Chapter 4: The Visit from the Ghost of the Present

(This picks up from the last chapter)

The Ghost of the Past or more like to Troy his late grandfather has just left. Troy is sitting down on his bed thinking to him: 'What have I done?'

' I can't believe that everything that happened between Sharpay and I was all Chad's fault.' He thinks while he is looking at the last photograph of him and Sharpay again.

"Aren't you going to take some of the blame as well? Or are you just going to blame everyone else?" a voice of a sudden says, pulling Troy away from his thoughts.

"AHH…" Troy screams falling off his bed," who are you?" he asks trying to catch his breath.

"I am the Ghost of the Present. You were warned about my visit and I am here to show you your present or more like what happens in the present and for you to try to make some sense of things."

"And let me guess I don't really have much of a choice now do I?"

"No, you don't. As it is right now you are going down a path that is going to lead you to unhappy life and future."

"What future? The future I wanted ended after she left me. In case you haven't realized that my life is already unhappy. The girl or more like woman I love more than anything is already married to someone other man. A man who just isn't me so you're already too late for that one."

"Yes, she did move one with her life. After time she was able to open up some part of her heart. But she never truly opened or moved on with her full heart."

"What are you talking about?" Troy asks confused.

"Sharpay, always did love you. Even after she ended things between you guys. After she closed her heart since she didn't want to take the chance of having her heart broken the way it was again. But she never could stop loving you or had you completely gone from loving you inside of her heart. And when I said she didn't want her heart broken, I meant by you again."

"Gee thank you for stating the obvious fact and story of my life."

"Oh will you be quite now? For we only having a short amount of time and I really just want to get this over with."

"Fine let's just get this over with."

"Good and remember, now this clip for what I am about to show you will be mentioned again with the Ghost of the Future."

(The scene shows Sharpay waking up and finding her husband still sleeping. She gets ups from the bed and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth. But before she could, she just got hit with a wave of morning sickness.)

"Okay baby, are you happy now? After you just made mommy lose her dinner from last night." She asks her stomach.

(After she is done with her morning sickness Sharpay is able to brush her teeth. Then she goes down stairs to the kitchen and sees her brother Ryan already at the table. )

"Morning Ry."

"Morning sis. How are you doing this morning?"

"Good and you?"

"Good. So how is my little niece or nephew doing this morning?" Ryan had figured it out but was waiting until his sister was ready to say anything.

"Great! I am going to tell mom and dad this morning at breakfast."

"That's good!"

"I know, plus I am so happy to have made it past 12 weeks this time around." Sharpay says while looking down. Ryan sees that his sister is hiding something.

"Is there something else that you aren't telling me? You know that you can always tell me anything right?"

"I know that, but if I do tell you than you won't let me do what I am going to do."

"And that is?"

"A secret that I want to keep to myself for now."

With that said the clip ends and Troy looks to the Ghost of the Present. Wondering what it was that Sharpay is hiding.

"I know that you want to know what happens. But I can only show you the present."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Only time and the future can reveal itself. As I have said for I am only the Ghost of the Present."

"Fine." Troy says knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere else.

"Now, while you saw Sharpay moving on and starting a family. You on the other hand changed?"

"How did I change?"

"Well for starters, when you changed back in high school and Sharpay left you it changed your present. Remember what happens in the past can change the way the present and future to will come to be. By not going after her or defending her you changed your path as well as hers."

"I get it I messed up. What else is new?"

"While you went on to the NBA, Sharpay went on to become a famous lawyer that you hear about today. She was able to find someone to settle down with. But you never wanted to let go of the past. This was one of the reasons why Gabriella did what she did."

"Wait really?"

"Yes, now this next clip is of Gabriella talking to her best friend Taylor."

"I know who Taylor is, but okay let's just get this over with already."

"Very well then."

With that said the Ghost of the Present snaps his fingers and a clip of Gabriella comes.

(Gabriella appears and sits down having lunch with Taylor.)

"Gabs, I still can't rap my head around the fact with what happened with you and Troy. Why did you hurt Troy like that?" Taylor asked wanting to know the truth.

