Please enjoy.

Chapter 1: Sharpay

During the Holidays, she was never home. She didn't feel that she had a home. A home to her, was somewhere you lived in for more than a few months. She's never had that in a while. But luckily, she was taking a break from her career to focus on bigger and better things. First of her son, Nathan, the blond spunky kid with a heart of gold and sapphire eyes. And secondly, she was engaged and her and her fiance needed to prepare for the big day. It would be happening in a couple of months. But before thinking ahead of time, she needed to get through her last night at the theatre where she was performing, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Then after that she was ready for her new life.

The theatre was already packed even before the time the play was going to start. Near the front row, around the middle seats, sat a young boy and a good-looking man. They seemed to be father and son but similarities were few. The little boy, about ten years old was kneeling on his seat, looking at the people around him as they searched for their seats. "Wow, it's so full..." he said in slight awe. He had seen many busy theatres before but nothing like this.

The man grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him down to sit properly. "Nate, sit down..." he hissed into the child's ear.

Nate, whipped his ear and harshly pulled his arm away. "Don't call me 'Nate', you ain't family..." the little boy shot back, crossing his arms and began to kick the seat infront of him. He didn't care that a middle aged lady was sitting in front of him and he didn't care if she was sending him evil glares now and then. No one told him what to do, especially someone who didn't like him and someone who he didn't like.

"Nathan," the man hissed again, holding his right leg. "Stop it!" The boy was about to fight back but the man wasn't done yet. "I may not be related to you yet young man but in a few months, I'll be your father, so you're going to have to listen to me no matter how much you hate it."

"What if I don't?" Nathan asked, jerking his leg again from the man's grip.

"I'm going to tell your mother..."

Nathan scoffed at him. "Please, my mom and I were doing fine without you Chris... We don't need you..."

The lights dimmed and the curtains opened to reveal Hippolyta and Theseus, Athenian royality, talking about their marriage which will happen in four days. Sharpay, Nathan's mother and Chris' fiancee, was playing the part of Helena, the desparate lover of Demetrius. Nathan didn't want to spoil his mother's last performance and he didn't want to be the rebellious son of Sharpay the actress. He just didn't like his soon-to-be-step-father. Deep down, he secretly wished his father was coming back even though he told his mom he hated his father for abandoning them. More importantly, abandoning his mother.

--

Sharpay took her final bow with the cast. The cast she worked long and hard for, for six months. From that moment on, she was no longer a Broadway diva who starred in ever musical, she was going to be a family lady. She would miss her cast and all the fun times and travelling they did. But it was worth it to be with her family. She didn't want anyone to feel abandoned especially her family and Nathan. As the curtain closed on them, clapping and yelling were still heard. It didn't stop. It was the last performance of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' musical for that year. It was also Sharpay's last performance until she decided to return.

"Nice Sharpay!" a brunette lady said as she twirled around the actress. "I can't picture myself playing Hermia without you by my side..."

Sharpay laughed at her friend's kind words. "Don't worry, Alana, I'll be back... Some day." The brunette smiled and went to the director as he was calling her. "Or maybe not," she added, mostly saying it to herself.

"Amazing Sharpay," said the man who played Lysander as he pecked each of her cheek. "I bid you fare thee well my sweet Helena," he said jokingly and skipped over to the other side of the stage. Sometime's Sharpay wondered if he was gay. It would certainly suck for his wife and two children.

"You did amazing yourself Frankie!" Sharpay called, waving at the skipping idiot. He heard her and turned around, bowing. Frankie was indeed the gentleman. Sharpay curtsied and laughed as Frankie bummed into her make-up artist which was also his wife. She smiled at the sight which brought her memories of someone very special to her. It wasn't her fiance though. It could never be him.

"Helena, lady of Athens, I've come to bid my love away," the man who protrayed Demetrius joked, grabbing her hand softly and placed a light kiss on it. The blond rolled her eyes and slapped playfully on the arm. "Ouch!" he winced, holding his arm. His voice was back to normal, it wasn't that deep weird one he used for acting but it was the weird nerdy one. "How dare this witch who plays the lovely Helena, assult, James, the handsome man who plays Demetrius..."

