Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical


The Chase

"I'm so excited you're finally going to show me how to make that chicken!" Sharpay gushed as she and Zeke stepped out of the blinding early afternoon sunlight and into the bitterly air conditioned produce section of the neighborhood grocery store. This was Zekes favorite place to shop, it being a small, family owned store where he'd become close friends with the owners. He was thrilled to be sharing it with Sharpay.

Zeke chuckled at her enthusiasm. "It might be more exciting if I hadn't had to teach you how to boil an egg first," he quipped playfully.

Sharpay swatted at his arm in good humor, all the while protesting, "That is not true! I just don't find it necessary to add salt and chicken broth to the water!"

"And that is why I own a restaurant and you don't."

"Fine," Sharpay conceded with a giggle as she snatched the long grocery list out of Zeke's hand and glanced down at all the words she'd never seen before. Most she couldn't even pronounce. "What are poblano peppers?"

"It's a type of pepper."

Sharpay rolled her eyes.

"How about I get the poblano's and you get the garlic." Zeke said. "You do know what garlic is, right? It's the thing I put around my neck whenever you're around."

Sharpay gasped loudly and Zeke smirked as he ducked away being sure to get out of arms length before Sharpay could hit him any more. Instead, she planted herself next to the ripe avocadoes with her hands on her hips and a malevolent glare on her face, watching as Zeke scampered to the other end of the store laughing.

"Chicken!" She called out to him.

"Is what's for dinner!" He yelled back.

Shaking her head, Sharpay smiled to herself as she walked over to where the garlic was sitting. She took a moment to study the display wondering how to know which was the best to pick. She quickly decided that it wouldn't matter which one she chose. And so, with that, she reached down and didn't notice the other hand that was reaching for the same head of garlic.

The two hands touched and Sharpay immediately jumped back in surprise mumbling her apologies. She looked up to see who she had fortuitously played handsies with and unexpectedly came face to face with a chuckling Troy.

"Hi Sharpay," he said softly, not sounding nearly as surprised as Sharpay was feeling.

Sharpay continued to stare for a moment before she realized that her mouth was hanging open. "Troy!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't go grocery shopping any more?" he asked holding his hand up to his chest pretending to be horribly offended.

Sharpay laughed nervously and glanced around the store. "Of course you can!" She insisted a bit too forcefully. She quickly cleared her throat and lowered her volume to a more normal level before continuing, "I just meant – what are you doing at this particular grocery store when you live on the complete other side of town?"

"I was in the area," he replied simply looking back at the garlic display, acting as though he'd suddenly become too preoccupied with this task to finish their conversation.

Sharpay nodded, still confused by his presence but was unable to prolong her inquiries. Instead, an awkward silence ensued which, with every passing second, became more and more difficult to break. They both stood there, next to the garlic, alternating between glancing at each other and quickly looking away so as not to get caught staring.

Finally, Troy grabbed a head of garlic and threw it into the plastic bag that he was fidgeting with as he mumbled, "Well, I better get…" he motioned toward the check out area that was located behind Sharpay with his thumb.

"Right," Sharpay nodded, sighing with relief. She stepped aside and watched as Troy took three steps towards the checkout. Then, stopping abruptly, he took a deep breath and turned around quickly to look at her once more with an overtly curious expression playing on his features.

"You and Zeke. Are you two serious?" he asked, catching Sharpay completely off guard with the question.

"Serious?" Sharpay asked looking away, unable to hold Troy's intense gaze and wondering why she suddenly felt guilty. "No, not really. Not that it's any of your business." She finally replied in a defiant tone, her unease mirrored in her reserved stance. "Why do you care, anyway?"

Troy shrugged and said casually, "I just want to know how guilty I should feel when I steal you back." Then, with a wink, he turned and walked away, leaving Sharpay completely dumbfounded.


Troy sat at his kitchen table sipping a steaming cup of tea deep in contemplation. In the past week he had managed to run into Sharpay three times but he was worried his tactics weren't working quite as well as he had originally planned. He knew Sharpay was a master at disguising her true emotions, he just wasn't entirely convinced that her lack of enthusiasm about him was an act this time. Of course, that in no way meant that he was going to give up. It simply meant that he had to modify his strategy a bit.

