(no subject)
Title: Faces Called Flowers
Rating: G
Summary: Four vignettes about East High in the springtime. Whatever that means in New Mexico.
Pairing(s) : Zeke/Sharpay, Ryan/Kelsi (friendship), Troy/Gabriella, Chad/Ryan
Word Count: ~3000
Notes: Title comes from a poem by e.e. cummings. The song Ryan sings in the second part is "Younger than Springtime" from South Pacific. This is, like, disgustingly cute/twee. Not recommended if you're not into that.
1.
On the morning of March 14th, Zeke woke up before his alarm clock with a terrible suspicion that today was somehow a very important day. He wasn't sure how, or why, or what even made him believe so. He just knew it like the way he knew Jason would always say the wrong thing to a girl, that Troy and Gabriella were in love, and that Sharpay's favorite kind of cookie topping was not chocolate chips but macadamia nuts. It was in his bones.
Unfortunately, his bones were not very conversational, and they definitely weren't giving him any clues.
Was it someone's birthday? No, no, he didn't know anyone with March birthdays, unless you counted his old, grumpy great-aunt, who had her birthday on the 30th.
Was it... his parents' anniversary? No, that was in July.
Did he have something due? Would there be a big basketball game he had somehow forgotten about this afternoon? What was it?
He had a sudden thought and shot up out of bed. He knew exactly why today was important. He glanced at his clock. He probably had time, if he skipped the shower and didn't spend too much time dilly-dallying. He pulled on some shorts from the floor and a t-shirt from his clothes and raced down to the kitchen.
~*~
The cookies sat in his locker all day. He didn't like when he had to do that, but he had no choice. He just hoped they would still be good later.
The day was slow and it seemed as if five days had passed before it was finally lunchtime. He hurried to his locker, pulled out his lunch and the pink tray of cookies (wrapped with pink cellophane) and headed to lunch. He sat down with his friends and listened half-heartedly as they all joked around with each other, laughed quietly when Kelsi and Gabriella leaned in to tell each other something at the same time and bumped their heads, and smiled brightly and nodded when Martha asked him if he was okay. He waited, and waited, and waited, but she never came.
The bell for class rang. Sighing, Zeke gathered up his things. He made eye contact with Chad, who also looked oddly disappointed. Zeke gave him an encouraging smile before he left the cafeteria and went to his locker, hoping to see Sharpay waiting there for him. No such luck.
He spent the rest of the day moping instead of paying attention to any of his classes. He was fortunate that nobody called on him during the day, but he was still unhappy when the dismissal bell rang and he trudged to his locker.
Sharpay was waiting there, her outfit full of sparkles, her hand on her hip and her foot tapping. Zeke could feel his entire face lighting up. "I've only been waiting for you for, like, ever," she said. "How was your day?"
"Okay," he replied. "Wait a second, I have something for you."
"A present?" Sharpay grinned. "What is it? Wait, no, don't tell me."
Zeke opened his locker and pulled out the plate. It was slightly mushed and the plastic wasn't as shiny as it had been earlier, but he hoped she would realize it was the thought that counted. He presented her with the gift, saying, "Happy anniversary!"
Sharpay had been staring greedily at the plate of cookies--macadamia nut and white chocolate, her favorite--but when he spoke, she looked up at him, an expression of confusion on her face. "Anniversary? What anniversary? I started dating you last September."
Zeke smiled. "No, no. This is the anniversary of the day after I first decided I needed to do something about the fact I was so in love with you. I made you a batch of chocolate chip cookies. When I gave you them, you blew me off and... told me to evaporate, I think? But the next day, you found me in the gym and told me they were the best cookies you'd ever tasted. Don't you remember?"
Sharpay was nodding very slowly, looking at him with this kind of weird, beautiful expression. It was the one he loved best. It was a mix of wonder and adoration and it was not something you got to see on Sharpay Evans's face very often. Zeke was proud he'd been privy to it as many times as he had.
He swallowed. "That's when I knew we were probably going to be okay."
He could see why she'd skipped lunch when she reached up to touch his cheek. There were little flowers--daisies--on her fingernails. For spring, even though there was no such thing in New Mexico. She pulled down his face and kissed him, and despite his worry upon waking that morning, Zeke decided March 14th was a very good day indeed.
2.
