Author's Note: Dear readers, wherever you may be…things are officially hectic! Sorry if the chapter's a bit shoddy. Been quite busy. Thought I'd post this now for all who are still interested. But this weekend I shall set my mind to careful PLANNING! Planning tends to be helpful…

Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical. If I did 'Gabriella' would wear glasses and have a terrible fashion sense. In other words she would be an ACTUAL dork!

Chapter 4

Where's My Face?!

Gabriella

Gabriella felt extremely unusual when her alarm went off that Monday morning. Perhaps it was her sweet 'n' sour facial the night before but she had cleaned up thoroughly as soon as she got home. So what was it? She wasn't sure. Everything just felt different and uncomfortable, like she wanted to crawl out her skin.

She groaned and rolled out of bed, her eyes only half open. She even felt a bit groggier than usual as she made her way to her bathroom. Maybe some of that wine had been thrown into her mouth during the fight. Gabbie opened the door slowly and…what on earth? Her bathroom was a…walk-in closet?

She blinked thoroughly, trying to wake herself up from this dream. This nightmare in which she seemed to be staring into Sharpay Evan's miniature boutique. She would recognize these life-sized Barbie outfits anywhere!

Gabriella turned round rapidly, her heart skipping a beat as she realized this was not her room. Her bedroom had a reasonable amount of pink in it but this…this was beyond reason! This magenta hell covered in glitter could only be the boudoire of her rival. But how had she gotten here? What the hell was going on?

Gabbie looked down at her pajamas and felt her heart leap up to the vicinity of throat. Instead of seeing the white vest and blue Winnie the Pooh pajama bottoms she had slid into yesterday, she was wearing a red negligee. What was this?

And wait…her feet…her feet were whiter! Not pale, but lighter. Not the pigmentation of skin you would expect to hold Hispanic blood. Her hands were the same. Gabbie began to pant, feeling her body. Was it her body? She felt a little lighter, thinner. And…her hair! The hair hanging over her shoulders was blonde! She was losing her mind.

Gabbie sprinted to the bathroom, whimpering and whining in a most puppy like fashion.

It took her two tries to find the door. The first was another closet, for sheets and towels it seemed, the second was Ryan's room, she walked in on him perusing his drawers with toothpaste in his mouth. This wasn't even her house!

She finally found the bathroom, her mind in a whirl, and flung herself at the sink with the mirror perched atop it. Gabriella looked at her reflection to find it was not her reflection at all.

It was very lucky thing that Ryan walked in at that moment. He was just in time to catch her as she passed out.

Sharpay

Sharpay slammed her hand down on the snooze button of the alarm clock with the groan that is owed to an early wake up. She swung out of bed groggily (the covers felt thicker that morning, and so did her body- must have been the pork) and made her way towards the closet. First things first, the selection of today's outfit.

She pulled the door open, eyes half closed and made her way into the closet. Sharpay halted.

"What the-"

She stared down at the cool tiles where her plush white carpet should have been. She looked to the left, and then swung to the right. Her closet was a bathroom! A moderately-sized, white and blue bathroom! Where the fook was her closet? Sharpay stumbled out and spun around.

"Where're my embroidered throw pillows!" she whispered, meandering about the place like a lost child. "And my fluffy teddy!" She gasped, staring at the walls in horror. "Where's My Olivia Newton John poster!"

Sharpay proceeded to slap herself ferociously, eyes wide as she took in the unfamiliar scene. After minutes of silent hysteria, she stopped, panting, and stared down tentatively at her body. Where was her negligee? Why was she wearing Winnie the Pooh trousers? What kind of sick joke was this!

Sharpay was only vaguely aware as she ran to the door that even her arms and hands were different, darker but familiar.

She flung open the door, ready to call for Ryan and very nearly fainted when her own body appeared before her, breathing heavily, wearing her red negligee and her dad's traveling coat.

Sharpay, before she could stop, began to shriek and point at herself, and then the other Sharpay began to shriek and point at herself. Or was it a clone? Was Sharpay really herself or-

"What is going on here?"

The two Sharpays turned to see Mrs. Montez coming up the stairs, apparently dressed for work. Sharpay was ready to ask the same question but no words would come. Mrs. Montez was staring at her, puzzled, a little huffy.

"Gabriella?" Sharpay blinked. The woman was looking right at her.

"I- I'm not Gabriella!"

"I'm Gabriella!" Sharpay looked to her clone. How could she be Gabriella? She was in Sharpay's body!

Mrs. Montez looked between the two, apparently not clued in to what was going on.

"You're not going to school like that, are you, Sharpay?" she asked suddenly.
"She's not Sharpay!" said Sharpay. "I'm-"

But her clone rushed into the bedroom, dragging Sharpay with her and slammed the door on Mrs. Montez. She locked it hastily and exclaimed through the keyhole, "Bye, mum, have a good day at work!"

Before Sharpay could say another word her clone directed her to the mirror perched atop a bureau Sharpay had not noticed before.

