Over the next few months, Sharpay changed completely. Gone was her 'I'm superior, you're inferior' attitude. After the day in the auditorium, she no longer commanded the respect an attention she thought that she deserved. She had become an introvert, not talking to anyone unless spoken to first, and she wasn't surprised that not very many people spoke to her. She had also stopped wearing her flashy, attention getting clothes. Now, she wore dull, oversized clothes that fit her mood. Doing her hair wasn't even a part of her agenda anymore. She'd brush it back into a ponytail and be done with it.
It had taken her over a week to finally stop crying. That day, she didn't even go to class. She just gathered her things and left the school when she was able to drive. If anyone had noticed that anything was wrong, they never mentioned it. She was sure that no one other than Ryan even cared. The school referred to her change as 'The Fall of Sharpay.' She didn't care though; they could think what they wanted to think.
She hadn't spoken to Zeke since the night of her party in October, and it was now Christmas break. Two months, three weeks and a day since she had talked to him, and what their last conversation was about didn't make her feel any better.
In a way, she was happy that she didn't talk to him anymore. What could she possibly say to him? I'm sorry it took so long for me to realize that I love you? Could you leave your girlfriend and be with me? Sharpay wasn't that kind of person anymore; she knew she couldn't do that. And watching him be happy with Odette felt like a knife being twisted in her heart every time she saw it, so she avoided her brother and his friends anytime she could. That was better than crying in front of them, and that was something Sharpay couldn't let happen, no matter how much she had changed.
As she sat at her family's dinner table, she pushed her food around with her fork, a habit that she had picked up and was doing more and more frequently.
"Is something wrong dear," her mother's voice asked her.
She looked up to see her family looking at her, concerned.
"No," she said. "Nothings wrong, but I was thinking about something."
"And what is it," her father asked her.
Taking a deep breath, she said, "I already talked to the school, and they said it would be alright. I would like to go to boarding school for the rest of the year and graduate there."
The only sound in the room was her family's utensils hitting their plates.
"What," Ryan asked, clearly confused. "We're almost done with school, why leave?"
"I agree with you're brother, what about your grades?" That was her mother.
"I don't think it's a good idea." That was from her father.
Answering each comment one by one, she turned to Ryan. "I just want a change, I'm tired of East High. And to answer your question Mother," she said looking at her. "My grades are prefect, I have a four point oh this year, it won't be hard to transfer." Then, turning to her father, she said, "I've thought about this for awhile. I talked to both schools and they said that it would be fine."
She didn't tell her family that her grade point average was so high because she had moved to the front of all her classes in an effort to ignore the whispers and stares that had started. She also didn't tell them that she wanted to leave East High because she couldn't take bumping into Zeke all the time. She was running, she knew, but she wasn't ashamed to admit it.
"I don't think so sweetie," her father said. "Maybe if it was the start of the year, but it doesn't make sense to change now."
"But," she started.
Her father cut her off. "You should have asked earlier in the year. Now eat your food, the cook made your favorites."
Sharpay, who didn't eat much more of her dinner, was glad when it was finally over. There went that plan. She thought that her parents would let her go away for the rest of the year, obviously she had thought wrong. She gave a sad smile when she thought about how much she had changed. She had never ran from anything, now, she was willing to run half way around the world just so she wouldn't see Zeke anymore. What happened to her?
Even as she thought it, she knew the answer. All her past karma had finally caught up with her and-
"Sharpay," she heard Ryan call to her as she climbed the stairs.
Turning, she waited for him to speak.
"What was that about," he asked her.
"What was what about?"
"You want to leave East High? Since when?"
"Well, it doesn't matter now," she said. "Mommy and Daddy said I couldn't go."
When she tried to turn around, he caught her arm. "I didn't ask that," he said. "Why do you want to leave?"
"I'm just over the school Ryan. I want to try something new before we go off to college, that's all." Before he could say anything else, she kissed his cheek, and said, "Good night."
With that, she turned away, and made her way to her room.
--
Sharpay sat alone at a lunch table, looking out the window, watching clouds and cars go by. She had long since moved from her table on the upper level of the cafeteria that over looked everything. Now she sat in a corner, hopefully unnoticed. Ryan still sat with her on occasion, but she always reassured him that, even though she appreciated it, he didn't need to.