Kelsi had always loved rainy days. When she'd been a kid, it had always meant that for lunch her teachers would pull out all the board games and they wouldn't have to go outside and play. Not that Kelsi didn't like going outside to play. It was just that it was nice to take a break for a day.
The teachers didn't pull out their board games for lunch anymore, but now that he was allowed to drive a car, rainy days meant that Ryan drove his dad's Honda to school instead of hisVespa , which meant that he could drive Kelsi--and sometimes his sister or Chad or both--to a nearby restaurant for lunch so they wouldn't be forced to eat in the terrible, terrible cafeteria.
Today, it was just the two of them. Kelsi opened the door of Ryan's dad's car and slid in quickly to avoid getting rain inside. Ryan started the car and looked over at Kelsi. "Where to, lady?"
"How about the cafe down the street?" Kelsi suggested. "We haven't been there for a while."
"Your wish is my command," Ryan replied, and he pulled out of the parking spot.
Sometimes, especially when it was just them two, they kept a comfortable silence between them. Sometimes, they talked endlessly about Senior Year and whether it would go as well as both of them hoped so much. Mostly, they turned up the radio and sang along to Ryan's millions and millions of mixes full of old showtunes.
He popped one of these in now. It started with a song from Annie Get Your Gun. Unsurprisingly, they both knew all the words. They belted as loudly as they could and Kelsi's ears hurt a little bit--especially after Ryan proved that, indeed, however high Kelsi could sing, he could sing higher--until the song was over. It faded into Frank Sinatra's voice crooning, "I touch your hands and my heart grows strong/like a pair of birds that burst with song." Kelsi had never liked South Pacific although she did like this particular song, so she didn't know the words. She listened to Ryan's voice. She loved his voice.
In the middle of the song, Kelsi turned the volume almost all the way down so it was just Ryan's voice in the car. Ryan frowned at her but didn't stop singing. She just smiled at him encouragingly. After the last am I with you, she clapped. They had pulled into the cafe's parking lot and Ryan had turned off the car.
"I am so excited for our musical, Ryan. I don't think I know just how much."
Ryan beamed at her. "Me too, Kels."
"You're a pretty cool dude, you know."
"You're pretty fabulous yourself. Don't you forget it."
They spent lunch talking animatedly and laughing at things which I should love to describe to you, but it was full of the things only a pair of very good friends can even begin to understand. I'm sure you know what I mean.
3.
All his life, Troy had been really, really terrible at birthdays. Really terrible. He forgot when they were, he was always late to the parties, and--worst of all--he had the worst taste in gifts. Seriously. Once he'd given Chad a necklace. It wasn't even, like, a cool necklace. It was one of those ones that have a glass capsule with a grain of rice inside. The grain of rice said "You're cool."
They had been fifteen.
It was an affliction he had been struggling with his entire life. He'd sort of always hoped he would grow out of it by the time he'd gotten his first real girlfriend, but no such fortune had looked upon him.
"So, what are you doing for Gabriella tomorrow?" Taylor wanted to know as they walked out of biology together.
"Um," Troy replied. Had Gabriella been talking to Taylor? Complaining that he didn't do enough for her? He did everything for her! Maybe he should kiss her more often. "I... don't know?"
Taylor rolled her eyes and sighed. "You don't have any plans?"
"No... should I?"
"Troy," Taylor said, as patient as a teacher explaining simple multiplication to a sixteen-year-old, "it's Gabi's birthday tomorrow."
"Oh!" Then, "Oh."
"Yeah."
"I should work on that."
"Yeah."
"Um. Bye, Taylor!" Troy took off down the hallway, dodging open locker doors and couples holding hands and smiling at each other.
"Bye, Troy! Good luck!" he heard her call.
He wasn't sure where he was running to. He formed half-baked plans in his head as he did so, though, including a trip to the Grand Canyon (expensive) or maybe to the movies (lame) or maybe just a nice dinner (expensive, again). That's when he ran into the devil herself.
Or, you know, his girlfriend. Who, actually, wasn't a devil at all. That wasn't even the right saying, was it? Why was he even thinking about this? "Gabi! Hi!"
"Hi, Troy!" she replied with a bright smile. She was really pretty, Troy thought.
"You're awesome," Troy assured her.
She looked kind of confused. "Thanks? You're awesome too, Wildcat." Troy loved when she called him Wildcat. He thought it was, like, the cutest thing ever. Because it was.
