Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter. I'm glad so many of you agreed with the decision to raise the rating. This is a faster update than usual because I am going to be very busy this weekend. This chapter will foreshadow a lot of events in the second half of the story.

Disclaimer I don't own anything.

Chapter 18: Very Awkward Conversations

It was the first away game of the season and they actually won, if only by two points. Under normal circumstances, Chad would be out celebrating with his teammates if he could actually stand any of them. However, since he was the only player under 18 his coach was having him watched constantly. Then again it may be Sharpay; she did have a lot of pool at the school. That may explain why Amanda is running groupie interference.

Either way it kept Penelope from sneak into his hotel room. Amanda who was currently drowning under makeup homework was sitting next to him screaming at her computer for not recognizing her voice. Currently the computer cannot tell the difference between picture frame and pitcher of water. She initially came over for assistance with her chemistry and now he was helping her work on her English homework. He should probably intervene before she kills the computer.

"Why do teachers have to be so picky about grammar and spelling mistakes? It's not my fault the computer doesn't understand me and I do not have the ability to write a grocery list without a microphone." Amanda said as she ripped off her headset and threw it at the wall. Why do all the women in his life have a tendency to throw things when they get upset? At least she didn't throw it at him this time.

"Throwing microphones across the room is a sure sign that it's time to stop studying. I think your brain is fried from sleep deprivation and your computer needs a break from dictating." Chad said as he powered down Amanda's computer before she had the urge to throw it across the room with the microphone.

"My mind is perfectly fine. I am just frustrated by the stupid software program that doesn't work right, yet I'm completely depended on. Although maybe Penelope snide comments about me being a premedical student who can't even spell premedical student sent me over the edge today. Did you ever wish you were normal?"

"You're talking to somebody who pretended to be of average intelligence through all of high school just to fit in. Trust me; I understand wishing you could be normal. You and I are not normal. I'm exceptional and you're double exceptional. I guess we're just going to have to get used to it." This Thanksgiving Sharpay is making him come out of the genius closet to all of their friends from high school. If he didn't love her, he would kill her.

"We're going to have a couple of hours on the plane tomorrow. I'll go over most of the stuff with you then."

"I'm just frustrated in depressed about a lot of things right now. Thank you for helping out." Amanda side as she prepared to walk out the door. "I forgot to tell you earlier, that Sharpay's dad called our dorm room twice. I was too afraid to tell him that she currently only uses her dorm room as a closet." With that, Amanda was out the door.

Amanda didn't have to worry, Mr. Evans already knew about his daughter's sleeping arrangements. However, he was desperate to get a hold of her because she is currently not picking up his calls. Monday after practice, Mr. Evans decided to visit Chad to return his cell phone and scare him half to death. Chad was just about to confront him for not protecting Sharpay from Darby, until Mr. Evans told him that he knew about most of it because of the DVD in his hand. Chad will never forget that conversation.

"I was always suspicious of the bruises that Sharpay had. It never crossed my mind that it could have been Darby. I was worried it was one of her dance instructors or maybe the voice coach." Mr. Evans told Chad quietly as they walked through the parking lot outside of the practice facilities.

"When we got back from Rhode Island, I had cameras and microphones installed in the rehearsal room at Lava Springs and at the house. I gave specific instructions to the staff at both places to notify me as soon as anything suspicious showed up involving either of my children. Imagine my surprise when I received this DVD yesterday." That was when Chad realized Mr. Evans had footage of him being intimate with his daughter. Even worse he had footage of Sharpay revealing all of her deepest secrets to him. Chad wasn't sure which Sharpay would feel was a bigger invasion of her privacy.

"How much did you watch?" Chad asked in mortified embarrassment.

"Up to the scene where my daughter's blouse ended up on the floor. I preferred to stay ignorant about what you do with my daughter, until after the wedding and you show up with my grandchildren for Sunday brunch. I did call Lisa up and asked her to move your building up to the top of the list for the required sexual health seminar." Chad let go of the breath that he didn't know he was holding one he realized Mr. Evans didn't see the end. He was expecting a much harsher punishment than a sexual health seminar.

"That seems fair."

