Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For the past couples minutes, Zeke has been in hiding in the auditorium.

Earlier that afternoon, Zeke was supposed to discreetly drop off a couple batches of cookies and brownies for the bake sale fundraiser as soon as the basketball team tryouts were over so he could immediately catch up with the guys to hang-out after school. But just as he was handing the baked goods over to Taylor, one of the volunteers helping the student council with the fundraiser, he could hear a familiar group of boys chatting in the hallway. Zeke identified Troy and Chad's voices among the chatter and, subconsciously let go of the container that he was passing on to Taylor, ready to hide from his friends. The plastic box landed on the table with a small thud.

"You alright Zeke?" Taylor asks him while she checks inside the box for any damaged goods.

"Sorry. Yeah. My hand just slipped. I'm actually in a hurry so...I'm gonna go now." Zeke says as he adjusts the strap of his duffel bag on his shoulder and hurriedly walks away without looking in the direction where he heard Troy and Chad's voice.

"Please, if the other basketball guys ask, let them know that I was not here and did not help out. 'Cause last time when I mentioned baking anything for them earlier this year, Chad wouldn't stop teasing me about it until last month." Zeke says after running back to Taylor to ensure that she keeps their encounter a secret, just in case she might say something to Troy and Chad who could be walking towards the bake sale.

Taylor gives him a weird look but slowly nods her head in understanding his request. Zeke uses that as a signal of her compliance and then quickly walks away in the opposite direction from the hallway he heard the guys come from. When he had departed from the bake sale table again, the sound of his friends' voices was much closer now. So, in a panic to hide, he goes through the nearest open door to hopefully be in a storage room and then wait for their voices to sound more distant.

Looking around, he notices that he isn't where he had expected. First of all, its so much more spacious than a simple storage closet. Second of all, there wasn't any storage to be found. Carefully moving in deeper through the unfamiliar room, Zeke explores further inside to take a look around. He reaches an entryway, peers inside, and sees a handful of students near a stage. It turns out that he had snuck into the auditorium.

"Settle down. Settle down." Ms. Darbus begins her speech to the students on the stage and at the first rows of chairs. "Thank you all for answering the call of the theater. We are underway for the first production for this year. I'm so glad to see some new faces and excite to see your passion to be a part of this project."

Upon hearing Ms. Darbus's voice echo all around the space, Zeke moves back towards the corridor leading to the hallway to remain hidden, worried that if he was visible at the entryway, he would be immediately noticed by her and then possibly forced to audition. Now that he was a closer to the hallway entrance, he picks up a voice through the gap of the double-doors where he had entered from.

"I swear I saw Zeke near the bake sale area earlier." He recognized the investigative voice. Chad was always ready to poke fun at everyone for anything, including Zeke's hobby for baking. The jokes were always harmless but Zeke didn't want the attention since Chad wouldn't let him live it down. But more than that, he wouldn't want the other guys to join in and take the jokes too far then actually hurt his feelings.

"Then, where is he?" Troy responds almost annoyed that they were taking a detour. "We've confirmed that he isn't here so you basically lost your chance to tease him this time."

"Yeah, maybe, he was really just passing through." Chad says disappointed at the missed opportunity.

"You gotta ease up on the joking though. I think Zeke hasn't told the rest of the guys for this very reason." Troy chides Chad. That was the last thing he heard from the pair as their voices were too distant. Zeke assumed they walked past the doors to the auditorium and went out of his hearing range. Zeke closes his eyes imitating a prayer pose in gratitude for Troy who had the conscience to dissuading Chad from searching further for Zeke and reminding Chad to keeping the hobby a secret. He waits a few more minutes after the sound of their voices diminish before moving back closer to his previous position. Ms. Darbus was preoccupied at the front row as the auditions were ongoing.

"Alright. Thank you to our brave soloists who have bared their souls for this audition. We will now begin the auditions for pairs." Ms. Darbus announces to everyone in the room while staying in her spot facing the stage.

Curious about the next acts, Zeke decides that it would be best to stay a few minutes more in the auditorium to be completely sure he wouldn't bump into Troy and Chad. So he finds a seat at the last row and watches as some of those auditioning return to their seats and settle down. He thinks to himself that he might as well catch an interesting performance before he leaves. While waiting, he devises an excuse for why he split from the group as soon as tryouts ended, something along the lines of needing to go to the bathroom or going to stop by his locker."

"Sharpay and Ryan Evans?" Ms. Darbus continues.

"Here Ms. Darbus!" A single graceful hand is quickly raised among the small crowd of people at the front rows.

"We're ready when you are." The girl-boy blond pair who Zeke assumes to be Sharpay and Ryan Evans stand up from their seats. Zeke watches them in the same way one would watch their favorite shows on a TV as the pair moved towards the stage for their audition.

Snaps echo through the speakers and the curtains draw to close. Zeke shifts forward in his seat with placing his right arm on his leg to rest his chin on his palm, growing curious about the upcoming performance of the pair.

An unfamiliar upbeat song begins to play and the pair appear as the curtains draw back to the sides while they begin to sing and dance to the song.

Throughout the performance, Zeke can't help but notice how the girl shines so brightly without any spotlight on her. Half of the reason why she sparkled was from the shimmer in her clothes that reflected the stage lights. But the half had to because when she smiled, he couldn't help but wish it was directed towards him. Her clear angelic voice gives him unexpected goosebumps. And when he saw the confident look in her eyes, he could feel a sincere passion and energy she had deep inside. It was inspiring to watch her perform and he felt like rooting for her as a dedicated fan would.

At the end of the performance, he stands to give his applause, careful to attract any attention from the room. But his presence doesn't go unnoticed by her. As an unfamiliar entity in the auditorium, he catches the girl's sights from the stage as she glances at the back of the auditorium. Meeting her eyes, he abruptly crouches down and stops clapping. He immediately remembers that he shouldn't have his cover be blown this easily and stays hidden behind the back of the seats of the row in front of him. Lifting his head and peaking through the gap between each seat, he gazes back to the stage and sees her attention was now towards Ms. Darbus and rest of the students in front. Once the applause dies down, Ms. Darbus speaks to the pair on their performance.

"Thank you Mr. and Ms. Evans for that splendid performance. I hope to be seeing more of you this year as part of the drama club. Your performances are marvelous as always."

The pair bow to the audience and express their thanks before making their exit from the stage and go back to their original seats.

"Well, there aren't anymore sign ups on my list on the auditions for pairs. But there could be some last minute sign-ups. Is there any other pair going to be auditioning?" Ms. Darbus resumes speaking and, hearing this, Zeke senses that the auditions have finished. and takes this was his cue to leave. "Going once. Going twice. Alright. So this closes the auditions for pairs." Zeke makes his way to the doors of the auditorium before Ms. Darbus finishes her announcements to avoid being seen when the those at the audition are dismissed by Ms. Darbus and also make their exits. Now, he would be going to meet up with the other guys from the tryouts. He makes a mental note of the girl's name, Sharpay Evans, and the upcoming production. Now that he's seen her on stage, he can't help but want to see a real performance of hers.

The following week, those who had tried out for the basketball varsity team were standing in front of the announcements bulletin board looking for the resulting roster for the varsity team that should be posted somewhere on the board. Everyone expected that Troy and Chad would make it to the team but for others, like Zeke and Jason, they couldn't be so sure. Zeke could have just asked Troy directly since Troy's father was the team coach, but he missed his chances to ask before because he was preoccupied with looking for Sharpay in between and after classes—trying to spot her in the corridors, by the lockers, in the hallways, or at the cafeteria.

Without a glimpse of her following the auditions, Zeke felt like that afternoon was only a dream and he had just imagined seeing her on stage. And so, he tried to find more details regarding the upcoming musical but he wasn't able to find out much which became further evidence that the whole thing didn't happen. He couldn't ask his friends about Sharpay for the same reason he had kept his baking hobby hidden from the others.

Now that the basketball team tryout results were coming out today, Zeke's focus shifted away from Sharpay and back to basketball as he scanned the paper pinned to the board for his name.

"Congrats man!" Jason bumped his shoulder to Zeke's just before Zeke could find his own name. The names weren't listed alphabetically by last name but with their first names which was confusing.

After confirming for himself that his name was listed, Zeke gave the same congratulatory greeting in response to Jason as well as to the rest of his friends since it seemed everyone who tried out with them was accepted for varsity and JV.

"Um sorry, excuse me please." A small voice appeared among the guys crowded around the announcements board which broke up the celebration of the new basketball team members.

Upon hearing this, the guys disperse to make way for Kelsi and move on to their next classes since they've already confirmed their results. They already had planned to finish celebrating after school anyway.

As Kelsi puts up a poster on the announcements board, Zeke, with an inkling on what the contents would be, stays behind to check the poster. Kelsi quickly leaves to her next class as soon as she accomplished her task and Zeke takes a proper look at the poster.

"The Drama Club presents the Winter Musicale."

Its a poster for a drama club production. Zeke takes note of the ticket selling period and the show dates, 2 weeks before winter break starts, and proceeds to ignores the other details. Instead, he checks on the list of performers looking for a specific person's name.

His search is quick as he finds her name, Sharpay Evans, at the top of the list of performers. He closes his eyes to make a quick prayer to the universe thanking them for this coincidence. He could finally rest easy now that he confirmed that she wasn't a figment of his imagination. And more importantly, that he would definitely see her around even if the past weeks made it seem like that wasn't true.

Chapter Text

"Dude, you rocked that last game!" Jason says when he approaches the gathered group of basketball players in the hallway and ruffles Troy's hair in a greeting. It was the week after their semi-finals play-offs game. The team was still riding off the adrenaline high from their game last Friday.

At the fourth quarter, the teams were maintained their paces at a stalemate. When one side gained a lead, the other side easily won back the points to bring them back to a tie or gained a single digit advantage. Tensions were high as everyone in the gym wondered who would finally breakthrough and end the stalemate. But during the last three minutes of the game, the opposing team stole a rebounded three point ball shot by Chad and made a quick run-drive into a two point lead. The audience cheering for the opposing team erupted in loud cheers celebrating the possible end of the stalemate between the teams, if East High couldn't win the points back.

The Wildcats were desperate to get back into a tie to move the game into extra time but they were having trouble getting through the opposing team's defense on the inside. It was a tough situation since their competitors just needed to stall for time in their defense while maintaining their two-point lead. With less than a minute left on the clock, one of the senior players passed the ball to Troy who was standing before the three point line of the court and motioned for him to shoot the ball. The audience watched as Troy stood there with bated breath hoping and praying for a clutch play from their promising talent.

Troy, sensing the importance of his role, was as nervous as he could be to play at the high-school level. But he did as he was told and made his shot. The ball surprisingly went inside the hoop giving the East High Wildcats a single-point advantage. This turnover led to another wave of cheers, that thundered from the bleachers on the other side of the court. There were couple more seconds on the clock before the horn would blare and signal the end of the quarter and the game. It was time for the Wildcats to keep the tables turned, defending their lead by stalling for time against the opposition who was now in possession of the ball.

Luckily, their opponents attempts to drive, shoot, and score with a lay-up had failed due to their rushed play given the little time they had left. The game ended with East High at a single point lead from Troy's three point shot. With that win, the Wildcats had successfully made it through to the finals which would be happening this weekend.

TL;DR: It was a tie until opposing team scored during the last five minutes, giving them a 2 point lead, but then with less than a minute left, Troy made the winning shot (like how Rocketman scored in HSM 3)

The rest of the team that arrived after Jason greet him with a wave of congratulations, patting his back and giving him high-fives. His performance in the game made waves throughout the basketball fanatic majority of students in the school and made Troy a rising star not just among the basketball team but also throughout the student body. It was the beginning of Troy's popularity within the school.

The team had been receiving congratulations from other students who had been at the game—or heard of it—as they moved through the corridors to their lockers to prepare for class.

It was at this time, an even greater miracle had happened—well, at least for Zeke.

"Hey Troy!" Sharpay's voice cut through to the center of the group as she stepped in front of Troy, blocking his path. Zeke never imagined that he would see Sharpay appear before them in this way. It was unthinkable. Since the auditions, their paths had never actually crossed again despite Zeke's attempts to forge one, trying to discover what classes she had and where she passed. The most that he discovered was that she often went to the auditorium to meet with the Drama club. He eventually gave up after a while since they had the playoffs to prepare for. Now, here she stands before the team, specifically Troy, with a smile.

"Hi?" Troy says with a confused smile since he's never seen her around before.

"I'm Sharpay Evans, future president of the Drama club. I'm also the lead actress for the upcoming Winter Musical." She flips her hair and winks at Troy as part of her introduction.

"Oh, I see." Troy politely nods his head still not really sure where this conversation is going. The rest of the team continue their earlier conversation around the two while Sharpay continues to converse with Troy with a line of questions about himself. Zeke feigns interest in the discussion with his teammates as he eavesdrops on the conversation between Sharpay and Troy, curious about what Sharpay has to say.

"Anyways, I heard that you're the rising superstar of the Wildcats basketball team?" Sharpay asks. She doesn't notice Troy's body language that seems uninterested and desperate to end the conversation.

"Uh yeah." Troy dryly replies. If she did notice at all, she was clearly ignoring the signals for her own agenda.

"Wow. So when's the big game?" All the guys pause at her innocent question and give her confused glances from the side before resuming their conversation. Like Zeke, they were also curious about what this unfamiliar face had to say to Troy and kept one ear in their conversation. Once they hear her ridiculous question, they collectively assume that she doesn't have any clue about anything related to basketball. Zeke sees Troy subtly hold back a incredulous laugh. He also notices the gears turn in Chad's brain preparing to spout some nonsense that could offend or belittle Sharpay for asking her question. Taking over the silence that followed after Sharpay's question, Zeke quickly interjects with a response of his own, hoping to prevent Chad from saying whatever he's going to say and close the conversation related to basketball. "Well, we just came back from the semi-finals game last week and this week is the finals."

The reactions between the team goes unnoticed by Sharpay as her phone rings. She pulls out her phone from her purse just as Zeke answers her question. With her focus now on her mobile, she gives an absentminded she response back. "Right. Well, see you around and good luck on the big game."

She gives a quick glance back to Troy to flash him another sweet smile and waves her fingers.

"Toodles." She says before she struts away from them.

"Dude. The Sharpay Evans just talked to you." Chad lightly shoves Troy forward as the group resumes walking towards their lockers.

Some of the guys had already split away from the group as their lockers were on the other side of the hall. The remaining guys, Chad, Jason, Troy and Zeke, all had their lockers in the same side. Zeke moved past them to get to his locker which was a little further away from the trio but is still within earshot. Chad, Troy and Jason's lockers were almost neighbors so they continued their conversation as they transferred their things between their bags and lockers.

"So what?" Troy looks back and gives him a confused disinterested look before continuing to transfer some books from his bag.

Chad grabs the door to Troy's locker to swing open, slamming it to the locker next to it. "She is literally the most popular girl in our grade. With the way she is now, she might even be more popular than the upperclassmen."

"I heard her parents donated to the school for the sports and drama club funds." Jason adds as he slams his locker shut.

"Dang that's crazy." Troy flatly replies as he pushes Chad's hand on the locker door aside and closes his locker.

"Yeah, but she is actually crazy." Chad says as quickly transfers some books to his locker and slams it shut before going back to Troy. "I heard from some of the cheerleader guys that she once threw a fit in her middle school just because some other girl had longer lines than her in a play. The director basically had to revise the whole thing just so that Sharpay wasn't going to throw a fit again."

Troy just nods instead of replying and Zeke makes his way back to the trio after taking some books from his locker. Chad continues his report as they move from their lockers to homeroom.

"Apparently, there was even a time she rearranged her solo on the day of the performance just because it didn't match how she wanted to act. The poor instrumentalists had to relearn everything within 10 hours before the show."

"She can get away with of those things because her parents made a lot of donations to the school so the faculty would rather not get on her bad side." Jason inserts. Troy was barely listening to the conversation as they turned to enter the classroom. Zeke, on the otherhand, was trying to absorb everything Chad and Jason were saying.

"But her crazy isn't even contained to the drama club in middle school. Here at East High, I heard that her family made some arrangements with school for her like having a customized locker door, a personalized lunch from the cafeteria that's not part of the daily menu and even a reserved parking slot—for her chauffered pink car." Chad says with finality. His report was complete and was waiting for the others to react as they crowded around Troy's seat in the classroom.

"But half of her popularity probably is because she is pretty though, right?" Zeke remarks after a fee moments of quiet feigning disinterest. But this statement causes their faces to contort expressing doubt as they direct their attention at Zeke.

"Do you..."
"No way..."
"Wait..."

Jason, Troy and Chad say in unison.

Zeke doesn't respond and look around the classroom motioning as if he was going to head for his seat.

The trio hold on Zeke's arm to prevent him from escaping and ask their questions in unison.

"Are you crazy?"
"Since when did you like Sharpay?"
"What?"

"What? A guy can't like a pretty girl?" Zeke replies defensively. He didn't see what was wrong with what he said, basically admitting that he liked Sharpay even after hearing Chad's report.

Troy laughs as Chad tries to retort back. But his retort gets interrupted by the bell signalling the start of class. Before the guys can press him further, Zeke takes that as his chance to break from their grasp and sit in his seat.

Luckily for Zeke, their short attention spans on all things except basketball let this issue lie to sleep as training for their upcoming finals game became their main priority for the rest of the week.

Just like with his baking, Zeke kept anything related to Sharpay to himself to avoid any further comments or conversations related to this. He was also careful to stay uninterested whenever Sharpay would approach Troy since that day.

