32.7 Miles, a High School Musical Fanfiction

Chapter 1

"Troy, you know I can't do that." Gabriella laughed into her cell phone, rolling over in bed. "I can't!" She was silent for a moment, listening to him, before she burst out laughing. "OK, fine, but you're picking me up!" She laughed, and climbed out of bed. She glanced over at the clock. 6 a.m. "Thirty-two point seven miles. I'll see you in an hour." She was quiet again, listening to him talk. "I love you, too. See you!" She hung up.

She pulled open her dresser, and grabbed a t-shirt and jeans. Something behind her moved, and she turned around to see her roommate rolling around in bed, grumbling. "Sorry, Angie, did I wake you?"

"Yes. You and your boyfriend wake me up almost every morning." Angie grumbled, throwing off the blankets and sitting up.

"Oh, sorry. I'll talk quieter now." Gabriella sarcastically laughed.

"Hey, it's better than the annoying alarm clock tones." Angie laughed back. "So what are you doing in an hour?"

Gabriella turned red and spun around. "Oh, you know. A date."

"As in, skipping school to smooch on your boy toy?" Angie asked. "His name's Troy, right?" She laughed lightly. "I think I'm going to start calling him Boy Toy Troy."

Gabriella joined in on the laughter. "OK, but as long as it's not to his face." She opened the bathroom door. "Anyway, I'll be out in about twenty minutes."

"Have fun getting wet and wild!" Angie laughed, and then stood up. Gabriella, embarrassed, stormed into the bathroom and shut and locked the door to take her shower in peace from her perverted roommate.

At 6:40, Gabriella came out of the bathroom, looking wide awake and excited. "That took a little bit longer than twenty minutes." Angie said, pointing at the clock. "Did thinking about Troy somehow double the shower time?"

Gabriella grabbed a pillow and threw it at Angie. "Ha ha." She angrily laughed. "Troy's going to be here soon, I'm just going to go now."

"You said 'see you in an hour'. He shouldn't be here for another twenty." Angie said, confused.

"Yeah, well, with Troy, 'see you in an hour' means 'come over soon'. At least, that's what he thinks it means." Gabriella said. She grabbed her purse off her desk. "See you tonight!" She left the dorm room.

"Well, hey, gorgeous!" Adam exuberantly said to her as soon as she was out of the building. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Adam, how many times do I have to tell you?" Gabriella sighed. "I have a boyfriend, you'd have a better chance with my roommate."

"That Angie girl?" Adam asked, and then laughed loudly. "She hates me!" Adam followed Gabriella all the way to the parking lot, chatting about random arguments he gets into with Angie, and how they fight on a daily basis.

"Hey!" Troy yelled, waving from the parking lot. "Who's your friend?"

"That's the stalker I've been telling you about!" Gabriella yelled back, laughing. "Where are we going today?"

"Oh, you know." Troy said, walking to her. When they met, he hugged her. "Figured we'd go climb a tree or something."

Gabriella laughed. "You and trees." She muttered. "How about we go do something fun?"

"You don't think picnics are fun?" Troy asked, grinning. "C'mon, Gabriella!"

"Oh, fine. But next time, it's my choice." She said. "You got the strawberries?"

"Everytime." Troy grinned, and put his arm around her, walking her to the parking lot.

"Troy, where's your truck?" Gabriella asked, looking around in the lot anxiously. She glanced backward over her shoulder; Adam was still watching her.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Troy laughed. "Guess I forgot." He laughed louder, and pressed a little button on a remote on his keys, and a shiny red SUV beeped.

"Oh, my god!" Gabriella yelled. "This is awesome!" She broke free of him and ran into the car, jumping into the front seat, eager to escape Adam's gaze. As soon as Troy was in, she continued. "Now we don't have to walk ten miles when it breaks down, like last time!"

The bell rang loudly, and a swarm of lost-looking teenagers scrambled around the hallways of East High, trying to figure out where to go. Caught in the swarm was Jimmie "The Rocket" Zara, trapped in a wave of lost teens. Eventually he escaped, and found his way to his locker. Who cares if he'd be late? One tardy won't hurt him much.

"J-Z!" a guy's voice yelled from down the halls. "Dude, I didn't know you went here! Why didn't you tell me?"

Jimmie grimaced into his locker before turning around and forcing a polite smile. "Ben." He said, dragging out the name. "I, uh, it's been a while."

"Yeah, man! I haven't seen you since that family reunion, like, four years ago! How've you been, dude?" Ben said, grinning.

"So, uh, Ben." Jimmie said after a long pause. "What are you doing here?" Ben laughed, and replied.

"Didn't you hear? Our school got closed 'cause of a budget cut or some lame thing like that. So I'm a wildcat now!" He said excitedly.

"Anyway," Jimmie said, and there was another awkward pause. "You might want to get to class."

"Yeah, I'm kind of lost." Ben laughed.

"Where do you go?" Jimmie unenthusiastically asked. He grabbed Ben's schedule out of his hands and looked at it. "Biology. Let's go."

"What, do you go there, too?" Ben asked, smiling wider.

"No. I'm on the other end of the building." Jimmie sighed. "You're making me really late. I'm going to be killed because of you."

"You're going to get in trouble to help me?" Ben asked. "Man, you're awesome!"

Jimmie started walking fast, and Ben scrambled to catch up with him. Eventually, they arrived, and Jimmie shoved Ben into the classroom and ran through the halls to get to his own class. "My god." He grumbled. "Annoying cousins."

"Ah, Jimmie!" the math teacher said when he entered the room. "You can just go to the office for that tardy."

"But, dude, come on!" Jimmie yelled, dumbfounded. "It was only one tardy!"

"Yes, but a tardy that was fifteen minutes late! Would you mind explaining what was going on?" the teacher asked.

"Well, that school closed, and my cousin transferred here and got lost, and I was showing him to his class, which was on the other side of the school, and I was already tardy before I started leading him over, and he wouldn't shut up, and he couldn't keep up, and I had to walk slow and, yeah!" Jimmie protested, but was pointed out of the room by the teacher. He pouted while walking out of the class, which was followed by loud laughter from the class.