A/N: Sorry for the bad dialogue, I'm out of practice.
Troy pulled off his cap, and pulled himself into the seat of his truck. Graduation. He'd been looking forward to it almost as long as he could remember, but now that is was here it didn't seem so amazing. He'd imagined that he'd have the whole world open to him now, that he'd have endless choice. Instead he knew that, barring tragedy, he'd be attending the University Of Albuquerque, on a full sports scholarship. It was what he'd wanted.
He sighed. He'd tried not to focus on the future too much this year, after the fiasco that had been the previous summer. However the attitude makeover and live in the moment mindset had just gotten him in even more trouble.
Troy closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the seat as he ran the past year over in his mind.
Everything had been going well. He and his friends had become a tight knit group again, his relationship with Gabriella had become stronger than ever, and then Sharpay Evans had changed everything with two small words.
--
"I'm sorry."
"Oh shi-" Troy nearly jumped a foot. He turned around before he recognised the voice, and whatever he'd been about to say was cut off, as he realised it was the last person he expected to see leaning against the doorframe, eyes to the ground.
"What? Sharpay, what are you doing here? I mean… What do you have to apologise for?" He stumbled over his words in surprise. Something looked different about her.
She looked up at his words, and a scathing look brief flashed through her eyes, "What do you mean what? This summer, remember? God, Troy, do you have some sort of memory loss problem?"
He faltered, "Oh, right. Yeah, no, I've just been trying not to think about that much." She rolled her eyes a bit, and he thought he saw a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Suddenly he realised what was different. He hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail, her clothes were casual, and there were no rhinestones to be seen, and once he realised that he just couldn't stop it from slipping out.
"You're not sparkly."
It was her turn to look confused, "Huh? What are you talking about, Bolton?"
He shook his heard, clearing a bit, as he simultaneously realised she wasn't wearing any make-up, and he thought she looked pretty. "Um. Your rhinestones. You're usually wearing some. But you're not."
She grinned at that. "Geez, Troy, are you usually this dense? I don't have to be 'sparkly' all the time you know? Anyway, I came here to apologise, um-"
"You called me Troy."
She blinked at the interruption. "It is your name, Bolton."
He shook his head again. "No, I mean, you call me Bolton. You haven't called my Troy since before the Star Dazzle awards. And before that…. Since before the winter musical."
She rolled her eyes again. "Well, as interesting as that is, Bolton, I'd like to do what I came here to do. Basically, I've been spending a lot of time with Ryan, and I think he's rubbing off on me or something. Anyway, I actually do feel really, really bad about what happened over summer, and I know I can't do anything that could take away what I did, but I was wondering if we could maybe have… Oh, I don't know, a truce?"
He laughed. "A truce? I thought most apologies were of the 'I hope we can be friends' variety."
She smiled wistfully. "Yeah but I figured with your friends that's probably not going to happen."
"Just because my friends don't want to be friends with you doesn't mean I have to."
Her eyebrow drew together as she gave him a confused look. "Do you honestly not realise what goes on beyond your group of friends, Bolton."
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head. "You mean you actually don't notice? You're the only one in your… group.. That talks to Gabriella. You speak a little bit to Taylor, but mostly it's all Chad. You haven't spoken to Kelsi once since Jason broke up with her. Did you realise she's got together with Ryan now? I bet not. You might think I tried to stop the whole.. Integration thing last year, when you were talking to Martha, and the skater guys and everything just because I wanted you and Gabby to stay out of my musical, but I did it because I knew it couldn't last. And look who was right."
Troy's jaw clicked shut as he realised she was right. She raised an eyebrow at him as he digested the new information. "Okay… So you're right. But that does that mean I can't try?"
She looked surprised for a minute, before she smiled, and he was somehow glad to realise it was a happy one. "No. I guess it doesn't. I suppose this means you accept the apology then??
He laughed. "Well, yeah." She turned to go, but he spoke again. "Sharpay?"
She half turned, "Yeah?"
"If your going to be my friend you should really call me Troy more often."
