At Last 1/5
I have this HSM Big Bang fic and, well, it's definitely not going to make it into this round. But I'm still into finishing it and I've been working on it the past few days (instead of doing homework... I know). So I thought that because I actually have a pretty solid plan for where the fic is going--which is so rare! I never know where my fics are going!--and because I really wish there would be a reawakening in HSM fandom that I might go ahead and start posting? I haven't posted a multi-chapter fic in YEARS, guys. We'll see how this goes. Hopefully well! :D?
Title: At Last (1/5)
Fandom: High School Musical
Pairing: Ryan/Chad, Zeke/Sharpay
Rating: PG (this chapter)
Summary:In which Ryan gets a clue, Chad gets a boyfriend, Sharpay gets a job, and Zeke gets back the love of his life. A tale of Facebook stalking, macadamia nut cookies, Etta James, and springtime in New York City.
Notes: Thank you, Etta James, for one of the best love songs ever. And thanks to herberta2006 who doesn't know how much she contributed to this fic. <3
Chad loved college, in case anyone wanted to know. In emails to Troy, in all of his Facebook statuses, in the brief, occasional phone calls to his parents, it was always the same: his classes were great, his new friends were great, the basketball team was great, his roommate was great. The food was not so great but that was only minor, right?
This apparent unbridled adoration for all things University of Albuquerque which he projected to everybody who had known him in high school was, in reality, slightly less than anything approaching adoration. Which was not to say that he didn't fully enjoy many aspects of his new life as a college man--his classes and roommate really were great.
As to his friends, he had many acquaintances and generally saw the same group of people all the time, but even by November, he didn't quite feel as if he could call them friends. The only people he felt that he had made a legitimate connection with were his aforementioned roommate, Jordan, and--of all people--Sharpay Evans. Not that Sharpay would have let anyone else know it, but they definitely went out for coffee every couple of weeks, and Chad actually sort of liked her--when she wasn't busy trying too hard. Jason still hung around home, so that was cool too, having him around. In any case, having been friends with Troy since they were toddlers and having known most of the Wildcats since at least sixth grade if not before, Chad had forgotten how to make friends without someone initiating contact for him.
And the team? Well, that was a joke. He might have been good for East High, but college ball was a different matter altogether. He was on the team, but in his opinion, he may as well not have been. To add insult to injury, he was privately of the opinion that most of his teammates were jerks. Sure, not all of them, but for the most part, he wasn't interested in getting to know them on a deeper level. To tell the truth, the whole college experience was lacking... he wasn't sure what, exactly, but there was definitely something missing.
"You need to go to more parties. Party until your liver shits out," said Jordan when Chad voiced his opinion. They were sitting on Chad's bed, eating leftover Chinese food. "This, I am told, is the college way."
Chad couldn't be sure if Jordan was joking or not. Jordan, Chad had learned all too quickly, had a way of making most of his remarks seem like sarcastic riddles. He threw a sidelong glance at Jordan to assess the seriousness of the comment.
If Chad had to sum up Jordan's appearance, it would be that he was harmlessly attractive in a nerdy kind of way. He had unremarkable brownish hair and unremarkable brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses that often clattered to the floor in the middle of the night when Jordan brushed them off his nightstand. His smile was not particularly charming. He was extraordinarily tall. There were definitely things Jordan had going for him, though: his dimples, for one. His sense of humor and his laugh. His intelligence, which Chad thought made him too smart for U of A. His incredibly large hands. His extensive collection of baseball cards.
The last thing had been the only reason he'd given Sharpay when she'd demanded to know more details, once he'd actually told her about... the thing Jordan and Chad had going on.
Chad didn't know why he'd told Sharpay about the Agreement. Telling her made it all the more concrete, which was bad considering how he expected it to blow up at any time. The Agreement in question had begun in mid-October, and was a direct result of both Chad's and Jordan's inabilities to act like normal human beings around each other, considering how attractive each had thought the other since, oh, about move-in day. Finally, one night after about a month and a half of awkwardness, denial (on Chad's side, at least), and unvoiced terror that Jordan might hear something incriminating while Chad was asleep (Chad was very prone to talking in his sleep, and equally prone to vivid dreams), they found themselves inebriated far beyond the legal limit after having played a drinking game while watching Snakes on a Plane. And then--Chad had never been able to explain just how it happened--they were suddenly all over each other, kissing and touching like Chad had never experienced before. Not with Taylor, who wouldn't have minded and probably even wanted Chad to make that move long before he realized why he didn't want to, and not with Ryan, with whom he'd only shared a single make-out session one summer, never to be spoken of again. There had never been anyone else.