It was a sight to see as the interactions between Sharpay and Troy followed the same format. It started with Sharpay approaching Troy on some random day then ended with Troy finding an excuse to quickly but politeky end the conversation or avoid her entirely. The whole school was aware of her special attention to Troy as all of the other guys who approached her were immediately shot down.

Zeke noticed the stubborn side of Sharpay that refused to let Troy's dismissiveness faze her and respected her for it. He began to believe it was this side of her that allowed her to get away with the things Chad mentioned. Thus, the back and forth between them continued until their junior year. And everybody within the team, except Troy and Zeke placed bets on who would crack first. But the long-standing bet that went on for almost three years never properly concluded due to an unexpected transferee in their junior year.

Chapter Text

The announcements regarding the Twinkle Towne musical auditions were posted during the lunch break of the same day. Sharpay and Ryan went over to the announcement bulletin board expecting to see their names casted for the main leads, Arnold and Minnie. But, to their surprise, auditions for the main leads weren't over.

"Call backs?!" Sharpay couldn't believe it. She only had a callback one other time in her life as a performer. That was in grade school for a youth theater group she wanted to join. She got casted in the end but she hated it and never wanted to experience that feeling ever again. Since then, she took care to ensure she wouldn't have any competition for the lead roles. This was by intimidation and guerilla tactics. But in East High, she never had any real competition to begin with so she didn't have resort to any foul play since her middle school days.

Yet here she was today with her second ever callback after over a dozen school productions under her belt. She fans herself with both her hands to calm her nerves.

Who, in their right mind, auditioned for the same part as her. And how did she miss that.

She was there when Ms. Darbus asked for any last minute auditions and left when there were none who responded to her call. She could feel a migraine coming.

But its futile as she lets out a scream to hopefully ease her increasing stress. Ryan goes over the poster in detail just in case Sharpay had been mistaken. "Call backs for roles Arnold and Minnie next Thursday, 3:30PM. Ryan and Sharpay Evans. Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton."

She never expected this to happen but she had a feeling ever since she caught the two staring at the Twinkle Towne sign-up sheet. But she didn't seem them in the auditorium during free period so it doesn't make sense that Ms. Darbus considered them for a callback. "Is this some kind of joke? They didn't even audition!" Sharpay cries in frustrated confusion.

"Maybe we're being punk'd!" Ryan suggests.
"What?" Sharpay looks at him because of the absurd theory he just blurted out. Ryan takes it as a sign to continue, "Maybe we're being filmed right now. Maybe we'll get to meet Ashton!"

At the same time, Sharpay's initial outburst could be heard throughout the hallway corridors, although a rare sound to hear, most people paid it no mind as they assumed she would be overreacting regarding minor drama club matters. Zeke and the basketball team were gathered in another corridor when they heard Sharpay yell. They were gathering after their morning classes finished to make their way to the cafeteria for lunch together. The announcement bulletin board was located in the main hall leading to the cafeteria so the team naturally ran into the Evans twins.

Noticing Sharpay's agitation, Chad lead the group into making a stop over from their route to the cafeteria to the twins. He saw it as an opportunity to tease Sharpay and Ryan for whatever reason. As the team was close enough to eavesdrop on the twins just as Ryan was sharing his theory to Sharpay on being punk'd.

At this point, the basketball guys surround the Sharpay and Ryan and laugh at Ryan's suggestion while Sharpay shuts down Ryan's excitement in imagining himself as a lucky guest chosen for a broadcast and stares at the pink drama club poster deep in thought. "Oh shut up, Ryan."

Amused at the twins' expense, Chad inserts himself into the Evans's conversation with a laugh. "What's wrong?"

It wasn't an unusual sight to see Sharpay so distressed. There was a long list of things that could possibly warrant her rage. Zeke had noted these down throughout the years. It could be as simple as making a mistake on her lunch order for the day, people loitering around her parking spot, someone leaning on her locker, new drama club members making rookie mistakes during rehearsal, and so on. All of this information provided by Chad who was keeping tabs on school gossip.

But Zeke sensed something was different this time. It didn't go unnoticed by Chad either when he leaned in and saw the serious look between Sharpay and Ryan who were staring at the drama club poster. Chad, curious regarding all the fuss, follows their gaze to the bulletin board and sees Troy's name under the callback auditions for the drama club and his smile drops.

"What?" Chad almost yells but he keeps his volume in check leading him just loudly ask.

The team sees the change in Chad's expression and their entertained smiles fall from their faces in confusion. Chad immediately departs from the group and heads for the cafeteria leaving the rest of them behind.

"Ugh." Sharpay stomps her foot in a mix of frustration and annoyance before taking her leave in the same direction as Chad.

Zeke thought it was a shame to see her go so soon after they arrived. He was hoping to use the casual encounter to chat with Sharpay as an easy way to spark conversation—like what she had consistently done to Troy every semester. But it was too late.

That aside, Chad's reaction seemed unwarranted when he just stormed off. So, Zeke and the rest of the team peer in closer to read the drama club poster in detail. They see Troy's name listed regarding callback auditions for the Twinkle Towne musical and belatedly put two and two together to finally realize the reason behind Sharpay and Chad's reactions. They follow after Chad and head to the cafeteria.

Sharpay paces back and forth near the drama club table while her members eat their lunch taking care not to irritate Sharpay even more.

"How dare she sign up? I've already picked out the colors for my dressing room."

"And she hasn't even asked our permission to join the drama club." Ryan inserts.

Sharpay looks in Ryan's direction and makes up her mind. She slams the table to make an announcement, "Someone's gotta tell her the rules."

"Exactly." Ryan immediately agrees with her as he often does when Sharpay gets in this mood. But his thoughts catch up to him to properly considers her words and realizes he, himself, doesn't know what she's talking about. So, he passes it back to Sharpay to further explain. "...and what are the rules?"

"Ugh." Sharpay huffs. Ryan was rather slow on the uptake on all things aside from acting and improv. She sometimes wondered where their twin telepathy went at times like these. She turns around whipping her head in the process causing her hair to flip over her shoulder and walks over to the second floor railing. The elevated position allows her to look down on the first floor where most of the student body spent their lunch break. Each table claimed by different cliques which symbolized the structure that existed with East High.

As she observes from above, she notices the change in the air as the news of Troy's audition for the Winter musical spread like fire among them.

Zeke and the rest of the basketball team caught up to Chad after confirming for themselves regarding Troy. Zeke had assumed Chad left before them because he was going to confront Troy about this sudden news. To his surprise, Troy wasn't anywhere to be found in the cafeteria. This fueled the gossip even more within the student body regarding Troy's secret.

Maybe he was practicing for the callbacks right now.
Maybe he's discussing with Ms. Darbus about joining the drama club.
Does his coach know about this?

Truly, no one would have guessed that THE Troy Bolton was also a drama nerd. Everyone knew of the small feud between Coach Bolton and Ms. Darbus. Troy was the basketball coach's son and the team's captain. It was unthinkable to the general student population that Troy would willingly work on a drama club project with the way Ms. Darbus kept them from practicing when she sentenced them to detention.

Yet, it turns out Troy wasn't the only one who had been wanting to come out of his shell. His actions had started a domino effect that altered the social groups within East High.

In a way, Zeke was thankful that Troy had a secret love for theater. He didn't feel so lonely anymore for having hidden his hobby for baking from the guys. They didn't remember the first time he revealed it when they were first years and he kept it hidden pretty well throughout the years. It was pretty disheartening that he couldn't freely share any of the things he made to his friends or have them test taste any new recipes he was practicing. He was fed up with hiding.

## Cue Stick to the Status Quo ##

Zeke looks around before speaking up. at their table, the guys were seated discussing Troy while they ate their lunches. He motions them to gather around and come closer with a serious air.

"Well, if Troy can tell his secret, I can tell mine." Zeke resolves to follow in Troy's footsteps and share a secret of his own. He takes a breath to prepare himself and says, "I bake."

"What? Not this again." Chad blurts out for the second time today. By revealing his hidden hobby, Zeke revels in the lifted weight off his shoulders disappear. He shrugs as he shares, "I love to bake. Strudels, scones, even apple pandowdy."

"Not another sound." The guys are flustered and confused at the sudden revelation. They try to hush Zeke, worried he might embarrass himself but he isn't fazed by their attempts. "Someday, I hope to make the perfect crème brûlée."

"No." Their voices overlap at put of synch times refusing to accept what was just shared. They didn't know what brought this on Zeke and Chad could only muster a simple response.

"Just stick to the stuff you know." Chad speaks up and holds Zeke's shoulder. First, it was Troy and now, Zeke. Chad refused to accept his friends changing interests away from basketball.

But a surge of gasps and shouts began in small waves within the cafeteria and it was becoming clear that Zeke and Troy weren't the only ones with something kept hidden away.

## Cue Stick to the Status Quo continues ##

Sharpay catches glimpses of the conversations among those on the first floor. Brainiacs wanting to dance and skater kids being classically-trained musicians. The clearly defined groups were beginning to break apart. She tightly grips onto the railing almost seething. Ryan notices her tense stance and approaches her to offer some support.

"This is not what I want. This is not planned." Sharpay sensing Ryan at her side, turns to him in disbelief at how quickly things have fallen apart. "And I just gotta say, I do not understand. Something is really-"

"Something's not right." Ryan chimes in an effort to show his understanding of where Sharpay is coming from. But it falls on deaf ears as the wheels turn in her brain thinking on the quickest and best way to bring everything back to normal.

"-really wrong and we've got to get things back where they belong."

## Cue Stick to the Status Quo continues ##

The chatter in the cafeteria becomes louder and it overpowers Sharpay's thoughts. She raises her voice over everyone. "Everybody quiet."

The cafeteria becomes quiet and Sharpay can finally think clearly. But her thoughts are interrupted when she spots Gabriella walking through the tables with her lunch tray and so does the rest of the student body who erupt in hushed whispers over Gabriella.

Sharpay goes down to the first floor to approach Gabriella and figure out if she can convince her to withdraw their audition so that the callbacks would be cancelled.

As Sharpay makes her way down with Ryan in tow, Zeke spots her from his table and considers approaching her with the courage that pushed him to reveal his secret baking hobby.

As he gets ready to make his way over, Gabriella trips over some spilled milk and loses her grip on her lunch tray. The chili con carne nachos from the tray fly up and make its landing on Sharpay ruining her floral fitted blazer. Sharpay lets out her second scream of the day even more distressed.

## Cue Stick to the Status Quo ends ##

Everyone gasps and feels pity for Gabriella who was going to face the wrath of Sharpay for the first time. Gabriella, unaward of what is to come, immediately goes to Sharpay and nervously attempts to get the sauce, chips, and meat off Sharpay's clothes.

"I am so sorry." Gabriella profusely apologies before Taylor quickly peels her off and drags her away from the scene before Sharpay can throw her fit of rage.

"What is going on here?!" Ms. Darbus rushed over to the scene after hearing Sharpay's scream. The drama club director's appearance sprouts an idea for Sharpay to convince Ms. Darbus to disqualify Troy and Gabriela from the callbacks.

"Look at this! That Gabriella girl just dumped her lunch on me! On purpose! Its all part of their plan to ruin our musical."

Taking advantage of the antagonism between Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton, Sharpay presses further. "And Troy and his basketball robots are obviously behind it. Why do you think he auditioned?"

"After all the hard work you put into the show..." She pretends to hold back a sob. "It just doesn't seem right."

Sharpay walks off back to her table on the second floor and Ms. Darbus does the same but heads over to the main hallway with a serious expression.

Chapter Text

After the accident with Gabriella's lunch, one of the cheerleader's requested to the crème brûlée he had shown off earlier. Zeke happily obliged, momentarily forgetting his plan to approach Sharpay, and went back to their table to bring out the crème brûlée from his lunch bag to share.

On his way from the table to where the cheerleader was stationed, Chad yanks Zeke by the arm turning him towards the conversation between Chad and Troy before he can even react.

Chad points to the confused Zeke with his other arm, "Yeah, and Zeke? Zeke is baking crème brûlée."

"What's that?" Troy says with interest. Zeke smiles at him and explains further. "Oh it's a creamy custard-like filling with a caramelized surface. Its really satisfying."

Troy nods in response.

"Shut up Zeke." Chad interjects, letting go of his hostage. Zeke doesn't retort back and shakes his head at Chad before stepping away from the conversation.

Zeke goes on to fulfill the request from the cheerleaders but the skater dudes intercept him as well by striking up a conversation.

"What cha got there man?"

"Its a crème brûlée." He steps closer toward them to offer a taste of the custard-like dish but they politely refuse so Zeke finally makes it to the squad.

Zeke gives the cheerleader the honors of tapping on the caramelized layer after explaining how it should be done with the spoon.

In that moment, Jason rejoins their group.

"What's up with Sharpay this time? She looked like she was going to combust when I passed by her at the stairs just now."

Upon hearing this, Zeke remembers he was going to follow after her and immediately stands up to gather his things.

"When you're finished with the crème brûlée, you can just leave the container with Jason, I'll take it from him later." He instructs the cheerleader.

He then turns to Jason to give him instructions. "Jason, I'm trusting that you don't lose the ramekin when I see you in English class later."

They accept his requests and he promptly departs to find Sharpay. His search starts from where Jason said he saw her: the stairs.

He hastily runs up to the second floor, skipping steps. He spots Ryan who is also going up and catches up to him.

"Ryan! Do you know where Sharpay went?"

Ryan flinches in surprise when Zeke calls out to him but responds nonetheless. "Uh yeah. She's probably going to her locker to find something to change into."

"Thanks." Zeke pats Ryan's shoulder before speeding up the stairs to make it to the next floor as soon as possible. The lunch bell rings indicating that the students should be heading to class when he makes it to the third floor.

Zeke didn't mind being late this one time so he sprints through the hallway towards Sharpay's locker. He slows down to a walking pace once he is close enough to hear the sound of lockers slamming shut as students move to their respective classrooms.

Sharpay aggressively swings open her locker door still whirling with vexation from the lunch break catastrophe. Through her reflection from the mirror on her locker door, she sees the stain at the center her blouse at the intersection of both sides of her blazer lapels. The damage is so much worse than she could have ever imagined and drops her jaw.

In that moment, Zeke suddenly walks into her view and places a hand on her locker door.

She spares a glance at him, briefly noticing the unfamiliar figure holding onto her locker and ignores him, hoping he'd gotten the wrong person's locker and then would just walk past her.

She didn't want to deal with anyone right now and she couldn't guarantee that those who spoke to her at this time would be left unscathed—whether or not it was warranted.

She looks through her locker, rifling through her spare clothes, and grabs a white top. She hears him call her name but she planned to continue to ignore him until he used 'Troy' and 'show' in the same sentence.

"Hey Sharpay, um. I just thought since Troy Bolton's gonna be in your show-"

Sharpay finally acknowledges him and uses her free hand to hold a finger up and interrupt him.

How dare he assume that Troy was going to be casted instead her and Ryan for the Winter Musical? The callbacks aren't even over yet.

"Troy Bolton is not in my show." She assures him with finality. She prays he could sense the venom in her voice and has enough tact to leave her alone now.

She holds the white top up to her chest and checks how it looks on the mirror while Zeke continues speaking, a little flustered at her outburst but not yet willing to give up on this chance.

"Ok, um. Well, I just thought maybe you could watch me play sometime or something."

Sharpay couldn't believe her ears at his worthless suggestion. She would never associate herself with brainless sports-obsessed monkeys like him. She had standards for goodness's sake. Troy was the only one who stood above the rest which was how he caught her eye in the first place.

She lets out a laugh that's really more of an incredulous sigh and narrows her eyes slightly into a glare at him as she steps forward to ensure he can hear the repulsion in her voice. Her mouth forms a fake a smile and she takes extra care to enunciate her words. "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes."

Zeke blinks, replaying her words in his head, and tries to imagine how she could watch their practice with pins in her eyes. The image doesn't make sense to him. He tilts his head to one side, confused at her answer.

"But wouldn't that be awfully uncomfortable?"

He really knew how to push her buttons. She would've laughed again at his response. But she was firm in her resolve and send a proper message through his thick skull that didn't seem to hear what she was saying.

She leans closer towards him and attempts to recall his name to further emphasize her disdain towards him but the only basketball boy she knew by name was Troy. So she quickly thinks up another name to address him and yells to intimidate him away from her space. "Evaporate, tall person!"

Zeke flinches in response but he wasn't sure if it was because she abruptly yelled at him or because she stepped much closer than he expected. In that short moment, he couldn't help but notice the chestnut color of her eyes looking at him with an almost hypnotic intensity. Suddenly, he could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

Seeing as he hasn't moved an inch after her outburst, Sharpay slams her locker shut to end the conversation walks away with the replacement top in hand.

Zeke blinks himself back from his thoughts and realizes Sharpay was already a few meters ahead of him.

"I bake!" He shouts at her retreating figure in last-ditch attempt to win her over. Then says with a smaller voice, "If that helps."

He leans on the pillar near her locker hunching his shoulders, defeated. He sighs at his failed attempt to ask her out. He couldn't come up with a reason why she was so opposed to him or his suggestion. A part of him believed the scene at the cafeteria had skewed her response. He didn't want to believe he was a lost cause but he also didn't know when he could strike up another conversation with her given how busy she seemed to be whenever he caught glimpses of her in the hallway.

He shakes his lowered head and drops his gaze down while heading to his first afternoon class for the day before the late bell rang.

Sharpay had heard Zeke shout after she left but whatever he said was lost on her as she was too fixated on heading to the bathroom for a quick change. The girl's bathroom was empty as the late bell rang a few minutes before she had entered. She looks at her reflection once again using the larger mirror to assess the damage done to her blazer. A sigh escapes her mouth. Her body leans closer to the sink as her hands rest on the edges, still holding on to the white top she picked out a while ago.

