This was definitely the most fun I'd had all week. We were being idiots, but it was awesome. Gabriella and I were laughing our heads off after calling Troy the ugliest creature we'd ever laid eyes on… repeatedly… while he was right behind us. And I didn't care. "I can't believe you were there the whole time." I said, holding onto my stomach, laughing like an idiot for two minutes straight made it hurt after a while.
"I've got to admit, even though I don't usually laugh about this stuff, this was pretty classic." Gabriella said, regaining her composure. "No hard feelings right?" She asked Troy.
"Huh? Oh… yeah." He said. "Um can I talk to Sharpay for like, two seconds?"
Gabriella nodded. "I'll go back to the science project… I think we've had enough acting lessons for one day." She said.
Troy nodded hastily and pulled me over where Gabriella couldn't hear. "What was that?" He asked.
"What was what?" I asked.
"Don't play dumb! That whole 'Troy is the ugliest thing that set foot on this planet' thing!" He said mimicking us.
"Actually it was 'Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature that we've ever-" I stopped when I sensed that this wasn't quite helping. "We didn't mean anything by it okay? It was just a joke."
"Well still I'd prefer that you don't discuss me with my ex!" He said in a whisper.
"She's not your ex anymore! She's my friend! Accept it!" I said in a slightly louder whisper, just not loud enough to hear.
"Oh come Shar! First you hate and now then you're her best friend?" He asked, as if he were accusing me of something.
"Yeah! Do you have a problem with that?" I asked.
"No! I just love the idea of my ex girl friend and my best friend connecting over making fun of me!" He said, still in a semi-loudish whisper.
"Well your just going to have to-" I stopped and listened to what he just said. "Wait… you consider me your best friend?" I asked.
Troy shrugged. "Well, yeah. I mean… we don't talk that much anymore, but when we do its better than all the 'in depth' conversations I've had with Chad about the pros and cons about only practicing for two hours a day." Troy said.
I smiled. "So how is the great Chad Danforth?" I asked.
"Wrapped around the annoying Taylor Mckessie's finger." He smiled.
"Wow… through all those years in Jr. High when he couldn't even get a girl to tell him the math homework I never would've expected that." I said.
"Back then he couldn't even get a guy to tell him the math homework." Troy said, letting out a small laugh. "Now all he does is go to practice, and complain about Taylor nagging him to do her evil bidding."
"Her evil bidding?" I asked.
"She's on this quest for East High domination, step one is connecting the mathletes to the basketball team, ever since Gabriella and I broke up, our 'alliance' with them has been weakened… at least according to Taylor. Meaning that in order to reconstruct this bond, some of the team has to join the academic-what-ever-a-thon team. This is where Chad comes in."
I raised my eyebrows. "He's trying to convince you to join the academic decathlon team?" I asked.
"Yeah, that thing." He said. "He's really serious about it too, every time he talks about it it's like a bad infomercial." He said.
I laughed a little. "Come on, we'd better get back to Gabriella." I said.
He looked almost a little disappointed, but he still smiled and followed me. "What were you guys talking about?" Gabriella asked.
"He wanted inside details on the play, you know since I sort of co-wrote it." I said, sort of flaunting it, but could you blame me?
Troy looked confused, and then he nodded. "Uh… yeah, I really need those extra credit points this year, dad's planning a killer year for the Wild Cats."
"Isn't it against the rules to receive inside information on the play before hand?" Gabriella asked, she was still a goody two shoes, I just understood her better now.
"Uh… that's what I told him!" I said pointing to Troy.
Gabriella turned her gaze to Troy. "I uh… just wanted to know… for Chad! He's nervous about this whole musical thing."
Gabriella's look changed to sympathy. "I was too at first, but it gets easier." She said.
"I know… I was kind of there." Troy said. It was true that sometimes Gabriella took the whole Dr. Phil act just a little too far, she was still working on getting off other peoples cases though.
Gabriella nodded and went back to drawing a picture of our experiment for the write up. Troy gave me a 'What does she mean?' look and I gave him an 'I don't know! You met her first.' Type of look in return. We'd been friends long enough to understand each other's non-verbal communication.
The rest of the whole study session went on the same way, with a few awkward moments and some teasingly humorous Troy jokes. I got to bed early… for the first time in the past week I was actually ending the day with something good. Troy was standing in my door way. "Hey, you." I said.
