From AK-tutti; Hey everybody. I thought we made a deal? You were gonna beat a record, we did agree on that, right? And then in the middle of it all, you turned around and didn't. That's no good. Shame on you ;b. But still, thank you for them. And further down, I guess you'll figure out, that I'm Gizmo, because Stessa is Stessa, and I'm not? Anyway, on with the story.

From Stessa; Hi again, people! I just wanna thanks for the reviews, they mean a lot me, seriously! Here is the next chapter, I hope it's worth the wait. The flashback in the beginning has sort of a funny story to it, but I don't want to get into that right now.

Disclaimer; We don't own High School Musical. But we own the idea with the handbook, because we are Stessa&Gizmo. AK-tutti owns the idea with the monkey top and the clothing line 'What Not To Wear'.

Twist of Love

Chapter 7.

"Hey Gabs…" Sharpay whispered, turning her head to look at her best friend's face, a smile playing on her lips, "How come we're best friends? I mean, how do you choose your best friends? How come there's some people you just get along with, and some people you can't stand?"

"Gee Shar, that's really deep," Gabriella whispered back, looking at her friend too, "I guess it just happens. I mean, you and I always got along, so that's why we've been best friends for ever. And I know we will be always, even though we're only 15 now, I can tell. You'll never get rid of me!"

"I don't want to get rid of you, Gabs." Sharpay giggled, turning to lie on her stomach in her sleeping back. They were in Gabriella's room, having a sleepover. Sharpay was on a mattress on the floor, while Gabriella was lying on her bed, a few inches higher than her.

"That's nice to know, Shar!" Gabriella said, giggling too, "So, any news in the boyfriend department?"

This could easily be described as gossip, but they didn't care. Sharpay closed her eyes, and blushed a deep red, "Weeeeell…" she begun, trailing off, "There's this guy… at my school."

"Oh, seriously!?" Gabriella exclaimed, moving her head a little to get a better view of her friend, "Who is he? Is he cute? What? You need to spill the beans, you can' just leave me hanging!"

"You know me and guys, Gabs…" Sharpay said, blinking wildly, "There isn't much to tell."

"Oh, c'mon, Shar!" Gabriella said, getting ready to pound on her friend if she didn't share the cute-guy news, "Please? For sweet, little moi?"

"No," Sharpay said, turning around to look at Gabriella again, but she froze when her eyes caught something on the wall, "Gabby…" she begun, swallowing a lump in her throat, while her eyes got bigger, "Please don't freak out and start screaming, but…"

"But what?" Gabriella asked, frightened by the look in Sharpay's eyes.

"There's a big spider on the wall behind your head." Sharpay revealed.

Gabriella immediately started screaming and jumped up, off the bed, landing on top of Sharpay's back, as she was lying on the floor. She looked at her baby blue wall, and saw a big, fat, ugly spider. It was seriously gross. She got the creeps just looking at it. "Eeew!" she exclaimed, "Sharpay, what do we do?"

"Let it be?" Sharpay suggested, knowing how scared Gabriella was of spiders. Sharpay herself didn't like them either, but she wasn't scared of them. They didn't belong in the house, but in nature was fine. And she didn't want to touch them either.

"No!" Gabriella said, slapping Sharpay across the head, "You need to remove it, dork!"

"Me?!" Sharpay said, pushing Gabriella off of her, so she was sitting on the floor. She sat up herself, a weird look in her eyes, "Why do I get to remove it? You're the one who doesn't want it there."

"Please?" Gabriella said, sending her the big puppy-eyes that she knew that Sharpay couldn't resist, "For me?" she pouted, using her baby voice, "Your bestest friend in the whole wide world?"

"Okay then," Sharpay said, standing up to take a look at it.

"But eew, Sharpay, hurry up, 'cause it's moving!" Gabriella shrieked, as the spider took a few steps across her wall, "It's SO gross, hurry up!"

"What do I remove it with?" Sharpay questioned, standing up, hands on hips, "I'm not just gonna grab it, you know!"

"Uhm," Gabriella said, seeming to think about it. Suddenly her face lit up, as she got a brilliant idea, "I know!" she exclaimed, running across her room to her book shelf, where she grabbed a purple book and held it out for Sharpay, "Use this?"

