Author's Note: Fo' rizzle, ma pizzles! Chapter 6 was too short! Sorry! School sucks. I'll try and make them lengthier. And to Zashley Rocks…yeah! That seems to be the general consensus. She's lovely to look at, but she can't sing for s! Thanks to Incandescent Angel, Dernier Cri, njgirl, starship gazer and all the rest!
Chapter 7
Questions
Sharpay
"You look adorable."
"Adorable, huh? Well, I was going for sassy, sexy and cute, but adorable could work, too!"
Sharpay as Gabriella was dressed in full Girls Just Wanna Have Fun regalia. The crazy red dress, the shoes and accessories, her hair done up in a curly dark imitation of Cindy's. It really paid to have money, and connections to the more outlandish fashion designers.
Looking in the mirror of Gabbie's bureau, however, she saw what Troy meant. On her own body it would have been sassy, sexy and cute. But on Gabbie it was almost beauty pageant.
Sharpay wondered if she and her nemesis should have come up with suitable costumes for their own bodies, and then swapped. But that would have required co-operation. She could only hope Gabbie didn't have her dressed up as Madonna or something equally passé.
She flung her arms around Troy's neck. He also went down the musical icon route. He was "the cop" of the Village People (Chad would be "the red Indian", Zeke "the cowboy" and Jason "the construction worker"). She wasn't sure about the leather jacket, but hot damn! Those pants! God had blessed Troy with a tight set of…legs.
For the first time Sharpay (or rather Gabriella) planted a kiss on Troy's lips instead of his cheek. She was full to the brim with lusty thoughts and could not bring herself to think before acting. She pulled away ten seconds later and there was that quiet suctioning sound that's a sign of passion. Troy was taken aback.
"Whoa…" he said, looking fairly dumb. "That was…different."
Part of her felt guilty, like she was stealing or taking advantage. Sharpay's (well, really Gabriella's) eyes fluttered shut as her conscience took over. If he only knew how different it really was…
Gabriella
If Gabriella did not know Ryan was infatuated with her, it would be times like this, with him singing the words to Like A Virgin when she would seriously question his sexuality.
Gabriella as Sharpay was all decked out as skanky Madonna in her wedding dress, curly hair and pearls. She had never really understood what "Like A Virgin" meant, nor did she want to.
Ryan was channeling the hair metal phase, with a leather jacket, jeans and boots, an overwhelming, curly blonde wig on his head. It almost made him look like a little girl in a beauty pageant and Gabriella could not help laughing every time she saw him. Troy would never pull it off.
Ryan had not wanted to go, insisting she knew he was not into parties. She emphasized. Gabriella would have loved to stay home watching movies, not feeling the least bit guilty about leaving Troy girlfriendless.
But she needed someone to come and keep her company and because Ryan adored her- Sharpay- so much he eventually crumbled.
"What the hell did you say to Gabriella to make her invite us anyway?" he inquired, helping zip up the dress. "You threaten her life or something?"
Gabriella grinned. "Something like that."
He turned her around and stepped back, scrutinizing.
"How do I look?" she tried not to sound as anxious as she felt.
"Like the cutest skank I've ever seen." This did not come from Ryan but from Mrs. Evans, leaning against the bedroom doorway. Gabriella's heart lurched uncomfortably. She hadn't seen her once since her first unwilling night in the Evans house. She was thin like Sharpay, but taller, and her graying blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her face appeared taut and over-tanned, but pretty. Her blue eyes gleamed.
"Just don't get too deep into character, Sharpay," she drawled. She wore a black tracksuit, back from a work out apparently, and had an empty martini glass in her long, elegant hand. "Remember to keep your legs shut."
Gabriella's mouth fell open. She didn't know how to respond to that. Mrs. Evans made an indifferent face and sauntered off. That wasn't how other people's mums talked to their daughters, was it? She knew Taylor and her mum often bantered but it was always light-hearted, and Kelsi and her mum never fought at all. Gabriella certainly would not expect her mother to talk to her like that, like some bitchy cheerleader.
She shook her head slowly. For the first time she kind of felt bad for Sharpay.
"I don't like it when she talks to me like that," she muttered, tugging down her dress a little. "Is she this mean to you?"
"Nope." Ryan grabbed her hands and for a moment she was alarmed at the touch. "Dad usually handles all my verbal bashing, remember?" He put her hands down firmly at her side. "But they're just a bunch of drunks. You look great."
And she trusted him enough to believe it.
Sharpay
There may as well have been a red carpet rolled out for all the treatment Sharpay got as Gabriella. Eager Madonnas and Joan Jetts swooped down on her with numerous air-kisses, complimenting her outfit, taking pictures. Guys greeted her from a respectful distance and blew kisses. But all this grandeur was nothing compared to the way Chad's house had been decorated. How he had arranged this without his parents finding out, Sharpay did not know. But she wanted to.
In the flashing pink, purple, blue and red lights Sharpay could make out framed movie posters lining the walls; Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire. Balloons with various Wildcat faces on them were attached to staircase railings and floated to the ceiling, with the words WILDCATS, Class of 1980! She resisted the urge to burst Zeke's rotund, grinning face with her nail.
