CHAPTER 3

4th April, 2013 Sunny (why?)

Today is Children's Day, so Ms Darbus put on a show in an elementary school, starring me (of course!), Ryan and some other people whose names I forgot. It was a good show (thanks to me), and the children enjoyed it. However that was not what I wanted to tell you.

I apologized to Troy Bolton.

I cannot believe that myself too, but let me tell you what happened exactly.

This morning, I saw Troy at the school front door, presumably waiting for Gabriella. So I walked towards him and he greeted me with a hello. I greeted him back and he asked me, "Why did you run off yesterday?" I searched my mind but I couldn't think of any other thing to talk about. I sighed and replied, "Oh, um, I…" I took a breath and added quickly, "IrememberedthatIhadtoattendmydramaclass." "Huh?" Troy tilted his hand a bit, clearly not hearing what I was saying (who could, at that speed?). I had to repeat, I knew I had to. So I took a breath again and said calmly, "I said, I, remembered, that, I, had, to, attend, my, drama, class." I blushed of embarrassment. "Oh I see. Did Ms Darbus scold you for arriving so late?" Troy asked. He knew that I was embarrassed. Great. However, I was relieved that I could talk about another thing, "A bit, at first…" I made a dramatic pause, "but then she totally forgave me because of my great performance!" I said loudly. Loud enough for every single person near the front door to hear me.

Just then, Chad came over and teased Troy, "dude, you having fun chatting with the ice princess?" Troy looked really embarrassed since he said goodbye to me uncomfortably, "Um, I guess I have to go in now, so, yeah, bye." "Oh. Goodbye," I said. As they were walking away, I suddenly remembered something and went in the school hurriedly, catching up a few steps. "Trrrrooooooyyyyyyy!" I yelled out, afraid that he could not hear. "Um, yes, Sharpay?" He looked back and walked a few steps toward me.

Relieved that he heard me, I took a breath. "I'msorrythatIranoffyesterdaywithoutansweringyouan dGabriella."

He looked really shocked that I apologized to him. I was shocked too, since I have never, ever, apologized to anybody, not even him, before." I covered my mouth with both hands and regained my self-consciousness. That was when I realized that everyone turned their heads from their lockers and stared at me. "Oh my God," I muttered. I could see Chad's mouth widely open, and his eyes really big. There was a moment of awkward silence until finally Troy said something, "That was okay, actually. Not a big deal, so don't worry about it." I had to say something, now, I thought. However, I couldn't find any suitable thing to say. That was when the words came out of my mouths, "Yeah, I knew that. And I won't worry about it, I promise. Not like I did." Then I walked away at my usual movie-star way.

I could hear the crowd, chatting again loudly. So loud that I could hear what they were talking about. "Sharpay has gone insane!" "Yeah, she has never apologized to anyone before!" Then I heard, "But she has returned to her own self in a matter of seconds, hasn't she?" "You're right. She was terribly rude!" Oh no.

Then I heard a voice speaking, "dude, see? That was Sharpay, and you were a puppet in her little drama!" I heard somebody argued, "No, it wasn't like this. I mean, she really did apologize to me." Oh it was Chad and Troy speaking! I stopped immediately and turned over. "Like apologizing is something very valuable and uncommon? She tricked you, dude. She added that she didn't and won't care." Chad argued back. "I just thought that Sharpay and I can at least be friends. And she can be nice to everyone like Gabriella does…" Troy's voice trailed down. "Forget about it, dude! She can never, ever, ever be nice to anybody except herself!" There was a sudden pain in my heart, and I could hear the voice repeating the sentence in my head: "She can never, ever, ever be nice to anybody except herself!"

No!

"She can never, ever, ever be nice to anybody except herself!"

Please, stop it!

"She can never, ever, ever be nice to anybody except herself!"

I closed my eyes and covered my ears with my hands painfully, hoping that the voice will go away.

"She can never, ever, ever be nice to anybody except herself!"

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I opened my eyes, let out a loud scream and the world gone black.