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azuriteOkay, I want to take a ruler and thwap all the people that write HSM fics. I really do. I'm too old to be doing this. I'm too old to be in this fandom. I like it, but when I try to "get into it," the badfic just makes me gag. LITERALLY.
HOW TO WRITE A HALFWAY DECENT HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL FIC (according to Azurite):
* Warning * There are bits and pieces of this guide that reference mature situations, including rape, abuse, sex, and so on. You are hereby forewarned.
(1) Don't try and write real-person fic. Troy is not the same as Zac Efron. Gabriella is not the same as Vanessa Hudgens, and so on and so forth. Some fic sites have a place for real-person fic, but FFnet's not one of them, nor is the HSM section. Why? Because people go to that section to read about Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, Zeke, Kelsi, et. al. not about their actors and the behind-the-scenes romances or dramas that develop while filming HSM3.
(2) Don't make Sharpay and Gabriella best friends. They're NOT. Not in any of the movies, not in any of the novels. NEVER. Simply stating that they are so is grossly out-of-character for the both of them, and if you want to make it (or a romance between them) happen, you've got a LOT of work to do. You can't just "explain it away" in a sentence. The only acceptable compromise: labeling your story an AU or AR where it's somehow plausible that they could be best friends, despite their HUUUUGE differences.
(3) Don't just stick to the stereotypes. Yes, Troy's "the jock" and Gabriella is the "bookworm," but that's not all there is to them. Same goes for Zeke and Chad (also jocks, but Zeke as the heartthrob jock that gets himself hurt all the time; Chad as the dumb jock with no social skills), Sharpay (the blonde bimbo, the rich harlot, whatever you like), Ryan (the flamboyant metrosexual guy), Kelsi (the quiet but super-talented girl), and everyone else in between. That said, it's not as if the only thing the boys do is play basketball, and it's not as if the only thing Gabriella and Taylor do is study. I'm sure, as high school students, they all have other hobbies, interests, activities, and maybe even friends. They might even have classes NOT taught by Ms. Darbus, classes with people OTHER than the usual cast, and things that they do between basketball games/academic decathlon meetings/musicals. They might occasionally go to movies, play video games, surf the Internet, go on vacation, etc. People are more complex than just what Disney served up in the movies! Take what they start with and RUN with it! (Note: this isn't license to pretend that everyone's got some hidden dark side. One fic I saw describes Chad as an abuser. WHAT!? No. Even if he doesn't get as much screen-time as Troy, his character in canon is not an abuser. To do so just for the sake of a plot --for convenience-- is cheap. Why not just use an OC if that's the case? If you WANT to show a truly fucked-up side to a character, make sure to back it up, not just "write it off." Could Chad somehow be the guy we see in the movies, be Troy's best friend and have caught Taylor's attention, and be abusive? WHY would he be?
(4) Forget the clichés. The "Troy and Gabriella are best friends, but one of them wants to become more!" thing only works between the first and second movies. By midway through the second movie, it's quite clear that there is romantic tension between the BOTH of them, and they follow through on it fairly quickly. When Troy gives Gabriella a necklace, he's more or less asking her to be his girlfriend. Okay, he doesn't say it EXPLICITLY, so you can always take that as a jumping-off point, but Troy is not a "player jock" who could easily be so close to Gabriella and date some other girl on the side (unless, of course, she wasn't from East High; anyone from their own school would have to be an expert at keeping secrets, staying hidden, and not giving any clues, and let's face it-- no one at East High that's a canonical character meets that description, including Troy himself. Besides, they're high schoolers!). And by movie 3, they're definitely boyfriend and girlfriend, so it's not like the tension dragged ON AND ON! Accept it and move on.
Same goes for the other cliché fics: Gabriella surprises Troy with "another side of herself" (sexy, dangerous, whatever: things that the character almost certainly is not; Troy likes her for who she is, not who she might pretend to be or think she has to be. That's the major difference between HSM and Grease! Neither Troy nor Gabriella change for each other, nor feel they have to!), Troy pressures Gabriella into changing, whatever.
