B4 the story starts, 4 those who dont know what dispersals is, its in a school when the last minute, or even b4 the last minute, a teacher can't b n class and they're arent ne subs so the class gets split up and put in other classes

On Monday, Sharpay sat in her desk as she waited for homeroom to start. Talking to Zeke about her panic attacks and nightmares hadn't helped Sharpay. She had only been able to fall asleep twice since she had spoken to Zeke. And both of those times she had only been asleep for a few hours. Maybe it was her screaming that woke her up, she thought as she lightly poked herself in the wrist repeatedly, something that helped keep her awake.

She was thinking about taping her mouth shut at night, when a knock came on the door.

"Dispersals," a teacher said, sticking her head into the class. "How many can you take," she asked Darbus.

Darbus counted the empty desks in the class and said, "I can take four. But tell them absolutely no cell phones."

Sharpay took her attention away from the door as she tried to concentrate on staying awake.

"Ahh, Mr. Adams, welcome. Take the seat behind to Sharpay."

Sharpay's head shot up when she heard the last name. She looked right into the face of Jeremy. She immediately forgot about her exhaustion as she tried to force air into her lungs. Quickly looking away from him, she looked at her desk.

He can't hurt you, she thought to herself as she tried to breathe deeply. It's a room full of people, and all the boys around him know what he tried to do. Just calm down, nothing's going to happen.

It didn't help. Neither did the deep breathing. The more breaths she tried to take, the more short-winded she got.

Taking her pen, she tried to write on her notebook, she couldn't because her hand was shaking so badly. Putting down her pen, she folded her hands into her lap so no one would see the shaking. Even was even harder to breathe than it had been an instant before.

Just breathe, she kept telling herself, even though she knew it wouldn't work. Just pretend he isn't here. You're perfectly safe-

She froze when she felt a cold wind blow across her neck. Hearing his barely audible laugh, Sharpay knew that he had done it on purpose.

Calm down, she told herself once again. Don't let him know that you're afraid of him. Hell, she was how was she going to act like she wasn't.

With complete composure that came from acting training, she raised her hand. When Darbus addressed her, she said, "May I be excused to the bathroom please?"

After getting permission, Sharpay calmly gathered her things, making sure not to look behind her at either Jeremy, her brother, or his friends. Especially Zeke. Walking to the door as if she didn't have a care in the world, Sharpay walked out. It was only until she had closed the door that she dropped her nonchalant act.

She quickly made her way to the bathroom in the school that no one used. She went into a stall and closed the door. Sitting on the toilet, she put a hand on each side of her face and bent over. It was easier to breathe now. Taking deep breaths, she ignored both bells for first period. She just concentrated on her breathing. In, out, repeat.

Hopefully her brother or the others hadn't noticed her panic attack. She knew that Zeke didn't have to see it. After what she told him two days ago, he wouldn't have to see it, he would know. She prayed that he would keep his word and wouldn't say anything to Ryan. She didn't want to think about what would happen then.

If Ryan knew that Jeremy still terrified her-

A sudden thought brought her up short. What if Jeremy knew that he frightened her? He wouldn't stop tormenting her until she killed either him, or herself. She was glad that she looked good in orange, because the second one just wasn't going to happen.

She froze when she heard the bathroom door open. Whatever girl it was, she would leave soon and she could-

A knock came on the stall door. "Sharpay, it's me."

"You're not supposed to be in here Zeke," she told him, getting up and leaving the stall.

Backing to let her pass, he shrugged. "No one comes in here, that's how I knew that you were here. Are you alright?"

Nodding, she said, "I'm fine now. When I got in here my breathing went back to normal." Seeing him open his mouth, she said, "Please don't say I told you so."

The way he closed his mouth let Sharpay know that that was exactly what he was going to do.

"Fine," he told her. "I won't. But you do realize that you're going to have to tell Ryan, don't' you?"

"No I won't," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I can just tell him that I didn't want to be around him. No one noticed that I was shaking and I couldn't breathe. Why would he think that I was afraid of him?"

"I forgot how quickly you can think up a lie," he told her.

So he still thought that she was the same, like everyone else did. Since he had believed her about the dreams, she thought that his opinion had changed, but obviously it hadn't.

"That's me," she said brightly. "Sharpay the liar. I'll never change. I have to get to class, excuse me."

She walked away from him and was about to make it to the door when he grabbed her arm and turned her around. "I didn't mean that, I just meant…" Before Sharpay realized it, Zeke bent his head and pressed his lips against hers.

