Just Like I promised! Please keep reviewing!

A/N: Just so you know…there's a line from the lyrics in one of the songs from the movie Anastasia…FYI.

CHAPTER 3

Sharpay cried for several minutes while Troy held her. When her sobbing subsided, Troy lifted her head up to face him, he wiped her tears away with the pads of him thumbs. "She's not dead because of you."

Sharpay nodded fiercely, "If I hadn't made such a big deal about her coming to my audition she never would have gotten hit by that truck. I killed her."

"No you didn't!" Troy said sharply, "Your mom was so proud of you and it would destroy her to know what you're doing to yourself."

"I just can't do it anymore. Its to hard." A few more tears rolled down Sharpay's cheeks. "Do you know what its like to live with knowing that the thing you loved more than anything in the world is what killed your mother? How am I supposed to live with that and why should I want to?"

Troy had a sinking feeling in his stomach when he listened to what she was saying, "What did you do?"

"Nothing." Sharpay pulled the sleeves of her shirt down over her hands tightly and almost unconsciously.

"Sharpay, let me see." Troy fought with her for a minute and wrenched the sleeve of her shirt up to her elbow. The cuts on her arm were shallow but many. "Why did you do this?"

"Why do you care?" Sharpay jumping up and pulled her sleeve back down, "You hate me so what difference does it make?"

Troy stood up and faced her, "It makes a difference because I care--…" He broke off and ran a hand through his hair, "Because Ryan is my friend and he is really worried about you."

"Well you don't have to worry, I couldn't do it." Sharpay said, "The accident was my fault and I needed to be punished, I needed the pain." She finished quietly

"Why couldn't you just talk to us?" Troy asked, he didn't understand what she meant by needing the pain, "We have been here everyday…"

Sharpay interrupted, "But you can't understand. Not even Ryan can understand. He might have lost a mother but he didn't kill her."

"You didn't kill her! Whether you asked her to come or not she would have made the effort to be here. Sometimes horrible things happen and there just isn't a good reason for it but the fact is you are still alive." Troy moved forward and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Your mom loved you and Ryan more than anything and it made her so happy to hear you guys sing. Don't do this to yourself Sharpay." He finished softly

Sharpay looked up at him, her blue eyes wide. Troy leaned in and just before their lips were about to touch the door burst open and they jumped apart. "There you guys are." Chad said, "Its intermission and people are looking for you."

"Thanks Chad." Sharpay said and walked out of the room leaving Troy staring after her.

Chad turned to watch her leave, "She talks."

Troy nodded, "Yeah, She's still in real bad shape though, she's nowhere close to being OK."

"Well it looked like you two were pretty close to something else." Chad said raising and eyebrow.

"Shut-up man, its Sharpay." Troy scoffed

"Yeah so?" Chad said, "Even depressed and scrubby as hell she's still hot."

Troy rolled his eyes, "Help me clean up in here." A lot of desks and music stands got knocked over when he had tried to restrain Sharpay.

When Troy and Chad walked back into the auditorium Sharpay had moved and was now sitting in between Mrs. Montez and Taylor. Troy sat down next to Chad but kept sneaking glances over at Sharpay throughout the second act. She remained resolutely facing forward and refused to meet his eyes.

They waited for Ryan and Gabby outside after the musical had finished. When Ryan walked out Sharpay ran over and threw her arms around him. "You were amazing."

Ryan pulled back and looked at her surprised, "Wherever you went during intermission really helped."

"Troy and I talked and he just made me realize that I was hurting you by dealing with my pain this way, so now we can work through it together." Sharpay said.

Ryan hugged her, "You know I love you right?"

She smiled, "I love you to." Sharpay turned to Gabby, "You were great!"

"Not as good as you would have been." Gabby said

Sharpay didn't answer but turned to Ryan, "Dad gave me money to take you out to celebrate so lets go."

Ryan followed his sister to the car, but he turned back and mouthed 'Thank you' to Troy.

"What did you say to her?" Gabby asked Troy, "She hasn't talked in like a month and two minutes with you and she's back to normal."

"Whatever it was, its not going to be enough. I might have got her talking again but there so much more going on with her right now it won't be long until she falls apart again." Troy said watching as Ryan and Sharpay drove off.

Gabby, Chad and Taylor all exchanged glances. "Come on, let's go celebrate." Taylor said trying to move the conversation away from Sharpay.

That night Sharpay was in her bedroom. She sat at her vanity table and stared at her reflection in the mirror while she brushed her hair. It scared her to think about how close she had come to spilling her guts to Troy Bolton. She already told him too much. She would have to take extra care not to let anything else slip. It didn't help that she has had a crush on him since they were like 5 and he almost kissed her tonight!

"Penny for your thoughts." Ryan said walking into Sharpay's room.

She smiled softly, "Mom used to say that all the time."

"Yeah, except I think she upped the price when we started asking for raises in our allowances." Ryan joked, his smile fell when he caught the look on Sharpay's face. "It's OK to talk about her. It doesn't mean you miss her any less when you are happy or smile."