The first time he'd run into her was, of course, at the grocery store. It really had been great fortune that Troy's boss just happened to hold their last dinner meeting at Zeke's restaurant. Troy had been on his way to the restroom when he'd overheard Zeke on the phone. Sharpay is quite an unusual name, after all, so when Zeke uttered it into the receiver Troy's attention had been immediately caught. And it certainly wasn't Troy's fault that he had to pause at exactly that moment to retie his shoe, thus overhearing all their plans for the next day.

The second time he'd run into her was at the park. Sharpay made a habit of eating her lunch in the small park located across the street from her work on every nice Wednesday of the warmer months of the year. Troy had always thought that had been a great deal of restriction to a simple event. Sharpay had always rolled her eyes and brushed off his teasing remarks with a grin and a "but I love it". When Troy and Sharpay had been dating he'd often met her there and they would spend half an hour of their Wednesday eating lunch and participating in boring yet strangely entertaining small talk together. It was a great break from their entirely different but equally stressful work days.

Though Troy and Sharpay were no longer dating, Sharpay had kept this routine. Knowing how habitual Sharpay likes her life to be, Troy knew exactly when to show up with a bagged lunch of his own. He even left work early so that he could be sitting in their spot before Sharpay arrived.

The encounter had started off well. After her initial surprise the two took part in some light banter and happy reminiscing. However the mood quickly turned sour when the reminiscing led to more malicious banter which rapidly transformed into genuine bickering. Troy had just wanted to have a nice lunch but Sharpay was acting childish and unbelievably annoying the whole time. And barely were those words out of his mouth when they were full out fighting, just as they had at the end of their relationship. Their lunch ended shortly after that with an irate Sharpay grabbing the remains of her sandwich and throwing it at Troy before stomping back across the street to finish the lunch hour in the woman's bathroom in her office.

Admittedly, that had not been the best of encounters. Stupid Troy, stupid, stupid Troy. But no, he was not going to give up. This just proved that they still had passion between them.

Right?

The third time he'd run into her had been slightly more unintentional and much more literal. He'd bought a bouquet of white lilies and was pacing in front of her building, unable to decide whether or not he should drop them off. He'd just decided for the fifth time that he should just leave when he ran into something boney and apparently knocked it to the ground.

Apologizing profusely, he knelt down offering his hand to help it up. And that's when he saw her. And boy did she look, well, we'll just say she was less than pleased. Troy quickly shoved the flowers into her hands and started rambling his apology but she wouldn't hear it. She angrily threw the flowers in the nearest trash bin and continued to march coolly on her way. Troy, following close behind her, tried to hiss the rest of his speech in her ear without causing too much of a scene for anybody else on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, Sharpay did not seem to have the same concern. Fed up with Troy's antics, she threw her hands down and quickly turned to face Troy with a frustrated expression.

"Troy!" she shouted loudly causing the few people on the sidewalk to take a markedly wider berth around them, probably for fear of a violent out-lashing. "Will you just Stop following me?! I don't understand why you suddenly want to get back together. We clearly didn't work back then, what makes you think it would be different this time?" Then, without giving him a chance to respond (which is probably good because he didn't have a response) she turned and stalked away, this time him the one left dumbfounded and alone.

Yes, a new game plan was very much needed.


Sharpay stepped into the bright sunlight and breathed in the unusually warm autumn breeze as she started walking toward Zeke, who was currently unloading himself from his car on the other side of her office's parking lot. It had been almost a week since she had last run into Troy and she was hopeful that he had given up. She honestly didn't think her heart could take any more beatings or reminders from him. Her mild contentment, however, was short-lived as she reminded herself where she was off to: the annual office picnic and volleyball tournament. In other words, her own personal hell. Fortunately, she'd convinced Zeke to go with her so that she'd have somebody to entertain her throughout its torturously endless hours.

"Hey Shar!" Zeke greeted her with a smile as she got closer to where he was waiting.

"Hey Zeke," she replied, returning the smile.

"Hey Shar!" a different but still cheerful voice to her right said.

