From AK-tutti; I'm very disappointed in you guys! You call that reviewing? Let's make a competition out of reviewing from now on, what do you guys think? Anyway, to those luvly HSM fans who did review; thank you very much, we really love you guys! HUGS I'm trying to keep my author's note really short this time, if that is at all possible for me. So in the last chapter's author's note, I wrote a author's note instead of an author's note. It's not like I'm a grammar freak or anything, but if I know it's there it really bugs me. Unless it was one of those big words, that I was too lazy to get the word book for. Anyway, I'll let Stessa write her author's note now, so take it away my sweet luv ;b
From Stessa; Thank you very much, my dear ;p I just want to thank you all for reviewing. It really means a lot to the both of us. I don't really know what to say, except than; YOU GUYS ROCK! xD
Disclaimer; When you wish upon a star. But we do not own High School Musical, it belongs to Disney, and we're not some dead dude! And we don't own Jingle Bell Rock or Liz McClarnon's song "(Don't It Make You) Happy!" – as you probably figured, Liz McClarnon owns that one ;p
Twist Of Love
Chapter 3.
The next morning Gabriella woke up by the sound of a knock on the door, at first she tried to ignore it, because let's face it she's not a morning person. But whoever was at the door just kept knocking and knocking, until she finally gave up and got out of bed with a loud groan. Gabriella was very testy in the morning.
She put on her baby blue bathrobe, which Sharpay had gotten for her on the birthday, where she turned 10 years old. Oddly enough, it still fit perfectly. She glanced at her best friend, who was still in the bed sleeping, mumbling something about chocolate chip cookies, before making her way to the door to see, who was at it this time at day.
Knock, knock, knock.
"I'm on my way, god damnit!" She screamed, she was in the kitchen now, which meant the hallway was next. She was tying up her bathrobe, while she was walking, so the person at the door wouldn't be able to see her personal possessions. "Relax!"
She ripped the door open and there stood Troy with a paper bag in one hand and some orange juice in the other. He seemed stunned by the fact, that Gabriella had yelled, but he quickly got his face back.
"I'm guessing you're not a morning person?" He joked, stepping inside Gabriella's apartment. She simply groaned, and he got even more amused and started laughing, "I brought breakfast, by the way."
As he said that, he lifted up the paper bag and juice to show her. They made their way into the kitchen, where Gabriella found some plates and glasses, which she put on the kitchen table. Troy put the bag and juice on the table and sat down on a stool.
"What did you bring for breakfast?" Gabriella asked, yawning and stretching her arms.
"A little of this and a little of that" He replied, and took what Gabriella said as his que to open the bag and bring the breakfast on the table. He listed up the things in the bag as he put them on the table, "Morning muffins, eggs, toast, crusty rolls, peanut butter, jam, cheese (Gabriella made a face), cheese spread, chocolate, as I'm one of those who likes to put chocolate on his crusty rolls. I also have some crackers with fruitfilling, they are suppose to be healthy, there was a huge fuss about them at the supermarket. I brought some brown sugar as well, cos I don't know about you, but I loved to put that on toast and crusty rolls, when I was around two years old, and I've been dying to do it again."
"You forgot about orange juice. You didn't mention orange juice." Gabriella said, with an elbow on the table and her hand holding her head, her eyes were half closed, "And you had all that in one bag?"
"It's an awfully big bag!" He said with a big smile on his face. If you were there, you'd probably have named him Mr. Sunshine or something like that, he was getting too cheery for his own good. "So, what do you want?"
"I want two crusty rolls, the peanut butter, chocolate, an egg, I'd also like to try some of those fruit crackers, a morning muffin and the orange juice."
"Good choices, mein Freund, good choices!" He said, as he passed her all of those things, "So tell me something about yourself, Gabby."
"I'm tired." She said, very precise and very short, as she spread the peanut butter out on one of her crusty rolls with a fruit cracker in her mouth. She looked ready for playboy (It's a joke, you laugh).
