The classroom was already full. All students were sitting at their desks, most looking extremely bored, waiting for class to start. Sharpay was sitting at her usual desk on the back, applying lipgloss. Gabriella couldn't help but notice how cute she looked.
The brunette quickly turned her attention back to the front of the classroom as she heard the door open.
"Good morning, my darlings! Welcome back and I hope you all had a marvelous break and that your energies are all renewed because we're going to do something very special and exciting!" Ms. Darbus greeted the class as she arrived carrying some papers.
The students just rolled their eyes. All except for Sharpay and Ryan. The twins loved Ms. Darbus' class.
"It's that time of the year again! Yes, I'm talking about… community work!" The teacher exclaimed excitedly as she clapped her hands.
A loud chorus of sighs and whines was heard all throughout the classroom.
"Oh man, you have got to be kidding!" Chad whined as he hit his head on the desk
"I think I will ask Sharpay to be my partner, this way we can spend some time together. You know, she always flirts with me in public but never when we're alone. I hope I can change that." Troy said wiggling his eyebrows at his friend.
"Guys, this can be fun. It's good to help other people every once in a while." Gabriella scolded her friends, trying her best to hide the tone of jealousy in her voice.
'Well, at least I know they're not doing anything when they're alone. That's good, right?' She thought with a small smile.
"We know Gabs, it's just that some of us would rather be doing something else instead of bathing old people." Chad joked.
"Eww! Don't even joke about that. Hopefully we'll get something easy like reading to blind people or something." Taylor joined the conversation.
"I'm glad to see you're all so excited for this! Okay, so this is how it's going to work." Ms. Darbus started writing the details on the board. "For a whole week…"
"What?!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Shut up!"
"As I was saying!" Ms. Darbus continued after being interrupted by her annoyed students. "For a whole week, after school, you and a partner will spend a certain amount of hours doing community work."
"Okay Gabs, you're mine." Taylor said turning back to look at the girl. She knew how her friend liked helping people so she thought it would be easier for her to have the brunette as her partner.
"And before you get all worked up chatting with your fellow colleagues about partners, I'll be the one choosing the partners and assigning the kind of work you will be doing. So listen up!" She clapped to get their attention and then picked up a paper and started to read the names out loud.
"Oh crap! This can't get any worse." Troy muttered.
"Troy Bolton and Ryan Evans."
"I think you spoke too soon my friend." Chad laughed at his friend and patted him on the shoulder.
"Yes, apparently God has a sense of humor." Troy hit his head on the desk as the teacher kept announcing the other groups.
"Sharpay Evans and Gabriella Montez."
"And He decided to get drunk today too." He muttered, head still on the desk, as Chad just laughed at both Troy and Gabriella.
Gabriella was just dumbstruck, staring into space. She was trying to figure out if she really heard it right. It sounded too good to be true. Sharpay, however, was sporting a very different look on her face.
"What?! Is that woman on crack? What was she thinking when she paired me up with that Montez girl?" The blonde whispered to herself, but it was loud enough so her brother heard it.
"Shar, are you okay?" Her brother whispered to her when he noticed she was fuming with anger.
"Okay?! How can I be okay when I got paired up with that girl?" She whispered back, eyes never leaving said brunette. "She's so annoying, naïve looking, boring, saint wannabe, gorg… erm goody-goody and… and… so annoying!" The blonde stumbled with her words.
Ryan missed what his sister almost let slip and just whispered back. "Just go talk to Ms. Darbus after class. I'm sure she'll change it."
'Breathe. Just breathe, Sharpay. It's going to be okay. By the end of class you'll have a new partner and everything will be okay again.' She thought.
"Okay darlings, now go meet with your partners and I'll walk around telling each group what kind of work they will be doing." The woman told her students.
As the students started to move their desks around Gabriella turned around to look at Sharpay only to notice she wasn't there anymore. The blonde had gotten up and started to walk towards Ms. Darbus.
"Ms. Darbus! Hi." The blonde greeted the older woman with one of her famous fake smiles.
"Oh, hello Sharpay! How was your break? You're looking lovely! I…"
"Thanks. How was yours? Good. I'd really like to talk to you about the partners for this community work project." She interrupted the teacher mid sentence and spoke it all in one breath.
