FicWad

Disclaimer: It's probably obvious, but I don't own any of the HSM characters or the cast or their related stuff. Also, though this story involves the names of real people, it is a complete work of fiction in terms of characterization and plot.

Author's Note: It may come in handy to know that Bart Johnson played Coach Bolton and Alyson Reed played Ms. Darbus. Ryne Sanborn is Jason of course.

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Chapter 12 - The Long Goodbye

Part I

Fidgeting with a plastic hanger from wardrobe, Lucas stood next to Ashley behind the cameras, watching Zac film a dance scene where he moved through a crowd, shaking hands and giving fives. As Corbin suddenly rushed in to give Zac a noogie at the end of the sequence, Lucas sighed loudly.

"Dude. We were so robbed."

He looked over at Ashley for a reaction, but her attention seemed riveted to Zac. He poked her with the hanger and finally she turned to him, annoyed. "What, Lucas?"

"Ash, we were totally robbed during those auditions," he said, putting his palms up. "Sharpay and Ryan should have totally won those roles. I mean, we had costumes. Lighting. A gold ladder and a disco ball. Real dance moves. Like musical theatre is supposed to be." He let out his breath in mock exasperation. "All those two did was sing like pop stars, drag in half the school and pretend to be soaring, flying."

He imitated the song lyric, then put out his arms and mimicked Zac's airplane moves from the Breaking Free number. Ashley laughed in spite of herself.

"Yeah, Darbus just went for the big names," she said, shaking her head. "But she'll pay when it comes to rehearsals. Basketball robots aren't easily reprogrammed into dancers."

Lucas laughed. "And brainiacs might have song, but they don't necessarily have rhythm."

But suddenly, there was no response. He looked over at her again and saw her attention was already back to Zac, repeating the scene over again at Kenny's request. Something about the lip synching being off. But Ashley seemed transfixed.

Maybe Monique was right.

The thought stung. Corbin being so positive about Ashley yesterday hadn't taken the edge off. All Lucas could see in his head was himself, grabbing Vanessa, warning her off Zac... and he was wrong. And did Ashley... just take advantage of a willing target?

Suddenly, he felt a burning sense of shame and anger wash over him. Used like a puppet. If it was all true... he felt wholly betrayed. But a sense of confusion lingered, lying underneath it all. Did she do it on purpose? Lie to him like that? Keep Vanessa and Zac apart... when all of them knew how they'd been through hell afterward? When everybody could see they how much they wanted to be together?

Lucas glanced over at Ashley and saw her still staring at Zac. He realized suddenly that he had a chance alone with her, and felt suddenly steeled.

Ash---what were you thinking when you told me about Zac? For real?

He opened his mouth to ask, but suddenly Kenny's megaphone jumped in.

"Cut! Now can we get Lucas and Ashley out here for the bleacher routine?"

Ashley looked over and grinned. "Well, Sharpay and Ryan get one more chance to strut their stuff." She grabbed his hand. "Let's blow them away."

Smiling, she pulled him toward the bleachers, and Lucas felt his resistance grudgingly draining away. Here was Ashley, the warm, sweet girl he'd been working with throughout the shoot. There was no time for acrimony during the last of their scenes together, before they wrapped for good.

Maybe... I'll just ask her about it later.

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"One, two, three--action!"

Here we go.

At Kenny's signal, Vanessa took a deep breath and started to run through the gym doors, hoping not to start the longest single scene of the day by tripping on her high heels. Approaching the cheering crowded bleachers, she saw Bart Johnson and Alyson Reed disperse in opposite directions, leaving Zac standing there, facing away from her and pointing wildly at someone.

A smile spread on her face as she ran up behind him, putting her arms around his shoulders and pressing him to her close. Hey. "Congratulations, Wildcat!"

Turning around, he whirled her in a circle and she could see his eyes looked just as excited as she felt. "What about your team?" he said.

"We won too." She grinned helplessly. He's so cute.

And then he was bending toward her, his lips almost on hers amid the dizzying circle of shouting athletes and cheerleaders moving around them...

A loud shout sounded in her ear. "Team voted you the game ball, Captain."

Corbin. They jumped apart as he slammed the basketball against Zac's chest. She grinned and Corbin winked back at her slyly before racing off again.

