"You know, someday you guys might thank me for this … or not."

Troy saw the ski lodge employee again on New Year's Eve, on his and Gabriella's one-year anniversary. For a moment he hesitated, wondering whether the guy would even remember him. But he had done something so pivotal for Troy and Gabriella … Troy figured if he didn't say it now, he would regret it forever afterward.

"Can I help you?"

"Hey," Troy greeted him. "You're Kyle, right? I'm Troy. I don't know if you remember me, but I stayed here a year ago over winter vacation …"

The disc jockey's face lit up in recognition. "Oh, the basketball all-star! Good to see you again!"

Troy grinned. "Yeah, that's me. Say – do you remember on New Year's, you picked random people out of the crowd to sing karaoke? You picked me and a girl to sing a duet. Well, she's my girlfriend now."

Kyle hooted. "Didn't I say you would thank me for it?"

"Yeah … I guess that's what I'm doing. Thanks, man."

Gabriella remembered how, after she fainted during her solo, she had tried to quit the church choir altogether. But the director, Judy, had talked to her, and eventually convinced her to stay.

"Even if you don't perform, you'll still be benefiting just by coming here," Judy had said. "As Saint Augustine said, singing is praying twice, because you're using a gift from God. Your voice, your ears, music."

Gabriella glanced up at the choir balcony's three windows. The stained glass depicted St. Cecelia, patron saint of music; and King David, writer of the Psalms, shown holding his harp.

Judy had seen her talent even before Gabriella did. She had nurtured a love for music in her.

After the winter musical audition, Gabriella wrote to Judy and told her all about it. She even included a poster with her name on the cast list, to prove that she did, in fact, have the lead role. Thanks for convincing me to stay in the choir. Thanks for teaching me how to read music and improve my singing.

On opening night, Gabriella received a bit of a shock. After the performance, she was approached by several people who wanted to congratulate her. One of them was Judy.

"I saw you onstage," she said, giving Gabriella a hug. "You were radiant! I could tell you were having the time of your life up there."

Troy and Gabriella did not destroy the school's social network, but they did shake it up. The cliques were still extant, but they were much looser now, less clearly defined. More people migrated and made ties with new groups. In their senior year, Martha became a cheerleader. Ryan decided to be the Wildcat mascot – after all, cheering was just another kind of performing.

The Wildcats and brainiacs were shocked when Kelsi tried to get them all in the musical. But almost everyone later admitted, it was a lot of fun.

"You know something?" Chad said to Kelsi one day at rehearsal. "I'm glad you went behind our backs and signed us all up for the musical. Thanks, Kelsi."

Kelsi grinned shyly. A year ago, she wouldn't have had the nerve to do something like that – in fact, she wouldn't have had any reason to do it, since she hadn't had many friends then. (She had only sat with the Evans at lunch by default, since they were all in the Drama Club.)

But Kelsi had changed since then. She was more confident, even outgoing; though she was kind of quiet, she was able to take a stand when she needed to.

When she thought about it, she realized she had started to change when Troy and Gabriella complimented her music and tried to audition for the musical. Seeing them work so hard to do something they enjoyed gave her the courage to do the same.

It was thanks to them that she was the person she was now.

Toward the end of the school year, East High School had an annual banquet for its music department. It was a celebration of everything they had accomplished in the past year. Ms. Darbus, the choir director, and the band teacher presented awards for outstanding students. Then, as co-presidents of the Drama Club, Sharpay and Ryan surprised the music teachers with bouquets of flowers; all the Wildcats had taken a collection for them, as a token of their appreciation. After all, it was Ms. Darbus who organized and directed the musicals; it was she who gave Troy and Gabriella that callback so long ago; and it was she who sent in Ryan and Kelsi's applications for Julliard.

The audience thought the banquet was almost over; when suddenly two underclassmen boys came onstage.

"Hello East High School!" Donny said into the microphone. "Okay, I speak for myself and on behalf of the underclassmen in the music department. I just feel so blessed to be a part of such an amazing community. And to all the seniors leaving this year – we'll miss you guys. Thanks for everything you've done for East High, and thanks for being our friends."

At that moment, Jimmy hit the lights and projected something onto the screen on the stage. It was a slideshow of pictures – the musical portraits, rehearsal candids, senior portraits, and the seniors' baby pictures. The songs from their musicals played while the pictures flickered by. All the seniors were either laughed or cried at some point. Sharpay didn't even care that her tears were smudging her makeup; suddenly it hit her how much she would miss all her classmates.

The graduating Wildcats were sad to leave this place behind; but they knew they were leaving the music department in good hands.

Before he left to go to Berkeley, Troy gave Gabriella a present: a compact disc he had made, containing recordings of all the songs that they had sung together. Some had been recorded in East High School's recording studio, so that the drama department could sell soundtracks for their musicals. Others, such as the ones Kelsi had written for them for the Midsummer Night's Talent Show, they had recorded on Taylor's laptop.

Gabriella didn't listen to it in the car. She kept it tucked away in her CD case. On days when she was sad or missing Troy and her old classmates, she popped the CD into her stereo and listened to herself sing. Hearing those old songs was like seeing an old friend again.