Incarceration
Ch. 1
Gabriella Montez casually glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was slick with sweat, prickly all over, and pink. Sighing, she slammed her locker shut as she wiped her sweaty face with a lemon yellow hand towel and threw it back into her locker. Her shoulders were aching more than they should've been. Her face cramped with every muscle she moved on it. And her legs ached like bruises with every step she took strutting confidently down the hallways of East High, despite looking like she had just stepped out of a horror movie. But Gabriella Montez didn't let things like that faze her. Whether she looked gorgeous or not, she was always self-confident. And that got her labeled quite a few nasty words as well as a social outcast by jealous girls and misunderstanding jocks. Idiots. They think they know everything.
Gabriella entered her homeroom and carelessly shoved her seat out of place, then sat down. No one really paid attention to her, due to her reputation as an obnoxious, 'beauty with brains' who didn't care. So, everyone just thought it would be best to stay out of her way. She drowned out the useless noise of gossip and laughter. And the bell rang. Gabriella immediately sat up as Ms. Kinney click-clacked her way over to the front of the room, organizing some papers already. Once the class quieted down, she spoke.
"Okay, Gabriella, could you get the lights?" Ms. Kinney asked, jabbing a plump finger in the general direction of the lights. "We'll be watching a video today on the history of Spain today. You need to pay attention since we'll be having a test on it soon." Gabriella nodded, and gracefully stepped over to the light switch next to the door.
Once the lights were dimmed, the projector showed an old, clunky video with a deep-voiced narrator reciting the history of Spain monotonously. Gabriella barely paid any attention to the sloppily presented video – she already knew all this, thanks to extreme studying sessions in the summer. She would barely need to study. And she spaced out…until the door creaked open – then everyone turned to see who it was.
He was tall, but not too tall. Dark brown hair which fell down to his eyes, from what Gabriella could see, in the dark. He was wearing a simple navy v-neck T-shirt with jeans and an inch thick binder was the only thing he was holding. New kid. Gabriella eyed him closely, before turning her head away. She received a glimpse of his face when some light passed his face. And from what Gabriella could see, he was pretty hot. He'll be sitting with the 'popular kids' by the end of school today, she thought as heard snippets of conversation between Ms. Kinney and Ms. Linelle, the school counselor. He looked around the classroom in curiosity until his eyes finally settled right on her. He had electric blue eyes, the kind that had your insides flipping.
The next thing she heard was the movement of a chair being moved and then the all-too-familiar scratch of someone settling down in a chair. Carefully, Gabriella sneaked a peak behind her, her wavy brown hair covering her face like a curtain. He was sitting behind her. Ignore, she commanded herself. Ignore him. You can't let anyone outside of family get involved in your life. You have high school and college ahead of you.
Once the video had finished, Ms. Kinney flipped the lights back on and smiled. Let's-pretend-that-life-is-perfect-and-wonderful-always. Those kinds of smiles irritated Gabriella like heck. She inwardly groaned and leaned back in her chair.
"Troy, please stand," Ms. Kinney said brightly. A scraping of a chair being pushed back, then sneakers squeaking on the floor. Everyone except Gabriella turned to stare at the new kid.
"Class, this is Troy Bolton. He just moved from California and I hope you'll feel welcome here, Troy," Ms. Kinney said, fake-grinning widely.
Bolton? Troy Bolton…Gabriella thought.
"Thanks, Ms. Kinney," Troy said in a careless and casual, but confident way. Definitely will fit in with the popular kids, Gabriella thought, irritated. He's way too arrogant and a bit too self-confident. Gabriella was self-confident herself, but not in an arrogant way. As Troy Bolton sat back down, class resumed, although most of the class was preoccupied in assessing Troy Bolton. Girls started ogling Troy like idiots and guys were trying not to act like they didn't care about girls ogling Troy, even though they really did. What they didn't notice was how Troy Bolton was staring at Gabriella Montez, even though Gabriella noticed it with her impressive peripheral vision. And it made her feel on edge. She couldn't let him get involved in her life. He would ruin everything she had worked hard for. He would probably throw her away to the side like trash once she showed interest in him.
A folded wad of notebook paper was flung onto her desk quietly. Carefully, so as not to bring the note to the attention of her teacher, Gabriella unfolded the note, smoothing it out.
What's your name?
Gabriella merely stared at the words, uncomprehending, until she realized what they meant. Angling her body so that Troy could see, she crumpled the note when Ms. Kinney's attention was directed elsewhere and handed it back to him. She glanced once at him, and saw him frowning at her. She rolled her eyes and sat dead straight forward in her seat. She heard him sigh once, but he didn't bother her anymore. Gabriella was relieved.
When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of first period, she nearly ran out of the room.
~.~.~
Taylor McKessie stood by her locker and waited for her boyfriend, Jake Tyson silently. The cold metal cooled off her sweating body as she attempted to wipe the sweat off with the back of her hand, but it only spread onto the back of her hand, thus making her feel more disgusted.
"Tay!" Jake shouted, jogging down the hallways, and then stepping over to hug her. He gave her a quick glance when he noticed sweat was running down her face as well as her clothes and his face changed to a mask of concern. What was with her? She was suddenly exhausted all the time and sweating whenever he saw her after fifth period.
"Why are you so sweaty?" he asked, cautiously. Her entire body was flushed a red-pink color. Taylor shook her head slowly at Jake. She couldn't tell him.
"It's nothing, really," she heard herself saying. "P.E. was just really hard today so I got all sweaty." Jake raised an eyebrow at her explanation. She was practically soaked, even her hair was wet. Taylor kicked herself inwardly for such a lame excuse. Lies.
"Oh, okay…" Jake murmured absentmindedly, not quite believing Taylor. "Well, I'm gonna get to class. We'll be late."
"Okay," Taylor huffed out. "See you."
"See you," Jake whispered, kissing her cheek softly, then walked in the opposite direction.
Taylor sighed, relieved, then hurried over to Gabriella's locker and conspicuously slipped a note. She wasn't a friend of Gabriella's, but she just thought that she should let Gabriella in on a little something that they were involved in together.
A little something, Taylor thought as she hurried away to class. Just a little something.
A/N: So, what do you guys think? This is my first fanfic ever so I may not be that great compared to other writers here, but still...read and review! I won't continue this until I get at least 3 reviews!