Author’s Note: Sharpay has a bad rap sheet. She’s selfish, dramatic, demanding, and downright mean… until now.

I hope to bring new light upon her character and why she feels so strongly for Troy.

This is NOT a Troy and Sharpay story mind you. Troy dates Gabriella, just like in the movie- there is NO change to that. In all honesty, I’m writing this story to get a version of Sharpay that is not so hard to tolerate out there, and if you find yourself enjoying this story along the way, then that’s simply fabulous. ;)

The eighth grade class sluggishly jotted down their history notes, the whir of the air conditioning unit lulling most of them into a comatose state. The light thud of chalk hitting the board, and the gentle rustling of paper were the only other noises throughout the stuffy room.

A screeching noise resounded as several students glanced over in the direction of Taylor McKessie. She painstakingly highlighted phrase after phrase, allowing the thick neon green liquid to methodically drag across the page.

Sharpay sat to her right, staring at the girl’s movements. She watched as the pen lifted, before being drug across the next string of words, and the next, and the next, and the next.

She huffed to herself- an audible noise, which earned an agitated roll of Taylor’s eyes as she continued high-lighting.

Seeing that her unfaltering stare would not stop the incessant squeaking of the girls’ pen, Sharpay focused her attention outside. Her right hand made small loops across her piece of paper, in case Mrs. Stockholm noticed she was daydreaming. She’d simply play it off that she was in fact writing notes, earning a forced, tight-lipped smile in her direction.

Sharpay was not the teacher’s pet- far from it in fact, but her father owned multiple businesses around town in addition to his CEO status to the largest Fortune 500 business in New Mexico. The sheer fear most people held toward her was due in part to her last name; Evans. Evans were to not be messed with. It was like a special credence upon moving to Albuquerque. You didn’t like an Evans family member? You kept it to yourself.

Several moments later, her thoughts filled with the nonsense of daydreams, a loud bell resounded, signaling the end to another anticlimactic Monday at East Junior High School.

Sharpay smoothed her long hair into a high ponytail, with the heat of the day finally catching up to her where she no longer wanted the long locks draped across her tiny shoulders. After several side glances at Taylor, whom she was still slightly annoyed with, she finally opened her mouth to say something to the girl.

“Sharpay, don’t” was uttered before the blond had a chance to speak.

“Tell me one thing” she challenged.

Taylor waited, hands on her hips for the girl to gather her thoughts as she watched her mouth open and close while her word choice came and went.

“Evans, spit it out!” Taylor groaned. The girls had known each other since kindergarten and although they were not best friends, they were friendly toward one another.

“What’s the point in highlighting the entire page? I thought we are supposed to pick out the key points,” the girl shrugged.

“I found several dates to be of importance for the midterm.”

“The entire page?” Sharpay asked.

Taylor shook her head, chuckling lightly to herself. Sharpay was quite the handful, but she did provide necessary and much needed comedic relief from time to time.

“See you around…” Taylor’s voice trailed off as she hoisted her heavy backpack onto her shoulders and made her way toward the hallway.

Sharpay gave a small wave as she carelessly tossed both her book and pens into the over sized, magenta tote she carried.

Her eyes skimmed the room, noticing a fellow classmate straggling behind.

“, would you come up to my desk to discuss something?” Mrs. Stockholm practically barked.

Sharpay could have sworn she noticed his shoulders slump, as if he were cowering back. Troy Bolton, afraid? Never. She shook off the observation as nothing serious enough to further ponder over.

As she waltzed toward the door, she threw a cheerful smile over her shoulder at the boy.

“Bye Tro-” she exclaimed, but stopped herself noticing the slight pale look on his face. The familiar vibrant blue tint in his eyes was also gone. Was he sick?

Noticing the girl staring at him, he quickly smiled back, mumbling a goodbye of his own as he approached the front desk.

Sharpay turned once more before she left the classroom, noting his downcast eyes as Mrs. Stockholm began talking to him in a hushed, severe tone.

Turning down the long corridor, she found her younger (of two minutes) brother Ryan waiting for her. His demeanor perked as he straightened from his stance he’d taken, leaning against the lockers.

“Hi Shar!”

“Why are you so excited?” she asked, not feeling energetic in the least.

“We have tennis lessons today!” he exclaimed.

She groaned loudly, letting her bag slide off her shoulder and hit the floor with a loud thud as she leaned her face skyward, as if begging the heavens to not let this small truth be real.

“I hate those stupid lessons” she grumbled, taking hold of her lock and twisting the memorized digits into place.

“They’re great!” Ryan practically cheered.

“You sound like Tony the Tiger” she sulked, extracting several notebooks from her locker and stuffing them into the tote bag at her feet.

Ryan shrugged, not wanting to argue with his sister, although his smile never faltered.