"Okay. Well. I have to go now."
Gabi giggled. "Okay. Goodbye, Mystery Man."
Troy grinned and began to run away. Then, he turned back around and caught up with Gabriella again. "I forgot something," he said. Then he leaned down and kissed her. Just in case she did want to be kissed more often. Also because he really liked kissing his girlfriend. She was a really good kisser.
He pulled away faster than he really wanted to, and hardly saw her reaction before he ran back down the hallway. But he thought he saw a smile.
~*~
"Chad!" Troy saw his hair from the opposite end of the hallway, and suddenly realized that his best friend would probably have better ideas about what to do for Gabi's birthday than Troy currently did. "Chad!"
Chad turned around, looking quite surprised. He stood next to the water fountain as he waited for Troy to catch up. When Troy did reach him, he was breathless.
"You okay, dude?" Chad asked. "What's the matter?"
"Gabi's birthday," Troy said, letting out a breath. "It's tomorrow."
"So you're running through the halls of East High because...?"
"I just found out."
Chad's eyes go very wide. "Oh! Oh."
"That's what I said."
"So we definitely have an issue here."
"Definitely."
"Stay away from grains of rice."
"Done." Troy made his eyes go wide, too, but more with fear than with realization. "Chad. I don't know what to do."
"Well, man." Chad clapped him on the back in a manly friend kind of way. "I'm sorry to hear that. But I can't help you."
Troy felt a little bit of panic rising. Just a little bit. "You can't?"
"Nope. I have a date. And I have to go pick him up right... now!"
And he ran away faster than Troy could say "Him?"
Jason, Zeke, and Sharpay (Troy would have been too terrified to approach her if Zeke had also not been there) were equally useless when it came to advice. His mother, on the other hand, was more helpful. "Well, what does Gabi like?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Troy. "Cute girl stuff? She likes animals and books a lot."
"You could take her to the zoo," said his mother. "Or the library, but that would be slightly less romantic."
"Right." The zoo! That was a fantastic idea! "Thanks, Mom."
He went up to his room and signed onto AIM.
troyldcat89
wat r u doing tmrw?
gabbers_
nothing i know of yet. :)
troyldcat89
well dont make ne plans ;)
gabbers_
whatever you say.
troyldcat89
ill pick u up @ 10am?
gabbers_
see you then <3
gabbers_ has signed off.
~*~
"The zoo is the best in the spring," Gabriella said, smiling as they watched the monkeys groom each other. Troy was holding her hand and he felt like the king of the world. "Thank you so much for bringing me here, Troy."
"It was the least I could do for your birthday," Troy said.
Gabriella frowned up at him before breaking out into giggles.
"What?" Troy asked, bewildered and wondering if he had said the wrong thing yet again.
"My birthday's next month!"
Troy opened his mouth and then closed it again. Great. More brainstorming. This time on how he was going to get his revenge on Taylor McKessie.
4.
It wasn't that Ryan didn't trust Chad, exactly. It was more like he quite wasn't sure about him. And he definitely wasn't sure how Chad would feel about, you know, basically the biggest teenage rite of passage in existence.
You know. Prom. Together. Gaying it up like no tomorrow. Yeah, Ryan wasn't quite sure how Chad would feel about that. And he didn't want to ask.
He didn't ask when Chad found him crying in the tiny costume closet after the opening performance of Senior Year, when Ryan learned that he'd be going to Julliard. Chad had kissed him and brushed his tears away with his thumbs clumsily. Ryan had laughed.
"I don't imagine you've found very many crying boys in closets in your life," he'd said. "Or had to comfort them like this."
"Nah, not many," said Chad. But he shrugged and added, "I don't mind new experiences, though."
Ryan tried to smile and frown at the same time, which would have been a great manifestation of how he had felt inside. "I'm sorry," he said, waving his hands uselessly. "I guess I'm just overwhelmed." He looked down at the floor and then back up at Chad, who was looking at him patiently, as if he would have liked to listen to him talk crazy person talk all day long. "It's just, you know. Julliard."
"I know," said Chad. "And you know what, Ryan? I am so proud of you."
At that moment, Ryan only felt like smiling as he reached for Chad, pulled him forward, and kissed him as hard as he could.
Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom then. Can you imagine how weird that would be? "I know I'm in tears and a mess. Will you take me to prom?"
