Thank you to everybody who read or left kudos for the previous chapter. All of you are wonderful. Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday, but I got distracted working on the new material. I am currently writing chapter 52, which is 100% new.

There is some new material in this, mostly the interactions between Zack and Chad. In the original story, we didn't even meet Zack until towards the end of part two. However, things are very different this time around. Although I am going to be losing some of my favorite jokes. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my original characters. Those babies are mine.

I know very little about college sports, so a lot of this is probably wrong. I think the basketball season is starting a little too early. Usually, do tons of research, but the pandemic has completely messed things up, so I won't do my normal research. I should probably use that ESPN plus membership to read more articles? I should get some use out of it. Basically, this is me using creative license for plot purposes.

The title comes from the LINKIN PARK song In Between. Yes, another title from a LINKIN PARK song. It's my fault for telling Siri to play LINKIN PARK every time I start working on the rewrites. But at least Minutes to Midnight came out before this story is set.

Actually, I almost called 27 the same title until while proofreading, I realize I already gave that to 29. This is why 27 ended up with a new title based on the song Hurt. Thankfully that song started playing just as I was finishing the last part of the chapter. It was perfect.

Chapter 29: Between my Pride and my Promise

Late Wednesday, November 12, 2008

It was the first away game of the season, and they actually won, if only by two points. Under normal circumstances, Chad would be out celebrating with his teammates. If he could stand any of them outside of Zack. However, since he was the only player under 18, his coach had him continuously watched. Then again, it may be Sharpay; she did have a lot of pull at the school. That may explain why Amanda is running groupie interference.

Either way, it kept Penelope from sneaking into his hotel room. Amanda, who was drowning under makeup homework, was sitting next to him, screaming at her computer for not recognizing her voice. Currently, the computer cannot tell the difference between "picture frame" and "pitcher of water." She initially came over for assistance with her chemistry, and now he was helping her work on her English homework. He should probably intervene before she kills the computer.

"Why do teachers have to be so picky about grammar and spelling mistakes? It's not my fault the computer doesn't understand me, and I cannot write a grocery list without a microphone?" Amanda said as she ripped off her headset and threw it at the wall. Why do all the women in his life have a tendency to throw things when they get upset? At least she didn't throw it at him this time.

"Throwing your microphone across the room is a sure sign that it's time to stop studying. I think your brain is fried from sleep deprivation, and your computer needs a break from dictating." Chad said as he powered down Amanda's computer before she had the urge to throw it across the room with the microphone.

"My mind is perfectly fine. I am just frustrated by the stupid software program that doesn't work right, yet I'm completely dependent on it. Maybe Penelope's comments about me being a premedical student who can't even spell "premedical" sent me over the edge. Did you ever wish you were normal?"

"You're talking to somebody who pretended to be of average intelligence through all of high school just to fit in. Trust me; I understand wishing you could be normal. You and I are not normal. I'm exceptional, and you're double exceptional. I guess we're just going to have to get used to it." Chad tells her.

Over winter break, Sharpay is making him come out of the genius closet to all of their friends from high school. Well, more like casual acquaintances. His actual friends do know already. If he didn't love her, he would kill her.

"I prefer double fucked. It feels more appropriate." Amanda said in exasperation.

"I get that. We're going to have a couple of hours on the plane tomorrow. I'll go over most of the stuff with you then."

"I'm just frustrated and depressed about a lot of things right now. I don't know why they made the cheerleaders come for the first away game."

"I have no idea. At least you won't have to come to all of the games."

"This is true. Thank you for helping out." Amanda said as she prepared to walk out the door. "I forgot to tell you earlier that Sharpay's dad called our dorm room multiple times Sunday. I was too afraid to tell him that she currently only uses her dorm room as a closet."

