Hello I've been away for a few days. I know I said I would make this the last chapter but there's just too much to fit in so I'm going to do one more.

Chapter 9: The survivors

Plane 021 crashed on July 15th 2008. Six people died; Lacy Hammer, Donna Kerry, Jason Isaac, Kelsey Nilson, Catrina Darbus and pilot Harry Neer. No trace could be found of Catrina Darbus'es body. Gabriella Montez, Chad Danford and Taylor Mckessie were the first to be rescued; a week after the crash. The rest of East High's senior class we're picked up day's later; some that had landed on different islands others near death; floating on parts of the plane in the middle of the ocean. Troy Bolton and Sharpay Evans were the last to be rescued, a few more days and the search would have been over and they would have been presumed dead. Along with pilot Bob Holdness and their rescuer; Charlie Lithworth, Troy and Sharpay were flown back to East high to meet with their joyous family and friends.

They both stood there waiting, the whiteness of the airport dazzling their eyes. Sharpay spotted a toilet sign and started heading towards it. Closing the door behind her she was relieved to see it was empty. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she turned towards the mirror. Some would call it vanity and fair enough Sharpay Evans was vain, but she hadn't really seen herself in about a month. She gave a gasp as she saw herself in the mirror, her reflection looked so different from what she could remember. Her hair still cascaded around her face and shoulders, slightly longer than before, but it was the colour of it that struck her. It was, well it was still blonde but the peroxides of it had lost its sheen, it looked bright and vibrant and the tones where a wild honey colour, like when she was a kid, before she had worn down her parents with tantrums to have it bleached for her tenth birthday. She had no make up on making her look much younger and she cringed as she spotted a few light freckles that she hadn't allowed to see the light of day for years. Thinking of light she shifted her head and torso, looking over her skin and she thought ruefully that she would never need another session at the tanning salon; all over she was a light golden brown. Snapping out of contemplation over her physical appearance, she hurriedly ran her fingers through her mane of hair, at least there was no frizz, Sharpay dreaded frizz. Looking over herself one more time she headed out feeling giddy at the coming reunion with everyone. She stopped in her tracks, Troy wasn't standing alone where she'd left him, instead he was surrounded by a throng of people, hazily she could recognise most of them but her whole attention was focused on just one of them, the girl who had her arms wrapped around Troy's neck. For a second Sharpay was about to go up to the girl and ask her, why the hell was she touching him? Then with a shock she realized who it was; Gabriella Montez. The haziness was cleared as the group of people noticed her and in a second she was engulfed between a man and a women; her mum and dad. ''Sharpay, oh my goodness! Sharpay honey, my baby! You're okay, oh thank god you're okay.'' Her mother's voice broke with happy tears. Hugging her mother back Sharpay turned to her father, ''Daddy..'' She felt about nine years old. ''Princess, I-I, we were so worried. Sweetie, they-they haven't found Ryan yet.'' Her tears froze and cold dread washed over her, they didn't know.

Troy waited alone, Sharpay had gone off to the bathroom. This is so unreal, was the only thought running through his mind. Any moment now, I'm going to see mum and dad and all my friends. He shivered slightly, the pilot and their rescuer had had no information about other survivors to give them, so they didn't know exactly who they would see. Looking out at the slightly busy entrance he let his mind wonder over someone else he might see; Gabriella… Her name seemed strange to him now, unused and from the past. Thinking over these things he suddenly heard his name shouted by several people, they were making they're way towards him; his family and friends. His mother and father hugged him tightly both in tears, ''Troy my baby!'' this was his mother; her voice overcome with emotion as she took him in with her tear filled eyes. ''God son! You gave us quite a scare.'' Troy smiling at him, hugged his dad. Pulling away from his loving parents, he looked over at the rest of the group who had tactfully held back to give the Bolton family a moment but they were now hugging him and cheering. ''Troy my man! We knew you'd make it!'' This came from his best friend and he recognised several of his fellow wildcats too that were cheering and clapping him on the back. Just as he was about to greet Chad back, his mouth gaped open in shock and revulsion, ''What-what happened?!'' He asked starring at Chad's arms, or more accurately one arm as the other was missing, the stump hidden by one of Chad's bright t-shirts. ''What this?'' Chad replied in mock surprise pointing his other hand to the stump. ''Ah, it's not as bad as it seems. Plus Taylor thinks it's cool, don't you Tay?'' With this he scooped Taylor Mckessie forwards. ''show off,'' was her laughing reply as she and Martha smiled up at Troy. Troy, himself was not able to ponder on Chad's injury anymore as something flew at him, kissing him full on the lips. Unprepared he pulled away and looked down into the face of the very girl who's name had seem so strange to him a moment ago. Before he could think of anything to say to his girlfriend however, Gabriella; her face gushing with tears, was speaking, most of the words incomprehensible due to her sobbing. ''Troy, oh my god! I thought you were dead. Oh I can't believe you're here, I've missed you so much.'' Hugging her closer and trying to comfort her, he spotted a man and women holding Sharpay between them crying emotionally, he recognised them as Mr. and Mrs. Evans Sharpay's parents and owners of Lava Springs; were he had worked last year. Watching them, he heard her dad say something to Sharpay that made his stomach churn.