"So I've noticed," Troy giggled and poured her some orange juice, "But don't you have a secret or something like that? Something, so I can really get to know you?"
"You wanna know my deepest secret, Troy?" She asked, now putting chocolate on the other crusty roll and with half a crusty roll with peanut butter in her mouth (variation, my beluved friends), "Nobody knows it, except for my family, Sharpay and 3 of my closest friends. Sharpay not included in the 3 friends, otherwise it would only be two!"
"Sure. And I'm guessing you want me to tell you a secret in return, right?"
"You guessed right, Mr. Sunshine (and there it came)!" She said, smiling. Wow, the first smile from her of the day, "Ok, so my secret is, that I'm really older than Sharpay. Two months. I'm born in June, and she is born in august. When we were about 4 years old, we made a pact, that from that day and to the end of our friendship, she'd be the oldest of her and me. You see, she hated being the youngest, and I hated being the oldest. You know how it is, the youngest always get treated like they're too little to do anything, and then there's the oldest, who gets to do all these things, that the youngest didn't get to do. Sharpay liked getting permission to do new stuff before others, but I'd always get the permission before her, because of the age difference. I, on the other hand, liked being looked carefully after and such. That's why we switch, so now we pretend, that I'm an October child. I always summer anyways, so it was fine by me! Now, you go."
"I think you're cute, and I'd like it, if we could go out." He said softly and took Gabriella's hand.
"Come again?" She asked, kinda frightened. No guy had ever called her cute, at least not straight to her face. Her eyes grew big. "Like for real, as in seriously?"
"Like for real, as in seriously," He confirmed, what he had said, not letting go of her hand, "I really do think, you're cute. Sharpay is right, I do like you. She bugged me with that all day yesterday. So yeah, will you please go out with me?"
"I... I have to 'jingle bell rock' today, and I'm getting off pretty late and for the rest of the week I'm busy 24-7, travelling all over the country, promoting The Sweethearts Christmas single, so we can have a Christmas no. 1. We get home a day before the single release, and then we have to travel again to go single signing all these different places. When we finally get back, we have to record the Christmas cd, so I'll be working 24-7 again to get it done for it's release in the beginning of December. When it's had it's release, we have album signing to do, and then we have to perform some of the songs on the album for different music shows around the country. We get time off the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, but that's not exactly a date period, as I'll probably be with my family. Then we have to work again, and we don't even get New Year's Eve off, cos we have to perform at Nokia's New Year's Eve in Rio. Don't even ask me, why it's there we're performing, when there are being held Nokia New Year's Eve concerts in Hong Kong, Berlin, Mumbai and New York too, just with different artists. It would just have been easier, if we were to perform in New York, not that I'm complaining about going to Brazil or anything. We then get a day off, but after that we have to go back to work again again, cos we have a new single 'Still You Went' coming out on Valentine's Day, so we have to record it, shoot a video to it, promote it around country and so on. We also have to write our new album, decide which single's to release at what time, more recording, shooting, promoting, performing and such. We also have many photo shoots, events and premieres to attend. So to summon up, I don't think I have time to date."
"Dad isn't giving you that much leash?" Troy joked, as he grabbed a muffin. He took a bite of it and continued; "What if we go on a pretty late date, and if it goes well, I can ask my dad, if I can tag along on you promotion tour, and then we can see where it leads, ok?"
"I guess so. Yeah, we can go on a date tonight. I'd really love to," Gabriella said, beaming all of the sudden, "But won't you find it pretty boring on the road with us?"
"Nah, I won't. Not with you there, Gabby," He said, he still hadn't let go of her hand, and now he grabbed her other one and just gazed into her eyes, "We could also have some fun writing songs, I've heard you don't write that many yourself, cos you don't think, you're that talented. Well, guess what? I'm an excellent writer at whatever, so you can just say whatever comes to mind, and I'll just rewrite it into something song-ish. Wouldn't that be great?"