"That's small part of the footage was enough to make me realize what type of person my wife truly is. The footage of her making out with another man was the cherry on top." Chad could hear the sadness and anger in the man's voice.

"There were a lot of other things that Darby did to Sharpay over the years. Not all of them were physical. I'm not going to tell you anything else said in that room because it was very personal. I will tell you that it was bad. If you want to know all the details, you have to ask Sharpay. I'm just not sure she trusts you enough to tell you. Darby wasn't the only one that hurt her. You may have never laid a finger on her, but you did hurt her. You were never there. Even Ryan said 90% of their childhood you were away on business. You were away so much that you were unable to see what was going on in your own household."

"I know that. You do not have any idea how bad I feel that my own daughter was too afraid to tell me that her mother was Abusive? I put all the wrong things first and this is what I get. I'm sorry for everything that happened."

"Don't tell me, tell her. This time don't say it with diamonds, or a car, or some other tangible thing. She needs to know that you actually care. She needs to hear the words from her father, not just see the gifts."

He was pulled out of his Memory by Sharpay calling. He could tell by the ring tone.

"Hey I just want to say good night before you went to sleep and congratulations on another win."

"You actually watched a basketball game with me not there."

"I told you I would watch every single game."

"Yes but I thought that only applied to home games. Did you do anything interesting today?"

"Went to class, watched a film for film class, ignored Kim at EHS, watched your game, and ignore two phone calls from dad."

"You're still not talking to Kim or your father?" Chad said with a sigh.

"I'm just not ready to talk to my dad yet and I'm not going to let him buy his way out of this. As for Kim, she lied to me for three years. I can be mad for a few days. I really needed her this weekend and she was too busy this weekend 'reconnecting' with Troy. I mean they could've broken apart long enough for her to replied to one of my text messages."

"She left her phone in New Mexico. She did call you as soon as she receive your messages."

"She could have called using Troy's phone." He had the same argument with Kim yesterday in film class when Sharpay stepped out to use the restroom. He decided in the interest of self preservation to stay out of this until it got really bad.

After only the first one, Sharpay realized that she was going to hate away games. She hated sleeping by herself. She hated not eating breakfast with him or walking to class together. Most of all she hated the fact that she would have to sit with Kim in this class. The only other empty seat besides Chad's was next to Richard and there was no way she was sitting next to that person without a stun gun. No matter how mad she was at Kim. Today they were watching a documentary on drama in film. She wasn't really paying attention, she would watch it again tonight with Chad when he made up the course work for today.

Half way through the documentary, as usual Kim started making snide comments about what was going on. Normally she and Chad would join in on the banter. Today Sharpay just was not into it.

"Just because I'm sitting next to you, doesn't mean I'm talking to you again." Sharpay said in a whisper.

"You just spoke to me. I'm sorry I didn't call you. I lost my phone." Kim whispered back.

"I am only talking to you, to tell you that I'm not speaking to you. Contrary to common belief, land lines still exist. I'm sure someone at your family reunion had a phone you could use. I needed you this weekend, yet you were too busy to even pick up the phone." In her mind she added a snide comment about Kim being too busy banging Troy to actually call her.

"I know you had a bad weekend. Chad told me about the Darby thing."

"Yet you still didn't call me even though you knew some of what was going on?" Sharpay whispered bitterly.

"I know it's not really an excuse, but it was an intense weekend." Oh Sharpay was sure it was intense in the sense that Kim probably didn't leave the bed all weekend.

"I wouldn't know that because you're not sharing things with me anymore. I mean you spend Saturday morning talking to my boyfriend, but you don't talk to me. I'm sure my boyfriend knows more about what is going on with you, than I do."

"Sharpay,"

"Don't Sharpay me. Our friendship has been in decline for a while. You have not been telling me things for a very long time. You did not tell me about Alex until a week after he was born. I called you at least twice a week back then, yet you never said anything. You never mentioned all the problems with your mom or your dad about keeping Alex. If I knew, I would have been there for you because I am your friend. But you wouldn't let me. I am the one who supposedly pushes people away, not you. You never trusted me enough to tell me the identity of Alex's father." Sharpay was trying to fight back tears at this point. She wasn't going to start crying in a room full of people.

