Disclaimer: Look back at my last 21 chapters for all my disclaimers. I forgot how to make them have any purpose. So, take a wild guess. What and who don't I own? You should know this by now! I'm running out of ideas on how to say the same thing in many different ways. You already know I don't own this stuff. Well, make that the majority of this stuff. So, there…
Chapter 22: Who's Gay?
When they had gotten to school, Cloe spent a good twenty minutes explaining to the principal that the group was late to school because Mrs. Evans had unexpectedly not returned from a business trip and they had all been spending the night in the Evans' mansion.
After making a few calls to their parents; only managing to get Cloe's mom's confirmation to the story, the principal was satisfied and let them return to class. As they'd walked down the hallway, Cloe had reminded them, "Press the button on your pagers if you need help. Remember what I told you in the car this morning."
Now, she was sitting in English class, trying to keep her eyes from shifting over to Ryan and Sharpay each time she heard someone move. When the bell rang, Cloe shifted in her seat before she got up and left the room. She waited outside of the classroom for Ryan and Sharpay so they could all go to lunch.
The next people to come out of the classroom were the basketball jocks with Troy Bolton in front. "Hey, there." Troy said to her. "Um…hi." Cloe responded wondering why he was talking to her. "I hear you're in the Drama Club." He continued. "Troy!" his friend, Chad Danforth, said as he grabbed Troy's shoulder, "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," Troy began and turned back to Cloe, "but I do want to know what it's like…you know, Drama Club." The other jocks kept talking to each other attempting to figure out what Troy was getting at. "Oh…" Cloe said, "it's fun."
"That's good." Troy began to talk about the musical. Cloe noticed Ryan and Sharpay walk out of the classroom and look in their direction. Ryan gave her a confused look that questioned why she wasn't already at lunch.
She just motioned quietly for the two to go. Sharpay got the message and started to drag him toward the cafeteria. "Cloe, are you paying attention?" Troy asked suddenly. "What? Oh, yeah, the musical." Cloe responded returning her attention back to the conversation.
"Dude, lets just go!" Chad urged and grabbed Troy's arm. "Hold on a moment guys." Troy said to them and shook off Chad, "Cloe, you've been hanging out with Ryan a lot, right?" "Yeah, so?" Cloe retorted. "Tell me. What's he like?" Troy asked. "Right now, he's a bit light on his feet." Cloe tried hard not to give anything away as to what was really going on.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryan lingering by one of the walls with an impatient Sharpay standing next to him. Ryan kept glancing at her and the jocks. "Well, you two seem to be pretty close." Troy was saying.
"Just spit it out, Troy!" Chad insisted, "Tell the poor girl and get on with it!" "Yeah, dude. Don't put her through this kind of torture." Another one of the jocks stated. Cloe was pretty sure his name was Zeke. "What are you all talking about?" Cloe questioned a bit concerned.
"Well, I hate to bring it down to this, but…do you want to know a little secret about Ryan?" Troy asked. "This isn't one of those jokes now is it?" Cloe asked quite suspiciously. "No…it's very real…um." Troy began, but then blurt out, "Ryan is gay!"
Cloe had a sudden glance into the future, and then looked over in Ryan's direction. Ryan had stopped fidgeting and was staring at Troy in shock. Sharpay was holding onto his wrist and whispering violently to him. "Watch out!" Cloe said turning back to Troy.
"What?" he asked right before Ryan's fist collided with Troy's face. "I warned you." Cloe told him as he hit the ground. "How?" he asked as he lifted his hand up to his face and felt his jaw. "Come on." Cloe told Ryan and Sharpay. Before they left, Cloe gave Ryan a kiss on the lips, which he returned.
"He said what?" Rachael asked in shock after Cloe had gone through the entire story at lunch. "He said Ryan was gay." Sharpay whispered harshly. "I told you this would happen if you chose my clothes for me." Ryan said to Sharpay.
"Oh suck it up!" she told him, "It's not my fault that you like to sing and dance." "True." He contemplated, "But I still think it has something to do with the fact that you have me act like your meat puppet." "Dance, Pinocchio." Rachael teased. "So, are we going to find a way to show everyone that you're as straight as everyone else is?" Cloe asked. "Don't worry about me, Jitterbug." Ryan stated, "What we need to worry bout is our mission."
"By the way, when are our powers supposed to get under control?" Rachael asked, "I'm starting to stick to my lunch." "Well, Zac told me they'd start to settle down by tomorrow." Cloe answered. "Can we talk about something else, please?" Sharpay asked, "All of this confusing stuff hurts my brain."
"Sure thing, Drama Queen." Rachael said to her, "Why don't we talk about Ryan and Cloe?" "What?" Ryan and Cloe chorused in shock. "There's nothing to talk about." Cloe said. "Sure there is." Sharpay jumped in, suddenly getting interested, "Cloe, your clothes may not be designer." "Yet!" Rachael added.
"Yeah, whatever. Still, you have a good sense of style." Sharpay continued before adding, "For a freshman amateur." "Freshman?" Rachael asked. "Amateur?" Cloe stated dryly. "Well, you know what I mean." Sharpay responded sharply, "You get my point? Ryan, you are my brother. Need I say more?"
