Disclaimer: I never did and never will own High School Musical, no matter how much I beg.
The sun beat down hotly on Troy as he squinted up at the massive structure in front of him in slight bewilderment. He had never seen this building before in his life, yet he seemed to know that it was a school, of sorts. Of course, the masses of teenagers roaming the lawn all around him and the words 'Marysville High School' printed above the big green double-doors of the building leaned strongly to the affirmative in his assumption.
Troy glanced around him at the students gathered in small clusters, chattering away excitedly. It was the first day of school, he suddenly knew, and he was most definitely not in Albuquerque anymore. Troy felt a bead of sweat trickle down his back uncomfortably, immediately bringing his attention to the thick humidity hanging heavily in the air. Nobody else seemed to be having difficulty with this, but Troy, not being used to the moisture, couldn't bear it. Rolling up the short-sleeves to his box-cut, button up dress shirt, Troy trotted through the mass of poodle skirts and muscle shirts to reach the front doors of the school and step inside, only to discover with great disappointment that the school was not air conditioned. Troy sighed, dolefully resigning himself to the heat.
Suddenly, two very familiar looking teenagers stepped through a door to Troy's left and started walking down the hall, away from him, bickering quietly with each other.
"I still think you should have accepted his request to take you to the roller rink. It makes you a little conspicuous when you turn down every offer. Plus, it's just rude!"
Troy studied the retreating form of the boy who had just spoken and realized that these were the two people he hadn't known he'd been searching for this entire time. The two teenagers advanced at a slow pace, almost as though they were waiting for Troy to catch up. With quickened steps, Troy watched the teenagers ahead of him with great curiosity. The boy, wearing a loose blue school sweater and tight, straight-cut jeans, hair heavily gelled into place, was Ryan Evans. And he was accompanied by a girl in skin tight Capri's that ended well past her knees and a tight, white blouse that was tucked neatly into her pants. Her blonde hair was teased into a high, bouncy pony-tail and she held her books protectively over her chest.
"Ryan? Sharpay?" Troy called out their names excitedly, expecting them to be astonished by his presence, but they didn't even seem to hear him. Instead, they continued on their slow moving path down the hallway, squabbling with each other. Troy followed, his curiosity getting the best of him as he listened closely to their conversation, not understanding their implications but sensing the urgency in their voices.
"It is not rude! By my refusing, I'm allowing him more time to find someone who he'd actually get to spend the rest of his life with. Everybody already thinks I'm going to end up an Old Maid, anyway. No harm done." Sharpay replied shrugging her shoulders dismissively.
"Yeah," Ryan said, the annoyance evident in his voice. "But you're drawing attention to yourself. It's not considered normal to be fine with being an Old Maid."
"Well, I'm not going to lie to these people, I don't want to lead them on. What's the big deal, anyway? Who care's if I stand out a little?"
"The big deal? What's the big deal?" Ryan hissed indignantly, flapping his arms in outrage as he glanced around to make sure that nobody was listening in on their conversation. Troy was certain Ryan had finally spotted him, considering he hadn't been trying to hide. In fact, Troy was the only other person in the hallway and barely three steps behind them, but Ryan, apparently satisfied that their conversation was still going unheard, simply leaned in closer to Sharpay and said, "The big deal is that Mother said we had to do our utmost to blend in. And you're not doing that!"
Sharpay laughed. "So what? What do you honestly think is going to happen to us if we stand out of the crowd a little, huh? We'll drop dead? It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
Ryan scowled but didn't respond, thinking over what Sharpay had said. Then, just as suddenly as his fowl mood had come, his expression changed to mirth and he started to laugh hysterically, clutching his stomach as he did so. Sharpay looked at him slightly apprehensively but soon joined in on his laughter.
Finally, after a few moments of unabashed hilarity, Ryan was able to control himself and said, red-faced and wiping tears from his eyes, "You've got a point, there. Let's give it a shot."
Troy stopped dead in his tracks, disbelief at what he had just overheard coursing through him. He watched Ryan and Sharpay fade off into the distance, his surroundings quickly fading with them. It wasn't long before he was left in darkness, hoping against hope that Ryan and Sharpay learned to enjoy life enough to stop them from wanting death.
