Sharpay cared about a lot of things. She was completely different now as an adult than she was in high school. She was nice, conservative, and she cared about other people and things other than everything revolving around her. She started caring when she went to New York. She met Peyton and fell in love. They were together for two years. Sharpay got pregnant six months into their relationship and they were both ecstatic. The baby wasn't planned, but they both vowed to love and cherish it. Unfortunately, when Sharpay was just one month shy of her due date, she stopped feeling movement. When she went to the doctor to find out what the problem was, the doctor gave her the terrible news that the baby died. Sharpay gave birth to hers and Peyton's stillborn son Preston and they spent as much time as possible with him before he was taken by the coroner.
Sharpay and Peyton were devastated, but Sharpay took it the hardest. She grieved-and still is-but bounced back quickly. She knew she couldn't stay depressed for the rest of her life. She's still upset about it, but she tries not to think about it much, although she does talk about Preston a lot. A few months after Preston's death, Sharpay and Peyton broke up. After they broke up, Sharpay moved back to Albuquerque. Peyton came back with her, but he got his own place. They agreed to stay friends, and four years later, they still are.
Sharpay got together with Troy Bolton just a few months after she moved back. He and Gabriella had issues and broke up. Sharpay and Troy fell in love, and within a few months, they were pregnant with their son Matthew, who is now two years old. Now they're living in their own house, Troy coaching the basketball team of East High, and Sharpay teaching the drama club, raising Matthew, and currently expecting their second child in thirty-five long weeks.
"Oh my god!" Sharpay shrieked from upstairs.
Troy and Matthew, who were in the kitchen, looked at each other. "What do you think that's about, Bud?" Troy asked.
Matthew shrugged. "I no know."
"You stay here, I'll check on Mommy."
"Otay."
Troy got up from the table and he walked upstairs. "What's wrong?" he asked, walking into their room.
She pointed to the bathroom. "There's a spider in the shower! I took a shower with a spider! Get it out!" Sharpay said, near tears.
Troy knew how terrified of spiders Sharpay was. If there was a spider within eyesight, Sharpay screamed bloody murder. "Okay, okay. Calm down, Babe, I'll get it. Go downstairs with Matt."
Sharpay whimpered and she ran her hands over her face. "I'm calling an exterminator. That's disgusting. My house will not have bugs."
Troy chuckled. "It's okay, Shar; one little spider isn't that bad."
"Go look at it, Troy. It's not little," she said between gritted teeth.
"It's one spider," he said walking into the bathroom.
"With one spider comes a hundred more." Sharpay sat on the bed, running her hands through her hair.
"Sharpay, it's just a-oh my god," he said, once he saw the spider.
"Get it out."
"I'm not touching that thing, it's huge."
"GET IT OUT!" she shouted.
"Call the exterminator."
If there was one thing Sharpay hated, it was that her student didn't pay attention in class. She'd been trying to talk for the last ten minutes and no one had noticed. As some of the jocks in the back laughed loudly, Sharpay picked up a heavy book and dropped it on her desk. The book landed with a loud smack and everyone silenced, looking her way. "You are all being completely disrespectful. If you talk over your parents like this, you need to be slapped. Those of you that didn't hear the assignment the first time, you're SOL because I'm not repeating it. Have fun trying to pass my class, because this counts as thirty percent of your grade."
The basketball captain, Devin, raised his hand. "Wait a minute, Mrs. Evans, that's not fair," he said.
Sharpay looked at Devin. "Mrs. Evans is my mother. I'm Miss Evans."
"Well whoever you are," he said, rolling his eyes, "it's not fair."
Sharpay raised an eyebrow and was about to respond, but was interrupted.
"I think it's perfectly fair," Kylie Nielsen said. "If we aren't respectable enough to be quiet long enough to hear what she has to say, then we don't deserve to get a good grade. What's not fair is that you idiots are so loud, those of us that are listening don't get to hear what our assignment is, and so we don't get a good grade either. Maybe if all of you jocks back there shut up for a minute, you'd actually have a bit of knowledge in those pea sized brains of yours." Sharpay was surprised. Kylie was just like her sister Kelsi; soft spoken, shy, introverted. She never expected something like that to come out of a Nielsen's mouth.
"Hey, brainiac, go back to what you do best and be the teacher's pet," Devin said.
"Knock it off," Sharpay said. "Kylie's right. It's not fair to those trying to listen because they can't hear over your ignorant jokes." She loved all of her students, but they did get annoying; especially the jocks. "You need to shape up. If you don't start learning discipline now, you'll never achieve anything. If you want to stay in this class, you'd best get your ass in gear. You're already failing with a thirteen percent. That's pathetic. My son is passing this class and he's only two."
Devin looked surprised at Sharpay. She'd never talked like that to him before; especially not in front of the whole class. Sharpay raised an eyebrow. "What? Nothing to say? Good." She took a pen out of her desk drawer and jotted something down on a pink slip, then held it out. "Principal's office."
The class watched as Devin collected his things and walked up to her desk, taking the slip from her, and walking out of the room, letting the door slam behind him.
"Way to go Miss E," Devin's best friend Jordan said.
