You stand there, a huge smile on your overly made up face. You're happy, or so everyone thinks. As the flash goes off you feel your face falter, tired of pretending.
"Aw, you guys that is such a cute picture!" Stephanie, a sophomore cheerleader, gushes as she hands Chad his camera.
You stand there patiently, waiting for your turn to see the "cute picture" yourself. As it slips from Troy's fingers to your own, you fantasize about what it would feel like to hold those fingers, to have them graze the side of your face as he whispers how beautiful you are. But in an instant, the moment is gone. You shake yourself from your mini-daydream and look at the picture.
You're standing to the left, hand on your waist with a smug grin on your lips, your twin's arm haphazardly on your shoulders. The both of you look impeccable in your color-coordinated outfits, as per usual. Next to Ryan are Taylor and Chad, holding hands while smiling merrily, as if there was no place they'd rather be. Next to Chad is Troy, his arms slung around his best friend and Kelsi, the meek play composer. In front of them all, knees slightly bent, arms thrown out to the sides is Gabriella, or the Scenestealer as you like to call her.
Some people say a picture is worth a thousand words, and you couldn't agree more. Everyone else is standing there, clinging to each other, completely happy for that one moment in time. Euphoric, you think, is a pretty good way to describe how they look. They're high on nothing but life itself. And then there's you. Off to the side, almost unnoticed if it wasn't for the hot pink boa wrapped around your neck. You'll do anything for attention.
As you look at Gabriella in front of everyone you wish for nothing more than to be able to wrap your furry neckwear around her own thin neck and just pull. But of course you can't do that. For one, the both of you have formed some sort of a truce, and for another, you'd get blood on your $500 stilettos. You wish, more than almost anything, that you hadn't made that truce. There's nothing worse than watching the Scenestealer up on stage, her leading man serenading her with that puppy love look on his face.
It should be you, you think. It should be you with the lead part, not just some measly understudy. And it should be you on the recieving end of one of Troy Bolton's grins, knowing it was you that put that grin there in the first place. It won't ever be you there, Troy would never date the Ice Queen.
Ever since the day of the play tryouts, Scholastic Decathlon match, and Championship game, East High has been like a fucking little fairytale. Everyone prances around, smiling, laughing, joking with people outside of their own cliques. Like a goddamned Disney movie, flits through your mind.
Deep down inside you know none of them have really changed though. The jocks still go around thinking they own the school and the science nerds still act all high and mighty whenever you get a wrong answer in class, the only difference is it's all done with a sugar sweet smile on their faces. You can't even say you're the only one who's remained true to who she really is because you feel that sickeningly sweet smile start to spread on your face as Taylor asks you what you think of the picture.
You want to scream, you want to cry, you want to throw something and let them all know what they've done to you. They've taken the only thing that you've ever loved, the only place you've ever belonged, and stolen it from you. You want to yell at Gabriella for taking your place in the musical, taking the one guy you've ever felt something for, and taking your identity away from you.
"Sharpay, you're hair looks so pretty tonight. You just have to show me how you style it."
But you can't. She's taken everything worth taking, leaving you as only an empty shell. That fake smile on your face is feeling heavier by the minute, but you'll get used to it eventually, you decide. Even with all she's unknowingly done to rip you to shreds, she has to be so fucking nice about it, making it practically impossible to say something negative.
"Sure Gabby, it's really easy. I bet it'd look fabulous on you."
She's the school's sweetheart, but to you she'll always be the Scenestealer.
a/n: not sure if I got my point across the way I wanted to... I'll most likely do a rewrite one of these days.
