I hereby dedicate this chapter to Tertiary Genesis, who has been so helpful. Sorry this has taken so long. And the worst thing is it's the shortest chappy yet. SORRY!

Disclaimer: Zac Efron...can I hear an AWESOMELY HAWT DUDE!...yeah, you can so tell I don't own.

Rating: K (Still going slow!)

Troy looked up at the shaded through his maroon curtains that were draped across the windows lazily. Oh, mornings were so cruel, the worst time, when you crawled out of the clinging fog that was your consciousness that seemed to linger and hang in the deepest corners of your mind like old coats among your memories.

But as Troy looked out his window again, this time his senses a little more aware, he picked up a delightful sound: the symphony of rain.

His short-lived friends had returned, their torrent from the sky giving Troy a rush of happiness. Smiling to himself, he slowly made his way downstairs, throwing on a shirt as he went. He hopped in his rundown truck, and headed off to the dark monolith that was East High, with a rather brighter attitude than the weather.

Entering homeroom, Troy once again surveyed the ever familiar scene before him. But something was off, and Troy could feel it as his eyes swept over the skaters and the math geeks. When he looked over at where the drama presidents were supposed to be, he came to realize the emptiness. Yeah, the overly annoying Sharpay was there, along with her equally annoying group of drama cohorts, but her twin was missing. Ryan almost never missed a day of school, and his shining, laughing blue eyes always seemed to be staring at him during almost all of his classes. Troy almost felt lonely now. Those eyes weren't there to keep company, they weren't there to be something that he could look into and not be judged.

For Ryan, the day went slow. He lounged around the house after he woke up three hours late. He had lost an entire night of sleep, all over some pompous basketball star. And not even because they had interacted greatly. They just looked at each other. For like, two seconds. Yet, when they looked into each other's eyes for that brief second, something had happened. Something had clicked inside Ryan, as if a missing gear from his internal machinery had been found and replaced. But why was that gear missing in the first place? What had gone amiss in Ryan's life? Or was it something that he had never had? Well, that wasn't much. His family was filthy rich, so Ryan got everything he wanted, really. He had a complete room for his entertainment, outfitted with a huge plasma screen television, Wii, Xbox 360, and he was even equipped with the new Playstation 3. In other words, he led a pretty good life. But there was something that he was missing…something that evaded him like a cat chasing its own tail. What was missing?

Finally, Sharpay arrived home in her hot pink convertible, and waltzed in the door with her usual attitude: "I'm better than you and you know it." But when she walked in and saw Ryan still in his pajamas, with his hair sticking up like a rooster heralding a new morn, and those disgusting bags under his eyes, she switched immediately to mother mode.

"Ryan!? What have you been doing all day?" she asked. Strolling over to him, more like striding, she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room.

"What does it look like?" he retorted in a sleepy tone. "Nothing."

Sharpay had dragged him to the couch and was feeling his forehead. "How much sleep did you get last night?" she asked, moving to examine his eye.

"About three hours," Ryan replied.

Sharpay stopped. "What were you doing last night?" she practically screeched.

"Couldn't sleep," Ryan said simply, and shrugged.

Sharpay looked at him curiously. "Who is it this time?" she asked.

"Psh, like I'm going to tell you!" Ryan retorted with a snort.

"Oh come on Ryan! Do I have to guess? You know I always guess right!" Sharpay said, giggling.

"But do you know that I always tell the truth?" he said with a sly grin.

Sharpay pushed him playfully. "Fine, I'll guess…Let's see…Zeke?" Ryan shook his head. "Jason?" Ryan shook his head again. "It's not Chad, is it?"

Ryan's expression turned into one of utter horror. "Eww!" he said in a disgusted tone. "He's with Taylor!"

Sharpay's face twisted into a fiendish smile. "I know who it is," she said in a devious voice. Getting up so suddenly Ryan almost fell off the couch, she ran upstairs laughing like a maniac.

Ryan blinked for a moment in his awkward position on the floor, then sprung up and chased after his sister. "Who do you think it is?" he yelled after her as he followed up the stairs. "Can I at least tell you you're wrong?"

Sharpay stopped at her door and looked at him playfully. "But I'm not wrong. You're in love with Troy Bolton."

O.o What happened? Even I didn't see that coming!