Secrets Revealed
"So, it's been a week, Shar," Ryan said tauntingly without shifting his gaze from the cracked, pebbly ground in front of him. He and Sharpay were trudging home from school in a detached silence, Sharpay shivering in the cool Albuquerque air. Ever since she had told Ryan about that night in the park with Troy, he had been treating her with a frosty civility. This was no exception.
Sharpay scowled. "So what?" she challenged more forcefully than she had intended.
"Well," Ryan sneered maliciously, the taunt still mocking her. "It's been a week and I can't help but notice that you, my dear sister, are still here."
Sharpay gasped at his blatant uncouth, the malevolence stinging her. "Stop it," she whispered as her increasingly frequent tears of frustration sprung unsolicited to her eyes.
"Having trouble hurting poor little Troy, are we? Or are you just working up the nerve to talk to his gloriousness?"
"What the hell is your problem, Ryan?" Sharpay's voice was rising angrily as she stared at her brother incredulously. Ryan abruptly halted his brisk pace at the urgency in her voice and turned his head to look at her for the first time that week. A heavy silence fell between the two as they both stood in the middle of the residential street staring intently at the other, their suppressed emotions plastered opening across both their faces. Sharpay still had tears in her eyes, though she refused to let them fall, instead fixing her face into a hardened glare as she watched Ryan try unsuccessfully to mask his hurt.
"Sharpay!" A strained voice in the distance called out, breaking the silence that had engulfed the twins.
Sharpay didn't move her studying gaze from Ryan's face, even as the voice called her name once more, slightly louder, as the speaker approached.
"Ryan?"
Ryan snapped his head toward the voice, more as an excuse to break the spell between Sharpay and himself than any actual curiosity. Suddenly the sneer reappeared on his face momentarily veiling the sadness that had settled in his eyes.
"You're Prince Charming has come to save you," he jeered dryly.
But once he'd finished speaking, his forced sneer fell pathetically from his face to be immediately replaced by sheer sorrow. Ryan turned his gaze to the ground, unwilling to look at his sister any more than was necessary and hastily readjusted the strap to the book bag that was resting heavily on his shoulder. Still not willing to make eye contact, Ryan stared past Sharpay's left shoulder as he snapped harshly, "If you're really going to do it, just do it and let the rest of us move on without you," before he turned and quickly trotted away. Sharpay was left stunned, still standing in the middle of the road, watching Ryan's rapidly diminishing form as a small bubble of guilt formed in her chest, constricting her airways.
"Was that Ryan leaving so quickly?" the voice that had been calling asked, finally having caught up to her, now standing to her right.
Sharpay sighed sadly and turned her gaze into Troy's ignorantly cheerful face. "Yes, that was Ryan."
"Oh," Troy nodded, waiting patiently for any sort of elaboration. But she didn't have any more to say. Shifting her weight on her feet nervously, Sharpay lowered her gaze and turned, swiftly following after Ryan, leaving Troy where he was. As she walked away she silently prayed to herself that Troy wouldn't follow, though at the same time she desperately wanted him to. Holding her breath, she loped ahead, listening intently to what Troy would do. She didn't have to wait long to hear the telltale sound of gravel crunching under heavy footsteps. Sharpay's stomach flipped in wild excitement as her heart sank miserably. It only took him three steps to catch up to her, her paces being considerably shorter than his and he easily fell into step next to her, his steps mirroring hers both in size and speed.
A light drizzle started to fall from the dark, low hanging clouds that had been threatening rain all afternoon as they both continued down the inert street in silence, the tension between them growing with each passing moment. Sharpay's heart was beating in a wild frenzy against her rib cage as she fought to control her breathing, all too aware of Troy's presence. She felt his gaze scrutinizing her profile curiously. However she refused to acknowledge it, instead keeping her focus in front of her, hands clutched tightly onto the strap of her book bag in order to hide their slight quiver. But, through all this and despite her mental chastising, Sharpay couldn't hide her look of contentment nor could she suppress the smile from appearing on her face.