Amanda was out the door so fast that Chad did not have time to tell her that Vince Evans was very aware of their sleeping arrangements. He also had a lot of questions about his relationship with his son. Chad is 90% sure Ryan was trolling him as some sort of revenge. Chad is all for the psychological torture right now. The man deserved it for reading his text messages (and not leaving Darby earlier.) At least he didn't go back too far because there were actually worse ones between him and Ryan.

He's been sending him a lot of shirtless pictures of Zack with Zack's permission. His away game roommate thinks it's cute that Chad is trying to set up his girlfriend's brother with him after his ridiculously horrible breakup. Until Chad explained that Ryan was kind of his ex.

"Lots of people have a twin fetish. That is your business; I don't judge." Zack told him. That's when Chad decided to tell him the entire story. Including the ill-advised baseball seduction incident to the fact Ryan trolling his father because he read their private text messages this weekend. This ended with Zack laughing hysterically.

Although Zack was just happy not to be the only nonheterosexual guy on the basketball team this year. Zack knew, but Chad wasn't going to tell anyone else on the team. This is despite the extremely uncomfortable speech he got from his film teacher post-midterm. They got an A+, and Chad got a list of every single LGBTQ group on campus. Just as Chad remembered this, his phone rang, and thankfully it was Sharpay's ring tone.

"Hey, I just want to say good night before you went to sleep and congratulations on another win," Sharpay said as soon as he answered the phone.

"You actually watched a basketball game without me there?" Chad asked, surprised.

"I told you I would watch every single game."

"Yes, but I thought that only applied to home games. Did you do anything interesting today?"

He wondered if Ryan called yet. Chad really wanted the twins to have the Darby talk, preferably while he was still out of the state. It's part of the reason why Chad sent the shirtless Zack pics to both of them. He hoped they would start a conversation, but he hasn't actually read through the messages yet. Chad opted to help Amanda before checking on all the text messages he missed during the game. Apparently, he had about 50.

"Went to class, watched a film for our film class, ignored Kim at EHS, watched your game, and ignore two phone calls from my dad. I did talk to Ryan. Actually, half of that conversation you were CCed on.

"I'll read through the conversation tomorrow on the plane. It will keep me entertained." Chad remarked.

"Ryan told me that Dad is in New York. Apparently, he wanted to break the divorce news in person, to Ryan anyway." Sharpay remarked darkly.

"I think your dad decided to tell Ryan first because you're still not talking to your father. You're still not talking to your father?" Chad asked with a sigh.

"You have a point, but I'm just not ready to talk to my dad yet. Even though I'm glad, he's leaving Darby. I'm just still angry because why couldn't he do this a long time ago?"

"I know you're mad, and it's OK that you're mad," Chad told her.

"So is Ryan. Ryan knew more about what was going on when we were kids than I thought he did. Although Ryan thought it was Mrs. Henderson that was hitting me. He told your mom that. So that means you both saved me." Thank God Ryan told her something.

"See, you had a lot of people watching your back."

"I'm just not sure if my dad was one of them. I'm not going to let him buy his way out of this. Did I mention he took Ryan to the best restaurant in town to break the news?"

"No, but Ryan did send me pictures of dessert."

"Better than you sending him pictures of shirtless Zack. Why was I CCed on your matchmaking efforts with my brother? Do you still feel guilty about choosing me?" Sharpay asked.

"I wanted you to at least have a conversation with somebody, and I knew better than to try to force you to talk to Kim right now. Are you still ignoring her too?" Their film class yesterday was ridiculous. He hated being an intermediary and was almost happy the flight wouldn't get there until after class was done tomorrow.

"Yes. I'm going to be ignoring Kim for a while. She lied to me for three years. I can be mad for a few days." Chad was actually happy by Sharpay saying this because this was progress from this weekend where she never wanted to talk to Kim again.

"I really needed her this weekend, and she was too busy 'reconnecting' with Troy. I mean, they could've broken apart long enough for her to replied to one of my text messages. Even you got a picture of Alex cheering daddy on at his game from Troy's phone."