(4) Be wary of the "everyone is paired off" story. HSM did it in canon, but there was still only one couple as the focus: Gabriella and Troy. The other pairings are:
* Chad and Taylor
* Ryan and Kelsi
* Zeke and Sharpay (very one-sided throughout movies 1 and 2, but it's possible something developed in 3 enough for her to say "yes" to him taking her to prom)
* Jason and Martha (well, he took her to prom... that's about it)
So it's worth it to explore either HOW these couples may have gotten together, whether they can last (e.g. Chad and Taylor, when Chad goes to U of A and Taylor goes to Yale), or what kind of a relationship it is (if any). Or heck, explore other pairings-- during HSM2, I liked the possibility of Ryan x Gabriella, and I thought that Troy's displayed jealousy in some of the scenes where they were together made it clear that his character thought Gabriella might like Ryan (in a romantic way). Or, examine the friendship between Chad and Troy-- it's deep, but what are its limits? And so on. Focus on a particular person or pairing, and stick with that; trying to do an "everyone" story will result in the narrative and likely the characterization being stretched thin.
* Don't invent nicknames. By "nickname," I mean a shortening of one's name, not something like "Jimmy the Rocket." No one in canon calls Gabriella "Gabby" or "Brie" or anything like that. Likewise, no one with a short name has a nickname (Chad, Troy, Ryan), and some people wouldn't LIKE nicknames (Sharpay, Taylor), and others have names that you simply CAN'T nickname (Martha).
If someone does use a nickname, you'd better explain it in narrative why they are, when they started, and why the person in question is okay with that (assuming the person using the nickname is SPEAKING to the person to whom the nickname belongs; e.g. Troy calling Gabriella "Brie" and speaking to Gabriella; he wouldn't be talking to Chad and calling Gabriella "Brie," and Sharpay wouldn't use Troy's nickname for Gabriella if she were talking about her to Tiara). Alternatively, explain it then and there: Troy slips up and calls Gabriella "Brie." Does she recognize it as a nickname for her, or does she think Troy's calling her by another girl's name? If Troy explains it as a nickname, does Gabriella like it? Why or why not? You can't just throw something into the story like that and expect it to just fade into the background. Names are a crucial part of a character, as are the invention of nicknames (as it shows the relationship between two people). Either don't use them or explain their usage in your fic.
* Remember: it's Disney. Canonically, we have no reason to believe that Troy would be disloyal to Gabriella or vice-versa. We have no reason to believe any character (except maybe Sharpay and Tiara) are manipulative enough to be labeled "players." There's also no canonical evidence to support any of the characters having had boyfriends or girlfriends prior to the pairings established in the movie. Likewise, there's no reason to believe any of them are NOT virgins, or had some traumatic incident befall them (e.g. Sharpay was raped or something). If you do opt to make Gabriella an experienced sexual star, explain how! Remember, the attitude of your characters AT ANY POINT DURING YOUR FIC should tie in with the attitude we see in the movie, even if the movie doesn't show ALL the normal teenage activities and habits. (For example, it's believable that Troy probably masturbates, even if we'd never see anything remotely close to an implication of that on screen. It's believable though because he's a high school boy and therefore hormonal; he's also got a girlfriend or is at least surrounded by girls, meaning the thought would probably cross his mind at least once.) The only exception to this? Porn-without-plot. In which case, screw all this.
