Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease don't kill me.

You can bash me all you would like but college broke me down mentally and ripped me apart. Not putting it lightly. Not to mention in the moving process I lost most of In Two Seconds' next chapter. Which sort of killed my wanting to re-do it since I had put a lot of effort into matching up facts and such. I'm trying with that story but since it's been a while and I can't just pull my ideas back out of thin air it may take a while. Not going to lie. Also not going to promise a date for a chapter because if you know me, I've never been good with following up with those.

So please don't ask me to update ITS if you review this chapter. It makes me feel bad because I hate that I'm making you all wait. But if you do review, thank you and enjoy-

Stupid Virginia. Stupid school. Stupid immature students.

It's much easier to run when you're angry. Sharpay learned this fact over her many years of being a runner. A productive hobby that developed way back when she was in kindergarten and played recreational soccer. Then she picked up cheerleading, and then lacrosse, and then- well, let's just say she was very involved with her town's extra curriculars. Mostly she did it for the exercise. She was good at it, and she never had a problem with it. But when you had something inside of your head propelling you, it was like you were fighting the problem by pushing yourself to run faster or farther or get whatever it was you had to be doing just right. And poof, problem no longer a problem. Unfortunately after eighth grade there was no more rec due to a certain enrollment at the Training Institute. If you could even call it that.

Stupid Training Institute. Stupid CIA. Stupid parents being stupid agents for-

"Ugh," Sharpay grunted aloud, coming to a stop at the edge of the forest she had just spent five miles running through. The school may have these giant fields dedicated to whatever these practice rounds were supposed to accomplish, but it doesn't have a track. Not that Sharpay minded. Running was more fun when you it wasn't so mundane.

She started walking further away from the trees. Why couldn't they have sent Ryan on his own? Why couldn't he be the one trapped at this stupid high school? Why did she have to be so much stronger than him? Stronger than every other member back in Albuquerque? But of course, she knew the reason. They were twins. Combined, they were stronger- when he wasn't pissing her off. They were a package deal. Always had been.

Sharpay slowed her breathing, listening to the noises around her. She focused on one sound in particular that didn't seem to be coming from the wind blowing through the trees or the birds talking to one another. She looked over her shoulder, in the direction of the light foot steps but found no one there. Strange. But she knew better than to believe that anything she heard with her trained hearing was just her imagination. Nothing in her mind could scare her. She was afraid of nothing. Fearless. Her brown eyes scanned the perimeter, focusing behind the scattered trees. When she was sure whatever- whoever- was there had changed location, she turned, swinging her arm out to greet the person who popped into her peripheral vision. A strong hand caught her forearm before impact.

"I thought I was the only one who woke up this early."

Sharpay snatched her arm back from Troy's grip. Running at sunrise was the best way to start her day. If she was going to be running into an immature albeit cute student every day, she was going to have to pick another time to run. She tightened her ponytail, trying to seem as unamused as possible. Though she wasn't sure her glares had much affect on his sweat-glistening positive face. She maintained eye-contact, trying to steal her brother's mind control power and mentally tell Troy she was not happy with the fact he could absorb her strength with just a touch. Alas, no luck. Guess she'd actually have to speak to him. "Didn't realize your mimicry could work that fast."

Troy shook some damp hair away from his face but a lock fell back over his blue eye anyway. He used the back of the hand he had just caught her arm with to wipe some sweat from his brow. Sharpay tried to ignore the fact that one of her male turn-ons were exhibiting post-exercise attributes, which he had going on full throttle. We're talking glistening skin, deep breathing, flushed face. Control yourself. He shrugged, "Me neither."

"So you test it on the girl with superhuman strength?" She narrowed her eyes. Whose strength was he challenging, here? Maybe he was just stupid. "I could have shattered you."

"After which you would have been overwhelmed with guilt and volunteered to help nurse me back to health." Sharpay merely looked at him, blinked her gaze away and slowly strode past him. Troy let out a breath, "Or not..."

"You would've mimicked Zeke's accelerated healing," She said to the wind as she walked back through the field toward the dormitories.

"Maybe," he replied, easily catching up with her. "Maybe I would have played patient for a little while."

"And why would you do that?"

