Disclaimer: As always, I do not own High School Musical. And, once more, as always, I wish I owned Corbin Bleu, but I don't because they don't sell him on Ebay. tear

A/N: I'm majorly sorry this update took me so long! School and life in general has been crazy. Hopefully I'll start updating more regularly now. Well, enjoy the long-awaited chapter five!

"Honey, you have to stay home!"

"Mom," I whined, "I'm not sick. I've just got a fever. Let me go to school and I promise I'll take things easy. I've got a test in Bio today and I have a huge Geometry assignment due! Puh-leease?"

I was sure the argument me and my mother were having wasn't a common one. Most of kids I knew would do absolutely anything to get out of school, even if it meant faking sick, especially on a Monday morning with a test looming ahead of them. Wasn't it an awful coincidence that I, Taylor McKessie, the girl who would do anything to get out of missing school, just so happened to get sick with a stupid fever?

"Tay," Mom began, using a tense tone of voice that I was sure pretty much every kid had heard from their parents at one point or another when they were doing something wrong, "If you go to sleep now, I promise I'll take you up to school on my lunch break. That way you'll only miss half a day of school. Does that sound like a plan?"

My reply was a snappy 'no!'.

Putting a severely angry look on her face, Mom snapped back, "Well, it wasn't a suggestion. You will go to bed now and I will take you up to school at noon unless you feel terrible."

Okay, maybe I'd been a little too snappy.

"Oh, mom, it's not like I'll do anyone any harm if I go to school! I promise, I'll stay away from everyone. And I'll dress cool so my fever doesn't bother me! Oh, please?"

"Taylor. I am your mother! I don't want you to argue with me over this. A few hours isn't going to hurt you any."

I sighed in exasperation. There was really no fighting my mom. She was just as stubborn as I was, and since she was, after all, the parental figure, I figured I had to listen to her. "Fine, fine," I grumbled, making my way back into my bedroom. I heard her call a cheerful 'sleep well!' before heading out the door to work. It bothered me how she could go from being angry one minute to being happy the next.

So, as I laid in my bed, I thought up my options. Option one was to do as Mom said and go to sleep. That, however, was highly unlikely. I wasn't the least bit tired! Somehow Mom thought that sleep was a magical medicine that cured everything. Yeah right. Option two was to get dressed and go to school. I couldn't do that, though. When she'd come home for lunch, Mom would see I wasn't there and would naturally think I'd been kidnaped or something like that, and she would proceed to freak out. Option three was sort of midway between one and two. I'd stay home, but I wouldn't sleep. I could crawl into bed ten minutes before mom got home so she'd think I'd been sleeping the whole time.

Option three was definitely going to work.

With defeat hanging on my shoulders (I was still upset about not going to school until noon), I trudged out to the living room and pulled my blankets up around me. My laptop was sitting on the coffee table, so I reached over and flipped it open. Immediately, I went to our school's homepage to see if any of the teachers had posted assignments, though it wasn't even eight o'clock yet. Of course, no one had. I busied myself with looking through the different parts of the site I hadn't been to before, and I eventually found myself staring at this huge picture of Sharpay beneath the heading 'View From THE Twin'. Apparently Sharpay had a column on the school's webzine, which I'd never really read before.

For a moment I dwelled on it's title. 'View from THE Twin'. I was astonished how she could turn something around that indefinitely signaled two people, that being the word 'twin', to so clearly refer to a single person. It was all done in typical Sharpay fashion, however, with 'THE' typed in boldface font, all capitals. It made me instantly feel sorry for that enigmatic brother of hers, and it made me marvel at how something as simple as a webzine's title could be designed to cut him down. It made me feel sicker than my supposed 'virus'.

After turning my disgust away from the top of the page, I scanned down through the text she'd typed up, all in a blindingly pink font that danced in front of a turquoise background. I had to highlight the text just to read it. And even then, I really only skimmed. It wasn't so much a column as it was a blog. Judging by the counter Sharpay had at the bottom, her page was one of the fewest-accessed pages on the entire internet. She'd gotten a grand total of 8 hits, and I was guessing that they were probably from members of the drama club or guys who'd considered her hot.

I really only read the two most recent entries. The first was written yesterday morning.

Twenty Reasons Why Troy Bolton Is THE Hottest Guy In The School!!!!!!!

15. He's been to every musical I've ever been in.

14. His dad is hot for an old guy.

13. He's not a geek.

12. His hair isn't annoyingly curly.

11. He always smells amazing.

10. He doesn't stare at girls in the hallway.

9. He's got an awesome car set aside for him when he turns sixteen.

8. He's, like, rich. Not as rich as me, but still rich!!

7. He has great hair.

6. His smile is sofreakingadorable!!

5. He has really great style!!!

4. He's the junior varsity basketball team's captain!

3. I'm his number one friend on myspace!!

2. He's going out with me!!!!

1. Me and him KISSED last night!!!!!

The next one, written last night around ten o'clock was highly amusing. It made me instantly wish I could be at school today, just to see Sharpay.

