Disclaimer: I do not own the HSM movie or its characters. They are sole property of Disney. I also do not own the songs "Journey to the Past" or "Once Upon a December" from the Anastasia movie soundtrack.

Shayne and Reed had re-established their friendship for the most part over the past several weeks. They had yet to discuss why their friendship had ended for the past few years, but it was a touchy subject for both of them. Neither one was willing to bring it up. Even though they knew it was inevitable. Reed especially wanted to solve this problem since his feelings for Shayne continued to grow while his concern for his reputation seemed to decrease. Shayne, however, continued to insist that they keep their friendship as under wraps as possible. Reed didn't like it, but he agreed. If only he could understand the torment she underwent when she spent half the day in his favorite sweatshirt, especially from his teammates and supposed "best friends."

Reed came into the theater determined to put an end to what he now called Shayne's nonsense because he had something important to discuss with his leading lady. He was the first to arrive for his lunch time rehearsal with Shayne. In the weeks they had been practicing, he had never beaten her to the auditorium. She came bustling in before he could even ponder where she was.

"Hey!" She greeted rather enthusiastically. "I just got the sheet music from Cole. We can start working on the songs today!" She placed the sheets of notes above the piano and studied them so she would know what to play. Reed stayed back, freaking out at the thought of having to sing. He was not at all comfortable with the idea.

Shayne glanced over her shoulder and noticed his paled expression. "What's wrong?" Her voice was filled with concern. "You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

Reed tried to regain his composure. He did not want to show his fear to the theater expert so he just grabbed his script and joined her at the piano. Too bad Shayne was not going to let the mini freak out go. "What's up with you?" She nudged his shoulder playfully.

Reed ran his hand over his face in frustration with a heavy sigh. "I'm not too keen to the whole singing thing. It's the part I've been dreading most." He met her gaze with his own nervous one.

"What are you talking about? You have a great voice! You have nothing to be worried about!"

Reed's nervous expression didn't change.

Shayne decided to cut him a break. "Tell you what," she started rifling through the music, "I'll sing one of my solos first and then we'll work on one of your songs. What do you say?"

Reed knew there really wasn't a choice. Ms. Evans had already warned the entire cast that they were going to start incorporating the songs into rehearsals after school today. He figured if Shayne was willing to put herself out there and sing just in front of him when he hadn't exactly been the best audience in past years, he could suck it up and sing too. It would probably be a lot easier with just her as his audience. "Alright sounds good." He offered up a warm smile of gratitude.

Shayne returned the smile. "Great!" She held up two song selections. "Which would you like to hear: "Journey to the Past" or "Once Upon a December"?"

Not knowing the songs, Reed pointed to the one in her right hand. She glanced at the title on the front. "'Once Upon a December' it is!" She set the music out in front of them. "Think you can turn the pages for me?" A sassy smirk was set on her mouth.

Reed snorted his amusement. "I think I can manage." His voice was overly egotistical, but his smile indicated it was all in good fun.

Shayne rolled her eyes as her fingers began gliding over the ivory keys in a graceful manner, filling the auditorium with the sweet melody of the song. It sounded like they were inside of a music box. Reed was entranced from the moment she started to sing. There was something about her voice that was captivating. He couldn't look away even if he tried. She would certainly have the attention of the audience when she took the stage.

Afternoon announcements caused quite the stir among the student body. It was the last day to buy tickets for the Halloween homecoming dance this coming Saturday, and it was common knowledge that Reed Douglas had not asked anyone yet even though he had purchased two tickets on Monday morning according to student council president, Antonia Salvatore. Every single girl was hopeful to be the lucky one to be asked, and the guys were wishing Reed would ask someone already so their date offers would be accepted.

Reed detested that the all of East High felt it was their business to know who he intended to ask to the dance. He felt all of the busy bodies should just shove off and stop trying to pry into his personal life. Yes he bought two tickets two days ago, but he was still trying to find the courage to ask his desired date to go with him.

When the final bell rang, he shoved past the fawning girls, ignoring what would have been inviting offers a few weeks ago. He had changed for the better recently, and a lot of people didn't like it, especially his fellow senior teammates who deeply valued the "playboy" relationship style they were known for. It had been a basketball team tradition to hook up with as many girls as possible without ever getting in a serious relationship. Reed went along with it to a degree by not entering into a long-term relationship, but he left the hooking up with a different girl at every party to the rest of his teammates. In the history of this tradition, there was only one other basketball player who did not take part in it, Troy Bolton; though this was a well-kept secret to maintain the team's reputation.

