Troy rubbed Sharpay's back.
"Are you okay?" he asked, "What are you talking about?"
Sharpay looked down at Gracie, who was still in her arms.
"Are you hurt? Do you need a band aid?" Gracie asked, "I'll kiss it and make it better." Sharpay laughed a little. Really, how cute could a little girl be? Was this really her child?
"Why don't we get her some breakfast or something first, and then we can talk privately." Sharpay decided. If she really was Gracie's mother, she didn't want to alarm her by openly admiting she had no idea who her child was.
"Um, sure." Troy said.
"Privately?" Gracie sighed heavily, "I hate when you talk 'privately'. It's a grown up word for keeping secrets from me." Gracie shook her head and placed her hand on her forehead, as if she were gravely dissapointed in Sharpay. Again, Sharpay had to laugh. She kissed the little girl's curly hair. It felt natural even if she'd just met her this morning.
"Sorry Graciebear." Troy said to his daughter, "But sometimes we have to talk about Mommy and Daddy stuff, that you're not quite old enough to understand."
Gracie scrunched up her nose, and stuck out her tongue at him. Troy snatched her from Sharpay's arms and threw her up in the air, catching her with ease. She squealed in delight. Sharpay smiled.
Troy stuck Gracie sideways under her arm, her legs sticking straight out, and carried her down the hallway to the starewell. She giggled wildly. Sharpay watched them together. Troy was a good father. She followed the two downstairs.
"I want blueberries!" Gracie exclaimed, when Troy set her down downstairs. She ran full speed into the kitchen.
"You said you wanted scrambled eggs!" Sharpay said, following her into the room.
"And then I changed my mind." Gracie replied, "I want blueberries, and bananas, and strawberries."
"Please." Troy instructed.
"Blueberries, and bananas, and strawberries. Please." Gracie said.
"Ok Gracebear." Troy said. He walked to the refridgerator and began withdrawing fruit.
Sharpay studied the little girl in front of her. Gracie looked very small in her chair. It was higher up than the other ones. Sharpay wondered if that had been her idea. When she and Ryan were small, their parents had replaced two chairs out of the set around their kitchen table with higher ones, so that the children could reach the table without feeling demeaned by a booster seat. Gracie had her elbows propped on the table, and was cupping her face in both her hands. Yes, Sharpay decided, those were definitely her eyes, huge brown saucers with flecks of gold. Her hair, was it Troy's? She must have gotten brown hair from Troy, and curly hair from her, Sharpay realized. The nose was Sharpay's, the mouth a mix between her and Troy.
Troy set down a small bowl in front of Gracie filled with blueberries, and chopped up stawberries and bananas.
"Yummy! Thanks Daddy." Gracie picked a blueberry up with her tiny left hand, and popped it in her mouth.
Troy returned, and set a bowl of fruit in front of Sharpay as well. She smiled greatfully up at him, allthough she had little an appetite at the moment.
"I need to talk to you." she reminded him.
"Right." Troy said. "Graciebear, how about we take your breakfast into the living room and let you watch cartoons while you eat it?"
"Okay." Gracie said. She slid out of her chair, and left the kitchen. Troy went and got a tv tray out of the pantry and carried it into the living room. Sharpay followed. Gracie was already sitting on the floor crosslegged, looking up at the large tv. Troy set the small table and fruit down next to her, and kissed her on the cheek.
"So," he said, when him and Sharpay were heading back into the kitchen, "What on earth is going on with you baby?"
"I like when you call me baby." Sharpay said simply. Troy smiled at her and kissed her nose.
"Troy, last night I was nineteen, and then I woke up today, and here I am, married to you with a little girl, and I have no idea what's happened in the last, well however many years it's been!" Sharpay admitted everything openly at once, sighing heavily in relief.
"Is this some sort of quarter life crisis?" Troy asked, "Hon, you're not even in your thirties yet, don't start this already."
"No, you don't get what I'm saying." Sharpay said.
A look of realization swept over Troy's face, "Are you trying to say you're not ready for another baby?", he asked, reaching out and taking her hands in his, "Because, that's okay, just let me know baby. We've been talking this over for months, and I thought you really wanted to try again, but if you've changed your mind, that's okay, sweetie."
"No, no, Troy, that's not it at all." Sharpay said, "I'm trying to tell you that I don't remember who I am today. I mean I know who I am, but I don't know who you are. Well I do know who you are, but I don't know who Gracie is." Sharpay sighed heavily, trying to organize her thoughts. "The last memory I have was going to bed last night when I was literally nineteen and in my dorm room. I woke up this morning here, and find out we're married, and I have a daughter. And she's beautiful and wonderful, and I love her, but I don't know who she is beyond this morning. I don't know what's wrong with me!" Sharpay burst into unexpected tears.
