Painfully Perfect
Disclaimer: I don't own HSM.
Author's Note: Hello everyone!! Thank you so much for all the reviews! They mean a lot!!! Individual review replies at the bottom. Enjoy!
Chapter 7
The smell of sizzling bacon and eggs Benedict filled Sharpay's mind the next morning as she slowly woke up. Zeke had to be making a marvelous breakfast for his friends. Sharpay could hear chatter coming from the kitchen and quickly realized that she was the only person still sleeping. In the hopes of avoiding breakfast, she kept her eyes closed and pretended to still be sleeping. As she laid there on Gabriella's living room floor, the events of last night refilled her mind. How she had eaten all that food and the extreme measure she took to get rid of it. She swallowed and her throat was sore making part of Sharpay felt guilty, but a little voice in her mind was telling her that she hadn't done anything wrong, that it was the right thing to do. She listened to her friends talking in the kitchen as she pretended to sleep.
"Should I go wake Sharpay up?" Zeke questioned.
"Nah, let her sleep. She'll wake up on her own accord or she'll end up being cranky," Ryan said.
"So what's everybody up to today?" Taylor asked sweetly between bites.
"We've got basketball practice at two," Troy said pointing his fork at him, Chad and Zeke. "Until five."
"Should we go shopping?" Kelsi asked Gabriella and Taylor.
The two friends looked at each other, turned back to Kelsi and replied, "YES!"
"Jeez, thanks for making me deaf Tay," Chad groaned, rubbing his ear.
"No problem sweetie," she replied, giving Chad a kiss on the cheek, making him beam.
"This eggs Benedict is really good Zeke!" Gabriella squealed.
"Thanks. The eggs are perfect today with the combination of canadian bacon and hollandaise," he replied with a smile. Troy and Chad just stared at their friend with confused looks as the three girls tried to stifle their giggles. After everybody had finished breakfast and the kitchen was clean, Sharpay decided to "wake up." She sat up and stretched, giving a fake yawn.
"Morning sleepy-head," Ryan said, messing up his sisters' hair. "I'm surprised you slept so late. It's already 10:30."
"Just really tired is all. So what's going on today?" Sharpay asked her friends.
"The guys' have basketball practice and we were thinking us girls could go shopping," Gabriella answered from the couch, where she sat snuggled against Troy.
Sharpay felt self-conscious about going shopping with her friends, but tried to put the thought out of her mind. "I'd love to," she said through gritted teeth. "What time are we planning on going?"
"Probably around two, so everyone can shower and stuff," Gabriella said at the exact same moment that her mother walked in the garage door.
"Gabi, sweetie! I'm home!" Ms. Montez called through the house. After removing her shoes, she ventured into the living room where the eight teenagers sat. "Oh, good morning everyone. How was your night?"
"Good," the teens replied in unison. "The power went out after I got off the phone with you, though," Gabriella added.
"It went out at your Aunt's too. What are you kids up to today?" Ms. Montez asked with mild curiousity.
"I think us girls are going shopping. Is that okay mom?"
"Mhm, no problem dear. Well have fun today kids. I've got to go change and go back to work. I'll see you later tonight Gabs," she said happily as she exited the room and headed up the stairs.
"You're mom is so sweet Gabi!" Taylor said.
"Thanks Taylor," Gabriella said with a laugh.
"Well I better get going," Zeke said as he went to put on his shoes. "Me too. Hey Zeke can I get a ride?" Chad added.
"I'm getting one with Troy, so if it's fine with him," Zeke told his curly haired friend.
"Of course it is. But I've gotta take Taylor and Kelsi home too," he said with a laugh.
"It'll be a full car, that's okay. It'll be fun!" Zeke laughed. "Thanks so much for having me over Gabs," he said as he pulled her into a light hug.
"No problem. See you guys tomorrow at school! And I'll see you girls at Taylor's in a couple of hours!" Gabriella said as she waved to all of her friends.
Sharpay waved back to her friend as she got into the car with Ryan. As they drove off they settle into a comfortable silence, only to be punctured by Ryan. "That was fun wasn't it?"
"Yeah tons! So do you think mom and dad will mind if I use the platinum card when I shop today?"
