Chapter Nine
Susan Elliot rushed about the small area of her Boston apartment, trying to get everything set up. She had just cooked dinner and was in the process of setting the silverware when her doorbell rang. She quickly put down her silverware and headed for the door. She smoothed out her navy blue cocktail dress, quickly removing the apron she was wearing before opening the door.
"You look radiant tonight," her guest said, handing her a small bouquet of pinkish white lilies.
"Thank you Tom," she said blushing as she ushered him in. She went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water as Tom looked around her apartment. It was the first time he'd seen it…well, been in it. He'd seen it when he walked her up after a few of their dinners, but this was the first time he'd set foot in it. He wandered to the small dining room table, noticing that one of the silverware sets had not been placed. He set it up, thinking he was helping when Susan came back into the room and laughed.
"What?" he asked, watching as she stepped up to the plate and took the silverware back up.
She placed the utensils on the other side of the plate, "You're doing it wrong," she said softly, fixing the setting. "It's not proper etiquette to have the knife on that side of the plate."
He laughed softly at that, "You went to Wellesley didn't you?"
"How can you tell?" she asked, laughing as well. She went back to the kitchen motioning for him to sit down as she returned a moment later with the food…
It had been nearly a week since the first musical practice and Troy and Sharpay had kept their distance from each other as much as they could. It seemed to help them keep their minds on what they were supposed to do as well as keep them from having some 'jacked up' daydreams. But that didn't stop them from sneaking glances at the other when no one was looking.
Ryan and Sharpay were currently at their house that Wednesday night, preparing for the study party…well, it wasn't really a party, and they weren't really studying. They had invited all their friends to their house to go over the lines and music for the musical. They were going to meet up and have some dinner before heading into the music room to practice. Kelsi was sick, which almost put an end to their plans, but Ryan told everyone that Sharpay had been taking piano lessons for years now and that she could fill in.
Ryan was standing before the hall mirror that connected the dinning room to the main entrance. He was trying to decide whether to button the top button of his lime green shirt or not. He'd managed to convince Sharpay to do green, even though it was her least favorite color…but it was Gabriella's favorite…although that had absolutely no sway on his decision to wear green…no sway what-so-ever…
Sharpay had just walked into the dining room when the doorbell rang; she let Ryan go answer it since he'd practically jumped to get it. She glanced over at Mary, their housemaid/cook, who was setting the table and her eyebrow rose in confusion. She could hear Ryan greeting everyone and ushering them off to the dining room, but she didn't react to them. Instead she made her way over to the table, taking the napkins and silverware from Mary.
"I think you're doing it wrong," she said softly. Mary raised an eyebrow before stalking from the room as Sharpay set the silverware correctly, moving to each other plate and fixing the silverware. When she finished she mockingly brushed her hands together before turning to face her friends. "What?" she asked seeing them all staring at her with odd expressions. "It's not proper etiquette."
Everyone continued to stare. "What?" she asked again, this time getting angry.
"Nothing," Chad said nearly laughing. No one expected Queen Sharpay to know how to set a table 'properly'.
Sharpay rolled her eyes at them, "Well are you going to come in here and eat or stand there and gawk?" They shook their heads before taking their seats…
The practice had run late, too late for anyone to return to their houses, so they each called their families asking if they could stay the night, promising to make it to school the next day. Ryan and Sharpay had offered their guest rooms for their friends to use, but they all decided to just sleep in the entertainment room. It was the biggest room n the house, complete with a surround sound stereo system and big screen plasma TV. They had watched about three movies so far, just finishing watching their third when they realized that Troy had fallen asleep on the couch.
He was tossing and turning slightly as the dream felt more and more real…
Quintus Julius Brunus paced back and forth before his son as they stood in their gardens. His son had just spoken something to him that could mean their downfall. Brunus was muttering incoherently to himself as his son stood there defiantly, fire burning in his eyes. Brunus recognized the look, it was the same look he had had when he and Trenus' mother had met, god rest her soul.
"She is a slave son!" he shouted, spinning to face his son. "She is below your status."
"I do not care about status." Trenus said to his father.
"But it is there nonetheless," Brunus added trying to get through to his son.
"You do not understand!" Trenus replied evenly, staring his father down.