So it had to wait.
He didn't ask when Chad won the 400m sprint at the last track meet of the season, and broke the East High record to boot. Chad was sweaty and gross but Ryan walked straight into the locker room--"Danforth, tell your boyfriend he needs to wait outside with the rest of the ladies!" yelled one particularly smelly teammate--hugged Chad, and said, "You are the most amazing person in my life."
Chad grinned and said, "I smell like ass. I'm going to take a shower."
"And then you are going to have dinner. With me," Ryan said quickly.
Chad considered this. "Okay."
Ryan leaned forward and kissed Chad briefly, but not briefly enough to avoid warranting wolf whistles from Chad's teammates. Ryan gave them all the finger as he walked out, smirking. He knew they wouldn't do anything to Chad now that he was their champion.
Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom when they had dinner that night at the nicest place Ryan could think of that was fancy but still had something that catered to Chad, and Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom when they were in Ryan's room later. Ryan wasn't about to interrupt that for a question that, let's be honest, could wait a little. Maybe until the morning.
But Ryan didn't ask him in the morning either.
Finally, three days before prom, Chad called Ryan and said, "Look out your window."
Ryan crossed over to his huge windows that had enough of a ledge outside to serve as a kind of balcony. He climbed onto this and looked down.
Chad was there, grinning. He was wearing his ridiculous tux from the play, with his last name across the back in purple. He was holding a bouquet of purple flowers. "So," he began. "I'm not very good at romantic. But I know you like color coordination."
"I can see that," called Ryan. He thought he could see Chad's smile grow wider.
"Ryan Evans!" Chad got down on one knee and held up the flowers as if he were offering a sacrifice. "Will you match me at prom?"
"I--ye--!" Ryan had a thought. "Wait a second!"
Ryan climbed back into his room and raced out his door and down the stairs, and then out the front door. Chad was back on his feet, waiting for him. Ryan stopped. "Those flowers are a different purple than the trimming on your tux," he pointed out. "Also, I can't believe you kneeled in grass in a white tux."
Chad shrugged. "So, you coming to prom with me or not?"
"Duh," said Ryan. "As if it were even a question."
Rating: G
Summary: Four vignettes about East High in the springtime. Whatever that means in New Mexico.
Pairing(s) : Zeke/Sharpay, Ryan/Kelsi (friendship), Troy/Gabriella, Chad/Ryan
Word Count: ~3000
Notes: Title comes from a poem by e.e. cummings. The song Ryan sings in the second part is "Younger than Springtime" from South Pacific. This is, like, disgustingly cute/twee. Not recommended if you're not into that.
1.
On the morning of March 14th, Zeke woke up before his alarm clock with a terrible suspicion that today was somehow a very important day. He wasn't sure how, or why, or what even made him believe so. He just knew it like the way he knew Jason would always say the wrong thing to a girl, that Troy and Gabriella were in love, and that Sharpay's favorite kind of cookie topping was not chocolate chips but macadamia nuts. It was in his bones.
Unfortunately, his bones were not very conversational, and they definitely weren't giving him any clues.
Was it someone's birthday? No, no, he didn't know anyone with March birthdays, unless you counted his old, grumpy great-aunt, who had her birthday on the 30th.
Was it... his parents' anniversary? No, that was in July.
Did he have something due? Would there be a big basketball game he had somehow forgotten about this afternoon? What was it?
He had a sudden thought and shot up out of bed. He knew exactly why today was important. He glanced at his clock. He probably had time, if he skipped the shower and didn't spend too much time dilly-dallying. He pulled on some shorts from the floor and a t-shirt from his clothes and raced down to the kitchen.
~*~
The cookies sat in his locker all day. He didn't like when he had to do that, but he had no choice. He just hoped they would still be good later.
The day was slow and it seemed as if five days had passed before it was finally lunchtime. He hurried to his locker, pulled out his lunch and the pink tray of cookies (wrapped with pink cellophane) and headed to lunch. He sat down with his friends and listened half-heartedly as they all joked around with each other, laughed quietly when Kelsi and Gabriella leaned in to tell each other something at the same time and bumped their heads, and smiled brightly and nodded when Martha asked him if he was okay. He waited, and waited, and waited, but she never came.