"An attempt to have a conversation with you composed of something more than glances and half a sentence at a time." Sharpay stopped and looked at him. He motioned by tilting his head, "Sort of like that."

"Why."

Troy blue eyes looked confused, "Why... would I want to have a conversation with you?"

"Yes."

"I see you've switched from short-sentence mode to one liners." She narrowed her eyes. She didn't understand this Bolton character. Not at all. Did he know something? Was he trying to get her to give him a story so that he could go back to whoever it was he was working for and have her and Ryan sent back to that god forsaken Albuquerque training center? Or worse? She shook the thought off. Impossible. But either way, she didn't feel the need to indulge his curiosity. Instead she watched Troy examine her face. Left eye, right eye, mouth, right eye, nose, mouth, left eye. "Have you always been this hard to talk to?"

"Does it matter?"

/

Troy let out an almost frustrated breath, looking over her shoulder and around the field they had stopped in the middle of. He felt the cool breeze pass between them before he saw it blow her blonde ponytail over her shoulder. Her brown eyes stared back at him almost accusingly. "Why are you so guarded?"

"Why do you keep asking questions knowing I won't respond?"

He smiled, "Because eventually you'll give in to my persistence."

"Not likely." She shot back, turning and walking back in the direction of the school campus. He watched her for a short while, giving her time to think that she had gotten rid of him for the time being. Wast she didn't know was that it was not likely he was going to become any less unrelenting. He blinked, felt the usual pull and teleported two steps in front of her. She merely stared, unaffected. Not even a flinch. His own mother couldn't even keep a straight face when he flashed from his room into the kitchen for dinner. Where had she come from? She let out a- what he hoped was- a defeated breath. "One thing."

He narrowed his eyes in challenge. "Two."

She raised an eyebrow. "One."

"Two and I promise to leave you alone until dinner."

"One and I don't make you look like a complete fool during practice rounds."

"You can't scare me off, Sharpay," He responded, shaking his head slowly. 'I know the tough guy face is always just an act."

"Oh, is it? You've known me less than a day, Troy Bolton. Please divulge how you've uncovered such information about my inner self."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"As if you could if you wanted to-" She laughed and made a move to walk around him. He grabbed her by the arm in the process, stopping her body as it became parallel with his. Sharpay looked down at his hand on her unsurprisingly toned, tan bicep and then up into his eyes. "Let. Go."

"Nope." Troy said in defiance. "I want two things."

"You know I can easily remove your hand." She answered, ignoring the demand. "And by remove I mean your arm from its socket."

"So do it." He challenged, and something in her eyes changed. The shape they had narrowed into widened the slightest bit. She must not be used to having such a straight denial to her wishes. But she was blatantly gorgeous, so he understood why people would give her what she wanted. He saw her locked jaw relaxed but she simply stood there staring at him. "One, I don't do friendships, so I'm not big on this whole sharing thing you seem to be so big on. And two, because of lack of said relationships I've had a lot of time to strengthen my powers. So unless you want four broken fingers, please remove your hand from my arm."

It kind of caught Troy off guard- the information. She didn't do friendships? What did that even mean? She had no friends? Had she ever? It would explain her lack of speech and inability to socially interact with a group of people her age. He stared into each of her eyes for a moment longer before giving into their truth and letting go of her. She started walking away the second he did without a second glance. He watched her step off the grass onto the paved path leading to the dorms and unable to hold back the curiosity, asked, "What do you mean you don't-"

She turned to face him, lifting one finger over her lips. He stopped, watching her point the same silencing finger at him. "Until dinner. You promised."

/

"Welcome to Basic Skills, level three. This year you will be learning..."

Ryan sat back in his chair and flattened his blue and silver striped tie against his chest. Basic skills? Were they serious? How long was he going to have to play along with this charade? He turned his head and saw Gabriella across the small aisle between lab desks. She was staring intently at the teacher, taking in every single word. She had innate capability, didn't that sort of omit the need for classes on her part? She tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "Stop staring at me."

He smirked, and looked back to the teacher.

"Now last year we left off with how to properly tell a more than convincing lie." Mr. Sommers started, sitting back on his desk and addressing the entire class. Ryan wondered what his power was. "Today I want to see if any of you have retained the information. Lie detection. Who can give us some indicators as to- Gabriella Montez, try to leave some answers for the rest of the class, hm?"

