Update 12/1/2009: This is the new chapter 9.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Rating: M for uses of the O word, other sexual situations, and more discussion of the Richard incident

Chapter 9: High School Revisited

For someone who was actually popular in high school, Chad had no desire to go back there ever again. The only thing he missed about high school was hanging out with his best friend Troy. He hated being something that he was not just to fit in. He could admit it now, that he was a closet genius. In high school he was so afraid of being labeled a nerd that he viciously persecuted the highly gifted. Even after the 'breaking free' movement of junior year he wasn't ready to come out of the genius closet, even though he started dating the head of the brain contingent. To this day Taylor does not know he scored a good 200 points higher than she did on the SAT.

He was just starting to become comfortable with his intelligence and now he was forced to go back to the seven circle of high school hell. Why does he let Sharpay talk him into this sort of stuff? The wicked little voice in the back of his mind says it is because she is currently wearing a low cut tank top and very tight shorts. He tries to ignore that voice.

"I can't believe you talked me into chaperoning a high school dance Friday night. I could be doing more pleasant things like my chemistry homework, my calculus homework or having a conversation with Penelope while being swarmed by ravenous raccoons." Chad said to Sharpay as they stood in the men's section of one of the most upscale stores in Albuquerque.

"Will you please shut up and try on the outfit I picked out for you. You are coming with me to keep the perverted 10th graders from grabbing my ass and keeping me from going completely bored. I don't want to have to go back to that place anymore than you do." Sharpay said as she shoved him into the dressing room.

"Then why are you volunteering at the school this year?" Chad asked from behind the dressing room door.

"I spent four years building that drama department and I'm not going to let some British ice queen wannabe undo all my hard work. Don't tell me you won't be at the first basketball game this year to see if the guy with your number will be just as good as you were. I'm getting school credit and the volunteer work will look really good on my grad school applications."

"I don't need to remember my past glory, I still have the present. You were the one who told me that high school is over. It is time to let go. There is no way you are going to see me anywhere near that school on the night of the season opener. My number was retired. No one else will have my number again, because I was that good." As far as he was concerned he needed to concentrate on the present and not passed. He was more concerned with Sharpay's earlier statement about going to graduate school. That definitely didn't mesh with Sharpay's Tony award fantasy. "Are you actually going to go to graduate school?"

"That's an option if Broadway doesn't work out. It is not as if Ryan could last 5 minutes with the sharks at my father's company. If someone's going to carry on the family legacy, unfortunately it's going to be me."

"Do you ever get tired of being the person everyone thinks you are?" Chad said as he left the room wearing a wonderful charcoal gray suit. He knows he hated being the person that everyone thought he should be. That is why he didn't want to go back to EHS tomorrow. He didn't want to reprise his role as stupid jock number two.

"All the time," Sharpay said with a sigh. "You look really good in that suit." He was almost positive he saw her blushing.

"Why am I getting a suit? I do not remember any of our chaperones wearing suits to the welcome back dance."

"The other outfit is for the dance, this is for Taylor's parents' 25th anniversary party in October. I promised Taylor yesterday, that you would be in something decent for her parents' party. Go back inside and try on the other outfit." Sharpay said as she shoved him back in the dressing room.

"You called my girlfriend?" Chad asked in shock as he began to imagine up his worst fear of the two girls sharing stories about him.

"You left your cell phone in my room when you went to get your laptop and chemistry textbook to study yesterday. She called, I answered." He really hoped his girlfriend and whatever Sharpay was did not compare notes on his kissing technique. He was already not looking forward to explain everything to Taylor in a little more than a month. When he was not sure if Sharpay was just a friend.

"We really need to talk about boundaries. Like answering my cell phone when I'm not there. In polite society that is not acceptable. Also, I thought we agreed to cut down on the expensive gifts."

"When am I ever polite? The suit is not for you, it is for Taylor. I think she deserves something from me for making out with her boyfriend in public." Before he could respond to her, Sharpay opened the dressing room door and quickly ran inside as if she was being chased.

