Painfully Perfect

Author's Note: I finally gave Mrs. Evans a name in this chapter! Haha, it seemed way to formal all the time so I finally gave her a name, Alyson. Hah :) Hope you like this...sorry it's taken forever to post something! School is crazy! And I'm dedicating this chapter to little.miss.sarcasm because she is always extremely helpful when I'm having writer's block and because she's super cool. :) Hah, enjoy everyone! And thank you for the reviews!

Chapter 13

An hour later, Sharpay walked into her bathroom, heading towards the scale. Just as she stepped on, the door burst open and little Amber came bounding across the room to her cousin. "What are you doing Sharpay? Ooh are you weighing yourself on the weighing machine?" Amber peered over and stared at the number that had appeared as Sharpay jumped off the scale. "You weigh 96? I weigh 53. So that means you weigh 43 more pounds than I do. I'm so smart!"

Sharpay tried to smile at her cousin, but was extremely paranoid that she knew her weight. "Why don't we go downstairs and play with Tony?"

"Okay!" Amber grabbed Sharpay's wrist and led her downstairs to the living room where Tony was playing with trains. "Hi Tony! Sharie's gonna play with us! Wanna play house Sharie?" Amber spoke loudly.

"Why not?" Sharpay said with a smile.

"Okay! I'm the mom! Sharie and Tony are my kids!" Amber giggled. She ran around the room, placing toys here and there. "Let's play dress-up!" She squealed suddenly.

"But I thought we were playing house," Sharpay told her cousin.

"We play house!" Tony yelled, trying to copy Sharpay.

"We'll play that later! Come on Tony and Sharie!" Amber ran up the stairs and out of sight. Sharpay lifted Tony up in her arms and they made their way upstairs.

--

Two hours later, the upstairs toy room had piles of clothes everywhere. Amber was wearing a tall, ruby cone-shaped hat and a matching dress. Sharpay was wearing a gold dress and crown and Tony had on a knight costume. They sat around in a circle having a tea party when Ryan suddenly walked in.

"RY!" Amber screamed, running into his arms. He picked her up and carried her back over to the table where Tony and Amber were. "Mind if I join the party?" Ryan asked.

"Nope. But you've gotta dress-up." Amber pulled out a blue jacket and told Ryan to dress up in it. Ryan grabbed the jacket and slipped it on as Angela appeared in the doorway.

"Where's Tony?" she asked with a smile.

"Mommy," Tony whispered as he hugged his mom. "I'm tired."

"I'm going to put him down for a little while before dinner," Angela informed Sharpay and Ryan. "You guys can keep playing and I'll call you down for dinner after awhile."

Ryan smiled his gratitude and sat down at the table with Amber and Sharpay. "How was your friend's house?" Amber asked, pretending to pour tea in Ryan's cup.

"It was fun. We watched a movie, but I came home after so I could play with you," Ryan replied, as Amber pretended to pour some cream into his cup. "What did you do?"

"Well," she started as she pretended to scoop up some sugar and pour it into his cup, "I was playing trains with Tony. Then I got bored. So I colored in my princess coloring book. But I got bored again. So, I went to go get Sharpay so we could play. And guess what I did when I got her from upstairs?" She asked dramatically.

"What?" Ryan gasped, playing along.

"I should her how smart I was," she stated, deciding to put more 'sugar' in Ryan's cup.

"And how did you do that?" Ryan laughed.

Sharpay just put two and two together as Amber opened her mouth. Sharpay couldn't stop her. "Well, Sharpay was on the weighing machine. And I subtracted our weights! In my head! I weigh 53, but Sharie weighs 96. So I'm..." she trailed off doing the math in her head again, "43 pounds lighter than Sharie! I'm so smart! I'm gonna go get a calculator so I can show you I was right." Amber bounced out of the room and down the hall. Ryan turned and stared at his sister.

"Ryan, I don't weigh 96 pounds. I know that's what your thinking," Sharpay quickly lied convincingly.

"Yeah.. She's a little kid. She probably just let her imagination carry her away," Ryan replied, convincing himself to believe Sharpay.

"Yeah...it was just her imagination." Sharpay and Ryan sat in silence until Amber came back to the room. They played for an hour and a half until it was time for dinner. Amber grabbed her cousins arms and dragged them downstairs. Sharpay hadn't even thought of a way to get out of dinner. Amber pushed Ryan into the chair to her left and Sharpay into the chair to her right.