Standing at his locker after the majority of the crowd had left the hallway gathering his books he would need that night, Reed nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a subtle tap on his left shoulder. Fearing it was another desperate with an offer "to good to refuse," he looked over his shoulder very slowly. He smiled in relief as his eyes met the emerald green ones of Shayne. "Hey," he sighed.

She leaned against the locker next to his. "Hey yourself, you look pretty relieved to see me." She poked his bicep as if trying to pester him.

"I am. I thought you were another annoying girl."

"Wanting to know if she was the lucky lady?"

Reed couldn't help but smile at her playfulness. "Yeah." He closed his locker and the spun the lock to clear it. "I gotta start heading over to the gym for practice." He started walking backwards as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the gym.

Shayne pulled away from the wall of lockers. "I'll walk with you. I've got time to kill."

"Okay."

They walked in a comfortable silence for a few steps, having gotten used to each other's presence in their daily rehearsals both alone and with the rest of the cast.

Reed jammed his hands in his jeans pockets. "Sooooo, you going to the dance?"

"I don't know." She fumbled with the zipper of her messenger bag nervously. "It depends."

Reed stopped walking. "On what?"

Shayne looked up and met his curious grey-blue eyes. "On who asks me."

Reed knew this was his moment. She had pretty much given him an open invitation. However, as he opened his mouth to speak, Coach Bolton came running down the hall. He hurried past them, but shouted over his shoulder, "Reed get practice started! I'll be there in a minute!"

"Alright, Coach," Reed yelled after him as he rounded the corner that led towards Ms. Evans' room. He brought his attention back to Shayne. "That was weird."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I better let you get to practice then. I'll talk to you later."

Reed grabbed her elbow as she turned to leave. "Hang on a sec, I need to ask you something."

She gazed at him expectantly.

"I'm sure you know I have two tickets to the dance."

Shayne rolled her eyes and laughed. Of course she knew. "Yeah…"

Reed took a deep breath and decided to go for it. "Well, I was wondering if you would like to go to the dance with me. What do you say?" His stomach did a flip flop once he asked. Her answer would be the moment of truth.

"I'd like that." Her response was simple yet affirmative, but she was really giddy like a little girl on the inside.

Reed felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Really?" He felt the need to double check.

Shayne nodded her head eagerly. "Yes!"

"Great! Look, I gotta get practice started before Coach gets back, but I'll see you at rehearsal later." His speech came out rushed due to the adrenaline rush he was now feeling.

Shayne couldn't help laughing. "Alright, I'll talk to you later. Go!" She shooed him off towards the gym.

Reed gave her a departing smile before running towards the gym. He hadn't felt this happy in a very long time.

Troy came to a skidding halt in front of Sharpay's classroom. He had run from the gym to catch her before she went home for the afternoon. She didn't look near ready to leave when he walked in the door. She was sitting at her desk staring intently at her laptop. "Hey."

The sound of Troy's voice caused her to jump. She closed her computer hurriedly as he walked towards her desk. "Hey, you scared me."

"Sorry." He sat down partially on her desk. "What were you doing?" He pointed to her computer.

She glanced at it with a guilty expression. She tried to think of an excuse he would buy, though Troy could always tell when she was lying. "I was, um, getting an early start on Christmas shopping?" What should have been a statement was uttered as a question. She bit her lower lip nervously knowing he was on to her now.

"Oh really?" Troy picked up the laptop and opened it. He waited the few required seconds for the screen to load. The web browser was open to an airline website. "Airplane tickets?" He raised his eyebrow curiously. Scanning the page, he saw she was looking up flights to New York. "Planning to go see Ryan and Kelsi?"

"Yeah, I can't wait till Christmas to see them, especially Cameron. Ryan e-mailed me some new pictures today, and he's getting so big! So I thought I'd go there for Thanksgiving and stay for a couple days."

"And you wanted to hide this from me because…" Troy let his sentence trail off hoping she would fill in the rest with an explanation.

"Well, um," Sharpay flicked an imaginary speck of dirt from beneath her french manicured finger. "I was thinking we could go together. Then you won't have to wait till Christmas to see Michelle either, and I'm anxious to meet her." She stopped her reasoning when she saw the huge grin Troy was giving her. "And you totally love the idea." She said it obviously more to herself than to Troy, who started chuckling. "Ass," she smacked his thigh. "I wanted to surprise you!"

"I'm not laughing at you."

Sharpay cocked her head to the side. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really. I'm laughing because I was going to surprise you with the same thing. Michelle and I were talking about it the other day. She's really anxious to meet you too so she suggested we fly out and visit." He took another glance at the computer screen. "Except I don't have that many frequent flyer miles. Geez, you can go around the world and back with all of these!" His eyes got huge when he saw the number.

