I am soooooo sorry that I haven't updated in forever, I was suffering a horrible writer's block and needed to take a break... and yes, I realize that said 'break' was two months, but I was out of the country for one of those two months... and the rest of the time, I sent writing and rewriting. So anyways, I just realized the I never made a disclaimer for this so if you haven't figured this out by now, I own basically nothing but the plot and a few characters... that's about it.

Enjoy the story (and watch out for major drama)...

Sharpay's POV

I was finally getting over the whole 'circle of secrets' thing and starting to enjoy the party, I had even been dancing for a while, but unfortunately, when I had taken a two minute break for some water, I was attacked by two sophomores who could pass off as eighth graders... seriously, they were like, a foot shorter than me. "Hi Sharpay! I'm Gretchen and this is Katrina" Said one of the girls (in an incredibly high and squeaky voice, might I add).

"We're new at Hawthorne, and we must say, you're a legend here." Katrina said quickly, before jumping into interrogation mode. "Is it true that you were offered your own reality show on VH1... but you turned it down?"

"Is it true that you once let Paris Hilton borrow your eye liner at a movie premiere?"

"Were you really the one who told Lindsay to go blond?"

"Were you really in a Justin Timberlake video?

"Did you really make Lauren from the Hills cry because you called her a bad actress with no individuality what so ever?"

"Can we get a picture of the tattoo... you know, for the blogs?"

"Oh! And it would really help if you had any recent pictures of that Brandon guy that you told us all about?"

"Preferably with in one else in he shot... except maybe you."

"And if at all possible, he has to be topless if we really want people to start checking our blog daily."

"Unless you have a problem with the entire world looking at your ex boyfriend shirtless... which is totally understandable."

"Is he hott?"

"Where did you meet him?"

"Was his girlfriend a total whore?"

"Why was he even dating her?"

"Did she ever, like, see you with him?"

"Did you ever get into a fight with her?"

"Did you and Brandon ever... you know... do it?"

"Could you imagine like, getting married to him?"

"Do you still love him?"

I was fucking speechless. I mean, who asks you if you're still in love with your ex? It seriously took all the self control in me not to strangle their tiny little necks. "Okay... first of all, yes, I was offered a show on VH1 but in my opinion reality shows cheapen real life. I let Paris borrow mascara, not eye liner, I mean seriously, eye liner would mean that I would keep something that had touched her skin. For the record, I have never met Lindsay Lohan, I have no clue how that rumor got started. I was once an extra in a Justin Timberlake video, I have no clue why people make such a big deal out of it though. I told Lauren that her bra strap was showing and that she might have wanted to pull her pants up, and she some how took it as me calling her a fat whore and it escalated from there, though now that you mention it, she is a bad actress with no individuality what so ever. I am not giving you guys a picture of the tattoo or one of Brandon, and no further comment on all of the other questions, and please don't try asking again or I'll have to tell the others that there are a few press snitches at the party, and you know how much they hate that kind of thing, right?"

Silence. Not just that, but they looked at me with these 'how dare she!? Does she know who my father is?' looks on their faces. I mean, had they just expected me to sit there and answer all of those questions? "You're not... serious are you?" Either Katrina or Gretchen asked.

"Completely serious." I said, plastering my fakest smile across my face. "Now I'm going to go get a drink and hope that you guys don't follow me." I said walking over to the table, glad to get away from them, I smirked, I had such a way with the paparazzi.

Taylor was standing there, enjoying a drink that didn't quite look like mountain dew... it didn't quite look like her first one either. "Hey Sharpay!" She said.

"Hey... where's Gabriella?" I asked, grabbing a coke.

"How should I know? Probably out there slutting around with random guys." Taylor said bitterly.

Coke almost spewed out of my nose at the one. "I'm sorry... what?" I asked, between choking on my coke.

"You heard me." Taylor said with a smirk. "I can't believe I was ever friends with her in the first place."

"What brought this on?" I asked, genuinely curious about this, I mean, Taylor had always happily been Gabriella's sidekick, and now she was going all rebelious? It just didn't add up.

Taylor seemed amused by this. "Well you see, that's the big question. In a twisted way, we're both on the same boat here. We were both screwed over by that bitch Gabriella."

Okay... now I was hooked on this conversation. "How do you figure?" I asked.

"Oh please! Don't pretend like you don't see it! Gabriella is the only reason that Troy hasn't made a move... or well, another move." Taylor said with a smile, obviously made happy with the idea of someone pulling Troy right from under her.

