Chapter 6
Like clockwork, Troy pulled up in front of the Evans' mansion at 7:30, so that they would have enough time to get to school before the bell. Like a gentleman, Troy walked up to the door, politely knocked on the hard wood, and waited. Less than 5 seconds later, the door swung open to reveal an obviously happy Sharpay. She looked stunning in a pink sundress that came to about her mid-thigh. Troy liked this dress because it showed off more of her amazing legs. Troy was so stunned by her amazing appearance that he, again, didn't realize that she was trying to get his attention. "Troy? TROY? TROY???!!!"
"Huh, what?" he asked almost having to force himself to take his eyes off her.
"What are you staring at?"
"You look beautiful, Pay!" he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.
"Thank you! I thought since we're announcing our relationship today, I should look good for my man." She said with a smile playing on her lips.
"Well, I'd like to meet that lucky fella…" he bent his head down and captured her lips in a kiss that lasted for about a minute before they had to come up for air. Sharpay looked down at her white sling-backs and blushed.
"We're going to be late for homeroom, Troy…" Troy looked down at his watch and realized that they had fifteen minutes until the warning bell.
"Well, come on!" He picked Sharpay up by her waist and carried her to the car, while she was kicking and screaming for him to put her down. Once they were in the car, Sharpay happy again, she turned on the radio to hear her favorite song playing: "Love Me for Me" by Ashley Tisdale started blaring in the car. She turned it down and turned to Troy.
"You know, this song kind of describes our relationship."
"Yeah, in a creepy way, I guess you're right." They arrived at the school five minutes later with five minutes to spare until the bell. Troy got out of the car and opened Sharpay's door for her as she stepped out onto the black asphalt. "Are you ready, Pay?" he looked at her with concerned eyes.
"No." but she still stepped closer towards him, laced her fingers in his and started their walk towards the building. The moment they stepped through the doors, all eyes were on them. They started to hear whispers roaming the halls as Troy walked Sharpay to her locker. "Is he high?" and "What the /$?" were two of the most popular questions they heard.
Sharpay closed her locker, while holding back tears that really needed to fall. She ran towards the auditorium, or tried in heels, and rushed in. As soon as she discovered that it was indeed completely empty, she threw down her stuff onto the stage and fell to her knees. Troy hurried up beside her and took her in his arms. After she cried into his shirt for a good time, he dared to ask: "What's wrong, Pay?"
"Are you not hearing all of the horrible things they're saying about you and me? They're saying I deliberately came between you and Gabriella and split you up! They're saying that I'm paying you to be my boyfriend. They're going as far as to say that you got me pregnant after I got you drunk! Troy, I don't think I can take it!"
"We'll find a way to prove them wrong."
"What if they're right?"
"What?!"
"What if you don't really love me and this is all just a game…"
Troy pulled her away from him so he could look straight into her eyes. "Sharpay, you know that I love you more than anything and with all my heart! Why would you even question that?"
"It's just all so much…" She continued crying until she realized that they should probably get to class. "Troy…"
"Wait! Before we go or do anything else, I want to give you something." He dug in his pocket and pulled out a baby pink velvet box. "I was going to wait, but it seems like now is as good a time as any." Troy handed Sharpay the box and she opened it. Inside was a beautiful ring with a sterling silver band and a pink stone in the center surrounded by smaller replicas. Seeing that she was in shock, Troy spoke: "This is a promise ring; it means that the day that I ask you to marry me, you'll say yes. I know we've only been dating a couple of days, but I love you, Sharpay. And-"
"Troy," Sharpay cut him off, "it's beautiful. And if you ever do choose to ask me to marry you, I will always say yes, with or without the ring."
"I was hoping you'd say something like that because if you would've said no, I don't know if I could have lived." Troy had a small smile playing on his lips. Sharpay shed another tear as she slipped on the beautiful ring. It fit perfectly. She looked back up into his light blue eyes and gently said: "I love you, Troy."
"I love you, Pay…"
They both jumped when they heard the second warning bell of the day, signaling that homeroom was over. "We should probably get back to class, Troy."
"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea."
"Oh, and don't worry about Mrs. Darbus, I'll talk to her."
"Thanks Pay! Love you!"
