I left the room as soon as Gabriella pulled the love card, this was out of my element. I stood in the kitchen, a safe distance. I'm surprised that Troy's parents hadn't gotten back yet, they were at a PTA meeting and stayed late to discuss the home coming dance. I knew if they came home at this moment, they would find a way to reconcile Troy and Gabriella. They didn't like her by any means though, they thought she was too sugar coated. I knew because they would always talk about her when they invited me over for dinner 'for old time's sake', they always used to do that, maybe because they missed me, maybe because Troy missed me, I guess I'll never know. Anyways, I know I shouldn't have, but I had to listen to what was going on outside of the kitchen

"Gabriella, wait!" Troy grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the door.

"You want me to wait? Well then look me in the eyes and tell me that you love me." She screamed.

Troy looked at her, intensely. "I-I can't." He said.

"Well then this is just a huge waste of time." She ran outside, with tears in her eyes. "I thought I loved you Troy." She said, finally calming down a bit. "All I need to know is one thing. Do you love her?"

I pressed my back against the door harder, as if some how it would help me hear. "Who? Gabriella I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do, Troy. You may not love me but I know you." She said, and with those three words, she actually sounded human.

Troy paused… it was a long, excruciating pause. "She doesn't love me." He spoke in a low voice. "So I can't love her.

"But do you?" Gabriella asked. "Do I really need to ask?"

Troy cleared his throat. "It'll never happen."

I could practically see Gabriella shaking her head. "I should have known." She barely whispered, but I could hear. "Good bye Troy. Maybe someday we'll…" She trailed off. "Goodbye." She said.

I quickly headed up the stairs and locked myself in the guest room. Did that seriously just happen? Did I just watch the end of Troyella? No, it definitely wasn't over, not until Taylor said it was. I changed into a black cropped tank top and a pair of short shorts. The heat was exceptionally dry and horrible so it was somewhat acceptable. I crawled into bed and hid under the covers, even when someone knocked on the door. I was willing to take the chance that is was Mrs. or Mr. Bolton and pretended to be asleep.

I tried to get my mind of all this stuff, I went through my iPod for audition song ideas, I tried writing, but there were too many thoughts to try to focus them onto paper, I tries guessing which play would be our musical this year, I even counted the number of little skulls on my note book cover (somewhere between fifty six and ninety two). It didn't work, finally I somehow fell asleep. It wasn't a long night, in fact I wished I could stay in bead for longer, but then there was school… I know, won't that be fun?

Especially since I still have the word SLUT tattooed onto the front of my locker. At least I didn't get in trouble for vandalism, but I'm pretty sure they ruled me out because they pretty much knew that I wouldn't call myself a slut for attention. Everyone knew Taylor was the one that wrote that on my locker but honestly, no one had the guts to tell a teacher, they were all afraid that Taylor would turn on them next. Yup, typical high school. It's true that Taylor and I never really saw eye to eye, she never thought I deserved all the luxuries that I got, backyard pool and cabana, connections to any career I could ever want to pursue acting, performing, modeling ect.), weekend getaways to Paris. She thought I was spoiled, but she didn't know anything about my life, or more likely she just didn't bother to look.

I got ready for school, I dressed a little more 'up' today, since I was going to need all the optimism I could get. I decided on I white key hole halter top and a jean skirt, I fixed my hair into a side pony tail that rested on my left shoulder, I added a white headband and make up, and was off.

I didn't think the news that Troy and Gabriella weren't together anymore would spread that fast. But apparently I underestimated the power of teenage girls and text messaging. The looks I got from everyone were more harsh and obvious than the ones I got when I showed up for school two hours late after my house almost burned down and both my mother and brother were pronounced alcoholics. It was more important to them, I had taken away their one constant: Troyella, the couple everyone was cheering for. It was over and there was no way that they would accept that. They already had the image of the two together, happy and in love imprinted in their head, and there was no way that they were going to give that up now. Which pretty much sucks for me since after I over heard Troy and Gabriella talking he may be in love with someone. But all Gabriella said 'her' so she could be talking about her mom for all I know.

Everywhere I went people were staring, there were even people waiting by my locker incase of another show down. Thank god some janitor managed to get the word SLUT off my locker, so now it was just implied by the whole school instead of written on my locker. "Sharpay!" Someone yelled. Taylor and the mathletes approached me. And surprisingly, Gabriella wasn't with them.

