i want it all

“He’s like his second in command or manager at whatever company Hook has, I genuinely don’t really know. I’ve never bothered asking about his job - it just seemed too boring,” she admits with a snort of a laugh, shaking her head. “He’s a complete loser, really. But he’s hot and kind of fun.” It wasn’t the most romantic way to describe her new boyfriend, not by any means, but it was an honest one at least. And likely showed how little Tink actually cared about this said relationship - which she didn’t mind Sharpay knowing. There were only a few select people in her life that the fairy really needed to let believe this was real - a certain Darling boy mentioned prior being one of them.

Though she firmly believed Tink deserved better than someone who she thought was a loser, at least he was hot! That was, like, half the battle in finding a suitable partner nowadays. “That’s all you can really ask for, I guess, right? Hot and kind of fun.” The boy had come out of left field, and Sharpay would be damned if she left this party without knowing just how it all began. She lived for a good origin story, or, at least, any drama with someone’s relationship that wasn’t her own. “How the fuck did you wind up here if he’s, like, Peter’s second biggest enemy, then? You weren’t friends, or anything, were you?” 

Something was in the air that night but Marie hadn't the slightest idea what. From the moment they entered Sharpay's home, there was a hush that fell over the other attendees as if there was something that only she hadn't been informed of. The initial reaction from the other blonde made her pause, waiting to hear if there was more to the story. "What am I missing here?" Her eyes started to follow Sharpay's before pausing and reconnecting with the girl before her. Something was afoot but Marie was trying to find where the dots aligned. "Non, we haven't talked much about our past relationships yet. This is actually the first time he's meeting any of my friends, I thought it would be a good test to make sure he was the man I thought he was," she explained before teetering off at the end, knowing there must be more. "You and him haven't... have you?"

“He’s a boyfriend,” she confirmed with a grin, though less so because she was actually into the man and more just because she was proud to say she was in another relationship again - even if this one wasn’t exactly all that meaningful. “He’s kind of one of Peter’s sworn enemies, or at least he works for his sworn enemy. It’s kind of stupid, really, their rivalry - or at least, on our part it is. I guess Hook has a valid reason for hating us all since Peter’s kinda responsible for his hand getting chopped off - but whatever. Smee’s just his like assistant or something, I don’t really know. But we started talking and hanging out months ago and now here we are. It’s new and not serious like at all, but I’m doing it for real. I’m not going to fuck up this time.” That was the real point of this all - proving she could do the whole relationship thing without making a huge mess and ruining it all.

"I'm sorry--Peter chopped off a guy's hand?" Sharpay wasn't even sure the guy was strong enough to use a butter knife. "No, this is so good. Does Peter, like, know about it at all? Not that it matters: you just have to stay together until he comes back so he can see it himself. And, if he doesn't, at least you have a hot new guy to rub in John's face." They were a much hotter couple than her ex and Marie, as her friend was pulling almost all the weight in the looks department with John. "What's his name, what does he do for this Hook guy? I need all the details."

When hands came to rest on her shoulders and it became how clear serious Sharpay was about this, Tink felt like she needed to double down on the whole thing. It wasn’t as big of a deal as the other blonde was making it out to be, it couldn’t be. “No, no. It’s – it’s not like that,” she insists, despite having nothing to really back up her claim the way she wanted to. “I just… I miss him, that’s all. I’m not down bad or in love. That’s ridiculous.” Normally she’d make fun of anyone who had such weak arguments as that, with nothing to prove the point she was trying to make, but right now it was all she could do. “And you know what - I can fuck him again just to prove that’s not the case.” A horrible idea, especially considering she had been rejected so obviously the last time she had tried to do any of that.

Sharpay liked to think she had a pretty good read on her friends’ love lives. She was fairly in-touch with how they felt about their significant others, and even sometimes how their partners felt about them, and she prided herself in being so in-tune that nothing really shocked her. The split between Lil and Kelsi hadn’t come as much of a surprise, given the beginnings of a rift that’d begun to form as her friend started peeking into her girlfriend’s love life. It had unfortunately not shocked her when Tink’s ex didn’t want to get back with her, despite her strong desire, given seeing him with Marie at Friendsgiving. 