“It will be f-fun” his usual confident voice stuttered. Sharpay heard the shift in tone and her attitude changed as she softened. Glancing up at him, she gave a genuine smile and replied,

“I know Rye, I’m just tired today.”

He nodded his head, feeling the bought of uneasiness subside.

“You okay?” she asked, a hint of concern teetering upon her voice.

“I’m okay” he smiled, knowing she’d heard the accidental previous stumble of words and had grown worried. He was doing well, and hardly anyone noticed the struggle anymore. It was perhaps their inevitable twin intuition that Ryan knew connected the two so closely.

She grinned upon hearing his answer and in one swift movement, stood from her crouched position and swung the rather heavy tote over her shoulder.

“So, you ready to get creamed?” she playfully challenged as the two made their way outside to wait for their mother to pick them up.

“You can talk the talk all you want, Shar” he joked, playfully bumping his hip against hers, causing her to stumble to which she scoffed.

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” she pouted.

“Okay” Ryan smirked.

As she went to return the hip bump, she stopped her movements, clapping her hand against her forehead.

“Crap!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot my stupid calculator in class.”

“We have tons at home. Mrs. Stockholm will just keep it in her desk. You can get it tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah-” she glanced down the hallway, the classroom was just a few feet away, “but I should just go grab it now while I’m here. I’ll be right back, okay?” she dropped her bag at his feet, and took off down the hall, lightly trotting back toward her least favorite teacher’s room.

As her feet lightly padded across the glazed tile floors, she skidded to a halt, hearing the flustered voice of a familiar male.

“I just- it’s hard for me to understand…I-” his voice broke, and a loud sniffling noise resounded.

Sharpay frantically glanced at her brother waiting for her at the opposite end of the hallway. He held both arms up in a gesture of “what’s up?”

He motioned for her to go into the room to retrieve her belongings.

She shook her head, holding up a finger to indicate he needed to wait just a moment.

Mrs. Stockholm's harsh voice sounded, and Sharpay immediately pressed herself up against the wall, too nervous to move for fear of causing a distraction and perhaps earning a detention of sorts. She glanced into the classroom, cursing herself for leaving behind the black calculator that sat atop her desk.

She held her breath as the woman spoke.

“Troy, you are in serious danger of failing not just this class but several others. Are you taking advantage of the after school tutoring?”

“Yes” he quietly answered.

“I spoke with your mother and she said you even have a tutor that comes to the house on the weekends. Do you find yourself understanding the material any better?”

“I thought so…” his voice trembled. Sharpay gulped upon hearing the normally confident boy sound so weak and broken.

“Well, obviously it’s not enough. I’m going to discuss options with your other teachers, but if you fail any of your courses this semester, you will be held back.”

A silent tension quieted the whole of the classroom.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes…” Troy barely whispered.

The two spoke in hushed tones that Sharpay could not hear. She wasn’t supposed to know Troy was having trouble in class- Troy was their star. He was their go-to for everything.

She heard Ryan call from down the hallway.

“C’mon Shar, mom is outside!”

She waved for him to go ahead as she lifted herself from being flat against the wall and crept toward the other side of the room, hoping to go unnoticed so she could simply leave without confrontation and her calculator. Ryan was right, they had more at home.

As she went to step toward the door frame, she felt herself collide with a body.

“Oomph!” she cried, almost toppling forward.

An arm instinctively went out to grab hold of her.

She noticed right away it was Troy, and stiffened. As he helped her regain her balance, she noticed the bright red tint to his eyes. He’d been crying.

“Um, hey Troy, uh…” she couldn’t land upon a single coherent word.

Suddenly, Mrs. Stockholm briskly walked outside the classroom. She pursed her lips in the direction of the two young students- her version of a smile as she turned on her heel, making her way toward the teacher’s lounge.

Visibly calming as the distance between them and the woman grew, Sharpay searched Troy’s eyes.

“How much did you hear?” he quietly asked, not taking his eyes off hers.

She could either lie or just tell the truth.

“Enough.”

With that, Troy crumbled. He sniffled loudly, trying to suppress back the unwanted tears.

Sharpay’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what to do. Why was he crying? He’d pick his grades back up in not time. He wasn’t dumb, that much she knew for sure.

Tugging on his arm, she pulled him into the classroom. The last thing he needed was for a fellow jock to see him openly crying in the hallway.

“Troy, it’s going to be okay...” she softly began.

“How would you know?” he hissed, snapping his head upright and glaring at her.

The intense stare and sudden outburst caused her to flinch.

He sighed, not having meant to yell.

“I’m sorry. I’m just- I’m so fucking stupid!” he growled.

“You are not, Troy.”