"Your book?" Sharpay questioned, not believing she wanted her to smack the spider with a book! Least at all such a pretty purple one…

"NO!" Gabriella said, "Idiot, it's a handbook!" she held up the book, "Take a look."

Sharpay grabbed the book and took a look at the title, "'How to kill spiders, Stessa&Gizmo style'?" She paused, "Huh?"

"It's a book to how you kill off spiders." Gabriella said, stating the obvious, "You can look it up in it. Try, c'mon now, before it moves again."

"Fine," Sharpay said, rolling her eyes. She opened the book to the first page, and found a long list of different methods. The best ones were first, so she quickly flipped a few pages, and skimmed through the lines, "Quick Gabby!" she said, biting her lip, "Get a shoe and a candle, now!"

"Okay!" Gabriella said, running frantically around her room in search for a shoe or a candle. She found a pink candle and one of Sharpay's silver heels. She grabbed them and hurried back to Sharpay, holding them out for her, "Here." She smiled, really proud of her work.

"Okay, good." Sharpay said, reading the rest of the description, as to how you can kill of a spider with a shoe. She smacked the book close and turned to look at Gabriella again, "Now, I'll use the shoe to smack the spider, and after that, you can remove it from the wall with a napkin or something."

"Okay," Gabriella nodded, thinking that that was a very good idea (except for the part where she was to remove it, but she could always convince Sharpay to do that too later, she knew it). Probably the brightest thing Sharpay had ever said. She stuck the silver heel into Sharpay's arms, still smiling.

"What's that?" Sharpay questioned, looking at her best heels. She loved them SO much.

"A shoe." Gabriella simply said.

"What? No!" Sharpay argued, "I'm not gonna use my silver heel to kill off a spider. It'll ruin the shoe forever. Didn't you have anything else?"


"It was all I could find, you told me to be quick!" Gabriella said.

Sharpay shook her head, and threw her shoe on her sleeping back. She grabbed the book again, and read through the whole candle-method, wanting to see if that one was useable. She nodded when she was done, and closed the book again, "Well, that should work?" she glanced at a candle she had given to Gabriella herself, "Now, are you sure you want to sacrifice that candle?"

"It's that or your shoe." Gabriella simply replied, a smock smile playing on her lips.

"Candle it is!" Sharpay quickly decided, grabbing the pink thing from Gabriella. She turned around to look at the spider, which was still where it was before. She bit her lip and took a step closer, until she was an arm's length away from it, "Okay…" she whispered, "Here we go…"

"Good luck," Gabriella said, swallowing hard.

Sharpay slammed the candle on top of the spider, and then she closed her eyes, making a shrieking sound, while she kept on turning it around, while it was still plastered against the wall. She wanted to be sure that the spider was done, death, goodbye, arrivedeci, chaio.

"I think it's dead now, Shar!" Gabriella exclaimed.

Sharpay slowly opened her eyes, and looked at Gabriella for a second. She then turned to the wall, lifted the candle a little and hammered it to the wall one more time, making the wax fall everywhere. It was crumbling from the candle, landing on Gabriella's bed. She lifted the candle off to reveal a big spot of wax, blood and dead spider.

The girls both let out a loud groan, that was so gross. Sharpay threw the rest of the candle towards the trashcan, and turned to Gabriella, "Your turn now. You remove it."

"No!" Gabriella argued, "No way."

"It can't just sit there."

"You do it, please?"

"Tomorrow, I'm too tired." Sharpay gave in, knowing Gabriella would never do it.

"But I can't sleep there now." Gabriella said, pointing towards her bed.

Sharpay sat down on her mattress and climbed into her sleeping back, "There's plenty of room with me, Gabs?" she suggested, "Come sleep here, I'll remove it tomorrow, first thing, I promise."

Gabriella shot her best friend a smile and climbed into the (luckily) big sleeping back, "That's why I call you my best friend, Shar," she whispered, "You'll do everything for me."

"That's right," Sharpay said, "Because I know you'll do everything for me too."

2 years later, they were the biggest band around, their names were known all around the world. They were on their way to Rio to perform some of their songs at the Nokia New Years Eve concert in Rio. They'd been looking forward to it before Gabriella got herself a boyfriend. They'd promised each other, that their trip to Rio was gonna be so much fun, but look what a month can do?

