Chapter Ten: Hell and Heaven in a Tub
Troy watched in horror as the two huge women grasped Sharpay roughly. She struggled, kicking and screaming with all her might. Troy couldn't understand her, but he could read her lips and he could discern every other word. He knew she was pleading with all her might to her brother to stop doing this to her. But Troy saw how Ryan just stood there without doing anything. His other friends remained as passive as he. He noticed that Gabriella even had a triumphant look on her face as if she was enjoying watching Sharpay suffering like this. Troy couldn't believe this was the same sweet girl he dated for two years. There was certainly nothing sweet about her when she attempted to pound him with a bottle of bubble bath earlier. She was deliriously mad with fury. Troy couldn't find any other words to describe it.
He swam next to Sharpay in a panicked effort to protect her. But what can a small fish do compared to two huge women who had Sharpay in a vicious grip? He saw one of them press a syringe to her arm and she immediately lowered her defenses. The two women let her go and she sagged down into the tub, her chin to the surface of the water. Troy swam next to her face and he could see through her expression that she was struggling to fight the effects of whatever sedative they put on her.
"Sharpay Oh my God! Sharpay! What have they done! Sharpay! Stay with me please!" he cried.
Sharpay attempted to raise herself and she uttered something frantic. He caught the words "Troy" and "don't hurt" from her lips before her eyelids finally closed. He realized her final cry was a plea to protect him.
He watched helplessly as the two women fished her out of the tub and carried her away like a limp doll.
And then he was staring up at Ryan. He could hear Gabriella saying something in the background and the tone of her voice made him shiver. Was Gabriella going to have him killed? But then Ryan answered back to her and he caught the words "leave it" from his lips before he moved away from Troy's line of vision. He heard footsteps shuffling out the bathroom then the sounds of water running in the shower. He knew the women were scrubbing Sharpay clean. At the same time he heard a loud pounding somewhere beyond the bathroom like someone hammering in nail on wood. It went on for a long time and ended by the time Sharpay was taken out of the shower. He had one last view of her wrapped in a towel and carried out of the bathroom like a helpless child. Then the door closed and he was left all alone.
For a long moment he was left to ponder in silence. He realized the rain outside subsided again without him noticing it. Sunlight was beginning to filter through the windows so Troy had enough light to see, though admittedly he didn't need it with his kind of vision. He swam around the tub in an effort to calm his furiously beating heart. Somehow, the exercise felt good, the same way a sprint around the oval track felt like whenever he was distraught. And he couldn't feel more distraught than now. When his heart slowed to a manageable pace, he began to think. What was he to do now? Sharpay was now unconscious and unable to help him. And even if she was able to, everyone would still think she was insane so she couldn't do much.
He shook his head to get rid of the horrid images of what just happened but they keep coming up in his mind. Those moments when Sharpay was struggling against the women that were trying to sedate her disturbed him even more than the experience of seeing his girlfriend attempting to pound him to a pulp with a bottle or watching a large fish eat another one alive. Sharpay looked so scared in a way that he had never seen her before. He wondered if she had experienced similar treatment in the past. Didn't Ryan tell them Sharpay had been to therapy for years? That she became violent? It didn't take a genius to put two and two together. He could just imagine Sharpay as a little girl being man-handled like that and forcibly sedated whenever she threw a tantrum when a fish was served to her at dinner. He had seen how she tried desperately to make others believe her in the boat when she tried to rescue him. And no one did believe her.
He couldn't really blame his friends. After all, it was a pretty far-fetched story and if he were in their shoes and Sharpay came to him with a story that Chad turned into a fish, he wasn't likely to believe her either. He began to wonder: was this how Sharpay's life went on? That she was cursed with this unique gift that she could never share with anyone or else she was branded as insane. He couldn't ever imagine living a life like that.
He continued to ponder about everything that happened for there was nothing much to do. He realized that life in a fish bowl must be a pretty boring thing. There was no where to go and nothing to do. And as the day wore on, he realized another complication to this kind of trapped life. No food. He would be dependent on what humans can give him. And as the only human that actually cared about him was out cold and unable to help him, he had to go hungry. No wonder Sharpay got mad at him when he kept Goldie in a bowl.
Troy let sleep overtake him to forget his troubles. It wasn't that hard for he was exhausted by the day's events.
