Life with You
Chapter 1: Tutoring and Project
East High, the one, probably the only school where all rich kids in Albuquerque go into. Troy Bolton, captain of the East High Wildcats, technically a jock, and a player. He's the richest kid in school, his father is hailed as the "king" and his mother is called the "queen" in the business world. He's the guy that all girls want, but he only wants girls for 'fun', every week his girlfriends changes, he dumps them every end of the week then finds another one, on Mondays. Every girl falls for him because of his brown hair and blue eyes, muscle-toned body, all in all his good looks. Everyone loves him, his teammates, the cheerleaders, and other cliques. He is like the god of the school, without him, the school will falter.
"Hello ladies." Troy greeted the girls as he walked pass by their locker. It was a Monday morning so he's set up to find his new 'girlfriend'. "Hi Troy." The girls replied giggling and gossiping how Troy looked at them. "You there, cutie what's your name?" Troy asked the girl with a strawberry blond hair. "Ashley." "Ashley, you're my girlfriend from now on." Troy smiled and puts his arms around Ashley's shoulders." "I'd love to." Ashley smiled seductively. All the girls looked at Ashley with a jealous glare. "See ya girls." Troy waved at them with Ashley on his arms.
Troy liked school because of these three things: he's popular, basketball and girls.
"Hey buddy." An afro-haired boy shouted at Troy. "Chad! Bro!" Troy replied back. "Hey, Ashley, I guess you're Troy's new girl." Chad told the girl. "Yeah, and I'm pleased to be his girl." Ashley smiled dreamily at Troy. Chad Danforth had known Troy since they were kids. He knew everything about Troy. They basically grew up together, having sleepovers and basketball. Unlike Troy, he is a one-woman man, and he sometimes gets annoyed with his best friend whenever he picks on somebody.
"Troy Bolton, please go to the Principal's Office. The Principal wants to see you." The announcement called. Troy sighed and looked at his 'girlfriend' "Hey, babe. I need to go. I'll meet you in homeroom." The girl nodded and then Troy headed to the principal's office.
Troy knocked and opened the door. "Oh Mr. Bolton, come in. Mr. Matsui is expecting you, I'll just go in and let him know you're here." The secretary told him. He nodded then the secretary went inside Mr. Matsui's office then signaled him to come in. "You may come in now. Mr. Bolton." He went inside and he was shocked to see his father and the girl in a wheelchair. "What the hell is that limp girl doing here?" Troy asked himself.
"Ah, Troy. Come in and sit." Principal Matsui motioned Troy to sit beside his father. "Good morning Mr. Matsui." Troy replied.
"Now I can start. Ms. Montez, I presumably think that you know Mr. Bolton here?" Mr. Matsui asked the young girl in the wheelchair. She replied with a nod. "Mr. Bolton?" "Yeah I do." He said curtly. "Is something wrong?"
Everybody knows Gabriella Montez. She's has brunette colored hair and brown eyes, and the only girl with a wheelchair and the only girl who's not rich as everybody, she looks good but apparently most of the students like to see people not in a wheelchair. She's usually the joke around his teammates aside from the geeks and Troy always makes harsh comments whenever she passes by, which she always ignores. She's also the only girl that does not care of what other people might say to her, which makes Troy more irritated to her.
"Troy. I know that you've been exerting a lot of effort in basketball for our school to win and I appreciate that." Mr. Matsui started, "unfortunately, all of your grades have dropping to the point that they are barely passing. You know that the school has regulations for students to have a standard grade-point average to maintain in order to be in the team."
"So you mean, I'm going to be kicked out from the team?" Troy blurted. "Mr. Matsui, you can't kick me, you know that I'm the captain of the team and we're in the playoffs. Coach?" Troy's Coach didn't reply.
"I'm not going to kick you out of the team, only in one condition. I've already talked to your dad and he agreed on this." Principal Matsui told Troy.