"No, I don't," Ryan replied as Sharpay's stomach rumbled lightly. "You hungry Sharpay? We can drive through somewhere if you want."
"No, I'm not really hungry Ry," Sharpay lied.
"How can you not be? You didn't eat a thing at Gabi's!"
"Ryan! I said I'm not hungry!!" Sharpay snapped causing Ryan to swerve a little bit on the road. "If I do get hungry I'll eat at home. Quit monitoring me!"
"Whoa Shar. Can you say mood swings? Is anything wrong?" Ryan asked, his voice heavy with concern.
"Everything is fine. Why wouldn't it be?" Sharpay said, turning her face away from her brother to avoid his stare.
"I'm your brother, your twin! I think I can tell if something is wrong."
"Well nothing is so just drop it," Sharpay said icily. The two sat in an awkward silence until they reached home. At once Sharpay grabbed her bag from the car, slammed the door and marched into the house, leaving Ryan to park the car in the garage. She huffed up to her room and plopped down onto her bed, grabbed a pillow and screamed into it until her lungs gave out.
Gasping for air, she slowly sat up and saw the scale through the open bathroom door. She quickly got out of her seat and locked the bathroom door behind her as she entered. Doing the usual routine, she stripped down to her underwear and bra and discreetly stepped on the scale. 115. "Now we're making progress," a voice in Sharpay's head said as she pulled her clothes back on.
--
"Okay Ryan, I'm going to Taylor's now," Sharpay called to her brother as she entered the kitchen. Ryan sat at the table with a plate of food in front of him and a plate of food to his right. "Do you want lunch before you go? I made you some."
Sharpay looked at the food longingly but when she looked at her brother she smiled. "No, I'm not all that hungry. I'll eat at the mall or Taylor's if I do get hungry, okay?"
Ryan let out a small forced laugh. "Okay, see you tonight."
"Bye Ry!" Sharpay called as she exited the house and approached her car.
--
An hour later, Sharpay found herself in a store at the mall, looking at clothes to try on with her three best friends. Sharpay wandered next to Gabriella, who was sorting through a rack of summer dresses. "Oh, I love this one!" Gabriella squealed as she pulled out a white knee-length dress made of terrycloth. "It's so adorable!"
"That is really cute! It'd look fab on you!" Sharpay complimented to her friend.
"You think so?" Gabriella asked as she stood in front of a mirror, holding the dress up to her small body as Sharpay nodded. "I'm gonna go try it on!" She squealed as she bounded off to find an empty dressing room. Sharpay giggled at her friend as she walked over to Kelsi and Taylor who wear looking at tank-tops.
"See, I like the blue one and the red one. I can't choose," Kelsi groaned to Taylor as Sharpay walked up.
"I would definitely go with the blue one. What do you think Sharpay?" Taylor questioned.
"Definitely the blue one. It would make your eyes pop and the white polka-dots are really cute," Sharpay said airily.
"Thank guys! Be back in a minute!" Kelsi exclaimed as she made her way to an employee to ask where an open dressing room would be.
"So have you found anything you like Tay?" Sharpay asked as she considered trying on a pink tube top, but decided against it.
"Well I found this really cute pair of jeans that I love but I really want a shirt to go with it," Taylor replied. "Can you help?"
Sharpay laughed, knowing her friends loved her advice when it came to fashion. "I would love to."
As the girls walked over to another rack of shirts, Gabriella walked out of the dressing she was just in, dress in hand. "I absolutely love this! It looks great on me, just like you said it would Shar."
"That's fantastic!" Sharpay exclaimed as she looked through shirts for Taylor. "Hm, too bright...too short...too many designs...perfect!" She said as she pulled out a shirt for Taylor. "This will go perfectly with your jeans."
"What would we do with out you Shar?" Taylor squealed as she hugged her blond friend. "I'll be right back."
As Taylor went to go try on her shirt and jeans, Kelsi came out of the dressing room looking a little bit flustered.
"Well the shirt is great! I love it! But that saleslady is a grouch! She laughed at me for being short," Kelsi reported to Sharpay and Gabriella.
"Oooh, I like your shirt. And she was a grouch. She snapped at me for 'taking to long in the dressing room.' She seriously needs to take a chill pill," Gabriella agreed.
