Hey there! So I don't have to work today and tomorrow and I'm just sitting here at my computer so I decided why not update? I've got an idea in my head as to what will go on. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I only own the characters I made up; the rest belongs to Disney.

Time Flies, Ch. 6

High School, two days later…

Katie walked down the halls towards the auditorium. Right before opening the door, she stopped and placed her hand on her head. She was dizzy; she hadn't eaten dinner the evening before and had yet to eat anything today. She took a deep breath, "You're fine…you just need to get yourself together," she told herself. She opened the door and walked into the auditorium.

Theresa, who was staying after school for a project she was working on for class had seen Katie. She wasn't at lunch that day…and she was rather moody; something that was very uncharacteristic of Katie. She hurried to the auditorium and opened the door. There was Katie making her way down the aisle. She followed her down and sat down next to her. "So…callbacks are today…"

Katie looked over, "Yeah, so?"

"So I just wanted to wish you good luck; I'm sure you'll get one of the lead roles," Theresa said, trying to be as upbeat as possible.

"Thanks but I don't think I'll get one of the major roles," Katie said in a monotone voice. She had yet to even look at Theresa. She was just staring straight ahead. Another pang of dizziness hit her. She placed her hand on her face and blinked a few times, trying to be inconspicuous.

Theresa, however, noticed this. "Are you feeling all right? I mean you weren't at lunch today and you barely ate anything yesterday at lunch and…"

"Who are you, my mother," Katie said incredulously as she looked over at Theresa. "I'm just fine, okay? I think I may have come down with some sort of … cold or something but that's it! Jeez."

"But Katie…"

"Listen. I have to go up there and sing now. It would be nice if you would just…shut up and leave me alone okay?" She stood up and made her way past Theresa and walked up to the stage.

Theresa, now feeling rather hurt got up and started to walk out of the auditorium. She glanced back at the stage where Katie now was. She wanted to know so badly what was going on with her friend.

Katie, seeing Theresa simply frowned at her and continued with the scene she had to play out.

Opening the auditorium door, Theresa walked out into the hall, her head down.

"There you are!"

Jumping about fifty feet in the air, she looked up. "Oh…hey Dylan," she said distantly.

He frowned, "What's up? Why are you so…well…gloomy?"

She shook her head, "It's nothing."

"No it's not; I know you too well. Something's up. I can tell."

"It's Katie…she's just…changed. I don't know what it is. I mean she hasn't eaten anything all day and I don't think she ate anything yesterday."

"Maybe you should try talking to her," he suggested as they walked out of the school together.

She let out a sarcastic 'ha' as a response. "I tried that already. She just pushed me away. Dylan, I'm worried about her."

He placed his arm around her, "I'm sure she'll be fine. Besides isn't her boyfriend coming into town this weekend or something? Maybe she just misses him…"

"Maybe," she said not really believing that was the case. Something was wrong with Katie; but what was it?

Bolton Home (see I haven't forgotten about them!)…

"…I can't wait! Yeah I'll make sure to…" Larissa stopped talking when she saw her mom standing in the doorway. "David I'll have to call you back." She hung up her cell phone and looked at her mom. "Hi."

Sharpay walked into the room, "Larissa what did I tell you?"

She shrugged, "About what?"

"Your homework," she said, gesturing to the pile of books on the floor. "You have to do your homework before you are allowed to call anyone, remember?"

"I've already done half of it," she said, showing her mom her math homework and the finished worksheet for Social Studies.

"That's great but what about that paper you have to write for English? Doesn't it have to be four pages…typed?"

Larissa rolled her eyes, "I'll get to it, I promise. I have to practice my monologue for the auditions that are in two days. I mean if I don't do well on that, then I can probably forget about…"

Sharpay nodded, "Exactly you can forget about even trying out. If I don't see at least a quarter of your paper written by dinnertime, you can forget about trying out."

"But mom…"

"Don't 'but mom' me Larissa. I've seen your grades in English so far. It may not be far into the school year, but you've already gotten two C's and only one A and you got a D on that two page assignment you had a week ago." She raised her eyebrow at her daughter.

Grabbing her English assignment from the pile on the floor, she walked over to her desk and glared at her mom, "Fine…if you want me to be the outcast of the drama…"

"Oh please, Larissa! Other kids who are auditioning have to do their homework too you know. Just get to work please." Sharpay waited until her daughter started writing to leave the room.

Ana meanwhile finished her math assignment and placed it into her folder. While she was excelling nicely in the class as far as the assignments and tests went, she was failing at the social aspect. Everyone teased her in the class; sure she was an 11 year old sixth grader in a seventh grade math class but did the other kids have to make fun of her for it? She placed the folder into her bag and sat on the bed and studied the pattern on her comforter.

