This is a Zanessa scenario that's gone through my head for two years. I've finally put it in writing. I have to admit that I'm thrilled our favorite couple was able to overcome this scandal and continued on with their relationship, and with HSM!

As much as I wish I had a part in it, I don't own and am in no way affiliated with High School Musical, the characters of those movies, the actors and actresses who were part of them, or even the production crew who spent so much time and created this generation-changing phenomena.

Hope you enjoy! And if you do, please check out Scenarios: Trust & 25. Thanks for reading!

"Mom, we screwed up." Zac's mom, Starla, had just answered the phone to that statement. It was nearly three a.m. in Australia, nearly a full day ahead of California time, where Starla was trying to finish her afternoon errands.

"Zac, what are you talking about?" Starla was stunned to hear her son's voice at such an off-time of the day and in the middle of the week. He was on the publicity tour for his new movie Hairspray and she didn't expect him to call until the weekend. "Isn't it the middle of the night in Sydney?" Starla dropped the grocery bag and car keys on the kitchen counter and sat down on a barstool to listen to her oldest son.

"Have you seen…the stuff on the internet…about…Vanessa?" Zac was obviously referring to his girlfriend. And he was grazing the topic very gently. "You haven't gotten any phone calls about it, have you?"

Starla glanced at the digital reading on the phone. There were four messages blinking back at her. "Zachary. I don't know what you're talking about. What idiotic thing have the tabloids come up with this time that has you calling me when you should be asleep?" Starla felt annoyed already at the thought of the paparazzi and some of the dumb stories they had made up about her son and his girlfriend.

"This time it's true." Zac's voice said seriously.

"Zac, what's wrong with Vanessa? What's going on?"

"Mom, log onto the internet. Go to the 'Star' website…you'll see." Zac heard his mom's fingers typing on the computer and then a gasp. He knew she had seen it.

The headline read "High School Musical Sweetheart Strikes Discord with Photo Scandal". The pictures showed censored shots of Zac's girlfriend in various phases of undressing and posing for the camera.

"Zachary…" Starla finally started speaking again. "What's this about? Did you take these pictures?"

Starla could hear her son fumbling for words on the other end of the phone line. "God, no, mom…I didn't take them." Zac finally spat out. "Vanessa took them, of herself, like two years ago, before we even met."

"Then why are they showing up now? How did anyone even find out about them? Why would she take pictures of herself like this? " The questions just started flowing from Starla's mind to her mouth.

"Mom, mom…MOM!" Zac was trying desperately to get her attention while he still had the courage to talk to her. "That's where I come into this…that's where we screwed up."

"Please don't use that word in this conversation, Zac. Not when I'm looking at racy photos of a young lady that I've grown quite fond of." Starla requested calmly. "Now, tell me what happened."

"I'm still not completely sure. I don't know if we'll ever really know for sure, but here's the situation." Starla could feel her son blushing, even thousands of miles away from him. The hesitancy in the conversation only made her realize it more.

"When the Hairspray tour was getting ready to start, Ness and I had this long talk before I left. We'd been more…well, physical…or intimate, I guess…knowing that I was gonna be gone for a while and stuff." Zac was trying to choose his words carefully.

"And…stuff?" Starla interrupted. "Zac, you and Vanessa didn't…"

"NO!" Zac nearly shouted interrupting his mom. He could feel the blood and heat rushing to his face. "No, we didn't do that . Not yet at least." He nearly whispered.

"Go on." Starla encouraged.

"So at some point I made this joke about taking pictures of her to remind me…of her … and we both laughed and blushed about it. But then she got real shy and admitted to me that she had taken some pictures like that of herself before we met. She had thought about giving them to this other guy that she thought she liked at the time. She said she didn't give them to him because she'd gotten embarrassed about them." Zac paused for a minute to catch his breath.

"She still had the pictures?" Starla asked.

"Yeah, I don't know why, but she still did. Anyway, I…I kinda told her I'd like to see them and asked her to send them to me." Zac admitted. He could hear the disgust and anger flaring in his mom's tone.

"You did WHAT?!" Starla was shocked.

"I asked her to send them to me…once I left for the tour…so I could look at her." Zac said softly. He was remembering how embarrassed he had been when he had encouraged Vanessa to e-mail the pictures to him. He had gotten excited at the thought of looking at her and Vanessa had gotten equally as excited about him wanting to see her. That evening they had come very close to being more than 'intimate'.

