Gift for kelbebop
Author: __buyme
Recipient: kelbebop
Title: Something A Little Different
Pairing(s): Chad/Ryan
Summary: Things are changing, and it seems it’s for the better.
Rating: G
Warning(s): This is pretty much a pre-slash, friendship type story. Sorry for not being able to get in any smut kelbebop, the boys were not cooperating. They wanted to be all cute and innocent.
Word Count: 1404
Disclaimer: All High School Musical characters herein are the property of Disney. No copyright infringement is intended.
“Okay, guys, 10 times around the bases and then you’re free to go.”
The team obediently moved toward home plate to begin their laps. 10 laps was something of a gift, so there was little complaint. During the first few weeks they had to run a minimum of 25 so the coach could better weed out those who hadn’t properly trained during the off-season. Ryan didn’t mind running at all, though. It was the kind of thing he had always done to stay in shape since he had stopped playing baseball all those years ago. That and yoga. He thought maybe now that he was back into baseball he should probably work on putting some more muscle in his upper body (he wasn’t too shrimpy though, he could hold some of his inversion poses for several minutes), but overall he had surprised himself by maintaining his skill level and fitness despite not playing for almost 5 years.
Well, except for that one game over the summer that had resulted in this crazy idea of trying out for the baseball team in the first place.
He remembered first showing up for try-outs. He had been so nervous that even though he had spent nearly one thousand dollars the previous afternoon at a sporting goods store purchasing everything he would need (and a couple of more baseball caps than strictly necessary), he was just about ready to nix the whole idea and run out into the parking lot to catch a ride home with Sharpay.
He was half way out the door when he ran into Chad Danforth, similarly trussed up in all his baseball regalia. Chad took one look at him and Ryan didn’t even have time to get nervous that possibly Chad would laugh at him because Chad was smiling and talking 1000 words a minute and slingng his arm over Ryan’s shoulder, dragging him out to the diamond and going on and on about how this year’s team was going to utterly wipe the floor with the competition.
Now that had been a month ago, and Ryan was almost positive he had made a really good decision. Rather, he was almost positive he had been coerced into making a really good decision. He was an amazing pitcher so he immediately got the team’s respect, and slowly but surely they were also becoming some of his closest friends. This was something Ryan could hardly wrap his mind around. These were the people Ryan had always hoped to never cross paths with, in case something about his own personality, or clothes, or mannerisms caught their attentions and he ended up in a trashcan beaten to a pulp. Instead, they were always giving him high fives and lightly punching his shoulder in that friendly sort of way.
One time Ryan had pitched a no hitter and about four and a half seconds after he struck out the final batter of the game he found himself hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates, only to be dropped a minute later with the entire team toppling over on top of him while screaming their congratulations. It was the best moment of his life so far, and not for the reasons one might think.
+ + +
“RYAN!” He was just putting his messenger bag down and thinking about how hungry he was when he heard his sister screech his name, and then the ominous sound of her high heels rapidly descending the staircase.
“What took so long?!” She looked incensed, and this made Ryan worry.
“Um…I didn’t realize I was late for anything.” He had no recollection of making any specific plans with his sister. He couldn’t really trust is brain at the moment, however, it never worked all that well when he was this hungry. Practice always gave him the desire to consume amounts of food that would leave even those guys who won those hot dog eating contests feeling a little ill.
“You didn’t realize? Well, I hope you do realize that opening night is this Friday, and you’ve hardly been at rehearsal all week, which, yes, you got cleared with Mrs. Darbus but it was on the condition that you would do extra practices at home and it is now six o’clock.” Many of the words in her rant had been punctuated with the stamping of feet or well -placed (and rather threatening) hand gestures, with the final effect of Ryan placidly walking upstairs to do whatever Sharpay told him to do, willing his stomach to stop growling so fiercely. She could be really terrifying sometimes.
+ + +
Chad and Ryan were slowly making their way back to the locker rooms after a particularly grueling practice. Ryan must have thrown over 100 pitches, and that was after the whole team had been forced to run 3 miles for time. Ryan didn’t have it in him to make conversation, and he assumed Chad felt the same, so they were walking in companionable silence. It was not until they were both halfway done gathering their belongings that Chad spoke.
“Are you nervous?”
Ryan thought about this for a second, confused as to what Chad could be referring to, but then he guessed he must have meant the upcoming show.