"I'm sure she would've if she didn't accidentally leave her phone in New Mexico. She did call you as soon as she received your messages. You read the email she sent me."

"She could have called using Troy's phone like she did to send you cute pictures of Alex. Or even sent an email from the hotel because I know she took her laptop."

Chad thinks he said something similar to Kim in his original email to her. There may have also been some text messages and an argument in class yesterday along the same line. Chad decided in the interest of self-preservation to stay out of this until it got really bad. Thankfully at that moment, Zack came back, and he brought food. Bless him.

"Hey, Zack just brought food back since I'm not allowed to hang out with the older players after the game."

"Go eat. Love you."

"Love you too," Chad said, ending the call.

"You two are adorable. It's enough to make me not regret Sharpay meeting you first." Zack said, passing him what appeared to be grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. Of course, Zack would bring back healthy food.

"You would've been seven, and I would've been four. It would've never worked." Chad joked.

"When did you guys meet?" Zack asked.

"First day of kindergarten. There was a fight involving cookies and chocolate milk. Poor Ryan had to play intermediary." Chad explained.

"I already lost you to the Evans twins before you were five. So sad."

"Only one. Contrary to what Sharpay's Dad believes, Ryan is now available. After having to dump his last girlfriend for showing an almost pornographic video of his sister to the entire floor."

"I do like a guy who stands up for his sister. I've always had my sister's back. I am also OK with bi guys."

"Ryan is like at least a Kinsey 4 1/2. Maybe even more after the Kelsi debacle."

"We can bond over losing you to Sharpay," Zack joked.

"He said the same thing. However, I can't date someone who almost looks like me. My dad finds a new half-brother like every year." He told him honestly.

"That's a valid concern. I think we should switch jerseys and wear our hair the same way at a game to see if anybody figures it out. I'm thinking of losing the braids over Thanksgiving."

"Probably just Sharpay and Amanda." Chad sighed.

"Considering I never met my biological dad, I understand your trepidation. All I know about him is he was on the U of A basketball team in the late 80s."

"At Thanksgiving, I'll talk to Troy's dad. He was on the team from 85 to 89. Charles was also on the team until 1990. But I don't actually want to talk to my dad unless I absolutely have to. I actually like Jack." At this moment, Zack started choking.

"Are you OK?"

"Yes, I just took too big of a bite. I always get really hungry post-game." Zach explained.

"I'm glad you offered to bring me food because otherwise, I would've done horrible things with room service."

"Glad I could help. Speaking of helping, you wouldn't have to keep sending your girlfriend's brother pictures of me if he would just give me his cell phone number. I wouldn't mind having coffee with your future brother-in-law. He's very hot."

"He is as well as an excellent kisser. I'm working on it. He staying the hell out of Albuquerque for Thanksgiving, but December is wide open." Chad explained.

"Why is he staying out of New Mexico?"

"Family drama."

"Say no more."

Xxxxx

Midmorning November 13, 2008

After only the first one, Sharpay realized that she was going to hate away games. She hated sleeping by herself. She also hated not eating breakfast with him or walking to class together. Most of all, Sharpay hated that she would have to sit with Kim in this class. The only other empty seat besides Chad's was next to Richard, and there was no way she was sitting next to her rapist without a stun gun. No matter how mad she was at Kim, she was still the better option. Today they were watching a documentary on drama in cinema. Sharpay wasn't really paying attention; she would watch it again tonight with Chad when he made up the course work for today.

Halfway through the documentary, as usual, Kim started making snide comments about what was going on. Usually, she and Chad would join in on the banter. Today Sharpay just was not into it.

"Just because I'm sitting next to you doesn't mean I'm talking to you again," Sharpay said in a whisper.

"You just spoke to me. I'm sorry, I didn't call you. Alex had my phone in his car seat." Kim whispered back.