"It's not like I didn't trust you. I do trust you. I wasn't ready to tell Alex's dad yet. If I told you, I know you would have told him."

"You're right, I would have told him immediately. What you did was stupid. Both of us would have been there for you. I'm sure Troy told you the exact same thing this weekend." Sharpay didn't mean to say Troy's name. It slipped out.

"You know? Did Chad tell you?" Kim said quietly as the blood drained from her face.

"Chad didn't tell me anything except explain why he didn't tell me. I figured it out on my own. You didn't think I would notice the blue eyes." Sharpay decided not to tell her that she found out by listening in on her conversation with Chad.

"Why couldn't you tell me? Why couldn't you tell me you were dating Troy three years ago? Why couldn't you tell me that you were in love with Troy every time I told you about my crush on him? Why didn't you tell me about Lucille forcing you away from Troy? Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant when it first happened? Why did you not tell me about your mom trying to force you to give up your child by holding your trust fund hostage?"

"I was scared."

"That's not a good answer Kim. I was scared to. When Darby was hurting me, I was scared. When you know who attacked me, I was scared? When I realized I was in love with the guy I thought I hated, I was absolutely petrified. I still told you about everything. I've always told you about everything. Yet somehow you couldn't do the same for me." Sharpay said this so loudly that the entire class heard her. She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't be in that room anymore. Before she even realize what was going on she grabbed her books and ran out the room.

She found herself 15 minutes later at one of the cafés right outside of campus. As she sat at the table with a double chocolate muffin and a no fat soy latte she called the only person she really wanted to talk to. She knew she would get voice mail because he was most likely on the plane already.

"I know you're on the plane. I just wanted to hear your voice, even if it was the voice mail message. Things didn't go that well in film class today. You're going to need to pick up the DVD yourself for tonight. I accidentally told Kim that I knew about Troy. Anyway, love you."

"Calm down Kim, it's not that bad," Troy said trying to calm down his overexcited girlfriend.

"It's bad. Sharpays not talking to me. We've been friends since I was seven. She hates me. She's completely ignoring me. She even left class just to get away from me today. I didn't want this to happen." He knew things were bad. There was a second part to their fight this afternoon at EHS that his father text messaged him about.

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you. She's just really hurt right now. We knew she was going to be upset when we finally told her."

"That's the thing, we didn't tell her. She just found out accidentally. That's what hurts. I didn't trust her enough to tell her. That's why she's upset."

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"I was scared" she said in a sad whisper.

"Is that the truth?"

"It was at the time. I think she was more upset about us keeping the initial relationship a secret from her."

"Chad was upset about that too. I think in Sharpay's case, she's mad because she had a crush on her best friends boyfriend for most of high school and didn't even know it."

"I wasn't worried about her crush on you. Troy you were her safety crush."

"What does that mean?" Troy asked her in puzzlement.

"Sharpay wasn't ready for a real relationship after the break up with Richard. Therefore, she had a crush on the one nice guy at our school that she had no chance with whatsoever. It was just easier to let her crush on you because; I knew you wouldn't hurt her even If you did reciprocate her feelings.

"However, in the back of your mind you knew that I would probably be too hung up on you to move on to her."

"No, I knew that Chad would talk you out of anything, because he already had a crush on her even back then." He started to laugh at that because he knew it was true. He couldn't help but think of Chad's mountain lion comment back during junior year. Now Chad was the one petting the mountain lion.

"I have no ideal you would use someone like Gabriella as a placebo girlfriend." Kim just said the G word. Gabriella was still a very touchy subject.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Troy said with a sigh.

"Did it work?" Kim asked cheekily.

"There is no substitute for Kim Bolton. Unfortunately a certain ex girlfriend doesn't realize I'm not taking her back because she stabbed my friends in the back and I'm in love with someone else."

"You're having way too much fun using my new name. Maybe if you tell the FMG that your new significant other has your last name she will run away before she does something completely desperate. For example, she could show up at your dorm room wearing an outfit more appropriate for a strip club."

