Set Aside the Differences

by solefresh

[troypay] Sharpay Evans — part of an all woman magazine company. Men aren't exactly on her good side. Troy Bolton — part of an all men magazine company. Women are his specialty. What happens when their companies merge and they're forced to work together?

HSM © DISNEY
All things mentioned belong to their respective owners.

pairing / Troy x Sharpay (Troypay). Don't like it? Easy. Don't read. SAVE the DRAMA.
AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM. :)

Oh yeah. & High School Musical™ is LOVE. ;D

» Set Aside the Differences
» chapter one: enter the life of sharpay evans.

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Twenty-two year old Sharpay Evans loved her job.

She loved everything about it. Sharpay loved just interviewing all the celebrities and then being able to piece everything together to create a magazine that everyone will enjoy reading. She loved the fact that she had really nice co-workers (as well as diligent interns) and a boss that understood her. Sharpay, like most people, loved earning money for something they worked very hard on to perfect — that everything they've done has paid off. Sharpay loved working for TeenFashionista Weekly.

Teen Fashionista — A magazine mainly focusing on the teen ladies audience. Provides tips for the girl's daily necessities as well as the latest fashion trends. Also the hottest celebrity gossip and talks.

But what Sharpay really loved was the fact that the TF Weekly team consisted of just ladies.

All of them. Women.

Hard-working, determined, independent females that were able to create one of the most hottest mags around. Sharpay was proud to call herself one of the executive producers in the editorial division. She was in charge of setting up interview sessions, fixing the tweaks in reports and, basically, making everything picture perfect. Sharpay had been working with the all-girl magazine for a long time, now, and absolutely loves it.

It wasn't like Sharpay hated men.

"Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em," Was a paraphrase that she believed in. Sharpay had a number of boyfriends when she was in junior and high school — but most of them didn't last long. Behind their handsome faces and smooth mannerisms, most of them were actually jerks who only thought of getting into girls' pants. Sharpay remembered one time when she was a Sophomore. A boy had tried to go a little too fast than she wanted. That relationship didn't end well.

Sharpay didn't hate them — she just thought that most of them were perverted pigs that needed to be taught manners.

Being in an all-women company was the exact job that Sharpay needed. Everything was fair and equal among the workers; no gender discrimination. Or having to face the very "pigs" that she took such a dislike too. Man-hater? Sharpay didn't like to call herself that because she didn't hate them. What she did hate, though, were womanizers. But there's a history that will need a whole 'nother time to tell.

TF Weekly was something Sharpay took pride in.

The company felt almost like a second-home to her — the building was large, but it was as if everybody knew everybody else. She made a number of friends during her years in TeenFashionista. Her boss was a woman in her late 40's who went by Darbus. She was nice, but could sometimes be a bit… straight-foward. But, overall, Darbus was nice towards most of the girls. But she found a lot of the interns to be rather troubelsome because of their constant use of cell phones.

Sharpay didn't really understand it, but Darbus had some kind of strong rage against the device.

Anyway, back to Sharpay.

She looked forward to her job everyday. She had fun.

But Sharpay could still remember that day when all that "fun"…

Didn't seem fun anymore.

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It was a bright, sunny Monday morning in Los Angeles when Sharpay Evans stepped out of her black car. She wore a striped green capsleeve top with a V-dip in the middle, complimented with a darker shade of green elastic belt below her bosom and a pair of blue skinny jeans. Her gold locks were straightened with her side bangs perfectly swooshed to the left. Her chocolate taupe eyes were hidden beneath a large pair of black Dior sunglasses. (café love - Can you tell I like detail? xD LOL.)

Sharpay looked both ways before crossing to the TeenFashionista building across the street.

The automatic glass doors opened smoothly as she walked in, greeting different people as she walked passed. As Sharpay rounded the corner, her eyes widened as she noticed an elevator door about to close. She placed her sunglasses atop her head and jogged over, yelling out a loud, and rather un-ladylike, "Wait! Hold that door!" Fortunately, one of the women had noticed her and kindly stopped the elevator from closing. Sharpay walked in, letting out a relieved breath.

"Oh, thanks," she said in between breaths.

"…No problem." The woman gave Sharpay a strange look.

Sharpay gave a nervous smile, but stared at her flats during the whole ride.

Ding!