Gabriella grinned, dropping the hand that she had raised into the air. "Limited physical movements that are often stiff, paired with touching of the face or neck. A lot of people scratch behind their ear and avoid eye contact. Facial expressions most likely won't match the statement the accused is saying. "

"The person might also be quick to change the conversation." Ryan interjected, causing Gabriella to turn to him, dark hair whipping around her face. He turned his head to her, still relaxed in his chair. This was amateur hour. "Then, his or her voice will become monotonous while avoiding denying the statement directly. The person will most likely avoid facing the accuser by turning their body to the side or placing an object in between them. The latter is normally unconsciously done."

"Evans, correct?" The teacher asked as Gabriella stared Ryan down. Ryan never looked away from her as he nodded a "Yes sir." The teacher nodded back in what seemed to be approval as Ryan heard him thinking, "Finally someone to listen to other than Montez", and it was all Ryan could do to keep from smirking. Out loud, Mr. Sommers simply said, "Looks like Miss Montez has some competition this year in the brains department."

"Hardly." Gabriella mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for Ryan to hear. He was pretty sure she meant him to. The teacher gave a few more details into the world of lie detection- almost all of which Ryan had learned back at the Institute. He was just wondering if he was going to learn anything new or of interest in this class at all when pair practices were announced. Purposely avoiding eye contact, Ryan could easily tell, Gabriella turned to the girl at the other chair of her lab desk. That just wasn't going to do. He excused himself from his own female desk partner and walked over to the girl Gabriella was smiling at. "Don't you remember telling Mallory you would work with her today?" He asked, eyes fixated on the girl's blue irises.

She nodded slowly, as if in a momentary haze but then blinked and shook herself from it. "He's right, Gabriella, I totally forgot. Maybe he could trade places with me..."

"It would be my pleasure." Ryan grinned. Memory manipulation. Ability to erase or enhance the memories of another. Clearly Mallory and the girl had worked together in the past or Ryan's complete guess would've fallen through. He got lucky. He often did.

"What was that?" Gabriella asked pointedly, eyes examining his face as he sat down on the stool opposite her.

He turned his body to her, knees just brushing hers. "What was what?"

"You just did something. With your eyes. What was it, ESP?"

"No, my little empathist, I'll leave the extrasensory perception to you."

She let out an irritated breath and crossed her legs, smoothing her plaid skirt over her thighs. "I'll figure it out."

"Just because I can read your thoughts doesn't mean you shouldn't speak out loud." Ryan replied, somewhat amused by her intent to find the wrong in him. She wasn't going to find any. He wasn't here to do wrong. He was here to find out who did.

"Why, does it bother you?"

"No more so than the fact I can smell you changing your pheromones. PS, your attempt to change my mood isn't going to work because I'm already bored."

A small smirk appeared on the corner of Gabriella's lips. "Whatever. You can only fight it off for so long."

"What are you trying to accomplish with this little exercise, hm? That you're stronger than me power-wise even though I beat you yesterday during those silly practice rounds?" Ryan watched her face for any sort of change- they were supposed to be practicing lie detection methods after all. He could have fun with this. Why not make her sweat a little? "Or are you trying to get me to make a move on you?"

"What?" Gabriella almost laughed, tucking hair behind her ear. Unconscious nervous tick. Strike one. "Why would I, let alone any other female, want that?"

"I don't know. Maybe you think I'm cute."

"I do not think you are cute." Rephrasing the question to make an answer. Lack of use of contractions. Strikes two and three. Someone needed to teach this girl how to lie. Though she'd probably never be at he or Sharpay's level. Ryan nodded to play along, looking away to front of the classroom, idly twisting the ring on his middle finger. "Fair enough."

/

"That's it?"

"Yep." Ryan replied casually, driving Gabriella insane. "That's it."

"I don't know what game you're trying to play with me, but it's very irritating."

He turned his head, his brown-but-nearly-hazel eyes landing on her. "And I don't know what pheromone you're working but it's very beautiful."

Gabriella had stopped altering her pheromones the second he had pointed them out- more out of sheer spite than anything. He obviously knew this. He was obviously trying to see how she would react. He was obviously teasing her. Obviously. "You think you're suave."