He was jolted awake by the sound of the door opening and footsteps noisily coming in the other room. It was pitch dark though he could still see fairly well. He knew it was nighttime now. His stomach grumbled violently and he thought maybe he was going to starve to death.
The bathroom door suddenly opened and someone flicked on the light that illuminated the whole room. He heard footsteps approach. Fear overtook him again. Was somebody coming to kill him? If so, then he didn't have to starve to death. That was a small comfort that was no comfort at all.
A shadow loomed above and he looked up to find Ryan towering above him. For a long uncertain moment he wondered if this was his last moment on earth when Ryan suddenly tossed something into his water. It floated for a moment and he wondered curiously what it was. He was so hungry it looked good enough to eat. Against his will, he nibbled at it and to his surprise it was edible.
Bread! He thought joyously before gorging on it hungrily. Ryan tossed him food! For a moment, he could do nothing but eat. But then he stopped a moment as he realized Ryan was watching him. Troy stared back.
"Ryan, it's Troy!" he shouted. "Please believe Sharpay! I'm the fish!"
But Ryan didn't react. He just kept staring with a sad expression on his face. Finally, he stepped away and Troy heard him leave the room. Troy could do nothing more so he continued eating at his bread. The chunk was so big, he couldn't finish it. He thought to save some for later in case he went hungry again.
When he had his fill, he began to think again. What to do? What to do? Well, there really wasn't anything he can do at the moment, at least not without Sharpay's help. He began to think that maybe Sharpay would never come back. Maybe they took her away to some mad house. He will have to live the remainder of his life here in this tub, dependent on Ryan to feed him occasionally when he remembered. The thought just made him feel depressed and he could feel the hopelessness settling in again.
He shook himself. Don't think about that, Troy, he told himself. Don't or you'll die here even sooner than you want. Think positive. Think nice thoughts. Think of Sharpay
The last idea brightened him. But this time he didn't think of Sharpay struggling with those women, but what happened earlier than that. He imagined again how she came to him from out of the ocean and rescued him. She had come all the way back just to find him. And then he thought about what happened later in the tub when they tried to figure this all out. He smiled inwardly remembering how she kissed him… then did more than that.
He recalled the sensation. He had never been touched that way and it was unexpected. But he felt completely aroused when she touched him with her lips on a sensitive part of him. But more than the sexual, he felt completely safe with her. Her touch was always so gentle and every time he made contact with her skin he felt so much more alive and reassured.
It struck him as a funny that he always thought Sharpay, the ice queen would not be bold enough to touch a fish. She did seem like the kind that would shrink at something that smelled or felt funny. The way she never hesitated to touch him made him feel good despite everything that happened.
In contrast, Gabriella positively recoiled at the idea of even being near him. Well, he was a fish and that should be understandable. But Troy couldn't help but feel hurt that she rejected him that way. And it led him to wonder whether Gabriella would even look his way if she met him when he was only nine years old.
The rest of East High had long ago forgotten it, but Troy still remembered that time as his awkward phase. Back then he was overweight, had huge glasses, big braces and was generally picked on and called nasty names by the other kids.
These thoughts kept running on his head until he grew tired of them. He let himself fall asleep again and he began to dream…
Troy trudged down the corridor pass a couple of girls sighing over some magazine or some other nonsense. Chad clapped him on the back and he turned around to give a secret handshake to his best friend. At the same time, the group of girls started giggling again. Chad rolled his eyes at them.
"Stupid girls," Chad mumbled loudly. Unfortunately he said a little too loud and one black girl with hair in braids who hung back a little away from the rest of the group glared at him. Chad glared back.
Troy pulled his best friend away before Chad erupted into another word war with Taylor Mckessie. Chad didn't need another detention. It was the last day of school and Troy wanted to spend it with his best friend out of school as soon as the final bell rang.
"That Taylor thinks she's so smart," mumbled Chad as he lazily scratched the top of his big hair.
Troy pushed his thick glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. "Well she is really. I mean she's on top of our class."
"Bet that's the only thing she'll ever get on top of. Frankly, she's just pathetic trying to hang on to those cheerleaders hoping they'll take her in. But she'll never get on top of any pyramid, not unless she's the mascot," laughed Chad.
