Not Enough

When you thought of Sharpay Evans, you would instantly think of her luscious blonde hair cascading down her back, or the sparkling pink outfits she wore everyday, or her self-centered attitude that caused her to be the world's biggest diva. You could picture her driving to school in her bubblegum pink car, or strutting down the halls like she owned the place, or her standing on the stage belting out a high note as the spotlight hit her perfectly. That was Sharpay.

But one Monday morning in her senior year, no one saw the little blond diva marching down the hallways. They saw something much, much different.

She could hear her peers whisper about her to each other. She could feel their eyes gluing themselves to her appearance. It wasn't anything new to her, but she knew this time they were whispering something different. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't their opinions she was interested in, and to just keep walking like she did every other day.

She was the last one to enter her homeroom that morning. She hesitated before turning the doorknob; did she really make the right the decision? Was what she did worth all of the stares and comments she'd receive today?

Without thinking of an answer, she opened the door to Ms. Darbus' class.

Never had her homeroom been this silent; not even when the class had to endure one of her speeches about the importance of the arts. Sharpay quickly scanned the room in hopes that someone had a positive response to her new look.

She saw Zeke in the back row looking at her with wide eyes. Sharpay couldn't see as much love in his eyes as she used to. She saw Kelsi in the very front, completely surprise. Sharpay couldn't tell if it was good or bad surprise, though. And then she saw Ryan in his usual seat next to her empty one. He had the same amount of sadness and disappointment written across his face as he did yesterday when everything changed. Not wanting to start crying again, she lowered her head and made her way to her seat.

Not in the mood to answer anyone's question, she took out her iPod and history notebook, and tried to take notes while listening to music. However, her plan did not succeed. She could still tell that everyone was looking at her, and she couldn't concentrate on her notes.

"Sharpay, please put your music player away," Ms. Darbus called from her desk in the front of the room, "you know there are no electronics allowed in school."

Sharpay sighed as she began to take her ear buds out. Once her iPod was securely back in her bag, Ms. Darbus stood before the class.

"Now, students, as you all know, the fall drama production will be having auditions beginning this week. As in the past, this year's performance will be a classic tragedy."

Sharpay tuned out her favorite teacher. She couldn't bear to hear about the performance she wouldn't be a part of. As of last week, she was no longer co-president of the drama club. She had quit, claiming that she wanted to be more focused on her studies and college. Ms. Darbus didn't believe the excuse when Sharpay told her Friday afternoon, but said nothing more than "You will be missed." Ryan didn't believe his sister either, and unlike the aging drama teacher, argued with her over the subject for the majority of the weekend. When it was obvious that she wasn't going to change her mind, Ryan gave up. He hadn't spoken to her since Sunday afternoon, and would only give her frustrated looks.

Sharpay turned her head back to see the girl who sat in the very back of the next row over. The tiny brunette was barely listening to their homeroom teacher too, and was occupying her time by doodling in her notebook. Sharpay noticed the tiny smile the girl would make as her hand made the same motion over and over again. Sharpay assumed she was drawing hearts around the name around the girl's boyfriend. She must have felt eyes glancing at her, because she looked up and met Sharpay's gaze.

Gabriella's tiny smile quickly faded the longer she looked at Sharpay. It was obvious that she was trying to figure out what made the diva change so much. She, like Ryan, was unimpressed. Unable to take the silent judgment, Sharpay broke their eye contact and turned back to the front of the room.

The bell rang, and Sharpay shot out of her seat. But before she could beat her classmates to the door, she knocked shoulders with someone in one of the front rows.

"Sorry," she mumbled, looking up at the person she bumped into. Her breath got caught in her throat for a moment as she looked into the crystal blue eyes of Troy.

"It's okay," he said weakly, looking at her from head to toe. Sharpay nodded and quickly exited the room.

Be strong, she told herself. You did this for him, anyway.

Never had Sharpay been stared at more than today. All of the times that freshman boys looked at her with adoration and girls with jealousy didn't even come close to the amount of looks she got today.

She also had never felt more alone than before. She used to have the drama club, and Kelsi, and Zeke, and Ryan, and even Jimmie to be there for her, but no anymore. Kelsi and Zeke weren't sure what to say to her all day, even as the three worked on a lab during chemistry. Jimmie took one look at her in the hallway before looking for a new upperclassman to crush on. The drama club wasn't too keen with her now that she had quit, and Ryan spent his entire day with at least one of the Wildcats.

She knew she had a rocky history with the Wildcats, but she figured out of everyone in school, they'd be nicer to her than they were. Most of them spent the day avoiding eye contact with her. The only person who had been nice to her was Jason, who offered to be her partner in calculus for the day. He never brought up the subject of her appearance, but smiled and talked to her. He even tried telling a couple of jokes to make her laugh. She really appreciated that. But other than Jason, the Wildcats, her frenemies, isolated her as much as anyone else in the school.

