DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own High School Musical or any of its components. I do, however, own the song that Kelsi writes for Sharpay. I wrote it and it's copyrighted, so please don't steal, or ask permission first :)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so in 2 words -- FINALLY and SORRY! I know it has taken an eternity to update, and I thank you all so much who are still reading for hanging on. I'm thinking next chapter will wrap this up, so I really appreciate it. College is crazy and I have to keep my priorities straight even when I don't want to ;) That being said, please review. This took me forever.

Without further ado... enjoy!

Although Kelsi herself implied that she did not plan on seeing Sharpay until break was over, she clung to the hope that Sharpay would call her and tell her that she and Zeke broke it off. That she wanted to be with her, instead. By Wednesday, the most she had gotten was a text message reading, "hoping you are well."

As much as she knew she could talk to her dad, he had been working overtime to keep up with all his new paint jobs, and there was an element of embarrassment Kelsi couldn't deny. Her dad knew that she had been falling for Sharpay, but he didn't know that the night Kelsi was supposed to be "knocking her crush dead," she actually floundered and had been practically making herself sick over it. Since she didn't want to talk to her dad, and Ryan was too close to the situation to be impartial, she turned to the one friend she had unconditionally; music.

The young pianist had never thrown herself into her work like this before. She was up when her dad left for work and usually still going when he got home in the evening. She was rehearsing and retuning old songs, inventing countless new ones, but for the life of her, she couldn't seem to get any further in the song that Sharpay was to sing. She'd start to go in one direction, decide she didn't like it, scrap it, and start over. All she wanted was a little musical therapy to provide clarity on the situation, and even that wasn't working this time.

When Kelsi had feelings for Gabriella, it didn't take more than literally a day or two to put an emotional block up and realize that it simply wasn't going to happen. She accepted the fact that they were to be friends, and that was that. With Sharpay, however, it was like nothing she had ever experienced, and it was scaring her. Even though the two only had few memories together to speak of, almost everything reminded Kelsi of her time with the beautiful performer. Even the anger and frustration toward the blonde for putting on a rouse didn't last long, although at the same time, while Sharpay may have been able to get out of trouble by smiling the weeks leading up to vacation, somehow that wasn't enough anymore. In a way, Kelsi wished it were, because she feared that soon enough, the friendship that they barely got a taste of would be pulled away.

Friday of break rolled around and Kelsi realized that the Spring Talent Show was only a week away. Regardless of what she and Sharpay were dealing with, she had promised the starlet a completed song in time, and Kelsi never broke her promises. She knew she had to work fast, though, since they were going to need to practice soon and Kelsi was still stuck for lyrics.

For the first time all week, she reached for her cell phone and started typing a text message to Sharpay. Similar to the song attempts, Kelsi started to write, and then erase a couple times over until she decided on a simple: "hey do u want to rehearse free per. on mon?"

As much as Kelsi was prepared to wait anxiously for the other girl's response, she instead shut off her phone so that she could start writing immediately. She decided that since music was supposed to be raw, from the heart, and unfiltered, that was exactly how she would write it.

For the first time in her life, Kelsi skipped homeroom. She wandered outside, spending most of the time behind the courtyard statue that obstructed her from view. She eyed her watch carefully, entering the building and into the main office with only a few minutes in homeroom to spare, taking her first ever late slip and knowing that she would need 2 more strikes to be in any real trouble. With the leftover minutes, she dashed to her locker before anyone joined her and waited outside the door to her first actual class.

When free period approached, her stomach was in a mess of knots. It was no longer the exciting prospect of a roller coaster ride, but instead more like watching the cables of your elevator being snipped with a giant pair of shears when you're on the top floor of a 12-story building. It's something like impending doom topped with the feeling of every nerve ending clenching up, knowing exactly what's to come.

Once again, the clock read 5 minutes past 12 when Sharpay opened the door to the music room and quietly shut it behind her. She hovered near the door for a minute, like a little kid waiting for her mother's approval to be let out of a time out. Kelsi wasn't sure if this imbalance of power was a good or bad thing, but reverted to her cautious self and remained guarded.

A greeting wouldn't hurt though, Kelsi thought. "Hi."

"Hi."

"You're late."

"I know."

"Let's get started."

"Do you hate me?"

The series of dialogue was so quick that Sharpay's last question threw Kelsi particularly. She didn't look up when she spoke, just forward at her sheet music. "I've tried. To hate you, that is. I've tried really hard. But I could never hate you, Sharpay. You know that." She dared to glance at Sharpay out of the corner of her eye, and in place of the smile she imagined to see, the blonde simply gave a downcast nod.

After a moment of silence, Kelsi dug through her folder to find a completed copy of the music. "It has lyrics now. Since the show is coming up, let's see how it sounds just a straight run-through."