"I can't wait, my Mr. Sunshine."
Then there was a special moment, a moment where they just gazed into each other's eyes. It was perfect. It really was, until Sharpay entered the kitchen only wearing a pink bra and thong.
"Um, Shar, aren't you forgetting something?" Gabriella said, shyly, looking at Troy and found him looking down at his plate, which caused her to smile a little. Y'know, that he didn't look.
"What do you mean, Gabby?" Sharpay asked, not realising that she was half naked, but when Gabriella gave her a saying glare and looked down at her body, she did and was very embarrassed, "Oh, I'm so, so sorry. Of course, it should be a reflex to put on your bathrobe on, when you wake up, shouldn't it? Troy, I'm really sorry you had to witness, um… this."
--
"Jingle bell, jingle bell
Jingle bell rock
Jingle bell swing
And jingle bells ring
Snowin' and blowin'
Up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun ..."
"Ok, Sharpay. So this is where, you are suppose to come in," Tanya said, slightly annoyed. They were in the recording studio again, recording 'Jingle Bell Rock', but it was like Sharpay's battery was low, and they couldn't get anything out of her. "The song is called Jingle Bell Rock, not Jingle Bell & 5 Years Later Rock. Pull yourself together."
"I'm sorry, Tanya. If I could just have 10 minutes break, I know I can do better." Sharpay said, looking down at the floor, ashamed of herself.
Today had been a weird day for her, she hadn't been her fun, bubbly and smiley self. She'd been quiet, moody and frowning non-stop. She'd been thinking to herself all day 'ok, make a Sharpay comment. Just say anything Sharpay-like. Anything that says, I'm not losing it!', but that anything never came, and now she was here, screwing up their Christmas single, which normally she wasn't capable of. Normally if you put Sharpay and music together, it would be perfect, but not today. It was like her magic was gone. She knew why, though, it's because her head had been filled with all these different thoughts since this morning, well last night to be more correct.
"10 minutes, not one second more." Tanya gave in, but she didn't bother looking at Sharpay or anything, she was mad at her for acting unpro, like it was the first time Sharpay had ever been in a recording studio, "But if you don't get it together, Gabriella gets this song as a solo. Now go!"
Sharpay stomped out of the recording studio like a buffalo, thinking Tanya was being totally unfair. Didn't Sharpay always bring it? Well, except for today, she was feeling rather weird inside. She was having a huge battle inside her head; Was she having feelings for Troy or beginning to have them? Or was she just surprised by Gabby liking him that much and wanting to go out with him? Sharpay chose to believe the surprise theory.
She made her way down the hallway, walking past a few other recording studios, she was going to get some water and think of something else, something that would make her happy, so she could concentrate better on her singing. Mine and Gabriella's famous supermarket trip 3 years ago, and just like that she forgot everything, and she knew she could concentrate now. That brought a smile to her face, she hated screwing up, and now she knew she didn't have to. That's when she heard it from one of the other studios;
"Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy
Oh boy, what do you say?
You found yourself a new place to play
Ooh yeah, make me care
Now you're here you can take me there
Oh yeah, why don't we get together?
Oh yeah, nothing good lasts forever
I was trying to find forgiveness
Then I found it in your eyes
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Don't it make you happy boy
Don't it make you happy now
Don't it make you happy now baby
Don't it make you happy now yeah..."
Sharpay opened the door to the studio and found Gabriella sitting on the floor, working her way to find the right melody for her song. She stopped singing, when someone opened the door, but smiled when she realized it was just Sharpay.
Sharpay went inside and closed the door behind her, she sat down on the floor next to her best friend and read the lyrics on the piece of paper, she was holding. She smiled and said; "This is really great, Gabby. When did you write this?"
"Two years ago, before we even got our record deal." She replied, getting a hug from Sharpay, giggling a little, "You don't think it's sucky?"
"No, not at all," Sharpay assured her best friend, grabbing the piece of paper from her, "Infact I have a great idea for it. You wait here for a few minutes, I'll be right back!"