"You think you're smarter than me."

"I am smarter than you."

"Knowledge-wise, perhaps." Ryan shrugged a shoulder, as if there was actually an arguement here. She had innate capability. She knew everything- well, nearly everything. "But people-wise? Street-wise? Not a chance."

Fine. He'd caught her attention. For now. She'd play along. "I don't understand."

"Exactly. Note my superiority."

"Are you trying to make me hate you?" Gabriella snapped in a soft voice. She used her empathy to send waves of relaxation his way. Too many for him to ignore. She saw his muscles loosen up and she knew he'd given up on fighting her powers. "We're on the same team, you know, we're supposed to be friends with each other."

"Are you saying you actually want to be friends with me?"

"Yes." She answered just a second too quickly. "I mean, it wouldn't... Yeah, I guess I do." He raised a blonde eyebrow at her. She her body slightly away from his, maintaining his eye contact. "Strictly in the best interest of Alpha Team, of course."

"Of course."

"Okay, rule one of this new friendship? Don't mock everything I say."

"Fine. But rule two? Don't think everything I say is a jab against your intelligence." Gabriella stared him down but the look he gave back almost showed a full presence of sincerity so she left it alone. She held back the urge to roll her eyes. She held out her hand, an attempt at peace. "Fine."

Ryan looked down at her hand for a moment before accepting it. His hand was warm aside from the cool silver of his ring. "Fine."

"Fine." Gabriella said, one more time, as if it was needed. For some reason they were still shaking hands. "Are you reading my mind right now?"

"I'm reading a lot of things." Ryan smirked, and she pulled her hand away cautiously. She looked at her hand and then up at his grin. "Your power gets stronger when you've got direct contact. Should've been obvious."

"You don't like me or Sharpay very much, do you?" He asked calmly. She felt instant guilt, re-thinking all of the thoughts she'd had about the two newcomers. Especially Sharpay. Ryan must have been reading her mind again, because he continued with, "Sharpay hasn't been much of a people-person since our dad died. Don't judge her too much."

Well, that was kind of sweet. He was protective of his sister even though she was sort of rude to him. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. She nodded slowly. "I'll try to talk to her or something."

"You have to show her she can trust you first." Ryan advised as Mr. Sommers stood up in the front of the room and began to introduce the next lesson. "If she doesn't think there's trust between you, she won't bother."

"But how do I show her I'm trustworthy if she never-"

"Shhh, Gabriella." Ryan cut her off with a finger to his lips. "You may know already know the lesson, but some of us are trying to learn here."

/

Boring. Boring. Boring.

That is all this school had to offer.

Except for Sharpay's combat class. That had been fun. Even though ninety percent of the class had been spent talking about techniques rather than performing them. Which had also been boring. Back at the Institute she had been given multiple hours to 'mock' combat other students. If you could call them students. There were even The Tests, which were basically the Institute's condensed , less violent version of the Hunger Games. In those terms, she was always a Katniss of course, beating out everyone else. Though with her powers, it was kind of comical for anyone else to think they could beat her. Even Ryan knew better- though he made a valid attempt to try.

Troy had been in the class, living up to his agreement to be silent in her direction until dinner. Along with Jason and Martha, some of the seniors from Alpha who Sharpay didn't find that interesting despite Martha's precognition and Jason's invisibility. Okay, fine, the invisibility was kind of cool. Sharpay had wanted that power desperately back at the Institute, but it was a no-go. If they wanted to bestow a power onto a student, like the gods they thought they were, they had the power to choose who and what. Requests were not taken.

She walked through the doorway to the dorm casually, untucking her white dress shirt and making her way up the steps. A boy passed her on the stairs looking awe-struck, but she ignored the stare and walked straight down the hallway to the room she knew belonged to her brother. She didn't bother knocking either. She didn't see the point. It's not like she was going to walk in and see Troy half-naked... Though it wouldn't be the worse thing in the world...

Ryan looked up from his spot on the bed when she shut the door, tinkering with a small piece of technology most likely from one of his classes. "Are you allowed to be in here?"

