I was pulled from the nice quiet world of sleep by the sound of the doorbell ringing. And ringing. And ringing some more. Groaning, I got up and grabbed some jeans to put on with the t-shirt I had worn to bed. Hurriedly I pulled them on, then ran a brush through my hair as I walked to the door, thinking it was probably one of the neighbors.

I pulled open the door and was nearly blinded by the morning sun shining off of tons of sequins, bright blonde hair, and the color pink, which was suddenly everywhere. I jumped back.

"Good morning, is this Troy Bolton's house?" A sugary sweet voice asked me. I blinked a few times, and my eyes refocused on a very pretty blonde woman with two blonde teenagers with her, a boy and a girl. The woman wore a bright pink sequined jacket and tight jeans going down into sleek pink boots. The girl was dressed in a pink sparkly tank top and white shorts, which perfectly showed off her tanned toned arms and legs. As for the boy... he was a work of art. Tousled, windswept blonde hair, dry instead of dripping with greasy hair product, matched the shining blue eyes that smiled out of the tan face perfectly. I noticed that his teeth were incredibly white and wondered what toothpaste he used and when I had missed the supermodel convention coming into town.

"Hellllooo?" The girl waved her hand in front of my face. "My mother just asked you a question?"

"Michelle, sweetie, be gentle. Good help is so hard to find these days. I mean look at the way she's dressed!"

I felt my cheeks burn as I glanced down at my purple t-shirt and old jeans. Great. Next time I'll remember to pull out my designer threads for answering the door at 8:00 in the morning, I thought sarcastically. And did that woman just call me "the help"?

"I'm sorry," I said, pasting a smile on my face, "I'm not the help. I live here. I'm Troy Bolton's daughter."

The next second I was enveloped in a crushing hug, my cheek smashed against pink leather and sequins. "Darling, I'm so happy to finally meet you!"

"Uhh," I pulled away, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

The woman looked stunned. "Why I'm your Auntie Sharpay! And these are my fantabulous children, Michelle and Stephen."

"Hello." Michelle said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "I'm delighted to meet you." Her eyes scanned me up and down, and her expression said the exact opposite.
"Hey." Stephen smiled at me and nodded his head. His eyes scanned me too, but his smile only grew larger.

"Uh," I tore myself away from the guy's beautiful baby blues to say, "I'm sorry, but I still can't place you."

"I went to highschool with your daddy. He was in love with me, but I'm afraid I had to turn him down. So many times. Oh, the tears! The begging! But I was firm. I said, 'Troy, we must remain friends.'" Sharpay struck a dramatic pose. "Anyway, we're in town for the week because of the East High Reunion and I thought why not pop over and see him!"

"Oh..." I wondered why this woman thought I should know her. It wasn't as if I went through my dad's yearbooks everyday. "Well, I'll go get him." I paused. "Come in. Sit down."

"Okey dokey!" The three blonde beauties came through the door and sat down on our couch. Michelle sniffed, and she looked critically over the room. I could almost see her attaching price tags to everything. I rolled my eyes, then headed for my dad's room.

"Dad?" I opened the door to my dad's study to find him engrossed in reading something at his desk. To my surprise I thought I saw a tear glistening on his cheek.

He dropped whatever he was reading as if it had burned him and said, "Yes?"

"Um, there's someone from your old highschool here who'd like to talk to you. Her name's Sharpay I think."

Something like terror passed over my father's face for an instant. He reminded me of a mouse cornered by a cat. But the next second he laughed and said, "Alright. I'll be out in a minute."

"Alright, please hurry. And by the way, she has her kids with her."

My dad paused. "Sharpay married? Sharpay with kids? Impossible." Then he laughed again. "And also kind of funny." He smiled at me. "I'll hurry, don't worry."

"Good." I smiled in relief and closed the door. As I walked back towards the living room, I wondered what my dad had been reading. Did it have anything to do with the mystery girl? I walked into my room and pulled on a new shirt, a blue one with lace around the bottom. I loved it. I brushed my hair out fully and put on a head band. I didn't look like a super model, but then, I never would.
I walked out of my bedroom, and realized Sharpay and her children were probably still waiting for me to return. I walked quickly around the corner and ran smack into someone.