"Love you!" Sharpay quickly gave Troy a quick peck on the cheek and took off to her second period class…history.
Half way through a discussion on how Shakespeare was the best writer in the Shakespearian times, the intercom in Mr. Jay's English class went off: "Troy Bolton, will you please report to the principal's office immediately?" He stood up and quickly gathered his things. He walked out into the hallway just to see Sharpay already walking about twenty feet in front of him.
"Hey, Pay! Wait up!" He ran up to where she was standing and kissed her lightly on the lips before asking: "Did they call you out of class, too?"
"Yeah, I wonder what it's about." She was really thinking. She hadn't done anything to get sent to the principal's office and she was sure Troy hadn't either.
"I don't know…"
They were now standing outside the front office, when Principal Matsui came out and led them into his office. There were four chairs setup with two already occupied by none other than Coach Bolton and Mrs. Darbus.
"Okay," Matsui began, "Both you Coach and you Mrs. Darbus have each come to me complaining about the things students are saying about your son and goddaughter. Now, I cannot do anything about the gossip, except tell them it's bad, but that won't stop it. What I think is that the four of you need to sit down and talk about all this together over dinner, or something so we can get this figured out! Okay?"
"Yes, sir." They all said at the same time.
"Okay, then you are dismissed."
They all got up and walked back outside the office. Jack was the first to speak: "I think that Matsui is right. We should all have dinner tonight at our house and talk things over. Troy, I haven't talked to your mother yet, so we can just talk to her tonight. Be over at 7:00." He started to walk off but turned back around. "Oh, and Sharpay? Why don't you just spend the night tonight?" this time he was gone for good.
The three people were left standing in awkwardness in the hallway. Mrs. Darbus knew the two teens were going through a lot right now, so she spoke: "Sharpay, why don't you and Troy take the rest of the day off? I think it would do you some good." Sharpay said a quick thank you and she and Troy took off down the hall. She was determined to make that day a happy day instead of what it would have been if they stayed in school.
Once they had gotten what they needed from their lockers, they met back outside at Troy's car. They both got in and Sharpay started to speak: "Do you want to come back to my house? We can watch a movie or something."
"Sure, sounds good. But can we eat something first, I'm kind of hungry."
"Yeah, totally! Where do you want to go?" she asked while fixing her lip gloss in the mirror.
"How about McDonald's?" he was actually joking but she just said:
"Okay."
"But I thought you didn't like McDonald's?"
"There's a lot you still don't know about me, Troy…" she winked at him and gave him a mysterious smile while he started up the car.
"I don't know if that a good thing or a bad thing." He put the car in drive and drove the short distance to McDonald's.
Once they had arrived they parked the car and went inside. As soon as they walked up to the counter, the older man behind the counter said: "Well, what a surprise!" Sharpay looked up from her cell phone and realized who it was.
"Bill! Oh my god! I didn't know you worked here!"
"Only from nine to two on week days."
"That's why! School doesn't get out until 3:15. So how have you been?"
"Better, definitely better! So who's your friend?"
"Oh, I'm sorry! Bill this is Troy, Troy this is Bill. Bill lives at the senior citizen community here in town."
Troy felt kind of uncomfortable but still said with a smile: "Nice to meet you, Bill. So, Pay, how do you know Bill again?"
"Well, part of what you don't know about me Troy is that I volunteer a lot at different places, and the home is one of them."
"You…volunteer? Wow, I didn't see that coming!"
Bill noticed some other people walking in so he thought that he should take their order. "What would you like to eat?"
Sharpay started: "I'll take a cheeseburger, no onions, a small fry, and a diet coke."
"And I'll take the same
"All right, your total is 6.38."
Sharpay started to get out her wallet when Troy stopped her. "I've got it, Pay."
"Thank you." She leaned up, kissed him on the cheek, and picked up their cups to go find somewhere to sit. Troy was still standing at the counter. Right before he was about to turn to sit down. Bill started up:
"You know, you've got the best girl in the world."
"I know." He nodded at the elderly man and went to sit down.
The two ate with only some small talk here and there, but when it was time to leave Troy noticed a group of what looked like gang-bangers step into the building. Troy noticed that they were harassing Bill, so he stood up and walked over there. "Is there a problem here?" One of the guys looked over at Troy and said:
"We were just informing this old man that he might want to turn his hearing aid up." He smirked at Troy.