Sharpay batted her eyelashes innocently. "What can I say? I love my credit cards!"

"Obviously." He jumped up before he could get smacked again. "So we're going to New York for Thanksgiving then, huh?"

"I guess so. Our tickets are only a click away." She placed her index finger on the mouse, waiting for his approval.

Troy gestured to the computer. "Go for it."

Sharpay clicked the mouse, reserving their round-trip tickets to New York City. "So why did you come running in here anyways?" She turned her attention to him.

Troy didn't respond. He was too busy studying the confirmation page that had just popped up, and he did not like what he was seeing. "A 6:00 a.m. flight! Are you kidding me?"

"Oh please, you can sleep on the plane. Get over it!"

"Ugh," he groaned.

"Are you done complaining so you can tell me what you wanted?" She looked at him pointedly, indicating she didn't feel like listening to his moaning and groaning any longer.

"Yeah," he took a seat on his old desk, "I won't be at your place until later. I just found out I have an Athletic Association meeting tonight. God only knows how long that will last." He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"It doesn't matter. I'm starting to incorporate the songs into rehearsals tonight so it will go later. We'll probably end up finished at the same time. Speaking of time," she glanced at the clock, "shouldn't you be starting practice about now?"

"I told Reed to get it started. They'll be fine for awhile, besides its Wednesday. Today is weight training. They know the drill by now."

Sharpay started packing up her desk. "Well, I need to get going anyways. I promised Kaci I would meet her for dinner before rehearsal, and I want to get home and change first."

"Alright," he jumped off the desk, "I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah." She slipped her laptop into its bag.

"Okay, talk to you later."

"Bye."

Normally Troy would kiss her when they had to part, but they had to keep their relationship under wraps at school. It was going well too. They had fallen into a routine over the past few weeks. As it was predicted, Troy was pretty much living at Sharpay's apartment. He spent almost every night there, only going home to sleep when she decided to randomly work on Kaci's dress. They ate dinner with Jack and Lucy twice a week and had Sunday brunch with them too. It worked perfectly for them for the time being, while they were still getting used to the new relationship.

Troy fumbled with his tie in the bathroom while Sharpay sat at her vanity in sweatpants and a tank top, freshly back from her yoga class, debating whether or not to paint her nails black for the occasion. It was Halloween: the night of the Homecoming dance and Jason's after hour's party at the restaurant.

"You know, this really isn't fair!" Troy shouted across the hall.

"It's called paying your dues, sweetie!" Sharpay yelled back. She decided to be festive and grabbed her black nail polish out of the drawer.

Troy leaned against her bedroom doorframe still attempting to make his tie straight. She was removing her French manicure with a cotton ball and nail polish remover. "But why don't you have to chaperone the dance then? You're still technically a new teacher too," he whined.

Sharpay got up to help him, abandoning her manicure for the time being. She took a hold of the knot he was trying to form. "Because I volunteered for prom, which is a much longer dance f.y.i." She straightened the perfect knot she had just made and smiled with satisfaction.

"But prom is right up your alley so don't even give me that." He flopped down on the bed. "You get to stay home and pass out candy, while I stand around in the gym making sure no one spikes the punch."

"Get up before you get your shirt all wrinkled!" She scolded. When he sat up, she met his eyes in the mirror. "The dance only goes to 10:00. Then you'll come back, change and we'll go to the party at the restaurant where you can drink your way through a case of beer with Jason if you want. I'll even be designated driver for the evening." She rolled her chocolate eyes in annoyance.

Troy got up from the bed. He bent down and kissed the crown of her blonde curls. "I knew there was a reason why I loved you so much."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you better get going before that punch bowl gets spiked."

He placed a hand on her upper back. "I'll see you soon."

She tilted her head up so he could kiss her good-bye. He gave her a gentle peck. "Have fun, sweetie!"

"Try not to eat all the candy before the trick-or-treaters get here!" Troy yelled from the living room.

The dance was in full swing by the time Reed and Shayne arrived together. Shayne's mom insisted on taking extra photos for Reed's parents who were off on some of excursion, probably buying another time share some place tropical. When they pulled into the parking lot in Reed's Range Rover, Shayne started to have second thoughts and insisted they wait in the car for a few minutes. A few minutes ended up being a half hour, but Reed didn't mind. He spent that time admiring how the red halter dress Shayne was wearing offset her pale complexion and brought out the deep emerald in her eyes. She wore her normally straight auburn hair down in ringlets.

All eyes were on them as they entered the gym hand in hand. Shayne immediately tightened her grip on Reed's hand out of nerves, but he didn't mind. He simply led her through the crowd to a table in the back where they would sit until she was ready to get up and dance. She smiled gratefully at him, appreciating all he was doing.