The blonde quickly made her exit — she could still feel their eyes on her back, though. As the door closed and the elevator went on, Sharpay let out a relieved breath, suddenly feeling more secure. Sharpay looked around, making sure nobody saw her, before straightening her posture. She walked down to the end of the hallway where her office was. A girl with wavy brown hair held up into a loose ponytail sat at the secretary desk in front of Sharpay's office.

"… We will have those shipments ready for you tomorrow, ma'am. Okay. You, too. Bye."

Kelsi Nielsen looked up as she noticed Sharpay approach. Kelsi was a college intern placed under Sharpay's teaching. TeenFashionista was supprting the nearby college's internship, allowing anyone who was interested in their kind of business to be placed under a certain executive's wing. Since TF Weekly was an all women's corporation, they rarely got any men interns. Most of the girl students they got were still fresh out of high school and loved chatting on cell phones and gossiping.

Kelsi, albeit, was one of the only interns that actually tried to make her experience there worthwhile. She was a bit of a pushover and did everything that people told her to do. Sharpay kind of disliked that fact and normally tried to encourage Kelsi to stick up for herself. But Kelsi thought otherwise. Since most of the ladies working at TF Weekly were at least three or more years older than her, she felt as if she shouldn't try to threaten their superiority.

"You're going to have to stand up for yourself once in your life," Sharpay had told her the first day they had met. "Or you'll never get anywhere."

Kelsi adjusted her glasses and offered Sharpay an apprehensive smile.

"G-Good morning, Ms. Evans," Kelsi greeted.

"How many times have I told you? Just call me Sharpay," she said, offering a kind grin.

"Yes, of course, Miss—" Kelsi stopped herself, "…Sh-Sharpay."

The blonde raised a brow, before shrugging. "Okay. So, Kelsi, did you get those draft papers from Gabriella yet?" She asked while digging through her pockets for the key to her office.

"Um… yes! Ms. Montez gave it to me this morning… She says that Darbus told her to give it to you to proofread. It's right…" Kelsi hastily looked through the papers on the desk, before uncovering a manila folder. "Here!" She stood up and was about to hand it to Sharpay, but found that she was already in the office. Kelsi quickly followed her in, politely waiting as Sharpay took a seat in the large black office shair. "Here you go, Ms. Evans."

"Oh, thanks Kelsi," She took the folder and without even looking up, said, "…And it's Sharpay."

"Right! Sharpay!" Her intern nodded hastily, before walking out the door.

"Okay… Let's see what we have here…"

Gabriella Montez was one of interviewers for the magazine as well as a writer. Gabriella was also one of Sharpay's best friends. The first day Gabriella transferred from Miami to the Los Angeles TeenFashionista building, Sharpay didn't think that they were going to get along. You see, Sharpay was a 'little' bit protective of her status for the magazine. Okay… So, maybe, little was an understatement. Sharpay, of course, was younger then and had the strong urge to fit into the business — even if she had to force her way in.

Sharpay felt a little intimidated by the fact that Gabriella was nice and did magnificent in every report she did.

… And the fact that Darbus, the head of the building, was starting to favor her more.

It wasn't until one day when Darbus had put them both on a project that Sharpay learned that Gabriella was actually envious of her…

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Sharpay Evans sat at her small secretary's desk, working diligently. Darbus had just put her on a project with another girl. They were supposed to put together a full, three-paged article about the kind of make-up certain woman celebrities used to make themselves look beautiful. But they had to be within the normal teen's price range. It was a hard project to do — it took a lot of research. Which is why Darbus had even paired Sharpay up with another person. Normally, Darbus trusted Sharpay to do things herself.

'God… Where is that girl?' Sharpay thought agitatedly, looking around.

Everyone had already gone home, but Sharpay had specifically scheduled their work-together day that afternoon. They only had a couple of days to finish it, but they weren't nearly done yet.

From all the way across the hall, Sharpay could hear the familiar 'Ding!' sound of the elevator doors. Looking up, it took Sharpay all she could to not roll her eyes. Sure enough, it was Gabriella, wearing a pair of sunglasses and holding a tray with two Starbucks cups on them. Her long, curly black hair was held up into a high ponytail and her silver charm bracelet made a loud noise. Gabriella smiled as she appraoched, placing the tray down and placing her sunglasses atop her head.