Sharpay wanted to scream. But she had already done that twice today and within the same hour. The first time didn't do much to appease the jumble of emotions she was feeling earlier so she didn't think it would be helpful to her now. The second time was more than a reflex. It was also her attempt to get Gabriella in trouble. This time—as much as she would love to indulge in the drama of it all—she knew that if she screamed again, someone would think there was a bloody murder which wasn't what she needed right now.

So she settled for a heavy sigh and her breathing exercises to calm down. With her eyes closed and breathing regulated, her shoulders relax and her grip on the sink loosens up. The different emotions within her had also come to pass and made way for her thoughts: the winter musical, the drama club, the social hierarchy, Troy, Gabriella. All these things had one thing in common. If it weren't for Gabriella, Sharpay's school life would have remained unchanged.

Her attention drifts back to her stained blazer and she holds that thought. Sharpay pushes herself off from the sink towards the cleanest bathroom stall and quickly changes to her back-up top before going back to the sink. With the empty hanger resting on the counter and the ruined blouse in her hand, she tries to lighten some of the stains on it with a dampened tissue.

Her thoughts resume back on Gabriella while wiping the stains off, a rather poor attempt. It was dumbfounding that the new transfer student could cause so much chaos within her first week in. What was it about Gabriella that allowed her to trouble Sharpay's perfect life? It was frustrating that there wasn't a satisfying answer to this question she posed.

Giving up on her thoughts and cleaning the blazer, she picks up the hanger from the counter and makes her way to the bathroom exit, tossing the damp tissues in the trash on her way out.

Sharpay had already decided that she would be missing the first afternoon class when she was picking out a replacement top during lunch. She headed first to her car that had a reserved parked slot nearest to the school's main entrance. She couldn't drive to school yet, so a driver had been hired to bring her and her brother to and from school. He would patiently wait for them instead if head back home since the twins' schedules were erratic sometimes with impromptu meet-ups and practices. She quickly dropped off the blazer with their driver to have him bring it to the Evans family's trusted dry cleaner as soon as she walked back towards the school.

Now that her blouse was taken care of, she decided to check if the music room was available so she could camp out there for the remainder of the period. Skipping class wasn't new for her as she had to miss class a couple times throughout the years due to drama club rehearsals and solo rehearsals with her vocal coaches. But this was the first time she simply just bailed. It was a little weird to be out of her usual routine. Although, it wasn't the weirdest thing today.

If Sharpay could rank the events of the day so far based on ridiculousness, her pick for number one was the basketball brute who had the bright idea of asking her to watch his games. It was laughable, to say the least. The team—the whole student body—was aware that she has been eyeing Troy Bolton since, basically, forever. Still, she had to acknowledge the tiny bit of charm in the brute as the child-like innocence of his eyes reminded her of Boi during his puppy days. She immediately blinks away that thought as it appears. Her lips purse in confusion at the random correlation. But she doesn't give it much thought as she realizes she was already at the entrance to the music room.

Peering through the door window and seeing the music room was unoccupied, she entered and stayed by the piano. She pulled out the sheet music and script for Twinkle Towne and spent the rest of the time rehearsing.

Chapter Text

Sharpay and Ryan were walking back to their lockers from the gym talking about adjusting their schedules for the rest of the semester. Now that rehearsals were beginning in preparation for the winter musical, they had to ensure the practice times didn't clash with their personal schedules.

As they head to the parking lot, Ryan opens up a pack of cookies and takes a bite from one. After the first bite, he stuffs the rest of the cookie in his mouth and sighs with satisfaction.

“Oh my, hwa ar he tho good.”

Sharpay gives him a look, “Ry, please don’t talk with your mouthful.”

He swallows the rest of the cookie and repeats himself, “Why are these so good?”

He turns to Sharpay and offers the packet of cookies while emphasizing how good they are.

"You have to try these.”

Sharpay takes one cookie out of the packet and scoffs at his remark, “Yeah, right.”

I mean, how good could a normal cookie really get? Its just a cookie.

She takes a small bite and could never have guessed she would be so wrong.

From that first bite, she's met with a cookie that’s crispy on the outside yet also chewy on the inside. Its so chewy that it basically melts in her mouth. She takes a larger bite and tastes the richness of the chocolate chips that have a hint of bittersweetness making the whole thing feel less like its diabetis in one cookie and more like a wholesome treat. She felt like could become someone with a sweet tooth just for these cookies.

Sharpay is pleasantly surprised at how good it tastes. She's already finished with the cookie and reaches over at Ryan to grab another.

“Where did you get this?” She takes another bite into the best cookie she’s ever tasted in her life. Each bite isn't overly buttery nor is it too dry. Its so perfectly balanced that she feels like she's receiving a comforting pat on the back that tells her, she did a good job today. Losing the lead role to Gabriella and Troy didn’t seem so bad anymore thanks to this cookie.

She had been trying to hide her disappointment when Ms. Darbus announced the results of the callbacks that afternoon. It was her first loss in a very long time. It didn't feel too bad to have lost the lead roles and she was able to congratulate Gabriella. So, she wasn't sure what she was feeling right now.

“Oh its from Zeke.” Ryan's response takes her out of her thoughts.

She gives him a confused look and Ryan explains, “its the basketball guy who approached you earlier after the game who said you were really great and tried to give you these cookies.”

Ryan waves the almost empty packet of cookies in her face for emphasis hoping the action would jog her memory.

“Ohhhh... that guy.” She nods in realization and remembers the tall guy who approached them earlier saying he was like her fan or something.

“Was he also the guy from the basketball team in the cafeteria who confessed that he was like a baker or something?”

Ryan nods to confirm her statement as she takes another cookie from the pack out.

“Does he know how life-changing his cookies are? Someone has to tell him. He can’t live his life without knowing that he’s a genius. Where would I be if mom and dad didn’t tell me about my talents for theater when we were kids?”

They were almost at the school exit when she makes a decision that's uncharacteristic of her.

“Someone’s got to tell him. But first...”

Sharpay steals the plastic bag from her unsuspecting brother.

"Hey!" Ryan yells with a moderate volume so as not to alarm the other students in the parking lot but loud enough to express his displeasure.

"I'm just taking back what is mine." Sharpay shrugs as she takes the second to the last cookie from the bag and pops it into her mouth.

"Yeah but you didn't want it so Zeke gave it to me." Ryan says as he reaches for the plastic bag. The twins tussle for a bit as they fight for the last cookie but Sharpay wins in the end as she quickly takes the cookie and holds it in her mouth.

Sharpay smirks at her brother and Ryan catches a small glint at the corners of her eyes with an emotion he's never seen from her before. With her win and cookie eaten, she turns around and walks back into the school before he can even say anything.

Sharpay’s decision to head towards the gym was purely sponteneous and driven by the dopamine from the cookies. She was hoping to catch Zeke and tell him how much she enjoyed his cookies.

While everybody leaves for the big party to celebrate winning the game, Zeke had to stay behind because he was looking around the school gym for his lunch bag. He brought it with his sports bag before the game since it had the cookies he baked for Sharpay to congratulate her on her performance today. He wasn't sure where he had placed it after he carried it with him after the game to talk to Sharpay.

He was pacing back and forth with a balloon in his hands trying to recall where he last placed it when Sharpay suddenly bursts through the gym doors holding a bitten cookie in one of her hands.

He’s confused at the sight of her walking into the gym, heading towards him and her gaze fixed directly at him.

What is she doing here? He asks himself, but before he can even think of answer, she interrupts his thoughts.

“These cookies are genius. The best things I’ve ever tasted.”

She tosses the cookie aside before continuing.

“Will you make some more for me, Zeke?”

She then dashes towards him to hear his answer.

He is startled by her sudden outburst and steps backwards trying not to get in the way of her sprint, but she’s already closed the gap between them with him in her arms.

He makes a small exhale upon the collision of their bodies and lets go of the balloon in hand before proceeding to laugh in disbelief. Somehow her grand reaction made him feel like he just received a Michellin star for his baking skills. Do bakers even receive Michellin stars?

Zeke was deeply flattered that the person he admired for the longest time finally recognized him—his baking skills. He didn't know what else to say so he tried to blurt out anything in response.

“I might even make you a créme brülée.”

She squeals and shakes him a little bit in her excitement as she hadn't let him out of her grasp yet.

“Yes. You’ve got to let me try them.”

He lets out another meek chuckle. Realizing that she hasn’t let him go yet made Zeke happy but nervous at the same time as his mind went blank at the innocent contact of their bodies.

“Yeah, its no problem Sharpay. But I thought you didn’t want them when I offered it to you earlier.”

Sharpay doesn't respond because she didn't really have a counter.

After a moment of silence, Zeke remembers that he still hasn't found his bag and so he would have to break free from Sharpay's hold.

“And as much as I’d like to stay in this position, I actually need to find my bag.”

“Oh sorry.” She finally releases him from her grasp and steps back to look up at him. “Ryan made me try them and I’m so glad he did. Please let me know when you make those cookies again. I’d kill to try some more.”

“Gotcha, I’ll let you know.” Zeke nods. He sweeps his gaze around the court again to scan for his lost lunch bag. He looks back at Sharpay and sees that she hadn't left yet. She looked like she was waiting or expecting something from him. At the observation, Zeke takes a quick pause from looking around the gym and turns towards her. His hand is on his neck to hide his nervousness.

“Could I...have your phone number then? You know, just so that I could call you or something when I do make them again.”

“Okay.” Sharpay reaches for her purse and looks through it to pull out a pink Sharpie pen. She grabs his other arm to roll up the sleeve of his jacket and writes her number down on his forearm before he can process what’s happening.

“Can’t wait.” She covers the pen back and returns it to her bag.

“Toodles!” She smiles and waves before she turns back towards the gym doors.

Zeke is speechless at how everything happened so quickly when he asked for her number. He stands there watching her leave the gym the same way she entered, kicking through the balloons and whipping the gym doors open. The way she had quickly come in and left the gym made Zeke feel like a hurricane had just dropped by.

In her absence, a range of emotions finally came over Zeke as he waved at her retreating figure and tried to process what just happened in the past several minutes.

Did Sharpay Evans just say she liked—maybe even loved—my cookies?

Feeling giddy at that thought, he kicks upwards the balloon that he dropped earlier when Sharpay ran towards him. But its not enough express the joy he was felt from Sharpay change in demeanor towards which he took as a huge compliment.

He breaks into a little dance to celebrate and congratulate himself on his success, saying out loud to himself, “I can’t believe she likes my baking!”

The celebration is cut short as he remembered there was another question he wanted to ask her before she left. He immediately whips his head back towards the closed gym door in regret.

“Oh wait, I forgot to ask her if she was going to the after party at Troy’s house.” He mutters to himself and holds his shaking head.

While swinging his arms to express his disappointment in himself for forgetting, he sees the pushed up sleeve and the pink ink on his arm and remembers that she gave him her number.

I can call her. He realizes this and immediately reaches for his phone in his jacket. He saves Sharpay’s contact number before dialing it up.

Nerves settle in his hands and feet as the phone rings in his ear. He starts anxiously walking in circles to cope and waits to hear her voice through his phone.

Isn’t this too soon to be calling her? But its already too late to back now as the connecting sound cuts indicating that she picksd up the phone.

“Hello, Sharpay Evans, who’s calling?” Sharpay answers the phone.

“H-Hi Sharpay, its-its its Zeke. I—was—just wondering, if I’ll see you at the after-party tonight?” He looks up from staring down at his feet and absentmindedly looks around the gym again. As he does another sweep across the room, he notices his lunch bag on one side the umpire table, partially hidden behind the table legs. He makes a silent prayer in gratitude that he finally found it.

“A-After party? Ryan and I have a session with my vocal coach today and I’d rather not, be amongst such heathens.” She bluntly replies.

“Oh okay then.” Zeke replies, feeling a little dejected as he walks towards the umpire table.

“Uh, Is that all? 'Cause I have to go.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Yep. That's all. See you around Sharpay. I’ll let you know when I make another batch of cookies.” Zeke hears her hum in approval before the line clicks and the call ends. Zeke picks up his lunch bag, takes his sports bag that was resting near the gym doors, and quickly leaves the gym. He was going to go home first to drop his things and change his clothes before going Troy’s house for the after-party.

Chapter Text

Upon arriving at his desk for homeroom, he reaches into his backpack to hand out one to Jason. "Hey Jason, do you wanna try the next batch of the croissants I've made?" Zeke offers towards Jason at the back of the classroom.

"Oh no thanks man, I'm still full from finishing yesterday's batch. I think I ate too many." Jason holds his stomach and puts on a pained face.
"Gotcha, maybe I'll offer it to the others." Zeke nods and moves back to his seat.

Kelsi comes in next holding some notes as usual and Zeke offers the croissants to her on the other side of the room but she shakes her head with a small smile. "Not really a fan of them but thank you."

Sharpay and Ryan enter the room a few minutes later. Moving from Jason's seat towards Sharpay who is now walking to her seat at the front of the room, "Hey Sharpay, do you wanna try the croissants I've been working on? I think they turned out a lot better than yesterday."
"Uh yeah sure," Sharpay takes her seat and turns to him and holds out her hand expectantly.

Zeke reaches into his backpack to hand it to her. "So about what you said last time. I did some research..." He places the croissant on her open hand as he continues, "I think there might've been a problem with the last batch because of the ventilation at home."

Sharpay opens the packaging and takes a bite from it. "Well, its better than yesterday thats for sure." She gives a hum of satisfaction.

"Yeah? I also made it in smaller sizes since I really made too much yesterday."

"Okay. I need to prepare for Ms. Darbus's class now. But thanks again for the crossaint."

"Oh yeah gotcha." Zeke picks up his bag and turns to leave as the warning bell rings and Troy and Chad come in with Gabriella and Taylor in tow. Ms. Darbus follows behind them.

"Hi Troy!" Sharpay peeks out behind Zeke.

Troy turns to Sharpay and greets her back with a wave before taking his seat and chatting with Gabriella.

Zeke goes to join Troy and the rest and also offers his croissants to them which they accept as they resume their conversations. At this point they start talking about their plans to find part-time jobs to earn some money.

"Alright class, the warning bell has rung so I believe it is time for you all to settle down in your seats." Ms. Darbus says as she takes her seat and fixes the things on her table.

She gives a look to the basketball team in one corner who are being a little rowdy with the basketball.

As the classroom fills up, the rest of the class settles down into their seats to prepare for Ms. Darbus's class. His phone vibrates in his pocket and he opens it up to see a text from Sharpay, "The texture is great this time but there's not enough layers to make the croissant have that balance of crispy and airy-ness." Zeke smiles at the honest review from Sharpay.

As he types his reply, Chad leans over to tell him, "Can't wait for this to be over." Zeke laughs in agreement. and leans over to whisper, "Yeah, I'm so pumped to start working on some more serious pastries this summer. I'm even looking for-"

"Mr. Baylor, care to share with the rest of the class what you seem to be so excited to share with Mr. Danford?" Ms. Darbus says to the pair.

"Sorry maam." Chad and Zeke straighten up in response.

"Good. Now as I was saying..." Ms. Darbus turns her back to the class to continue her discussion on the ending scenes of Hamlet.

Zeke places a hand on his chin trying to absorb the discussion but finds his eyes drifting to Sharpay who is taking notes. He grins at the sight of the pink puff ball at the end of the pen bobbing around as she writes.

Chad notices Zeke spacing out and in an attempt to catch Zeke off-guard, pushes his elbow.

"Hey. Chad. Come on man." Zeke exclaims and lookz to Chad.

"Mr. Baylor, this is the second time you've interrupted my class today. I believe, I have given you your second chance already so this cannot go on with just a warning."

"Oh please Ms. Darbus. I can't go to detention today." Zeke was worried. It was the last day before their summer break. He knew Sharpay would be on her way home once school was out. There wasn't any possibility that Sharpay would wait for him to finish detention just so they could talk.

"No exceptions unless you'd rather sit in front and wear the cap today."

"Yes, please Ms. Darbus, anything but detention." Zeke would be fine with any punishment as long as he could still catch up with Sharpay before she left. He rises from his chair to the front of the class beside Ms. Darbus where a stool was placed and a cone-shaped hat was on top of it. The hat was a cream color with SHHHH printed on one side. He put it on the hat before sitting on the seat reserved for those Ms. Darbus considered as temporary troublemakers. Facing the rest of class, he rests his chin on both his hands and Ms. Darbus continues on with her lecture.

Some of his teammates were silently chuckling at his expense, happy that they weren't the chosen one for the last day of school. Others in the class look at him with pity for being Ms. Darbus's target that afternoon.

Still, Zeke didn't really mind it because he had a better view of Sharpay. Its a much better view compared to his seat where he can properly see how she acts in class—how her eyes narrow a little bit when she's really focused, the way she slightly scrunches her eyebrows when she's diligently writing something down, the way she adjusts her posture whenever Ms. Darbus gives her a compliment in passing. But because he is facing the class, he can't let himself stare for too long unless the whole class would find out about his secret crush, his teammates aside. So, he takes care to make sure he's focusing on Ms. Darbus or watching his teammates who are doing their best to follow Ms. Darbus's train of thought.

The class was especially slow today as Ms. Darbus monotonously explains the overall motifs and themes of Hamlet. Despite Zeke's best efforts, he repeatedly catches himself looking in Sharpay's direction. As the class time is finishes up, Ms. Darbus gives out some final reminders to continue learning over the summer.

With less than a minute left before the bell rings, the whispers of summer spread throughout the class as the students excitedly chant and pack their bags to leave the room. No one can hear Ms. Darbus anymore as their whispers get louder in their repetition and her characteristically long speech is cut short with the school bell ringing.

