I got home and crashed, the house wasn't totaled, the kitchen melted though. The hospital called like, eight times asking if I wanted to stay the night, I said no right away, I didn't feel like hanging out with my 'family' tonight. Gabriella came over to Troy's place again, tonight it was Tuck Everlasting, the guy was hott… but that's it. Boring much! I fell asleep at like, two in the morning though, and I woke up at noon.

I looked out my window and it all came flooding back to me. Ryan, my mom, the house. All of it. And then I realized, it was the first day of school! CRAP!! I changed into a short white skirt, and a pink tank top, I fixed my hair and ran out the door. I got to East High, got to my class which was drama (thank god) and sat down in the back, on front of Troy and next to Gabriella. "I'm sorry Miss Darbus… my alarm clock-"

"You needn't explain my dear, to be truthful no one expected you to be here at all." She said. And that's when I noticed the looks, the looks that I got from the entire class. "We're quite sorry to hear about your brother, he seemed like such a harmless, young, gifted child." She finished.

Hear about Ryan? EVERYONE KNOWS!?!? Who could have told them? The only people who knew were me and… no way. I turned around and looked at Troy who immediately sunk down into his chair. "Miss Darbus? Now that I think about it, I do feel sort of, depressed, may I have a moment?" I asked.

"But of coarse dear, now come back when you're ready." She said and I walked out of the room.

How could he? How could he do this to me? To Ryan? To my life? I wanted to go home and just stay there, I didn't care if I was ditching or whatever, I just wanted to leave. "Sharpay! Wait!" Troy called from behind, typical, just typical.

"You told them!? I can't believe you!" I yelled in his face.

"I only told Gabriella… and all she wanted to do was help." He defended.

"Oh yeah, by telling the whole school?" I asked angrily.

"I'm sorry! I had to tell her, she was worried." He said.

"For some reason I highly doubt that." I said, I knew that all she wanted to do was help… but I was having a meltdown here! "Listen, I appreciate the effort and all, but what I really need now is for people to treat me like the usually do and just leave me alone!" I said. I stood there for a minute, waiting for him to respond, only he didn't. I put myself back into normal mode and walked back into class… Troy didn't follow.

The rest of the day was a blur, I avoided the weird looks and everyone left me alone. It wasn't the way I wanted it, but I survived. It was at the end of the day when everything got bad. Gabriella popped up out of no where (as usual) eager to do her Girl Scout good deed of the day. "Hi!" She said.

I gave her a forced half smile. "Hey." I said plainly.

"Look, Troy told me about your brother and mom. And I just wanted you to know that I and the whole school are here for you. And we all totally support your decision to stay alcohol free! I mean, who would do that?" I let that one slide, she was just trying to be nice anyways. "So I got together with the whole school and in just one day we got all of this stuff!" She said, she pulled out a trash bag of things, there was some canned food, shampoo, soap, deodorant… and some other junk. "It has some stuff that you might need while your mom and brother are in the hospital."

I shook my head. I couldn't let that one go. "So that's what you think I am? Some kind of charity case? I don't want your pity gifts, I'm fine!" I said.

Gabriella looked at me as if I was in denial. "It's okay to admit you need some help… Oh my gosh! I just had the best idea! We could have a fund raiser! My uncle can get food from his restaurant! We could have clowns! And carnival games! And Troy and I could sing!" This went on for like, five minutes. I couldn't take it. I silently slammed my locker and turned around, without forgetting to kick that stupid charity bag of hers over, scrambling the junk inside all over the school hallway. I left and Gabriella was just in shock, as if someone had just burst her little bubble of humanity. Wow.

I wanted her to just get off my case. I didn't need any help… well not the kind that she had to offer. I just wanted someone who I could talk to about both my life and other junk. The only people like that are the ones that you've known since the fifth grade… and in the fifth grade I was the same outsider I am now, only I've been in a few plays since then.

