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Chapter 15: Number One Fan

October 31, 2008

Kim walked into the frenzy of fall musical preparation which was East High auditorium with her toddler Alex. She didn't remember the preparations being this frenzied when she was a student here. This year they were performing an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew called the Taming of the Drama Queen. With only seven days to the first performance, Sharpay was going into pure diva mode. Unfortunately, neither Chad nor Ms. Darbus were around to keep Sharpay from scaring the freshmen. She was currently yelling at a boy who couldn't be more than a sophomore.

"Donny you did a great job last year as a stage manager despite the last minute substitution. However, what you did last time does not matter. We have seven days to the curtain goes up. The sets are not together, half the cast does not know their lines, and you brought me the wrong cappuccino. Just fix it." Sharpay said as she threw her cappuccino back into Donny's hands.

"I am glad you could help out Kim even though you're going to miss the opening night because of your family thing. I see you brought the littlest star." Sharpay ran over to hug them as soon as she noticed they were there.

"I didn't have a choice, the sitter canceled again. I see the drama bitch is back."

"Not really, Chad has Jason watching me. If I use excessive diva behavior he's going to make me sleep in my own room tonight." For some reason the phrase old married couple popped into Kim's mind at that comment.

"That wasn't excessive?"

"As long as I didn't dump the cappuccino on top of Donny, it was not excessive. Besides the production is a complete mess. Ms. Darbus is at another doctor's appointment which means I'm in charge of entire rehearsal. Because two of the lead characters are on the basketball team they cannot do after school rehearsals with the rest of the cast. This means tomorrow is going to be the only day we're going to be able to do a full cast rehearsal. In addition, some of our female casts members cannot be in a room t long enough to rehearse more than two scenes without a fight breaking out. At least I could pretend to like Gabby, who is happily gone from our lives for good." Kim was almost positive that Sharpay it was more happy about Troy's break up with the FMG than she was. Despite not being aware that Gabriella posted the clip that essentially made Sharpay the biggest joke on campus.

"You know for somebody who's completely in love with someone else you are a little too happy about this breakup?"

"If you knew Gabriella you would be celebrating to. However, that is unimportant. I need to figure out how to keep this play from going to hell. My entire grade for this program is riding on this performance. If it goes badly, I am going to fail this class. I always wanted to be in charge of the production. Now I get my wish I get all the headaches and I don't even get to be in the play." Sharpay said with a pout as she sat back in her chair with Jason beside her.

"I doubt the production is going that badly. Kat and Bianca look pretty good out there." Kim said to Sharpay assuming that the girl was overreacting again because things seemed fine.

"First of all that's not Kat and Bianca, that is Lucy and Heather. Because we have more girls than boys in the drama program as usual, we reversed the gender on a couple of the characters." Sharpay told her friend.

"Kerri is playing Lucy the transfer student who falls in love with star basketball player William. Unfortunately, William's mother will not let him date anybody until his older sister has a boyfriend. This makes almost every cheerleader at EHS very sad, including head cheerleader Heather, played by Tiara. Unfortunately, William sister Catalina, played by Jackie, has scared off the entire male population of EHS due to her aggressive nature. Lucy and her new friend Tyler, played by me, get William's teammate Pedro, played by Jimmy, to date Catalina on the condition that he becomes basketball captain next year." Jason answered while reviewing his copy of the script.

"Unfortunately do to Tiara's possible but unproven role in the welcome back dance incident the two girls can't stand each other. Fortunately, there not supposed to. However, add Jackie to the mix and it is like throwing a match on a propane tank. They both want to kill Tiara, which I would be all for If it didn't ruin the production. Every time I try to justify recasting the role of Heather, Tiara goes into miss perfect mode in from Ms. Darbus. In the interests of keeping everyone alive, Jackie is working with Jimmy right now. " Sharpay continued in explanation.

"I thought you said he had basketball practice?" Kim asked in confusion

"He does, along with Nicholas Cross, who is playing William. I came to a compromise with Coach Bolton. Now that his son is a theater major he is a bit more understanding. He is letting Jackie go over lines the gymnasium as long as he keeps playing. Apparently, it is some certain exercise in keeping focused. Don't ask, it was something that Chad came up with. It works, so I will not ask questions."