* Be realistic. Even if it's Disney, even if it's a musical, even if everything else is idealized, HSM still takes place in the "real world." There's no magic, there's no money trees, there are no wish-granting fairy godmothers. So Troy and Gabriella are GOING to have fights and/or disagreements, they are GOING to have money problems, they are GOING to have points of tension between them. Consider: Troy's got a seemingly better relationship with his father than his mother. Gabriella has no father figure in her life. We don't know why for either, but we can speculate. The developments of that speculation is what makes for good fic. Also keep in mind other things: Gabriella and Troy aren't going to have "their own place" together right out of high school. Gabriella's either in dorms at Stanford or sharing an apartment with other girls, while her mom's likely moving around again, unless her mom managed to get a job in the area (Silicon Valley of CA). Troy's parents stay in Arizona, so Troy's probably also in dorms or sharing an apartment with other guys. Neither of them are in any position to have leased an apartment all on their own, without reference to a job or their parents paying for it. And it's not like we heard about Troy or Gabriella getting free rides to school (though it's entirely likely in both their cases: it just wasn't mentioned in canon; the only scholarship recipients were Kelsi and Ryan), so there's other costs to consider. Don't have them living together in some sort of spacious mansion when they're only in their early 20s. It isn't realistic, and therefore it isn't HSM, no matter what.
Every single one of the above was inspired as I tried to wade my way through FFnet's HSM section. I had it set to all fics that were completed and featured Troy and Gabriella. Some of the fics whose examples I use below (that can be applied more generally) are MA-rated fics, and thus not suitable for minors.
BTW, I'm extremely tempted to dissect some of the fics I read and quote directly from them, explaining just what makes them so mind-numbingly wrong, but I'll pass on that... for now.
GENERAL FIC WRITING NO-NO'S:
* When writing dialogue, remember to format it like so: "I'm fine," Gabriella told Troy. OR "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked gently. That is, if the dialogue doesn't end in a question or exclamation point, use a comma, and unless it's a name that directly follows, lowercase the next word. This is called ATTRIBUTION. You're attributing the words spoken to a particular speaker (by name or by pronoun) and maybe even describing HOW they're saying something (did he or she shout it, wail it, say it vehemently or with passion?) Any other formatting is a NO NO.
* Don't describe eyes as "orbs," or resembling anything, up to and including (but not limited to) the following: food or drink, gemstones or minerals, flowery-sounding colors. This means Gabriella's eyes aren't "mocha," and Ryan's aren't "cerulean depths" or "sapphires" or anything like that. Those kind of descriptions are a NO NO.
* Don't "flavor" things that don't have flavors: unless a girl's wearing lipstick or just ate/drank something that's either still in their mouth or is particularly strong, when someone kisses her, it won't be "tastable" in the kisser's mouth/tongue. So if Gabriella ate strawberry cake, Troy's not going to be tasting it two hours after the fact. Same goes for other bodily fluids. And any of those fluids, skin, whatever can't taste like things that don't HAVE a taste, e.g. sunshine, mystery, etc. And tastes =/= smells. Someone can smell like roses, but I'd be worried if they somehow TASTED like roses. Yes, taste and smell are connected, but they're not the same thing! YUCK-- and NO NO!
* Lip-biting RARELY draws blood. And if a character is doing something enough to bite their lips, they would most likely be in extreme PAIN before biting down on their own lip to draw blood. If instead it's a matter of sexy (e.g intense petting, oral, whatever), someone's not going to be in such throes of ecstasy that they'll bite their lip and draw blood. It's hard to do (go ahead, bite your lip as hard as you can RIGHT NOW and tell me if you draw blood. Unless your lips are chapped or have sores, you won't be able to) and VERY UNSEXY. So, a big NO NO.
* If a guy's got a hard on, there's not much he can wear that will hide it. Honest. Leather pants will definitely show it. Jersey shorts will probably show it. Regular jeans will show it. Trouser or dress pants will DEFINITELY show it. Sweatpants-- maybe, depending on the fit. So trust me, if the guy's got a hard-on, he's either got to work it off (and I don't mean by playing basketball) or "think unsexy thoughts" until he's "deflated." He's not going to be walking around, playing basketball, etc. People WILL notice, and he WILL be uncomfortable.
