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The second Monday of May rolled around along with the results of the East High senior superlatives. The results were passed out to seniors in homeroom and Gabriella was elated to know that under senior class cutest couple was not Sharpay Evans with Gabriella's boyfriend. Instead, under that category, it read: Gabriella Montez & Troy Bolton.
"Congrats Gab," exclaimed Taylor. "I guess her latest scheme didn't work this time for Miss Sharpay."
Gabriella smiled back but felt something unusual as she saw Sharpay in the back of their homeroom looking upset as she stared at the list. 'Why do I feel bad for her? After all she has done, why do I feel sorry for her?'
Those feelings vanished though as soon as Sharpay looked up and her gaze met Gabriella's. Gone was the vulnerable expression on her face that she had moments ago and in its place was another calculating look, one that Gabriella was tired of seeing on the blonde's face, especially as it usually meant trouble for her and Troy.
The bell rang and Sharpay made sure she was the first one out. Taylor and Martha gave her a questioning look but turned back to their friends as they walked down the hall.
"So, congratulations to the double threat team of Gabriella and Troy," stated Ryan. "I am so happy for you two!"
"I know, 'Cutest Couple' together and Gabriella has 'Most Likely to Succeed' while Troy earned 'Most Athletic'!" exclaimed Martha. "Talk about representing our little group."
"And let's not forget Ryan's 'Headed for Broadway' superlative, which he unfortunately has to share with his sister," added Chad.
"That's not bad though, three of our friends in the senior superlatives? Especially keeping in mind how many students there are in this school? That's actually pretty cool since we aren't the popular kids or anything," commented Zeke.
"Well obviously some of us are, especially the basketball and golf god over there," teased Chad. "And Ryan and Gabriella each have their own claim to fame."
Taylor nodded her agreement. "I actually think we all have our recognition from our peers for our own talents. We may not be popular but we aren't unknowns either, kind of that middle ground called NORMAL."
The gang laughed as they continued to walk down the hall together until they separated to go to their own classes.
After the last bell of the day, Troy meandered down the hall to his locker. He opened it up and placed some of the books he was carrying in while he took out the notebooks and the math book he needed to go over with Gabriella after her PT session. Troy felt arms snake around his waist and smiled thinking it was Gabriella.
Troy closed his locker and turned around, quite shocked to see Sharpay right in front of him. "Sharpay, what are you doing?" he asked as he gently pushed her away from him, forcing her arms away from his body to hang on her sides.
"Troy, I know we didn't get cutest couple for the superlatives like I thought we would. We really are the cutest couple in East High all together, but I think that we still have a chance," stated Sharpay as she leaned towards him and snaked her hands behind his neck to pull herself closer.
Angered by this, Troy reached up and forcefully broke the clasp of her hands behind his neck and forced her a few steps away from him. "STOP IT, SHARPAY! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR GAMES INTERFERING WITH MY LIFE AND MY RELATIONSHIP!"
A bit shocked at his sudden outburst, Sharpay took another step back but didn't relent. "But Troy, you know you and I really belong together. What does it take for a girl to make you really see that we are meant to be together? I mean, we will be going to the same college and everything. Our futures are practically planned out together. After graduating from University of Albuquerque, I'll be a movie star while you play for some hot shot basketball team for the MLB and we'll be happy together. Isn't that what you've thought too?"
Troy shook his head at this. "Quite the opposite actually. First, it's the NBA, not the MLB, for professional basketball. Second, I'm not going to U of A. Third, we don't have a future Sharpay, get over it!"
"You mean you didn't accept the scholarship after all that I did to get you it? Why Troy? It was the perfect solution for us to be together!" protested Sharpay.
"That's just it, we are not together Sharpay, not now and not ever in the future. I thought you understood that, you told me you understood that in fact after the accident. I honestly wanted to think that you had changed, that we could be friends, but all you do is keep toying with my life. Well guess what Sharpay, I'm through with it and so is Gabriella. We don't want you anywhere near us or our lives, got it?" bit out Troy.
"You don't mean that, Troy," argued Sharpay. "You're just a little confused and a little upset is all after us not winning the couple superlative."