"I think Tiara just went back to the old version." Jason said interrupting the other two."

"Jason, can you please go up there and go over the new lines with her?"

"Sure," Jason says as he takes the latest version of the script to the stage.

"Why don't you have Karri work with Nicholas in the gym?"

"They usually work together after basketball practice. Kerri doesn't like going into the gym anymore, because of you know." That last part was said in a whisper.

"How was she handling being back?"

"She is doing a lot better than I did. I didn't have a support network like she does. You were dealing with Alex drama in New York, Darby was off being Darby, Ryan didn't know, daddy was in Asia, and Chad was an enemy at the time. Kerri has many people helping her through this, despite those making it harder. The cheerleaders aren't speaking to her which is why she is the newest member of the drama club after she quit cheerleading. She's doing a really good job as Lucy. Unfortunately, members of the basketball team that are still loyal to Ricky call her all sorts of nasty names when Jimmy or Mr. Bolton are not around. On the bright side at least nobody is wearing a T shirt depicting her most embarrassing moment." Just then, a junior serving a Ms. Darbus styled detention came by wearing one of the infamous "fantasy girl" T-shirts referring to Chad and Sharpay's almost sex tape.

The almost sex tape scandal didn't quite go away after it was pulled from You Tube. Sharpay and Chad were still getting nasty comments from some of the more infantile students on campus. If it wasn't for Mr. Evans personally explaining what happened to the basketball coach Chad probably wouldn't be playing tonight.

She would personally fly up to Stanford to kick Gabriella's ass for posting that to the Internet if Troy would let her. Gabriella had no idea the damage she did by posting that clip. Even though Troy dumped the FMG in high drama fashion because of her treacherous behavior, Troy didn't want anything bad to happen to her. Like Sharpay ripping her hair out by the roots when Sharpay finds out who made her the laughing stock of campus. Which is why, first she's not allowed to tell Sharpay what happens. Second, she is not allowed anywhere near the Stanford campus, this is why their meeting up at his first away games next week for him to see Alex.

"Principal Matsui is such a hypocrite. He let students were dirty T-shirts like that and then he's freaking out over the very mild sexual content in the play. Trust me the sexual content is a very mild considering that a 12 year old is helping adapt the play. Apparently, we cannot have any kissing scenes or bad words like Dag." Sharpay rolls her eyes as she says this. "For some reason our principle things everybody at this school lives in a Disney reality where nobody says bad words, gets laid, or hates each other. He's already made us rewrite the play three times to tone down the "questionable material". I think the Princess Diary films had more "questionable material". At least there were some kissing scenes in that film and they imply that the queen was sleeping with her bodyguard."

"He probably doesn't get the joke with the T-shirts. Why did he approve this play in the first place if he keeps making you rewrite it?"

"Actually he rejected the play two years ago. We had all the songs together already and then he said no for some reason. We ended up doing an adaptation of Cinderella instead. Of course, in our version, the stepmother couldn't be overly abusive, the fairy godmother couldn't use magic, and Cinderella couldn't kiss the prince. The last part was fine, because I had to play Cinderella opposite my brother. Why couldn't we do that production after Troy Bolton made it cool to act?"

"You know that might have been why all those incest rumors were started," called Sharpay's favorite person holding her double shot soya latte with extra foam.

"You were the one that started them." Sharpay said as she took the cup from him.

"Trust me I know better now." Chad said as he leaned in to kiss his girlfriend.

"You better, " Sharpay said as she slightly pulled back.

"No kiss?" Chad said with a small pout.

"I'm the adult in charge and I have to set a good example. Therefore, the PDA policy applies to us. Aren't you supposed to be at practice?" Sharpay said as she squeezed his hand.

"If you remember correctly, today is the first game of the year. There's no practice on game days. You will be there tonight?"

"Of course I will. Troy sent me flash cards so I have some idea of what's going on." Sharpay answered her boyfriend as she started to laugh at her.

"I thought I would come down to keep you from scaring the children and to prevent you from pouring your coffee on Don you again." Chad said as he took Jason's former seat.