I raised an eyebrow... honestly, she had lost me on that one. "I don't follow."

"Seriously Sharpay, you don't have to lie t me about this! I for one think you and Troy would make a great couple, I mean, even Chad sees it-" She scowled at the mention of his name. "Though I'm not exactly on speaking basis with him right now... he agrees. Ever since you got here, it's like he woke up from a trance or something."

"No, Taylor, seriously. You have the whole thing mixed up." I said, in a sad attempt to get Taylor to let go of the idea. She just shook her head at me and smiled at me. I decided the only way out of this was to switch subjects. "That still doesn't explain the ever so sudden change of heart towards Chad and Gabriella though. I mean, I know I'm not their biggest fans or anything, but you guys were like, inseparable."

Taylor scowled. "You wouldn't think that if you saw what I did."

"I have no clue what you're talking about Tay-" I paused, letting her words register. "Wait... they didn't..." I trailed off.

"Bingo." Taylor nodded. "Yesterday I was planning to meet Gabriella to talk about the Academic Decathlon, had to cancel a date with Chad and he was pretty pissed." She paused before she got too angry. "I waited at the Library for two hours, I figured that she forgot to tell me that she was busy so I went over to Chad's. Imagine my surprise when I saw my boyfriend messing around with my best friend in the fucking swimming pool."

"No way."

"It happened." She said, her look turning icier. "And I felt like such a total idiot. I mean, what did I expect? Dating since the sixth grade and no sex? I mean seriously, how could I be so naïve? I just didn't realize that I had t choose between being a virgin and being his girlfriend... I mean, what was I supposed to do? Say sorry I wanted to wait until marriage?"

I felt like a slut for about half a second, then it passed. Then I started feeling sympathy. "Wow." Was all I could manage.

"Wow is right."

"Did she know that you saw?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Are you going to tell her?"

She paused. "No." She said. She paused again. "As for Troy... I was thinking that maybe you should be the one to break it to him."

I dropped my cup in the sand at that one. "Okay... maybe you should take a break from the tequila Tay, because that is not going to happen."

"Just think about it okay?" She asked, and before I could answer, she walked off.

Troy's POV

I leaned against the speaker at the party, just watching the other people. The people here were so interesting, it was really kind of weird for me. I mean, the people at East High were generally forgettable. The people here looked as if they were pulled straight out of an MTV show. Gabriella had been babbling about how they played some demo song by Justin Timberlake when his next album isn't even in talks. I was like 'right... that guy from that boy band... whatever.' But Gabriella seemed pretty into it. She had eventually wandered off trying to make friends with a few of the prep school kids. I really didn't care much, because at least she wasn't going around confessing her love for me. I couldn't help but feeling out of it. I mean, I would have been one of them had I not insisted on going to Montessori with all the other kids when I was five.

"Hey! Are you enjoying the party?" I heard Sharpay ask.

I turned around and smiled. "Hey Shar, where were you?"

"Just catching up with some people." She said. "Hey... can I show you something?" She asked.

I shrugged, when in reality, I was relieved, I had already been receiving weird looks for just standing by the speakers.

Sharpay smiled. "Come on." She said, and took off walking. I followed as closely as I could.

"Um... Shar... I can't even hear the music anymore. Where are we?" I asked.

"Chill, I know where we're going. And we're here." She said.

"And what exactly is here?" I asked, all I saw was an abandoned rental shed.

"Ye of little faith, have you learned nothing in the time that I was here?" She asked. She walked towards the shed and dug in her pocket until she found a key, which she used to unlock the shed. "Remember back when I lived here, I would never be around the house?"

"Yeah... you spent all that time in your room with the door locked."

"Not quite, I had a window, therefore I had an option." She said. "Come on, welcome a little place I like to call home."

I stepped closer. Even though the walls were paneled with wood, the place was pretty cool, Sharpay had a little table with a stack of books and a boom box with an even bigger stack of CD's next to it. I smiled. This place was so Sharpay.

"I know right?" She said, seeing my expression. She slid down against the wall. "This was where I spent all of my time."

"I like it." I admitted. "So tell me about the Sharpay Evans charmed life. I've read about it but I'd love to get a firsthand account."

"There's really nothing to say about it." She said with a shrug. "

"Oh come on... there must be something going on." I teased, sliding down next to her. "Scandals, rebellions, guys... give me something."