"Why don't you just back off?"
"Why should we?" that was taking it too far in Troy's book. Without another word, the strange guy felt a blow to the side of his jaw, which caused him to hit the ground. "What was that for?"
"I told you to back off." Troy felt really good about himself right now. Sharpay walked up to Troy's side and laced her fingers in his while placing a soft kiss on his cheek. The guy stood up and took another look at Sharpay.
"Sharpay Evans?" this confused Sharpay even more.
"Yeah, so?"
"I would know that face anywhere, Ice Bitch!"
"Oh, shit." Sharpay said under her breath. "Izzy?"
"You know it!"
Troy decided to jump in: "Pay, how do you know him?"
"Izzy went to school with me in New York."
"Oh…"
"Let's just go, Troy."
"Okay."
"Bye, Bill! I'll see you soon!" she gave the old man a quick hug and started to walk towards the door, but stopped when she heard Izzy speak:
"I'll look you up sometime, Shar." She turned around to say something when he winked at her.
"I think I'm going to be sick." With that she walked out the door and got in Troy's jeep. "Let's go back to my house, Troy."
"Okay." He threw the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot.
When they got to the house, Troy parked his car in the garage and opened Sharpay's door for her. She unlocked the door and led Troy up to her bedroom. "Let me just get changed and then we'll head down to the movie room."
"Okay." He lay back on her bed as she disappeared into her closet. He took in a strong whiff of air, causing him to smell the strong scent of her perfume: Ralph Lauren Hot. He loved the way that it smelled on her. Breaking him from his own little world, Sharpay emerged in a pink Juicy Couture jogging suit with a white tank top underneath.
"You can just kick your shoes off in here if you want. Are you ready to head down? We'll get some stuff from the kitchen on our way."
"I'm following you, Pay. If I don't, I might get lost." He hugged her quickly before placing his lips on hers.
"Troy, you are the best kisser ever!" Sharpay said when they came up for air.
"You're not bad yourself!" Troy smiled at her as they walked downstairs into the kitchen.
"What should we take with us?"
"Soda, chips, and ice cream."
"Alright, you grab the chips."
"Okay."
Once they had gotten everything they wanted, they headed down to the movie room. Sharpay sat down the sodas and ice cream and went over to the movie cabinets. "What movie should we watch, Troy?"
"I don't care…how about The Notebook; you said you've wanted to watch it."
"You are the best boyfriend ever!" She walked over to the DVD player and put in the disc. She turned, grabbed the remote, and walked back over to the couch that Troy was sitting on. "You know, this is a fold out, so we can put our feet up." She reached down on the side of the couch and grabbed a remote. She pushed a few buttons, and the bottom of the couch started to fold out.
"That's so cool!"
"Yeah, I like it."
The menu for the movie came up so she quickly pressed play on the remote. Then, as the movie started, she snuggled back up to Troy and leaned her head back on his chest. He smiled down at her and kissed her on the top of her head. He wouldn't rather be anywhere else right now.
At 3:30, Ryan was trying to open the door with his key, but it kept getting stuck. He finally got it to open and nearly fell into the house when it did. He walked in and said: "Here it is guys, make yourselves at home!" With him were Gabriella, Taylor, Chad, Kelsi, Jason, and Zeke.
"Dude, your house looks even bigger from the inside!" Chad was amazed at the house's enormity.
"Thanks, I guess. You'll want to go watch a movie now?"
"Sure." Was heard six times before they all dropped their stuff and followed Ryan down the hall. He noticed a sound coming from the movie room when he got close enough. He threw open the door to the dark room and realized that the credits for The Notebook were playing. Confused, he walked down the stairs to the front where the remote was sitting on a side table by the couch.
He gasped at what he saw. There laying on the pull out couch were Sharpay and Troy. Troy was lying on his back with his arms around Sharpay's waist. She was lying halfway on top of him on her stomach, with her head lying on his chest. Ryan couldn't see, because of a blanket draped on top of them, that their legs were intertwined. He actually thought that they were a cute couple, he always had. Then he realized that he couldn't let the others see them so he quickly ran back up to the door and said: "Why don't we go to my room and watch a movie?"