"It was one time during production last year. Don't look at me like that, Kim. It was an iced cappuccino. Is it my fault I get tense during production?"

"Maybe I can do something about all that tension." Chad said as he began rubbing her shoulders. This was probably just as against the PDA policy as their normal make out session. As Chad concentrated on turning Sharpay into a puddle, several jealous girls working on the set made comments like "I wish I had him as my boyfriend". This was put to a stop when Jason and Tiara started arguing on stage.

"You little troll; I don't care if you wrote the play. I am the start of this play. I will say the lines anyway I please." Tiara yelled at Jason from the stage.

"How can she think she's the star? In the original play Hortensio was a secondary character at best even though he had the largest ego." Chad whispered to his girlfriend.

"Why do you think we cast her in this part? As much as I enjoy your hands, I have to go take care of that." Sharpay said pushing his hands away reluctantly." Excuse me I need to show the British one who is queen bitch. Why can't she pulled the diva act when Ms. Darbus is here?"

"Now I'm never going to find out how you manage to get permission to do a play that the principle hates." Kim said in annoyance.

"Chad was the one who came up with the idea to get the play approved." Sharpay said as she walked to break up to fight on stage.

"He doesn't hate the play; he's just been overly sensitive due to recent events." Chad said with a sigh.

"I don't remember him being this bad."

"Rumor has it he went off the deep end when a couple of students were caught fornicating on the roof two years ago. That was not a rumor was it?" Chad asked after picking up on her furious blushing.

"Not really. It was Ms. Darbus that caught us on the roof and that's all saying."

"Seriously, how did I not catch you guys?" Kim chosen not to answer that question. "After that incident he tried to remove all questionable material from the school's curriculum. He even tried to remove Hamlet and the Scarlet Letter from the AP curriculum, that didn't work at all. Now due to the incident at the welcome back dance two months ago, the censorship has increased tenfold."

"So instead of having classes about sexual assault prevention, he is removing kissing scenes from the school play. Does he have any idea how ridiculous that is?" Kim said with a snide laugh.

"Pretty much. It's easier for him to keep his head in the sand."

"That still doesn't explain how this play was approved?"

"Because of the special grant, the school received for this year's fall production must be an adaptation of a Shakespearean play. I just suggested to Sharpay to provide the principle with options from the Shakespearean plays with the most questionable content so that he would cut those right away and let her keep the one she actually wanted."

"What were the other choices?

"His other choices were Twelfth Night that involves crossed dressing; Julius Caesar with murder and treason; Hamlet with suicide, sordid marriages, and treason; and Romeo and Juliet with five make out scenes, a sex scene with nudity, a couple of murders, and a double suicide."

As they heard Sharpay use words that probably should not be said at a school, they turned back their attention back to Sharpay who was probably 30 seconds from pulling out Tiara's hair.

"I think you need to go up there before your girlfriend kills somebody"

"She is fine. She's already using her breathing techniques."

"Tiara if you want to be a professional actor you need to grow up. Go get yourself a cappuccino and comeback in 30."

"There's a certain amount of irony in those words coming from Sharpay" Chad whispered to Kim as they kept watching.

"Don't even think about hanging around my boyfriend. He doesn't do jail bait." Sharpay said when she noticed Tiara was making her way to Chad.

"Aren't you both 17?" Kim asked Chad quietly.

"Only chronologically. Psychologically, I'm a college sophomore and she's a high school junior. "

"Jason do you mind standing in for Nicholas so we can go over some of the scenes with Lucy and William."

When Sharpay made it back to her seat, she grabbed onto Chad's hand and started muttering only seven more days repeatedly under her breath.

He left the school as soon as he got Sharpay calm enough not to kill innocent teenagers. Not that he really wanted to leave. For the first time in his life, he wasn't looking forward to the start of a new basketball season. Out of all his teammates, he can only stand to spend time with three of them. Pretty much everybody else was a complete asshole. They usually made nasty comments about him being the school's second choice because they couldn't get Troy. Worse, they would argue he was only there because he was screwing the daughter of one of the trustees. The better he played in practice the worse they were. Today in his locker he found a screen shot of Sharpay topless taped inside. He calmly tore the picture down and threw it in the trashcan. He would kill Gabriella if Troy would let him for posting the video. Unfortunately, the break up would probably be her only punishment.