"Hey Sharpay!" She exclaimed happily, "I'm sorry I'm late. The line at Starbucks was killer!" Gabriella exaggerated.

Sharpay didn't respond. 'How can she be so unprofessional…?' She thought, her upper lip lifting in slight irritation.

Gabriella's wide smile slowly faded away as she noticed Sharpay's expression. She let out an uneasy sigh and plastered on a small smile on her face. "Yeah… Here, I bought you one… I hope you like it," She really hoped that Sharpay liked mocha. She took out one of the drinks and handed it to Sharpay, who hesitantly took it. Gabriella put the other one on the table and threw away the empty tray. She looked back up at Sharpay, still grinning. She took a sip of her own drink.

Sharpay skeptically stared down at the drink and sniffed it. 'Hm… What if she's just softening me up? Then trying to knock me out of my job…?' Her eyes narrowed as she continued to observe it.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Gabriella giggled. She sharply looked up. "What's so funny?"

Gabriella shook her head, hiding her smile behind her drink, "It's just… Haven't you had Starbucks before? It won't bite."

Sharpay glared. "Of course I've drank Starbucks before! I just don't think that I can… trust it," She muttered the last part hastily. She cut off Gabriella before she could question her, "Anyway, we have a lot to do. We have to put together the information we've collected from this little notebook." Sharpay pointed towards a small notepad, "It has everything on it. Then we have to transfer it onto…" Sharpay looked over at Gabriella, who seemed to be intent on her whipped cream.

She seemed absolutely oblivious to their whole project. Sharpay's blood boiled. 'She's trying to make me look bad!' Her mind screamed out in anger.

"Hey… Hey!" Sharpay yelled out, snapping her fingers in front of the other girl's face.

Gabriella looked up. "Huh…? Oh! I'm sorry Sharpay," she apologized, "…What were you saying?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Ugh…" She muttered, massaging her temples, "How did I get stuck with someone so… so idiotic like you?"

Gabriella, upon being close enough to hear those words, looked down sadly. The words honestly pierced her heart — It hurt hearing someone talk about you like that. Her dark hair fell over her eyes, hiding them from Sharpay. It wasn't until Gabriella started sniffling that Sharpay actually started to feel bad about her words. A few minutes after the first sniffle, the blonde looked over curiously. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

Gabriella was… crying?

Sharpay frowned. She felt a sudden wave of guilt and regret. 'Oh man…' she thought. After a few more moments, Sharpay sighed inwardly, scooting her chair over to where Gabriella was. She tried to catch a glimpse of Gabriella's face. "Aw… don't cry," Sharpay said in a feeble attempt to make her feel better, "I'm sorry. I'm just a little upset that we haven't finished yet and—" The black haired girl raised a hand, sniffling and lifting her head. Gabriella hastily wiped away her tears.

"No… it's alright, Sharpay," Her voice cracked, "You have every right to be upset with me. I'm the one who should be sorry."

Sharpay, now feeling very guilty, shook her head. "No, I should." She closed her eyes, then opened them. Her brown orbs shone in sincerity, "Since the first day I've met you… I've been nothing but mean to you. It's just… I felt that maybe you'd get more attention than me. So… yeah, I guess I was really jealous of you. And I've let that cloud my better judgment of you. I hope that you can forgive me." Gabriella looked up, surprised.

"You were jealous of me?" She asked, thoroughly astonished, "…Unbelievable! I'm clumsy and I make so many mistakes. But then there's you… You constantly get praised by Darbus and you only have to do things once to make them perfect. I'm very envious of you, Sharpay. You're an amazing worker and I… kind of… look up to you."

Sharpay felt absolutely touched. She smiled a little. "Really…?"

Gabriella nodded. "Yes!"

Sharpay didn't know what overcame her as she wrapped her arms around Gabriella's shoulders, engulfing her in a warm and friendly hug. Gabriella blinked a few times, before giggling and breaking out into a wide grin. She wrapped her arms around Sharpay as well. The two shared a quick hug before Sharpay pulled away, moving her bangs out of her eyes. She offered Gabriella a friendly smile that made Gabriella feel comfortable for the first time around the blonde.

"I hope we can start over again," Sharpay said.

Gabriella nodded, laughing. "Of course." She cleared her throat, "Nice to meet you. I'm Gabriella Montez." She extended a hand towards Sharpay.

