Summary: Ryan and Sharpay invite everyone over summer break to their cottage in Tenessee, expecting to arrive to a lodge their parents own, similar to the Lava Springs that they own in multiple states across the country. With the initial intention to show off, they are surprised when the cottage is actually a cottage in the middle of nowhere. The Evans twins and their friends go country! But only if they can survive... And as if surviving the wild wasn't hard enough, things begin to go horribly wrong one night when one mistake changes everything. Rated T for coarse language and sexual references.

Note: Click on the profile if you're interested in seeing Sharpay's outfit components.

Life's What You Make It

Sharpay Evans swung her Juicy couture Velour & Terry handbag over her shoulder, staring at her full reflection in her pink bedazzled full-length vanity mirror. She tilted her head slightly, examining each pore on her smooth, tan concealer-covered face. Her nicely sculpted brown eyebrows frowned as she examined herself critically in the mirror.

Something seemed off about her carefully planned outfit.

Sharpay started checking her outfit from the bottom up. She stared down at her brown D&G suede boots accompanied with a brown scoop-neck casual dress. The pink and golden Juicy bracelet on her left wrist and the pink charms on a necklace her father bought her last summer matched the brown and pink bag draped over her right shoulder. In her imagination, the outfit would have looked completely amazing on her, but right now, she couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

Sharpay strode past the exit to her walk in closet and winded up in her room once again, reaching over to the wall to press the intercom that would buzz in her maids. Her daddy hired some extra maids to look after their estate while they were away on break, and during Sharpay's last few days at home, she had already bothered three-fourths of the maids to help her pick out her wardrobe choice for vacation. Much to her distaste, she found that although the maids were good at keeping the house clean and orderly, their taste in clothes and accessories completely sucked.

"That's too much pink, Miss Evans!"

"Nonsense, Dorota. There can never be too much pink."

"Miss Evans, you'll only be gone for four weeks! You don't need that many clothes."

"On the contrary, I do need all of that! Just in case I need an emergency spectacular outfit!"

"Tone down on the perfume before you set off an alarm! We're all suffocating in here, sis!"

"Fuck off, you drag queen!"

"Miss Evans, don't insult your brother!"

"AHH! You crazy bitch, let go of me!"

"Mr. and Ms. Evans, cut it out before I must call your parents down!"

"SHE STARTED IT! I was just minding my own business when she hit me with her Gucci bag and OWW-"

"Minding your own business - MY ASS. You came in here cuz you thought you could steal something of mine. Didn't you? Answer me, RYAN. DIDN'T YOU?!!?"

"...that is completely untrue!"

SMACK!

"Get the fuck out of my room!"

Yep, despite her maid's lack of a taste in fashion - or at least a good taste at that, yesterday's session of picking out a totally hot outfit that will knock Troy Bolton or any other hot guy that comes up over vacay off his feet actually went pretty well.

Pressing the red button on the intercom, Sharpay yelled into it as loudly as she could.

"DOROTA! WHERE'S MY MORNING MOCHA? I NEED SOMETHING TO FULLY WAKE ME UP SO THAT I CAN BE IN THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND WHEN I ACCESSORIZE MY OUTFIT FURTHER."

Sharpay's pink door swung open forty-five seconds after her message over the intercom, the pink beads on the door curtain smacking against the wooden frame of the door as a woman came into the room. The blonde middle-aged lady held a cup of coffee in her right hand, patiently waiting for Sharpay to recognize her presence so that she could deliver the coffee. Sharpay, who in the meantime had taken the liberty of busily applying her Dior pink lip balm onto her lips in her bathroom mirror, turned around expecting to see Dorota with her coffee.

"Oh!" Sharpay shrieked out of surprise when she saw her mother smiling sweetly at her, bearing a mocha in her small hands. Sharpay's eyes noticed the coffee and she moaned in delight, setting the lip gloss down onto the bathroom counter before reaching out to grab the mocha out of her mother's hands.

After taking a slight sip, Sharpay scrunched up her face and pulled her mouth away from the drink.

"What the hell is this? This is not my regular Starbucks coffee!"

"No, it isn't," Her mother agreed solemnly, still bearing the same smile. "Shar, dear, I told Dorota that she can sleep in today since we're leaving early in the morning. She must be exhausted from waiting on you every hour of the day-"

"What are you talking about?" Sharpay glanced at her mother, perplexed. "That's her job. We pay her to do that."