The problem with the Agreement is that, well, Chad and Jordan were roommates. Not to mention, Chad was more than a little terrified of the whole coming out thing. Jordan was out and proud, and though they hadn't discussed it yet, Chad knew from all his experience (well, from his experience with Ryan) that they probably would--and that it would be an issue. Jordan was happy to believe that it would be cherries and lollipops forever, or at least for quite a while, but Chad knew that things could not stay in this weird honeymoon phase for too much longer. And Chad was worried that once everything inevitably blew up in his face, he would have lost not only a convenient Agreement but also one of his only friends at U of A.
For now, though, things were all right, as Jordan laughed at him and reached over to make Chad's hair even more of a total mess. "It's fine," he assured Chad. "Or at least it will be. I think this is part of the normal introduction-to-college process. I feel it too, sort of."
That made Chad feel a little better, though not much. He shoveled in his last bite of honey walnut chicken, and, still chewing, he threw away the container and sat down in front of his computer. "There's an email from the dean," he said through the food in his mouth.
"Talking with food in your mouth. Didn't your mother teach you manners?" teased Jordan. "What does the email say?"
Chad didn't reply immediately--he was too confused by what he was reading.
To the students of the University of Albuquerque:
As you know, the Committee for Continued Operation has been working to find more viable and varied options for the further successful operation of this institution. Their efforts have been valiant and exceedingly helpful, yet ultimately the Committee has been able to formulate a plan that would allow us to continue as we always have. As the issue currently stands, it is my regret to inform you that the University of Albuquerque will be closing its gates forever before the commencement of the second semester.
The rest of the email was long and encouraged Chad to talk to this person and fill out that form, etcetera, etcetera. Jordan had come to read over his shoulder, but now he sat heavily on his own desk chair. "Well," he said. Chad didn't expect him to continue.
"That's pretty much--yeah."
"They did say at the beginning of the year that this might happen."
"I remember. Still, it's not something you think will actually happen. And it's not like they tell you everything that's going on. I had no idea that a Committee for the--what was it?" Chad glanced back at this computer screen. "Committee for Continued Operation. I didn't know that existed. Who's even on that?"
"People you also didn't know existed, I'd imagine," Jordan replied wryly.
There was a long pause. Chad stared at the ceiling, going through all his options. Finally, he said, "So, I guess this means we're transferring, huh?"
"If anywhere else will even accept me." Jordan sighed and slumped against the wall behind Chad's bed. "This sucks."
"What do you mean, if anywhere else will even accept you? You're, like, totally smart, dude."
"Yeah, but my grades were always shit. Ughhh." Jordan moved from Chad's bed and into his own. He immediately fell asleep, as he tended to do when he was upset.
"Oh." Chad hadn't known about Jordan's high school GPA. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd ever thought to ask. He took a deep breath and swiveled back around in his chair to face his computer again. He changed his Facebook status to Chad Danforth just found out that UofA is closing after semester. I guess I'm looking at schools??
The first comment appeared in little over a minute. It was from Ryan, whom Chad hadn't personally heard from since the beginning of October, though of course Gabi kept him updated through Troy. Plus, there was always Facebook. Thanks to that handy stalking tool, Chad knew that Ryan had already gone through one boyfriend, with which things had been complicated for about two weeks until Ryan changed his status back to single, where it stayed ever since; that Ryan had gotten a part-time job at a video rental store, of all places; that Ryan had tons of people constantly asking him to come out with them; that Kelsi and Ryan were even more inseparable in New York than Sharpay had ever let them be in Albuquerque, and usually their profile pictures included one another; and that Ryan didn't plan to come home for Thanksgiving. That was a new piece of information: Ryan had updated his status about two minutes before Chad had.
Chad would have been the first to admit that his frequent perusal into Ryan's life was just a little bit creepy.
Ryan's comment read: whoa that is big news!!! are you transferring somewhere else??????
Chad was typing his response when he received about five more comments along the same lines, mostly from people who didn't go to school with him, although one from one of the guys on the team wanted to know whether anyone no any other schools looking for ok bball players with not ok grades?
Rolling his eyes, Chad opened another tab to Google "digital arts major." He realized, upon getting upwards of eleven million hits, that that was not specific enough. First he'd have to figure out where he wanted to go, location-wise. California with Troy and Gabi? He thought about it for all of five minutes before it became clear that should he go to California, he would end up being an eternal third wheel, and he doubted whether it would be any easier to make non-Troy friends in California than it had been at U of A.
