A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys. I have been pretty busy since I last updated. I had exams last week, and this week I was doing a lot of stuff for my old school. I've settled down now, so hopefully I can update some more.

Chapter 10

It had been a month and a half since Sharpay and seen and spoken to Troy, and frankly, she was quite happy. At the back of her mind, she felt guilty, but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind, and enjoyed the time she had with her daughter before school started. Sharpay had gone to East Middle School for her personality interview, and the principal had definitely liked her for the job. She had begun taking Katrina to preschool 3 days a week so that when she had to start going to work she wouldn't have separation anxiety. It also gave Sharpay a chance to go to her new classroom and begin putting stuff in.

It was finally time for Sharpay to start work. She was as nervous as hell, and she wasn't afraid to admit it.

"Come on, honey, I have to get to work." Sharpay called from the kitchen as she cleaned up a little bit from breakfast.

"I'm coming, Mommy!" Katrina called from their bedroom.

Sharpay heard shuffling around in the room, and decided to see what it was.

"Katrina?" she said as she walked up to the door. "What are you doing?" she said as she appeared in the doorway.

"I'm looking for my teddy bear for show-and-tell."

"Why didn't you look for it before, honey?" Sharpay said, getting down on her knees and looking around the floor.

Katrina just shrugged and continued looking.

"Choose something else, hon. We really have to get going. Where's the calendar? I should have known about show-and-tell, baby."

"Umm…" Katrina looked around and left the room. Sharpay got up and dusted off her hands and knees. Katrina appeared in the room a few seconds later with a half crumpled paper in her hand.

Sharpay sighed and put her hand to her forehead. "Honey, did you take that from off the fridge?" Katrina nodded. "Are you supposed to take it off the fridge?" Katrina shook her head. "Remind me to ask Ms. Davis for another one when I come to pick you up."

"Okay." Katrina said.

"We really have to go, babe, so choose something quickly." Sharpay said, trying to control her irritability.

"Okay, I guess I'll just take my Dora soccer ball."

"Good choice. You'll take the teddy bear next time, right?"

Katrina nodded as she picked her soccer ball up from the corner off the room.

"Okay. Go put your shoes on and I'll get your backpack."

"Okay." Katrina waltzed out of the room.

Sharpay looked at her watch. 7:56 it read. She let out a breath.

"It'll be okay, Sharpay. You have nothing to worry about. You will not be late." Sharpay said to herself.

"I'm ready, Momma!" Katrina called.

"I'm coming!" Sharpay picked up Katrina's bag, and shut the door behind her as she left the room.

East Middle School

It had taken Sharpay 15 minutes to drop Katrina off, so by the time she got to work it was almost 8:30. She entered the doors of the school looking flushed.

"Morning, Mary." Sharpay said to the secretary as she arrived in the office.

"Morning, Sharpay." The older woman said. "You look exhausted and the school year hasn't even started."

"I'm good. It took a little longer to get here this morning since Katrina decided to use her school calendar as a thing to color on."

"Well you know how they are at that age." Mary laughed.

"Don't I know it." Sharpay said, laughing along with her. "I'll see you later, Mary."

"Have a good day." Mary said as she looked back at the computer. "Try not to kill them on their first day back."

"I'll try." Sharpay said with a smile as she left the office. She turned right down a hallway and walked up a flight of stairs. She turned right again and stopped at a door. She took her set of keys out and unlocked the door. She set foot inside the room, turned the light on, and looked around.

She had done a lot of work the last two weeks of August. Luckily, Taylor and Gabriella helped a lot. She had put up different musical symbols and posters on the wall, and so much more. At that moment, she felt right back at home. She hadn't done a lot of music since Katrina was born, so it felt good to her knowing that she was doing it now.

She checked the clock on the wall and saw she had 10 minutes before her first class would arrive. She went over to her desk that was placed in the corner, exactly where she wanted it, and looked over her class lists. Her first class was a 6th grade class. She read the list and tried to familiarize herself with their names. She opened the drawer and placed her lesson plans out on her desk.

Sharpay also had two pictures on her desk – one of Katrina in her soccer uniform, and the other of her and Katrina in their new apartment. Sharpay smiled at the pictures and couldn't believe how much she was missing her daughter already. She looked up at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost 8:30.

She read through all the things she wanted to cover today. She was so wrapped up in what she was doing that she didn't hear someone come in the room.