Troy saw this smile form slowly and a light sense of elation filled him unexpectedly. Pleased, he mirrored her smile and unconsciously made a move to be ever so slightly closer to Sharpay's side.
Time passed quickly with Troy accompanying Sharpay down the road. They both felt as though they had been walking forever, yet like they had just begun. Troy watched as the houses became increasingly larger in size, their garages further apart with each lawn being more substantial than the last. The palpable tension had grown into a mutual anxiety as their silence continually lengthened, becoming almost impenetrable.
The rain was coming down a little bit harder now. Sharpay hugged her arms close to her body, still clutching to her bag's strap, as she shivered more violently. Troy pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head in a lame attempt to stay dry, and then shoved his hands deep into the sweatshirts front pocket, stretching it down past his hips and over the top of his pants.
On they walked, down the road and through the rain, both thoroughly uncomfortable with the situation but neither wishing to be anywhere else. Sharpay was startled at how aware of Troy's close proximity she had become and with how intensely each emotion seemed to come to her whenever he was near. It was painful and beautiful and exciting and miserable all at once and she reveled in experiencing the kind of passion she had never before understood. But, the more she enjoyed these emotions, the more heavily her guilt weighed on her soul and clouded her mind, causing her footsteps to drag reluctantly and her resolve to crumble miserably.
Seeing her house through the dark mist, Sharpay breathed an almost imperceptible sigh of relief, allowing her shoulders to relax from the anxious tension that she hadn't known she'd been harboring. Troy walked her up her driveway, to her front door and stopped just before the steps to her covered porch. Going ahead, Sharpay stepped up onto her porch and reached absentmindedly for the handle of her front door only to change her mind abruptly, dropping her hand and turning to face Troy once more.
"Thanks," she smiled at him still standing in the rain, his sweatshirt drenched. "Thanks for walking me home."
Troy returned her smile and nodded his head. "No problem."
Turning, he took a step down the long driveway to head home when he, too, changed his mind. Whipping around, he faced Sharpay who hadn't yet moved from her position on the porch watching him walk away, her damp hair frizzing and curling into a halo around her face. "A bunch of us are going to the diner later this evening to hang out. Do you think you could make it?"
Sharpay's smile instantly fell as reason came crashing back into her. Her newly intensified variety of emotions promptly deteriorated into nothingness in order to create room for her usual sense of dull gloom. Shaking her head distractedly, Sharpay backed up slowly, trying to get as much distance between herself and Troy as possible.
"I can't," she whispered, unable to speak any louder. Troy strained to hear her over the spitting of the rain pattering loudly on the roof of her porch. "You should stay away from me. If you were smart, you would stay away." Sharpay groped behind her for the door handle, unable to rip her gaze away from Troy's confused expression.
"Is this about Gabby? Because she wants you to come just as much as–"
"No, Troy," Sharpay snapped, a little louder this time. "Just listen to me, please. You do not want to get close to me. I promise you it won't end well."
Troy was startled by the pleading, almost remorseful note in her voice. He was too stunned to reply straight away, giving Sharpay all the time she needed to disappear behind her door, leaving Troy shocked and confused and standing in the pouring rain.
/
Having dried off her hair and changed into dryer clothes, Sharpay stepped lightly into her kitchen where her mother was humming softly to herself as she added spices to a large pot of spaghetti sauce. Sharpay sat down on the barstool and watched her mother work, always with a smile on her face. She hadn't thought that she'd made her presence known, but once Vivian had finished adding the basil, she turned and smiled at Sharpay's miserable demeanor.
"Hi honey, how was school?" she asked, her voice as cheery as it always was.
"The same," Sharpay replied dully, leaning her head on her hand and gazing off into the distance. A comfortable silence fell between the two woman as Vivian continued working on dinner, resuming her soft humming and allowing Sharpay to get lost in thought.
"Mom?" Sharpay asked suddenly, raising her head up and pulling her full attention into the present.
"Yes?" Vivian asked, fixing her daughter with a curious gaze.
"Can you tell me the story of our beginning, again?"
