A/N: Alright, so I saw HSM 3 again tonight and this idea popped into my head during the first few sequences. In HSM 2 it is implied that Troy and Sharpay's fathers went to college together and are apparently pretty familiar with each other. (Chad's father seems to have a passing familiarity with them too it seems in HSM 3.) The idea then popped up about what said fathers did with their children during the summer when they were preschoolers. Thus, this idea was born. I wish I could take credit for writing children well naturally, but I've worked for two years now in preschool, kinder and first grade, so I've had a lot of time to observe. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome and appreciated! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical.
Simply put, Sharpay Evans detested the Lava Springs Daycare Center.
She would be willing to sit quietly and patiently next to her mother at the spa or her father on the golf course if it meant she didn't have to waste her time here. Unfortunately, no amount of whining or puppy eyes ever convinced her parents otherwise.
Five-year-old Sharpay sat in a small chair at the snack table, idly sipping on a box of apple juice. She glanced around the room. Her twin brother Ryan was a few feet from the table, contently playing with a box of legos. Some kids were on the other side of the room playing a small game of Duck, Duck, Goose. The single teenager responsible for the little toddlers was sitting at a desk in the corner, a pair of headphones covering her ears, completely engrossed in her Tigerbeat magazine.
Sharpay slumped in her seat in boredom. Ryan, picking up on this, abandoned his lego tower and zipped over to the table. With some effort he pulled himself up onto the chair next to his sister.
"You're boring," he piped up right away. "Come play with me!" Sharpay glared at her older brother.
"And do WHAT?"
Ryan shrugged. "We could color, or we could play house, or we could go play Duck Duck Moose with the other kids--"
"It's Duck Duck GOOSE, silly," Sharpay corrected, giggling. She quickly shook it off and frowned again.
"And I don't wanna. I hate this stupid room. I wanna go play with Mommy and Daddy instead."
Ryan let out a dramatic gasp at this. "Sissy, NEVER say the 's' word!"
Sharpay's frown deepened and she leaned in closer to him. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!"
Ryan frowned and gave his sister a good whack on the arm.
"You're mean," he stated simply before hopping off the chair to go play somewhere else. Sharpay stuck her tongue out after him before going back to sipping on her juice box. Shortly after, two boys sat next to her with juice boxes of their own. Sharpay ignored them. That is, until she heard the boy next to her finish off his juice and turn to her.
Sharpay tried to continue to ignore him, but she could feel his eyes uncomfortably on her. She turned her head to look at him.
"What??" she snapped.
The word was barely out of her mouth before the boy swiped the juice box right from under her and walked away with his friend. Sharpay's eyes widened, taking in what had just happened.
The boy's friend followed him away from the table, but turned to face him shortly after. "That wasn't very nice, Chad." No sooner had the words come out of little Troy's mouth than Sharpay started bawling hysterically. "See? You made Shawpay cry." Chad raised an eyebrow at his friend.
"You KNOW that girl? But girls have cooties!" he answered disgustedly. Troy frowned.
"Our daddies are friends. And even if I didn't know her, that still wasn't very nice." Troy looked over to Sharpay, down at the half full juice box in his hands, and back up at Sharpay. Without a word, he walked up to the table. He looked up at the sobbing preschooler and waited for her to notice him. It didn't take long. Once the girl had quieted down, Troy held his juice box up to her.
"Here Shawpay, you can has my juice."
Sharpay stopped her crying completely. She nervously stared down at the little boy before cautiously taking the juice box from him. Troy smiled when Sharpay giggled. She hopped of the chair and approached him.
"I like you!" she exclaimed before wrapping Troy in a tight hug. Troy's eyes widened as though he'd just been infected with a terrible, life-threatning disease.
"Eeeewww, cooties!!!" He pulled away from the girl and ran back to his friend on the other side of the room. Sharpay frowned. She had to find a better way to thank Troy, she decided. A lightbulb going off in her head, she dashed to the block corner and dragged her (protesting) twin brother to the coloring table.
Sharpay and Ryan's frantic cutting, pasting and coloring was what finally got the teenager's attention. She lifted one earphone to address the twins. "What are you two doing?"
Sharpay looked up, not stopping her cutting, to answer. "I'm making something for Troy!" She exclaimed. She paused before adding with a bright smile, "I'm going to marry him someday." The teen simply rolled her eyes and went back to her magazine with a muffled "whatever".
Nearly an hour later, the pair was finished with their project. Sharpay had managed to fashion together a (sloppy) paper dress covered in pink crayon, glitter, and sequins. (All, of course, dripping with excess glue.) Ryan, only going along because his sister had told him to, made nothing more than a nearly undistinguishable blue paper microphone and matching hat. (After carefully putting his real one in his cubby, of course.) Sharpay grabbed a marker to use as her microphone. She looked over at her brother.
"You remember how the song I wrote goes?"
Ryan grimaced. "I think so..."
Sharpay glowered at him. "Well you better know so! It's gonna be naptime soon and you are not gonna mess this up before it's too late!" Ryan held his hands up in front of him.
"Okay, okay, I do!"
Sharpay smiled, satisfied. "Then let's go!" She marched to the other side of the nursery, where Troy was now digging through a box of plastic dinosaurs. She cleared her throat loudly, getting the little boy's attention. Troy looked up, a confused expression on his face.
"Hi Shawpay... Whado you want?"
Sharpay smiled and turned her head behind her to nod, cueing Ryan to start the dance and song. Ryan reluctantly spun in little circles behind his sister, doing the dance she'd taught him, though 80 percent of it he was making up on the spot, his memory failing him. He started the song off for her, his part mostly consisting of "la la"'s and hums (of which he was making up as well.)
Sharpay held the marker up to her mouth and sang. "Trooooy is really nice! He is my friiieeend cause he's nice and shares his stuff with meee! Trooooy is really neat and i looove him!"
At this point, the twins were beginning to gain an audience as the other kids little by little looked up from what they were doing. Ryan embarrassedly tried to hide his eyes under his hat, while the attention simply spurred his sister on. She lived for this sort of thing; ever since her parents had put her and Ryan in tap class a few short months ago, the pair was certain they wanted to perform for the rest of their lives. It didn't take long for the two to try to make a performance out of anything, be it copying a set of dance moves on the TV or simply coming down the stairs for dinner. It didn't make Ryan any less uncomfortable at the moment, however.
Sharpay's smiled grew, reveling in the spotlight. She confidently sang out the last few notes to her song. "IIII loooove TROOOOOOY!!!!!" Sharpay held her arms up in the air, a brilliant smile still plastered on her face, as she waited for Troy to react. She was disappointed to find him simply staring up at her with a blank expression. Sharpay pressed on, catching her breath. "Did you like it? I would have made more but I don't know how to rhyme yet..."
A brief pause later, Chad burst out laughing. This set off a chain reaction as the rest of the kids began laughing as well. Sharpay's face fell and her lip began to quiver. She turned away to go sulk in the time out corner, though she noted out of the corner of her eye that Troy hadn't laughed.
She sat in the corner and pouted, a few tears escaping her eyes. Her brother rushed over and patted her back gently. "It's okay Sissy, I thought it was a good song." Sharpay wiped her eyes before she felt another hand on her back. She quickly looked up.
"They're meanies, Shawpay," Troy reassured her. "You're weird and you're a girl but I like you." With that, the boy retreated back to his friends. Sharpay stared after him before grinning ear to ear.
Ryan scrunched his nose. "Are you okay? You look like you're gonna throw up."
Sharpay smiled and pointed after the object of her affection.
"That's the boy I'm gonna marry someday!"