The Assignment

Troy swiftly glanced at his watch. 8: 33. Oh shit!

He had just left homeroom in rush after Ms. Darbus had forced him to stay a few minutes after the bell. And of course she absolutely refused to write him a note for his next class; Video Production with Mr. Shafer.

Troy rushed through the halls, hoping he would be able to make it to class.

Upon approaching the room, he was able to spot Mr. Shafer writing on the white board. In hopes he could enter unnoticed, Troy stealthily maneuvered his way into the classroom and soon enough his seat. He sighed a sigh of relief, glad he had not been caught.

"Good morning Mr. Bolton, so nice of you to join us." The teacher began without even turning around. "What is it this time? Did you stop and rescue some kittens from a tree again? Or were you not able to walk due to those relentless foot spasms you keep experiencing?" His teacher asked in a mordant tone.

Troy, surprised he was caught, decided it would be a good idea to tell the truth today. "Darbus made me stay after class." He mumbled. "She wouldn't write me a pass."

"I'll let it slide today Troy, but you have got to stop this late thing from happening." Mr. Shafer stated in a firm yet understanding manner.

Troy nodded in accordance and Mr. Shafer began to address the class.

"Alright guys, we're going to be starting a new project today." He said with the utmost zeal, quickly exchanging his 'to-some-extent-concerned' facade for an overly enthusiastic one. "I will be assigning you all topics so you can make your own documentaries."

The room erupted with chatter and excitement. The students had all wanted an assignment with this amount of freedom.

"Settle down!" He told the class. "For the assignment, you will either being investigating events based on your topic, or you will be interviewing various people in relevance to it. I have already assigned each of you with a subject. Going from alphabetical order, Adams-sports, Avery-music, Barnes- afterschool hobbies and hangouts, Blunt-childhood memories, Bolton-first love…"

Mr. Shafer continued to speak, but Troy no longer paid attention. First love? Out of all the subjects that could have been assigned to him…first love? Anything could have better than that.

Troy respectfully raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Bolton." Mr. Shafer said.

"Can we change our topic if we don't like it?"

"No." The teacher quickly responded.

"But what if –" Troy was immediately cut off.

"I assigned you your topics for a reason. No switching, end of argument."

Class went on. A lot of boring discussions, pointless assignments, and final directions for the project until the ending bell.

Mr. Shafer distributed the video cameras and other film equipment. "Start getting some solid footage and we'll work on editing Monday."

The final bell rang and the students rushed out of the classroom.

-

Troy walked the empty halls of East High at lunchtime. The ascetically lit corridors were gloomy and dull. He wandered around with no particular destination in mind; he just needed to clear his head. He finally decided to head to the gym; his very own solitary refuge.

Troy was on his third basket when he heard the sound of footsteps clacking against the glossy hadwood floors. He turned his head and saw Sharpay.

"What are you doing here?" He asked

"None of your concern." She stated not wanting to go into further discussion. "Why aren't you at lunch?"

"Not hungry." He replied emotionless.

"Well, Gabriella's looking for you."

"Where is she?" He asked curiously.

"I don't know; let me get out my tracking device." Sharpay retorted in an overly sarcastic tone.

"Never mind, I'll look for her myself." Troy said dropping the basketball and bursting through the doors of the auxiliary gym.

-

Once again walking alone through the halls, Troy dug his hands into his pockets and continued to look for Gabriella.

"There you are!"

To late, she found him first.

Troy turned his head only to see Gabriella marching towards him.

"Troy, don't you remember? We were supposed to meet each other for lunch." She reminded.

"I'm sorry Gabriella, I guess I forgot. I sort of have a lot on my mind right now."

"Want to talk about it?" She suggessted.

"Not really in the mood right now."

Truth of the matter was, Troy was still thinking about his project. He had never been in love. In fact, he had never truly been involved in a real relationship. His romantic history was composed of seasonal flings, one night stands, and an array of random hook-ups. Somehow he thought making a documentary with this particular subject would make him seem like a hypocrite.

Gabriella and Troy made their way over to the cafeteria. Troy scanned the room and stopped and stared at his friends. He had to start somewhere with his project, why not with the people who surround him everyday? He looked at all of them; they were happy and all at one point have been in serious relationship. Why couldn't he have that?

But what he didn't know was that he could.

A/N: Well here's the first chapter, I hope you liked it. Sorry if it was a little boring, I just needed to introduce the central plot and the whole assignment. There's probably going to be a lot of flashbacks in the upcoming chapters because that's when Troy starts interviewing people. I'm really excited to start writing out the interviews and memories of past love and relationships. I've had all these sweet and romantic ideas for the interviews just bouncing around in my head. So again, I hoped you like it PLEASE REVIEW! I love feedback and I want to know what you think.

A few people have asked me about the sequal to Chemistry 101 and when I read over AP History, I really wasn't content with the whole thing. I don't think I did adequate research for the things I was going to reference so I decided to just get rid of that idea and instead compare the relationship to couples through out history. So I started writing it and I got the worst case of writers block when it came to this entire plot line. I couldn't even think of any historic couples to compare them to. (Any ideas please help me!) So the chances of this story being posted anytime soon are very slim. I apologize for not being able to post it and for this extremely long author's note.