He made a noise of frustration. Jordan mumbled in his sleep. Chad glanced at him quickly to make sure he hadn't woken him up, and then closed his laptop. Carefully, he packed it into his laptop case, grabbed his keys and jacket, and headed towards the campus coffee shop, where he was supposed to meet Sharpay in an hour anyway.
~*~
Meanwhile, across the country, Ryan was calling his sister as he walked out of his dorm towards the nearby bakery. He hated watching his diet as closely as he needed to, but he had been more or less successful at it for at least the past three or four months. As long as he managed to sneak in the occasional macadamia nut cookie.
"I just heard about U of A closing down," he said as soon as he heard Sharpay's breathing on the line.
"What?" was Sharpay's shrieky reply. "What do you mean?"
"I guess that means you didn't know?" Ryan grinned into the cold breeze. "Jesus, it's cold here."
"It's November in New York. Of course it's cold. I don't understand how you know something I don't about my school." She sounded deeply annoyed.
"Early November. Practically still October. Well, if it helps, I think it's, like, really new news."
"Shutting down. God. Like, forever?"
"I assume so. Chad's status made it seem like he was looking for somewhere to transfer to."
Sharpay made an annoyed noise. "Don't tell me you're still stalking Prince Charming's Facebook like it's your job."
"Well, I have an actual job and class and homework and things to do these days," replied Ryan, "so I've been able to cut down my stalking to only fifty percent of the time, instead of eighty. Besides, I thought you guys were friends now."
His sister scoffed at the very idea. "Not friends, Ryan. Never friends. We are slightly friendly acquaintances."
"Whatever you want to call it, Shar. I know you, like, meet up for coffee. Regularly."
"I could go back to detesting him, if that's what you want?"
"Did I say that?" Besides, Ryan could say some things about Sharpay's own Facebook stalking habits, and how they involved a certain would-be culinary expert named Zeke Baylor. Of course, she would never admit to such an activity so low beneath her. As a matter of fact, Zeke was in pastry school somewhere in New York but Ryan wanted Sharpay to admit that she still had feelings for Zeke before he would go out of his way to see him again. Maybe it made him a bad person, but it was a lot of fun teasing Sharpay--when she wasn't stressed over the prospect of having to transfer schools.
At least, he thought she was stressed. "What are you going to do now?" asked Ryan. The bakery was only a block away now. "Like, school-wise."
"I don't know," said Sharpay, rather lackadaisically. "I am actually thinking of just taking the next semester off. Traveling, fabulous adventures, you know."
Ryan considered this. To be honest, it sounded much more Sharpay's style than going to school, anyway. "Oh yeah? Where are you traveling to?"
"Well, it'll start when Mom takes us to Greece this Christmas. Then I figure I'll hang around Europe for another couple of months, go to Australia, take a cruise to the Caribbean--and then I'll come see you in New York." She paused, and Ryan somehow knew that whatever she was about to say next was big. "I'm actually thinking I might come to live in New York with you. Well, not with you--unless you wanted that--"
Ryan sighed, suddenly losing all interest in talking to his sister. "Shar? Can we talk about this later? I mean, not that I don't want to talk about it, but it's kind of a lot for right now."
Sharpay sounded disappointed when she replied, "Yeah. I'll go... look up hotels in Italy or something. Talk to you soon?"
"Soon. Bye." He put his phone in his pocket, shaking his head, and walked the ten extra steps to the door of his favorite place in New York: Little Slice of Heaven Bakery. Despite its kitschy name and theme, it served the most delicious cookies, cake, and pie known to man--or at least known to Ryan Evans. He stood in front of the counter, looking up at the menu even though he had it memorized, just enjoying the warmth for a few moments before ordering.
Then he heard a cheerful, familiar voice ask: "Ryan Evans? Is that you?" Ryan looked towards the door which separated the kitchen from the front counter, and there was Zeke Baylor, his apron covered in flour, wearing a chef's hat.
"I--came for some macadamia nut cookies," replied Ryan. He wasn't sure what else to say. He knew that Zeke was in pastry school somewhere in the city, but the city was... well, it was New York. It was huge. Ryan never expected Zeke to be so close.
"Awesome! I was actually just pulling a batch of those from the oven, so yours will be nice and fresh. If you wait ten minutes, I'll be on my break. I want to catch up with you!"
Ryan nodded, thinking how glad he was that he'd already ended his phone call with his sister. He sat down at one of the tall tables and fiddled with his phone, texting Kelsi to say big news! just saw a ghost from east high and playing Tetris, until Zeke came over with a small plate of cookies.
"They're on the house. Taste them; they're fresh." Zeke smiled, as charmingly eager and honest as ever.