"So Danforth did you and your little girlfriend make any more videos?" Called out Derek, one of the seniors on the team, that Chad could not stand. Derek had NBA dreams but not the skills. Unfortunately, he did not use his college education for anything other than a means to keep playing. Chad should probably keep his mouth shut. However, he just didn't feel like it today.

"Why do you ask? Is your current significant other just not doing it for you? they have wonderful medication for that now. Although I can understand why you would want to watch, Trust me Sharpay is so much more, then that Christy who you were bragging about her blowjob skills. Then again, maybe it was Jordan who was talking about vacuum her like qualities when you were with the coached other day. It's hard to keep up with who is doing who when you keep going around with the same trash instead of being with a person who actually respect themselves and you. Then again, it could just be a cover. It's not the first time I've seen the hyper heterosexual act used to compensate." Before the other Derek can retaliate, Chad walked away thinks his mom for making him take an academic scholarship instead of the basketball scholarship.

As Sharpay signed her third T-shirt for the night while her friends picked up their basketball snacks, Sharpay thought about that old adage 'be careful what you wish for'. Even wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap, and one of Chad's A of U sweat shirts people still recognized her as the "What's Your Fantasy" girl. All she wanted to do was watch her boyfriend's first game in a red hawk's uniform. Instead, she was subjected to dirty jokes, autograph seekers, and the radio version of that certain song being played every time she entered the room. She was close to dying her hair blond again, but Chad preferred her natural hair color. However, she was pretty sure nothing would actually work.

"Didn't your dad tell you to lay low? I don't think signing autographs counts as lying low." Nikki asked her as they made their way with Marc and Kim.

"There is nothing more surreal than getting sex tape advice from your father." Kim said to the other two.

"You can only hide so long before it starts to drive you crazy. I tried hiding last time and it didn't work. This time I'm going to embrace it. Besides I did nothing wrong on that tape because it happened was someone I love very much."

"Except when that was made you were drunk at the time, he was technically dating someone else, and you were still denying that you actually had feelings for him." Marc pointed out as they walked into the main auditorium. Some time she hated Marc for pointing out the obvious.

"If you're not embarrassed, then why are you wearing sunglasses and a sweatshirt? I didn't think Sharpay Evans own a sweatshirt." Kim said to her best friend.

"It's comfortable. Besides I still don't own a sweatshirt, this is Chad's." Sharpay could easily see both Marc and Nikki rolling their eyes at her as they finally found their seats up front.

"I can't believe you talk to me in to suspending my first child free Friday night since you created that video at a basketball game."

"I don't know why you are complaining. You dragged me to a wildcat games or two during sophomore year. I swear you must have had a crush on one of the players. After the game you can go party crashing with the devious duel and Amanda before you have to pick up the littlest pumpkin tomorrow morning."

"Were only here to see Amanda's routine." Nikki said to the others.

"We also came to see if Amanda could go the entire game without trying to kill Penelope. " Marc added.

"What about Chad?" Sharpay asked with a pout.

"Like we can compete with his number one fan." Marc said as the game began to start.

"Where is Alex?" Nikki asked as she started eating our popcorn.

"I'm letting my stepmom Vanessa take him out for the annual festival of cavities and sugar rush. Vanessa feels like She is missing something because she never had the opportunity to raise a child. I try to let her do things with Alex as much as possible so she doesn't make me the big sister to a child that's younger than my own."

"I can understand that. I have a half sister that's younger than Alex." Nikki said to the others.

"The joys of divorce." Kim said softly.

"In my case it was the joy of widowhood and remarriage. My mom died when I was 12. Sarah was my father's best friend since college and after mom died they just fell into a new type of relationship." The four stayed quiet after that.

As the others concentrated on their junk food, she watched her boyfriend. She knew he wouldn't be getting a lot of playing time because he was the new person. She watched him sitting on the bench for most of the first half, just waiting peacefully. Her boyfriend never waits patiently. She remembered sophomore year where he was jumping up and down on the bench just waiting to get into the game. He just didn't seem like that same boy who used to carry a basketball with him everywhere in high school.