"Hey Troy. Wait, Troy? Oh, honestly! What are you doing at my office picnic?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here? I always go to this!"

"You've never gone to this!"

"Well, I'd always meant to go to this. So, I'm just righting my wrong."

"Whatever," Sharpay rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Come on Zeke, it's in the park over here." She said as she grabbed Zeke's elbow and pulled him on toward the picnic.

"No thanks!" Troy called after them. "I can get this myself, you two go on ahead. I'll catch up!"

"Go home Troy!" Sharpay barked over her shoulder, her hold on Zekes arm becoming increasingly more squeezed as her irritation grew.

"Yeouch! I might need that for volleyball!" he said, finally unable to bear the pain she was inadvertently causing.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

The two stepped into a clearing just inside the entrance to the park where the rest of Sharpay's office had gathered. The grill's were fired up, the picnic tables were decorated with balloons and the company was loosening up with a couple a beers (that had started flowing out of anticipation a couple hours ago).

"SHARPAY!" Taylor shrieked throwing her arms up high above her head. "You're here!"

Sharpay decided to credit the alcohol as the reason for Taylors reaction to her arrival.

"Taylor," she chuckled in slight amusement. "Slow down, girl."

Taylor scoffed and turned back to the picnic table that she was setting up. 'Ok, maybe it wasn't the alcohol that was making her friendly. But if it wasn't alcohol then what-'

"Chad, sweetie! Over here!" Taylor called out loudly and waiving frantically.

"Oh my God, it can't be," Sharpay gasped, turning to see who Taylor was waiving at. Sure enough, Chad Danforth had joined Troy and they were both ambling into the campsite, lugging what appeared to be an ice-laden cooler between the two of them.

Sharpay immediately stomped over to Chad. "Taylor is your new girl?!" she exclaimed, refusing to believe its truth. "I thought you said you'd met somebody nice."

Chad ignored her last comment as he was too busy grinning at his girl. "You know, she's nothing like you described her. Maybe you should give her another chance. Then the four of us could double!" he said with the same grin still in place.

"If you're including Taylor in that 'four of us' then absolutely not. And if you're including Troy in that 'four of us' then definitely absolutely not." And with an exasperated growl, Sharpay turned on her heal and stomped back over to where Zeke was still trying to figure out what was going on. She grabbed onto his elbow and steered him to the other end of the camp site in order to create some privacy. Or at least a little distance.

It wasn't long until the food was cooking and the general conversation relaxed into a gentle hum about school systems and sports figures and dream vacation spots. Zeke had somehow wiggled away from her and was now talking to Mr. Fulton, which did not do much to calm Sharpay's nerves. Glancing at her watch, she decided that they had been there long enough to legitimately excuse themselves from participating in the rest of the evenings planned events. Now she just had to get Zeke away from her boss.

Getting up, she cautiously approached the two who appeared to be in the middle of a very animated debate when Sharpay's attention was caught by another conversation.

"We just need one more player to fill out the teams. How about Sharpay?"

"Sounds good, where is she?"

"Over there by Fulton. Hey SHARPAY! Get you're skinny white ass over here!"

'Crap.'

Sharpay looked over and saw among a few of her coworkers were also Troy, Chad and Taylor all standing in the volleyball pit and all waiving her over.

"Actually, uh," she thought frantically for an excuse to get out of this. "Zeke really needs to get back to his restaurant and–"

"No I don't," Zeke interupted. "You go ahead, I've got my sous chef on shift tonight."

'Double crap.'

Plastering on a smile, Sharpay approached the volunteer volleyball players with reluctance and took her shoes off so as not to get them sandy.

"Just one game," she said through gritted teeth. But, as the saying goes, you should always be careful what you wish for and Sharpay, at that moment, was wishing that she didn't have to play this God-awful game. So, Taylor took the ball and approached the back line. She set herself and called out the score. She surveyed the opposing team in what Sharpay was sure was supposed to be an intimidating glare. Then she threw the ball high into the air and, just as it was coming down, smacked it with such force it came barreling across the court, over the net and right at Sharpay's–


Blue sky. That's all Sharpay could see.