Ryan tasted them. They were amazing. "Thank you," he said between bites. "These are the most wonderful cookies I've had in forever."
Zeke looked both pleased and embarrassed by the compliment. His smile grew wider, and he took a cookie of his own. "So, how has Juilliard been to you?"
"No way, dude, first I want to know about you! Like what you're doing here of all places."
"Well, by July of last summer I still had no clue what I wanted to do--and then my mom reminded me that we have a lot of family up here, and that there are great pastry schools back east anyway. It just sounded like a good experience all around, so now I'm going to school here and I'm living with my aunts and grandfather. This bakery actually belongs to my Aunt Sarah, so she lets me work here for experience. Like an unpaid internship deal, except she's already providing room and board. Just started last week and it's going really well, actually. I love it here, and I'm thinking of opening my own cupcake shop after I finish pastry school, or I could even keep working here. Aunt Sarah has a lot of room to work with."
"A cupcake shop? Are those a thing?"
"Yeah, man! They're, like, all the rage--and anyway, you can do so much with a cupcake that you can't always do with a normal cake. Besides, cupcakes have so much charm, and at least I'll never be out of business as long as kids are celebrating their birthdays in classrooms..." He trailed off, a sheepish expression on his face. "Sorry. I know I like to go on and on about food, but I still haven't heard how you're doing."
Ryan forgot how much he liked Zeke. He was just so exceedingly pleasant nearly all the time, and he got the feeling that Zeke always appreciated him beyond the fact that he was Sharpay's brother. He told Zeke a few of the highlights from the past few months, and they continued talking for at least another fifteen minutes before another customer came in. Zeke jumped up although another girl was at the cash register taking the newcomer's order.
"I totally forgot that my break was supposed to end, like, five minutes ago! Sorry to go so quickly, man." Zeke took the now empty plate from the table and wiped his hands on his apron.
"No, it's fine! We'll catch up later?"
"Definitely. Maybe I could meet you for cookies tomorrow?"
Ryan grinned. "How about you make them chocolate chip next time?"
~*~
"Darling, it does sound like a lovely idea, but I just think it would be a little--extravagant. Besides I'm not the comfortable with the idea of you staying so long in other countries without at least your brother. Even if you had Henry by your side." Henry was a family friend who sometimes worked as a bodyguard.
It might have looked like Sharpay was daintily sipping her mango lassi, but what she was really doing was counting to ten before she got really annoyed at her mother. She put down her drink. "Mother," she began patiently. "I really think that this is what I should be doing with my semester. It would give me so much My horoscope--"
Her mom rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I don't think the moon and the stars have the same sense as your parents, pumpkin."
Sharpay appealed to her father. "Daddy, please think about it some more before you say no!"
He coughed, a sign that Sharpay knew meant he was uncomfortable, or that he wished to defy his wife's opinion. Sharpay felt a glimmer of hope rise within her for a whole split second before it was cruelly crushed. "I'm sorry, muffin, but this is what your mother and I have decided." He said this without even looking up from the ledger in which he was working.
Sharpay let out a growl of frustration, all pretense of patience lost. "Then what am I supposed to do next year?"
Now her father looked up to exchange a glance with his wife. Her mother put her glass back on the coffee table. "Well, you did say you were thinking of going to New York. I don't think that's such a bad plan, sweetheart. If you can find a job, your father and I will gladly pay the rent on your apartment, as long as you agree to live close to Juilliard. It would be nice to be with your brother again, wouldn't it?"
Suddenly, her irritation with her parents dissipated as Sharpay considered this option. Many people thought she didn't care about anyone but herself, but the truth was, she missed Ryan terribly, especially since she was still at home and had to pass by his empty bedroom every day. It just wasn't the same when the sounds of campy showtunes weren't emitting from underneath his door, and when she never had to worry about her shampoo being stolen. She had a feeling that part of the reason Ryan had gone so far away was partly because of her, but if she could manage to make her own way in the city, she wouldn't be there for him, necessarily, but she'd see him all the time--and anyways, she knew Zeke was there, somewhere, and she missed him too.
"A job?" she repeated, that detail just now occurring to her.
Her mother nodded. "It'll be good for you, pumpkin. In any case, it would be a good way to meet people."
"Okay."
Her father dropped his pen, and her mother nearly spilled her drink. The latter's eyebrows went up so high and quickly it was almost as if they'd flown off her forehead. "Okay?" said Sharpay's father.
"Okay," Sharpay said again, more resolutely this time. "I'll do it. As long as you can find a place that won't mind Boi."