"Anything, I will do anything." Troy told the principal. "You need to have an average of B before the end of the semester." "What? How can I possibly do that?!" Troy asked the principal, it's impossible to have that average. "That's why I asked Ms. Montez here to tutor you everyday after your basketball practice and also in the weekend." Principal Matsui replied. "Weekend too?" Troy said. "Sorry son, but if you want to be on the team, you have to follow everything. Even if you're my key player, I'll kick you out. Education comes first." Troy's Coach replied. Mr. Matsui smiled, "She will come by at your house 6 pm so you can go and get ready."
"Don't worry Troy, Ms. Montez here is the most intelligent student in the campus. Definitely you will get a B before the end of semester." Principal Matsui told the young lad. "So this is only until the end of semester?" Troy asked the principal. "Yes. Only if you maintain your B as an average." Principal Matsui replied. "Is that clear, Mr. Bolton?" Troy just nodded. "Okay, I guess you both can go back to your homeroom class. I've already informed Ms. Darbus about coming in late for class, so you don't need to worry about your attendance." Principal Matsui told both Troy and Gabriella.
Troy stood up and left the office and Gabriella followed. Silence has enveloped the hallways of the school. "So geek. You're going to tutor me." Troy suddenly told the girl. "Yeah. And my name is not geek." Gabriella replied. "But you're one geek. Why are you studying here anyway? Shouldn't you supposed to be in some poor school. You know if you're not studying here, this school will probably get into the Guinness Book of World Records." Troy replied.
"Because this is the only school that's near my house, I'm not rich to have a car to drive around like all of the students here because as what you said, I'm poor. And I never intended to study here. I only agreed to study here because of the scholarship. I'm sorry that I destroyed your obsession to be in a World Record." Gabriella shot back.
Unable to talk back, Troy suddenly shrugged. They arrived in homeroom class and Ms. Darbus talked to them, " Mr. Bolton, Ms. Montez, you're going to be partners for our project in English." "Ms. Darbus, my partner is Danforth over there." Troy pointed out Chad. "Well, Mr. Bolton, I'm sorry to inform you than Mr. Danforth already has a partner and that is Ms. McKessie. So Bolton, you and Montez are partners." "But…" Troy replied. "No buts, Mr. Bolton." Troy sighed, "Fine." He headed to his sit."
"Dude what happened in Matsui's?" Chad asked his friend. Troy shrugged and replied, "Matsui told me that I need to put my grades back up or else I'll be ousted from the team." Chad's eyes widened, "What he can't possibly do that, you're the star player of the team, the captain too.." Troy rolled his eyes and answered before Chad finished his sentence, " I know I've also told that to him and I ended up having a tutor after basketball practice." "With who?" Chad asked, "With her." Troy pointed Gabriella. "Gabriella?" Chad told Troy. "How'd even know her name?" Troy asked Chad.
"Well, I heard the teachers say it. And she's Taylor's friend." Chad answered. "Who's this Taylor guy?" Troy asked Chad curiously, how come he doesn't know any guy named Taylor. Chad rolled his eyes. "Taylor, my partner in the project. Seriously, you don't know the names of our classmates? And by the way, Taylor's a girl. Obviously you didn't listen as Darbus tells you your partner would be Gabriella."
"Whatever." Troy replied.
"Class go to your respective partners and talk about what are you going to do for your English class. I believe that all of you have the same English class like the Homeroom period so I'm giving you this homeroom time and in English to talk about it. You can either make a play or create a music piece and sing it." Ms. Darbus told her class. "This project is considered as your final exam for this semester. So I hope you'll all work hard for this project I'm giving to my students. I'll call you later in English class and you have to give me on what you've decided. You may now begin."
All of the students went to their respective partners, except for Troy, which signaled Gabriella to come to his table. The girl sighed and made her way towards him knowing that he intentionally did it for her to have a hard time. She is in a wheelchair and it is very hard to maneuver it when there are flocks of students going around the classroom. She arrived at the back where Troy was sitting a minute later.
"So what do you want to do for the project?" Gabriella asked Troy. "Whatever. Montez." Troy shrugged. "You know that you need to pass this project Bolton, otherwise you'll get kicked out of your team whether you like it or not. Seriously, when Principal Matsui asked me to tutor you, I can't say no since he already talked to my mom and my mom agreed. So I have no choice but to follow him. If you don't like it, then you just have to live up to it. Just set aside your anger for me this semester and I'll help you pull up your grades and after that, this semester did not happen." Gabriella smiled.