"Nice to meet you, too," she laughed, "My name's Sharpay Evans."

The two shook hands, creating a new start of a new friendship.

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Sharpay leaned back in her office chair, spinning around subconciously with her perfectly-shaped brows knit together in full concentration as she read over Gabriella's article. She muttered a few words underneath her breath, saying them out loud to make sure that they sounded absolutely perfect. Sharpay twiddled a red ink ballpoint pen in between her fingers, underlining a word or two to emphasize the errors. She tapped her chin with the pen in thought.

She was brought out of her thoughts, however, at a timid knock at the door.

knock, knock.

"Come in!" Sharpay said, not really looking up to see who it was.

Kelsi stayed stationed at the door, her hands folded and held behind her back. She cleared her throat meekly. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Ms. Evans, but Darbus has requested for you immediately. She says that it's very important," Kelsi said uneasily.

At the mention of her boss' name, Sharpay's head shot up. She placed her things down on the desk and stood up. "Did she tell you what was so important?"

Kelsi shook her head. "Sorry, no ma'am, she didn't. All she said was to report to her office ASAP."

Sharpay put Gabriella's notes back into the manila folder and placed the red pen on top of it. She flipped her luscious blonde hair back over her shoulder and tried to make herself look decent. It was always a big deal when Darbus called you — it either meant that she was going to put you up to something big or you did something terribly wrong. Most of the time, for Sharpay, it was only for positive feedback on the latest published magazine issue.

Kelsi quickly moved out of the way as Sharpay bustled passed. She sat down on the small chair, adjusting her glasses. But before she could go back to doing her internship work, Sharpay traveled backwards to wag a finger in front of Kelsi's face.

"And it's Sharpay."

With those words said, she left, leaving a confused Kelsi behind.

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Sharpay took the first elevator she could to the fifteenth floor.

The whole floor was private for Darbus' personal office, as well as a small meeting room where they held the most confidential meetings of TF Weekly. Sharpay took a deep breath as the elevator went up. It was weird; her stomach was feeling a litlte queasy. Never once had Sharpay ever felt nervous about approaching Darbus in her private office. Not even the first time she had been called up there. But, today, things felt different.

Something big was going to happen.

Ding!

Sharpay took in one more breath before snapping her eyes, open. The first thing that greeted her was a rounded counter with a girl in her early twenties sitting behind it, her fingers flying swiftly over the keyboard with her eyes glued onto the laptop intently. Sharpay sauntered over, trying to put as much confidence as she could into her strut. …But with no avail, by the way. She bit her bottom lip apprehensively and leaned up against the counter, clearning her throat to make her presence known.

"Hold on, Sharpay," The girl said, not once looking up, "…I need to finish this up."

"How did you know it was me?" Sharpay asked.

Taylor McKessie had been Darbus' secretary for as long as Sharpay could remember. And, for some odd reason, Taylor could tell exactly who emerged through the elevator doors without even having to look up once. Sharpay was convinced that she had some kind of camera installed on the laptop but, just recently, Taylor had made that assumption false as she allowed Sharpay behind the counter to actually observe it. There was nothing.

"And… done," Taylor smiled in satisfaction. She looked up. "Hey Shar. I've already put you in. You can go in now."

Sharpay sighed. "I still don't get how you do it."

Taylor smiled. "What can I say? I'm an undercover magician," she teased and laughed.

Sharpay joined in, shaking her head.

"You're weird, Taylor. Just weird."

The secretary merely laughed at that, before continuing her work.

Sharpay walked through a small hallway hidden by the large secretary's desk out front. Behind it was actually a hallway that led into two large rooms. One was the meeting room — a large, wooden desk was placed in the middle with the same black chair surrounding it. A white board was placed in the front, held onto a large stand. Next to the meeting room was Darbus' office. It could normally be seen by everyone because the walls were glass, but they could be covered with blinds.

Sharpay approached the silver framed door.

The butterflies in her stomach suddenly felt like wild pterodactlys.

Gulping down the nervous lump forming in her throat, Sharpay held up a clenched fist and timidly rapped her knuckles against the door.

"Who is it?" The obvious sound of Darbus' voice called out.

"It's me, Sharpay!"

"Ah, yes. Come in, come in."