"You mean like showing up to my dorm room wearing a trench coat and stilettos. It's too late for that." Troy said under his breath."

"Okay that is just so cliché. So what was your reaction to Ms. Montez's display Mr. Bolton?"

"Ms. Bolton, if a certain someone would let me make her Mrs. Bolton this weekend I would've told my ex that I was already married. However, since you wouldn't do that or even let me tell anybody that were engaged I just had to make the best of the situation."

"What was the best of the situation Mr. Bolton?" He needed to answer this question very carefully if he ever wanted to see Kim in stilettos and a trench coat.

"I left her in the room and went to the library to study." He could hear Kim laughing on the other side of the line. "Now if it was you who showed up to my room in a trench coat, it would have been a very different situation."

"Not happening, but if you want to try it sometime I'm all for it."

It was 3:00 AM and he could feel his girlfriend tossing and turning next to him. She wasn't sleeping and he knew it was because of everything going on with Kim, Darby, and Mr. Evans. Chad was already planning on resorting to desperate measures. But her restlessness just cemented his decision.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. I can go over in sleep in my own bed tonight if you want?" Sharpay said getting up from the bed. He quickly pulled her back again up against his bare chest.

"Then you will wake up Amanda instead. She's already irritated because her parents could not afford for her to go home for thanksgiving and her voice recognition software destroy her homework. Besides I don't want you walking around the floor only wearing a T shirt." Personally he would have preferred her out of said T shirt.

"I learned my lesson last time. Do you know that Amanda has a picture of me from that morning on her laptop?" He knew all about that picture. It was currently on his cellphone or at least it was on his cell phone. That file mysteriously disappeared from the phone after it was returned.

"I told Amanda I would pay for a ticket if she really wanted to go. She said she couldn't take money from me. Personally I think it's an excuse to stay away from her crazy family."

"Probably,"

"I just don't want her to be stuck in the dorms alone. How do you feel about a third person crashing thanksgivings with us?"

"I will ask my parents. I'm sure Troy and Kim will be happy with another witness in case things truly go bad. You're still going to come watch the fireworks even though you're mad at them." Chad said caressing her thigh.

"Like I'm going to miss this. This is going to be the car wreck of the year. I can't believe they're planning on breaking the news to everyone at Thanksgiving. Do they realized how big of a disaster this is going to be?"

"You could call her up right now and tell her?" Even in the pale moonlight, he could still see her shaking her head no.

"I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. However, this stops now Sharpay. I know Kim and your dad are the reason why you're tossing and turning at 3:06 AM. You are going to have to face your problems eventually. You have to talk things out with Kim and you're going to have to call your father." He said as he kissed her once more.

"I think I rather call Kim first. Although I'm probably going to have to apologize at this point, I said some really mean things. Maybe I Wait until Monday when I have to see her at EHS." He knew this was the stall technique for sharpay. It looks drastic action was still required.

"I'm just not ready to talk to dad yet. I'm just really upset about a lot of things. My father concentrated so much on his career, that he barely had time for Ryan and me. There were some moments that I thought he cared, but they were few and far between. Maybe it would be easier to forgive him if there was some way that I knew for sure that he really cared about me and didn't see me as a way to make himself look better."

"What if I told you there was actual evidence that he really did care about you and was worried."

"How do you know this?"

"Your dad stop by practice Monday to return my phone and to drop off his peace offering."

"So what guilt gift did he give us this time? I'm sure for this disaster it was probably something good like a condo." The material part of the gift was a heavily funded account at Tiffany's for Chad to use when the time was right. Even Chad felt that was a bit more of a symbolic gesture than the usual guilt gift Ryan told him about last week.

"He just brought me a DVD."

"What was so special about this DVD?"

"Did you know that your father put cameras in the rehearsal room because he didn't completely believe that your bruises were caused by dancing?"

"So he actually did see what was going on." Sharpay said in relief. "I had no idea there are cameras in that room," then he felted her body go completely rigid as she piece everything together.

"The room still has cameras?"

"Yes. He also had the room wired for sound. "

"That means that…"

"He only watched enough to know what Darby did to you when you were five. He stopped at that point because it was too personal. Don't worry; I have the only copy hidden in my sock door."