"Shhh, sweetie, it's okay." Troy put his arms around her, and rubbed her back comfortingly.
"It's not okay." Sharpay said into his shirt, "I don't even know who I am right now. I don't know if this is all a dream, or if I've lost my memory completely."
"Honey, did you hit your head last night?" Troy asked her.
"How should I know, what I thought was last night was evidentally several years ago." Sharpay sobbed.
"You weren't any different when we went to bed." Troy said thinking out loud, "I wonder if you hit your head on the headboard. We were pretty wild last night. I suppose it's possible... Pay, I'm going to call the doctor okay?"
"Okay." Sharpay said. She stared off into space. Troy stood up and went to the phone. She didn't listen carefully as he made the call. She was trying her best to remember anything about how she got here. Then a thought slowly crept into her head. Was this some sort of prank? In the middle of the night, admist her drunkenness, had she been carried out of her dorm room and placed here, for someone else's amusement? She turned to say something to Troy about it. But then she saw him, standing in the room, listening to whoever was on the other end of the line, staring at Sharpay, deep concern showing on his face. No, he definitely would not be a part of something like that she decided. She smiled softly at him. He forced himself to smile back at her, though he was deeply worried for his wife.
When Troy got off the phone, he walked back over to Sharpay. "The doctor's coming in the next couple of hours babe." he said.
"Okay." Sharpay said. She crossed her arms, "I'm so sorry Troy." she said. It was incredibly embarassing to think she might actually have a husband and child and be so neglectful so as not to even know them. Well, of course she'd known Troy. But that was in high school. Ages ago. Or was it?
"How old am I?" Sharpay asked.
"Twenty seven." Troy replied. He laced his hand in her hand and kissed it.
"How old's Gracie?"
"She's almost four." Troy said.
"I had her young." Sharpay said. She looked at her and Troy's entertwined hands.
"Yeah, well, she wasn't exactly... you know, planned." Troy replied, scratching the back of his neck.
"Oh." Sharpay said. "Did you, um, are you happy? I mean, did you want to marry me?"
"Of course!" Troy assured her. He pulled her close to him and kissed her head. "We were already planning on moving in together when you found out you were pregnant."
"How did we end up dating?" Sharpay asked. "You like Gabriella."
Troy burst out laughing, "Maybe you are still nineteen." he said, "Well, I'm married to you so I wouldn't say I still 'like' Gabriella. We broke up near the end of our freshman year of college. We tried to make it work for a while, but, you know, we were changing and growing apart. We tried to stay friends, but I haven't talked to her in a couple of years I guess. Anyways, you transfered to Southern Cal the second semester of you sophmore year. You called me to see how things were going and we went out to catch up. We decided to go out again. Then we went on a few more dates... started to get serious. I mean, you know how a relationship develops."
Sharpay nodded. "I wished I remember dating you. Or hearing you tell me you loved me the first time. Or Gracie being born." She sighed, "Continue."
"Oh, uh, well we graduated the same year. You had an agent, and started committing faithfully to your acting career. I signed with the Lakers. But you remained my top priority." (At this point Troy leaned over and kissed Sharpay's forehead.) "I was on my second year playing in the NBA, when we decided to move in together. We started making arrangements. You were going to move in to the condo I was already living in. But days before the move, you found out you were pregnant. We talked it over, and I of course told you the decision was ultamitely yours, but we both agreed we wanted to have the child. And after taking you out to dinner soon after that, I took you here. I'd just bought the house, and was kind of taking a leap because I didn't consult you. (Of course, you are responsible for all this lovely interior design.) Anyways, you loved it, and I proposed to you right in the living room in there."
Sharpay smiled. Everything sounded perfect. She used to dream about her life turning out this way. Well maybe she was still dreaming...
"Um, am I still trying to be an actress?" Sharpay asked.
Troy smiled, "Uh, I'd say you're pretty successful. Try stepping outside and you can judge by how many camera men attack you."
"Papparazi?" Sharpay said blissfully. Oh, this definitely had to be a dream.
"We decided that you would be the one who got to keep their career." Troy explained. Sharpay looked at the ground. Of course, typical Sharpay. She was still selfish even in this life evidentally.
"You offered to take some time off to be with Gracie, but I didn't really want to play again, I prefered to spend time with my family." Troy said, making her feel better. "Don't worry though, I contribute, I promise." he laughed a little, "A made several million after my two years as a Laker, so I contributed to the morgage."
Sharpay smiled at him, "You sound like a wonderful husband Troy Bolton. I never thought we'd actually end up married to each other."
Troy hugged her close to him, "My life wouldn't be complete if we hadn't" he whispered.
A/N: Review? :P I really like reading them they make my heart happy! haha. xoxo.