Disclaimer: Disney owns HSM. And no, I don't work for Disney.


Her

Chapter Two; That was Easy!

"Did you say you had Ms. Bauman for History sixth period?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Mr. Ensley, but him and Bauman have a conjoined class."

Sharpay was walking down the hallway with Zeke, on her way to sixth period. Or rather, Zeke was walking with Sharpay. She'd just been walking by herself and he'd kind of popped out of no where and started walking and chatting with her. She was sort of getting used to it by now though, he'd kind of been doing that to her all day.

"You mean they mix their classes?" Sharpay asked him. He nodded.

"How do they do that? Is the classroom big enough for all those kids?"

"No," Zeke chuckled, "their rooms are next door to each other, and you know those classroom wall separator things that can open and close?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, that's what splits up the one huge classroom into two rooms instead of a normal wall, and they just decided to keep it open and teach their classes together."

"Why's that?"

"I think they're engaged or dating or something," Zeke answered with a casual shrug, "I mean that's what everyone says. They're 'inseperable'" he added mockingly with two air quotes. The look on his face gave away that he could get sick and throw up at any second. No guy would want to have to sit in a classroom for an hour knowing that the two people teaching right in front of them could have some very naughty intimate secrets of their own!

"-also what everyone says."

Mostly everyone thought it was basically weird and gross, with the exception of some girls in the school who found it "too cute for words."

"Has anyone asked them if they were dating or whatever?" Sharpay questioned, "Or is it just a rumor?"

"They haven't confirmed it. One kid last year had the guts to ask 'em and Ensley told him to shut up, mind his own business, and two weeks detention for 'poking into staff member's personal lives'," Zeke told her seriously.

"Come on, really?" she asked in disbelief. "That seems a little too harsh."

"No, it's true. Mr. Ensley can be a real jackass."

"That's horrible," Sharpay commented disapprovingly. "I don't think people should date their co-workers anyway. I mean, especially not when they're teaching side by side all day. You know how fast they'd get sick of each other? Either that or they'd just be so in love that they'd have to fight hard not to pounce on each other right in front of everyone every second."

"Seriously!" Zeke laughed, "You make a good point, Sharpay," he smiled. "Everyone around here just says it's weird and moves on, but you put it in such a different way."

"Thanks...I think," Sharpay scrunched up her nose in confusion, not knowing whether to feel honored or embarassed for her apparent over analyzation of the situation.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Sharpay didn't end up having Gabriella in any of her afternoon classes. Just first period so far, making her feel slightly dissappointed for some whacked out reason.

So when she stepped into a freakishly large classroom for sixth period with Zeke still by her side, her heart and stomach each did a funny lurch when she saw the brown eyed beauty sitting at a table near the right side of the room in about the middle row.

The classroom was devided into two parts, Sharpay saw. There was a cluster of about fifteen or so tables on each side of the room, each one having two seats per table. Lastly, there was one tall black table complete with two tall black stools off to the side of the room, right in the middle of the two devided parts to the room.

One half of all the class tables one one side of the room were facing the tall black desk from one direction, while the rest of the tables set off on the other side of the room were facing the black desk from the other direction. Basically, the two sides of tables were facing each other with the black one in the far side-middle.

It was a pretty.... weird looking classroom arrangement, Sharpay decided. But she could see how it could hold sixty or so students all in one class period, and it was pretty full already.

"Bolton what the heck are you wearing!?" a middle aged man who slightly resembled the looks of David Deluise (the dude who plays the dorky dad on Wizards of Waverly Place) and whom was sitting in one of the stools at the tall black desk was practically shouting at a chestnut hair colored boy.

"Go Redhawks!" the boy simply enthused with an innocent smirk before promptly sliding his arms out of his red and white leather jacket with the words " 'A' Redhawks" embedded into the back and swinging it around in the air. A chorus of "WOO-HOO!'s" erupted from himself and two other jock type looking guys in the class. One with a big fluffy afro, and the other with shaggy black hair.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, boy! and have your seat or maybe I'll just be forced to glue your butt right down to it!"