The blond would've laughed if she wasn't so concerned for him. She looked at the clock hanging on a nearby wall. "Better hurry up, James. You're girl-friend is waiting for you!"

James gasped and hugged Sharpay tightly. "Thanks, I lost track of time. What would I do without you?" he asked. "Alas, I must depart! So long fair Sharpay!"

She laughed at him. All the guys she worked with always made her smile. They all had humor and sweet hearts. It was like her last year of high school. They brought out the teen in her. She would miss them but she was doing it because she missed her old life, well, the life she never had. The life with a husband and the life of bringing up her son. She was never around for them and she was never around for her parents or her siblings either, especially her twin. But she was going to make it up to them by surprising them by flying into New Mexico that very night.

"Mom!" a boy yelled over all the 'good-byes'. Sharpay jolted around to be met with a powerful hug around her legs. "That was awesome mom," Nate said against her dress. "Are you ready to go?"

Sharpay affectionately rubbed her son's head. "Not yet, I haven't even changed it... I'm still in my costume."

"That's okay! You can surprise Gran and Gramps even more when you wear this!" Nate untangle his arms from his mother and held up the white skirt of the dress she was wearing. It was much to fancy to wear into an airport and walk through New York and Albequrque in. She would liked the classic movie 'Enchanted'.

"Why are you so excited to leave anyway? I thought you loved New York and hated planes."

"I do but I wanna finally meet my cousins and my Aunts and Uncles. I've never met them before!" Nathan said, grabbing her skirt and pulling her towards the direction of her dressing room. "I wanna meet Uncle Ryan and Aunt Gabriella and Lisel and Fredrick! Oh and Aunt Rachel and Uncle Max and Flora and whose your other brother?" he asked, forgetting his last uncle. The oldest of the Evans kids.

"Uncle Steven..."

Nathan beamed. "Him too and Aunt Melanie and Dave, Sarah and Kimberly..." As they reached her dressing room, Nathan opened the door and pushed his mother inside. He didn't go in himself, he didn't want to bother her especially while she was going to change. He too was gentleman. Sharpay taught him well and so did all the nannys that took care of him when Sharpay would go off to her shows. Like Sharpay, he really wanted a family. "It'll be like a family reunion."

'"There you guys are," Chris said as he towered over Nathan.

The little boy rolled his blue eyes and stepped back. "Almost..." he said to himself before walking to the food service table.

--

"Hello?" Chad said, as he brought the cordless phone to his ear. He was surprised to hear the voice on the other end. He'd never thought that he would ever speak to that voice again. He was out of his league. Chad was merely a high school coach unlike the person on the other end. "I'm good, man you?" as the other person greeted him nicely as if nothing has changed. Chad didn't want to be rude and brush the guy away because even after ten years, he consided him his best friend till the very end.

"I'm good too, man. How's Taylor?"

"Taylor's good," he said as he Taylor from the kitchen. She asked who it was and Chad replied by mouthing out a name. Being the smart one that she is, she nodded and headed back to washing the dishes.

"Sorry I didn't come to your wedding. I was busy and-"

"Dude, it's alright. I knew you were busy. Silly me..." Chad smacked himself across the head. Silly me? What kind of a reply is that?

"Listen, have you spoken to Sharpay lately?"

"Yeah every now and then. She calls to check up on Taylor and often invites us to her shows if she's in the area," Chad replied. He knew that the phone conversation was going to turn into something like this. Being with Taylor for many years sure did take an affect on his intelligence. He was finally clever enough to be considered average. "From what Tay was told me, she's moving back here soon to surprise Ryan and her family so we're going to pick her up from the airport..."

"It'll like high school all over again," the voice said an awkward laugh at the very end of his sentence. The voice wanted Chad to laugh but he didn't. He guessed things between them were still sour. "Except I won't be there though... I just called to wish you and Tay happy anniverisary and I wanted to some what check up on her. I doubt she would want me to call her..."

"She's getting married Troy..."

"Oh? I read that in some magazine. Tell her congrats but don't say it's from me, it'll make things much worse between us already."

"Why'd you leave?" Chad asked the question everyone's been wanting to bring up for so long. Chad wanted an answer and he hoped Troy could be truthful to him. But deep down Chad knew whatever Troy told him, it wouldn't be a good enough reason for any guy to leave his girl-friend especially when she was pregnant and in college.