"Fine." Troy replied. "So what do you want to do?" Gabriella asked him for the second time. "Do you want to do a play?" "Hell no. I'm not good at acting." Troy replied. Gabriella smiled "So music piece then? We don't have much choices here there's only two apparently." "Yeah, fine by me." Troy said bluntly. "Okay we can work it together during our tutoring session. I guess we're done. Just try thinking of what poem you want to make and we could brainstorm this later." Gabriella told Troy. "Whatever." Troy replied. Then Gabriella left his table and went back to her own. The bell rang and Gabriella waited for everybody to get out before she left the room and headed for her locker.
Gabriella arrived at her locker, getting some books she needed for her next classes then she suddenly heard someone shouted her name.
"Gabi!" Taylor McKessie, Gabriella's bestfriend. She's also one of the top students at school. She's one of the people nice to Gabriella aside from Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi and Martha. "Hey, Tay." Gabriella smiled at her friend. "I'm so sorry if we didn't became partners in the project. Obviously you aren't there, I have no choice because Ms. Darbus told us we couldn't choose partners who aren't present in the class as of the moment." Taylor explained. "That's okay Tay, what can I do? The principal called me." Gabriella told her friend, "so how's your partner?" "He's okay I guess. He's not that bad for a jock, he's nice." Taylor replied, "So, what happened? Why were you called by the Principal?" Gabriella shrugged. Taylor knew that Gabriella is not enthusiastic about it. "Matsui told me to tutor Troy." "What?" Taylor gasped. "Why?" "Because he's failing and I need to help him to put his grades up before the end of semester so I need to tutor him." Gabriella answered
"You can say no though, right?" Taylor asked her friend.
Gabriella shook her head. "As much as I want to say no, my mom already agreed on it before saying anything to me."
"Are you really okay with it?" Taylor asked again.
"I'm okay with it. It doesn't matter, I'm just helping him and the rest will still be the same." Gabriella replied.
"Hey Gabi, Tay!" Sharpay called her friends. Sharpay, alongside with Ryan, are the superstars of the Drama Club. They starred in seventeen musicales in East High, co-presidents of the club and also Ms. Darbus' favorites because they're in her club. Aside from them Kelsi and Martha are also members of the Drama Club, Kelsi being the key pianist of club and Martha the dance coordinator. Gabriella usually helps the club by writing songs for them. Sharpay and Ryan are also second in the rich category, next to the Boltons. Sharpay and Ryan Evans' family owned resorts and country club around the country.
"Hi Sharpay." Gabriella smiled. "So I assume you and Ryan are going to do a play for English?"
"Yeah, will be doing Romeo and Juliet." Sharpay replied. "What about you? You're partnered with Troy Bolton!" "Yeah, I am partnered with him, we'll be doing a music piece." Gabriella told her friend. "Oh, I see. So why did Matsui called you for? And Troy too?" Sharpay asked Gabriella.
"To tutor him after basketball practice." Gabriella told Sharpay.
"Oh. Why?" Sharpay asked again
"Because he's failing all of his subjects except basketball." Gabriella responded. "Let's get over this topic and head for English alright?" Gabriella grabbed her booked and closed her locker. And all of them headed to their English class.
The rest of their class passed by quickly before you know it. It's the end of the day. Gabriella left the classroom as usual when everybody has left the room already. While walking on the hallways, she can hear all the people snickering at her back and sometimes yell some insults on her, she's already immune to it because she knows no matter how hard she tried to befriend the jocks, cheerleaders and everybody, only a few would understand her situation. This has been a constant environment for her ever since she's on a wheelchair, she can walk until she was eight when she suddenly fell and couldn't walk. She accepted her condition quickly and saw there's nothing wrong having a wheelchair. To her it does not matter but to everyone in her old schools sees her as a weirdo because of a sudden change in her. She's been switching schools for quite some time before because of her mother's job and it made it harder for her to make friends except that her mother promised her that East High will be her last school because they're going to live here permanently, but it was still the same from her old schools, everybody hates her because she's a wheelchair and she couldn't understand why. Instead of pitying her situation, she just shrugged off everything and acted as if it was normal.