"And I imagine that it must not be easy," Her mother's short platinum blonde hair lay bobbed on the top of her head as her hazel eyes surveyed the surroundings of the room. "I mean, dear, you can be very demanding at times."

Sharpay stared at her, unable to comprehend what her mother was speaking of. "Me? Demanding? What is this... demanding that you speak of?"

Her mother smiled sympathetically, reaching her right hand over to cup her daughter's face. "Sweetie, I know that you have grown very dependent on your maid over the past few years, but when we reach the cottage, you're not going to have that. I just hope you're prepared for that. That's the reason why I prepared you some homemade coffee this morning and brought it upstairs myself! I decided that Dorota should have the day off, given that she and the other maids will be taking care of the house for the next month."

Sharpay's hand reached out to remove her mother's fingers from her face. She then brushed the thoughts away as she continued sipping the coffee, making sure to let her mother be aware of her personal distaste of this homemade coffee.

"Come downstairs as soon as you're done, sweetheart! Your daddy needs to load your and Ryan's luggage into the limo!"

Sharpay nodded her head, signaling her mom that she understood the directions loud and clear.

"Then we'll go ahead and pick up those Wildcat friends of yours!"

"Ryan's friends," Sharpay corrected briskly, "Not mine."

Her mother just continued smiling. Sharpay was sure that her yoga classes at Lava Springs had taught her well to remain smiling even when she did not feel like smiling.

"They're a lovely bunch of kids, Sharpay. Who knows, maybe they'll become your friends too," Miss Evans cooed, patting Sharpay on top of her head similar to the way Sharpay pet her dog, Boi. "I'll see you downstairs, dear!"

"Yeah, whatever," Sharpay muttered under her breath as she watched her mother walk out the doors. Turning back to her reflection in the mirror, she frowned. Maybe she needed to apply some more bronzer to her face. Whatever the problem was, Sharpay felt the opposite of gorgeous at that moment, staring into the true colors of her face.

---

Troy smiled at Gabriella, who was sprawled over his bed, rummaging through his side drawers, helping him search for his house keys.

"Found 'em?" Troy mumbled, pushing the papers on his desk around haphazardly.

"Nope..." Gabriella sighed, pursing her lips. "You?"

Troy moved toward the side of the bed, kneeling down to kiss her quickly. "No...but, uh, how about we take a break?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes and let Troy jump over her and onto the other side of the bed.

"Yeah, good idea. That way we can..." Gabriella whispered, smirking inwardly.

"Yeah?" Troy mumbled, reaching around to her belt loop and pulling her closer.

"Yeah. We can finish packing your clothes." Gabriella giggled, pushing him off of her and rolling off of the bed.

Troy chuckled dryly and followed her to his closet, where a half-packed suitcase was strewn across the floor.

"All right, now all I need is a few more pairs of jeans and then we can-"

Troy was cut off by the sound of the door to his room swinging open like greased lightening, slamming in closure as quickly as it had opened. Both Troy and Gabriella jolted up from their seats in alarm, only to see a dork with an incredibly poofy afro dressed in an Ed Hardy skull t-shirt, red suspenders, Blue Brothers glasses, and mismatching tan bermuda shorts.

"Holy shit," Troy said, putting a hand to his chest. "You scared me, man." Frowning, he glanced down at what Chad was wearing. No, he wasn't wearing a shirt with a witty catchphrase or a 'save the world from global warming' kind of shirt that Taylor sometimes forced him to wear. Instead, he seemed to be striving to reach an edgier look - a look that a guy like Chad should not attempt if he did not want to flat out look like a thug. What the hell is up with the bermuda shorts? That just ruined the entire look he was going for. Epic failure. Troy thought to himself.

Chad grinned, noticing their matching stares at his outfit. He pointed to his t-shirt proudly. "Like it? I think it makes me look fly-"

"You look like a douche," deadpanned Troy. Gabriella giggled, reaching over to grab a sport's magazine from his dresser and swatting it over his chest, chastising him for being rude.

"Ignore him, Chad. I think you look very..." Gabriella searched for the right word in her mind while at the same time attempting to keep a straight face, "...unique."

Chad grinned ear to ear. "I'm glad that you think so, Gabriella. You know, I was gonna add a red bandana, but I thought it would be just a tad too much."

Troy raised an eyebrow while Gabriella blinked apprehensively. How was he even going to pull off wearing a bandana with his extremely voluminous hair?

