It was supposed to be harmless. Sharpay's idea actually, but then it spun out of grasp. She could remember the very first time she did it. The very first time she lost control, but to her it seemed like she was gaining it…

Gabriella could feel her fingers tapping on Troy's couch nervously, along with the blond sitting next to her. There had to be thirty people there, and she couldn't help but feel self conscious. The guys were staring at her, almost with longing as she crosses her arms over her chest. "I can't take this." Sharpay whispers while playing with the celery stick in her hands.

"It's been two weeks." Gabriella says while taking a bite of her own. "And two more until the Sadie Hawkins's dance." She exclaims while looks around at the party to see that people were shoving their faces with potato chips, chocolate, every type of sweet out there. It was so tempting to Gabriella. So very tempting. But she sighs as she glances back at Sharpay. "How much have you lost?"

"Total?" Sharpay asks while sighing. "Like three pounds."

Gabriella places her chin onto her hand and narrows her eyes down on the celery stick. She wanted food. Real food, not the health crap she was eating right now. Her eyes scan the room again to see all of the food seemed to be calling her name. "I've lost five." She says while sighing. "That's five more then where I want to be!"

She suddenly feels a presence sit down next to her on the couch as Gabriella looks up to a pair of piercing blue eyes. Her stomach does about forty back flips as he beams down at her. "Hey! How are ya?" Troy asks while giving her a half hug with his arm. The Wildcats had just won their basketball game and Troy was having a party to celebrate. His parents were home though, plus Gabriella really wasn't used to the drinking thing quite yet, so there was no alcohol being served.

"Starving." She says while throwing down the piece of celery and looking at Sharpay who was pouting. They had started this whole diet to fit into their perfect Sadies's dresses. Gabriella needed to be one size smaller while Sharpay just wanted to look good in hers. They had been on it for two weeks, and Gabriella could barely see a difference. She was becoming more depressed as everyday went by. So depressed her judgment was starting to get clouded with disfigurement.

"You guys still on that dumb diet?" He asks while crossing his arms and shaking his head. "You guys are fucking stupid. Both of you are like twigs."

"Fuck off Bolton." Sharpay says while getting down on her knees and staring at all of the potato chips sitting on the coffee table. "It's calling my name! Sharpay! Sharpay!" She moans as Troy rolls his eyes.

"Just have it!" Troy exclaims while Gabriella sighs. It would be so easy. So very easy and there would be nothing to it. Her crush, yet best friend moves his eyes back to her. "God, you two are dumb." He says while Gabriella glares up at him.

"I'm sorry I don't want to be fat anymore!' She exclaims while Troy rolls his eyes again.

"I could break you just by laying a hand on you. Trust me, you're not fat." He says as he stands up from the arm of the couch as one of the other older starting varsity walks up to him and begins talking to him.

Suddenly, a familiar guy with a huge afro sets down three hot pizzas that had just come from the door. "Pizza's here!"

Everyone seems to swarm as Chad backs away. Gabriella and Sharpay just look at each other with longing in their faces. She was hungry, so hungry that she could barely take it anymore. "Maybe… we could just take a break." Sharpay says while the smell of melted cheese fills Gabriella's nostrils temptingly.

"We've worked so hard." Gabriella says while staring at the pizza that was now calling her name.

Sharpay finally lets out a groan. "I can't take it anymore!" She says while diving forward. Gabriella's eyes grow wide as Sharpay grabs a piece of cheese and slabs it on a plate, while doing it again. "Eat this!" She exclaims while holding it out for her.

"Shar! This was your idea in the first place!" Gabriella exclaims while now staring at the piece of pizza like it was Troy and she just wanted to take it all in.

"I know. And if I'm breaking, you're breaking. So eat it!" She says while shoving the piece of pizza in her mouth. Gabriella watches as Sharpay moans in pleasure. "Oh my God, I think I just orgasmed."

Gabriella stares down at the pizza. Her eyes glance up to see the captain of the cheerleading team was now talking to Troy. He laughs at something she says while the girl places a hand on his forearm. The girl was a complete stick, what Gabriella never saw in herself. She finally takes a bite of the pizza that was calling to her. She feels the sauce and cheese ooze into her mouth, never thinking food could taste that good.