The bell for class rang. Sighing, Zeke gathered up his things. He made eye contact with Chad, who also looked oddly disappointed. Zeke gave him an encouraging smile before he left the cafeteria and went to his locker, hoping to see Sharpay waiting there for him. No such luck.
He spent the rest of the day moping instead of paying attention to any of his classes. He was fortunate that nobody called on him during the day, but he was still unhappy when the dismissal bell rang and he trudged to his locker.
Sharpay was waiting there, her outfit full of sparkles, her hand on her hip and her foot tapping. Zeke could feel his entire face lighting up. "I've only been waiting for you for, like, ever," she said. "How was your day?"
"Okay," he replied. "Wait a second, I have something for you."
"A present?" Sharpay grinned. "What is it? Wait, no, don't tell me."
Zeke opened his locker and pulled out the plate. It was slightly mushed and the plastic wasn't as shiny as it had been earlier, but he hoped she would realize it was the thought that counted. He presented her with the gift, saying, "Happy anniversary!"
Sharpay had been staring greedily at the plate of cookies--macadamia nut and white chocolate, her favorite--but when he spoke, she looked up at him, an expression of confusion on her face. "Anniversary? What anniversary? I started dating you last September."
Zeke smiled. "No, no. This is the anniversary of the day after I first decided I needed to do something about the fact I was so in love with you. I made you a batch of chocolate chip cookies. When I gave you them, you blew me off and... told me to evaporate, I think? But the next day, you found me in the gym and told me they were the best cookies you'd ever tasted. Don't you remember?"
Sharpay was nodding very slowly, looking at him with this kind of weird, beautiful expression. It was the one he loved best. It was a mix of wonder and adoration and it was not something you got to see on Sharpay Evans's face very often. Zeke was proud he'd been privy to it as many times as he had.
He swallowed. "That's when I knew we were probably going to be okay."
He could see why she'd skipped lunch when she reached up to touch his cheek. There were little flowers--daisies--on her fingernails. For spring, even though there was no such thing in New Mexico. She pulled down his face and kissed him, and despite his worry upon waking that morning, Zeke decided March 14th was a very good day indeed.
2.
Kelsi had always loved rainy days. When she'd been a kid, it had always meant that for lunch her teachers would pull out all the board games and they wouldn't have to go outside and play. Not that Kelsi didn't like going outside to play. It was just that it was nice to take a break for a day.
The teachers didn't pull out their board games for lunch anymore, but now that he was allowed to drive a car, rainy days meant that Ryan drove his dad's Honda to school instead of hisVespa , which meant that he could drive Kelsi--and sometimes his sister or Chad or both--to a nearby restaurant for lunch so they wouldn't be forced to eat in the terrible, terrible cafeteria.
Today, it was just the two of them. Kelsi opened the door of Ryan's dad's car and slid in quickly to avoid getting rain inside. Ryan started the car and looked over at Kelsi. "Where to, lady?"
"How about the cafe down the street?" Kelsi suggested. "We haven't been there for a while."
"Your wish is my command," Ryan replied, and he pulled out of the parking spot.
Sometimes, especially when it was just them two, they kept a comfortable silence between them. Sometimes, they talked endlessly about Senior Year and whether it would go as well as both of them hoped so much. Mostly, they turned up the radio and sang along to Ryan's millions and millions of mixes full of old showtunes.
He popped one of these in now. It started with a song from Annie Get Your Gun. Unsurprisingly, they both knew all the words. They belted as loudly as they could and Kelsi's ears hurt a little bit--especially after Ryan proved that, indeed, however high Kelsi could sing, he could sing higher--until the song was over. It faded into Frank Sinatra's voice crooning, "I touch your hands and my heart grows strong/like a pair of birds that burst with song." Kelsi had never liked South Pacific although she did like this particular song, so she didn't know the words. She listened to Ryan's voice. She loved his voice.
In the middle of the song, Kelsi turned the volume almost all the way down so it was just Ryan's voice in the car. Ryan frowned at her but didn't stop singing. She just smiled at him encouragingly. After the last am I with you, she clapped. They had pulled into the cafe's parking lot and Ryan had turned off the car.
"I am so excited for our musical, Ryan. I don't think I know just how much."
Ryan beamed at her. "Me too, Kels."
"You're a pretty cool dude, you know."
"You're pretty fabulous yourself. Don't you forget it."