"Well, that's it, then, isn't it?" Her father was clearly pleased. He went to take a sip of his coffee, which Sharpay knew was already cold. It always was.
"I'm going to go call Ry," she announced, unable to keep giddy excitement from creeping into her voice.
Title: At Last (1/5)
Fandom: High School Musical
Pairing: Ryan/Chad, Zeke/Sharpay
Rating: PG (this chapter)
Summary:In which Ryan gets a clue, Chad gets a boyfriend, Sharpay gets a job, and Zeke gets back the love of his life. A tale of Facebook stalking, macadamia nut cookies, Etta James, and springtime in New York City.
Notes: Thank you, Etta James, for one of the best love songs ever. And thanks to herberta2006 who doesn't know how much she contributed to this fic. <3
Chad loved college, in case anyone wanted to know. In emails to Troy, in all of his Facebook statuses, in the brief, occasional phone calls to his parents, it was always the same: his classes were great, his new friends were great, the basketball team was great, his roommate was great. The food was not so great but that was only minor, right?
This apparent unbridled adoration for all things University of Albuquerque which he projected to everybody who had known him in high school was, in reality, slightly less than anything approaching adoration. Which was not to say that he didn't fully enjoy many aspects of his new life as a college man--his classes and roommate really were great.
As to his friends, he had many acquaintances and generally saw the same group of people all the time, but even by November, he didn't quite feel as if he could call them friends. The only people he felt that he had made a legitimate connection with were his aforementioned roommate, Jordan, and--of all people--Sharpay Evans. Not that Sharpay would have let anyone else know it, but they definitely went out for coffee every couple of weeks, and Chad actually sort of liked her--when she wasn't busy trying too hard. Jason still hung around home, so that was cool too, having him around. In any case, having been friends with Troy since they were toddlers and having known most of the Wildcats since at least sixth grade if not before, Chad had forgotten how to make friends without someone initiating contact for him.
And the team? Well, that was a joke. He might have been good for East High, but college ball was a different matter altogether. He was on the team, but in his opinion, he may as well not have been. To add insult to injury, he was privately of the opinion that most of his teammates were jerks. Sure, not all of them, but for the most part, he wasn't interested in getting to know them on a deeper level. To tell the truth, the whole college experience was lacking... he wasn't sure what, exactly, but there was definitely something missing.
"You need to go to more parties. Party until your liver shits out," said Jordan when Chad voiced his opinion. They were sitting on Chad's bed, eating leftover Chinese food. "This, I am told, is the college way."
Chad couldn't be sure if Jordan was joking or not. Jordan, Chad had learned all too quickly, had a way of making most of his remarks seem like sarcastic riddles. He threw a sidelong glance at Jordan to assess the seriousness of the comment.
If Chad had to sum up Jordan's appearance, it would be that he was harmlessly attractive in a nerdy kind of way. He had unremarkable brownish hair and unremarkable brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses that often clattered to the floor in the middle of the night when Jordan brushed them off his nightstand. His smile was not particularly charming. He was extraordinarily tall. There were definitely things Jordan had going for him, though: his dimples, for one. His sense of humor and his laugh. His intelligence, which Chad thought made him too smart for U of A. His incredibly large hands. His extensive collection of baseball cards.
The last thing had been the only reason he'd given Sharpay when she'd demanded to know more details, once he'd actually told her about... the thing Jordan and Chad had going on.
Chad didn't know why he'd told Sharpay about the Agreement. Telling her made it all the more concrete, which was bad considering how he expected it to blow up at any time. The Agreement in question had begun in mid-October, and was a direct result of both Chad's and Jordan's inabilities to act like normal human beings around each other, considering how attractive each had thought the other since, oh, about move-in day. Finally, one night after about a month and a half of awkwardness, denial (on Chad's side, at least), and unvoiced terror that Jordan might hear something incriminating while Chad was asleep (Chad was very prone to talking in his sleep, and equally prone to vivid dreams), they found themselves inebriated far beyond the legal limit after having played a drinking game while watching Snakes on a Plane. And then--Chad had never been able to explain just how it happened--they were suddenly all over each other, kissing and touching like Chad had never experienced before. Not with Taylor, who wouldn't have minded and probably even wanted Chad to make that move long before he realized why he didn't want to, and not with Ryan, with whom he'd only shared a single make-out session one summer, never to be spoken of again. There had never been anyone else.