At that his girlfriend promptly went unconscious.

"I wonder who had the brilliant idea to schedule this seminar on Saturday." Sharpay said in annoyance to her boyfriend as they walked to Nicholas hall. She had better things to do then attend a class on a Saturday. Like her chemistry homework, her pre calculus homework, or deciding what classes she is taking next semester.

"Your father," Chad muttered under his breath.

"This is completely your fault."

"How is this my fault?"

"You're the one who couldn't keep your hands to yourself last Saturday in the rehearsal room."

"You were not upset about it at the time. You definitely were not upset about it last night when I did the exact same thing. I really do love watching your face at that certain moment." Sharpay when scarlet when she remembered exactly what Chad did to her last night. If she thought the rehearsal room was intense, what they did together last night was nuclear. Although he still wouldn't let her reciprocate.

"If I knew there were cameras around, I wouldn't have done anything last weekend in the rehearsal room." She was so freaked out last night it took the good perfume to revive her.

"You would have dragged me to your bedroom at the summer house so you could have your wicked way with me instead." He told her with a cheeky smile.

"Other way around. You were the one who had your wicked way with me just like you did last night. You knew for five days about the security cameras and you didn't tell me."

"I did tell you. I just took my time." She really wasn't that upset. Mortified beyond believe but not upset. "What room are you supposed to be in again?" Chad asked his girlfriend. Sharpay pulled out the e-mail she received yesterday with the seminar instructions.

"My seminar is in room 123 which is right across the hall."

"I'll see you after class Sharpay." said as she passionately kissed her boyfriend goodbye.

"If that's a goodbye kiss, no wonder you were signed up for this class." Commented the instructor from inside as she entered the room. Sharpay were shocked to find Kim entering the classroom.

"What are you doing here? I thought this seminar was only required for freshmen."

"Apparently it's also required for transfer students. Considering I already have a two year old, I don't see the point of me taking a seminar about preventing early pregnancy."

"This class may still be useful, I doubt that you want to have a three year old and a newborn while you're still in school." Called the instructor from the front of the classroom where she was setting up various types of contraceptive devices including birth control pills, diaphragms, cervical caps, male condoms, female condoms, latex gloves, and a flat sheet of latex that Sharpay didn't know the name for. Sharpay had a feeling this will be her father's most creative punishment yet.

Chad ran away from the class room as quickly as possible. He needed to be safely away from the vicinity of the room before his girlfriend realizes that this was a setup. Friday both he and Troy concluded that the only sensible solution was to actually lock their girlfriends in a room with a mediator that wasn't either of them.

This meant Chad calling in a favor from Sharpay's father. Who was apparently waiting for him in the classroom where his seminar was supposed to be. Why did he have a sickening feeling that Sharpay wasn't the only person being set up this afternoon?.

"What are you doing here?"

"You were the one who told me I needed to prove to my daughter that I actually care about her. After the seminar, I thought I would take her to an early dinner while you get ready for tonight's game. Than tonight will watch you play. However, I thought I would start with something fun like scaring the hell out of you." This did not sound good, Chad thought to himself as he took a seat.

"This is a condom," Mr. Evans said holding up the foil package. "If you sleep with my daughter without wearing one and subsequently get her pregnant unintentionally, I will force the entire package down your throat. Is that understood?" Now Chad remembered why he was so terrified last week. Maybe he should have just kept quiet.

Candi was not in a good mood this weekend. Candi was supposed to be at a wine tasting with her husband at a quaint bed and breakfast in the desert. Instead, she received a urgent phone call from Lisa asking her to teach a special sexual health seminar. Candi had no idea why they couldn't use one of the regular instructors. So instead of spending time with her husband using some of the devices that she would be modeling in class today, she would be speaking upon the virtues of the dental dam. Someone is going to pay for this.

"Hello I am your instructor Candi Kane. Yes that is my real name."

"It is still better than my current name of Kim Kim." Candi thought her parents were sadists.

"I'm sure somebody is looking forward to taking their future husbands last name. Why not take a seat next to your friend and we will begin the seminar as soon as the PowerPoint loads."