The house was clustered with nameless, faceless students, representing the various highs and lows of the 80s fashion movement. From the leather phase to the tight pants with shirt sleeves rolled up, from the God-awful mullet phase to that ridiculous hair metal. The Knack's My Sherona blared on the speakers and everyone bopped inoffensively on one spot as they clasped red styrofoam cups and tried to gossip over the noise.
It was like some surreal cross between a gay bar and an 80s nightclub. And that basically summed up the whole time period she guessed.
As Troy led her to the kitchen where the food was, Chad and Taylor yelled at them from the staircase.
"Sup, man!" he greeted as they reached each other. Troy and Chad exchanged the manly hug and pat on the back, and Sharpay resisted the urge to recoil as he pulled her into a light, friendly embrace. In her own body or in Gabbie's she could hardly stand him because he could hardly stand her. Chad was a definite factor in her breakup with Zeke. But she was long since over that, and the night was young.
He had stuck to the plan thankfully, so Troy didn't look like such a jackass in his police helmet. He had nothing on but some brown pants, sandals and a crazy Native American headdress. There was red, white and blue war paint under his eyes and the infamous hair had been tied back into a ponytail so he was barely recognizable.
Taylor opted for a tight pink halter dress and crazy red heels, her dark curly weave falling down over one shoulder. Something like Whitney in I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Author's Note: I think you can tell by this point that I'm quite an 80s enthusiast!). Large plastic bracelets clinked at her wrists.
"Do you parents know about all this?" Sharpay as Gabriella yelled when they pulled away from a girly hug.
"Do they ever? They're on a mini-break at Lava Springs. Thanks to my persuasion, of course."
Sharpay wished she could convince her parents to leave on a mini-break once in a while. It was enough of a mission just to make them put down the martini glasses.
Chad glanced over her shoulder a few times as they talked (or rather hollered) about the YMCA kareoke that was bound to take place, before his gaze finally fixed on one person behind her. His face fell.
"Oh, in the name of all things holy!" Chad exclaimed.
Sharpay as Gabriella and Troy turned. Sharpay failed to notice that Troy's expression was a lot less put out than hers…
Gabriella
It was only when Ryan and Gabbie got to the door that Ryan realized he had forgotten the wine coolers. And he just had to double back and get it. She wondered if he had done it on purpose. She could not blame him. She would have done the same.
Chad had really gone all out, Gabriella realized as she walked hesitantly into the house. Even as herself she would not have been comfortable. All those great 80s movies she had heard of but never actually watched lined the walls in posters, and balloons with Troy, Chad, Zeke and Jason's faces on them floated to the ceiling. It was funny how self-absorbed they were from somebody else's eyes.
It seemed for a few grateful minutes that no one would recognize her in the Madonna get up, but she had barely made it past the sunken-in living room when Chad stormed towards her ,half-naked with Taylor in tow, and Troy pulling her body behind him.
"What're you doing here, Ice Princess?" he demanded, barely audible over the noise. "Didn't you get me the first time I said no?"
For a moment Gabbie thought of slapping him and yelling, "It's ME, you moron!" And then the next moment she thought of how different he would treat her (assuming he believed the story) if he found out who she really was. He would be a lot sweeter probably, friendlier, but would it be genuine? Which Chad was the real Chad? Were any of Troy's friends as good as they appeared? Or were they just good to him? And to her because she dated him?
"Hello?" Chad was going at her again.
"Gabriella invited me."
Chad snorted. "Of course, she did."
She hastily looked at herself over Chad's shoulder.
Sharpay seemed to come out of her own trance and pushed forward.
"I invited her, Chad!"
He glared at her now. "You what?"
"I invited her. And Ryan."
"Why the hell-"
"I thought it would be the nice thing to do! Why is she so much worse than the rest of us?"
"Because-"
"Lay off her, man!" Gabriella as Sharpay blinked. What was this? Troy rushing to Sharpay's defense? "She said she was invited."
Chad seemed to choke on his own sharp retort when he saw the look on Troy's face, and with great reluctance he swallowed it.
"Fine," he said sullenly. "We're all in this together, right?" They all nodded slowly. "I assume you brought drinks."
"Ryan's got them," she muttered.
He nodded. "Great. Let's get this party started then, people!" He grabbed Taylor's hand and dragged her off. Taylor grabbed Sharpay as Gabriella's hand and she too was pulled reluctantly into the party, which was growing more frenzied as the cups were refilled and the Michael Jackson CD was pulled out.
Troy stayed, looking a little shifty and awkward. Gabriella stared at him wistfully. It seemed like forever that they had been apart. Had it not been for Ryan she would be bursting into tears all over the place.
She missed those eyes, she thought, as he took off his police shades( he really did look ridiculous). She missed the way he looked at her. The restrained longing, the feeling she got that he was trying to take in every part of her with his eyes. As if he would never see her again.
Then suddenly it hit her. He was not looking at her- Gabriella- like that. He was looking at Sharpay. Why was he looking at Sharpay? Why was he telling her he was sorry for what Chad had said, and that his friends just got stupid sometimes, and that he was glad she came because he didn't see enough of her at school? Why was he telling her he remembered those days in kindergarten where they always tried to see each other?
And why had Troy never told her he and Sharpay went to kindergarten together? And that they were friends of some sort.
Gabriella had so many questions by the time Ryan arrived that she was angry. She wanted answers. She was going to get them.