The Best Laid Plans, Chad/Ryan, G
Title: The Best Laid Plans
Author: crumbfreebread
Rating: G
Summary: Sharpay has a plan.
Notes: This was written for nevcolleil! It is a re-imagining of some of the events that took place over the summer at Lava Springs.
The twins were in Sharpay’s pink convertible and heading out for a day of some serious shopping. The sun was bright and warm, and the top was down. Ryan had been enjoying the car ride until Sharpay had interrupted his breathtaking rendition of ‘Girlfriend’ in a voice that only spelled emotional stress and embarrassment for him in the near future.
“Hey, Ry?”
“Yeah, Shar?” he replied. Hesitantly.
“Which is that one with the big hair? That one basketball monkey? You know, he’s kind of cute, really terrible taste in t-shirts, and is pretending to be interested in that smart one that isn’t Gabriella just to placate Troy? Oh, also, he has giant hair. Really, you can’t miss it.”
“That would be Chad. And the other smart one is Taylor. We’ve been going to school with these people for our entire lives, Sharpay. I know you’re just pretending you don’t know their names. And speaking of pretending, why would you think Chad is?”
“Because he is totally gay, which is why I need you to seduce him. Or maybe he isn’t gay, but either way I need you to convince him to date you. It shouldn’t be that hard. I, personally, find you fairly tolerable. Start tomorrow. And, oh my god, you should wear those really tight lime-green pants. They do some amazing things for your legs. Seriously, they look so long I’d probably have to have you assassinated if you weren’t my brother.”
“I’m going to ignore your complete disregard for things like logic and reason to focus for a moment on something of extreme importance,” Ryan said giving his sister what he hoped was a death glare. “When I bought those green pants you told me they were heinous. If I remember correctly, you said, no, shrieked, that if I ever wore them in your presence you would be forced to mock me publicly, and also encourage others to join in! I almost had an identity crisis over those pants. My future could have been filled with hundreds of pairs of plain blue jeans, in unexciting washes!”
“Ry, don’t be such a drama queen. I told you that because I didn’t want you wearing them around me and then becoming competition. Obviously.” Sharpay said, as if she really thought Ryan should have made this conclusion all on his own, and that it wasn’t absolutely insane.
“But last week I sold them on eBay! I mailed them to someone in Alaska. I can’t ask for them back, either. Imagine trying to find anything exciting to put on your legs in Alaska, it’s probably impossible. I can’t be that cruel.”
Sharpay rolled here eyes so dramatically that Ryan began to fear for his life. She was supposed to be watching the road, after all. “Ugh, Ry, seriously. Stop it with the bleeding heart garbage. Secondly, You shouldn’t let what other people say affect you so much. If you liked them, you should have just kept them.” There Sharpay was again, under the crazy delusion that incurring her wrath wasn’t emotionally scarring enough to warrant the disposal of possessions. “Anyway, we’re twins, and I anticipated you doing something like that. I bought those pants. That’s why I offered to take the package to the post office for you. Duh.” That made sense. Sharpay was not one to do favors without some sort of ulterior motive. “Anyway, I wanted to keep you out of them for the most part, but I knew they would be useful at some point. And, look at that, I was right. They are going to be incredibly useful tomorrow, when you, Ryan Evans, seduce Chad Danforth. Because you love me.”
“Why does loving you always involve me compromising my morals? And this time I’m probably going to get beaten up by an unruly mob of apish basketball players, as a bonus” Ryan whined. However, in response he only got a proud smile from Sharpay because she was too busy preening over her powers of persuasion to dignify Ryan with a proper answer.
+++
Sharpay wanted Ryan to get Chad to come to dinner. Apparently, Chad was not at all happy with Troy’s rise in ranks among the Lava Spring staff and, more specifically, the change in attitude that had come along with the new job. Sharpay decided the best way to resolve all this was to offer Chad the same things, and then he would clearly (clearly) have nothing to complain about it.
Ryan was going to go through with Sharpay’s plan. Ryan didn’t relish in manipulating people like his sister sometimes did, in fact, he didn’t really like it at all. However, the truth was that Ryan already had feelings for Chad. Chad was a sweet guy, and he deserved everything Troy was getting, and if you wanted Ryan’s personal opinion, Chad deserved it more. He messed up sometimes, and Ryan was totally aware that Chad had a hand in all the scheming that went on during last year’s winter musical try outs, but Chad was almost annoyingly sincere, and in the end it was always obvious his heart was in the right place. So, the way Ryan saw it, Sharpay forcing him to make his move was a good thing. With the threat of Sharpay’s fury motivating him he wouldn’t let this crush sit idle, like so many others, and it saved him the trouble and embarrassment of having to ask her for advice, as she was now hurling it at him faster than she could spend money on designer shoes. Which was really, really fast.
So, Sharpay arranged for both of them to caddy for the Evans family again. Troy had already eaten dinner with his parents once before so Sharpay was considerably less aggressive in making sure that their father knew what a great guy Troy was. The experience on the whole was enjoyable for everyone, even Chad. Of course, that is exactly what Sharpay wanted, and the day ended with Mr. Evans calling both the boys by their first names and both of them getting an invitation to dinner with the family in the Lava Springs dining room. Sharpay’s machinations ran into snags once in a while, but something as simple as getting two boys invited to dinner was well within her realm of expertise.
There was one pleasant surprise that Sharpay hadn’t planned for, however. Ryan had noticed throughout the day that his mom and Chad were frequently engaged in comfortable small talk. Though Chad couldn’t provide the golfing advice that Troy was capable of, he was certainly very good at amusing his mother with stories of his two crazy younger sisters who spent their days in the Danforth backyard building forts and making Chad’s life miserable, or tales of his mother’s never ending quest to lose 10 pounds, and endless accounts of the hijinks Chad got up to with the other wildcats. His mother loved every single one of them. She spent the entire afternoon laughing and completely uncaring that her golf game had completely disintegrated, and Ryan had practically melted. Chad was so charming it was almost unbearable. He hadn’t even felt the need to participate much in the conversation, instead he spent most of the day pretending that Chad was his boyfriend, and that his boyfriend was doing an excellent job of impressing his parents. His golf game suffered almost as much as his moms, but he thought the day was lovely, anyway.
So after the dinner plans for that evening had been arranged, and Chad and Troy had begun to head back toward the kitchen together, Ryan wasn’t that surprised when Mrs. Evans called after Chad.
“Chad! Could I hold you for just one more moment. I’m sure the rest of the staff won’t mind.” Chad walked over amiably, smiling just as pleasantly as ever.
After that they started walking toward the gym. Ryan wanted to follow along, but Sharpay grabbed his arm and began dragging him in the opposite direction and talking about ten thousands word a minute.
“Ry! Ry! RYAN!” He turned his focus from the retreating backs of his mother and Chad and focused all his attention on Sharpay. “What do you think I should wear tonight? I think I should tone it down on the sparkles and the pink, I think Troy might have some kind of phobia regarding both those things, if the way Gabriella dresses is anything to go by. I most definitely don’t own anything Gabriella would wear, though. Ugh, as if I would wear something she would wear, anyway.” She was rambling, and Ryan needed to put a stop to it, before her head exploded from spending too much time contemplating clothes that didn’t come with a label and a huge price tag.
“Hey, Shar?” She look somewhat perturbed by his interruption, but she gave him her attention and nodded her head to let him know he could continue. “Remember when you said that Chad was pretending to like Taylor, and that you thought he was gay, Do you really think that’s true? You think he could be gay?”
“Oh, no. NO. Well, I mean, yes, I think he is gay, but, no, a thousand times no, you absolutely can not really like him, Ryan!”
“Why not? You like Troy, why can’t I like Chad?. What’s so different?”
At this point they had reached the door to the suite they shared at Lava Springs. They went inside and Sharpay dragged Ryan to the couch, grabbed his shoulders and looked him right in the eye. “Ryan, pay attention. You and I both know why I want to date Troy. It’s not because I want to be the girl who is wearing the cheap plastic ‘T’ around my neck, because I am certainly not the kind of girl who would find that to be a sufficient romantic gesture. However, dating Troy means I win. What exactly I am winning might be vague, but you don’t need to me to put it in words. And if I did put it in words, we’d both probably think less of me, so please don’t compare you liking Chad to me liking Troy, because I don’t like him, I just want to date him. If you really like the person you’re manipulating, it takes all the fun out of it!”
