This chapter is like a flashback, spin-off. It introduces Sharpay into the story, and gives a little lead up for her parts in the following chapters.

Lockdown by Tertiary Genesis

Chapter 6: Crème

--XxXxX--

"Ahhh!"

Sharpay had let out a scream that woke the entire household.

Her day had started so perfectly, she knew something terrible would happen, but this, this was really bad. It was definitely an omen, a sign that today was going to be far from a perfect day, unlike what her deceiving start of the day had told her.

She had woken up that morning to her clock radio playing her favorite song, "You Got It" by Lucas Grabeel. It was as if the song was talking about her. She examined herself in the large mirror that covered the entire wall opposite her bed. Yes, she has got it. Boi barked from his bed in her room.

"Yes, I know I am." Sharpay replied, pretending her dog had remarked on her looks. Her dog got up and walked out of the room, probably to head to the secondary study room, which seemed to be his favorite room in the house these days.

The blonde got out of bed. Even though it was a Saturday, she was not going to sleep in like everyone else. Too much beauty sleep has negating effects. She took her usual morning shower, knowing that she would have all the hot water to herself because no one else was up yet.

The temperature of the water was perfect first try, without the need to toggle with the hot and cold valves. Her shower room was designed to steam, helping her pores as she scrubbed with luffa and pumice to remove dead skin. Yes, even beauty gets dead skin; the difference is they remove it.

She got out of the shower and put on her bright pink bathrobe embroidered with her monogram "SE". Everything in her bathroom seemed to be pink and somehow branded with her stylized initials. She went to towel dry her hair. She wanted some natural curls today. After she had dealt with her hair, she walked over to the vanity unit within her bathroom to apply her Crème de la Mer.

Her bathroom was huge so there was a considerable distance between her shower and her vanity. Her Crème de la Mer was running low. It had been a week since it was due to be delivered. They did not sell the stuff at Albuquerque. The only place it was sold in New Mexico was in Santa Fe, so she had is sent over. It cost 125 for one ounce of the moisturizing cream. When she got to the jar of Crème, she saw that she had barely enough to cover her forehead. The way the jar was shaped gave the illusion that there was much more left when in fact, the bottom of the inside of the container was not the same as the bottom of the outside. This was when she screamed.

Sharpay's screech reverberated around her bathroom amplifying the sound that was projected throughout the Evans household waking up the family and their domestic helpers. The Evans knew that this is just an indication of worse things to come. Her day was going to go horribly wrong. Where was her Crème de la Mer? It should have arrived a week ago. It always arrived at that time, every month. What if the deliveryman delivered it to the wrong house? Some wrinkly old lady who does not even know what skin tone is, was probably enjoying the moisturizing effects of her 125-dollar cream.

This was not fair. How could someone not see that the cream was to go to the largest house on the street? Even a new delivery person could clearly see that the Evans family was the only one who could afford such products, and the delivery company was never late. No, the cream was most likely delivered. Somebody in the house must have taken it for himself or herself.

Sharpay stormed out of her bathroom. She quickly got dressed in one of her pre-formed outfits. It had to have blue on the neck so that when light reflected off her clothing and onto her face, she would not look so shiny, plastic…, or dead. She new the tricks of the trade, but was not supposed to need then because she could supposedly afford the real deal.

Who had her Crème? There must be someone in the house who signed off on the delivery while she was absent and had decided to keep her miracle cream. Who could it be? Was there anyone in the house whose complexion as of late, been much better than it usually would be. Then again, that is assuming the person knows how to apply the cream, which is highly unlikely because no one could have experience since they obviously could not afford it. Maybe it was Ryan.

Ryan was a definite suspect. He did have a decent complexion, but then again, he would probably have his own products for that. Why would he take hers? What would he want with some Crème de la Mer? He did seem to dress like her, always quite dressy and barely casual. Did this mean he wanted her skin complexion as well? That would be a little to queer, even for him.

Sharpay chuckled at the thought of Ryan being queer. Could her brother be gay? He sure possessed some phenotypes of the homosexual man, but then that would be stereotyping, and generalizing. Evans' do not get stereotyped, nor generalized. They are unique. Besides, if Ryan were gay, she would know, right? After all, she was his twin sister.

Sharpay had already made it down the stairs to the atrium of the Evans household. Looking around, the room resembled the entrance hall of the von Trapp family mansion in the 1965 film based on the Broadway musical, The Sound of Music. The Evans atrium led to several large halls on the ground floor and had balconies on the second storey overlooking the large marble floor. The difference was that the large doors on one end of the atrium did not lead outside but to the entrance hall of the Evans home.

The maids and other such domestic help were bustling around, ducking between rooms to attend to their morning duties, all trying to see what had riled up the "Ice Queen" without falling victim to her murderous gaze. The attendees of the Evans household knew not to get in the way of Sharpay Evans, especially when she was in this state. They knew not to confront her, especially if they wanted to keep their jobs.