"Ah, you're awake," a voice said next to her. A voice that sounded strangely familiar. Sharpay slowly turned her head and saw Troy lying down next to her. He was watching her, concern etched across his face.

There were a few beats of silence. But not like the silence at the grocery store. No, this was a comfortable silence. A pleasant silence. In fact, if Sharpay didn't know better, she'd think she was enjoying this silence.

"Troy?" she finally said, breaking the unsettlingly comfortable silence. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah."

"Why are we lying in the middle of the volleyball court?"

"Taylor's serve knocked you unconscious so I lied down next to you so everyone would think we were just sunbathing."

Sharpay stared at him for a moment but quickly broke out into hysterical laughter. Troy promptly joined in her hilarity, unable to hold his serious expression with the sound of her mirth.

After a couple minutes, they calmed down and again fell into a comfortable quiet, simply enjoying each others presence.

"Hey, Sharpay. Can I tell you something?" Troy at last asked soberly, yet again breaking their silence. Sharpay shrugged. "I just wanted to say that I've never once stopped loving you. And I know this sounds tired and clichéd but I didn't realize how much I needed you until I lost you. I know I've been annoying you by popping up everywhere and if you can honestly tell me that you never want to see me again then I promise I will walk away. I will leave right now and I will never bother you again. But if you think there is even the slightest chance that you want to give us another try then I'm not going to give up fighting." Troy paused, staring at Sharpay's fixed expression. He knew that look. That was the look she put on her face when she didn't know how to express her emotions. "So, um, what do you say?" His confidence was hastily waning and he was starting to regret opening his mouth at all.

Sharpay sighed. "I don't know, Troy. I mean, what makes you think it will be any different this time?"

"Because we're different! We're one relationship smarter. We're one break-up tougher. We know what we would have done differently, we know what we did wrong. We won't be going into it blind this time! And how can you deny the feelings we still have? Come on, Sharpay. I know I'm not perfect but I'm still in love with you." He said the last part softly and with such emotion it instantly and involuntarily brought tears to Sharpay's eyes.

Turning her head to finally meet Troy's fervent gaze, Sharpay allowed one tear to slip unsolicited down her cheek. She took a moment to stare into his eyes, searching for what he was talking about. And there it was. All the love, all the passion, all the fire was burning brightly in his brilliant blue eyes. Sharpay smiled slightly and Troy's heart rose as he returned the smile, hope soaring throughout his entire being. Remaining silent, half afraid her voice wouldn't work if she tried to use it, she reached down to grab hold of Troy's hand within her own. She brought it up to clasp it near her heart as she leaned in the few more inches, her eyes closed firmly shut, until her lips met his in a soft kiss. Pulling back ever so slightly, she whispered a soft "Ok," before she leaned in for another kiss, this one deepening much faster. Troy slowly rolled her onto her back with one hand behind her neck as he ran his tongue over her lips. Sharpay opened her mouth just slightly as she squirmed from the butterflies that erupted in the pit of her stomach every time he touched her and she smiled happily into the kiss.

But before anything more could happen, the luck of the universe decided to play another joke on Sharpay and the blaring of a cell phone ringer startled the two back to reality and out of each other's arms. Troy laughed as he reached into his pocket, pulling out his ringing phone. "Give me one second," he whispered, giving Sharpay a quick peck on the lips before getting up to answer his phone.

Sharpay smiled and nodded, watching him walk away and hugging her knees close to her chest as she replayed the past few minutes in her mind.


Troy looked at the caller id. Gabriella. 'This can't be good,' he though with an eye roll and an exasperated sigh. He made sure to be out of hearing distance before he answered the call in a harsh whisper.

"What?"

"Troy," Gabriella gasped in between what sounded like sobs. "I think we need to talk."

"No, Gabby. I told you, we're done. Get over it! Now, I have to go so, please, stop calling m–"

"I'm pregnant, Troy."

Troy froze. "You're what?"

"And it's yours."


Uh oh! I hate when the wrong girl gets pregnant!

Guess what? We've just got one more chapter to go! Can you believe it?!

Well, whether you can or not, let me know in the review, please!