A hand was pressed over her mouth just before she screamed again, staring wildly at her own image in the mirror. It was not her staring back, but Gabriella. But how could she be Gabriella?

"What the hell is going on?" Sharpay whispered when her hysterics had died down. If she was in Gabriella's body then this had to be Gabriella in hers. What kind of sick joke was this!

"I don't know!" It was her body, her negligee, and her dad's coat, obviously put on in a state of panic, and yet the timid look in her eyes could only belong to Gabriella. "I woke up today and I was…you! And now you're me! I ran over here after Ryan woke me up with smelling salts."

Sharpay shook her head slowly. "This is your house, and that was your mum. Where's my house?"

"Where it always is! It's just us that switched."

"But how?"

"If I knew don't you think I would've fixed it by now?"

Sharpay as Gabriella began to pace the room, aware now of how weird she felt. She was in somebody else's skin and it was God awful!

"You don't think it has something to do with that earthquake yesterday, do you?"

She watched in horrified fascination as the Gabriella in her body shrugged.

"It was weird. Nobody else felt it but us. And overnight we're in each other's bodies."

Sharpay groaned and smoothed her hands over Gabriella's face and torso.

"Hey! Stop feeling me up!"

Sharpay snorted. "How you flatter yourself! I'm just trying to get used to it is all."

"Don't get used to anything!" Sharpay heard herself squeal. "This is temporary."

"Right, right," she murmured, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Temporary. Let's head over to the Great Wall and have this fixed."

"Exactly. We'll go right after school. What?" Gabbie asked when Sharpay rolled her eyes. "We shouldn't skip classes."

Sharpay shook her head slowly. Never in all her sixteen years of existence did she think she would hear those words from her own mouth. This truly was a nightmare.

So they decided to head to school as usual and not tell anyone. Who would believe it? The only reason Sharpay could acknowledge this supernatural occurrence was because it was happening to her. And she had pinched herself several times just in case.

"So…" said Sharpay as Gabbie. "What do you want me to wear today?"

Gabbie as Sharpay shrugged. "I don't know…a pink t-shirt and some jeans I guess. You?"

Sharpay sighed and ran a hand through her new curly, dark hair. "We're going to need paper and a pen for this…"

Gabriella

Gabriella searched Sharpay's extensive closet, sure that at any minute she was going to stumble into Narnia. She avoided all the mirrors, which was no easy task as they lined almost every wall. This was something Troy would have a good laugh at.

Gabbie shook her head. It was all so surreal, in the most horrible way possible. She had hoped that if she ever did find herself confronted with the supernatural it would be in the form of vampires or blood-spattered ghosts. Anything would be more bearable than this!

In the distance she heard a knock on the bedroom door and before she could invite the visitor in they entered.

It was Ryan. She smiled anxiously. Time to be the best Sharpay I can be. She noted through her anxiety that Ryan looked very sweet today. No. Sweet was too patronizing. He was cute. All plain looking with his sandy-blonde hair unkempt, wearing a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms. Both these items sported a designer label but still…

She lingered on his hair a moment. She had never really seen him without head gear of some sort. She always assumed he was a bright blonde like his sister.

"Morning."

"Morning," she tried to make the one word as imposing and snobby as possible.

"Where did you rush off to earlier?"

"I uh…I had a sudden craving for a piece of lettuce. From Libby's bistro. No more stupid questions," she added.

He narrowed his eyes incredulously. "Okay. What are you wearing today?" he inquired, leaning against the doorframe.

"Um…" she looked at the list, trying her best to be conspicuous. "I'll wear the brown capris, cream camisole, cream cut-off sweater, gold bracelet on the right wrist, silver charm bracelet with the flowers on the left, canary diamond earrings, glittery brown pumps-"

"Since when do you need to write it down, Shar?" he interjected.

She shrugged. "Memory isn't what it used to be." She stared dejectedly around the closet. Where was she supposed to start? "Ryan," she murmured. "Does she-do I always have to co-ordinate our outfits?"

He shrugged. "You always have. Why the sudden change?"

She regarded him for a moment. "No reason. No change. What're you going to wear?"

"Maybe the cream shirt and brown pants?"

She resisted the urge to give a vehement 'No!'

"Uh…okay. Sure. Go for it. Oh and Ryan…" He doubled back. "Old age is catching up to me." she said apologetically. "Could you uh…help me find some of this stuff?"

Ryan nodded but the look in his eyes was of definite surprise.

Gabbie suppressed a sigh. This was going to be a long day…

"Where are…Mum and Dad?" Gabriella as Sharpay inquired. She and Ryan sat at the island in the Evans' spacious, terracotta-tiled kitchen, indulging in muesli and yoghurt with no sugar. Yum.