Ryan laughed. “I don’t want to manipulate Chad. I never did. After I was finished being mad at you for demanding my compliance in this crazy scheme I realized it was actually kind of convenient. I want to be nice to him just because I really do like him. Also has really nice shoulders. And, his t-shirts can be really funny sometimes.” Ryan stopped there because Sharpay looked nauseous. He wanted Sharpay on his side, though, so he didn’t back down completely. “It doesn’t affect any of your grand plans where Troy is concerned, right? So you can help me? I really need your help, Sharpay.” He completed his request with a heavy dose of pleading eyes and pouting
She rolled her eyes and sighed, and Ryan mentally pumped his fist. “Oh, fine. I’ll help you bag your man. You’re right, you do need my help, you’re so hopeless with out me. You’d probably be all sincere and stuff instead of using the fool proof plan of wearing really tight clothing, and then you’d get your little heart broken. I can’t have that. I can’t have my number one minion all mopey and useless.”
+++
“I had no idea you played baseball for so long! There’s a staff game next week, you should totally come. We actually need a pitcher, which is perfect.” Chad really did look like he wanted Ryan to show up, and that made Ryan want to dance for joy. He couldn’t, of course, as he was having dinner with his entire family and, also, he would like a fool, so he settled for smiling as big as possibly and hoping he didn’t look too goofy.
“I’d really like that. I go to the batting cages every so often but I haven’t gotten to play a real game in so long. I hope I’m not too rusty.“
“I’m sure you’ll be fine. Better than Troy, at any rate. Baseball isn’t his game at all, it’s kind of hilarious.” Troy heard this, and stopped talking with Mr. Evans for a moment to defend his honor. Chad responded by teasing him some more and recounting a funny incident where Troy’s lack of ability on the baseball field had resulted in the arm of some unfortunate opponent getting broken. Once everyone had finished laughing, and Troy stopped blushing, Chad returned his attention to Ryan.
“So, you go to the bathing cages? Me, too. We should go together sometime. I’d love to go with someone who didn’t suck. Hey, maybe this weekend or something we could toss a ball around together?”
Ryan managed to choke out his acceptance without too much embarrassment. He was so elated by the idea that Chad was willing to spend time with him outside of Sharpay’s contrived settings that he had to step back from the conversation for a little just to get his nervousness and excitement under control. He let his mom take control of the conversation and she and Chad chatted amicably about various things and he enjoyed just listening. He found out that the reason Mrs. Evans had pulled Chad aside the other day was to offer him a different job working in Lava Springs impressive gym as an assistant to the personal trainers. Chad had the loved the sound of the offer but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity of spending the summer working with his friends, so Mrs. Evans agreed let him set up a schedule that allowed him to do both. Apparently, Troy had also worked out something similar and Ryan was really happy for both of them. He could see that they both really appreciated the opportunity and also the fact that Ryan’s parents had been so accommodating to let them still be with their friends.
The rest of dinner passed in a pleasant blur and the evening ended with Ryan and Sharpay trailing slowly behind their parents, who were recounting with much enthusiasm how pleasurable the evening had been, and what sweet boys the two wildcats were. Ryan swelled with satisfaction every time he heard his mom mention something about Chad in particular, ecstatic to know that she was still giving him a glowing review after their second meeting.
The twins said goodnight to their parents and continued walking to their suite. His sister grabbed his hand and began to swing it as they walked down the hallway. She leaned into his side and began to giggle.
“Chad’s totally into you.” She said in a teasing voice. Grade school children came to mind.
+++
The game had been amazing. Ryan had never had so much fun in his life. He felt like he had made 40 new friends in one day, and he’d done it himself. They weren’t his sister’s friends first and then his by default. They were all his own.
