Two weeks later, Sharpay was back at school and Peyton was back in New York. She didn't like that she was in her house alone again, but she was dealing with it. She'd gotten word that Troy and Gabriella were in town for a visit during their break, and she was nervous about running into them. She hadn't really spoken to either of them since they'd left for college, and even though she and Troy had known each other for the twenty years they've been alive, she was still nervous about running into him for some reason. Right now, she was on her front porch, playing with Boi and enjoying the nice weather. It was rare that Albuquerque had perfect weather like this.
As Sharpay kissed Boi's head, she saw a car pull up by her lawn, but she didn't pay attention to it. The neighbors always had friends parking in front of her house. She'd complained before, and even went as far as asking the police to do something about it, but since it wasn't against the law, there was nothing they could do. In just three months, however, she would own her house and they'd have no choice but to move their grimy, ugly cars from in front of her house because technically, it would have been her property.
"Hey, stranger."
Sharpay looked up, hearing a familiar voice and she saw Troy starting up the lawn. Boi jumped from her arms and ran to him, and she watched at Troy picked him up, ruffling his fur. "Hey, Boi, how ya been? Your momma still dressing you in drag, huh?"
"It's not drag, it's just pink," Sharpay said.
"Hey, any boy that wears pink is obviously whipped by a woman."
"Any guy that's involved with a brainiac that can talk him into anything is pussy whipped."
Troy pursed his lips and nodded, sitting next to Sharpay on the porch. "Good one."
Sharpay looked over to Troy's car, and she saw Gabriella getting something in the backseat. She was surprised to see that when Gabriella retracted from the backseat, a baby was on her hip. "Holy crap, who's the kid?"
"His name's Zander."
"Are you babysitting?"
"No, I'm parenting."
Sharpay looked at Troy, then to Gabriella, who was making her way up the lawn, then the baby, then back to Troy. "You two had a baby? And I wasn't told? How rude."
"I was told that you'd been called and told personally, but I guess I know now to do it myself," Gabriella said, standing the baby up on the ground.
"He's cute. How old is he?"
"Thirteen months," Troy said.
"Fifteen months," Gabriella corrected.
Sharpay looked at Troy for a few seconds. "Okay, that's sad, Bolton," she said, standing up from the porch.
"Hey, I have had many sleepless nights," Troy said, following her inside the house.
"Not as many as Gabriella."
"How would you know that?"
"Troy, everyone knows that unless you're a single father, or the mother's a shitty person, the mother always ends up staying up with the baby for hours past the time you should be asleep for school or work."
"That's true, I do stay up with him more than you do," Gabriella said, walking into the house with Zander holding onto her finger.
"Hey, it's not my fault that he prefers you over me," Troy said, sitting on the couch as they walked into the living room.
"Oh, that is the lamest excuse in the book," Sharpay said, sitting next to Troy and hugging him. "I missed you, Sport."
"I missed you, too."
"Dada," Zander said, toddling over to Troy.
"You can talk?" Sharpay said, looking at Zander. "You're two feet tall, you shouldn't be able to talk or walk yet."
"Mine," he said, pointing to Troy.
"He was mine first," she said, tickling Zander's belly, making him laugh.
Troy laughed a little and he picked Zander up. "Zander, this is Sharpay. Can you say hi?"
"No. Mine," Zander said, pushing Sharpay off of Troy.
Sharpay looked at Zander for a few seconds. "You know, we're not gonna get along very well if you start pushing me around, kid."
"Dada mine."
"Okay, Mister Bolton. You're in my house. My house, my rules."
"No, mine."
Sharpay sighed. "You take after your mother," she muttered.
"I heard that, and he is nothing like me. If anything, he's like you. Troy keeps showing him your baby movies," Gabriella said.
"I wasn't greedy."
"You took every toy Troy picked up."
"Because they were mine to begin with. That's not greedy, it's possessive."
"I did my fair share of stealing toys from her," Troy said.
"Yeah, he stole my favorite microphone from me in the tenth grade and never gave it back."
"It's in California."
"And you couldn't think to bring it back?"