"Patrick, calm down," the woman sitting next to the nearly outraged man told him with a simple eye roll.

"Yes, sir!" the still smirking boy answered, turning around and swatting the afro-head guy behind him with a high five before plopping down ungracefully in his seat in the second row.

"That's my friend, Troy. He's a big Redhawks fan. Actually, everyone on the basketball team here is, including me," Zeke told Sharpay, noticing her as she watched the scene unfold. "And that right there is Chad," he added, pointing to the dark guy with the afro, "and that's Jason."

He waited for her to say something, particularly wishing she would impressively say "You're on the basketball team?" and smile flirtatiously at him.

That didn't happen. In fact, she made no comment what-so-ever, which felt like a pretty big slap in the face for Zeke. It was considered an honor around East High to be a member of the basketball team, which had gone undefeated for seven years running, and still was to that very day.

Then again, he remembered, she was new and most likely didn't know all of that. But still...didn't she like him at all?

"...But Mr. E over there doesn't seem to quite understand why. He pretty much hates the U of A sports program...ever since last year when the basketball team lost half their games and the football team only won two of theirs. But everyone mostly agrees that it was the coach's faults last year. They taught 'em horrible plays and basically sucked. Luckily, there's new ones this time around, and we, over here at East High, are undefeated so Ensley should at least treat us a little better, dont 'cha think?" Zeke tried with a slightly forced chuckle.

Sharpay nodded.

"And that must be Ms. Bauman," she stated assumptively rather than asking a question, gesturing with her head to the woman who was arguing silently with Mr. Ensley. You could tell they were bickering by the displeased look on her face.

On the plus side, they made a cute couple...for two forty year olds, anyway. (They looked around that age.)

"Yup. Already fighting like an old married couple, eh?" Zeke chuckled. Sharpay didn't comment on that, either.

She doesn't talk much, does she? Zeke thought.

"What side do I sit on?" she asked instead, looking unsurely from one side of the room to the other.

"That, over there, is Bauman's side. See you," he answered, giving her a light but sure push to the right side of the room as he set off to the left, which was now obviously Mr. Ensley's side. Sharpay watched after Zeke as he took a seat next to that Troy guy and they shared one of those "manly handshake/knuckle touch" things.

Sharpay hesitantly made her way to an empty seat in the front row, almost directly in front of Gabriella, who she noticed was scribbling something down in her notebook even though class hadn't started yet. She didn't even seem to be aware of any of her surroundings. She was probably just doodling.

Maybe if she were a bit more noticeable of things, I'd make an effort to talk to her, Sharpay thought, almost annoyed. Maybe Emma, Jackie, and Lea hadn't been messing around earlier at lunch when they'd said that the "Mormon Posse" pretty much ignored everyone but each other...and that one Taylor girl, for that matter.

The bell rang.

Most of the people in the class of at least fifty or more students rambled on with each other, as if they hadn't noticed that class had started.

"HEY," Mr. Ensley shouted, whipping out a mini wooden mallet from out of nowhere and slamming it on the black table five or six times- hard.

"Patrick, you'll break it!" Ms. Bauman shouted, horrified as the class started to get quieter and quieter.

"What? The table or the mallet?"

"BOTH, MR. E!" some random guy in the back of the classroom on Mr. Ensley's side shouted out rather loudly.

"HEY! Stay quiet and out of this conversation or I'm gonna take this here mallet and chop you so low you'll have to hold up a sign that says 'Please Don't Spit I Can't Swim'!" Ensley threatened emptily.

After that, the entire class became so silent that you could probably hear a crickets chirping noise had it been night time. Out of all the stupid, "hardy-har-har" (note the sarcasm) things their teacher had ever said in attempts to either be threatening or funny, that had to be one of the worst failures yet...or best failures, it depended on how you looked at things.

