Troy was worried. It was the first day back at East High and Gabriella was no where to be seen.
It was supposed to be a joyous day. The first day of senior year. The first day of the end.
And yet there was something wrong. Troy had spoken briefly to Gabriella that morning in the hallway. She was at her locker, already organizing the notebooks and various other school supplies that she had bought.
He watched her from afar as she rummaged through her backpack for something. He noticed that she frowned significantly when she finally pulled out her yellow schedule sheet.
At that point, he had decided that a sneak attack was needed to catch her undivided attention.
"Boo."
Gabriella jumped, a smile finally appearing on her face. "Troy!"
He smiled. "How are you on this lovely morning?"
Her smile disappeared.
Troy noticed. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Instead of replying, she turned back to study her schedule.
"Can I see?" he asked, pointing to the sheet.
She handed it over.
He scanned the sheet. "Wow . . . all AP classes. AP Government . . . AP English . . . AP Physics . . ." He stopped when he noticed that the frown on her face had gone from a frown to a full-on pout. And it wasn't the playful pout that was only reserved for him when he was teasing her.
"Brie, you'll be fine. You're the smartest person I know."
She glanced down at the floor. "What if that's not enough?"
Troy folded the schedule and handed it back to her. "Just do your best. That's all anyone can ask of you."
"What if that's not enough either?"
"Brie, what is this really about?" He willed her to meet his eyes, but she continued to stare at her shoes.
"Nothing," she said unhappily.
"Brie . . ."
He was interrupted by the bell.
Troy glanced around the nearly deserted school. It was four in the afternoon. Nearly everyone had left to salvage what they could of summer before the homework began to pile up.
He would have been gone, too. But he was here, searching the halls for her.
"Gabriella, where are you?" he muttered to himself. Then, it came to him.
He took the stairs two at a time. When he finally reached the top, he found what he was looking for.
She was sitting on the ground, arms hugging her knees to her chest, not really staring at anything.
"Gabriella?"
She made a small noise like a wounded animal.
Troy tentatively took a seat next to her. He noticed tear streaks down her beautiful face.
"Brie, talk to me."
She made another noise.
Not knowing what else to do, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him.
They sat in silence. He let her use his shirt as a tissue, not caring at all about the stains.
When she was finally ready to talk, she leaned back and looked into his eyes.
Just looking into her brown eyes filled with uncertainty and sadness made him want to cry along with her, too. But he didn't. Instead, he listened.
"Everything's so overwhelming, Troy. I know that I'm supposed to be happy—I mean, it's our senior year. But I'm not. Everyone keeps asking me where I'm applying to. What I'm going to do with the rest of my life. And . . . I just don't know what to tell them."
She was crying again. Troy reached out and wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs.
"If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what I'm going to do either. With the rest of my life, I mean," he said quietly.
"What about basketball?"
He shrugged. "My dad wants me to get a scholarship. But I'm not so sure. About basketball, I mean. I like it. But I just don't know if I want to do it for the rest of my life."
She leaned her head against his chest, clutching to his shirt. "It's just . . . I don't know. I don't know, Troy."
"I don't know either, Brie." He wrapped his arms around her. "But we'll figure it out eventually. Maybe not today, but we will. And I'll be right there beside you."
"Promise?" She looked into his eyes.
He looked back, finding the little sparkle in her eyes again. "I promise."