When Tink showed up with an entirely new man on her arm at new year’s eve, though, Sharpay was practically baffled. She’d never seen this guy before, not even in the circles they kept that orbited each other. He was hot, yeah, but who the fuck was he? “Um, were you ever going to tell me you magically produced yourself a boyfriend, or what?” she demanded the first moment she spotted the blonde alone. “Is he a boyfriend? Or, just someone to make little mister Darling jealous? Because, either way, fantastic work. Much more on par for your league than John.”

"Bonsoir," she greeted as the coat was stripped from her shoulders. Before a chance was given to say anything more she was being tugged from the entryway by her friend. If it was anyone other than Sharpay there would've been more questions as to why. Marie came to expect anything from the other and the blonde quickly accepted an invitation to her Friendsgiving, even using the situation to spend more time with a certain boy. Ever since their coincidental meeting, she found any excuse to be in his company, and this provided one where her friends got to give their approval. Marie had planned to introduce him to everyone, finding it a surprise that his name was already rolling off her friend's tongue. "Oui... Do you know each other?" Her eyebrows arched but she continued to explain further as had been requested. "Well, certainly hope so, we met a few months ago and have been seeing more of each other since. Sharpay, he seems parfait, I didn't know men like him even existed anymore," the girl swooned over her date unaware of the bomb that ticked with the lore her friend would drop.

Given the opportunity to dine with some of the most talented people on the island was a gift that only someone like Sharpay could offer Colette. And yet, there was a struggle to even get herself out of her bed today of all days. Many factors were contributing to the dread of this dinner, most of them having to do with the attendants going but even the lack of a certain plus one she was previously tied to made her as apprehensive as going to a dinner with her family. It didn't help that some of her family members would be in attendance tonight.

Colette didn't have a choice in going, or at least that's what her boss who needed all the help she could get claimed. Even if she wanted to bask in the celebratory festivities, she had to remind herself she was also working. Which, oddly, made things somewhat better. The more she worked, the less she had time to think about the fact that she was here without the date she used to bring to every event. Looking down at her small checklist of details she was in charge of, there were updates she had to bring up to Sharpay, who finally had a moment free from greeting her guests. "I've already rearranged place settings now that Tink isn't going to be joining." Any other moment she'd be grinning from ear to ear with that information but it yet another thing that got her thinking about Sam. She lightly shook her head to cut away from going down a spiral of thoughts on her ex, "Also, Kelsi tried being a no-show but I already dispatched an Uber her way so ETA on that should be, like, 10-15 minutes. We're cutting it close on appetizers but I think it'll be fine."

Things hadn't started off as smoothly as Sharpay would've hoped, with one of her best friends showing up with the ex of her other best friend, leaving Tink to walk out and home. She couldn't blame her: she would've done the same if Troy had shown up anywhere with another girl before they started dating. And, as much as Kelsi tried to stay home, Sharpay had insisted upon her presence, having uninvited her now ex-girlfriend despite her brother still attending. "You're the best," she breathed in relief, "I swear to god, I told her she had to still come, or else she was going to wind up watching something depressing, on her couch, alone, and I would've had to send Ryan to check she was still alive. So, thank you. Once dinner is served, you can head out, if you want, by the way. Or, you can count yourself off the clock and stay, if you want to have a drink and hang out. I'd love to have you stay, but totally up to you."

Marie trusted her friend's opinion more than most, nodding in understanding to her words of warning. It wasn't that simple; telling her brother's girlfriend's sister no wasn't really an option. Not to mention that the blonde could use all the publicity she could get at this point in her career. "Do you have any words of advice? Anything I should watch out for?" The industry was unforgiving but she had survived so much that a little catfight didn't scare her. That didn't mean she wouldn't want to go in with as much information as possible. She liked knowing everything anyway, it was all the more beneficial when it helped her directly. "She made it sound like she just wanted to collaborate. I'm sure I've told you but my brother is dating her sister, you know, complicates things," she explained with a wave of her hand to brush off the details. "I don't want my start to be... messy, this soon, non?" Marie tried to say without being outright.

