I just realized that I haven't answered any review questions in the beginning of my chapters in a while. Mostly because King Philip isn't reading my story anymore and he asked the majority of the questions. In case you're wondering, King Philip was my brother. He got shipped off to Iraq on Christmas of all days (I'll spare you my opinions on that subject, though you can probably guess) so he isn't reviewing my story anymore, and asking any (I'll admit it) prompted questions. Just know that if you are ever curious – on anything – you can just ask me. Cause I know the weirdest things about my stories. I'll know the back stories to any unexplained reference, and I know what's going on with the other characters that aren't currently in the scene and I know any unvoiced thoughts. I know. I'm weird. But, sometimes I think that kind of information is fun. No? Just me? Ok.

Disclaimer: I own nothing – not even where I get my inspiration

His Story

Troy looked at the clock just as the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Jumping up with a determined expression on his face, he ran out of the room and down the hall. He had barely spoken to Gabriella at all today and he was finally starting to feel guilty. It was her first day back after all; he had to make some sort of effort. Spotting her crouching in front of her locker, he approached from behind as quietly as he could. Putting his hands over her eyes he adopted a falsetto voice and sang "guess who?"

Giggling, Gabriella stood up and turned around, flashing her trademark cutesy smile. Troy returned with a similar smile but cringed on the inside. 'Did she always act so fake?' he wondered as she picked up her newly filled book bag and closed her locker door. Putting his arm around her shoulders, Troy started to slowly walk down the hallway with his girlfriend.

"So, we haven't talked in ages!" he exclaimed with more fervor than he actually felt. "Tell me what happened on this illustrious church retreat."

Gabriella giggled. "My, this is a long story. But you will never believe what I discovered while lost in the wilderness!"

"Weren't you just in the Country Club's five acre park?"

"Whatever. You are absolutely going to flip when I tell you this," she repeated.

Sensing that Gabriella really wanted to tell her story, Troy finally allowed her the prompt she was fishing for. "OK, tell me everything. And start from the beginning."

"Well, since you asked," She said with mock reluctance. "It started on the bus, before we even left the church parking lot. I decided to sit next to that girl I was telling you about. You know, the one who has yet to accept Jesus Christ. By the way, you'll be glad to know, I think I finally got through to her. I spent the entire bus ride telling her how much better her life would be if she would just commit. She even started nodding along to what I was saying. I really think she took it heart–"

'Wow, I forgot how awful she is at telling stories,' Troy thought with a sigh. Fortunately, Gabriella was so in to telling her story that she didn't hear his bored exhale. Troy turned his head and allowed his mind to wander. Seeing an old flyer advertising the Lysistrata auditions, he thought back to that day and replayed the events in his mind for what seemed to be the hundredth time. That day never seemed to make sense to him. Why had that stage light fallen? And, if it wasn't Sharpay's fault, whose was it?

Gabriella was still talking. "Then we saw that it was red and I was like 'Devil color!' but it turns out, that wasn't the point she was trying to make. In any case, I started this huge discussion on–"

'I wonder why Shar missed homeroom today,' Troy thought, pushing the auditions memory to the side. He had been subconsciously glancing down the crossing hallways in search of her every time they passed one. She had been at lunch so he knew she was in school today. 'I hope she's not avoiding me. No, there must be something wrong. I have to talk to her.' He concluded. He could still sense the cloud of foreboding from the previous weekend and it was causing him to act more paranoid than normal. 'She has no right to hide from me, I'm in on this, too!' he could feel himself getting more irritated with each passing thought. 'I was scared as hell when that building blew up and she was supposed to be in it! I have to talk to her.'

"–And so, we finally decided on pink–Ouch!" Gabriella's bag fell to the floor as she stumbled from her collision with a hurried Sharpay. Ryan, who had been following closely behind his sister, quickly bent down and picked up the bag for her.

"Hey! Watch where you're going shorty!" Sharpay spit out, obviously annoyed with the brunette.

"I'm. Sorry. Shar. Pay." Gabriella responded, still speaking to Sharpay as though she were slow. Sharpay stared at Gabriella with a dumbfounded expression for a beat before picking up where she left off: an eye roll and her continued rampage down the hallway.

Ryan and Troy exchanged glances and in that second made the silent decision to let Troy follow after her. Still not wanting Ryan to figure out how thrilled he was to exchange Gabriella for Sharpay, Troy let out a small sigh before he followed after Sharpay.