"Yeah, thank you, thanks a lot," said Zac, pretending to sound exasperated. But his eyes were fixed firmly on hers, a devious grin on his face. As the camera panned over to focus on Corbin grabbing Monique into his arms, Zac leaned over to her quickly. His arm was still around her waist, lifting her close as he whispered into her ear. "Nice work on that kiss there. You're such a tease, Hudgens."

She turned to look at him with mock outrage, but had barely enough time to register his mischievous smile before Monique had whipped her back around in the other direction.

"Chad just asked me out," she squealed. But Monique rolled her eyes at her character's excitement as she backed up out of the scene, letting Lucas and Ashley sweep in to take her place beside Vanessa.

Ashley started to talk, and Vanessa made a silent prayer of thanks that she had no lines to return, feeling tense at the prospect of completing her part of the scene. Next to Ashley, Lucas caught her eye and grinned supportively. Almost there, he mouthed.

Then suddenly Ashley and Lucas were walking away from her, the cameras following as they went onto the next scene with Chris Warren. Dashing to her final cue, Vanessa scrambled to stand near Zac. She laughed and hugged the girl beside her as finally Ryne lifted Olesya's hands and shot the game basketball into the hoop.

But the basketball hit the rim and thudded right back onto the floor in front of them. The gym reverberated with laughter.

"OK, cut and print!" Kenny said, laughter coming through his megaphone too. "Perfect, guys! We'll just need to get that swish separately. Ryne, you can give us a hand with that."

Phew--thank God, that's done.

Suddenly she felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around her waist, hugging her from behind. Zac. She turned her head to see his blue eyes looking down at her. "Pretty good, Ness," he said, letting go and grinning. "You should really think about taking up this acting thing full-time."

She opened her mouth to answer, but he had already melted away back into the crowd. In the distance, she caught a glimpse of Ashley turning him around, smiling excitedly and hugging him as well.

I wish... he was putting his arms around me again.

But as if to ward off the thought, Monique suddenly appeared at her side, walking up with her arms crossed as the gym echoed with the chatter from hundreds of relaxed extras.

"'Must be your lucky day?'" said Monique, imitating Corbin's earlier line. "Because all girls dream of being asked out like that way. And of course Taylor just freaks out over it. Never mind the lunkhead basketball player talk from earlier."

"Oh, Monique," Vanessa laughed and threw her arms around her. "Be happy that we're done the scene! I was so sure I'd screw up and say 'Congratulations, Zac' or something, and then Kenny would have killed me on camera."

"Oh, Kenny would never do that," laughed Monique, hugging her back. "It's way too much trouble to find a replacement this late in the game. Stick with the status quo, right." She burst into laughter again as Vanessa pretended to hit her lightly on the shoulder.

"By the way, I saw all of that, you know," said Monique, crossing her arms again and looking at her knowingly.

"What, me hitting you?" Vanessa laughed. "That was pretty obvious."

"No... you and Zac. The hugging. "

A guilty look crossed Vanessa's face. "Oh, that was nothing. We're just friends, you know that. And we just finished a tough scene, right..."

But she trailed off, realizing that Monique wasn't protesting her friendship with Zac as she normally did. Looking over, she realized Monique had a hesitant smile on her face. "Mo, what's--"

"Well..." Monique seemed to take a deep breath, then edged closer, dropping her voice. "Corbin actually told us that Ashley had it wrong. That Zac isn't on the rebound." She shrugged. "Turns out he and Danielle Panabaker weren't really together, and they didn't go out recently. So... we were wrong. It's OK... for you guys to go for it."

Oh, my God.

It was as though Vanessa's heart had leapt clear out of her chest. "You're saying that..."

"Yeah." Monique still looked tentative. "And Ness... we're really sorry. About everything. Because I know this hurt you a lot." She sighed, exasperated. "I don't know if I should even be apologizing... I really think Ashley did this on purpose, although Corbin doesn't think so. Like maybe she likes Zac, and she wanted to keep you guys apart. You know what I mean, Ness. I just don't trust her at all."

But looking over, Monique saw Vanessa's attention was elsewhere. Her eyes sparkled as they fixed on Zac at the other side of the crowd, watching him laughing with Corbin. A luminous smile had taken over her face, and her hands fidgeted in a tense sort of anticipation, the fingers twisting and turning together.

"Ness." Monique nudged her friend. "Did you hear what I said?"

Vanessa's eyes turned back to Monique. "Yeah," she said, her grin widening as she threw her arms around Monique and hugged her again. "And oh my God, Mo. It's probably the best news I've had in a long time."

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Author's Note: This is just part I, remember...