Sharpay looked over to the saleslady who her friends were complaining about. She was tall and skinny with light brown hair. Sharpay redirected her attention when Taylor came back out. "Sharpay, it's looks fantastic! I don't know how I ever shopped without you," Taylor said with a large smile and laugh.
"Anytime girls," Sharpay said as she pulled a pair of light wash skinny jeans off of a rack. "I'm gonna go try these on."
Sharpay ambled over to the saleslady. "Are there any open rooms?" She asked as polite as she could.
"Yes there are but are you honestly going to try those on? Look at your hips. They'd never fit," the saleslady said with a smirk. "You can use this room." Sharpay pushed past the saleslady and entered the dressing room, locking the door behind her and throwing the jeans down onto the floor. Sharpay turned to look at herself in the mirror. "I don't have big hips, do I?" Sharpay thought to herself. As she looked in the mirror, she saw her hips really wide, her stomach bulging and her face round. Tears filled Sharpay's eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She sat down on the floor of the dressing room and calmed herself down.
"Hey Shar! Are you going to get the jeans?" Taylor asked as Sharpay returned to the group.
"Nah, they aren't that cute. I'm not a big fan of light wash skinny jeans," she replied with a forced laugh, even though she hadn't tried the jeans on.
"Well, we all purchased our stuff, so if you were done we were thinking we could go to the food court. What do you think?" Gabriella informed Sharpay.
"Sounds great," Sharpay smiled and walked with her friends to the food court.
--
"Is that all you're going to eat Shar?" Taylor asked as she looked at Sharpay's small salad and water.
"Yeah, 'cause I ate a huge lunch with Ryan before I left my house," Sharpay lied as she stab her fork into a small piece of lettuce.
"If you get hungry you can have some of my lunch," Gabriella said as she pointed to her burger and fries.
"Thanks Gabs, but I'm sure I'll be fine," Sharpay replied as she pretended to bring her forkful of lettuce to her mouth. When Gabriella looked away, Sharpay put her fork back down on her plate as she pretended to chew.
"I'm so not ready for that chem test on Wednesday," Kelsi said between bites of sandwich.
"Gabi and I can help you study if you want," Taylor offered as Gabriella nodded.
"Really? That'd be fantastic. Wanna study with us Shar?" Kelsi asked.
"I'd love to 'cause I think I'd fail if I didn't have some help. We can study at my house if you want," Sharpay said before taking a tiny sip of water.
"Sounds great!" Gabriella said as she popped three fries into her mouth.
Sharpay let her mind wander as her three friends talked. She stared greedily at their food, her stomach aching from hunger pains, but she knew she couldn't mess up her diet.
"Sharpay?" Kelsi questioned. Sharpay snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at her tiny friend.
"Whoa sorry. I was just thinking. What's up?"
"We're ready to go if you are," Taylor informed her sweetly.
"Okay, yeah. I'm not hungry anyways." Sharpay stood up and threw her salad and water into the trash. She turned to her friends and they headed out of the mall.
--
"Hi sweetie!" Sharpay's mom yelled from the kitchen as she heard the front door shut. Sharpay walked into the kitchen and her mom faced her. "How was shopping?"
"It was really fun!" Sharpay said, the smells of the kitchen making her mouth water. "How was the cabin? I thought you weren't getting back till late."
"Oh we decided to leave a little earlier. It was really fun! Your cousins miss you guys!" Mrs. Evans said as she stirred the pot of soup on the stove. "They're going to be visiting in a couple of weeks I think."
"Fun! I'd love to see them. So what are you making?"
"Chicken and dumplings, rolls and fruit salad. Are you hungry?"
"I think I'm going to pass on dinner, mom. I didn't know you were going to be back home so I ate a huge meal at the mall," Sharpay told her mom.
"Okay sweetie. If you get hungry, there'll be leftovers in the fridge. And you're welcome to join us!"
"Thanks mom!" Sharpay called as she headed up the stairs. She entered her room and was surprised to find Ryan in there on her computer.
"Why are you in my room?" Sharpay questioned her brother as she sat down on her bed.
