Chapter Eighteen

Sharpay yawned again as she pushed her lunch away from her. She cursed her memories, most were clear to her, as clear as her actual memories, but some were still a little fuzzy. And every night, her memories replayed themselves before her eyes. She knew there must have been a reason why most of her fuzzy memories ended up being horrible ones. Every night she woke up wanting to scream from the horror of the visions. She knew that the ones that you don't want to remember take the longest to resurface. The only good thing that came from the constant nightmares was that when she awoke, it was one less nightmare she would have. Every time she woke up, the memory was crystal clear like the others.

She was loosing a lot of sleep, but she'd rather remember something important than forget something that could affect her decisions and…well…her life. Every memory she had would help her keep Troy safe, keep him from getting hurt. If she could see the signs of what was coming, then she could avoid it.

She had already resolved that if the nightmares hadn't stopped by the time the musical was to take place, in little more than a week, she would take some sleeping pills to ensure a full night's rest.

She got up from her table, each week on Tuesdays, the Drama club would meet at their table on the balcony of the cafeteria to just talk about the play or musical. No one really noticed when Sharpay stood or when she moved to go sit on the ledge of the balcony. Sharpay sighed as she looked out at the students of East High, everyone eating lunch together and just enjoying their newfound friendships…

…but what are friendships without a little conflict…

Sharpay watched as a skater dude and an academic stood from their table arguing over something she couldn't hear. No one really seemed to be paying that much attention to it…until the fists started flying.

Pretty soon the whole table that the boys had been sitting at was involved in a huge fistfight! People were rushing from other tables to go stop them, to pull the boys apart, but most just ended up getting pulled into the brawl.

Sharpay stood up from her spot, eyes widening as she watched the fight grow in intensity as well as size. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes to the sight was Troy and Chad running towards the fighting boys to pull them away. When she opened her eyes…a different sight greeted her…

She stood upon the marble wall of the pharaoh's palace, watching as the war was waged. Rademens had started yet another war against the pharaoh. He had been beaten once before and had had to give up his priestess…since then his land had not had the blessings of the gods…and he had had no respect. He struck without warning, pulling Tehuti into another battle…one that Subira feared he might not win.

Her hands gripped the edge of the wall as she watched the battle. Tehuti was out there…fighting Rademens…for her…

"Shar…"

She bit her bottom lip as her eyes scanned the war zone frantically, trying to spot Tehuti in the chaos. She knew the union between her and the pharaoh was a cursed one. Word had spread quickly back to Rademens that his priestess had been wed to the pharaoh who had beaten him. It was not bad enough that Tehuti had stolen his priestess…now he had stolen her heart as well. And Rademens would be damned if he let the insanity continue.

He had attacked…

"Sharpay."

Tears filled her eyes as she looked back at the women of the court, crying into each other's shoulders at the thought of their loves fighting a loosing battle out there. She turned away unable to stand their tears. She looked at the small fleet that Tehuti had managed to gather upon the moments notice, seemingly nothing to Rademens' endless supply of men.

Her breath hitched in her throat when she spotted Tehuti's armor gleaming in the sun. Her eyes were trained on him…only on him as she watched him fighting with none other than Rademens himself.

"Sharpay!"

Her eyes widened as she saw Rademens knock the scythe out of Tehuti's hands. She glanced around at the people fighting…all dieing in endless bloodshed for something as worthless as her. She couldn't take it…she looked back at Tehuti, tears finally falling from her eyes as she saw Rademens raise his sword to strike the final blow…

"STOP!"

Ryan practically jumped out of his skin when his sister shouted. He had gotten up when the brawl broke out to see what was going on. He then noticed that Sharpay was watching everything with an extremely worried expression and a glazed over look to her eyes…almost as if she was reliving something extremely painful.

He had tried getting through to her, trying to nudge her out of her daze…but to no avail. He had really started to get worried when tears had started to fill her eyes. He had tried two more times to get through to her…finally about to shake her out of her thoughts when she had shouted.

He looked out at the crowd, seeing that everyone had stopped fighting. People froze in place with their fist raised, hand grabbing onto the shirt collars of others, hands pressing napkins to their bloody noises. No one was paying attention to the nonexistent fight anymore…instead they were all staring at Sharpay who now had tears streaming down her face.

She was breathing heavily now, scarcely able to believe that she had just shouted like that. Not even when she had been so angry with Gabriella last year has she shouted like that. She had been loud, yes, projecting, of course, but never with such emotion behind her words. This memory had been different, she had seen the war that Tehuti had fought in...but a certain times she saw flashes of color...kids from the cafeteria appeared during the battle...and just at the end...Tehuti had been replaced by Troy...she couldn't take it. She took one more breath before running out of the room.

