High School Musical || Huke Stemmings

A Private Conversation

Back in the cafeteria, Ariana, Harry and Becca were still tryout to recover form the chaos that happened.

"Is Perrie really, really mad?" Harry asked. "I said I was sorry."

"No one has beaten out Perrie for a musical since kindergarten." Ariana explained.

"Oh really?" Becca asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not trying to beat anyone out," Harry protested. "We weren't even auditioning. We were just . . . singing."

Ariana shook her head. "You won't convince Perrie of that." She warned. "If that girl could figure out how to play both Romeo and Juliet, her own brother would be aced out of a job."

"I told you, it just . . . happened." Then he admitted the real truth. "But I liked it. A lot." He laughed and then asked Ariana the question he had been wondering about since New Year's Eve. "Do you ever feel like there's this whole other person inside of you, just looking for a way to come out?"

Ariana gave him a sharp look. "No," she said, decisively.

The bell rang to signal the end of the lunch period. Perrie stalked out of the cafeteria, but not before leveling a death-ray glance at Harry.

Then Zayn stepped up to stop Perrie. He was fizzing with happiness, now that his secret love of baking was out in the open.

"Hey, Perrie." He said. "Now that Luke's going to be in your show . . ."

"Luke Hemmings is not in my show!" She snapped.

Zayn pushed on, undeterred. "I thought maybe you'd like to see me play ball some time . . ."

Perrie tossed her head and said grandly. "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes."

He frowned at her, puzzled. "Wouldn't that be awfully uncomfortable?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Evaporate tall person!" She said as she stormed away.

Crestfallen, Zayn called after her, "I bake . . . if that helps."

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The next day, Harry opened his locker and found a note. He read it quickly, then looked at a yellow door at the end of the hall. He was a little confused—and very intrigued.

"What's that, Haz?" Becca asked him, but Harry didn't answer her as he soon made his way towards the direction where Luke told him to meet him.

He opened the door and found a staircase that led up to the roof. As he opened the door and stepped out into the beautiful, sunny day, rounded by lash plants, all being grown as hydroponic experiments.

"So this is your private hideout?" He asked, smiling.

"Thanks to the Science Club," Luke said. "Which means that my buddies don't even know about it."

Harry wondered about that. His teammates didn't seem to be his only buddies.

"Looks to me like everyone on campus wants to be your friend." He pointed out.

"Unless we lose." He seemed a little down about that, he thought. The pressure must be intense, especially since . . .

"I'm sure ire tricky being the coach's son." He said.

Luke shrugged. "It makes me practice a little harder, I guess. I don't know what he'll say when he hears about the singing thing."

"You're worried?" He was surprised. Luke seemed so cool, so confident. Not the type to worry. Ever.

But Luke nodded. "My parents' friends are always saying, 'Your son is the basketball guy, you must be so proud.' Sometimes I don't want to be . . . a guy."

"I saw how you treated Calum at the audition yesterday," he said softly. "Do your friends know that guy?"

Luke shook his head. "To them, I'm just the playmaker dude."

"Then they don't know enough about you, Luke." Harry paused, then decided it was time to share a confession of his own. "At my other schools I was the freaky math boy. It's cool coming here and being . . . anyone I want to be. When I was singing with you, I just felt like a . . . a boy."

"You even look like one, too." Luke teased him.

Harry laughed, glad to have the seriousness of the moment lightened a bit. "Remember in kindergarten, you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, and then ten seconds later were best friends, because you didn't have to be anything but yourself?"

"Yeah . . ." Luke's voice was wistful.

"Singing with you felt like that." Harry said sincerely.

"I never thought about singing, that's for sure." Luke said. "Until you."

"So you really want to do the callbacks?" Harry asked.

He thought about it for a moment as he looked at him. Really looked at him. Then he smiled. "Hey, just call me freaky callback boy."

Harry smiled, a glowing smile of pure happiness. "You're a cool guy, Luke. But not for reasons your friends think," Luke looked down, a little embarrassed, and he moved on quickly. "Thanks for sharing me your top secret hiding place. Like kindergarten."

Then the bell rang, breaking the mood and making Luke realize he was late. And that meant detention!