"Ooof!" I was knocked backwards and fell to the ground, with whoever it was on top of me.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there."

I opened my eyes and looked straight up into gorgeous blue ones. Nate has brown eyes. This isn't Nate. Oh my gosh, it's Stephen. "Oh! It's alright. It wasn't your fault."

Stephen smiled. "Thanks."

I paused a moment. "Um, I'm sorry, but can you get off me?"

Stephen chuckled. "What, you don't like our current position?"

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously?"

He looked surprised. "What?"

I pushed him off me. "Is that the best line you can come up with?"

He laughed. "Hey, I'm sorry, it's the best I could come up with on short notice."

"Right." I shrugged and got up, ignoring the hand he offered me.
"Independent type?"

"Only sometimes." I smiled at him a little too sweetly, then turned to walk away, stunned at myself. Since when had I gotten such a big loud mouth?

"Actually I need your directions."

I turned back. "Uh, what?"

"I was trying to find your bathroom when we had our little collison."

"Oh, got it. Go down this hall, first door on your right."

"Thanks." He started to walk that way, then turned back. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I got your name."

"Ella."

"Ella." He said, smiling. "I hope we can get to know eachother better soon."

"Uh, right." I turned and walked to the living room.

"What happened? We thought you got lost." Michelle said, in a bored tone.
"Sorry, I got sidetracked." No reason to tell them their son and brother had been laying on top of me. "But my dad should be out-"
"Now." I turned to find my dad behind me, smiling.

Sharpay was up, squealing, in an instant. "Troy!" She grabbed him and kissed the air around both his cheeks french style, then grabbed his hand, practically jumping up and down with joy. "It's been so long!"

"Yes, it has!" My dad smiled, but looked a little petrified. Then he turned to Michelle. "And who is this gorgeous young lady?"

Michelle simpered, then extended her hand. "I'm Michelle."

My father took her hand and smiled. "It's nice to meet you Michelle. You are just as beautiful as your mother was at your age."

"Stop Troy, you'll make me blush!" Sharpay giggled.

I rolled my eyes quietly then snapped to attention as my dad said, "Why don't you take Michelle into your room Ella and you can talk?"

"Uhh," I glanced desperately from my dad to Michelle, then sighed. "Of course. Just follow me."

I led her into my room and quickly walked to my bed to make it. After I was finished we sat down on it.

Michelle spoke first. "I don't know if you know this, but my mother was a Broadway star!"

"Oh that's so cool!" I tried to smile like I meant it. "Do you like theater too?"

Michelle looked at me and sniffed. "My mother has had me trained with the finest acting coaches all across America. I'm destined for Broadway. One day you'll be telling people I sat in your room and devoted some of my precious time to talking with you."

"Ah." I didn't know what else to say. "Well, once you're rich and famous, I'll be sure the bed gets put in a museum." I hoped my sarcasm didn't show through as much as I thought it did.
Michelle nodded, serious. "You do that."

Just then Stephen walked past my open bedroom door and grinned at us. "Hello ladies."

"What do you want Stephen?" Michelle rolled her eyes. "We're trying to have a discussion here?"

"Oh I'm very good at discussing." Stephen casually strolled into my room and flung himself on the remaining portion of my bed, lounging there.

I tried to ignore the flutter of my heart as I thought about that beautiful masterpiece of a boy lying so casually on my bed.

Michelle shoved him. "You're not wanted here."

In response, Stephen grinned, pushed up his sleeve and pinched himself, hard. "Ouch!" Michelle sent him a glare and smacked him on the arm.

"Wait," I said, confused, "what just happened there?"

Michelle rolled her eyes at me and didn't deign to reply, but Stephen smiled and said, "We're twins. Sometimes Michelle can feel my pain. And I can feel hers."