With 2 minutes left in the first half with the team down by 15 points, the coach finally let Chad in. The moment he stepped onto the court, she could feel the air change. He was absolutely beautiful on the court. Every movement was as graceful as anything she performed on the stage. . The problem was, he wasn't happy. She could see it from the stands. By the time the half came A of U was only trailing by two points.

"I can't believe Chad is an actual basketball player. I mean Amanda is a brainy cheerleader, so a brainy basketball player couldn't be that far off. However, it's just hard to believe that the guy who can understand how to solve differential equations in minutes is that good." Sharpay wanted to laugh that the irony of the situation. Their high school friends could not believe super jock was a genius and their college friends couldn't believe the brainy one was an excellent basketball player.

"Chad plays basketball like he does calculus. It's natural to him. He doesn't have to study or in this case really practice. All you have to do is show him how to do something once and he gets it. He can do this with solving complex problems, learning a basketball play, or learning choreography. This meant that Chad could play welland still only give 50%. This is what he's doing it right now."

"What do you mean he's only giving 50%? He's one of the better players out there on either team." Nikki said in shock.

"I agree with Sharpay. I saw him play when he was a sophomore and he's playing at a skill level slightly less than what he was using then. I'm sure he's improved sense sophomore year." Kim told everyone.

"Dramatically, especially when he became co captain senior year."

"He looks miserable down there," Kim whisper to Sharpay. She could not help but agree. She couldn't let him stay like this.

Every single muscle in his body hurt. In high school after a game, he would have tons of energy to hang out with his friends and hit the after parties. Unfortunately that usual postgame high wasn't there anymore. Of course he had better things to do than Halloween/celebration parties with people he really didn't like, such as anything whatsoever involving his girlfriend. He really didn't feel like celebrating. Nothing like being yelled at for helping the team win to kill his desire to celebrate.

In an effort to avoid the Halloween partys on campus and the dorms they were the spending the night at Sharpay parents vacation house at Lava Springs. The vacation house is definitely smaller than the mansion in town. However, Sharpay's room had a private hot tub. A hot tub he was definitely enjoying as his girlfriend walked in wearing her trademark pink bathrobe.

"I thought you said you didn't want to join me" Chad said as Sharpay sat on the edge of the tub dangling one foot in the water.

"I don't. I just figured I would have a better chance of having this conversation with you if you were too afraid to leave without showing me little Chad." She said holding up the shorts he took off a few minutes earlier.

"You're so evil," he said as he went over to kiss her, but Sharpay pulled away.

"No kissing, until you tell me why you are so miserable down there tonight even though you won the game. Then maybe I'll think about joining you." She said as she took off her robe revealing a bikini that made her swimsuit attire of two years ago seemed tame. Thinking about it now the only thing that kept him from throwing her in the lake that summer was those bikinis that inspired a few very inappropriate dreams where he removed it with his teeth. He should have realized then that he really didn't hate her.

"I was not miserable down there, " he said with a pout that she usually gave him. She was really rubbing off on him.

"Yes, and we were just friends before you and Taylor broke up. Trust me; I know when you're miserable. The only time you were a little happy was when Penelope sprained her ankle during the halftime routine."

"That was funny."

"It was the only time you were not miserable down there. It feels like you lost your love for the game. You're still a great player, it's just you don't have the same passion for the game." It is hard to have passion for something that's no longer fun. There was no way he was going to tell her that. Nor was he going to tell her that he was thinking of not playing basketball anymore.

"How can you tell? You didn't exactly go to any games in high school."

"Please between my mandatory acting classes, dance classes, and time spent with the voice coach do you really think I actually had time to go to a basketball game in high school? I barely had time to eat. Trust me I needed a personal assistant in high school. Even when Kim dragged me to a few games sophomore year, we had to lie to my mom. The only reason Ryan made it to any games was he convince mom that cheerleading was an excellent substitution for his dance classes and it would look good on his Juilliard application. Trust me, I saw you play a lot even though you didn't know I was watching."

