Painfully Perfect

Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical.

Sharpay woke up rather early the next morning with the events of last night replaying over and over in her mind. She glanced to her clock and saw that it was 4:20 a.m. She was up over two hours earlier than she needed to be. Since it was so early, Sharpay decided to get a little exercise to try and burn off the calories from dinner last night. She threw on a pair of basketball shorts, a white t-shirt and a gray sweatshirt. Grabbing her shoes and socks, she walked down the stairs as quietly as possible and put on her shoes and socks. Sharpay yanked open the front door and started sprinting as fast as she could.

Sharpay was running so fast that the houses she passed were just blurs. She ran and ran and ran. She ran until she thought she couldn't breathe and her lungs were on fire. Sharpay sat on the sidewalk for about five minutes, before getting back up and running back towards her house.

Sharpay had just run about four miles and it was only 5:30. Disgusted by how sweaty she was, Sharpay kicked off her tennis shoes, grabbed a towel from the linen closet and quickly ran upstairs to shower.

--

As Sharpay stepped out of the shower, she had nearly forgotten the events of last night until she looked at herself in the mirror. "Oh my gosh! I look bigger than I did yesterday! What is happening to me?" Sharpay thought to herself. She was nearly in tears, so she grabbed her towel, wrapped it around her body and walked into her closet to find an outfit for the day.

After some careful consideration, Sharpay decided on a pair of dark wash jeans, in the hopes that they would make her look slim, and a long-sleeved baby blue shirt. She looked in the mirror and thought she looked ok, but she wished she was a little slimmer.

It was now 6:15, so Sharpay walked back into the bathroom and brushed her hair, deciding to just let it air-dry today so that it would be wavy. She grabbed her make-up bag and applied some dark blue eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara to her eyes. She pulled out her favorite cherry lip gloss and ran the wand across her lips.

Sharpay decided to weigh herself, hoping she had lost some weight. She stepped on the scale and the red numbers glowed out 122.5. "Only half a pound? But I ran four miles! I guess I'll just have to work harder."

It was now 6:30, so everyone in the house would be waking up soon. Sharpay decided to practice lines for the musical because she had musical practice after school. Before Sharpay knew it, it was 7:15 and she was being called down for breakfast. Sharpay hopped from her bed and ran down the stairs.

--

"Good morning Sharpay! How'd did you sleep?" Mrs. Evans asked, pulling her daughter into a hug.

"Great!" Sharpay lied. She kept waking up in the middle of the night from nightmares, but her family didn't need to know that. "How about you guys?"

"Good," everyone said. Sharpay sat down with her family and they prayed. After praying, Sharpay looked at what they were having for breakfast. Pancakes, sausage, hash browns, strawberries and orange juice. Sharpay's arm was half way to the pancakes before she realized that she couldn't ruin her diet. Just eating breakfast could ruin it all. She turned her arm to the strawberries and grabbed three and set them on her plate. She then served herself up the smallest spoonful of hash browns and put that on her plate. After pouring herself a glass of orange juice, she started to eat.

"Shar, aren't you hungry? That's all your going to eat?" Ryan asked his sister.

"Oh yeah, I'm not very hungry, that's all," Sharpay replied, avoiding her brother's stare.

"Well good thing we're going for coffee today," Ryan said. The twins usually got coffee on the mornings of the days that they had musical practice. "You'll probably be hungry by then."

"Oh, I bet you're right," Sharpay forced a laugh and looked back at her plate. She had eaten one strawberry, half of her small serving of hash browns and half a glass of orange juice and she was extremely hungry. But she couldn't ruin her diet, she just couldn't.

"Ryan, Sharpay, you should probably head out soon. It's 7:30," Mr. Evans said.

Ryan and Sharpay hugged their parents goodbye and headed out to the car. As soon as they were both in, they set off to get coffee.

--

"Wow Sharpay! I can't believe you were up in time to eat breakfast with us this morning," Ryan teased.

"Ha ha, very funny," Sharpay replied sarcastically. "I got to bed early, so I woke up on time. There's no problem with that!"

"Ok, ok. Calm down Sharpay. I was only joking."

The rest of the ride was silent until they arrived at the coffee shop. They decided to do drive-through today, so they pulled up to the window and were greeted by Matt, their usual server.

"Good morning, Evans twins," Matt greeted with a warm smile. "The usual? Two medium white chocolate mochas, with extra whipped cream for Sharpay?"

"Does that sound right, Shar?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, but can I get no whipped cream instead?"

"No problem," Matt said. "That'll be $7.43. Thanks guys!"

Ryan paid Matt and they waited five minutes for their drinks. "Here you go," Matt said handing the twins their drinks. "Have a great day!"

"You too," Sharpay said, and they drove off towards school.

--

They arrived at school with fifteen minutes before homeroom. Sharpay entered, followed by Ryan and they walked to Troy's locker, where they found Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, Chad, Jason, Zeke and Kelsi.

"Good morning!" Ryan said happily. "What's up?"

"Not much. Chad was just telling us the funniest story," Troy said and started laughing again.

"It wasn't that funny, Troy. No offense sweetie," Taylor said.

"None taken," Chad said with a smile and leaned over and kissed Taylor on the cheek. Taylor just smiled back.

"Ok, well I'm just going to go to the bathroom. Shar, want to come with me?" Gabriella asked.