Alejandra, the Lady's Maid, was trying to avoid Sharpay's gaze as she walked across the atrium to get to the room of the Lady of the House. She may have had a high position, answering only to Mrs. Evans, but that did not mean she was impervious to the powers of the Drama Queen.

Sharpay noticed Jandra and thought there was something suspicious in the way she was moving across the room.

"Jandra!" Sharpay called out.

"It's Jandra", the maid corrected her pronunciation, saying her name as if the "J" where an "H" and rolling the "r".

"Whatever…" Sharpay sniffed at the maid's clothes and recognized a scent. "Are you wearing Concepcion?"

"Yes. Your mother gave it to me as a gift."

"Are you sure you did not take mine, because it would seem that my possessions are ending up in other peoples hands?"

"I did not steal your perfume, now if you would excuse me; your mother is waiting for me."

Sharpay let out a shriek of disbelief as the maid turner her back on the stunned blonde and walked away. No one is allowed to do that to her. She made a mental note to bring it up with her parents later.

Ryan had walked out of his room and was crossing the atrium himself, giving his twin sibling that quizzical look where he would quirk his eyebrows.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Sharpay snapped at her brother.

"To the drawing room. I need to practice for my Richard III presentation for Monday."

"You can't use the drawing room! It's the only room with a window that faces the east for the morning sun. I need my manicure to be solar dried today."

"Well then I will use the second study." Ryan started towards the secondary study room, which served like a library annex.

"But Boi is in there, and he loves that room. He wants it to himself, and I think he deserves it, don't you?"

"Fine, I'll be in my room." Ryan was exasperated and just did not have the patience to argue with Sharpay that day. She is not usually this controlling at home so she must be pissed at something. Her Crème was probably out, Ryan thought. He chuckled to himself, remembering that he hid her newly delivered cream earlier in the week when it had arrived. This was beyond simple pranks as part of sibling rivalry. This was revenge.

Sharpay had "borrowed" Ryan's bistre Borsalino fedora, which held a lot of sentimental value to Ryan, about a month ago. He had searched for it for ages before she told him she had it. Although, to a normal person, not having your moisturizing cream would not be the same as not having your most cherished hat, to Sharpay it was worse, and Ryan knew this. He pulled the Crème out of its hiding place and placed it on his table, beside his cell phone, to revel in his revenge.

After a few minutes of watching the jar of expensive moisturizing cream and thinking about what it was doing to her sister, Ryan decided he would practice his presentation at school. He could easily ask Ray, the weekend custodian, to let him into the school.

Ryan grabbed his copy of the play and picked a bag from among the numerous bags hanging from hooks behind his door. He had different bags to go with his different outfits. He chose one that matched what he was wearing and quickly checked what was inside before throwing the play in. He had last used the bag when the class went on a field trip during the week. There was still an unopened snack bar inside the bag, and a deck of cards, for when he got bored on the bus. He might as well leave them in there.

Ryan headed down towards the entrance of his house to take his car to the school. Sharpay saw him trying to leave as she was accosting the domestic help, sniffing for the trademark scent of her Crème de la Mer.

"Where are you off to?"

"I'm gonna practice my presentation at school in one of the drama rooms."

"You know, Ryan, there are many other rooms in this house."

"Yes, but you are also in this house."

Sharpay let out a high-pitched scoff as her brother turned his back on her and headed out the door. People just were not respecting her authority that day, and the day had barely begun. It was still early in the morning and most people would still be in bed, especially since it was a Saturday morning. The Evans household was only up this early because of the scream Sharpay had let out. She needed a distraction or something.

Sharpay rants around the house for the rest of the morning. She had already forgotten about finding her lost moisturizing cream, busying herself with the task of setting extra tasks for the domestic help. She was yelling orders around, getting people to do more than they usually would, and much more than they were expected to. She kept herself in the atrium as she gave herself that manicure, so that she could continue to tell people what to do. It was the tiniest, most insignificant, details that she was exploiting, getting the maids to clean behind all the paintings in the house, and do other such tasks. Their spring-cleaning appeared to have come quite early since they were only half way through the fall season.

The blonde carefully made her way to the drawing room to allow her manicure to "solar dry". As she left the atrium and entered the drawing room, she thought she heard a collective sigh of relief echo around the house. She ignored it. It was time to relax. She had her fun.

As she sat by the large bay window of the drawing room, she let her mind drift and it chose to land on Troy. Her most recent attempts to woo the basketball star had failed yet again. In hindsight, she could see that her method of seduction had been quite underhanded during the summer. Since Gabriella had entered the picture, she felt a renewed sense of urgency when it came to her Wildcat, and then with his success in the school musical, he had secured the role of East High's primo boy, the counterpart of the role Sharpay believed she possessed, or else desperately yearned.