She asked because she always had breakfast with her Mum, and when her Dad was alive he was part of the table too. They would never have moments like that again, she thought wistfully. The two of them with a gruff kind father figure at the head. And now she was missing home, not to mention the presence of actual food. Images of sizzling bacon and steaming sausage floated to her mind, along with bright yellow scrambled eggs and-

"Well, Dad's at work, duh," said Ryan, adding more vanilla yoghurt. It somehow looked less tasteless in his bowl. "Mum's upstairs snoozing. She's got to gather her energy for a day of shopping and drinking."

Gabriella frowned slightly. She was going to ask if they ever ate together as a family but then remembered that would be a weird thing for Sharpay to ask.

"The bus'll be here soon," said Ryan, hopping off his stool and grabbing his backpack. "We better head out. You don't need to piss Darbus off anymore than you already have by being late for homeroom."

Gabriella nodded, thinking she should probably reply with a "Who gives a crap?" but unable to conjure it.

It may have been Sharpay, but it was just not her.

Sharpay

Sharpay plucked at her blue t-shirt with a dissatisfied snort. It was just so…common. How Ms. Darbus could think such a normalcy would fit into the Drama Club, Sharpay did not know.

She made her way down the carpeted stairs and as she descended an odd smell caught her nose. What was that? Bacon? And…eggs? And…whole fat milk? Sharpay grimaced. Breakfast. Breakfast without muesli! She could feel the kilos before she even reached the kitchen. How did Gabriella manage to stay almost as thin as Sharpay with all that crap?

Whatever Mrs. Montez had taken before getting out of bed that morning, but Sharpay wanted it. She wanted to package it and sell it illegally underground, and maybe slip some of it into her own mother's martini once in a while.

As Sharpay entered the kitchen (it was spacious and sunny with hardwood floors), Mrs. Montez snatched two pieces of toast from the air as they popped out of the toaster. Sharpay could not remember the last time she saw a toaster, or any other machine affiliated with bread. She dropped them onto a plate, buttered them frantically and moved across the kitchen to stir the eggs. Then she changed over to the bacon.

"Supermum," she muttered wryly.

Mrs. Montez only paused briefly to smile at Sharpay as Gabriella, before dishing out the heinous, fat-saturated breakfast goods onto a plate, along with the evil carbolicious toast.

Would Mrs. Montez be offended if Sharpay flung the plate across the room and ran? Perhaps. Better not to risk it.

"Was there a problem with Sharpay today?"

"No," she said indignantly.

"Because she looked a little out of it." She presented her with the plate and sat down on the opposite side of the table. Great. She wanted to watch Sharpay gorge herself.

"She just…" Sharpay picked up a fork with Gabriella's tanned, delicate hand and stirred her eggs. Part of her was tempted. Just a little part. "She needed to borrow a text book."

"And she couldn't get it from you at school?"

"She likes to have everything in order before she gets to class. She's really very organized." Sharpay resisted the urge to laugh at her own statement. Organized. With fashion yes. With books no.

But Mrs. Montez nodded, satisfied with the response. "Well eat! The bus will be here soon."

She had Gabriella's smile. That beautiful, reassuring beam that crinkled the corners of her eyes. She wished her mother had a smile like that. A smile less…Botoxed.

Sharpay's temptation grew and grew as she ate and until she couldn't get enough of the wonder that was eggs, with the yolk. She could not remember a time when she wasn't on a diet.

Before Shar could consider asking for seconds the bus hooted outside. She picked up Gabriella's backpack reluctantly, wondering if it would be gluttonous to take the pack bacon with her for the lunch-ladies to cook. Hey. It was Gabriella's body.

Even the bus looked different as Sharpay climbed on. She spotted Ryan and (this was too weird) and Gabriella in her body, sitting a row from the front. Ryan was doing all the talking which was good because there was no way Gabbie could come up with a sentence as remotely as witty as what she would say. "The difference between a Tony award and Tony Hawk."? That was brilliant!

Her heart stalled, literally stalled, when she saw Troy, his attention on an especially chatty Chad who was spinning a basketball between his index fingers. They were sitting in the backseat, which was reserved for the basketball robots, Jason, Zeke (she glared at him for a moment before realising it was a very unGabriella thing to do), Chad and Troy. Taylor was in the front of them, a book in hand, and she primly patted the empty space next to her with an expectant smile. Sharpay blinked. She wasn't used to anybody smiling at her expectantly.

She sat down next to the brainiac, noting that she had hardly spoken five words to her the whole year. Kelsi waved to her from the adjacent seat and she waved back.

Almost before her butt had touched the soft leather of her seat, Troy leaned over from the back and kissed her cheek politely.

"Hey," he murmured.

She barely managed a, "Hey," in response.

He sat back down and Sharpay touched her cheek very discretely, barely paying attention to Taylor. She felt it. It was meant for Gabbie's cheek but she felt it. The sincerity of the kiss, the kindness of the voice …he went straight to that part of her that was more than physical. It was better than any of Zeke's stupid cookies!

Sharpay floated off the bus that morning, thinking that maybe being Gabriella for a day, wouldn't be so bad after all.