To celebrate the start of the break, some students throw their papers up in the air and Zeke immediately takes off for his seat, navigating through the falling papers, to quickly grab his things hoping to catch up with Sharpay.

From his desk, he finds Sharpay walking out the classroom with several students crowded around her asking her to sign their yearbook. She pushes forward despite the crowd making sure to take pauses to sign some of yearbooks held out towards her. The scene reminds Zeke of his goal for the day to chat with Sharpay before she leaves using the yearbook as an excuse.

Tailing the growing crowd, he checks his bag for the yearbook he received from the student council earlier today. Taking the yearbook out from the mess in his backpack, he flips through the pages for the Drama club's two-page feature.

Having lost the crowd while flipping through the yearbook, he looks around the hallway and finds a glimpse of a moving crowd near the staircase. He rushes over there and pushes through the crowd to catch up to Sharpay who's going down the stairs. Zeke meets her at the middle of the steps and blurts out, "Hey Sharpay, I'm so glad we got a little closer this year. Do you wanna sign my yearbook?"

Sharpay was in the middle of signing another person's yearbook when Zeke came over and greets him back. "Oh hey Zeke!"

Another student pushes past him before Zeke can offer his yearbook to Sharpay while saying, "Hi Sharpay, could I get a picture with you?"

"Sure." Sharpay responds as she moves into a pose with them. Zeke takes a step to give them space for the picture. After the camera flashes, the student squeals and leaves. "Thank you Sharpay."

Meanwhile, Zeke was mesmerized again by her full smile and belatedly realized Sharpay had resumed until he was getting pushed towards the back of the crowd. Snapping himself back into reality, he moves forward through the crowd back to Sharpay to have her sign it. At her side, he holds the yearbook out to her.

Sharpay, having forgotten she was going to sign his yearbook, looks up to see who placed the yearbook in front of her. She sees him and smiles before signing his yearbook. "Oh right. Hey Zeke, thanks again for the cookies and the croissant."

"Its really nothing." He blushes but knowing that this might be his last chance to shoot his shot, he takes the courage to chat with her. "And I still think you're really talented..."

But it falls on deaf ears. She doesn't hear the rest of what Zeke has to say as she notices the page he chose for her to she sign was one with all her scenes from this year's musicals with her and Ryan.

"Oh you're so sweet." She blurts out more to herself than anyone else. Feeling like Zeke deserves more than just her signature as repayment, she takes his yearbook from his hands to kiss the corner of the page. Zeke does a double-take and she finds his reaction amusing as she gives it back to him before resuming her walk down the stairs with the rest of the crowd following her.

While Sharpay goes ahead, Zeke is again left starstruck with the book close to his chest. Sharpay gave me a kiss... on my yearbook. It was completely unthinkable. But he was feeling butterflies in his chest and his legs go weak. He leans back on the lockers for support to steel himself from being swept off his feet.

As he is doing so, Chad calls after him from the middle of the hallway which grounds Zeke back. "Zeke, what are you doing man?"

"Gimme a second dude." Zeke replies. Trying not to smudge the pink ink and lipgloss on his yearbook, Zeke carefully closes and places it back in his bag. He goes to meet with Chad and the rest of the team who gathered to plan their summer activities.

"Where'd you go?" Troy asks once Zeke was nearby.
"Oh I just asked Shar-"
"Yeah, yeah. Sharpay again." Chad cuts him off to continue discussing their plans for today. "Ok. But right now, there's gonna be a party at Troy's house to really kick off the break. You all in?"

"Uh yeah sure." Zeke chimes in as everyone confirms. The group disperses to head to their respective lockers or to the bus.

"Alright, Jason said he could give us a ride so I'll see you later at 7." Chad says to Zeke as they walk towards their lockers.

"Got it." Zeke nods absent-mindedly. He'd honestly rather go home to frame up his yearbook and bake but he also realized that it might be a while before they could get together and hang out like this.

At their lockers, they empty out their things to place inside their bags like the rest of the student body. From there, they move to the school buses to head home and prepare for the party later. The rest of the group who were also emptying out their lockers re-join Chad, Zeke and Troy in the hallway and they discuss their plans to work for the summer.

### cue the opening song of HSM 2 ###

Meanwhile, Sharpay can finally see the crowd dispersing as she signs a few more yearbooks and takes some more pictures with the crowd.

"What was that back there?" Ryan asks her as they walk to their lockers.

Sharpay raises her eyebrows and gives him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what was that with Zeke?" Ryan gestures to the staircase that they came from.

"Still, not getting what you're trying to say Ryan." Sharpay figures out what he's referring to but would much rather avoid it than explain herself. She picks up her pace by half a beat hoping to reach their lockers sooner to end this conversation.

"Like, why did you kiss a page of his yearbook?" Ryan matches her pace and presses further.

"I can't do that?" Sharpay responds with an air of confidence and walks a bit faster now. They were almost at their lockers now.

"There's nothing saying you can't but I just wanted to understand why." Ryan is unfazed and continues pestering her.

"I just felt like it." Sharpay says flatly as they arrive at her locker.

"That's it?" Ryan crosses his arms with suspicion, eyeing her carefully while trying to read her expression for any micro changes.

"Yeah, no if you'll excuse me, Ry, I need to fix my things." She gives him a condescending smile before turning him around to go to his locker.

"O-kay." Ryan gives up on it and continues walking off to his locker as Sharpay goes back to hers and opens it up.

### the convo in the early on in HSM 2 where Ryan and Sharpay discuss summer plans by their lockers ###

Walking towards the entrance, Zeke catches sight of a gold bow and blonde hair and runs to it like a sailor swimming to a siren.

With Zeke unable to stop himself on time, he walks into Sharpay's path and she bumps into him. "Uhm. Excuse me?"

"Hi again. Sorry about that. I was just—uh trying to get to the door." Zeke points to the door as Sharpay pushes it open. Her eyes narrow as she gives him a confused look. She begins to speak but her statement is drowned out by the marching band's celebration of the end of year at the school's main entrance. Everyone crowds around to enjoy the performance and some people begin dancing along for fun.

### the opening song resumes ###

As the marching band completes their performance, the crowd begins to disperse as people say their goodbyes. Some people will be flying out for the whole summer and won't get to see each other for the next months, other people were making plans to ensure they get to maximize their time spent together on the break.

Navigating through the crowd, Zeke tries to work up the courage once more to speak to Sharpay—and if he doesn't mess it up—ask about her plans for the summer. Zeke approaches Sharpay in his fourth—but who's counting?—greeting to her. "Hey Sharpay! I didn't get to thank you for signing my yearbook yet."

"Yeah, well, no worries, I do have to treat my fans well, don't I?" She teases him as they walk together to the parking lot.

"Huh? Sure. Anyways, what are your plans for the summer?" Zeke rubs his neck to calm his nerves.

"Like every summer, I'll be spending it at the my family's country club." She says matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I guess I won't be seeing you around then?"Zeke's face falls along with his hand as he slumps his shoulders in disappointment.

"Yeah, well I gotta go." They reached her parking spot and so she unlocks her pink convertible to sits in the driver seat. Zeke just stands to the side as she wears her sunglasses and puts on the seatbelt. She turns to Ryan who was settled in the shotgun seat. He had been silently following the pair the whole time. "You all set?"

Ryan gives a nod and she starts the engine. She looks to Zeke and gives him another of her award-winning smiles. "Well, it was nice seeing you Zeke but we'll be heading off now."

"Oh right, sorry." Focused on his disappointment, he doesn't register her soft goodbye smile and meekly steps back. He waves at them as she reverses out of her parking slot and drives off.

"Zeke!!! The bus!" Zeke turns around upon hearing Chad call after him. His obsession with trying to talk to Sharpay made him almost miss the bus. Thankfully, Chad hadn't ditched him and was trying to stall the bus from leaving.

"Wait! Let me hop on!" Zeke shouts hoping to get the bus drivers attention. He runs as fast as he can to the bus so he prepare for the party celebrating the end of Junior year.

Ryan looks back at the shrinking figures of people scattered across the school front. He spots Chad at the entrance of the bus and Zeke waving his hands while running to make it on the bus. He turns to look to his sister.

"What now Ry?" Sharpay asks, sensing Ryan's gaze on her but no answer. She briefly glances at him, "Like seriously, what?"

"What do you even see in Troy aside from him being the Primo boy? Like really." Ryan asks with skepticism, recalling their earlier conversation.

"It just makes sense!" Sharpay retorts incredulous that he isn't getting it—so much for twin telepathy.

"What about Zeke?" She didn't expect to hear him mention Zeke. But she wanted to play it cool because she wasn't even thinking of Zeke right now.

"What are you even talking about? What about Zeke?" She asks back with some emphasis.

"Do I need to remind you that you literally kissed his yearbook page earlier." She rolls her eyes and sighs at his answer. She didn't want to have to talk about this again.

"Oh that? Like I said, Zeke is, like, just a fan. So I just felt like it. You're over-reacting." She says trying to sound playful and dismissive.

"Whatever, its summer." Ryan says in exasperation, not wanting to meddle anymore. He crosses his arms and faces the window. "Its not like we'll be seeing them at the country club and they'll be busy with part-time jobs anyway."

Ryan's statement was news to Sharpay who hadn't heard about Troy's plans from her secret grapevine. But it was also an opportunity for her and Troy to get closer over the summer. With that, it was settled in her mind that that would be the best way to have Troy all to herself this summer. Sharpay smiles to herself while trying to ignore the linger thought to offer a spot to some of his teammates. She pauses to consider it but ultimately shakes her head at the thought and continues the drive home.

Chapter Text

"Alright Zeke, that's it for today, please go and enjoy the Talent Show." Chef Michael of the Country Club gives Zeke an encouraging pat on the back signalling the end of his shift. But its 30 minutes earlier than his usual end.

"Are you sure Chef? I think I could still-" It had been busier recently as the country club had all hands on deck to prepare for tonight. So just to be safe, Zeke offers to extend his shift to help out but Chef Michael, unfazed by the offer, interjects.
"U-pa-pup. Nope. Get outta here. Have a good evening with your friends."

"Thank you so much sir, have a good evening." Zeke goes over from the kitchen to the punch card machine to officially end his shift. Since his friends would be free later, he figured he could use this time to meet with Sharpay and wish her luck on her performance. Realizing he has no idea where she would be, Zeke rushes out to find out where they'll be holding the talent show, assuming that Sharpay would be near by the stage or something.

At the same time, Zeke types in a text to Sharpay on the chance that she’d see the message and end his search sooner.
'Where are you right now?'
His search ends much sooner than he expects as he reaches the reception desk of the club. Before he could ask the lady behind the desk, he immediately notices the flyer on top of the desk and takes one to skim over.

He finds the information he needed pretty quickly as it states "The club gardens at 6:30pm" on the top section of the flyer.

There it is. He thinks to himself but realizes that’s an area he hasn’t visited yet. He looks up from the flyer and finally speaks to the concierge lady who had been expecting an inquiry from him since he arrived at the desk, "Hi, may I ask where I can find the club gardens?"

"Its after the veranda just before the golf course on the left."

"Thank you." He rests the flyer back down on the desk and rushes towards the veranda following the reception lady's instructions.

Upon arriving, he sees Mr. Fulton looking worried at the edge of the stage and approaches him. "Where's Sharpay—I mean Ms. Evans?"

Mr. Fulton gives him a confused look and replies. "Ms. Evans is preparing backstage for the talent show this evening."

"Oh okay." He turns to go backstage but pauses as he realized he doesn't know where backstage is. So he turns back towards Mr. Fulton to ask another question. He opens his mouth to speak but, Mr. Fulton—as if demonstrating some psychic ability—says, "Mr. Baylor, the backstage entrance is to your left side of the stage."

"Thank you so much Mr. Fulton." Zeke pats Mr. Fulton's shoulders as he didn't think any other show of gratitude would be appropriate and rushes to the left side of the stage to find the entrance. He quickens his pace as he passes some of his friends chatting while waiting on the tables with club members and guests watching a one woman puppet show.

He gives some quick greetings and catches a snippet of another conversation "Did you hear? Gabriella's back." Zeke doesn't believe his ears so he chooses to focus on the task at hand.

Upon arriving at the left side of the stage, Zeke is troubled as he can’t find anything that indicates a door to enter. As he’s looking, he sees a few people leave through a passageway between what looks like large stones. He immediately moves towards the passage assuming that it would lead him backstage.

Going up the steps and through the passage, Zeke navigates between the rush of people who are pre-occupied with their respective tasks setting up props and the talents.

“Hi, sorry, coming through!” A high-pitched voice reaches his ears and Zeke’s gaze follows the voice to see someone pushing a white grand piano on stage with Kelsi and Troy following after. Ryan follows in a rush a few minutes later giving instructions to the stage staff. "We'll need a wireless mic asap please."

The stage manager passes by him as well and makes announcements for the next performer to be ready in 3 minutes.

In the midst of all this, he catches a pink light in one corner of his eye and guesses that's where he'll find Sharpay. Ryan had caught up with Kelsi and Troy and continues their preparations for their performance. As Zeke moves closer to the pink light that caught his eyes, he sees someone hunched over with their head in their hands.

"Hey Sharpay." Zeke starts and Sharpay immediately looks up in response and sees Zeke's reflection on the mirror.

"Zeke? What are you doing here?" Sharpay was ashamed to have been seen in the state she was in. Her disheveled hair from going through it from her nervousness and frustration, her ruined make up from the tears she couldn't control, and her unfinished outfit that hadn't taken off yet as she couldn't accept the reality of her situation.

But Zeke barely noticed these details preoccupied by his belated embarrassment for showing up out of the blue.

"Well, I just wanted to say thank you for letting us perform at your talent show."

"Well, yipee, good for you." Sharpay rolls her eyes and shrugs her shoulders. "I had nothing to do with it, I just had my chances to perform ruined tonight."

"What do you mean? You won't be performing tonight?" Zeke steps closer. Sharpay feigns ignorance and tries to fix her hair and clean up the make up so that Zeke wouldn't take notice of the state she's in. He hadn't even made any mention of it... yet.

"Well, Troy promised to perform with me but Ryan and Kelsi gave him a new song that I didn't know about so now he's out there performing-"

~Once in a lifetime means there's no second chance~

"-this new song." Zeke places a hand Sharpay's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her but he takes it back when his phone suddenly rings and answers the call. "Sorry, I think I gotta take this."

Sharpay nods in response but she slows her hand brushing through her hair to take a peek through the mirror at Zeke who stepped back to pick up the phone.

~Make it last forever and never give it back~

Gabriella's voice chimes as Troy's performance continues. "of course, he's performing with Gabriella." She rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to Zeke.

Zeke checks the caller ID and sees Jason's name flash on the screen before putting the phone to his ear. "Zeke! Where are you man" Jason's voice can barely be heard over Troy's singing and the excited whispered shouts from their other friends."Gabriella's here to surprise Troy at the Talent Show!"

"I'm a little busy right now." Zeke briefly responds trying to cut short the conversation. Zeke glances back at Sharpay who's still brushing her hair.

"That seems important" Sharpay set down the brush and stands up behind him to nudge him to meet with whoever was on the other line. "and I have some thinking to do anyway."

"Are you sure? Its just Jason. Its not that important. Really. And I'd rather be here than go out there." He turns to face her and holds his hand over the receiver to reply to Sharpay and she lightly laughs at his attempts to persuade her. She lightly pats his arm to prove that she's fine. "Thank you Zeke. Its really okay."

"I'm sorry. Please come see me later. I had some cookies to give you but I didn't bring it with me since I heard that sweets aren't good before a performance. I could've given you some right now if I had known."

"Okay. I'll see you later Zeke." She says as he ends the call and puts his phone away to stand up. She turns away from him and watches from the mirror as Zeke exits the backstage.

~Oh, everyday-ay-ay-ay~

The music gets louder as Zeke goes over to his friends crowded near the entrance to the garden.

"Hey man, where were you?" Jason says to him.

"Just had a couple more errands for Chef Michael."

"That sucks man. Still glad you could make it in time." Zeke fakes a smile in response. Sharpay's condition remains in his mind. But knowing her, he can't push anymore than he already has and tries to focus on the performance.

Sharpay stares at her reflection and sighs. She takes out her makeup remover and rubs away the smudged makeup. She thinks to herself about what had gone so wrong for it to end up this way. Why couldn't she just perform with Troy and what was so bad about it that Ryan and Kelsi had to intervene.

Sharpay acknowledged that maybe she had been too forward with Troy this summer. But it was in her nature to grab opportunities as they come by and she couldn't let this go by so easily just because Troy and Gabriella had gotten closer last semester.

"Ugh. Why do I feel like the bad guy right now." She sighs again as she moves from her dressing room to watch Troy and Gabriella's duet from backstage as they steal her spotlight once again. She spots Mr. Fulton on the other side of the stage and passes through the rest of backstage to get to the other side not wanting to be seen by her parents, guests, and friends.

Mr. Fulton notices Sharpay approach him and asks, "Ms. Evans, would you like me to stop the performance?"

"Save it. I'm not really in the mood." She holds her hand up to stop anymore questions.

"But what about the award for best performance?" Mr. Fulton responds back. Sharpay looks over at the trophy on the table behind them and shrugs. "Alright then, Ms. Evans."

Their discussion ends there and they resume watching the performance of Troy and Gabriella.

~Keep the faith, keep the faith-aith. Everyday!~

The wildcats at the back end of the audience start singing along with Troy and Gabriella and Sharpay scoffs in amusement seeing the volume of their voices shock even Troy and Gabriella who pause before resuming to sing along with them. They move towards the stage to join in with Troy and Gabriella

As they move up the stage, Zeke notices Gabriella go over the left side and take Ryan's hand to have him join the performance while Troy goes to the right. He sees Sharpay beside Mr. Fulton watching the performance from the side. Troy offers his hand which Sharpay takes and she also joins in on the performance.

