Chapter Text
"Ryan?" Her brother looked up from typing on his phone, smirked slightly, then looked up.
"Yeah, sis?" Sharpay fixed her pink jacket, ran her fingers through her hair and looked over at Ryan, who was still texting.
"RYAN! Put your phone down for a second, I'm talking to you." Ryan rolled his eyes and put his phone down. "Who are you texting anyway?"
He glared at her. "First of all, it's none of your business. Second, it's Chad, for your information. I'm not going to steal Troy from you, don't worry."
"Ryan, you are so gay. Don't think I didn't see the way you were eyeing up Chad in the hallways. But he's straight. You're wasting your time." Ryan theatrically took off his cap, and pressed it to his heart.
"Who shall fix my broken heart?" Then he laughed. "Anyway, what was it you wanted to say?"
Sharpay sighed. "I was going to say, that have you heard there's a new girl at our school?"
"Yeah, I heard. She seems cool enough. Troy was showing her around." Ryan said, casually.
"TROY?" Ryan looked over at her in disbelief.
"Shar, he was just showing a new classmate around! It doesn't mean anything! Stop trying to control his life!"
But Sharpay was panicking. "What does she look like?"
"You'll see her today! Come on, let's get to class, or Darbis will have our heads. Ooh, we're going to sign up for that musical, right?"
"Ryan, when have we not signed up for the school musical? God, stop skipping!" Ryan stopped skipping alongside her and slowed to a speed-walk.
"Sis, calm down! It's all going to be okay. Anyway, I'll see you at lunch!" His sister roughly grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
"Lunch? What about break?" She unsuccessfully tried to hide the whine in her voice.
"I've got lots of homework on. I'm... really sorry." He looked down at his nails.
Sharpay ran a hand through her hair, huffing loudly. "Oh, it's okay! Leave me to hang out with the losers! You want me to hang out with Zeke? HUH?"
Ryan raised his eyebrows. "You do know Zeke is gay, right?"
Realization dawned on her face. "Oh, my God. That's why he was round our house last year?"
Ryan sighed and shook his head. "Sis..."
"You know what? Forget it. Have fun with... homework, and we'll talk about this later." She turned from her brother, who sat in his seat and faced the front, where Darbis was already droning on about something or other. She didn't care.
Now, where was... OOH! "Troy!" She whisper shouted across the classroom. He hadn't heard, apparently. "TROY!" He turned, and gave her a small smile.
That's when she saw her. Dark hair pulled into a twist, large, laughing eyes, and small but prominent dimples in each of her cheeks. Troy was staring at her, a strange look overcome his face. Suddenly, the new girl turned to face her and Sharpay jumped, playing with the pink bracelets around her wrist. The girl smiled nervously at her, so Sharpay gave her a large smile that told her "you don't want to be messing with me." It had taken her years to perfect that look, and she was pleased to say that it had turned the majority of the student body against her. The girl shrugged and turned away. Tick.
Ryan waved at his sister from across the room, and although she glared at him, the anger she had felt before was fading. As she had said hello to the few students she was friends with, there were only a few moments left until class started. So, as she played with her nails, and Darbis started talking about who-knows-what, she focused all the energy she had saved for class on not glancing behind her.
***
The bell rang, jolting Sharpay from out of her seat. Grabbing her bag, she ran out the door, trying to catch up with Ryan.
"Ryan! Ryan, wait. Let's quickly sign up for the musical, before we forget. Then you can go do homework in peace." He slowed down, and gestured at her to hold his hat as he fixed his hair.
"Fine. Let's... Oh, oh. Look. It's the new girl you were freaking out about. Gabriella." It was the girl from earlier, the one with the dark hair and the guarded expression. She was wearing a pink cardigan, which, to her dismay, matched her own. Oh, shit.
"Look, let's just wait until they've finished... whatever the hell they're doing." Gabriella was staring at the audition list with a small smile on her face... like... like there was some whole other person inside her. She was chatting to Troy, who was gesturing wildly, clearly still with his head in the game, even when it came to ordinary speech.
"I don't care. I'm going to go introduce myself. We need new members for the drama club." Sharpay jumped, and grabbed her brother by the arm.
"No! No, Ry, I AM, I mean, WE are the drama club. We don't need new members." He glared at her.
"Well, I'm going to be nice, whether you like it or not. You stand here and sulk." Panic began to rise in her. Why was she like this? Oh, my God.
Ryan walked away, sauntering slightly.
She stood aside, looking through her texts, even though she knew no one ever texted her. She clicked the button for New Message, and began to type, to fill up time.
"i'm a control freak. it's true. i control everything and everyone because if everyone is not in the right place at all times, people will figure out that i'm not. anyway, i don't know if this makes sense, but there's something freaky about the new girl. i've never seen Troy act this way before. who am I kidding? this isn't about Troy. i've never seen myself act this way before. and, truth is, i'm scared. scared of what this could mean for me, or for her."
Quickly, she saved the message as a draft. She peeked out from around the corner. Ryan was loudly laughing with his hand of his stomach, and Gabriella was giggling, the soft skin around her eyes crinkling.
Ryan walked back to her. "See? Just being friendly!"
"Ryan, friendly is not in my dictionary! What did she even say?" She kept her face blank, scared to betray any curiosity she felt.
"Well, she said she just wanted to get to know the school, and she was glad FRIENDLY people like Troy existed, at which point she lightly punched his shoulder." He looked pointedly at his twin as he said the word "friendly". "Anyway, I asked her if she knew you-"
"You did WHAT?"
"Yeah, and she said you seemed really nice, and that she wouldn't mind joining the drama club if you helped her out."
"Holy shit, Ryan, I love you, but that was a really, really stupid thing to do. Do you know what this means?"
"No, sis. I don't know what this means: please enlighten me. What downside is there to being nice to a new student?"
"She's... she's... I mean, have you SEEN her?"
"Yes, she's a girl in a daunting new school, nervous and just needs someone to help her come out of her cocoon."
"I am not that someone!"
"You are now. You can't refuse. Go talk to her! Get to know her! Help her with her homework! Not that she'll need any help - I heard she's a math whiz. Anyway, speaking of homework, I've gotta go. See you at lunch!"
"Bye, Ryan. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"
She collapsed on a bench, her head in her hands. This was bad. She had to do something, anything.
Because if Gabriella wasn't aware of what she was doing to her, then Sharpay knew she was in big trouble.