That was, until she had finished. Her stomach felt like it was going to explode. Both she and Sharpay were lying back on the couch, looking sick. "What the fuck did we just do?" Gabriella asks while Sharpay closes her eyes.

"We just gained five pounds." She says while sighing. Gabriella could almost feel the fat begin to build up onto her body. She felt disgusting, fat and huge. She could barely look down at her stomach which was hidden behind a tight pink shirt. Her eyes narrow at how disgusting it looked to her. She felt depressed, more then depressed. She let herself down. This was the one thing in her life that she wanted, and she just let herself down.

She felt like shit. "All the work we had put it just went down the toilet."

Gabriella moans as Sharpay finally gets up off of her feet. "I'm gonna see if I can walk it off." She says while leaving the couch. Gabriella could almost feel the tears burn in the back of her eyes. She had just ruined everything. Sure, most people would think she was over reacting over one piece of pizza, but Gabriella's mind was becoming disfigured with every second that went by. Her eyes scan the party again, to see that the cheerleader now had her lower body pushed up against Troy's. Her perfect, thin body against the guy she couldn't live without. And he had a smile on his face that didn't look like could ever be wiped off. A smile that she would never cause on his face.

Gabriella suddenly feels completely depressed as she jumps up from where she was sitting. Her feet carry her to the only place that seemed like there would be no one else. They sprint up the familiar stairs as she rushes to the left. Her hands grab the door handle as she swings it open and then shut. Her eyes adjust to the bright lights of the bathroom as she places her hands on his white sink and takes in deep breaths.

Her eyes look up into the mirror and she suddenly feels her eyes grow wide in shock. Staring back at her was a black haired girl who looked like she belonged in a sumo wrestling match. Her cheeks were the size of balloons as she had twelve chins. Her arms jiggled with out even moving them and her body looked like it weighed over five hundred pounds. Her sausage fingers touch the mirror gently as she stares at her completely distorted image. She wasn't any of these things, but her mind was telling her she was.

Panic spread through her body as she looks around the bathroom as if that would solve her problem. Suddenly, her eyes land on the white porcelain that was so perfectly decorated. The idea suddenly crossed her mind. Her mind was rushing at a million miles a minute. The health class they had to take always said how dangerous it would be. But it seemed so easy.

She gets down on her kneels and lifts up the seat. Her eyes stare into the water below, seeing the faint outline of her hugeness. Her mind suddenly flashes the image of the toothpick cheerleader who was pushed up against Troy. That was when her decision was made.

Her first two fingers on her right hand lift up as she braces herself with her left. She sticks them inside of her mouth, feeling around, trying to teach herself how to do it. This was stupid, not going to get her anywhere, but she just had to try it. She was desperate. Almost as if hitting her perfect spot, she suddenly feels her stomach turn as hot acid boils through her throat. She immediately moves her hand and leans forward, letting the vomit burn through her mouth and land into the toilet.

The bathroom fills with the scent of sick as Gabriella took deep breaths. Her hands were shaking at the fact of what she just did. This was stupid, crazy people did this! She wasn't going to be Bulimic! But her stomach suddenly felt lighter. She felt instantly better about the pizza she had eaten. Was it that easy? After everything you eat, just purge it up after that? Right there, she had made a decision. It would be for two more weeks, and then she would stop. Two weeks of purging. That couldn't be Bulimia. Two weeks was barely anything.

She suddenly hears a knock on the white door that she had forgotten to lock. Panic spread through her body as her head shoots up and looks to see the door open. Her stomach flips four times as the gorgeous chestnut brown hair and piercing blue eyed boy walks into the bathroom. "Hey… are you ok? I saw you run out." Troy says but then shuts the door behind him. His face suddenly cringes at the skink as he puts his hand up to his nose. "Ugh, what's that smell?"