"Shouldn't there be other people?" said the girl called Kim.

"I thought my entire floor was supposed to be coming to this." Apparently, nobody told the two girls that they were being pulled for a special seminar.

"There at the regular seminar. Both of you were recommended to take the special seminar. So it's just going to be the three of us today."

"I knew my father was doing this as a punishment. This is what happens when you go to a school where your father is on the board of directors." That explains why she was called in. One of the board members daughters was caught doing inappropriate things with her boyfriend in inappropriate places. She wish people would stop using this seminar as some sort of punishment.

"Sharpay what did your father catch you doing? You guys didn't go all the way did you?"

"If you called me last Saturday like a good friend, I would've told you?" The girl called Sharpay said to the other girl. Candi could sense a lot of animosity coming from the two girls. She had a feeling she would be using her peer counseling skills a lot today.

"You can work out your personal issues later. Let's began the seminar so we can all enjoy the rest of our Saturday." Candi said as she put a diagram of the female sex organ on the screen. "I know most of you are familiar with this diagram, except the high school version probably had the clitoris airbrushed."

"We went to a high school where the health teacher had to keep double lesson plans for this chapter. I'm surprised our high school principle didn't try to tear the diagram out of the book." She heard sharpay said.

"Jack told me this weekend, that the principle is trying to cut the entire section from the curriculum. He cannot do it because it's a state requirement. He really is going too far." Kim told Sharpay who started laughing hysterically.

"Who is Jack?" Candi asked in confusion.

"Our high school health teacher, my boyfriend's father, and my son's grandfather," Kim told her.

"You guys went to the same high school?"

"We are best friends," Kim told the Candi.

"We would be if you didn't lie to me for three years."

"I said I was sorry. I know we should have told you the truth in the beginning but we were just scared and under so much pressure to stick with the status quo."

"You could have told me anyway."

"I know but I felt a lot of guilt."

"About lying to me?"

"About having sex on the roof of the high school with Troy when Richard slipped GHB into your drink at the spring dance your sophomore year. It turns out while you were being raped; I was being knocked up by my boyfriend." As soon as she heard GHB she knew why none of the other counselors couldn't take this. She was the only one who trained in pure mediation and rape counseling. This was more complicated than just two friends fighting.

"I was so busy being with Troy that I wasn't looking out for you. Richard hurt you because I wasn't there to stop it." Apparently Kim blamed herself for the other girls sexual assault.

"You could not have stopped it from happening." Sharpays said grabbing the other girl.

"You stop Ricky from doing the same thing to Kerri." Kim said in tears. Time for her to intervene

"In addition to doing seminars like these, I also do rape counseling. Kim I'm going to tell you the exact same thing I tell the girls that come in. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault either Sharpay. How long ago did this happen?

"Three years ago." Both girls sat at the said time.

"It seems that we have more pressing issues then going through various types of contraceptives or ways to prevent disease and pregnancy. I think the more pressing thing is for me to help you guys work for this. Although, Sharpay I'm sending you home with a starter kit. If that kiss was any indication, you're going to need it. Let's start with the hard question, Kim why can't you forgive yourself for what happened?"

It was the longest hour of his entire life. After the initial threats of suffocation and genital mutilation, the student instructor showed up to give the normal presentation. During the presentation Chad received several more threats involving the loss of certain appendages if he ever hurt Sharpay, forced her to do anything she wasn't ready for, or gave her a STD. The suffocation by latex threat seemed mild compared to those involving castration and a forced vasectomy with a rusty knife. He was pretty sure most of the things described were against the Geneva convention. Chad was starting to think his father got off easy with the shotgun wedding. Then again, Mr. Evans did see him do several inappropriate things to his daughter on film.

Chad was still shaking as they made their way to Kim and Sharpay.

"I really hope this works. I don't think I can take another week of the two of them not speaking to each other." Chad said with a sigh.

"I'm sure the two of them will work through this. They have been friends for as long as I can remember. I think until college, Kim was Sharpay's only real friend other than Ryan. Everyone else used her to get something. Maybe that's why other than her just being a horrible person, Darby was so frightened by you."

"I don't understand."

