Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 1… what are the chances?

Ryan's p.o.v

It's so weird to be back here, I haven't been to long lake camp for the arts since I was 14, three years later and now I'm back as a counselor. Wow, Ryan Evans, a counselor. What do I know? What can I teach? Who am I kidding; I'm probably one of the best performers in all of New Mexico. So it's no surprise that the camp asked me and sharpay to come back as counselors. And it's no surprise that Sharpay declined and instead decided to go with Zeke and his family to Europe. But I think it's good that we get some time apart, I mean, we have spend our entire lives together. So here I am, back at the one place that I swore I would never come back to. Every inch of this place is plagued with bad memories. I can still see those little bastards throwing rocks and calling me a fag. Yeah, I'm gay, but so what? Get over it! I don't taunt you just because you're straight. But now that I'm 17 I'll be damned if I let anyone call me anything besides Ryan.

"Ryan!" I hear a voice and whirl around "Ryan Evans? Oh my, it's so good to see you! How you've grown!"

I now realize who it is, Mrs. Linear, a counselor from the acting department. I can see the excitement on her face. I walk to her and she embrace's me in a hug. I was always her favorite kid. She pulls away and looks at me in the face.

"Boy oh boy." She sighs "I've missed ya these last couple of years, what happened?"

"High school." I say. More specifically, coming out in high school. After I decided to tell my closest friends, things really changed. I noticed that Sharpay hung around me more and that guys in the drama club where more distant. Nobody called me a fag or queer or anything like that. Not after, last year when that girl killed herself, because someone sprayed the word "Dyke" on her locker.

"Oh, I see" Mrs. Linear said shaking her head.

"Well, now that you're a counselor, we will be spending more time together!" she says in her overly bubbly voice.

"I can't wait" I lie. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Mrs. Linear, but right now all I wanted was some sleep and with her personality I would be up all night. "Well, let me show you to the bunks" she said.

And we were off, I dragged my two bags across the moist grass and past the loud kids, running to catch up with there friends that they haven't seen since last summer. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss, running to catch up with my friends…well, Sharpay's friends. We walked past the mess hall, the theater, the lake, the art studio and the dance hall. We finally get to a semi large, brown cabin that was pouring out light.

"Well there you are." She said pointing to the cabin.

"You're not coming?" I ask

"Nope! I've moved up to the big cabin!" she smiles

"Go you." I smile and turn around and go to the cabin.

Walking in, I was almost blinded by the bright yellow lights. I see about five other people setting up and picking out beds. One man, tall and bald, comes up to me.

"Welcome" he says "you must be Ryan"

"Um yeah, how'd you know?" I ask

He taps the tag on my shirt that says "hi my name is…Ryan". I laugh. Duh

"Oh" I say

He laughs and reaches behind him to a table. He grabs a clipboard and makes a small check. He then raises his eyebrows and looks back at me.

"Hmm, that's weird, there's another guy here from East High" he says

Great, just fucking great.

"Who?" I ask

"Um, Bolton. Troy Bolton" he says and walks past me, outside.

Troy's p.o.v

Why, God, why? Why did I have to screw up in class? Why did I let Chad talk me out of going to Darbus's class everyday? Why is this the only way to make up those credits? So now, everyone else is in Mexico and I'm stuck here. All by myself. Teaching some snot nose kids. What do I know about acting and singing? I mean yeah I can do it, but that's it! I don't know how I could ever teach it. The good news is that it's only two months, which means I'll have one month left before school starts and I can spend it with Gabriella. I must admit, being away from everyone at East High is a relief. I can finally just live, without constantly being pressured to do this and to do that. I could usually turn to Gabriella for solace, but ever since, she and Taylor had become friends with Sharpay, they've become too busy to talk to. She's always at parties or hanging out at Taylor's HUGE house. It's almost to the point where we can't spend weekends together anymore! I love her and that's the only reason that I'm sticking around. I walk for about another three minutes until I realize that I have no idea where I'm going. I see a red headed woman helping a kid pick up his dropped clothes. I walk to her and tap her on her shoulder. She gets up and turns around. She smiles

"Hello there, can I help you?" she ask

"Um, yes, can you show me where the counselor bunk is?" I ask

She turns back around to help the kid with his last couple of clothes and then tells him to be more careful. She whips back around

"Sorry about that. You can just follow me, I'm on my way there" she says

"Cool" I say as we begin walking

"I'm Mrs. Linear, by the way" she says as we pass a big building that smells like food

"Troy Bolton" I say

"Hmm, nice to meet you Troy" she says.

We walk for about another five minutes until we reach a brown building. She walks up the five stairs and then stops and turns around.

"You coming" she asks

"Oh, um yeah" I say as I follow her inside.

She points me to a bed next to another bed that has two bags and some tee shirts laid out on it.

"That seems to be the only bed left, Troy" she says and then turns to leave.

I throw my bags on the bed and walk to a door that I guess is the bathroom. I she the light on from under the door. I knock about three times.

"One second." I hear a voice say. A familiar, soft voice.

I walk back to my bed and flop down on my back, and stare at the beams in the ceiling. How did I end up here? Why! Well this is definitely rock bottom. I hear the toilet flush and soon after the bathroom door opens. I sit up to see who it is and my jaw drops. I thought I was alone and I was wrong. Dead wrong, I'm not alone I'm here with the one guy who can't stand me. The one guy who doesn't worship me, the one person who doesn't stop in the hallway to say hi. I'm here with Ryan Evans.

