Their Broken Road
By oOMissLovelyEagle9Oo
A/N: Here's the first chapter. The beginning is like a prologue. It just explains everything that has happened, but the story does begin further down. Read&Review!
Summary: After the tragic death of their friend Taylor McKessie, Gabriella, Troy, Chad, and Sharpay try to pull their lives back together. But struggles follow after Gabriella learns about Chad's real reasoning behind his plans to marry Taylor, while Sharpay struggles to accept herself as a paralyzed woman. While this is going on, Troy makes a shocking sacrifice for his and Gabriella's future.
Chapter 1
February soon faded and as did March and April. Soon it was May, and in a month, the gang would be graduating. Gabriella, Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay didn't take part in the spring musical that year as they did in the past 2 years. Sharpay didn't audition for the obvious reason: she was in a wheelchair and couldn't exactly dance and sing on stage. Ryan didn't have the heart to audition without his sister, so he decided not to. Troy seemed very distant from all the extra-curricular activities, and Gabriella still hadn't fully come to terms with the accident yet.
Everyone sort of slipped away from high school. They become more serious and less like teenagers. Gabriella's mother called it coming into adulthood, but Gabriella knew it was more than that. Somehow, grief got the better of everyone. Gabriella wasn't even sure they were really grieving over Taylor anymore. They were grieving over the loss of their childhood innocence. Troy, Chad, Gabriella, and Sharpay were no longer the average high school seniors. They seemed to slip into their own little world, away from the parties and the exams. Troy was now less interested in basketball. He was no longer practicing every day and working out. Instead, he would spend more time with Gabriella. Their relationship became stronger, because down deep, they were afraid that they would lose each other.
Sharpay and Zeke weren't as lucky. They didn't stay together. Sharpay became very bitter and she closed herself off from the real world. Not even Ryan could get her to cheer up. She'd always respond that she couldn't walk anymore, so what was the point in living. This caused Ryan to shut down also. They had that twin connection where if one of them were hurting, the other would be hurting also. Everyone tried their best to help them, but Sharpay wouldn't let anyone help her. Ryan finally decided to move on with his life, and he accepted a scholarship to Julliard.
Somehow, Chad continued to lead his life. Instead of neglecting basketball and his grades, he practiced even harder and got his grades up. He had even got himself an academic and basketball scholarship to Sacramento State University. Everyone was extremely proud of his accomplishments, especially his parents, Chris and Lynn.
Kelsi and Jason became very serious with each other, and they are thinking about marrying after college. They are both going to go to the University of San Diego and they are going to find an apartment together. Kelsi and Jason had made the decision to get married before they would have sex, because of religious reasons, so they will only be roommates. Gabriella and Troy were like that once, but their views have changed. They figured that life was too short, and they were planning on having sex.
That particular day, Gabriella was walking down the East High halls towards her locker. Last period had just been dismissed and she was trying to hurry so her locker mates wouldn't be there before she was. She was in such a hurry that she didn't see Chad try to wave at her.
When she got to her locker she bent down to open it. She then heard a loud voice say, "Thanks for the warm hello,"
Gabriella looked up and saw Chad standing over her. She stood straight up. She smiled and said, "Oh, sorry Chad. I was in hurry and I didn't see you there."
"Oh, okay," he said simply. He fiddled with the basketball in his hands, stalling.
Gabriella again looked up, "Was there something else?"
Chad nodded, "I was just wondering if you had talked to Taylor's parents lately,"
Gabriella stared at him with a puzzled look, "Why?"
"Um…I was wanting to talk to them about something," he said as he looked everywhere but Gabriella's face. He was feeling very uncomfortable.
"Really? Why Mr. and Mrs. McKessie?"
Chad looked her square in the eye and said, "I wanted to talk to them about Taylor….and me."
Gabriella realized what he was talking about. He was talking about Chad planning to ask Taylor to marry him. Troy had told Gabriella a few weeks after Taylor's funeral, after everything had settled down again.
"Oh," she responded quietly. "No, I haven't talked to them recently. But I think that you should tell them about you and Taylor."
"Yeah," Chad said quietly. He suddenly realized that the halls were half empty. He quickly said, "Um…I've got to go. See ya later Gabi!" He then ran down the halls towards the gym. Gabriella sighed to herself. Same old Chad, she thought happily. Finally, something that is the same!
Just then, Troy came bounding up behind Gabriella and put his hands over her eyes. "Guess who?" he asked her in a sing-songy voice.
"Um…Ms. Darbus?" she guessed sarcastically.
"No!" Troy exclaimed and turned her around.
Gabriella smiled and said, "Wow, Ms. Darbus! You've changed!"
Troy chuckled lightly and said, "Is that a compliment or an insult?"
Gabriella laughed along and said, "A compliment, of course."
She gave him a light kiss and she gathered up all her books and shoved them into her usually organized locker. She then slammed the door shut and walked out hand-in-hand with Troy.
"So, how was last period with Darbus?" Gabriella asked her boyfriend playfully.
"Ugh! Don't remind me. All she did was lecture us about how school wasn't over yet so we had to still behave and do our homework," he responded wrinkling his nose at the memory.
Gabriella giggled and said, "Wow. In our last period, Mr. Lynch let us talk and play games the whole time, because we already finished the book we were reading and we turned them back into the school library."
Troy just sighed and said as he neared his new truck, "Wow, that sucks. Why can't I have your last period class?"
Gabriella and Troy both walked over to the passenger side and as Troy was opening the door for her she responded sharply, "Because I'm smart!"
Troy gave her a smirk as he ran over to the driver's side. When he got in he said playfully, "Wow, that really hurt my feelings. Now I'm not so sure I want you to come over." He made a puppy-dog face and pretended to cry.
Gabriella giggled and planted a kiss on Troy's pouted lips. He smiled and deepened the kiss. Gabriella then pulled back and said, "Okay, lets get to your house now."
Troy groaned and put his keys into the ignition and drove off.
A/N: That was a bunch of fluff and Troyella, but oh well. I hope you liked it! Review please!
