Title: Living the Dream
Summary: Is it possible to have it all or does something get lost along the way? Can Troy live his dream and still keep his girl?
Rating: MDisclaimer: High School Musical and all of its characters belong to Disney. I just have them on secondment.
A/N: Please be gentle with me. This is my first fanfic, inspired mostly by Ellie, Rach, Kristen and Audrey from the Rooftop. I just hope I can do you all justice.
Trouble?
Troy turns his truck into the school entrance and parks in an available parking space. He turns to smile at his animated companion, who has talked non-stop since he picked her up.
"I don't know why I paid for that radio to be installed," he thought, " I get a running commentary all the way in."
He leans over to hold her hand. She smiles and edges closer for a quick peck on the lips.
"Hmmm, strawberry today" he says aloud and goes for a second helping, and then a third.
"Troy, come on! We're going to be late," She said, giggling.
Sighing, he climbs out and walks round the hood to help her with her bag. He looks in her eyes and said.
"I love you, Gabriella Montez."
"I know," she answers confidently, with a giggle. Interlinking hands with him, they walk into East High School.
The noise, as usual, was deafening in the corridors, as they threaded their way through kids talking, arguing, laughing and singing. A student flew past on a skateboard and nearly took Gabriella out. Without thinking and purely on reflex, her athletic boyfriend swung her quickly into his arms to avoid the imminent collision.
"WHAT THE HELL!" she cried out in alarm.
"Damage limitations, babe," he replied with a chuckle, sneaking a crafty kiss to calm her down. All thoughts of the near miss were quickly forgotten as she returned his kiss. Students stopped to stare, making her blush as she pulled away and realised they were the centre of attention. That is one thing she couldn't get used to after hooking up with Troy Bolton, the most popular boy in school and the captain and hero of the Wildcats, the school basketball team.
They continued on their way down the corridor, holding interlinked hands, and turned a corner and headed for their lockers, greeting people they knew as they passed by. Gabriella saw her best friends catching up from the weekend's activities and went to join them.
"Hey! Tay, Shar," she called each in turn, greeting them with a hug.
"Hi Martha, hi Kelsi," hugging them in turn as if she hadn't seen them for ages when in fact they had all hung out at Sharpay's house yesterday. She quickly put her bag in her locker and resumed the conversation.
Troy, on the other side of the corridor, stuffed his bag in his locker and twirled around when he felt an arm on his shoulder. He high-fived his best friend, Chad of the afro mop.
"Hey dude! What's up?" he asked.
"Not much Troy, Marty Flynn got busted last night for drinking in the park, is what I'm hearing."
Troy rolled his eyes, "so what's new?"
Zeke and Jason, two other friends from the basketball team jogged over.
"Hey Troy, Chad, want a cookie? Fresh this morning." Zeke said. Troy snagged two from the offered tub.
"Man, what time did you get up? Not that I'm complaining, Zeke." He smirked. Zeke smiled and then frowned when he noticed his friend had nabbed two cookies.
"Relax man, one's for Gabs" Troy jumped in, reading his friend's mind. Zeke started smiling. He knew what those two were like, always looking out for one another. All that mushy, lovey-dovey stuff was pretty sickening really.
Troy and the lads walked over to the girls, each slinging an arm over their girlfriend's shoulder. Troy handed the extra cookie to Gabriella. This promted Zeke to pass around his tub of cookies to the remaining girls.
"Hmm! These are heavenly, Zeke." They cooed in unison. Zeke beamed with delight.
The gang sauntered down the corridor to their homeroom, still talking about their weekend's escapades.
Chad sat down, twirling his basketball on the tip of his finger as per usual. Troy sat on Gabriella's desk, stroking her arm and staring into her dark espresso eyes. Gabriella giggled softly and gazed back into his sparkling blue eyes. Chad glanced over at them,
"Oh no! Not eye sex again," he groaned to himself. "If Taylor sees this she'll expect the same from me and I just don't do that!"
Fortunately, Taylor hadn't noticed. She was too busy talking quietly to Sharpay whilst Sharpay kept sneaking glances at Zeke. Kelsi, the budding composer of the school, and Ryan, Sharpay's twin, were tapping out a tune on their adjoined desks with Martha bopping along to their beat.
Footsteps approached and Ms Darbus entered the classroom.
"Ladies, Gentlemen, seats please," said Ms Darbus, as she strode to her desk, situated on a mock up of a stage, complete with drapes as a backdrop. A lot of shuffling could be heard as pupils turned around to face the front of the class.
"Bolton! If you can tear yourself away from the fascination that is Miss Montez, I can start roll call."
"Sorry Ms Darbus," he muttered as he scurried back to his seat.
Roll call completed, Ms Darbus started her daily rant about cell phones and skateboards being a hazard in the school environment. When suddenly there was a crackle and the public address system sprang into life. This was a new feature of the school, introduced by Principal Matsui this term. Every body in the class stopped their chatter and glanced around at each other.
"TROY BOLTON TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, TROY BOLTON TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE."
Everyone gasped, apart from Troy who looked stunned.
"Oh My God! What have I done? I wasn't late at all last week, I parked the car squarely in the parking zone, I'm almost sure I moved all the practise balls into the crate on Friday," his thoughts were all jumbled and rushing around in his head, wondering what it was all about.
He looked worriedly at Chad, then Gabriella and then shrugged at them as he read the questions he could see in their eyes.
"BOLTON! You heard, you'd better get going sharpish and see what the Principal wants. He doesn't like to be kept waiting," stated Ms Darbus ominously.
Ooh! Is the golden boy of East High in deep water? Stay tuned to find out.
Any reviews gratefully received and noted.