Painfully Perfect
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Author's Note: Hello!! Thanks for the reviews guys! I'd like to thank little.miss.sarcasm for helping me out when I'm having writer's block and for being an awesome reviewer! Individual review replies at the bottom. Here's the chapter...
Chapter 6
Sharpay twisted up her swing again, lifted her feet off the ground and spun around in circles until she was dizzy, trying to ignore the fact that Chad and Gabriella were conversing in low whispers and were occasionally glancing at her. She stopped her swing from twisting and then started to swing slowly and looked to her right. Taylor and Kelsi were swinging as high as they could and flinging off their shoes, seeing who could get theirs to go farther.
"I WIN!" Taylor cried out with excitement. She slowed her swing and looked at Kelsi.
"Congratulations. But I'm still the grand champion." She smirked.
"Oh sure. Just because you won six times," Taylor trailed off.
Sharpay watched her two best friends as they bickered and couldn't help but smile. What she didn't notice was that Chad and Gabriella were staring at her once again.
"Do you think she's ok?" Chad asked with concern. He didn't really worry ever, but he had grown to love Sharpay like a sister and if something was wrong with her he had every right to be worried.
"I'm sure she's fine. She's Sharpay," Gabriella said, her tone serious. "I mean, she would tell us if something was going on wouldn't she?"
"I'd suppose so," Chad said as he tore his gaze away from Sharpay and positioned it on Gabriella. "Should we just stop worrying about it?"
"For now I guess. She would let us know if something was up." Gabriella and Chad dropped the subject for the time being and headed over to the basketball court.
--
An hour later Sharpay watched as Gabriella pulled back the blinds to peek out at the cars blurring past in the pouring rain on the street outside her house. The eight teenagers had returned to Gabriella's a half an hour ago when the rain started falling. "So what do you guys want to do?" Gabriella asked suddenly, closing the blinds.
"We could watch a movie," Troy suggested.
"Well we're going to make you watch The Notebook anyways, so would you want to do something before?" Kelsi said.
The four teenage boys looked to one another before saying in unison, "Yeah!"
"Let's play truth or dare!" Chad said mock evilly, a mischievous glint flashing in his brown eyes matched with a sinister smile on his face.
"We aren't playing truth or dare Chad!" Zeke burst out.
"Why not?" Taylor questioned.
"Just trust us when we say you do not want to play truth or dare with Chad," Troy said.
"Okay, fine we won't play. But what else are we supposed..." Gabriella started, but faltered when the room suddenly got pitch black.
"Oh great, the power is out!" Sharpay said.
"Thanks Captain Obvious," Zeke said jokingly. "But what are we gonna do now?"
"Hey Gabs, when did your mom say she'd be home?" Troy questioned.
"Around eight. Which was like an hour ago. I don't think she's going to drive through this weather," Gabriella replied while pacing. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, flipped it open and dialed her mom's number before walking into the kitchen, muffling her voice.
A couple of minutes passed before Gabriella closed her phone and walked back into the living room. "Ok, well my mom is going to stay at my aunt's house for the night because she lives close to where my mom works. So she'll be home around ten or so tomorrow morning. She said to make yourselves at home, eat whatever you want, watch movies and stuff. And she doesn't want you boys driving home in this weather unless you absolutely need too. "
"I think we'll just have to call our parents. They'll be cool with it," Troy said, pulling out his phone.
After everyone had talked to their parents and were sure they were staying for the night, the gang sat around the living room talking.
"You guys are doing really good in rehearsal," Zeke said to Gabriella, Troy, Ryan and Sharpay. "Last rehearsal I went to was really good."
"Thanks!" Gabriella said sincerely. "I'm excited, of course. And I can't wait for our next Decathlon competition."
"I'm stoked for our next game!" Chad burst out, receiving laughs from his friends. The conversation turned to basketball and the four teenage girls gathered in a circle in the living room and talked, while the boys chatted about sports.
"Why does the conversation always turn to sports?" Taylor said gently.
"They are boys, what can we expect?" Kelsi replied.
"Sharpay, I was going to tell you earlier, I love your tank top!" Gabriella squealed. "Where did you get it?"
"Oh, on vacation in Mexico last summer. I barely ever wear it," she replied happily.
"It looks really good on you," Kelsi agreed.
"Yeah can I borrow it sometime?" Gabriella questioned.
"Sure. Just let me know when," Sharpay said with glee, as her stomach rumbled quietly.
"What size is it?" Gabriella wondered.
A flush crept onto Sharpay's cheeks, tinting them pink. "A medium."
"Oh ok. I wear a small...but that kind of looks like a small, so I'm sure it'll be fine," Gabriella said. Noticing Sharpay's flushed cheeks and realizing what she said, Gabriella added, "Oh wow! Sharpay that came off really mean. I didn't mean it like that at all. I'm sorry."
"Oh it's fine," Sharpay lied, glad that she could act.
"You sure? I didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, totally." As the subject turned, Sharpay zoned out and was lost in her thoughts. "Hasn't anyone noticed that I've lost six pounds? Do I really look fat?" Sharpay looked around at her friends, wishing she could look like them, not realizing that how she saw herself was different from what everyone else saw. She was only snapped out of her thoughts when the boys came over and joined the girls' conversation.
"Ok, so it's almost ten thirty. What should we do? I don't think the power is going to come back on any time soon," Troy said.