Gabriella looks down at the toilet, her mind racing to find an excuse. If Troy found out she had just purged, he would have thought she was weird and crazy. "I… uh…"

Troy's eyes grow wide as Gabriella bites her bottom lip. He knew. He knew what she had just done. Now he was going to think she was insane. "Why didn't you tell me you had the flu?" He asks while kneeling down next to her and rubbing her back.

Gabriella lets out a breath of relief. She could go with this. He had just made a cover for her without even knowing he did. "Yeah… my stomach hurts." She says, not necessarily lying since her stomach hurt before from all the fat that was built up.

"Come on." Troy coxes in a small voice as he gently wraps her arm around his shoulder, then his on hers. He slowly brings her up, with her knees shaking a little since she was dizzy from just throwing up. Troy reaches down and flushes the toilet then leads her over to the door. After opening it, Gabriella could hear the music playing downstairs as they walk towards his familiar room. Once inside, he lies her down in his bed and throws a blanket over her.

"Everyone's leaving soon, so just sleep here, I'll be up later." He says while giving her a small hug, Gabriella feels sparks fly through her body. "Let me know if you need anything ok?"

Gabriella nods as he gently kisses her forehead, and then walks out the door, shutting it behind him. She sighs and turns over, taking in his musky scent on his pillows. Two weeks, that's all it would be. Just until the dance then she would stop.

She had no idea how addicting it could get in two weeks.

The bell echoes in Gabriella's ears as she places the black music folder in a small slot that matched the silver number sitting on her folder. Her eyes glance back to see that the brunette with large, bouncing curls was walking towards the door. Usually, Olivia waited for Gabriella, but Gabriella couldn't help but think that maybe it had to do with a conversation she had last night with Troy. He probably told her he was going to talk to Gabriella, and now she was embarrassed. Gabriella takes a deep breath before running towards the door after the girl she was incredibly jealous of. "Olivia! Wait up!"

Olivia's chocolate colored eyes lead her head as she turns around, looking at the almost black haired girl who was calling out for her. The lighter pair of eyes widen a little in shock as Gabriella walks over with a forced, although no one else would be able to tell, smile on her face. "Uhh… hey Gabriella."

They fall into step with one another as Gabriella could feel jealousy run through her veins while she was with her, but she tries to shove that away for a moment to talk to her. "So, you have to go to your brother's football game this Saturday? That sucks."

Olivia shrugs. "Not really. My brother and I are really close. Plus, Troy's coming so…" She says while Gabriella could feel her face reflexively fall. Olivia's eyes grow wide at the action, but Gabriella tires to cover it up with a smile again. "I mean, I'm pissed I can't go dress shopping." She adds in, almost as if making it sound like she would rather be somewhere other than with Troy would make up for bringing him with her.

"Yeah, that sucks." Gabriella adds in and takes a deep breath. This was it; she was doing this for Troy. If it was anyone else, she wouldn't do it. But this was Troy we were talking about, so she was just going to go for it. "But hey, do you wanna go on Sunday? The two of us?"

Olivia's face immediately breaks out into a grin, but then drops a little as almost a realization dawned on her. "Troy said something to you, didn't he?"

Gabriella tries not to give anything away as she shrugs. "He just said that we should hang out together. Which he's right." She lies while saying but that seemed to do the trick. They turn one more time down the busy junior hallway, while three guys going the other way look Gabriella up and down even though she was just wearing a U of A t-shirt and jeans. She crosses her arms reflexively over her stomach as she walks up to her locker, spinning the combination. Olivia walks behind her and Gabriella notices that she had all of her books with her already. "But if you don't wanna go…"

"No, I do!" Olivia exclaims while Gabriella opens her locker up. She grabs the books that she needed for the homework she had tonight and slips them in her bag. "No I really do." She repeats as though that would make Gabriella even more convinced.

"Ok… then how about I come pick you up at noon?" Gabriella says with a small, trying to be welcoming smile.

"Sounds good to me." Olivia responds with a beam stretching across her face. Gabriella smiles a little. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Sure, she was going to have to stare at the girl who stole her best friend's heart away from her, which she also had a perfect body that would probably make Gabriella's Anorexic thoughts pop back into her mind. But it could be fun, and Gabriella was really learning to shove those thoughts out of her head. She should just look at it as a test to see how well she was doing.