"I didn't think about it."
"Obviously," she said, lightly punching Troy's arm.
"No hit!" Zander said, smacking Sharpay.
"Hey! Listen, kid. You are in my house and you will not hit. It's not nice, and I'll give you a fair warning that I smack back, so if you don't want your butt busted, then I suggest you keep your little hands to yourself. Is that understood?"
Zander and Sharpay stared at each other for a few seconds, and Troy and Gabriella exchanged glances, before Zander started crying and wriggling out of Troy's lap. He walked over to Gabriella and let out a rack of sobs, holding his arms up.
Gabriella shook her head. "Nuh uh. You're not hurt, you're not bleeding and you're not dying. You know better than to hit. You hurt Aunt Sharpay."
"Mama!" Zander said.
"No, you're fine. She didn't touch you, so you shouldn't be crying."
"I hurt!"
"You're not hurt. Aunt Sharpay didn't spank you. She told you not to hit, and you shouldn't hit. You know better than that. Go apologize."
"No, up!"
"No. You go tell Aunt Sharpay you're sorry. Now," she said, turning Zander around to face Sharpay, giving him a small nudge.
Zander looked at Sharpay for a few seconds and he sobbed again, looking down as his bottom lip pouted out.
Sharpay sighed and held her arms out. "Come here, Zander."
"No!" Zander said.
"Come on."
"No!"
"Now."
"No!"
"I don't think you should argue with me, I know a lot more words than you. Come here."
Zander sobbed again and walked to Sharpay, laying his head on her shoulder as she picked him up.
"All I did was tell you not to hit me. I didn't yell. I wasn't even mean about it. You hurt me, you shouldn't hit."
"No hurt," Zander said, rubbing his face against her shirt.
Sharpay scrunched her nose up a little. "Okay, you just wiped snot all over my shirt. That's nasty."
Zander laughed and shook his head. "No no no."
"Yeah, you did."
"No."
"Yeah. Didn't we just go over this?"
"No."
"Yeah, we did."
Zander looked at Sharpay for a few seconds and he put his finger on her nose. "No no no."
"I think he knows it's fake," Troy said.
"Troy," Gabriella said.
"Hey, my nose is not fake. It's upgraded," Sharpay said.
"Who came up with that lie?" Troy asked.
"I did."
"You were pretty before you had it done. You didn't need it."
"Pwetty," Zander said.
"Aww," Sharpay said. "You're pretty, too."
"Yeah."
"You're also conceited. That's such a nice trait for a baby to have. You really do take after me."
"I don't care how close she is to you, she's not going to lay a hand on my son," Gabriella snapped from the living room.
Sharpay sighed, and rolled her eyes, sitting on the hammock in the backyard. Troy and Gabriella started getting into it, so she decided to take Zander outside so he wouldn't have to witness it. It didn't help any since they could still hear them. It was times like this that Sharpay was glad she had a sandbox and a toddler jungle gym put in her backyard. Shortly after Taylor had left for Stanford, she found out that she was pregnant, and Sharpay knew she'd be baby sitting for them, so she had the sandbox and jungle gym in the backyard specifically for that. After Taylor lost the baby, she just never bothered to take them out. It would for sure come in handy for Ryan and Kelsi's baby when they visited, and it would keep her baby entertained, and it was currently occupying Zander, which she was grateful for.
"Gabriella, if he's hitting her, there's no reason why she can't give him a smack on the hand for it!" Troy said.
"She can abuse her own kid! She's not going to do it to mine!"
"She's not abusive! She would never in a million years become abusive! She knows what it's like, and she would never put any child through that!"
"Bullshit! She threatened a baby that she's bust his ass!"
"You do it all the time!"
"He's my kid! If she's going to be a bitch to my son, then I don't want her around him!"
"Well, that's tough shit because she's his godmother, and I'm not taking that away from her!"
"Troy, she didn't even know about him until today! What makes you think she'll want to be his godmother!"