"Knock, knock."

Sharpay looked up and saw the last person on earth she wanted to see.

"What do you want?" Sharpay asked coldly.

"Just wanted to wish you good luck is all." Troy shrugged.

"Fine. You can go now." Sharpay did her hand in a shooing motion.

"Please, Sharpay, can we talk?"

Before Sharpay could answer the bell rang.

"I have to get ready for my class." Sharpay said quietly.

"I guess I'll see you later then." Troy left the classroom without waiting for a reply.

A minute later, kids started filing in. Sharpay stood up and pushed all of her Troy thoughts out of her mind.

"Settle down and take a seat anywhere for now." Sharpay told the class. "Damn you, Troy Bolton." She muttered to herself.

"Miss, I forgot my lunch bag on the bus!" one student called out.

"When we're finished here, you can go down to Ms. Campbell, and see if anyone brought it in. Clear?" the student nodded. "Alright. My name is Ms. Evans, and I will be your music teacher this year. Just like you guys, I'm new here too, so how about we all work together and help each other out. How does that sound?"

"Good." The students chorused. Sharpay heard a sigh of relief from some students.

"Good. Now let's start off with attendance before we do anything else. You guys can sit where you are for now, but by next week there will be a seating plan. Okay." Sharpay went over to her desk and picked up a sheet of paper. "Justin Ambrose…"

By lunchtime, Sharpay was exhausted. She had already had two classes, and had three more before the end of the day.

Sharpay let out a sigh of relief as she entered the staff room. She went over to the coffee maker, and turned it on. She sat down at a table and took out her lessons plans to review while she waited for coffee.

"Hi." A voice said.

Sharpay jumped and looked up. "Oh hi."

"I didn't mean to scare you." A woman a little older than Sharpay said.

"It's okay, don't worry about it. I just thought you were someone else. I'm Sharpay Evans." Sharpay got up and stuck her hand out to the woman.

"Where are my manners, I'm Jennifer Taylor." She shook Sharpay's hand. "You're the new music teacher, right?"

"Yeah." Sharpay nodded.

"I teach Art and English." Sharpay nodded. "I don't mean to be nosy, but who did you think I was?"

Sharpay sighed. "Troy Bolton." She said as she poured herself coffee.

"You know, Troy?"

"Only too well."

"You don't seem too happy."

"That's because I'm not." Sharpay sat down, and Jennifer sat down beside her.

"What's up?"

"It's just that ever since I came back home, we haven't been getting along too well, and finally when we started getting back on the right track, I had to go and screw it up."

"I don't get what you mean. Where were you before?"

"I went to high school here, East High, and then I went to UNM, and after finishing at UNM, I moved to New York. Troy and I had begun dating at the end of junior year during high school, and right before I went to New York, we broke up."

"I'm sorry." Jennifer said sincerely.

"It's okay. I'm over it, but the thing is, 9 months later, he left me with a baby."

"Really? Wow."

"Yeah. She's 3, her name's Katrina, do you wanna see a picture?" Jennifer nodded. Sharpay opened her handbag, and took out some mini photos. She showed Jennifer the picture of Katrina on her 3rd birthday.

"She's gorgeous. She has Troy's eyes."

"Yeah."

"It must've been hard."

"It was, but luckily I had my friends and family behind me."

"That's good." Jennifer nodded. "So, how did you screw up your relationship with Troy this time?"

"I told his parents about Katrina before I told him, so he wasn't exactly jumping up and down when he found that out. I don't blame him. I would have been furious, but it's getting really hard to be around him, so I avoid him as much as I can. I haven't talked to him in over a month, and just when I thought things were going to be good, my brother talked to Troy and got me this job here, so yeah."

"You've gone through a lot."

"Yeah…I just told my life story to a complete stranger. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to burden you with my problems." Sharpay laughed.

Jennifer laughed. "It's okay. I'm here for you if you need me."

"Thanks." Sharpay said with a smile. The bell rang, signaling that lunch was over. "Well," Sharpay said as she stood up. "Back for round two."

Jennifer smiled. "Don't let them trample over you. It's only the first day."

"Got it. I'll see you soon." And with that Sharpay left the staff room. She felt a little better after her talk with Jennifer. As she walked back to her classroom, Sharpay saw Troy in the halls talking to a student. She managed to get passed him without him noticing. She went into her classroom, and got ready for the rest of the day.