"Its just to soon." Sharpay whispered

Ryan hugged her, "Just promise me that you'll keep moving forward, no more of this no talking, dressing yucky stuff."

"I'll do my best." Sharpay said as Ryan walked out of the room. Unintentionally, of course, Ryan had just give her an idea as to how she could keep everyone, especially Troy, off her back.

She got up extra early the next morning to get herself ready. She ran down the stairs that morning and into the kitchen. "Good morning daddy." She kissed her father on the cheek, "I love you."

"I love you to Angel." Greg kissed his daughter and smiled. His family had been to hell and back but they would make it through just fine.

Sharpay took a deep breath as she and Ryan walked into school that morning. She plastered a sneering smile on her face and pushed through the doors. She knew she looked fabulous, like her old self but the whispered conversations going on around her made her feel self-conscious. She pushed through a group of freshman sending a snarled "Get out of my way," as she moved through.

She and Ryan were the last ones in homeroom that morning and when they walked in instead of a buzz of talking they were greeted with silence. Sharpay ignored them all and took her seat. Mrs. Darbus came in and took attendance. She paused after a glance at Sharpay but to her credit, didn't say anything. At the end of the period Sharpay went to her next class before anyone could talk to her.

Everyone was talking about Sharpay that week. Even people who weren't at the musical knew that Sharpay had run out and Troy Bolton had followed her. They were gone for at least a half hour and when Sharpay returned she was talking again and now the next day she seemed to be back to her old self, for the most part. It seemed very strange.

"The Ice Queen is back." Chad said to Marc that afternoon at basketball practice.

Marc shrugged and took a shot from the free through like, "I don't think so. She and I have English together and she was really creeping me out a today."

"How's that" Kevin Johnson asked joining the two.

"We're reading Romeo and Juliet in Mason's class and you know she's kind of wacky and she was on this tangent about how dumb and selfish they were, you know how she is. And Sharpay raises her hand and tells Mason that she's wrong and how suicide was a viable option for them and how it isn't always the selfish thing to do." Marc said

"Seriously?" Chad asked

"Yeah, and then it was like she realized what she was saying and just shut-up." Marc finished

"Wow." Kevin said

"I know, creepy right?" Marc said, "Everyone thinks she's back to normal but I really doubt it."

Chad shrugged, "I can talk to Taylor. She and Gabby are pretty tight and you know that Gabby will talk to Sharpay."

"Maybe we should tell Ryan?" Kevin suggested, "Or Troy?"

"Why Troy?" Chad asked

"He's the one who got her to talk again. Maybe he can help her a little more." Kevin said

"Who can help who a little more?" Troy asked walking over to the three boys.

"No one." Chad said quickly before anyone else could respond, "We still going to Ryan's tonight?"

"Yeah, last time I checked." Troy said

Back at the Evan's home Sharpay wandered through the empty house. She walked resolutely passed the closed double doors but as an after thought turned back and opened the doors to the music room. She hesitantly walked in and glanced around. It was exactly the way she had left it the day before her mother had died. The grand piano sat glistening with the sun streaming through the windows. Her sheet music was still scattered on the stand and numerous other instruments littered the room. Sharpay moved closer to the piano and finally sat down. She laid her fingers on the keys but couldn't bring herself to play a note. She took her hands off the keys and stared for what felt like hours at the rest of the room. It was full of furniture, instruments, awards and pictures but it still felt empty, hollow. Unconsciously she lovingly stroked the keys and began to play. Just a few chords at first but then her memory began to kick in and she remembered a lot of the pieces that her mom used to play for her.

When Troy, Chad, Marc, Kevin and Brad followed Ryan into the kitchen that night; they had just spent the past couple hours playing football in the backyard. They were busy raiding the refrigerator when Brad held up his hand, "Dude where the hell is that creepy ass music coming from?"

Ryan shook his head, "I don't know. Dad's not home and Sharpay hasn't even played the radio let alone anything else in 2 months but, wait, that sounds like…" He trailed off and followed the sound out of the kitchen and headed towards the back of the house.

"Sounds like what?" Marc asked following him out with the rest of the boys trailing behind.

"This song that my mom used to sing to us. She used to bring us with her when she was working on Broadway and there was this one play that had this song and it just immediately made us stop fussing." Ryan stopped in front of the music room and pushed open the doors.

He and the boys stepped inside. Sharpay was playing the piano with all her passion just flowing out onto the keys. She was lost in her own little world with a few tears silently making their way down her cheeks. She suddenly started to sing, or at least try to. It was like the words were getting caught in her throat.

"And a song someone sings, once upon a December." Sharpay whispered the soft song. She stopped playing abruptly and slammed the piano shut. She still had yet to notice her audience. She went around to all the instruments and put them in their cases roughly and locked them up in a cabinet in the corner of the room. She tore up multiple sheets of music and the rest she threw in the piano bench. Sharpay yanked the curtains shut with a wild frenzy and turned to run out of the room but stopped short when she realized who was watching her.

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