Chapter 1: Bad Day

A/N: This is the first chapter to my new fic. The idea came to me one day while i was watching that episode of the suite life when Maddie and London have their parties on the same day. I asked myself, why does Liam not look like Maddie at all. Then this. Sp please read and review.

The hands on the clock slowly crept toward three o'clock where school would finally let out for the summer. For Madeline Fitzpatrick, it was a welcome sight since this had been the worst day of her life. It had started this morning when her brother, Liam, decided to lock the door to the bathroom and fall asleep inside. This made it impossible for her to get inside to get ready for school in time. So because of her brother she was late and missed the bus to school. When she finally got to school, she received a detention for her tardiness. The boy she had a crush on was suddenly off limits because he was with that dumb cheerleader, Dana. London spilled her lunch and the spaghetti sauce left a large stain on her white blouse. To top off her day she would have to stay and extra half an hour for her detention which would make her late for work at the Tipton.

"Madeline, where have you been? School ended nearly an hour ago." Mr. Moseby stood waiting for her at the front entrance and pointed to his watch.

"I'm sorry Mr. Moseby but I had to stay after school for detention. I was late for school this morning because my little brother locked me out of the bathroom." She would have gone on to talk about her bad day but Mr. Moseby just shook his head and pointed to the candy counter. She trudged over to the candy counter and stood behind it, trying to block out the unhappiness that she was feeling.

"Maddie, you know I'm really sorry about today. I didn't mean to spill it all over you. At least you can throw out that hideous white blouse." London walked up to the counter to chat with her friend.

"I know London. I'm not mad at you. This whole bad day started because of my booger for a brother Liam. I swear sometimes I don't think we're related." Maddie rested her chin in her hand and sighed. The day was only half way through and she wished she was home.

"Yeah, no one in your family is blonde except for your grandma. Everyone else had black or red hair." London added in a brief moment of cognitive clarity. Maddie's eyes widened at the revelation. Perhaps Liam was adopted! That would explain why he was such a booger.

"London, I don't know where you got that idea but you're a genius!" Maddie was starting to feel better about this day already.

"I know you are but what am I?" London crossed her arms and glared at Maddie.

"London, a genius is a smart person." Maddie stared blankly at London and thought of how the moment of her genius had already passed.

"Right, I knew that. I was just testing you." London left Maddie to her work.

Later that afternoon

The sun was going down and it was time for Maddie to punch out and head home. She said goodbye to Mr. Moseby and London on her way out of the hotel. She caught the bus home in silence and thought about asking her parents a few questions that night. Finally arriving at home, she trudged up the stairs and threw her book bag into her room before going into the kitchen.

"Hey Mom, I was wondering. Is Liam adopted?" Her mother spit out the orange juice that she had been drinking and put the cup down quickly. She turned to face Maddie who had a confused look on her face from her mother's odd behavior.

"Actually, Madeline, your father and I wanted to talk to you about something later tonight but I guess we'll do it now. Irving! Get in here now!" She yelled into the house to get Irving to appear.

"Yeah, what is it now?" He stuck his head into the kitchen. Noticing Maddie standing there with an even more confused face, he stepped fully into the kitchen. Her mother made a gesture to get him to start talking.

"Uhh, Madeline, your mother and I have something to tell you." He stuttered and didn't make eye contact, choosing to stare at the floor.

"Liam is adopted isn't he?" She nodded her head and smiled. Her parents frowned and looked at each other before continuing.

"No. Actually, you are the one that is adopted, Madeline." Her mother finally answered. Maddie's face fell as she tried to take in the news that she just received.

"I'm…adopted?" She asked them with some sadness in her voice. They didn't answer her verbally but they nodded their heads.

"Honey I think you should sit down. We'll tell you the whole story." She pulled a seat out for Maddie who slowly took it, at a loss for words. Her mother sighed before finally starting.

"When you were born, your birth mother couldn't take care of you. She had two other children to take care of and had not been prepared for a third. I had just lost my first child in a miscarriage and was in the hospital that day. I heard about you from a nurse and I decided to meet this other woman." She sniffed at the memory, the tears making there way from her eyes to her chin.

"Your mother became friends with the woman quickly and they decided that she would give you to us to take care of as our own. We actually meant to tell you sooner but we kept putting it off. We figured you were a smart girl and would have figured it out by now. But we love you so much I guess you didn't want to believe the facts either." Maddie was crying by now, staring at the stain on the table that never went away.

"What made you decide to tell me now?" She finally asked after letting the information sink in for a few seconds.