"I am only talking to you to tell you that I'm not speaking to you. Contrary to common belief, landlines still exist. I'm sure someone at your family reunion had a phone you could use. I know you texted pictures of Alex to Chad. I needed you this weekend, yet you were too busy to even pick up the phone." In her mind, she added a snide comment about Kim being too busy fucking Troy to actually call her.

"I know you had a bad weekend. Chad told me about the Darby thing Saturday morning." Kim acknowledged, and that just made Sharpay angrier.

"Yet, you still didn't call me even though you knew some of what was going on?" Sharpay whispered bitterly.

"I know it's not really an excuse, but it was an intense weekend." Sharpay was sure it was intense in the sense Kim probably didn't leave the bed all weekend.

"I wouldn't know that because you're not sharing things with me anymore. You spend Saturday morning talking to my boyfriend, but you don't talk to me. I'm sure my boyfriend knows more about what is going on with you than I do. Ryan, for that matter too. He told me he already knew about Alex."

"Sharpay," Kim admonished.

"Don't you Sharpay me. Our friendship has been in decline for a while. You have not been telling me things for a very long time. You did not tell me about Alex until a week after he was born. I called you at least twice a week back then, yet you never said anything. You never mentioned all the problems with your mom or dad about keeping Alex. If I knew, I would have been there for you because I am your friend. But you wouldn't let me." Sharpay was near tears at this point.

"I am the one who supposedly pushes people away, not you. You never trusted me enough to tell me the identity of Alex's father." Sharpay was trying to fight back the tears at this point. She wasn't going to start crying in a room full of people.

"It's not that I didn't trust you. I do trust you. I wasn't ready to tell Alex's dad yet. If I told you, I know you would have told him."

"You're right; I would have told him immediately. What you did was stupid. Both of us would have been there for you. I'm sure Troy told you the exact same thing this weekend." Sharpay didn't mean to say Troy's name. It slipped out.

"He did," Kim said quietly. "He stopped being angry at me when I told him about Lucy blackmailing me. I didn't even know it was a bluff until you sent me Carolyn's wonderful packet about statutory rape laws in New Mexico."

"If I knew back then, I could've gotten you a lawyer," Sharpay told her, annoyed because she really would've helped. She knew from Troy how badly Lucy screw things up, including the fake breakup letter from girl X. Sharpay hated Lucy almost as much as she hated Darby.

"I know," Kim whispered.

"Why couldn't you tell me? Why couldn't you tell me you were dating Troy three years ago? Why couldn't you tell me that you were in love with Troy every time I told you about my crush on him? Why didn't you tell me about Lucy forcing you away from Troy? Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant when it first happened? Why did you not tell me about your mom trying to force you to give up your child by holding your trust fund hostage?" Sharpay was almost screaming right now, and half the class was looking at her, but she didn't care.

"I was scared."

"That's not a good answer, Kimberly. I was scared too. When Darby was hurting me, I was scared. When you know who attacked me, I was scared?" She looked directly at Richard at that moment.

"When I realized I was in love with the guy I thought I hated, I was absolutely petrified. I still told you about everything. I've always told you about everything. Yet somehow, you couldn't do the same for me." Sharpay said this so loudly that Prof. Stark-Rogers was now staring at her. She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't be in that room any longer. Before she even realizes what was going on, she grabbed her books and ran out of the room.

She found herself 15 minutes later at one of the cafés right outside of campus. As she sat at the table with a double chocolate muffin and a no-fat soy latte, she called the only person she really wanted to talk to. She knew she would get his voice mail because he was most likely on the plane already.

"I know you're on the plane. I just wanted to hear your voice, even if it was the voice mail message. Things didn't go that well in film class today. You're going to need to pick up the DVD yourself for tonight. I may have started screaming at Kim in class. Also, apparently, I already told her that I knew about Troy in one of my angry voicemails. I think I had a rage blackout."