Ryan loved that ten different people had asked him to join the East High baseball team, and a few of them had even resorted to begging. He loved that Gabby and Taylor had asked Ryan to come to the mall with them next weekend. He loved that they wanted him to direct their performance for the talent show in a few weeks. He loved it all, but what he loved most of all was that at that very moment he and Chad were walking to the locker room Chad had an arm slung around Ryan and he was listing every single play Ryan had made in all nine innings as if he were Derek Jeter in Game 7 of the World Series.
“Chad, I’m the last person who would want to remind you of this, but we lost, you guys won!”
“Oh, Ry, please!” Ryan’s stomach jumped at the sound of Chad calling him something so familiar. “Everyone knows who the MVP of today’s game was! You were so amazing.” They had reached the locker room and while Chad continued his praise of Ryan’s performance Chad started to undress.
Ryan was blushing, for more than one reason, and he attempted to hide his face by turning towards his locker and beginning to rummage through his belongings. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, he didn’t have a change of clothes, or much more than a water bottle and a couple of spare hats, in his locker, but he definitely needed some kind of distraction. His mind was starting to wander sufficiently away from thoughts of Chad’s body when he heard Chad say his name again.
“Ryan, I am totally serious. You need to try out for the team next year. We could really use you. Also, think about how much fun it could be! You’d have skipped all the sucky years of being an underclassmen and getting tortured by the older kids, you’d be right at the top!”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to miss out on the spring musical.”
“Yeah, I understand that. You have plenty of time to decide, anyway.” Chad said, and Ryan fell for him a little more because he was just so sweet and obviously not trying to pressure Ryan into doing something he might not want to do. Chad then clapped his hands once and again began digging through his equipment bag, where he had just deposited his jersey.
“I’ve got an idea! You should try the uniform out, get a feel for it! You can wear mine.”
Ryan was overwhelmed with the idea of putting on something that was on Chad’s body only 30 seconds ago, he tried to say no, because there was something that made him strangely nervous about it, as if it would make his feelings for Chad blatantly obvious, but Chad threw the jersey in his hands, and before he knew it he was wearing Chad Danforth’s East High Wildcats Baseball Jersey, Number 8.
“Looking good, Wildcat!” Ryan laughed, and managed to get his feet working and did a spin to show off his new attire. Then Chad frowned.
“Hmm, something is definitely missing.” Chad took a step closer to Ryan and took off his striped hat, placing it on his own head with a wry grin. He then grabbed his baseball cap from the bench behind Ryan, which resulted in their chests being pressed very close together and Ryan being very out of breath. But then a second later Chad was back right in front of Ryan and smiling again. Chad dropped the cap on Ryan’s head and then he kissed him.
At first, Ryan was shocked and completely unable to move. Chad’s lips remained sealed over his own, however. He couldn’t hear anything over his own heartbeat, and his entire body was tingling with a flutter of hope at the intimate contact. Ryan finally managed to bring his hand up to Chad’s bicep, and with this motion of consent, the kiss went from chaste to passionate within a moment.
After a few seconds Chad broke the kiss and stepped back, but kept looking at Ryan right in the eye. Ryan figured he was waiting for a response, and Ryan wanted to give him one.
“Here. You can wear my shirt.”
Chad smiled and took the shirt from Ryan’s hands, hopefully without noticing how shaky they were. Ryan’s mind raced as he watched Chad button up his no longer pristine white shirt. He wanted to talk to Chad about what just happened, but he also had the feeling that for some reason it wasn’t necessary. He knew Chad had wanted the kiss, and he had definitely wanted it, so maybe he didn’t want to talk about it as much as he just wanted to try it again.
“Want to go to the batting cages this weekend?” Ryan said before he could really think about it too much.
“Definitely.” Chad finished the last button and then looked up and met Ryan’s eyes and again smiled. “It’s a date.”
With those words Ryan pulse skyrocketed, he became a little lightheaded, and he became overwhelmed with the insane urge to take out his cell phone and call his sister to congratulate her for finally devising a plan that didn’t result in tears, complete and utter social ruin, or the unnecessary destruction of a single perfectly good hat (and very often her plans resulted in all three). Before he could do that, however, Chad grabbed his hand and together they walked out to meet the their friends for a barbecue that included lots of laughing, amazing brownies, and a bunch more kisses.
