To Speak for the Dead
A High School Musical Fanfiction
Disclaimer: The Mouse owns High School Musical and the characters within. I'm just borrowing them for awhile. I promise I'll put them back when I'm finished.
Summary: Sharpay receives a strange new gift that she doesn't want.
Pairing: TroyPay, of course.
Time frame: Starts immediately after HSM2, at the end of the summer.
Previously...
"For the Mason ring", Sharpay explains.
Taylor gasps loudly. All three of the others turn to look at her in concern.
"What's wrong?", Troy asks.
"I think I know where that ring ended up. We need to get back to the hotel."
Chapter 8: Now We're Getting Somewhere
"And just where do the five of you think you're going?" The loud, authoritative voice booms at the teenagers as they try to creep through the lobby.
"Oh, Ms. Darbus, your illustriousness." Chad croons at his most obnoxious and with a nervous little laugh adds, "We didn't see you there."
"Well, isn't that curious, Mr. Danforth, because I failed to see you at the restaurant this evening or in the bus on the way back to the hotel." She crosses her arms in front of her, waiting for an explanation.
"Yeah... about that", Ryan starts. "We tried to catch that bus, but it wouldn't stop for us."
"Really?", Ms. Darbus' voice rises an octave in disbelief.
"Yep, sure did", Chad confirms with zest, "You probably didn't see us in the restaurant since we were sitting ... WAY ... in the back."
"Is this true, Miss McKessie?", Ms. Darbus singles out the student whom she feels is the most honest.
"Well...", Taylor starts slowly.
However, Ms. Darbus never knew about the criminal mastermind who engineered the hijacking of the computer intranet server during last year's championship basketball game / decathlon.
"Actually..." Taylor's eyes shift nervously back and forth from Ms. Darbus ... to Chad ... to Ryan ... to Sharpay and then, ... to Troy. Then, she seems to come to a decision. "Actually, the food at Casa Rio is quite inferior to that of similar restaurants back home. Their green chicken enchiladas aren't nearly as good as Los Cuates'. I just love that restaurant."
"Oh", Ms. Darbus says thoughtfully. "You know, Taylor ..." Taylor is starting to sweat. "I couldn't agree with you more. This TexMex", she says in distaste, "doesn't have the same pizazz as our Mexican food."
"Aye que fabulosa ", Ryan rolls his tongue over the Spanish words. "Caliente!", he throws in for flair.
"Uh, yeah. And ... uh, suave!" Chad fumbles over the words, only remembering that one word from Ryan and Sharpay's call back audition. He is now realizing that he should have chosen Spanish instead of American Sign Language for his foreign language requirement. He is also now realizing that suave must not be an appropriate thing to say to Ms. Darbus because she is eying him like his cellphone just went off in the middle of a test.
Ryan tries valiantly to save the situation. Melodious strands of music waft out of the hotel night club and into the lobby. He looks straight at Ms. Darbus and bravely utters the words that will seal his fate (at least for the next two hours). "¿Ms. Darbus, quieres bailar? Ms. Darbus blushes prettily.
During this very interesting and completely confusing conversation, Taylor motions to Troy and Sharpay and they quietly sneak out of the lobby and toward the rooms.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Once they are safely away from the lobby and following Taylor through the twisting hotel, Troy asks, "Okay, so what's going on? You're being awfully mysterious, Taylor."
"And what about the lying to Darbus? I find that much more shocking." Sharpay puts in.
"I didn't lie", Taylor says, defending herself. Sharpay opens her mouth to protest, but Taylor shushes her. "I didn't. I read a food critic review of famous Mexican restaurants, including Casa Mia and Los Cuates. I just repeated it. I never actually said I was there."
"Wow, that's right. You know, Taylor, with a view of truthfulness like that, you should consider a career in politics. I'd vote for you." Just then, Sharpay realizes they've stopped walking and they've standing in front of Sharpay and Gabriella's room, not Taylor's.
"Why are we here?", she asks.
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too", Troy chimes in.
"Because this is where the ring is", Taylor explains quietly. Sharpay's eyebrows shoot up at this while Taylor ignores her and quietly knocks on the door. There is no answer.
"Here, let me", Sharpay offers. She pulls out her keycard and swipes it through the reader. She opens the door and light from the hall streams into the darkened room.
"This is kinda spooky", Troy whispers. "Where's Gabi?"
Sharpay walks two steps inside and is immediately hit in the head with a bucket of cold water, followed closely by the bucket itself.
"Owww!", she yells and then, starts cursing. "Damn it, what the hell was that?"
The light snaps on and Gabriella comes staggering towards her carrying a half empty bottle of wine and brandishing her cross in front of her.