Chad pushed past him and replied: "Because your room doesn't have a huge screen and we would have to sit on the floor." By now he was all the way down the stairs and he caught a glimpse of the teens out of the corner of his eyes. He turned their way and said: "Holy shit!"
Taylor walked into the room and looked where her boyfriend had been. If she hated Sharpay before, she really hated her now. "BITCH!" was all that was heard from Taylor's mouth. Troy immediately jumped, causing Sharpay to roll over onto her back. She kept her eyes closed as she moved her hand around the "bed" trying to find something to cuddle with. She finally reached the blanket and pulled it over next to her. Troy couldn't help but laugh at her. When she finally fell back asleep she tried to roll back over onto her stomach, but instead she ended up on the ground. She sat up; eyes still closed, and said "Ow." While rubbing the back of her neck, she opened her eyes to see eight pairs of eyes staring at her.
Troy was just laughing his head off at her stupidness, until he received a glare from her. He got up from his place on the couch and helped her up.
"What are you'll doing here?" Sharpay asked still rubbing her neck. "Wait! Before anyone says anything, I need aspirin. She got up and walked out of the room only to come back with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. "Alright, go on."
Ryan was the first one to speak. "Well, I invited everyone over to watch a movie, and when we came on here, we found you'll like this."
"Like what?"
"Sleeping together, in a bed, watching a movie."
"Correction! We were on a couch, not in a bed."
"Well, anyway, what were you'll thinking just waltzing into school hand-in-hand this morning? I thought you were waiting until Friday?!"
"Well, last night when I was at dinner with Troy and his parents, Jennifer found out and threatened to tell the whole school, so we figured it would be better coming from us."
All of a sudden Taylor decided to jump in. "You self-centered whore! How could you do this?"
"Do what, Taylor? Please elaborate for me!"
"The whole school knows that you slept with Troy, Sharpay! The whole school knows that you're nothing but a whore who doesn't care about anyone else but herself."
Sharpay had had enough. She all of a sudden ran out of the room with tears falling freely down her cheeks. Troy looked at all of them and just said: "She's probably a better person than all of you combined!" He ran out of the room after Sharpay.
Ryan turned to Taylor and said: "You know he's probably right. I bet you didn't know that Shar volunteers almost everyday, but she hasn't been since our Dad died Monday. I bet you didn't know that every Sunday, Sharpay goes up to the Children's Hospital and reads them stories. I bet you didn't know that she's in more AP classes than you and Gabi. And I bet you also didn't know that Sharpay's a virgin; she's waiting until she finds the right person." With that he too ran out of the room leaving the six others in shock.
Troy had been running all throughout the house trying to find Sharpay until he finally found her in a room slightly smaller than her own. He knocked softly on the door when he heard a faint 'come in'. He walked inside to where Sharpay was lying on the bed. As he sat down beside her, he looked around at all the pictures and realized that they were all of Sharpay and Ryan. They ranged from when they were just babies, to what looked like this year. They were all professional pictures taken in a studio or on a stage. Sharpay noticed what he was looking at and explained:
"This was my father's room. He always liked keeping a lot of pictures of us to remind him of how far we've come."
"Wow, you must have been really close with your father."
"Yeah, I was." Just then, Ryan appeared in the doorway.
"Shar, are you all right?"
"I think I'll be fine, Ry."
"Ok, good! By the way, I kind of told them about you volunteering and taking AP classes. I'm sorry, it just kind of fell out of my mouth."
"It's okay. They were going to find out eventually, anyway. I'm going to go get ready for tonight, okay?"
"What's tonight?"
"Mrs. Darbus is going to come over to Troy's house so we can all talk about the rumors going around and stuff. Oh, and Ry? I'm spending the night over there tonight. Jack asked me to." She walked out of the room as Ryan turned to Troy.
"Jack?"
"Jack's my father."
"Oh…should we go back in there and talk to them?"
"Yeah, probably." They both walked back into the large room to see Taylor sitting on the couch talking about how bad she felt. Troy went down and sat next to her. "Taylor?" she looked up.
"Yeah?"