As he was leaving, he heard Gabriella gripe, a little slow on the uptake, "Shorty?! We're the same height! Anyway, where was I?..." Finally, her voice faded out of hearing with his increasing distance put between them.

Turning a corner, he found Sharpay standing at her locker adjusting her hair.

"Shar, what's wrong?" He asked softly as he approached her. "Nobody tried to hurt you, did they?" Troy didn't know where that question came from but after they'd watched a solid building disappear into rubble, anything seemed possible.

Sharpay scoffed and snapped her head around to face Troy. "Not unless you count," she remonstrated as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Me?" Troy asked, completely taken aback. How had he hurt her? He'd never laid a hand on her!

"Yes, you! You were completely and utterly charming towards me! But then she comes back and I lose you to her, again!" She said with angry passion. Closing her eyes, Sharpay took a deep breath before continuing on her diatribe in a softer, though equally passionate voice. "I'm just – I'm tired of this game we play. So, why don't you just go skip back to your fairy tale princess and leave me alone. I've been given a second chance to create memories and I don't want this to be it."

Troy managed to hold her gaze for a second, but he couldn't think of what to say. He knew she was right but he didn't want it to be that way anymore. Sensing that she was about to flee the situation, he opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out. Why can't he say anything? Closing his mouth again, he broke their gaze and instead looked at the ground in defeat.

Troy felt as though he'd just been slapped in the face. He listened to her retreating foot steps with his mind reeling. 'How could I be so stupid? Of course that's how she would feel!' Shaking his head, he forced himself out of his shocked state and jogged to catch up with her. 'This can not be how things end!'

"Shar! Wait!" He called down the hall, picking up his pace to catch her.

"No, Troy!" Sharpay snapped as she whipped around, hair fanning out behind her. Troy saw that she had tears in her eyes which succeeded in stopping him where he was. Holding her hands up to tell him not to come any closer, she whispered "Just. Don't." She then turned the corner and walked out of sight.

"But, I've barely even talked to Gabby, today." Troy protested to himself as he stood in the middle of the hall with slumped shoulders. 'How can so much go wrong in such a short amount of time?' he wondered.

"Dude!" Chad called from behind him, breaking through his thoughts. "Hoops!"

"Oh, crap!" Troy forced all thought of Sharpay out of his mind as he sprinted toward the locker room. With everything that had happened to Sharpay over the past few months, Coach Bolton had been much more lenient with Troy's attendance. But now that she was back in school, Coach didn't see any reasonable excuse for Troy to miss practice. And because Troy had taken advantage of the previous leniency, he was certainly paying for it now. In other words, he absolutely can not ever be late to practice again.

Tearing into the locker room, Troy changed his clothes in record time and joined his teammates on the court to warm up. They tossed the ball around and stretched, waiting for the actual practice to begin.

Finally, Coach Bolton put his whistle to his lips and let it sound throughout the echoing gym, calling all the boys to attention. They gathered around him as he started his daily opening speech. After asking if anybody knew where Zeke was, he glanced over to Troy and gave an almost indiscernible smile. Troy returned the smile in full as he listened to his dad's speech, 'It feels good to be back'.

The team commenced their practice, running drill after drill. It was well into the season, so the team had already reached their stride. They could read each other's intentions perfectly, and they had every play down pat.

Half an hour into practice, Coach Bolton blew his whistle and gathered the sweaty boys around him again.

"Alright guys. You're feeling the rhythm, aren't you?" He asked, happily referring to their high performance level. All the boys responded with a nod, as they were breathing too heavily to speak. Coach looked like he was about to say something but he suddenly cocked his head to the side and listened intently. Re-focusing on his team, he hastily stuttered, "Good. It's great that we. Um. When we reach this, ah, this point. Uh, well." Troy nervously glanced over to Chad who was wearing the same concerned expression. "Well, keep practicing, boys. I just remembered. I have to go get my. Um. My...Whistle! Yes. I need to get my whistle." He then turned on his heal and sprinted out of the gym.

"Wasn't he wearing his whistle around his neck?" Chad said, voicing what all the others were thinking.

The silence that Chad was greeted with was shortly broken by the deafening thud of the gym door on the opposite side of the vast room. The entire team of Wildcats turned to face the far side of the gym, squinting to see who was standing in the doorway.