Sharpay had been waiting for this day to be over since it began, because she knew the first day back would be the hardest. But why then, after the final bell, was she in the school gym, holding a basketball in her hands?

She knew why she was there; she was hoping to run into him. She knew her odds weren't very high, but she still stayed, and began dribbling and shooting the ball into the hoop.

Troy had been standing in the locker room watching her shoot baskets from the crack in the door for nearly ten minutes now. He honestly couldn't believe his eyes. The Sharpay he knew, the one he had known since he was eleven, would never be caught dead wasting her time shooting hoops in the school gym. But then again, the girl alone in the gymnasium was not the same girl he had known for six years.

Sharpay was no longer the loud blonde drama queen with the sparkling and expensive pink clothes. She had cut her long hair to her shoulders, and dyed it brown. She was wearing dark skinny jeans, a grey shirt, black Converse, and a brown leather jacket instead of some skirt, blouse and heal combination. But the biggest difference to Troy in Sharpay's appearance was that she no longer wore her usual bright, confident smile. Just like anyone else, Troy wanted to know why she had changed. But unlike anyone else, Troy was determined to find out.

"You're pretty good," he commented as he walked in. She spun around at the sound of his voice, clearly startled.

"You've been watching?"

"Yeah, not to sound creepy or anything. But you've only missed four out of thirty. That's impressive. When did you get so good?"

Sharpay shrugged, picked up the ball, and made another shot, "I don't know. Just something I like to do when I'm upset, I guess."

"Is that the only thing you do when you're upset?" Sharpay glanced over at his comment.

"You know you're the only person who's made an attempt to ask me. Why is that?"

"Maybe I care more." Sharpay gave a forced laugh.

"Yeah, maybe."

Troy walked closer to her, until they were only a few steps apart.

"I always liked the way you looked before." He confessed.

"No you didn't. No one did." Sharpay shot down.

"What makes you say that? I liked the way you looked because I knew you liked the way you looked. You were always so confident. I don't know, I just really liked that about you. It was one of your best qualities." Sharpay lowered her head at his kind comments. She knew she didn't deserve them.

"I didn't think I had any good qualities." She replied bitterly. For the first time she looked him in the eyes and saw the same sadness that she had seen in Ryan. She could tell that he was genuinely sad that she had changed.

"Why did you do it, Sharpay?"

Sharpay could feel her eyes begin to water the more she began to realize that he was sorry she changed.

"Because you love Gabriella."

For a moment, Troy didn't understand how that was an acceptable answer, but then it hit him. She quit the drama club to focus on school; she stopped wearing her flashy outfits; she traded her long blonde hair for shorter brown hair; she was trying to be Gabriella. And she wanted to be Gabriella…because while Sharpay loved him, he loved Gabriella.

"I'm sorry, Sharpay," he began, "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be,"

"No, I am. I would never want to make you feel like you needed to change." Sharpay sniffled at his apology, but tried to put on a brave face.

"It was time, anyway. I was getting pretty tired of the way I used to look. I really hope people stop making a big deal about it, though. Worse things have happened than a girl changing her look." Sharpay explained.

"Yeah, but no one ever thought you'd turn yourself into Gabriella. I always thought you would have more self-respect than that." He could tell his words stung, but she needed to know.

"I didn't like myself, Troy. I didn't have any real friends or anything. I thought that changing my look a little would help me branch out or something. And I thought that maybe…if I looked more like Gabriella, then maybe you'd like me more. Because ever since she came here, and maybe even before, I've never been your first choice. And I'm just tired of that. The person who I was just…wasn't enough, Troy."

"Wasn't enough for who?" Troy asked.

"For everyone! For me and…and for you. Because if I was, then you and I would be together right now instead of you and Gabriella, and you know that." Sharpay lowered her head in shame. The pair stood in silence for a moment, contemplating their current conversation and situation. He couldn't feel worse for causing her to dislike herself, and all she wanted was for him to finally pick her over Gabriella.

"You were beautiful, you know," Troy said, tucking some strands of the unfamiliar short brown hair behind her ear, "And even though you changed, you still are."

She looked back up at him, and those sad blue eyes. She could see the sadness in her own reflecting back at her.

"Thank you," she whispered. Troy gave her that familiar weak smile again.

"Well, I should get going. I told my mom I'd help her in the yard," Troy said before he turned around and walked away. He stopped though, when he reached the gym doors, and looked back at the broken brunette girl, who had picked up the basketball and began to shoot baskets again.

"You were always more than enough, Sharpay."

So I know it's been forever since I've written any HSM fic, or any fic for that matter. So I apologize for any errors I made, whether they're grammatical or factual or anything, and if it just sucks. But I was searching Zashley on Tumblr, and I found this semi-old pic of Zac, Vanessa, and Ashley in some interview, and it was when Ashley had just recently dyed her hair brown. And just because of their outfits and hairstyles, I couldn't help but think that Ashley and Vanessa looked really similar, and that was the inspiration for this oneshot.

Hope you liked it!