"Stop beating yourself down. You didn't know the real Sharpay; well, you still don't actually know her. You had a right to think those things about her, well not the sleeping with me part, but anyway. Pay, will be fine. It's just been kind of a stressful week."
"Okay, if you say so."
"It would make her feel better if you apologized, though. She'll be back down in a little bit."
"Okay."
"Now, you'll came to watch a movie, so that's what we'll do." He got up and picked out a movie. "We're going to watch Donnie Darko. Sharpay was actually in this movie, so it's even better." They all sat down and watched the movie. Just about the time that Sharpay was going to show up in the movie, the screen suddenly paused. They all looked around until Troy finally spotted Sharpay leaning against the doorframe with the remote in her hand.
"Pay, we just want to watch the movie!"
Sharpay flipped on the lights and walked down the stairs toward the others. She looked at them. "Who chose the movie?" They all looked at Troy and pointed. She looked down at him and said: "Nice try, Troy. But it's time to leave." She went to turn around when Troy snatched the remote out of her hand. "TROY BOLTON!"
He hit the play button just as Sharpay jumped on his back, causing him to fall to the ground. "Give me the remote, Troy! I swear!" Just then, on the screen popped up this twelve-year-old-girl with brown frizzy hair. Everyone started laughing as soon as they realized who it was. "Troy, god dammit! Ughhh!" she started to walk out of the room, when Troy caught her around the waist and turned her around.
"Pay, it's not like you actually looked like that. I would love you even if you did look like that, though."
"Oh, you're such a charmer, Troy." She walked back down and plopped down in one of the large movie chairs with her arms crossed, right arm on top. Kelsi just happened to look over at Sharpay and realized the ring on her right ring finger.
"Oh my god, Sharpay, I love your ring! Where'd you get it?"
Sharpay just sighed and looked at the ring. Troy came down and sat by her. "I gave it to her. It's a promise ring." He smiled down at her and kissed her on the top of her head.
"Wait! A promise ring?" Gabriella was obviously confused. "How long have you been going out, again?"
"Just since Monday," Sharpay started explaining, "but we used to go out in freshmen year, but his dad made him break up with me. Only Ryan and, I guess, Kelsi knew."
"What's a promise ring?" everyone looked at Chad with looks of unbelief on their faces. Sharpay thought it was a cute question, so she jumped in before any could yell at Chad.
"A boy gives a girl a promise ring to make sure that the day that he asks her to marry him, she'll say yes." She looked up at Troy who had a smile plastered on his face.
"Aww… that's cute, you guys!" Chad said, again earning looks from everyone and a laugh from Sharpay.
"Anyway, why did your dad make you dump her, Troy?" Taylor asked, ignoring her boyfriend.
"He heard that Sharpay was sleeping around with a whole bunch of guys, and he said even if it wasn't true, though he thought it was, it would be bad for my rep."
"Basically, he thought I was a whore." Sharpay decided to add that since Chad had another confused look on his face.
"Wow, that's harsh."
"Yeah, I hated it!"
Sharpay looked at her watch and realized what time it was. "Troy, we need to go! Bye guys!" She got up to leave when she heard Taylor say "Wait!" Sharpay turned around just as a pair of arms embraced her in a hug. Taylor pulled back, looked at a surprised Sharpay, and said: "I really am sorry, Sharpay."
"Its okay, Taylor. You, mostly, had every right to what you said." She turned to Troy and said: "Come on! You still have to get ready when we get there."
Chad looked confused (as always). "Where are you'll going?"
"Troy and I have a publicity meeting with his parents and Mrs. Darbus."
"That's funny Sharpay! Where are you really going?"
"No, I'm serious…" Sharpay said with a serious look on her face. And that's all she said. She walked out of the room. Troy smiled, shrugged at the others and ran after her.
"Hey, wait up!" Sharpay stopped before opening the front door.
"What Bolton?" Sharpay said with a smile on her face.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Sharpay looked around and saw the other kids' stuff on the ground and realized that she had forgotten to pack an overnight bag. "Oh, shit!" And with that she hurriedly ran up the stairs and into her room. She stuffed some clothes and stuff into her pink duffle bag, ran back down stairs, out the door, and was in Troy's car in less than five minutes.