"Hey, they're all quiet. Maybe you should say things like that more often, Pat," Ms. Bauman told him with an amused smile.

"Like he doesn't already," someone to the left of Sharpay muttered.

Mr. Ensley rolled his eyes at what Bauman said and swatted a red button on their shared table with the word "easy" written in white letters on the top of it, and the only sound that filled the classroom for a moment was a robotic, mechanic voice say wisely from the button itself;

"THAT was easy!"

"The button has SPOKEN!" Ensley asserted, but the class was so used to that stupid 'easy' button of his by now that he literally pressed at least ten times in a single class period, that the only one who couldn't help but let out a chuckle at this goofy, crazy, immature teacher was Sharpay.

"Excuse me, blondie? Who are you?" Ensley questioned her in a way that Sharpay couldn't tell if he was just fooling around or if he intended to sound so....ill mannered-ish.

But it didn't really matter either way, because that was when Sharpay felt all fifty pairs of eyes suddenly focus on her at once. She felt a deep blush creep upon her cheeks, and for a moment she was at a loss for words. How would you like to have one hundred eyes staring at you, waiting for you to speak?

Luckily, she didn't have to, because someone else behind her spoke before she could...not that she really would have, anyway.

"That's....um.... the new girl. She's in my homeroom."

She quickly whirled around, surprised to see no one other than Gabriella herself, staring right at Mr. Ensley. She was without a doubt the one who'd just spoken.

So she HAS acknowledged my appearance.

So, maybe she'd introduced her to a room jam packed full of people as "the new girl", and maybe she seemed to have forgotten or never even noticed that she was also in her second period class as well as her homeroom, but at least Sharpay now knew for sure now that she wasn't completely invisible to this beautiful stranger.

Besides, a number of people in the class probably knew or had at least had heard of Sharpay by now and knew her name anyways, seeing as it was sixth period. She did, in fact, recognize several familiar faces from her other classes beforehand...none of them had she actually talked to, yet though- with the exception of Zeke. (and a couple of other people, but with these few the conversation had always just been something like;

"Are you new?"

"Yeah, I'm Sharpay"

"Oh nice to meet you. Where're you from? I'm -insert name here-"

"You too. Indiana...we just moved here."

"Oh that's cool. Hope you like it here."

"Yeah, thank you."

"No prob."

End of story.

If it wasn't obvious already, Sharpay wasn't and never had been very good at small talk except on those rare occasions when she got a random surge of confidence.)

"Don't bother introducing the girl if you can't even remember her name, Gabriella," Ensley told Gabriella, whose lips turned down into a frown.

"Who said I didn't?"

" 'That's, um...the new girl!' AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ensley mocked Gabriella with high pitched voice and a teasing smirk. He was like that with everyone.

"I don't laugh like that!"

"What's your name?" Ms. Bauman asked nicely (almost too nicely....fake, almost) cutting in and directing her full attention on Sharpay. She'd learned to ignore 'Patrick's' squabbles with their students long ago.

"I'm Sharpay," she finally was able to find her voice.

"She speaks!" Mr. Ensley announced in an over dramatic, loud tone. Then, with his right hand, he reached across the table and-

"THAT was easy!"

Sharpay was still too embarassed to make any sound this time, not even the lightest of chuckles.

"Oh. Well, Mr. Ensley and I were just confused for a moment because we haven't pulled up the attendance sheets yet, but I'm sure you're on mine since you're on my side of the room," Ms. Bauman said in what this time was an obviously very fake, sickeningly sweet voice as she got up and crossed the room to her regular desk and turned on the computer screen. Sharpay wasn't gonna lie, Ms. Bauman seemed like a kind of snobby, plastic kind of woman. Just the way she carried herself as she shimmied across room said "look at me, I'm the sexiest forty year old you'll ever meet in your life. Are you worthy enough for me to teach you?" about her. So did that very very fake voice of hers.

No exaggerations here!

Sharpay wasn't usually one to go around judging people when she'd only known them, or rather, known of them for less than ten minutes, but so far she wasn't picking up a very good vibe from either of these two teachers. Mr. Ensley was okay, just kind of...freaky and immature?

"What's your last name?" Ms. Bauman's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Evans," she replied simply and softly.

"Evans....Sharpay....here you are, the teacher was basically talking to herself by this point.

"Might as well take the rest of your attendance while your over there," Ensley told her. He had since moved to his own personal desk on his side of the class. That tall black one in the middle just seemed to be an extra one there for the both of them to use and sit at whenever.

Zeke was right about the whole 'inseperable' thing, Sharpay thought, eyeing the desk.

The next five minutes went by slowly as Sharpay sat boredly in her seat waiting for something to happen. Most of her classmates were talking quietly to each other by this point, since Ensley and Bauman were still taking attendance. But she sat quietly, not really knowing who to talk too. Maybe it would have been a little bit easier had Jackie Lea or Emma been in that class with her...

"Troy asked me out yesterday," Gabriella told her friend and the birthday girl Kelsi who was sitting next to her.

"No way, what'd you say?"

"No, obviously."

"Short and simple, just like that?" Kelsi asked in disbelief. Gabriella quickly shook her head.

"No, I didn't want to be that mean. I told him sorry, but I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend but that I thought he was a nice guy and perhaps we could be friends and blah blah blah- all those other dumb lies you have to say when you want to reject someone the easy way."

"I don't really think there is an easy way, Gabs, and do you still really believe you're not allowed to date? You've turned down every guy that's ever asked you out."

"Well I guess since I'm 'sixteen or older' I am allowed, but no guys interest me. Now, it's just a personal descision. Here, they're all just immature pigs," Gabriella explained putting air quotes around the phrase "sixteen or older" since that's what her mom had always told her from the time she was in the fifth grade- when her best friend Taylor had gotten her first 'boyfriend';

"NO dating until you're sixteen or older, Bella! We have morals in this household and you will honor them always."

Not that she had ever really cared much. She wasn't some boy obssessed crazy yuck. Most people for some reason even found it hard to believe when she told them she didn't and had never really liked anyone like that.

"He didn't seem all that affected by it anyway, did you see how he was acting with Mr. Ensley just now before class started?"

Kelsi nodded 'yes',

"Yep, just like his normal self- all Redhawk Wild and whatnot," she said.

"Yeah, not heart broken and mopey. So I guess that's good, I don't wanna make anyone feel bad," Gabriella added, unaware of the fact that she'd just made Sharpay feel bad today by completely forgetting her name sooo easily and hardly even acting like she was even alive.

Yes, Sharpay did sometimes get easily offended.

"OK, got my attendance all cleared up!" Mr. Ensley announced in his normal loud, yet now, fake Australian-accent coated voice as he went back over to the tall black desk and slapped what had already become a familar device to Sharpay.

"THAT was easy!"

"Me, too. Everyone turn to page 79 in your books and takes notes on the section. Remember your test is next week, so I hope you'll all be prepared,"

this reminder of Ms. Bauman's caused a loud, low groan from about half of the entire two classes- so half from each side also.

"Aw who friggin' cares about Jamestown and Chesapeake Bay!?" The bushy haired kid that Zeke had pointed out earlier named Chad called out loudly upon turning to the correct page in his textbook and quickly scanning over the first couple sentences in the introduction paragraph on what the section was to be about.

"Danforth the' will be no yellin' in this class unless it's comin' from myself! I forbode it! Git' ot!" Mr. Ensley shouted in that fake Australian accent, pointing angrily at one of the two classroom doors. (One door on each side of the combined classrooms)

"And no use of the word 'friggin', 'I' ther!"

Why he was trying to talk australian, Sharpay didn't know. It was very random and just thrown out there. But you can bet one hundred percent that she was wondering that exact thing.