Troy squinted and stared at Taylor who looked a bit out of place beside the other girls. He had to agree with Chad but he pitied Taylor just the same. Taylor was the kind of girl that wanted to be "in" with the popular girls but can never be one of them. The cheerleaders let her hang around them of course because she was useful when they needed help with homework. But she would never be truly accepted as one of the "cool" girls.
Just like he and Chad would never be accepted as one of the popular boys either. But Chad was always the optimistic one. He was convinced they would have their time soon.
Chad nudged him and that got him out of his reverie. "Hey, basketball tryouts are on for next year," he said as he pointed to the reminder on the bulletin board.
Troy smiled. He had been looking forward to becoming part of the basketball varsity team for a long time. It was only open to fifth graders and up and by next year he and Chad were finally qualified to join the team.
"You think we'll get in?" Troy asked unsurely. He was still a bit nervous with that. His father expected him to get into the East Elementary School basketball team as soon as he was old enough. It was drilled on him since he was a toddler.
"Of course we will," said Chad. "We're better than those losers on the team anyway. Next year's our year, Troy. After this summer, things are going to change for us. We'll get into the team and we'll be one of those guys..."
Troy thought he didn't really want to be one of 'those guys.' 'Those guys' were the varsity jocks, the most popular kids in school. And they were the jerks that picked on him since the day he got braces in first grade. It was bad enough his parents found his eyesight was bad and they made him wear really thick glasses to compensate. But the following year, they also discovered he also had really bad teeth so they had him fitted with braces. Unfortunately, the braces weren't the simple fittings inside his mouth. Several metal wires ran from his teeth to the back of his neck forming a sort of odd collar. The day he walked to school wearing it, he was branded as the "Bionic Bolton." It made him and Chad (who had been teased for years because of his thick unruly hair) as the butt of school jokes by most of the older jocks in school.
Troy looked forward to the day he would get these braces off. His orthodontist promised the collar would at least come off this coming summer though he still needed to wear a more inconspicuous brace for another two years. "Well I'll get most of these," he said indicating his collar brace. "Off by the summer and Dad finally got a loan to get me a laser eye surgery."
"Yeah and you'll finally join the rest of us who can actually see," joked Chad. "Hey wanna gorge at the food court later after practice?"
Troy shook his head. "Sorry, but my Dad's putting me on a diet. He thinks I eat too much."
"You're a growing boy, you have to eat," said Chad as he grabbed a chocolate bar from his pocket and munched on it.
Troy stared at it enviously but he didn't dare ask Chad for a piece. His father had strict orders: only fruit and vegetables for snacks. No junk foods. Besides, he couldn't really eat chocolate without taking off his braces first and that alone was quite a challenge every lunch time.
He turned away from Chad to avoid the temptation but came face to face with an even worse sight. Jeremy Cross—popular boy extraordinaire and captain of the basketball team stood by the row of lockers surrounded by his posse. Troy tried to pull Chad away to go to the other direction but Chad was too busy munching happily on his chocolate.
"… and by next year when we're on the basketball team, we need all the sugar we can get…" Chad droned on loudly.
Jeremy looked up and headed their way to Troy's dismay.
"What's that you say mop head?" Jeremy called out. Both Chad and Troy froze.
"N-nothing," said Chad but Jeremy rounded on him and snatched his chocolate bar away.
"It didn't sound like nothing to me," said Jeremy. "What's this I hear that you and Bionic Bolton here are actually dreaming of getting on the team?" He turned to Troy who shrank back fearfully at the larger boy. "Well my team doesn't have an opening for fat little metal freaks like you." Jeremy eyed him haughtily then dangled Chad's half-eaten chocolate bar at him. "So just forget it fat boy. Here, just shove this in like the little piggy that you are." And before Troy could react Jeremy smashed the chocolate on his mouth and pushed him hard. The chocolate smeared his braces and splattered across his nose and glasses.
Troy staggered back as Jeremy stepped away and laughed with the rest of his teammates. Troy stared around and noticed the other students around him were also laughing as if what Jeremy did was the funniest thing that ever happened in the world. Only Chad remained silent by his side but he seemed too frozen in terror or in embarrassment to do anything else.
Slowly he wiped the chocolate from his face with the back of his hand, but it just kept on spreading.
"Here!" He was surprised when a clean pink handkerchief was handed to him. He turned around and saw Sharpay Evans behind him offering her little pink hanky. Troy was too surprised by the gesture to accept, so she began wiping his face herself.