They all join in and sing with Troy and Gabriella on stage and conclude the performance together.

Once the performance ends, Mr. Fulton marches on stage carrying the trophy to present the award to the winners.

"Just fabulous. Fabulous. Well will you all please take your seats. I have one last task to perform this evening." Mr. Fulton pauses for dramatic effect. "The star dazzle award for this year goes to the only one and only-"

Sensing that Mr. Fulton may say her name, Sharpay interrupts and grabs both the mic and trophy from his hands. She looks to the left end of the stage and says, "my brother, Ryan Evans." She hands over the trophy with a playful smile and catches a glimpse of Zeke who grins at her gesture.

Everyone cheers for Ryan who takes center stage and the wildcats move closer to send their individual congratulations. While everyone else's focus is on Ryan's win, Zeke uses this chance to speak to Sharpay. He taps on her shoulder and whispers, "I believe, you promised to see me after the performance?"

"Oh yeah, right." Sharpay turns to him in surprise but quickly recovers. "Uhm let's meet at the pool in 15 minutes? I'd like to change out of my dress."

"Oh yeah, I also need to get out of my work clothes." She lets out a breathy snort acknowledging his response before moving away to go back stage.

Chapter Text

Sharpay enters the pool side a few minutes before their meeting time and lays down on her back to face the evening sky while waiting for Zeke to arrive.

Zeke comes in a minute later holding a container slightly breathless and huffs, "Dang it, I thought I'd get here before you."

She sits up and laughs at him as he catches his breath, "It's not like you're late or anything."

He takes a seat on the chaise beside her's and places a container on the table between them. Nervous that he ruined the cookies while running, he takes a slow peak inside to check the current state of the pastries. Seeing minimal damage, he removes the cover and lifts the container up to offer the cookies to Sharpay, "and as promised, here are the cookies I made today."

She claps in excitement, "Yes, I haven't had these in forever." She takes one from the container and takes a bite. Sharpay lets out a sigh in satisfaction and holds them up high. "These are just as good as the first time I tasted them."

Zeke who had been nervously observing her, puts the container back on the table and looks away to hide his blush at her positive reaction. As Sharpay finishes the cookie, Zeke remembers how sad she looked during the talent show and turns back to her. "How are you feeling now?"

Sensing a shift in the atmosphere, Sharpay smiles as she takes a bite of a new cookie before answering. "Not so bad anymore. Especially with these cookies."

She holds up her bitten cookie up to Zeke then up to the sky to angle it over the moon. "I don't know what you put in your cookies but they always seem to make me feel better after having some."

Zeke shrugs. "I wouldn't know either. I just used the recipe from the recipe books at home. I don't remember seeing anything special about the ingredients."

She audibly laughs at how seriously he answered her before popping the rest of the cookie in her mouth. And they fall silent listening to the rustle of the leaves and the splashing waterfall of the pool.

Zeke shifts in his seat before breaking the silence. "Forgive me for asking but do you actually like Troy?"

"What do you mean? Of course I do. He's like the ultimate guy. He's the basketball team captain, he sings and dances, he's handsome, he's popular, and he can even play golf. His grades aside, he's, like, perfect." She avoids his gaze as she reaches over to grab another cookie.

He observes her as she listed off her reasons for liking Troy but he can't feel any emotion from her words unlike when she talks about her drama club or roles for the school musicals.

"Oh, are you really sure you like him?" He presses her again.

She scrunches her brows and turns her body to look at him. Her face expressing something between a frown and confusion. "What are you trying to say?"

He switches to lay on his side with an arm holding his head up so that he's angled towards her, "Well, after talking to you a few times last semester and this summer, I noticed that there isn't the same look in your eyes when you talk about Troy compared to when you talk about other things like your plans for the future or your performances. Maybe I'm overstepping but I don't think you actually like him as much as you say you do."

She rolls her eyes and switches to lay comfortably on her side as well facing Zeke. "Haha. Yeah, right. But those are different things. Do I have to justify why I like Troy or something?" She narrows her eyes in suspicion at his questioning. Her pride refuses to understand what Zeke was implying.

"You don't have to believe me or anything and I'm not saying you don't like him either. It just occurred to me that maybe you like him because he could help you as the male lead for the drama club projects since he's popular and can sing and dance."

Zeke pauses to check if Sharpay was listening and sees her staring at him with blank look. He clears his throat, feeling nervous at her unreadable stare, before continuing, "I was just curious cuz I wouldn't want you to get hurt since Troy and Gabriella are basically inseparable.

She stares at him for a couple more moments after he finished his sentence struggling to process his words and gets lost in her thoughts. He wasn't wrong about how she initially liked Troy because he wasn't like the other guys at school and yet still really popular. Then he started getting interested in theater which irked her at first but then made him even more ideal as a partner. She didn't really care about Gabriella aside from the fact that Gabriella was with Troy. All she wanted was Troy because he was everything she wanted in a partner.

Remembering that Zeke's still here, she turns to lie on her back and face the sky. "Well, thank you for the concern. I didn't know you were some love guru." She says and with an air quotes gesture for "love guru".

"Oh I'm not. I just-"

"What does it matter to you if I hurt myself trying?" She rises up to a seated position and faces him.

Zeke laughs and switches to a seated position as well. Trying to ignore the warmth that came when their knees brushed past each other, Sharpay adjusts her knees to add a larger gap between their legs and continues, "What does it even mean to like someone anyway?"

Zeke shifts his legs to lean on Sharpay's as he gives her an honest answer. "In my case, I really admire how head strong you are with what you believe in. I think its really cool how you're so passionate about theater. How hard you work to get the best for yourself and be the best at what you do."

Sharpay leans a little closer and studies his face that's avoiding her gaze as she tries to find some hidden answer in his eyes that glance between her, the pool and the floor. The excitement as he spoke was contagious enough for her want to smile. She wonders if thats what she sounded like when she would share anything related to her club.

"As I said before, your eyes shine so brightly every time you talk about something you like. I'd like to think its the same when I talk about baking. Sometimes I bake things hoping to see those same eyes in your reactions when you say its good or that you liked it." Listening to his words, Sharpay tilts her head trying to process what he's saying but she's distracted by Zeke's eyes that seem to get even brighter.

Zeke had gotten a bit more comfortable in his monologue and leans forward as he continues explaining. "Its like there's this special glow around you. I feel-"

"Okay hold on." She holds her hand up to interrupt him—a bit worried about how long he'd go on about her—and wanting to give them some space given how their faces were almost inches apart at the moment. She leans back into an upright position to add some distance between them again.

"Are you really gonna keep going?" Its not like she's uncomfortable from the compliments as she's heard similar words before. But its odd that she's being attentive to his position and that she can suddenly feel her heart beat in her ears.

"Do you want me to?" Zeke holds the wrist of the hand she put up in front of his face to put it down slowly. As the barrier between them falls, he watches Sharpay who is lost in thought again before answering his question.

She moves her hand away from his grasp and fans away the heat the seems to have crept up her cheeks. "As much as I would love to hear your essay about me. I think I see what you're trying to say."

Zeke sees the pink tinge spread on her cheeks and grins. He tries to hide his smile but he also can't help himself from calling out her reaction to his words. "I think its cute that me talking about you makes you blush. Is this the first time its happened?" With the side of his right knee still leaning on her right knee, he nudges her foot with his as he makes the comment.

Sharpay shifts her foot back in a way that doesn't break the contact between their knees and scoffs at his question. She hesitates before choosing not to answer, placing her hands at her sides.

"I'm gonna take your silence as a yes."

Shift his knees to nudge against hers, "So I was wondering if you'd like to join us later. We're planning to light some lanterns up at the golf course."

Sharpay tries to reverts back to her usual composed self and shifts her knees away breaking the extended contact. "That's not allowed though."

Zeke doesn't press further and calmly goes into a laid back position with his legs stretched out and leaning on the opposite direction. "Well Ryan asked his—your parents—and they gave the okay."

"Of course he did." She remarks. She crosses her legs trying to ignore the cool breeze replacing the warmth after Zeke adjusted his seating position.
"So are you in?"

Sharpay gives him a look. "Do I have a choice?"

"You do. Yes or yes." Zeke closes the empty container and stands up. He non-expectantly reaches his hand towards Sharpay while he picks up the container. Instead of answering his question, she unexpectedly and reluctantly takes his held out hand before walking towards the main hall to meet up with the others.

As they approach the rest of the group, Sharpay realizes they were still holding hands and drops them before Jason calls out to them. Sharpay looks at her palm and thinks it was a shame she couldn't hold onto his warm hands anymore. But she catches those uncharacteristic thoughts and shakes her head.

Zeke says nothing about it as they approached Jason who hands them a lantern. "Hey Zeke. Sharpay. Glad you could join us to launch the lanterns." Jason greets. "We were actually just about to call you Zeke since we're about to head over to the golf course now."

"You are joining us right, Sharpay?" Gabriella, holding Troy's arm, asks. Seeing Gabriella with Troy makes her feel competitive so Sharpay instinctively locks her arm with Zeke's before giving a smile and nodding in response. Zeke hides his surprise well enough for Sharpay to think he isn't fazed by the action. As payback, he casually unlocks their arms and holds her hand instead. Sharpay looks to him with eyebrows raised and her eyes pleasantly surprised. She can't do anything since she started it and its not like she disliked the gesture. Gabriella notices the exchange and smiles. "Great! Come on guys, let's go."

Gabriella and Troy lead the group to the golf course. As they arrive, they look up at the stars and catch a shooting star.

"Did you guys see that?" "Make a wish!" Someone speaks up.

Once everyone made their wishes the group disperses into pairs as they prepare to launch their lanterns.

After they set down their lantern, Zeke leans in and whispers, "Hey Sharpay, do you wanna go out sometime?" Sharpay looks at him in disbelief.

Fireworks erupt before she can think of a way to respond and Sharpay turns from Zeke to look up at the sky. "Look at those fireworks!" She pulls their intertwined hands and points up hoping to distract him. But Zeke sees through her attempt. He knew his question was a bolt from the blue but his heart couldn't take seeing her so distraught over Troy. It was like he hadn't asked her before. All he wanted to help her get over Troy so she wouldn't be so affected by Troy anymore.

Zeke gives a quick look at the fireworks and turns back to her. "Yeah, they're beautiful. But did you hear what I said just now?"

Sharpay smiles and playfully replies, "I don't know what you could possibly be talking about. The fireworks were too loud, I couldn't hear anything else"

"Uh-uh, don't play with me Sharpay."

Sharpay laughs and lets go of their hands to runs through the grass trying to escape Zeke's attempts to get a response from her.

"Gotcha." Zeke holds her arm. Suddenly the sprinkles turn on and the whole group gets soaked from the spray.

Zeke pulls her towards him steadying her with his other arm in surprise at the sudden rain. The atmosphere gets a bit serious and Sharpay is stumped on what kind of response she's supposed to give. Saying an outright "Yes" or "No" doesn't feel right. But she can't just go out with Zeke when she hadn't gotten over Troy. With Sharpay looking at him and struggling to articulate a response, Zeke moves his hand that's holding her arm down to her hand and lifts it up to his mouth and gives it a soft and light kiss at her knuckles. Staring straight into her eyes with her hand still near to his mouth she can feel his breath on her fingers, "So what will it be Ms. Evans?"

"Zeke," She pulls her hand from his grasp and holds it to her chest. "You should know that I still like Troy even if you think I don't."

"I know that. But its okay if you use me. Even just for this summer. Who knows? Maybe you'd end up falling for me." Zeke playfully negotiates with her. Sharpay looks away from him and sees Troy kissing Gabriella. The sight reminds her of the first time she lost the lead role to them last school year. She sighs trying to expel that feeling of insecurity and looks back to Zeke with a tight-lipped apologetic smile "But what if you don't?"

"And what if I do?" Zeke takes both her hands and pleads. "Its okay if, by the end of summer break, you still like Troy. At that point, I can just take a step back and things will be like before, me making you everything that you want and you doing everything that you want."

Sharpay wasn't actually opposed to it as she knows he would treat her well. He's been really nice so far. But she can't just shake off her feelings for Troy just because Zeke says he likes her. She wouldn't want to use Zeke as a rebound either, it would break her heart in ways that she never could imagine. Sharpay was also worried about what would happen if she did come to like him. Liking Troy was safe, expected and easy. Liking Zeke was neither of those things. She knew she would regret her words in the end but maybe...

"Fine. I'll give whatever this is a try."
"Yes!" Zeke exclaims and hugs Sharpay. "You won't regret it."

"I hope you don't either." She responds worried about the rest of the summer they'll be having.

Chapter Text

Unlike most people who wished Friday to come sooner each week, Sharpay had grown to like Thursdays. It was the highlight of her week with an extra period for club activities.

With an extra pep in her step, Sharpay struts into East High. She looks around the hallway ignoring all the first and second years who suffer with weakness when they are caught in her gaze. Remembering her arrangement with Zeke for special brownies, she finds herself noticing all the banners of the basketball team. She wondered if there was a big coming up and immediately set towards the loudest group in the hallway, Troy and his teammates.

As she gets closer, she sees them huddled around a large glass case. At the same time she locks in on the familiar wildcats jersey jacket. Trying to be nonchalant, Sharpay brushes past Zeke and bumps into Troy. "Hey Troy."

She waits until Troy turns around before she continues. "So, when's the big game?"

Her phone rings as Troy answers and Sharpay doesn't hear his response as she focuses on the text messaged received.

Its a text from the drama club manager regarding the Juilliard scholarships. Surprised at the news, she hurriedly drafts a response. In the middle of her typing, she remembers that she’s with still the basketball team and hadn't responded to Troy.

"Oh well, good luck." She looks up from her phone and blows a kiss at him. She sneaks in a wink at Zeke before flipping her hair with a turn and stepping away from them to go to her locker. She finishes and sends a simple response to the manager for details on the list and catches Zeke's remark, "Oh she's so sweet."

That was the last thing she heard of the conversation before she was too far to eavesdrop on their conversation. She smiles to herself thinking that her attempt to get Zeke's attention had worked. Setting that aside, she texts Ryan the exciting news she received.

'The drama club manager literally just texted me about it. I don't understand why they said candidates, its only you and I who applied.'

After sending a reply, Sharpay realizes she hadn't asked Zeke about the brownies she requested a while back and drafts a new message to him.

She makes a small smile after reading his response. Seeing her locker nearby, she quickly sends a response back.

Taking her time to freshen up, an unfamiliar figure appears in her mirror. She turns in their direction and asks, "Who are you—I mean, what are you?"

"Good morning Ms. Evans, I'm Tiara Gold. I transferred to East High from London and I noticed on the board you're in need of a personal assistant." She says in a English accent while holding up a pink flyer in her hand in front of Sharpay.

"Yeah, with finals, prom, and graduation, I need someone tracking my appointments and assignments." Sharpay turns to her locker as she explains what Tiara would have to do as her personal assistant. "Most important, I need someone to run lines for the musical."

Realizing that Tiara wouldn't understand what "run lines" would mean, she turns back to Tiara and explains further, "That's a term for-"

"Learning your role. I understand." Tiara cuts her off to show off her knowledge. Sharpay makes a quiet gasp in surprise. Tiara turns to Sharpay's locker and continues while rearranging a few of Sharpay's books, "It's best to keep your science and math books together since those are the first lessons of the day."

Sharpay makes way for Tiara to move the books around some more with a hand holding the top the left locker door, "How do you know my schedule?" Sharpay asks as they had only just met.

"I took the liberty of checking to make certain I'd have your non-fat, no foam soy latte ready for free period." Tiara explains as she finishes up with the locker and hands over an biodegradable pink package bag to Sharpay.

"One packet of sweetener?" Sharpay checks with Tiara in disbelief of how quickly she was beginning to like this girl.

"Organic." Tiara replies with a smile. Sharpay tries to hold back a smile as she takes the package with her latte from Tiara. She gives it a whiff and can almost taste it. She quickly hides her satisfaction that is thankfully unnoticed by Tiara who picks up Sharpay's school bag from its place in locker.

"I'll email you my wardrobe choices each morning so that our outfits won't clash. If you own any orange, get ride of it." She emphasizes her last sentence as a warning to Tiara. Sharpay closes her locker and realizes she has to at least compliment Tiara to maintain a some camaraderie between them so she turns to Tiara to say, "By the way, love the accent. It's" She pauses, recalling Zeke's words earlier this morning, "Sweet."

They head for Sharpay's homeroom. On the way there, she has to push between a freshie who got caught by the hall monitor. The bell rings a few minutes before she enters the room.

Shaking off the unwanted contact, she heads to her desk in the front row and sees a neat stack of wrapped brownies on her desk. As she turns to sit down, she notices Zeke writing on a notebook in a weird pose using his leg as a desk instead while his actual desk is a foot rest. She discreetly shakes her head in amusement before taking a seat. Once seated, she gracefully unwraps one to take a piece off of the brownie for an initial taste. Sharpay subconsciously nods in approval to herself at the soft richness of the brownie. Taking a sip of her soy latte with another bite of the brownie and she sighs at the combination of flavors.

She finishes the rest of the brownie and praises herself for asking Zeke to make the food low-fat as she can't take asking her parents for a resized prom dress with how often she'll end up requesting for these brownies from Zeke.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Ms. Darbus standing up from her seat to start the class. "Alright, settle down. We are all still excited about our Wildcats top to bottown championship."

"That would be back to back Ms. Darbus." Chad speaks up to correct Ms. Darbus. Ms. Darbus moves to the back end of the class and continues, "Whatever the case, it was a grand slam. Well done. And now our student body president and co-editor of the yearbook, Miss Taylor McKessie has some important announcements. Taylor."