Chad quickly stood up, gathered his belongings, and kind of harrumphed all the way to and out the classroom door without another word.

The whole class, including the two teachers were silent for a long awkward moment after the door slammed behind Chad Danforth.

Then suddenly, after a short while, Mr. Ensley loudly (he seemed to do everything that way) cleared his throat, and, once again-

"THAT was easy!!!"

The class surprisingly laughed this time- probably because it had been so dead silent and their classmate had just been kicked out.

Sharpay blinked. This was sure going to be an interesting school year.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

"Hey, Shar. How was your first day?"

On any other day Vance would have been working his butt off down at the country club, but he'd given himself the next week off so he could help his wife and stepchildren unpack and get themselves settled into his home. (For a man that had up to just recently lived alone, he did have a pretty big house anyway- so there was still room for everybody. Everybody being Sharpay, Ryan, and Derby who was sharing his room anyway.)

"Fine....um...interesting, to say the least," Sharpay answered her stepdad as she walked into the living room, tossing her schoolbag on the ground and sinking into a recliner. Ryan had wandered on upstairs to his room.

"Ah, how about the most?"

"Put that upstairs," her mother told her, eyeing her bag. Vance and Derby were sitting side by side on one of the couches- probably just taking a break since they'd been unpacking and arranging furniture and things all day.

"I will, I'm not a slob, you know that," Sharpay told her mother surely.

"So how was school?...." her mother then asked, changing back to the original subject.

"A little bit better then I expected, I guess," she shrugged and then, knowing what her parents were wondering and sparing them the trouble of asking, added "I made a few friends."

"That's great," Derby smiled. "So where's your brother?"

"He went upstairs already."

"Oh, alright."

"You gonna finish unpacking your room? I brought the rest of your boxes up for you," Vance said.

"Yeah I will a little later, and thanks. But right now I've gotta get started on my homework," Sharpay said, standing and picking up her schoolbag. "Bye," she threw in and quickly went upstairs.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

"Did you guys see Jackie and her friends at lunch today?" Martha Cox asked her friends.

"No, I was too busy trying to hide my embarassment of all of you announcing to the word that it was my birthday," Kelsi smiled.

"Yeah....and I was too busy painting a paper mache' tree in detention!"

"Oh yeah!" Taylor McKessie laughed, "How'd that turn out for ya, Bri?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Let's just say that I will make sure to never text during Ms. Darbus's class again. Ever. Not even if I'm really careful. Which reminds me, I gotta find Rocky after practice. I think he has my phone."

The four girls were sitting in a little circle after school that day, stretching. The gym was filled with about forty other girls that were all also on the East High dance team.

"I know what you mean. Remember when she chewed me out last semester for wearing that skirt that was just like one inch shorter than what the school required for the dress code? I make sure to measure my skirts whenever I buy a new one now!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Yeah right," Gabriella chuckled in disbelief.

"I'm not even kidding. I keep a tape measure in my purse."

"My mom doesn't even allow me to wear skirts unless they go waaaay past the knee- I'm barely even allowed to wear shorts," Kelsi told her friends while stretching her hamstrings.

"Me either," Gabriella added. "That's also why I always have to pack sweatpants in my gym bag and hide my shorts in case she happens to peek in there."

"Ditto," Martha put in, "but skirts aren't really my style anyway. So it doesn't really matter."

"Mhm. So what were you saying about Jackie?" Taylor then asked her. Martha shrugged.

"I don't know, it was weird. I look over one minute and those three were just giving us this weird stare,"

"Well, that wasn't exactly an uncommon thing at lunch today," Taylor grinned at Kelsi, who rolled her eyes and smiled, causing the African American girl to laugh.

"No, it was like fifteen minutes after we sang...and probably during, too. I don't know what it is but I just don't think those girls like us..." Martha said slowly.

"Hmm...this isn't the first time you've said that, Mar," Gabriella recalled to last week when Martha had also mentioned then that those girls- Jackie, Lea, and Emma were glaring at them or something.