"The guys at these school are nothing special." She said, looking at me with this honest look. "They're cool to be friends with and all that stuff, but when it comes to dating, they're all just huge jerks. The only nice guys I've ever met in these private schools were gay." I let out a small laugh at that. "No... I'm seriously. The only nice ones were gay and well... Brandon. And we all know how that turned out." She rolled her eyes. "And all the other guys in the universe are too boring. I mean, is there such thing as a guy who's fun, exciting and not a total jerk?"

I let out a weak laugh at that. "You're asking the wrong guy. As far as boyfriends go I'm pretty much a lost cause. I mean, seriously this is the guy who didn't say I love you back to his emotionally unstable girlfriend, I'm not exactly the love doctor." I said, scowling.

"Well love doctor or no love doctor, you still beat the losers here." Sharpay said, resting her head against the wooden wall, a guilty look making its way across her face.

I sat up straight. "Wait... what's wrong?"

Sharpay shook her head and smiled unconvincingly. "It's... nothing, really."

"Seriously Shar... what's up?" I asked.

"Nothing... She asked.

I gave her a look and leaned back against the wall. "What are you talking about? Look Sharpay I'm fine... I'm just worried about you."

She scowled and shook her head at me. "You have no clue what you're talking about"

"Yes... I do." I said, taking a deep breath. "Look, my dad died... and I barely even knew him. It's been hard...but ever since you've been here... I just don't know what I'm doing or what I'm going to do. I just know that I'm happier now."

Sharpay smiled at that. "That was possibly the corniest thing I've ever heard... which is why it's so weird that I loved hearing it." Her smile faded. "But I shouldn't... and you shouldn't have said it."

I looked away, embarrassed. "I know." I mumbled. There was a long silence. "But... it's true. And right now, it's just about the only thing that I'm sure of." I stopped and realized what I was saying. "I feel like an idiot."

"You're not an idiot." She muttered, standing up. "Look... Troy, you really need to talk to Gabriella"

"Why?" I asked, scrambling to my feet. "Is everything okay?"

"Just talk to her okay? Just do it for me... please?" She asked me, sounding remarkably unlike herself.

"What's wrong?" I asked putting my hand on her shoulder. "Just tell me what it is."

I heard the door open. "What the hell!?"

In my head, I went all does this have to happen like, one every other day but at the same time I knew that it would be best to just try to explain. Sharpay had pulled away from me, so I took a step towards the door. "Gabriella... this really isn't what it looks like."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE... WITH HER!?" Gabriella screamed.

I took her hand, trying to calm her down "Look we were just talking... in fact Sharpay just said-"

"DON'T LISTEN TO A SINGLE WORD THAT SAYS! SHE'S JUST A STUCK UP PREP SCHOOL SLUT WHO HAS TO GET OVER HERSEL! YOU'RE MY BOYFRIEND! REMEMBER?"

"Hey! Don't call her that!" I said, getting a good look at Gabriella. "Wait... are you drunk?"

"WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HER!?" She asked, ignoring my question (and answering at the same time). "SHE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE YOU! IT IS SO OBVIOUS THAT SHE'S STILL HUNG UP OVER THAT BRONDON GUY!"

I looked from Gabriella, to Sharpay, to Gabriella then back to Sharpay. She had an icy look on her face and I could tell that Gabriella ad crossed the line. "You can say whatever you want about me, or my friends and you can walk around with that little fake innocent girl thing for as long as you want and delude yourself into thinking that people like you but don't you dare bring Brandon into this."

"Don't try to fool me with the whole star struck lover thing. Your still just the whore making out with her stepbrother onfront of his girlfriend!"

"Says the girl who uses her boyfriend as an excuse to drink all the time!"

"SAYS THE BITCH WHO'S ONLY HEAR TO GET ENOUGH MONEY TO GO BACK TO HER FANCY NEW YORK PREP SCHOOL!"

"SAYS THE GIRL WHO CHEATED ON HER BOYFRIEND WITH HIS BEST FRIEND!"

Ahh... don't you just love catfights? Me too... So I think I've officially been cured of my writer's block so you probably won't have to wait two months to see how this turns out (not that I think any of you are counting the minutes until I update or anything). I kept on having to rewrite this for some reason. There was one version where Sharpay got drunk and made out with Troy... then there was a version where Gabriella got high and almost drowned... and there was a version where Gabriella found Troy's stash of drugs (remember from chapter one?) but I decided that this one was best... but you can look out for some major drama upcoming. Bye.