"Don't mind them," she said shyly to him. "I think you'll be great in the team." She paused and fished a small white envelope from her little pink bag. "I-I wanna give you this, b-before the school ends," she stammered as she handed him the envelope.
"T-thank you," Troy muttered before Jeremy's voice cut him off.
"Bionic Bolton's got a girlfriend?" the basketball captain teased as he made his way back to him. Suddenly he snatched the envelope Sharpaygave him. "And what's this?" He opened it and revealed a homemade card decorated with hearts made of pink glitters. "A love letter?" he laughed.
"Give it back!" Sharpay demanded. "It's not yours!"
"Oh I'll give it back," taunted the sixth grader. "After we know what's inside. " He turned open the card and began to read in a voice loud enough for the whole corridor of students to hear. "Dear Troy, I hope you'll have a good summer. I'm going to spend it in the island again and I won't be seeing you, but I'll think of you when I'm there. I think you're the coolest guy in school and I really like you. Will you be my prince? Love, Sharpay."
Sharpay blushed bright red to the roots of her hair and seemed closed to tears, but Jeremy only smirked at her.
"Awww, that's so sweet. You've got an admirer! You're so well suited for each other. Bionic Bolton and Odd Ball Evans! It's a match made in heaven. You can get married and make a living as a freak act. She can talk to fish while you can terrorize people."
The whole corridor exploded in laughter again and Troy never felt so humiliated in his life. It was bad enough he was being made fun of on his own. But having the weird Evans girl crushing on him and having the school know about it made it ten times worst.
"Why don't you give her a kiss then?" taunted Jeremy. "Oh I forgot, you can't! She'll get her tongue entangled by the wires in your mouth."
The school bell thankfully rang and Jeremy shoved the card into Troy's hand then walked away laughing with his posse. The other students began to move away but there were still some the hung back curious as to what Troy would do. Troy noticed Sharpay was eyeing the floor in embarrassment. He wanted to comfort her but he was just too embarrassed by what other people would say. He dropped the card on the floor and walked away to join Chad. He didn't look back but he watched her form reflected on the glass of the bulletin board ahead of him. He saw her pick up the fallen card from the floor and slowly walked away in the opposite direction. Her shoulders hunched sadly and he couldn't help but feel guilty…
"TROY!"
Troy startled awake. He saw through the sunlight filtering in through the windows that it was morning again. He wondered how many hours had passed, or maybe even days. He recalled the images that he saw just moments ago. He realized the dream was an almost forgotten event in his past. It was one of those unpleasant memories of his childhood that he thought he had buried away. But now they came back as clear as yesterday and he focused one aspect of the dream: Sharpay.
Ever since he was nine, he regarded Sharpay as someone irritatingly annoying. Even after they outgrew their awkward phases the following year and became two of the most popular kids in school, he felt she was a bit of a nuisance. And it only intensified when they were in high school when she actively pursued him. He thought Sharpay liked him because he was a kind of trophy boy. But now that he remembered, he realized Sharpay liked him even before he was considered desirable by most of the girls in school. It was a strangely flattering idea that she saw something in him even when he was in his flabby, hideous stage.
"TROY!"
The panicked shout startled him. He realized that the last shout wasn't a part of his dream. It was real. The bathroom door flung open and to his immense relief Sharpay's face appeared above him and he remembered what happened previously to her.
"Troy, you're still here!" she cried happily.
"Sharpay What happened? Did they hurt you?" he asked with deep concern.
Sharpay's answer was to jump into the tub in her white cotton pajamas. She submerged herself completely and held out her hands to him. He swam to her, too ecstatic for words and brushed his tail across her cheek. She giggled and rubbed her nose against the side of his body. He could feel warmth from her radiating to him and he realized how good it felt to be completely alive and in this tub with her after that long agonizing ordeal.
She gave him one last gentle brush of her nose before she sat up with her head above the water. "I was afraid they would kill you," Sharpay told him. "You must be starving by now."
"Ryan tossed me some bread sometime ago. I was able to eat that."
"Did he?" she asked in delightful surprise. "Oh thank goodness! That was really nice of him to think of you. But now I'm really starving." She got up from the tub. "I'll be right back with the food they left for me. I saw a tray next to my bed when I woke up."
