im such a baller Ms. Darbus in Highschool Musical but i really wanna steal @nananananana-nananana-batman’s role of zeke 😒 maybe steal Mr. Bolton (coach) while im at it….
HSM is rife with queer themes. Troy wanting to do both theatre and basketball as a metaphor for bisexuality. Ryan. "I Don't Dance" as a metaphor for Chad's internalized homophobia and coming to terms with his identity.
But how about instead if having these golden lgbt stories that can be seen only through a queer reading, we had the characters just outright be queer? No metaphors no nonsense.
Also, including more identities. In most fics and popular head canons are about mlm relationships but what about our wlw and trans friends? We travel in packs so it's not a stretch to say the whole cast is some flavor of queer.
Onto the story:
Our main character is T Bolton. She's mtf trans but deeeeep in the closet. The only people who she's come out to are online friends, one of which being Montez (a closeted trans dude)
While chatting with Montez, T mentions going to a ski resort over break and Montez is like "no way, me to!"
And turns out it's the same resort. It feels like such a breath of fresh air for the person with you to see you.
They do karaoke for fun, not cause other people pressured them to. They both really like it.
When school starts back up, T finds Montez and things go as they do in movie; with the main cast getting detention.
While painting trees or sumn in detention Chad makes a passing comment/joke about Ryan being gay. A kinda rude comment. (Don't worry Chad will go through character development.)
His mindset is not "gays are going to hell" and more a casual "gay people are weird, don't get a crush on me" type homophobia. Which like 😬 both are bad.
T's like ? The heck dude you know I'm bi, but in whisper. Chad's mindset is like, T's not really gay, he likes women too. (Unbenounced to him, her liking women is what's gay 😼)
Darbus talks about the auditions and about expressing yourself through the arts.
Montez is all like, remember karaoke? Let's audition! But T tells him about her friends and how she's the basketball guy.
This is where getchya head in the game takes place (yes before auditions)
The team thinks she's unfocused because of a crush on Montez and bully her through song. That is what drives her to audition.
They arrive on time to audition and are both visibly nervous, but good.
When watching stick to the status quo in cannon,but reading through a queer lense, it always kinda breaks my heart.
Everyone's friends tell them to open up, but when they do, they get rejected and Put In Their Places.
It's obviously different tho in a context where characters are overtly queer.
The sitch with STTSQ in this version is people think auditioning is T's way of subtly coming out as a gay guy because "theatre is code for gay". Also I guess she says something at the auditions to make people think this way but idk what rn.
In the song other characters come out by announcing their atypical interest for their percieved gender/orientation and then drop lines subtly denoting their orientation.
Ex: A nerd comes clean about a passion for baseball and says she's a really good batter cause she swings both ways.
People's reactions are mostly like the movie :( but the rebels find eachother and can be seen mingling in the background :)
Sharpay and Ryan are like "Gay rights but it's Our Musical, step off."
Chad and the Wildcats are upset because "People are spreading rumors about our friend, and he's doing something other than basketball." >:(
But Chad's also internally like... T's bi and being outed :(
Montez's nerd team are actually supportive cause the jocks rule the school so no in fighting is needed :) if Montez wants to do theatre, he can
T and Montez eat lunch in her secret garden place so they don't even know this mess is going down
Darbus mentioned T auditioning to Coach Bolton offscreen (?) So que awkward father (secretly) daughter dinner talk.
They're eating in silence with coach constantly looking at T before quickly looking away. He suddenly says
"But you like the Montez girl right?" (He's heard from the team)
T's like "???? No? Where'd you get that from and why does it matter?"
Coach puts his fork down. "Are there any girls you like right now?
And T is so confused to why her dad is so intense on this out of nowhere. "No??"
"Are you sure you're gay?" Coach asks point blank.
... T just stops. Like not the conversation she wanted to have right now. "I never said I was gay."
"Well you basically did. At auditions. You can't hide things from me when we're around each other at school and home all the time." What she meant was actually about being trans but the student body ain't that perceptive.
So T's just quiet, analyzing the situation, thinking of her next move, which she doesn't even need to end up making cause coach (hesitantly) says
"Your still my son even if you're gay."
