"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. who matter." Marlene Dietrich

"I'm sorry 'Cole. I feel absolutely awful for making you meet me here. I just…" Sharpay Evans trailed off softly.

Nikki Westerly smiled at her and wrapped the taller, blond girl into a big hug. "Hey. It isn't everyday a girl gets a call at three in the morning from her best friend begging to be picked up in Los Angles. It'd be different if Ava and Johnny had been home but they weren't, and um…Shay…it's just I was up really early to drive here and I'm really tired and I know you're tired too and it is LA and Bradin's dorm is like ten minutes away tops…it'd be a lot more convenient."

Sharpay stiffened but knew she had absolutely no right to be angry with Nikki. The girl had woken up at three a.m. to pick her crazy friend up at the airport. "I'll be fine," she answered with an almost convincing smile. Nikki knew she was lying, but would rather deal with the after effects of throwing Sharpay and Bradin into a room together for a few hours than fall asleep behind the wheel.

Nikki ran from the car as soon as she parked, partially wanting to warn her brother and partially wanting to make sure he was alone. She banged hard on the door, kicking it harshly when he did not answer. The door swung open, revealing her older brother with a head of extremely messy hair and an obvious hang over.

"What the hell are you doing here? Does Ava know?" he asked as he immediately jumped to attention.

Nikki rolled her eyes and looked past him, searching to see if he had a bed mate. "I'm alone." Bradin said irritably.

His sister grinned happily at him and pushed her way into the room, turning with a smile. "Just to warn you Bray…" Nikki trailed off as the source of her statement pushed through the door, looking grumpy.

"So you totally ditched me down there but I did manage to score us an invite to a frat party tonight."

Bradin stiffened noticeably as he heard her voice but attempted to cover it. "What are you doing here?" he asked not bothering to look at the girl.

Sharpay rolled her eyes and set her bag down. "I needed to see Nikki." Bradin irritably asked her why, throwing in the reminder that she had sworn never to set foot in California again.

The blonde sneered at him, reminding him that she had been fifteen when those words had been screamed and that no one should be remembered for something they said or did at fourteen. "I was young, stupid, and naïve," she remarked bitterly, sending him a significant glare.

Nikki winced and stepped away from the bickering ex-couple. Bradin glared at her, arms cross over his chest, ready for a fight. "Oh, and thats changed how?" he asked sarcastically.

Sharpay looked away from him. "Look. I didn't come here to fight with you, or to see you at all, actually. I came here because I needed my best friend. I also happened to be invited to a party which I plan to attend. I feel like making out with a random stranger. I've gotten good at that." Her words hit home, causing Bradin to turn away from her.

Nikki sent Sharpay a look that clearly asked her to back off and Sharpay obliged with a blush. "I'm just tired and crabby. Can I have a blanket or something? I want to take a nap." Nikki quickly threw in the fact that she was not sleeping in her brother's bed and climbed into the empty bunk he kept for company leaving Sharpay to sleep in the bed Bradin usually occupied.

"I've got homework to do, call me when you wake up." Bradin said stiffly to his sister before quickly exiting the room. The two girls were silent for a few minutes before Nikki said, "Shay, when he broke your heart, Bradin broke his own in the process. Please remember that."

Sharpay did not answer, she was afraid if she spoke the tears she had been fighting to hold back would finally fall.

When Ryan stopped Troy the next day to ask him if he had seen the boy's missing sister Ryan was surprised to hear Troy admit that he had. "Yeah, it was kind of strange. She told me she was sorry. She seemed pretty upset," he shrugged and continued his work. Ryan sighed loudly and rubbed his hands over his face in a tired motion.

"Did she say anything? When was this?"

Both boys chose to ignore the fact that her brother had betrayed her not two days ago and although she had pretended to forgive him that was clearly not the case.

"I saw her yesterday. I was running and she was pulling out of your drive way. She told me she was going to see a friend."

Ryan swore under his breath and explained reluctantly when his new friends asked why he was upset. "Visiting a friend means Sharpay went to see 'Cole. Damn." Ryan made a phone call and after assuring his parents he would bring his sister back home kicking in screaming if he had to, he got their permission to use the family jet.

"Anyone up for a paid vacation?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Get up. I want to get home and get rid of you as soon as possible." Bradin said loudly, opening his blinds and purposefully making a lot of noise.

While the two girls had napped for a few hours the day before they had been up late partying and therefore were still extremely tired. From the looks on their faces it was quite clear they were both still drunk. Sharpay grumbled at him, insisting he stay in Los Angles, but he ignored her.

"Considering that the two of you are both still drunk, I have to drive you back."

