<3--Who Knew It Would Be Like This--<3--HSM--

. What had happened had spread through school, which Precious hadn’t returned to yet. She decided to go tomorrow. She’d be able to handle it.

HSM-FF

THE NEXT DAY

Precious was exhausted by lunch. Watching Chad and pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t was exhausting. Everyone had stopped making fun of her at least but it was even worst almost because now they all looked at her with pity in their eyes. Even Sharpay had made no rude comments. Precious was putting her books in her locker when she heard Michelle call her.

“Hey.” Michelle said. Precious turned around.

“Hey.” She replied.

“So….” Michelle said awkwardly. Precious smiled and began walking away. “Wait.” Michelle called her back. Precious turned around.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Do you want to eat lunch with me?” Michelle asked. Precious squinted her eyes.

“Sure.” She said skeptically. They got their food and sat at an empty table. “Look. I don’t want your sympathy.” Precious explained. “So if your doing this because you feel sorry for me then don’t.” she said.

“No.” Michelle said simply. “Look I just miss hanging out with you and I feel real bad about what happened between us. I know we can’t start over but can we at least…start fresh again?” Michelle asked.

“Sure.” Precious said happy to have her friend back. They ate and talked a little and then Gabriella and Kelsi showed up.

“Hey.” They said to Precious and Michelle and sat down.

“I’m really glad your back.” Gabriella said to Precious, who was confused.

“Thanks.” She said skeptically.

“What you doing here?” Michelle asked bluntly. Kelsi frowned.

“We want to eat with you guys.” She said as if it were obvious.

“Yeah but why?” Michelle asked as she and Precious exchanged looks.

“Look, in the beginning we didn’t approve of what happened. You know, how they made fun of you and stuff. So we decided that we’re going to be your friend.” Kelsi said to Precious.

“That is if you except us. We’ll understand if you don’t” Gabriella finished. Precious looked at Michelle who shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay.” Precious said. They began talking and they all got along easily. Lots of people looked at the group confused but they said nothing. Precious had been staring at Chad across the room when Gaby interrupted her thoughts.

“you know they broke up right?” she said to Precious.

“Who?” Precious asked confused.

“Chad and Taylor.” Kelsi replied.

“What?When?Why?” Precious asked confused.

“You didn’t know?” Michelle asked astonished.

“No. I barely came to school today.” Precious responded.

“Well, Chad and Troy came back the day after your incident and Taylor said that she liked someone else and they broke up.” Gaby explained.

“Who?” Precious asked interested.

“Damien.” Michelle said. “By the way he made the basketball team after I practically forced him to sign up.” She said rolling her eyes.

“Really?” Precious said amazed. Michelle nodded. “Well how does Chad feel about that?” Precious asked.

“He’s cool with it. he said that Taylor was right that they should break up and he and Damien are friends.” Kelsi said shrugging.

“I was a little bummed at first because they made such a cute couple but whatever.” Gaby said. Precious looked back over at Chad and sighed. “What’s wrong?” Gaby said to her.

“Nothing.” Precious said even though she was obviously lieing. Gaby knew she

was but let it go.

HSM-FF

IN P.E.

Precious finished getting dressed and walked into the gym. Boy had she missed it. Gaby and Kelsi were sitting with Michelle and the called her over. She went over and sat down. A minute later Sharpay and Taylor came and joined the group. Taylor said hi and Sharpay gave Precious a tight smile. Precious returned it tentatively. They resumed talking though Sharpay said nothing. A while later Troy, Jason, Zeke, Ryan, Damien, and Chad came over. Everyone said hi to Precious except Chad and Troy. Chad sat as far away as Precious as he could manage while still being apart of the group. Troy sat with Gabriella looking tense and said nothing. Everyone made apologies to Precious for the way they’d been acting except Sharpay and Troy. They were the quietest. Precious got along well with everyone. They were talking about what had happened. Precious felt a little uncomfortable but she didn’t tell them.

“I think I would have peed my pants.” Kelsi said to Precious who gave her a tight smile. “

I think it’s really brave what you did.” Sharpay spoke for the first time since they’d been in class. Precious looked at her surprised. “Fighting that boy like that was really courageous of you. And I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” Sharpay said sincerely.

“Thanks.” Precious said quietly to her.

“Look. I know that we haven’t exactly gotten off on the right foot. That seems to happen to me a lot. But I…I’m sorry.” Sharpay said nervously. Precious smiled

“me too.” she responded.

“so can we at least try to be friends?” Sharpay asked. Precious nodded and said

“Yeah. We can.”

HSM-FF

LATER THAT DAY

Precious was walking out to the parking lot from school when Troy stopped her.

“Precious I’m sorry.” He said.

“for what?” she asked.

“Everything. I was so mean. I turned into the guy version of Sharpay.” He said disgustedly. Precious laughed. “the reason I haven’t talked to you much today is because…” he stopped hesitantly and then continued “Well I kinda blame myself for what happened to you. I convinced Chad to say that stuff when I should have just left it alone. I mean it’s none of my business if you two like each other.” He stopped and looked at Precious. “You two do like each other right?” He asked.

Precious sighed and said “I don’t know…I don’t think so.”

“oh! Well anyway I shouldn’t have butted in. I’m sorry. Do you forgive me” Troy continued.

Precious nodded and said “yeah.” Troy smiled and started walking away “Hey Troy.” Precious called him and he turned. “I don’t blame you for what happened. You shouldn’t either.” She told him. He stood astonished for a second then smiled again.

“Thanks.” He said and left.

HSM-FF

A WEEK LATER

Precious was in her room crying. She couldn’t stop thinking about Chad. At school they hadn’t said a word to each other. He hadn’t even looked her way for two whole weeks and it was killing her. She needed to talk to him. She logged on and sent him a message: