Title: Just Like Us

Author: Lisa (Lissical)

Summary: This is the sequel to Raising Kids is Hard to Do. It's 3 years later. What are the Bolton's up to?

Special Thanks: I have to thank XxSharpay EvansxX for this idea. It just made a lot more sense for me to write about the kids being a lot younger. So…here goes and thank you to EVERYONE for sticking with me through this.

A/N: Ages of the kids! I almost forgot that part.

Larissa: 9

Ana: 7

Kayleigh and Zachary: 5

Katie and Theresa: 11

Michael: 6

Angela: 3 ½ and Madison: 3

Disclaimer: I only own the characters I made up; everything else belongs to Disney.


Just Like Us, Ch. 1

Larissa took her final bow on the stage. She had just finished her run in the show "The Sound of Music." She never would have thought that she would love community theatre as much as she did. And yet, this was her fourth show with the Albuquerque Players ((yes, I made that up)) and she was playing the part of Marta, the second youngest daughter in the Von Trapp family. As she looked into the audience, she saw her parents, her two sisters, and her brother, all smiling.

"That was wonderful," Sharpay said when she saw Larissa come out into the auditorium having changed back into her regular clothes. "Honey I am so proud of you!" She hugged her tightly.

"Thanks mom," she said with a smile. She looked at Ana who seemed to be bored out of her mind. "What did you think, Ana?"

Ana, who was now able to speak much more clearly and was a little more comfortable in crowds, looked at her sister, "I guess you did all right."

"Ana," Troy said to her, "That wasn't very nice."

She shrugged, "What? She asked me what I thought, daddy." For a 7 year old, Ana was a little too blunt and had developed an attitude that Troy did not like, nor did Sharpay for that matter, even though she was a lot like Ana when she was her age. Sharpay wasn't about to allow her children to become just like her, attitude wise anyway.

Troy sighed and looked at Larissa, "You did a wonderful job sweetie." He hugged her and kissed her head.

"Thanks dad," she said, eyeing her sister.

"That was really good, Larissa," Kayleigh said, bouncing up and down. She loved what Larissa was doing, but was very shy and couldn't bring herself to confess that she loved acting too, even though she had never done it before.

"Thank you, Kayleigh." She smiled. "Oh mom, the director, Claire, said she is going to have an acting workshop…you know, classes. Can I be in it, please?" She gave her mom her best puppy dog face.

Sharpay smiled, "I suppose, if you'd like to, since you really seem to like acting…" She looked over at Troy, "What do you think?"

He nodded, "Sure; if this is something you really want to do that is."

She nodded her head vigorously. "Yes! It is, daddy."

He looked at Sharpay, "Well, I guess we could try…"

"Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around him and then went to hug her mom.

"Yeah, yeah, can we go now, please," Ana asked, becoming more bored by the second.

Zachary nodded, "Yeah, I want to play basketball," he said. They had recently put a basketball hoop over the garage, thus allowing Zachary (and Troy of course) to put the ball in the basket a few times. Zachary was getting pretty good at it too.

Sharpay sighed, "Yes, we can go now. Larissa do you have everything?"

"Yeah, I think so." She looked over at Kayleigh who seemed to be looking longingly at the stage. "Um actually I'll be another minute," she said as she took her youngest sister aside. "Hey, are you all right?"

She nodded, "Yeah…I'm fine," she said, not wanting to tell her sister, let alone her parents that she wanted to act.

"Okay," Larissa said, not believing her. She was going to let it go…for now. "Now I'm ready," she said, pushing past Ana and Zach.

"Diva," Ana muttered to herself.

Zachary snickered at the comment, completely agreeing with his sister.

They walked out to the car and went home; Larissa was thinking about the acting classes that she would soon be enrolled in; Ana was thinking about what she had done earlier that day: she made a basket for the first time; Zachary couldn't stop thinking about basketball; and Kayleigh just looked at Larissa, wishing she could tell her sister that she wanted to act as well.

Troy and Sharpay looked at one another, happy that things seemed to be working out for each of their children…


Okay so that's chapter one! I hope you liked it; it was more of a preview of what each child is currently interested in. And thank you again to XxSharpay EvansxX for giving me the idea to write this. And thank you to all of you who have been reading the series so far. You're the best! Please review! And remember, suggestions are welcome.