"Do I care?" Sharpay answered monotonously, looking around the room. She took in the two unoccupied beds. Guessing that the messy one was Zeke's, she chose to sit on the bed whose corners were practically tucked in. This left a question in the back of her mind as to who Troy's parents were. Possibly military. Possibly CIA. Figures. She grabbed the metal-coated cube from her brother's hands before sitting back on the sheets carefully, because for reason she cared whether or not she messed up Troy's bed. She looked down at the task in her hands and asked, "Where are the others?"

"By 'others', do you mean half-naked Troy?"

She looked up at him, unamused until Ryan grabbed both sides of his head. He winced in mild pain. She was being kind. "Alright, I'm sorry! Turn it off!" Sharpay looked down at her hands once more and smoothed her fingers over the flat surface and the blast ceased, leaving Ryan rubbing at the side of his temples to diminish the remaining headache. "They went to study. You know, the place you should be right now?"

"You're not there either, so I don't see the point in me needing to go. Not like I need the practice." Sharpay replied, bored. She applied pressure with her thumbs at a particular spot on each side of the cube, causing it to fold open and reveal a small bottle of clear liquid. She placed the cube on Troy's bed and tossed the vial to her brother. "Or the extra help."

"What is it?" Ryan asked, examining it for a moment. He unscrewed the small lid and barely took a whiff before his face contorted and he immediately capped it. "Baleum," he coughed.

"Why would they give you Baleum?" Sharpay questioned in return, thinking back to some of her Institute training. Baleum was a fine dust that appeared clear when mixed into boiled water or alcohol. To anyone who didn't know what it was, it smelled sort of like a bottle of ammonia. Mixed into an alcoholic beverage, as this particular serum was intended for use on those in upper class society who threw large parties with open bar, the scent and taste somehow becomes undetectable. It's been used since the early spy days, back when Edward Bancroft and Benjamin Franklin were still around. Take a large sniff of it on its own and you'd pass out, wake up locked in a room for questioning. Take a large sip of it with your vodka tonic and in less than ten minutes, you'd start spilling all your secrets. But why would they put something like that in a student's hands? Maybe the Institute set something up... No. No, they didn't have much use for a truth serum this early in their mission. Wouldn't make sense. Everything has to be timed and perfect.

"I don't know..." Ryan started, tossing it back to his sister. "I think we all got something different. Baleum isn't exactly something you just fill up vials of and pass around a school."

"It's not really something you give one student a vial of, either. I mean... in the wrong hands..." Sharpay held the liquid in front of her eyes. The secrets she'd be able to learn with just a- She felt Ryan trying to get into her head and looked up at him. "Relax, I'm harmless."

If being able to kill a person just by looking at them is harmless, then yes. Totally harmless.

"Sharpay." She rolled her eyes as she looked up at her brother. He nodded at her hand. "Give it."

"New school. New uniform. Same. Boring. Ryan." Sharpay mocked, tossing the vial back. He tucked it into his pocket. "You need to learn to have fun."

"I have plenty of fun." He said matter-of-factly. Highly doubtful, but she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though her brother's idea of fun was often reading century old biographies on a Friday night. "Maybe not as much as you and-"

"I swear on our blood line if you say something that even starts with the letter T, I will-"

"You said it, not me." Ryan smirked, standing up from the bed. "Someone's going to mess up the mission..."

Sharpay simply stared at him. He was clearly trying to get a rise out of her. No use blasting him if he was so openly inviting the thrashing migraine in. She just wasn't sure why he was trying to provoke her. Did he have a bet going? Was the Headmistress waiting in the hallway? "If any of us messes up, it's going to be you. Don't think I haven't seen you and my roommate getting buddy-buddy."

"We were clearly instructed to make friends and blend in. It's strictly in the interest of the mission."

She laughed as she stood up. "Right, the one that has absolutely nothing to do with getting into a girl's skirt?"