"What sounds good?" Gabriella hears a voice enter her ears as she looks to see Chad, Taylor, and Troy all walk up to their lockers. Troy slips an arm around Olivia and Gabriella looks away jealously.

You. She thinks to herself but then watches as Olivia now beams up at him. "Gabriella and I are going homecoming dress shopping on Sunday." She says while Troy smirks at Gabriella, nodding his head in thank you. Gabriella just rolls her eyes as she leans up against her locker.

"Girl bonding. We can talk about you the whole time." Gabriella taunts while her eyebrows raise twice to mock him. His face drops as Olivia giggles. "I have stories that you would probably make you pee your pants." Gabriella says while looking at Olivia.

The warning bell rings and Olivia giggles a little more, then plants a kiss onto Troy's cheek. "See ya." She says and Gabriella watches as she walks away. Troy's eyes land back on her as they immediately fall into step together, walking towards homeroom.

"We talked about this." Troy says while Gabriella giggles. "No embarrassing stories."

Gabriella sighs dramatically. "You ruin everything." She says while he rolls his eyes and places an arm around her, pulling her to his body in a half hug.

"And that's why you love me." He says while walking into the study hall classroom, not even knowing that he was more on then Gabriella knew he thought.

"Mmm… what about this one?"

Gabriella stops looking through the dresses as she looks up to the one that Olivia was wearing. It would come above the knee in a light green color. The almost black haired girl shrugs as her eyes look back down at the rack. "It's alright..."

So far, the afternoon was going ok for Gabriella. They had been shopping for an hour and a half and still hadn't found the perfect dress for Olivia yet. She they were now in a little store in the middle of the mall as they were continuing with their search. Although Gabriella didn't want to admit it, she was having a good time with Olivia. The girl was sweet, plus she seemed to be pretty down to earth. Although it was difficult to watch this girl put these dresses on her perfect body, Gabriella was actually doing ok. Sure, it made her want to loose five pounds, but for the moment, she was fine.

Olivia lets out a sigh as she runs a hand through her smooth hair. "Damn, this is harder then it looks."

Gabriella smiles a little as she points to the dressing room. "Go try on the next one."

She nods and walks back into the dimly lit dressing room and closes the purple door. Gabriella's eyes move over to the next rack, while her mind was working. It was so weird to be picking out a dress for the girl who she desperately wanted to be. But she was starting to like this girl more, even if she had the boy who Gabriella couldn't live without.

Her fingers move through the silver hangers as she scans each dress. None of them seemed to jump out at her. She was almost looking for her dream dress, but found that if putting it on a different person, then it could be absolutely perfect.

Her eyes suddenly look down and it was almost as though the lights were shinning down on it in a spot light against the dimly lit lighting. The small fingers reach out and pick it up, her eyes glowing in the process. She was absorbing the perfectly smooth satin surface. The orange lit up the room and as she held it against her arm, the perfectly tan skin was amplified. It would have been flat against her stomach, while the bottom wedged out a little, but not much. The top had thick straps that went back into a halter and there was a sliver diamond, with what looked like diamonds inside it right in-between the bust.

She suddenly hears the dressing room open as she pulls the dress behind her back, as if she wasn't allowed to look at it. Olivia walks out in a fuchsia dress that reached the floor. It looked good, just not great. "This?"

She spins around in the mirror as Gabriella could feel the dress burn into her hands. It was gorgeous, and she knew that Troy would absolutely fall head over heels for whoever wore it. It would have been so easy to just hide the dress so Olivia wouldn't find it. Gabriella wanted it. She wanted to wear it and feel gorgeous and have Troy TELL her she was gorgeous. Olivia had her dream guy, why should she have Gabriella's dream dress as well?

But Gabriella couldn't do that. If it was Sharpay, it would have been done in a heartbeat. But Gabriella was too nice, too caring, too generous. She knew Olivia would look gorgeous in the dress, better then her. Though Gabriella had no idea that she would have looked more stunning in it. "Um… it's nice, but uh…" She says and sighs. "I found one that you would look stunning in."