Nikki laughed loudly and crawled out of bed, giving her brother an affectionate hug. "It's so sweet of you to worry about us!"

Bradin glared at her. "Don't think sucking up to me is going to make me forgive you Nik. I saw you kissing that damn frat boy!"

Nikki had the good grace to look embarrassed. "It's Cole, remember?" she muttered quietly. Bradin snorted.

"I've been calling you Nikki for eighteen years and as I've been telling you for the past four I'm not about to stop because some stupid asshole—"Bradin, shut the hell up!" Sharpay barked out.

Nikki was staring at the floor attempting to ignore the dull pain in her chest. Bradin frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" he trailed off and Nikki grinned at him, pretending the conversation had never happened.

"Alright! Let's get going before we sober up and the hang over sets in!" Bradin rolled his eyes at the girls but said nothing. "By the way--I talked to Ava and Jay today and you are in an extreme amount of trouble. Ava told me to tell you that although it was very wonderful of you to pick up Sharpay, you're grounded when they get home. Jay also wanted me to tell you to turn your damn phone on and that he wants you to call him when you get home. He stopped in to check on you and you weren't there. He was about two seconds away from calling the police."

Nikki made a face that clearly said, 'oops!' but said nothing. Bradin then turned to Sharpay.

"Johnny is working on a lecture for you and your parents are pissed. Oh and Ryan called. He's coming to get you and he's bringing a bunch of people whose names I can't remember. Sharpay gasped in shocked outrage. "I came to get away from him!" she cried angrily. Bradin grinned at her and left the room.

"I'm lying down in back." Sharpay asserted once they had gotten Nikki's yellow Xterra all packed up. Nikki shrugged and Bradin ignored her. He usually found that if he pretended she wasn't there the chest crushing guilt he tended to feel when she was around tended to go away.

"How's Cappie doing?" Nikki asked her brother twenty minutes into their drive.

Cappie was Bradin's best friend from California. The two of them had instantly hit it off when the Westerly's moved in with their aunt and had been best friends ever since. The boy had had his heart broken during his freshman year of college and he had never quite bounced back.

Bradin shrugged. "He's Cappie. He acts like everything is completely fine. He's kind of turned into a whore actually. I'm a little proud of him."

Sharpay snorted. "Hey! He must have gotten that from you!" she cried out sarcastically.

Bradin sneered at her and opened his mouth in an attempt to yell at her but Sharpay cut him off. "The girl ditched him for his roommate and he's still in love with her? Are you fucking kidding?"

Nikki piped up and reminded her friend how hard it is to get over one's first love.

Sharpay scoffed. "Whatever. I got my heart smashed by my first love and I'm perfectly fine." Bradin made a coughing/choking noise and quickly pulled into an exit lane. "Is there a problem?" Sharpay asked icily.

He swallowed nervously. "I'm hungry. I need caffeine. I'm just going to uh…yeah. I'll be back." He pulled into the nearest gas station and bolted from the truck.

Nikki smirked and turned around to look at Sharpay, her eyebrow arched in question. "You're not fine," she pointed out.

Sharpay glared. "Yes. I. Am."

The tiny brunette laughed loudly. "Yeah, just like I'm fine?" she asked.

Sharpay made a face and stuck her tongue out at Nikki. "Face it. We drink too much, party too hard, and between us have had more guys in the past three years than most people have in a lifetime. You aren't kidding anyone with this successfully moved on crap. I know it, you know it, and eventually he's going to wake up and see it."

Sharpay leaned towards her friend angrily, her eyes flashing and icily replied that her 'bff' needed to get her eyes checked because she had moved on quite nicely a very long time ago. Nikki arched her eyebrow and said mockingly, "Gosh you must be right! That explains the tension, and the complete bitchiness."

Sharpay turned away from her friend and stared out the window. "Shay I didn't mean…" Nikki trailed off apologetically.

"He broke my heart Nik. I was fifteen and I—I did something that I wasn't ready for because I thought he cared about me!"

Nikki couldn't help the glare she sent at the blonde. "Our parents had just died Shay! Bradin was having a really hard time. He handled it badly, he knows that! It was a mistake."

What lay silent between the two girls was the fact that Nikki had also given up something she hadn't been ready to when she was younger than Sharpay and unlike Sharpay, Nikki hadn't stopped there. The blonde wiped away her tears and attempted to talk over the lump in her throat.

"I have to be able to make my heart stop alternately breaking and pounding when I look at him before I can even think of forgiving him," she admitted quietly.