"I wasn't ready..."

--

"I'm so excited!" Sharpay squealed as she sat in the airplane. Of course she took her own private jet. She would never be caught dead in a public airplane filled with people and their germs. She really hated anything public. She was a germaphobic but of course she wasn't always like that. It all began when she watched a documentary about germs in college. She regretted ever taking that class. It did inform her though.

On the other hand, the little boy sitting in front of her wasn't so amused. He didn't want to sit alone and in a machine that could fly. To him, big huge machines flying in the air was extremely scary. He thought they weren't save because people can't fly yet something ten times bigger can. It didn't make sense to him at all. It would also be better if he sat beside his mom, not alone. The seat beside his dear mother was occupied by Chris, his enemy. "Mom!"

"Yes?"

"Can't you come sit on the couch with me?" Nate asked, patting the empty spot beside him.

Sharpay looked over to Chris and then back to Nate. "I will later. Chris and I have to talk about stuff."

"What stuff?" Nate inquired, scooting closer to them. He didn't want them to make plans without his input. After all, his input was the important, so he thought. Nate was quite a cocky boy when it came to stuff about him. Many say he got it from his mother, which he believed. But when it came to ditching people for his own need, like toy shopping, Sharpay says he's just like his father. That was the only 'conversation' they had about his father. He didn't even know what he looked like.

Chris grumbled and held on to Sharpay's hand. "Adult stuff..."

"But-"

"Chris is right," Sharpay budded in before the two had another argument. "Go and watch some TV."

Being the behaved boy that he was, Nate scooted back to his previous spot on the couch and turned on the LCD TV. He flipped through the channels, mumbling at each one but stopped when his 'idol' came up on TV. Nate stopped at the sports' channel and it was almost time for the basketball game between the Lakers and Miami Heat.

"So Troy, are you excited about the game tonight?" the interviewer asked holding the mic. in front of Troy's face.

Troy shot him a smile and nodded. "I'm excited for every game, Bob. You know me, I'm a happy guy!"

Bob laughed too. He had many interviews with Troy before the game and they became good friends. "Now, there's a rumor going around that you're going to quit the Lakers. Is that true?"

Troy ran his fingers through his thick brown hair. "Er," he winced. "Of course not! Why would I quit? This is the best thing that ever happened to me!"

"Change the channel, Nate!" Sharpay ordered loudly. It came out of no where and scared the living daylights out of her son. Nate dropped the remote and stared wide eyed at his mother. She wasn't returning his stare though, she was glaring out into the window, her arms crossed and she was slightly pouting too. Neither Chris nor Nate ever saw Sharpay act like this before and it was over 'nothing' as well. Nate slowly reached out and grabbed the remote and flipped the channel to Cartoon Network.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked Sharpay as he worriedly at her back.

She didn't answer right away. "Nothing."

Of course the other two weren't that dense. Obviously they knew something was wrong with her. But they couldn't figure out what, so Nate decided to put the pieces together. He knew his mother wasn't that fond of sports especially basketball but she never yelled at him when he watched it. Then he thought about the people on TV. It wasn't Bob, that was sure enough because Sharpay saw him a million of times. Troy.

"Is it Troy, mom? You don't like him?" Nate asked. But one thing didn't make sense. She didn't mind his room being filled with posters of the basketball star. "Is it something he said? Do you know him?"

Sharpay shook her head roughly. "Just go and watch TV, Nate. This has nothing to do with you!"

"But-"

"God, your just like your father!"

My first update for this story. I want to thank you all for the reviews. They all are so sweet. Thanks.

In this chapter we took a look at Sharpay's life, sorta, and the effects Troy still has on her. We also got to look at Sharpay's ten-year-old son, Nathan or Nate. He's quite the mommy's boy, hopefully that would change ;) And we sorta got a look at Nate's relationship with Chris, his so-called enemy and Nate's admiration for Troy Bolton. Mother and son seem to have different feelings for the basketball player.

I wonder what Troy thinks of them? Let's find out next chapter :)

Please review, it'll only take a second or so. Oh tell me why YOU think Troy left Sharpay? Well, it's pretty obvious... sigh, I didn't mean to make it that obvious...Sorry.

-Aj