She pushed her food around with her fork, making a frowning face on her lunch tray. She thought it was funny that even a macaroni and cheese frowning face could look happier than she felt.
"Hi Sharpay."
Looking next to her, Sharpay saw Gabriella sitting beside her.
"Oh, hi Gabby," Sharpay said. She didn't know why Gabby would sit next to her, unless she saw her as a charity case.
Gabby smiled. "You called my Gabby."
Did she? Sharpay hadn't noticed. "What's up," she asked the girl.
"We haven't talked in forever," Gabby said, and confirmed to Sharpay that this was a charity case.
Before Sharpay could reply, Gabby continued. "Can you believe that prom is only a few months away? Then after that, its graduation. Its crazy."
Personally, Sharpay couldn't wait. "I know, only three more months."
Nodding, Gabby said, "I came over to ask you if you wanted to go dress shopping with us. You know more about fashion and colors than any of us ever will."
Sharpay was grateful for the offer, but she would pass. "You'd look good in a vivid blue, that and your dark hair would bring out your eyes, Taylor should wear a dark, bright color, like hot pink. Kelsie should wear red, and Martha should wear something bronze." She almost choked on the words, but Sharpay said, "Odette should wear something like a brunt orange, or a rusty color, it would bring out her skin tone."
"See," Gabby said. "That's why you should come with us, we would have never thought of that. What color are you wearing?"
"I'm not going," Sharpay said plainly.
Gabby was shocked. "You aren't going to our senior prom? Why not?"
Sharpay made a shrug. She wasn't going to tell her that she didn't think that she'd have a date, or the fact that she wasn't going to watch Zeke and Odette all night being happier than she ever could be.
"I just don't want to go," she said. "Its not a big deal, I went to last year's prom. Its not a big difference."
When Gabby didn't say anything, Sharpay looked at her and saw that Gabby's eyes were trained on Sharpay's hand pushing her food around her tray.
Putting her fork down, Sharpay started to ask her what was wrong when Gabby said, "Are you alright Sharpay?"
No, Sharpay thought immediately, but Gabby didn't need to know that.
Nodding, Sharpay said, "I'm fine. Why?"
"I just want you to know," Gabby said. "That if you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here for you. You know that right?"
Sharpay was confused now. "What are you trying to say Gabby?"
Gabby opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Sharpay waited for her to say something as Gabby fidgeted in her seat. Taking a deep breath, Gabby said, "Sharpay, do you have a eating disorder?"
"What?" Out of everything Sharpay thought Gabby was going to say, that wasn't one of them.
"Don't get mad," Gabby hurriedly said. "There's people that you can see to help you and-"
"Gabby," Sharpay said, cutting her off. "I don't have a eating disorder."
"Its OK, you don't have to deny it. Ryan told us how you haven't been eating and-"
"You've been talking about me?" Sharpay felt her old self about to come to the surface.
"No," Gabby exclaimed. "It's not like that. Over Christmas break, Ryan was upset about something, when we asked him what was wrong, he said that you wanted to go away to boarding school."
"So from that, you concluded that I have an eating disorder," Sharpay asked, trying to rein in her temper.
Shaking her head, Gabby started again. "He said he noticed that you had been eating barely anything at all and that you never left your room anymore. And everyone's noticed how you've changed. You wear baggy clothes, you don't speak to anyone any more. What ever is wrong, you have people that can help."
Sharpay took a few deep breaths to clam down. "Thank you for being concerned Gabby, but I'm not anorexic, or bulimic. Honestly, I don't care what other people in the school notice. I don't want to wear the clothes that I used to, I didn't know that was a crime."
"Don't get mad," Gabby started to say.
"I'm not mad," Sharpay told her. "I wanted to go away to school for my own reasons, and I don't appreciate Ryan telling everything about me to you."
"Your brother just cares about you," Gabby said.
"I know he does, but he should just ask me instead of making assumptions. I don't talk to anyone because I don't have anything to say and I eat, just not as much as I used to. Yes, I have lost weight, but not enough for anyone to worry about my health."
Turing to her side, Sharpay lifted up her shirt. "See, no ribs. I'm not stick thin and I don't think that I'm fat, sure I wish my butt was smaller, but I'm sure every girl does."
"I'm sorry Sharpay," Gabby said. "I was just concerned and I had to ask."
The last bit of temper that Sharpay had left at Gabby's words. "It's alright," she told her. "Thank you for being concerned, but I'm fine."