They were barely talking to each other, and when they did, their conversations were very awkward. So Sharpay had stopped bothering trying to talk to Gabriella, and she'd gotten really close with Taylor in only about 2 weeks. If Gabriella wanted to get her tongue out of Troy's throat long enough to talk to, what she claimed to be best friend, she could do that, and then Sharpay could decide, whether or not she wanted to talk to 'miss I've-got-a-boyfriend-so-I'm-completely-ignoring-the-girl-who's-been-my-best-friend-for-14-years-just-because-my-boyfriend-is-good-looking-and-might-be-a-great-kisser'. She wouldn't count on it, though.

Taylor and Sharpay were sitting in the front of the bus, Troy and Gabriella were in the back of it, Mr. McK and all his people would be found in the middle of it, which Sharpay considered a good thing, because if she got too close to Troy and Gabriella, smoke would start fuming out of her ears.

"For the 117th time, what's up with you and Gabriella?" Taylor asked out of nowhere and gave Sharpay a fright, "Why are you barely talking? Aren't you suppose to be best friends?"

"You tell me?" Sharpay said, not bothering to look at Taylor, but she could feel Taylor's glare on her, so she decided to answer, "Short version: I pushed 'miss I've-got-a-boyfriend-so-I'm-completely-ignoring-the-girl-who's-been-my-best-friend-for-14-years-just-because-my-boyfriend-is-good-looking-and-might-be-a-great-kisser' and the basketball playing, best friend stealing, stupid Mr. Big shot together, and I didn't see the consequences."

Taylor scratched the back of her head, she didn't know what to say. She couldn't think of anything.

Sharpay knew that, somehow, so she decided to speak, "You don't have to say anything, Tay. I mean, 14 years of friendship worth throwing away for some guy. It must be one hell of a guy." She finally looked at Taylor, who nodded for Sharpay to go on. "She's become kinda unreliable. Yesterday we were gonna go shopping before the trip, we were each gonna buy one of those monkey t-shirts, y'know. But Gabby never showed up, and she'd made me the promise before she met Troy, and then he gets into her life, and she completely forgets about me. And our friendship is effecting our performing, we've had trouble performing together for the past few weeks, and it's gotten worse. I don't see how we can perform together on New Years Eve."

At the exact same time at the other end of the bus:

"I don't see how we can perform together on New Years Eve." Gabriella exclaimed, resting her head on Troy's shoulder.

"Ssh, Gabs. You have 3 days to figure it out." He whispered quietly into her ear, stroking her hair gently. "You two should talk, when we get to Rio."

"How are we gonna figure it out, when I don't even know why, she's so cold towards me." Gabriella whined, letting a couple of tears slip down her cheeks. She was saddened by the fact, that Sharpay was nothing like she used to be. So she was crazy like always, but she wasn't as she used to be towards her, and Gabriella didn't know why. "I would do anything for her to fake that she's totally afraid of me again."

Troy glared at Sharpay at the other end of the bus, a weird look on his face. There was crazy, and then there was just completely insane.

To Troy's weird look, Gabriella said; "Why do you look like that? It was pretty funny. A little annoying, but quite fun."

"Ok, I was just trying to imagine it." Troy said, as turned and gazed into Gabriella's brown eyes and gave her sweet little kiss. "Just talk to her, sweetie. It will be ok, I promise."

--

Hours later the tour bus stopped in Mexico, and the bus driver stepped outside to fill the tank. Sharpay followed him with her eyes and was ready to comment his every mood, until Mr. McK stood up in the middle of the bus. All eyes were on him, because it looked like, he was about to say something.

"We're gonna take a 30 minutes break, so you can all go outside and stretch your legs, walk around or whatever." He announced, and everybody stood up and got ready to get out of the bus, so he continued, "But be sure to stay close, because I'm not that well-known in Mexico, and I won't be able to find you, if you get lost."

"Why are we stopping in Mexico?" Sharpay exclaimed, as she rose from her seat and banged her head at a cabin, "I don't speak Mexican!"

Taylor rolled her eyes at her blonde friend and said; "They speak Spanish, Shar!"

"I don't speak that either." Sharpay said, her voice all squeaky.