“Are you kidding me? I’ve done this a million times. I know my part perfectly well, and it isn’t even all that big. Those went to Troy and Gabriella.” he said the last part teasingly, and with absolutely no malice, and Chad laughed. Ryan was glad Troy and Gabriella had taken to theater so well, Ryan himself had also found greener pastures, and couldn’t hold it against anyone else who had managed the same.
“Ha, yeah, I can’t believe Troy gave up baseball his senior year to do the musical!” He paused and then a sly grin appeared on his face. “Though he wasn’t really all that great at baseball. I’m convinced that’s why he made himself scarce this summer for those staff games. He didn’t want Gabi to find out he wasn’t absolutely perfect at everything.”
They laughed at Troy’s expense for a few moments. Troy had worked hard all summer at providing them with a lot of material for a few good laughs. Even Troy himself looked back at the summer and was finally starting to see humor in a lot of the idiotic things he had done and what a fool he had made of himself in the process. Actually, all of their friends found it pretty hilarious at this point.
After a couple of more minutes of fondly remembering the summer, Chad got serious once more.
“Honestly, though, you don’t get nervous? Even if it isn’t the audience staring at you, or having to dress up in a ridiculous costume, I’d at least be nervous of somehow upsetting Sharpay.” Chad looked thoughtful for a moment. “I mean, sometimes I’m afraid I’ll upset and I don’t even hang out with her that much. She’s really quite scary.”
“Yes, that’s something I think everyone in the whole school has in common. A total and complete fear of upsetting Sharpay, which everyone believes will end directly in physical pain or utter social ruin.”
Chad laughed and lightly punched Ryan in the shoulder, “Not you, though! You’re a brave boy!”
“Not brave, just well trained. I’ve been programmed over the years to never be able to upset her, so I don’t have to worry about it.” Ryan felt maybe it was time to add something positive, before Chad got any really terrible images of his sister so he added more seriously, “Kidding aside, though, she is a great sister. She was the only person I could count on for the first 16 years of my life. She always tried to do right by me.”
“Well, lucky for you, now there is more than one person bearing that responsibility.” He leaned over the bench dividing them and knocked off Ryan’s hat and looked at him directly in the eyes. “You can count on me, too.”
Recipient: kelbebop
Title: Something A Little Different
Pairing(s): Chad/Ryan
Summary: Things are changing, and it seems it’s for the better.
Rating: G
Warning(s): This is pretty much a pre-slash, friendship type story. Sorry for not being able to get in any smut kelbebop, the boys were not cooperating. They wanted to be all cute and innocent.
Word Count: 1404
Disclaimer: All High School Musical characters herein are the property of Disney. No copyright infringement is intended.
“Okay, guys, 10 times around the bases and then you’re free to go.”
The team obediently moved toward home plate to begin their laps. 10 laps was something of a gift, so there was little complaint. During the first few weeks they had to run a minimum of 25 so the coach could better weed out those who hadn’t properly trained during the off-season. Ryan didn’t mind running at all, though. It was the kind of thing he had always done to stay in shape since he had stopped playing baseball all those years ago. That and yoga. He thought maybe now that he was back into baseball he should probably work on putting some more muscle in his upper body (he wasn’t too shrimpy though, he could hold some of his inversion poses for several minutes), but overall he had surprised himself by maintaining his skill level and fitness despite not playing for almost 5 years.
Well, except for that one game over the summer that had resulted in this crazy idea of trying out for the baseball team in the first place.
He remembered first showing up for try-outs. He had been so nervous that even though he had spent nearly one thousand dollars the previous afternoon at a sporting goods store purchasing everything he would need (and a couple of more baseball caps than strictly necessary), he was just about ready to nix the whole idea and run out into the parking lot to catch a ride home with Sharpay.
He was half way out the door when he ran into Chad Danforth, similarly trussed up in all his baseball regalia. Chad took one look at him and Ryan didn’t even have time to get nervous that possibly Chad would laugh at him because Chad was smiling and talking 1000 words a minute and slingng his arm over Ryan’s shoulder, dragging him out to the diamond and going on and on about how this year’s team was going to utterly wipe the floor with the competition.