I went home and practiced my monolog for the winter musical. I loved acting, because I knew that after I started acting, I stopped being me, and I didn't have to deal with my life… instead I could deal with my character's issues, all of which were conveniently written in my script. Acting was so natural to me, it was not the type of thing people expected me to be good at, but I was. Gabriella beat me for the lead of one school play, to tell you the truth, I couldn't care less. Though I must say, though she has a good voice, Gabriella is a horrible actress. She would look like she was lying to the audience, like she was scared and would break into tears at any moment. It was pretty bad, but her novice acting skills weren't what bothered me. It was her total outlook, she never said anything against anything. Also she just didn't get the fact that I just liked things the way they were. I respected Gabriella for starting the revolution of mixing cliques, but I just wanted to be left alone.

Now wasn't the time for another revolution. She just didn't get that I didn't want –nor did I need- to be saved. I just wanted to be left alone… for just like, two seconds! I couldn't help but be mad at Troy also. I mean, did he honestly think that if I were there that I would want him to tell Gabriella? If so then I don't think he knew me that well to begin with. I walked to the hospital, only because I didn't want to be anywhere near Troy at that moment. I was having such a bad day I almost forgot about the kiss… the kiss. It was a good kiss, but it was too short. I didn't know how I could have felt that way at that moment, I was really mad at him, but something in me still wanted to talk to him, to make him laugh, I couldn't even stop myself from wanting to kiss him again. I was so torn, my stomach twisted just thinking about it.

I wished I could un-kiss him… Troy I mean, it was weird, like I wanted to hate him, I knew I should hate him, but I couldn't. It was stupid. Anyways, I got to the hospital and went to the front desk. "I'm here for Ryan Evans." I said to the lady at the reception desk.

She typed some junk into her computer and turned back to me. "He and Tina Evans are no longer staying at this hospital, they checked out a few hours ago." she leaned in. "They left with police officers, they said something about something about community service." She said.

I huffed. "Thanks." I said. I didn't mean to sound rude, but seriously. I decided to give up on the whole search for mom and Ryan, they were probably expecting me to show up all teary eyed and wishing them the best of luck… they probably even expected me to offer to do all the community service with them, Ryan was a minor so they probably let him off with a warning. But mom? She probably gave them some sob story about how her life was falling apart and she only drank to ease the pain. Sure, it was true enough, but she not only did that to herself, she did it to Ryan too.

My entire life, Ryan was like my guardian angel, but at the same time I had to look out for him. He was my rock, up until a year ago when Ryan went to Chad's post-prom after party. The quarterback brought the 'mystery liquid' but everyone took a sip or two. Even me, it was one sip and it tasted like fire. I spat it out and threw the cup away. Ryan on the other hand couldn't get enough of it. I remember his exact words. Lighten up Shar, it's just one night. Those were the words that I said every night to myself, after Ryan went back to dad's house. It was just one more night. And then it might change.

You get the point, right? Because now I sound really pathetic. I got home and went straight to my room. I know the officer's told me that the foundation may be partially melted too, and it may not be too safe up there. But after the gave me the whole 'it's pretty safe, but we may be wrong' speech, I figured it was just probably code for 'we don't want to get sued' so I went up there anyways.

Once I got to my room, guess who was waiting for me there? Not Troy this time. Gabriella. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked bitterly. Okay, I said it. All of this was making me bitter, but who wouldn't be in this situation?

"I just thought I'd stop by and see what's up." She said. "You really shouldn't leave the back door opened."

Gee Gabriella, you're right. My mom and brother are alcoholics and there's a psycho standing in the middle of my room, that's exactly what I should be thinking about. "Thanks for the warning." I said sarcastically.

"You're welcome." She said. Wow. That's all I can say. "So listen… Troy was really upset today that you were mad at him. I think it might have been because of me."

Thank you for pointing that one out! I never would have guessed! "It's not that… it's just that he had no right to tell people about it." I said, trying to sugar coat it just a little.

Gabriella smiled her 'everything is going to be alright' smile. "I know… but we're all just trying to help. If there is anything that we can do, just call me or Troy or really any-"

"We kissed." I blurted out. And I didn't have to explain… she knew exactly what I meant.

A/N: Cool… I made a cliff hanger… I didn't know I could pull one of those off. So now basically everything is out in the open. What will happen? I'll try and update soon. This chapter was mostly Sharpay's thoughts. So I'll try to get more action into the next one. Tell me what ya think.