They spent lunch talking animatedly and laughing at things which I should love to describe to you, but it was full of the things only a pair of very good friends can even begin to understand. I'm sure you know what I mean.
3.
All his life, Troy had been really, really terrible at birthdays. Really terrible. He forgot when they were, he was always late to the parties, and--worst of all--he had the worst taste in gifts. Seriously. Once he'd given Chad a necklace. It wasn't even, like, a cool necklace. It was one of those ones that have a glass capsule with a grain of rice inside. The grain of rice said "You're cool."
They had been fifteen.
It was an affliction he had been struggling with his entire life. He'd sort of always hoped he would grow out of it by the time he'd gotten his first real girlfriend, but no such fortune had looked upon him.
"So, what are you doing for Gabriella tomorrow?" Taylor wanted to know as they walked out of biology together.
"Um," Troy replied. Had Gabriella been talking to Taylor? Complaining that he didn't do enough for her? He did everything for her! Maybe he should kiss her more often. "I... don't know?"
Taylor rolled her eyes and sighed. "You don't have any plans?"
"No... should I?"
"Troy," Taylor said, as patient as a teacher explaining simple multiplication to a sixteen-year-old, "it's Gabi's birthday tomorrow."
"Oh!" Then, "Oh."
"Yeah."
"I should work on that."
"Yeah."
"Um. Bye, Taylor!" Troy took off down the hallway, dodging open locker doors and couples holding hands and smiling at each other.
"Bye, Troy! Good luck!" he heard her call.
He wasn't sure where he was running to. He formed half-baked plans in his head as he did so, though, including a trip to the Grand Canyon (expensive) or maybe to the movies (lame) or maybe just a nice dinner (expensive, again). That's when he ran into the devil herself.
Or, you know, his girlfriend. Who, actually, wasn't a devil at all. That wasn't even the right saying, was it? Why was he even thinking about this? "Gabi! Hi!"
"Hi, Troy!" she replied with a bright smile. She was really pretty, Troy thought.
"You're awesome," Troy assured her.
She looked kind of confused. "Thanks? You're awesome too, Wildcat." Troy loved when she called him Wildcat. He thought it was, like, the cutest thing ever. Because it was.
"Okay. Well. I have to go now."
Gabi giggled. "Okay. Goodbye, Mystery Man."
Troy grinned and began to run away. Then, he turned back around and caught up with Gabriella again. "I forgot something," he said. Then he leaned down and kissed her. Just in case she did want to be kissed more often. Also because he really liked kissing his girlfriend. She was a really good kisser.
He pulled away faster than he really wanted to, and hardly saw her reaction before he ran back down the hallway. But he thought he saw a smile.
~*~
"Chad!" Troy saw his hair from the opposite end of the hallway, and suddenly realized that his best friend would probably have better ideas about what to do for Gabi's birthday than Troy currently did. "Chad!"
Chad turned around, looking quite surprised. He stood next to the water fountain as he waited for Troy to catch up. When Troy did reach him, he was breathless.
"You okay, dude?" Chad asked. "What's the matter?"
"Gabi's birthday," Troy said, letting out a breath. "It's tomorrow."
"So you're running through the halls of East High because...?"
"I just found out."
Chad's eyes go very wide. "Oh! Oh."
"That's what I said."
"So we definitely have an issue here."
"Definitely."
"Stay away from grains of rice."
"Done." Troy made his eyes go wide, too, but more with fear than with realization. "Chad. I don't know what to do."
"Well, man." Chad clapped him on the back in a manly friend kind of way. "I'm sorry to hear that. But I can't help you."
Troy felt a little bit of panic rising. Just a little bit. "You can't?"
"Nope. I have a date. And I have to go pick him up right... now!"
And he ran away faster than Troy could say "Him?"
Jason, Zeke, and Sharpay (Troy would have been too terrified to approach her if Zeke had also not been there) were equally useless when it came to advice. His mother, on the other hand, was more helpful. "Well, what does Gabi like?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Troy. "Cute girl stuff? She likes animals and books a lot."
"You could take her to the zoo," said his mother. "Or the library, but that would be slightly less romantic."
"Right." The zoo! That was a fantastic idea! "Thanks, Mom."