"I do!" Brunus shouted, taking a breath to calm himself, "But you must think of how the people will react. If they were to find out that you…"
"I do not care about the people…" Trenus closed his eyes, taking a breath as he steeled himself for what he was about to say. "I care about her."
"I understand that son," Brunus said, grabbing Trenus' shoulders, "But wait four more years. She has been with us for two, in four years she will be free and you can do what you wish. I had to wait for your mother's family to accept me, I had to wait three year…"
"I am not you father!" Trenus shouted, anger filling his eyes. "I love her…"
With that Trenus departed from the gardens, leaving his father to stare at the spot where he had stood. Brunus sighed, bowing his head and shaking it. This union between his son and the slave Sericia would not end well…
The group had started to whisper, laughing slightly as Troy rolled over, mumbling something in his sleep. Sharpay could hear the words, "Ego operor…non tutela super statua" leave his lips as a soft voice whispered in her head, 'I do not care about status!'
Chad crept slowly towards where Troy lay, trying to hear what he was mumbling as Taylor hissed at him to stop. Chad waved her off, still creeping steadily closer. He had never known Troy to talk in his sleep so something must be going on in his head for him to be saying it out loud.
"Vos operor non agnosco," rang out in Sharpay's ears and again the voice whispered, 'You do not understand!'
Taylor hissed at him again to stop, but he rolled his eyes, finally reaching Troy. Maybe whatever he was saying would help Chad understand what had been going on with Troy lately. He paused a moment, listening intently to what Troy was saying as the rest of the group quieted down unconsciously wanting to know what Troy was saying also.
Chad's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he couldn't understand a word Troy was saying. "Well…" he heard Ryan hiss at him, "What's he saying?"
Chad listened to his friend speak, muttering "Ego operor non tutela super populus…"
Sharpay started to breath faster, 'I do not care about the people…'
"I don't know," Chad whispered back glancing over at them, "I can't understand him."
The group looked at each other before crawling over to where Troy was laying…all except one. Sharpay sat in her spot by another couch, staring at the floor deep in thought. She didn't need to get closer to hear what Troy was mumbling, with everyone as quiet as they were, she could hear him plain a day.
"Ego tutela super suus." Troy whispered, an angry expression on his face.
"What's he saying?" Taylor asked, listening to Troy speaking in tongues.
Sharpay eyes scanned the floor as the voice continued to speak, 'I care about her.'
"I've never heard anything like that before," Chad said.
"I didn't know Troy could speak another language…" Gabriella started.
"Ego sum non vos pater!" Troy continued as Sharpay winced from the anger in his voice, 'I am not you father!'
"It sounds like…Italian?" Ryan asked, looking at the group.
"It's Latin." Sharpay whispered from her spot. No one looked at her as the realization dawned in their faces; they just stared at Troy more, wondering what he was saying.
Sharpay's eyes unconsciously started to fill with tears as she heard what Troy was saying.
"Ego amo eas…" Troy whispered rolling over, mumbling ceasing.
Sharpay felt a tear start to fall from her eye and hastily wiped it away before anyone could see it. Ego amo eas…I love her…the words felt familiar to her, but she couldn't place why…
"But Troy doesn't take Latin," Gabriella added utterly confused at Troy's words.
"Maybe its just cause we watched Gladiator before," Ryan added, shrugging. The group just went with that, unable to come up with any other excuse. He turned around to go put in another movie to see Sharpay staring off into space, barely moving. "Shar?" he asked, crawling over to her. She made no notion of having heard him, not even acknowledging his presence until he shook her out of her trance. "You ok?" he asked finally getting a response from her.
She shook her head out of her trance before looking at Ryan to see everyone staring at her. "Yeah, I'm fine…I was…just thinking about that last movie."
"Freddy vs. Jason?" Taylor asked, "What about it?"
Sharpay smiled softly proud that she had come up with such a quick lie, "I was just thinking how, if we were in a horror movie right now, we'd all survive because we're all virgins." She started to laugh along with some of the others…but her laughter didn't last long when Chad spoke next.
"So you are still a virgin?" Chad asked.