"I purposely designed the trust funds of both Ryan and Sharpay with a special catch. They will Receive complete control over their trust fund at age 25 or any time they get married after age 18."

"She just assumed because I wasn't born wealthy, I am a gold digger?"

"Who knows? I personally don't believe that." As Mr. Evans said this they walked right up to the room where Kim and Sharpay were enthusiastically talking with the instructor.

"So your boyfriend actually propose to you while you were being intimate?" The instructor asked Kim. Chad was too caught up in finding out his best friend got engaged without telling him to notice the shock look on Mr. Evans face.

"Why am I the last one to know about this?" Chad asked walking into the room and grabbing his girlfriend.

"You're not the last person we told. You are more like the fifth person we told."

"Tell me he gave you a ring." Sharpay asked excitedly.

"Not yet."

"Okay the engagement doesn't count until you actually get the ring. So hopefully this time he will propose fully clothed." Sharpay said to Kim.

"I would hope so." Mr. Evans called from the hallway.

"Daddy what are you doing here." Sharpay asked as she noticed her father for the first time. Chad could tell that she was tense as her fingernails dug into him so badly that she was almost almost drawing blood from his hand.

"I thought it would just stop by and scare your boyfriend a little. Then I thought we could go to dinner just the two of us."

"Sure," Sharpay said as she walked off with her father.

"I'm sure she's going to be okay. She will be text messaging you the entire time." Kim said to him as she picked up on his nervousness.

"I'm not that worried. I want to hear more about your engagement."

"The engagement thing was kind of a consequence. I am more excited about getting a brand new last name for my 21st birthday."

"The perfect present for someone who despises her last name."

"More like the perfect present for somebody who is not speaking to her father because he's a self-righteous idiot."

"You're still not speaking to your father?"

"Troy told you?"

"About most of what happened last weekend. Although, I think he left some very important things out."

"I will talk to my father as soon as he grows up. At least I have Vanessa as the good parent. By the way Vanessa is mad at you because her favorite pseudo clone of a niece is not coming home for Thanksgiving." He wasn't even going to ask why it was his fault. He was just going to accept responsibility.

"Clone of a niece?"

"For two people who are not related they look exactly alike. I didn't realize it before because I really didn't pay attention to other groups in high school."

"Maybe Taylor is a long lost relative." Chad said as a joke, yet for some reason Kim went completely pale.

They were at the Rose, one of Sharpay's favorite restaurants in the area. For the first time she could actually try out the full menu. She always wanted to try the black and blue filet Mignon, but never dared tried it with Darby around. Way too many calories to be safely consume around Darby.

"You usually only order a salad when we come here," Sharpay was shocked her father actually knew what she ordered when they went out to eat together. Maybe he did care.

"More like Darby would only let me order a salad when we came here."

"I didn't realize that."

"You didn't realize a lot of things." Sharpay said with a hint of bitterness.

"I know I wasn't there a lot. However, I do love you and your brother very much. I know I put my job ahead of you and Ryan too many times. You have no Idea how sorry I am. Now it's too late to try to make things better. You're both out of the house and grownup now. You don't need me anymore and when you did I wasn't there."

"Dad even though I'm technically an adult, I'm still going to need you to be there. I need my father."

"I promise that I will try harder from now on." He said grabbing her hand.

"Chad told me about the video cameras. Even though there's now footage of me and Chad doing something that I am glad that you didn't watch, I'm happy that the cameras were there. That showed me you actually cared. You were paying attention. I'm interested in what you're going to do about Darby."

"The lawyers are still working on that. Hopefully she'll be served that the papers before thanksgiving. As far as I'm concerned I never want to see her again."

"Good" Sharpay said as she hugged her father. "One final question, what did you do to my boyfriend that had him so petrified this afternoon?"

A/N: I actually took one of the lines in the sexual health seminar directly from one of the seminar's I took in college. For some reason, I ended up having to attend this mandatory seminar four times. Yes, in college I did lose a paper due to a voice-recognition software malfunction.

The next chapter will begin the Thanksgiving spectacular. Up first Troy comes back to New Mexico and Sharpay will spend the day with Chad's mother.