Ryan spun the chair around in circles before stopping to face his sister. "My computer crashed and I had to finish up some homework. So how was the mall?"
"Great. I didn't buy anything but it was fun to hang out with the girls."
"Did you eat anything?" Ryan questioned, his voice serious.
"What are you doing? Monitoring my eating habits?" Sharpay snapped, furious that her brother was concerned about her eating. "And for your information I did eat. You make it seem like I never do."
"I'm just wondering Sharpay. I'm your twin and I just got concerned that you didn't eat at Gabriella's yesterday."
"It's not my fault that I ate before I came to Gabi's or that I was still sleeping when you were eating breakfast. Someone could've woken me up but you told Zeke not too. It's not like I hadn't eaten that day. And for your information Ryan, it's not nice to nose around in anybody else's business. And if you must know, I ate a huge meal at the mall. I'm so sick of you acting concerned," Sharpay steamed to her brother, what she just said mostly made up of lies.
Ryan looked taken aback by his sister's outburst. He wasn't trying to 'nose around in her business', he was just concerned for his sister. "I'm sorry Shar. I'll drop the subject. And how do you know that I told Zeke not to wake you up?"
Sharpay looked around her room, trying to avoid his last question. "I don't know, subconsciously? Get out of my room Ryan!"
"I've gotta print this!" Ryan said pointing to the computer.
"I'll give it to you later. Just leave!" Sharpay screamed. Ryan jumped out of the chair as if he had just been shocked and ran out of Sharpay's room, closing the door behind him.
Sharpay ran into her bathroom and buried her face in a towel as she screamed as loud as she could. She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror, frowning. She turned to weigh herself, stepping on the scale. 114.5. "Needs some work," a voice in Sharpay's head said."Yeah, it does," Sharpay whispered to herself as she exited the bathroom.
Author's Note: I decided to stop there. So what did you think? I hope you liked it! I'm trying to get better about updating sooner. Review!
So who saw HSM2? I did! I personally found it extremely cheesy but I still really liked it. Did anyone else think it was just a bit conceited that Troy gave Gabriella a necklace with a 'T' on it? I did. Haha, Gotta Go My Own Way was pretty sad but it's a great song. I'd love to hear what you guys thought of it!
Review Replies:
Corbin's My Man: Awh :(. I've done that before too but I'm glad you don't go this drastic and your mom makes you eat. Thank you so much for reading!
MiseryluvsDeath aka Fidele: Thanks for saying that! It means a lot to hear that I'm doing well on this. I know a couple of people woh have gone through this same thing. I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible because I don't want it to be something that happens really fast or anything like that, you know?
BlackBeauty613: Haha, your review made me laugh. I wasn't really trying to have it so that Sharpay was happy that she threw up, just more so that she was happy that she finally had some 'control.' So I hope that clears that up for you!
LuciaAyala23: Thanks! I hope you liked this chapter too. :)
marri: Yeah, Sharpay is making some stupid decisions and I feel bad for her too. Ha, thanks for reading!
XxXxIcePrincessXxXx: You love this story? Wow! Thanks a ton! I don't like that she's obsessing over her weight either but if she wasn't then there wouldn't really be a point to this story now would there be? Haha, I like your penname by the way!
Stessa: Hope this update was soon enough:) You liked the shirt conversation? Yay! I was hoping someone would like it. I needed to put another 'event' in there where Sharpay felt bad about herself. Ha that sounds bad but I think you know what I mean:)
Mill1on: You're addicted? YAY! Haha, thanks so much for reading. I hope this update was quick enough for you!
little.miss.sarcasm: You rock:) Yeah, Sharpay is ruining her life but I couldn't have had Zeke hear her throwing up just yet. But someone will eventually. I can't say who even though I think it's obvious in the trailer. Haha, and I will have someone find out. And you're right, it IS going to be sad when Ryan finds out. :( Oh and no problem about the author's note recognition. Anytime! Haha, I still can't get over the fact that you have a twin. Lol talk to you soon!
LoLiVeR is LoVe: I'm sorry you went through this. Yeah, don't follow Sharpay's example. Ha, thank you so much for reading!
You guys rock! Thanks for everything! You're reviews inspire me!