Disclaimer: Personally, I think these disclaimers are a-little-bit-a-lot-a-bit pointless. We all know that if we owned any of this stuff here then we wouldn't be here writing about it when we could be making money off it, so I think you already can guess if I own High School Musical or not.

Chapter 4: Brother Meets Suitcase

The week had passed rather quickly and Sharpay had ignored Ryan as much as possible. At the dinner table, she refused to even look at him and every time he tried to start a conversation with her, she looked away and pretended she couldn't hear him. Surprisingly, their parents hadn't made her talk to him. The one thing that bothered her most was that Ryan hadn't seemed to care all that much that she wasn't making any effort to communicate with him, but she wouldn't let that get to her because today she was leaving for camp.

Ryan sat in his room wondering if what he was doing was the right thing. Everyone's parents were leaving today for the rest of the summer and everyone's siblings were going to camp for the week. He would have felt better about that if things hadn't completely turned between him and his sister. She hadn't talked to him since last week when they'd gotten into that argument. He thought she needed some space after being told she was being shipped off to camp, so he'd left her alone to cool off. He was positive she would enjoy herself once she got there, but he wasn't sure if throwing a party while no one was around was the best way to go.

He got up and left his room, crossing the hall to his sister's room. Quietly, he knocked on her door before opening it to find her struggling with her suitcase. "Hey," he began as he stood in the doorway, but she didn't even look at him, "Are you excited for camp?"

She rolled her eyes and continued to pack the rest of her things into the suitcase she had laid out on her bed.

Ryan sighed in frustration. "Okay… are you done ignoring me now or are you planning on never speaking to me for the rest of my life?" he asked her as he walked into the room and this time Sharpay stopped what she was doing, but still didn't look at him, "I know you're upset, but seriously… what did I do? I thought we were sort of okay after what happened last week. What's wrong with you lately? It's like you're keeping something from me."

Sharpay pursed her lips and closed her suitcase. Silently, she wondered if she should tell him about what she heard their parents say when their mom was on the phone with Mrs. Neilson. No. She wasn't going to give in and talk to him now.

"Will you just talk to me already?" Ryan almost yelled at her as he stopped behind her, "What did I do that ticked you off this time?"

At that, Sharpay removed her suitcase from the bed and whacked him in the stomach with it as she turned around and stormed out of the room. Ryan took a deep breath to lessen the pain of the hit and shook his head before returning to his room, closing the door, not even bothering to say goodbye to everyone.

When they finally left and he was alone in the house, Ryan buried his face in his pillow. How could he have actually thought Sharpay would react any differently this time around? Every other time she'd gotten upset with him, she had acted the same way. Maybe the party was a good idea after all. He could finally do something without his sister ratting him out and for once he could make his own plans without her there to ruin everything. He sat up on the bed and smiled slightly. The party was tomorrow anyway – they'd planned not to do it on the first day just in case their parents came back to get something they forgot or their siblings needed anything – so at least he had something to distract him from his sister. At that thought, he went downstairs to start searching for some party supplies their parents always used for special guests.

At least a half hour later, the phone rang and Ryan went to get it. "Hey," he stated, picking up the phone, trying to keep the mental checklist of things to do before tomorrow fresh in his head. To his surprise, it wasn't Chad's voice this time as he'd half expected it to be.

"Hey," he heard Kelsi say quietly into the phone and he could feel his heart almost stop for a moment.

"Um… what's up?" he tried his best not to stutter and took a while to think before saying anything else. Too bad it was easier said than done.

"I just called to check in on you and see if you needed any help setting up for tomorrow," she replied, pausing a moment, "Are you okay? You sound a bit off." Genuine concern. That was typical of the small brunette. If only she knew how it made him feel every time she spoke.

It took him a while before he found the words he thought he'd lost. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine; perfectly fine. Actually, I was just going over everything so I wouldn't forget," he tried not to let himself ramble like he usually did, "So, you just out of the blue thought of calling me?" For a moment, he had a small bit of hope that she had called for a different reason.

"Oh… well, I figured since I kind of made you agree to this in the first place that I would ask if you were having any trouble," Kelsi explained simply, a note of concern still in her voice though.

"Well, you know what would be a big help?" he began, trying to make conversation, "If you could bring some CDs or something over so we can pick out music." Though he had plenty of stuff in his room that could be used, he knew Kelsi's individual talent was for picking out the perfect music for any occasion. That was the reason she was the composer for the musicals each year.

"Oh, sure, I'd love to," she quickly agreed, "If you're sure that's all you need, I should probably let you get back to planning and I'll put together a mix for the party."

If only she knew he did need something more, but that was the ability for him to talk to her straight forward without changing topics all the time. There was no way she'd ever be able to help him regain control over his speech while she was around. "Great," was all he could say, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Alright, then," Kelsi's smile could be heard in her voice, "Bye, Ryan."

"Bye," he replied and the moment he hung up, he shook his head and resisted the overwhelming urge to face-palm because if he did, his forehead would be a brilliant red more so than his cheeks would be when Kelsi would show up with Jason.

~~~~~~ Meanwhile, at camp…

Sharpay had been there for less than an hour and already she wanted to go home. What kind of camp was this? Sure, it had to do with fashion, but the clothes she wore were only half of her image. The other half, one of the more important, though both were equal in necessity, was her ability to act and sing. Dancing was more of her brother's thing… though he'd taught her a few things which had helped her in the previous musicals. No. She could not think about him right now. This was her week away.

Looking around at the treacherous place in front of her, she groaned in disdain at the cheap furnishings and the cheesy lounge chairs in all of the rooms they were supposed to be staying in. How could her parents put her through this? Was this what they meant by sending her away to get help? Did they really truly think she needed to improve her fashion? Everything here was amateur stuff she didn't need to know. She had often been told that fashion was about finding your own style and working wonders with it. How was she supposed to do that when everything here was about doing things the camp way? Then again, she hadn't even begun to attend the group classes they were having. Thinking it over to herself, she decided one couldn't hurt.

Then again… it would be too much trouble if she attempted to get home by herself now. She could at least stay for a while and make it seem like she had a good time before ditching. There wasn't anything they could really do to her if she didn't show up to one meeting or whatever it was they were called. And besides, she might actually get used to it after a while… or not. She scrunched up her nose at the horrible color patterns of each of the rooms. Not a single bit of pink anywhere she was supposed to be located. And the colors were horribly off. Who designed this place? A color-blind monkey? This was going to take some getting used to.

(A/N) Okay, so here's chappie 4! Woot! Finally, I know. I meant to post this ages back. Honestly… I don't know what I was thinking and now I'm kinda stumped for ideas… because I got bored of this story. I'm sorry. But it's true. For all my HSM stories, actually. O_o' Don't hate me…

Okiedoklies… I'm gonna try to finish this relatively soon, though that might not happen. I want at least 1 review before I update again, though I'm gonna have to sit down and get through writer's blocks, so please give me any ideas you may have and you'll, of course, get credit for them. I have an idea as to what I want to have happen, so that should be a surprise, but I'm kinda stuck on how to get up to that point.

So, give me stuffs! Kidding… You don't have to. It's just if you wanna suggest something or challenge me to make something happen. I dunno. Just… I'll make it work. I need something to regain my interest in this story, so challenging me to write something will definitely make it go much easier.

Reviews pretty please!

Posted: 10/30/11