"Good thing it's only a 30 minutes stay then, Sharpay." Mr. McK grinned, as they all got outside. The crew stayed by the bus, but Sharpay and Taylor went out to explore a bit, so did Gabriella and Troy, but they went in a different direction.

"Oh, my God. I'm so unprepared for this trip!" Sharpay shrieked, jumping up and down, which she often did, when she was freaking out, "What am I gonna do, when we get to Brazil? I don't speak Brazilish, I'm so bad at other languages."

"Brazilish is not a word, and they speak Spanish in Brazil, too." Taylor replied, grabbing on to Sharpay's shoulders, forcing her to stay on ground.

"I don't speak that either, Tay." She whined, "I'm completely hopeless."

"I'm sure some of them speak English down there, and if not you just don't talk to them." Taylor said, calmly. They'd been walking for 5 minutes, and they came to a little shop, where they decided to take a look inside. "But you must know some words in Spanish?"

"I know dickhead." Sharpay said, looking at some t-shirts. Taylor raised her brows, Sharpay, who'd seen the brow-raising, continued; "I'm serious, Ryan taught me how to say it, when we were little."

"Ok, I wouldn't speak any Spanish then," Taylor giggled, as she walked away from the t-shirts and went over to look at some earrings. "Are we looking for anything special?"

"I wanna see, if they have the monkey top here. I hope they do, because then I'd be able to say; I got my monkey top in Mexico, where did you get yours?" Sharpay replied. She pulled out a very light yellow top from underneath the other's, and to her great joy it was a monkey top, "Oh, my God, Tay. They have it, they have it, they have it. I'm such a big fan of Nathalie Nielsen's clothing line 'What Not To Wear', and her monkey top idea is hilarious. Come, take a look."

Taylor went over to take a look at the top in Sharpay's hands. It was, as mentioned earlier, a very light shade of yellow with a monkey on it and a blue text, that said; 'This is why, I wear make-up!', which made it 50 percent hilarious. The monkey had the widest and stupidest grin, that would make anybody laugh, which made it a 100 percent hilarious.

She blinked a couple of times, but soon after burst out laughing, and Sharpay quickly joined her. A girl would have to have a lot sense of humour, if they were gonna wear this top, because it would be sorta like trash talking themselves, stating that they were ugly without make-up, but Sharpay could easily pull it off. First of, it was her sense of humour, and second of, she wasn't afraid of what people would think.

When they were done laughing, Taylor asked; "Are you gonna buy that?"

"Of course, I am." Sharpay smiled, as she paid for the top, and as they went outside again, she said, "And I'm gonna wear it, when we get back to the bus, too. Hopefully, Gabby will feel a little guilty then, for blowing me off. Is there anywhere I can change?"

They both glanced around, looking for a place, that Sharpay could change, but there didn't look to be any. So Sharpay did something very shocking to Taylor, she pulled the top, she was already wearing, off in the middle of the street and pulled the other one on. Sharpay didn't care, but Taylor obviously did. "Why did you do that, anyone could have seen you."

"Calm down, Tay. One of my motto is 'If you've got it, you need to show, but to a certain point.', and another is 'This is why, I wear make-up!'" Sharpay said, and pointed at the monkey top, she was wearing.

"And you don't think that reached a certain point?" Taylor exclaimed, and by that time they'd gotten back to the tour bus, and so had Gabriella and Troy.

"What did Shar do now?" Gabriella asked, the guilt washing all over her, when she noticed the top, that Sharpay was wearing.

"She pulled off her top in public." Taylor said, expecting Gabriella to be shocked, but surprisingly to her, she wasn't shocked at all.

"Oh, that only?" She grinned, and got eye contact with her 'best friend', "She's done things, that are much worse."

"Yeah, and usually with you by my side," Sharpay said, and when the first tear began its journey down her cheek, she stormed inside the bus and sat down, where her and Taylor were seated before.

"Tay, is it ok, that I sit with Sharpay for the rest of the trip, so that we can talk?" Gabriella asked with a hint of begging in her voice, and with a nod from Taylor, she went inside as well, only more graceful than her best friend. When she came inside, she sat down next to Sharpay.

Sharpay didn't even greet her, she simply said; "Do you like my top, Gabby?"