TROY BOLTON IS THE WORST GUY ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET

Today, me and Troy had, like, a date planned. We were going to go to the mall so I could help him buy a few shirts that complimented my outfits exactly. Like, I have this gorgeous sundress, so I was gonna get a button-up for him that matched the exact shade of pink. Well, we went to American Eagle and I got him this gorgeous polo shirt (WITH MY OWN MONEY) and then we were walking to, like, Hollister, when we walked by this sports store. One of his stupid friends, that Chad guy, was in the store and he was all 'Troy, dude what's up?' So I told Troy to just ignore him and keep walking.

Well I guess Troy is, like, loyal to his friends or something pathetic like that, because he totally went off on me about how he couldn't just ignore that poofy-haired bafoon. Seriously, this kid was wearing a novelty tee! How three years ago are those? Ugh!

I told Troy he had to pick between me and his buddy and he, Troy, chose that IDIOT over me!

Really, Troy doesn't know what he's losing.

He's so gonna regret this.

So Sharpay had finally had it given to her. If I could, I would have given Troy a huge hug at that moment. Chad was pretty awesome, too, for causing that disturbance in their relationship. For a moment, I was back in middle school and I had this huge desire to call both of them up. I still had their numbers locked away in my mind. I always had trouble forgetting things, numbers especially.

Totally satisfied, I shut my computer and flicked on the TV. Of course, nothing but pointless kiddie shows and old game shows was on. I tuned in to the Price is Right- I was always great at playing along at home- and settled in.

As the show progressed, however, I grew progressively more sick-feeling. My stomach started making these gross gurgling noises and my throat started hurting really badly. So, just as the showcase showdown was starting, I flicked the TV off and made my way into my room. It looked like I wasn't going to have to pretend for mom when she came home.

In fact, I didn't even wake up when she got home. I guess sleep really was a great medicine because I felt instantly better when I woke up around two-thirty. I couldn't believe I was actually going to miss a whole day of school! What I did notice, though, was that I felt a lot better after catching a few Z's. So I settled back in and pulled my blanket up over my head.

I didn't wake up again until mom was making supper- I hadn't even woken up when my parents got home!- and she had come in to ask if I wanted any.

Still not hungry, I said I'd come out and see if it looked good, but I really wasn't in a chicken and rice mood, so I went into the living room to get the assignments. They would definitely be posted by now.

I brought up my browser window and was surprised by bold letters telling me I had a new e-mail. I basically never got e-mails, unless they were from a friend asking for help on homework or something like that.

Certain it was going to be junk mail, I begrudgingly clicked on it. I really needed to get my assignments, but this would only take a minute, so I figured it wasn't going to be that terrible. The e-mail, however, immediately made me suspicious. First off, it didn't have a subject, and secondly it was from an e-mail address I didn't recognize. 'Ugh,' I thought, 'probably a jock who got the wrong address or something.'

It was clear, however, by the first line that they had not gotten the wrong person.

Hey Tay,

you weren't in bio today! what was up with that? I don't know if your aware but we had a TEST today! how could ya miss that? well, anyway I thought it was pretty easy so you'll probably think it was majorly easy. anyway, I guess I just wanted to make sure you didn't die or anything because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that'd keep you away from school!

chad

Rolling her eyes, Taylor couldn't believe she was actually going to type up a reply to that, but she did and sent it before she could think better of it. It was really unlike her to act so impulsively.

Chad,

I'm afraid of what you had to do to get my e-mail address.

But anyway, I'm not dead, I was just really sick. I'm glad to hear the test was easy, maybe it will help bring your grade up some because I'm sure you could use it! Ha ha, sorry I couldn't resist. Well, I hope we didn't get too much homework today, but I'll definitely be back tomorrow.

Taylor

With that, I entered the school's site's address into my address bar for the second time that day, though this time I simply jotted down my homework and didn't dawdle with checking out the webzine.

The rest of the night was pretty much like any other one. I did my homework, worked ahead a bit in geometry, and then I watched an episode of That 70's Show from our TiVo. You wouldn't know it if you looked at me, but I'm a huge Kelso fan. After that, I went to bed, determined that I'd be ready for school the next day.

A/N: So I originally intended to put two days into this chapter, but then I decided I just wanted to get it posted, so now I've got a bunch of ideas for the next chapter. Yay! So, review away darlings!