Author: crumbfreebread
Rating: G
Summary: Sharpay has a plan.
Notes: This was written for nevcolleil! It is a re-imagining of some of the events that took place over the summer at Lava Springs.
The twins were in Sharpay’s pink convertible and heading out for a day of some serious shopping. The sun was bright and warm, and the top was down. Ryan had been enjoying the car ride until Sharpay had interrupted his breathtaking rendition of ‘Girlfriend’ in a voice that only spelled emotional stress and embarrassment for him in the near future.
“Hey, Ry?”
“Yeah, Shar?” he replied. Hesitantly.
“Which is that one with the big hair? That one basketball monkey? You know, he’s kind of cute, really terrible taste in t-shirts, and is pretending to be interested in that smart one that isn’t Gabriella just to placate Troy? Oh, also, he has giant hair. Really, you can’t miss it.”
“That would be Chad. And the other smart one is Taylor. We’ve been going to school with these people for our entire lives, Sharpay. I know you’re just pretending you don’t know their names. And speaking of pretending, why would you think Chad is?”
“Because he is totally gay, which is why I need you to seduce him. Or maybe he isn’t gay, but either way I need you to convince him to date you. It shouldn’t be that hard. I, personally, find you fairly tolerable. Start tomorrow. And, oh my god, you should wear those really tight lime-green pants. They do some amazing things for your legs. Seriously, they look so long I’d probably have to have you assassinated if you weren’t my brother.”
“I’m going to ignore your complete disregard for things like logic and reason to focus for a moment on something of extreme importance,” Ryan said giving his sister what he hoped was a death glare. “When I bought those green pants you told me they were heinous. If I remember correctly, you said, no, shrieked, that if I ever wore them in your presence you would be forced to mock me publicly, and also encourage others to join in! I almost had an identity crisis over those pants. My future could have been filled with hundreds of pairs of plain blue jeans, in unexciting washes!”
“Ry, don’t be such a drama queen. I told you that because I didn’t want you wearing them around me and then becoming competition. Obviously.” Sharpay said, as if she really thought Ryan should have made this conclusion all on his own, and that it wasn’t absolutely insane.
“But last week I sold them on eBay! I mailed them to someone in Alaska. I can’t ask for them back, either. Imagine trying to find anything exciting to put on your legs in Alaska, it’s probably impossible. I can’t be that cruel.”
Sharpay rolled here eyes so dramatically that Ryan began to fear for his life. She was supposed to be watching the road, after all. “Ugh, Ry, seriously. Stop it with the bleeding heart garbage. Secondly, You shouldn’t let what other people say affect you so much. If you liked them, you should have just kept them.” There Sharpay was again, under the crazy delusion that incurring her wrath wasn’t emotionally scarring enough to warrant the disposal of possessions. “Anyway, we’re twins, and I anticipated you doing something like that. I bought those pants. That’s why I offered to take the package to the post office for you. Duh.” That made sense. Sharpay was not one to do favors without some sort of ulterior motive. “Anyway, I wanted to keep you out of them for the most part, but I knew they would be useful at some point. And, look at that, I was right. They are going to be incredibly useful tomorrow, when you, Ryan Evans, seduce Chad Danforth. Because you love me.”
“Why does loving you always involve me compromising my morals? And this time I’m probably going to get beaten up by an unruly mob of apish basketball players, as a bonus” Ryan whined. However, in response he only got a proud smile from Sharpay because she was too busy preening over her powers of persuasion to dignify Ryan with a proper answer.
+++
Sharpay wanted Ryan to get Chad to come to dinner. Apparently, Chad was not at all happy with Troy’s rise in ranks among the Lava Spring staff and, more specifically, the change in attitude that had come along with the new job. Sharpay decided the best way to resolve all this was to offer Chad the same things, and then he would clearly (clearly) have nothing to complain about it.