And with that, Sharpay stormed out of the studio with the lyrics, but luckily she was back 3 minutes later with her laptop. She sat down next to Gabriella and let her in on the idea she just got; "Ok, so I was thinking... I have this program on my computer, where you can make melodies and such, so we can make a melody for it and put on a cd, go into the studio and record our voices onto it right this second. Unless you don't want me to sing along with you, since it's your first song?"
"No, it's ok Sharpay." Gabriella smiled, she loved her and Sharpay's friendship, and how Sharpay would do anything for her, "But we can't do it right now, can we? I mean, Tanya would flip if we're just one second late."
"Screw her, this is your first song!" Sharpay exclaimed, and Gabriella smirked strangely it her, which caused them both to laugh, "Ok, we will be late, but what I have in mind will only take like 7 minutes to do, so we'll only be about 2 minutes late. Tanya'll live."
"Let's do it then," Gabriella decided, wanting to hear Sharpay's plan, "So, what do you have in mind for my 'first song'?"
"An upbeat version of Son Of a Preacher Man meets The Sweethearts fever slash style. What do ya think?" She added, after fiddling a little with a laptop and played the tune for Gabriella. A hug for Gabriella was enough to tell Sharpay, that she loved it. "So I was thinking, you do this part, this part, this part and this."
She pointed different places on the paper, to show which parts she was thinking of, and continued; "I do the rest, except for the chorus, which we sing together. Are you ready?"
With a nod, Gabriella went into the recording studio, Sharpay started the music, and as Gabriella began to sing, she stepped silently into the studio as well.
"Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy
Oh boy, what do you say?
You found yourself a new place to play
Ooh yeah, make me care
Now you're here you can take me there
Oh yeah, why don't we get together?
Oh yeah, nothing good lasts forever
I was trying to find forgiveness
Then I found it in your eyes
Yeah, yeah, yeah"
Sharpay smiled and joined Gabriella in the chorus;
"Don't it make you happy boy
Don't it make you happy now
Don't it make you happy now baby
Don't it make you happy now yeah"
Now it was Gabriella's turn to sing alone again, but right after she was done singing the next three sentences, it would be Sharpay's turn.
"Yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Happy, happy
Don't it make you happy now, yeah."
Now, it was Sharpay's solo, and she really got into it, like she always does. As she began to sing, she felt like she was making up for her screw up today.
"Feel love, don't be shy
When it comes don't ask me why
Hey now the love is here
And don't it make you happy now, yeah
Oh yeah, why don't we get together
Oh yeah, nothing good lasts forever
Everybody needs forgiveness
Everybody wants to fly
Yeah, yeah, yeah"
Sharpay took Gabriella's hand, squeezing it tight (in the friendly way, y'know), giving her best friend a prizewinning smile, as they joined together in the chorus;
"Don't it make you happy boy
Don't it make you happy now
Don't it make you happy now baby
Don't it make you happy now yeah"
Then it was Sharpay's turn again, and she gave it her all.
"Yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Happy, happy
Don't it make you happy now, yeah
Hey now, the love is here
And don't it make you happy now, yeah (yeah yeah)"
With two added yeah's to Sharpay's part, Gabriella began singing her next part of the song;
"Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know I'm happy"
Sharpay quickly followed with her next part.
"Happy, happy, happy, happy, yeah
Happy, happy, happy, happy, yeah (don't it make you happy now)
Happy, happy, happy, happy, yeah (don't it make you happy now)"
The last parts of the song were suppose to sound like the girls really let loose, which it really did. Well, truthfully it was very organized, but you seriously couldn't tell. With two added don't it make you happy now's from Gabriella, she continued with her yeah's and Sharpay with her happiness;
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Happy
Happy"
They joined together one last time in the song, and Sharpay now had her arm around Gabriella, giving her a half hug as they sang;
"Don't it make you happy now, yeah."