They were quiet for a few seconds, then Sharpay said, "About everything that happened last year, and over the summer…I'm really sorry that I did all of it. Especially what I did at the country club. I shouldn't have tried to buy Troy and break you up. Trust me, I realized a long time ago that he's much better with you than he ever would be with me."
Gabby smiled. "Thanks for the apology, its OK."
Getting up, Sharpay said, "I have to go. Darbus needs some things done with drama club before today is over."
She was able to keep the smile on her face until she got out of the cafeteria. She sighed, now she had to deal with people thinking that she was throwing up everything that she did eat. Even though she was appreciative about Gabby's concern, it was still something else she would have to worry about. She didn't think that her day could get any worse.
--
A few hours later, Sharpay was wrong. As she looked at her brother, with shock, she knew that her day just got worse.
"Am I what," she asked him, appalled.
"I asked you if you were pregnant," Ryan repeated.
Sharpay was ready to kill her brother. First she had an eating disorder, now she was pregnant. And he couldn't even wait until they got home to ask her. He just blurted it out in front of all his friends.
"Remember how drunk you were at the party," he asked her. "Maybe something just happened and…"
When he trailed off, Sharpay had to resist the urge to jump on her sibling. Fratricide couldn't be to many years in jail. Could he not see how mortifying what he was saying was?
She ignored all his friends' expectant stares. She made sure to avoid Zeke's gaze. She had forgotten that he was the one who saved her from the situation that Ryan was talking about.
"I'm not pregnant Ryan," was all she said.
"You're not?" He didn't sound like he believed her.
"No," she said. "I'm not. But now everyone thinks that I am thanks to you." She turned and walked away, but Ryan grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side.
"You're not," he asked again.
"No," she said, not having the energy to fight. "But thanks for letting me know that you think I'm a slut."
"I didn't say that," he said. "But something is wrong, I know it."
"Maybe something is wrong, but maybe I don't want to tell you. Just leave me alone."
Shaking off his arm, Sharpay walked away from him. Even though she had said it already, she really didn't see how her day could get any worse.
--
Sharpay realized later that day that what they said was true, if you don't think things couldn't get any worse, they will.
She walked out of the entrance of the school an hour after it ended. Ms. Darbus had wanted her to finish the last of the props for the winter musical. Sharpay had promised her that she would do it since she wasn't going to be in the musical productions that year. Darbus was devastated, but Sharpay was able to appease her with promising to be production manager. With being production manager, it meant a lot of hard work, but it also meant that she was able to spend hours by herself and not around the prying eyes that dissected everything she did. Lord only knows what else people thought and were saying about her if her own brother thought that she had an eating disorder and was pregnant.
As she walked to her pink convertible, she gave a sigh of relief that the say was over, when she heard, "Hello, Sharpay" from behind her.
She froze. It was Jeremy. She hadn't spoken to him since the night of the party. The next day, even though she had had the worst hang over in creation, she realized exactly what would have happened if Zeke hadn't seen them. She hoped that he hadn't been able to prey on other girls the way he had tried to prey on her.
"Jeremy," she said stiffly.
When she tried to walk past him, he stopped her and said, "What's your hurry? Don't you have time to chat with me?"
She shook his hand off of her and said, "No, I don't. There's somewhere that I have to be, so if you'll excuse me…"
She tired again to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm again, this time with more force.
She tried to push his hand away, but he kept his tight grip on her arm.
"Let go of me," Sharpay said, trying to pull her arm out of his hand.
"What's wrong," Jeremy asked her. "You didn't have a problem with me touching you before."
"I was drunk," she said. "And you tried to take advantage of me. Now let go of me."
"Take advantage of you?" Jeremy laughed humorlessly. "You wanted it, and you knew what you were doing. And if your little lap dog wouldn't have showed up, you would have been begging for more."
"Zeke isn't my lap dog. I'm not going to tell you again, let go of my arm. You're hurting me."
Jeremy gave a malicious smile. "You know," he said. "I don't think that I will. Why don't me and you go back to my car?" When he started to pull her towards his car, Sharpay began to get scared.
Pulling with all her might, she said, "Let go of me Jeremy. I don't want to go to your car with you. I said let go of me," she repeated when he ignored her.
Taking her free arm, she made a fist and punched him in the face.
"You bitch," he said, then he punched her in the jaw.
