Disclaimer: Nope…Still.


The Best Laid Plans

Ring.Ring.

Ring. Ring.

"What is it?" Vanessa barked into the phone, the ring having woken her from the first sleep she'd been able to get in a few days. Travel was not good for her REM cycle.

"Boss? It's me, Zeke." Vanessa rolled her eyes at this boy's audacity but didn't say a word on the subject.

"Um, ok," Zeke said, sounding nervous for the first time after not getting a response. "I just wanted to fill you in, we've had a bit of a melt down."

"So I've heard," Vanessa said coldly into the phone.

"Well, it turns out that Ashley has been in hiding this whole time. She'd sent out a double to lure us away from her."

"And you're calling to tell me where the real Ashley is so that I can go shoot her."

Zeke gulped. "I'm sorry, what? You're here? In the U.S.?" his voice squeaked involuntarily.

"That's right, now where is she? I know you know."

Zeke let out a dramatic breath and said, his voice shaking ever so slightly, "She's in the tallest tower of the Cinderella Castle in Disney Land. I was headed over to California, I take it you're going to be meeting me there?"

"Tomorrow night," Vanessa snapped. "Nine o'clock, in the tunnel." Then she hung up the phone, cackling to herself.


"So?" Sharpay asked as soon as Zeke hung up the phone. They were still in Ashley's room in the tallest tower and every eye was currently staring intently at Zeke's sweating forehead.

"She'll be there," he said quietly, collapsing into the overstuffed, pink sofa.

"Excellent," Jack barked, jumping up at that same moment. "Get up!" he growled in Zeke's direction.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Gabriella asked, the whine in her voice more pronounced with her fear.

"We're going to the Cinderella Castle in Disney Land. We just got the evidence we've been looking for in that phone call," Jack explained quickly. He was anxious to get going.

"Evidence?" Ashley asked curiously.

"She just admitted her intent to kill you. And we just so happened to record it," Jack replied with a smug smile.

"Once Vanessa show's up," Zeke explained further, seeing Gabriella's still confused expression. "We'll be able to apprehend and convict her guilty ass."

"Oh," was all she responded with.

"And all of you should go back to Albuquerque. Except for you, of course, Ashley. You stay here." Jack commanded with the authority that nobody believed he actually had.

"Absolutely not!" Sharpay immediately protested. "I'm not leaving Ashley until we know this whole thing is over."

"And I'm not leaving Sharpay!" Troy added.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine. Then you three stay here. Gabriella, Ryan–"

"We're going!" Gabriella interrupted him, jumping up from her seat near the window and sprinting to the door.

"Um, right. It looks like I'm going," Ryan mumbled, getting up to follow Gabriella. Before he got to the door, he paused. Then, turning around swiftly, he pulled Sharpay into a bear hug. "You be careful," he murmured into her hair.

Sharpay laughed softly. "Don't worry about me, Ryan. I'm not going anywhere."

With that, Ryan turned and walked right out of the room, not daring to look back.


Vanessa unhooked her phone from her computer and watched as the screen slowly loaded the information that it had uncovered. She'd connected her phone to a tracking device, just to see where Zeke was when he'd called her. There was something about his behavior through this whole ordeal that didn't seem to fit. His attitude just wasn't the same as the other terrorists and in this line of business that usually meant he was going to be trouble.

The screen finally loaded the information and Vanessa appraised it with interest. So he'd been in Florida, had he? Orlando, to be more specific. And what does Orlando have, that Los Angeles has too? A Cinderella Castle.

Vanessa chuckled evilly to herself as she picked up her phone once more. Florida it is.


Sharpay sighed softly to herself. She, Troy and Ashley had been stuck in that room for over twenty four hours now. They'd run out of things to talk about after twelve.

"So, Ashley," Troy said loudly, startling the other two out of their reveries. "Who's your favorite musical group?"

"Billy Joel," she replied breezily, no thought necessary. "You?"

"Currently? The Flobots. But always Death Cab," he replied conversationally. They both turned and looked at Sharpay.

"What, we're playing twenty questions now?" she groaned irritably.

"Do you have a better idea?" Troy quipped back.

Sharpay glowered at him, arms crossed and nose scrunched. Finally, after a short stair down she opened her mouth and said "Blondie."

Troy stared at her for a beat with a confused expression when it at last dawned on him what she was saying. "Seriously?" he asked in surprise. "I would have thought you'd say the cast of Grease or something."

"Naw," Sharpay got up and joined Troy on the couch, swinging her legs across his lap. "Not since the accident, at least." Troy nodded.

"My turn," Ashley said from her seat by the window. "Favorite TV show."

