Joy to the World

TITLE: Joy to the World

AUTHOR: RiverGenesis

PAIRING: Joy. That’s Jason/Troy. I love it already. Let’s see
if I can pull it off. Also Zekpay; Zeke/Sharpay.

~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~

Sharpay ducked into an empty bathroom stall and changed her
outfit. Not by much, but she needed to look absolutely fabulous
as usual even though she put on some less than usual clothes. Her
favourite sandals (from Jimmy Choo) went into her bag and a pair
of gorgeous suede boots went on her feet instead. The pink shawl
was exchanged for a short leather jacket in the same chocolate
brown as her boots, and she stepped out of the stall to look
herself over. Gold capris and a pink top completed the outfit, and
she quickly put her long blond hair up in a ponytail.

"Fabulous!" She twirled, grabbed her bag and left, a sunny smile
on her face. Zeke was giving her a ride home! If you'd told her
two months ago that she'd be excited, she'd have laughed or
called you an idiot, but now... She bounced slightly. What could
she say? The pink helmet with her name in rhinestones, was the
last stone in the road to her heart. Now he was banging on the
door to her soul, a big plate of cookies in his hand. And she
couldn't wait to let him in...

~~oOo~~

Troy was desperately fighting the urge to get up close to Kelsi
and scream in to her face how much he hated her, but luckily
they were all distracted by Sharpay, who dashed past the
Wildcats in the corridor with a call of “toodles!”, not even pausing
to kiss Ryan on the cheek.

“Someone’s late for a hot date” Ryan called after her in a
sing-song voice and snickered. Chad smiled and whispered
something in his ear. Whatever it was it was obviously dirty
since Ryan blushed almost as red as his shirt. Chad whispered
something again, and Ryan giggled and pressed against him. Then
he murmured again, sliding his hand down to grope Ryan’s ass,
and was rewarded by one of those little breathless gasps that
always made him want to throw his boyfriend down on the
nearest flat surface and screw him senseless.

“We’re, uh, leaving now.” Ryan squeaked. “We’ll talk about the
song later, ok Kelsi?” He dragged a laughing Chad off towards
the main exit of the school.

“Well we need to be going too, right Gabi?” Troy didn’t wait for
an answer, but simply grabbed his girlfriend’s arm and dragged
her off in the direction his best friend had just left in, leaving
the tiny songwriter staring after them with a confused look on
her face. What was up with Troy lately?

~~oOo~~

“That was awfully rude, Troy” Gabriella chastised him once they
were in his car. “And if you’re really so scared about someone but
me finding out, then you’d better start thinking about your
behaviour, cause at the moment you’re acting really suspicious.”
Troy pulled out of the parking lot.

“I know, Gabs. It’s just...” he looked down at his hands, who were
gripping the wheel until his knuckles turned white. “It’s just so
hard. Sometimes I just want to scream.”

Gabriella’s face softened. “I know.” She replied. Then, to get his
mind off things, she nodded her head in the direction of a couple
on the parking lot. “Hey look, it’s Zeke and the Ice Queen.”

~~oOo~~

Sharpay giggled as Zeke carefully helped her on with her new
helmet. It was a perfect fit, although how he’d managed that she
didn’t know. He closed the neck strap with a small snap and
tugged it.

“Is it too tight?” She shook her head.

“No, it’s perfect.”

”Alright.” He looked down at her and smiled. He’d grown even
taller during the summer; now she barely reached his chest. His
little princess. He hadn’t noticed he’d said that out loud, until
she gave him a beaming smile and wrapped her arms around his
waist.

”Yes” she said happily, “I am. I’m your princess.”

“That, too. But mostly you’re my woman sized portion of
chocolate mousse.”

“With raspberry ripple?” She was addicted to his chocolate
mousse – but even more so to his raspberry ripple. It was so
addictive it should be made illegal. Except then she couldn’t have
any… He pulled her closer and leaned down over her face. Was
he going to kiss her? She hoped so.

“Yes, definitely.” His gloved hand came up and touched the side
of her helmet. If she hadn’t been wearing it, would he have
touched her cheek? She closed her eyes. Waited for his lips.
Wondered if they’d taste like the rich chocolate with which they
shared their colour…

Her eyes snapped open as he pulled her vizier down.

“All set, princess.” He smiled at her and pulled down his own.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Oh” she did her best to hide her disappointment. She was
Sharpay Evans, the Queen of East High, and she didn’t get
disappointed over boys! Well… maybe this boy. “So, um.”

“It’s easy” His voice was slightly muffled behind the helmet.
“You just sit behind me as if you were riding side saddle on an
ordinary bike. Put both your arms around my waist and hold on
tight, yeah? And put your feet up, yeah right there.” She
wrapped her arms around him as tight as he could and suddenly
was happy that he’d given her his spare set of gloves. She put
her feet in the places he’d told her, and hung on tight.

The bike roared to life beneath her and she almost would have
jumped if she hadn’t been plastered to Zeke’s back and jumping
would have meant letting go. And as he sped out of the parking
lot, her last thought before simply enjoying the ride, was:

“If it’s like this, I’ll ride home with him everyday.” Then she
pressed her self a little tighter, let a big grin spread across her
face, and simply enjoyed the feeling of the early autumn sun
above her, the powerful machine beneath her and Zeke’s warm
body so close to hers. This was life. Why hadn’t anyone told her
this before?

~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~ ~~oOo~~

TBC in part 3.