…there was silence…
Sharpay looked over at Chad to see him giving her a serious look…he wasn't even joking about it! Sharpay glanced at the other people there only to see them each looking away in shame…they thought the same thing too! The only person who was even remotely on her side was Troy, who was asleep, and Ryan…he'd seen how upset she was when that rumor spread…he knew she'd remained pure despite what everyone said.
Sharpay shook her head staring at her so-called friends…how could they have even doubted her when she'd told them the rumor wasn't true? How could they have not believed her tears? Didn't they see how upset she had been? How could they think that about her?!
She looked away from her 'friends', getting to leave. That was when the apologies started. Gabriella and Taylor started to rise, trying to say how sorry they were and that; of course they didn't believe the rumors, when their faces just then told her that they had. But Sharpay was already headed for the door out of the room by the time they'd stood. She threw the door open and forced it shut as hard as she could behind her, not caring that it had slammed shut.
Troy jumped up on the couch at the noise, turning to face his shocked friends, "Wha's goin on?" he asked sleepily…
Sharpay stood outside her house, leaning against the railing of her front porch, still fuming at what her friends had done to her. Well…she wasn't really fuming now…she'd been standing out there for about a half hour now and had moved on from anger…to hurt.
Tears had collected in her eyes as she thought about her so-called friends. She cursed her brother silently, if it hadn't been for him, she wouldn't be as hurt as she was now. She had been the Ice Queen for a reason! If her heart was made of Ice, she couldn't be hurt, especially if she didn't care. She would have been fine, but noooo, Ryan had wanted to have friends and dragged Sharpay into it!
He'd made her melt her Ice Queen façade so that they could both have friends. It just so happened that he'd made friends with Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor. She should have expected to be hurt by her former enemies. But no! She gave them a chance, she let them in, she allowed herself to care about what they thought of her, and now…now she was standing out side her house, in the chill of the night, trying her best not to cry at their utter lack of faith in her principles!
She knew she should have never let them in…but she had…and they hurt her, just like she knew they would…It wasn't fair! She'd tried so hard to be there for them, to help them out, to be their friend, the person they could count on to understand them and support them…to believe them…and now…she wasn't even sure why se bothered.
"Hey…" she heard a voice say from behind her.
"What do you want Bolton?" she asked icily without turning to face him. Don't ask how she knew it was him, but she did…and she really didn't want to talk to anyone right now.
Troy winced at the tone of her voice; he could tell that she was starting to slip back into her Ice Queen persona. "They told me what happened…"
"Yeah, and?" she asked spinning to face him as she leaned back against the railing. "Let me guess, they sent you to come get black mail of the Ice Queen crying right?" She knew she was way off base with the accusation, not many people still considered her the Ice Queen.
"You were crying?" he asked softly staring into her eyes, seeing the tears there. Sharpay's eyes widened as she realized what she had said. She spun around again to stare at the sky, she just didn't want to face Troy right now…she didn't want him to see her cry…no one saw her cry!
Troy shook his head when Sharpay turned around. He felt like someone had punched him in his stomach when he saw the tears that had actually been in her eyes. He didn't want to make her cry again; he didn't want her to have been crying in the first place. He just plain didn't want to see her cry…to see her in that much pain.
"Are you alright?" he asked, taking a step and leaning against the railing next to her.
Sharpay turned her head to her left so that Troy wouldn't be able to see the tears still in her eyes. "Yeah…I'll be fine…"
There was a lag in the conversation as they both fell into an awkward silence, "Chad didn't mean what he said."
Sharpay nodded, "I know," she said sarcastically, "He just meant to say that he didn't believe me…that none of them did."
"Hey, hey!" Troy said quickly, "That's not true…"
"Oh yes it is Troy," she snapped turning to look at him, "You were sleeping, you didn't see their faces, the looks they gave me…"
"And you didn't stay to see the apologies they wanted to give you." He countered.
She rolled her eyes at him and looked back at the sky. She knew she'd probably overreacted, but she was really hurting just then. She shivered.
"You cold?" Troy asked concerned, they really didn't need the star of the musical to get sick a week into practice.
"No…" Sharpay drawled out, "What would give you that idea?"
"Sorry…" Troy said, getting slightly annoyed.
Sharpay sighed; she hadn't meant to get Troy mad. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just…really annoyed right now."