She was blinded by the pain from the hit, but started to fight him in desperation, despite it. "Stop it," she screamed. "Let me go."
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, it'll be our little secret. No one can hear you," he added when she continued to fight him. "Everyone is gone. Don't waste your breath."
Sharpay saw that they had almost made it to his car and she knew that if he was able to get her in there, it would be a lot harder to get away.
When she started to scream for help, that's when he got angry.
"Why don't you shut up," he said, raising his fist again.
She prepared herself for another blow, when suddenly, he let go of her and she fell to the ground. Looking up, she saw Jason, Troy, Zeke, and Chad hitting and kicking Jeremy, who was on the ground, in various places on his body.
She tried to stand, but when she put pressure on her wrist, a sharp pain shot threw her arm. She must have made a sound, because the boys immediately stopped hitting Jeremy and went to her.
Helping her up, Troy asked her, "Are you alright?"
Nodding, she said, "I'm fine. I must have fell on my wrist when he let go of me." Looking at all of them, she said, "Thank you, I tried to make him let go of me, but I couldn't. When I told him to leave me alone, he tried to get me in his car."
"She's lying," Jeremy said, standing up, wiping at the blood that was coming from his mouth. "Everyone knows what a slut she is. I wasn't doing anything that she didn't want."
Jason grabbed Chad's arm before he was able to get to Jeremy. "Is that why she was screaming for help, telling you to let go of her," he asked Jeremy.
Sharpay pushed her hair out of her way, ready to deny what Jeremy was saying, when she flinched as she touched her jaw.
Zeke, who saw her flinch, started to ask her what was wrong, when he saw, what Sharpay imagined, was a bruise forming on her chin.
"He hit you," he said, outraged.
"She didn't get anything that she didn't deserve," Jeremy sneered. Wiping his mouth again, he looked at the red stain on his hand and spit out a glop of blood. "You'll all be hearing from my family's lawyer within the week."
All four of the boys looked ready to jump on him again. Sharpay knew that Jeremy's family, while they weren't as wealthy as Sharpay's, they had connections, more connections than any of the four had all together. Whatever trial the guys would have to go to if charges were pressed, it wouldn't be fair. They had gotten into this mess because of her; she wasn't going to make them pay for it.
"No, you aren't," she told him. "If you press charges on them, I'll press attempted rape and battery on you."
"Please," Jeremy scoffed. "No one would believe you. Everyone knows that you give it to anyone who asks, or at least they will by the time I'm threw."
Sharpay shrugged. "You must have forgotten what my last name is. My parents could buy and sell anyone in this town ten times over if they wanted to, and still have plenty to spare." She had never been happier that her family was rich in her life. "My family wouldn't stop until you were neutered and put in jail for the rest of your life."
"Don't let him scare you Sharpay," Jason said. "We can handle whatever he decides to throw at us. We can call the police right now."
Shaking her head, Sharpay said, "No that's alright Jason. The statue of limitations on rape and attempted rape is for a few years. If he's ever dumb enough to try to take you to court, he'll have his own court hearing to worry about." Turing back to Jeremy, she said, "You better leave, now. Stay away from me and my friends and we'll stay away from you. Go do the world a service and jump off a cliff."
He stared hard at Sharpay, trying to intimidate her, she knew. But part of her old self was starting to show, and she stared right back at him, unwavering.
Finally, Jeremy turned and went to his car and peeled out of the parking lot.
Turing back to the boys, she said, "Thank you again. He stopped me after I got out of the school, and if you hadn't shown up, I don't know what I would have done."
"As long as you're alright," Chad said. "I didn't even know that you talked to that ass hole."
She darted a quick look at Zeke before she said, "At the party me and Ryan threw a few months back, I got really drunk. I saw Jeremy when I went upstairs, and I was too drunk to realize what was happening. He said that he wanted to see my room, and what almost just happened, would of happened then if Zeke hadn't seen us and stopped him."
"Well, thank God for Zeke," Jason said.
"Yeah," Sharpay said lowly. "Thank God."
Sharpay couldn't believe what also had happened. After the party, she knew that Jeremy was lower than vermin, but she didn't think that he would-
The pain in Sharpay's wrist got stronger. Sucking in a breath, she looked at her arm and saw that her wrist had already began to swell, and was starting to turn colors. She didn't even want to think about what her face would look like in the morning.
