AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is an unofficial sequel to "Singing in the rain" by Jane Bell ( fanfictionDOTnet / s / 4595896 / 1 / Singing-in-the-rain ). Due to the "M" rating of that particular story, my story is written under the assumption that they did more than just kiss. There will be flashbacks about what happened while they were watching the movie and after. This first chapter is just a glimpse into their minds as they are now.

As for Sharpay...let's just say that she's acting the way that I see myself acting if I had chased after the same boy for years, had one night where he gave me everything that I could ever imagine, and found out through the internet that he married someone I hated. She's hurt, and she's retaliating in the one way she knows how - forcing him to watch as she legally (and happily) binds herself to another man. That's the thing here. It'll be explained more in later chapters as I don't think this will have more than 5.

Mr. Vance and Derby Evans
cordially invite you to the wedding of their daughter
Sharpay Elizabeth Evans
to
Peyton Scott Leverett

Saturday, December 1, 2012
At one o'clock in the afternoon
Manhattan Penthouse
Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

To say that Troy had been surprised to receive the invitation would be an understatement. He wasn't just surprised; he had been completely floored. Never in a million years had Troy Bolton expected to receive an invitation to the wedding of Sharpay Evans...yet it was staring him right in the face.

Of course, that was mostly because of the fact that there was a part of Troy that always believed that he, himself, would be the one waiting by the altar as Sharpay made her way down the aisle. In spite of the fact that he had followed his high school sweetheart - Gabriella Montez - out to California upon leaving East High, Troy had always assumed that Sharpay would still be there for him if things didn't work out.

That belief hadn't been unfounded, right? Troy knew that she had liked him since grade school...and he knew that she knew that there was at least a part of him that reciprocated those feelings. Surely, Sharpay had realized that during the one night that they were able to have together...that one perfect night where Gabriella didn't matter to either one of them.

He couldn't have been the only one that felt something that night, right? That was impossible. She had to have known that the only reason he stayed with Gabriella (consequently never even giving her a real chance with him) was because that was what people expected of him. His friends, aside from Zeke, couldn't stand Sharpay - and after that summer, Troy couldn't risk losing them during his senior year.

Back then, though, Troy had thought he would be staying in Albequerque for college while Sharpay and Gabriella went to opposite sides of the country. It would give him time to decide which of them would actually give him the unconditional love that he always saw between his parents.

How was he supposed to know that Sharpay Evans would be the one who stayed in New Mexico while he and Gabriella moved to California? How was he supposed to predict that she would set out for New York after just a year? How was he supposed to know that she would fall in love with someone who wasn't him as soon as she set foot in the city?

Perhaps the real question he should be asking himself, though, is: Why did it bother him so much that she was marrying some loser named Peyton Leverett?

At the very least, he knew that's what Gabriella would be asking him...considering the fact that she became his wife no less than one month ago. Admittedly, she wouldn't ask him that question with those exact words (that was more Chad's territory) but she would certainly be curious about why Troy cared that Sharpay was getting married at all.

Then again, Chad was the only one of his friends that actually knew about what happened between him and Sharpay. The fact that he hadn't told anyone is still shocking, but that was why Troy had been best friends with him since kindergarten.

Before he knew it, Troy called out to Gabriella, "I'm meeting Chad at the gym, don't wait up!"

Sharpay knew it was a little cruel. She didn't care. Why would she? The guy was already married to someone else - that freaky math girl, at that...so as far as she was concerned, the lunkhead basketball man known as Troy Bolton wouldn't care if she got married to anyone so where was the harm in sending him an invite.

To be honest, she would think there was something wrong with him if he really did care. Sharpay Evans had given him so many chances to be with her and Troy Bolton had turned down every single one of them.

If Troy felt regret for that now, it was his own damn fault. That was something she wholeheartedly believed - which was exactly why Sharpay consistently told Danforth that she felt no remorse for sending him the invitation - because she was done waiting for a boy that never really looked at her as a potential love interest to wake up and smell the roses.

Because she knew that he wished it was her that he woke up to every morning. She knew that he wished she was the one that was with him at the altar a month ago. She knew that he wished it was her that was laying next to bed with him every night - even if he couldn't admit it to himself.

But she was tired. She was so damn tired of being second best.

Finding Peyton Leverett had been a godsend, really. She never even thought that she could find someone that would love her the way that she was. She had always thought she would have to change everything about herself to find someone that would love her the way that she wanted them to. She thought she would have to change in order to find the one that would help her create the fairytale that she had always wanted.

There was a time where she thought Troy Bolton was the one who would do that. She was wrong.

Peyton Leverett was her real Prince Charming, and Bolton should just be grateful that Sharpay was giving him the closure that she wished he had given her.