"Yeah, and if they hate us or whatever, then so be it. We don't have to talk to them or anything," Taylor said.

"Well, that's true, Tay," Kelsi agreed, "but I do kind of think it's weird that they apparently always give us those weird looks when we didn't really do anything to them."

"I saw that new girl walking with them in the hall after fourth," Gabriella commented. "Looks like the trio's found a new member."

"Yeah, and I bet she'll start hating us too," Martha said bitterly. She was a pretty sensitive person, and didn't like it at all that those three girls had never seemed to like her or any of her friends, especially when they didn't really do anything.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves..." Taylor warned.

"Are you guys talking about the one who Mr. Ensley was yelling at you about forgetting her name or whatever during sixth?" Kelsi was directing that question mostly at Gabriella. Taylor was in that class with them too, but she had missed sixth period that day because there had been an ASB meeting and she was in fact the student body president. (So since people had voted for her to be president, they couldn't hate her and her friends, right? Right? Unless it was the bribery that had won her classmates over then...)

"Yeah, her," Gabriella mumbled, feeling stupid as she had a flashback of the beginning of sixth period. "It wasn't my fault that I forgot, I had a momentary brain lapse."

"Then why'd you speak at all?" Martha laughed. Kelsi had breifly told her this story earlier when they were changing in the locker room.

"I don't really know," the latina shrugged, "I guess I just felt somewhat bad for her since she seemed oddly mute when Mr. Ensley was demanding to know her name. She didn't know what to say, and Mr. Ensley's kind of scary."

"What is her name anyway?" Taylor wondered. She, too, had forgotten. All she could remember was that it was some unusual, yet cool sounding name that she'd heard Ms. Darbus call her once in first period.

"Uh....Sharpay, I remember now!" Gabriella smiled, wanting to give herself a pat on the back for remembering it this time. She had never been very good with names.

"Oh, right. That's what it was," Taylor muttered more so to herself than anyone else, and then added "she's pretty. Really quiet though. You couldn't even tell she was there in homeroom unless you did a double take."

"Truth be told, I didn't even notice her in homeroom until she came back for her textbook right before second when I was begging Ms. Darbus for my phone back," Gabriella admitted. "But you're right, she's pretty," she laughed, "I almost feel like asking her what shampoo she uses!"

"But you're hair looks great, Gabs," Kelsi told her. "I don't get why you're always complaining about it."

"Thanks Kels, but you don't know the hassle I go through with it every morning," Gabriella frowned, tugging at a loose strand of hair that had not made it up into her pony tail. She tried to keep her hair out of her face for dance.

"Then I bet Sharpay does too," Taylor pointed out. "I mean, don't all of us girls?"

"Maybe. But it looks more like she looks in the mirror after doing her hair everyday and goes 'THAT was easy!" Gabriella laughed, mocking that dumb easy button of Mr. Ensley's. Her friend's laughed too, since she'd immitated it in the perfect sounding voice. Martha had Mr. Ensley fifth period.

"Wow, you sounded exactly like it! How'd you do that?" Kelsi laughed.

"I don't know," Gabriella grinned, "It was....easy."

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Gossip, clothes, cell phones, hair talk, and imitating weird teachers and the strange things about them. Makes for a fun conversation, doesn't it? xD

By the way, those Easy buttons do really exist. Actually, my old English teacher had one. He used to push it for everything! So I guess the credit there goes to Mr. W....he was pretty much my inspiration for how I wanted Mr. Ensley be like. The same immature personality, too.

About the skirt thing. I hear a lottt of things about the Mormon religion and I'm not exactly sure which are real and which are just rumors, but one of the things I heard was they're not allowed to wear short skirts. But yeah, I don't know if that's true but I hope I'm not offending anyone by making it true in this story. I'm not assuming anything though.

See that Review Story/Chapter button down there? -pokes- go on and push it. :) You know you want too!

-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx