"Sharpay."

She turned to see Troy Bolton standing over her, his hand reaching out for her. She extend her own hand out to him, letting him fold his fingers over hers and pull her to her feet. She stood up steadily for about two seconds before her head went light and she started to stumble.

"Whoa," Troy said, reaching out to keep her balanced. "Maybe you should sit down."

He eased her over to the steps on the side of the building, and sat her down on the bottom step. He dropped his backpack down next to her, and then he was crouching down beside it, reaching in and digging around. He pulled out a pack of tissues, holding it out for Sharpay.

She reached out and carefully extracted one tissue from the pack.

"You can have the whole pack, if you want," Troy offered.

"No, it's okay," Sharpay asserted, as she dabbed her eyes with the tissue. She tried not to cringe at how hoarse her voice sounded. "One is fine." Despite her protests, Troy set the pack down on her lap anyway. She glanced down at it, and then looked up at him. "Thank you."

"No problem." Troy slid down and sat beside his backpack. "So, are you okay?"

Sharpay nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I just… I don't know. I felt sick all of the sudden."

"I saw what happened with Gabriella."

"Oh." Sharpay could felt her face flush. She wondered if she was going to get sick again. "Yeah... That was pretty bad, huh?"

Troy shrugged. "I think it could've been worse."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he said, running his hand through his hair. "You could've punched her."

"Well. There's an idea for next time," Sharpay deadpanned.

Troy smiled at her. That smile that's been making girls' hearts melt since around the eighth grade, when they all started noticing how strikingly handsome Troy was, even at fourteen.

Sharpay remembered how she had a crush on him, but it was weird, because he was friends with Ryan, and he would sleep over at their house. She remembered how one night Gabriella was sleeping over, and at the same time, Troy was in Ryan's room across the hall, playing video games. Gabriella kept going in there and flirting with Troy, much to Sharpay's disdain. Then later that night, Gabriella had told Sharpay that she wasn't allowed to like Troy anymore, because "he belonged with her."

"Troy and Gabriella. Gabriella and Troy," Gabriella had said to her. "See how good our names sound together? We're meant to be. It just makes sense."

Sharpay grimaced at the memory. Gabriella has been trying to ruin her life for much longer than she realized. Fortunately—or rather, unfortunately, if you happen to be Gabriella—Troy never reciprocated Gabriella's interest.

She glanced over at Troy. In the time she'd been reminiscing, he'd pulled out his phone and was messing with it. "Do you need a ride home?" he asked, without looking up at her.

"Oh, no," Sharpay said, quickly. "I have my car. It's in the parking lot."

"But are you okay to drive? You probably still woozy."

Sharpay shook her head fervently. "It's fine. I'm fine." When Troy still didn't look convinced, she switched gears. "I can't just leave my car here."

"I can drive your car. I'll just walk back here after I drop you off. I have to come back for basketball practice anyway."

"But, I, uh…" She ran out of arguments.

Troy stood up, brushing off his jeans. Then he reached down, grabbing his bag, and hoisted it over his shoulder. "Come on."

Sharpay had endured a lot of scrutiny since school started a few weeks ago, but she still wasn't prepared for the looks she got as she and Troy walked up to the parking lot. Every person they passed stared, most of them openly, with a few bursting whispers—"Did you see what happened with her and Gabriella?" "She looked like she was going to hurl." "Oh my God, where is she going with Troy Bolton?"—before she was even out of earshot. She tried to ignore them as she led Troy to her car, handing him her keys. He got behind the wheel, then reached across to open the door for her. She quickly climbed in, pulling her seatbelt over her.

As they started through the parking lot, Troy rolled down his window, resting his arm there, and Sharpay took a look around the interior of her car. The Hello Kitty seat covers, the pink daisy clipped to the dashboard. Plus, it smelled faintly like vanilla. She never realized how girly her car was; she wandered if Troy felt weird driving it.

Just as she thought this, they reached the stop sign at the top of the parking lot and Troy put on the blinker, looking both ways. "So I really appreciate you driving me," Sharpay said. "You know, you really didn't have to."

"No problem."

For a moment, they rode in silence. Except for the low sound of a Katy Perry song playing on the radio. Sharpay had this feeling like she should attempt to make conversation. "So," she said, after a while. "how's basketball going?"

"It could be better," Troy said. "Things were good last season, and we were hoping to be in the state championships this year. But then Chad got kicked off the team, so that set us back a bit. And now, I'm out a co-captain."

"Chad's not on the team anymore?"

"No." He slowed up for an upcoming stop sign. "Coach suspended him. He got in a fight with one of the West High guys, after our last game."

Sharpay nodded. She vaguely recalled hearing Marissa Blackwood say something Chad being in a fight, when she was sitting next to her in English class. Marissa was one of the most gossipy girls at East High, and she had a special talent for starting rumors that spread like wildfire. Sharpay learned to take everything Marissa said with a grain of salt, because at least 75 percent of the stuff she said was usually inaccurate. The story about Chad, though, evidently fell into other 25 percent. "Oh, right. I heard."

"You heard?" Troy repeated.

Sharpay nodded again. "Sort of."

"So why'd you ask?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Do you believe everything you hear?"

"No," he said. Then he looked at her for a moment, before turning back to the road. "No, I don't."

Sharpay frowned. So she apparently wasn't the only one who had being hearing rumors. She wasn't sure why she'd thought it was actually possible that he hadn't heard anyway. She took a breath and said, "It's not true, if that's what's you were wondering."

He was downshifting, the engine grinding as they slowed to take a corner. "What isn't?"

"The rumors. The stuff you've heard about me."

Troy looked at her, bewildered. "I haven't heard anything about you."

Sharpay shook her head in disbelief. "Yeah, right."

"I haven't," he said. "I'd tell you if I had."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'd ask you about it. Like you just did, about Chad."

"Right," she accepted. They were driving down Sharpay's street now. Up ahead, she could see her house, a yellow car was parked in front of it.

"Troy," she said as they turned into the house's driveway. "I'd like to apologize in advance."

"Apologize? For what?"

She looked out the window and sighed. "My mother."

Darby Evans was out on the front lawn, tending to her small garden. She'd started walking toward the door when the car pulled up, then stopped when she saw Troy in the driver's seat. "Troy! Troy Bolton! I haven't seen you in so long!" she exclaimed, sounding chipper as always. Sharpay groaned inwardly as she climbed out of the car.

"Hi, Mrs. Evans," Troy greeted her, getting out of the car and letting Sharpay's mother envelop him into a hug. Troy used to spend a lot of time at their house, when he was in middle school and he was best friends with Ryan. He and Ryan had since grown apart, when Troy started hanging out more with his basketball friends. They were still friends now, but it wasn't the same.

"Troy, you've known me forever. You can call me Darby," she beamed, as she let him go. "Will you be joining us for dinner?"

"No." Troy shook his head. "I was just dropping Sharpay off. I need to get back to school for basketball practice."

"But how will you get there?" Darby questioned, looking troubled. "You drove Sharpay's car here."

Troy shrugged. "I can walk."

"Unacceptable." She shook her head vigorously. "I'll drive you."

"Gee, Mrs. Ev- I mean, Darby. That won't be necessary."

Darby brushed off his protests. "I have to go to the post office, anyway. I'll drop you off on my way. Just wait here, I'll go get my keys." With that, she turned on her heel and hurried towards the front door.

"Well," Sharpay spoke up, a moment after her mother disappeared into the house. "Thanks for the ride. For everything."

"No problem," Troy said, as Sharpay's mother swiftly appeared back outside with her car keys in hand. "See you at school?"

Sharpay nodded. "Yeah, definitely."

This chapter was pretty uneventful. ~

the next chapter will be a bit more entertaining (I hope).