Seeing a blonde walk through the door beside John Darling wouldn't have been that surprising, knowing the emotional turmoil the boy had caused one of her friends in the past. Recognizing the girl as someone other than Tink next to him was what had sent Sharpay into shock. She hadn't even the slightest clue that Marie had been remotely into John, or even knew him enough to have brought him to their party. The rest of the night was going to be spent on damage control, whether she liked it or not, as she was almost positive Tink was about to have a new public enemy at the top of her hit list.

"Hey, you," she cooed, taking Marie's coat off her shoulders as she stepped into the entryway, quick to grab her before her date's ex could make a beeline for her throat. "Welcome to my ... well, our parents' home. Mother and Daddy are out for a little dinner party at Lava Springs. Can I get you an appetizer, a drink?" Sharpay quickly whisked her away and out of sight, lowering her voice. "That's John Darling, isn't it? Is he here as a date date? I need all the details, stat."

At the question of whether he was insane in bed, the blonde let out another groan and covered her face once more for just a moment before dropping them again with a sigh. “He was horrible. Or like, at least at first he was,” she comments, leaving it unsaid that she had obviously taken the boy’s virginity. Despite the embarrassment that had come with admitting her entire affair in the first place, Tink couldn’t help but be proud of the work she had done to get John to where he was. And the smirk that grows on her lips shows that pride quite clearly. “But he’s a fast learner, I can tell you that. Studied hard and did his homework. So like, kind of, yeah.”

Sharpay let out a snort of a laugh at her commentary about the guy's progress in the bedroom department. Taking someone's virginity was a special thing: Sharpay had done the same to Zeke from high school, after which she'd been cooked a creme brûlée, so, it was pretty amazing, if she had to give it a rating. "You know, if you sleep with him again, there's no going back. You're already down badly enough, and that's going to send you back into the land of no return. You hear me? You cannot," she insisted, taking the other blonde by the shoulders to ensure the message was heard.

Over years of hanging out with the blonde, Troy had long learned that unchilled, warm white wine was practically a crime in her world. The first time he had suggested that she simply add ice had been the last time he ever thought that to be an acceptable solution, the lecture he had received on the importance of wine temperature and taste was one that still haunted him at times. After she was done pouring the drink into her special glass, he gently took the bottle and placed it back in the surprisingly mostly empty refrigerator. Either the Deville’s hardly ate or someone had emptied out the fridge before the party had started, likely to prevent everything from getting stolen by the who knows how many twenty-somethings that would be attending tonight. Turning back to the island with all the liquors and mixers, he makes himself a simple rum and coke as he lists to his girlfriend explain the latest gossip she had just heard from her ex-husband. “Is Kelsi upset?” he asks, though he’s pretty sure that’s a given it’d be best to know what he was walking into when he sought her out in a few minutes. “Do we know what happened between Dash and Lil? Or is that why she’s worried?”

"Oh, I know what happened between them, yeah. I even wrote a song about it, I was so inspired by the whole ordeal." Though it had wound up being a song she and Marie had completed together, it was Dash and Lil who had inspired it in the first place. "Long story short, they were coworkers, and they started dating, or so Lil had thought. Somehow, I think from my friend Angelica's boyfriend, she found out that he was actually doing it to distract her from her soccer team--they coach together. He wanted her to lose. What a crazy fucker," she mused, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh as she sipped her wine. "I don't know how much Phil told her, but now she knows, and got all bothered by seeing Lil talk to him again."

Logically she had known that admitting there was someone she was trying to win back would peak her friend’s interest, but that didn’t mean she had been fully ready to just delve into every detail about her past secret relationship. But Sharpay was right, it was practically socially illegal to just drop something like that and then pull a nevermind or not actually talk about it. And it’s not like she doesn’t trust the other blonde, plus she ran in a completely different social circle than John… So the likelihood of her ever accidentally slipping up and mentioning something to him about were pretty much slim to none, since they’d likely never speak to each other in the first place. “Okay. But like, you can’t say anything. To anyone. No one knows we were ever even a thing," she starts, which is a partial lie considering she’s told both Sam and Peri at this point - but the sentiment still stood even with those two outliers. Sighing heavily, her hands came up to cover her face so she didn’t have to see Sharpay’s reaction to the bomb she’s about to drop. “It’s John Darling. Wendy’s brother.” There’s more to the story and Tink knows she’s going to have to spill it all - but for the moment she leaves it at just that.