"When has my motive ever been to get a girl into bed? And it's not like she's distracting me. Unlike Troy, who you were thinking about the entirety of Ciphers and Co- HELLO, Thor, human being underneath your forearm." Sharpay ignored Ryan's whining and continued pinning him against the wall by his bed. His speed and reflexes were useless when he couldn't see the attack coming. Never turn your back on the opponent. So what if during class Troy had crossed her mind once...

twice...

threesixeight times. But he was sitting directly in front of her. It was sort of hard to ignore the person whose head was blocking the chalkboard. And now that they'd come to an agreement not to speak until dinner, well, he was actually sort of interesting. Not that she'd ever openly say or think that. And she obviously couldn't help but notice his back muscles, I mean, they were staring her right in the face. Literally. Right in front of her for 50 minutes. Hard to ignore through a white dress shirt. Knock it off, Sharpay, focus. She released the pressure on his neck all at once and turned around just in time for a body to materialize in front of her. A pair of warm hands caught her biceps as she momentarily lost balance. She felt her hands reach out and press against someone's torso. A pair of blue eyes held her gaze for no more than four seconds. Now was not the appropriate time for him to be showing up.

"Ryan, are you alright?" Troy asked, removing his hands from Sharpay and looking over her shoulder. She snatched her hands back, folding them across her chest. He had nice abs, too. There had to be a flaw somewhere. Ryan lifted a hand and waved it away, clearing his throat to reopen his lungs to air. "Peachy."

Troy looked back down at her. She should probably move away from him... right?

She took a step back and then turned towards the door. Troy called her name and she looked over her shoulder, waiting for whatever it was he had to say. He opened his mouth like wanted to ask another one of his questions, and maybe she wanted him to. No. No she didn't. She didn't want that. She couldn't want that. She blinked, but he just closed his mouth and gave a small smile. "Sorry. Dinner. I forgot."

Right.

Dinner.

She forgot, too.

But she didn't care. So it didn't matter.

"Good memory," she replied, adding a smirk just to regain some control of the situation before leaving the room.

/

"Safe to say you won't be taunting Taylor anymore, huh Zeke?" Gabriella asked, the first to push open the door to the cafeteria. She looked over her shoulder at Zeke, who was rubbing at his ear in an attempt to fully regain his hearing from Taylor's sonic scream during practice rounds. Everyone else had practically fallen to their knees covering their ears, too, but since Zeke had been her sparring partner, he'd taken the worst hit. Normally Troy enjoyed practice rounds, but since today was the first official school day, it meant supervision by a teacher. And that meant less fun. When he passed through the door frame, he looked behind himself as he held the door open for Sharpay who was walking just a step in front of her brother. Whenever they walked silently like that, Troy wondered if they were having a conversation through each other's minds. They were probably so used to it.

"Shut up, Gabriella." Zeke gave as his best reply. Sharpay reached her hand out to catch the door, looking up into Troy's eyes in recognition. It was dinner. Technically he could start trying to get her to talk again. Although they rarely spoke to each other when there were people around. Not at role call, or class, or the other meals... Granted he'd only met her yesterday and there weren't many of those experiences to count. Still. "Thanks."

"Yep." Troy said, turning into the cafeteria that was set up buffet style. It wasn't the best food, but it was a lot better than when his mom tried to cook, which typically ended with fire alarms or take-out menus. Give her a knife and she could probably send it flying directly into a man's chest from 13 yards away, but expecting her to chop a tomato with it is a whole other story.

"Bolton," Jimmie, one of the guys he had been in Theta Team with last year, caught his hand in their old familiar handshake. When he released it, he grabbed a plate and handed one to him. "Congrats on Alpha."

Troy nodded in thanks and took the plate. He turned his torso and handed it to Sharpay, who took it without a word but added her signature three-second stare, which was conversation enough itself. Those eyes could tell stories. He picked up his own plate and turned back to Jimmie. "Congrats on Gamma."

"Thanks, man." Jimmie said, grinning with obvious accomplishment. With one power it was amazing to get higher than Theta. But portal creation was pretty rare. More rare than having a power itself. His eyes caught something over Troy's shoulder and the brunette whistled softly. "You're so lucky you're on the team with the new girl. I have Foreign Languages with her and she barely even speaks. Word is she doesn't speak at all."

Alright, Jimmie may have been his closest friend in Theta, but he wasn't the sharpest blade in the shed. "She speaks. She's just... selective, I guess."

As in, if you think she's mute, she probably won't bother proving you otherwise.

"Selective?" Jimmie chuckled at the idea to himself, putting two spoonfuls of pasta on his plate. "Were you one of these so-called selected?"