Ryan was going to go through with Sharpay’s plan. Ryan didn’t relish in manipulating people like his sister sometimes did, in fact, he didn’t really like it at all. However, the truth was that Ryan already had feelings for Chad. Chad was a sweet guy, and he deserved everything Troy was getting, and if you wanted Ryan’s personal opinion, Chad deserved it more. He messed up sometimes, and Ryan was totally aware that Chad had a hand in all the scheming that went on during last year’s winter musical try outs, but Chad was almost annoyingly sincere, and in the end it was always obvious his heart was in the right place. So, the way Ryan saw it, Sharpay forcing him to make his move was a good thing. With the threat of Sharpay’s fury motivating him he wouldn’t let this crush sit idle, like so many others, and it saved him the trouble and embarrassment of having to ask her for advice, as she was now hurling it at him faster than she could spend money on designer shoes. Which was really, really fast.
So, Sharpay arranged for both of them to caddy for the Evans family again. Troy had already eaten dinner with his parents once before so Sharpay was considerably less aggressive in making sure that their father knew what a great guy Troy was. The experience on the whole was enjoyable for everyone, even Chad. Of course, that is exactly what Sharpay wanted, and the day ended with Mr. Evans calling both the boys by their first names and both of them getting an invitation to dinner with the family in the Lava Springs dining room. Sharpay’s machinations ran into snags once in a while, but something as simple as getting two boys invited to dinner was well within her realm of expertise.
There was one pleasant surprise that Sharpay hadn’t planned for, however. Ryan had noticed throughout the day that his mom and Chad were frequently engaged in comfortable small talk. Though Chad couldn’t provide the golfing advice that Troy was capable of, he was certainly very good at amusing his mother with stories of his two crazy younger sisters who spent their days in the Danforth backyard building forts and making Chad’s life miserable, or tales of his mother’s never ending quest to lose 10 pounds, and endless accounts of the hijinks Chad got up to with the other wildcats. His mother loved every single one of them. She spent the entire afternoon laughing and completely uncaring that her golf game had completely disintegrated, and Ryan had practically melted. Chad was so charming it was almost unbearable. He hadn’t even felt the need to participate much in the conversation, instead he spent most of the day pretending that Chad was his boyfriend, and that his boyfriend was doing an excellent job of impressing his parents. His golf game suffered almost as much as his moms, but he thought the day was lovely, anyway.
So after the dinner plans for that evening had been arranged, and Chad and Troy had begun to head back toward the kitchen together, Ryan wasn’t that surprised when Mrs. Evans called after Chad.
“Chad! Could I hold you for just one more moment. I’m sure the rest of the staff won’t mind.” Chad walked over amiably, smiling just as pleasantly as ever.
After that they started walking toward the gym. Ryan wanted to follow along, but Sharpay grabbed his arm and began dragging him in the opposite direction and talking about ten thousands word a minute.
“Ry! Ry! RYAN!” He turned his focus from the retreating backs of his mother and Chad and focused all his attention on Sharpay. “What do you think I should wear tonight? I think I should tone it down on the sparkles and the pink, I think Troy might have some kind of phobia regarding both those things, if the way Gabriella dresses is anything to go by. I most definitely don’t own anything Gabriella would wear, though. Ugh, as if I would wear something she would wear, anyway.” She was rambling, and Ryan needed to put a stop to it, before her head exploded from spending too much time contemplating clothes that didn’t come with a label and a huge price tag.
“Hey, Shar?” She look somewhat perturbed by his interruption, but she gave him her attention and nodded her head to let him know he could continue. “Remember when you said that Chad was pretending to like Taylor, and that you thought he was gay, Do you really think that’s true? You think he could be gay?”
“Oh, no. NO. Well, I mean, yes, I think he is gay, but, no, a thousand times no, you absolutely can not really like him, Ryan!”
“Why not? You like Troy, why can’t I like Chad?. What’s so different?”
At this point they had reached the door to the suite they shared at Lava Springs. They went inside and Sharpay dragged Ryan to the couch, grabbed his shoulders and looked him right in the eye. “Ryan, pay attention. You and I both know why I want to date Troy. It’s not because I want to be the girl who is wearing the cheap plastic ‘T’ around my neck, because I am certainly not the kind of girl who would find that to be a sufficient romantic gesture. However, dating Troy means I win. What exactly I am winning might be vague, but you don’t need to me to put it in words. And if I did put it in words, we’d both probably think less of me, so please don’t compare you liking Chad to me liking Troy, because I don’t like him, I just want to date him. If you really like the person you’re manipulating, it takes all the fun out of it!”