With her fingers run over her lips, Sharpay signaled that her friend's secret was safe with her--at least, it was for now, until she ran to tell her boyfriend the drama, but she figured that was assumed at this point. At the revelation, the blonde's mouth dropped: of all the people Tink could've named as the boy who had been giving her so much grief, a Darling boy was at the bottom of the list. It made her shudder, the thought of hooking up with someone related to Gabriella. "You're kidding. No, no, please tell me you're joking, actually." But, Tink would never joke about something like this, not when they both knew the gravity of him being one of her worst enemy's siblings. "And you're trying to get him back? When did this happen to begin with?" She lowered her voice, leaning closer to her friend. "Is he, like, insane in bed, or something?"

When it came to admitting his reasoning behind his choice, Troy had known there was a fifty-fifty chance of how the blonde would react. Though he had hoped she’d understand what he’d been thinking, he’d also prepared for it to not be a decent enough explanation - for Sharpay to have wanted him to have fully discarded any thoughts of Gabriella completely and be fully and totally on board only for her. Which, he was, don’t get him wrong. He felt confident in his choice, but he couldn’t lie and say that all thoughts of his ex were fully banished from his head. Which wasn’t something that Sharpay would ever want to hear. “I think I did too,” he states instead, not showing any sign of even the smallest amount of doubt. Laughing at her excitement over being a so-called basketball girlfriend, his head shakes ever so slightly. “Guess I’ll have to look into some local basketball leagues for you. Can’t let you miss out on the full experience.”

"We should've had a drinking game going for how many times people were going to say 'Hi, Barbie!' or 'Hi, Ken!' to us tonight. I'd be blackout by now," Sharpay commented as she finally caught up with her boyfriend, fresh off a conversation with her ex-husband that she thought he might want to hear about. Parties like these always came with their fair share of drama, and Sharpay was simply counting herself lucky not to be at the center of it this time. It was much more entertaining to sit on the sidelines and gossip. But, first, she needed a drink. "Come with me to the kitchen?" she asked, a statement more than a question as his hand was already in hers and her body was already pivoted in the direction of the source of a refill.

As she entered the kitchen, Sharpay was quick to pluck the white wine from the array of liquors on the counter, the chill on the bottle indicating someone had just set it down with no intentions of putting it back in the refrigerator. "Hooligans, can you believe this? They were going to let this go warm," she complained aloud with a disapproving click of her tongue. The glass she'd taken from the cabinet was one only she was allowed to have, getting special permission from the hosts to forgo the plastic cups forced upon the rest of the guests. "Okay, so, apparently, Kelsi saw Lil talking to her ex, Dash, and asked Phil what his deal was. So, now, he's, like, all concerned, and I think you should probably be the one to talk to her. We both know I have the potential to do more harm than good in the Kelsi department."

After how many conversations she'd had that night, Marie was glad to see someone she could cut the shit in front of. If there was one person who wouldn't need her to walk them through the conversation or ask the same questions that had been thrown at her all night. It was Sharpay who first saw her talent and this all wouldn't have come together if not for her friend's help. "There you are," the blonde reached out to take the drink but also sneak in a quick hug. "That's for dessert, of course. I can't give the people everything all at once." Marie gave a shake of her shoulders which were adorned with the rhinestones from her dress that gently chimed as they collided. It was the second part of the conversation that was unexpected but she listened, using the opportunity to take a sip of her cocktail. "Oui, I don't think she's all that fond of me," Marie replied with a simple shrug. "Maybe after spending time with you, she'll realize I'm not here to wreck her little home." They were sisters after all, whether they wanted to be or not. If it was the kindness of a boy that tore them apart that was something Marie couldn't understand. "Speaking of, people who aren't the best of friends, my brother is dating one of the Rooney sisters, and well, her sister had talked about doing a song together. Maddie said you aren't her biggest fan so I wanted to hear from you first."