As Gabriella put her finishing touch to the song, Sharpay stepped out of the recording studio to get ready to stop the recording process, when Gabriella was done with her last part.
"Hey now, the love is here
And don't it make you happy now, yeah!"
Sharpay stopped the recording and ejected the cd, giving it a kiss. That demo, single, cd or whatever you want to call it, was priceless to the girls. Gabriella came squealing out of the studio, jumping up on Sharpay's back, giving her the biggest hug from behind in history.
Sharpay exclaimed; "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make a hit!"
"Yeah, it's gonna be great, but it's not like we're ever gonna release it." Gabriella sighed, defeated. She looked at her watch and continued; "Great, we're late too."
"What do you mean, we're never gonna release it?" Sharpay asked, as they made their way down the hall to the studio, where they were suppose to be in.
"We have our single's planned already, and Mr. B would never go for it. He wouldn't just remove one of the other's from the schedule to make room for my song." Gabriella said, they were now standing right outside the studio, but they didn't go in. They stayed outside and talked.
"There's a thing called double A-side. We'll run the idea by Mr. B, and in that case nothing will be removed, there'll just be added one song. If he doesn't go for it, worst case scenario it'll be on the album, it has yet to be written." Sharpay said, giving her best friend one of her sweetest smiles, "Don't you worry, I'll make sure it'll be released."
"Thank you, Shar. It would mean the world to me. Let's go inside now," Gabriella said and grabbed the doorknob, "When do you think, we'll get off?"
"I don't know, Gabs. I mean, Tanya is in a pretty testy mood today. If the rest of the day goes smooth, we'll be off, um... late. If it doesn't go the smooth, we'll wish we still knew, what the word freedom meant."
They went inside, and they were met by the grumpiest face, you can probably imagine and a "You're late."
Sharpay looked shocked around in the room and exclaimed; "Oh my God, and nobody died. Don't have a cow, Tanya. We know, we're late, but we're ready to jingle bell rock now."
Tanya finally smiled, that's what she'd been waiting to hear all day, and she finally said it. She followed them into the recording studio and told them about the changes she'd made to the song, making it a bit more upbeat and a little more the girls style. They loved it.
The rest of the day went great, they even got off earlier than expected. Much to Gabriella's relief, now she could have that date with Troy after all. Sharpay was also glad, they got off early, now she had a few hours to convince Mr. B, that they should release Gabby's song. Not that his opinion really mattered, but Sharpay was very loyal towards him, so she didn't want to go behind his back and talk to the producers or even the guys from their label, but if he said no she might have to.
--
Sharpay stood outside the Bolton's house, she'd just knocked on the door and was waiting for someone to get it. Please, don't let it be Mr. B's depressing wife. Please, I'll go to church next Sunday, if I get out of meeting her, please God, please. I'll probably not have time to go to church, but I'll try to make it. Pleeeease!
Someone finally opened the door and it was... Troy? Wasn't he suppose to go on a date with Gabby tonight?
"What are you doing here?" She wondered out loud and Troy cracked a smile.
"I sorta live here, ms. Sharpay. I know blonde's are suppose to be stupid and slow, but don't you think you're a little too slow. Your manager is my dad, and he'll still be my dad the next time you come here." That remark earned him a slap on the arm. "Hey!"
"You called me stupid!" She yelled. She calmed herself down and went straight to it, "Is your dad home? And um... aren't you suppose to be on a date with Gabby?"
"He is and I am." He said, smiling. He gestured for her to come inside and she did. He then let her into the living room, where she could wait, "I'm picking her in 30 minutes, and you wait here, I'll go get him."
5 minutes later Mr. B came into the living room and smiled brightly at Sharpay and said; "Glad you stopped by, Shar. We're 5:30 tomorrow, so I'll suggest you go to bed early."
"5:30 as-as in the morning?" She gasped, sure she was used to the early and the long hours, but it still seemed very early for her. Mr. B just nodded and didn't say anything, "Well then, I'll go to bed as soon as I get home, but first I have something important to discuss with you."