"Yeah, just a tad," Troy remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he returned to scanning pairs of jeans to pack. Chad took this as a sign to make himself feel at home, plopping on Troy's bed beside Gabriella, putting his dirty Nike sneakers on top of the clean bedsheets.

"So, how excited are ya'll bout headin' over to the country?"

When Troy remained silent, Gabriella decided to reply, just out of courtesy.

"It could be fun." She stated nonchalantly, her tone devoid of emotion.

Chad turned his head to stare at her in utter shock as if she had ten heads.

"Fun? Just fun? Woman, are you INSANE? This isn't just any other cottage in the middle of nowhere... this is an EVANS cottage. And the Evans are filthy, stinkin' rich bitches! This so-called cottage is probably equipped with kickass video games and an indoor pool and jacuzzi!"

Troy's eyes immediately lit up at the mention of that, sneaking a furtive glance towards Gabriella. "Jacuzzi, you say?"

Chad nodded his head fervently, his brown eyes lighting up with a glint of deviousness. "I'm not kidding. This is gonna be one hell of a trip. Ryan Evans is officially my favorite person in the world," Before his best friend could reply to that, he quickly added, "No homo."

Troy chuckled slightly, folding some extra shirts into his luggage. "I know. I wasn't interpreting it that way... Gabi, what time is it?"

Gabriella glanced down at her golden watch. "It's exactly 8 o clock. Oh, we should get going before we're late!"

She sat up from her seat, taking the time to strech and let out a quick yawn. Chad did the same, obliviously smacking Gabriella in the face with his pimp bracelet when he streched his right arm.

"Man, I'm glad we can take the Evan's jet plane!" Chad stated. "I'd never get through airport security with this outfit," Chad laughed, unaware that Gabriella was glaring at him whilst rubbing her eyelid.

"Yeah," Gabriella muttered under her breath. "For good reasons."

"Did you say something, Gabriella?"

"Nope, not a word."

--

Taylor McKessie was appalled.

Was he shitting her? For lack of a better word, Taylor was completely fucking pissed. What the hell was going on in that empty lunkhead brain of his when he got dressed that morning?

"Hey, Taylor," Chad stood with his arms wide open as he walked out of the Bolton residence and onto the sidewalk where his girlfriend stood in front of a blue mini-van. Not to mention Taylor's parents were in that mini-van, ready to bid goodbye to their sweet, intelligent young lady and drive her lovely well-behaved, articulate, completely sane friends to the Evan's estate.

In fact, Taylor hadn't even told her parents that she was dating Chad. She was hoping that after they came back from the break, she would invite him over for dinner and he would come in eloquently dressed in a tuxedo, completely wow her guardians with his highly sophisticated mannerisms, and generally make a good impression on her parents, both of whom were highly respected lawyers in Albuquerque. This was not exactly a great first introduction of the boyfriend to the parents. They would be concerned for Taylor's well-being if they found out she was even friends with that Chad.

Taylor couldn't believe him. Out of all days, he had to choose exactly this day to dress up like a... punk?

She merely shook her head in disgust as she scanned what he was wearing.

"You fucking retard, did you forget that my parents were driving us?" She could barely let out any words. That boy had some fucking nerve. She decided asking him why he was wearing that could possibly be a good starting point, but then again, Chad barely ever had valid reasons for half the crap he did.

"What the hell are you-" In fear of what she would hear, she immediately took that back. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask. I just hope you're happy because now my parents are never going to let me date a screwball like you," And with that, she took off the metallic bracelet he had given her on their third date at the movies and slammed it into his chest, hard enough to make an impact.

"Oww," Chad rubbed the spot she hit on his chest, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. "Aw thanks for bruising my ego, Taylor!"

She ignored him and silently sat down in the backseat of the car, slamming the door. Gabriella smiled sadly at Chad, passing him by as she opened the door, politely said hello to Taylor's parents, and took the seat next to her best friend. Troy attempted to hide his smirk as he pat his friend on the back and climbed into the backseat of the van, Chad following behind like a lost puppy.

"I cannot believe him," Taylor whispered to Gabriella once they were all inside the car. Gabriella just nodded and gave her friend a reassuring hug.

"All right kids, we're off," Taylor's mom turned her head to face the kids, smiling softly at them. "Are you all excited?"

"Thrilled," Taylor mumbled, gritting her teeth.

--

AN: Review! Kudos to those who know which CW show Dorota, Sharpay's maid, is referenced from! Next chapter should be up sometime during this week or next depending on the amount of feedback that's received.