Troy jerked his head away from the hand she was trying to place on his cheek and moved so that he was no longer between her and his locker. "No, I think you are the one that is confused and upset. Sharpay, we have been over for months, and I'd like to be the nice guy here and say that we had a great relationship while it lasted but that would be a lie. We used each other for those weeks we were dating and were fooling only ourselves in the process. And then when I find the happiness in my life that I've been looking for, you constantly take stabs at trying to kill it for me. You may have fooled me into thinking that you were looking out for my best interests with this U of A scholarship this past summer and even most of this year, but you can't pull that card with me anymore, you have no more material to entice me or to blackmail me with. You just need to step out of my life and play with someone else's life. I'm through letting you hurt me, Gabriella, and the rest of our friends for your own selfish motives. I will not be your toy anymore, Sharpay."
"Troy," started Sharpay, with tears in her eyes.
"No, and that's final, Sharpay. I meant it last time when we spoke like this, when I said I wanted you to stop messing with my life. I don't want to talk to you or see you anytime soon! You've done enough to try to screw up my life and I can't handle having you around to add even more complication to it when it doesn't need it."
"But Gabriella is so beneath you! I am what you need, I am what you deserve."
Those words stopped Troy cold. He turned his piercing blue eyes back onto Sharpay as he said, "Maybe I do deserve you, but it's only for being the jerk that I was since I set foot on the property of Lava Springs. I've worked hard all school year practically to restore the faith my friends have in me and to reassure the woman of my dreams that her love is all that matters to me, which is the truth. No, Gabriella is in no way beneath me. She is far too good for me and I recognize I am beneath her. After all the schemes and stunts you have pulled, somehow, that woman found room in her heart to forgive me and take me back each time, which is more than I deserve. And for that realization, I mean it with every part of myself when I tell you now, Sharpay, to back the hell off me and my relationship with Gabriella. I don't want anything more to do with you and I don't want you meddling anywhere near our lives again!"
Sharpay, actually speechless for once, brushed away the tears that had escaped as she realized that Troy meant every single word he had just spoken. 'Troy really isn't mine and nothing I can do can change that now. He seems more serious now about what he said than he did a few weeks ago,' she thought as she stared back into his eyes and saw how very serious he was.
She and Troy both heard the whispers as they started and continued in the hallway of students gossiping about what they had just witnessed, the final showdown between Troy Bolton and Sharpay Evans. Troy looked around and blushed at being the center of attention but also felt bad as he saw the mortified expression on Sharpay's face. 'No Troy, you can't reach out to her. This is how you always get caught up in these blunders you make with her.'
To make matters worse for Sharpay, she heard multiple, out of sync echoes of Troy's last words to her throughout the hallway. Sharpay glanced over at the nearest group of underclassman and saw them staring at a cell phone while they looked up at her too. "WHO TOOK THAT VIDEO? WHO?!" demanded Sharpay.
Troy watched as Sharpay surveyed the entire hall and became frustrated when no one stepped forward while more echoes of Troy's speech were being played and played. "I mean it with every part of myself when I tell you now, Sharpay, to back the hell off me and my relationship with Gabriella. I don't want anything more to do with you and I don't want you meddling anywhere near our lives again!"
Embarrassed, ashamed, frustrated, and hurt, Sharpay stormed away from Troy and down the hall that parted to let her through. She passed right by Gabriella, who had witnessed most of the argument live from down the hall of Troy's locker, and then the video clip that was being sent around school; Gabriella had one herself that was sent a few seconds before.
Not knowing what compelled her to do so, Gabriella called out, "Sharpay, stop!"
Recognizing the owner of the voice, Sharpay halted her walk and turned to confront Gabriella. She put on her best emotionless face she could muster from all of her acting experience and asked, "What do you want?"
Gabriella walked down the hall and stood in front of her former long time high school nemesis. "I'm sorry."
Sharpay couldn't believe her ears. "WHAT?"
After taking a breath, Gabriella tried again. "I'm sorry, Sharpay. I'm sorry that everything has finally caught up to you, or at least partially did. No one should have to go through the pain and embarrassment that you are going through right now but you did this to yourself."
"Is this all you stopped me for, Montez? To rub it in my face that you won Troy?"
"That's where you're wrong, Sharpay. That's where you have always been wrong. Troy isn't some inanimate object you can play with like a doll and discard when you are done. He is a human being with feelings. I know you care for him, Sharpay. Despite the Ice Queen act, you have genuine emotions and feelings and I think you genuinely care for Troy in your own way. The problem is that you are so used to getting your own way that you would sacrifice his happiness for your own, just as you would sacrifice Ryan's or anyone else's well-being for your own benefit. Sharpay, I know your brother pretty well and I can't believe that you two could be so different in this aspect. Ryan has one of the biggest hearts I know; you can't be absolutely void of one."
