Chapter Eight

Sharpay sat in history class listening to Mrs. Stewart drone on and on about the ancient world. She yawned; she could really care less about who discovered what and what happened when.

"…duty of the senate was to…"

Sharpay sighed, rolling her eyes. They had spent the first half of the year going over the ancient world, mostly Egypt, China, and some European countries. Now they had moved onto Rome and Greece. Mrs. Stewart was a full-blooded Italian and took pride in her rich heritage. Now they were in line to spend the last half of the year learning all about the coliseum, the Parthenon, and Julius Caesar.

"…if you'll open your books to page 219, you'll see a picture of the Roman Forum the marketplace if you wil…"

Sharpay haphazardly threw open the cover of her history book, turning to the page that the teacher had instructed. Her eyes glanced over the page, seeing nothing more than a bunch of words and a picture of a decrepit area plastered in the middle of the page.

She looked up at Mrs. Stewart before her eyes drifted down to the picture once more. She stared at it, attempting to pull her gaze away…but was unable to. She looked at it with confusion…something was wrong…

That wasn't the Forum!

It couldn't be! Her eyes roamed the picture frantically. Where were the temples? The statues? The columns? The people? The shops? She couldn't believe that the crumbling stones were the grand Forum.

She leaned forward, hands placed on either side of the book as she breathed deeply trying to calm her fear. Something was happening…she stared more at the picture watching in awe as the picture changed. The stones reshaped themselves, arches grew, the streets flattened out, and buildings reformed. Her eyes widened as she saw people start to wander into the picture…

A crowd had gathered, an angry mob entering the streets as the shopkeepers and merchants tried to sell their products to those who weren't as driven as the mob or men and women. They rushed angrily through the street, a set destination in mind.

A young woman in a dull white stola knelt by a small fountain, collecting water into a small clay vase. She looked up from her duty, hearing the crowd make its way behind her. She set the vase on the ledge of the fountain, turning to glance at the gathering, eyes widening in fear. She grabbed the vase and turned to face the crowd, walking towards them, head bowed, trying to make her way past them without them stopping her.

But they did…

A strong hand grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn around as the water from the vase splashed on the ground. Her blonde hair sprayed around her as someone pulled the vase from her arms. Her eyes widened even more as she saw a soldier coming towards her with a sword. She backed up quickly, nearly tripping as she did so. She backed up as much as she could when she felt her back press against the wall of a shop.

She glanced over, begging the shop keep with her eyes for help; he looked away, backing up from the crowd. She looked back at the man with the sword, he was getting closer.

"Sericia!" a voice called.

She turned her head to see Trenus trying to push his way to her, but being held back by the crowd.

Her eyes closed in pain as the man with the sword reached her. She pressed her hands to her stomach when she felt the sword pull from her. The warm blood flowed in between her fingers as she fell to the ground, her vision fading as she saw Trenus rushing towards her…

"Miss Evans!"

Sharpay's head snapped up as Mrs. Stewart glared at her. "I…I'm sorry," she mumbled, staring at her book once more. The forum was back to its natural state, as old and crumbling as ever. "What was the question?"

Mrs. Stewart rolled her eyes, "What was another thing that could have contributed to the downfall of Rome?"

"Uhh…" Sharpay glanced from the teacher back to the book and then back to Mrs. Stewart, "Riots?"

Mrs. Stewart's face bloomed into a smile, "Very good!" she said, "Now tomorrow we are going to go over…"

Just then the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. Sharpay quickly slammed shut her book, pushing it into her backpack and rushing out of the room. She practically ran to her locker, spinning the combination as fast as she could. She was shaking and over shot the second number, but eventually she managed to get the pink thing open.

She shut her locker a few minutes later, nearly jumping out of her skin when she saw someone standing on the other side of it. "Troy!" she exclaimed, putting her hand over her heart to steady it. "You scared me!"

He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, completely forgetting that she was in school.

Troy laughed at her question, "Ms. Darbus wanted me to remind you that we have practice today…building the set…" he added seeing her confused look.

"Oh!" she said after a minute, "Right…"

She turned to look at her locker once more, not noticing Troy's face take on a confused expression. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"What?" she asked startled, "Yeah, I'm…I'm fine."

"You sure?" he asked once more, she nodded. "Ok…well, I also wanted to say congratulations…since I didn't get to say it before."

Sharpay smiled softly, "Thanks…" she looked down. That morning Ms. Darbus had posted the cast list for Aida! Sharpay had gotten the role of Aida, just like she'd hoped; Troy had gotten the general Radames. Gabriella had gotten Amneris, the princess of Egypt. That had been a surprise, everyone had expected Sharpay to be the princess, after all she was Ice royalty. Chad was Ramfis, the high priest while Taylor was one of the priestesses, and Ryan had gotten Amonasro Aida's father (he looked more like Sharpay than the others who auditioned).

Troy gave Sharpay a concerned look; he'd expected her to be more…well…excited. She'd told him just yesterday that she'd really wanted the role, so what could have changed?

"Congratulations too," she added, turning to face him, a large…forced…smile on her face.

"Thanks," he replied, knowing not to comment on Sharpay's forced smile.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of her all afternoon. They'd been piecing together some sets for the musical, painting some things as well…but his eyes never left her form for more than a few minutes at a time. He'd been staring at her, watching her paint part of a ship when Chad snapped his fingers in front of Troy's face.

Troy looked up to see Chad half glaring at him with anger and half watching him with worry. "What is up with you man?" he asked angrily. Troy glanced around to see some people look up at him, Chad had spoken quite loudly.

"What?" Troy asked, looking away from Sharpay to face his friend.

"All week you've been staring off into space and all distracted! Especially at practice!" he added.

Sharpay's ears perked up at Chad's words. She held her paintbrush lightly in her hand as she turned to face them. Everyone else had gone back to their previous tasks when Chad started to ramble off about basketball. She looked over at Troy, watching him, worry shining through her eyes. She was so focused on watching Troy, on trying to hear what Chad was saying to him, that she barely even noticed the splash of paint that fell onto her shoes.

Her eyebrows furrowed in concern as she gazed at Troy's face. He seemed to be listening to what Chad was saying half-heartedly, nodding when it appeared appropriate. He looked up slowly, eyes locking with Sharpay's. She looked away quickly, turning to face the ship. She glanced down at her brush before looking at the semi painted section. Her gaze drifted back to Troy, he was still looking at her.

Chad looked behind him, seeing Sharpay staring at them. He shook his head, grabbing Troy's arm lightly and dragging him behind the curtains.

Sharpay shook her head, going back to her work, but her thoughts drifted back to what she had heard Chad say. Troy was distracted? Daydreaming during basketball?

"Sharpay dear, please get back to work and stop daydreaming," Ms. Darbus said passing her, "We need to get that ship painted."

"Sorry Ms. Darbus," Sharpay said, going back to work, trying to keep her thoughts off Troy daydreaming…just like her…

A/N – So…the Rome memory will be explained in a later chapter. The next chapter should be a lot longer than this one was. It involves the group getting together to run lines…and a startling realization on someone's part…