Vivian frowned. Sharpay rarely asked to hear this story, it always being Ryan who listened to, studied and memorized the details of their life's conditions. "Of course," she said, turning her back to stir the sauce.
"Can you start from the very first thing you remember?" Sharpay asked, her gaze focused very intently on her mother's back.
Vivian took a deep breath and cast her thoughts back to that day that changed their lives forever.
"The very first thing I remember is a white room," she began, speaking softly but piercing the silence, nonetheless. "The floor's were white, the walls were white, even the ceiling. There were no windows and there hadn't seemed to be any source of light, yet the room was as bright as a summer afternoon. I remember studying my limbs very meticulously, as though they were new to me, and I was shocked and pleased to find that I had no scrapes or marks upon my skin.
'Like I have said many times before, I don't know why I took particular notice to these things and not to others; it is simply what I remember. At that moment, somebody spoke to me, but I could not see who it was or where he was speaking from. But, for reasons unknown to me now, I did not find this bodiless voice strange or threatening in any way, therefore I didn't bother to question it excessively."
At this point Vivian stopped stirring the spaghetti sauce and moved to stand opposite Sharpay at the kitchen counter. Her hands rested lightly on the counter's surface and she stared through the window, above the sink and to her left. Sharpay studied her face intently, listening to the story she'd heard countless times before. Neither noticed Ryan step quietly into the room, remaining off to the side, leaning against the wall as he listened to the familiar tale despondently.
"The voice spoke to me with its deep, powerful tone. And it explained to me how we were all to be blessed with immortality. That we were going to live in society but never age with society. That we each had to find our one and then, and only then, could we acquire our eternal rest."
Vivian paused, remembering that moment that was so long ago, lifetimes ago. It had been burned into her memory with such clarity, she felt as though it had only just happened. Tears came to her eyes, giving her face a glassy expression, but she never let her smile slide. Still gazing out the window at the dark clouds beyond, she waited for Sharpay to ask the question she always asked at this point in the story.
"How will we know when we've found our one?" She asked softly.
Vivian sighed and shook her head sadly. "This was where the voice remained vague. Despite my questions, it simply repeated to me that you will know your 'one' when you find the person who wakes the dead that is inside of you. The person who makes you feel again. And when you find that person, all it takes is one kiss to finally achieve what other's strive to evade. Death. But it will be the ultimate sacrifice because your one can not live once you have passed on."
"In other words," Ryan said from the corner of the room, startling Sharpay and Vivian out of their quiet reminiscence, "to get the one thing that you so desperately want, the one thing that you've been longing for, you are going to kill Troy."
Sharpay looked down into her lap where she was wringing her hands together anxiously, guilt and frustration furrowing her brows together thoughtfully. "And there's no way around it? No loophole, no condition that the voice may have put out there?" she asked hopefully, though she already knew the answer.
Vivian shook her head sadly, "Nothing."
"How did we even get in to this situation in the first place?" Sharpay asked desperately. "What happened to us when we were growing up, what did we do to deserve this?"
"You know as well as I do," Vivian replied placing a calming hand on Sharpay's shoulder, wishing she could relieve some of her daughters despair. "I remember nothing before that white room."
"And we, nothing before our sixteenth birthday," Ryan supplied from the corner.
"And even that is a little foggy," Sharpay finished.
Vivian studied her children for a moment then turned to stir her spaghetti sauce once more. The intensity of their conversation quickly died away leaving the same questions that were always left hanging unanswered in the air. Ryan left the room just as silently as he had come, only Vivian was aware of his departure. Sharpay had already fallen into a deep meditation, her mind carrying her to a distant time and place where she was sure all the answers were buried.
/
I just want to clear this up real quick, Ryan and Sharpay aren't vampires and this isn't supposed to be like Twilight, though I am honored that so many of you compared this story to such a popular book.
No, I actually got the idea from The Sims, believe it or not. I realized how each generation of Sims makes friends with the same characters who never age and I started to think how awful it would be to be forever sixteen.
Anyway, now that you've read, please just take a short moment to drop me a review. It means the world to me to hear what you're thinking.
Thanks so much.