XXXX

"Calm down, Kim, it's not that bad," Troy said, trying to calm down his overexcited girlfriend.

"It's bad. Sharpay screamed at me in class and then ran away. We've been friends since I was seven, and now she hates me. She hasn't been taking my calls all week. She even left class just to get away from me today. I didn't want this to happen." He knew things were bad. There was a second part to their fight this afternoon at EHS that his father text messaged him about.

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you. She's just really hurt right now. We knew she was going to be upset when we finally told her. Chad cursed me out when he found out that I didn't tell him about you even though he told me about Jamie." Troy knew Chad was still hurt about that.

"That's the thing we didn't tell her. She just found out accidentally from Chad. That's what hurts. I didn't trust her enough to tell her. That's why she's upset." Kim explained.

"Why didn't you tell her?" Troy asked.

"I was scared," she said in a sad whisper.

"Is that the truth?"

"It was at the time. I think Sharpay was more upset about us keeping the initial relationship a secret from her."

"Chad was upset about that too, to the point he cursed me out. I think in Sharpay's case, she's mad because she had a crush on her best friend's boyfriend for most of high school and didn't even know it."Troy tried to explain to Kim.

"I wasn't worried about her crush on you. Troy, you were her safety crush." Kim explained.

"What does that mean?" Troy asked her in puzzlement.

"Sharpay wasn't ready for a real relationship after the break up with Richard. Therefore, she had a crush on the one nice guy at our school that she had no chance with whatsoever. It was just easier to let her crush on you because I knew you wouldn't hurt her, even If you did reciprocate her feelings. I trusted you to take care of her, especially after what happened with Richard."

Troy knew what happened with Richard because Sharpay told him. Troy was nice to her, and she needed nice after Richard raped her. Troy was glad he could be that for her.

"However, in the back of your mind, you knew that I would probably be too hung up on you to move on to her." Troy accused.

"No, I knew that Chad would talk you out of anything because he already had a crush on her even back then." He started to laugh at that because he knew it was true. He couldn't help but think of Chad's mountain lion comment back during junior year. Now Chad was the one petting the mountain lion.

"I have no idea you would use someone like Gabriella as a placebo girlfriend." Kim just said the G-word. Gabriella was still a very touchy subject, mostly because he still felt like he didn't know what was really going on. Maria was planning an intervention after their last phone call. That was not a good thing.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Troy said with a sigh.

"Did it work?" Kim asked cheekily.

"There is no substitute for Kim Bolton. Unfortunately, a certain ex-girlfriend doesn't realize I'm not taking her back because she stabbed my friends in the back, and I'm in love with someone else."

"You're having way too much fun using my new name. Maybe if you tell the FMG that your new significant other has your last name, she will let go before she does something completely desperate. For example, she could show up at your dorm room wearing an outfit more appropriate for a strip club."

"You mean like showing up to my dorm room wearing a trench coat and stilettos. It's too late for that." Troy said under his breath.

"I know. Yolanda sent me pictures." Troy is really regretting giving Yolanda Kim's phone number. They were conspiring against him now.

"We both found that ridiculously cliché." So did Troy. "So, what was your reaction to Ms. Montez's display Mr. Bolton?"

"Ms. Bolton, if a certain someone would let me make her Mrs. Bolton last weekend, I would've told my ex that I was already married. However, since you wouldn't do that or even let me tell anybody that we are engaged, I just had to make the best of the situation."

"What was the best of the situation, Mr. Bolton?" He needed to answer this question very carefully if he ever wanted to see Kim in stilettos and a trench coat.

"I left her in my room and went to the library to study. I also called Maria. Incidentally, Sharpay's dad was with her at the time. I think there trying to trick her into coming to New York for Thanksgiving for an intervention." He could hear Kim laughing on the other side of the line. "BTW, they both know that Gabriella was responsible for the fantasy girl video."

"I'm sure they will punish her accordingly." Kim snorted.