Ryan laughed. “I don’t want to manipulate Chad. I never did. After I was finished being mad at you for demanding my compliance in this crazy scheme I realized it was actually kind of convenient. I want to be nice to him just because I really do like him. Also has really nice shoulders. And, his t-shirts can be really funny sometimes.” Ryan stopped there because Sharpay looked nauseous. He wanted Sharpay on his side, though, so he didn’t back down completely. “It doesn’t affect any of your grand plans where Troy is concerned, right? So you can help me? I really need your help, Sharpay.” He completed his request with a heavy dose of pleading eyes and pouting
She rolled her eyes and sighed, and Ryan mentally pumped his fist. “Oh, fine. I’ll help you bag your man. You’re right, you do need my help, you’re so hopeless with out me. You’d probably be all sincere and stuff instead of using the fool proof plan of wearing really tight clothing, and then you’d get your little heart broken. I can’t have that. I can’t have my number one minion all mopey and useless.”
+++
“I had no idea you played baseball for so long! There’s a staff game next week, you should totally come. We actually need a pitcher, which is perfect.” Chad really did look like he wanted Ryan to show up, and that made Ryan want to dance for joy. He couldn’t, of course, as he was having dinner with his entire family and, also, he would like a fool, so he settled for smiling as big as possibly and hoping he didn’t look too goofy.
“I’d really like that. I go to the batting cages every so often but I haven’t gotten to play a real game in so long. I hope I’m not too rusty.“
“I’m sure you’ll be fine. Better than Troy, at any rate. Baseball isn’t his game at all, it’s kind of hilarious.” Troy heard this, and stopped talking with Mr. Evans for a moment to defend his honor. Chad responded by teasing him some more and recounting a funny incident where Troy’s lack of ability on the baseball field had resulted in the arm of some unfortunate opponent getting broken. Once everyone had finished laughing, and Troy stopped blushing, Chad returned his attention to Ryan.
“So, you go to the bathing cages? Me, too. We should go together sometime. I’d love to go with someone who didn’t suck. Hey, maybe this weekend or something we could toss a ball around together?”
Ryan managed to choke out his acceptance without too much embarrassment. He was so elated by the idea that Chad was willing to spend time with him outside of Sharpay’s contrived settings that he had to step back from the conversation for a little just to get his nervousness and excitement under control. He let his mom take control of the conversation and she and Chad chatted amicably about various things and he enjoyed just listening. He found out that the reason Mrs. Evans had pulled Chad aside the other day was to offer him a different job working in Lava Springs impressive gym as an assistant to the personal trainers. Chad had the loved the sound of the offer but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity of spending the summer working with his friends, so Mrs. Evans agreed let him set up a schedule that allowed him to do both. Apparently, Troy had also worked out something similar and Ryan was really happy for both of them. He could see that they both really appreciated the opportunity and also the fact that Ryan’s parents had been so accommodating to let them still be with their friends.
The rest of dinner passed in a pleasant blur and the evening ended with Ryan and Sharpay trailing slowly behind their parents, who were recounting with much enthusiasm how pleasurable the evening had been, and what sweet boys the two wildcats were. Ryan swelled with satisfaction every time he heard his mom mention something about Chad in particular, ecstatic to know that she was still giving him a glowing review after their second meeting.
The twins said goodnight to their parents and continued walking to their suite. His sister grabbed his hand and began to swing it as they walked down the hallway. She leaned into his side and began to giggle.
“Chad’s totally into you.” She said in a teasing voice. Grade school children came to mind.
+++
The game had been amazing. Ryan had never had so much fun in his life. He felt like he had made 40 new friends in one day, and he’d done it himself. They weren’t his sister’s friends first and then his by default. They were all his own.