Despite turning her body to the back of the room with the blackboard, Sharpay feigns attention to Taylor since Tiara would be taking notes for her anyway. She catches Zeke smiling in her direction which catches her a little off-guard. What is he smiling for? Who is he smiling at?

Worried that she'll get caught staring by Zeke, she tried to focus on Taylor's announcements

"Senior trip committee meets tomorrow and reports Thursday to prom committee which is headed by Martha. So you guys can pick up your tickets from her." Taylor gestures to Martha who holds up the prom poster for this year. At the mention of prom, Sharpay takes a quick glance at Zeke who is looking over at Taylor. Sharpay redirects her attention back to Taylor who continues the announcements while walking to the center aisle.
"This year's theme is The Last Waltz. But don't be the last to pick up tickets." She smacks Chad's desk at the word “last” with her pointer and she moves to the front of the class. At the center, she finishes off the announcements. "Graduation committee convenes Monday. Picture committee is Thursday and finals study groups alternate with all of the above. Questions?"

"Yeah. What's the lunch special in the cafeteria?" Chad jokingly asks and the class laughs in response at the question.

Taylor smiles at his challenge, "New York Deli. Anyone else?"
"Oohhh..." The class is taken aback at her quick reply. Ms. Darbus takes over to wrap up the announcements. "Moving on. Ms. Sharpay Evans, four-term president of the drama club. Spring musical report."

Sharpay stands from her seat and moves to the front and center of the room taking the same spot where Taylor had stood. "Well with prom and finals, everyone is so busy. I was thinking, I'd select something very modest to perform." She gasps and shrugs her shoulders.

"Perhaps, even a one-woman show." The rest of the class sigh unamused by the suggestion.

Sharpay turns to Kelsi who suddenly leans forward to write hurriedly on her desk. Ms. Darbus asks, "A little light on the sign-ups Kelsi?"

Still writing on the sign-ups sheet, Kelsi stands up and walks over to Ms. Darbus. "Um... No, we're actually doing pretty well." She hands over the sign-up sheet to Ms. Darbus after reply and quickly returns to her seat.

Sharpay watches Ms. Darbus's reaction to whatever was on the sheet. "Well, well, well. Almost the entire homeroom."

Everyone turns to Kelsi with an audible a mix of annoyance, surprise, and displeasure.

Sharpay stomps her foot in frustration and returns to her seat. Now that Ms. Darbus is in favor of Kelsi's idea to get the whole class in the musical, that would also mean she would have to share the spotlight with them. She wouldn't be able to be take the focus for the last musical of high school and buff up her college applications.

"How inspiring. I will happily see all of you at free period to discuss the show." She pauses, "and to make a very special announcement."

Sharpay looks to Ryan in a knowing look, trying to say its about the the Juilliard scholarship applications. Ryan meets her gaze and nods.

After the announcements were settled, the bell rings and Ms. Darbus dismisses the class to heads to the theatre. And the rest of them go into their first classes of the day.

Chapter Text

It had been less than 24 hours since the East High Wildcats were declared champions once again. The team was clearly still hyped up from yesterday as they recounted highlights of the game while surrounding the trophy case. It was a really great feat and Zeke still hadn’t fully believed it happened—even with the proof right before his eyes. But his attention shifts away from the team as familiar footsteps exuding confidence with every step began approaching their group. He knows who it is but doesn't dare to acknowledge her first, afraid that making the first move would make her like him less. Sure, Troy and Gabriella managed to loosen up the prejudices of the whole student body last year. But not everyone was like them.

There's a brief brush against his shoulder and Zeke turns to see Sharpay moving past him to bump into Troy. "Hey Troy." She greets him with a smile and waits for Troy to turn around before continuing. "So, when’s the big game?"

Her phone rings just as Troy gives his answer, "Uh, Yesterday." But Sharpay switches her attention to her phone and begins typing away.

"Oh. Well, good luck." She says absentmindedly after a few minutes and looks up from her phone to blow a kiss at them. She catches Zeke’s gaze and sneaks in a wink at him before whipping her hair over her shoulder as she turns and walks away from them.

Troy and Zeke follow Sharpay's retreating figure with different emotions. The former, amused, jokingly catches the air kiss. Meanwhile the latter began to overthink her actions and what it meant. She didn't have to brush past him to get to Troy. Even worse, why would she wink at him as she said her goodbyes. Was it coincidence? Carelessness? His thoughts were running wild with all possible explanations and all that thinking was hurting his brain. He could continue to speculate for the rest of the day on what she meant but he also had to acknowledge what she actually said which was just her well wishes for their championship game. The game was already over but it was still a thoughtful gesture and he couldn't help but think she directed it specifically for him.

He couldn't allow himself to react at such an absurd notion. In an attempt to prevent the quickening of his pulse, he puts his hand over his chest. Trying to enjoy the moment for whatever it was yet also convincing himself that there was nothing more to her words, he talks to himself—temporarily forgetting his teammates around him. "Oh she's so sweet."

Troy and Chad who were snickering at Sharpay's ignorance turn their heads to him in disbelief as their smiles fade. Troy lightly slaps Zeke’s cheek with the same hand that caught the kiss as a response, almost dumbfounded by the sudden confession.

"Just gotta return this to its rightful owner." Troy explains.

"Thanks man. I guess." Zeke says while rubbing his cheek.

"Why do you even like Sharpay anyway?" Chad asks as he moves closer to the two. Zeke opens his mouth to respond but Chad interrupts and takes a step back with his hands up like thief caught in the act, "Forget I asked. I don't think I'll ever hear the end of it."

The rest of the team laugh and Zeke shakes his head at them accepting that Chad wasn't wrong for saying that. "You guys just don't get it." He shakes his head at them. Zeke's suddenly phone rings as he was speaking cutting his scolding short. "But I'm also glad you don't."

Reaching into his pocket to grab his phone, he flips it open and sees a message notification from Sharpay.

'Have you cooked up anything for me today? xx'

Zeke smiles at the screen before sending a reply.

'I made the low-fat brownies you requested. I can give it to you before homeroom.'

As Zeke is typing, the team begin to disperse as they walk towards their lockers and Chad starts going on about Sharpay, "But don't you remember how she treated us last summer?"

Zeke's phone rings again as he remarks, "But she did change her mind and let us perform still. And that was only like the first couple of weeks in to the break."

Opening the new reply from Sharpay. 'Got it xx'

"Yeah but only after Troy stood up for us." Chad retorts.

"Why are you still hung up on this Chad? I thought things were cool now since we didn't really have any more problems for the rest of the summer after the talent show." Troy chimes in.

"Cause she's still nuts man. Like, after everything from Freshman year until now and she's still trying to go out with you?" Chad points at Troy and laughs.

Zeke and Troy shake their head at Chad. Troy, trying to leave the conversation, excuses himself, "No, I don't think so. Anyways, we gotta actually get to our lockers before the warning bell rings or we're gonna be late to homeroom."

"Yeah. I have to get the prom flyers from Martha before class starts to help her distribute during the breaks." Zeke adds.

Zeke branches off from the Troy and Chad to head for the classroom while the duo go to their lockers. He enters the classroom earlier than expected and takes a look around the room. Taylor is writing something on the blackboard with Gabriella. Since Martha hasn't come in yet, he goes to his seat to wait. He greets the two of them while setting down his bag on his desk. He brings out the brownies he made for Sharpay and walks over to the other side of the room to place the brownies on her desk.

"Zeke? What are you doing over there?" A voice calls out to him. Zeke flinches in a panic and whips his head around trying to see who's talking to him. He sees that its just Ryan and relaxes.

"Oh hey man, I'm just dropping off some brownies for Sharpay. You want some?" Zeke opens the container and offers it to Ryan.

"Oh yeah, sure, thanks!" Ryan steps closer to reach into the container to take a piece before continuing on to his desk. Zeke takes the remaining brownies out before he closing the container and places the wrapped brownies in a pyramid on Sharpay's desk for her to see. He returns back to his seat to shove the container back in his bag and takes out his phone from his pocket.

With the task complete, he sends a text to Sharpay, 'The brownies are just on your desk.'

Martha enters the classroom just as Zeke sent the text and she heads over to Zeke to hand him half the stack of prom flyers to post around the school. “I’ll be posting these up in the left side of campus so please make sure to cover the other side.”
“You got it.”
“Alright, thanks Zeke.” Martha replies before heading back to her desk.

Zeke places the flyers in his bag as he remembers the homework for Family Sciences that's due tomorrow that he should to get started on since he'll be too tired to work on it after practice. He pulls out his notes and starts working on the homework for the rest of the time before the bell rings. As he's going over the work, he keeps an eye out for the door wondering when Sharpay will come in.

Hearing the familiar footsteps once again, Zeke looks up from his homework and sees Sharpay who entered a few minutes after the bell rings. He secretly watches as she heads over to her desk and sloppily shoves his homework back in his bag as he waits for her to notice the brownies. But being in the back half of the room, he can only guesstimate what she's doing through the bobbing of the back of her head.

He doesn't notice Ms. Darbus who has entered the classroom shortly after Sharpay. He attempts to check the reaction on her face by angling his body in different ways without standing but is interrupted by Ms. Darbus standing up from her seat to start the class. "Alright, settle down. We are all still excited about our Wildcats top to bottom championship."

"That would be back to back Ms. Darbus." Chad speaks up to correct Ms. Darbus. Ms. Darbus moves to the back end of the class and continues, "Whatever the case, it was a grand slam. Well done. And now our student body president and co-editor of the yearbook, Miss Taylor McKessie has some important announcements. Taylor."

As the class's gaze follows Taylor who stands to the back of the classroom to the blackboard, Zeke takes this chance to observe Sharpay a little bit. She seems quite focused on Taylor with her body turned as much as possible to the back. He looks to her desk and sees a folded up brownie wrapper. He smiles thinking that she liked it enough to finish the whole thing. His focus goes back to Taylor.

"Senior trip committee meets tomorrow and reports Thursday to prom committee which is headed by Martha. So you guys can pick up your tickets from her." Gestures to Martha who holds up the prom poster for this year. At the mention of prom, Zeke stops himself from looking at Sharpay in fear that she'd be looking at someone else, like Troy with an expectant look. So he focuses on Taylor who continues the announcements while walking to the center aisle.
"This year's theme is The Last Waltz. But don't be the last to pick up tickets." She smacks Chad's desk at the word last with her pointer and she moves to the front of the class. While everyone is distracted by Taylor's direct jab at Chad, Zeke allows himself to glance at Sharpay who is still focused on Taylor finishing off the announcements. "Graduation committee convenes Monday. Picture committee is Thursday and finals study groups alternate with all of the above. Questions?"

"Yeah. What's the lunch special in the cafeteria?" Chad jokingly asks and the rest of the class laughs at the question.

Taylor smiles at his challenge, "New York Deli. Anyone else?" "Oohhh..." The class is taken aback at her quick reply. Ms. Darbus takes over to wrap up the announcements. "Moving on. Ms. Sharpay Evans, four-term president of the drama club. Spring musical report."

Sharpay stands from her seat and moves to the front and center of the room taking the same spot where Taylor had stood. "Well with prom and finals, everyone is so busy. I was thinking, I'd select something very modest to perform." She gasps and shrugs her shoulders.

"Perhaps, even a one-woman show." The rest of the class sigh unamused by the suggestion.

Kelsi suddenly leans forward to write hurriedly on her desk which grasps the attention of the class. Ms. Darbus asks, "A little light on the sign-ups Kelsi?"

Still writing on the sign-ups sheet, Kelsi stands up and walks over to Ms. Darbus. "Um... No, we're actually doing pretty well." She hands over the sign-up sheet to Ms. Darbus after reply and quickly returns to her seat.

Ms. Darbus goes over what's written on the sheet. "Well, well, well. Almost the entire homeroom."

The class turns to Kelsi with an audible a mix of annoyance, surprise, and displeasure, Zeke included.

Sharpay stomps her foot in frustration and returns to her seat. Now that Ms. Darbus is in favor of Kelsi's idea to get the whole class in the musical, that would also mean he would have to balance it with the extra credit work for the Family Sciences he has taken up.

"How inspiring. I will happily see all of you at free period to discuss the show." She pauses, "and to make a very special announcement."

The bell rings signaling the end of homeroom. Zeke scratches his head at the sudden theater project the class got roped into before quickly packing his things and moving to his first class of the day.

Chapter Text

## cue Spring Musical: Senior Year intro ##
~Its our last chance to share the stage before we go our separate ways.~

Sharpay was in the middle of her breathing and vocal exercises when she heard a knocking on her door.

"Entree." She says and continues pacing in the middle of the room with her warm-ups assuming it was Troy coming in to rehearse their duet before the show as she requested. As the door swings open, she pauses from her exercises and turns towards the entrance. “Hey Troy, what took you so long?”

With the door swung wide open, its Zeke who was behind the door instead. “Sorry, is this a bad time?”

Zeke was ready for the stage in his basketball uniform. He had one hand holding a basketball and the other still on the door knob ready to close it again in case she said yes.

“Zeke? What are you doing here? The show’s about to start. You’re on any minute now.” She hurriedly replies recovering from being dumbfounded that he is still in the dressing area instead preparing to make his entrance.

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to stop by and wish you good luck on your performance today.” He lets go of his grip on the door to lean to the left side of the frame with his arms crossed with the ball pressed to his chest.

“Right. Thanks, you too. Now get going. I wouldn’t want you to ruin the show by being late to the opening act.” She steps towards him while fanning both her hands in his direction to urge him from her dressing room entrance to the hallway so he can make a run for it.

~To bring you music one more time.~

Taking his place at the door frame after pushing Zeke to the hallway, Sharpay shakes her head and scoffs as he quickly flashes her a wide smile then rushes to the stage wings. The corners of her lips turn up as she watches his figure disappear among the scurrying crowd of cast and crew. The sight was a little nostalgic. She was going to miss being in this auditorium. But it wasn’t the time for reminiscing and she needed to actually get ready now. It would be better if she was already in costume when she and Troy rehearsed so turns around to reenter into her dressing room to dress up and do her make up.

## Spring Musical continues on as in HSM 3 ##

Ryan’s number was almost over when Sharpay had given up on Troy coming into rehearse for the second act. It was almost time for their duet so she decided to go looking for Troy herself only to be distracted when she caught sight of one of the stage hands to give them reminders regarding some of the stage effects.

“We have to save something and when I’m at the balcony, don’t forget the special. You’re always forgetting the special." At this point of her discussion with the stage hand, Ryan's number had concluded which reminded Sharpay of her initial plan to look for Troy so she switches her line of questions. "Where’s Troy?”

With only the dancers from Ryan's number coming into view, Sharpay puts faith that Troy is already at his mark somewhere in the stage wings. "Ok. He’s around here somewhere.”

Ryan then interrupts her with a tap on her shoulder prompting Sharpay to turn towards him. Ryan makes and wide open stance with his arms stretch downwards hoping to hear some congratulations from his sister for a successful number. Instead, she eyes up his outfit and notices his pink bottoms. “Oh, cute pants!”

Before she can further compliment Ryan's pants, the stage manager interrupts Sharpay's praises. “You’re on.”

"Oh." Sharpay takes deep breaths to be in-character then does some last minute vocal exercises before going to remove her robe and step into her place on the stage.

## Spring Musical continues on with Just Wanna Be With You ##

Her duet with Troy was a mess. First, he was a no-show and she had to improvise some lines and then was surprised by Troy's understudy and his horrendous cologne that overwhelmed her senses so much so that she had couldn't stay in character nor finish the number with him. She basically had no choice but to abruptly leave after the first section of the song just to feel better. This was way worse than last summer.

From the stage, she rushes to her dressing room to calm down and recuperate. Once she's at the wings, she sees Ryan covering his mouth and nose with an unknown expression but ignores him. Moving further backstage, she runs into Troy and Gabriella with their perfect timing and it just sets Sharpay off. She was feeling so many emotions at once and she needed to vent it out as soon as possible, so she just said whatever she could think of before storming off towards her dressing room passing between Troy and Gabriella. “Oh, perfect. Go for it. Save the day. Whoopie.”

## Spring Musical continues with the rest of Just Wanna Be With You ##

After the first act, Zeke was on crew duty, helping move the backgrounds and props for the next acts. He was busy moving around, he couldn't keep track of what had happened on stage for the second act which led to his confusion when their paths crossed but just Sharpay storms past him. In the small exchange, he could tell that something had gone wrong with the musical and wanted to help her out. But when he tried to follow after her, he was needed again to prepare for the next number.

Sharpay beelined to her dressing room to get ready for her solo number. She was disappointed that her duet was so badly ruined which definitely ruined her chances at the Juilliard scholarship. But right now, it was a matter of protecting her pride. She might still be able to pull it off if she did her last number perfectly.

## Spring Musical continues on to the last part of Just Wanna Be With You ##

Sharpay was left alone standing in her dressing room while Tiara left to take over Sharpay's solo. There were so many things that went wrong within the span of a single musical number. First, her ruined duet. Then, Troy and Gabriella showing up in the nick of time to continue the duet. And now, Tiara stealing her spotlight, the killer move that stopped any chance she had at recovering her image to the Juilliard representatives.

She was beyond depressed at her current situation and reclaimed her seat at the vanity. Looking at herself in the mirror, she sees her sign switched off and the tears she had been holding back were forming in the corners of her eyes. She tries to blink them back as she goes through her drawers and bags for her tissues before it ruins her makeup.

It was at this point that Zeke arrives her dressing room, finally done with all crew work. He knocks on her door and she look at the door through the reflection in the mirror. From his view through the mirror, he could see her eyes had become glassy with tears threatening to fall. This was a familiar sight but he didn’t think it would do him any good to mention it now.