The problem with the Agreement is that, well, Chad and Jordan were roommates. Not to mention, Chad was more than a little terrified of the whole coming out thing. Jordan was out and proud, and though they hadn't discussed it yet, Chad knew from all his experience (well, from his experience with Ryan) that they probably would--and that it would be an issue. Jordan was happy to believe that it would be cherries and lollipops forever, or at least for quite a while, but Chad knew that things could not stay in this weird honeymoon phase for too much longer. And Chad was worried that once everything inevitably blew up in his face, he would have lost not only a convenient Agreement but also one of his only friends at U of A.
For now, though, things were all right, as Jordan laughed at him and reached over to make Chad's hair even more of a total mess. "It's fine," he assured Chad. "Or at least it will be. I think this is part of the normal introduction-to-college process. I feel it too, sort of."
That made Chad feel a little better, though not much. He shoveled in his last bite of honey walnut chicken, and, still chewing, he threw away the container and sat down in front of his computer. "There's an email from the dean," he said through the food in his mouth.
"Talking with food in your mouth. Didn't your mother teach you manners?" teased Jordan. "What does the email say?"
Chad didn't reply immediately--he was too confused by what he was reading.
To the students of the University of Albuquerque:
As you know, the Committee for Continued Operation has been working to find more viable and varied options for the further successful operation of this institution. Their efforts have been valiant and exceedingly helpful, yet ultimately the Committee has been able to formulate a plan that would allow us to continue as we always have. As the issue currently stands, it is my regret to inform you that the University of Albuquerque will be closing its gates forever before the commencement of the second semester.
The rest of the email was long and encouraged Chad to talk to this person and fill out that form, etcetera, etcetera. Jordan had come to read over his shoulder, but now he sat heavily on his own desk chair. "Well," he said. Chad didn't expect him to continue.
"That's pretty much--yeah."
"They did say at the beginning of the year that this might happen."
"I remember. Still, it's not something you think will actually happen. And it's not like they tell you everything that's going on. I had no idea that a Committee for the--what was it?" Chad glanced back at this computer screen. "Committee for Continued Operation. I didn't know that existed. Who's even on that?"
"People you also didn't know existed, I'd imagine," Jordan replied wryly.
There was a long pause. Chad stared at the ceiling, going through all his options. Finally, he said, "So, I guess this means we're transferring, huh?"
"If anywhere else will even accept me." Jordan sighed and slumped against the wall behind Chad's bed. "This sucks."
"What do you mean, if anywhere else will even accept you? You're, like, totally smart, dude."
"Yeah, but my grades were always shit. Ughhh." Jordan moved from Chad's bed and into his own. He immediately fell asleep, as he tended to do when he was upset.
"Oh." Chad hadn't known about Jordan's high school GPA. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd ever thought to ask. He took a deep breath and swiveled back around in his chair to face his computer again. He changed his Facebook status to Chad Danforth just found out that UofA is closing after semester. I guess I'm looking at schools??
The first comment appeared in little over a minute. It was from Ryan, whom Chad hadn't personally heard from since the beginning of October, though of course Gabi kept him updated through Troy. Plus, there was always Facebook. Thanks to that handy stalking tool, Chad knew that Ryan had already gone through one boyfriend, with which things had been complicated for about two weeks until Ryan changed his status back to single, where it stayed ever since; that Ryan had gotten a part-time job at a video rental store, of all places; that Ryan had tons of people constantly asking him to come out with them; that Kelsi and Ryan were even more inseparable in New York than Sharpay had ever let them be in Albuquerque, and usually their profile pictures included one another; and that Ryan didn't plan to come home for Thanksgiving. That was a new piece of information: Ryan had updated his status about two minutes before Chad had.
Chad would have been the first to admit that his frequent perusal into Ryan's life was just a little bit creepy.
Ryan's comment read: whoa that is big news!!! are you transferring somewhere else??????
Chad was typing his response when he received about five more comments along the same lines, mostly from people who didn't go to school with him, although one from one of the guys on the team wanted to know whether anyone no any other schools looking for ok bball players with not ok grades?
Rolling his eyes, Chad opened another tab to Google "digital arts major." He realized, upon getting upwards of eleven million hits, that that was not specific enough. First he'd have to figure out where he wanted to go, location-wise. California with Troy and Gabi? He thought about it for all of five minutes before it became clear that should he go to California, he would end up being an eternal third wheel, and he doubted whether it would be any easier to make non-Troy friends in California than it had been at U of A.
He made a noise of frustration. Jordan mumbled in his sleep. Chad glanced at him quickly to make sure he hadn't woken him up, and then closed his laptop. Carefully, he packed it into his laptop case, grabbed his keys and jacket, and headed towards the campus coffee shop, where he was supposed to meet Sharpay in an hour anyway.