The blonde closed her eyes and took in one more deep breath. She clasped her french-manicured hand against the silver doorknob and gently opened it, biting her bottom lip nervously. Sharpay stuck her head inside first and then revealed the rest of herself. Sharpay's eyes widened at the sight before her. Darbus sat behind her dark and wide brown wooden desk, talking to someone whose back was to the door. But Sharpay could clearly tell that it was… a guy.

Yes, a man.

Of all the years Sharpay had been working the building, she never once saw a boy walk into Darbus private office. Or even into the building for that matter.

The two turned to look up as she made her entrance.

Darbus was the first to greet her, standing up and walked over. She smiled. "Ah, there you are, Ms. Evans," she said, leading Sharpay over to the desk by the shoulder, "Sit down."

She did as told, hesitantly taking her seat on the chair besides the mystery man.

"Sharpay, I would like you to meet one of my… friends," Darbus spared a glance at the stranger, "…This is Mr. Jack Bolton."

Sharpay looked over and observed the man up and down. He had dark brown hair that split down the middle and a pair of deep brown eyes. He seemed rather older than she was — maybe around Darbus' age. He was wearing a clean-cut, classic penguin tuxedo suit and freshly polished dress shoes. A small, but friendly, smile graced his features and Sharpay could smell the strong scent of aftershave emitting from him. He seemed decent — but Sharpay didn't know whether to trust him or not.

"…Nice to meet you, Mr. Bolton," Sharpay greeted half-heartedly. "I'm Sharpay Evans."

Jack nodded and extended a hand, "Nice to meet you as well."

Sharpay stared at the hand for a moment and reluctantly raised a hand to shake it. It lasted for merely a second and a half before Sharpay pulled away quickly. Jack raised a confused brow at this, but said nothing and turned back foward in his chair.

"Yes… well," Darbus cleared her throat, "Now that we've done introductions, I would like to explain to you why I've called you here." Darbus looked Sharpay straight in the eye.

Sharpay nodded.

"Now, I've been thinking about this for quite a while now…" Darbus tapped her chin and stood up, looking out the window overlooking the bustling city of Los Angeles. She paused for a small moment before continuing. "Yes, a lot of questions have arised as to this plan. But I think that it'd be a great experience. And might as well give us more sales…," Darbus shrugged to herself, "Not that we don't have enough at the moment. I mean, we're doing fairly well this year and—"

Sharpay cleared her throat. "Um… Ms. Darubs? Point?"

"Ah, yes! I have decided that you are most suitable for our next project…" Darbus adjusted her glasses, staring straight at Sharpay's bright brown eyes, "Which is to merge our company with Mr. Bolton's — Men's Illustrated. You will be the first from Teen Fashionista Weekly to work there."

Sharpay stared up at her boss, a mortified look on her face.

Her world stopped.

Men's Illustrated? The all men magazine company?

Never, ever in her life had Sharpay thought this would happen to her.

But it did.

With a sharp inhale of breath, she screamed.

"What!?"

to be continued.

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nikki / solefresh - Um… yes, so I understand Troy hasn't made an apperance yet. xD Which I apologize for greatly! But he will, most definitely, be in the second one, haha. Be patient! The ending to this chapter is, I know, very… bad. :( But at least I tried. I hope you enjoyed it, albeit. And as for the plot/storyline… I got it from a movie that I was watching; but most of you haven't heard it, I'm assuming. It's called 'Firewood and Water'. x) I know, weird name. Here's a better summary of this story so you can get a better view of it.

summary - Sharpay Evans works for Teen Fashionista Weekly; an all-woman magazine company. Which works great for her, seeing as how she despises all men and their pig-like antics. But what happens when she's placed with Men's Illustrated; an all-men company? And what about her co-worker that she meets there - Troy Bolton? They don't exactly get off the right foot. Is it possible for love to ever be found between them? Read and find out.

So… yeah. That's it, basically.

I hope no one steals my idea. x) Because, as far as I'm concerned, I'm the only one who came up with this type of story in the HSM category. But, again, I don't really know. But I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me when using my plots/ideas. There's nothing more I hate than people copying others' ideas. x) But whatever, I guess. So… yeah. This author's note is probably very, very long. But I just wanted to clear some things up before continuing with the story.

If you have any questions, please feel free to review me with the question or PM me. :) Thanks!

love,
nikki from solefresh.

Review and recieve my unconditional love. ;)