Author Note:

I wanted to get this chapter out before I start the school week. I have no idea what updating will look like now that I'm back in classes and work and such. However, I hope to continue updating quickly – I know that I hate waiting weeks or months for chapters of a story that I've invested in. Know that I'm typing as fast as my muse will let me.

Also – for the pic that that I refer to in here, check out my Flickr site that's linked to in my profile- it's in the album entitled "kenya: safari". There's also some pictures in the "kenya:beginnings" album that show the hotel, the road to the mara, etc. Feel free to puruse.

As always, thanks for the excellent reviews. Y'all humble me.

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"What?!"

I yanked the cell phone away from my ear as to protect my ear drums.

"I know! I can't believe it either!"

"I'm sorry, Sharpay freaking Evans?! In Africa? And she's an AIDS worker? Shut up," Gabi was screeching now.

I had been filling her in on everything that had transpired since I had landed, but we were having trouble getting to the part where I actually explained Sharpay.

"I'm serious, Gabi. She's totally different."

"Well, I would imagine she would have to be! Can you imagine the mountain lion ice queen actually living where dirt was present?"

"Seriously," I laughed. I launched into the story that Sharpay told me – the abbreviated version, of course and Gabi interjected the appropriate 'ooh's and 'aah's. Knew I could count on her.

"So is that all?" She said after I finished. "I've got something kind of cool to tell you from our side of the pond."

"Pretty much. I mean, we head out for safari on Friday and I'm pretty excited about that. Other than that, it's just been adjusting to the new and improved Sharpay."

"Excellent," Gabi took a deep breath. I could tell from her voice that whatever she was going to tell me was huge.

"Gabs, what is it?"

"If you do any shopping while you're over there, I'd recommend getting some baby gifts."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm sure you're going to want to spoil your new niece or nephew completely silly and having things from Africa will certainly get you cool points down the road."

What?

"I'm sorry," I stuttered.

I could hear the smile in her voice from ten time zones away. "Andrew and I are pregnant."

Now I was screaming. We screamed together for a few minutes before we had to end the call.

Holy cow, Gabi was going to be a mom. Will wonders never cease?

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It was like staying with a kid who had just been given the keys to the Willy Wonka factory.

"Seriously, holy shit, Sharpay! We saw lions and giraffes and cheetahs and holy shit! These pictures… I can't believe that I took these! We saw these things up close!"

I peeked out from the bathroom of the hotel room to see Troy's face lit up by his computer screen. Ever since we had gotten back from safari that evening, he had been jabbering nonstop.

"It was like living in The Lion King."

I laughed at this one. "Circle of life, baby."

We had arrived at the Sarova Mara Hotel to find that they had lost our reservation. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did and I was pissed. There was only one other hotel in the Mara that was suitable for the price that Troy's company had paid me and it was completely booked as well. Thankfully, Troy's brain worked faster than mine.

After Troy informed the desk clerk that he'd have to be the one to inform the bride (ie: me) of the mishap with her honeymoon that she had saved for almost three years for, I caught the picture and threw one of my patented Sharpay Evans hissy fits. There was some more talk of 'daddy's money' and magically there was a room for us. We even managed to snag the honeymoon suite.

I wish that, at this moment, I could rewind about fifteen years and tell my high school self about this moment. Classic.

"Sharpay, seriously, look at this." He flipped his computer around and showed me a gorgeous picture of a lion yawning.

Boy's got game.

I flopped down on the bed next to him and we continued to look at pictures that he had taken that day. I was mesmerized by how he just clicked a few buttons on his computer and it almost turned into an entirely different picture.

We sat that way for a while, until I finally looked at the clock on his computer.

"Shit, Troy."

"What?'

"It's almost eleven. That's when they shut the electricity off and we have to be out front for the morning safari at six."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Shit, okay." A few more buttons hit and everything on his computer went black. "Geez, goodnight then."

I am always amazed at how quickly men can get ready for bed. Or ready in general. The last man that I dated could be ready to head out for a masquerade ball in under forty minutes. I kind of hated them for that. My face wash regimen alone took almost fifteen.

I climbed into my side of the queen sized bed. This was the awkward thing about our little lie to get the room… sleeping in the same bed with Troy Bolton. How in God's name was I going to do this?

I mean, this was the boy that was the feature of all of my daydreams from ages eleven to twenty one. That's ten years. That's some serious pining time. That spans three boyfriends – Troy still won. Of course, the early years were so much more innocent. Ages sixteen to twenty-one became slightly more x-rated, if I'm honest. I wonder if he really can bend that way…

He flopped into bed just before Sarova cut the electricity to the whole hotel. So here I am. In the dark. With Troy. In bed.