And it's both the best and worst thing. She's starve of acceptance, but she's his daughter. And how do you even begin to explain that to your old parent? Also the "even" in that line indicates that it's something bad. Like I love you in spite of this flaw. But it's not a flaw.
She's not hungry anymore. "Good to know, goodnight dad."
Coach just has a face that says he know he just fucked up, but no clue how.
T goes to shelter herself in her room and chats online with Montez, venting about how most of the stuff she's going through right now (dysphoria, push back against auditioning, casual homophobia) seem to all relate back to being percieved as a guy.
Montez says how he's so ready to just be out, but doesn't like the idea of having to do it over and over again to everyone he meets.
On the topic of the musical, T casually mentions how the callbacks are open and most the school usually goes to see Sharpay and Ryan and their shenanigans.
It sets off a light bulb in Montez's head.
They could come out at callbacks. So that's their plan.
The lowest scene has to be when the entire basketball team is in the locker room guilt tripping T about doing the musical. Unlike in the movie, T doesn't back down and say mean things about Montez.
As soon as they start their little speech she gets the gist. After a stab of anger and hurt she says something like
"...What the hell guys? I want to do something for myself one time and suddenly I'm letting the team down? *scoff* I'm still playing. Honestly! This is why I wanted to do the musical, to get away from all of you!"
.....
"Shit."
She looks away and makes a quick exit.
A scene happens now for emotional cool down but idk what... fun hangout scene with Kelsi and Montez?
Later on the rooftop scene were the guys originally apologize... they're still apologizing to her, well Chad is. It goes something like
T notices Chad in her private space and digs the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Get out."
"Troy-"
"Get. Out. If I can't escape to Twinkle Town I'm not letting you take here too."
Chad sits down and T looks at him. "You don't hate me. Right?"
T sighs but sounds confident in her answer, "No, I don't. Look I won't take back a word of what I've said, but there is more too it."
"Yeah I thought as much. I mean maybe you'd join a musical for a girl, but telling your friends you don't want to be around them and going to the verge of tears for a girl?" Chad tried to laugh.
"Does the team hate me?"
Chad took a moment. "No, but they're pretty pissed right now. All they can see is that you're forgetting your responsibilities and blowing up at the team for no reason..... what is the reason anyway?"
T looks long and hard at Chad and wants to come out. But then all her worries about rejection bubble to the surface and her gaze falters.
"I just- ugh. I... You all see me as the basketball guy. You think you know me so well. But whenever I step out of this little box you've carved for me, you just push me back in. Instead of just accepting new things about my and changing your misconceptions. It's frustrating having to be a different person all the time. It's exhausting. And that's why I want to get away from you guys so much. Not like... forever, but I need a break. I need space to be who I am.... Maybe I wouldn't need so much space if all the guys could just see me."
And Chad wraps her in a hug. "T baby, I'm so sorry. Look I'll smooth things over with the guys and we could even come support you in the show!- Or not, if you don't want us there. I get it. Well- okay- not really but I'm trying and just because I don't understand what your going through doesn't mean that I don't care about you T."
And for a moment she thinks that somehow, by way of telepathy, Chad knows. But he doesn't, not consciously yet.
*quietly* "It's about being bi, right? I didn't realize... all the jokes I've made..."
The bi thing. If it takes so long for Chad to even acknowledge it, how can she come out as a girl?
Darbus doesn't move the callback date to the same date as the other events. There's enough conflict already and we characterize Darbus as not The Worst in this house.
At the call backs, T and Montez sing the same song as in cannon, specifically for the lyric "You know the world can see us in a way that's different from who we are." And Montez follows through, pulling out his trans flag on that line.
And after all the resistance she's faced at every turn of the past few weeks
T backs out.
I'm stopping here cause the og first movie ends after the call backs, even though this reboot doesn't. Tune in... sometime in the future for the next part, where T comes out, gets all the love and support and a name that's hers. Montez walks for T to run. He gets a name too. Also hurt/comfort.
There are some bits less developed than others, feel free to fill in the gaps :)
That scene between Darbus and Troy after Scream is one of my favourite scenes in the entire trilogy, but also, Darbus sending in the application for Troy means that she had to (presumably) write an entire essay for him and forge an authentic-appearing signature and I’m still not sure whether I think that it’s awesome that she cares for her students so much or that she should be in jail.
