Ryan sighed, grabbing a beer from his fridge while Sharpay sat at the kitchen table rattling off about the day's earlier events. He snapped the cap off on the counter, and ran a hand through his hair. She had been staying with him since she arrived in Albuquerque. She had mostly kept to herself for the past couple of days, but she was gradually starting to feel comfortable around him again, and tonight she had finally been letting loose.

"So I'm back for two days, and suddenly he's all over this incredibly stupid girl who's one of Mckenzie's teachers, even though if he really liked her he wouldn't be waiting until now to ask her out. I mean he sees her every single afternoon. It's like it's all just to make a point to me."

"Am I supposed to sympathize with you?" Ryan sat down at the table across from where his sister was already seated.

"You could listen to me vent at least and bite your tongue until I'm through." Sharpay glanced hopefully up at him, truthfully wishing for at least a little sympathy, even though his tone suggested he was willing to offer her anything but.

"Fine. So you're complaining about how the husband you walked out on three and a half years ago hasn't put his entire life on hold for you." Ryan looked pointedly at Sharpay, who lowered her eyes to the table guiltily.

"I think enough time has passed that it's all right for him to date again." He added.

"Oh shut up Ryan!" Sharpay pushed her chair back from the table to give herself enough room to cross her arms, an accompaniment to her sudden haughty pout.

"What?" He shook his head, "You're angry because you know I'm right."

"No, I'm upset that I can't get anybody to even give me a chance to talk about how I feel. I did a horrible, awful thing, but that doesn't mean I'm emotionless. I've known Troy was angry with me. The few times I came back to visit he barely said a word to me. But I guess I somehow got it in my head that when I returned things would go back to normal. I've never seen this side of him before. He used to worship me, and now he treats me like I'm the scum of the earth." Sharpay slowly uncrossed her arms, "It's just a little shocking."

Ryan was quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful before speaking, "Maybe Troy's feelings aren't really the ones you should be focusing on."

Sharpay looked up in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"You have a really great kid..."

"I know that." Sharpay cut him off in an austere manner, one that showed she was getting defensive, "I love my daughter."

"Do you?" Ryan couldn't help but ask the question, avoiding her gaze immediately after, knowing it would be fierce.

"Of course!" The words were insistent, followed by her quietly muttering, "I never stopped."

"I don't know why you did what you did Sharpay. But I know that if you want to even attempt to make things right, you should start focusing all of your time on Mckenzie." Ryan hesitated, but continued, "You know, you're not in high school anymore."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sharpay's face had twisted up into a combination of anger, confusion, and shame, and she sat motionless in her chair, staring at her brother's fidgeting hands.

"Just... this isn't a game. I honestly don't know how you would think that you could just come home and everything would be all right again. You had a child with Troy. That changes things." Ryan sighed and reached forward, grabbing one of Sharpay's hands, "I know what you're trying to do. But you have to stop. His life stopped revolving around you the day it started revolving around his daughter, and that's not going to change."

"But I'm the mother of his child." Sharpay stated weakly.

"Technically." Ryan muttered.

Sharpay swallowed, and tentatively asked, "Do you think I'm a terrible person Ryan?"

Ryan sighed, "I've never thought you were a terrible person. But you certainly are capable of some terrible things."


Troy opened the door, huffing, quickly turning away from Sharpay once she greeted him with a smile and a "Hey."

She frowned as he walked away from her, leaving the door open, but she reluctantly walked in the house herself, shutting the door behind her. She followed him back into the kitchen, where Mckenzie was seated on the counter, while Troy placed a large bandaid on her knee.

"What happened?" Sharpay stepped into the room.

"She scraped her knee falling off her bike." Troy answered, picking Mckenzie up off the counter.

He turned to Sharpay, "It's no big deal. I'm just trying to get ready."

She nodded, and reached her arms out, in an offer to take Mckenzie from him. Troy stared at her outstretched arms for a moment, and then set Mckenzie down on the ground instead. As Mckenzie ran out of the room to go back outside, Sharpay slowly let her arms drop to her sides once again, trying not to feel too hurt by the action.

"I can watch her while you finish getting ready." Sharpay offered him a smile.

"Thanks. She's actually supposed to be here in another fifteen minutes." Troy tried to move past Sharpay, who frowned, blocking his path.

"She's coming here?" She raised her eyebrows.

