Hip, Hip, Hooray…here's chapter 2
The Summer
Junior year was over, and I was actually quite sad about it. I had this fear in the back of my mind that everything was going to change with summer. What if all of my new friends suddenly decided they did not want to be friends with me? Or Twinkle Towne ended up being the only great composition I ever wrote? Ohmigosh, what if I, Kelsi Nielson was a one hit wonder…or one play wonder? With all of these new doubts bubbling up, there was one normality I could count on…my crush on Ryan Evans. Yep, that was still present.
As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. My new friends were not in any way fair-weather friends. I guess you could say we were all in this together. (Ha-ha…pun intended.) We all ended up working at Lava Springs together. In case you are unaware, Lava Springs is a ritzy country club owned by the Evans family. And by the end of the summer we were closer than ever. (I guess sharing the pain of waiting hand and foot on Sharpay does that to people.)
But there were big changes that summer. One being that Jason and I broke up and it occurred in kind of the same respect we got together. We just drifted apart until we fit perfectly into the category of "just friends". Jason and I weren't the only couple to part ways, Ryan and Annie also stopped seeing each other. Later, Ryan would tell me that his heart just wasn't invested. But the biggest change that summer was Ryan himself. That was the summer that Ryan truly became a "wildcat" and in doing so one of our friends. And trust me when I say, if it was hard to ignore my feelings for Ryan when I didn't exist in his world, it was impossible to ignore those pesky butterflies when we became friends. Ryan wasn't the only change that summer, the unthinkable also occurred…Troy and Gabriella broke up! (Gasp.) But then they got back together, so it was all good again.
Ryan and I were actually in big part responsible for getting the two lovebirds back together. You see, there was this big drama about Troy changing and becoming a Sharpette. (Well, a male Sharpette.) Sharpay kicked Ryan to the curb to focus on Troy, which in turn allowed Ryan to open up to the Wildcats. Troy soon realized his mistake and missed Gabby and his friends. In an effort to keep Troy within her clutches Sharpay fixed the annual talent show so that the Wildcats were not allowed to perform. (Boo!) And even though Troy did not feel right about performing in the talent show while his friends were prohibited, he agreed because he had made a promise to Sharpay.
Oooo, this is where Ryan and I come in. Ryan and I wrote and staged a song called "Everyday" together. We rapidly taught it to Troy and explained that this was the new song he and Sharpay would be singing in the talent show. (This wasn't the complete truth, okay; it wasn't the truth at all.) So Troy started singing the first verse of "Everyday" and all of the sudden who continues singing the second verse…Gabby! Oh, it was perfect. By the end of the song everybody was up on stage dancing and singing. (And when I say everybody, this includes not only Ryan but also Sharpay.)
That night was magical. All of us: Troy, Gabby, Chad, Taylor, Martha, Zeke, Jason, Ryan, Sharpay and I danced around the country club grounds. The stars were in full bloom through the mist of the sprinklers. And as I danced around in the glistening water with my arms stretched out to their full capacity, I caught Ryan's eye. As everyone danced around us, we stopped and smiled at one another. I saw the water dripping off the bill of his hat, as that same water made my brunette curls grow heavy. And that's when it happened. That is when my crush on Ryan Evans turned into love. We had spent half of the summer in each other's company, laughing and creating music together. I mean, seriously, my heart was toast from the start.