This is the last chapter! I know you guys probably were expecting it to be longer, but I seriously ran out of ideas. And I think this was a semi-decent ending. Maybe I'll do a sequel later on (very later on). I kind of got off subject in this story and I couldn't find my way back to it, so I hope the ending does its justice.

Sharpay sat on the couch, leaning over and resting her head on Peyton's shoulder. It was only noon and she was already exhausted. She wanted it to be bedtime so she could just fall asleep for a good eight hours. She looked to the middle of the floor, where the twins were laying on a play pad, and Zander was sitting with them, gently rubbing their tummies like Sharpay taught him to do. She smiled, watching them for a few seconds before she looked at Peyton. "Can you believe they're already four months?" she asked.

Peyton shook his head. "Seems like just yesterday they were being wrapped up and handed to us for the first time," he said.

"They're getting so big… And Zander. He's gonna be two next weekend. I can't believe he's already gonna be two. It doesn't seem like he's been with us that long."

"Because he hasn't. He's only been here the last eight months."

Sharpay's smile faded. She forgot that Zander's not her biological son. That put a damper on her mood. Peyton must have noticed it, because he ran his hand through her hair and kissed her head. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I forgot…" she said softly.

"Forgot what?"

"That he's not ours."

"He is ours, Sharpay…"

Sharpay looked at Peyton for a few seconds.

He nodded. "We've raised him since he was fifteen months old. You, for the most part. He calls us Mommy and Daddy. He knows we love him unconditionally. We do everything we possibly can for him. He's ours. I don't care about genes. He doesn't have any of ours, but that doesn't mean anything to me. He's our son, no one else's."

Sharpay smiled a little. "Yeah…"

"Mommy," Zander said.

"What, Baby?" she asked, looking over to him.

"Sisser eat hands."

"Here," Sharpay said, leaning forward and picking up a bottle from the coffee table. "Give this to her. Wait until she starts holding it before you let it go, okay?"

"Otay," he said, getting up and toddling over to the bottle.

"He's a good big brother," Peyton said.

"Yeah," Sharpay nodded. "He loves them to death. Especially Mikayla. I think she's gonna have problems getting a boyfriend when she's older."

"She won't be getting a boyfriend until she's married, so that will never happen."

Sharpay laughed a little and she laid her head back down on Peyton's shoulder. "You're not going to smother my baby. If Mikayla can't have boyfriends, Tyler can have girlfriends and be the little player you and Chad are hoping for."

"I want him to be a player, Chad wants him to be a pimp."

"My son will not be pimping out girls. That's disgusting and disrespectful."

"Are you really one to talk? I heard stories about you in high school."

Sharpay stayed quiet for a few seconds. She already felt the anger building up. She lifted her head and looked at Peyton for a few seconds. "What are you insinuating, Peyton?"

"Nothing. I just know how you were back in the day."

"No, you don't," she said, shaking her head. "You know nothing about me 'back in the day'."

"Come on, why would Chad lie about something like that? It was even confirmed by Gabriella."

"First of all, Chad doesn't lie. Whatever he told you was probably the truth, but why would you go to Gabriella to find out if it really was true? She didn't know me back then."

"You went to school together and tried to steal her boyfriend."

"That doesn't mean she knew me. She knew of me, she knew about me, and she had classes with me, but she did not know me. She still doesn't. And I didn't try to steal her boyfriend. I was trying to stay close to my best friend. She gave him an ultimatum. She told him that he could be her boyfriend or my friend, but they couldn't be both. He made the mistake in choosing her."

"Why are you badmouthing her? I thought you two were on good terms."

"We are. About Zander. We aren't friends, Peyton. We get along and we're nice to each other, but we are not friends. I'll never consider her a friend. I get along with her and tolerate her because of Zander."

"You sure act like friends."

"We have nothing to fight about. What did Chad tell you about me, 'back in the day'?"

"That you slept around."

"And why was that so believable?"

"Isn't it true?"

"Does it matter? Why did you believe it?"

"Because you're that type of girl."

Sharpay stared at Peyton for a few seconds and she got up from the couch, walking out of the living room. She walked out of the house and slammed the door behind her, before taking her phone out of her pocket and sitting on the first step of the porch. Sharpay dialed Ryan's number and she held the pink phone to her ear, waiting to someone to answer.

"Hello?"

"Ryan…"

"Hey, Shar," Ryan said with a cheerful voice. "How's my beautiful sister?"