She smiled again. "Okay. Troy." Then she was gone.
--
Troy ran his hands through his hair. Needless to say the Wildcats had not been happy with him and Sharpay's newly positive relationship. Especially Gabriella…
--
"You forgave - you actually forgave - that witch? After all she did to you? To us? She broke us up, Troy! And now you're friends? Just like that?"
Troy held his breath until she stopped. He'd never seen Gaby so angry, and it was a bit of a shock. He'd expected her to be the most accepting of his decision to give Sharpay another chance, but while the rest of the gang had simply ignored him for a day, he hadn't been able to speak to her for two weeks without her shouting at him.
"Look, I just thought she deserved a chance, you know? She apologised, I accepted, we're trying to be friends, big deal! I thought you were all for forgiveness!"
Gabriella shook her head. "No. Not with her. She apologised after the musical call-backs too, didn't she? It's not like it's anything new for her to lie! God, Troy! Would you really risk throwing our relationship away, again?"
That caught his attention far more than anything else she'd said all week. "Gabriella-"
"No, Troy. I'm serious. Because that's what you're risking. I don't know why you could let her back into your life! Because she'll just try and take up more and more of it, until there isn't room for me anymore. Just like summer. And maybe this time I want to cut myself free before it hurts that much."
Suddenly Troy was angrier than she was. "Well if you do you're not worth it. If you'd break up with me because I'm trying to be nice to someone, to not hold a grudge, to do everything you've been helping me to do so far this year, you're not worth it. I'm sick of fighting about this, come find me when your done."
--
He'd eaten lunch upstairs with the drama club for two weeks after that, sandwiched between Sharpay, and Kelsi. And he'd enjoyed it. He'd learned all about musicals, something that he couldn't help himself returning to again, although he'd promised himself that he'd focus on basketball again this year, but he'd been drawn into a conversation that first lunch time. Sharpay and Kelsi had been debating the pros and cons of operatic style libretto's, or 'plays' with songs'. He'd been confused, and Sharpay had realised, and had explained to him that most operas, with many musicals modelled after them, were almost entirely singing, whereas others were basically normal plays, with the occasional song.
Then, being the rich, over the top girl she was, she took him to one of each. He'd been surprised by the complexity and reality of the characters in both Rent, and Blood Brothers. Twinkle Town's music had been amazing, but Kelsi herself admitted that book writing wasn't her strong point. Sharpay had also surprised him by saying - halfway through a lunchtime debate about whether the story of Blood Brothers would have been different if the twins had been switched - that he should audition for some amateur theatre. Sport could come first if he wanted it too, she said, but that didn't mean he couldn't do any theatre.
He'd been seriously thinking about it, but then Gabriella had been waiting for him outside the gym after practice on the Friday.
--
She looked sheepish, but she managed to start talking before he could.
"Troy, look… I'm sorry about what I said. I was mad. I just… I hated her after what she did to our summer. I didn't want you to fall for it again. I couldn't see that you were doing exactly what you've been trying to all year, put the past behind you. It's stupid, I held the moral high ground all summer, and now tables have turned." She laughed a little, but it looked more like she was crying. "I just… I didn't want to lose you again. I still don't… I'm really sorry."
--
He'd taken her back. They'd been the happy couple again, and he'd forgotten all about Sharpay, until a month later.
--
"So… Great friend, huh?"
Tory looked up from his locker to see Sharpay, leaning against the wall.
"Oh hey Shaypa- Oh I totally haven't talked to you in like a month… Right, I'm sorry, I just got distracted."
His reply seemed to throw her for a minute and she laughed, "Yeah, but your girlfriend, I noticed. Whatever happened to bros before hos?" She punched him surprisingly hard in the shoulder.
He grinned and shook his head. "Are you calling Gabby a ho, Sharpay? That's not very nice."
She rolled her eyes. "Sorry. I just wanted to remind you of the fact that there is life beyond wildcats, and Kelsi needs your support in the nature V.S. nurture in Willy Russel musical's argument."