“Yes I am. I’m failing almost all my classes. You heard her, I might be held back. I can’t do it. I have so many tutors, and my parents are going to freak out when they find out none of it’s working. I’m only good at sports. I wasn’t meant to be some smart brainiac. I’ll be the loser kid who can’t read as fast as everyone, or finish my tests on time and I’ll be held back. Chad and all the guys will go to high school and I’ll be stuck here. And when I finally get to high school no one will want to talk to me because I’m the idiot who got held back…”

His shoulders shook lightly, and his hands immediately shot up to cover his face as his tears took hold of him once again.

Sharpay reached for his hand- she hadn’t meant to touch him, it just happened. He allowed for her to lower his fingers from one side of his face as she nestled his palm within her grasp.

“Troy, you are not going to fail” she whispered.

“How do you know that?” he whimpered through the one hand that still covered his face.

“Because, I believe in you. You know about Ryan, right? People said the same thing about him.”

His head tilted to the side before he spoke.

“No, I don’t know about Ryan. What happened?”

“He stuttered badly. That’s why he never really talked to anyone except me at school- he couldn’t, and if he tried, they would have just made fun of him.”

“Really?”

His eyes were wide now, never having noticed the quiet theater boy’s stutter. They’d all grown up together and it had gone fairly unnoticed. He was rather quiet, but it wasn’t like Ryan was some sort of mute.

“Yes, really. All his teachers were extremely worried he’d have to be in special ed classes forever. He’s not stupid. He just had trouble voicing himself” she uncomfortably shrugged, feeling her cheeks burn as she noticed how candid she was being with Troy.

Normally, the two were infamous for their constant bickering.

“TROY!!” she screamed, running after him on the playground.

“Ha-ha, you have cooties!” he taunted in a sing-song voice.

“Troy, give it back!” she bellowed. Her hands rested on her hips as she glared severely, causing her eyes to appear as tiny black slits.

“And if I don’t?” he countered, playful cheekiness cast upon his features.

“I will KILL you!”

She charged forward in a flash, crashing into him as the two wrestled one another for ownership of the Barbie doll while other students formed a circle, and a low chant of “fight, fight, fight!” began to cause an uproar on the playground.

That had only been three short years ago, and since then the two kept up a charade of light-hearted arguments, as they never seemed to see eye to eye. Their turmultuous past seemed to melt away as the small girl stood beside the brunette boy, holding his hand while his tears subsided.

“I don’t know what else to do though. I’m trying” he sighed.

“Try harder, Troy. You can do it” she urged.

“You can do this” she confidently retorted, giving his hand a squeeze.

His toothy grin returned she noticed, smiling herself as he sheepishly looked into her eyes again.

They now stood facing one another. It was an awkward moment. Neither quite knew what to do. It wasn’t exactly an attraction, but more of an understanding the two seemed to have developed in the brief exchange they’d just experienced.

Sharpay’s eyes broke the unnerving stare they held as she noticed the calculator she’d come to collect.

“What?” he asked, his brow creasing with concern.

“Nothing, I just came to get my calculator. I should get going anyways, my mom is waiting outside.”

“Tennis lessons…” her voice trailed off as she mentally slapped herself for the odd choice of words. Troy didn’t care that she had tennis lessons, but she’d found herself blubbering along in a vain attempt to desperately rid herself of the emotions she internally battled.

“Cool” he grinned.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked, walking alongside him as they both exited the classroom, having let go of his hand which now gripped the cool plastic of the calculator.

“Definitely.”

She lightly trotted back down the hallway to meet her brother and mom outside.

“Hey, Sharpay!” she heard his voice call after her. She stopped mid-step hearing his heavy sneakers pound across the tile as he quickly approached her.

“I just wanted to say um, thank you.”

“For what?” she pondered.

“For being nice to me back there. You’re not as bad as others might think.”

She blushed at the compliment.

“It’s not a big deal…”

“Thank you for being yourself. Look, I’ve got to head to basketball practice, but I won’t say anything about Ryan. Just in case you were wondering.”

“Okay” she nodded her head, the only movement she felt capable of executing that wouldn't leave her looking like an utter fool.

“Bye.”

“Bye Troy.”

She watched as he jogged down the hallway toward the gymnasium. In that moment things changed for Sharpay Evans. What had just transpired was confusing, even to her. She’d let her guard down. He’d seen a side of her she liked. It was like a veil had been lifted as the realization that Troy Bolton had seen her for the first time weighed down upon her.

She looked down at her hand, lightly grazing her fingers across the skin that had minutes ago been pressed against his. Looking up, she watched him round the corner and smiled to herself.

As she hopped into the front seat of her mother’s large, black SUV she quickly apologized for making them wait.

“Why are you smiling?” Ryan asked from the backseat.

“What? I’m not smiling!” she answered a little too quickly and instantly frowned.

“Yes you are."

“I am not, Ryan!”

“Kids, please don’t bicker…” their mother warned.

She looked out the window as they pulled away from the school making sure to position herself so Ryan couldn’t see her face and start questioning her again, and the smile returned as she thought to herself,

“He saw me.”