"Shitty."

"What happened?"

"Peyton. Peyton happened."

"Why?"

Sharpay's eyes filled with tears and she stayed quiet for a few seconds, to figure out what she was going to say. "We were perfectly fine, we were talking about the kids and how fast they were growing up and we were joking about Tyler being a pimp and I said he's not going to pimp out girls because it's gross and he goes 'well, you're not one to talk, you were like that in high school'," she said in a deeper, mocking voice, "and I asked him how he knew that, and he said 'cause Chad told him and Gabriella said it was true–she's gonna die, by the way, I'm gonna kill her if she called me a slut–and he believes them, and I mean I know I got around, but it just seems like they made it sound like I was the biggest whore in school and I know I wasn't, 'cause I was only the second biggest whore in school, and I don't want to be viewed as a whore for the rest of my life, especially when I have babies that have to go to that school and hear the rumors about their mom, who was the second biggest whore in school, and if you really, really think about that, that's still really, really bad 'cause I mean, who the hell wants to be in any place of the biggest whore in school?" she said quickly.

Ryan was quiet for a few seconds. "…I don't know what to say to that."

"Don't say anything about it."

Sharpay listened for a few seconds, and she scoffed when he stayed silent. "Well, say something!"

"You just told me not to!"

"About me being a whore, but not just be quiet!"

"Okay, fine, I'm sorry! Jeez… Calm down."

Sharpay sniffled and she stared at her pink painted toenails for a few seconds. "…Ryan?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you come home?" she whispered.

Ryan stayed quiet. "…What do you mean?"

"Back to Albuquerque… Please? I miss you… Sometimes I just sit around and cry for no reason and knowing that you're not here to cheer me up just makes me cry even more…"

"Shar… I am home…"

Her voice cracked. "But…"

"Sharpay, I have a wife and a baby… And a job. Shar, I can't just leave all of that."

"I didn't say you had to! Bring them with you! Just please come home… I need you, Ry…"

"You've done great all this time without me. Why is right now so different?"

"You're my big brother. You're supposed to be here so I can cry on your shoulder."

"And you can do that."

"No I can't, you aren't here."

"But, I'm only a phone call away, Shar. I'll always be here for you. I promise."

"It's not the same if you aren't here!" she snapped.

Ryan sighed. "I don't know what else to tell you, Sharpay…"

"Don't say anything. I never wanna hear from you again if you're going to be a dick."

"I'm not, Sharpay. You're overreacting. You're asking me to move my family away from the only place they've ever known, and to leave my job."

"You and Kelsi are from Albuquerque! Sharla's a damn baby, she's not going to know the difference, and you can get a new fucking job out here!"

"I'm sorry, Sharpay. I can't do that."

"Fuck you!" Sharpay snapped before closing her phone and letting it drop to the porch.

"Whoa. Who pissed you off?" Gabriella asked, walking up the sidewalk.

"Everyone. Peyton. Ryan. Chad. You."

Gabriella raised an eyebrow. "Me? What did I do? If this is over letting Zander hold the snake at the zoo, I told you a million times that I'm sorry," she said, sitting next to Sharpay.

"No. That's not what it's about. Peyton told me that Chad told him that I slept around in high school, and you told him the same thing. Why would you do that?"

Gabriella shook her head quickly. "No, no, no. I said what I heard in high school what that you slept around, but that I didn't know if that was the truth or not, so I wasn't going to say that's what you were really all about. I told Peyton that I didn't know you well enough in high school to judge you, so I didn't say anything more about it. If anything, I defended you."

"Some defense."

"I did the best I could. Chad's the one that told him to begin with. Take that up with him. I don't know why he'd lie about something like that about his best friend, though."

"He didn't lie about it, but that doesn't mean I want everyone to know that I was a whore."

"Some people think you still are."

"Why would they think that?"

"Because they think you're incapable of changing. They still think of you as the pink obsessed, pushy, obnoxious, arrogant, annoying, bitchy–"

"You can stop at any time."

"…Drama queen. I'm done."

"Was your point to insult me?"

"No. It's just that when people see you, they automatically think those things of you, because that's what you portrayed in high school. I don't think you were a slut. But, you sure as hell acted and seemed like one. Making out with random guys in the hallway. Getting caught having sex in the gym, the supply closet, the bathroom, homeroom, the science room, the auditorium, the roof."

"They were all the same guy!" Sharpay snapped. "It wasn't just different guys when I was having sex, it was the same guy! That's what people don't see! They think that because it happened in different places, that it was different guys!"