Nikki reached out and took her friend's hand, squeezing it in reassurance. "I can't even imagine how hard it would be to see him again after what he did to you, but honestly Shay, he was going through such a hard time. I don't even think he realized how badly what he did would hurt you because I know he cared about you. I can't say for sure what he was thinking when he did what he did but at least talk to him. Be civil. Let it go and be friends again. Please? Just…just think about it okay? Can you do that for me? Because, honestly; once upon a time, I would have given anything for another chance."

It is now Sharpay's turn to return the favor with a squeeze of support to Nikki's hand. She knew her friend had long ago convinced herself her love for Cameron had turned to hate, but Sharpay also knew that Nikki still had love for Cameron hidden deep in her heart, which made sense. Nikki had stopped trusting her heart a long time ago. Sharpay sometimes wondered how she did it, went through life on autopilot, never allowing herself to feel. She supposed if she had lost as much as Nikki she would be the same, in fact sometimes she was, but for the most part she enjoyed her emotions too much. For Sharpay a kiss was exhilarating, and she searched for the kiss that would make her forget her first love for good; while for Nikki a kiss was simply a kiss. She became bored with kissing easily, and had admitted to her friend that she was often talking to herself in her head when boys kissed her. Sharpay was pretty sure that was what got her in so much trouble with boys.

Some people would call Nikki a slut, and maybe if she didn't know her better Sharpay would think she was too. Except Nikki almost never touched boys, letting them touch her, and that usually happened when she was too drunk to make a graceful exit. She had been with four boys in her entire life and one of those boys had been at fourteen, with someone she had honestly believed to be 'the one', which she always said sounded totally lame but it was what it was.

Second of the four was the firsts' best friend. Nikki would freely admit she had been with him out of anger and spite and the boy would easily say the same. They hated Cameron for leaving them behind and even if he never knew about it, they would know. Their 'relationship' had gone on for six months before they decided they were better off as friends, although Sharpay knew, they still hooked up from time to time.

The third boy had been her boyfriend for almost a year. Riley Johnson was two years older than her and the quintessential badass. At first he had been fun and exciting. After a while the thrill she got from dating the bad boy turned to complete terror. Sometimes Sharpay thought the country song, "Gunpowder and Lead" had been written for Nikki. Nikki sat back and took Riley's abuse for six months before he hit her younger brother when the boy had tried to defend her. Riley was arrested and put on a restraining order. The police wouldn't listen when Nikki told them he wouldn't stop attacking her, she told them flat out that if he came near her or her family again she would kill him. The last time he hit her; he broke her nose and gave her a black eye before she took a baseball bat to his face, shattering his nose and cheek bone. She had walked away from that relationship with the black eye, broken nose, and a dislocated shoulder. He was locked up for assault while her attack on him was labeled self-defense.

The fourth boy was none other than Sharpay's twin brother, Ryan. The two of them had hooked up during a party at Lava Springs the summer after their sophomore year; the summer after Riley. "Did you do anything more than kiss the guy last night?" Sharpay asked, changing the subject.

Nikki grinned. "Shay, my brother was right there and no. I was sober enough to think straight!" she finished with a wink. Sharpay laughed and gave her friend a loud, smacking kiss on the cheek.

"You have way too much fun, Crazy Girl."

Nikki made a face. "Yeah, fun got me a broken nose."

Sharpay inhaled harshly, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you…if I had known…" Sharpay trailed off with a choked sound.

Nikki smiled. "If you had known, he'd be dead." Sharpay smirked and nodded her agreement.

"I don't know. Maybe being with him was my own little self-mutilation? You think?"

The blonde quickly changed the subject. "So do you think Bradin knows about me and Tuck?" she asked.

Nikki laughed. "I doubt it. Tuck's alive and still one of Bradin's best friend's right?" Sharpay nodded with a grin. "And you pick on me for my tactics! Fooling around with your ex boyfriend's childhood best friend is just as bad!"

The drama queen giggled and shook her head. "No way! You screwed his best friend since diapers a month after he left, and then dated him, while giving it to him anywhere, anytime, any way, he wanted. How is drunkenly fooling around a few times as bad as that?"

Nikki shrugged, knowing full well the fact that Sharpay had done more than kiss the guy was what made it as bad. Sharpay never let anyone do more than kiss her, it was her unstated rule. Tuck got her out of her sparkly little skirt simply because he was Bradin's friend and she was using him to pay the surfer back, whether he knew about it or not.

The two girls were laughing over their mistakes when Bradin finally climbed back into the truck. "What's so damn funny?" he asked grumpily as he handed them each a bottle of water.

"Nothing!" the girls sang before bursting back into laughter.

