Chapter Nine

Sewing Tablecloths

She strutted into the room throwing a book down on the desk, Troy glanced over at it Tablecloths was written in loopy writing on the front of the scrap bookhe titled his head sideways the book was quite big and had material poking out of it, he guessed this was some samples she had picked up he didn't know where she found the time to go and do these things she was always so prepared.

"Tablecloths?" Troy asked in confusion.

"Of course Bolton we need tablecloths"

"Well I could talk to my mom about that she could make some for us" he told her proudly, he was quite a mommy's boy but that he would ever admit to it and he just hoped she would agree because he had all but said yes on her behalf.

"Really" she eyed him, not wanting him to lie.

"Yeah" he nodded enthusiastically.

"Well I'll come around your house after school and we can talk to her about it together then" she proposed.

"Okay" he started whistling looking away from her.

Unnoticed to him she frowned wondering if she had done something wrong and she thought they were getting along.

"So you're the young girl that was down here last week" Susan Bolton said in a stern tone.

"Yeah I'm sorry about that Mrs Bolton" Sharpay apologised; worried she had made a bad impression.

"Its okay Sharpay Troy explained everything didn't you Troy" Susan laughed to show that she had been joking, which calmed Sharpay down.

The first thing he had done when they come into the kitchen was opened the fridge, so that's where he was now looking for something to eat. "Yeah I did nothing to worry about" he waved them off taking a bite of last night's leftover cold lasagne.

"There's never anything to worry about when you around right?" his mom convulsed knowing her son wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying.

"Exactly how did you know?" he said proudly, finishing off the tub of food. He went over what his mom had said "Oi" realising she was being sarcastic.

"How about I take you two down to the market tomorrow and we can see if we can find anything" Susan offered them, knowing how much they both wanted to this and she didn't mind getting to know the girl Troy liked better, she was a mom she knew things and she enjoyed spending time with her son which she hadn't got a lot of these last few weeks with states coming up.

"Yeah we would like that Mrs Bolton" Sharpay answered without even asking for Troy's opinion.

"You can call me Susan Sharpay darling" Susan told her.

"Okay Susan" Sharpay replied nervously.

She knew she had only just met Troy's mom but the friendliness and kindness that she was showing was what made Sharpay like her instantly.

Sharpay had come around to the Bolton house early that morning, 9 o'clock to be precise she didn't want them to be waiting for her, Mrs Bolton let her in and she sat down in the front room of family terrace house waiting for them to be able to go.

"Sharpay honey, do you mind coming here a minute?"

"Sure" she answered getting up from her seat on the end of the sofa to make her way to the kitchen, where his mom was calling her to.

"Yeah I was wondering do you want some breakfast-" Susan started saying.

"Um sure I'd like that" she spluttered out way to quickly then she would have liked, she wanted Mrs Bolton to like her.

Susan stopped what she was doing for a second to look at Sharpay "Okay and if you don't mind could you call Troy please I've called him 3 times already but he never listens and I've just so much to do" she fretted getting back to the eggs.

"It's okay Mrs Bolton I'll go and do it" she said smiling at how much his mom was worrying.

She walked up the stairs and into the hallway that lead to the bedrooms and bathroom. Noticing the pictures that were hung up on the halls, she glared at them intensely. When she had come over after their location searching she hadn't taken much notice of these pictures as she was in such a hurry to get clean.

All of the pictures had Troy in them, basketball photos, portrait pictures, family pictures. She continued walking down the hallway and not realising that she had come to the end she brought her hand to her head and wondered how she had passed Troy's room she must have been in such a daze she hadn't even noticed.

Knocking on the door a few times, she got no reply so she slowly opened the old oak door, the door creaked slightly as she let herself in and left the door open behind her she saw Troy clad in jut his boxers sprawled over his bed. How was she going to do this?

Watching over him, she listened as he snored quietly she leaned into him and poked his bare shoulder, when she was at home she knew how to get her brothers awake, just shout that woke them up but she wasn't going to do that when she was somebody else's house, continuing to prod him she only got the occasional grunt and him twisting his body away from her. That hadn't worked. She decided to whisper in his ear.

"Mom go away" he whimpered throwing his hands around in the direction of her face; she moved away from him not wanting to get hit. She had to resort to another method she liked to use on her brothers.

She grabbed his duvet, she was through with being nice there was one thing not waking up and there was another thing annoying her. She pulled at it roughly.

Whoops

She plodded to the other side of the bed, and cringed as she saw Troy lying in a hump with the duvet tangled up in him, she wanted to wake him up not break his neck.

"Sharpay" he said groggily, blinking.

She looked over him "Sorry" she offered apologetically.

"Well"

Gazing at him she wondered what he wanted her to say "Well" she repeated and bounced on her heels.