Sharpay looked over to Zander for a few seconds. She watched him bury his hands into the sand repeatedly and she chuckled lightly when he shook his hands like a maniac. She wouldn't mind being his godmother. She had to admit, he was pretty cute. He looked just like Troy when he was a baby. If she had to, she could handle him. It wouldn't be too big of a deal. She didn't see that ever happening, but she knew she could do it.
Sharpay's thoughts were interrupted when she heard Zander start crying, and she looked over to him. "What's wrong, Zander? Come here," she said, holding her arms out to him.
Zander ran over to Sharpay, sobbing, and when she picked him up, she saw an ant on his hand, obviously biting him. Sharpay squished the ant and she kissed his hand where he'd been bitten. "Is that better?"
Zander sobbed again and he laid his head on her shoulder, putting his thumb in his mouth. Sharpay smiled a little and ran her hand through his hair, gently swinging the hammock back and forth. She couldn't wait to do this with her own baby. She felt special right now. Like she was needed by Zander.
Inside, Gabriella's eyes widened, hearing Zander, and she made a beeline for the back door, but froze in her place when she saw Zander cuddling up to Sharpay. She stood there, staring at them, and she felt Troy's arms wrap around her from behind.
"See?" Troy said, kissing her head. "It'll be fine. He'll be fine with her. I promise."
"She doesn't even like kids," Gabriella said.
"You're telling me that she doesn't like kids, when she's holding our son like he's her own?"
"Well, she never showed any interest in kids before…"
"She's never been a fan of them, but she'd never hurt one. She's a fair person, Gabi… She'd never cause harm to any child, no matter how cross she might seem."
"He better be in good hands, Troy…"
"He will be. I promise. She'll be so good to him, he won't even remember us."
"You better be right…"
Sharpay sighed in annoyance, and she looked up at the clock. It was almost ten at night, and Troy and Gabriella still weren't back. They'd asked her to babysit Zander so they could clear some things up, but they didn't elaborate. She didn't care, to be honest. She just hoped that they'd show up soon. She didn't mind babysitting, but Zander wasn't her responsibility. Well, he was while she was babysitting, but he definitely wasn't her kid. She'd been trying to get him to sleep for the last hour and a half, but he was just fussy and wouldn't calm down, so she called Chad to come over and help her. She wasn't surprised to learn that Chad hadn't known about Zander.
"Come on, Zander… Please go to sleep," Sharpay said, trying to keep her hold on him as he tried wiggling out of her arms.
"Mama!" Zander yelled.
"Honey, she'll be back in a little bit. I don't even know where she is."
"Mama!"
Sharpay let out a sharp breath. "Chad! Is his bottle done yet!"
"Yep, fresh out of the fridge," Chad said, handing the bottle to her as he walked into the living room.
Sharpay handed the bottle to Zander and let out a relieved sigh when he stopped crying and closed his eyes. "Finally…"
"You're gonna be a great mom, Shar."
"You think so?"
"I know so. Look at him. He was screaming five seconds ago."
"He's only calm because he has a bottle."
"Hey, it counts," Chad said as the doorbell rang. "Want me to get that?"
"Yeah."
Sharpay looked at Zander as Chad left the room and she smiled a little, running her hand through his hair lightly. "…You're not so bad, kid. Maybe I will be pretty okay at the whole mom thing. You know, I'm having a baby. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm thinking Tyler for a boy and Mikayla for a girl. Well, that's if Peyton likes the names… I think he will, though."
"Sharpay, come here. Now," Chad said.
She sighed and stood up from the couch, carefully readjusting Zander and she walked to the door. "What, Rudy McRude."
"Are you Sharpay Rockelle Evans?"
Sharpay rolled her eyes and pulled the door open, so she could see who was there, and froze when she saw an officer in uniform. "…Yes… Why?"
"Miss Evans, do you know Troy and Gabriella Bolton?"
Sharpay and Chad exchanged glances, before looking at the policeman again. "I know Troy Bolton, but Gabriella's last name is Montez…"
"Not according to her driver's license. Can I come in? I have to tell you something."
"Sure… Are they alright?"
"I'm afraid not, Miss Evans," the police officer said, walking into the house."
"Well, what happened? Where are they?"
"They're dead."