"Sharpay, go outside right now. Did we not just talk about boundaries? I think there are rules about this sort of thing." Chad said panicking as he stood in the dressing room in his underwear.

"I'm not seen anything more than I would during a performance quick change. Chad, I could go down on you in here and the staff wouldn't care as long as I gave a decent tip. Not that I would," Sharpay added hastily after she noticed his dear in headlights expression. "Richard is outside and I don't want to talk to him by myself." The petrified look in her eyes told him it was best just to let her stay.

"Fine you can stay here. Although, I never thought I would see the day when Sharpay Evans would be afraid." A scared Sharpay was a very frightening thought for him.

"Let's see how well you would do if you had to interact with the guy that raped you on a daily basis?" She had a point and he knew it. He was also proud that she was finally able to admit what Richard did to her. It was a step in the right direction.

"Good point. It's just you are not the type of person to run and hide from the demons of high school. Ever sense he put those pills in your drink the night of the spring dance, you have been running away. You didn't Press charges. You just disappeared for two months. You have been pushing everybody away for the last two years. The Sharpay Evans I know would be getting even with the bastard, not letting him control every aspect of her life. If you let the fear of him control you, then it's like letting him do it all over again."

"You are right," Sharpay said as she got a wicked look in her eyes. All of a sudden, she started moaning like she did Friday night when he was kissing her in the water fountain. The only difference was he wasn't touching her at the moment. It looked like she was reenacting that scene from that Billy Crystal movie that Taylor made him watched a dozen times that was like that Ashton Kutcher movie that Sharpay made him watch Sunday night.

"What are you doing?" Chad said in a whisper.

"Getting even," Sharpay said as she continued her performance.

"How does making it sound like I'm giving you an earth shattering orgasm qualify as revenge?" before he even finished the sentence he knew exactly what she was doing.

"You just said it yourself." Sharpay answered with a wicked look.

"You are so evil. I think I'm starting to love you." Chad said as he joined her in her little game, completely unaware that he just used the L word.

"I know."

20 minutes later Sharpay exited the dressing room and made a show of straightening her skirt. Just as she suspected Richard was standing by a rack of clothing near the dressing room trying to act casual. She walked by him without even looking. She wasn't going to let him hurt her anymore.

A few seconds later Chad emerged from the dressing room with ruffled hair, strategically placed lipstick, and a giant smile on his face. Grabbing her quickly Chad kissed her right in front of Richard. She was not expecting him to do that and the second his lips touched her's, she dropped everything she was holding. She couldn't think when he kissed her. How was she supposed to stay just friends with a guy when he kissed her like that?

After picking up the drop clothing, she made her way to the checkout counter knowing that she would have to leave at least a $50.00 tip to buy the clerks silence regarding her and Chad's little act in the dressing room. She wondered how much it would be if they actually did what they were pretending to do. Not that anything like that would ever happen because she knew Chad was in love with Taylor.

As she walked away she could hear Chad approaching Richard and spoke just loud enough for her to hear, "real men don't need pills to get what they want. Besides it is so much more fun when she screaming my name at that certain moment. I just love watching her face, she so beautiful when she comes. What can I say, I am just that good." She loved seeing the look of anger on Richards face. If she knew Chad was this good of an actor in high school, she would have forced him to join drama.

Chad walked up to Sharpay at the counter and placed a kiss on her neck. She was starting to become addicted to his touch. She would have to remind herself this was not real. No one could ever love her like this in the real world. She was too damaged to be loved. Letting go of the painful thought, Sharpay paid for the purchases with a credit card as she pulled out a $50.00 bill for the clerk.

"Keep your money, we now have a new no tipping policy." the cashier said in annoyance. "Besides that was the best show I've seen in years," the cashier whispered as she handed the receipt to Sharpay.

"How did you know?" Sharpay asked the cashier quietly.