“What are you doing here Zeke?” Sharpay says with a defeated voice. She finally found her tissues and dabbing the corners of eyes to catch the tears before they fell.

“You didn’t look so good when you passed by earlier so I wanted to check up on you.” He hesitates to enter but her retort makes him stay at the entrance instead of trying to come closer.

"Everything's fine Zeke. Troy and Gabriella have arrived so everything all better now. You don't have to worry." She laughs.

He winces at her remark. He knows she's lying but he doesn't think he should point that out right now. Sharpay stands up from her chair and walks towards him. He could sense that she was ready to vent and go off but instead she takes a deep breath once she's also at the door, in front of him.

“Just go. I’m really not in the mood to talk right now.” She didn't really want to vent right now and it would be pointless anyway. It all already happened. So she reaches for the door knob to close the door in front of him.

Zeke understood where she was coming from and let her gently kick him out of her dressing room. Still, he wanted to do something for her. He believed she could bounce back from this just like before. As he was walking back to busy himself again, he hears whispers from the crew saying that they were going to redo the second act with Troy and Gabriella who had arrived just when Sharpay had left the scene.

At the same time, Jason finds him backstage and brings Zeke with him to the wings. Their whole class, save for Sharpay, Kelsi and the few others working as stage crew and orchestra, had been watching the original pair's duet from the sidelines. Ryan gets the great idea to surprise Gabriella back by coming in the same way Rocketman had done in his duet with Sharpay.

The second act was almost over with Troy and Gabriella’s duet ending. Next number was going to be Sharpay’s solo as the last act before the curtain call.

In her dressing room, Sharpay had her arms folded on the vanity. She didn't want to give up so soon especially against a freshman London drama girl who was going to take over the club she painstakingly cared for. With that thought, she had resolved to get back at Tiara. She couldn’t let her last musical end like this. “Sharpay Evans, I believe you’re in the wrong costume.”

Sharpay quickly swaps her outfits for her blue dress and hurries through backstage to look for the stage manager. She knew that since Tiara would be using the original entrance planned as the understudy, so she would need to find another way to join in the number. She remembers that Ryan's entrance used a lift and immediately decides to use that as well. She relays her plans to the stage manager with a deadly stare so he can't tell disagree or discourage her. The defeated stage manager coordinates with the crew on standby to prepare the lift again.

The confused crew member leads her to the lift and follows the instructions from stage manager to set up the lift for Sharpay's improvised entrance.

While Troy and Gabriella’s duet turned group performance finally ends and the curtains are drawn to prepare the stage for the next number.

Once she’s safely settled on the lift, she eyes the manager who is nervously watching and waits for Sharpay's cue to relay to give the tech crew.

The stage has been set and Tiara and the dancers are on their marks, ready for the number.

## Spring Musical: A Night to Remember with Sharpay and Tiara ##

Sharpay's solo was the last number before the concluding act and since they just had to slip on the graduation togas over whatever clothes they were wearing for the finale, the cast and crew had time to watch the second to the last part of the musical.

It came a great shock to both the audience and the cast that Sharpay wasn't present for her solo. The cast had gathered at the stage wings to confirm for themselves, that Sharpay didn't spontaneously decide to use an English singing accent.

Zeke was among the crowd in the wings confused at the site and catches the whispers spoken among them.

"Look, its Sharpay number 2."
"Did Sharpay always look like that?"
"I didn't Sharpay could sing in British."

"Shhh. What are you talking about? That's clearly not Sharpay."
"Yeah, that's the understudy."
"Why is Sharpay's understudy doing a solo?"

At this remark, Sharpay descends from a lift and the crowd backstage quietly laughs and cheers as they entertain themselves with the on-going fight for the spotlight between Sharpay and her look-a-like throughout the performance. When song is half-way over, Zeke notices Ryan at the other stage wing with a remote in hand. He watches as the Evans twin presses on the remote and the platform where Sharpay and Tiara stood begins its descent.

Zeke wanted to stay until the end of her number but the stage managers had already started distributing the togas and urging them all to change for the final act.

## Spring Musical ends ##

The students on stage disperse immediately once the curtain call is over and the curtains draw for the last time this semester. Zeke tries to look for Sharpay on stage but he doesn’t see her anywhere. He gives his congratulations to his teammates for the job well done and for their choices regarding college while moving through the crowd. But once he reached the other end of the stage, Zeke decides to check the dressing rooms for Sharpay which he finds empty. His last option is look for her in the audience. Using the vantage point of the stage, he goes through the curtains to look for any trace of her in the audience. After a few minutes of scanning for where's Sharpay, he catches sight of a glittery graduation cap with the initials, SE, on top.

Sharpay was with her brother and parents who were giving their congratulations to the two of them while walking towards the exit.

“My babies are all grown up now.” Mother Evans gives them each a hug followed by a hug from Father Evans. "You’re going to be in college in a matter of months.”

“My little duckies are going away from me. Oh, I’m not ready for this.” Mother Evans hooks her arms with the Evans siblings, Sharpay on the right and Ryan on the left and pulls them closer towards herself. Meanwhile Father Evans looks at his children with proud eyes, squeezes Sharpay's shoulders, and adjusts Ryan's fedora so the brim forms a horizontal line before moving ahead to lead them through the exiting audience.

“Mom, Dad. Please. The only one who’s truly going away is Ry. He’ll be in New York.” She gives her mother a short squeeze on the hand holding Sharpay's arm and leans forward as they walk to speak to Ryan. “And I’m so happy for him. I knew they would recognize your talents.”

“Congrats to you too Shar. I know how much Juilliard means to you.” Ryan mimics her actions as he replied. “But hey, it's not like Juilliard is the only way. I’ll waiting for you to join me, some way or somehow.”

Sharpay gives him a small smile before looking back to check the stage and emptying auditorium. She was feeling a little sentimental about leaving the auditorium today. Its not like this was the last time she would be able to enter it but it was going to be the last time she would be here as a performer. There were so many memories made on this stage that she wasn't ready to move on from.

After finding her in the crowd, Zeke decided to greet his parents first before going over to Sharpay. He invited his parents on a whim knowing that they weren’t the type to be present for these kinds of things. The absence for these occasions never really bothered Zeke anyway since their presence would just make him feel more pressure. So he was pleasantly surprised when they said they would make time to see his first and last ever musical performance.

“Hey ma. Hey pa. So how was it?” Zeke meekly smiles once he's close enough to be noticed. His parents turn around to give him individual hugs.

“We barely caught a glimpse of you. What’s with the-“ Mother Baylor interrupts her husband's litany of questions to congratulate Zeke. “Honey. You were great. We’re both so glad to see on stage.”

“Thanks ma.” Zeke walks with them towards the exit. “Also there's going to be a party hosted by the Evans, the presidents of the drama club to celebrate the end of the Spring Musical and basically the end of the semester."

Before either of his parents begin a barrage of questions, Zeke does his best to read their minds and give them more details first. "Dinner will be with the basketball team. I can catch a ride with Jason and we'll meet up with the rest of the team at Troy's house first. Then, we'll go together to Sharpay and Ryan's house for the party."

Zeke pauses and his mother still has a worried expression so he continues to explain further, "It will be fine. It'll just be like the victory parties when we celebrated winning the championships. Sharpay and Ryan's parents will be there, Gabriella and Taylor and our other classmates will be there."

Hearing this, Mother Baylor worry finally leaves her face but Father Baylor was still unsure. "You've let me go to Sharpay and Ryan's house before when I baked with them last week."

Zeke's father had no response back but he was still reluctant to send his son off to some party. So Grandma Baylor decides to cut in. “That boy’s grown now and going off to college soon. Let’s give him the chance to make a few more high school memories.”

Zeke looks forward and sees his grandmother at the corridor before the exit as if she had been waiting for then to arrive. She had probably gone ahead when Zeke called after his parents.

Father Baylor huffs in reluctant resignation and Mother Baylor gives Zeke permission to go. “Alright honey. I fully expect you to update me when you arrive and leave Troy's and the Evans’ homes. Remember you also have to be back before curfew.”

Zeke diligently nods in response and goes to his grandmother to greet her with a hug. They make their way from the auditorium exit to the school hallway. Zeke says his goodbyes with them when they were close to the school's main entrance and watches as they head towards the parking lot.

With his parents out of sight, Zeke goes back to the auditorium to look for Sharpay's graduation cap in the crowd again. He spots the glittery cap near the lockers and makes his way through the crowd towards her.

Sharpay wasn't with her family at the moment as she made a stop to the bathroom before heading to her designated parking lot. She doesn't notice Zeke approach until he taps on her shoulder and turns to see him and sighs. She didn't expect to see him again tonight and tried to brace herself.

She pulls out her phone and types a quick message to Ryan that she’ll be taking her car back home instead of riding together with them. She holds a hand up to Zeke to prevent him from saying anything yet and waits for Ryan's response acknowledging her message.

When that matter is settled, Zeke takes her raised hand to lead Sharpay a little further in the school to another corridor that wasn’t in the path towards the main entrance so they had more privacy.

“Hey, so how are you feeling now?” Zeke starts. He had been worried about her since the second act and wanted to be sure she recovered.

Sharpay wasn't sure how to respond. She was feeling satisfied after her bout with Tiara. But losing Juilliard was a big blow and she couldn't blame it on anyone. She was frustrated and disappointed in herself. So she just shrugged her shoulders.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

She sighs. “Everything I worked for in my life felt like it was leasing me to that scholarship and it was ruined by that smelly understudy then seeing Troy and Gabriella waltz in together was one thing. And then having to put my former assistant in her place to prevent her from ruining my drama club was another thing.”

"Tonight was supposed to be a big send off before I headed for my broadway dreams." Seeing her controlled expression, he goes in for hug. “Yes I wish I could do something—anything to make you feel better.”

Sharpay was surprised at the immediate relief she felt when he pulled her in for a hug. The warmth from his body made her relax in his arms and she couldn't keep her emotions in check anymore.

Zeke notices her shoulders shake and removed one hand from the embrace to pull out a handkerchief from his pocket. He hands it to her without pulling away knowing that she would be feeling embarrassed to be crying in his arms.

Sharpay gratefully takes his handkerchief and wipes her tears in a way that keeps her makeup intact. She had used waterproof makeup so she didn't have to worry about any smudging.

Once her body stops trembling, Sharpay steps away to break from his embrace. Zeke takes this as a sign to face her and assess for any remnants. Her face was warm and Sharpay felt like a weight had been lifted.

“So how do you feel now?” Zeke carefully asks.

“Better now.” Sharpay felt his gaze on her but she couldn't look at him yet. So Zeke tries to lighten the mood.

“Are you still mad?” She rolls her eyes at his rhetorical question while still carefully wiping up the tears that hadn't fallen yet. “But hey, the way you entered during your solo was ingenious and congrats on going to U of A. Looks like we’ll still be seeing more of each other then.”

"Thanks for this." Sharpay held up the neatly folded damp handkerchief in her hands and had properly calmed down now. A warmth throughout her chest that spread to the back of neck then up to her cheeks and ears wasn't subsiding and she was growing alarmed at this observation hoping Zeke hadn't noticed.

Zeke hadn't noticed because he was now focused on another topic for their conversation but was looking for the right words. After his worries for Sharpay were eased, self-consciousness took the place of his worries which muddled his thoughts and speech.

“So... I don’t know if you’ve heard but there’s a closing party to celebrate the successful musical at Ryan’s house. Will you be coming — I know it also is your house but I wouldn’t want to presume you don’t have anything else lined up hence my question.”

She laughs amused at his hurried speech and overall nervousness as Zeke can't seem to stand still after saying his piece. Sharpay doesn't reply immediately, prolonging Zeke's agony, until a few quiet moments pass. “Yes, I will be attending the drama club party that is in my house.”

“Right. Great to hear.” Zeke bops his head up and down in an effort to seem uninterested in her answer—contrasting his earlier demeanor. Sharpay was unsure what he meant by his response so she looks at him questioningly.

“So..." Zeke doesn't explain himself and starts on another item on his agenda. "Is riding with you to your house also on the table? I mean, you do drive and I’m also going to the party so wouldn’t it be convenient if I just rode with you going there?”

She laughs again at his proposal before replying. "Are you not going together with the rest of the basketball team?"

"That is also another option. But I think you need me more." Sharpay scoffs when she hears this. She wanted to say he thought wrong and that she's fine now. Instead, she gives him a cheeky smile and walks towards the school exit.

There was a lot less people now as majority of the crowd from the auditorium had left already. The remaining people leaving the school were the crew in charge of clean-up and closing up the auditorium.

Zeke wasn't sure whether or not she gave him a thumbs up for a ride when he watched Sharpay walk off. So he just quietly followed after her at a distance and replied to a message to Jason regarding his whereabouts. Jason already left with some of their teammates and they were chilling at Troy's place at the moment.

Before she made her way through the exit, Sharpay turned to check if Zeke had followed her the whole way. She heard his footsteps fade a little bit once they were in the main hallway. Zeke had slowed down from following after Sharpay to respond to Jason.

From a moderate distance away, Sharpay could see Zeke typing on his phone. With her hand on the door about to exit, she calls out to him. "You coming with me or?"

Chapter Text

### Cue Troy's graduation speech at the end of HSM 3 ###

"East high is a place where teachers encouraged us to break the status quo and define ourselves as we choose."

Its finally graduation day. As expected, Troy Bolton was voted as the senior representative for the batch to give a speech during their graduation ceremony.

"Where a jock can cook up a mean crème brûlée..." At this mention, everyone glances over to Zeke who is seated between the Evans twins. Ryan playfully nudges him with his elbow prompting a smile from the amateur baker. The unexpected gesture causes Zeke to lean over to Sharpay. The small action forces their shoulders to touch for a moment and it doesn't go unnoticed by either side, although their expressions seem unaffected.

Sharpay observes from her peripheral vision Zeke who adjusts his sitting posture. She notices that he shifted closer to her side. It was a minimal difference but she could feel the parts of her body beside Zeke become warmer, especially her shoulder.

The marginal shift was an unintentional action from Zeke. Throughout the ceremony, Zeke was careful not to get too close or far from either of the twins, in case Sharpay would be bothered by the unequal distance between them given the hot weather, the thick toga worn over their formal clothes, and any implication of an agenda.

Zeke was just trying to adjust his toga from under his leg to prevent it from getting wrinkled after Ryan elbowed him a moment ago. He had only realized what he had done once he leaned back into his seat and felt that there was barely any gap between their shoulders. Zeke was at a loss for what to do next. Shifting back couldn't be an option because it would give Sharpay the impression that he was aware of their close proximity and moved to avoid her. Staying still wasn't an option either because he would just be too close. But if she was going to be mad at him regardless, he would like to enjoy his position for as long as possible.

Was he some sort of body heater? Sharpay thought to herself trying to focus back on Troy's speech.

"Its a place where one person, if its the right person, changes us all." Upon hearing this, everyone and their mother knew who Troy was talking about. Sharpay had been wondering if he was going to find a way to insert Gabriella in his speech as he had done during the curtain call of the spring musical. He didn't disappoint.

Mimicking her beloved brother, Sharpay lightly nudged Gabriella in an effort to acknowledge the special bond that had formed between East High's number one couple and how they've transformed each other and the school in these past two years. Freshman Sharpay could never have imagined how her last two years of high school would play out.

Looking back, she wanted to laugh at her past self, at how pathetic she had been and how she really tried to deny what anyone could see at a glance when it came to Troy and Gabriella. She felt grateful to finally feel genuine happiness for the pair and to finally say good riddance to her long-time crush with no reservations.

On the other hand, Zeke had been feeling nervous when Troy reached this part of his speech. While everyone was focused on Gabriella, he was watching for Sharpay's reaction, expecting a mean sideways glance to her love rival at the least or a petty scoff. Seeing Sharpay's smile and playfulness towards Gabriella had caused him to question his eye sight. His chest began to ache as several thoughts had crossed his mind. The recurring ones included:

Is she okay?
Does Sharpay still like Troy?
Was Sharpay truly happy for them?
Has she gotten over her crush on Troy?

Zeke couldn't hear the rest of Troy's speech as he was thinking of all the possible answers to his question and rationalizing the meaning behind Sharpay's soft expression.

"Thank you very much." Troy says once the applause begins to die down before making his way down from the stage and back to his place among his fellow graduates. Sharpay noticed Zeke zone out towards the end of Troy's speech and wanted to make sure he was feeling fine. So, she placed her hand on his to get his attention. This action seemed to have worked as Zeke immediately blinked and looked down to see their hands on his lap. He turns to look at Sharpay, tilts his head to the side, and narrows his eyes in response.

She quietly laughs before moving her hand away to cover her mouth as she leans in to whisper. "Did Troy's speech bore you at the end?"

Zeke faces forward and closes his eyes while trying to hold back his own laugh. He shakes his head, embarrassed that he got caught, leans towards Sharpay to quietly reply. "Sorry, it wasn't on purpose at all. Please don't tell Troy about that. I think anyone-"

Their conversation gets interrupted by the ruffles of togas and shifting from seated to standing positions of the seniors after the Principal concluded the long ceremony and lead the graduates into the tradition symbolizing the end of their high school journey. It was time for the cap toss.

The toss was underwhelming as everyone cheered while caps went up in the air and then back down. Sharpay had lightly tossed hers to ensure it wouldn't fall to far away from her. Zeke and his basketball teammates had made it a contest on who could throw it the highest so they were scrambling around the field trying to catch their caps.

Following this was a series of goodbyes and congratulations between friends, classmates, schoolmates and between parents to their children. The graduates felt a mix of emotions. Pride in what they've accomplished, melancholy in what they'll be leaving behind, and worry and hope for what is to come next.