Troy, who had just come home walked into her room, "Hi sweetie." He kissed her head. "How was school?"

She shrugged, "Fine." She hadn't even looked up and acknowledged her father. Instead she just continued to study the pattern on the comforter.

Troy was beginning to worry; ever since school started, Ana seemed to be regressing back to not being able to express her feelings or talk to her parents for that matter. Twice that week he and Sharpay had gotten a phone call from the school telling them that her participation grade in class was suffering greatly.

He sat down next to her, "Honey what's bothering you?"

"Nothing," she said without looking up.

It was now or never; he had to address the issue. He looked up and saw Sharpay standing in the doorway and gestured her over to him and Ana. "Ana…why haven't you been participating in class lately?"

Ana looked up this time. She looked from her mom to her dad and finally allowed herself to talk. "They just…make fun of me if I do talk."

Sharpay looked up at Troy. It was true that Ana always had a slightly different way of speaking, but she never seemed to let it bother her in the past. "How do they make fun of you?"

She shrugged, "They say I can't talk…so I don't."

"Is that why you're not participating in class," Troy asked.

She nodded. "Yes," she whispered.

Sharpay pulled Ana into her arms and kissed her head, "Don't let them get to you honey. So you learn at a different rate than them; it doesn't mean anything. I mean…look at your grades. I haven't seen one B yet." She gave her a reassuring smile. "That's got to account for something."

"I guess…but they'll make fun of me."

"Then your teachers will stop them," Troy interjected. "They may be your teachers but when needed they're there for you when you need them to be."

Ana thought for a moment, "Ms. Johnson did tell Mia to stop talking while I was talking about my answers on the English assignment…"

"See what did I tell you," Sharpay said with a small smile. Your teachers are there for you, no matter what."

"Okay," she said softly.

"Just ignore those other kids," Troy said. "I know it may be hard at first but after they see just how bright you are they'll stop. And I'm sure you're not the only one that kids make fun of, as odd as that sounds. Okay?"

"Okay dad," she said as she leaned forward to hug him.

Sharpay then heard Sam start to cry. "He must be finished with his nap." She stood up and kissed Ana on the head once more. "Dad's right; everything will work out, you'll see."

Evans Home…

Gabi walked into Michael's room and smiled. He was, as usual sitting on his bed, pencil in hand and drawing pad in his lap. "How's the artist doing?"

He looked up and smiled, "Good. I finished this one…but I don't think it's very good."

Ryan and Gabi had signed Michael up for an art class outside of school; something he seemed to really enjoy.

Gabi looked at the picture and smiled, "Honey this is wonderful! I don't see why you don't like it."

"It's just…not good," he said as he took the drawing pad back from his mom.

"Well I think it is but I'm not going to debate it with you. I just wanted to come in here and let you know that I got a call from your art teacher today."

Michael looked up at his mom, "What did he say?"

"He said that he was so impressed with your work that he wants to put it on display for the art show on Saturday."

Michael carefully set the pad and pencil down and stood up. "He did?"

"Yes."

He smiled from ear to ear and hugged his mom, "REALLY?"

"Yes, really," Gabi said with a laugh as she hugged him back. "Your dad and I are so proud of you. And as far as that drawing goes…I'd rethink my opinion on it if I were you."

He smiled and walked back to his bed and looked at the picture, "I guess it's pretty good…"

"That's better," Gabi said as she walked to the door. "I'll let you get back to drawing now…so I can call our family and let them know to come to the center on Saturday."

Michael, now beaming just nodded and got back to drawing.

Gabi just smiled and walked downstairs.

"Ah, you told him, did you," Ryan asked from behind her causing Gabi to gasp and jump.

"Ryan! I told you not to sneak up on me like that!" She smiled and kissed him, "But yes I did tell him…you should have seen his face."

"I'm going to go congratulate him," he said as he gave her one more kiss before heading upstairs. Before he got to Michael's room, however, he couldn't help but to hear Angie, who was sounding rather aggravated in her room. He peeked inside and saw that she was doing her reading homework…or trying to anyway. As he watched from the doorway something was becoming more and more apparent to him. Angie's struggling with reading resembled his own struggle with reading when he was her age. "She couldn't be," he said to himself as he watched his daughter try to sound out simple words.

"She couldn't be what," Gabi asked from behind him.