She pulls the orange one from around her back as Olivia's eyes light up at the sight of perfection. She walks over as Gabriella holds it out as if it was the Holy Grail. Olivia's thin fingers pick it up as she holds it so she could see. A smile forms on her lips as she beams at Gabriella. "I'll go try this on."

Gabriella sighs as Olivia turns back and walks into the dressing room. She hadn't told Olivia she wasn't going to homecoming yet, not had she told Troy. She was afraid to tell him almost, because then if she told him, it would actually mean it was happening for sure. It wasn't that Gabriella didn't like dances, because she did. But did she want to never find the perfect dress because of her body? No, not an option.

She lets out another sigh, thinking of how selfless she actually was. She could have hid the dress, and then walked out of the store. But this dress would look perfect on Olivia. She just had no idea that it would look even more perfect on her.

Suddenly, the door opens again and Olivia walks out, beaming from ear to ear. It was almost as if the dress gave off even more of the glow that was already on her perfectly innocent skin. It feel against her body in a way that made her look stunning. Gabriella actually couldn't help but feel her mouth drop as she watches Olivia spin around in her dress. "What do you think?" She asks with the smile that wasn't going away anytime soon.

This was it, Gabriella could completely lie and tell her she didn't like it. Then Olivia wouldn't have the perfect dress, and Troy wouldn't see her in it. But, that was not how Gabriella was. So she smiles the brightest one she could muster through her jealousy as she lets out one more sigh. "If you don't get that dress, then you're insane."

Olivia's mouth beams an even larger smile if that was even possible. She turns back around and looks in the mirror, spinning around like a bride on her wedding day. "You really like it?"

Gabriella nods. "I love it." She says, not lying at all. "And so will Troy."

Olivia smiles and turns around. "I hope so." She says still beaming as she glances in the mirror one more time, spinning around. She then turns back to Gabriella. "I'll go change." She says while practically skipping towards the dressing rooms again and slamming the door in delight.

After she was done changing and they had paid for the dress, the two walk out of the little store. Gabriella eyes the white bag that was being held in Olivia's hands. She knew she did the right thing, but again she couldn't help but desperately wish that she could be Olivia. Perfect dress, perfect date. But then again, everything that revolved around Troy was perfect.

"We've been shopping for an hour and a half and you haven't even tried on a dress." Olivia says while Gabriella and she were walking to the food court. "You can't tell me there wasn't one in there you liked." She says as they sit down at a table built for two.

Her stomach suddenly tightens up. Should she tell her? What would happen if she did? After shopping with her for an hour and a half, Gabriella could call them friends. But did she really want to tell the girl who had Troy Bolton? "Well… err… I'm not going."

Olivia's eyes grow wide as she looks at her. "What?"

It was the same reaction everyone else was giving Gabriella. She sighs and shrugs. "I'm not going." She says while Olivia was still looking at her like she just gotten back from Jupiter or something.

"Why not?" She asks as Gabriella shrugs again.

"I don't know. I'm just really not in the mood to." She says while glancing at all of the people who were eating in the food court happily.

"You can't not go!" Olivia exclaims. "I know a bunch of people who are dying to ask you…"

Gabriella sighs and shakes her head. "It's not the getting a date thing. I just…" She starts to say, but then stops herself. She wasn't going to tell this girl the truth, that she'd rather not put herself through the stress of dress shopping and risk getting the desire to loose five pounds even though she was Anorexic a few months ago. "I really don't want to go."

Olivia sighs. "I really think you should." She says while Gabriella smiles a little.

Olivia Walker was sweet. She was nice, she was pretty, and she was compassionate. Gabriella liked her. She could see why Troy chose her. She was fun to be around and her view on life was so optimistic. Gabriella was happy that she had become friends with her, but there was still one problem that was in the back of her mind. She had Troy Bolton.

"Thanks, but I'm pretty set on not going." She says, telling the truth, even if people would be really upset about it.