"Sure!" Sharpay said warmly.

"We'll just see you in homeroom," Gabriella told Troy, who leaned in to kiss her.

"I'll miss you!" Troy said.

Gabriella smiled and the two girls walked off to the bathroom.

"You and Troy are just too cute," Sharpay said smiling.

"Thanks, Shar. He's so sweet and he always makes me smile. Oh, what are you drinking this morning?" Gabriella said noticing Sharpay's drink.

"Oh, white chocolate mocha. Do you want it? I'm not hungry for it 'cause I had such a big breakfast," Sharpay lied.

"Are you sure?" Gabriella hesitated.

"Positive." Sharpay smiled and handed it to Gabriella, who gratefully accepted it.

"Thank you so much Sharpay!" Gabriella gushed to Sharpay, who was reapplying her lip gloss.

"No problem." The morning bell went off and the two girls headed to homeroom.

--

"Announcements," Ms. Darbus said loudly. "Today we have musicale rehearsal after school until 4:30. Next…" But basically everyone tuned out Ms. Darbus and started talking.

"So, Troy, are you excited for the game on Friday?" Chad asked his best friend.

"You know it! We are going to take down the West High Knights, like last time!" Troy replied.

"Oh, Sharpay! You finished your mocha already?" Ryan asked his sister.

"Mhm. While Gabby and I were in the bathroom. Thanks for buying it for me, I'm so full now," Sharpay whispered to her brother. She felt bad for lying, but it's not like he was going to know.

Homeroom ended and everyone went to class, talking all the way.

--

Sharpay's first classes that morning, math with Taylor and Gabby and history with Ryan, Chad, Troy, Gabriella and Taylor, were both uneventful. It was soon lunchtime, so Sharpay got in line to get a salad. She walked to her usual table, where she sat with the gang. She and Ryan had started sitting with them after everyone became friends. Everybody was already sitting down, so Sharpay sat between Gabriella and Taylor. Soon enough, their table erupted with laughter, after Chad told a story about basketball practice last week. Sharpay just sat there, picking at her food and staring greedily at everybody else's. Her stomach rumbled quietly and Sharpay shoved two pieces of lettuce in her mouth and chewed for a long time before swallowing. Lunch ended, to Sharpay's relief, pretty quickly. She walked to Science with Kelsi, Chad and Gabriella and tried to ignore the pains in her stomach.

--

After school, Sharpay went to musical practice, where she tried her best despite her annoying hunger pains. Chad, Jason, Taylor and Zeke usually came to watch if they didn't have basketball practice or Decathalon practice. Sharpay walked in and waved at them and then quickly rushed on stage to start practicing. Sharpay played a supporting role along with Ryan; Troy and Gabriella being leads. Rehearsal went great and Ms. Darbus was pleased.

"So Sharpay, Ryan, would you guys like to come to the diner with us? We're all just going to go hang out there." Troy asked.

"Um, you guys go. I'm not feeling so well, so I think I'm going to go home and sleep," Sharpay said. The truth was she didn't feel good, but mainly just because she was hungry.

"Ok. Ryan we'll give you a ride there and home, so Sharpay can just take your car home," Troy offered.

"Thanks man. We'll see you later Shar," Ryan said.

"Feel better Sharpay," Gabriella said, as the gang went over to their cars and Sharpay went to hers.

"Bye guys! I'll see you tomorrow," Sharpay said happily and then drove off.

--

As soon as Sharpay got home, she rushed upstairs and did her homework. It took about an hour to do, so by the time she finished it was 5:45. Ryan would be home soon and Sharpay didn't want him to think she lied about not feeling well. So Sharpay changed into blue sweatpants and a white t-shirt and went back to her bed to lie down.

She heard Ryan walking up the stairs and then a soft knock on her down.

"Come on," Sharpay whispered.

"Hey Sharpay! Are you feeling better?" Ryan ask, concerned.

"A little bit. I'm sure I'll be fine for school tomorrow, but I think I'm going to pass on dinner tonight. Will you tell mom and dad for me?"

"Of course. I hope you feel better," Ryan said giving Sharpay a kiss on her forehead. "Love you Shar. Night."

"Thanks Ry," Sharpay said. "Love you, too. Goodnight."

As soon as Sharpay was sure Ryan had went downstairs, Sharpay jumped out of bed, ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

She did the same routine she did the night before, taking off her sweatpants and t-shirt, so she was left in her bra and underwear. She stepped on the scale, and soon enough it read 121.5. Sharpay was ecstatic. She jumped off the scale and observed herself in the mirror.

"Why do I still look like an elephant? I'm still huge! Why isn't this working?" Sharpay touched her collarbone and looked at herself with disappointment. Sharpay put her pajamas back on and started heading towards the bathroom door. But then she noticed the toilet. She had heard about purging. The idea scared Sharpay, but all she wanted to be was skinny.

"You don't need to do that," she told herself and unlocked the door and got into bed. "Yet." And Sharpay drifted off to sleep

Author's Note: Ok, so what do you guys think? I thought this chapter was okay but I want your input. Could you please refrain from just saying, "update soon." You can say that, sure, but I would really like some input. What you liked, what you didn't like, what I should add—anything, as long as it's not too harsh. Please give me some input on this chapter and please review! Thanks for reading!