Sharpay Evans-Danforth sat next to her kitchen window in her pajamas, looking out at her backyard on a sunny Albuquerque morning. Her husband, Chad, was already outside, playing basketball with their twins, showing the four year olds how to properly shoot a basket. Sharpay shook her head and let out a laugh. Only Chad would try to instill basketball skills in a child who couldn't quite read yet. She turned away from the window and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. Up, the in center of the mantelpiece was a picture from Sharpay and Chad's wedding, with the bridesmaids next to Sharpay and the groomsmen next to Chad. She picked up the picture, looked at it, and heaved a sigh. That had been a month before her life was changed forever.
The sound of laughter broke Sharpay from her reverie as she set the picture on the mantelpiece once more. "Hey, Shar, can we get some breakfast into these two?" came her husband's voice "They just might calm down if we feed them."
Sharpay, ever the actress, pasted a teasing smile on her face. "I don't think that's possible Chad," she said, looking down at her children with a smile. As soon as she took a look at her children's faces, Sharpay's slightly fake smile melted into a real one, and she asked "So, what do my two star basketball players want to eat?" At the same time, her daughter and son yelled "Waffles!" and "French Toast!" "Oh," said Sharpay, with teasing dismay "I was going to make pancakes, but if you guys-" But she was cut off just there as her two children yelled "Yay! Pancakes!" and ran into the kitchen. Turning to Chad, she said "Works every time."
Chad and Sharpay had spent the whole day with their children, taking them to the park, the zoo, and their Uncle Ryan's house. As Sharpay was putting the two to bed that night, her daughter asked: "Mommy, where'd I get my name from? It's so long, and the girls at school tease me about it." "Well, sweetie," Sharpay responded "You and your brother (at his mention, her son sat up with interest) were named after my best friend and your daddy's best friend. You see, Gabriella and Troy aren't with us anymore. They died in a car accident about a month after your Daddy and I got married." "Mommy, do you have a picture of them?" her son asked. Sharpay nodded and turned to the drawer of the bedside table and extracted a picture of Troy and Gabriella, standing next to each other, right after the callbacks. Neither had known the picture was being taken, but both were laughing. She handed the twins the photograph. "You see? That's Troy and Gabriella." "She was pretty," Sharpay's daughter declared. "Did he play basketball?" asked her son. Smiling, Sharpay nodded. "And now, it's time for my two shining stars to go to sleep," she said, taking back the picture. She kissed both her children good night and left the room.
As soon as she was out of the room, Sharpay ran downstairs to the living room and leaned against the wall and slid down, crying. She pressed her eyes closed and saw it all one more time.
Flashback
Sharpay was sitting in the kitchen, putting a cake in the oven, when "Breaking Free" blared from her cell phone. She turned. That was the ring tone set for Troy and Gabriella. She picked up the phone, expecting to hear Gabi's cheerful "Hey Shar!" or Troy's joking "Hey, my favorite Ice Queen". But instead of the happy greetings of her friends, the voice that met her ears was unknown. "Um, hello, Mrs. Evans-Danforth?" the voice said. "Yes, that's me" answered Sharpay. "I'm a paramedic from Albuquerque Hospital, and I'm sorry to inform you that your friends Gabriella and Troy Bolton were in a car accident-" The voice continued talking, but Sharpay couldn't hear anything after that. Her mind had gone numb and a buzzing had filled her ears. She choked out "I'll be there as soon as possible," and hung up.
Sharpay drove her car to the hospital at top speed and burst through the doors of the waiting room. On her way there she had simply texted everybody and told them to meet her at the hospital. No sooner had she walked to the desk than Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, Jason, Ryan, and Zeke ran through the doors frantically. "B-Bolton please," Sharpay said, trembling. The heads of her husband, her brother, and her friends all snapped to look at her. The receptionist said "I'm sorry; they're still in the ER. I'll tell you myself the minute they get out." Not taking any notice of the shocked looks on her friends' faces, Sharpay numbly walked over to a seat, but didn't sit down. Shaking, she burst into huge, racking sobs and Chad walked over and put his arms around her, soon joined by the other five.
"Shar," Kelsi whispered gently "What happened?" "T-t-troy and G-gabi got into an ac- an accident," was all Sharpay managed to say through her sobs.
The three hours they had to wait in the waiting room felt like a year to Sharpay. Nobody said a word as they waited; all eyes were turned to the clock.
When the hours had passed a doctor walked in and asked them "Are you here for Mr. and Mrs. Bolton?" The group murmured in assent. As Sharpay looked up at the doctor, the look on his face told her what he was going to say, but even so, his next words cut into her like a knife. "I'm sorry," he said "We've lost them."
End Flashback
When Sharpay later found out she was pregnant with fraternal twins, she knew exactly what to name them.
As she sat, her body once more shaking with sobs, Chad walked in and hugged his wife. Together, they got up and walked to the spare bedroom, where there was a large armoire facing the bed. Pulling open the large doors, Sharpay looked at the dresses from her wedding. Her own beautiful white dress and the red that her best friends had dressed in were in front of her, just hanging there, unaffected, and still smelling like that perfume Taylor had lent Sharpay just before the wedding that all the girls had sprayed on. Sharpay ran her hand over the red sash of her dress; the sash that they had spent so many hours making sure matched the bridesmaids' dresses. The bridesmaids' dresses were almost exactly the same, but you could tell Gabriella's from Kelsi's and Taylor's because Gabi's dress had to be adjusted to be a maternity dress. Gabriella had been 7 months pregnant during Sharpay and Chad's wedding; 8 months pregnant when she'd gotten into the accident. The night of the accident, the "gang" lost not two people, but three. And they would always remember that loss, and it would always hit them hard, but a smile would come to their faces whenever they saw Troy Zachary and Gabriella Marie Evans-Danforth.