The gym was decorated to correspond with the holiday to match the small budget. The original planned theme had been A Night at the Oscars, but thanks to the previous student council president's overspending on last year's prom, money was extremely tight. Even though the décor was bland, everyone still dressed as if they were walking the red carpet. The girls had gone all out with their dresses and many forced their dates to do the same.

Reed felt relief wash over him when he caught a glimpse of his friends who had been sucked into dressing to match their dates. He whispered into Shayne's ear, "Thank you for not making me dress like a clown tonight."

Shayne merely laughed her response.

"Do you want some punch or something?"

"Are you kidding? I'm sure someone has spiked it by now."

"I don't know. Coach Bolton seems to be guarding the snack table very carefully." He gestured towards Troy with his head. He was standing behind the fold-out table with his arms crossed over his chest looking very bored.

Shayne giggled as the first slow song of the night started. "How about a dance instead?" she suggested.

Reed stood up from the table and extended his hand. "I thought you'd never ask." With her hand in his, he led them to the center of the dance floor. He placed his hands on her hips gently while she slid her arms around his neck nervously. They kept a fair distance between themselves while they swayed in time with the music, ignoring the gawking that was going on around them.

They remained on the dance floor until it was time to announce king and queen. Reed led them back to the corner table they had previously occupied. Reed's friends decided to approach them once they were seated so Shayne took the opportunity to excuse herself and go to the ladies' room.

The three senior basketball players took the remaining seats at the table without asking if it was okay. "What's up guys?" Reed played it cool knowing he was about to undergo grief for being there with Shayne.

"What are you doing, man?" Max Danforth, Reed's best friend, inquired.

"I'm sitting here talking to you." Reed replied.

"Don't give me that. You know what I'm talking about. What are you doing here with her?" He seethed the last word and made a disgusted face.

"I'm here with SHAYNE," he annunciated her name, "because I want to be. I don't need your approval to do what I want."

"I think you'll have a hard time doing that frigid bitch."

Reed shot out of his seat, fists clenched at his sides. He dared Max with his stare to stand up and face him. Max stood up calmly. He was never afraid of a challenge to fight. Reed took a step forward, bringing his face closer to Max's. "Don't call her that."

Max held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just calling it like I see it. You're not gettin' any with that one. You're wasting your time."

Troy caught sight of his two best basketball players getting ready to take a swing at each from his post behind the refreshments. He bolted over to them before any punches could be thrown. "What's going on here boys?"

Max turned to face his coach. "Nothing Coach, we were through here." He gave Reed a warning with his eyes that said their friendship would be over if he continued hanging around Shayne before departing.

Reed didn't a need a warning. The friendship was over the minute Max started dissing Shayne. "Yeah, we're through," he countered.

"Everything okay?" Troy asked Reed with concern.

"Yeah, fine, Coach."

Troy didn't believe the teenage boy for a minute, but he let the issue go. "Alright."

Shayne returned as Troy was walking away. "What did Coach Bolton want?"

"Nothing. Let's get out of here." He grabbed Shayne's hand and pretty much dragged her out to the parking lot.

She was nearly tripping over her heels with him leading her. "Hey! Slow down! I'm wearing heels here."

Reed stopped abruptly causing her to run into him with full force. He had to grab her to keep her from losing her balance. "Sorry," he mumbled as he set her upright.

"It's okay." She grabbed his elbow to adjust her left shoe, which was slipping off. "What did Max say to you in there that's got you all upset?"

"It's nothing." He turned towards his Range Rover once again, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

"Hey, talk to me," she pleaded. "Tell me what's wrong."

Reed let out the huge breath he had been holding. He didn't want their great night to go sour like this, but he didn't have a choice. He needed to make sure he was defending her honor for a reason. "Why does he call you the Frigid Bitch?"

Shayne froze. She swore to herself that she would never tell Reed why she had earned that nickname. Trying to come up with an excuse, she realized she thought she had been protecting herself all these years when in reality she had been protecting Max. After he had destroyed her reputation for almost three years, it was only fair that she return the favor.

"I'll tell you, but can we please go somewhere that isn't the parking lot?" She rubbed her hands over her arms, beginning to feel the chill of the air.

Reed quickly slipped his jacket off and handed it to her like a true gentleman. "We can go to my house. No one is home of course."

Shayne slipped her arms through his suit jacket. It came down to mid-thigh on her. The hem of her dress was barely visible beneath it. "Sure, let's go."

Well there you have it. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry it took so long to get this posted!

As always please review!!!! Thanks!!