"Definitely Access Hollywood," Sharpay instantly answered.

Ashley scrunched her nose in distaste. "Really?"

Sharpay shrugged. "I always try to imagine what they'll say about me once I'm a famous actress."

"Mine would be any basketball game."

"That's not a TV show, Troy!" Sharpay objected.

"It's on TV. And it is most definitely a show."

"It counts. I guess mine would have to be Friends."

"All right, uuummmm, favorite color?"

And that was how they whiled away the next three hours.


"Shhh," Jack put a finger to his lips as he shushed Zeke rather audibly.

Zeke nodded and simulated tip-toeing. As he took his second step with mock caution, his foot caught on the crack of a slightly raised cement chunk. Stumbling, Zeke dropped his back pack and swore loudly before catching himself and steadying his balance.

Jack just stared at him disappointed. "Seriously?"

The two walked around Disney Land's Cinderella Castle, making sure that they knew every inch of the area before Jack went to his position behind a security door.

Zeke looked at his watch. Ten to nine. It was almost show time. Nervously, he took out a piece of gum and unwrapped it with shaking fingers. He may not be able to get rid of any tremble in his voice but he certainly can distract from it.


"Favorite…TV show?"

"Ugh, we already did that one. This is boring, I can't play it anymore," Sharpay groaned stubbornly, trying to stifle a yawn. She and Troy had settled into a comfortable laying position, Troy's arms wrapped protectively around Sharpay's to warm her as she cuddled further into his chest.

Ashley was still positioned near the window, but she could no longer watch the commotion down below as darkness had fallen and only her own reflection could be seen.

"I'm thirsty," Sharpay whined, forgetting momentarily where she was stuck.

"I am too, actually," Troy said, sitting up slowly, easily placing Sharpay back on the couch. "How about I go get us all some slushies. That ought to wake us up a bit, too." Mostly he just wanted to get out of that stuffy room. The girls nodded dully; he didn't waste another second to escape. Even if it would be for just a few minutes.

After he had gone, Ashley chuckled softly. "You two are so funny."

Sharpay turned her head and slowly opened her tired eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Just the way you two bicker, sometimes," Ashley explained. She looked away as she said this, almost as though she were remembering a moment in her own past. "You just hold nothing back from each other, you know?"

Sharpay thought about it for a moment then snorted with laughter.

"What?"

Sharpay just shook her head. "I guess we just have nothing left to hide from each other."

Ashley smiled and the two fell back into their own thoughts. Suddenly the door burst open and a dark figure jumped through, wildly swinging her arms about.

"Get Up!" she yelled angrily. Startled, Ashley and Sharpay hardly had time to comprehend their surroundings before they found themselves tied to two chairs, their arms duct taped behind their backs and their mouths duct taped closed.

"Oh, Ashley," Vanessa said after she'd finished constraining the two girls, the condescension dripped thickly from her squeaky, baby voice. "Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. I am surprised at you, putting an innocent girl so grossly in deaths way. If I didn't know better, I'd say you did have a little healthy ruthlessness in you."

"Mmmm mmmm mm mmm mm mmmm mmmm," was Ashleys response. Roughly translated, she said 'Get away from me you stupid whore'.

"Now, now Ashley, play nicely," Vanessa responded, chuckling lightly. She then turned and glanced around the pink room. "Nice digs," she said quietly, studying a picture on the wall of Mickey Mouse and his friends. She had a gun in her hand that she periodically swung around her finger recklessly. Every time, the girls would flinch in their seats, afraid it would discharge at just the wrong moment.

"Well, I suppose you two want to hear the whole story from the villains point of view, is that right? Isn't that how it always is before the victims die?" Vanessa paused a moment to study the girls' unresponsive faces. "Right. Well, Ashley, it's simple, really. I hired the terrorists, and Zeke by mistake apparently, to kill you so that I wouldn't have to do it. I figured it would just be so much easier to deny my involvement if I truly was uninvolved. But we all saw how that ended up so…lesson learned, I suppose. For me, that is. You two will be dead before you can make that mistake."

Vanessa smiled and sat down on the couch, lounging out her legs, all the while keeping the gun pointed in the other two's direction.

"Anyway, I'm sure you two already figured that part out. But why I'm going to kill you. Ashley, you just became too much of a threat. To my career, to my personal life. You know? I would make a CD; you'd make a better one. I would star in a movie; you'd star in a better one. I was voted pretty; you were voted prettier. One day I woke up and I thought to myself, 'it doesn't have to be like this'. My mother had always told me, when you encounter barriers, destroy them. Well, you're my barrier Ashley. And I'm going to destroy you." Vanessa said the last sentence very slowly and very menacingly as she leaned forward, causing the shadows on her face to darken, completely veiling her eyes.