Sharpay was shocked frozen. For about half a second. Then she eagerly returned the kiss. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she opened her mouth and thrust her tongue against his. It wasn't a soft, tender kiss like the one in his car had been. This kiss was a hard, demanding kiss from both of them. It was as if they were both trying to get something for each other that they both desperately needed.

Sharpay put everything in that kiss. Everything that she felt and wanted to say to him, but couldn't. She knew that she wouldn't ever tell him that she loved him, so she prayed that he would be able to feel her love in his kiss. This kiss would have to last her forever even after she let him go. At that thought, she hugged him tighter.

Sharpay couldn't stop kissing him, and as she did, the urge to keep kissing him kept getting stronger and stronger. She couldn't catch a breath, she kissed him so frantically, not that minded at all. When he wrapped his hands around the side of her wait, and pulled her closer together, slanting his mouth over and over against hers, she was barely able to hold back the groan in her throat.

She didn't know how long they were kissing, but eventually, Zeke slowly pulled away from her and stepped back. Looking up at him, Sharpay opened her mouth to say something, anything, when everything came rushing back to her. Jeremy, the panic attack, Odette.

"Oh, God," she said. Quickly gathering her books that had fallen on the floor, she ran out the door without a backwards glance.

--

By Friday, Sharpay looked like death warmed over. Many, many times.

Thankfully, Ryan had believed the lie that she had told him about why she had left the classroom. Another good thing was that no one had realized that she and Zeke had both disappeared at the same time. She didn't have to worry about endangering his relationship, but she did wonder why he had kissed her. That, and the kiss itself had kept her up longer than she thought possible. But when she fell asleep, the nightmare still plagued her. Not able to take it any longer, Sharpay hadn't been asleep since late Monday night.

That was why she looked like death warmed over. This was the longest that she had ever been without sleep. Four days had really started to wear on her. She had Ryan driving to school because she was afraid that she might fall asleep and kill them both. She couldn't remember anything that someone had told her the second before. She hoped that this time, she really would be too tired to dream. Or if she did, she wouldn't wake up from it.

She slowly walked to her locker and worked the combination. When she tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. Working the combination again, she realized that she couldn't remember it. Taking a deep breath, she tried to rack her brain for the three numbers that she needed. She knew it this morning when she arrived at school so it couldn't be that hard to remember it now.

She was still trying to figure the combination out when a voice from behind her said, "You look horrible."

Turning, she saw it was Zeke. "You must not be able to get Odette off of you with all the flattery you can give a girl."

Ignoring her sarcastic remark, Zeke looked at her while she fiddled with her lock. "Why don't you just open it?"

"I will," she mumbled. "Just as soon as I remember the combination."

"You forgot your combination?" He sounded worried.

Shaking her head, she quickly stopped when her head started to pound. "No, I just can't remember it right now, that's all."

The frown that had appeared on his face intensified when he heard her answer. Holding up his index finger, he started to move it back and forward in front of her.

"What are you doing," she asked confused.

"Just follow the finger," he told her.

She followed the fingers, but couldn't keep up because he was moving it so quickly.

"Stop going so fast," she told him.

His frown turned into a full on scowl as he dropped his finger. "I wasn't going fast," he told her. "When was the last time that you slept?"

Her headache had intensified. "Stop yelling at me. Whatever day it was that Jeremy came into our homeroom. After that, I didn't go back to sleep. It's only been like two days."

She headache was so bad that she didn't notice Zeke's scowl quickly leave his face, and be replaced with a look of great concern. "What day is it Sharpay?"

She shrugged. "Wednesday, right? I haven't been not sleeping for very long, nothing you need to worry about."

"It's Friday, Sharpay. You haven't slept in four days. You need to get some sleep, it's not healthy."

"So is not eating breakfast, but millions of people do that everyday." Sharpay's headache was unbearable. "Can we do this later? I had a really bad headache."

"You need to sleep," he told her firmly. "I'm going to get Ryan and-"

"No," she told him, becoming instantly alert as she could. "You promised that you wouldn't tell him Zeke. Please, don't."

"Please don't what." an angry voice came from behind her. "What did you promise her Zeke?"

Sharpay barely registered Zeke's sigh. "Not now Odette. Sharpay isn't feeling well. I have to find Ryan."

Before Sharpay could object again, Odette said, "She's faking it just to get your attention. Just like she faked Jeremy attacking her."

"I didn't fake anything," Sharpay started to say, trying to focus on one of the two Odettes that she saw. She hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since the night of the party months ago, so why did it feel like she was drunk?

Odette had turned her attention to her. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from Zeke?"

"You did what," Zeke asked, outraged, but Odette ignored him.