Troy shrugged in response, "She knows I have Mckenzie, and I wouldn't be able to leave until the babysitter got here, so she offered to meet me here to make things easy."

Sharpay stared at Troy with a pained look, now completely preoccupied with something else entirely.

"The babysitter?" She asked, clearly hurt.

Troy ran a hand through his hair, "Come on, you know what I meant. I didn't mean to say it; It just came out."

"I'm her mother." Sharpay stared down at her feet, "I know I can't be mad at you for not thinking of me that way. But I did carry her around for nine months. I gave birth to her."

"You did do that." Troy sighed, "I didn't mean to say babysitter. I'm sorry."

"You should go get ready." Her efforts at a smile were a little more forced this time, but she managed, and Troy nodded, exiting the room, though somewhat reluctantly.

Sharpay slowly walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, where the front door to the home was located. She stepped outside, and Mckenzie immediately came running towards her.

"Hi!" Sharpay smiled, sitting down on the porch steps while the four year old jumped up beside her.

"Hey." Mckenzie smiled, sitting down beside Sharpay, trying her best to copy her position.

"Daddy lets me stay up all night on Fridays." The little girl informed her matter of factly.

Sharpay smiled softly, remembering how as a child she had tried similar tricks on those unfortunate enough to be left in charge of her on nights when her parents were out. This led Sharpay to frown a minute later however, her own thoughts leading back to Troy's 'babysitter' slip-up. If Mckenzie thought of her as a true parent, she wouldn't be trying to fool her with fabricated rules.

Mckenzie yawned softly when Sharpay said nothing, and inched herself closer to her mother.

"Will you read me books tonight?" She asked, softly nudging her head against Sharpay's arm.

"Sure." Sharpay smiled, her heart soaring from the small act of physical affection her daughter was showing by leaning up against her.

While she sat smiling to herself, a silver compact car, definitely several years old, came rolling down the street, and parked against the curb in front of the house.

"Oh great." Sharpay mumbled flatly, "She's early."

"Who is?" Mckenzie squinted down to the car in confusion, "Whose that?"

"One second baby." Sharpay replied, ignoring Mckenzie's questions and instead standing up fully.

She walked back in the house, hearing the sound of a car door slam just as she shoved the front door open.

"Your bimbo's here." She called up to Troy.

It took less than ten seconds for Troy to come dashing down the stairs looking horrified. After taking a few frantic looks around the living room his face relaxed again.

"I thought you said that right in front of her." He explained to Sharpay, who responded with a careless shrug.

"I'm going to ask her inside for a couple of minutes while I get you and Mckenzie squared away, okay? Please be nice." He pleaded.

Sharpay responded with an eye roll, and shook her head slowly a few times.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." Troy muttered, walking outside and leaving her in the house alone.

Sharpay sighed and walked further into the living room, sitting down on the couch and waiting while a heavy sense of dread slowly settled in the bottom of her stomach.

A second later, Troy, Karina, and Mckenzie all walked in the house together, and Sharpay immediately noticed the confusion written on the little girl's face. Seeing your teachers outside of school was always odd when you were that young, when it never occured to you that they had lives beyond the classroom. But seeing your teacher in you own home on the weekends was an even bigger shock.

As the three stepped into the living room, Troy gestured towards Sharpay awkwardly.

"Um, I believe you met Mckenzie's mother." He continued with the uncomfortable introduction anyway, "This is Sharpay, and Sharpay, this is Karina, the teacher from Mckenzie's school."

"I know who she is." Sharpay replied flatly, ignoring Karina's attempts at a smile and allowing her own frown to remain comfortable on her face.

"Okay." Troy clasped his hands, staring down at Sharpay where she was seated on the couch, "It's Friday, so Mckenzie can stay up a little later than usual but I still try to have her in bed around ten."

He glanced down at his daughter who was now widening her blue eyes and staring up at him with a pleading smile.

"But, she usually asks to stay up another hour, and I'm weak so I usually say yes."

Sharpay smiled, "Okay. In bed at eleven."

"If she wants to watch a movie, or if she wants you to read to her, Mckenzie knows where all that stuff is. Anyway, I guess we're going to head out now..." Troy made a gesture with his thumb pointing back to the front door.

"What about dinner? Has she eaten?" Sharpay asked.

Troy winced, "I forgot about that."

He thought for a moment, knowing it was nearly impossible for Sharpay to boil water, much less cook a meal that a picky four year old would swallow, "Just order a pizza."