She was gone for only a few seconds. She came back with the tray and got back in the tub before she started eating what looked like several sandwiches. He had never seen Sharpay eat this much, but then again he remembered she hadn't eaten since the bonfire. That must have been two days at least since she was sedated for much of the time.
"You want some?" she asked, indicating the bread. Troy nodded and Sharpay crumbled a part of her sandwich for him. He too realized that he was hungry. The bread was good but the algae he had for breakfast yesterday tasted better.
Finally she finished up all her food and she got up from the tub. "I'm still hungry," she said. "I'd better go get some more. Stay here, I'll be back in a minute."
But she came back only after five seconds. "They locked me in," she reported as she slumped back into the tub. "They must have nailed in a new lock sometime last night. It figures they'd do it. Again."
Troy realized that was the hammering sound he heard after she was drugged. And Sharpay just confirmed his suspicions that she was treated like this before. "You've been locked in your room before?"
She didn't answer, just stared ahead as if in deep thought. And suddenly she hugged her knees to herself and burst into tears.
"Sharpay, what's wrong?" he asked.
"What's wrong?!" she cried without looking at him. "Everything's wrong! You're a fish and it's all my fault! I can't even break the damn spell! And now it's happening again to me! They'll send me to those doctors again. They'll all think I'm crazy just because I can talk to fish!"
Troy let her cry. He wished there was some way to make her feel better but he too was at a lost.
"Do they think I wanted this?!" she continued to sob. "I hate it! If I could just be normal like everyone else, I would be! Do any of them know how hard it is to ignore it when a fish talks to them? To pretend to not hear it? To turn deaf ears whenever I encounter a fish in an aquarium pleading to be set free? I never wanted this! I never wanted this blasted gift!"
Troy brushed against her leg. It was the only thing he could think of to comfort her. But he suddenly had a puzzling idea. "Why do you have it then?" he asked. "Did you wish for it? Just like Mama Liat in the wishing shrine?"
She shook her head. "I never wished for anything like this. I only wished for a prince that can understand me when I was nine. Mama Liat told me this ability is a gift from Fufu because he blesses me. She was wrong. It's a curse."
"But when did you have the ability then? Were you born with it?"
"Maybe," she shrugged as she finally pulled her head away from her knees to sniffle. "Or at least I had it by the time I was four. I only noticed it then. It was the day my sister Lucy died." She appeared to think for a while. "It was actually in this room that I found out. This was Lucy's before. She really loved fish." Sharpay paused and a smile lit her face at Troy figured was probably a nice memory of her older sister.
"I came here crying after Mom and Dad told me Lucy had gone away and was never coming back to play with me anymore. Lucy had several fish in large aquariums here in her bathroom. And suddenly her fish started talking to me. They told me creatures we love always go away and never come back but you'll always find someone else to be your friend. And they wanted to be mine because Lucy always treated them so well. They asked to be set free, so I did. I let them go in the lake the next time my Dad took me there with Ryan."
"So you could talk to all the fish then?"
"Yes, they were really the only true friends I had." Troy felt the sadness in her voice.
"I'm your friend Sharpay," he said. She smiled back at him and touched his bruised fin as a show of appreciation. She blinked her eyes and he knew she was fighting hard not to let him see that she was touched by what he said.
"You know," he said to relieve her of awkwardness. "Ryan mentioned that Mama Liat told him Lucy asked Fufuto give her the ability to talk to fish. Do you think that's why you have the ability? I think Mama Liat mentioned that Lucy found the wishing shrine but Ryan doesn't believe it. Is it really true?"
"I don't know, maybe. But if Lucy wished it, she would have the ability, not me. And she can't help tell us where the wishing shrine is either, she's dead—" She stopped suddenly and her mouth fell open. "Oh God Troy, I just realized it now. She did find the wishing shrine. And she made a wish to be able to talk to fish. But she didn't wish it on her, she wished it on me!"
"What do you mean?" Troy asked.
Sharpay didn't answer but got out of the tub and rushed to her room. He heard her opening drawers and she appeared a moment later with an old small envelope in her hands. She opened it to reveal a yellowing birthday card.
"This is the last card Lucy gave me before she died. It was for my 4th birthday. I couldn't read it on my own until much later but I've always kept it." She turned it open to read it: "Happy Birthday, little Tiki! Hope you like the card and the shell necklace present! I made it myself though it's not very good. But I promise you'll get another very special present from me when I finally go away forever. Lots of love, Lucy."
