"Are we there yet?" Troy whined causing Gabriella to sigh and rub her temples becoming frustrated. Sure, she loved her friends that she had known since kindergarten but they all had their annoying, obnoxious moments. If she didn't have the friends that she had, she wouldn't be in Chad's mother's old van, heading towards a campground where she and seven other friends would be staying for a weekend over spring break.
From the aggravated sigh that came from Taylor in the passenger seat, Gabriella could tell that she was just as annoyed as she was. "Actually, we're kinda close," Taylor said hopefully while glancing at Chad who was too focused on the road to notice. Troy groaned and Gabriella rolled her eyes.
She felt like they were a family on a road trip. Currently Taylor was playing the role of the mother, Chad the father, and Troy was the annoying younger brother. Gabriella turned to face him when she heard the soft knocking sound. Bang. Bang. Bang. He was hitting his head against the window purposely. Bang. Bang. Bang. "Ow," he muttered causing even Chad to finally crack a smile and laugh lightly. Finally, there was an opening through the trees. A road. A sign. A campground. Gabriella could see the excitement in Troy's blue eyes, like a child on Christmas morning.
Chad pulled the van over coming to a stop, but no one made any move to leave the car. They were all waiting for their four other friends who were accompanying them on the trip. Sharpay, Kelsi, Zeke and Jason. Their own car had been trailing shortly behind Chad's. When Zeke's truck finally came to a halt beside them, Troy immediately reached for the door handle, longing for a breath of fresh air. Following his lead, the other three shuffled out of the van, stretching and moving around after being cramped in the car for the past 3 hours. The door to Zeke's car flung open abruptly due to everyone trying to shove Jason out the door.
He was decked out in full camping gear. Fishing hat, boots, baggy shorts, a vest over his tee shirt, and a large hiking backpack protruding off of his back. He was excited; the whole camping trip was his idea. He lugged out his duffle bag and fishing pole with a wide grin reaching from one ear to his other. Zeke immediately began unloading the truck onto the clear ground where they were going to be setting up their tents. First he pulled out Sharpay's three Louis Vitton bags, then Kelsi's single duffle bag, then his own.
"Montez, look alive," Troy shouted and catapulted a bag in her direction. She caught it with a 'Humph' sound, nearly knocking her over. Taylor rolled her eyes and helped take the rest of the bags from the van's trunk.
"So…this is it?" Sharpay said sounding rather unpleased. She scrunched up her nose, her face twisting with disgust as if nature were the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard of. Jason's mouth hung open in surprise but after all, he shouldn't have expected anything less from East High's biggest diva.
"This is it? We have the whole weekend!" Jason exclaimed and Kelsi smiled, obviously more excited about the trip than Sharpay. Jason looked at the rest of the group. Zeke stood awkwardly between Chad and Sharpay, who was busy filing her nails. Gabriella was struggling with holding her bag, standing next to Troy who was swatting at bugs. Taylor was sitting on top of her bag that lay on the ground. "Could you all at least try to look enthused?" Jason asked and pulled out four boxes from the back of Zeke's truck. Tents. There were only four of them, which meant two people per tent.
Once the tents were up the group began negotiating, Gabriella acting like the judge in a courthouse. It should have been simple, two girls to one tent, two to another, separating them from the boys, but of course, there were always the stubborn ones.
"How about I share with Taylor?" Chad protested against Gabriella's original idea of herself sharing a tent with her best friend Taylor while Sharpay and Kelsi shared a tent as well.
"Why would you share a tent with Taylor?" Gabriella questioned with a smirk, knowing that Chad had feelings for Taylor. Everyone knew. Troy chuckled and Jason looked to Chad for a reaction but none came, instead Sharpay finally looked away from her sidekick that she was busy using.
"Who said I even wanted to share with Kelsi," Sharpay pointed out bluntly, "No offense Kels."
"None taken."
Jason stood up straight suddenly, like a light bulb had went off in his mind. "I CALL KELSI!" He said louder than he initially intended, laughing along with the rest of his friends who where laughing at his stupidity.
"I guess I can share with Zeke," Sharpay shrugged and went back to her phone, ignoring the sounds of nature around her.
"Good! So it's finally settled!" Gabriella said, feeling accomplished, and threw her bag to the ground letting it sink in that they were all out on their own for the weekend at a campground. Could it get any better than that? She watched at Taylor and Chad began throwing their bags into their tent, and Kelsi, Jason, Sharpay, and Zeke followed their lead. "Wait …wow hold up!" Gabriella said loudly, finally processing what was going on. "When you all said you were sharing tents I didn't realize that it would leave me with…"
"Hello roomie," Troy said laughing slightly.
"Bolton."
Gabriella felt a sudden soft smack against her cheek. As she opened her eyes she realized it was only a pillow. Slowly, as if in a daze, her eyes wandered around the tent. "Get up, you fell asleep," Troy told her and left the tent. So much for a half an hour nap, she thought and groaned. How did she get stuck sharing a tent with Troy? She loved him, he was one of her best friends but he had his childish moments. At the rate that they were going, Gabriella didn't think she'd survive the trip.
Squinting as she stepped out of the tent and into the sunshine she looked around to find her friends looking a lot more excited about camping than they had earlier after arriving. "Gabs! We're going on a hike!" Jason exclaimed, smiling.
"This is the first hike like that I've ever like been on!" Sharpay said, fanning her face dramatically. If Sharpay was faking enjoyment, she was doing an amazing job.
They were already leaving, Taylor and Chad were a good distance ahead of Gabriella. Jason and Kelsi were close behind while Sharpay, Zeke and Troy had been waiting for Gabriella to wake up.
Twenty minutes passed and everyone had paired off leaving Troy and Gabriella alone once again.
"It's a serious question, why are trees called trees?" Troy asked for about the millionth time. At first, Gabriella thought he was trying to make a joke, now she was thoroughly convinced that he was actually serious. At the moment, she wanted to hurl herself off the edge of the cliff.
"Can we just…walk in silence?"
"Ever since we got here you've been acting like you have a stick up your ass," Troy commented nonchalantly.
Gabriella scoffed. "You've been acting like a four-year-old!"
"Well… uh.. you've been…" he stopped at a loss for words. "You're being mean!"
She laughed sarcastically. "See, four-year-old."
"Well sorry I'm not perfect like you," He sighed and sat down. "Sorry, this is totally lame. You're my best friend, I shouldn't be jerk. Then you'll bail on me too."
Gabriella laughed and sat down next to him. "Do you think they all had this planned? You know, so they could all be with each other and we're just like…tagalongs?"
"I don't know, but Chad's going to pay for this later."
"Am I really that bad?" Gabriella asked, giggling.
Troy's eyes widened. "No, no. That's not what I meant!" He said defensively, wrapping an arm loosely around her shoulder, his own way of apologizing. "How about we just make the best of this? I mean, if they're going to act like we're not here we can just have our own fun without them," Troy said while looking up the trail at the group of friends who hadn't noticed their absence.
"Good idea." Gabriella pulled herself to her feet and offered Troy her hand. Once he was standing she pounced on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck, catching him completely off guard. "Now get moving, roomie."
so, i deleted even the best fall down sometimes because i decided that i'm not ready to write a sad story yet. to those who were reading it, sorry. i'm currently working on the next chapter to reverse psychology, too. anyway, if this gets more than 10 reviews, i'll continue writing it.