"Be gone from, hiccup , here, demon. Be gone and don't come back." She's wildly swinging the wine bottle around and Troy swiftly reaches over and removes it from her hand before she hurts anyone.
"Gabriella", Taylor starts in a menacing tone, "what ... are ... you ... doing?"
"Isn't it ob-obvious? I'm ex—ex—exercising, Sharpay."
"That's exorcising, you moron", Sharpay groans at her as she wipes the water out of her eyes while trying to not ruin her makeup.
"See! That's proof that it's true."
"Speaking of proof... You seem to be about 100 Proof."
"Yeah, well", she seems to be struggling to find a response. "You guys should have been here hours ago and ... I was thirsty. See, the wine is supposed to represent the blood of Jesus and that was holy water in the bucket." Then, she turns quickly towards Troy and within a second, she's in his face. "Where have you been, anyway? Ms. Darbus will probably suspend you all." Her voice drops to a harsh whisper.
Troy steps back away from her when her wine-soaked breath hits him full in the face.
"I don't think we're going to be in any trouble", Sharpay explains. "However, you might ... if Ms. Darbus finds out you've been drinking."
"Who are you accusing of drinking? I'm not the one who nearly drown myself."
"That's not fair, Gabi", Troy intervenes between the two. "She hasn't drank anything since then."
"Excuse me", Taylor says in a raised voice, "but I didn't come here to discuss the excessive drinking habits of high school girls. If I wanted to do that, I'd be reading Reviving Ophelia. I came here to see the ring." They all stop talking and stare at her in rapt attention. "Gabi, the ring, please?"
"Ring? What ring?", Gabriella says with anger in her voice. Then, she grabs Taylor by the arm and pulls her off to the side. She whispers desperately to her friend. "You promised you would never tell anyone about that ring, Taylor. I wasn't supposed to even tell you about it. It's a family secret and you promised." Her voice has risen to a whinny pout by the time she finishes and Troy and Sharpay are staring intently at the two of them.
"Taylor? Are you saying that Gabriella has the ring?", Troy asks incredulously.
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Why do you care anything at all about a family heirloom?", Gabriella asks in honest confusion.
"Family heirloom? Do you even know what that ring is?"
"Of course, I do", Gabriella starts, but before she can explain, Chad runs it.
"What'd I miss?"
"Shhhh", Troy, Sharpay, and Taylor say simultaneously.
"Go ahead, Gabriella", Taylor urges.
Gabriella takes a deep breath. "Okay, my many times great grandmother, the one who was a survivor of the Alamo, received it from her ... um ... fiancé right before he died. He was William Travis, the commander of the Alamo. He...he never even knew she was pregnant." Gabriella chokes out the final statement with great emotion.
"Dang!", comments Chad. "It didn't even know premarital sex had been invented back then."
The other four do the responsible thing and just ignore him.
"So... you know where the ring is?", Troy asks excitedly.
"Y-yes." Gabriella slowly reaches under the neck of her blouse and starts pulling out a long chain. Out pops a large gold ring.
Sharpay scrutinizes Gabriella's blouse wondering how she hid that large ring under there and silently cursing her own flat chest.
Gabriella takes the ring off its chain and holds it up for everyone to see. It's a gold ring with the traditional Masonic symbols of a crossed compass and square imprinted on it.
"May I?", Troy implores her and he holds out his hand for the ring.
"Why?"
"It's a long story", Sharpay adds. She's standing to the right and slightly behind Troy and is lightly touching his arm. This room makes her nervous, knowing the shower ghost is just on the other side of the door.
Gabriella gives her an unreadable look, but there's definitely nothing friendly there.
"I've got all the time in the world", she finally says.
"Allow me", Chad offers as he sits down on the bed to get comfortable. "It's like this. Troy Senior was a scout, but not a boy scout, and he was supposed to deliver a letter and that ring", he points to Gabriella's ring, "to Houston, the man, not the city, 'cause that didn't exist yet. Except, Troy Senior disappeared, along with the letter and ring and some money. That's what history says, but it's wrong. Troy Senior told us, well, actually, he told Sharpay, but that's an even longer story. Anyway, Troy Senior told Sharpay that Gabriella Senior came onto him and wanted to do the nasty, but Tony Senior said, Hell no, woman. I'm married. Which I totally understand 'cause that's exactly what I'd do in that situation." He winks at Taylor and she stands a little taller with pride for her boyfriend.
"Where was I? Oh yeah, well, apparently she doesn't take rejection well and she popped him. Or rather she had someone else kill them and then, somebody... cut off his finger to get that ring." Chad points accusingly at the ring.