"Mmmm mmm mmmm," Sharpay pleaded loudly, the terror slowly forming in the pit of her stomach.

"Don't be silly," Vanessa laughed, leaning back again. "If I let you go then you'll tell people what I did. I can't let that happen, now can I?"

Standing up, Vanessa sauntered closer to the girls, her grin turning more evil with each step. "Well girls, I've told my story and I'm starting to get bored. I think it's time we moved onto the next phase of our evening, don't you?"

Both girls shook their head's frantically as Vanessa raised the gun, took aim and started to squeeze.


Zeke paced the tunnel beneath the Castle one last time, but he already knew it was useless. Vanessa was not going to show. And that was not a good sign. Frustrated, he let out an angered growl.

"She isn't coming, is she?" Jack asked having just stepped out from his hiding place.

"No," Zeke replied sharply. "You know what that means?"

"She figured it out," Jack replied grimly.


Troy took the stairs two at a time. Something wasn't right, he could just feel it. A wave of horrible foreboding had washed over just as he was picking up the drinks from the street vendor. Not wanting to risk any more then he already had, he immediately dropped the drinks onto the ground – much to the dismay of the vendor – and sprinted the multiple stories back to the top of the Castle.

On the last flight, he rose as quietly as possible. He'd heard angry voices echoing from above and he just knew that it would not be beneficial to be caught. Once he reached the landing and peaked through the crack that the slightly ajar door left, he knew why.

"Don't be silly. If I let you go then you'll tell people what I did. And I can't let that happen, now can I?"

Troy prayed that the hinges wouldn't creak as he carefully pushed the door open just far enough for him to squeeze through. Thank God for answered prayers.

Pushing his luck, he asked that the floor boards wouldn't creak beneath his feet. He hadn't been paying attention earlier to whether that should even be a concern of his. Tip-toeing into the room, he kept one eye focused on Vanessa's wide, unappealing back as he stepped closer to the table that they'd had tea at earlier.

"Well girls, I've told my story and I'm starting to get bored. I think it's time we moved onto the next phase of our evening, don't you?" Vanessa raised the gun, took aim and –

Crash! Bam! Thud!

Vanessa fell heavily to the floor, but not before a gun shot went off.

"Oh my God!" Troy gasped. "Did she get either of you?" His eyes scanned their body's anxiously for any spilled blood. None that he could see. Then, dropping the part of the chair that had stayed in his hands after smashing it over Vanessa's head, Troy ran to Sharpay and ripped the tape off of her face.

"Yeaooowwww!" She screamed, though she smiled through the pain. "Troy! Thank God, you saved us!" She smiled happily.

Troy returned the smile but quickly looked to the floor, his cheeks blushing bright red. "Aw, it was nothing, really." He quickly reached behind her and yanked off the rest of the tape that was holding her to the chair. Sharpay jumped up and immediately threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest. Troy wrapped his arms around her body and squeezed tight, never wanting to let her go again. Leaning down, he kissed her head and savored the smell of Raspberries that her shampoo left on her hair.

"Mmmmmm mmm!"

Sharpay and Troy broke apart, reminded that they weren't the only ones in the room. "Sorry," Troy muttered as he went over to Ashley and released her from her taped prison.

Once the three were all released, they stood around Vanessa's unconscious body, staring down at her intently.

"So, what should we do with her?" Sharpay asked timidly.

"I have an idea," Ashley replied grimly.


"Just get on the God damned plane, Zeke!" Jack yelled frustrated.

Zeke hated flying. And this was his second flight in one day. He didn't think it was his fault that he hesitated getting on. Jack did.

Scrambling back into motion, Zeke ambled onto the plane and buckled himself in as tightly as he could. Just a few hours. No big deal. He did it once, he could do it again.

Jack watched him mutter reassurances to himself with provocation. What kind of secret agent was this guy if he didn't like dare devil type things? Before he could even contemplate the limitations of Zeke's work, his phone buzzed hyperactively inside his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw that it was from Sharpay. He decided to answer anyway.

"What?"

"Um, Vanessa came here."

"That's what we were afraid of."

"We knocked her unconscious with a chair. And now she's taped to that chair. We were hoping you could get back here? Soon?"

Jack laughed, the first real laugh since he'd started this mission. "Roger that," he said. "We're on our way."


Woah! We're almost done! Just one more. I couldn't have timed my two stories better. So, I randomly wrote this chapter really fast which means one of two things: either a) I really knew what I wanted to say so it came out faster or b) it was really bad. I'm praying (and hoping I have the same luck Troy has) that it's a.

Let me know.

Review!