"The two of you were all friends before that person got here and all of the sudden you are moaning in one of the dressing rooms. Let me guess ex-boyfriend. He cheated on you or something like that."

"He did do that, but he also did some other unpleasant things."

"Too bad, he's kind of cute."

"I wouldn't bother, he has a GHB problem." Chad said in a low voice.

"What about you, are you available Friday night?" the cashier asked Chad.

"No he has a date," Sharpay said as she handed the receipt to the girl. No one was going to get near her Chad.

At 5:30 PM, he showed up to her room wearing the outfit she chose for him. He was absolutely petrified to knock on the half open door. He had no idea why. He was with Sharpay all the time except at basketball practice, which he was starting to hate, and during the classes he didn't have with her. He wasn't this scare for his first date with Taylor and he had to deal with Mr. McKessie, a man who may have been a bouncer in a previous life. Except this was not a date and Mr. Evans was currently looking at property in Kyoto or somewhere else in Japan

He could see Sharpay putting on her makeup in her room as Kim sat off to the side laughing hysterically. He was about to knock when he heard Kim say "I can't believe you pretended to have sex in a dressing room with Chad Danforth just to get back at the moron who will not be mentioned. You're so evil when you put your mind to it." Kim said as she picked up Alex from the floor where he had been playing with Sharpay's stuffed animal collection. Figuring out Alex's paternity had quickly become a fascination for Chad. After eliminating everyone who was not the right ethnicity or he knew for a fact were still proud members of club V, Chad had 10 possible suspects.

"Thank you again for taking my chaperone duty, If I knew you hated school dances so much I would have said yes when Ms. Darbus asked me. I mean you love school dances before I left. It was another chance for you to show off your latest purchases from New York and your fabulous dance moves."

"It's okay you need to spend as much time with Alex as you can. Besides, that was before I woke up alone and scared in some random hotel room after my bastard boyfriend violated me after the last school dance I went to."

"Zeke didn't do the same thing at prom?" Kim asked in a very worried voice.

"I couldn't even make it to the limo for prom. I threw up in the driveway. Of course my loving boyfriend decided to go onto the dance with my brother and his girlfriend. now wished, I did go to the dance because I would've known about Troy's girlfriend rescue mission to Stanford. I had to perform with a 15 year old whose voice probably changed the week before the performance."

Chad was off in his own little world on prom night and didn't even realize that she didn't make it. Now that he thought of it, she was the only member of the senior class that was surprise that Troy was not there for the first part of the show. He feels bad now for not telling her. Although at the time, he did hate her or at least he thought he hated her. Now he doesn't know what he feels, except it's not hate. Everything was so much simpler in high school.

"Troy drove 1000 miles for his girlfriend and Ryan has a girlfriend? I Thought he has…" Kim began as Sharpay cut her off in midsentence.

"Everyone thought he was. You know Ryan; if someone expects him to do something he does the opposite. He's probably being heterosexual just for the shock value. As for Troy and the great Gabriella adventure, I have no idea why. Maybe the sex was just that good?"

He was about to tell Sharpay that Troy was still a proud member of the V club and had not touched Gabriella in that way even though she kept sending him dirty cell phone pictures. Unfortunately, Kim beat him to it. "He told me he never slept with the FMG." Chad had a feeling by the way Kim said the term, that the F in FMG meant the same as the F in WTF, which was exactly what he was thinking after what Kim said next. "The only person Troy ever slept with was…" Kim was stopped abruptly by Sharpay pulling him into the room and fussing at him for causing them to be late. It was already too late; Kim revealed all too much with her words and body language. All of a sudden, the one person Chad automatically assumed could never be Alex's father went to the top of the list.

Before Chad had time to think about the fact that his best friend lie to him about something so important, all rational thought left his mine as he saw how beautiful Sharpay was. The fabric of her black dress clung to her body perfectly. Although she was probably showing too much cleavage for a high school dance chaperone, he really didn't care at that moment. He kissed her on the cheek as he normally did now. He tried not to think about the fact that he never kissed Gabriella or Kelsey on the cheek like that. Then again, he liked Sharpay a lot more than he liked Gabriella.