"Thanks for the therapy session, Montez, but I don't know what you are aiming at getting from me here," stated Sharpay. "And, I don't need your sympathy or your pity!"
"Whether you want it or not, I do feel bad for you. Since you have obsessed over one thing this whole senior year practically, you haven't really enjoyed senior year for what its true potential is. Let me put it this way, in literally weeks, we as a senior class are going to graduate and leave East High as students forever. Do you really want to be remembered by everyone as the girl who lived to terrorize other student's lives and who really only had two friends of her own while she reigned as Ice Queen by instilling fear in her peers? Is that really what you want to be remembered for? If you keep acting this way, you will be."
Sharpay thought over what Gabriella said and knew the other girl had some valid points. "Maybe, maybe not. But what's the difference now anyway, seeing as what you said is true and that we'll be out of her and on our separate ways in a few weeks."
"That's just it. There's still time, Sharpay, to make a difference and change if that's what you really want to do," returned Gabriella. "I know you apologized and said you wanted to be friends with us after Troy returned to school after the accident. I honestly thought you meant it before you pulled the superlative poll stunt too. Prove it to us now. You may not be able to call Troy your boyfriend but he can still be your friend."
"Actually, I believe all those video clips surfacing on every phone of East High right now proves Troy doesn't want anything to do with me," replied Sharpay.
Gabriella slightly nodded her head. "That is true, but I think he really means he doesn't want anything to do with the scheming, manipulative Sharpay who he has been dealing with for almost a whole year now. Troy seemed to have accepted the idea that you two were going to be friends in time after the accident and I think he would now too if he saw you were genuine. It's all up to you, Sharpay."
Sharpay stared at Gabriella for a few moments, astonishment mixing in with the other emotions already swirling in Sharpay's mind. "Why are you doing this? Why are you being nice to me? After all that I've done?"
"Because, I know what it's like to be alone in a school full of people, feeling like you don't belong, and I think it's time we grow up and bury the hatchet. I'm not saying we're going to be best friends, Sharpay, but I honestly think it's time to end the games. No one wins, no one loses. It's just the end. Think about it."
Sharpay nodded her head before she turned on her heel and continued down the hall and disappeared around the corner. There was silence in the hall, students were still standing around, now staring at Gabriella, who felt awkward with all the attention. Eventually, everyone started going back to what they were going to do before the confrontation between Troy and Sharpay happened, some giving Gabriella smiles and thumb up signs as they passed her.
Gabriella felt a pair of familiar toned arms encircle her from behind before he said, "Why is it that when I finally stick up for us, you have to go in and be the nice sweet girl and offer to help Sharpay redeem herself?"
Gabriella turned herself around in his grasp and beamed up at Troy. "Because, if you hadn't stuck up for us, Sharpay would never have backed off. She had to hear it from you that it was over, and from what I heard, you laid it out pretty clearly. In fact, I think Sharpay needed to see your real, raw feelings about what she has done, like she did today, not just a speech about how she needed to leave you and me alone like you gave her a few weeks ago. The other difference is this time, you didn't give Sharpay a single hope that you two would work out. You booted her out of your life and ours without the promise of being friends coming from your mouth, something that I think gave her hope you two could still work those few weeks ago. But, at the same time, she doesn't deserve to spend the rest of senior year in humiliation or exiled. Sharpay needs to decide for herself though about what she wants to be remembered for, and I just reminded her that the choices were all hers for the making."
"Well yeah, but did you have to make me be the bad guy?" asked Troy.
"Hey, I didn't make you do anything," defended Gabriella. "Besides, I am extremely happy that you finally showed her your real feelings and told her off. It means a lot to me to hear you actually sticking to your commitment to us and this relationship, especially after all that has happened. I know I heard it when you first came back to school those few weeks ago, but it cemented my belief that you truly do want to make us work and care about us as a couple to hear you defend it as you did just now, even briefly losing your usual even keeled temper."
Troy studied Gabriella's face and felt that warm sensation fill his body as he saw all the love that was there in her face. "What can I say, this dumb boy actually learned from all the close calls of losing the one thing he holds dear to his heart."
"And that would be?" prompted Gabriella.
"You, of course," replied Troy before he leaned down and captured Gabriella's lips in a sweet kiss.