She saw Bolton with some girl named Ashley around his arms and she approached them. Troy saw Gabriella walking towards him and stopped in front of him and his 'girlfriend'. "What do you want, geek?" Troy asked Gabriella.
Gabriella sighed, Geek is not my name you idiot! She told herself. "I'm just reminding you that I'll be tutoring you at 6 in your home, I hope that you'll be home by then so we can start and finish early."
"Whatever." Troy shrugged. "See you then Bolton." Gabriella told him. By then Gabriella left and wheeled herself home.
Her home is not far from school, it's only a block a way that's why she agreed to go in such prestigious high school because it's convenient for her and she was given a scholarship because of her excellent grades. If she has her way she'll definitely not go in that school because most of the people think about signature bags, their hairstyles, their dresses and other things which didn't pass the category of academics.
Ten minutes later, she arrived at her home. She's not literally poor as most of the people in her school knows, she's in a middle-class family, but the students in her school couldn't accept that she was accepted by the school which is known for rich kids. She wheeled herself up in the platform, to get to the porch, took her keys in her backpack and opened the door.
"Mom, I'm home." Gabriella shouted. "Mom?" Gabriella repeated. Nobody replied. She went to the kitchen and noticed that her mom left her a note:
"Gabi, my boss sent me in a convention in LA. I won't be here for a week. I left some money in the jar so you can buy some take-out food if you want. I've already loaded the fridge so you don't need to go to supermarket anymore. I'm sorry for leaving you all of a sudden. Remember to lock the doors when you leave home and also close the windows. Take care, and drink your medicines. I'll be back Tuesday next week. Love you."
P.S. Good luck in tutoring your friend. And do not forget your doctor's appointment tomorrow!
Love,
Mom
"Friend? He's not my friend." Gabriella told herself. She went to her room and looked at the time. 3:30 pm, she smiled knowing that she could still do her homework and try to start her English project while writing a few verses so her partner could choose which one to sing.
It's already 5:00 pm when Gabriella finished all her homework. She also finished composing some of the verses of the song. She went back inside grabbed a folder and placed the music sheet in it. She placed the folder in her backpack placed her bag at the back of her wheelchair. She went to the kitchen and grabbed some bananas then drank a glass of milk, popped in her meds then left the house. There's still an hour left but she decided to take her time two go to the Bolton's. Everybody knew where their house is located because it is on the end of the street a couple of blocks away from her home, it would take her at least half an hour to get there.
As expected she arrived at the Bolton's around ten before six. She was awed of how large the how's is yet there's only three people living there. Troy and his parents, she rang the doorbell and suddenly the speaker asked, "How may I help you? Miss?" Gabriella pressed the talk button she saw and replied, "My name is Gabriella Montez, and I'm here to tutor Mr. Troy Bolton." "Oh, yes. I've been informed." The speaker told Gabriella. "You may come in."
"How?" Gabriella asked herself. All of a sudden the gates automatically opened. "An automatic gate. How convenient." Gabriella again was in awe.
She wheeled in and saw a big garden and a big pool on the side. Then a big fountain that sat in the middle of the house and the garden. She headed towards the door and the door opened revealing a lady in her early thirties dressed in a black dress and white apron which Gabriella assumed to be one of the maids. "Ms. Montez right?" she suddenly spoke. "My name is Lena. Young master will be arriving shortly. So have a sit." Lena leads Gabriella to the living room.
"Young Master? That's funny." Gabriella thought.
"Hi Lena. That's okay. I'm pretty comfortable from where I'm sitting right now." Gabriella smiled at the maid. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to.." Lena told Gabriella. "It's okay. Don't worry about me. I'll just wait for Bolton here in my wheelchair." Gabriella cut her off. Lena nodded, "Do you want anything to drink or eat?" Gabriella shook her head and smiled at the maid, "I just ate at my home, thank you though."