"Hi Taylor, let me guess, you left your permanent marker by my locker." I said sarcastically, screw optimism. I knew she was here for a fight.

"First you find a way to break Troy and Gabriella up then you even have the guts to talk to me like that?" She asked defensively.

"It's not my fault that Troy doesn't love Gabriella, what makes you think that it is?" I asked.

"You don't know anything about Gabriella! She's going through a lot of trouble! Her mom is alone and she's thinking of sending Gabriella to live with her aunt while she gets everything under control! Not that you would know anything about that because you're to busy sipping cocktails and tanning by the pool!" Taylor said loudly.

That was it. I couldn't take it. "You think you guys have it so much worse than me! Have your parents ever split up and gotten back together three times in a year? Have you ever been separated from your brother because your parents are in some stupid fight? Have you ever felt like some kind of mistake because you know your parents don't love each other? Have you ever had to pick one of your parents over the other to defend in court over custody? Have you ever been told that both your mother and brother are alcoholics and you had to find out from a cop that they're doing community service? And how come everyone thinks my life is perfect just because I live in a big house?" I screamed. I was crying… again. At that moment I didn't care if I looked like a psycho, I just wanted Taylor to get the fact into her head that she and Gabriella weren't the most unfortunate beings on the planet.

"Sharpay… I didn't know." She said, as if that was an excuse.

"Really? Because you're best friend was telling the entire school about it just two days ago." I said coldly.

"I'm sorry, I just thought that…" She started, she knew that whatever she said would just make it worse, thank god she had that bit of sense in her.

I shook my head at her and walked into the girls bathroom to clean myself up. My Dolce and Gabbana purse may have been partially the reason why Taylor thought my life was perfect, but really, all my designer junk was gifts. I washed off my face and reapplied blush, mascara, eye shadow, eye liner, lip gloss, and finally lip liner (Thank god we have ten minutes before we have to get to home room. "I am so pathetic." I said to myself in the mirror.

"You think you're pathetic? Try boyfriend dumping you after you told him you love him." Said someone from a stall.

"Gabriella?" I asked.

The stall door opened to reveal none other than a very depressed Gabriella. "Sharpay? I didn't know it was you." She said sadly.

A part of me went out to her, you know? I knew rejection well and it wasn't a good feeling, especially when it came to someone you loved. "I'm sorry… for what happened with Troy." I said.

"Me too. I really thought I was in love, it was the closest thing I've ever felt to it." She said. "I can't believe I was being so stupid!" She said.

"It wasn't stupid to think someone loved you." I said patting her shoulder sympathetically.

"I know, but I just thought, my dad doesn't love my mom… he was seeing someone else for the past year, and she doesn't love him either, I thought if I fell in love then they would see that they can work it out." She said.

I looked at her. Honestly I never thought that behind all that sugar-coated happiness was an actual human being with something in common with me. "I'm sorry, I know how it feels, I probably hurt myself more than they hurt me after my parents divorced." I said.

"Yeah…" Gabriella said. "I'm sorry about blowing up on you like that yesterday, the divorce papers just came in and I thought that the same thing that happened to my mom was going to happen to me." She looked down sadly. "I guess it did, but it wasn't your fault." She said. "So does this mean that we're still enemies?" She asked.

"No… I think finally understand you." I said. We gave each other a short hug and left the bathroom laughing together at our own pathetic lives. We walked to Ms. Darbus' home room and all eyes were on us. The schools total enemies were acting more buddy-buddy than ever.

When we got to home room everyone was still staring at us. It was so funny. But we acted like everything was normal, I was going to sit down in my usual seat when I saw the least likely person ever already sitting there. "Ryan?" I asked.

He turned his head and smiled. "Oh, Hey Shar."

Okay… so that's chapter eight, it came to me pretty quickly and I hope you guys like it. I felt like I had to justify Gabriella somehow because it's unnatural to be that insane. So I'm sorry I keep putting off auditions, but I think I'm going to add those in soon. I'm finishing up the song choices for the first open auditions, but I still need to pick songs. And if you remember, last chapter I mentioned something about a homecoming dance. Keep an eye out on more of that. I'll try to update soon.

P.S. IF YOU HAVE ADVICE ON ANY ASPECT OF THE STORY OR THE PLOT PLEASE TELL ME!!! 3 THANX