"Now, if it was you who showed up to my room in a trench coat, it would have been a very different situation."

"Not happening, but if you want to try it sometime, I'm all for it. I'll just have to find a babysitter."Troy would definitely find a babysitter.

"So Maria and Vince are planning an intervention?"

"Yes. I'm still trying to figure out a way to trick Gabriella into coming to New York. Nobody wants her to go to Colorado with Mercedes for Thanksgiving. I actually put Maria in contact with Madison to help.

"Because you're helping but not being directly involved, which is where you need to be right now. Also, this way, Gabby will get more of a punishment than you just dumping her."

"I feel like me cutting her out of my life is a punishment."

"As somebody who had you out of their life for two years, I will acknowledge it is a horrible punishment. However, I want her to suffer the full wrath of Vince Evans, who should do something for Sharpay for once. He has a history of being a shit father with occasional moments of brilliance."

"Sharpay told me what he did to Malick. Although why can't he get him out of your school? No one should have to have classes with their rapist."

"Malick's uncles on the board. Vince can't do anything right now. Although next semester he will make sure they're not in any classes together. I'm also trying to see if he can get Sharpay out of the dorms sooner rather than later. He just needs to figure out how to get her out of the first-year student rule."

"She could move in with you next semester. I know your roommate is moving out soon."

"Even though it's her lease. She is deeply regretting letting a single mom move in, despite me being willing to cover the rent of the other two roommates she would normally have. Although since I can afford it now, I did put in a deposit on her new place that she will be sharing with her boyfriend."

"See, you are a good person."

"But I don't think I was a very good friend. Do you know Richard raped Sharpay because we were too busy conceiving Alex?" Troy wasn't expecting Kim to tell him that.

"It happened at the same time?"

"Yes. So I can't forgive myself because I let Sharpay get hurt."

"Kim, it wasn't your fault." He tried to reassure his girlfriend.

"Hey, your kid is up. I have to go." That is obviously an excuse, but he's going to let her go anyway.

"OK, but we are going to talk about this again when you don't have a 20-month-old to deal with."

"OK,"

Xxxxxxx

November 14, 2008, 3 AM

Despite it being the middle of the night, Chad could feel his girlfriend tossing and turning next to him. She wasn't sleeping, and he knew it was because of everything going on with Kim, Darby, and Mr. Evans. Chad was already planning on resorting to desperate measures. But her restlessness just cemented his decision.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. I can go over in sleep in my own bed tonight if you want?" Sharpay asked, getting up from the bed. He quickly pulled her back again up against his bare chest.

"Then you will wake up Amanda instead. She's already irritated because her mom could not afford for her to go home for Thanksgiving, and her voice recognition software destroyed her homework. Besides, I don't want you walking around the floor only wearing a T-shirt." Personally, he would have preferred her out of said T-shirt.

"I learned my lesson last time. Do you know that Amanda has a picture of me from that morning on her laptop?" He knew all about that picture. He used to have a copy of it on his cell phone. That file mysteriously disappeared from the phone after it was returned. Which really shouldn't surprise him considering everything else Vince looked at while he had custody of his phone. He really hoped he didn't see all the Ryan and Sharpay messages.

"I told Amanda I would pay for a ticket if she really wanted to go back to Arizona. She said she couldn't take money from me. Personally, I think it's an excuse to stay away from her family."

"Probably,"

"I just don't want her to be stuck in the dorms alone. How do you feel about a third person crashing Thanksgivings with us?" Sharpay suggested.

"I will ask my mom and Aunt Claudia." Because Chad wasn't talking to Charles if he could help it. "I'm sure Troy and Kim will be happy with another witness in case things truly go bad. You're still coming to watch the fireworks at a very Bolton Thanksgiving even though you're mad at them, right?" Chad said, caressing her thigh.