He always assumed that Sharpay was the one who wanted to be the superstar; he had no idea that Darby was the one pulling the strings all along. The fact that since college Sharpay has not gone to a single dance class, voice lesson, or yoga class pretty much told him the truth.

"So exactly when were you spying on me?" he asked her as he started to tickle the one foot she had dangling in the water.

"Do you remember when you're working at lava springs, after everything calm down that you and Troy use to play one on one on the private court in the backyard here?"

"Ryan said we could because technically it wasn't on club property."

"I know. I gave him the idea. It turns out from my bedroom I had an excellent view of you and Troy playing basketball shirtless." A course she said this with that trademark smirk of hers. Three months ago, he would say the only reason she did something like that was to drool over Troy. Now he knew better. They've been attracted to each other for years even if they were not consciously aware of it.

"You're so evil, you realize that."

"You love me anyway."

"I wouldn't be here otherwise. So what did you learn when you were gazing at my chest." That earns him a quick kick from her.

"Every day that you and Troy would play, I would watch from my room. Not that I would admit it at the time, I realized you were fabulous out there. You could easily figure out what he was doing next. It was like watching a choreographic dance. You were able to understand moves quickly that Troy would have to practice over and over again.

"You sure you were just watching us for your own pleasure?" He still had too much fun getting her angry over little things.

"Maybe a little. You got to admit two hot sweaty guys playing basketball is definitely a turn on. You are definitely my favorite now. You were having so much fun out there back then. Sometimes I wish I could be like that on stage in high school. Before last summer, I never really had fun on the stage. It was always about the best part and winning a trophy at any cost. At certain Point I just got so tired of it." He understood what she was saying because he felt like he was falling into that same trap.

"Tonight when I watched you, it's as if something was missing." Sharpay said as she looked him directly in the eyes.

"Other than the fact that all my friends are gone."

"Maybe that has something to do with it. However, that's not everything. You're missing your love for the game. That summer I saw this fire in your eyes every time you're on the court. Baby it is just not there."

"You just talked about not having fun on the stage because it became about being been the best and not about performing for the sake of performing. I used to play basketball because it was fun. At some point it stop being fun. How can I have fun if everyone keeps saying things like 'Troy was such a better player' or 'your only on the team because your screwing Mr. Evans daughter." Sharpay it's kinda hard to believe that I'm really good when the coach and everyone else keeps comparing me to Troy." He never admitted that to anyone before. He never trusted anyone enough to admit that sometimes he was jealous of his best friend.

"Please their only saying that because they're jealous of how good you are. Let me tell you something that no one else knows. You are better than Troy Bolton in a million different ways. The basketball court just happens to be one of them. Schools were flocking around Troy because of his natural leadership skills. The thing was you were always the better player. A of U scouts got very serious about you once the people from the ivy league schools starting showing up at the games. What school wouldn't want a guy who got a 2154 on his SAT and a 4.0 GPA." A part of him does not believe her. He's too used to being in his best friend's shadow.

"You don't believe me. Come on to you really think Stanford sent a basketball coach to talk to Gabriella about going to the school. They were trying to make it look less conspicuous. Everybody knows the schools were here for you. Well everybody, who knew that you made freaky math girl seem of average intelligence." Sharpay said as she kissed him hard on the lips. As usual, she overbalanced and fell right on top of him in the water.

"I knew I would get you in here." He said with a smirk. "Now is there any chance that you'll be taking this barely a swimsuit off tonight?"

"Not a chance Danforth. You should be happy I'm in here with you when you're naked. It's going to take at least another month or few glasses of wine before I'm going to be comfortable enough to do that." She said it as a joke, but he knew that there was a certain amount of truth to her statement. Wasted on hard fruit punch this beautiful girl in front of him had no problem being with him in the most intimate way possible. Stone cold sober and she was absolutely terrified of doing anything beyond very heated kisses. One of these days, he was going to kill Richard for screwing his girlfriend up so much. He had no idea how to help Sharpay work through her fears about being physically intimate, despite the amount of research he has done on this subject. The fact that she got to the point where she trusted him enough to say that L word was a miracle in itself. Fortunately, he loved her more because of her imperfections.