"Oh, no need to thank me. You know I'm always looking out for my favorite student." Ms. Darbus smiled genuinely at the student.
"Thank?" Sharpay almost squealed and looked at her as if the older woman had lost her mind.
"Yes, I know what a busy girl you are so I paired you up with the best student for this project. Gabriella Montez is always involved with community work so that should make this project much easier for you."
"But Ms. Darbus, that is not fair with the other students. I'm afraid I can't let you do that. I'd feel too guilty about it." Sharpay gave Ms. Darbus her best innocent look.
"Oh, nonsense my dear! You're my star, you deserve it."
"But…"
"Not another word. Now go join Gabriella and I'll stop by in a second to hand you your assignment." And then she left to talk to the other groups, leaving the blonde with her mouth hanging open.
Sharpay let out one of her angry squeals, stomping her foot on the floor. She then started to make her way to Gabriella's desk. 'Why is she looking at me like that?'
Gabriella watched the whole conversation from her desk and was now staring at Sharpay as she walked over to her.
'She looks so cute when she's angry.' The brunette thought with dreamy eyes.
The Ice Queen sat down on the chair beside Gabriella and turned to face to her.
"Okay, let's make some things clear. I don't want to be here and I'm sure you don't want either, so let's just get this thing over with talking to each other the least possible. And we'll do it by my rules. Got it?"
"Hello to you too Sharpay." Gabriella smiled sarcastically at her.
"Whatever!" Sharpay huffed.
"Listen, I'm not happy about this either, but lets try to at least get along this week." The brunette lied. She was ecstatic she had Sharpay as her partner.
Sharpay just looked away and pretended to ignore her.
"Sharpay?" Gabriella spoke in that tone that mothers use to get their little child to speak.
"Fine! But we do it my way and don't expect me to be nice to you. We are not friends." She almost spelled out the last sentence.
Gabriella had a goofy smile on her face. Sharpay Evans never negotiates so the brunette was amused to see how the girl gave in so easily.
Before they could start talking again Ms. Darbus approached the girls and handed out some papers.
"And now my favorite group!" The older woman smiled at them. "So, you two will have the best assignment of all! You will be spending time with the little kids at the community center! Isn't that fun?"
Sharpay just stared at her, mouth hanging open. The brunette however was very happy about it.
"You'll be reading for them, singing, dancing, playing and many other fun things for the whole week! All the details of the activities, time and everything else you need to know is here on this paper. Any questions? No? Good! Have fun!" And then she went over to Troy and Ryan's desks.
"This sounds like fun." Gabriella said taking a look at the paper.
"Fun?! Give me that paper!" Sharpay took the paper from her hand. "Are you kidding? Reading I can deal with, putting up a mini show for them might even be fun, aside from the fact that they're too dumb to enjoy it anyway, but playing stupid games with them and teaching dance?!" She spoke furiously.
"Come on Sharpay, it's not like that. Who knows, you might even enjoy it." Gabriella laughed at her.
"Don't you play with me Montez! You don't want to play with fire." The blonde warned her.
"Sorry." She said trying to hold back a giggle.
"Okay class! Listen up! You will start this next Monday, so you have a whole week to plan this. Some of you got very ordinary jobs..." She looked at Chad and Zeke. "But some more talented ones got jobs that require planning. I'll be giving you this week's class time to do so, but I'd also advise meting after class. Don't forget to fill in your report and hand it in the week after your assignment ends."
She gave the students the rest of the class to talk, but Gabriella wasn't sure if she should push Sharpay any further. She decided to wait for the blonde to start the conversation.
They didn't talk until the end of class. When the bell rang Sharpay just got up and turned to leave.
"See you, Sharpay." Gabriella tried, her voice full of hope, as she was unsure of how the blonde would respond.
Sharpay stopped but didn't turn around. A moment passed before she responded, still not facing the brunette.
"See you." The blonde whispered and then walked away.
Gabriella couldn't stop smiling all day.
I know the first chapter wasn't that good so I tried to make up on this one. Also, I don't usually write Sharpay being such a you-know-what, but I decided to try it for this fic. I hope I'm doing okay with that too.
Please tell me what you think so far and thank you all so much for your reviews and sugestions!
Love,
Nini