"Because I couldn't stand being his second choice anymore," Gabriella says looking down.

"What do you mean by second choice?"

"What I mean is that I didn't want to be the girl that was around and accepted anymore. While his heart belonged to another girl."

"Who are you talking about? What other girl?"

"Sharpay."

"Sharpay? As in Sharpay Evans? When did that ever happen?" Taylor asks confused. She never knew that Troy and Sharpay had ever dated. Let alone for almost four years.

"You didn't know that they dated for almost four years?" Gabriella asked shocked.

"No! But I guess that most of us wouldn't have known anyway. We all went to different elementary and middle schools back then. We just all met in high school and by then I'm guessing that is when Sharpay became the ice queen."

"Oh well, one day while Troy was at practice I was in his dorm room waiting for him to come back. I don't really remember what made me look under his bed, but there was this box."

"What was inside this box?"

"Old pictures that goes back from when they were together. Some as kids and the others of them while they were dating, but I noticed one thing in all the pictures. The way that his eyes looked at her and I realized that he had never looked at me with those eyes. So I hid the box back under his bed. And then the next day I ran into Sharpay."

"Okay what happened after that?"

"I asked her if we could have lunch and talk."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to know what really happened with her and Troy. I also knew that Troy would never tell me the truth. He would've just avoided the question or subject all together."

"What did she tell you?"

"The truth and believe me I didn't know what she was going to say. Or if it was going to be true, but I knew the minute that when she started crying that she was telling the truth."

"Which was?"

"That when it all came to an end the Troy she knew and loved was different. He wasn't the man that she fell in love with anymore and then came the hard part."

"What hard part?"

"When she ended their relationship, it broke her heart. And added more to the story…"

"Come on tell me," Taylor says at the edge of her seat.

"It was all because of Chad."

"Chad! As in my Chad?"

"Yes! The one and only."

"What did he have to do with anyone this?"

"Everything, right down to sending a picture of Troy kissing another girl."

"OMG! Really?"

"Yup and after that, I decided that I didn't want to be his second choice anymore. I had thought that he would've gone to her and tell her how sorry he was. As well as a big idiot, but he never did. Now she has moved on with her life. Which I really can't blame her for and she did want she had to do for her. The same thing I did what I had to do for me."

"True."

The clip ends and Troy realizes that he was trying to make what he had with Sharpay work with him and Gabriella.

"Gabriella made the choice to set you free and to be with the one you loved. But you never did take that chance."

Troy doesn't say anything knowing that what the Ghost of the Present said was true. He didn't take the chance to go and talk to Sharpay after everything was done with Gabriella. So he instead just looks down.

"Do you really understand why Gabriella did what she did now? Or do you still think she did it to hurt you?"

"Yes, I understand now. I just didn't understand at the time and I guess I didn't realize that I was trying to bring back what I had in the past with Sharpay. Work with the relationship that I had with Gabriella. I hurt them both more than they ever hurt me." Troy says looking up, "Okay so if my grandpa who passed away was my Ghost of the Past, who are you?"

"Your father son," Jack said taking off his hood revealing himself.

"Dad? Why you?"

"It was either me or your mom. But believe me when I tell you this, if you had her she would've smacked you upside the head and even then you will still never hear the end of it."

"What for?"

"For being an idiot and no offence son but, you do realize that your mother had yours and Sharpay's wedding planned the moment you both were born right?"

"Yeah I knew," Troy answers his dad.

"And when things ended between you both, it broke her heart. She still hasn't gotten over that but she understood that Sharpay had to do what was best for her. Just like Gabriella had to do what was best for her. And by the way I owe you something…"

Jack smacks Troy upside his head.

"Ouch that hurt and come one dad really?" Troy asks rubbing his head.

"Sorry son, but I promised your mom that I would do that for her. And I don't want to end up on her bad side. Well it's time for me to leave now and I'll see you in the morning." With that said Jack snaps his fingers and disappears.

"Bye…" Troy says.

'I really am an idiot,' he thinks and falls onto his bed looking at the ceiling.