He smelled fantastic.

Yeah, like I'm going to sleep tonight.

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"Sharpay?"

"Yeah?"

She sounded like she was completely awake. Glad I'm not the only one.

"Why do they shut the electricity off?"

I felt her shift a little. "They claim it's to conserve electricity, but I think it's also to force the mzungus to relax."

"Mzungus?"

"It's Swahili for "white person". You'll hear it a lot, actually."

"Really?"

She chuckled. "Mzungu! How are yoooouuu!!" Her voice went up at the end of the word "you" in this sing-song like fashion. "When you're walking through the streets, it's what all the kids will call out to you. If they don't know any other English, they know 'how are you'?"

"Why's that?"

She growled a little and her voice changed tones completely, "Because they're taught that white people are always kind and generous and that they should be extra polite and nice to them."

"Seriously?"

She snorted this time and I could feel her sit up in the bed. It was so freaking dark that I could barely see my hand in front of my face, but I could somehow tell that she was gesturing wildly as she answered. "Yeah, because that's certainly been the history of Africa. White people being generous."

"I sense some sarcasm, there, Shar."

"You think? I mean, for real, look at British and German and French imperialism all up and down this continent. And let's not even discuss what happened in Rwanda or the Congo or Darfur. Very rarely have white people actually treated the Africans with dignity and respect. It sickens me that kids are taught that we are the great white hope. Plus, it perpetuates the begging culture."

Damn, she's passionate about this.

"You'll see it when we drive to some of the more far-out clinics, but the kids will run up to the van and ask you for anything that you can spare. It's like there's this understanding that if they see a white person, that white person will have food or money or empty water bottles to give them. So they just beg instead of actually going to school. They beg and sniff glue."

"Sniff glue?"

"Yeah," now her voice was sad. "For kids who are hungry, it's often easier for them to huff glue. The hunger pains go away for longer than they do if they get a loaf of bread. There's a lot of feeding programs that have a policy that the workers have to watch the kids eat the bread right in front of them so that they can't trade it for glue."

Damn.

"So when do I get to get called 'mzungu'?

She laughed, "Mzungu!"

"Haha, very funny, I meant – "

"I know what you meant," she laid back down and I think that she turned towards me. "I'll take you to school with me on Monday. The XCEL school in Kibera. Some of my favorite kids in the world."

"I can't wait."

We laid there in silence for a few more minutes before I heard her voice again, "Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"How long did you and Gabi date after graduation?"

"Well, we had this agreement that we would break up for freshman year and then if neither one of us found anyone, we would get back together during that next summer. So, I guess that we broke up the day before she left for Dartmouth but we were both intending to get back together."

"What happened?"

I laughed, "Andrew happened."

"Did they go to school together? I thought he was your roommate."

"Oh, he was. Gabi and I decided to work at the same summer camp and Andrew ended up tagging along. During second semester, Gabi and I started talking less and less and we both just chalked it up to being busy, but I know that I could feel us drifting. We were growing up and growing apart and that just happens."

"Yeah," she whispered. Was she crying?

"Anyway, when we showed up at camp, Gabi was so different."

"Really? In what way?"

"Well," it was my turn to shift positions now. "She was feisty and witty and could obviously give a damn what we all thought of her. She was still really sweet, but it was a biting sweetness. It wasn't Gabi and I didn't know what to do with it."

"Andrew, I'm guessing, found it ridiculously sexy." I hate that I can tell she's smirking even though it's pitch black.

"Right in one," I laughed. "Before I even had a chance to adjust to the new Gabi, they were making out behind the canoe shed. They've been making out ever since."

"And now they're going to have a baby," she replied.

"Yeah, I'm so excited for them."

"So I guess that both of our lives changed that summer."

"Sure," I agreed. "You decided to save the world and I figured out that I wasn't going to marry my high school sweetheart. Those are totally the same."

She swatted at me and made contact with my chest. "Shut up. Your dreams still ended."

"Yeah, I suppose that they did. My reality definitely shifted. But man, I wouldn't trade my life now for anything."

"I know what you mean."

"I mean, seriously, I have a kickass job for a kickass company who pays me to explore the world. What could possibly be better? Oh, and now I'm going to be an uncle. Slap my ass and call me Sally, that's just fantastic."

She exploded into that fabulous laughter. "Bolton, you are just too much."

"I try, Evans, I try."

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Damn it, I think I'm falling for him all over again.