CHAPTER NINE

It was about a month since Rachel had been at Zac's and she was finally feeling like she belonged somewhere. The wardrobe had arrived at last so she no longer lived out of Zac's, she'd met Zac's friends – one girl, Sophie, and her boyfriend Jack she'd started to hang out with quite a bit; they all got on really well, she'd met agents, public relations officers, directors –all different kinds of people she would never normally have done. To be honest, being Zac's 'assistant' require nothing more than accompanying him to places and keeping company and that was fine by her. She was getting to see Los Angeles under the guise of a 'job'; they knew it wasn't really one but it was nice to know they had each other to laugh about things with when meeting just got too tedious.

Both Rachel and Zac had grown a lot closer to each other over the weeks so that things were comfortable between them. However, Zac's relationship with Vanessa didn't appear to be going that well. He never really mentioned anything about her directly but whenever he spoke to her on the phone, the calls were always short but not necessarily sweet. From what Rachel could gather, she guessed Vanessa still wasn't happy with the living arrangements but instead of Zac asking her to move, he just seemed to get more frustrated with Vanessa. Rachel had met her (on Zac's bidding) although she hadn't been too sure. Meeting the girlfriend of the guy you're living with is not exactly the most pleasant situation to be in. Rachel tried to act nice but Vanessa obviously didn't want to play the same game. Zac had ended up driving Rachel home 2 hours earlier than planned and then driving back to Vanessa's to spend the night with her. As the weeks went on though, he was spending less and less time with her and although she couldn't be certain, Rachel sensed a break up was on the horizon; she hated the thought of being the reason for it though.

On this particular night, it was the premiere of the DVD release of High School Musical 2. Even though Rachel hadn't got a clue what it was or what it was about, she was going as Zac's 'assistant' for the night. Zac himself actually found it quite endearing that she didn't know any of his movies, it kept him humble. Rachel looked at herself in the full length mirror – apparently even backstage people had to make an effort when it came to premiere's so Zac had found a shopping assistant in the form of Ashley (Tisdale) to take Rachel to get a new dress since she didn't know many places in LA. The dress Ashley had helped her chose was a strapless, skin tight dark purple dress with a black waist belt and some black heels. It helped show off her curves and accentuated her breasts. She teamed it with gem stone ring, a necklace, some earrings and a bangle.

Rachel came down the stairs as carefully as she could so she wouldn't trip over to find Zac waiting at the bottom. He looked up as she came down. Wow, he thought. "Um…you look…um…good. Have to tell Ash great job," he smiled. Rachel smiled back, blushing a little and running her hands over her outfit to smooth away any lines. "Anyway, the limos waiting outside if you're ready," he started to walk out the door. Rachel grabbed her silver clutch and followed.

There were flashing lights all around and hundreds of photographers all swarming around the cast like flies. Rachel hadn't seen Zac properly for about an hour due to the fact that he was always surrounded by people and Vanessa. Rachel had avoided Vanessa thus far but it hadn't stopped her shooting evil looks at Rachel whenever she got too near Zac. It didn't bother her unduly; she was used to girls hating her, she tended to have that effect for some reason.

At the moment, Zac and Vanessa were on the red carpet posing for the photographers. At one point, Zac looked over his shoulder to where he'd last seen Rachel standing; she wasn't there now. He glanced around for her again but couldn't see.

"Zac," Vanessa hissed, "Pay attention instead of looking for that girl,"

"I wasn't looking for--" he started to retort back but then bit his lip as Vanessa shot him a look. She'd disguised it with a loving expression for the cameras but there was murder in her eyes. "Never mind," he sighed. Just then, he caught a glimpse of Rachel out of the corner of his eye, he gave a small smile and she smiled back. Vanessa unfortunately saw the action and shot Zac another look then removed her arm from around his waist and stormed off towards to the escalators. Zac smiled once more for the cameras and hurried after Vanessa. Rachel, who saw the entire exchange, followed along with all Zac's team but kept far enough away to stay out of trouble. At the top of the stairs, she heard Vanessa's voice.

"…I don't care Zac! You've become a completely different person these past few weeks. How am I supposed to trust you?"

As she came round the corner, Rachel saw Zac try to grab her hand, "Van, please. She's not important, just some girl ok. It's you I'm in love with. How can you not know that?" Vanessa tugged her hand out of Zac's and stormed off. Seeing Rachel, Zac merely looked at her, his face indecipherable and then took off after Vanessa.

"Zac?" Rachel called.

He spun around, "What?" he barked.

She stood there for a moment dumbstruck then stuttered a response, "N-N-Nothing." He looked at her for a moment and then followed Vanessa.

Rachel stood in the middle of the huge press room, completely at a loss as to where to go or what to do. Zac looked after her most of the time she accompanied these kinds of things and she hadn't really got used to being on her own. She stood with her hands folded in front of her demurely, looking around for anyone she knew. There was Ashley but she was currently surrounded by family and friends, plus Rachel wasn't sure she'd be that nice to her at the moment; she was, after all, Vanessa's best friend. Suddenly Rachel caught a glimpse of someone she recognised. "Sophie?"

The blonde-headed girl spun round, "Rachel! Heya gorgeous. How are you? Where's Zac? You look fabulous!" Sophie gave her a hug and held her at arms length to admire her outfit, "Very retro, 60's," she nodded approvingly. Rachel giggled. That was what she loved about Sophie – she was very American, everything was fabulous and gorgeous but she was a good person who was helping Rachel find her feet over here. "Jack! Come over here!" called Sophie.

The tall surfer-looking guy walked over smiling, "Hi Rach," he kissed her on the cheek, "Pretty crazy huh? Still can't believe these people are here for Zac," he looked around, "I remember when he used to dance around wearing a garbage bag," he laughed. Rachel smiled but the smile faded as Jack asked, "So where is he?"

"Um…he sort of had an argument with Vanessa and she went off so he went after her and…" replied Rachel. Sophie and Jack exchanged a look that showed they knew all too well what she was talking about.

"Man, those two," Jack shook his head, "Guess things aren't perfect anymore in paradise," Jack said. Sophie hit him lightly on the arm, "Jack!"

"Oh come on Soph, you know it as well as everyone else. I'd be surprised if those two last the month." Rachel shifted her weight from one foot to another and looked mildly uncomfortable. Sophie noticed and touched her lightly on the arm, "Come on, spend the night with us, we'll find the guys and have a good time no matter what."