AN: Hey you guys! Here is the next chapter! I hope yall like it!

Disclaimer: Ugh, nope still own nothing. Well, except for my HSM cds!

Previously

"But you know what makes me more mad than anything else you said?" Ryan asked Chad, anger seeming to grow. "Not that you took it upon yourself to speak for these guys. Who am I to say that you weren't right? It looks like you were about Sharpay not having friends. You were even right about the Lava Springs girls. Although Sharpay knew that too. What pissed me off is that you took it upon yourself to try to tell Sharpay what I think and feel about her. You decided you had the right to tell MY TWIN SISTER how I felt about her. You couldn't of been farther off either!" Ryan said glaring down at Chad. "I love that girl more than anything and more than anyone in the world. She's my twin, best friend, and my other half. You don't know her the way I do, and you have no right to presume that you know anything at all about us, because you don't know damn thing. If I never had any friends again, I would be fine as long as I had her! Do you understand me???" Ryan yelled at Chad.

"Yeah, I get it." Chad said quietly, not meeting Ryan's fiery gaze.

"Ryan man..." Troy began.

"No Bolton, don't talk to me. I don't want to talk to you. Any of you for that matter. I don't want to hear any more lies about how "you had nothing to do with it" or how "you didn't mean for her to be hurt like this". You're all a bunch of liars. Kelsi, Zeke, Taylor, I know you guys probably didn't know, but you three," Ryan said glaring at Troy, Gabriella, and Chad. "I'm done with you and I never want to speak to any of you three ever again. Stay the hell away from me and my sister." Ryan finished angrily, as he stormed out of the cafeteria.

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Aftermath and Explanations

The gang sat in stunned silence watching as Ryan angrily left the lunch room. Chad had finally gotten up off the ground and was standing by the table, but not sitting down. He was still looking down so he didn't notice Gabriella getting up until he felt her slap him. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" Gabriella questioned Chad angrily, tears streaming down her face.

"Gabs..." Chad began guiltily. Gabriella lunged at him again, but was stopped when Troy, who had stood up after Gabriella had slapped Chad, wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from getting to Chad.

"No! We almost had them believing we wanted to be friends with Sharpay! She was starting to trust me and Ryan was beginning to be ok with it! Now because of you, she thinks we were just out to hurt her! We've lost any chance any chance we would of had at being friends with her, and to top it all off, we've lost Ryan's friendship too! And it's all your fault!" Gabriella choked out as her anger gave way to sadness, as she turned around and let Troy hold her against him. Troy was livid at Chad, but first thing first was for him to take care of Gabi.

"Gabs," Troy said quietly, lifting her chin so she was looking at him. "why don't you go to the bathroom, run some cold water on your face, and try to calm down." He raised an eyebrow in question to Kelsi and Taylor, who both immediately nodded, stood, and walked over to Troy and Gabriella.

"We'll go with you Gabi." Kelsi told Gabriella, as she and Taylor removed her from Troy's grasp.

"Gabs, why don't you take that time to fill them in on everything?" Troy said softly, deciding that after all they had witnessed, it wouldn't be fair to not tell them the truth. Gabriella looked at him nodding. She glanced back at Chad glaring, but Troy motioned for her to go on. "Don't worry; I'll take care of Chad." Troy assured her. At Troy's assurance, she allowed the other girls to steer her out of the cafeteria towards the restroom.

Troy watched the girls leave before he turned back around to where Zeke was still sitting and Chad was standing.

"Troy..." Chad began apologetically.

"Dude, I'm so pissed at you I don't even know where to start. I know you don't like Sharpay, but I thought you considered Ryan a friend now." Troy told Chad looking angry and confused.

"I do consider Ryan a friend." Chad responded, finally meeting Troy's eyes.

"Well, let me put it this way. What would you do if Ryan, or Zeke, or even me started talking trash about your sister?" Troy questioned.

"Beat the crap out of you." Chad responded instantly. "But if any of you were really my friends, you would never go after my sister. Troy I really don't see what this has to do with..." Chad stopped and Troy could tell from the look on his face that it had clicked with him why Ryan had reacted the way he had. He slumped down in a seat and put his head in his hands as Troy sat down next to him.

"See Chad, do you remember what Ryan said when he was telling you what Sharpay meant to him? He said she was his twin sister, his best friend, and his other half. So to him, it felt like... Well, it felt for him like it would for you if someone made fun of your sister to the point where she cried, and made fun of me to the point where I got really hurt and upset, and then they make fun of you." Troy explained.

"God, it's a wonder he didn't kill me." Chad groaned.

"Well, it's probably a good thing for you that Ryan really isn't prone to violence. I mean, think about it, the only times we've ever seen him totally lose it, what has it been over?" Troy asked.