* LUBE. Water's not lube. Plenty of other things shouldn't be used as lube either, but people ARE stupid and DO experiment, so it's fine if you end up writing about that, so long as you cover the consequences. It's hard to have sex in a shower, especially if the guy's much taller than the girl and it's a regular shower stall or shower-in-a-bathtub. Unless it's some sort of super-huge spa-shower with a counter or shelf inside it, it isn't really going to happen. Even a jock like Troy would have a hard time holding a female up to the right level for very long. And in such a position, the girl's not really able to do much movement, even of her hips. If he's doing her from behind, it might be easier, but the level is still an issue, unless the guy bends down. This includes bathroom counters. Now, if you're talking about two guys... well, they'll probably have it a lot easier. Same goes for two girls.
* Easy come, easy go. If you've got a guy that goes from hard-on to "came" in a matter of minutes, he's pretty damn horny and probably has some help. But it's typically not realistic unless there's some actual sex (be it oral or otherwise) involved. Guys don't usually come simply from a girl sucking on their earlobe, though it can certainly stimulate them. Same goes for girls-- though plenty can come without physical stimulation, for others, it's a must. And the stimulation (strength, speed, location) can vary from girl to girl. What works for Sharpay might not work for Taylor, Kelsi, or Gabriella. Plus, if ANYONE "comes," the likelihood of them getting right back to sexing up someone is slim to nil. Some people are blessed with the ability to come and come again, but not a ridiculous amount of times. Remember, the characters we know from HSM are almost undoubtedly NOT sex gods (or goddesses).
* Back to the sweet stuff: if a guy lends a girl a piece of clothing, it's typically guaranteed that it'll be at least a bit baggy on her. For example, if Troy lends Gabriella his hoodie, it'll be baggy on her, not "hugging her curves." Sure, it might be easier to see the outline of her breasts in it, because a hoodie is a traditionally flat-chested jacket/sweater, but it's not like it'll be a second-skin, clinging to every curve and showing off breasts, hips, etc. This is true of even smaller-framed guys like Ryan. Men are simply by nature, bigger than women, even if you don't consider things like age, exercise habits, or genetics (e.g. short parents tend to have short kids).
* SPELL CHECK! It will save you a lot of trouble. If your grammar sucks, then get someone to proof-read it. It will help A LOT, especially if your spellcheck accidentally replaces a misspelling with a wrong word, or you spell a word "wrong" from what you intended, but it's still a correct spelling of another word with a different meaning/pronunciation.
HOW TO WRITE A HALFWAY DECENT HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL FIC (according to Azurite):
* Warning * There are bits and pieces of this guide that reference mature situations, including rape, abuse, sex, and so on. You are hereby forewarned.
(1) Don't try and write real-person fic. Troy is not the same as Zac Efron. Gabriella is not the same as Vanessa Hudgens, and so on and so forth. Some fic sites have a place for real-person fic, but FFnet's not one of them, nor is the HSM section. Why? Because people go to that section to read about Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, Zeke, Kelsi, et. al. not about their actors and the behind-the-scenes romances or dramas that develop while filming HSM3.
(2) Don't make Sharpay and Gabriella best friends. They're NOT. Not in any of the movies, not in any of the novels. NEVER. Simply stating that they are so is grossly out-of-character for the both of them, and if you want to make it (or a romance between them) happen, you've got a LOT of work to do. You can't just "explain it away" in a sentence. The only acceptable compromise: labeling your story an AU or AR where it's somehow plausible that they could be best friends, despite their HUUUUGE differences.
(3) Don't just stick to the stereotypes. Yes, Troy's "the jock" and Gabriella is the "bookworm," but that's not all there is to them. Same goes for Zeke and Chad (also jocks, but Zeke as the heartthrob jock that gets himself hurt all the time; Chad as the dumb jock with no social skills), Sharpay (the blonde bimbo, the rich harlot, whatever you like), Ryan (the flamboyant metrosexual guy), Kelsi (the quiet but super-talented girl), and everyone else in between. That said, it's not as if the only thing the boys do is play basketball, and it's not as if the only thing Gabriella and Taylor do is study. I'm sure, as high school students, they all have other hobbies, interests, activities, and maybe even friends. They might even have classes NOT taught by Ms. Darbus, classes with people OTHER than the usual cast, and things that they do between basketball games/academic decathlon meetings/musicals. They might occasionally go to movies, play video games, surf the Internet, go on vacation, etc. People are more complex than just what Disney served up in the movies! Take what they start with and RUN with it! (Note: this isn't license to pretend that everyone's got some hidden dark side. One fic I saw describes Chad as an abuser. WHAT!? No. Even if he doesn't get as much screen-time as Troy, his character in canon is not an abuser. To do so just for the sake of a plot --for convenience-- is cheap. Why not just use an OC if that's the case? If you WANT to show a truly fucked-up side to a character, make sure to back it up, not just "write it off." Could Chad somehow be the guy we see in the movies, be Troy's best friend and have caught Taylor's attention, and be abusive? WHY would he be?