As they all walked out the room, Kim just had to say something to get Sharpay upset. "Now if you to decide to actually do what you were pretending to do yesterday, you may want to use these." Kim said as she tossed a pack of condoms to Sharpay. "I don't want you to give Alex a playmate until he is at least six."

"Oh my god, it looks like Barbie threw up in here." Sharpay said as they stepped inside the pink covered gymnasium. She was just glad to be out of the car after the uncomfortable condom in the hallway incident. She knew Kim just did that because they accidentally told Troy about Alex. At least they were able to convince Troy that Alex was her brother and not her son. The ride would not have been so bad if Chad didn't keep making dirty jokes the entire time. She did not think about how she kept the condoms instead of giving them back to Kim.

"I thought you like pink," Chad said as they began to make their way to the chaperone's table.

"Even I have my limits." The truth of the matter was she hated the decorations because Tiara was the head of the dance committee. She couldn't stand the girl.

"I thought they usually do school colors for the welcome back dance."

"Normally yes; however, the British ice queen bitch, was the head of the dance committee. She hasn't been here long enough to understand the traditions of this school. Not only is she trying to take over my drama department, she's also running for student body president." Sharpay said in anger.

"You really got to let go. Holding onto the past is just not healthy. This is a step up from the prom. The theme was horrible and the execution was even worse.

"How bad were the prom decorations?" Sharpay asked as she walked over to the refreshment table to grab a water. It felt strange benign here as a chaperone when a few months ago she was a student here.

"Bad, I have no idea there was that much crepe paper in Albuquerque." Chad said as Miss Darbus walked up to the two.

"I thought you graduated last year Mr. Danforth even though you won't turn 18 until January."

"You're 17. How can you be 17? We have had every class together since kindergarten except for that year when my family lived in Newport, Rhode Island. I turn 19 in December." Then she remembered that Chad was on the small side until a remarkable growth spurred during the end of junior year. She just assumed he had a baby face. Not that he was an entire year younger than everybody else was. That was not in his Lava Springs file. How could she be falling for a person a year younger than her? Not that she was actually falling for Chad Danforth. She preferred older guys or guys that were same age as her. He was a year younger than her.

"I skip preschool." Chad said nonchalantly."Can we please talk about that later?" Chad said as he noticed a few students putting the final touches on the decorations. Apparently, Chad was still afraid of the wildcat population finding out that he made Gabriella look like an average student.

"You're a year ahead of me." Sharpay said indignantly.

"With all my AP classes and other college credit, technically I am a sophomore." While she was starting to gulp like a fish at the revelation Chad would be graduating two years younger than she would, Chad turned to Ms. Darbus. "Sharpay didn't want to do this by herself, so she volunteer/drafted me to help out."

"Very well Mr. Danforth, it is nice to have a little extra help. Since you and Ms. Evans still look young enough to be students here, you will be in charge of monitoring the refreshment table. "

"Basically we have to keep Joshua Steiner from dumping Jack Daniels in the punch again."

"Essentially yes," Ms. Darbus said with a sigh. "It's nice to see you walking around without a basketball in your hands."

"Chad is a method actor Ms. Darbus. He couldn't play the role of the stupid high school jock without a prop. But Mr. Closet genius over here apparently fooled us all." Sharpay walked away from him as soon as she said the words wondering what else he was hiding from her.

"This is going to be a very long night," Chad said as she walked away from him.

A/N: I actually knew people who were closeted geniuses in high school. One was actually a member of the basketball team. She concealed her intelligence by acting stupid in front of her friends. Another classmate covered up his intelligence by hitting on every girl on campus, apparently, players can't be geniuses. For those of you reading this that are still in high school, be proud of who you are.