He went up to his room and signed onto AIM.
troyldcat89
wat r u doing tmrw?
gabbers_
nothing i know of yet. :)
troyldcat89
well dont make ne plans ;)
gabbers_
whatever you say.
troyldcat89
ill pick u up @ 10am?
gabbers_
see you then <3
gabbers_ has signed off.
~*~
"The zoo is the best in the spring," Gabriella said, smiling as they watched the monkeys groom each other. Troy was holding her hand and he felt like the king of the world. "Thank you so much for bringing me here, Troy."
"It was the least I could do for your birthday," Troy said.
Gabriella frowned up at him before breaking out into giggles.
"What?" Troy asked, bewildered and wondering if he had said the wrong thing yet again.
"My birthday's next month!"
Troy opened his mouth and then closed it again. Great. More brainstorming. This time on how he was going to get his revenge on Taylor McKessie.
4.
It wasn't that Ryan didn't trust Chad, exactly. It was more like he quite wasn't sure about him. And he definitely wasn't sure how Chad would feel about, you know, basically the biggest teenage rite of passage in existence.
You know. Prom. Together. Gaying it up like no tomorrow. Yeah, Ryan wasn't quite sure how Chad would feel about that. And he didn't want to ask.
He didn't ask when Chad found him crying in the tiny costume closet after the opening performance of Senior Year, when Ryan learned that he'd be going to Julliard. Chad had kissed him and brushed his tears away with his thumbs clumsily. Ryan had laughed.
"I don't imagine you've found very many crying boys in closets in your life," he'd said. "Or had to comfort them like this."
"Nah, not many," said Chad. But he shrugged and added, "I don't mind new experiences, though."
Ryan tried to smile and frown at the same time, which would have been a great manifestation of how he had felt inside. "I'm sorry," he said, waving his hands uselessly. "I guess I'm just overwhelmed." He looked down at the floor and then back up at Chad, who was looking at him patiently, as if he would have liked to listen to him talk crazy person talk all day long. "It's just, you know. Julliard."
"I know," said Chad. "And you know what, Ryan? I am so proud of you."
At that moment, Ryan only felt like smiling as he reached for Chad, pulled him forward, and kissed him as hard as he could.
Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom then. Can you imagine how weird that would be? "I know I'm in tears and a mess. Will you take me to prom?"
So it had to wait.
He didn't ask when Chad won the 400m sprint at the last track meet of the season, and broke the East High record to boot. Chad was sweaty and gross but Ryan walked straight into the locker room--"Danforth, tell your boyfriend he needs to wait outside with the rest of the ladies!" yelled one particularly smelly teammate--hugged Chad, and said, "You are the most amazing person in my life."
Chad grinned and said, "I smell like ass. I'm going to take a shower."
"And then you are going to have dinner. With me," Ryan said quickly.
Chad considered this. "Okay."
Ryan leaned forward and kissed Chad briefly, but not briefly enough to avoid warranting wolf whistles from Chad's teammates. Ryan gave them all the finger as he walked out, smirking. He knew they wouldn't do anything to Chad now that he was their champion.
Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom when they had dinner that night at the nicest place Ryan could think of that was fancy but still had something that catered to Chad, and Ryan didn't ask Chad to prom when they were in Ryan's room later. Ryan wasn't about to interrupt that for a question that, let's be honest, could wait a little. Maybe until the morning.
But Ryan didn't ask him in the morning either.
Finally, three days before prom, Chad called Ryan and said, "Look out your window."
Ryan crossed over to his huge windows that had enough of a ledge outside to serve as a kind of balcony. He climbed onto this and looked down.
Chad was there, grinning. He was wearing his ridiculous tux from the play, with his last name across the back in purple. He was holding a bouquet of purple flowers. "So," he began. "I'm not very good at romantic. But I know you like color coordination."
"I can see that," called Ryan. He thought he could see Chad's smile grow wider.
"Ryan Evans!" Chad got down on one knee and held up the flowers as if he were offering a sacrifice. "Will you match me at prom?"
"I--ye--!" Ryan had a thought. "Wait a second!"
Ryan climbed back into his room and raced out his door and down the stairs, and then out the front door. Chad was back on his feet, waiting for him. Ryan stopped. "Those flowers are a different purple than the trimming on your tux," he pointed out. "Also, I can't believe you kneeled in grass in a white tux."
Chad shrugged. "So, you coming to prom with me or not?"
"Duh," said Ryan. "As if it were even a question."