(4) Forget the clichés. The "Troy and Gabriella are best friends, but one of them wants to become more!" thing only works between the first and second movies. By midway through the second movie, it's quite clear that there is romantic tension between the BOTH of them, and they follow through on it fairly quickly. When Troy gives Gabriella a necklace, he's more or less asking her to be his girlfriend. Okay, he doesn't say it EXPLICITLY, so you can always take that as a jumping-off point, but Troy is not a "player jock" who could easily be so close to Gabriella and date some other girl on the side (unless, of course, she wasn't from East High; anyone from their own school would have to be an expert at keeping secrets, staying hidden, and not giving any clues, and let's face it-- no one at East High that's a canonical character meets that description, including Troy himself. Besides, they're high schoolers!). And by movie 3, they're definitely boyfriend and girlfriend, so it's not like the tension dragged ON AND ON! Accept it and move on.
Same goes for the other cliché fics: Gabriella surprises Troy with "another side of herself" (sexy, dangerous, whatever: things that the character almost certainly is not; Troy likes her for who she is, not who she might pretend to be or think she has to be. That's the major difference between HSM and Grease! Neither Troy nor Gabriella change for each other, nor feel they have to!), Troy pressures Gabriella into changing, whatever.
(4) Be wary of the "everyone is paired off" story. HSM did it in canon, but there was still only one couple as the focus: Gabriella and Troy. The other pairings are:
* Chad and Taylor
* Ryan and Kelsi
* Zeke and Sharpay (very one-sided throughout movies 1 and 2, but it's possible something developed in 3 enough for her to say "yes" to him taking her to prom)
* Jason and Martha (well, he took her to prom... that's about it)
So it's worth it to explore either HOW these couples may have gotten together, whether they can last (e.g. Chad and Taylor, when Chad goes to U of A and Taylor goes to Yale), or what kind of a relationship it is (if any). Or heck, explore other pairings-- during HSM2, I liked the possibility of Ryan x Gabriella, and I thought that Troy's displayed jealousy in some of the scenes where they were together made it clear that his character thought Gabriella might like Ryan (in a romantic way). Or, examine the friendship between Chad and Troy-- it's deep, but what are its limits? And so on. Focus on a particular person or pairing, and stick with that; trying to do an "everyone" story will result in the narrative and likely the characterization being stretched thin.
* Don't invent nicknames. By "nickname," I mean a shortening of one's name, not something like "Jimmy the Rocket." No one in canon calls Gabriella "Gabby" or "Brie" or anything like that. Likewise, no one with a short name has a nickname (Chad, Troy, Ryan), and some people wouldn't LIKE nicknames (Sharpay, Taylor), and others have names that you simply CAN'T nickname (Martha).
If someone does use a nickname, you'd better explain it in narrative why they are, when they started, and why the person in question is okay with that (assuming the person using the nickname is SPEAKING to the person to whom the nickname belongs; e.g. Troy calling Gabriella "Brie" and speaking to Gabriella; he wouldn't be talking to Chad and calling Gabriella "Brie," and Sharpay wouldn't use Troy's nickname for Gabriella if she were talking about her to Tiara). Alternatively, explain it then and there: Troy slips up and calls Gabriella "Brie." Does she recognize it as a nickname for her, or does she think Troy's calling her by another girl's name? If Troy explains it as a nickname, does Gabriella like it? Why or why not? You can't just throw something into the story like that and expect it to just fade into the background. Names are a crucial part of a character, as are the invention of nicknames (as it shows the relationship between two people). Either don't use them or explain their usage in your fic.