Starla's voice broke Zac's trance. "She actually did send them to you?" Starla couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. "Zac, I hate to use this word…but that was just…stupid."

"I know mom, I know that now. She tried to send them to me, but then something went haywire on her computer and she had no clue what happened. She called me the next day to ask if I'd gotten them and I told her 'no' and she started freaking out on me. I went through all of my e-mails and deleted files and everything. I NEVER got the pictures. Her computer files say they were sent, but we had no idea where they went. And we still don't. All we know is that she tried to send them three weeks ago and then a couple of days ago this story started leaking out about her and then the pictures showed up." Zac again stopped to breathe. "And now, this."

Starla sat there for a minute just staring at the computer screen and feeling guilty for staring. She closed the website and went back to the kitchen to sit on the barstool. "Have you talked to Vanessa?"

"Yeah. She called me a couple of hours ago. She's humiliated mom and I don't know how to help her. I feel like this is all my fault." Zac said sadly.

"Well don't put the blame completely on yourself Zac," his mom said with an edge in her voice. "You weren't the one who took the pictures. But you aren't innocent in this either." Starla's voice certainly wasn't the understanding, compassionate one that Zac had hoped to hear.

"Mom, I want to come home." Zac continued.

"What? You mean right now?" Starla still sounded gruff with him.

"Vanessa needs me mom. I need to come home." Zac was trying to be strong and trying to plead his case. He didn't want to be so far away with all this crap breaking loose. And his conversation with Vanessa hadn't gone well at all.

"Zac…I'm ruined. My career is shot. I'm 18 and my career is done. I feel like just giving up." Vanessa cried.

"Ness, you can't give up. That's crazy. This is just a mistake of a teenager. We all make mistakes. It's going to be fine. Just hang in there." Zac had tried to reassure her.

"You haven't. You haven't done something stupid like this. Leave it to me to have things going so well and then SCREW THEM UP!" Vanessa was hysterical now.

"VANESSA! Listen to me, please. You've gotta calm down and we've gotta think this through. We can figure this out. Other people have gone through this kind of crap. We aren't the first ones and we won't be the last. Please, please calm down. We'll figure this out." Zac was trying to think and talk and calm her down all at the same time. He wished he was there to wrap his arms around her.

"Why do you keep saying 'we' Zac? You aren't the one going through this. You aren't the one that has to get through this. I am. There's no reason you need to deal with this mess. It'll only bring you down too and you can't do that." Vanessa was still sobbing and Zac could tell she could barely catch her breath through the tears. But he couldn't believe what he was hearing from her.

"Nessa! Why wouldn't I go through this with you? If I hadn't asked you to send me the pictures this whole mess wouldn't be going on. This is just as much my fault as it is yours. I am NOT going to let you go through this alone." Zac was adamant.

"You probably won't have a choice Zac. Once I talk to mom and dad and they get involved…you'll probably be out of the picture anyway. You can try to help me all you want but I'd say we're done. I gotta go. I don't know what happens next Zac. I just, I gotta go." And a sobbing Vanessa had hung up on Zac.

He attempted to call her back several times and left several messages, but Vanessa never answered.

All he could think to do was call his mom.

"Zac, you can't come home right now. You've still got nearly two weeks of publicity stops and radio and tv shows to hit in Australia. If you come home now you break your contract and then you've got a whole other legal mess to deal with. You CANNOT come home right now." Starla didn't intend to sound mean, but she knew he couldn't get out of his contractual obligations without huge repercussions.

"But mom…" Zac tried to continue. "What if…" his voice softened. "What if Vanessa doesn't hang on till I get home? What if she does something…and she's not there when I get home?" Zac felt a huge lump forming in his throat. He didn't know what lengths Vanessa would go to, to make this mess go away and to end the hurt that she was feeling.

"Zac, what do you mean? Are you thinking Vanessa will do something to hurt herself? She wouldn't do something…like that, do you think?" Now Starla was very concerned.

"Mom, when I talked to her…she was hysterical. I couldn't calm her down and she said we were 'done'. I don't know what she might do. I've never seen or heard her this upset before. She hung up on me mom. I'm scared and I want to come home." Zac poured his heart out and still was waiting for his his mom's compassion.