Everyone was so focused on Sharpay that no one…not even Chad…noticed Troy run out of the room as well. Just before Sharpay had shouted, there had been a fist coming straight at his face…but then she had and everything stopped.

Something was wrong…

Troy ran into the hall, barely managing to catch sight of Sharpay as she ran down the hall towards an empty classroom. He had been shocked at first, fully expecting her to head towards the auditorium…but then he remembered that some people were going over the music for the musical during lunch.

Sharpay burst into the room, hand clamped to her forehead as the room started to spin. She stumbled and nearly fell to the floor when two arms wrapped themselves around her, holding her up. She turned in the arms, wrapping her arms around his waist, recognizing the scent of Troy Bolton anywhere. Only then, when she felt Troy's arms tighten around her comfortingly, did she let out the sob she had been holding in.

Troy held onto her for everything he was worth, whispering soft nothings in her ear trying in vain to calm her down. "What's wrong?" he whispered, rocking her back and forth.

Sharpay shook her head into Troy's shoulder, "I don't know…" she whispered. She could tell she was about to break down to him…he'd probably think she was crazy when she finished…but she didn't care. She had been keeping all her thoughts bottled up for so long, and the lack of sleep, it was all starting to get to her.

She took a deep breath, and Troy immediately knew that she was going to tell him something about what had happened. "I don't know what's going on…" she sobbed, "I've been having all these weird dreams…visions…fantasies…whatever they're called…and it's driving me crazy!"

Troy's eyes widened when he heard those words leave Sharpay's mouth…she had been having weird dream too?

But that wasn't the end of Sharpay's breakdown, "Every night I have these nightmares about things that I've never seen and things that never happened to me and I don't know why! It's like I have all these different memories flying through my head and they aren't mine!" She took a shaky breath, "I don't know what to do…"

She cried a little more…and Troy couldn't take it anymore. He gently lifted her chin to face him before leaning in and capturing her lips in a gentle kiss…one that quickly grew in intensity. For one single moment, neither cared that someone could have walked past the door and seen them…neither cared that at any moment they could be caught…they only cared about each other.

Troy pulled away gently; smiling a little that Sharpay wasn't crying anymore…his kiss seemed to have calmed her down. "I've…had dreams too…" he admitted softly to her. She looked up into his eyes frantically…eyes filled with a mixture of hope and concern.

"You…have?" she asked, voice hoarse from crying.

Troy nodded uncertainly, not sure whether he should continue…he didn't want to make her more upset. "Yeah," he took a breath, "About different places…Rome…a war…"

"Egypt," she finished for him.

He nodded; pulling her into a thankful hug…he wasn't alone… "We'll figure this out…" he said, standing and pulling Sharpay up with him, "…together."

Sharpay smiled softly, nodding as Troy took her hand and led her out of the room. They walked down the hall towards the auditorium…Troy leading the way; he knew that the stage would help to calm Sharpay down a lot more than she was…

They walked down the hall, passing by another empty classroom where one lone figure sat. Gabriella sat at a desk, staring out the window at nothing in particular, a sad, heartbroken expression on her face. Slowly, a single tear trickled down her face…she refused to cry. She had been walking to lunch from going over a song with Ms. Darbus when she heard crying coming from what she had thought to be an empty classroom…

But it wasn't empty at all…sitting in side was Sharpay, crying her eyes out into…Troy's shoulder…

She had smiled softly at that, at Troy comforting a friend. She had been about to go in there to ask what was wrong when Troy leaned forward and…kissed Sharpay…It hadn't even been a friendly kiss either…it quickly escalated into a passionate one…one much more passionate than any that she had shared with Troy. And the worse thing was…Troy initiated it…and didn't even pull away when it got deeper…

She had backed away from the room slowly…not believing what she was seeing. Troy was…cheating on her…with Sharpay…

She stumbled into another empty classroom, unable to watch the couple any longer. Was that why Troy had become so distant and elusive? Was that why he had been canceling their dates and avoiding her like the plague?

Then a thought struck her…was that what Taylor had been trying to get at the other day? Did she know something? It would make sense if she did…Chad was Troy's best friend and of course Taylor wouldn't want to come out and tell Gabriella that Troy was a backstabbing bastard…

She took a deep breath, wiping the tear from her face before getting up. She swayed a little before making her way out into the hall and towards the nurse's office…she wasn't feeling that well…

A/N – So…Gabriella knows…now what? Will Taylor find out that Gabriella knows? If she does, what do you think she will do? Next Chapter will be about a strained relationship and an accident…but for whom? Muwahaha!