Sharpay laid on her bed, trying and falling to get to sleep. She felt so mixed up tonight, a feeling she had been having far too often of late. On one hand she was excited; she was back in her room, her room! She could take as many showers as she wanted and apply her body width in foundation, should the urge take her. But it didn't, it didn't because she could hear her parents crying downstairs. Breaking the news off Ryan's death to them made her wish it had been her instead. She didn't tell them when her father had said that fateful phrase, a crowded airport wasn't the right place. Troy had know, he had tried to help her, but she hadn't let him, she needed to tell them herself and watching him surrounded by happy Wildcats and Gabriella Montez made her ache. So tearing herself away from their polite greetings and hugs; it was obvious it was Troy that they had all come to see, her and her parents drove back to their huge house. Seating them down she told them calmly, trying not to dwell too much on the graphic horror, but she knew they could tell pretty much how bad the state of his body must have been; her dad watched a lot of news and her mother obsessively followed every episode of E.R. Now laying on her bed unable to sleep, Sharpay felt slightly numb, she could still hear her mother's sobs subsiding slightly, she had already dealt with the shock of Ryan's death, although the grief of his loss overwhelmed her at times. It amazed her that just this morning her and Troy had been on an island thinking of new ways to escape, sighing she turned herself on her other side, everything refused to sink in. A few weeks had passed since they had been rescued, but things still hadn't managed to sink in for Sharpay and she felt completely detached. It was nearing the end of the summer holiday, in the past she loved this holiday her and Ryan driving up to Lava Springs and whiling away the weeks in shopping and relaxation. But now it didn't make sense, she could hardly sleep, she would wake up expecting to hear the soft sounds of the ocean. She spent hours in Ryan's room, looking through old photos of them together, hating most of them because she was always the one who had to be in the front and Ryan was pushed back. Her mother had taken her out a couple of times to her favourite shopping malls, but Sharpay felt no more passion for fashion, being in crowded places left her panicky and paranoid now. This added to her most pressing fear, school… The summer holidays were ending and next week school was starting. The thought bought Sharpay out in a cold sweat, she didn't want to go back there, back to the old routine except this time she would be alone, sitting alone, eating alone or worse people giving her sympathy, they would all have heard about Ryan by now. Even the thought of doing drama again failed to make her want to go back to East High, the opposite; this time she would be performing alone and made a vow never to go on stage again. And the thing she feared the most would be there, Troy.. They hadn't seen or spoken once since the rescue. Sharpay knew she should be glad to have avoided awkward small talk with him but deep down it hurt, it hurt like hell that he hadn't even bothered to call, that he was with Gabriella somewhere probably making up for lost time. Monday rolled around too fast for Sharpay's liking and getting ready she made herself up, if she was going back to East High she had to put herself back in the right frame of mind. Walking towards her first class of the day; homeroom. She was late but she didn't care. She had pulled over in her pink convertible. For once being sensible and preventing herself from crashing. Her heart was beating a hundred to one, another panic attack had started. It was then that she had made up her mind and calmed her nerves, she was going back to school and she had to deal with it, she was East Highs ice queen, former ice queen, she reminded herself firmly of her promise to Ryan. All she had to do was stay calm, hopefully no one would notice her and as fro Troy he was just another East High student in her class, that's all nothing more they weren't friends in the past and nothing had changed. Even so she shivered slightly as she opened the door to the class room.

''You are the music in me, it's living in all of us it bought us here because-'' Troy slammed his fist down on the alarm, I have to change the tune, he thought wearily. It was early Monday morning and the first day of term. Having blown off's Chad's offer of a ride in the car he had bought himself with the compensation money from his missing limb, Troy was nearing the gates off his high school. His thoughts ran over the last few weeks. At first his friends had been understanding enough to let him spend a couple of day's with his family. His mum had wanted them to go away for a few days, but the thought of travelling, possibly on a plane made Troy feel faint. After the couple of day's rest Troy and his friends meet up on the beach, it had been an odd day, they had celebrated and grieved together at the same time; celebrate Troy's return but grieved over the death's off Jason and Kelsey. After that they had all met up most day's for barbeques and beach parties. During all this he had not forgotten Sharpay, although they had not seen each other once since their rescue a few times he had been on the brink of calling her ridding his bike to her house just to see how she was going, just to see her. He had stopped himself; justifying it to himself that it was best if he let her and her family have some space, but deep down he knew it was because he was afraid, afraid about what to say and what to do and how he was feeling. This bought him on to the problem of his relationship with Gabriella, as the end of summer festivities had been stepped up he had avoided them more and more, this also meant avoiding Gabriella and being intimate with her something that he was struggling with as memories of the kiss he had had with Sharpay cropped up every time him and Gabriela got even close to a passionate moment. Gabriella of course was trying to be understanding, but still he could tell she was getting impatient for them to fall back into their old routine and he wondered how long he could keep using the whole crash as an excuse. Settling down into homeroom as the replacement teacher for Mrs. Darbus quietened down the class, Troy looked around him. Where was Sharpay? Ten minutes ticked by slowly, Troy ignored the chatter around him and was hardly listening to Gabriella who was telling him something about how sad it was they hadn't found Mrs. Darbus'es body yet, his eyes kept roving from the clock to the door; where was she? ''Troy, Troy are you even listening to me?'' He didn't answer because the door had opened and Sharpay had just walked in. He hadn't seen her for weeks, she looked as perfectly made up as she would have done in the past although she hadn't bleached her hair again and Troy couldn't understand why that made him happy but it did and he could see that beyond her made up face was something more, something that hadn't been there in the past, as she walked past him he could see it in her eyes. Although she radiated a cool composure he could sense the sadness and anger from her and he wished everyone else could see beyond the makeup and the clothes and could see the vulnerable girl he had held as she cried her eyes out.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to proofread this I was in such a rush at the end so its probs full of mistakes. Next chapter: the end (I mean it this time) thanks for all your reviews so far.