"Only if you'll explain what you're talking about." Ryan stated a bit worried and slightly confused. "You two are the perfect match." Sharpay explained, "Do I have to draw you a picture?" She rolled her eyes at her brother. He never seemed to understand anything she said.
"No thanks." Cloe said. "I can't believe Ryan hit Troy square in the jaw!" Rachael stated to change the subject. "You should have seen his face as we left." Cloe responded, "All of the jocks were staring as if they had never once thought a dancer could beat one of them."
"That's stereotyping." Rachael pointed out the obvious. "I told you to control yourself." Sharpay told Ryan. "You would have done the same thing if someone said that about you, Shar." He retorted. Sharpay sat there thinking about what she was told. Ryan put his arm around her and squeezed her to reassure no one would say something like that…he hoped.
After school, they headed back to the mansion. Along the way, no one spoke for fear of annoying Ryan…or Sharpay, for that matter. The moment they were safely inside, everyone started yelling about something. Rachael was yelling about Troy and Sharpay had to contradict her. Cloe and Ryan started arguing about something not understandable to anyone else.
The moment Sharpay and Rachael paused for a breath of air, the last word out of Cloe and Ryan's mouths was "…dating!" There was a long pause before Rachael and Sharpay screamed, "What?" "Who's dating?" Rachael asked in shock. "Is it you?" Sharpay accused.
"No, we were just…" Cloe began. "…discussing who we think should be dating." Ryan finished for her and Cloe shot him a thankful smile. "Nice save." Sharpay stated knowingly, "We both know you two are a total couple…whether you know it or not." Rachael nodded in agreement.
Ryan and Cloe looked at each other and knew they'd been caught considering trying it out. "Well, Ryan." Rachael began attempting to get the truth, "We all know the truth so you might as well spill." Sharpay got an idea and a smile curled her lips. She knew Ryan all too well and found the perfect way to get it over with.
"You both deny you're dating." She began and laughed slightly, "Ryan, if you two aren't dating, then you wouldn't mind proving it to us." As a mixture of fear and confusion spread across his face, he looked at Cloe. "How?" he asked looking at Sharpay.
Sharpay narrowed her eyes and said, "Ryan, hit Cloe!" "What?" Cloe, Ryan, and Rachael all said in shock. "You heard me." Sharpay stated with a grin. "There is no way I'm going to hit Cloe!" Ryan told her. "It's either that or admit you're dating." Sharpay challenged knowing the outcome immediately.
In fact, everyone knew that Ryan was way too nice to hit Cloe. Ryan even knew he'd never forgive himself, if he hurt her. Cloe looked him directly in the eyes and he felt himself melt under her gaze. He knew she was expecting him to follow through with Sharpay's demands, but at the same time hoping he wouldn't.
"I can't hurt Cloe." Ryan said at last, "I won't." "Oh, but you can hit Troy?" Sharpay yelled at him. "That's Troy. He was being a jerk!" Ryan defended his actions also trying to change the subject. "So? He's still a person!" Sharpay exclaimed, "If you can hit him, you can hit Cloe! Unless you're going to admit you're dating!"
"Shar, can you give us a break?" Ryan said turning to glance at Cloe. "We can't afford to get into a real relationship." Cloe stated. "You don't have to!" Rachael explained, "Just be a couple. You don't have to go on more than one date!"
"If it will get you off our backs then…" Ryan started, but looked at Cloe afraid of what to say next. "…we'll start dating!" Cloe stated a little surprised herself. "Was that so hard?" Sharpay sighed, pleased with herself. "Sharpay, we weren't talking about us before." Cloe lied, hoping it would work. "Oh? Then who were you talking about?" Sharpay lifted an eyebrow expecting an answer. "We were talking about Rachael." Ryan explained. "Really?" Rachael questioned slightly confused, "What about me?"
"Who would you date?" Cloe asked, letting the spotlight shine on Rachael for a while, "Zac or Troy?" "Have you ever noticed that they look very similar?" Ryan commented. Troy is cuter!" Sharpay responded immediately. "No, Zac is definitely cuter!" Rachael argued.
"What's the difference?" Cloe asked. "Zac has the cutest birthmark on his…" Rachael began. "Rachael!" Cloe and Ryan both screamed, begging her not to continue. "What?" Rachael defended, "It's not like I've actually seen it! Zac told me."
"I don't even want to know!" Sharpay stated as she made a disgusted face. "But you can talk all day about how cute Troy is?" Rachael stated just how unfair it sounded. "Of course," Sharpay explained, "I'm me! And I'm fabulous!"
Ryan gave her a knowing look. "All right, fine…so maybe it's not fair…but I'm still fabulous!" Sharpay stated and walked up the stairs, leaving everyone else in the large entrance room where they'd been arguing for the past half hour.
The moment they heard a door slam, a few seconds after Sharpay disappeared from sight, they ran up the stairs after her. When they reached her door, they listened for any sign of danger. When they were certain she was fine, they decided to leave her alone. "Troy is still cuter." Was the last thing they heard from Sharpay before they grabbed Rachael to prevent her from arguing.
(A/N) Surprising or not so surprising twist? You tell me. R&R! I'm getting really bad at this 'quit badgering my readers to review' thing. Please forgive me, but it's really annoying that you don't review. Please, out of respect for all I've done so far…R&R! Or I'll chuck this story sooner or later. R&R!