"Yes," Gabriella replied, guilt streaming through her body. She didn't exactly know what to say, but the best thing to do was probably just get the apologising over with. She knew Sharpay hated when people beat around the bush, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I bet you are." Sharpay said, turning around to look out of the window instead of at her best friend. She didn't want to see her face right now. She just wanted to be alone, she made sure that it could be heard in her voice. Gabriella didn't walk away, though, she stayed, and Sharpay could feel her best friend's eyes on her. Well, if she wasn't gonna go away, "Do you know how it feel to be dumped by the person you love the most?"

"No, who dumped you, Shar?" Even though her back was facing her front, Sharpay could hear, that Gabriella had no idea, what she was talking about.

"You did, damn it!" Sharpay said with a weak voice, that almost couldn't be heard, "For the best friend snatching Troy Bolton. We've been best friends for 14 years, and then this boy comes along, and it's all out the window."

"But I'm in love..." Gabriella began, but was cut off by Sharpay.

"In love?" She repeated, what had been said, disbelief in her voice, "Gabby, you've known the guy for little over a month, that's not enough to be in love. You always have your tongue down his throat, and when you don't have your tongue down his throat, you have your tongue down his throat, and when you done doing that, your tongue is still down his throat! Oh yeah, and once in awhile, when you for once don't have your tongue down his throat, you cuddle and snuggle. You always have your hands all over each other, it's disgusting. Oh, I almost forgot, every once in a blue moon you have an actual conversation without spit swapping!"

"So this is what's up?" Gabriella slowly started to raise her voice, "Don't ever again talk to me about being in love, when you've never had a boyfriend yourself. You have no clue, what it's like to be in love."

Sharpay let out a big sigh. She kept looking outside the window, and she watched a little kitten spin around in circles, chasing it's own tale. It looked kinda funny, so she giggled. When the kitten got to the tenth time around itself, it got very dizzy, so it had to stop with the spinning. It walked around for a bit, kinda drunk-ish, and short after it fell to the ground, tired from all the chasing. She turned her head to face Gabriella again. "Look, Gabby. I really don't wanna start this huge fight, we can't recover from, and I honestly wanna be friends again, but I need for you to spend much more time with me, than you're doing now. Do you think, you can do that?"

"I can do that. I guess, I have neglected you a little." Gabriella admitted, but to the look Sharpay gave her, she added; "Ok, a lot. And I'm really, really sorry. It will never happen again, hopefully. I'm just afraid, that if I leave him, I will lose him."

Sharpay smiled, and gave her best friend the first hug for quite some time, "You're so sweet, Gabs. Of course, you're not gonna lose him. He really likes you. Do you think, that if he didn't, he would let you drag him to all these events?"

Everybody else entered the bus now, and they continued to drive towards their destination. The crew took the middle of the bus again, and Taylor and Troy took the back to give Sharpay and Gabriella some privacy and some time to talk, which was very appreciated.

"By the way, Sharpay?" Gabriella said, getting her blonde friend's attention again, "Banana-phone!"

"Du, du, du, du, du, du." Sharpay finished, and they both giggled. It was the song, they always goofed around to. It brought back so many good memories, and the past few weeks were totally forgotten.

"Banana-phone." Gabriella sang, giggling slightly, "Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring!"

"Banana-phone!" Sharpay finished, and they both broke into a fit of laughter, attracting all the attention in the bus.

Gabriella looked up, still giggling, "What?" she asked them.

"Now, come on people!" Sharpay said, eyeing them all, "We were just singing Banana-phone! Live a little." And then she turned to Gabriella, started a random place in the lyrics, and sang, "I've got this feeling, So appealing, For us to get together and SING!"

Troy turned to Taylor, as Gabriella begun on the whole "Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring"-thing again, "Are we going to have to listen to this all the way to Rio?" he questioned, "Are they always like this when they're together?"

"I don't know," Taylor shrugged, "I just met them!"

"Oh…" Troy said, leaning back in his seat, just as second round of Banana-phone started in the middle of the bus.

--

They arrived to Rio late in the evening and checked into their suites, just wanting to get to bed. Taylor and Mr. McK had a room, while Gabriella and Sharpay shared again. Troy had gotten his own room just across the hall.

Gabriella didn't have time to unpack, she simply just went to bed. She was so tired, but also very happy. The rest of the trip had been hilarious thanks to her best friend. Sharpay was so funny, you were never bored with her. And they managed to sing Banana-phone around a million times, before Taylor blew up at them, telling them to quiet down.