"You guys are going to love it. My uncle lives right on the beach in this gorgeous house. Although, it's usually pretty full, if we stay a while we'll probably have to rent a hotel room." Ryan informed his friends with a careless shrug.

Gabriella and Taylor giggled. "Tell us where we're going already!" Gabriella cried anxiously, squeezing Troy's hand tightly in excitement.

Troy smiled at her childishness and kissed her on the cheek. "It doesn't matter as long as your there," he said cheerily, mentally rolling his eyes at himself.

The two plus years he had remained single before Gabriella had really turned him into a dork. Sometimes he hated the nervous, always happy, Golden Boy persona he had decided to depict. Not that he didn't like who he wasmost of the time but he could never really be the real him. He could never yell and scream the way he had been able to before. Sometimes he felt like he was constantly playing a part, a part he wasn't sure he liked.

As expected Gabriella swooned a little, making one of those 'oh isn't he just the greatest' faces at Taylor and Kelsi, while the guys teased him, but he knew they were secretly thinking how cool he was. He was Troy Bolton after all, the playmaker, in Albuquerque he was the definition of cool. Sometimes he wondered what she would think of Troy Bolton. He used to think about it a lot, before he met Gabriella, he would sit around and basically think of nothing else. Would she like Troy better, the way most people did? Or would she want him back just the way he had left? Would she want him back at all?

"Troy, are you okay? You kind of spaced out there for a minute." Kelsi asked, concerned. "I'm fine. Let's play truth or dare!" he yelled, knowing how much the girls loved the game. The boys pretended to hate it, but with the exception of himself and Ryan, he knew they liked it too.

Kelsi immediately turned her attention on Zeke and asked him if he still liked Sharpay. The answer was a definite yes; he knew she was nicer than she pretended to be. Chad and Taylor both snorted their disbelief.

"Seriously you guys, I swear. She's hiding something."

Zeke then turned to Ryan and when Ryan picked truth, asked him to dish on his sister and whether he was right. Ryan glared at his new friend. "It's not worth it, man. Sharpay has been in love with the same guy since she was seven. He broke her heart three years ago and she hasn't stopped running since. Sharpay is a nice girl but none of you are going to see it. She won't let you."

"I thought Sharpay liked Troy?" Gabriella asked, confused.

"He was a distraction and he reminded her of her ex. Taylor. truth or dare?" Ryan asked after answering her question. Taylor picked dare and had to lick Gabriella on the cheek. As the game went on Troy zoned out again, until Chad's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Are you a virgin?" Chad asked with a grin, it was an easy question, they all knew he was but Chad liked to piss his friend off because for some reason the play maker became really agitated whenever the subject of sex was broached.

"Chad! You pervert! We know the answer!" Gabriella shrieked indignantly, motioning for Taylor to hit her boyfriend.

Chad laughed and tried to move out of the way of her hand.

"Can we not talk about sex? Jeez." Troy replied irritably, turning to stare out the window as the plane descended. The scenery around him was becoming much too familiar for his taste.

"Troy, it isn't a big deal, answer the question." Gabriella said with a smile. She got purity rings for her and Troy for their newest montheversary last week and although he wore his ring he had reacted strangely when she explained the rings to him. "What's wrong?"

Troy quickly glanced back at her. "Oh. What? Nothing is wrong. Of course Troy Bolton's a virgin Chad. You're such a douche."

Chad laughed loudly and smacked Troy in the chest.

"Why are you talking in the third person?" Taylor asked teasingly.

Troy tried to smile but as he took in the scenery again, found he could not. "Where are we, Ryan?" he asked apprehensively.

As the plane landed Ryan broke into a huge grin. "I spent my summers here when I was little. It's so great you guys are going to love it!" Ryan cried excitedly.

The girls broke into excited chatter as they took in the environment outside their windows. Troy felt his world closing in on him as the revelation of their location became clear. Please, please, tell me we're in Mexico. He prayed silently. "Ryan I'm serious man! Where are we?" Troy cried, anxiously, startling his friends.

Ryan looked at him in surprise but quickly recovered, and grinned happily. "Welcome to Playa Linda, California!"

The girls screamed at the thought of California and Chad, Zeke, and Jason gave each other claps on the back and high fives, everyone thanked Ryan excessively.

Troy Bolton, on the other hand, stayed firmly planted in his seat because his hands and legs were shaking so badly he was unsure whether or not he would be able to walk. He hadn't been here in three years. The possibility of running into someone from his past was likely. Troy sighed unhappily as his friends ran from the plane, resigning himself to the drama that was sure to come.

Poor boy had no idea what he was up against.