Chapter 2…in the heat of the night.

Ryan's p.o.v

Troy just stood there with his jaw on the floor. What was he so shocked about? If any thing I should be surprised. What in the hell is he doing here? And just perfect, he chooses the bed next to mine. I'm pretty much over the fact that I'll have to spend most of the summer with him. But I figured, how much time could we spend together? He's probably gonna slack off and meet some girl and then stop coming to the classes altogether, just like he did for Darbus's class. He stares at me for about an hour, or so it seems. I guess he realizes how rude he's being, because he sticks out his hand, for me to shake it. Why would he do that? It's not like we're just meeting or something. So instead of shaking it I look at it, like he's a leper.

"Um…okay" he say's and brings his hands back.

I continue to take out and organize my clothes. Small shirts in one pile, tight shirts in another pile. Then by color, red in one pile, green in another pile. Troy notices my tedious process and laughs. I guess he expects me to turn around and laugh with him and then we would stay up all night chatting about our lives and our deepest secrets, well he was wrong. Instead I just put my clothes in there drawers and sat on my bed.

"So, why are you here?" troy asks

"Why are you?" I snap

Troy gets up and towers over me

"Look I don't care if you hate me, I don't care if you want me dead, but if your gonna bitch this whole time then maybe we shouldn't talk at all. He's trying to sound strong but it doesn't fit him. I stand up and notice that he's not that much taller than me.

"You read my mind" I say as I turn around and go outside. The air's warm. I sit on the rail and look at the camp. I take this time to wonder why I never stood up for myself when I was younger. I hear the door open and see troy come out. I jump off the rail and start walking. I hear troy jump off and run up to catch me. He grabs my arm.

"Ryan, I'm sorry" he says "I'm just, I …don't wanna be here" He admits

No surprise there. I turn around and continue to walk. He follows.

"So, looks like we'll be spending the summer together, so let's talk."

What could he possibly wanna talk about? Sports, girls, cars? All of which I'm not interested in. but then he surprises me with a question.

"Why do you hate me?" he ask

What do I say to that?

"I don't hate you, I just…" but then I'm cut off by the word that has hunted me for years.

"FAG!" I hear a voice say, from the sound of it, there's a group of kids. I turn around to tell troy I'll be right back, but to my surprise, he's already running into the bunk. It takes me while to register what's happening. After a while I follow troy into the bunk. Once I get in, it's quite and I see troy has a little boy pinned against the wall. I go to help him but I hear a noise in the bathroom. I walk over and open the door. There I see a little boy holding a bloody towel to his mouth. God. This is all happening too fast. I go to help the kid, and expect him to flinch or turn away but instead; he wraps his arms around me and starts crying.

"I wanna go home." He says, with his face buried into my shirt.

"Okay" I say, choking back my own tears. Times have changed but the people haven't. I take the kid back out side and see that Troy has the little kid on the floor, with his foot, square in between his chest. Troy's in a trance. I have to pull him off the kid.

"We can't do that to them" I say "even if they do deserve it"

Suddenly the door swings open and Mrs. Linear appears along with 4 others.

After I explain the story, I and Troy head back to the cabin. We walk in silence, because troy still seems to be upset. But why? Why should he care so much? By the time we get to the cabin, I can't help myself. I step in front of Troy and hug him. He freezes up.

"That was nice." I say as I pull away.

We walk to our beds and I grab a towel from the drawer. I guess he realized what I had said

"It was nothing." He said

I turn back around and smile

"It was definitely something." I say and go into the bathroom.

Troy's p.o.v

I spend about an hour studying the insides of my eyelids until I realize that I can't sleep. I sit up and turn to Ryan's bed.

"Ryan? You up?" I whisper

I'm answered by his soft breathes. I check to make sure everyone is sleep and then quietly get out of my bed and stand over Ryan. Why does he hate me? I wonder if he's suspicious of the way I acted earlier. But what do I say? Do I tell him how I feel? That I don't know who I am? I'm confused about everything… gabby, me, sex, basketball, am I gay? I've been praying to whatever higher power there is for a sign. A sign that I'll get over this feeling. The feeling for another boy's lips on mine. So here's my sign, sleeping under me. So here's my chance, if I don't feel anything with this kiss, then I'm fine. I lean in and press my lips to Ryan's. Fuck. I do feel something. I feel a spark, a spark like no other. I can't help myself; I slide my hand under his covers and grab his crotch through his pajama pants. I slowly begin trailing down his neck. My hand finds its way inside of Ryan's pants, he's not wearing boxers. I grab him and move my fingers to feel every part of him that I can. I'm basically giving Ryan a hickey and I feel him growing hard. I begin to pump my hand up and down and then it hits me. This is wrong! I'm practically raping Ryan! I pull my hand from his warmth and lift my lips from his soft sweet neck. I plant one more on his lips and then go into the bathroom. I leave the door open and walk to the mirror. I'm gay? No I'm not. If I was then I would be attracted to every guy. Right? Or is that a stereotype? Oh fuck, I'm so lost. I don't want this! But a part of me does, a part of me wants to take Ryan in my arms and kiss every part of him. But another part of me loves gabby and the way that she smells and feels and taste. What's going on? Maybe it's just hormones? I have to laugh at that, because I sound like my mom. I throw some water on my face and take another look in the mirror. I jump, because I see myself, along with someone in the doorway…Ryan. He looks flushed. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!