Behind Their Eyes

Summery: “Are you sure you want to do this, Shar?” Sharpay looked at her twin, and a slow and soft smile spread across her face. “It’s now or never, Ry. Now or never.” And Ryan just watched her, amazed, as she walked away. Friendship fic.

Author’s Note: Doode, there seriously aren’t enough random Sharpay and Ryan brother-sister bonding fics out there…I always thought they had an interesting relationship, so I decided to take a shot at it, my way. Hope you enjoy! And no, they aren’t romantically involved, just family love. R+R if you want! Enjoy! Oh, and there’s a side of Zekepay too!

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical, it’s characters or any reference to them/the movie itself. Disney holds all copyrights. I’m just a fan.

They sat close together, foreheads nearly touching, sending hushed whispers each other’s way. A series of emotions passed over their faces not a one could say they’ve ever seen on them before. Two teens, one girl, one boy, both blondes with a notorious reputation to all who saw them.

The time was 12:45 PM, lunch time. The place; East High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Or more specifically, East High’s massive double-story cafeteria.

While the two teens in question were absorbed in whatever conversation had them, there sat a group of seven friends curiously peering up at our blonde friends, eyes narrowed.

“Now seriously, when have you ever seen her actually being nice to Ryan? I mean, we see them all day, they’re always fighting!” Said an African-American boy with an afro big enough to swallow the state of New Mexico.

That comment earned him a smack on the arm, by a pretty, chocolate-skinned girl. “Chad! That’s not true! She’s nice to him…sometimes…”

The table laughed. “Actually, I’m going to agree with him on that one, Taylor.” Spoke up a lanky, dark-haired boy with a kind smile. “My locker’s next to hers, I hear them every passing period bickering. It drives me nuts!” He turned to another boy at the table. “Zeke, man, I don’t know how you put up with her!”

Zeke looked up from stabbing his home-baked Quiche Lorraine with a fork and smiled. “Well I don’t think she’s going to like that I’m telling you this Jason, but Sharpay isn’t mean. She’s actually a really sweet person once you get to know her.”

The whole table went silent, 6 pairs of eyes boring a hole through his head, before they burst out into laughter.

A tan-skinned boy hit Zeke on the shoulder. “Haha! Whoa there, for a second I thought you were actually being serious.”

Zeke looked momentarily confused. “Troy, I am being serious. Look, if you don’t believe me, just watch her for a while. If you guys would hold back on calling her Ice Queen for five seconds, maybe you could get to see the Sharpay me and Ryan see. The nice one.”

Troy made a face, folding his arms over the basketball on the table and resting his chin between them. “So how come you’re the only one who gets to see the nice Sharpay then?”

A petite, Latin-American girl sitting to the left of Troy chose this moment to speak up, smiling. “Being his girlfriend might have something to do with it…”

Troy shot her a look. “Ha-ha, very funny Gabby…”

Zeke smiled proudly and puffed up his chest. “And because no one can resist my Double White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies.”

“Actually that’s true, I had so many last time he brought them to school I felt sick.” Laughed a small bespectacled girl quietly.

Jason grinned. “Are you sure that’s not just because they’re bad, Kels?”

“HEY!”

Taylor rolled her eyes at the boys, who had begun to argue over the quality of Zeke’s cookies. “Guys! Seriously, if you’re going to argue, do it over something a little less feminine!”

Gabriella and Kelsi giggled as the guys settled back down, an embarrassment burning their cheeks.

A sudden quiet spread over the table as the subject at hand slowly came back to the forefront. Chad took a glance upward at the only occupied table, and instantly jumped back into it.

“OK—Look! See! I told you there’s no way she can be nice! They’re at it again!”

There was a collective groan as several different types of “Chad!” were yelled from each member of the group. Nonetheless, they all took a look toward the twins, and from the looks on their faces they were arguing again.

That was, of course, until a slow and soft smile spread over Sharpay’s face, knocking the wind out of the table.

Zeke grinned and leaned back, crossing his arms. “Told you.”

Sharpay got up from her perch on the bench and ruffled her brother’s for once uncapped blonde hair as she walked past, smile still in plain sight. Ryan let out an indignant “Hey!” before hurrying to follow his twin down the stairs.

They blinked. Okay, what was that?

“Dude…” A kind of shocked Troy started. “I didn’t know Sharpay was even capable of smiling…”

“Smiles at me like that all the time.” Zeke said flatly.