Suddenly the door from the house opened again and she suddenly heard one of the maids greeted the person, "Good afternoon, young master." Lena left the living room to greet her 'master' "Good afternoon, sir. You're friend, Ms. Montez is here and waiting for you in the living room." "Okay thanks." Troy uttered. He went to the living room and saw Gabriella looking in awe around the living room. He smiled and said to himself, "She looks cute.." but immediately shrugged it off and smirked, "You haven't seen a living room this huge I presume?" Gabriella suddenly jumped and looked at the voice.
"Yeah, because my mom and I lived there and we technically don't have time to clean up such a huge living room." Gabriella rolled her eyes. "So are you ready to study?"
Troy shrugged, "I guess I have no choice. Let's go to my room." Troy has leaded the way towards his bedroom. When they got inside, Gabriella was in shock of how big his room was. A king-sized bed, a 72-inch flat screen T.V., a big-screen computer and a walk-in closet. She has a big room but if compared, it's only one-fourth of Troy's room. "I've never seen a person who's always in shock whenever they go to a new room." Troy smirked.
Gabriella, waking up from her shock, just shrugged. "Let's just start now. I don't want to go home, late. Do your math and science homework since that's the only homework we had and I'll check it if you answered it correctly. Then we can start with the English project."
Troy rolled his eyes and took his pen and exercise paper and started answer the questions. Gabriella on the other hand took the folder out of her backpack and started to continue finishing the music piece for their English project.
"Here, I'm done." Troy gave the papers to Gabriella half an hour later. Gabriella scanned at the papers and frowned. "What?" Troy asked her defensively. "You have 5 out of 20 questions correct in Algebra. Then 4 out of 15 questions correct in Physics. Do you ever open your textbooks?" Gabriella asked Troy.
"Erm.." Troy scratched his neck. Gabriella shrugged. "Never mind, your books looks new. I know the answer." "Hey, I opened it once!" Troy said defensively. "Yeah you opened it and closed it immediately." Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to explain you the right answers. We have a quiz on Wednesday."
"What? Quiz? I didn't hear Mr. Hawkins told us we're going to have one." Troy told her. "You didn't hear because you're busy flirting with your girlfriend. If you want to get your GPA you also have to help yourself." Gabriella said flatly. "You don't want to get kicked out in your precious team do you?" Troy eyes widened and unable to speak just shook his head. "Now listen, we'll start in Physics. Then math. In this question, water displacement can be used in any solid as long as it is porous…"
Gabriella tried to explain to Troy all of the stuffed she quizzed him thoroughly, and luckily, Troy understood everything. "So now you will find x9. Understand?" Gabriella asked. "Yeah, I do." Troy replied.
"Do you have piano here?" Gabriella suddenly asked. "Yeah, why?" Troy asked. "I've already tried to make a piece for our project, I just want you to hear it and tell me if it's okay." "Uh, sure. Let's go." Troy ushered Gabriella back into the big hallways of the Bolton Mansion, then instead of going back to the living room Gabriella went to the first time, he went in a different direction and showed her another living room where a black grand piano sitting in the middle.
"Wow, you have two living rooms." Gabriella uttered. "And a nice piano.."
This time Troy laughed. "Okay so what's the song?" Troy asked. "I don't know the title yet." Gabriella replied. "I'll move the bench." Troy offered. "No that's okay." Gabriella replied.
"You sure?" Troy asked. "Bolton, even though I'm in a wheelchair, and my feet couldn't move, I'm capable of other things." Gabriella told him.
"Like what?" Troy asked.
She lifted herself of the wheelchair and transferred herself to the bench. She opened the piano and placed the music piece on the holder.
"I got it." Troy mumbled. Gabriella laughed.
"Anyway, I only made a few lines, and I don't know if you'd like it." Gabriella told Troy. "Go on." Troy replied. She took a deep breath and started to play the music.
Living in my own world
Didn't understand
That anything can happen
When you take a chance
I never believed in
What I couldn't see
I never opened my heart
To all the possibilities
"That's what I have for now," Gabriella told Troy, "Troy are you okay?" Now it's Troy's turn to look at her in awe…