"Zac, honey. Don't do this to yourself. You can't come home. I know that's not what you want to hear from me right now, but that's the truth of the matter." Starla said sincerely. "Vanessa's got her parents here and a number of other good friends. She will be fine."

"But mom, she doesn't have me. I need to be with her right now and I can't even get her to answer her phone. I don't even know if she's talked to her mom and dad or not. I don't know if she'll talk to anyone else. I'm afraid she was trying to talk to me and I couldn't help her." Starla could hear Zac break into tears. "I need to be there to look her in the eyes. Mom, she wasn't listening to me on the phone. If I'm there I can hold her, I can make her listen to me…but I need to be there. Please, please tell me I can come home."

Starla could feel Zac's heartbreak. She could hear the tears and the concern in his voice. And she could only imagine what Vanessa might be going through. Zac had said enough to convince his mom that Vanessa needed some kind of intervention, someone to check on her, physically. But Starla still knew that Zac could not come home.

"Zac, listen to me. I can tell you're upset. I can tell you're scared and concerned. But I still can't let you come home. " Zac could hear the sincerity in his mom's voice, but she still wasn't telling him the answer that he wanted to hear. "I know you're ready to break your contract and get back here. I understand why now. But it won't do you OR Vanessa any good if you wind up in the middle of a lawsuit while this picture mess is still spinning out of control. You NEED to stay in Australia and follow through on your obligations."

"But mom…it's gonna look like I don't care about her. Like I'm just leaving her alone while all this is going crazy around her. I'm afraid it's going to push her even closer to the edge." Zac tried again.

"Forget what it looks like. Remember honey, it doesn't matter how this looks to other people. As long as you and Vanessa can figure out the truth in all of this and know in your heart what that truth is…that's what matters. "

"I don't know what that truth is right now, mom." Zac answered, still crying. "I can't even hear her voice right now. I can't see her, I can't hold her…what can I do?" Zac was searching his heart for answers.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Starla could hear Zac sniffling on the other side of the world. She could imagine the tears running down his cheeks and she knew there had to be something that she could do. "Zac? Does Vanessa have a key to your apartment in L.A.?" Starla asked.

"Yeah, why?" Zac replied.

"I'm going to see if I can get in touch with her, or with Gina. Would you feel better if I saw her and talked to her?" Starla was grasping at straws to try and help Zac. But she was also very concerned for Vanessa too. She thought it might help them both if she could physically see Vanessa and attempt to help her for Zac.

"I-I guess it might help. What are you thinking mom?" Zac was quiet.

"You've got me concerned about her too, Zac. I feel like I need to try and see her and make sure she's ok. I don't know if she would open up to me or look at me, or even talk to me. But maybe, if I can get her to come over to your apartment, maybe I can at least see how she's doing." Starla was trying to formulate the plan in her head.

"Mom, you're three hours away from L.A. You can't just run down to my apartment." Zac didn't know how she thought she could help.

"I realize that Zachary. I'm going to try and call Gina first and see if she's even willing to talk to me. For all we know Gina and Greg have taken Vanessa away somewhere and don't want her to be around anyone. That's another reason for you to stay in Australia and try to concentrate on your work. If they have her in hiding somewhere you would just drive yourself nuts up here trying to find her." Starla had no idea what kind of situation the Hudgens family was facing right now. She didn't want to add to their troubles, but she was hoping to find some kind of common ground with Vanessa's mom…if Gina would talk to her.

"Let me work on this from up here Zac. I will call you as soon as I know something more, okay? Give me at least four hours. And that means you try to get some sleep." Starla instructed her 19-year-old son.

"Like that's going to happen." Zac commented sullenly. "I doubt I'll sleep any until I'm back in California and back in Vanessa's arms."

"Two weeks Zachary, two weeks. Trust me, please, let me work on this. I will do all I can to make sure Vanessa's okay." Starla promised her son.

"Mom?" Zac started.

"Yes sweetheart?"

"I do trust you. Thank you…and I love you."

"I love you too my darling." Starla felt a little better that her son had calmed down considerably since their conversation started. She knew he was apprehensive about the whole situation and just wanted to get home to handle it himself. But they both knew that wasn't possible.

"Mom…one more thing?" Zac continued.

"What's that?" Starla asked.

"IF Vanessa will talk to you, or listen to you…please tell her that I love her." The tears were back in Zac's voice as he thought about the tears that were probably streaming down his beautiful girlfriend's face. They were not 'done'. Not by a long shot.

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