"Stuff it or you're next," Sharpay said. "Look guys, I know I'm being harsh, but I'm tired of you guys screwing around. It's annoying. You're not only wasting your time, but you're also wasting my time, and I don't have time to waste. I have a kid I have to take care of, I have a boyfriend, and I have another baby on the way, and it is extremely important that I don't get too stressed out during this pregnancy. It's dangerous, so bare with me and just get your work done and do what I ask."
"Why is it dangerous?" a girl next to Kylie asked.
"Because I had a difficult pregnancy before I had Matthew."
"How difficult?"
"Extremely."
"What happened?"
"Wait, you only have Matthew," Jordan said.
"Yes, I'm aware," Sharpay said, sitting down in her chair.
"Then, why-"
"My first baby was stillborn," she snapped. "My point is I need to be stress free to get this baby to my due date. Just do what I said to do."
Sharpay felt her students staring at her, and she looked down at her desk, shuffling through things to keep busy.
"Sharpay!"
Sharpay turned around to find the familiar voice. She knew that voice all too well. Gabriella. She was the chemistry teacher here at East High. "Yes?" she asked.
"I know you're busy with Matthew, but I have a huge favor to ask of you." Gabriella had a slight expression of frazzle.
"What is it?"
"I'm late for a meeting, so can you pick up Amy from daycare and take her to your place? I'll run by and pick her up after my meeting."
"Sure. I'm going to the store, but I'll pick her up right now and then go."
"Thank you so much. You're a life saver," Gabriella said in relief.
"No problem."
Sharpay and Troy had been helping Gabriella out with Amy since Gabriella's boyfriend left after finding out she was pregnant. Sharpay had grown close with Amy, thinking of her as her own. The little girl was just seven months old but she was smart just like her mother.
After Sharpay picked Amy up from daycare, she went to the store like she said she was going to. She only had to pick up a few things so she would only be there for about thirty minutes. As she pushed the cart down the baby aisle and Amy played with her car keys, two kids with frizzy curly hair ran past her dribbling a basketball. She only knew two children that did that. The Danforth kids. Taylor and Chad had their first baby when they were still in high school, their second right after graduation. They were young, but Sharpay wouldn't deny that they were both amazing parents.
"You two stop running in the store and give me that ball," Sharpay said.
The kids turned around and the younger little boy smiled. "Aunt Sharpie!" he said, running over to her and hugging her legs.
"Hi Honey. Where's your Mommy?"
"In the other aisle," the older boy said.
"Okay well, give me the ball and you can have it back when your mom gets here. You know the rules," she said, holding her arms out.
He sighed and handed the ball to her. "We're bored."
"Zander, you can't run around with a ball in this store. Or any store, for that matter. It's dangerous," she said, putting the ball in her basket.
"Zander and Darren, I told you to stay with me," Taylor said as she walked down the aisle.
"Auntie Sharpie took our ball," Darren said.
"Good. I told you to leave it in the car in the first place. Hi, Sharpay," she said.
"Hey," Sharpay said.
"Hi, Ames," she said, kissing Amy's cheek. "Babysitting?"
"For a couple hours. Gabby had a meeting so I picked her up and I'm taking her back to my place. Matt will be excited. He'll have someone else to play with other than Troy and his trucks." Matthew got bored easily. When he got bored, it was hell on Sharpay because she had to be creative and think of something that she knew he would love. Being her child, of course it was hard to find something he loves.
Taylor smiled a little. "Aw, is he getting bored?"
"Hell yeah."
"Put him in daycare. Amy will be there, he'll have fun."
Sharpay had thought of putting Matthew in daycare before. She usually left him with her mother and then Troy picked him up on his way home from work because he got off work before she did. "I dunno. I mean, he loves staying with my mom and she likes to spend time with him."
"So then let her have him on the weekends." It was a simple enough answer for her. That's what she does with her parents.
"Troy's parents get him on the weekends."
"Well then alternate weekends.
"That wouldn't be fair."
"Why not?"
"Because they already don't get to see him all that often, the weekend is their time with him. My parents get him every day for eight hours during the week and Lucy and Jack get him for two days for the weekend. My parents get more time with him already."
"Well what happens when he starts school?" Taylor asked, raising her brow in question.
"I'll take him to school, Mother will pick him up and keep him until Troy gets off work, and Jack and Lucy will still have him for the weekends." Sharpay knew Taylor was just trying to give her helpful suggestions, but she didn't want anyone telling her what to do with her own child, especially when she was doing just fine on her own with Troy.
"Well, I'm sure you'll figure something out when the time comes to change. I gotta get these two back home for lunch. I'll see you later," she said, pushing her cart past Sharpay. "Come on, boys. Say goodbye to Aunt Sharpay."
"Bye, Aunt Sharpie," Darren said.
"Bye, Aunt Sharpay," Zander said as he hugged her.
"Bye Honey," Sharpay said, kissing his head. "Get your ball. Hold on to it, stop bouncing it in here."
"Okay."
She wished Matthew listened like that.