“It will be, hopefully, once it fully heals. Right now it’s just puffy and yellow and fucking gross,” she clarifies, face and nose scrunching up as she thinks again of what her almost healed wound looks like at the moment. It wasn’t anything she was in any rush to be showing others, certainly not in any type of sexual way, but Sharpay was right - eventually it would be a sexy battle scar and she’ll look like some kind of hero to everyone she lets see her naked. The question of whether or not she had her eyes on any new potential hookups was a loaded one, even if the other girl didn’t know it. No one knew about her past relationship with a certain Darling boy, like they had agreed upon, and while she was tempted to keep it that way - in case it turned out there was nothing to salvage of their time together now that he was back - Tink was fully aware that if there was anyone who wouldn’t judge her for another failed attempt at winning a guy over, it’d be Sharpay. “Not a new one, actually. But there’s someone I’m trying to get back, yeah,” she finally answers with a shrug of her shoulder, trying to make it seem like less of a deal than it actually was.

Sharpay practically blocked out the description of her friend's wound, both for her own sake and for the words that followed. A plot to get someone back in Tink's life was much more interesting than hearing what her current bodily state was like. "Who?" she demanded with a gasp, poking at the other blonde's arm as she awaited an answer. Whoever it was, Sharpay would be more than happy to help however she could, even if it was Peter--the guy who she was inclined to like because of Tink's long history with him, but apprehensive of his longterm evasion of her advances. "You can't just say something like that and not tell me who it is. That's socially illegal."

The question of why and how he finally made his decision was one he expected to come eventually, but he hadn’t quite thought it’d be one of the first things the blonde had to ask. But it made sense, her need to know. “There were a lot of reasons,” he admits, starting off with a little raise of a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “Gabriella and I had our shot. And while I understand why we ended and how it was for the best for both of our sakes… that didn’t change the amount of pain I went through when it ended. You remember that, I’m sure. And I just… I was afraid of risking that again.” It was the truth - the fear of how things might end if they didn’t work out on a second try was what had held Troy back for so long from even considering making another move on his high school ex. “Plus I had been working my way up to asking you out, before she showed up again and I got all confused. It felt wrong to not follow the feelings I’ve had for you for a while now. I had to see what we could be.” It may not be the most romantic of answers, and potentially not what Sharpay had been hoping to hear, but he wasn’t about to lie just for the sake of making it sound better than it actually was. Those were his reasons and they had been enough for him to feel confident in his choice, he had to just hope she would agree. “Do I at least get to pick the pictures? I’ll get a new one made for every show, I’m sure your fans would get a kick out of that.”

All of her hours spent by his side hadn't gotten her nothing--this was precisely what Sharpay had hoped would happen way back when she'd coaxed him back to life when Gabriella had dumped him. It wasn't her fault that everything she planned just seemed to work out how she'd wanted it to, despite the minor hiccups along the way. "Well, you made the right choice," she replied confidently. It was her chance to finally show Troy the kind of pair they could be, and Sharpay would do practically anything to prove it. It was strangely validating to hear that holding onto hope hadn't been for nothing. "I love that idea," Sharpay agreed, already envisioning the final image of Troy on the side of the stage, wearing a shirt with her face on it. "Oh, my god, this means I finally get to live out my dream of being a basketball girlfriend," she gushed. "Not that watching you coach is nearly as hot as it was watching you play, but, I'll take what I can get. You'll just have to make up for it by letting me catcall you when we go golfing."

“Oh, I’m good, I’m great,” she promises with a small nod. It wasn’t exactly easy, explaining how her speedy recovery had worked to someone who didn’t already know that she was a fairy, considering the majority of her injury had been magical infection - but she figured Sharpay thankfully wouldn’t have too many questions about the technicalities of it all. There were plenty of areas that the girl shined in, but science and medical knowledge certainly wasn’t one of them. “I feel good as new, honestly. But I do have an ugly ass scar now thanks to those fuckers, but I guess it is kind of a cool story to tell any new hookups.”

Though she didn't know exactly what Tink was, or what kind of powers she had, Sharpay had guessed from the moment it looked like the other blonde had physically floated toward her that something was up with her. It wasn't something Sharpay really cared about, or even thought too deeply about, until, of course, she knew that there had been a certain group targeted during the attacks. "That's hot," she stated simply, the fleeting thought that she wished she could see it for herself in that way coming and leaving as she remembered she now had a boyfriend. "Speaking of, do you have any of those on the horizon?" Sharpay asked with a raised brow, knowing how the equivalent of her Troy had simply gone and left. "If not, that can be our mission tonight."