"You know we're taking this at your pace." He said to her as he placed his hand on her face. "If I wanted an easy lay, I would be with someone like Penelope. I don't care about that. All I want is you, with your craziness and insecurities. Good things are worth waiting for. I'll take whatever you're willing to give, because I'd do love you." He said reassuring her.

"This is exactly why I love you." he was almost sure he saw her tear up.

November 1, 2008 7:00 AM Lava Springs basketball courts

"Okay exactly why are we out here on the private Lava Springs courts at 7:00 AM?" Chad asked Sharpay as they walked onto the court. Despite it being November and so early in the morning the place was quite busy. Nothing like busy executives trying to get a quick game in on the weekend as soon as the suns up.

"Getting your love of the game back. After our conversation last night, I decided you needed an intervention. I thought about recreating the strip basketball scene from Love and Basketball, but I decided against it. First, knowing our luck Kim would accidentally leave her camera on and catch the whole thing. Second, despite the flash cards, the only thing I know about basketball is that the balls are this hideous orange color and I have to try to throw them through a hoop. Therefore you're going to teach me how to play." As soon as she finished explaining her plan, he gave her that 'I think you're crazy"look of his.

"I think I prefer the game of strip basketball. This isn't going to be like Troy trying to teach you how to play golf is it? I saw you getting a hole in one when I was caddying for you instead of Troy." Chad caddy for her a lot that summer. She was always wearing skimpier outfits when he was around. They would spend the entire time arguing with each other and then she would find herself getting really angry every time he kissed Taylor. She was pretty sure that was their version of foreplay or flirting at the very least.

"I was following mommy's advice by making myself look weak to attract a man. That's the last time I listened to Darby about anything. Apparently, you love me exactly the way I am."

"I do," Chad said giving her a quick peck on the lips.

"Growing up in the country club set, knowing how to play golf is a required survival skill. Fortunately, I inherited dad golf skills and Ryan inherited the baseball skills. Unfortunately, they were no basketball skills. In this case, I am actually going to be that bad.

"This is supposed to help me out?" she could hear the skepticism in his voice.

"I told you last night I was miserable at the end of my acting career at EHS. . You saw how miserable I was trying to be Gabriella. The entire time I felt like everybody hated me because I had to be her. The harder I tried, the worse I felt. I was even considering just majoring in business after losing the Juilliard scholarship." She couldn't believe she was telling him this. Ryan didn't even know about her even considering leave the theater for good.

"I'm glad you change your mind. you doing a great job with the play." She couldn't help but smile when he said things like that.

"Thank you. Would help me change my mind was doing community theater this summer and helping out at EHS. Even though I want to strangle Tiara, I'm having fun working with Jason, Jimmy, Kerri and Jackie. I figured if you share of the game with me maybe, you will rediscover why you loved it in the first place. If that doesn't work, if I get good enough I might be willing to try strip basketball eventually." He had this look of absolute shock on his face.

"Why you think we're at the private court here than at some of the courts on campus when I have to be back at EHS at noon?" Sharpay said as she threw the ball at him.

Surprisingly Sharpay wasn't that bad. This definitely wasn't the golf fiasco. She picked up on things quickly. But then he remembered her doing that during the musical rehearsals. Unless she was screwing up on purpose to make Ryan or Troy upset. This was the first time he has had fun playing basketball in forever. Although it may have something to do with all the kissing and extremely inappropriate touching that he would never do in a real basketball game.

"You're happy?" she said sitting on the side of the court. She looked absolutely beautiful covered in sweat with her hair in a messy ponytail in a pair of his old basketball shorts. He loves when she wears his clothing.

"Yeah I am."

"Do you find your passion yet?

"For you." He said kissing her quickly on the lips

"What can I say, I'm special." Sharpay said as she got off the bench. "Are you ready for another game?"

"As long as it's with you."