She closed the card and put it away where it won't get wet. "I've always wondered what she meant by another present. I thought maybe it was her fish. But it's not. It's the ability to talk to fish!"
"You mean she wished for you to have the ability as a birthday present?" asked Troy.
"It's possible," replied Sharpay. "But more likely she thought it was a parting gift. She knew she was dying so maybe she didn't wish it for herself. She wished it to happen to me because I was her favorite sibling! She was only ten years old then. Maybe she thought I would like it."
Troy thought that made sense. So Sharpay had been a victim too of a well-intentioned wish that went bad. And now she had to suffer for it for the rest of her life. He wondered if Mama Liat knew that and if so, why didn't she tell Sharpay the truth?
"I suppose it's not all bad," Sharpay continued. "I mean I did have a lot of fish friends and I wouldn't have had them if I couldn't talk to them. I even made friends with some of the grandchildren of Lucy's original fish in the lake yesterday. They were the ones that helped lead me back into the cave. Do you remember? I can never really find the entrance to it in that dark. I always have one of the fish lead the way. I'm not as good with direction underwater the way Lucy was."
Troy did remember. She was speaking in those weird noises and he came to realize now that she was talking fish and asking for help to be led in and out of the cave. He remembered how difficult it was to get to that cave.
Suddenly it clicked on his head. A cave that's difficult to find? Almost impossible to get to. Wasn't that how Ryan described the wishing shrine?
"Sharpay It's the cave!"
"What?"
"The cave. Your secret cave in the lake! What if that's the wishing shrine?!"
Sharpay stared at him open mouthed. "Troy you're right! I never realized it! Fufu turned you into a fish because I made a wish—in the cave! He grants anyone who finds the cave one wish. But Troy you've been there too! That means he'll grant you one wish as well."
"I can wish myself back!" he cried happily. "All I have to do is go back into the cave and wish for it!"
But Sharpay's smile faded. "Wait! Troy, it's not that simple. Do you remember the condition of the wish? It always carries a curse. What if you did wish to go back but it backfires and you end up in a worse situation than before?"
Troy thought about it. He remembered what Aukai had said about the moral of the story of the foolish fish: Never make a wish. It's the only way to ensure your own safety. He thought of Mama Liat trapped in a human body for the rest of her life, cut off from the rest of her race. And then he thought of himself as the victim of Sharpay's innocent wish. He could only imagine what horrors he might encounter if he did make a wish. The fact that the outcome was unknown made it seem a lot scarier.
"So what do we do then?" he asked.
Sharpay sighed. "I suppose the wishing cave should be just a last resort. I don't want to use it if there was another way to get you back. I hate to admit it, but I think Gabriella is still our best bet to break the spell."
Somehow the idea of appealing to Gabriella to kiss him sounded quite unattractive now. He could still picture her clearly trying to pound him with a bottle. He wasn't too keen to let himself open for another opportunity to be murdered by his own girlfriend.
"How do we do that?" he asked.
Sharpay leaned back into the tub, her face to the ceiling in deep thought. He couldn't help but eye her neck arched in that way revealing her glistening skin dripping with little droplets of water that fell down to the low neckline of her pajama top. From there, her white cotton top was completely soaked so it clung to the skin of her breasts. He could actually see the outline underneath for she wasn't wearing a bra.
He knew that if he was human he would be so turned on right now at the sight of her. But as a fish, his hormones didn't seem to be working the same way. If there was such a thing as fish hormones to begin with, he didn't know exactly.
He felt her hand drop into the water near him and he brushed against her skin. She responded by tickling him on the side with her index finger. It felt nice to be touched this way and he playfully kept on flicking his tail against her. In turn she stroked his tail and fins absently. She touched another sensitive part of him and his cold blood shot up the same way it felt when she kissed him earlier. But he kept silent and enjoyed it, hoping she wouldn't notice.
Involuntarily he gasped. But he tried to hide it with a laugh. She giggled in return.
"Are you ticklish?" she said teasingly. And then she was tickling him deliberately so that his body jerked uncontrollably as he tried to squirm away from her.
"Sharpay, stop!" he cried between giggles. But Sharpay didn't and kept on tickling him so much that his whole body tingled. Finally he managed to wrench himself away and he swam away from her fingers.
"Troy where did you go?" she asked.
