The next part of the party. Sharpay's already planned another trick. Will it work or will Troy and Gabriella fight through it all. It's safe to say that the title gives it all.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Start of Something New (Again!)

At the Dance Palace, 8:00 p.m.

Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor arrived outside the club. Chad and Taylor were amazed at the bright lights from the sign. Troy and Gabriella had to pull them toward the entrance.

If Chad and Taylor were amazed at the sign, they were astonished about the inside. The place was decked in balloons in red, white, pink, and green. The streamers were strung from every place you can hang streamers.

Sharpay and Ryan were in the center of the room. Sharpay was soaking up the attention like a sponge.

"I'm glad you could make it," she said to one guest and then to another, "Hi!", "Have a good time.", "Enjoy the party."

Ryan was the first to spot Troy and the gang to walk in. "Look there's Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor," he said to Sharpay.

"They're here! Now the party can finally begin." Sharpay went to the stage to make an announcement.

Chad was the first to see Sharpay walking on the stage. He motioned the rest of them to look toward the stage.

"Hello, everybody! I like to introduce you to the couple we are celebrating tonight! Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez! Come on up the stage. As you know, Troy and Gabriella won the karaoke contest last night," Sharpay said into the microphone.

Sensing something weird is going to happen, Troy and Gabriella cautiously walked up on the stage. The audience broke into applause.

"Give it up for them!" Sharpay shouted. "And now they will sing a duet to celebrate our party." Sharpay handed Troy and Gabriella a microphone and walked up the stage.

Sharpay thought that forcing them onstage to sing a duet they didn't know would freak Gabriella back into stage fright. Then with the stage fright back in her system, she would quit the musical, and without Gabriella beside him, Troy will quit and Ryan and her will have their rightful place in the musical.

The duet song came on and Sharpay was in for a surprise. She didn't know exactly how they met. She didn't know that they met while singing this exact song at a karaoke party.

The song was "The Start of Something New."

Troy and Gabriella immediately recognized the tune.

Sharpay stood in the front of the crowd ready to watch her plan unfold before her.

Troy was the first to sing. "Living in my own world/ Didn't understand/ That anything could happen/ If you take a chance." He looked over to Gabriella, who was ready to sing.

"I never believed in/ What I couldn't see/ I never opened my heart/ To all the possibilities," she sang quite confidently.

Sharpay stood in the front, mouth agape, as the crowd started to get into the song.

Troy and Gabriella started to sing the chorus in unison, "This could be the start of something new/ It feels so right to be here with you/ ooohhh/ And now looking in your eyes/ I feel in my heart/ The start of something new."

Troy picked it up with the second verse. "Now who'd have ever thought that…"

Both of them sang, "We'd both be here tonight…"

Gabriella picked it where they dropped off, "And the world looks so much brighter…"

"With you here by my side/ Now I know that something has changed/ I know it for real this could be the start of something new…" They sang the chorus again.

Troy picked up with the bridge. "I never know that it could happen 'til it happened to me…"

Gabriella jumped back in. "I didn't know it before…"

They both finished the bridge. "But now it's easy to see."

They sang the chorus twice before the song finished.

"The start of something new…"

"The start of something new…"

They sang in harmony, "The start of something new."

The crowd cheered so loudly. The loudest was probably Chad and Taylor.

Troy felt as if something was different. That this marked Gabriella and him as a couple.

Gabriella felt as if she had finally accomplished something and that Troy and her were going to become something bigger.

"They were meant to be together, aren't they?" Taylor said.

"I think so," Chad replied.

They looked at each other briefly and smiled. They felt that it was the start of something new for them.

Troy and Gabriella walked offstage and rejoined Chad and Taylor. They gave them a what-did-you-think-about-it look.

"You were phenomenal!" Taylor exclaimed to Gabriella and they both giggled.

"Troy, dude, you were meant to sing," Chad said.

Sharpay took the stage again, but she looked a little taken back. "Aren't they great?" Then the audience broke again into applause. "To hear more of them," Sharpay said through a fake smile, "see the musical at East High."