Troy Bolton was more than just a status figure, though. Sharpay knew that he was an all around good guy with stunning looks. He was the envy of the student body, with guys wanting to be him, and girls wanting to be with him. There may have even been guys who wanted to be with him as well. He was just so innocent. Sharpay hoped that her failed attempt at sabotaging Troy and Gabriella's relationship does not jeopardize her own relationship with the boy. She realized that she had not really spoken to him in a while; their last proper conversation was probably over the summer while Troy had worked at her parents' Resort. She considered finding him, so she could see where they were at, but did not want to do it while he was with Gabriella. The blonde considered where he would be at that moment and remembered that the Wildcats were at the school, helping with the set up of the new security system. Zeke had told her this, and although she found it somewhat annoying to have a person like that doting after her, he had his uses. Gabriella probably would not be at the school, so this might be the perfect opportunity to talk to Troy.

Sharpay got up and went to look for Ryan. She needed her lackey. She called out for him but no one responded. She decided to call his cell phone and as it started to ring, she remembered that he had left for the school already a while ago. She did not hang up immediately and heard Ryan's ring tone coming out of his room. He usually takes his phone with him. Maybe she should get it and take it to him when she meets him at the school. She entered his room and searched for the source of the ring tone, which was an mp3 of the song "All Over You" by The Spill Canvas.

The blonde recalled being surprised when her brother started listening to the acoustic punk music of the Iowan band. It just was not the style of music she expected her brother to be into, but then Ryan seemed to be a different person when in his room and when in public. It was as if he had two faces and his acoustic punk listening self was the side no one ever saw.

The song was barely getting into the chorus when Sharpay finally found the cell phone sitting on his desk. Isn't it interesting how when people are looking for something, they seem to refuse the more obvious places right in front of them? She hung up her own phone and went to pick up Ryan's when she saw what was sitting next to it. It was her Crème de la Mer! Sharpay realized that Ryan had taken it and felt furious. She stormed out of his room and headed to her car, but not before grabbing his bistre Borsalino fedora. The hat clashed terribly with her outfit, but it would be worth the look on Ryan's face when she arrives at the school wearing it.

The Ice Queen drove to the school fast and furious. She was going to live up to that title when she arrived. She hastily parked her car and noticed that its occupants had congregated in the cafeteria. Coach Bolton seemed to have employed the help of the cheerleaders as well as his basketball team, and everyone was mingling on the ground floor over pizza. She approached the group of teens heatedly and some of them jumped, surprised and scared by her sudden appearance, while others were sniggering at her choice of hat.

"Have any of you seen Ryan?"

"What would he be doing here?" one of the basketball players asked.

"He came here to practice in a drama room."

"Oh, well who was doing the Arts block?" asked one of the boys to no one in particular.

"I think it was Troy," piped up one of the cheerleaders.

"Yeah, it was Troy," Coach Bolton confirmed after looking at his list.

"Hey, where is Troy?" someone asked, noticing the absence of the Basketball captain.

Everyone looked around and also noticed that Troy was indeed missing.

"Shouldn't he be here by now?"

"I'll go find him," volunteered Jason.

"Do you even know where the Arts block is?" Chad jeered, knowing that Jason spent his free time away from the court at the AV room, and definitely not in the Arts block.

"Yeah, Kelsi is there all the time." Jason replied with a cheesy grin.

"Ooooh!" his fellow teammates taunted. Kelsi and Jason were not a couple, because Kelsi was not into the whole high school romance scene, but he did tend to hang out with her more often since Troy auditioned for Twinkle Town. People were more accepting of his crush for the pianist after the Twinkle Town Musicale, than before.

Jason ran through the school, to the Arts Block, situated at the far end of the West wing of East High. He checked the Music corridor first, looking into all the classrooms in case Troy was caught up with something. He passed the rehearsal room where a large grand piano took residence. He smiled to himself, imagining Kelsi at the keys, working the pedals, making beautiful music. He paused only briefly before continuing down the Visual Arts corridor. Troy was not in any of the Art rooms either so he started down Performing Arts.

The Wildcat strolled past the empty classrooms, dance rooms and drama rooms but could not find Troy. He did not see Ryan either who, according to Sharpay, was supposedly practicing something in one of the Drama rooms. The Arts block was deserted. He was about to head back when he noticed the closed door. It was D17, a drama room. Ryan was most likely in there. Maybe Troy was with him. He approached the door and tried the knob but the door seemed to be locked. He banged on the door. He was a bit eager to return to the cafeteria already. The empty corridors were giving him the creeps.

"TROY?!"

--XxXxX--

TBC…

Now I am right back where I was at the end of the last chapter. The following chapters change between two settings, whether it is the setting of inside/outside the room, or with Troy/with Ryan.

It can get a little segmented, but it was a technique I was trying.