This Slope Is Treacherous (READ DISCLAIMER)

Chapter 10

Sharpay has always had a temper. As long as she has been alive, she has been screaming, and as long as she could comprehend emotions, she has been stomping her foot and scowling and growing red with anger.

It's the only way she knows how to cope with adversity. She shouts and stomps until someone else solves her problem for her.

This time around, however, there is no one to solve her problem. There's no one who can make an expensive purchase or rearrange a song to accommodate it to Sharpay's needs and desires.

There's no one who can make these feelings go away.

Ever since the incident, Sharpay has been avoiding Gabriella, pretending that she doesn't exist. Instead of going back to her snide remarks and attempts to intimidate her, she feels like it's better to ignore her and hope that the problem will just go away.

And it's working.

Maybe Gabriella is equally avoiding her, equally afraid to face her, because she hasn't been nagging at her, just walking straight past her in the hallways, staying quiet during rehearsals, sitting with Taylor at lunch.

It should have been a relief, to have a break from Gabriella and her aggravating eagerness, to be able to pretend that she isn't falling apart, but she has to admit that she misses her.

It's become somewhat of a normal, to have Gabriella trailing beside her, trying to be her friend, and it feels quiet without her, as if something is missing.

Sharpay hates quiet and she hates not having everything she wants and needs.

So, in turn, Sharpay is compensating for the quiet. By yelling at every single person besides the one person she really wants to yell at.

"Why does it feel like I'm the only person who cares about this musical?!"

Sharpay is standing on stage, hand on her hip as her eyes slide over each and every single person – all except one – sitting in the auditorium with a vicious rage.

Darbus had to be absent today – something about a meeting with Principal Matsui and Coach Bolton that couldn't be rescheduled –, so as president of the drama club, Sharpay has taken over to lead the rehearsal and she has learned today that she is most definitely not cut out to be a teacher.

She's too angry, too frustrated to deal with everyone's complete incompetence, and she can't stand it that no one seems to be actually doing what she's telling them to do. She doesn't know if it's Darbus's absence or if everyone is just having a bad day, but every single person, from tech to band to actors, is continuously messing up and Sharpay is quickly starting to reach boiling point. As a teacher, as a leader, she should be accommodating and calmly correct people and teach them how to do their jobs properly. Instead, she just wants to throw some punches.

Nothing is going the way she wanted. Nothing is going the way she planned.

So, she does the one thing she knows how to do in these situations. She unleashes her temper.

"Well?!"

Every single one of her fellow students under her scrutiny are cowering, a look of genuine fear in their eyes, and while this normally would delight Sharpay, her desire for power is now trampled by her annoyance and her panic about her entire world crashing around her.

"Sharpay," Ryan speaks up, a slight tremble in his voice, "I think we're just all really tired. Why don't we just call it a day?"

"No," Sharpay barks immediately, scowling at her brother. "We need to get our crap together or else this musical is going to be a disaster and I refuse to let that happen."