November 1 2008 1:15 PM

He should probably be studying right now. Instead he's watching his girlfriend from the back of the auditorium. He would stay closer to the stage if Tiara didn't keep hitting on him just to set off Sharpay. Despite his girlfriend barely keeping herself from attacking the junior, she was definitely having some fun. Her smile told him everything. She was deathly more relaxed than last year despite the problems with the current production. Making her play Gabby last year was a mistake. No one should have to play her worst enemy. They didn't exactly make it easier for her, with all the comparisons. "We should have just cut Gabby from the show completely or had Tiara play the part." Chad said to the semi empty auditorium not realizing that someone else was listening.

"That probably would've been most prudent. However, they say hindsight is 20/20. Besides I doubt I would have been allowed to do that last year." Ms. Darbus said as she sat down next to him.

"Probably not. We essentially blamed Sharpay for Gabriella leaving for a program that she applied for."

"So what exactly are you doing in my auditorium on a Saturday? You did not like this place even when you were a student here."

"Supporting my crazy girlfriend and making sure she doesn't maim Tiara. I don't know if they will let her stay on if she assaults another student."

"I'm glad you two finally figured out that you actually have feelings for each other. After her little fainting spell last spring, I was tempted to lock you two in a dressing room together. I must say you have been a very good influence on Miss Evans. I doubt last year she could handle having someone else play a role that she wrote for herself."

"What are you talking about? I thought Kelsey wrote all the earlier stuff?"

"Not at all. Sharpay wrote the original draft of the play and the songs herself. Unfortunately, Mrs. Evans threatened to pull out the Evans family money if we ran the production. Apparently, she didn't want anybody to know that Sharpay was more than just a pretty face. I've never met a woman other than maybe Ms. Kim that had so much fun screwing with her children's lives. Both are wretched women. Ms. Darbus muttered under her breath. He couldn't believe that Darby would do something like that but then again according to Ryan and Sharpay she is the original stage monster/manager.

"I'm just glad Sharpay has someone other than Ryan who supports hurt unconditionally. I doubt you would be here on a Saturday watching your girlfriend's musical if you were not her number one fan. Shouldn't you be out making home runs or something?"

"Okay now I know you're doing that stuff on purpose. Even Sharpay knows more about basketball before the flash cards and our tutoring session this morning."

"So that's what they're referring to it as these days."

"We're not-we haven't -I love her- it's just," he was babbling and he knew it.

"I don't need details. Just looking at the way you treat her I can tell you give her the one thing she never really had before, pure unconditional love. As for what you do in your personal life, as long as it doesn't happen on school property I don't really care." Ms. Darbus said with a slight shudder.

"Kim told me about the garden incident."

"I'm still trying to repress that. Then you must know that …

"Why Alex has the middle name Troy? I found out more than a month ago. She told Troy a couple weeks ago. Wait you knew?"

"Did you ever notice that picture on my desk?"

"That was Alex. Why didn't you tell…" then he got it completely. Chad was the only one beside Troy that knew Ms. Darbus summated an application on Troy's behalf to Juilliard. "That's why you submitted the application for him. You were trying to get him to go to New York City so would be with Kim and Alex." Unfortunately, at that moment Tiara and Jackie decided to stop playing nice.

"I really don't know what you're talking about Mr. Danforth. Excuse me I need to break up a cat fight."

November 5, 2008 7:21 PM

Sharpay walked through the crowd of Evans arena without being noticed. Because it was a school night most of the people in attendance were not students. Those that were students were too busy celebrating or commiserating the events of yesterday to harass her. The Hope T shirts were currently everyone's favorite.

She was alone this time because everyone else needed to study or work. She probably needed to study for her chemistry lab tomorrow, but she promise Chad she would be here. She took her seat right behind the team's bench wearing her custom-made number one fan T-shirt. Having half the school named after you does have its advantages sometimes.

After Sharpay's Basketball intervention he started to see what was really going on in the locker room. They wanted him gone and they were using these head games to do it. Sharpay was right, they were just jealous. Chad realized he couldn't play the game just to please people who could never be please. Maybe he would just have to find a new reason to play. As he walked in to sit down on the bench he saw Sharpay sitting directly behind wearing her custom number one fan T-shirt with his number on It. She was cheering louder than anyone else. In Her Smile, he found his new reason to play.

A/N: The next chapter will involve the play and encounter between Mr. Evans and his daughter's boyfriend.