Gabriella looks at the ring she's holding with disgust and promptly drops it. The ring starts rolling and Troy hits the floor trying to catch it before it rolls under anything. He grabs it just as it's about to go under the bed and snatches it up.
"Let me get this straight", Gabriella starts, not the least bit upset about dropping a ring which was cut off a dead man's hand. "You think my great great great great great grandmother killed someone."
"You know ...", Sharpay tells her, "when Troy said that many greats, it sounded informed, but when you say it, it just sounds anal." She's still ticked off about the holy water trap.
Troy quickly steps in between the two girls before they start swinging at each other. He seems to be doing this a lot lately.
"Please... just stop. We've got a mission and this isn't helping."
"A mission? What mission?", Gabriella asks.
"We're going to change history."
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Sharpay pulls the minivan into the alley at the back of the hotel and looks over at Troy with a smile as she closes her cell phone. "He'll call the right people. We just need to do our part." Troy squeezes her knee back in reassurance.
Ryan jumps out of the side door and lands in a crotched position. He's wearing a black wool watch cap, black turtle neck, and black slacks.
"Puleeze, Ryan. You look ridiculous and you're probably going to pass out from heat exhaustion. It must still be in the 80's and it's after midnight", Sharpay tells him for the hundredth time.
Taylor, Chad, and Gabriella come out a side door of the hotel and quickly pile into the back of the van. Troy is holding a map on his lap which he is studying with a flashlight.
"Okay, here's the plan", Troy starts as Sharpay pulls out of the alley. "The tools are in the back and ..."
"You stole tools?", Gabriella asks in shock.
"No, Gabriella. The tools were already in the van when we killed the owner and carjacked this vehicle. His body's in the back too", Sharpay bites back sarcastically.
Ryan speaks up to explain more calmly. "No, Gabriella. We rented the van at the airport and then found a 24-hour Home Depot where we bought the tools."
"Anyway, as I was saying... We know where the body's buried..."
"Body?", Gabriella squeaks.
"Johnny Bolton, remember he's been dead for over 150 years. Anyway, when we find his body we'll be able to prove he was an innocent victim and not a traitor."
They arrive at the Alamo and quickly unload the picks and shovels from the van.
"You know, I think this is really exciting", Chad comments to Ryan as they drag the heavy equipment over toward the mission. He looks over at Ryan and notices that the blond man is limping slightly. "Hey, are you okay, man? You're limping."
"I'm fine. It's just ... well, Ms. Darbus stepped on my foot when we were tangoing."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah, but it got me out of dancing anymore. Plus, she felt so bad about hurting me that I think she's going to forgot the whole dinner thing."
"Good work and quick thinking, by the way. You saved our rears, dude." Chad grins over at Ryan.
"Glad to help", Ryan grins back at him and starts humming a familiar tune under his breath.
Chad joins in and they quickly run across the short open space together.
"Oh, hell", groans Sharpay. She's struggling to lift the heavy pick off the ground. "Am I losing it or are they humming the theme from Mission Impossible?"
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
With an unlady-like swipe of the back of her hand under her dripping nose, Sharpay drops the heavy tool to the ground. "Okay...", she wheezes with her hands braced tightly on her knees, "this is the spot. Y-you guys start swinging. I'm taking a break." She walks over to a low stone wall and slumps to the ground.
"All you did was carry one pick a couple of yards. I'd hardly think that would wear you out", Taylor points out.
"Hey, this medium stuff is tiring, you know."
"It kin be very drainin' on the living to converse with the dead", comments Johnny. He's sitting casually on the wall next to Sharpay.
"Jesus! Johnny, don't sneak up on a girl like that. Are you trying to send me to an early grave?" Sharpay flushes when she realizes what she said. "Oh, I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me."
"It's alright, ma'am. Don't fret yerself", he points to Chad who has just started swinging the pick. "They're off a little. I'm over to the left about three feet."
"Hey, Chad. Johnny says you're digging in the wrong spot. Move over that way about three feet", Sharpay points to her left. Then, she turns back to Johnny. "It won't be much longer and don't worry, we'll tell the world they were wrong about you. I promise."
Gabriella is standing next to Taylor who is watching intently for any sign that their mission might be discovered. Waving a lazy hand in Sharpay's direction, Gabriella asks, "Do you really believe she's talking to a dead person?"
"Excuse me?", Taylor snaps, "You dumped a whole bucket of holy water on her head because you thought she was possessed by a demon, but you have trouble believing she can speak to ghosts? To quote Chad, 'That's cracked', Gabi." With a disgusted look at her friend, Taylor walks a few feet away and continues to scan the area.