~*~
Meanwhile, across the country, Ryan was calling his sister as he walked out of his dorm towards the nearby bakery. He hated watching his diet as closely as he needed to, but he had been more or less successful at it for at least the past three or four months. As long as he managed to sneak in the occasional macadamia nut cookie.
"I just heard about U of A closing down," he said as soon as he heard Sharpay's breathing on the line.
"What?" was Sharpay's shrieky reply. "What do you mean?"
"I guess that means you didn't know?" Ryan grinned into the cold breeze. "Jesus, it's cold here."
"It's November in New York. Of course it's cold. I don't understand how you know something I don't about my school." She sounded deeply annoyed.
"Early November. Practically still October. Well, if it helps, I think it's, like, really new news."
"Shutting down. God. Like, forever?"
"I assume so. Chad's status made it seem like he was looking for somewhere to transfer to."
Sharpay made an annoyed noise. "Don't tell me you're still stalking Prince Charming's Facebook like it's your job."
"Well, I have an actual job and class and homework and things to do these days," replied Ryan, "so I've been able to cut down my stalking to only fifty percent of the time, instead of eighty. Besides, I thought you guys were friends now."
His sister scoffed at the very idea. "Not friends, Ryan. Never friends. We are slightly friendly acquaintances."
"Whatever you want to call it, Shar. I know you, like, meet up for coffee. Regularly."
"I could go back to detesting him, if that's what you want?"
"Did I say that?" Besides, Ryan could say some things about Sharpay's own Facebook stalking habits, and how they involved a certain would-be culinary expert named Zeke Baylor. Of course, she would never admit to such an activity so low beneath her. As a matter of fact, Zeke was in pastry school somewhere in New York but Ryan wanted Sharpay to admit that she still had feelings for Zeke before he would go out of his way to see him again. Maybe it made him a bad person, but it was a lot of fun teasing Sharpay--when she wasn't stressed over the prospect of having to transfer schools.
At least, he thought she was stressed. "What are you going to do now?" asked Ryan. The bakery was only a block away now. "Like, school-wise."
"I don't know," said Sharpay, rather lackadaisically. "I am actually thinking of just taking the next semester off. Traveling, fabulous adventures, you know."
Ryan considered this. To be honest, it sounded much more Sharpay's style than going to school, anyway. "Oh yeah? Where are you traveling to?"
"Well, it'll start when Mom takes us to Greece this Christmas. Then I figure I'll hang around Europe for another couple of months, go to Australia, take a cruise to the Caribbean--and then I'll come see you in New York." She paused, and Ryan somehow knew that whatever she was about to say next was big. "I'm actually thinking I might come to live in New York with you. Well, not with you--unless you wanted that--"
Ryan sighed, suddenly losing all interest in talking to his sister. "Shar? Can we talk about this later? I mean, not that I don't want to talk about it, but it's kind of a lot for right now."
Sharpay sounded disappointed when she replied, "Yeah. I'll go... look up hotels in Italy or something. Talk to you soon?"
"Soon. Bye." He put his phone in his pocket, shaking his head, and walked the ten extra steps to the door of his favorite place in New York: Little Slice of Heaven Bakery. Despite its kitschy name and theme, it served the most delicious cookies, cake, and pie known to man--or at least known to Ryan Evans. He stood in front of the counter, looking up at the menu even though he had it memorized, just enjoying the warmth for a few moments before ordering.
Then he heard a cheerful, familiar voice ask: "Ryan Evans? Is that you?" Ryan looked towards the door which separated the kitchen from the front counter, and there was Zeke Baylor, his apron covered in flour, wearing a chef's hat.
"I--came for some macadamia nut cookies," replied Ryan. He wasn't sure what else to say. He knew that Zeke was in pastry school somewhere in the city, but the city was... well, it was New York. It was huge. Ryan never expected Zeke to be so close.
"Awesome! I was actually just pulling a batch of those from the oven, so yours will be nice and fresh. If you wait ten minutes, I'll be on my break. I want to catch up with you!"
Ryan nodded, thinking how glad he was that he'd already ended his phone call with his sister. He sat down at one of the tall tables and fiddled with his phone, texting Kelsi to say big news! just saw a ghost from east high and playing Tetris, until Zeke came over with a small plate of cookies.
"They're on the house. Taste them; they're fresh." Zeke smiled, as charmingly eager and honest as ever.
Ryan tasted them. They were amazing. "Thank you," he said between bites. "These are the most wonderful cookies I've had in forever."
Zeke looked both pleased and embarrassed by the compliment. His smile grew wider, and he took a cookie of his own. "So, how has Juilliard been to you?"