"Help me up?" he said irritated, first she threw him to the floor and then just stood watching him on the floor.

She sighed as she reluctantly held her hand out. She prostrated forwards at an alarming rate. Her right hand was entwined with his left as that was the hand she had offered him the other hand was on his bare chest.

Blushing, she could feel her cheeks burning up she removed her hands from him, and got up and took a few steps back.

He picked himself up from the floor trying not to laugh at the awkwardness of the situation, by the time he had looked at her; he could see her walking out of his room.

Maybe she did like him.

"Damn I feel so gay" Troy complained keeping his hands in his jeans pocket, pretending like he wasn't there.

"Don't worry Troyie I won't tell anyone you're secret" she giggled into his ear and then skipped away from him.

"You" he said running behind her.

"Children" his mom shook her head as she laughed along with the stall owner.

He caught up with her and picked her up and started tickling her, with her shrieks gathering sweet looks from people, as the pair looked like a young couple.

"Actually before you attacked me I was going to say I agreed" he responded to her comment by poking her continuously.

"Well come kids I'll treat you both to some ice cream" Mrs Bolton informed them as she put their bags into the boot of the SUV. They had both surprisingly agreed on the same material, which was a cream silk and had got yards of it.

"Yeah ice cream" Troy gleamed walking towards the ice cream stall.

"Can I have chocolate mom?" he asked her politely like a little boy.

His mom nodded in agreement and turned to Sharpay "What would you like Sharpay?"

"Strawberry please" she answered.

"Can I see your ice cream?" Troy asked in between conversation to Sharpay.

She handed him her cone and asked him "Sure what's wrong with it?" she looked at it curiously in his hand.

He licked the cone and handed it back to her"Nothing I just wanted some of it"

"Oi you have your own" she cried pointing to his.

Mrs Bolton watched them argue over ice cream, they would be perfect if they just opened their eyes and realised their feelings for each other.

"Perfect" Susan chuckled to herself.

Troy took a quick look at his mom "Exactly" he gleamed focusing on Sharpay who was eating her ice cream.

"We have a problem" Troy told her as she entered the room, he had been sat waiting for her, for a few minutes and pondered how to break the news to her he then came to the decision to just come right out and say it.

"What!" she panicked even before she knew there was a problem, when there was a problem something bad had happened.

"My mom can't finished off the tablecloths"

"Why not?" she freaked.

"She from the bottom few steps and hurt her arm, so she can't do anything with it for two weeks" Troy explained helplessly.

She looked at him making sure she processed what he was saying "Two weeks"

"Prom is in two weeks, what are we going to do?" Sharpay fretted, why did something always go pear shaped.

"Don't worry we'll think of something" he tried to comfort her by putting his arm around her.

she didn't escape his gentle grip "I got it"

"Got what?" he said looking around trying to find it.

"The solution to the tablecloth mess" she sighed catching his attention.

"Carry on" he nodded.

"We could make them" Sharpay announced hesitantly wanting him to agree.

"We?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah well your mom just teaches us how to make them and we can't waste the money on the material to get someone else to do them"

"If you tell anyone about this" Troy threatened not wanting this to be hung over him.

"Don't worry I won't" she convinced him.

She was over the Bolton's house for the third time that week. She was sat on the sofa Indian style watching Troy sewing intently whilst keeping one eye on the basketball game that was on.

She and Troy were still learning how to do it, or so you should say she was. She couldn't understand how Troy got the hang out it so quickly and was on his 7th tablecloth of the week whilst she hadn't even finished one which frustrated her because she wasn't being productive and Troy actually knew how to do it and she didn't, she figured it was because his mom knew how to do it he did to, it was harder for her she had to learn from scratch. The truth was Troy knew even less about sewing than Sharpay did, sure his mom sewed every now and then but it wasn't a skill he had picked up until now and he even surprised himself with how good he was at it, which made him proud that he had actually learned how to do it.

It seemed so easy but it wasn't, making sure the stitches were in the right places not using un matching colours, not stabbing yourself with the needle which she had done all of.

"Guys do you want a break?" Mrs Bolton announced coming into the living room, seeing the two teens and knowing that they had been working for about 2 and a half hours, and she knew her son well he was getting a bit bored that's why the basketball game was blaring and she knew something was wrong with Sharpay so she planned to talk to her about that.

Turning to look at his mom Troy nodded eagerly "Yeah"

"I made cookies" she told Sharpay watching the teen not getting up, like Troy had in seconds.

"No thank you Mrs Bolton I'll just stay here"

"Okay if you're sure" Susan asked her.

"Yeah she is mom come on its cookie time" he exclaimed happily as he pulled his mom by the hand.

Susan watched Sharpay from the kitchen; she had her head in her hands and muttering something to herself. She left Troy eating the cookies, and walked back over to her.