"Well, Chad can be an annoying person," Troy replied, getting a laugh out of Sharpay.
"You just figured that out now?"
"Nah," he said, "I've known it for a while, I just tend to ignore him."
She laughed more, actually smiling as she glanced at him. "It just…hurts…you know…"
"Sticks and stones," Troy added, "They're just words."
She shook her head, "It wasn't what he said that got to me." She took a breath, "It was their actions…or lack thereof…"
Troy nodded, "Actions speak louder than words."
Sharpay nodded as well, "And silence breaks the heart," she added recalling her own little rhyme. Sticks and stones may break my bones, aimed with angry art. Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.
He finally understood why she was so upset. Chad said something stupid, but no one made a move to tell him that or to reassure her that they thought what he'd said was stupid as well. Their lack of action spoke volumes to Sharpay.
"No one believes me," she muttered more to herself than to Troy.
He smiled softly, "I do."
She looked up at him, smiling softly when she saw his own smile. "Thanks…"
"You, Miss Evans, are very welcome." He nudged her on the arm, "Now…want to go back inside?"
Sharpay glanced back at the front door, she'd have to face everyone eventually…she might as well do it now rather than wait for things to be awkward in school. She nodded slightly, heading to the front door with Troy in tow…
Sharpay tossed and turned in her sleep, whimpering slightly as bits and pieces of dreams flashed across her mind. Scenes played out all chopped up and confusing. She could see herself…she could see Troy…but it wasn't them! She saw places she'd never been too…people she never knew…everything was spinning around her. Faces jumped out at her, emotions raged through her, she was lost! The dream was taking over…sucking her down…she needed to get out…NOW!
Sharpay sat bolt up right in her sleeping back, hair flying past her shoulder with the force of her movement. She was breathing heavily as she pressed the palms of her hands to her forehead, visions of her dream coming back to haunt her. She should have been used to it by now!
Ever since Sharpay had been a little girl, at least once a month she'd had horrible nightmares. Dreams where she'd been caught in the middle of a war, or a battle, or some other horrible thing. She'd seen people dieing and fighting just in front of her eyes. There had been many times where she'd woken up screaming from the horrible visions. In the last few years, she'd been able to stifle her screams so as not to wake up her brother…
But this last one was different…it wasn't really a nightmare…it was something else…
She glanced up, seeing everyone asleep on the floors and chairs, her gaze drifted to Troy sleeping on the couch. He was lying on his stomach with his left arm hanging off the couch grazing the floor.
'I wonder how his wound is healing…' she started to think when she stopped herself. A wound? 'Yes,' she continued, 'He'd been wounded in the crusades and…'
No! Her eyes widened in fear and confusion. The crusades were over! They had been for centuries…but his wound…
'He doesn't have one!' her mind screamed at her, telling her to get a grip.
She looked around at the room once again, it seemed so strange to her. Where were the stones? The sand? She looked over at the slightly open window, curtains rippling slightly with the wind. Where were the pyramids?
Pyramids?
Sharpay started to breath heavily, what was going on?! Where were these thoughts coming from? Crusades? Pyramids?
She looked back at Tom…no! His name was Treves…no…what was it? Sharpay looked around quickly, his name…what was it? Why couldn't she get her thoughts straight? Tehuti? No!
Troy!!!
That was it! And she was…Sarah? No…Subira? No! Sharpay! God, what was happening to her?
She shut her eyes, hands pressed more firmly to her head. Jumbled thoughts sifted through her head at break neck speed. So many different thoughts flowed past her, so many different memories…memories that weren't hers! Her eyes shot open, the memories weren't hers…but they were…
She could recall conversations with people…she'd never met them. Traveling to different places…she'd never left the country. She could remember how to speak at least three different languages…two which had been lost to the world…
Where had they come from? Why did she remember them? Which ones were hers?
What was going on?
A/N – Are you surprised? What's wrong with Sharpay? What is going on in her head? Anyone know? Next chapter has some bits of Troypay with as very confused Sharpay. It's the Talent Show! What songs will they each sing? Also, the Latin in the beginning, I know it's mostly wrong (I took Latin in HS), I used an online translator since I don't have any of my books or notes about how to write it perfectly.