Sharpay didn't think she'd see Zeke after the cap toss since they had left their seats to meet with their friends. She was preoccupied with the well-wishes and summer plans from her drama club members and assumed Zeke was doing something similar, saying goodbye to his teammates and making plans for the summer.

She was right. Zeke was busy congratulating his fellow teammates, making plans for another send-off party, and ensuring they'd see each other before moving away. Although he thought to break off from the group to congratulate Sharpay, he decided against it when he checked her group and saw her surrounded by the drama club members. That was until Gabriella mentioned taking a class picture to commemorate the occasion. So, he made his way over and called out to Ryan, Kelsi, and Sharpay for the group photo.

It was a strange feeling for Sharpay—being included for a group photo. It wasn't an entirely foreign feeling since she did hang out with her classmates a lot more than she realized: in the summer and during rehearsals. But she still hadn't fully gotten over the clique system and the overlapping circles of friends.

What was shocking, though, was after the photos were taken because they invited her to join in their plans during the last break before college. She wasn't exactly friends with these people so wasn't sure if it was right to yes or no at their offer. But then seeing her brother be friendly with them made her think that there wasn't really anything to lose anymore if she remained distant.

With the final congratulations and goodbyes, the class had dissolved to meet with their respective families. On her way with Ryan to see her parents, Zeke had grasped her wrist causing her to halt and look back. Ryan quickly sensed that she wasn't at his side a few steps after she stopped and turned around to see Zeke with Sharpay.

"I'll go ahead and see you in a bit Shar."

Sharpay waves at him with her free hand and watches Ryan turn back and walk off towards their parents.

Seeing Ryan leave, she turns her attention back to Zeke. "So what do you need now?" She places her free hand on his hand that's holding her wrist to get his attention. Zeke hadn't said anything yet this whole time.

Zeke didn't mean to hold her hand. He couldn't find the same courage as before to casually approach her. But when their class had broken up to go to their families, Zeke couldn't let her leave yet and found himself going after Sharpay in a final attempt to muster up some courage.

"Zeke?" She shakes her captive wrist to get his attention. Zeke shakes his head in response, finally snapped out of his thoughts and lets go of his hold to take a step back from Sharpay. "Oh sorry, sorry."

"So what is it Zeke?" She tilts her head to the side, folds her arms over chest and shifting her weight to her right leg. "What made you come over and zone out?"

Zeke looks down and sighs. He rubs his neck as he looks back at the piqued Sharpay. He hadn't thought this through so he tried to quickly think of conversation starters he could say in response. "Oh. Ye-Yeah you know. Uh... I just wanted to ask if you had plans for the summer?"

She stares at him without saying anything so Zeke gives her a questioning look. This prompts her verbal response. "We just talked about this with the rest of the class..."

Hearing this, Zeke realizes why she just stared at him and gives himself a mental smack on the forehead. "Oh right. Yeah."

Sharpay laughs at his flustered expression. She had been hoping they could speak to each other once more before the day ended. But she was also conscious of their families waiting for them. "Okay. So what's your real question? I'm gonna go if you're gonna be like this."

"I-uh... Well... Actually," He slapa his hands to the sides of his thighs to gather his thoughts so he can properly converse with her. "You see. I have some new vegan recipes and I was wondering if you wanted to try them?"

"Yeah. Sure." Sharpay nods in agreement.

"Great—uh, cool. Just text me when you want me to give them to you?" Zeke says in response trying to give a nonchalant reaction and masking his excitement at her positive reaction to his suggestion.

But it was too obvious to Sharpay and she snorts revealing that she's seen through his attempt. Giving him a wave good-bye and heading to her family, she takes that as the end of their conversation.

"Yeah sounds good. I'll see you later Zeke."

"Yeah, you too."

Sharpay walks over to her family and Zeke stares at her retreating figure a few moments before he runs over to his family.

Chapter Text

It was a few days after the seniors at East High completed their graduation ceremony and could proudly say they were East High Alums. It was also a couple weeks before they would be starting a new chapter in their lives: college.

With the remaining free time on their hands, the new graduates had spent their time hanging out at each other's houses, going on road trips, and seeing new movies at the cinema. Today was the first meeting between Zeke and Sharpay after they agreed to see each other after graduation.

Zeke had previously offered to teach her some new dessert recipes that she could make for herself that were non-fat and some tricks on choosing good ingredient substitutes for them. He initially offered to make them for her when she asked for the recipes just like when they were in high school since they were going to the same college anyway. But she insisted on learning and he liked that. Not just because she was willing to try it out for herself but also because it would give them more time together before they would inevitably be busy working on their degrees, though Zeke didn't know the second part.

To be totally honest, he liked that she wanted to learn it herself because it would give Zeke a reason for them to still see each other during the break. It was the best outcome. Offering to watch his practice games wasn't an option since he knew from experience that she didn't like being amongst the sweaty boys.

This time, they were working on a vegan cupcake recipe. Zeke had just been supervising and guiding her on proper techniques while Sharpay did the actual work prepping, mixing, and pouring the cupcake batter and icing. This would have been a great surprise to her brother, if he was home. Ryan with her parents were busy setting up base in New York to ensure the scholar would have a smooth move into the city that never sleeps.

The cupcakes weren’t really much work for Sharpay. It was much easier than she thought with just measuring the portions, putting it all the mixer in order, and then pouring it evenly in the cupcake tins. She will admit to not knowing that there was a certain order for mixing the ingredients together and the difference between melted and softened butter.

While Sharpay diligently made the cupcake batter, Zeke found himself making conversation about anything and everything as he watched over Sharpay from the other side of the kitchen island counter.

They talked about what they were doing to keep busy over the break, the movies that were released that week, their families, other baked treats they could work on next time, the school gossip, the music on the radio, and their music tastes, just to name a few.

The time flew by rather quickly and, before they knew it, the cupcakes were baking in the oven, the frosting was chilling in the fridge, and they began cleaning up.

Now that most of the work on the cupcakes was out of the way, Zeke saw this as an opportunity to casually ask about her plans for college. He wasn't sure if she was seriously going to be in U of A as Ms. Darbus had announced during the Spring Musical.

"So, I was just wondering. Are you really going to U of A for college?"

Sharpay glances up from the stand mixer—she was trying to remove the mixing wands—to look at Zeke across the counter and nods.

"Yep. They also had some pretty good offerings and I would love to learn more from Ms. Darbus on directing while I help out with the drama club anyway."

But that wasn't the full truth. Yes, she would be going to U of A but she was also considering taking a gap year after a year in U of A to see if she could get actual hands-on experience from the West End. She only realized this alternative after her spite towards Tiara's attempt to steal her thunder had waned and she had already made plans with Ms. Darbus.

Zeke hums to show he was listening while carefully closing and returning the containers of the different ingredients they used. He could sense there might be something more but he didn't want to dwell on it for now. Instead, he wanted to gauge if he would be seeing her more often in campus.

"Me, Chad, and Jason toured the campus a couple weeks ago and I think the auditoriums and theaters for the performing arts and campus gyms for our practices are within the same area so we'll be running into each other sometimes."

"Oh yeah, I think I remember passing by some of the gyms during my tour around the performing arts halls and theaters." She replies with her brows furrowed. She was struggling with mixer in trying to remove the wands to have them cleaned.

"How was the campus tour? Are you excited about starting university life there?"

"Hmm." She pauses from her task for a moment to think of an answer. Thinking about college made her thinking about being separated from Ryan. It only dawned on her during graduation that she wouldn't be experiencing college with her brother and she wasn't sure how to feel about it since then. She knew, at least, that she would be missing Ryan often, especially once he started preparing to move. She was going to be alone this time. She was sure Ryan would be fine on his own but she never imagined being in college without Ryan and it made her nervous to think about it.

Zeke looks up from the closed flour container to check on Sharpay who didn't really give him an answer. Reaching over the counter, he lightly taps the back of her hand that's resting on the counter and softly says, "Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Sharpay comes back from her thoughts and sighs, returning her focus back to the mixer.

"Its just that I don't know if I'm ready to say goodbye to my baby brother."

"Yeah, I can't exactly imagine what that's like but its probably like how I can't imagine Troy playing for a different basketball team right?"

Sharpay smiles at his attempt to be sympathetic to her and moves her hand from his to resume working on the stand mixer. Zeke follows suit and carries the flour container back to the cupboard.

"At least there's still a bit of time that you have together."

"Thanks." She says with quiet affection and a comfortable silence takes over as they continue cleaning up.

Sharpay finally gets the first wand out from the mixer as Zeke finishes storing away all the ingredients they used. He checked the timer for the cupcakes and it displayed that they had about 10 minutes left before they should start checking on the cupcakes in the oven.

With the ingredients stored, he started grouping up and stacking the dishes they used to place in the sink for washing. They were working on the same side of the counter in comfortable silence but Zeke still had some things he wanted to ask her. He takes a small breath to calm his nerves before breaking the silence.

"Okay. So... I know I did promise not to do anything about ‘us’ anymore since last summer... But I also think its not breaking the promise if I ask if you still see Troy the same way as before..." He pauses to check for her reaction. She’s still working on the stand-mixer and her expression doesn’t change. He takes this as a cue to continue.

"I really am just wondering 'cause I feel like I was getting some mixed signals from you throughout this semester even after we decided it was over before senior started. And it was a lot more compared to last summer."

At those words, they were both reminded of the small memorable exchanges in the past months. This was another subject Sharpay wanted to deflect. She was quite amused that it took him this long to bring it up given his previous actions. And, with so much time on their hands before college, she figured it would be better to bite the bullet now.

"Ok, maybe, you were right last summer—about most of it." She starts, trying to keep herself occupied with the stand mixer. She had finally figured out the mechanism with the first wand but didn’t want to complete the task too soon or she’d be forced to face Zeke directly while they sorted out their relationship.

"But I only realized throughout this semester that, maybe, I only saw Troy as a project. And then, when we were in rehearsals for the spring musical as Troy and Gabriella, I just felt like I was fulfilling a life-long dream of mine. Sue me I guess."

Upon hearing this, Zeke turns away from the pile of dirty dishes he had carefully stacked to look at Sharpay and give her a look. Sharpay sees his expression through a sideways glance and was surprised to see him with smiling at her. She fully expected him to be condescending and dreaded to see it once she admitted he was right.

He doesn't though.

As if reading her mind, he says, "Thank you for sharing that. I’m sure admitting that was difficult but I’m grateful that you still did nonetheless."

He follows up his statement with a playful nudge with his elbow to her right side and in reaction she gives him another sideway glance, shaking her head in embarrassment and annoyance. He, then, moves towards the sink to transfer the stack of bowls and plates into the sink and pours water over them to soak for a few minutes.

With more space between them, she can feel a wave of relief course throughout her body as she can finally relax thinking that the worst was over. But it was cut short by his next question.

"So... what were those mixed signals you were giving me?"

He’s made his way back to her side of the kitchen island, carefully grouping the measuring tools and utensils they used to transfer into the sink with the dishes.

"What signals?" She innocently asks.

She doesn’t dare to look at him as she transfers the first mixing wand she successfully removed from her side of the island to join the pile he's working on before moving back to her spot by the mixer and resumes feigning concentration on the second wand.

"I've been treating you the same way as I always have." Realizing that her statement didn't really give him an answer, she follows up and adds. "Like friends."

Her addition prompts Zeke to pause from his task and place his hands on the counter. She could feel his gaze burning into the side of her face but she doesn't dare to look.

"Like friends huh?"

Sharpay doesn't respond nor does she show any reaction. She chooses to feign ignorance and finishes her work on the mixer. She finally takes the second mixing wand out from its place, walks over to his side of the counter, and gently pushes him aside with her body.

She proceeds to take the utensils he gathered together and transfer them into the kitchen sink, continuing her act of pretending to ignore Zeke. His gaze never leaves her as she moves to the sink. She hears his footsteps and pretends not to notice as it becomes louder and her back starts to burn from his body standing behind her.

"Hmm. What an odd thing to say." She finally replies after playing the utensils in the sink. With the task completed, she rests her hands at the edges of the sink counter waiting for him step aside.

"In my experience, friends wouldn’t do things like this." Zeke reaches out his right hand in front of her to take her left hand and maneuvers her to a half-turn so that her back was to the edge of the sink and she would be facing him.

He doesn’t let go once her position is adjusted. Instead, he takes her right hand to pull her away from the sink and towards somewhere in the middle of the kitchen. Sharpay can't help but let herself be lead as he guides her body with his gaze still fixed on her. He's only looking at her yet she feels so exposed. She's possessed simply from the look in his eyes that show a mix of emotions.

The trance breaks when he releases his hold as she follows his hands that guide hers into a waltz position. She feels like static at every point where they make contact. Her left hand on his right shoulder and her right hand extended and holding his left. While his right arm is under her left to place a hand at the back of her shoulder. It is only at this point with their hand positions are fixed that she finally looks back at Zeke.

A wave of tingles passes through her arms when she finds that he was already looking at her—perhaps—he hadn’t looked away at all. So Sharpay gives him a look that’s something between cautious, curious, amused, and nervous.

"Friends can dance like this."

Zeke smirks as he nods in agreement. "Yes. They can."

Sharpay withholds a gasp of surprise, like an experienced improv-ready actor, as he pushes them closer to connect their bodies into the proper waltz position.

The waltz stance requires the both dancers to form a vase with their silhouettes where its thinnest at the point of contact between the bodies of the Lead and Follow and then gradually widens towards the top as the Follow leans their upper body outward and away from the center. Neither Zeke or Sharpay were expecting to do the waltz that afternoon. Rather than create a vase, they were gradually closing the distance.

"But..."

If she really thought of him as a friend, she wouldn’t be so obviously glancing at lips right now when there was only a few inches between them. "But...?"

Zeke doesn't finish his sentence and leans in further. Sharpay braces herself for contact with her eyes closed.

This sight of Sharpay made her seem adorable in Zeke's eyes. So he places a modest peck on her forehead and he pulls in their clasped hands towards his chest. She opens her eyes in surprise at the unexpected gesture. He leads her into a simple sway from side to side without any music while giving her his own innocent look in response. "Were you expecting something else?"

Sharpay closes her eyes again to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him and sighs. Zeke was satisfied with the harmless prank. It was a little revenge he wanted to pull because she had been so on and off with him in the past. At the same time, he wanted to test how much she actually wanted to be with him. She doesn't say anything back after a minute of dancing. Sharpay just breaks away and returns to the counter to bring the remaining dishes to the sink.

Zeke follows after her and they resume their clean up in another round of silence. The timer showed that they had few minutes left before they should do a fork check on the cupcakes. Despite the silence that had took place, both their minds were not.

In those quiet minutes, Zeke experienced a delayed nervousness from his bold moves, worried that it would have the opposite effect on Sharpay and cause her to stir something up to prank him back. As much as he enjoyed catching her off-guard, he was well-aware that she wouldn't let him have the last word.

And Zeke was right. She wasn't gonna let him get away with his teasing. Sharpay was biding her time considering her options to get back at Zeke while they finished wiping up the counter, throwing some trash, and preparing to cooling rack for the cupcakes. She knew Zeke would be expecting retaliation. He just wouldn't know when.

The cupcakes—without the icing—turned out fine even with the substituted ingredients. Sharpay was pleasantly surprised at the result and turned to Zeke who was at her side moving the last tray of cupcakes from the tin to the rack.

"Aren’t you going to try some?" She offered the bitten cupcake in her hand to him.

He gave her a doubtful look. Zeke had assumed she was going get back at him soon and his idea of her revenge was having some weird flavor added to the cupcake she offered to him. He didn't think it would be such a bad revenge since he was curious about what flavor he would taste. He graciously accepted the outcome.

So after carefully finished transferring the cupcakes from the tin to the cooling rack, Zeke dips his head towards her outstretched arm to take a bite from the cupcake.

Again, he was right that she was going to take her revenge in this moment.

Before he could fully bend his head to bite from her cupcake, Sharpay uses her free hand to hold his chin to direct his head away from the cupcake and towards hers. His gaze moves from her cupcake that was now resting on the counter to her face.

He looked at her, perplexed at the situation.

Wasn't she going to make me eat something weird?

But his thoughts were overridden by something else—their lips making contact.

It happened so abruptly that by the time Zeke finally blinked back into reality, Sharpay had put some distance between them and had the cupcake back in her hand, resuming her focus on eating the dessert.

"So how was the cupcake?" She smiles innocently.

Zeke laughs in disbelief and runs a hand over his face. He didn't expect her to be this mischievous but he found it amusing and decided to play along.

He moves closer to her side and leans on the counter with one arm to be eye-level with her.

"Can I have another bite of the cupcake?"

This time, Sharpay looks at him with suspicious eyes but still holds her cupcake up to him.

Instead of reaching down for a bite, Zeke takes the half-eaten cupcake out of her hand and places it back on the counter. Her eyes follow his movements as her brain makes connections to understand the meaning behind his action and her lips turn upwards into a smirk.

Sharpay meets his eyes as Zeke leans in. Just when the distance between them was about to reach zero, he pauses and smirks back at her, "So is it safe to say we’re not friends anymore?"

The smile drops from her face as she blankly stares at him while maintaining the close distance between. Sharpay wraps her her arms around his neck and challenges him.

"Are you really asking me this right now?"

Zeke's expression doesn't change but his gaze switches from her eyes to her lips and his hands find their place on her hips.

"My next actions depend on your answer."

She clicks her tongue in annoyance but her eyes are playful.

"No. We are..."

Sharpay removes her arms from his neck to place her hands on either side of his face and moves even closer. Zeke can already feel her lips as she continues, "... Not friends."