"Sharpay what's wrong?" she asked softly as she took a seat next to her on the sofa.

"It's um" Sharpay stuttered, not wanting to bother Mrs Bolton over something petty.

"Don't tell me it's Troy what did he say do you, did he say you were big fat monkey he says that sometimes when he's watching the basketball you shouldn't take it to heart-" she blabbered out not wanting Sharpay to get offended by Troy's stupid antics.

"No that's not it" she chuckled, hearing that story.

Susan took Sharpay's hands carefully in hers, as she didn't want to damage her injured arm more, in hers, so they were now sitting face to face "What's the problem then?"

"It's just I can't do this" Sharpay clutched at the material in her hand that was sewed in a ball, by her.

"Okay" Susan replied in hearing Sharpay's feelings, understanding what had been going on.

"And Troy can, I mean come on he's a guy I should at least be able to do it" Susan nodded as she heard what had been bothering the young teen, she carried on "He's so much better than me" Sharpay complained with a hint of jealousy.

"Hand me the ball" Susan told her trying to enlighten the mood, which made Sharpay laugh because it was a ball even thought she didn't want to admit it, she had sewed a ball.

"Okay now what you do is keep the material straight, and then fold the edge over and just take the needle and pout it in and then under over under over and repeat until you get to the end and remember to keep folding" she explained for the second time that week in more depth and hoped the young blonde would understand she didn't want to see her distressed over something minor like this.

"Oh my I get it thank you thank you" Sharpay jumped around on the sofa, making Susan chuckle.

"Come on I'll walk you home" Troy offered as he turned the TV off.

Sharpay gleamed the afternoon had gotten better and she had gotten 2 tablecloths done, maybe not as big as Troy's tally of 10 but yeah to her it was an achievement and she had Susan to thank for it "Okay let me just grab my stuff"

"Mom I'm walking Sharpay home I'll be back in fifteen minutes" he shouted to tell his mom.

"Okay" she replied back.

Sharpay started at him "Let me say bye to your mom this will take just one minute"

"One minute to long" he moaned slumping into the couch.

"Bye Mrs Bolton I'm going now" Sharpay said as she entered the kitchen.

"Okay Sharpay love and remember what I told you" she said as she gave Sharpay a comforting hug.

"Yes I will" she answered as she detached from the hug.

"Bye" Susan waved as Sharpay walked away form her.

"Bye" Sharpay waved back smiling as she walked backwards.

Mrs Bolton was a little worried that she had scared Sharpay with her comments at the start of the week when she had come over to talk about taking them to the market, she didn't want her to feel that way "And remember Sharpay you're always welcome here"

"Thank you"

"Troy" she said in excitement as they walked along the path.

"Yeah" he answered her.

"Did you ever play hopscotch when you were a child?" she asked him.

"Yeah I did why?" he looked at her wondering what was going on in that devish mind of hers.

She giggled at his question, so quick to judge "Because I want to play now" she told him stopping on the pavement.

"You're such a big kid" he told her stopping also.

"And you're not" she responded poking out her tongue.

"Whatever" he waved her off.

"Have you got a stone?" she asked him after a few moments of standing in the same spot, she was going to play even if he didn't want to.

"Oh yes indeed I do what stone would you like out my collection the brown one the agree one"

"Very funny"

"Aha" she exclaimed as she picked up something from the stoned path.

She started drawing an outline of a hopscotch with the stone that she found "Okay this is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" she told him as she drew down the numbers.

She continued jumping around for a further ten minutes and even coaxed Troy into doing it once which he regretted but it was worth it so to see her smile "Can we go now people are staring to look at us weird?" he told her getting up from his position of sitting on the sidewalk.

"Are you really that ashamed to be seen with me?" she pretended to cry.

"You know it" he patted her on the back.

"Meanie" she complained giggling.

"You know I love you really in a friend kind of way"

"Yeah" she responded happily.

"Um Sharpay I need to tell you something" he cringed as they stopped in front of her house, was he ready he hadn't even planned on doing this it just sort of came out.

"Sure hit me" she prompted him, after talking to his mom she felt much better.

"Well its I like you" it was one of those now or never decisions and he chose now.

"Oh Troy that's so sweet I never would have thought this when we started planning but "I like you too"

"Really?" he looked at her unbelievably, he wanted to make sure.

"Yeah don't be so shocked even though we've had our fair share of up and downs it's good to know we can still be friends through all of it"

"Friends right" he said quietly, trying not to change his mood to much.

"Okay bye" she gave him a kiss on the cheek and skipped away humming a tune.

She thought about what he said, they were friends.

But did she want more .

I can't fall for him I just can't

A/N: My exams are finally over. YAY!! Chapter dedicated to Unlove You