Sharpay stumbled in her dark college dorm room at 2:30 a.m. She was in the horrible state where she hadn't completely sobered up yet, but was starting to already feel the traces of a hangover. Her roomate wasn't there. Of course. Sharpay had pretty much drove her out of their dorm. She was always coming in late, bringing home random guys, and stealing her roomate's clothes without asking. Sharpay felt a little bad about it. She didn't try to act like such an inconsiderate bitch, it just seemed to come naturally.
The first thing she needed to do was take a burning hot shower and wash off all traces of the sleezy frat boy whose bed she'd just climbed out of. She didn't really know why she was keeping up this whore act either. It wasn't what she wanted to be, but it was just easy. She didn't have to worry about relationships or love. She didn't have to worry about getting her heart broken. She'd only cared about one guy. Troy Bolton. But he'd never loved her back, and only proved to hurt her. She was at the beginning of her sophmore year as a drama student at University of Alberquerque now, and high school was behind her. She reminded herself of this often.
"Time to grow up, Sharpay." she'd tell herself. She knew it was true. But that didn't stop her from dwelling on the past and how things turned out often.
She missed her brother, Ryan, too. He was at Juliard in New York City. She'd always thought she'd end up there. That was yet another aspect of her life that hadn't turned out the way she'd planned. Ryan was busy at his demanding art school, but happy. Unfortunately though, he rarely had time to talk long with his sister back home. Or at least, that was what he said when she called him. She hoped he hadn't built up too much resentment towards her after all those years she'd bossed him around, and tried to control every decision he made. He was probablly relishing in his Sharpay-free zone, miles away from his tortuous sister.
Sharpay needed to take a shower, she reminded herself. But she couldn't make herself head back into the hallway to journey to her floor's bathroom. She kicked off her shoes and fell on to her bed, still fully clothed with makeup. She pulled the covers up to her chin. She felt nauseaous. She'd probablly wake up in a couple of hours, vomiting up all the vodka shots and pink cosmos she'd downed that night.
She rolled over on her side. She could smell the heavy alcohol on her breath. She felt dirty and was regretting having slept with that guy tonight. She should have taken the night off and stayed indoors, watching a few romantic comedies and eating some microwave popcorn. Oh god, why had she thought of popcorn? For a second, she thought she was going to throw up right then, but her stomach settled again.
She closed her eyes and tried to lull herself to sleep. But her mind continued to scream at her. She was disgusted with herself; she hated herself. She had been queen at East High. And now she, Sharpay, for whom everyone had held the highest expectations, was an epic failure. Her brother and Kelsi Nielson had gone to Juliard. Taylor McKessie had gone to Yale. Chad Danforth was going to U of A, but with a basketball scholarship. He already had several pro teams looking at him. And he didn't talk to her. She sort of wished he did, every so often, so that she could get an update on Troy. Troy, who'd gone to Berkley.
Sharpay had made her decision to go to U of A if she didn't get into Juliard, and she'd later admitted to herself it was largely because of Troy. Afterall, everyone knew he had been planning on playing for them since he was five. But, then he'd announced he was going to Berkley in California instead. To be near Gabriella Montez. Little miss perfect, who'd gotten into Stanford. And Sharpay knew then she'd been a complete idiot. She'd made one of the biggest decisions of her life based on a boy she'd crushed on through high school. One that didn't even like her back.
Sharpay tried to push all thoughts out of her head and clear her mind. She couldn't start analyzing her life path right now, this late at night. If she did, she thought she might jump off the top of her dorm building. She layed still in one position, somewhat uncomfortably, for some time. Gradually she fell into a much needed slumber, one which grew deeper and deeper as her breath grew shallower and shallower.
Sharpay woke up the next morning. Suprisingly she didn't feel hung over at all. In fact, she was more comfortable than she ever was this morning. She decided not to open her eyes, but instead stretched her legs out, and decided to try to enjoy a few more hours of sleep if she could.
Suddenly though, her breath hitched as she felt a pair of strong arms reach across her and pull her near to him. Who was that? Was it that frat guy? She opened her eyes abruptly, looking wildly around. She wasn't in her dorm at all. She didn't know where she was. She sat up quickly in the bed, gazing around the room.
"Morning babe." the guy behind her said sleepily. Sharpay turned around to see who the voice belonged to.
"Troy?!" She asked, in complete shock.
"Sharpay." he replied, smiling at her, and making light of her tone.
"Did we sleep together?" she asked him. How could she not remember.
"By sleep together do you mean literally, as in side by side like we do every night, or as in sex, like we do...well every night." he joked. "Either way, yes." he replied, leaning over and pecking her on the lips. Sharpay's heart skipt a beat.