Ryan loved that ten different people had asked him to join the East High baseball team, and a few of them had even resorted to begging. He loved that Gabby and Taylor had asked Ryan to come to the mall with them next weekend. He loved that they wanted him to direct their performance for the talent show in a few weeks. He loved it all, but what he loved most of all was that at that very moment he and Chad were walking to the locker room Chad had an arm slung around Ryan and he was listing every single play Ryan had made in all nine innings as if he were Derek Jeter in Game 7 of the World Series.
“Chad, I’m the last person who would want to remind you of this, but we lost, you guys won!”
“Oh, Ry, please!” Ryan’s stomach jumped at the sound of Chad calling him something so familiar. “Everyone knows who the MVP of today’s game was! You were so amazing.” They had reached the locker room and while Chad continued his praise of Ryan’s performance Chad started to undress.
Ryan was blushing, for more than one reason, and he attempted to hide his face by turning towards his locker and beginning to rummage through his belongings. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, he didn’t have a change of clothes, or much more than a water bottle and a couple of spare hats, in his locker, but he definitely needed some kind of distraction. His mind was starting to wander sufficiently away from thoughts of Chad’s body when he heard Chad say his name again.
“Ryan, I am totally serious. You need to try out for the team next year. We could really use you. Also, think about how much fun it could be! You’d have skipped all the sucky years of being an underclassmen and getting tortured by the older kids, you’d be right at the top!”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to miss out on the spring musical.”
“Yeah, I understand that. You have plenty of time to decide, anyway.” Chad said, and Ryan fell for him a little more because he was just so sweet and obviously not trying to pressure Ryan into doing something he might not want to do. Chad then clapped his hands once and again began digging through his equipment bag, where he had just deposited his jersey.
“I’ve got an idea! You should try the uniform out, get a feel for it! You can wear mine.”
Ryan was overwhelmed with the idea of putting on something that was on Chad’s body only 30 seconds ago, he tried to say no, because there was something that made him strangely nervous about it, as if it would make his feelings for Chad blatantly obvious, but Chad threw the jersey in his hands, and before he knew it he was wearing Chad Danforth’s East High Wildcats Baseball Jersey, Number 8.
“Looking good, Wildcat!” Ryan laughed, and managed to get his feet working and did a spin to show off his new attire. Then Chad frowned.
“Hmm, something is definitely missing.” Chad took a step closer to Ryan and took off his striped hat, placing it on his own head with a wry grin. He then grabbed his baseball cap from the bench behind Ryan, which resulted in their chests being pressed very close together and Ryan being very out of breath. But then a second later Chad was back right in front of Ryan and smiling again. Chad dropped the cap on Ryan’s head and then he kissed him.
At first, Ryan was shocked and completely unable to move. Chad’s lips remained sealed over his own, however. He couldn’t hear anything over his own heartbeat, and his entire body was tingling with a flutter of hope at the intimate contact. Ryan finally managed to bring his hand up to Chad’s bicep, and with this motion of consent, the kiss went from chaste to passionate within a moment.
After a few seconds Chad broke the kiss and stepped back, but kept looking at Ryan right in the eye. Ryan figured he was waiting for a response, and Ryan wanted to give him one.
“Here. You can wear my shirt.”
Chad smiled and took the shirt from Ryan’s hands, hopefully without noticing how shaky they were. Ryan’s mind raced as he watched Chad button up his no longer pristine white shirt. He wanted to talk to Chad about what just happened, but he also had the feeling that for some reason it wasn’t necessary. He knew Chad had wanted the kiss, and he had definitely wanted it, so maybe he didn’t want to talk about it as much as he just wanted to try it again.
“Want to go to the batting cages this weekend?” Ryan said before he could really think about it too much.
“Definitely.” Chad finished the last button and then looked up and met Ryan’s eyes and again smiled. “It’s a date.”
With those words Ryan pulse skyrocketed, he became a little lightheaded, and he became overwhelmed with the insane urge to take out his cell phone and call his sister to congratulate her for finally devising a plan that didn’t result in tears, complete and utter social ruin, or the unnecessary destruction of a single perfectly good hat (and very often her plans resulted in all three). Before he could do that, however, Chad grabbed his hand and together they walked out to meet the their friends for a barbecue that included lots of laughing, amazing brownies, and a bunch more kisses.