"I know it was all the same guy."

"How did you know?"

"Because I knew from the start that it was Troy you were sleeping with."

Sharpay stayed quiet for a few seconds and she looked at Gabriella. "…I didn't do anything to convince him. I didn't play any tricks. He did it all on his own."

Gabriella nodded. "I know. It's fine. I'm over it. I have been. I knew he loved you. You were best friends. You had all of your firsts together, and even though that bothered me, I didn't let it get to me. I know what it's like to have a best friend. I understood."

"Really? You weren't mad?"

"I was beyond mad. I was pissed off. But, only because he didn't have the decency to tell me. He was cheating on me. But I admired the love you shared. I was kind of jealous, to be honest."

Sharpay raised an eyebrow. "Jealous? Of me? Why?"

"You had the dream guy. I thought he was in love with me, but when I found out you were sleeping together, I realized that he only loved me. He was in love with you."

"But, you had Zander together. You got married. You're still married."

"Only because we can't get divorced. I'm widowed, it's hard to get divorced when he can't sign the papers."

"But, still. You did get married and you had a baby together. How can he not have been in love with you?"

"I kind of forced him into having Zander. He didn't want kids. Not at that point. I told him that if we couldn't have a baby, then I was going to tell his parents that he was dropping out of school."

"He was dropping out? Why?"

"He wasn't happy. I think most of it was because of me. I was pretty controlling. We weren't as happy as you think we were."

"But, you guys were so happy when you came over that first day…"

Gabriella shook her head. "It was an act. We were in a really bad fight when we pulled up."

"I thought I was a good actress…"

"You're an amazing actress. I know you fake it."

Sharpay crinkled her brow.

"You get overwhelmed with the kids but you don't let it show," Gabriella explained. "You always have a smile on your face. And I know Zander's a little heathen most of the time."

"He doesn't get too bad."

"You were crying last week because he wouldn't take a nap."

"Because I needed a nap. I was exhausted. Tyler was sick."

"You could have made Peyton take care of him."

"I had to nurse him most of the time."

Gabriella raised an eyebrow. "…You had to nurse Peyton?"

Sharpay stared at Gabriella for a few seconds. "Tyler. I had to nurse Tyler most of the time."

"Ah, gotcha…"

"Are you okay?"

Gabriella nodded. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"It just seems like something's bothering you."

"There's a lot bothering me."

"Anything I can help with?"

"Probably not."

"Hit me."

"…What?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "What's wrong? What's going on, what problems are you having?"

"Oh… It's nothing really, just… I'm tired of my mom. She's controlling. It's like I'm a little kid again."

"Oh. Well, tell her you're an adult and you need to be treated like one."

"I've tried that."

"You didn't do it right, then. I now how you are, Gabriella. You don't use enough force."

"If I use too much force, I get my ass kicked out and I have no where to go."

Sharpay nodded. "There's something else bothering you. What's going on, Montez?"

"Montez? You haven't called me that since high school."

"Pretend we're back in high school, then. Spill it. You did something."

Gabriella stayed quiet for a few seconds, looking at her lap. "…I had a one night stand."

Sharpay laughed. "That's it? That's what'd got you acting so weird? Come on, Gabriella, that's nothing."

"It is when that one night stand gets you pregnant…"

Sharpay's laughing ceased and she looked at Gabriella for a few seconds. "…Gabriella, you gave up your own son because you felt you weren't doing your job as a mother, and you get yourself pregnant a second time, just to go through the same thing over again?"

"I didn't plan on getting pregnant, Sharpay."

"Maybe you should have use a little magic penis glove called a condom."

"Like you're one to talk."

"I've used a condom every time I have sex, except when I got pregnant with the twins… Or if we're in the shower."

"Okay, you don't have to give me secretive details about your sex life."

Sharpay sighed lightly. "What are you gonna do with this baby? If you even think about pulling the dumb ass stunt you and Troy tried, I'll kill you myself. That baby deserves a mother than loves it. You need to step up and be that mother. You already messed that up with Zander. Don't do it to this one. It'll need you just as much as you'll need it. This is your chance to start all over again. Don't fuck it up."

"How do I do it without messing up? I'm terrified that I'm going to end up doing it again, no matter how many times I tell myself I won't."

Sharpay stayed silent, before looking at Gabriella with a small smile. "Baby steps, Montez. Baby steps."