Chapter 2

Half an hour later, when Sharpay pulled up to her house, all but one of the police cars had left and Ryan was standing outside talking to him. She walked up to them and Ryan immediately grabbed her in a full on bear hug. Once he had set her down, he said: "Oh my god, Shar, you gave me a heart attack! I thought something serious had happened to you!"

"Not me, Ryan, Troy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, someone was trying to break into our house and then I guess Troy heard me screaming, and came over. He knocked out the guy and then came up to my room, but it was dark so I couldn't see his face. Without thinking I shot and luckily I just hit him in the arm, but now he's on the hospital and his parents are up there." By now, she had tears running down her face and Ryan tried to comfort her.

"Shar, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you; I was just freaking out because I didn't know if you were okay."

"It's fine, Ryan. But if you don't mind, I'm going to go up and get my iPod and some magazines to take up to the hospital with me. I'm going to stay up there with Troy today." Ryan smiled to himself when he saw his sister blush lightly while she was speaking.

"You really like him don't you?"

"Yeah, I do, Ry. Troy's different from all of the other guys. They all just wanted to get me into the nearest bed."

"I know he's different, Shar." He hugged her and then looked her in the eyes. "Just tell him that if he ever hurts you, I'll kick his ass."

"I don't know if you could, Ryan."

"It's just to intimidate him; he could kick my ass any day!" they both laughed and then Sharpay headed inside, where the police officer had just returned for what seemed like the 90th time tonight.

"Hey officer, what happened earlier? I was a little pre-occupied."

"Well, it looks like this man broke into your house using a crowbar. Thank the lord your friend came in because he had a gun out and was prepared to shoot anyone in his path, but Mr. Bolton snuck in so he wasn't heard."

"Good old, Troy. Thank you." She walked towards the stairs but stopped when she saw a pile of broken glass on the floor; she assumed it was the shattered pieces of the vase. She smiled to herself and then walked up the stairs and into her own room. Everything was just the way that she had left it. She walked over to her closet and grabbed her pink backpack along with a change of clothes for the next day. Then, she went over to her nightstand and grabbed her iPod, some magazines, and her laptop. Once everything was safely in her bag, she slung it over her shoulder and hopped back down the stairs. She found Ryan in the kitchen: "Hey, Ryan, I'm going to go back to the hospital and hang with Troy, okay?" she said as she grabbed an Evian water bottle out of the fridge.

"Alright, I guess I'll call you later and check up on you two. Love you, bye!"

"Bye, Ry!" she gave him a peck on the cheek and walked back out the door. Once she was safely seated inside her pink, convertible Mustang, she turned on the stereo and the first thing she heard was "As Long As You're Mine" from Wicked blaring through her speakers. She laughed at the irony of the song and the situation and backed out of the driveway and into the street.

The drive to the hospital seemed unusually long, but she guessed it was just because she was anxious. When she finally arrived, she walked back into his room and found it empty except for Troy who was asleep on the bed. 'He's so cute!' was the first thought that entered her mind, but when one of Troy's eyelids opened, she realized that she hadn't thought that statement.

"I know I'm cute!" he smiled at her and once again patted the spot next to him on the bed. She set her stuff down and then crawled up next to him. "You know, Pay, I've been thinking and there's this girl that I really like, but I'm not really sure what to say to her. Could you help me?"

She sighed; sounding kind of disappointed and then turned to Troy. "Well, what is she like?"

"Let's see…she likes to act, sing, dance, she's smart, she's funny, and she's extremely beautiful." The name 'Gabriella' popped up in Sharpay's head and she continued.

"At first you just want to tell her your true feelings, and see if she likes you back. If she does, you need to go out on a nice first date and really get to know her. After that, it's all up to you." The whole time she had been talking, she had been looking at the other side of the room, so she didn't see the smile on his face.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll tell her pretty quick then."

"But, Troy-" she turned her head towards him and immediately felt a pair of lips hit her own. At first she was hesitant, but soon she figured it out and responded. He felt her smile against his lips and they heard a knock on the door. They quickly broke apart and both blushed as Sharpay sat down in the chair next to the bed sideways so her feet were hanging over the side. She grabbed a magazine and let her hair fall down the side of her face to hopefully cover her bright red cheeks. Troy, however, didn't have the power of long hair so Sharpay quickly threw him a magazine, without looking at the cover. He opened it just as the door swung open and his parents walked in. He lifted up the magazine and Sharpay started bursting out laughing when she saw what magazine she had thrown him. His parents just gave the two a weird eye. Troy actually looked at the magazine for the first time and turned to Sharpay, who was still laughing her head off.

"Pay, you couldn't have given me anything a little more G-rated?!" she stood up and took the Cosmopolitan magazine out of his hands and switched it with her own Seventeen, which had Ashley Tisdale on the cover.

"Okay, but if you damage my Ashley Tisdale Seventeen in any way, I will hurt you." Troy laughed at her because she was dead serious.

"Okay, Pay, I will not harm Ashley Tisdale in any way. Don't you know her, though?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"My point is: I want to meet her."

"Gosh, you're so demanding!" the two laughed and then turned to the older Boltons who were just staring at the two. "What?" Sharpay asked and Lisa just laughed.