With the day Sharpay was having, she was surprised that she wasn't jumping down Troy's throat about Matthew being covered in chocolate when she got home. Now thirty minutes later, Troy was ordering pizza, while Sharpay herself was changing Amy's diaper and attempting to get Matthew calmed down. So far, it wasn't doing so well.
"Matthew, please stop jumping over Amy. You'll step on her," Sharpay said, taping the diaper together.
"No, I no s'ep on Amy," Matthew said.
"You might hurt her though Honey, you can't jump over her. She's not a hurdle. Go jump over your nap pillow. Daddy's ordering pizza for dinner and you can't have any if you don't listen."
Matthew looked at Sharpay, stopping in his tracks. "But, I hungwy."
Got him. "Okay, then you need to listen to Mommy."
"Otay, I wisten."
"Thank you. Pick up your toys for Mommy," she said, picking Amy up and kissing her cheek. She couldn't get over how cute and chubby Amy was. She was like a little ball of fat.
"Otay. Amy stay night?"
"Nope, Auntie Gabby is picking her up. Pick your toys up and come to the kitchen when you're done," she said.
"Otay."
Sharpay stood up and walked to the kitchen, kissing Troy's cheek and handing Amy to him on the way to the pantry.
"How's the boy?" Troy asked, ruffling Amy's hair.
"Picking up his toys. He wants his pizza," she said taking a can of formula out.
Troy chuckled. "That's my boy. How was work?"
Sharpay shrugged. "No better than any other day, no worse."
"Sucked, huh?" Sharpay nodded. "What happened?"
She sighed, filling up a baby bottle with water. "They were being completely disrespectful. I shouldn't have to shout in my own classroom so those… imbeciles can hear me. It's ridiculous."
Troy nodded, sitting Amy on the table. "Yeah, it is. But remember we were all the same way when we were in school. We have no room to talk."
"Except that when we were told to be quiet, we shut the fuck up and didn't ask questions."
Troy's eyes widened and he gasped playfully, and Amy looked at him. "Auntie said a bad word, Ames."
Amy babbled loudly, waving her arms around. Troy noticed a small smile on Sharpay's face, but it had a hint of sad in it. When Sharpay took Amy from him and put her in the high chair at the table and handed her the bottle she made, Troy took her by the arm lightly and lead her into the foyer. "What's going on?" he asked.
Sharpay looked at him, tilting her head a bit. "What are you talking about?" she asked with an expression of confusion.
"You're not acting like yourself… You seem sad with Amy today, your students made you snap. What's wrong?" he asked with concern.
Sharpay shook her head, looking down. "Nothing, I just…"
"What, Babe? You can tell me."
Tears filled her eyes as she looked back up at Troy. "What if this baby is stillborn? What if something is wrong with it?"
"That's what's got you acting weird? Shar, nothing is going to happen to this baby." Troy wiped Sharpay's tears with his thumbs.
"It happened to Preston…" Just mentioning her son's name hurt.
"I know, but everything happens for a reason. If it hadn't happened to Preston, we wouldn't have Matt; we wouldn't be having this baby…"
"Amy would be yours and Gabriella's…"
Troy looked at Sharpay for a few seconds. "What? What brought that on?"
"I see the way you look at her… You love her."
"Babe, we were just a high school fling. We're over."
"I'm talking about Amy. You think of her as a daughter. If I weren't in the picture, she'd be your little girl."
Troy shook his head. "Don't think like that. I would be honored to have Amy as my daughter, but only if you were her mother. I don't want any woman to give birth to my children other than you." He meant that. He didn't want anyone else to have his babies. That was Sharpay's job, and only Sharpay's job.
Sharpay looked back and forth between his cerulean eyes. God, those eyes made her melt every time she looked into them. "…I'm gonna give you a little girl. I promise. I can't promise that she'll be as amazing as that baby in there, but I can try to make her pretty close."
"Any baby that's ours is amazing. Look at Matt. He's the most awesome little boy anyone could ever know," he said. He took pride in his son. He was his pride and joy other than Sharpay.
Sharpay sniffled and her chin quivered involuntarily. "I just want you to be happy," her voice cracked.
"I'm very happy, Sharpay… Don't ever think differently. I couldn't be happier being with you and having Matthew and this new baby," he said as he placed his hand on her stomach. "I'm more than excited to be having another baby with you, boy or girl."
"You'll get your little girl. I promise. We'll keep having boys to get to our girl." Sharpay sniffled. "…Well, as long as they're neat and clean… I can't stand a filthy house. We need a maid."
Troy laughed and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her head as she buried her face into his chest. "No we don't. I'll start helping out around the house with cleaning and stuff so you don't have so much to do. I'll get Matt to help me."
Sharpay breathed in, taking in his scent. "Troy."
"Hm?"
"I love you…"
Troy lifted her head and he looked at her big brown orbs. "I love you, too. I mean that."
"Really?"
Troy smiled and he pressed his lips to hers. Sharpay didn't know what it was about his kisses, but they just made her forget all about her problems. She loved kissing Troy. If they never made love again, that would be just fine with her as long as she could kiss him.
As they pulled away, they both groaned inwardly as they heard a crash from the living room.
"I no do it!" Matthew called out.