"BOLTON!" A familiar, angry voice called out. "You got the lead. If you aren't at rehearsal in fifteen, you're cut!" Sharpay said with a snarl.

Troy smiled and was about to respond but she had already disappeared from the doorway. Troy couldn't help but feel like she was hoping he wouldn't show. 'I don't give up that easy, sweetheart' he thought with determination. He'd just found the loophole in Sharpay's peace request.

"Wow, this has been a fun five minutes," Chad said, his statement again followed by silence.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we had free period practice," Troy mumbled with a glance to his watch. Practicing during free period allowed for a shorter after school practice. Of course, Troy would still have to skip out on fifteen minutes but he decided he'd worry about the consequences later.

Troy led the team in ten more minutes of practice before throwing on his warm-ups and grabbing his book bag, leaving his team without a coach or a captain. 'I'm certainly getting my exercise today!' he thought as he sprinted down the hallway, not the least bit amused by that fact.

Bursting through the main entrance doors, Troy didn't care to be polite. Interrupting whoever was talking, he dropped his book bag and yelled "I'm here! I made it, I'm not late!" He pointed to his watch for emphasis. Ms. Darbus, who still had her hands in the air from the dramatic oration she'd been giving her thespians, turned to Troy with a critical expression as he continued down the auditorium isle.

"Mr. Bolton. This is an auditorium, please be respectful and stop with your abhorrent bellowing!" She chastised. Troy nodded and took a seat where he had stopped walking. Ms. Darbus turned to face the group again. Throwing her arms wide she recommenced her announcement, "Now, as I was saying–"

"HAS NO ONE BEEN LISTENING TO MY STORY?!" Gabriella shrieked as she jumped up from her seat next to Kelsi at the piano. "I SAID THAT SHARPAY IS WANTED BY A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!"

The entire room, including Ms. Darbus, slowly turned their heads to stare at Gabriella. Troy hadn't even realized she was in the room until now. Come to think of it, he didn't even think she had auditioned. 'Where was she that day?' he wondered as he watched Gabriella glare around the room in a crazed manner.

"Gabriella, dear," Ms. Darbus said to her cautiously, she was clearly unwilling to upset the apparently fragile-minded girl. "I can see you are still not feeling well. I think it would be best if you go home now. We'll discuss your participation in this production tomorrow."

Gabriella continued to glare around the room as if she were unsure as to why everybody was staring at her. She slowly turned her head until she locked eyes with Ms. Darbus, stationed at the head of the group. The teacher, to her credit, didn't back down. She fixed Gabriella with one of her notoriously stern looks until Gabriella slowly started to nod her head. She then bent down to pick up her bag, the whole time fanatically glaring at the auditorium of bystanders until she finally turned her back and stiffly left the auditorium.

The entire cast watched her leave, nobody saying a word until she was out of sight. The second they knew she was gone, whispered conversations about what had just happened sprouted from every seat. Ignoring these conversations, Troy turned around in his seat and found Sharpay silently sitting five rows back with Ryan next to her. Troy eagerly made eye contact with her hoping to convey some sort of message. The problem being he was unsure as to what message he wanted to tell her. She returned his gaze wearing an indecipherable expression. Troy sat there, frozen in his chair and unable to read her thoughts. Before he could figure anything out, they were interrupted by Ms. Darbus's voice calling everybody back to attention. Disappointed, he finally broke his gaze to face Ms. Darbus and allow rehearsal to officially begin.

It's pretty crazy where I get my inspiration, sometimes. Would you believe the format of this chapter is inspired by Scrubs, Forest Gump, a little bit from Saved, and a lot from the insanity that is my brain? Don't see the connection? Neither do I, and yet, here we are.

I'm sorry if you're a Gabriella fan, cause I'm not so much. But if it makes you feel better, she's not actually as crazy as she seems in this chapter...though she's not completely sane either. The next two chapter's will reveal a LOT more about her stint in the Country Club's five acre park and what she discovered.

If you haven't already, you should all check out my other story called The Price of Sovereignty. I'm afraid it is partly to blame for the delay in my recent updates on this story, but as long as you're waiting you can jump over to that story and review it, as well. I have the second chapter up, so you can all see more the direction of the story now.

And don't forget to Review!!!