Disclaimer: I don't own HSM.

AN: I know I should be writing my other fic, but this one just popped into my head and I had to write it. Like my other stuff, this is does not have a beta, so there may be a few mistakes.

Ch. 1 The Request

Troy's POV

Troy Bolton had a plan. It was a perfect plan that could not possibly go wrong. It was a plan to get Ryan Evans, the boy that Troy had had a crush on since his freshman year.

Nobody knew that Troy was gay. He knew what would happen if he came out, and he did not want to face that. This meant that if he wanted to go out with a guy as obviously gay as Ryan, he would need a reason that would not make people suspicious of why they were hanging out, and he would have to plan his seduction of the drama king carefully. He did not want to make Ryan suspicious of a set up, either. He needed to prove that his feelings were real, which was a lot easier said than done. Troy was generally not a very patient person, but with Ryan he knew he was going to have to be.

The play had given Troy the perfect idea.

Troy put his plan into action the morning after call-backs as soon as he saw Ryan at his locker, which, thankfully, was nowhere near Sharpay's locker. He was pretty sure she would have found a way to mess up his plan. Slinking up to Ryan, Troy coughed to get his attention.

"What? Troy, what are you doing by my locker?" Ryan asked, turning around.

"I wanted to talk to you about the play," Troy answered. "You may have noticed that when Gabriella and I were auditioning, we didn't actually dance."

"So?" Ryan prompted, looking confused.

"Well, the thing is, we didn't dance because I don't know how to dance. Gabriella knows how to dance, but she's always too busy with her science stuff to really help me, so I was wondering if you could help me learn." 'Not entirely true,' he thought, 'but Ryan doesn't need to know that.' "I would really appreciate it if you would," he continued, putting on his best 'I'm Cute and You Know You Want To' look.

Unfortunately, Ryan appeared to be immune to it. "Why should I help you?" he asked in what Troy felt was a very good Sharpay impression. "After all, you auditioned with the knowledge that you would have to dance. If you suddenly realized that you can't fulfill your role, that's your problem. Why should I help you when I can just take your place?"

Troy had not thought of that. "Is there anything I can do that would make you want to help me?" he asked hopefully.

"Well," Ryan responded, "I might be interested in helping you if you promise never to try out for a play again." He smirked in a decidedly evil manner that had Troy willing to promise Ryan anything he wanted.

"Sure," he said, hoping Ryan wouldn't notice the breathless quality of his voice. "I only really wanted to do this once, just to try it out. If you help me, I swear I'll never try out for any more musicals."

"Fine, but you're going to have to work hard. I won't help you if you won't give it your best effort. Meet me after school and we'll plan some times to meet."

Ryan didn't even give Troy a chance to answer before he turned and walked away. As Troy watched him walk away, a huge grin broke out on his face, and practically skipped to his own locker. 'Don't worry, Ryan, I plan to give one hundred and ten percent on this project.' He was really quite lucky it was so early and no one else was around, because his whistling and skipping might have given away the secret that he was going to such lengths to hide.

Ryan's POV

When Ryan woke up on the day after call backs, he was not his normally cheerful self. He had been shocked when he and Sharpay lost to two people who had never even been in a single production before. It just wasn't fair. He and Sharpay worked really hard for years to get to the place they were at. Troy and Gabriella just entered on a whim. It just went to show that life was really, really unfair sometimes.

His mind was still on the subject of plays when he got to school, so when Troy made his proposal, Ryan said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be that he wanted Troy to stay away from musicals. Now, walking to Sharpay's locker, he wanted to kick himself. The reason for this soon became apparent.

"Hey fag, how's it feel to get beaten in your stupid musical by a basketball star? You and your bitchy sister must really suck."

Ricky Marlow was a member of the basketball team with a severe hatred of gay people, and his locker was right on the way to Sharpay's locker from Ryan's locker. Ricky's two cronies, Marc and David, laughed loudly at his comment, before advancing on Ryan. They grabbed his arms while Ricky punched him in the stomach, laughing. He may have been a bully, but he was still smart enough to hit where it wouldn't leave a visible mark. Ryan put on the mask he had taught himself to wear and tried to think of something else.

"What, don't I get a response, fag?" Ryan's silence seemed to anger Ricky, and he punched Ryan in the stomach again. Turning to his friends, he said, "Come on, let's get to class. The fag isn't worth any more of my time." They left, and Ryan continued on his way. Once, he had tried taking a different route, but the beating he got after school that day made sure he would never try to avoid them again. When he reached Sharpay's locker, Ryan put on his customary happy face and composed himself.

"Hey, Sharpay!" He greeted her with a smile.

"Hey, Ryan!" She turned and smiled at him, and he knew he could never tell her about what happened when she wasn't around. She was too wonderful to hurt, and she would get hurt if she got involved. Most people called her the Ice Queen, but Ryan loved her and thought she was just a unique person. If other people couldn't see that, that was their problem.

"Come on," she said. "I promised Zeke we would meet him at seven fifteen, and now we're late because you took so long at long at your locker." Although his happy smile never slipped, Ryan cringed inside. First he got beat up, and now he got to watch his twin sister fawn over Zeke. He had been happy when she finally got over Troy, but had since come to the conclusion that watching her with Zeke was even worse. At least Troy had never responded to her advances. And when the day was over, he would have to spend time in the company of a stuck up jock who couldn't dance. The day was definitely not turning out well, and it had barely even started.

Ryan sighed and resigned himself to another bad day.

AN: So, what do you think? This story just popped into my head, so I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it and ideas will be appreciated.

Hopefully I'll update Revelations within the next few days.