"Over someone hurting his sister. Come to think of it, the only time I've ever really seen Sharpay lose her cool, it was over Ryan. I mean, she gets mad a lot, but she never totally loses it like she did that day." Chad responded.

"But, as you probably gathered from Gabi's rant, she and I want to become friends with Sharpay." Troy told Chad and Zeke.

"To get to be better friends with Ryan?" Zeke asked.

"No, because Sharpay isn't really how she seems. That whole icy exterior is like a protective shield." Troy explained.

"Dude, I've been saying that for a while! That she really isn't what she seems to be." Zeke responded.

"What makes you think that?" Chad asked skeptically.

"You guys remember when Gabi and I went to get her book in the theater yesterday?"

Chad and Zeke both nodded. "Well, what took us so long is that we were watching and listening to Ryan and Sharpay." Troy explained. "It was weird seeing them because they were just acting like brother and sister."

"They always act like brother and sister." Zeke said, obviously confused.

"No, we see them acting like the Ice Queen and her flunky, the Drama Queen and Drama King, and constantly fighting siblings. But we've never seen them act like brother and sister, except for well..." Troy trailed off.

"Except for today." Chad finished for Troy. "When Sharpay got up to leave and she was upset. Ryan told her he loved her and hugged her. Then she finally really smiled and kissed his cheek and told him she loved him too."

"Yeah." Troy confirmed. "It was stuff like that. Them goofing around, but then it turned serious. Sharpay was trying to convince Ryan to hang out with us, saying he needed other friends besides just her. He, of course, said no. He went on to tell her that he doesn't like hanging with us very much because, for one, he still has problems being around me because of how I "was telling Sharpay I loved her one day and three days later was calling her the Ice Queen", and number two, he doesn't care to hang around you because of how much you make fun of Sharpay and because you started the "Ice Queen" thing, and because he blames you for Sharpay and I breaking up."

"How did I get the blame for the break up?" Chad questioned.

"I think, in Ryan's mind, if you had never brought him into that making fun conversation, I never would of said anything and Sharpay wouldn't of gotten so upset." Troy explained. "Don't worry though, Ryan blames me too, and Sharpay blames both of us, but me for the break up. But here is the thing Gabs and I figured out. Sharpay blames herself too. Like she thinks we were mad at her and took it out by making fun of Ryan. We also heard Ryan say that she became the "Ice Queen" because if she kept people at a distance, she wouldn't get hurt like that again." Troy continued.

"You mean she just pretended to be all icy because, instead of not feeling anything like we thought, it hurt too much?" Chad asked.

"Exactly." Troy nodded. "Man, after she broke up with me she went home and cried her eyes out. We heard Ryan say that he knows who she really is. He also said that he was the one who held her while she cried over the break up and..." Troy trailed off.

"And what?" Chad asked, looking like he wasn't really sure he wanted to hear the rest.

"You remember how when she and Ryan came back we started calling her the Ice Queen? Well, apparently she had nightmares about that for at least a month and ended up sleeping in Ryan's bed with him because of them." Troy finished.

"Man, seriously?" Chad questioned and groaned as Troy nodded.

"So is that why you guys want to be friends with her? Because you know she isn't really how she seems to be?" Zeke asked.

"Yeah. Plus, I want to try to make it up to her for how I treated her. I feel horrible about it." Troy told him.

"She really had nightmares?" Chad asked.

"Yeah. They had to be pretty bad too for her to end up sleeping with Ryan for a month." Troy told them.

The bell rang suddenly and the boys got up to leave. "Well, at least things are making more sense to me now." Chad said to Troy.

"So, are you up to trying to be nice to Sharpay too?" Troy hesitantly asked.

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, I really didn't mean to hurt her that bad. I just was trying to bother her. Not make her cry. And I really didn't mean to piss Ryan off, but I should of known it would. I just wasn't thinking." Chad admitted.

"Um, Troy, you know however hard it was to try and get Sharpay and Ryan to trust you before, it's gonna be ten times worse now right?" Zeke asked.

"Ten times??? Try one hundred times! Before all this happened Ryan was already suspicious of me. He threatened me on the way to the theater when Gabi pulled Sharpay ahead, telling me that if this was all a plan to hurt her, well, he didn't finish, but I got the point." Troy told them.

"And I made it look like it was a planned thing. I'm really sorry dude." Chad said apologetically.

"Don't worry dude. We'll work this out. As long as we're all in this together." Troy responded.

Zeke and Chad both nodded in agreement and the boys left the cafeteria to go to their class.

AN: Hey yall! I hope you liked this chapter! Sorry there isn't much going on. Next chapter will(I think) have Ryan and Sharpay in it with their reactions together to what happened, as well as Gabi, Kelsi, and Taylor meeting up with the boys again. Now yall have read so please review too! They really do mean a lot and I really want to know what you guys are thinking! Katie