Chapter 2.
Third period seemed to take a lifetime to arrive for the two teens. But eventually the time for them to rehearse together rolled around. At the end of second period Sharpay strolled towards her locker to put her books away and also to collect her script…. Just so she could check Troy's line were correct of course. When she reached her locker she was shocked to see Troy already standing there waiting for her so she said, "Er, Troy, how come you're standing outside my locker… aren't you of all people worried what the rest of East High will say when they see you here?"
"Nah, they know I'm in the play so most of them will know why I'm here, to talk about the play."
"True enough. Well Darbus is teaching in the theatre at the moment so where do you wanna go to practice?"
"How about up to the science gardens?"
"Wow, you never fail to amaze me, first superstar basketball player, then singer/actor and now… you actually know where the science gardens are. I must admit I'm impressed."
"Ha ha. Don't be nasty about it, would you rather we didn't practice, then your little show would be rubbish." Troy said sticking his tongue out at her and turning towards the steps to go up.
"Hey, wait up, you need my help remember." Sharpay yelled after him trying to catch up with him in her shoes.
Once they had reached the top, Sharpay decided it was probably safe to drop her guard a little bit since nobody else apart from Troy would see it. "So, where do you wanna start, where are you having the most trouble?" she asked him.
"Well, the worst bit is my monologue. I can't remember that many words. How do you do it?"
"Let's see, it's hard to explain how to do it. But I suppose if you take it a line at a time and learn it line by line they might sink in better. So like this your first line in the monologue is 'Serena, I can't do this anymore, we're lying to everyone about who we are with and somebody's going to end up getting hurt.' Do you think you could learn that first and then we can go over the rest at lunch? I promised Ryan I'd go and talk to him, I think he thinks something's wrong with me because I left without him this morning and was sitting alone in the theatre when he found me."
"Yeah, sure. Theatre at lunch?"
"Of course. You're not getting out of it that easily, you asked for help not you're going to feel the pressure."
"See you in an hour Sharpay."
"Bye, Troy."
He just stood there and watched after her as she left. 'Wow she has a heart and a nice side when she's not cornered, more than just a pretty face, you could fall for her big time Bolton.'
Downstairs in the music room.
Sharpay sat down at the piano, it had been years since she had played but all the same she figured she would tinkle around whilst she was waiting on Ryan.
She the jumped when he cleared his throat behind her, "Oh my God Ryan. You scared the life from me."
"How come you never try to write a musical for school Shar? You know you're good at it."
"I dunno. I guess I worry about letting people see too much of the real me."
"So, what was up with you today?"
"Nothing really, I was just thinking about how hard it's getting to keep up appearances, now that Troy and I are working together on the play. It won't be long until it's obvious to everyone how I feel about him."
"So. That makes you human, I mean in all honesty, what girl at this school hasn't had a crush on Troy at one point or another?"
"That's what worries me. This isn't just a crush, I've had these feelings for so long that I know its not. But people will just think it is."
At that Sharpay broke into tears in her brother's arms.