"You both know where I stand, I though we argued that one out?"
She laughed again. "We'll never argue it out - surrender is not an option, I'll never agree with you!"
He shook his head. "C'mon. You could tell in the play, Eddy was just a physically gentler person. If he had done anything it would've been passive aggressive. A divorce, maybe emotional abuse is he got really angry, but he never would've thought he could shoot somebody. He probably never would've agreed to the robbery."
She punched him again. "But Mickey was tougher because he was raised in an environment where he needed to be violent. He had seven older siblings! And they were all raised on the wrong side of the tracks! Eddy would have been just that same if he'd had the some upbringing."
--
He'd included her and Kelsi back in his life more then. From that more friendships spread. He became familiar with more and more people outside his normal social sphere, a constant reminder of the world beyond his own mind. He'd thought everything was going to be perfect, until a month before graduation.
--
"Gabby, what are you doin-"
Troy found himself pulled down the street, into Gabriella's house, and pushed down onto the faux-leather lounge suite. Gabriella herself then sat down opposite him, looking like she was mentally begging to be somewhere else.
"Gabby, what's up? You don't look very good…"
She gave a dry laugh. "Yeah, well I'm about the break up with my boyfriend, how am I supposed to look?"
Shock seemed to cause electricity to course from the tips of his hair right through to his toenails. "What?"
She looked out the window, then back to her lap, then back to the window again. "What did you expect Troy? Your staying here, going to the U of A, I'm going to be going to school in Massachusetts. It's too much Troy, you can't expect me to think we can keep this going, it's too far."
He shook his head. "No. We can do it. I can drive, I've got my truck! I can come see you on weekends, it's not to far, you're being too logical, we can do it, I love you!"
She finally looked at him, eyes full of tears. "No you don't. And maybe you could do it, but I can't. I'm not going to be able to."
"We have two weeks! Can't you just wait until after graduation. We could have another summer together, a proper one this time."
She shook her head. "I hope we can still be friends, but right now you need to leave."
--
He'd sat exclusively at the drama club table after that. He'd been surprised though. He expected his concentration to be shot for finals, but it wasn't. He'd been fine. After a couple of days it hadn't even hurt to see her in the hallways anymore. He guessed she'd been right about him not loving her. She always had to be right…
A knock on the window startled him from his thoughts, and he looked up to see Sharpay, in her gown, with her cap in her hands, which seemed to be abnormally fidgety.
He opened the door. "Sharpay, are you alright?" You seem a bit… Nervous."
She half smiled. "While I'm about to make a major confession, Bolton, and don't you dare raise your eyebrow at me for calling you that, I doubt you'll be wanting my friendship after this. I never claimed to be a perfect person. I'm obsessive, I'm vicious, I'm self-centred… I don't think about other people very often at all. I was a horrible person over summer. The fact that you forgave me, and you stayed my friend this year means a lot. But I can't deal with it. Y'know, I'm just one of those girls who gets way too invested and falls for the guy she can't have. And right now that guy is you. And I know you won't want to deal with this so soon after you and Gabby, and I can't deal with this right now. Because I doubt you'll want to see me when college starts, and I don't think I want to see you this summer, so I just wanted to say, thanks, and good-bye."
She'd been shifting her weight the whole time she was speaking, so she was off balance, which made it easy for Troy to grab her arm before she could step out of reach. "What do you mean you can't have me?"
She laughed tearfully. "Come on, Troy! You've been completely broken up since Gabriella broke up with you! It's obvious!"
He shook his head, not letting her pull free. "No it's not. I thought it would be. I felt bad at first. I only hurt for two days after she broke up with me. Do you realise how weird that felt? And do you know what felt weirder? That you were the one I could count on. All the wildcats were too scared to mention her name, Chad's too scared to talk to Taylor in front of me, but you didn't change. And maybe that's what I need."
Then he grabbed her other arm with his free hand, and pulled her towards him. She stopped fighting as her lips hit his, and suddenly the future didn't look so bleak after all.