"Please, tell me you two are going out now!" Sharpay turned to Troy with a questioning look on her face. He smiled.

"Pay, that's completely up to you. You never answered my question."

"Well, you never technically asked me anything, and I think I'm going to have to think about it mister. I mean, what will everyone say? All-American-Boy dating the Ice Queen…I don't know how they'll take it! Oh, and then there's Gabriella to think about. She practically thinks you two are going out already." Troy knew she was being sarcastic but his parents were confused. Jack spoke up:

"Ok, so is that a yes?"

Sharpay got back up on the bed with Troy and kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, I think that it is." Troy blushed and Sharpay just smiled. "But what are we going to do about Gabriella?"

"Let's not talk about her right now."

"Fine by me!" they all laughed and Jack and Lisa sat down in the two chairs while Troy and Sharpay were up on the hospital bed. Jack turned the TV on and found a rerun of some basketball game that he insisted that they watch. They watched it for about an hour and then Troy noticed that his mom was drifting off to sleep.

"Dad, why don't you two go home? We'll be fine here."

"Okay, we'll come back up sometime later to check on you, but I'm sure that Sharpay has you in good hands. Bye, son."

"Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom."

"Bye, honey. Bye, Shar-" just then did they notice that Sharpay was fast asleep with her head leaning on Troy's shoulder. She looked incredibly cute. Troy just smiled and Jack and Lisa left. Troy gently tilted his head so that his was leaning on top of her own.

An hour later, a nurse came in the room and saw the two snuggled on the hospital bed, so she went to get the doctor. Once she had told her what she saw, she asked: "Should I wake them?" the doctor just smiled.

"No, let them sleep. They're not hurting anything, besides those two need some alone time. Supposedly, she's the one who shot him in the first place and when she came in earlier, she was completely terrified. She was crying and Mr. Bolton had to do most of the talking. I think she was most worried about his parents, though. She said something about not seeing them for all these years and what will they think of her. She definitely likes him a lot."

"They're really cute together. Do you know who that blonde girl is?"

"That's Sharpay Evans; you might remember her because she was just in here a couple of weeks ago because she fractured the bone in her ankle. I think it was from dance class or something like that."

"Oh yeah, she's such a nice girl. And she's filthy rich too!"

"Real funny, Nancy! Anyway, I've got to get back. Bye!"

"Bye!" and that was it…

Sharpay's eyes fluttered open and took in her surroundings. She was still in the hospital, but Troy wasn't lying beside her. She sat up and looked around, just as the bathroom door swung open. She smiled when she saw Troy standing there in shorts…and that was it. She was taking in the sight of his muscles, when she was taken from her own world and brought back to the real one.

"Good morning, sleepy head!" Troy smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "How did you sleep?"

"Considering I was in a hospital bed, I slept pretty well. But the best part was my pillow that I slept with." She smiled at him and got out of the bed. "Aren't you supposed to be wearing that hideous hospital gown, though?"

"I asked Dr. Smith earlier and she said that as long as I'm in my room and I don't cover the wound, I don't have to. So it's really good for you considering I can't put on a shirt!"

"Troy, don't flatter yourself too much, it might go to your head." She put her arms around his waist and went to kiss him in the cheek when Troy moved his head so that their lips would collide. Troy pulled back a moment later and leaned his forehead on Sharpay's.

"I think it already has." They stood there, enjoying each other's company when Sharpay spoke up.

"Troy, I should probably change so I can go pick up Blondie."

"Oh. Okay." He just stood there looking into her eyes.

"This means you need to turn around…at least for now." She winked at him as he turned around to face the opposite wall. Once she had changed, she put her dirty clothes in her bag and turned around to see Troy lying on the bed. "Troy! I told you to turn around, not sit on the bed!"

"Pay, my eyes were closed the whole time, I swear."

"It's okay if they weren't, Troy. I just didn't want you to have that mental image of me half undressed in your brain, it might drive you crazy." She said seductively as she crawled back up onto the bed and faced Troy. He got that guilty look on his face and she knew that his eyes were definitely not closed the whole time. "Troy, what are we going to do on Monday, when we have to go to school?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this whole thing isn't going to go over very well with everyone, and how are we going to announce it and-"

"Pay, calm down. Why don't you go get Blondie, and when you come back, we will talk about it."

"Okay, do you want me to bring back lunch?"

"Sure, that sounds fabulous!" Sharpay hit Troy in the arm when she realized that he was making fun of her.

"How does cheese pizza sound?"

"Now, that sounds truly fabulous!"

"Alright, I'll be back in about an hour, okay?"

"Okay." Sharpay started to walk out the door, but when she had the door open, Troy stopped her. "I love you, Pay." Sharpay blushed and looked at him.

"I love you, too, Troy." Sharpay turned around when she heard a large 'Aww' come from outside the room, and she realized that all of the nurses had seen and heard the whole thing. She blushed even harder and walked past the nurse's station, while hearing things like: 'They're so cute!', 'I remember young love!', and 'They'll be together for a long time, maybe even forever.' Sharpay turned around at the last one and smiled at Dr. Smith, who had taken care of her a few weeks ago. She, finally, walked out of the door.