* Remember: it's Disney. Canonically, we have no reason to believe that Troy would be disloyal to Gabriella or vice-versa. We have no reason to believe any character (except maybe Sharpay and Tiara) are manipulative enough to be labeled "players." There's also no canonical evidence to support any of the characters having had boyfriends or girlfriends prior to the pairings established in the movie. Likewise, there's no reason to believe any of them are NOT virgins, or had some traumatic incident befall them (e.g. Sharpay was raped or something). If you do opt to make Gabriella an experienced sexual star, explain how! Remember, the attitude of your characters AT ANY POINT DURING YOUR FIC should tie in with the attitude we see in the movie, even if the movie doesn't show ALL the normal teenage activities and habits. (For example, it's believable that Troy probably masturbates, even if we'd never see anything remotely close to an implication of that on screen. It's believable though because he's a high school boy and therefore hormonal; he's also got a girlfriend or is at least surrounded by girls, meaning the thought would probably cross his mind at least once.) The only exception to this? Porn-without-plot. In which case, screw all this.
* Be realistic. Even if it's Disney, even if it's a musical, even if everything else is idealized, HSM still takes place in the "real world." There's no magic, there's no money trees, there are no wish-granting fairy godmothers. So Troy and Gabriella are GOING to have fights and/or disagreements, they are GOING to have money problems, they are GOING to have points of tension between them. Consider: Troy's got a seemingly better relationship with his father than his mother. Gabriella has no father figure in her life. We don't know why for either, but we can speculate. The developments of that speculation is what makes for good fic. Also keep in mind other things: Gabriella and Troy aren't going to have "their own place" together right out of high school. Gabriella's either in dorms at Stanford or sharing an apartment with other girls, while her mom's likely moving around again, unless her mom managed to get a job in the area (Silicon Valley of CA). Troy's parents stay in Arizona, so Troy's probably also in dorms or sharing an apartment with other guys. Neither of them are in any position to have leased an apartment all on their own, without reference to a job or their parents paying for it. And it's not like we heard about Troy or Gabriella getting free rides to school (though it's entirely likely in both their cases: it just wasn't mentioned in canon; the only scholarship recipients were Kelsi and Ryan), so there's other costs to consider. Don't have them living together in some sort of spacious mansion when they're only in their early 20s. It isn't realistic, and therefore it isn't HSM, no matter what.
Every single one of the above was inspired as I tried to wade my way through FFnet's HSM section. I had it set to all fics that were completed and featured Troy and Gabriella. Some of the fics whose examples I use below (that can be applied more generally) are MA-rated fics, and thus not suitable for minors.
BTW, I'm extremely tempted to dissect some of the fics I read and quote directly from them, explaining just what makes them so mind-numbingly wrong, but I'll pass on that... for now.
GENERAL FIC WRITING NO-NO'S:
* When writing dialogue, remember to format it like so: "I'm fine," Gabriella told Troy. OR "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked gently. That is, if the dialogue doesn't end in a question or exclamation point, use a comma, and unless it's a name that directly follows, lowercase the next word. This is called ATTRIBUTION. You're attributing the words spoken to a particular speaker (by name or by pronoun) and maybe even describing HOW they're saying something (did he or she shout it, wail it, say it vehemently or with passion?) Any other formatting is a NO NO.
* Don't describe eyes as "orbs," or resembling anything, up to and including (but not limited to) the following: food or drink, gemstones or minerals, flowery-sounding colors. This means Gabriella's eyes aren't "mocha," and Ryan's aren't "cerulean depths" or "sapphires" or anything like that. Those kind of descriptions are a NO NO.