Gently taking her arm, Troy looked at it and said, "You need to go to the hospital. It could be broken."
"No," Sharpay said, shaking her head. "It doesn't hurt enough to be broken. And I can still move it, see?" When she flexed her wrist, they all caught the flinch that she gave.
"You need to go to the hospital Sharpay," Chad told her.
She shook her head again. "If I do, then they're going to ask questions. And besides, I can't leave my car here, I have to go home or Ryan is going to start worrying."
"Chad can drive your car home," Zeke said. "Right now, you have to go to the emergency room."
"You want me to drive a pink convertible?" Sharpay couldn't help but laugh at his appalled voice.
"It'll be good for your ego," Troy told his friend. Turing to Sharpay, he said, "We can follow him and tell your brother what happened, and Zeke can take you to the doctor's. How's that sound?"
It didn't sound good to Sharpay at all, but she knew arguing with the boys would be just a waste of breath and time.
"OK, fine, but don't tell Ryan, please. He'd kill Jeremy if he ever found out."
"You're saying it like it's a bad thing," Jason said.
"Its not," Sharpay explained. "But then people are going to wonder why he did it, then they're going to see my bruises, and…well, it's just not something that I want the whole school to know about."
After giving the boys her car keys, Sharpay was helped into Zeke's car. After he got in and they left the school's parking lot, they drove in silence.
Sharpay was trying to make her self sit still and resist the urge to ramble. After seeing Zeke look at Odette the way he used to look at her, she didn't know what to say to him. She definitely didn't want to talk about Odette, and after what happened she couldn't talk about the weather.
"Thank you," she found herself saying.
He looked at her for the first time since leaving the school. "For what," he asked.
"I never told you thank you for what you did in October. Like I told the others, if it hadn't been for you, he wouldn't of even had to put up with me fighting, I wouldn't have realized what was happening until it was too late."
"It was the right thing to do," he said. "I know what kind of guy he is, and Gabby had told me earlier that you had been hitting the bottle pretty hard that night."
They drove in silence again for a few minutes when Sharpay took a deep breath and said, "And, about what I said to you in my room…I'm sorry, I didn't have any right to say what I did."
"You were drunk," he started, but stopped when she shook her head.
"That's not an excuse," she said firmly. "After everything that happened last year and over the summer, you were the only one who didn't hold it against me. I should have been thankful, not ungrateful like I was. If it hadn't been for you, he would have taken advantage of me then, not today when he tried…"
Sharpay stopped because, suddenly, she started to shake. She didn't understand why, but nothing she did could make her stop. When she opened her mouth to speak, instead of talking, she started to cry uncontrollably.
As she cried, she didn't notice Zeke pull the car to the side of the road. She also didn't notice him pull her into his arms and sooth her.
"Its OK," he said, rubbing a hand down her back. "Your adrenaline just stop pumping and everything's hitting you at once. It's going to be alright," he reassured her when she still cried. "Its over, he can't hurt you."
After a few more minutes, she was finally able to stop. Pulling out of his arms, she wiped at her face. "Sorry," she said, looking at his shirt, which had a big wet spot on it.
He shrugged. "It had to be washed sometime," he said, smiling. "I'm just glad that I was here to be of service."
Giving one last swipe to her face, she smiled at him. As she looked at him, she wished that things could have been different between them. He was probably the greatest guy that she would ever meet, and she had lost her chance with him. All she wanted to do was be in his arms again.
The next thing she knew, she was kissing him. She had leaned over to his seat and pressed her lips against his. When he didn't move, mortified, she started to pull away when he kissed her back. Wrapping a hand around her neck, he deepened the kiss. Kissing him back, she opened her mouth-
His cell phone started to ring.
Sharpay froze and quickly pulled away from him. As he searched for his phone, Sharpay was horrified at what just happened. Zeke was with Odette, she knew that. Why in the hell did she kiss him? She wasn't the kind of person who stole boyfriends anymore. Odette cared about Zeke, and she saw what such a great guy Zeke was before Sharpay did. And there was the fact that she was Zeke's girlfriend, not Sharpay, was a major why what just happened was wrong.
But all of that didn't stop Sharpay from wishing that they were still kissing.
"…Something came up, that's why," she heard him say. Whoever he was talking to, Sharpay could tell that they weren't happy with each other.
