Most people only know that I'm one of the Sharpettes. Some people even care to take notice of the fact that I am a red-head – the red-head of the group. Most people – even at my high school, East High – don't even know my name, but maybe that's okay, maybe their not knowing my name makes my life easier. Because here's the thing: my name is Ryan Evans – yes, a girl named Ryan. Personally, just in case you care to know, I hate my name on me. Now, concerning the name as it pertains to the school's other Ryan Evans – it fits him just fine.

Back to the story, though, with despicable name rant aside…

You wouldn't know it from seeing Sharpay and I interact, but she and her brother are my cousins. Originally, Sharpay only let the me – the only child of the more impoverished side of the Evans family – become one of her backup singers because her parents – my aunt and uncle – actually put their foot down on the matter and made her do something their way for once. She hadn't had a choice in the matter; after all, her parents had reasoned, we are family; I had to be at least passably decent at singing. And as it had turned out they were right. With a couple of voice lessons and some help from my cousin, Ryan, we discovered that I was actually pretty good at performing.

But – and I guess that I'm no different than her other two back-up singers when it comes to this – I have never been allowed to forget who's in charge of our group. Which means that at the end of the day we three Sharpettes end up doing way more for Sharpay than just singing backup. And recently Sharpay had found a new use for me – trailing her brother at school during some of the random moments when he wasn't already with her. Now, Ryan and I are friends; we have a healthy relationship as cousins that's been built on our shared names and our conflicting emotions about Sharpay. That's a relationship that I don't want to mess up. Sharpay, however, is not used to being told "no," so I ended up agreeing to spy on Ryan despite my misgivings about doing so.

See, this whole mistrusting of Ryan thing came about when he started getting calls through the PA system to go to the music room. By Sharpay's reasoning, those calls were technically simply for "Ryan Evans." And I was as much Ryan Evans as her brother was, so why on earth couldn't I answer the calls too? Just so long as her brother didn't see me. Since he'd been so secretive about whatever was going on in the music room, my being spotted probably wouldn't be a good thing.

And so, all of that led to my current position – spending my lunch period padding silently through the nearly forsaken halls of East High after the nicer of my two cousins while wondering exactly why it was that I was that I was doing this for Sharpay at all. By the time that Ryan slipped into the music room, I was seriously starting to consider – for the hundredth time – starting a mutiny against Sharpay, or at least abandoning my little spy mission and leaving Ryan to his own business.

But now that I was here, right outside the music room's door, I found myself curious as to what I might find going on inside the room. So far I hadn't heard any music, which meant that Sharpay's theory about her brother helping Troy and Gabriella with the upcoming winter musical auditions was probably as wrong and as ridiculous as I had tried to tell her it was. What was going on in there, then?

I snuck up to the door and looked through the small rectangular window. I saw Ryan sitting on a piano bench. There was nothing unusual about this, of course, but there was something very unusual about the fact that he was sharing the bench with a petite brunette. I grinned to myself, feeling a moment of triumph. I had wondered to myself if maybe a girl hadn't been behind all of this, after all, my cousin wasn't gay, believe it or not. I craned my neck to try and see who exactly the girl was.

Just then, Ryan tilted the smiling brunette's chin up towards him, and in that moment I yelped for two reasons. Reason number one: the girl that he was about to kiss was the reclusive composer, Kelsi Nielson. Reason number two: I was pretty sure that when Ryan had tilted her chin, she had spotted me. Either way, my cover blown; my cousin and his girlfriend both knew that someone was watching them now.

I wanted to run away, but I knew better. I couldn't get anywhere in the high heels that I knew better. I wouldn't get anywhere in the high heels that I was wearing before Ryan or Kelsi caught me in the act. I considered my options for a split second before flattening myself against a shadowed wall as I heard Ryan tell Kelsi to "stay here." A moment later, my cousin emerged from the music room, calling out, "Ryan?"

I stayed where I was, barely daring to breath. But Ryan looked right at me anyway.

"I thought I recognized that tone of yelp," Ryan stated casually. I just stared silently at him until he asked, "So you saw Kelsi and me, huh?"

I nodded before declaring, "Sharpay is going to kill you. Kelsi is helping Troy and Gabriella, which officially makes her the enemy right now."

Irritation flashed through Ryan's sky-blue eyes. "Then I guess I'll go drink some poison, Kelsi can stab herself, and we'll all just call it a night, how does that sound?" he snapped.

"Ryan…" I said softly, trying to calm him down.

"Ryan," he repeated just as peevish as he had been before.

I bit my lip, unsure of what to do about his uncharacteristic snappishness.

Seeing my discomfort, he sighed, deflating his anger as he realized how awful this argument sounded. "Listen, cuz," he was back to sounding like normal Ryan now, talking softly as he explained, "I am just so far beyond sick of Sharpay right now that I really don't care what she thinks right now, especially not when it comes to my relationship with Kelsi. I really think that Kelsi is the right girl for me. Ideally, Sharpay won't find out about us, but if she does, then I think that I might actually enjoy telling her to just deal with it."

I frowned, not about to buy into that. Both of us knew that no one would be happy if Sharpay was told to "just deal with" something.

"Well, I'm not going to tell her, if that's what you're getting at," I declared resolutely.

"Really?" My cousin sighed with relief and then smiled at me. "Thanks a lot, Ryan."

I smiled in return. "I really have rather selfish motives;" I half joked. "Self-preservation and all that, you know."

Ryan nodded. "Yeah, I do know." He paused for a second before changing the subject by asking, "So, what are you going to tell Sharpay?"

"I'll think of something," I answered with a shrug.

This rebellion against Sharpay was new to me, but it felt good. Since it was leaving me almost giddy, I could only imagine what being in a relationship with Kelsi felt like for Ryan.

"Thanks," he said for the second time.

"No problem," I replied. "But, hey, how did you get the PA system to call you to the music room?"

Ryan smiled secretively. "Kelsi has one of the receptionists wrapped around her little finger."

This struck me as oddly funny, so I smiled, saying, "Good for you two. And as a matter of fact, congratulations on your relationship with Kelsi. Speaking of which…" I nodded towards the music room door. "You had better get back to her."

Ryan nodded in agreement and disappeared back into the music room with a final grateful smile. I turned and walked back down the school's empty hallway, smiling as well.

The thing was, Sharpay and Ryan both might be my cousins, but Ryan was the only one of them who was actually my family. And right there in that hallway, I had just figured that out. And for once I had chosen to help the right person. Now that felt even better than a Sharpay-funded day at the spa.

Sorry if it seems a little weird and AU-ish; when I wrote it, I didn't realize that the Sharpettes actually had names already given to them. Oh, well. I hope that you guys enjoyed it anyway. Reviews make my day!:)