"Gabi? Is that your Gabriella Montez?", Johnny asks Sharpay. He's glaring intently at Gabriella.
"Oh no, she's not mine, but yes, that's Gabriella."
"She looks nothing like the one I knew. She looks nice. The Gabi I knew looked ... well, like what she was, if you understand my meanin'."
"I think so ... kinda skanky?"
"Skanky? I don't know that word."
"Ummm, let's see... skanky ... it means ..."
"Skanky, one who is disgustingly foul or filthy and often considered sexually promiscuous. Used especially when referring to a woman or girl", Gabriella provides helpfully.
Johnny looks over at her, surprised that she has inserted herself into the conversation. "Oh. Well then, yeah, skanky is the right word."
Sharpay looks over at Gabriella also, in equal surprise. "Um, thanks", she says awkwardly.
"No problem. What are we talking about, anyway?"
"Nothing important, really. You know, just ghosty stuff."
Gabriella turns away from Sharpay in disgust. She stomps over to the edge of the building and stands there pouting, feeling like she's being cut out of everything.
Fifteen minutes later, Troy's digging in a pit about three feet deep when his shovel hits something solid. "Hey, guys! I think I've found something", he shouts enthusiastically.
Everyone rushes over to the site to take a look.
"Oh my God", gasps Ryan when Troy brushes away some of the dirt, "it's a skeleton."
"And look!", Chad uses his flashlight to point at one of the skeleton's fingers. "He's missing his ring finger on his right hand."
"That's me, a'right", comments Johnny. He's standing behind Sharpay and peering into the hole too.
"You okay with this?", Sharpay asks sympathetically.
"I'm fine with it. 'Specially if it clears my name."
"He's holding something", Taylor points out with her flashlight. "It looks like a saddle bag. Can you get it out?"
"Not without breaking his arms off."
"Ewwww", Ryan and Gabriella say simultaneously.
"I ain't touchin' that", Chad says.
"Just do it, please", pleads Johnny. "That's the proof you need."
"Johnny wants us to do it. He says the proof's in that bag."
Troy takes a deep breath and announces, "I'll do it." He bends down over the skeleton, grabs the saddle bag ... and pulls.
Ryan covers his mouth with his hand. "I think I'm going to be sick."
Chad wrinkles his nose. "That's sick and not the good kind of sick."
Taylor is looking over his shoulder. "I concur."
Sharpay looks a little ill. "That is just nasty."
Gabriella looks straight at Troy in horror. "I can't believe you did that, Troy. You desecrated that grave."
Troy steps out of the grave with the saddlebag; however, Johnny's skeletal hands are still hanging on. When Troy pulls on the bag the arms break off and the bony fingers stay attached.
Sharpay is first to defend Troy. "Johnny told him to do it, Gabriella."
"So you say", Gabriella scoffs.
However, Troy isn't the one to jump in between the two this time. This time it's the San Antonio Police Department. Suddenly, bright lights are flashing in their eyes, blinding them.
"This is the police", a deep, masculine voice booms through the night air. "Everyone lock your hands together on top of your heads."
Troy looks down at the saddlebag and frowns. He doesn't want to put it down; after all, they're so close. Instead he raises the bag high above his head.
"Holy shit! That kid's got a skeleton in his hands", one of the officers announces. There must be at least five officers quickly making their way towards the group.
"Must be one of those cults I heard about on 20/20", answers another.
"Damn it! It's not fair", Sharpay moans, "We were so close."
A policeman grabs one arm and then another and quickly places Sharpay's hands in handcuffs. Other officers are similarly arresting her friends.
"I have to advise you, young lady, that you have the right to remain silence, if you..."
TBC
Author Notes: I had to get my cute, sexy nerd to help me with the translations for the Spanish since I, like Chad, am more comfortable with ASL.
"Aye que fabulosa" -- How wonderful
"Caliente!" -- hot (as in temperature)
"suave" -- handsome (only appropriate for a male)
"¿quieres bailar?" -- do you want to dance?
I know 20/20 is not on anymore, but I loved that show.
To PlutoForPlanethood04: I loved the Gabriella Sr. and Gabriella Jr. stuff, so I stole it. Thanks.
To Enarra: I hope I have redeemed myself about the food. TexMex is nothing like real New Mexican Mexican food and my favorite meal is Chili Rellenos.
My thanks to The Road of Damascus for telling me about Reviving Ophelia. I have it on reserve at the library, so I haven't started it yet, but I checked out Ophelia Speaks which is awesome. It's a series of essays by teenage girls all over the country discussing their individual problems. And, the best part was, it was put together by a highschooler.
