and a clipboard in his hand. The guy looked up from his papers and smiled at the group.
"Great – you guys came! Now lets get to casting."
"Woah woah woah, wait, casting for what?" Drake stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well, are you all familiar with the Disney films high school musical? We're reenacting that." The man said with a smile. "Your friend said you were up to it"
They all stared at him in disbelief, except Quinn who was grinning excitedly.

Diana was the first to react. She snorted. "Um, nope. I'm out of here." She moved to leave, but the the guy stepped in front of her way.

"The thing is," he said, "we really don't have anyone else to audition, and this is for…" he thought fast. "It's a charity event, and if we don't have any actors, we can't put on the play, and the charity won't get any money, so…"

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "What kind of charity is it?"

"Uh, it's for…koalas."

"Koalas. And why do koalas need a charity, exactly?"

"They…are….sad. Koalas all around the world are sad. So we…uh…hire clowns. To cheer them up."

Astrid stared at him. "You…hire clowns. For koalas. Right."

"Yeah um," Drake rose an eyebrow, "We're not clowns. Well, Caine is, but the rest of us aren't. Sorry." He scoffed and turned to leave, Kira hanging on his arm, only to be stopped by two large guys who he could've sworn hadn't been there a few seconds ago.

"You are now. Line up." The guy with the clipboard smiled.

They all sighed and stood in a line starting with Drake, followed by Kira, Astrid, Sam, Diana, Edilio, and Quinn and Caine ending the line.

The guy slowly walked over to stand in front of Drake, and looked him over quickly before casting him and moving down the line.

"Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Taylor, Chad, Zeke, and…." The guy paused and looked down at the clipboard. "Hmm..." He snapped and held out his hand, and suddenly a short blonde girl ran up and dropped something into his outstretched palm.

Before any of them knew what happened, Caine was suddenly wearing a wavy brown wig.

"Kelsey."

Everyone burst out laughing. "So that's what female salamanders look like," Kira thought out loud.

Drake stopped laughing. "Okay this was fun but I'm out. I have a guy to meet."

The security moved in front of the door, but Drake delivered a balanced kick to both of them, and they crumpled to the floor. Kira followed after him.

Diana was the next to go—glancing to make sure that security was really out cold, she took another look at Caine's wig, burst into hysterics, and sauntered out the door.

Sam approached Caine. "Hey, you know, when you're wearing that you look kind of—"

"Come on, Sam," Astrid said with a sigh. Sam protested after her that he didn't even know what sort of rolling floor the warehouse had.

Edilio still seemed quite wary of the entire thing; he walked backwards to the door, refusing to turn his back on the guy, and he kept his eyes narrowed until he tripped and ended up sprawled on the ground. After a moment, he hopped up, groaning and rubbing his back.

Eventually, Quinn, Caine, and the director were the only two left in the warehouse.

"CRÈME BRULE," Quinn said happily, not seeming to comprehend that nearly all of his friends had left.

Caine looked down at the ground. "This wig makes me feel pretty," he whispered.

The director looked at Quinn, then at Caine. He gave a small smile.

"How would you two feel," he said, "about starring in Romeo and Juliet?"