"Can we do this later," Zeke asked. Then, he gave an aggravated sigh. "Odette, there are more things in my life than you."
Well, that was just wonderful, Sharpay thought. Getting a call from your girlfriend while your kissing someone else. It also made Sharpay feel like shit.
"I'm not doing this right now," Zeke said. "I'm hanging up, bye." With that, Zeke closed his phone.
There was an awkward silence in the car for a while. Then, Zeke said, "Sharpay…about the kiss-"
"I think that my wrist is swelling more," she said cutting him off. "Just drop me off at the hospital and I'll get Ryan to pick me up."
"First," he told her. "I'm not leaving you in the hospital by yourself. And second, we have to talk about what just happened."
"I don't see why," she told him. "Let's just forget that it ever happened."
"We can't just forget-"
She cut him off again. "Why not? Not only do you have a girlfriend, but she called while we were kissing. I know that makes you feel just as bad as I do. It didn't mean anything," she lied. "It was just in the heat of the moment, and you were just trying to comfort a friend. Now can we get to the hospital please? My wrist is really starting to bother me."
They drove in silence to the hospital and Sharpay looked everywhere but at Zeke.
When they arrived at the hospital, Sharpay was, thankfully, seen to quickly because no one else was in the emergency room at the time. If her last name had anything to do with it, she didn't know.
When the doctor came into the examining room, he asked her, "So, Miss Evans, what's the problem today?"
Not glancing at Zeke, she said, "I was playing football with my friends, and we all forgot that I was a girl." She was even able to get a genuine sounding laugh out. "Me and Zeke both reached up for the ball. He didn't realize how close I was to him, and when he brought his arms down, his elbow got me in the chin," she said the last pointing to her bruise. "I fell, and when I did, I went down on my hand and hurt my wrist."
After examining her arm, the doctor said that she would have to go to x-ray, and left to go put the order in.
"That was a good excuse," Zeke said as the door closed.
Sharpay shrugged. "I had most of the car ride to think about it. I had to explain the wrist and the bruise on my chin. I haven't looked at it yet, I don't really want to either, but hopefully it can pass for an elbow blow. And the reason why I said it was you, was because it would look suspicious if the person who hurt me didn't take me to the hospital."
Forty-five minutes later, Sharpay learned that her wrist wasn't broke, just badly sprained. Given a wrist brace and a prescription for painkillers, Sharpay was told to come back in two weeks for a check up.
Leaving the hospital, Zeke said, "They usually don't let any one but family members stay in the room, I wonder why they let me stay."
"Its not like it was a gynecologist visit," Sharpay told him.
"Thank God for that-"
"Sharpay," a voice yelled. Looking, Sharpay saw her brother and the other boys coming towards them.
Hugging her, Ryan leaned back and gently lifted her chin. Looking at her bruise, his eyes darkened with anger.
"I'm going to kill him," Ryan said.
"You told him," Sharpay asked the boys, outraged.
"Of course we did," Jason said.
"You're crazy if you think that we wouldn't." That was Chad.
"Why wouldn't they tell me," Ryan asked, offended. "I'm your brother."
"I know you're my brother," Sharpay said. "But I didn't want them to tell you because you'd go crazy on Jeremy."
"Damn straight I'm going to go crazy on him," Ryan said. "I still don't understand why you didn't want me to know."
"Because everyone is going to wonder why you're fighting him, then they're going to see my wrist and my bruise and it won't take much to figure out. I'd rather not have the whole school know my business. And I told them that," she said giving the boys a glare.
"How's your wrist," Troy asked her.
Holding up her arm, she said, "Just sprained. I come back in two weeks to get it checked."
"Mom and Dad are going to ask about it," Ryan told her.
"I'll just tell them what I told the doctor," she said, then she explained what was said in the examining room.
Tired, she said, "Can we just go home? It's been a long day and I just want to go to sleep."
Turning to her saviors, she gave each one of them a hug. "Thank you again, I don't even want to think about what would have happened if you all hadn't shown up." Looking at them, she said, "I know that you're going to want to tell Gabby and the others, I don't mind that, but please ask them not to tell anyone else. If it gets around, then Jeremy might press charges and I don't want that."
After the boys agreed, they said their goodbyes and Sharpay walked with her brother to his car. Driving away, Ryan said, "I told you that you had friends Sharpay."
Sharpay realized that maybe he was right.