"Like I'm going to miss this. Troy still deserves my emotional support. This is going to be the car wreck of the year. I can't believe they're planning on breaking the news to everyone at Thanksgiving. Do they realized how big of a disaster this is going to be?" Sharpay asked.

"You could call Kim up right now and tell her?" Even in the pale moonlight, he could still see her shaking her head no.

"I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. But you need to work through this. I know Kim and your dad are the reason why you're tossing and turning at 3:06 AM. You are going to have to face your problems eventually. You have to talk things out with Kim, and you're going to have to call your father." He said as he kissed her once more.

"I think I rather call Kim first. Although I'm probably going to have to apologize at this point, I said some really mean things. Maybe I will wait until Monday when I have to see her at EHS. Tomorrow is an in-service day, so I don't have to come in." He knew this was the stall technique for Sharpay. It looks like drastic action was still required, which means calling in Ryan for back up.

"I'm just not ready to talk to my dad yet. I'm just really upset about a lot of things. My father concentrated so much on his career that he barely had time for Ryan and me. There were some moments that I thought he cared, but they were few and far between. Maybe it would be easier to forgive him if there was some way that I knew for sure that he really cared about me and didn't see me as a way to make himself look better." Chad knew he had to tell her about the video cameras at Lava Springs even though he really didn't want to.

"What if I told you there was actual evidence that he really did care about you and was worried about you."

"What is this evidence?" Sharpay asked hesitantly.

"Your dad stop by after practice Monday to return my phone and to drop off his peace offering before leaving to tell Ryan about the divorce in person."

"So what guilt gift did he give us this time? I'm sure for this disaster, it was probably something good like a condo." The gift's material part was a heavily funded account at Tiffany's for Chad to use when the time was right for either twin. Vince was taking the supported thing a little too far (or Ryan was having way too much fun trolling his father.) Chad felt that it was a bit more of a symbolic gesture than the usual guilt gift Ryan told him about last week.

"He just brought me a DVD."

"What was so special about this DVD?"

"Ryan told you that he always suspected Mrs. Henderson, right?" Chad asked, and Sharpay nodded her head in agreement.

"So remember last week I told you that when I notice the scars on your stomach, I told my mom."

"And she called social services and therefore scared Darby enough that she stopped the physical abuse," Sharpay added.

"Not immediately. My mom did that presentation at our school about child abuse first. She was hoping you would tell her what was going on. Instead, Ryan told her about his suspicions about your dance instructor. Then she told child services."

"Ryan is the best." Sharpay smiled. " I already knew that."

"My mom also convinced Ryan to tell your dad. The thing was, Vince was already suspicious. When the private investigator didn't find anything beyond verbal abuse, Vince decided to put in cameras in the rehearsal room." Chad explained.

"So, he actually did see what was going on," Sharpay said in relief. "I had no idea there were cameras in that room." Then he felt her body go rigid as she pieced everything together.

"The room still has cameras?" Sharpay asked.

"Yes. Vince also had the room wired for sound. He did the same thing outside of the locker rooms of the baseball field as well. Because he was suspicious about Ryan's Little League coach too. Apparently, he made Ryan cry a couple of times by being a homophobic asshole."

"I remember that. I kicked him in the shin." Chad is not even surprised. The twins are very protective of each other.

"Your father never got rid of them. It's why he knew about the baseball seduction incident last year." Because Chad had to let Ryan down gently outside the locker room.

"That means that…" Sharpay couldn't even finish asking her question.

"He only watched enough to know what Darby did to you when you were five. He stopped at that point because it was too personal. Don't worry; I have the only copy hidden in my sock door." He reassured Sharpay.

At that, his girlfriend promptly went unconscious. This was not good.

To be continued…

Before one drive and automatic saving, I did lose assignments due to voice recognition mistakes. Thankfully that doesn't happen anymore. However, I will be detailing the pitfalls of 2008 voice recognition software for narrative and comedic purposes. It's also somewhat cathartic at this point. The software has come along way.