Me and My PlayMaker (Chyan)

The Breakup of Venace

"Wait seriously?"

"But I thought you two were good together!"

"What even happened man?"

The questions and exclamations flooded the three lunch tables that were now shared by the Drama Club, Basketball Team, and Mathletes (thanks to Gabriella).

Chad felt like he was drowning, not just because of the exceedingly increasing population of his lunch company, or his recent break up with Taylor - who was currently dealing with her own swamp of questions by the girls at the table opposite of Chad -, though both were taking a toll on his current mental and emotional state, but mostly because even he barely knew why they broke up.

"Guys, chill, you said it was mutual, right Chad?" Troy jumped in to save his best friend, and Chad snapped himself out of his thoughts.

"Uh- yeah. We're all friendly and stuff still, it just wasn't working." Chad threw out the best response he could piece together in his rather pre-occupied mind, earning several satisfied shrugs and murmurs from his friends.

That is, from everyone but Troy, who continued to stare at his best friend in slight concern. He could tell by the way the other boy nervously ruffled his tight curls and looked down that there was something wrong.

"Why hi there Wild Cats." A voice greeted, and Chad's insides turned. The voice belonged to what - or who - seemed to be causing these weird feelings Chad had been having.

Ryan Evans sat so that he was wedged between Gabriella - who was sitting next to Troy - and Kelsey on the next table, who was fussing over Taylor over her black-rimmed glasses.

It wasn't that Chad hadn't had different feelings towards guys before, but he's always blocked it out and it has always been overpowered by girls.

Sure, having to act like he didn't feel weird feelings in the locker room -surrounded by half naked guys - was hard, but he had always figured that he'd end up with a girl, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Yet again, Chad was pulled out of his thoughts when a certain bedazzled-gold-hat-wearing boy said his name, causing butterflies to fly up out of his stomach and catch in his throat,

"Y- yeah?" He stammered, ignoring the confused look from Troy and the slight understanding look from Gabriella.

'Oh god' Chad thought toxically, 'she's piecing it together'.

"Well I was asking if we were still on for that rehearsal after school, but you seemed rather occupied." Chad blushed slightly and looked down, biting his lip.

It wasn't that he had forgotten their plans, they did this almost every afternoon, it just seemed like a bad idea to hang out with the flamboyant boy when he was still trying to sort out his feelings for everything- and everyone.

"This break up really getting you down?" Ryan continued, his ocean blue eyes brimmed with concern.

Chad opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a certain dark-skinned, education enthusiast, "Oh no Ryan, don't be silly," Taylor jumped in, "It was totally mutual, we're better off as friends. Besides, I have a big math decathlon event approaching and can't be bothered by trivial things like dating-" Taylor paused, then shot a look at Chad, "No offense."

"Uh- none taken."

Chad smiled great fully for Taylor's interjection, but internally screamed when he realized she was putting it together too. 'Of course she is' Chad scolded himself, 'not only is she brilliant, but she's friends with Gabriella, that girl has some sort of 6 sense for this stuff.'

"Oh." The blonde said dumbly, clearly confused. "Well if whatever is distracting you so much is keeping you from acting as well-" "He'll be there!" Kesley interrupted loudly, causing some very confused glances at the usually quiet girl.

'Her too?!'

"Uh- yeah, yeah I'm fine, I'll be with you- there I mean!" Chad stammered, mentally scolding himself the entire time.

'Great going Chad, now basically all of East High is going to know something's up.'

Ryan gave a smug smile and shrugged, "Alright then, whatever you say player~boy."

Jason shuddered, "Look man, you're cool and all, but please, don't say that, it makes you sound like Sharpay." The others agreed and Ryan laughed.

"Speaking of Sharpay- will she uh, be joining us?" Zeke asked from among what looked to be a mini-buffet he had pulled out of his extra-advanced lunch box. Ryan shook his head, "No, the 'ice queen' is busy at her own little thrown, she somehow found a freshmen willing to be her new apprentice now that Kels and I have joined you guys, and she is very busy with the upcoming play."

Ryan rolled his eyes and the rest groaned, "Look man, I'm all for combining of the arts, and supporting my best pal and stuff, but are you really sure you want to be in this play?" Troy asked, quirking an eyebrow. They all had been confused when Chad jumped at the chance to audition for the school play, The Merchant of Venace, and had been even more confused when he got the part. Chad nodded quickly, "Yeah, Sharpay isn't that bad, and besides, Ms Darbus is running the play, not Sharpay." Now it was Zeke's turn to groan, "Like that's better?" The three tables laughed, and continued to throw around playful banter, making Chad's blush go unnoticed, by all except Gabriella and Troy, who shared a confused look.