He kept silent as he swam underneath her with the clear intent of exacting revenge. He chanced upon her lower back. He slowly approached then suddenly blew water on her bare skin. The shock of it made her squirm and he congratulated himself.
"Troy, you little sneak!"
But Troy wasn't through with her yet. He quickly moved down to her left leg and flicked his tail where her skin was exposed, causing her to jerk again and sink lower into the water. But before she could retaliate, he moved upwards. Her pajama top was fully submerged in the water so it rode upwards leaving her stomach up to her breast bone exposed. He swam up and flicked her on her lower abdomen. It sent her into another gale of giggles. Convinced that he found her tickle spot, he kept on alternately flicking his tail and blowing water at her stomach. She shouted something in English between hysterical laughter. That only encouraged him to tease her further. He moved upwards pass her navel, flicking and blowing his way on each expanse of bare skin he could reach.
She stopped laughing but Troy continued to brush at her with his tail, hoping to find another ticklish spot. He kept at it for a few moments before he realized she became unusually quiet. He stopped suddenly and he realized he swam a little higher than he intended. At the same time, her pajama top closed in around him and he was left inside the cavern of her clothes between her… Troy couldn't say it. He suddenly felt deeply embarrassed at the intimate position he was in. And his awkwardness intensified when Sharpay started breathing hard. It made her chest rise and fall and caused him to bump into places he never dared to touch, not even with Gabriella.
"T-Troy… g-get off…" came Sharpay's strangled gasp and he felt her hand attempt to push him out of her top. Troy tried to get out but somehow her pajama top became a tangle of cloth under water that he couldn't find an exit from. Sharpay's attempt to shake him out wasn't helping. He just kept jostling inside her and getting dizzier by the second.
She shouted something unintelligible again before he heard: "Troy stop—" she begged before her voice faltered. At the same time, she stopped struggling to push him out. That gave him the opportunity to move a bit and find a way out. He found an opening above him and he headed there. He came out of Sharpay's collar. He felt Sharpay's breath hitch and her mouth hung open. A blush started up her cheeks.
"Sharpay, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" he faltered as he realized Sharpay wasn't paying attention to him. Something behind him had her frozen in terror and deep humiliation. He turned around and came face to face with his own father, Sharpay's parents and Ryan who were all staring at them with bewildered looks on their faces.
A/N: I figured you all liked Sharpay and Troy in the tub so much I came up with this little Troypay scene in the end. I've already got this chapter mostly written a few days ago, but I suddenly came up with the idea of Troy's awkward phase that I had to add it before I updated
My boyfriend discussed a back story for Troy and Sharpay in grade school while I was writing this. We thought maybe Troy wasn't all that popular when he was younger, as most normal kids are. I thought maybe he also went through a phase where he was regarded as a nobody and was bullied by the older jocks. It might explain why he doesn't have a swelled head when he was practically worshipped like a god in high school. He knows what it feels to be one of the little guys.We pictured nine-year-old Troy as a bit pudgy, with oversized heavy glasses and braces similar to the one worn by Willy Wonka in the latest film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate FactorySharpay too at this age isn't an ice queen yet and is probably regarded as a bit strange by most of the students. She probably isn't that attractive either. I figured Troy and Chad got into the basketball team by fifth grade (but not without some difficulties from current team captain and a major diet dilemma with his dad). At the same time, Sharpay starts to blossom into a beauty and morphs into an ice queen. She becomes popular even before Troy and Chad which makes Chad a bit resentful—Wow! I just realized this is another fanfic in the making. But I'll give it some thought if I have enough details for it to push through and if I have enough time to actually write it. I never really write a fanfic unless I have enough to go on with it plot-wise to stand as a full story. But if anyone out there gets inspired by my random ideas feel free to use them in your own stories.
By the way, Lucy's name was inspired by Lucy Pevensie from the Chronicles of Narnia, just as "Susan Bolton's" name from my previous fic was inspired from Susan Pevensie. I thought a name like Lucy evokes the innocence of childhood, while I associate Susan as being motherly. Before I got bitten by the HSM bug, I was a Narnia fanfic writer under another pen name. In fact I got interested in HSM because of Narnia. I had a huge crush on William Moseley (who plays Peter) before and I noticed he kinda looks like ZacEfron. If you haven't seen Narnia, go check the DVD right away. It's amazing.