"We could get the living room set up for bed, grab some flashlights and grab some snacks," Kelsi suggested.
After everyone agreed, people set out doing what they were supposed to. Taylor, Chad, Zeke and Sharpay started spreading out sleeping bags and pillows for everyone; Kelsi and Ryan went through the house together grabbing flashlights and Troy and Gabriella went to the kitchen to grab popcorn, chips and soda.
Thirty minutes later, after the girls had switched into pajamas everyone sat around in the living room snacking and chatting. The hours wore on and Sharpay was the first to fall asleep at midnight, followed closely by Kelsi and Zeke. Gabriella went to refill the bowls of snacks and returned to find that Ryan and Troy had fallen asleep. Gabriella set down the snacks and went to go lay in her sleeping bag by Troy. She was soon asleep, followed by Taylor. At two in the morning Chad finally fell asleep. The eight teenagers lay peacefully on the floor sleeping as the storm started to let up and the power turned back on.
--
At three thirty in the morning, Sharpay was tossing and turning in her sleep before abruptly waking up. She peered around the room and saw everyone was asleep and pop cans and bits of popcorn were strewn about the room. Flipping open her cell phone, Sharpay saw that it was three thirty and laid back down to go to sleep. But her body wouldn't let her. Instead her stomach lurched and groaned, her heart pounded and her head spun. Finally allowing herself to eat a little bit, Sharpay stood up from her sleeping bag, and quietly walked over Kelsi and Zeke and into the kitchen.
Sharpay looked around the kitchen before grabbing a banana from the fruit basket. She quickly peeled it and took a bite. Within seconds, the banana was gone and Sharpay was still hungry. She threw the peel away and opened up Gabriella's fridge, knowing that Gabriella wouldn't mind if she had a little something to eat. She pulled out a full pint of chocolate ice cream from the freezer and a bag of plain chips from the top of the fridge. After grabbing a spoon, Sharpay sat down at the table, pulled the lid off of the ice cream and slowly dipped her spoon into the cold cream. Putting the bite into her mouth, Sharpay grinned trying to remember when she had ever tasted anything this sweet. Sharpay decided to allow herself one more bite, but that bite soon turned into another and another and before Sharpay knew it the pint of ice cream was gone.
Still hungry, she ripped open the bag of chips and ate and ate until she couldn't possibly eat anymore. Realization soon hit Sharpay hard. "I just ate a banana, a pint of ice cream and half a bag of chips in fifteen minutes. I'm going to gain back all that weight! That has to be at least ten thousand calories!" Sharpay thought to herself, over exaggerating. She cleaned up her mess but found it hard to move, considering how full she was. "How could I let myself eat that much? I have no discipline. Unless..." Sharpay let her thoughts flow freely in her head as her feet moved. In moments she found herself standing in front of the bathroom door. She quickly peered behind her, making sure no one was awake, before locking the bathroom door shut and turning on the faucet. Dropping to her knees in front of the toilet, she thought long and hard about what she was going to do and told herself she had to do this. She put her pointer finger and middle finger close together and jammed it down her throat quickly. Removing her hand from her mouth as fast as she could, she watched as all the food she had just ate fell into the toilet, her throat searing. She stuck her fingers down her throat three more times, making sure her stomach was completely empty.
Sharpay looked down at the toilet one more time before flushing it away with no regrets. She grabbed a paper cup from Gabriella's sink, filled it with mouth wash and swished it around in her mouth before spitting it into the sink thirty seconds later. She refilled the cup with water and swished that around in her mouth before spitting it into the sink. Sharpay wiped her mouth with the back of her right hand and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
Exiting the bathroom, Sharpay quietly moved back into the living room, trying not to wake anyone. Zeke quickly sat up and whispered to Sharpay, "Were you just in the bathroom?"
"Yeah. I was just brushing my teeth."
"Okay," Zeke replied, laying back down and quickly falling asleep. Sharpay smiled inwardly to herself, proud that he bought her lie. Finally, Sharpay felt like she was in control, like she had some real control. And for the first time in days, Sharpay felt...happy.
Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading guys! Any questions, comments, concerns-please review!!!
Individual Review Replies:
IZIBELLE: Thanks so much! Hope you enjoyed this!
marri: Thanks so much for the review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Corbin's My Man: Was this update soon enough? Probably not, but I hope you like this chapter!
Stessa: Thanks for reading and reviewing!
court.and.ky: You used our account to review! That totally made me laugh. Haha, yeah the gang is being a bit ignorant, but we don't need to sick the poultry on them...yet! Haha, but that's always a possibility. I like that idea, telling her she's thin, but like then she's like TOO thin. And you're mad mad mad mad? I'm sorry about that. I hope that's a good thing and I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for the help! Talk to you soon!
ForbiddenFiction: Yeah, Gabriella was a total jerk but I had to have someone have the confrontation with Sharpay, so I just decided on Gabriella. But I didn't want her to turn into the mean girl so she came back apologizing. Hope you liked this!
MiseryluvsDeath aka Fidele: You think it's interesting? Thanks so much. Hope this chapter was too!
BlackBeauty613: Thanks so much for the review. Well this chapter answered your question of when she's going to start puking. Hope you liked it! Thanks for reviewing Rachel!
Thanks so much for reading everyone!! Your input is always greatly appreciated!!