The large plate of spaghetti taunted Sharpay. Her stomach was growling, but she didn't want to eat it. Yet, something took over and she shoveled a large bite into her mouth. Soon, her plate was empty. "Thanks for dinner mom. May I be excused? I've got a little more homework I want to finish."

"No problem, Shar," Alyson told her daughter with a smile. Sharpay went up the stairs as quickly as she could. She paced her room, her mind wandering back to the plate of food she had gobbled just minutes ago. She thought about getting rid of it, but realized she didn't have the energy to do it, not that she even wanted to.

"Sharpay! You are not a quitter. You want people to like you, don't you? You just need to loose a little more weight," the obnoxious voice spoke in Sharpay's mind. It was a blur to Sharpay, almost like an out-of-body experience. She entered the bathroom, she leaned over the toilet, her fingers scraping sharply against her teeth, her food finally coming back up and into the bowl in front of her. Her pointer and middle finger were bleeding. She tried standing up, but fell back onto the ground, the world slowly slipping into black.

--

Ryan silently allowed himself into Sharpay's room around midnight. The room was dark, but he could see that she wasn't in her bed. He glanced into and saw the moonlight dancing on Sharpay, who was lying on the floor. He breathed in deeply as he walked around her. His mom had asked him to go check on Sharpay when she hadn't come down for hours. "Oh Sharpay," Ryan said as he noticed her cut fingers and wondered how that happened.

He pulled out two bandaids and wrapped them securely around her fingers before wrapping his arms under Sharpay's knees and around her back and hoisted her up in his arms. The frail girl in his arms stirred as they started walking out of the bathroom and back into Sharpay's room. Sharpay's shoulder blades poked at Ryan's arms as he felt Sharpay's body shiver ever so slightly in his arms.

"Make it stop," Sharpay mumbled sadly in her sleep.

Ryan frowned at his sister in his arms and tried to sooth her. "Shh, everything is alright Shar." Ryan pulled back Sharpay's comforter and gently set her down, pulling the large blanket around her shoulders. "Make it stop, please," Sharpay cried out again.

Tears started to glaze over Ryan's eyes as he pushed Sharpay's limp hair out of her face. He placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered, "Sleep tight, Shar," before quietly exiting the room.

The blond boy flipped on the light in his room and sat on his bed, covering a hand over his mouth as he rested his elbow on his knee. Ryan was still in the deep denial about Sharpay, but a very small part of him was slowly starting to realize the harsh reality of his twin sister.

--

Sharpay stayed cooped up in her room for the rest of the weekend, spending a lot of her time sleeping. She vaguely pulled back the events that happened after dinner on Friday, but nothing was very clear. She slept most of the day on Saturday, waking only when Amber and Tony came in to play with her.

At noon on Sunday Sharpay was still in bed sleeping when the door slowly creaked open revealing Ryan holding a plate. "Sharpay?" Ryan spoke, causing his sister to wake.

"Oh, hi Ryan," she responded, sitting up slightly. "What?"

"I brought you some lunch," he told her, pointing to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, celery and glass of ice water.

"Thanks for lunch," Sharpay said, avoiding Ryan's eyes as she took a sip of the glass of water. "I'll see you later."

Ryan just nodded and left the room quietly. Sharpay watched until he shut the door before eating the four pieces of celery within minutes and downing the glass of water. She looked at the sandwich in disgust before turning her back to it and trying to fall back asleep.

--

"Lalala," Sharpay sang quietly to herself as she walked into the auditorium for rehearsal after school on Monday. "Good day, Ms. Evans," Ms. Darbus greeted Sharpay happily as she walked on stage. As students filed in, Sharpay smiled at them. She watched Zeke, Chad and Taylor seat themselves in the audience as Gabriella walked up the stage with Ryan, Kelsi and Troy. Gabriella walked right past Sharpay without even a glance.

"What's her problem?" Sharpay thought to herself as she stood up and waited for Ms. Darbus to direct them. They started with act two from the beginning. Sharpay and Troy stood on the stage opposite each other and began.

"So what's this I hear about you and Tommy?" Troy asked in character with a Boston accent.

"Who's talking?" Sharpay's snapped, her English accent spoken clearly. "Honestly, if you have..." Sharpay trailed off and saw spots in her eyes. She staggered and fell to the ground. Moments later she weakly pulled herself up with the help of Troy as Ms. Darbus, part of the cast and her friends in the audience gasped. Sharpay excused herself from the stage and slowly made her way to her dressing room. Upon reaching the room, she sank to the floor.

She cried to herself for the next hour, quietly hearing the sounds of rehearsal. Things grew almost silent over the next fifteen minutes and Sharpay's crying was slowing. Yet, her chest was tight and her breathing was short. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, scaring Sharpay. "Shar?" She heard Zeke's voice through the door.

She wiped her cheeks and whispered, "Come in."

Zeke entered cautiously, looking for Sharpay before noticing her on the ground. "Sharpay, what's going on?" He asked seriously, sitting down with his back resting on the closed door.

Sharpay shook her head. "I don't want to talk to you right now, Zeke. Just go away."

"No," he said with a tone of defiance. "Why don't you talk to me anymore? Or any of our friends? You've been acting so different lately. And what happened out there on the stage?"

Sharpay broke down crying again, leaving Zeke feeling guilty. "Don't cry, Shar." He patted her back, trying to soothe her.

"No, Zeke. You don't get it. I don't want to be like this," Sharpay whimpered, starting to crack slightly.

"Be like what?" Zeke asked patiently.

"It hurts so much to be like this."

"To be like what?" Zeke asked again, what Gabriella had told him days before popping into his head. "You haven't been eating have you?"

Sharpay stared at him incredulously. "You make it sound like I don't eat. I do, Zeke," Sharpay snapped, quickly coming up with a lie. "It's just...sometimes things are really stressful."

"So you do eat? Just sometimes you don't? How often is sometimes?" Zeke asked, shocked at the reality of the situation, even though he wasn't receiving nearly the whole truth.

Sharpay had hurriedly thought up another lie. "It's only been a couple of times."

"Really? Shar, have you ever...made yourself throw up?" Zeke questioned nervously.

"What? No! Never," Sharpay lied yet again. "Zeke, I just want people to like me."

"Sharpay, don't. People like you. You have great friends who care about you. But not eating isn't going to help anything."

Sharpay smiled weakly. "I'm going to try eating again," Sharpay said, her face towards the floor. "Not that I don't! Just when I feel like not eating, I'm going to try to eat," Sharpay added quickly.

"I'm glad Sharpay. Because everyone has been worried about you,. If you ever need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks Zeke," Sharpay spoke softly, hugging him loosely. Zeke helped her off the ground and they walked out of school together before going their separate ways.

--

Zeke listened to the ringing in his phone as he waited for Gabriella to pick up. "Hello?"

"Hey Gabs! It's Zeke."

"Hey. What's going on?"

"I can't talk long, so I'll make it quick. I talked to Sharpay after you guys finished rehearsal today," Zeke started, pausing when he heard Gabriella sigh. "And she told me that she doesn't eat."

"I told you! Something has been up with her."

"No, Gabs. It's not as bad as we thought. She's never made herself intentionally throw up. And she's only not eaten a couple of times. She told me she's going to eat, even when she doesn't feel like it."

"That's really good, but what about when I walked into the bathroom and heard her throwing up? Wouldn't that be intentional?"

"She said she hadn't ever made herself do that. She was probably sick, because remember she as sick for almost a week soon after that."

"I guess, but..."

"Hey sorry Gabs! I've gotta go! I just thought I'd let you know. See ya tomorrow!" And instantly the line went dead, leaving Gabriella torn between believing what Zeke had told her or what she had heard herself.

--

Sharpay weighed herself before dinner that night, her weight down to 94. The voice in her head had told herself she was almost skinny enough, if she didn't eat for a few more days. Yet, when Sharpay sat down for dinner that night she ate her entire plate consisting of mashed potatoes, grilled chicken and grilled vegetables without any regrets.

Author's Note: I hope you liked this! Sorry if it's short or if there are any spelling errors or anything. I needed to get something up. And Sharpay's eating! Yay, right? Hmm, for now. Hah, review please. I'd love to know what you thought!