"Well, we agreed to have you meet your real family last year. We kept putting it off though and for that we are terribly sorry." Her mother then broke down and started to cry hard, her husband holding her for support.

"It's okay mom, don't cry." Maddie rubbed her mom's shoulder to comfort her.

"Can you tell me about my birth family?" Maddie's father took over as her mother blew her nose.

"Well, your birth mother called us a few weeks ago and gave us an update about her family. Your birth father is a businessman and your birth mother is a clothing designer. She didn't want us to mention it but they are doing much better than we are. They have a large house in Albuquerque. They have a summer house in Hawaii and a winter house in Canada. You have a brother and a sister too." He paused as he thought about how to break the next part of the news.

"Well actually there is another part of your birth that your mother left out. You see the reason your birth mother couldn't keep you was because she had triplets. Back when you were born, she was a struggling artist and her husband had just been fired from another job. They could only afford to pay for two children so they were very grateful when we said we could take care of you. They let us name you since they hadn't thought of a name for you at the time. We officially adopted you the next week and you came home with us." Her father got up and brought a cup of tea for his wife to drink as Maddie sat in silence.

"I'm adopted. I guess I didn't want to believe the facts too." She sighed to herself and got up to go to her room.

"Oh, Maddie, one last thing. Your birth mother has been dying to finally meet you and now that you know we think you should go and visit her." She took the cup that her husband offered and took a sip. A few minutes of silence passed between them before her father hit himself in the face and stood up again.

"Maddie, we haven't been telling the truth again. The truth is, your mother and I already agreed that you spend the next year with your real family in Albuquerque. Your going to be leaving at the end of the month." Maddie got up from the table and left the room. Her parents hung their heads in shame as they couldn't say anything. Maddie came back into the room and hugged the two of them from behind.

"I understand, you guys were scared of how I would react and kept putting it off. Thank you for finally getting enough courage to tell me." She pulled back from them and smiled a half smile.

"At least you didn't wait until I was getting on the plane." She joked before leaving again for her room.

In Albuquerque

The day had not been going very well for the duo for Sharpay and Ryan Evans. They had been late for school because Ryan had forgotten to set his alarm clock. Sharpay depended on Ryan to wake her up since she hated alarm clocks. They missed the bus to school and had to walk. They both received detention for their tardiness and had to spend the afternoon painting sets for Ms. Darbus. Sharpay was even more infuriated by Troy and Gabriella's public displays of affection. Zeke's obvious attraction to her was cute at first but it was getting to the point where it was creepy.

Ryan's day wasn't much better. During the walk to school, the wind blew his hat off his head where it promptly got run over by a passing car. He got a zero for his homework because he forgot his papers in his rush that morning. A stray basketball knocked into him, causing him to spill his lunch on himself, staining his white shirt.

"Ugh, this has to be the worst day of my life." Sharpay said angrily as she threw the front door open and trudged into her house. They had missed the bus home and had to walk back in the rain. Ryan followed behind her into the kitchen where they found their mother sitting at the table.

"Hi mom, today was horrible for both of us so don't even ask." Sharpay plopped into a chair across from her mother as Ryan went into the refrigerator and pulled out a can of soda.

"She must have had a bad day too." Ryan heard his mother say to herself.

"Who had a bad day today?" Ryan asked as he sat down next to his mother. She looked at them for a moment before finally deciding to tell them.

"Okay, confession time. We used to be poor." Sharpay put her hands over her mouth and gasped.

"No, say it isn't true." She said, shock in her voice.

"It's true. Anyway, when you were born, I had triplets not twins. You guys have another sister." Ryan spit his soda all over the floor and looked at his mother pointedly.

"We couldn't afford to keep her so we gave her away to a nice family that had lost their own daughter. Anyway, long story short, you have another sister from Boston and she is going to live with us for the next year." Sharpay looked at Ryan for a moment before breaking out laughing.

"That's a good one mom. You had us going there for a moment." Sharpay said.

"No joke baby girl. She arrives at the end of the month." Her mother said as she left the two to talk over this shocking revelation.

A/N: I'm not so sure i wrote this chapter very well but it's been bugging me for awhile so I decided to wirte it finally. For those of you reading my other fic, In Love With the Paparazzi, the next chapter will be up tomorrow. Also, it is up to you, the reviewers to tell me what sort of pairings you want to see. I can do pretty much anything except Troy and Ryan. It's a little to weird for me. That and Zeke and Sharpay cause Zeke seemed extra creepy in the movie. Peace out.