Now that had been a month ago, and Ryan was almost positive he had made a really good decision. Rather, he was almost positive he had been coerced into making a really good decision. He was an amazing pitcher so he immediately got the team’s respect, and slowly but surely they were also becoming some of his closest friends. This was something Ryan could hardly wrap his mind around. These were the people Ryan had always hoped to never cross paths with, in case something about his own personality, or clothes, or mannerisms caught their attentions and he ended up in a trashcan beaten to a pulp. Instead, they were always giving him high fives and lightly punching his shoulder in that friendly sort of way.
One time Ryan had pitched a no hitter and about four and a half seconds after he struck out the final batter of the game he found himself hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates, only to be dropped a minute later with the entire team toppling over on top of him while screaming their congratulations. It was the best moment of his life so far, and not for the reasons one might think.
+ + +
“RYAN!” He was just putting his messenger bag down and thinking about how hungry he was when he heard his sister screech his name, and then the ominous sound of her high heels rapidly descending the staircase.
“What took so long?!” She looked incensed, and this made Ryan worry.
“Um…I didn’t realize I was late for anything.” He had no recollection of making any specific plans with his sister. He couldn’t really trust is brain at the moment, however, it never worked all that well when he was this hungry. Practice always gave him the desire to consume amounts of food that would leave even those guys who won those hot dog eating contests feeling a little ill.
“You didn’t realize? Well, I hope you do realize that opening night is this Friday, and you’ve hardly been at rehearsal all week, which, yes, you got cleared with Mrs. Darbus but it was on the condition that you would do extra practices at home and it is now six o’clock.” Many of the words in her rant had been punctuated with the stamping of feet or well -placed (and rather threatening) hand gestures, with the final effect of Ryan placidly walking upstairs to do whatever Sharpay told him to do, willing his stomach to stop growling so fiercely. She could be really terrifying sometimes.
+ + +
Chad and Ryan were slowly making their way back to the locker rooms after a particularly grueling practice. Ryan must have thrown over 100 pitches, and that was after the whole team had been forced to run 3 miles for time. Ryan didn’t have it in him to make conversation, and he assumed Chad felt the same, so they were walking in companionable silence. It was not until they were both halfway done gathering their belongings that Chad spoke.
“Are you nervous?”
Ryan thought about this for a second, confused as to what Chad could be referring to, but then he guessed he must have meant the upcoming show.
“Are you kidding me? I’ve done this a million times. I know my part perfectly well, and it isn’t even all that big. Those went to Troy and Gabriella.” he said the last part teasingly, and with absolutely no malice, and Chad laughed. Ryan was glad Troy and Gabriella had taken to theater so well, Ryan himself had also found greener pastures, and couldn’t hold it against anyone else who had managed the same.
“Ha, yeah, I can’t believe Troy gave up baseball his senior year to do the musical!” He paused and then a sly grin appeared on his face. “Though he wasn’t really all that great at baseball. I’m convinced that’s why he made himself scarce this summer for those staff games. He didn’t want Gabi to find out he wasn’t absolutely perfect at everything.”
They laughed at Troy’s expense for a few moments. Troy had worked hard all summer at providing them with a lot of material for a few good laughs. Even Troy himself looked back at the summer and was finally starting to see humor in a lot of the idiotic things he had done and what a fool he had made of himself in the process. Actually, all of their friends found it pretty hilarious at this point.
After a couple of more minutes of fondly remembering the summer, Chad got serious once more.
“Honestly, though, you don’t get nervous? Even if it isn’t the audience staring at you, or having to dress up in a ridiculous costume, I’d at least be nervous of somehow upsetting Sharpay.” Chad looked thoughtful for a moment. “I mean, sometimes I’m afraid I’ll upset and I don’t even hang out with her that much. She’s really quite scary.”
“Yes, that’s something I think everyone in the whole school has in common. A total and complete fear of upsetting Sharpay, which everyone believes will end directly in physical pain or utter social ruin.”
Chad laughed and lightly punched Ryan in the shoulder, “Not you, though! You’re a brave boy!”
“Not brave, just well trained. I’ve been programmed over the years to never be able to upset her, so I don’t have to worry about it.” Ryan felt maybe it was time to add something positive, before Chad got any really terrible images of his sister so he added more seriously, “Kidding aside, though, she is a great sister. She was the only person I could count on for the first 16 years of my life. She always tried to do right by me.”
“Well, lucky for you, now there is more than one person bearing that responsibility.” He leaned over the bench dividing them and knocked off Ryan’s hat and looked at him directly in the eyes. “You can count on me, too.”