"Shoot." Mr. B said, as they sat down in the couch together. He wanted Sharpay to be comfortable and she appreciated that.
"Ok, so what do you think of making 'Still You Went' a double A-side?" She said with a very cheerful sales-woman like voice, as if she was trying to sell him the newest, fanciest car ever.
"First you're gonna have to tell me, what a double A-side is." He said, patiently and sincerely interested, cos Sharpay was really excited about it, so he knew it had to be something good, maybe even great.
"Ok, here goes: you know like how on a single, there is an A-side, a B-side and few remixes? An A-side is like the main song on a single, the one they'll play on the radio, the one you make a music video to, that'll be shown around the world, the one you perform around the country for promotion and such. Then there's a bonus track, one there'll only be on the single but never the album, better known as a B-side. Then there is two, maybe three remixes of the A-side and there you go, you have a single. What do you say, if we make it a double A-side? Y'know, two A-sides, a B-side, maybe one remix of each A-side?" She paused, seeing if Mr. B was with her, and he seemed to be, cos he nodded along to what she said, "So I was thinking for the two A-sides, we'll use 'Still You Went' and a song Gabby has written, that we recorded today called '(Don't It Make You) Happy!' for the B-side we'll still have 'Somebody' and..."
"Sorry to interrupt you, Shar. I like the idea of two A-sides, but which A-side will be the main A-side? Cos I realise what you mean now, and other artists have done it too, but there's always been a main A-side on the double A-side's singles. Like Liz McClarnon's Woman In Love/I Get The Sweetest Feeling for an example, people called that single Woman In Love. Atomic Kitten has made two double A-side's in their history Be With You/The Last Goodbye, people called that singe The Last Goodbye and Right Now 2004/Someone Like Me, people called that Someone Like Me. So which shall our's be? Still You Went/(Don't It Make You) Happy!, what will people call it?"
Sharpay thought for awhile, battling the decision in her head, but she finally made one and said; "People will call it (Don't It Make You) Happy! or just shorten it to Happy!. We'll shoot a music video for both songs, promote both songs, but Happy! will be the main A-side."
She got up from the couch and got the cd with Happy! on out of her purse, she went over to Mr. B's stereo and plugged it in, so that he could listen to it, hear what they'd done. He loved it, Sharpay could tell, he even head banged during the song. Imagine that, a guy his age head banging? He was 42 years old and had a song at the age of 17, a guy like that was not suppose to head bang, but it made Sharpay 'Happy!' that he did.
From Stessa; Okay, so I feel totally ashamed of myself, I didn't write anything in this chapters, except my authors notes and a part of the disclaimer! Can you say pathetic again? But it's just because I'm no good at writing Gabby, it's like… I can't get her just right, so I let AK-tutti write all the mayor Gabby scenes, and such. I will write something in next chapter though! I will! Because I wont let you get rid of me! And now, without further ado, please do finish up, mein freund…
From AK-tutti: Auw, bless you. You said 'mein Freund', I love that phrase atm. Ok, so we know this took a looooooong time to write, but well I haven't been much home and stessa has been focusing on her fab story 'Forbidden Beauty', which I'm still sorry for, that I didn't like trailer, but the story itself rocks, so the trailer didn't do it justice. Anyway, I'll stop rambling and say, the next chapter should be here much sooner, hopefully. And if any of our reviewing or reading luvlies like Beverly Hills, I'll let you know I'm working on a Dylan/Brenda fic, which should be posted soon. I hope you guys will review this chapter all of you, otherwise stessa'll turn into Superman and kick all of your asses. Yes, she's Superman, I just promised not to tell anyone, so please don't tell her, that I did. Oh, and sorry about spelling mistakes and such, when I wrote on this, I wrote pretty fast and I'm too lazy to check after them. Laters, you guys.
Stessa and AK-tutti were here :)