Disclaimer: High School Musical doesn't belong to me, duh.
Troy Bolton kicked the stone restlessly out of his way, watching it as it bounced off the dirt road and into the tall grass. He looked around, he was alone.
He wasn't even sure if the playground was still there, it had been years since he had last came here and it seemed like everybody else had forgotten about it too. The cement road had crumbled, showing the brown dirt underneath. The grass was untrimmed, growing in all directions and getting tangled in one another as if trapped in some crazy, surreal dance.
He spotted the sandpit, except for the fact that it was now filled with rubbish and dead leaves and a shopping trolley was half buried in it, doing a good impression of a sinking Titanic.
The slides were what he saw next. Their colour had faded long ago and someone, a tramp and drunk perhaps, had thrown up on one of the slides, the contents spilling and solidifying over the entire slide. There was also a huge hole on the ladder leading up to the monkey bars, but somehow the person has still managed to get candle wax stuck on the monkey bars themselves.
The only thing that wasn't destroyed was the swing, but there was already somebody on it, and she was the last person he expected to be. Her sparkling outfit certainly did not blend in with the abandoned and dismal playground.
"Little Miss Perfect got on your nerves?" Sharpay asked, a smile playing at the corner of her lips, her hand resting on the rusty metal chain.
"We're...on a break" He said, dodging the subject. Telling Sharpay Evans about your love life was as good as announcing them over the morning P.A system.
"Someone has been watching too much Friends. Ross and Rachel are fictional characters, if you haven't noticed. In real life, Rachel would have ended up with some hot French guy and Ross would have gone back to chasing dinosaurs." Sharpay said, kicking her legs to move the swing.
"Fine, we're over. Now you can announce it over the morning P.A system" Troy said, kicking a beer bottle with all his strength and watching with satisfaction as it smashed against the half-buried shopping trolley.
"I don't meddle in other people businesses," Sharpay protested, "So I may have spread a few rumours here and there, but they were all true."
Troy raised an eyebrow and was about to come up with a retort when he realized that Sharpay's eyes were red. She had been crying. Of course that was a only reason she would come to this abandoned park, she didn't want anybody to see her cry.
"So, after 8 years you still stink at this." He said, pointing at the swing, which Sharpay was having difficulty getting up high in the air.
"The chains are rusty, they're hard to move." She replied. That might have been true, but Troy wasn't going to let her go so easily.
"Here, let me help you." He said, pushing her on the back. The swing moved higher and higher with each push.
"This is how you play with a swing." Troy said to Sharpay, who was screaming with fear and joy as the swing moved higher and higher. She was laughing out loud, something he hadn't seen her do in a very long time.
Suddenly, with a jerk, the rusty chain snapped. The swing swung violently to one side and Sharpay, caught by surprise, was unable to react and fell off the swing. She landed on the ground, with was littered with broken glass bottles.
Troy rushed forward to check her wounds. She had cut her arms and legs and was bleeding. Amazingly, she wasn't crying, which surprised Troy as he had always thought of Sharpay as the kind of girl who burst out screaming and crying at the first sign of blood.
"I think I sprained my leg" She said, her voice quivering a little as she tried to move her right leg, which was swelling up quickly.
Troy turned his back and squatted down in front of her. "Get onto my back, I'll bring you to my house to apply medicine" He said.
She looked at him and gingerly climbed onto his back, moving her legs with great effort. She held on tightly, afraid that she would fall.
Troy carefully put his hand underneath her lags to support her, carful not to touch her wounds. "Don't worry, I won't let you fall." He promised.
Somehow, he could feel his spirits lifting, the heavy weight on his heart seemed to be lifting. He wondered if it had anything to do with her.
"So what were you unhappy about?" He asked.
She shifted her weight and he realised that she had been asleep and felt guilty for waking her up. He wanted to say something but she spoke first.
"I can't remember." She said, and in one fluid motion, leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. He felt a pleasant, tingling sensation in his heart.
He felt like he had travelled back to that day 8 years ago, where he has carried her down the very same road.
She kisses him on the cheek, and he felt that he was 8 again and everything would be fine.