"No way, dude, first I want to know about you! Like what you're doing here of all places."
"Well, by July of last summer I still had no clue what I wanted to do--and then my mom reminded me that we have a lot of family up here, and that there are great pastry schools back east anyway. It just sounded like a good experience all around, so now I'm going to school here and I'm living with my aunts and grandfather. This bakery actually belongs to my Aunt Sarah, so she lets me work here for experience. Like an unpaid internship deal, except she's already providing room and board. Just started last week and it's going really well, actually. I love it here, and I'm thinking of opening my own cupcake shop after I finish pastry school, or I could even keep working here. Aunt Sarah has a lot of room to work with."
"A cupcake shop? Are those a thing?"
"Yeah, man! They're, like, all the rage--and anyway, you can do so much with a cupcake that you can't always do with a normal cake. Besides, cupcakes have so much charm, and at least I'll never be out of business as long as kids are celebrating their birthdays in classrooms..." He trailed off, a sheepish expression on his face. "Sorry. I know I like to go on and on about food, but I still haven't heard how you're doing."
Ryan forgot how much he liked Zeke. He was just so exceedingly pleasant nearly all the time, and he got the feeling that Zeke always appreciated him beyond the fact that he was Sharpay's brother. He told Zeke a few of the highlights from the past few months, and they continued talking for at least another fifteen minutes before another customer came in. Zeke jumped up although another girl was at the cash register taking the newcomer's order.
"I totally forgot that my break was supposed to end, like, five minutes ago! Sorry to go so quickly, man." Zeke took the now empty plate from the table and wiped his hands on his apron.
"No, it's fine! We'll catch up later?"
"Definitely. Maybe I could meet you for cookies tomorrow?"
Ryan grinned. "How about you make them chocolate chip next time?"
~*~
"Darling, it does sound like a lovely idea, but I just think it would be a little--extravagant. Besides I'm not the comfortable with the idea of you staying so long in other countries without at least your brother. Even if you had Henry by your side." Henry was a family friend who sometimes worked as a bodyguard.
It might have looked like Sharpay was daintily sipping her mango lassi, but what she was really doing was counting to ten before she got really annoyed at her mother. She put down her drink. "Mother," she began patiently. "I really think that this is what I should be doing with my semester. It would give me so much My horoscope--"
Her mom rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I don't think the moon and the stars have the same sense as your parents, pumpkin."
Sharpay appealed to her father. "Daddy, please think about it some more before you say no!"
He coughed, a sign that Sharpay knew meant he was uncomfortable, or that he wished to defy his wife's opinion. Sharpay felt a glimmer of hope rise within her for a whole split second before it was cruelly crushed. "I'm sorry, muffin, but this is what your mother and I have decided." He said this without even looking up from the ledger in which he was working.
Sharpay let out a growl of frustration, all pretense of patience lost. "Then what am I supposed to do next year?"
Now her father looked up to exchange a glance with his wife. Her mother put her glass back on the coffee table. "Well, you did say you were thinking of going to New York. I don't think that's such a bad plan, sweetheart. If you can find a job, your father and I will gladly pay the rent on your apartment, as long as you agree to live close to Juilliard. It would be nice to be with your brother again, wouldn't it?"
Suddenly, her irritation with her parents dissipated as Sharpay considered this option. Many people thought she didn't care about anyone but herself, but the truth was, she missed Ryan terribly, especially since she was still at home and had to pass by his empty bedroom every day. It just wasn't the same when the sounds of campy showtunes weren't emitting from underneath his door, and when she never had to worry about her shampoo being stolen. She had a feeling that part of the reason Ryan had gone so far away was partly because of her, but if she could manage to make her own way in the city, she wouldn't be there for him, necessarily, but she'd see him all the time--and anyways, she knew Zeke was there, somewhere, and she missed him too.
"A job?" she repeated, that detail just now occurring to her.
Her mother nodded. "It'll be good for you, pumpkin. In any case, it would be a good way to meet people."
"Okay."
Her father dropped his pen, and her mother nearly spilled her drink. The latter's eyebrows went up so high and quickly it was almost as if they'd flown off her forehead. "Okay?" said Sharpay's father.
"Okay," Sharpay said again, more resolutely this time. "I'll do it. As long as you can find a place that won't mind Boi."
"Well, that's it, then, isn't it?" Her father was clearly pleased. He went to take a sip of his coffee, which Sharpay knew was already cold. It always was.
"I'm going to go call Ry," she announced, unable to keep giddy excitement from creeping into her voice.