"Sometimes. When she wants me to be." He answered, knowing full well she was half a pace behind him. Noiseless and beautiful. Silently listening to the conversation. As was Ryan, who was actually probably reading both of their minds... Oh... Right... "Ryan, if you're listening to this, get out of my brain."

"Too late, man." Ryan's voice rang clear in his head, as if he had spoke it out loud. Troy turned to look at him, over Sharpay's head. The blonde boy just gave an amused shrug, as if he couldn't help himself. Guess he probably couldn't when the thoughts were so... there.

"What does that even mean?" Jimmie asked, unaware. But Troy liked to think he understood. Maybe he did, or maybe he didn't understand anything about her. But he knew a few things. Like that she didn't like when people treated her a certain way based on her appearance, that she woke up early in the morning to run through the woods, and that she was strong, and smart, and beautiful. And somewhere along the line something happened to make her think that she had to hide herself behind her strength every day. But Troy saw through it. He didn't know what was underneath that smirk but he got a small glimpse of it every time they spoke. And that was enough for him. For now.

"So how is it she shows up out of nowhere and gets Alpha? What's her power? Excessive good-looking-ness?"

Troy shook his head. "Don't let her catch you basing her abilities off of her looks. It'll probably only end up with your arm in a cast."

Jimmie turned, eyes somewhat wide, "She broke your arm?"

"Me? No. But she fractured Zeke's."

"Oh, right. Yesterday's rounds. Tiara told me about that."

"And I should probably let you know that the fact that you've chosen to talk about her while she's standing right behind me probably means she won't be very interested in talking to you."

Jimmie smirked, unashamed as they moved away from the selection of food, "What are you, her specialist?"

He shrugged and looked over his shoulder. Sharpay seemed very interested in picking out only certain pieces of lettuce with the salad tongs. "She's just not as hard to figure out as she tries to be."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Jimmie, Troy placed his plate in front of one of the unoccupied seats at the where Gabriella had apparently designated the Alpha juniors would be sitting. He walked over to the drink bar, where East High refused to provide soda as an option because it was so unhealthy, which was fine with Troy. He turned, about to grab a cup when one was held out for him. His eyes recognized the golden skin before they went up the arm and practice round shirt and to Sharpay's face. She stared for a few seconds, still holding onto the cup before saying, "Thank you."

Her fingers loosened as she grabbed a second glass for herself. Troy knew exactly what she was referring to. "You heard the conversation."

"You were right in front of me, Troy. You wanted me to hear you." Sharpay smirked softly, pressing the button for orange juice and watching the glass fill up. "Plus Ryan told me what you were thinking."

Not awkward at all.

"Everything?" She stopped the flow of juice and grabbed a straw, looking up at him. The fact that her eyes were so beautiful really made Troy enjoy those stares she gave him. But he was going to really have to control his thoughts from now on. She freed the straw from it's paper wrapper and pushed it into the liquid. "Just about."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to... You know... Think about you." As if that made any sense. He held a cup underneath the fruit punch Powerade, maybe the flow of electrolytes would give him some clarity.

"Yes you did, or else you wouldn't have thought it." This was true. But this didn't make it any less embarrassing. Was that what he was? Embarrassed? He wasn't sure. Maybe he liked that Sharpay knew how he felt. Maybe it would open her up. "People have thought a lot of things about me, Troy. I've gotten everything from 'bitch' to 'Barbie'. Someone back at-" She paused for only a moment, something registering in her eyes. He didn't think it was anything to be curious over but he made note of it anyway. "-Albuquerque used to positively hate me. And I mean loathe. You can't even imagine the thoughts in his head."

Troy pulled his cup back, watching her even though her eyes were elsewhere. The idea of someone hating you was bad enough, but having to hear the things they thought. Their reasons. It must have been horrible. Maybe that's why she was so reserved, it'd be a logical reason. "Sharpay, I'm sor-"

"It's not often Ryan tells me people are thinking things about me that I actually like." She blinked her eyes over to his. Troy couldn't help himself, he smiled. She took a step closer to him, only both of their cups in between them. It took immense control to not- he wasn't sure of exactly what. But he was holding himself back from doing something. She narrowed her eyes just enough to remain friendly. "Don't make regret liking them."