I'm Just Dancing

Detention

Ryan POV

I stand by the wildcat statue and eye the seemingly new couple, something tells me troy isn't showing her around to just be nice but I can't really place his motive. Sure this new girl is pretty, but she is nowhere close to what he normally goes after. Sharpay flits by and I grab her wrist.

"Troy Bolton was looking at our audition list," she seems just as confused as I do.

"Again?" I raise my eyebrow, he was looking at it before?

"Yeah, he was hanging around with that new girl and they were both looking at the list," who is this chick anyway? How does she know Troy Bolton, and what about her suddenly has him interested in theatre? I'm staring past the list, trying to form theories in my head.

"There's something freaky about her, where did she say she's from?" Clearly a rhetorical question Sharpay starts to clack away. Research time is upon us.

The computer lab attached to the library is almost always empty and Ms. Darbus so graciously let us know the spelling of her full name; Gabriella Montez.

Putting her name into google brings up some relevant articles, a couple links down one titled "Gabriella" San Diego Zoo's new chimp catches my eye but Sharpay clicks on the first link which is titled, Whiz Kid Leads School to Scholastic Championship.

"Wow! An Einsteinette, so why do you think she's interested in our musical?" The article is pretty impressive, calling this girl an inspiration because of her skill in Chemistry. I don't know if that would inspire me but good for her.

"I'm not sure that she is, and we needn't concern ourselves with amateurs. But..." She hits print of the first article, "there is no harm in making certain that Gabriella's welcome to school activities that are...well, appropriate for her," and print on the second article. "After all she loves pi." I don't even look away from the computer to acknowledge that pun. I don't if I'd address that or fact that the two of us are still technically amateurs.

"I'll see you later in detention," I don't care what Sharpay is going to do with those articles. I only stuck around for this part because I am nosy.

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I won't say I like how Darbus uses drama as a punishment but given how the department has approximately three active students it's fairly necessary.

Sharpay is getting her wardrobe fitted which is mostly unnecessary since we usually make our own costumes. I am mostly pretending to paint a ladder, I would normally put more heart into it but the first day back is always tiring.

I am eavesdropping on conversations around me to avoid hearing Darbus lecture about cell phones. Taylor runs up to Gabriella ecstatic that she had left all these articles in her locker, which Gabriella of course denies. Sharpay trots over and smiles at me through the rungs of the ladder before heading in their direction. She can be a genius when she puts her mind to it. Gabriella is insistent that she doesn't want to join any clubs though, which I am on her side about. It has to suck to transfer schools in the middle of a year but to feel like you have to choose a clique right away is way too stressful. On the other hand though maybe finding a group of people that share similar interests may be good, may ease some of the new school anxiety. Who am I to say.

I tune out and leave Sharpay to weave her web and I start thinking about choreography for the show, assessing what sets we have left to complete, trying to get Kelsi to understand that Sharpay will get her songs arranged into her key if it kills her and I'll agree to that key if it kills me. I feel like I am taking on more than my fair share this year, but I am happy to have something to put my focus into. You can't spend too much time in your own head if you are always busy.

Honestly we probably shouldn't have agreed to do an original student play. Not that Kelsi isn't good at writing but Shakespear is dead and can't get his feelings hurt by diva demands. It feels almost unfair to her to have this be her start.

Scanning around to see who showed up I see Troy sitting in the huge tree stapling in leaves, sitting is a generous way to put it. It's more like he's laying in the tree like he's waiting for someone to paint him in the style of a greek god. I can see chads back through the tree opening and he seems totally unmoving like maybe he fell asleep. Not that I have been looking at him for long enough to tell or anything.

"Where's my team, Darbus?" Three years I have been in this school and the feud between Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton never gets old. Seeing him throw a tantrum and her try to condescend him out of his anger is honestly a highlight of my days.

"What the heck are those two doing in a tree?" He's gonna pop a blood vessel if he doesn't chill a little bit.

"It's called crime and punishment, Bolton. Besides, proximity to the arts is cleansing for the soul." Cleansing? I watched her almost snap her glasses in half trying to figure out a play last semester.

"Can we have a talk, please?" and Bolton is gonna tattle to the principal that his perfect basketball robots got in trouble. I am sure the principal will take his side too, like always.

"And you two, in the gym, now!" Troy hops down from the tree and yanks Chad out and off the stage. I almost feel bad that he seems so afraid of his dad, but I get it, I flinch when he yells like that too.

I wish we could hire someone to do the sets for us so that I could go home and take a nap, but while the donors are incredibly generous they aren't miracle workers. If we want decent costumes and micing, we have to sacrifice somewhere. Even if that somewhere is the total sum of our free time.

After about 40 minutes I decide to take a break.

Sry u got detention hope bolton cut u some slack