Sharpay was not tired though, so she jumped into a pair of sweatpants and a loose t-shirt before making her way down the stairs, wanting to check around the hotel. She didn't know why, but she had to check out every hotel, otherwise she couldn't sleep. She had to see if the hotel was a place someone would hide a bomb.

She took a seat in the lobby, just as she'd done a couple of weeks ago in the other hotel, and curled her legs beneath herself, relaxing. This was the life. It was already 11:30pm, so no one was really up. Definitely not cute little fan girls. She could just be herself, sit there and look around while relaxing.

She got to think of everything with Gabriella today. She was glad they made up, but she still didn't feel like she had forgiven Gabriella completely. It had hurt her a lot, what Gabriella did, but it was also good to be talking to her again. And she did seem like she appreciated Sharpay's friendship now that Sharpay had told her how she felt.

Sharpay closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair, silently reminded herself that she couldn't fall asleep there. It was so comfy though. She could hear faint footsteps, but she was too lazy to open her eyes and see who it was.

"Don't fall asleep."

Sharpay opened one eye, and crooked an eyebrow, looking at Troy, a smirk across her lips, "No kiddin'."

"What are you doing down here?" Troy asked, taking a seat in the chair next to hers.

"Oooh, just taking a trip around the hotel, looking for Santa and the Easter Bunny." Sharpay replied, "After that I was gonna go into the kitchen, steal some jelly and peanut butter, and have my own private party on the rooftop. You?"

"Ha, you're so funny." Troy sarcastically said, rolling his eyes, "And for me… I was just… I was sitting in my room, alone. For once. And then it occurred to me that I haven't spoken to my dad in forever. So I went to see him, but then was when I realized that he wasn't here anymore. So I left my room, thinking I might need to call him." He paused, "Did he tell you anything? Anything at all? I mean, you must have talked to someone."

"He did." Sharpay replied, taking in a deep breath. It was now he was gonna ask. It was now she was supposed to tell him the horrible news. God, she didn't want to see him get hurt. How was he gonna react? Was he going to cry? Was she going to comfort him? How was she going to comfort him? No, no. She was freaking out, and she couldn't even remember why now!

"What did he say?" Troy asked, scooting a tad closer to her, as far as he could. She had talked more to his dad then he had himself, and he felt kinda guilty now. Just the way Gabriella had to feel about Sharpay.

"He… had to leave Troy," Sharpay said, sitting up straight, looking him deep in the eyes, "It was important."

Troy's heart started beating faster, as he saw how serious she suddenly got, "What is it, Sharpay?" he asked, "What happened?"

"Your mother's cancer came back." Sharpay said, and you could hear the tears in her voice, as she struggled to stay strong, "He had to go back to stay with her. He left me a letter, telling me to tell you this when you asked."

"Oh my God…" Troy whispered, other words failing him. He just sat there, letting the words sink in. No way. His mother couldn't be sick again. His eyes shifted to Sharpay's, who looked just as hurt as him. He swallowed hard, as the blonde girl let a tear slid down her cheek.

"Come here." She whispered, pulling him in for a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder, why he closed his eyes, savouring it. She was the comfort he needed right now. Everything else could wait. Right now he just needed this.

From Stessa: So yeah. Another chapter finished. Please tell us your thoughts? I think we did fairly well on this chapter. Anyway, Nathalie and I are planning to write a book like the one Sharpay and Gabriella used in the beginning. So yeah. If we're lucky it might get published, lol. And if not, then we're just gonna have to read it ourselves. Anyway, I'll let my co-writer leave a comment for ya…

From AK-tutti; Fairly well, Stesa? That's no good, you need to be confident, you need to say; "We did so great, that everybody will bow and we'll get the titles 'queen Nathalie and gueen Stessa' and we'll get our own country, and we'll get so famous, that the founders of the 'We-pretend-we're-dead Celebrity club' wants us to be members, when we pretend to 'die', and everybody will remember our names for all eternity." Oh, and by the way, I'm the weird one, if you haven't figured that out yet. And our book will get published and everything, and everybody will read, just you wait Stessa. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review. Don't let my weirdness scare you away. Let the reviewing begin.

Stessa and AK-tutti were here