"Hey yourself." He said and walked in. "Listen, we never really got a chance to talk." He said. (A/N the talk finally came! I swear, I won't put it off this time!)
I looked down. "Yeah… what did you want to talk about?" I asked.
"I like you… a lot Sharpay. And I was thinking maybe we could hang out or something." He said. He had obviously practiced, you could just tell.
"Wow…" Was all I could say, I mean sure I saw this coming but it was all in my dreams, this time, luckily for me I couldn't wake up this time. "You mean as-"
"Only if you want it to be." He said. I was quiet, I couldn't say no, but I couldn't say yes either, I trusted Troy and things were getting so much better now, but I still had some of me that he would break my heart. So I just tried to save the moment where Troy Bolton, wanted me. "You don't have to answer now okay? Just promise to think about it." He said. (A/N Okay… so I kind of put it off again but you're probably used to it by now)
I smiled. "I promise." I said. He nodded and left, closing the door behind him. I fell back onto the bed. I could hear the voice in my head. 'Welcome back to Torn City USA! Population: Sharpay Evans.' I closed my eyes, trying desperately to fall asleep, I guess it worked eventually, but before I fell asleep, it was torture, because I was for the third time in my life, torn once again over Troy Bolton.
I woke up and went into autopilot. I got read for school, once again dressing more up than down. I ate, went to school, talked with Gabriella, avoided Taylor, occasionally smiled at Troy, worked during science, told Ryan to shut up about thirty two times. I finally made it to free period, and was hyped for auditions. I sat next to Gabriella and Kelsi who were talking about the play. Ms. Darbus called out the names, one by one. We eventually got to Ryan first (Darbus doesn't go alphabetically so I didn't have to go next) he went with Holiday by Green Day, a song I made him listen to over and over until he literally would repeat it in his sleep. He did considerably well, but he was no Billy Joe. Next was Taylor, who did Aint No Other Man by Christina Aguilera, she was pretty good, but her voice didn't fill it out completely, she had great stage presence though. Chad was after her, he did really well with Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard, he actually danced while he was singing to, which was a major plus, but I could swear that he used a few moves that you could only learn in a ballet class. Next was Troy who did well with The Art of Losing by American Hi-fi, a song I could actually stand. Gabriella didn't go with her usual happy pop piece, she did Come Clean by Hilary Duff, a more serious song… okay, it was still Hilary Duff but it was a start.
"Great job." I whispered when Gabriella sat back down.
"Thanks." She whispered back.
"Okay, next Sharpay Evans." Ms. Darbus said.
I freaked as I walked up on stage, like I always did, but eventually the emotions took over. I nodded to one of the guys by the CD player. My Immortal by Evanescence started playing, I was sure no one had heard this song before but they were all shocked that I was singing something slow.
"I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears, and if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave, 'cause your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone, these wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase!" I sang out the first verse, first quiet, then powerful, usually I made my voice perky and feminine, today I made it strong.
"When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears! When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears! And I held your hand through all of these years! But you still have… All of me." I finished the chorus, hitting every high note, singing loudly without a shaking voice.
I roamed the stage, keeping the audiences eyes on me no matter what, by the second half of the song I was on my knees belting out the bridge. "I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone! But though you're still with me, I've been alone after all!" I sang, holding the last note to last three and a half measures.
"When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears! When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears! And I held your hand through all of these years! But you still have… All of me." I finished the song lowering my voice to a quiet hum. It was followed by a pause then an enormous applause. I felt so hyped. I shortly bowed and hopped off the stage.
Ms. Darbus was literally reduced to tears. "My dear, why didn't you perform like this last year?" She asked.
I smiled. "Thank you Ms. Darbus." I said and she nodded me away. I guess this was a good thing, really good.
Okay, so I finally added in the auditions. For the record, I listened to every song that was suggested to me and I hope I made the right choice which was a song that I picked out. Now I have to think about call backs… hey, do you guys think I should make it pairs only audition, single only auditions or both? And who should be the pairs? I don't think I did that great of a job on this chapter, I should of added more stuff with Ryan. But I've been getting alot of amazing reviews that I totally didn't expect (I've only been a member on this sight for like a month) so I just wanna say THANX GUYS! I'll try to update pronto.