High School Musical || Huke Stemmings

The guy you knew on vacation

Over the next few days, Harry and Luke became more and more depressed. Harry thought Luke had dumped him. Luke thought that Harry had dumped him. And, even though their friends tried to cheer them up, nothing worked.

One day, during PE class, Michael, Zayn, and Liam and some other students were goofing around on the outside basketball court. They were passing a ball in a circle, fast and slick, just like the Harlem Globetrotters. Laughing, they waved at Luke, inviting him to join them.

But Luke ignored them, and headed over the track for a jog instead, moving steadily away from his friends.
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That evening, Luke shot baskets alone in his backyard. He missed a few baskets and slammed the ball down in frustration. His father watched from an upstairs window, worried. He knew something was wrong. He also knew it wasn't the right time to find out what it is.

At the Styles house, Harry was sitting by his bedroom window. He was surrounded by his books, but he wasn't reading. Instead, he was gazing out the window at the stars and trying not to cry.

His mother opened the door, holding a portable phone. Anne held it to Harry, indicating the call was for him.

Harry shook his head.

The next day, Harry and Luke happened to pass each other in the cafeteria. They glanced at each other, then away . . . then defused the awkward moment by moving on without saying a word.

Michael and Ariana saw the exchange from opposite ends of the room. They looked at each other and nodded. They'd seen enough. They could see the effect of what they'd done and they knew that they'd screwed up, big time.

Now they had to try to fix it . . .
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The next day at school, during study hall, Luke went to his and used to be Harry's secret hideout. Suddenly, he saw some of his teammates. "Oh, hey."

"Luke! Hey." Michael said.

"Hey, Luke!" said Zayn.

"Hey, um... We just had another team meeting." Michael told Luke.

"Wonderful," Luke answered. He tried to keep his bitterness out of his voice.

Michael swallowed hard. "We had a team meeting about how we haven't been acting like a team. Us, not you. The singing thing--"

"I don't want to talk about it," Luke said shortly.

"We just want you to know that we're going to be there cheering for you," Michael finished.

Luke looked up, surprised. "Huh?"

Zayn nodded furiously. "Yeah. Cap, if singing is something you want to do, we should be boosting you up, not tearing you down."

"Win or lose, we're teammates," Michael added. "That's what we're about. Even if you turn out to be the worst singer in the world--"

"--which we don't know, because we have never heard you sing," Liam pointed out.

"And you're not going to hear me sing, guys. Because Harry won't talk to me..." Luke stopped for a moment. "...and I don't know why." He sighed. Michael looked at Zayn and Liam.

"We do." Michael said.

"What?" Luke looked at them confused. Zayn pulled out some cookies and handed them to Luke.

"Here. I baked them fresh today. You'll probably want to finish them before we tell you the rest." Michael, Liam and Zayn all told Luke what happened and why they had to do it. And that they're sorry for everything.
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In the science lab, Harry was working on some problems to practice with the scholastic decathlon team. Suddenly, Ariana and the academic team came up to Harry and stopped Harry to say an apology. "Harry, we're jerks. No, we were worse than jerks. We thought that Luke and the whole singing thing was killing our chances of having you on the scholastic decathlon team."

"I heard what he had to say. I'm on your team now. Done." Harry said, snapping at Ariana.

"We all heard what he said to his team, Ariana." Becca said to her, pointingly.

"No! Not done. We knew Michael could get Luke to say things to make you want to forget about the callbacks. We planned it, and we're embarrassed and sorry. No one forced Luke to day anything." Ariana told Harry.

"I'll believe it when Luke says that. And you know what? It's okay. We should prepare for the decathlon it's time to move on."

"No, i's not okay. The decathlon is whatever, but how you feel about us, and even more, Luke. That's what really matters." Harry rolled his eyes, looking back to his textbooks and finding a new problem. "We tried." Ariana whispered to the scholastic team and went out. Harry looked at them as they left, feeling bad for snapping.
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Later on that very night, Luke went to Harry's house to try to apologize to Harry. "Hi, uh... Just came to say I'm sorry." He said to himself. When he wasn't looking, Harry's mum, Anne, saw him talking to himself. She opened the door, scaring Luke. "Hi, Ms. Styles, I'm Luke Hemmings."

"Oh, Luke!" Harry came down hearing his mom saying Luke's name. His sister Becca was in her room working on some homework from school. His mum looking back seeing Harry on the stairs shaking his head mouthing 'no'. "Um... Harry is kind of busy with homework, now's not a good time."

"I made a mistake, Ms. Styles, and I would really like Harry to know that. Could you tell him that I came by to see him?" Luke asked.

"I will... Luke. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Thank you." Luke walked away but stopped himself. He looked back to see that the house had a fence. Luke opened the fence, being quiet as he can. He opened p his phone and called Harry.
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Harry was in his bedroom studying and doing homework. He was about to cry, remembering what Luke had said. Suddenly, his phone started to ring. Seeing it's Luke, he sucked up his courage and answered. "Hello?" He asked timidly.

"What you heard the other day, none of it is true. I was sick of my friends telling me, so I said things to shut them up. I didn't mean any of it." Luke looked around nervously, hoping no one will find him.

"You sounded pretty convincing to me." Harry turned on his light and Luke noticed, figuring out a plan.

Becca could hear a little bit of the phone conversation that her brother Harry is having with Luke. She put down her pencil and got up from the bed and walked over to Harry's bedroom. "Haz, what's going on?" She asked.

"I'm on the phone with Luke," Harry told her. "He wants to explain to me what happened at school."

"Listen, the guy you met on vacation is more me than the guy who said those stupid things." Luke started to climb Harry's tree that leads to Harry's bedroom balcony.

"The whole singing thing is making the school whack! You said so yourself. Everyone is treating you differently because of it."

"Maybe I don't want to only be the basketball guy. They can't handle it. That's not my problem, it's theirs."

"But what about your dad?" Harry asked as he leaned up against the bedframe. Becca went to sit down on his bed, listening to the conversation.

"And it's not about my dad. This is about how I feel, and I'm not letting the team down. They let me down. So I'm going to sing. What about you?" He asked Harry.

"I don't know, Harry. You said it yourself you don't even want to do it."

"Harry! Listen to me. Well, you need to say yes." He paused for a moment. "Because I brought you something."

"What do you mean?"

"Turn around." Harry turned around, seeing Luke standing there on his balcony. He opened the door and stared at Luke confused.

What is he going to do? Harry thought.

Luke:

She sleeps alone
My heart wants to come home
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you
She lies awake
I'm trying to find the words to say
I was I was, I wish I was beside you

Luke sang the song that they sang at the New Year's party and spoke new. Harry smiled and Luke pulled out the sheet music to the song. "It's a pairs audition." Harry walked up to Luke and took the sheet music. He turned to Luke and hugged him.

"You are forgiven." Luke smiled and both of them looked over the sheet music in Harry's room.