"I don't remember." Sharpay said, feeling her forehead with the back of her hand. A slow realization crept over her. "Wait. Did you say like we do every night?" she asked him.
"Yes." Troy replied slowly, looking at her strangely. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, "Do you feel okay?" he asked her. His voice was deep with concern. It was adorable.
"I'm not sure. I don't understand-" She stopped speaking when she felt Troy's hand rest on her stomach.
"So do you feel anything growing in there yet?" he asked.
"What's that suppost to mean?" For the first time, Sharpay felt inclined to back away from Troy. She scrambled backwards on the bed.
"Well we're trying to get another child inside of you, right?" he asked jokingly.
"No! I'm nineteen, I definitely don't want any children 'growing' inside of me." Sharpay exclaimed. Troy eyed her for a second, and then apparently decided she was joking.
"Funny." he said. He stood up, and walked over to her side of the bed, taking her hands in his. "Anyways would you mind if I took my shower first this morning, sweetie?" he asked, bending down to kiss her forehead. "I think Gracie prefers for you to wake her up in the morning anyways."
Sharpay was sitting crosslegged trying to sort out her mind. "Sure." she said absently.
"Thanks." he said, heading over to the bathroom door.
"Wait!" Sharpay excalimed, "Whose Gracie?"
"Baby, your since of humour is a little off this morning I think." Troy said to her, heading into the bathroom. He shut the door, leaving Sharpay dazed and confused. She stood up off the bed and crept out of the bedroom.
"Gracie?" she called very quietly. Maybe it was his dog? Wait there was something weird on the end table near the door, she realized. She walked back into the bedroom. Troy had a picture of her on his nightstand? A picture of her outside, hugging some little girl Sharpay was certain she'd never seen before. What the hell was going on?
Sharpay picked up the picture and examined it closer. No, she'd definitely never seen that little girl before. Well, evidentally she had, there they were, smiling and hugging, both of them with noses reddened from the cold. But Sharpay didn't remember that little girl. Sharpay didn't remember anything right now.
She walked back out of the bedroom into the hall.
"Gracie?" she called much louder.
"Yes?" she heard a small voice call back to her down the hall. She followed the voice towards a room with the door cracked open. A pink star was mounted to the back of the white door. Sure enough, it said "Gracie" across it. Sharpay timidly poked the door open.
"Mommy!" The little voice sang out. Sharpay looked appreciatively across the large, spacious, pink bedroom. It was decorated quite nicely, and was fully equipped with everything a little girl would want. It clearly belonged to a child, not a dog afterall.
Sitting up in a white bed with a light pink comforter, Sharpay spotted the little girl that she guessed was "Gracie". She was an adorable little girl, with a head full of curly brown hair, and big brown eyes. She bounced up and down in her bed on her knees, "Mommy." she said again.
"What did you call me?" Sharpay asked. What the hell was going on?!
The little girl jumped out of her bed, and ran over to Sharpay, hugging her legs. "I called you Mommy of course, what I always call you, silly." the girl said, pressing her head into Sharpay's thighs.
"I would like scrambled eggs for breakfast please." the little girl added, wrapping her arms behind Sharpay's knees and looking up at her.
"I don't know how to make eggs, sweetie." Sharpay said, appolegetically.
"Daddy does." the little girl said. Well, Gracie, not the little girl Sharpay supposed.
Sharpay knelt down to get a better look at Gracie, placing her arms on the small girl's shoulders. She definitely looked to have Sharpay's eyes. Sharpay hugged the child, and Gracie wrapped her arms tightly back around her. Sharpay lifted her up, and exited Gracie's room.
Troy came walking out of his bedroom, meeting her in the hall. He had on a pair of boxers, and was still using a towel to dry off his hair. He walked over to the two of them, and wrapped his arms around Gracie and Sharpay, pulling them into a group hug. Gracie leaned her head back to look at Troy upside down. He kissed the little girl's nose making her giggle.
"Is this my little girl?" Sharpay asked Troy. She couldn't disguise the completely lost and clueless sound of her voice.
Troy nodded slowly, "Of course it is."
Sharpay looked at Gracie again. "She's beautiful." she said to both Troy and the small girl in her arms.
"You're beautiful." Gracie said, reaching out and tracing Sharpay's lips with her small finger.
Sharpay looked up helplessly at Troy. "I don't think I know my life." she admitted, "I don't remember a thing."
A/N: So what did you guys think? Please, please, please review. I have a really good feeling about this one. :) I'm excited to write it, I think it's going to be really good. But let me know what you think. Xoxo.