"I need you to sing it first," Sharpay mumbled, "I can't read music."

"I thought you could -"

"Well, I can tell the direction of notes, but I can't just sight read," Sharpay said, a little defensive, a little hurt. "Can you just sing it please?"

"Sharpay, I'm not much of a singer," Kelsi protested, internally panicking at the prospect of having to sing this song for the girl who it was directed to. If Sharpay sang it, it was up to her to interpret what she wanted to get out of it, but Kelsi knew that aside from the fact that singing wasn't her forte, she couldn't disguise the emotion behind it when push came to shove.

Sharpay wasn't budging, however, and in truth Kelsi couldn't really expect more from her than she could realistically produce. "Okay, okay, fine, but I didn't intend on doing this, just for the record," Kelsi sighed. She was getting flustered and for the first time in days, Kelsi caught a glimpse of a smile from Sharpay. Apparently she thought it was cute.

The composer re-arranged the music in front of her and took several deep breaths before shaky fingers settled on the keys and began to play the familiar melody. Sharpay was standing behind her so closely that it would have taken a mere shift of centimeters for them to be touching, and this time it did make Kelsi nervous. After the traditional 8-bar intro, Kelsi began to sing the lyrics she had spent all of vacation crafting:

VERSE 1:

I'm not sure what I'm feeling

But I know the page is stealing

Thoughts from me

And I let it

I'm not sure what I'm thinking

But I know my ship is sinking

Helplessly

I regret it

I regret the sleepless nights

I regret the useless fights

All leading up to something I can't win

I will ask you if I might

Do you recognize my plight

Or write me off as an unwanted sin?

CHORUS:

And why -- why won't you let me save you?

And I -- I am not a superhero, Baby

But I'm thinking that just maybe

I could break the mold and fly away with you…

Before Kelsi could play another note, she was startled by what proved to be a teardrop that rolled down Sharpay's cheek and landed on the nape of Kelsi's neck. Although the brown-eyed girl had cried in front of her several times now (even though Kelsi was previously convinced that she would never see it happen), she knew something was off. These tears felt different.

Kelsi turned around quickly to face Sharpay, thinking she was going to turn away or leave. Instead, Sharpay surprised the both of them by grabbing Kelsi by the shoulders, kissing her against the piano and creating a cacophony of dissident sounds, one of them being a sharp intake of air from the smaller girl. Sharpay captured Kelsi's bottom lip into her mouth, tracing her tongue across it as a non-verbal request for entrance, which the brunette eagerly granted by darting her tongue out to greet Sharpay's.

If Kelsi's thoughts could have been heard out loud, they would have sounded something like, "OhmygodOhmygodOhmygodOhmygod…" Her idea of this connection that she and Sharpay could have music was so built up in her mind for months, maybe even longer, and now it was really happening.

Urgent to hold onto this moment and never give it back, Kelsi put her hand behind Sharpay's head and passionately threw her on her back onto the piano bench and continued to kiss out all of her emotions. Sharpay's legs, that were awkwardly dangling off the piano bench in mid air, wrapped around Kelsi's lower back. There were moments where the two stopped briefly to catch their breath, and although they both considered saying something, they silently agreed that it a moment where words were not necessary.

During a catch-breath, Kelsi reached down to finish drying the chilly tear that still marked Sharpay's cheek, and a second afterward, the blonde surprised the brunette with her physical strength as she lifted herself and Kelsi off the bench and regained her usual position in control as she laid the smaller on her back on the floor and hovered over her as they continued to kiss behind the piano.

The young lovers were too caught up in their infatuation to notice that 15 minutes had passed since they began kissing. They also were too caught up to notice Ms. Darbus as she opened the door to the music room to retrieve some sheet music.

She removed her glasses and squinted to make sure it was, in fact, two sets of feet on top of one another protruding from the other side of the piano. Shenanigans - in her chapel of music - never!

She stormed over to the piano and raised her voice, "All right, party's over!" she began, but was perhaps more startled than the girls were to find her star performer and talented composer.

The color left all three of their faces, and Sharpay and Kelsi prepared for a monologue of verbal abuse followed by a visit to the principal's office. Instead, the colorful teacher stumbled backwards into the piano, haphazardly leafed through copies of sheet music on top of the piano until she found the one she was looking for, and practically flew out of the room.

Sharpay and Kelsi weren't sure whether to laugh, cry, or both. After a moment of confused and grateful silence, Sharpay spoke up for the first time in the now 20 minutes.

"So… car's out back. Free period and lunch off campus?" she spoke concisely.

Kelsi nodded. "Yeah. Good idea."

The two girls left the music room and headed for the south door, while Ms. Darbus stood in front of the mirror in the faculty bathroom, cleaning her glasses and dabbing her face with cold water as the three nearly simultaneously breathed a sigh of surprise in the aftermath.