"You're twins?"

"Yes," Michelle examined her nails as she spoke, "twins run in our family."

Stephen explained, "Our mom is a twin."

"Wow." I could just picture two Sharpay's in the world. I shivered.

"Uncle Ryan is totally different from Mom though." Michelle added.

Oh, it was a boy. I breathed a sigh of relief. Our planet was safe from too much glitter. "Do twins run in your dad's family too?" I asked.

Michelle stiffened and glanced at Stephen, who looked upset for a minute. Then he shrugged and said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Our dad isn't home much. He's busy. He leads an extremely glamorous lifestyle!" Michelle said, looking angrily at her brother.

"Oh, I'm sorry. That must be hard for you guys not to see your dad that often."

Stephen laughed. "Yeah, it's torture." I raised an eyebrow at him, but he ignored it and bounced up off my bed. "Well ladies," he began.

Just then my phone began to ring. Before I could even move, Stephen grabbed it off my desk and answered it. "Hello?"

I grabbed at the phone, but he easily side-stepped me and listened for a minute, laughing at my feeble attempts to snatch it back.

"Yes, Ella's here." He smirked at me one last time and then handed the phone over. "Somebody named Nate wants to talk to you."

"Nate! Hey! Sorry about that." I shot Stephen an "I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that" look and sat back down on the bed.

"Ella?" Nate sounded angry. "Who was that?"

"Uh, Stephen, he's a.. friend." I said.

Stephen grinned and winked at me. Michelle yawned and rolled her eyes.

"Why is this friend of yours answering your cellphone? And since when do you have guy friends I don't know about?"

"Uh, Nate, I don't exactly check up with you every time I make a new friend." I said, annoyed at the tone of his voice. "I'm a big girl."

"Why did he answer your phone?"

"He's in my room and heard it ring and-"

"He's in your room?"

Stephen heard that and started to laugh. I blushed. "Not like that you idiot! He and his sister are in my room and he heard it ring and answered it as a joke. A stupid joke." I added for Stephen's benefit and glared at him again.

"Ella..." Nate's voice sounded sad. "If this is about last night..."

"What about last night?" I said quickly, trying to hide the panic in my voice. "Look, everything's fine Nate. Why did you call?"

"You know what, I think I changed my mind. I want to tell you this in person."
"Nate, we have company."

"I got that."

"Nate, I told you, Stephen's a friend."

"Well, I'm your friend too." He paused for a second. "I'm coming over."

"Nate!" I heard the click as Nate hung up.

I glared at Stephen. "Well thank you for that. Now my best guy friend is running over here, convinced I'm in dire need of rescuing. All because of you!"

"Me?" Stephen looked honestly surprised. "I answered your cellphone. It's not a big deal. I think it's your friend who has the problem."

I weighed his words. I partially agreed with him, but I was also still annoyed with him. "Listen, whatever, I don't care, but can you please leave?"

Stephen grinned. "If you promise to have dinner with me tomorrow night."

"What? This isn't a negotiation!"

Stephen pushed his lower lip out, and his eyes seemed to grow two times bigger. "Come on, please! I promise to be a perfect gentleman."

I stared at him. Was he seriously asking me out?

"Look, Nate's going to be here any second, he literally lives right down the street!"

"Am I not getting this across to you right?" Stephen grabbed my hands suddenly and knelt down on my bedroom floor. "Please Ella, I've never asked any girl out so soon after meeting her. But I think you might be worth it to make an exception."

"Stephen!" I tried to pry my hands out of his grasp, but he held on firmly. "You're crazy!"

He grinned. "That's probably true."

"Nate's going to be walking in that door any second!"

"Then say yes!" He gave me the puppy dog face again.

For a second I paused. As much as he had already proven to be a charmer and probably a flirt, he was extremely cute. And he was only here for a week...

Finally, I smiled. "Yes, Stephen. I'll have dinner with you tomorrow night." I looked up, over Stephen's head, and saw Nate standing in my bedroom doorway, his brown eyes stricken.