Chapter 1- "Underneath it all"

"Just tell me why!" Gabriella screamed as she turned to face Troy, tears streaming down her make up smeared face.

"Why would you do something like that? I can't believe you would do this to me ...not again…Please, tell me the TRUTH. I can't stand to hear another lie come out of you." Gabriella had never been this angry before, she was shy and timid. She was usually forgiving of people, but not this time.

Troy stood motionless in front of Gabriella. His mind was searching for words to explain another one of his mess ups. Gabriella was tired of his lies, so was he. But he couldn't stop. It was as if lying was all he had, it had taken over him. It was a game to him.

"Gabriella, I-I I don't k-k-now…" Troy replied helplessly as he watched Gabriella turn and walk away.

Troy didn't even go after her. He didn't move. He couldn't think straight. All he could hear was his heart beating loudly in his ear and the sound of Gabriella's front door slamming soundly in front of him.

5 months earlier

Beep BeepBeep

"Troy! Shut that thing off..." BeepBeep "TROY!!!" screamed a voice from two doors down.

Troy slowly opened one of his eyes to reveal his alarm clock loudly beeping in his left ear and the numbers- 6:05 - presented on the screen. Groaning, he hit the snooze button, ready to sleep five more minutes when he heard a knock at his door.

"What?!?" he screeched loudly placing his head under the covers and rolling back over on his side.

"Troy! Get out of bed! You have basketball this morning…or did you possibly forget yet again?" boomed his dad from the other side of the door.

"Seemed to have slipped my extremely tired and annoyed mind…" Troy joked as he yawned.

"That's not so shocking, seeing as you get 2 hours of sleep a night due to talking on the phone all night with a certain someone, "said his dad as he opened the door and walked into the bedroom ready to physically force Troy to get out of bed.

"You were listening to my phone conversation?" Troy quickly said accusingly sitting nervously up in his bed.

"Well that got you up didn't it Sport?" his dad chuckled, sitting on Troy's bed.

Troy merely stared blankly forward at the poster of Michael Jordan on his far wall, clearly to tired to even respond.

"Right, well then, we're leaving in 10 minutes, better get a move on…" said his dad leaving the room.

Troy sat completely still in his room, imagining what his life would be like without basketball. What life would be like if he had not picked up his first basketball at age 5 and could hit any shot on his little tike's hoop, spurring his dad's obsession to get Troy into almost every basketball camp available. Troy hated basketball. He really did. He only played it because of his dad and his dreams…not his. Ever since Gabriella moved to town, it changed his whole perspective of what he wanted, what he loved. Ever since the moment they sang together he realized that he loved to sing, and basketball didn't matter anymore.

But, Troy was trapped in a world where everyone around him expected to be the next big thing, to go play college basketball and eventually the NBA. He was trapped and couldn't get out of a place where everyone's expectations of him were completely opposite of what he wanted to do with his life, and he couldn't escape it. He-

"TROY!!"

His fathers enforced tone woke Troy up from his mind wandering and caused him to quickly get out of bed, thrown on a t-shirt and grab his basketball bag and head down the stairs.

"Geez, you'd think the house was coming down," said his mother with a smile in response to Troy's thundering footsteps down the stairs. "Have fun at practice sweetie!" she said as Troy bolted towards the door, barely able to get a glimpse of him.

"Thanks mom" replied Troy looking quickly back and then rushing out the door to meet his dad waiting impatiently in the car.

"God, that was a tough practice," complained Chad as they walked out of the locker room heading towards homeroom. "Was your dad literally trying to kill us?"

"Ha, wouldn't be the first time," Troy said scoffing.

"I didn't even have time to put my special spray in my hair, now it's gonna be all poofy and frizzy!" Chad whined. Quickly realizing what he just said, he added "Umm, did I just say that out loud?"

"'fraid so, Danforth. Don't worry; I'll be our little secret," Troy said in a girly tone, winking slyly at Chad, causing him to beat Troy hard in the arm.

"I mean it, dude, seriously. Don't let it slip out…I need to put something in this little baby to keep it as amazing as it looks," placing his hands lightly on top of his hair.

"Okay, just stop while your ahead man," Troy responded slightly laughing at his friends obsession of his own hair.

Chad and Troy walked as slowly as possible to homeroom. After being with Ms. Darbus for 2 months straight working on "Twinkle Town", Troy liked to see as little of possible of her as he could.

"What do you think her outfit will look like today?" Chad said interested. "I personally hope it's the one that looks like someone drew all over her shirt with purple marker and called it fashionable…and she believed it," Chad added hopefully.

"Nahh, I hope it's the outfit where she wears the lime green shoes," Troy said. "With the shirt that says, 'Drama is not for the average person' and on the back it says, 'It's for people like me'. Love that one man. She's basically calling herself weird and saying you have to be 'different' to join Drama club."

"Well, that's definitely true. Have you seen who's in drama club? Sharpay and Ryan definitely aren't my first pick to define the 'average person'. In fact I wouldn't even call them part of the human race…more like-"

"Okay, yeah whatever Danforth." Troy said giving him a quick gland while cutting him off from another one of his rants on the Evans' twins. He could talk forever about how annoying Sharpay and Ryan are, but it doesn't change the fact that they will never ever go away.

Chad and Troy entered Ms. Darbus' classroom confidently as ever, Chad taking his usual seat next to Taylor as Troy continued across the room towards where Gabriella was seated. As usual, her head was buried in a book by some obscure author that no one would ever read except her.

"Hey beautiful," Troy whispered in Gabriella's ear as he slid smoothly into the seat next to her, adding a kiss on her cheek.

Gabriella's face lit up as she looked admiringly at her boyfriend tearing her eyes away from her book for the first time.

"Hey you, I was worried you'd be late again, giving Ms. Darbus the privilege to give you another detention" she said sincerely in her soft voice. Her hair was tied up in a loose bun, yet parts of it were falling out, landing softly on her shoulders. She hardly wore any makeup on her "comfort" days. This was one of her "comfort" days. She and Taylor would allow at least one day a week where they would wear sweat pants and t-shirts, with their hair however they wanted it. Troy didn't really understand the whole concept of why the needed to set aside a day to be comfortable, but he just took it as a girls thing. She still looked stunning.

"Yeah, Chad and I got held up at basketball. My dad was tough on us today." Troy told her with a sigh, "He's been really hard on us all lately, probably because of my lack of focus…" he finished, looking at Gabriella with a smirk.

"Hey, don't look at me. You're the one who's got focus issues." She said sweetly, looking at him with a playful smile on her face.

He loves her. He really does. He's never felt this way about any girl like he does about Gabriella. She's perfect. He can't find one flaw. She is gorgeous, sincere, honest and kind. She trusts him full-heartedly. And that's what hurts him the most.