* Don't "flavor" things that don't have flavors: unless a girl's wearing lipstick or just ate/drank something that's either still in their mouth or is particularly strong, when someone kisses her, it won't be "tastable" in the kisser's mouth/tongue. So if Gabriella ate strawberry cake, Troy's not going to be tasting it two hours after the fact. Same goes for other bodily fluids. And any of those fluids, skin, whatever can't taste like things that don't HAVE a taste, e.g. sunshine, mystery, etc. And tastes =/= smells. Someone can smell like roses, but I'd be worried if they somehow TASTED like roses. Yes, taste and smell are connected, but they're not the same thing! YUCK-- and NO NO!
* Lip-biting RARELY draws blood. And if a character is doing something enough to bite their lips, they would most likely be in extreme PAIN before biting down on their own lip to draw blood. If instead it's a matter of sexy (e.g intense petting, oral, whatever), someone's not going to be in such throes of ecstasy that they'll bite their lip and draw blood. It's hard to do (go ahead, bite your lip as hard as you can RIGHT NOW and tell me if you draw blood. Unless your lips are chapped or have sores, you won't be able to) and VERY UNSEXY. So, a big NO NO.
* If a guy's got a hard on, there's not much he can wear that will hide it. Honest. Leather pants will definitely show it. Jersey shorts will probably show it. Regular jeans will show it. Trouser or dress pants will DEFINITELY show it. Sweatpants-- maybe, depending on the fit. So trust me, if the guy's got a hard-on, he's either got to work it off (and I don't mean by playing basketball) or "think unsexy thoughts" until he's "deflated." He's not going to be walking around, playing basketball, etc. People WILL notice, and he WILL be uncomfortable.
* LUBE. Water's not lube. Plenty of other things shouldn't be used as lube either, but people ARE stupid and DO experiment, so it's fine if you end up writing about that, so long as you cover the consequences. It's hard to have sex in a shower, especially if the guy's much taller than the girl and it's a regular shower stall or shower-in-a-bathtub. Unless it's some sort of super-huge spa-shower with a counter or shelf inside it, it isn't really going to happen. Even a jock like Troy would have a hard time holding a female up to the right level for very long. And in such a position, the girl's not really able to do much movement, even of her hips. If he's doing her from behind, it might be easier, but the level is still an issue, unless the guy bends down. This includes bathroom counters. Now, if you're talking about two guys... well, they'll probably have it a lot easier. Same goes for two girls.
* Easy come, easy go. If you've got a guy that goes from hard-on to "came" in a matter of minutes, he's pretty damn horny and probably has some help. But it's typically not realistic unless there's some actual sex (be it oral or otherwise) involved. Guys don't usually come simply from a girl sucking on their earlobe, though it can certainly stimulate them. Same goes for girls-- though plenty can come without physical stimulation, for others, it's a must. And the stimulation (strength, speed, location) can vary from girl to girl. What works for Sharpay might not work for Taylor, Kelsi, or Gabriella. Plus, if ANYONE "comes," the likelihood of them getting right back to sexing up someone is slim to nil. Some people are blessed with the ability to come and come again, but not a ridiculous amount of times. Remember, the characters we know from HSM are almost undoubtedly NOT sex gods (or goddesses).
* Back to the sweet stuff: if a guy lends a girl a piece of clothing, it's typically guaranteed that it'll be at least a bit baggy on her. For example, if Troy lends Gabriella his hoodie, it'll be baggy on her, not "hugging her curves." Sure, it might be easier to see the outline of her breasts in it, because a hoodie is a traditionally flat-chested jacket/sweater, but it's not like it'll be a second-skin, clinging to every curve and showing off breasts, hips, etc. This is true of even smaller-framed guys like Ryan. Men are simply by nature, bigger than women, even if you don't consider things like age, exercise habits, or genetics (e.g. short parents tend to have short kids).
* SPELL CHECK! It will save you a lot of trouble. If your grammar sucks, then get someone to proof-read it. It will help A LOT, especially if your spellcheck accidentally replaces a misspelling with a wrong word, or you spell a word "wrong" from what you intended, but it's still a correct spelling of another word with a different meaning/pronunciation.
