Ms 'Alyson' Darbus
She had always loved her name. According to her mother, she had been named after her mother's best friend who had been a Broadway actor. It was only when she was ten did she find out that Alyson Bradford had been her real mother and that Millicent and Armen Darbus were her adopted parents. It was then did she start resenting her name because it reminded her of the woman who had abandoned her own daughter for her career. It was also then on, did she insist on being called Darbus.
She had never wanted to be an actress on Broadway but when the opportunity arose, she grabbed it. She knew her parents were proud of her for doing what she loved and that was all she needed. And she was doing so well until she had to perform with her biological mother.
She had left Broadway just three months after working with her mother. For though they had chemistry on stage, Darbus hated Alyson Bradford off stage too much. And it was because of that hatred did she realize that she never wanted to work on Broadway again. And although she had learnt to never mix her personal life with her career, she just couldn't not mix it. She was 32 when she quit.
Her niece had been in a drama production for her school and her drama teacher had gotten the flu bug so Darbus had filled in. It was then that she decided that she was going to teach teenagers, and more specifically, high-schoolers. Because although they were difficult to deal with, they were a joy to see when they had achieved something.
Though he didn't know it, Principal Matsui had been her first real friend. He was an understanding boss and had been the one who had granted her a three-month-leave after her biological mother died.
She was surprised to have felt regret when her mother died. Since she was ten, she had always hated and cursed her mother so much. It was when her adopted mother hugged her to comfort her did she realize that she regretted never making amendments with her Alyson before she died. But it was by then too late and there was nothing she could do about it.
She had been disgusted by Jack Bolton the moment he started coaching the basketball team. He was conceited and biased for he only gave special treatment to the basketball players. It was only when he had once suspended his basketball player for almost killing her in the parking lot did she only admit to herself that he was on okay person. She had started liking him until his son entered the school and basketball once again became the school's pride and joy and the drama club remained forgotten.
She had liked Troy the moment she saw him and after teaching him for a while, he became one of her favorite students (even if she didn't show it). In all her years as a teacher, she had never seen a young man so eager to please his father, friends and teachers. And while the other kids made fun of her subject behind her back, she knew that Troy was the one who silenced them and got them to do their work. And he became even better after Gabriella Montez came into the picture and Darbus deemed the smart girl a true genius for bringing the school and Troy together.
Chad Danforth, on the other hand, was a different story. That boy was wild, carefree and had absolutely no sense of responsibility. But it was for those reasons that he became one of her favorite students of all times.
She knew there was more to Sharpay Evans than the fierce face she put on. That child was a stuck-up brat and only did things that would benefit herself. So, when she suggested changing the timings of the final callbacks, she knew that something was up but went along with it anyway. It was not until Troy and Gabriella were missing did she realize what had happened. It was in the last year when Sharpay got together with Zeke did she know for sure that her most difficult student had finally changed.
Her twin brother, Ryan, on the other hand, had great potential and Darbus waited for the moment when he would finally step out of his sister's shadow. She had never been prouder of him when he finally did and felt even better when she learnt that he was with her most favorite student of all times, Kelsi Nielson who was the best songwriter she had ever educated.
She was most worried about Jason Cross. He was not so sharp and she had no idea how he would survive out of high school. When he did survive though, she had never been so proud of a student. He was, in her eyes, her most successful project.
When her favorite batch of students had graduated, she felt herself missing them and found herself wishing they were sitting in the seats Jimmy Z and Sharpay Jr. were sitting on. And when Gabriella Montez joined the faculty ten years later and Sharpay as assistant drama teacher (she was much better then), she felt like a mother who was being with her children after a long time. And when their children ended up being her students, she watched on as Troy Bolton's son fell in love with a pretty intellectual brunette just like his father did, Sharlene Evans fall in love with Brad Danforth and Marina Baylor fall in love with a guy from West High and brought East High to chaos the exact way their parents did.
As she watched her students grow to be the people they became, be it successful or not, she knew that she had done her job as a teacher and she was satisfied with it. So, as she lay on her deathbed, she saw her favorite batch of students, Troy Botlon, Gabriella Montez, Chad Danforth, Taylor McKessie, Sharpay Evans, Zeke Baylor, Ryan Evans, Kelsi Nielson, Jason Cross and Martha Cox.