"You just couldn't help yourself could you? What don't you understand about the fact that he has a girlfriend? You're so…"

Sharpay tuned her out as she became very dizzy. Everything began to tilt on its axis and she couldn't right it. The last thing she heard was Zeke calling her name before she fell into a black void.

--

"What happened to her?"

When had Ryan come into her room, Sharpay wondered. And why did he sound so upset?

"We were talking and she said she hadn't slept in four days. Odette came and she started yelling at her and then she fainted."

"Why hasn't she slept in so long?"

Don't tell him, Sharpay tried to say, but she couldn't make her mouth move. Before she heard Zeke's reply, the black void surrounded her again.

--

"Exhaustion," a voice said, but she didn't know who it was. "This is an extreme case caused by very long periods of no or very little sleep."

"Is she going to be alright?" Why were there so many people in her room? First her brother and Zeke, now her mother and some man she didn't know.

Before she could answer, she felt the void coming on her again, but she couldn't go to sleep. Her mother or Ryan might hear her if she had a nightmare.

She tired to fight it, but it was no use. Once again, she knew nothing.

--

Sharpay opened her eyes, and tried to figure out where she was. Lifting her arm to move her hair, she flinched when she felt something pull at her arm. Looking down at it, she cringed when she saw an IV sticking out of her forearm.

"Don't worry, it won't be in forever."

Turning to the voice, she saw that it was Taylor sitting in a chair next to the bed she was in.

"Where am I?"

"The hospital. Do you remember everything?"

Shaking her head, Sharpay told her, "Just having a really bad headache. Odette called me pathetic, at least I think that's what she was calling me, but then I got dizzy. I don't remember anything else but Ryan talking to Zeke, and my mother talking to some man."

"Probably the doctor. Your mom and dad just left a few hours ago to go get some sleep. They've been here ever since you were brought in. What did Zeke tell Ryan?"

After thinking for a few seconds, Sharpay said, "He told Ryan that I hadn't slept for awhile and when Odette started yelling at me, I fainted."

"That was when the paramedics were on their way. A lot of people saw you pass out in the hall. Zeke was able to catch you before you hit the floor and brought you to the nurse. Someone had enough sense to go find Ryan instead of staring and following Zeke like almost everyone else did. When they couldn't get you to wake up, the nurse called 911. Odette got upset because Zeke rode in the ambulance with you and Ryan."

To Sharpay, Taylor sounded very aggravated with the girl. "I didn't…talk in my sleep, did I?"

"You mean scream out for Jeremy to get away from you? No, you didn't."

Zeke had told. Now everyone knew and-

"Don't be mad at him. You were unconscious, and he was the only person who knew why. He had to tell your brother." Seeing that Sharpay wasn't going to comment, she said, "So, do you want the sugar coated version of what happened, or the real version?"

"The real one please," Sharpay said immediately. She didn't need or want to have to figure things out as she went along.

Giving a quick nod, Taylor said, "When Zeke told Ryan why you hadn't been sleeping, Ryan was ready to kill both of you. You for not telling him anything, and Zeke for knowing that you weren't sleeping and having nightmares not telling him. He calmed down when Zeke told him that he had tried, but you made him promise not too. When Odette found out how Zeke knew about you're nightmares, she got pissed and stormed off, and everyone let her. Ryan and Zeke told the doctor's that you had been working really hard on the spring play and helping everyone with Prom, and doing all your schoolwork, that's why you weren't sleeping. I don't think that the doctor believed them, but he hasn't said anything about it. That's what they told your parents too, so don't worry about them finding about what Jeremy did."

"You have extreme exhaustion, that's what the doctor said. And since you hadn't been eating-"

"I have been eating," Sharpay objected.

"Eating right," Taylor corrected herself. "Those combined, and all the caffeine in your body from the energy drinks and coffee caused your body to shut down. That's why you had such a bad headache and fainted. He said that if it had been a few more days, you could have died."

"Oh," Sharpay said, not knowing what else to say. It's not everyday that a person finds out that they could have died. "Anything else?"

Taylor sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Ryan wanted to kill you the moment you were better, but when Zeke told him why you didn't tell him, he felt tremendously guilty. We all told him off pretty well for what he said. Except Odette of course, she was the one who put the ideas in his head even though she might not have said anything directly to him. She still thinks that you're faking it."

Shaking her head, she continued, "None of us could believe that he said it, and now he feels that it's his fault that you almost died. Zeke and Odette had a huge fight. Mainly about what happened when he was in your room. It got really ugly and they haven't talked to each other since."

"Well, he was a girl's room who wasn't his girlfriend," Sharpay said, trying to defend Odette, even though she didn't know why.