Sharpay made a face at the thought of consuming such a greasy, calorie loaded meal, only days after she had eaten heavy pasta.

Troy quickly caught sight of the look, and snapped, "Or just make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't care. Just don't split you hand open with the knife again."

Sharpay scowled, and quietly muttered, "Fine."

Troy bent down and wrapped his arms around Mckenzie, "Be good for Mommy, okay? I'll be home in a few hours."

Mckenzie responded with a nod and a kiss on the cheek, and Sharpay felt another wave of jealously course through her, wishing she were able to hug her daughter and get the same response.

Troy stood up to his full height, and glanced back at Sharpay, "See you in a little bit."

"Bye." Karina chirped in softly, sensing Sharpay's hostility towards her, and afraid to say anymore.

Sharpay responded with a small, unhappy wave, feeling as though a part of her life was officialy over once as soon as he walked out the door.


"So, you were married to a movie star. Are there any other secrets you've kept hidden? You're not a super hero are you?"

Troy tried to smile at his date's small jokes, and softly shook his head.

"No, Sharpay's my only connection to anything glamorous."

"So why'd you kill her?" Karina smiled softly, taking a sip of wine.

Troy cleared his throat, "She wasn't ever around anyway. It was just easier to say she died."

"Oh..." It was clear the conversation had taken a serious turn, and Karina responded with a sad smile, "It's funny how people like that can be idolized and made to look so perfect. I guess some of them don't turn into very nice people."

"I guess she wasn't ever very nice to start with." Troy sighed softly. A large part of him was hoping she would drop the subject. He didn't ask her out on a date so that he could spend all night talking about the person he was trying to distract himself from.

But in a way, it was also nice to have someone to talk about Sharpay to so freely. After she had left, all of his family and friends rarely even dared to mention her name, and it was kind of nice to have a chance to talk about her to an outsider.

"So why did you marry her?"

Troy raised his head, surprised, "What do you mean?"

"If she's such a bitch, then why choose to be with her for the rest of your life?" Karina shrugged, and Troy couldn't help but smile softly at her boldness.

"Well... She does have some redeeming qualities. She wasn't completely heartless I guess. She could actually be really sweet, when she wanted to be. She made me laugh a lot. And she's really smart. A lot of people don't think so when they meet her. I guess she's so self-absorbed, they just assume she's vapid, but she's not. She's a very determined person. Anything she sets her mind to she'll achieve, no matter... the lengths... she goes to get it."

Troy trailed off, and he stared at Karina thoughtfully, "But you're right about people being fooled, and buying into fantasized idols. You don't want to be anything like her. She's got a list of personality flaws a mile long, and I've finally realized she can't be fixed. I guess the real reason I married Sharpay was because she got pregnant. And there really isn't any more to it than that."


"Sharpay?" Troy called softly as he walked up the stairs of the still house, careful not to be too loud, not wanting to wake Mckenzie.

"Shar-" He stopped as he reached the top of the stairs, spotting the two of them through Mckenzie's open bedroom door.

He walked softly into the room, finding them both asleep on the bed. Mckenzie was snuggled under the covers, while Sharpay was sprawled out on top of them, her head curled in towards her daughter, and a book spread open face down beside her limp hand.

He couldn't help but smile affectionately at the sight, and despite the rule he had established, insisting Sharpay go home at night, he reached down and pulled the covers back, gently lifting her legs and placing her under them.

She stirred, and he held his breath until she stilled again.

Just as he started to turn to leave the room, she lifted her head up, squinting to adjust her eyes to the light.

"Troy?"

He reached for the light switch and turned it off before replying.

"Yeah. I'm home. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

She softly mumbled something uncomprehendable, her eyes already shut again as she quickly drifted back to sleep.

Troy lingered in the doorway for just a minute longer, staring at the two wistfully, and wondering how things might have been.


A/N: I know I fell off the radar again, and I'm really sorry. Real life gets pretty busy, and I hope y'all understand. Please keep reading and reviewing, and patiently waiting for my next update. I keep saying that I'll try to update faster, and while at times I may come through, I know it's inconsistent, and I'm sorry for that too.

How did everyone like the Sharpay movie? It kind of felt like more of a stand on its own movie rather than a sequel to the others, but I'm glad she got a happy ending. And it was interesting to see her as the leading role. (Although she's still my favorite antagonist.)

Please review. I haven't updated in so long and I've missed having them in my inbox.

xoxo.