The next day, the East High Wildcats got a slightly rude awakening. Since both parties agreed to begin training at 6am, they had to wake up even earlier to get ready. And who better to wake everyone up than Jack Scott? In his best "town crier" voice, he rang a bell and hollared:

"4 o'clock and all is well! 4 o'clock and all is well!"

Sharpay, making a complete 180 from her attitude the previous morning, arose from her slumber and called back:

"No it's not, because YOU WOKE ME UP!"

Jack looked at her, shrugged, and updated his cry.

"4 o'clock and all is NOT well! 4 o'clock and all is NOT well!"

Despite Sharpay's response to the call, everyone else woke up less agitated. Taylor calmly walked over to the cranky "Ice Princess".

"You know you have to get up now since we're all training to fence against Kings Row. Whatever happened to you being ready for whatever comes your way?"

"I didn't expect THIS to happen!"

"Well, fate works in mysterious ways. The reason isn't always known, especially not right away, but it always works for the better for whoever's involved. So get up and help your brother prepare the training grounds."

"Fine, whatever!" Sharpay grumbled.

The rest of the Wildcats met up at the cabin's tennis court, which had its net taken down to make it more like a fencing salle. Darbus and the Evans twins stood in front of them with fencing swords.

"Welcome to fencing training, students" welcomed Darbus. "You are here because you have been challenegd by the Kings Row Boys School to their esteemed sport of fencing."

Sharpay took over.

"Now, you losers may think it's all just a bunch of sword waving. Especially if you care more about baskets and balls than anything else in life!" Troy just rolled his eyes while Chad, Zeke, and Jason appeared less than thrilled by that remark. The girls just giggled. Sharpay walked up to her frienemies.

"And WHAT is so funny, Montez?"

"Nothing" Gabriella replied. "I know very well that fencing takes a lot of concentration and hand-eye coordination."

"Um...yeah. Exactly. What you said."

Ryan took interest. "I see we Evanses aren't the only ones who seem well-read in the art of the sword. Why don't you give us a demonstration?"

Gabriella perked up. She was put on the spot by her arch rivals to show off her fencing skills. She wasn't so sure at first, but then she turned to Troy, Taylor, and the others. They were cheering her on. Troy, being the supportive boyfriend he is, was all up for her to demonstrate what she had. With this newfound support, and confidence built up, Gabriella accepted the challenge.

Ryan put on the fencing mask and was going to fence her, until Sharpay budged her way in, put on the mask, and prepared to duel.

"I guess this would be your way of settling old scores, isn't it, Sharpay?" Gabriella said.

"Indeed, Montez" snapped Sharpay.

The two rivals put on their masks and struck a pose. Jason scratched his head.

"Do we need to put a screen door on our heads, too?"

"That's a special fencing mask" corrected Martha. "You want your eyes poked out?"

"No!" Jason cried as he covered them and tried to run off, only to do an about-face courtesy of Coach Bolton.

Jack Scott came between the two duelists in a referee shirt. He looked at Gabriella, then at Sharpay. Jack then cleared his throat and, in another one of his announcer tones, called:

"ALLEZ!"

Upon cue, the girls proceeded to sword fight. For someone who didn't care much for the idea of fencing, Chad sure got into it quickly.

"Come on, Gabriella! Stab her heart out!"

"Chad..." Taylor said. "Fencing swords don't penitrate skin, they just poke and slap."

And with that, Chad was back to being less interested. "Great..."
"Hey, as much as I take this seriously, I still would love La Diva to get what she has coming. Go Gabriella! Score as much as you can!"

Lo and behold, Gabriella did seem to hold her own against Sharpay as she scored a good amount of points. Of course the Ice Princess of East High was no slouch either. At the end, Gabriella won the match by one point. Everyone, Ryan included, cheered for her while Sharpay pouted, once again bested by her nemesis.

"Not bad, Montez...now-"

Before Sharpay could get out any antagonism toward her, Ryan stepped right in front of the two of them and addressed everyone else.

"As Sharpay was about to say is, as you can tell, fencing IS about coordination and focus. HOWEVER, there's even more to it than just those. You have to know which areas are legal to hit and which aren't, which swords will allow you to hit those areas, how to put up a good defensive stance..."

Everyone groaned as Ryan went on and on. "So..." he said after he listed all the things to learn, "any questions?"

Jason raised his hand. "Yeah, Jack Scott said Ally before the match began. Who's Ally?"

Jack Scott grimaced. "I'd tell you about the beauty of the French language, but you'd think it's nothing but alien gibberish."

"His whole brain is nothing but alien gibberish, Jack" giggled Kelsi, consoling her also-giggling friend. "Still, this seems like it's going to be a LOOOOONG trip..."

Through all this, Troy began to wonder. "I wonder how Nick and the Kings Row guys are doing...?"

Meanwhile, at the cabin's basketball court, the Kings Row team turned to resident jock Eugene for basketball pointers.

"Alright, bros. What you have to know about basketball is you gotta be swift and cunning. Seiji, you're really good with that. Why don't you help me out here, bro?"

Seiji, who had been reading another one of his fencing magazines, look up with a sneer.

"I want no part of this."

The others chuckled. "Seiji refusing to take part in a sport? That's out of character!" Nicholas joked.

"No, it isn't that" said Seiji.

"It's because it isn't fencing, isn't it?" Harvard asked.

"More or less..."

Come on, Seiji!" Bobby jumped in. "It'll be fun!"

"Besides" Coach Williams said, "you'll be marked as tardy and will mar your otherwise perfect record..."

Seiji sighed. "Fine."

Minutes later after Eugene ran a few rules and basics past the others, Williams had everyone split into two teams of five for a mock basketball game. It was Nicholas, Seiji, Bobby, Dante, and Eugene against Harvard, Aiden, Kally, Tanner, and Assistant Coach Lewis, who was there to keep the teams even. Once the teams were lined up, Williams blew the whistle and the practice game began. Bobby began dribbling the ball toward the basket, but Kally and Aiden blocked his way. Obviously, being the shortest member of the team, Bobby had no choice to pass the ball to someone. He looked at Nicholas, then at Seiji. In a bind, he threw it to the latter team member. Once he had the ball, Seiji simply stood there, not knowing or caring what to do.
"Run, Seiji! Run and shoot the ball!" Nicholas called.

Sighing, Seiji ran with the ball and tossed it into the basket perfectly.

"There" he said flatly, "I scored. You can thank me later."

The others just looked at him disappointed.

"I said you can thank me. I shot the ball into the basket and scored, right?"

"You shot the ball alright" Lewis said, "but you're supposed to dribble the ball as you run. Your score didn't count." Sieji face-palmed in exasperation.

At this point, neither side was going to win. Still, they had to do their best to learn their opponents' sport if they were to have the cabin all to themselves. Seeing as the cabin itself had a wicked flatscreen, really good WiFi, and a lovely view of the horizon, it was a prize worth competing for! Such a retreat localle was enough to drive both sides, and niether was going to back down.