Taylor gave her a very bored, unconvinced look. "Don't try and take up for her. When they first started dating, she was fine, but she kept getting gradually more and more jealous of you. You hadn't even done anything. She would see you walking down the hall and swear on her life that you were trying to get Zeke's attention. That caused more fights than any of us want to think about. She must really love him to be that insecure."

"Yeah," Sharpay said. "She must."

"Ryan has been here since you were admitted. He and Zeke alternate between sitting with you with us filling the spaces in between when we're able to get them to go get some sleep."

God, how long had she been out of it? Asking her question out loud, Taylor answered it for her. "Two days. It's Sunday afternoon right now. On Friday, neither one of them wanted to leave and they argued about it for a long time until Jason made them flip a coin. Zeke won, but he sits with you in the morning and most of the afternoon, while Ryan sits with you for the rest of the afternoon and the night."

"Thank you for telling me this," Sharpay told her.

Smiling, Taylor said, "Your welcome. I knew that everyone else would just tell you that you were going to be just fine and don't worry about anything. Well…except maybe Chad. But he would have given you boy code. 'Odette thought that you two were boning. So…are you?' That kind of stuff."

Laughing, Sharpay said, "Thank you again. I needed that."

"Your welcome again," she said, standing. "Now I have to go get Zeke and call your brother. I was supposed to do that the moment you woke up, but no one is going to be able to get near you when they come. Just don't tell."

Laughing again, Sharpay agreed and watched the girl quickly leave the room.

When the door closed, she sighed and burrowed deeper into the bed. She was grateful that Taylor had told her the truth. She knew that the girl was right. No one would have told her anything about Zeke and Odette or anything about whether or not they knew that she had nightmares and panic attacks. She just hoped that the real reason why she was in the hospital wasn't all around school.

She hadn't dreamed at all. At least that was something to be grateful for. Maybe she wouldn't have them anymore.

The door open and Zeke walked in. the sight of him with a smile on his face walking towards her was the best thing she had ever seen. She hadn't seen him smile at her that way since almost a year ago. It was wonderful to know that he still felt joy at seeing her.

It wouldn't last, she reminded herself. When she was out of the hospital, he and Odette would make up and things would go back to the way they were. He cared about her as a friend, of course he would be happy that she was alright. Pushing down her hopes before they got dangerously high, Sharpay said, "Where's Taylor?"

"Calling your brother. He and your parents should be here in about five minutes."

"But the hospital is fifteen minutes away from where we live."

Laughing, Zeke walked to the bed and sat in the empty chair and said, "Tell that to your family. Your parents didn't want to leave until you were up and asking for a mocha latté. Taylor was finally able to convince us to go and get some rest. Your parents went home and I went into an empty room and took a nap." Looking at in her eyes, he asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," she said, looking away from him. "Still a little tired, but I'm fine. I just wish they would take this needle out of my arm."

"That's your food. Glucose or whatever. Since you weren't eating, they had to give you that."

Rolling her eyes at his disapproving tone, she said, "I was eating. Not like I should have been, but I was eating. I wasn't starving myself."

By the look on his face, Zeke wasn't satisfied with her answer. "Either way, whenever the nurse comes in, they're going to take it out since you can feed yourself now."

"I'm not hungry," she started to say, but saw the look that he gave her and said, "But I'm sure I'm going to be force fed even if I'm not."

"Damn straight," Zeke told her happily. Becoming serious, Zeke said, "Sharpay, when you passed out, Ryan wanted to know what was wrong and-"

"I know," she cut him off. "You had to tell him. I understand that, and don't think that I'm mad. I'm not."

"You're parents don't know, we just told them that you were over worked. The doctors don't know either."

Keeping her word to Taylor, Sharpay didn't let him know that she knew that already. "Thank you," she told him. "I haven't had any dreams, maybe they're gone."

"I don't know," Zeke told her. "They gave you a sedative to make you sleep for awhile. That might have had something to do with it. If it did, then you're still going to have them. You're eighteen, your parents don't need to know if you're going to see a psychologist, and-"

"Not right now," Sharpay told him quietly. "Alright? There will be plenty of time for you to do that later. Can we just not? At least for now?"

Nodding, Zeke said, "OK. I won't talk about that right now. But are you sure that you're alright?"

"Positive."

"Good," Zeke said, his mood changing so rapidly that Sharpay couldn't believe that he was concerned the second before. "Now I won't feel bad about yelling at you. What in the hell possessed you not to sleep for four days? And then to barely eat and only drink coffee and energy drinks? Do you realize that you could have died? You're smarter than what people think, but why didn't you have enough common sense to know that you were hurting yourself? And what if you would have died? Then I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life because I didn't say anything when I knew about it."

