Chapter 6

Previously:

"A janitor's closet?" Sharpay asks.

"What's wrong with it?" Chad questions.

"Just a little trite is all."

"Oh, my apologies. Next time I'll choose something less convenient but original like, say, the school's rooftop garden as our secret rendezvous place."

…

A cheery Gabriella stands in the doorway with paint splatters on her clothing and shoes. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Her giggles sound like silver bells at Christmastime.

-

This is, by far, the best first day she's ever had. Giddy from her mind attempting to process all this overwhelming information (most of it contributed by Martha Cox) she almost forgets to grab the mop from the closet that she was sent to retrieve.

"Gabriella!" Chad exclaims as she bends over to pick up the handle of the bucket. "You can't -- "

Her face impassive, she cuts him off by closing the door. She wishes she could lock it and do whatever it took to drag Troy Bolton over to this end of the school so she could watch his reaction right then and there. She pictures him as the quietly-fuming-and-storming-off/giving-his-best-friend-the-silent-treatement-for-the-rest-of-high-school type. But, who knows, she could be wrong.

Chad bursts from the closet, fearing the worst. Gabriella imagines Sharpay being too horrified to face her. He beseeches, "Please, please don't say anything."

She continues trudging forward with the mop and bucket. "What if I write him a letter?"

"I don't know if you have an inkling of kindness inside you, but I have to ask you to try and forget what you saw."

"What I saw was you and Sharpay Evans having a conversation inside a janitor's closet. It's a bit odd, yes, but why would anyone be shocked and devastated to hear that?"

He gives a sigh of relief. "Thank -- "

Her eyes twinkle. "Unless I mention that you both had matching shades of lipstick on and messy hair, and -- oh, yes -- her dress was half off," she muses, not looking directly at Chad.

He feels a rush of indignation. "Who would believe you?"

"Who wouldn't? Please, Chad. A blind man could read the guilt on your face."

"I'm pretty sure you've already heard about Troy and Sharpay, so I know what this must look like to you, but we never meant to hurt him or anything. It just happened. I can explain it to you!"

He grabs her upper arm, and only because she isn't in any hurry to get to cleaning duty, she stops and faces him. "Go ahead."

"He's my best friend, and he'll know once he moves on. We plan to help him move on. He just has to figure out that someone else out there is better for him. We never had any bad intentions."

She resists rolling her eyes at Troy. The boy should release his grip on the past because life only permits you to move forward. "Wouldn't he try to understand if you two got together after their break up?"

Chad is silent.

"Unless you guys did stuff before the whole Emily incident."

"No!"

"If you lie again, my ears will actually bleed." She playfully gestures to the mop in her hand with a grin. "You'll have to clean it up."

"Sharpay and I actually do love each other. It's not an impulsive, oh-heck-let's-just-do-this thing. I know Troy -- known him since kindergarten, and I know they aren't right for each other."

"You think stories about fate and forbidden lovers are enough to melt my heart? Guess again. I've already seen it all on Gossip Girl. I only seek true entertainment nowadays."

She's always loved toying with people, and once in a while, she finds something -- a secret, perhaps -- to serve as a needle and will give enough pressure to pop a relationship like a balloon.

Chad looks drained, as if he has to re-plan all his future moves.

Gabriella contemplates something for a moment, and then purses her lips. "Let's race."

"What?"

"We'll see," she says nonchalantly, "if you can figure out a way to tell Troy in the nicest way possible, while I try a find a more creative, scandalous way to reveal this to him."

She'll have fun watch Chad dodge awkward moments between the three of them, look at Sharpay longingly with Troy in the same room and find any excuse to be together. He might spontaneously combust.

But if Troy finds out because Chad and Sharpay slipped up, she might not be there to see the unravelling of it all.

Cheerleaders are very generous in sharing information. She's heard around school that Troy and Chad are already a shoe in to making the basketball team even before the tryouts because of their past performances. Troy will be most likely elected captain again. She might tell him after their first game. If they win, she'll crush him. If they lose, he'll be shattered.

Or she could publicly reveal them, so not only is Troy stunned, but the whole school will be, too.

When she thinks about it, Troy has never done anything to her, but, really, this is all to torment Chad, and she's hurt people in the past trying to get what she wants. The tincture of guilt she feels inside is fleeting, but she swats it aside and continues with the original plan. She'd rather be caught dead than with a conscience.

Besides, it doesn't have to be solely for her own amusement. They could benefit from it, as well.

Chad is pathetic, she thinks, for trying to talk her out of it. And she tells herself they -- Chad, Sharpay and Troy -- will all come out of this better people. They will have learned their lesson, develop tough skin.

She was once in a very vulnerable state herself, but instead of constructing a wall to keep people out and remaining fragile, she built herself up and dared anyone to try to knock her down again. 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' was her personal maxim, and she'd repeat it to anyone who'd listen.

Troy pulls out his keys from his pocket and shuffles through them to find the one to his truck. His head snaps up when he hears his best friend shout his name as he runs across the school parking lot.

Thinking he will say something mundane, Troy unlocks the door while waiting for Chad to come over. The dark-skinned teenager slows down when he reaches the truck, and places one hand on the hood to support himself.

Troy looks at him expectantly. "What's up, man?"

"Whatever absurdity that that Gabriella girl may claim to be true," Chad huffs, "don't trust her. She's a maniac."

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