He pointed to Angie, "Haven't you noticed that her reading has never exactly been…well great? I mean she's had trouble reading easy words ever since Kindergarten…the school simply said that some kids develop their reading skills at different rates but Gabi this is starting to look an awful lot like me when I was little."

Gabi frowned, "Wait…you think that Angie is dyslexic," she asked in disbelief.

He nodded, "When I was six I was having trouble reading and my parents finally took me to the doctor who suggested a specialist…I was diagnosed with Dyslexia." He sighed, "Gabi I think that we should take Angie to the doctor."

"Hang on. Just because you had it…"

"Have it," he corrected her. "Just because I can read now doesn't mean it went away."

"Okay whatever," she said in a frustrated tone. "What's your point?"

"My point is that Dyslexia is genetic."

Gabi realized her husband was probably right. "Wow," was all she could say. She couldn't fathom the fact that her daughter may have a learning disability.

Theresa walked into the house and walked up to her room and threw her bag down. She sat down on her bed, unable to stop worrying about Katie. Something was going on with her, but what was it? It then hit her. Was Katie…bulimic? Was she anorexic? Or even worse…was she both?

High School...

Once callbacks had finished, Katie, feeling quite proud of herself for once especially after the director told her that she did indeed have a chance at getting the role of Hodel, the second oldest child in Fiddler on the Roof. Elated, she walked out of the auditorium.

"Katie," one of the other girls who had auditioned said.

Katie turned around, "Yeah?"

"You did a good job out there."

"Thanks," she said with a small smile. As she started to walk to the door she recalled the way she treated Theresa earlier. She got out her cell phone and dialed her number.

Theresa slowly got up when she heard her cell phone ring. She looked at the caller ID and sighed. "Hello," she said quietly.

"Hi Theresa it's me," Katie said. "Listen I just wanted to say that I'm…"

"What, that you're sorry?"

"Yeah I was just nervous, you know? It was just kind of scary for me and I didn't mean to go off on you like that."

"Yeah I got that part. Why don't you try telling the truth," Theresa said, anger filling her voice.

Katie frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you never eat and if you do you throw up afterwards."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I think I may have gotten a little bit of that flu that is starting to go around but…"

"But nothing Katie! If you're not going to tell me what is really going on with you then I see no point in us being friends."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Katie said again.

As tears started filling her eyes, Theresa simply said, "Then I guess our friendship is over."

"Okay fine Theresa…I was kind of not eating but that was because everything was going wrong…and I did throw up maybe twice but I didn't make myself do it. I promise!"

Theresa, who was ready to hang up the phone, listened to what her friend had just told her. "Katie you're going to hurt yourself if you don't start eating again. You're scaring me."

"I'm sorry for scaring you. But things are starting to get better and I ate something just now after callbacks," she said. This was true; since she had to stay until 5:30, the director had brought a snack for them afterwards.

A small smile came across Theresa's face, "Good, thank you for eating."

"Of course…listen my mom's here and I have to go," she said.

"All right; and Katie I'm sorry for what I said earlier…about us not being friends."

"Forget about it. I really have to go now okay," she said in a bit of a rushed tone.

Theresa frowned, "Okay. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Yep, see you then." She hung up the phone and threw the paper from what she was eating away. She looked across the hall and saw the bathroom and hurried over to it.

Theresa hung up the phone. "Something still isn't right," she said to herself.

When she finished, she walked back out into the hall and looked outside and saw her mom waiting for her in the car. Composing herself as best she could, she walked outside.

Kelsi watched as Katie climbed into the car. "So how did callbacks go?"

"Pretty well," Katie said as she popped a mint into her mouth.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that." She glanced over at Katie who looked as though she was going to pass out. She then looked at her face and noticed that it was rather pale, not to mention a lot thinner than it was two weeks ago. "Honey is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just really tired."

"Okay," Kelsi said as she glanced once more at her daughter before driving home.

Theresa walked over to her desk and picked up a picture of her and Katie from the summer. They had gone to a water park with Dylan and James that day. She smiled softly as she looked at the picture. She then sat down at her computer and looked at the pictures that had recently been taken of Theresa and her friends. She smiled as she looked through them. Her smile quickly faded when she came across a picture of her and Katie that was taken with Theresa's camera that past weekend. She quickly picked up the picture from last summer and compared it to the one on her computer. Katie was considerably thinner now…and she was never overweight to begin with. Now the question was should she tell someone?

Well...lovely little cliffhanger there, hehe. I know I'm evil. So should Theresa say something? And what about Larissa? Think she'll be able to audition? And of course there is Angie...I bet you didn't see that coming with Ryan. Anyway please review! I love reading your comments. :-)