“Must we bring up the whole ‘she’s your girlfriend’ thing again?”

“Yeah okay, point taken.”

“Still…That was kinda unexpected…” Gabriella said, eyebrow quirked.

“What’s unexpected?” A familiar voice sounded.

Ryan and Sharpay stood but a few feet away, Ryan with his usual sunny smile and Sharpay with not one hint of her usual animosity on her face.

“Sharpaaay!” The whole table chorused together, clearly not expecting her.

The blonde twins exchanged amused glances, as Sharpay went over to her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind and resting her chin on his head, smiling. “So what’s up guys?”

Zeke played his her hands and responded with a smile, which she returned gladly.

Her remark only further increased the shock on their faces as they all wondering why in the hell the Ice Queen was being so…pleasant.

Chad recovered first, and stated, “Okay, what’s wrong with you.” Which earned him another whack from Taylor.

Sharpay and Ryan yet again exchanged an ‘I-know-something-you-don’t-know’ glance, smiling widely. She put on an innocent face and blinked, battling her long eyelashes. “Why, whatever do you mean, dearest Chad? I can’t be wonderfully nice to my favourite people in the whole wide world?”

“Uhh…actually, no…”

Taylor whacked him again. “Oww--Seriously, what did this arm ever do to you!” He said, rubbing his irritated skin.

Sharpay just laughed, giggled really, and released Zeke, slinging her bag on her shoulder. “O-kaay you guys are weird, but I love you anyway.” She bent down and gave Zeke a hushed bye and a small kiss on the cheek, and then waved, waggling each of her individual fingers, and began walking over toward the exit of the cafeteria. “Tootles!”

By the time Sharpay reached the double glass doors, she was laughing so hard she couldn’t walk straight

‘I feel so liberated!’ She hummed happily to herself, and turned out of sight.

Back at the table, everyone sat speechless, except for Ryan, who was too busy cracking up with his head down on the table, and Zeke, who was used to the new Sharpay. He just smiled with an ‘I knew it’ kind of look, waiting for their friends to snap out of it.

“Okay…” Troy started slowly. “What was that?”

Troy’s bewildered inquiry only succeeded in making Ryan laugh harder; he had been sitting half on the edge of the bench, and he lost his balance, falling over.

Someone snorted, and Zeke chuckled, holding out his hand. “You okay man?”

Ryan’s laughter died down a bit; he heaved a huge sigh and wiped the tears out of his eyes. “Whoo…yeah I’m good bro.” He took Zeke’s hand and stood up, brushing off his pants.

When Ryan’s gaze met those of all his friends at the table, he sighed, still smiling, and asked “Are you guys going to be like this every time she’s around now? ‘Cause let me tell you, hanging out won’t be as fun anymore if the only hanging being done is by your jaws.”

An unintelligible ‘Uhhh’ chorused around the table, and Ryan exchanged glances with Zeke, rolling his eyes.

Gabriella cleared her throat, composing herself first. “So then, uhm, Ryan, is there something going on that we should know? Oooorr…what?” She asked, trying her best to figure out what was happening.

Ryan sat back down, Zeke scooting to make more room for him. “Well, as you all know, Sharpay and I were talking pretty seriously up there—don’t think we didn’t see you staring—and she was telling me some pretty interesting thoughts.” He rolled his wrist, gearing up to tell the story.

Flashback

Sharpay and Ryan sat at their usual table, overlooking the large lower level of the cafeteria. This was usually how they sat now, alone at he designated drama club table; ever since the incident last year with the musical, everybody broke out of their social groups.

Sharpay looked around with her eyes, chin resting in her palm. She actually enjoyed the emptiness, it was a lot more peaceful. But there was something on her mind.

She looked up at her brother, diligently concentrating on an assignment, before sighing.

“Hey, Ryan?”

“Yeah Shar.” He responded immediately, not looking up just yet.

She hesitated, looking off to the side before back at her brother. “Do you, you know, ever get tired of this whole…” She waved her hand around in the air, trying to phrase it correctly. “Ice King and Queen charade?”

Ryan looked up this time, shocked. “Uhh…Uhh, well…” He honestly didn’t know what to say; of course he didn’t like it but he never expected her to suggest stopping it.

Sharpay noticed something like hope in her brother’s eyes, and raised her eyebrow. “Tell me the truth.”

Ryan sighed, setting down his mechanical pencil. “I, yeah I do. I mean I know it was just a nasty misfortune in freshman year, but I had hoped it’d drop by now, I never liked keeping up with it…I mean, it’s already junior year!”

Back in their freshman year of high school, the Evans twins were always quiet, they weren’t so outgoing and icy, but one day, they got pushed too far, and Sharpay snapped. Someone from the crowd yelled ‘Ice Queen!’ and ever since then, well, you know how it goes.

Sharpay looked thoughtful for a moment, before sighing, leaning with her elbows on her knees. “Me too…”

Ryan looked startled, before he smiled. “That’s…that’s great! Then we can just drop this whole thing and everything will be normal now!”

Sharpay rolled her eyes. “Oh please, Ryan do you really think that’ll work? Oh yeah, let’s just go prance around school all of a sudden being nice. While we’re at it we can throw flowers from a basket and hand out cookies!”

By this time they sat close together, foreheads nearly touching. Ryan huffed.

“Oh come on, Shar. Are you forgetting our entire sophomore year?” He knocked on her head lightly. “Helllooo anybody in there? Everybody changed last year! No more clicks, no more titles, everybody’s messing together! No one will even notice—okay they will, but it’ll be old news by the end of the week! No more Ice King and Queen, doesn’t that sound nice to you?”

Sharpay looked highly unsure, so he sighed. “Think about it Shar. We could just be ourselves, and maybe let the group into our lives a little bit more. They’re great company.” He grinned, and got a small smile out of her.

“That would mean no more attitudes.” She said, and Ryan nodded excitedly.

“No more flashy outfits, no more coordinating them, for god’s sake.” He chuckled at that.

“No more publicly freaking out over the drama club either, Ry. I mean we can still be in it, but we won’t have to obsess over it all the time…Oh what the hell, it sounds great, let’s do it!”

Ryan’s whole face lit up, and Sharpay allowed a slow, soft smile to spread across her face. “Really!” He asked excitedly.

She just laughed and stood up, grabbing her purse and ruffled her brother’s hair. She looked at him again over her shoulder.

“Oh, and no more hats either.”

Ryan was immensely surprised, snapping out of it with an indigent ‘hey!’ before grabbing his stuff and rushing down to the stairs. He felt free and lighthearted as he grinned.

‘It’s the start of something new.’ He sang lightly, running to catch up with his twin.

End Flashback

“And then the rest you know.”

Ryan finished off his small story, looking around to see the reactions of his friends. Surprisingly, they all looked to be in deep thought.

“Duuuude…” Troy muttered, kind of mystified.

“You can say that again…” Jason added quietly.

Troy grinned and opened his mouth to do it again, until Gabriella smacked his arm and just rolled her eyes. He pouted.

The rest of them were surprisingly quiet, up until Taylor spoke up quietly.

“Sooooo what exactly does this 360 degree turn in attitude entail for all of us?”

Ryan gave her a dimpled smile, answering simply. “It means that if Troy and Gabriella win the leads of the next musical, we won’t try to sabotage your chances. It means that if you, Taylor, do another Scholastic Decathlon, we’ll be there cheering instead of making fun of you for it like we did all the years before. It means that when you basketball boys have a big game, we’ll actually go to be your support, not just make faces in the hall. And it means that Kelsi, when your compositions for another musical are chosen, because believe me, they will be, they’re wonderful, we won’t have our rehearsal pianist do an arrangement, we’ll work with you to make your songs shine like they’re meant to.”

Everyone at the table was very moved by Ryan’s monologue, the girls even tearing up. And the best part of it was that he wasn’t acting, he truly meant what he just said.

Ryan got up and stretched out his back, arching it like a cat. “Well with that said, I should go, the bell’s ringing soon you know.” He smiled toothily and waved. “See you guys later!”

After Ryan had disappeared into the halls outside, the table was once again drowned in a stunned silence. The rest of the cafeteria was loud as usual, but to the seven teenagers at that lunch table, it was deathly quiet. Even Zeke was speechless.

“Wow…” someone breathed, unsure of who said it aloud because they were all thinking the same thing.

Then Chad gave a half smile and shrugged, beginning to finish his lunch.

“I was wrong, maybe they aren’t so bad after all.”

And they had to agree.

Author’s Note: Okay, weird ending I know, but I’m tired and I have a busy day tomorrow and I just wanna finish this now so yeah! Lols It wasn’t that bad! So tell me what you guys thought! Thanks for reading!