"You didn't know about the caffeine and the not eating," she tried to defend, but he wasn't done.

"Then we would have had to kill Jeremy for starting all of this," he yelled, but not loud enough to be heard outside of the room. "Then everyone else would have had to kill me because I knew. I could have pissed myself when you passed out. You almost hit the floor before I caught you. Then you could have had a concussion. When Ryan found out that I knew, he was ready to kill me, and I was ready to kill him for what he said to you. Then Odette was pissed because I was in your room and I had to fight about that with her. Then you wouldn't wake up for two days and I've had a horrible weekend and I blame you for it."

Sharpay just stared at him after his tirade was done. Filthy hypocrite, she thought. He had told Ryan not to yell at her but here he was doing it. She couldn't even throw that in his face because she had promised Taylor that she wouldn't let them know that she had told her the truth. What was she going to do?

Faking a voice of distress, she said, "I have a headache Zeke. I think I should rest now."

Zeke gave her a look that showed her he wasn't convinced. "You can't lie to me, so stop trying to."

At his remark, Sharpay realized that he was right. She could lie to someone in front of him and make it believable, but she couldn't lie to him to save her life. Well, she could, but he could easily see threw it.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "Fine. I won't lie to you anymore. But I wish you would stop yelling at me. And don't blame me for your bad weekend. Even if it is my fault, it would be nice if you didn't let me know that you blame me."

"So you think it's your fault too, but I can't blame you? God, girls are nothing but confusion and trouble."

"Go gay then," Sharpay shot back at him.

"No, thank you. I happen to like girls, not guys."

"Then stop complaining," Sharpay yelled at him, fed up with his attitude.

Zeke looked at her and burst into laughter, making Sharpay think that he had lost his mind.

"I think that was our first fight," he said.

She shrugged. "I fight with everyone. It probably won't be the last."

"It won't, because I'm about to start another one. Why didn't you tell me that Odette was bothering you?"

"She wasn't bothering me," Sharpay corrected. "She just kept telling me to stay away from you. If I were her, I'd tell me the same thing too."

"The old you, maybe," Zeke said, and Sharpay wasn't able think about the fact that he thought she was a different person because he continued talking. "You wouldn't talk to me or even look at me. Did she scare you?"

Sharpay was offended. "Hell no, she didn't scare me. As if she would have the power. I stayed away from you because it is what's right. Look at what happened in your car when I hurt my wrist, and then in the bathroom a week ago. I can't be trusted around you. She had every right to distrust me."

"The bathroom was after she told you," he said. She didn't have a chance to ask him how he knew that because he kept talking. "And I kissed you in the bathroom and kissed you back in my car. I'm just as much to blame as you. And that didn't give her the right to go into your room and bother you."

"How did you know that," Sharpay asked, shocked. Odette couldn't have told him, and she knew that she hadn't.

"She let it slip. When it did, I made her tell me what she said. I'm just glad that you were awake when she came in. Only God knows what she would have tried to do if you were sleep." At her speechless look, he said, "I'm not stupid Sharpay. I remember when Ryan told all of us that day that you were sleeping, or at least thought you were. And with your door, it's easy to tell who it's for. She went in there when she thought that you were asleep for a reason."

"I don't think you're stupid. I just didn't think that she would have told you that she was in my room," she told him. "And I thought the same things that you did. But she was just afraid of losing you."

"Why do you keep taking up for her," Zeke asked angrily. "I know the only reason that Ryan said those things to you was because she had put the idea in his head. If she hadn't, then we could have told Ryan about all of this and maybe it wouldn't have come down to you almost dying before you got some help. All she's done is insult and threaten you. Why would you defend her?"

"Because," Sharpay told him heartbreakingly. "She loves you. And I saw the way you would look at her. I know that you love her too. You had spent the last year trying to get me to notice you, and then you found somebody who noticed you and wasn't trying to get with your friend. You were happy, happier than you ever were chasing after me. What right did I have to take that from you? At first I tried. That was what the whole party in October was about. I wanted to look so good you would dump her and go back to following me around. When you didn't even pay attention to me, that's when I got drunk and Jeremy almost did what he tried to do."

"So, don't blame her for it," she told him. "It was my fault that any of this started. And when we were in school a few days later, I saw for myself how much you cared about her. What right did I have to try to get you? You moved on and you had every right to. It wasn't your fault that I realized it too late."

"Realized what too late," he asked her quietly.

Before she could answer, her family, followed by a harassed looking nurse came into the room, ending the conversation between her and Zeke. Sharpay wasn't sure if she was happy about that or not.