The Consequences of Manipulation
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.
In spite of the fact their friendship had never really been the same after the incident with Troy, Taylor was upset that Gabriella had moved again over the summer. She hated to admit even to herself that her regret arose mostly from the fact it was predominantly Gabriella's intellect that got them into the state finals for the scholastic decathlon. After the incident with Troy and the basketball team, Gabriella had kept to herself, never really more than slightly friendly with anyone and put all her time and effort into her academics leading the team to be runners up in the state championships and graduating an entire year early with entry into the freshman honours program at Stanford and a full ride scholarship. Taylor had missed the friendship that had been beginning to form between the two of them more than she could have believed but nothing she could do or say ever convinced Gabriella to trust her again and though she could frequently see the loneliness in the genius's eyes she held everyone at arms length never forming more than polite acquaintanceships with any of the other students. It hadn't been a surprise when she'd chosen to graduate early rather than spend another year in high school.
Now Taylor had to find three new team members to replace Gabriella and the two seniors that graduated last year. Taylor was determined that this year's scholastic decathlon team do equally well as last year if she could possibly manage it but even she had to acknowledge it was unlikely.
After an underwhelming response by the student body to her flyers and the sign up table outside the cafeteria she approached the guidance counsellor hoping to get a list of students to target directly.
She was in luck. The new counsellor's assistant didn't stop to think that she needed to have each students' permission to release their results to a fellow student. She happily printed off a list of all the students currently scoring a 3.8 or higher while chatting to Taylor about her own experiences on her school's scholastic decathlon team.
Taylor hurriedly turned to the junior page, discounting the freshmen and sophomores as unlikely to have enough education or general knowledge yet, and believing she knew her own classmates well enough that she'd already approached everyone smart enough to make it on the team. She spent the day hunting down the juniors she didn't know but only one of them could be persuaded to join the team.
Frustrated she turned to the sophomores on the list, it took longer to track them down and speak to them because she didn't know any of them. A couple were interested but Taylor worried that they lacked the confidence to compete in public and while they were the top of their classes they were still two full years behind the level of education of the people they were replacing. She checked over the freshmen but there were no true geniuses among them so in desperation she turned to the list of her own classmates.
She was pleased to see she had the highest grade point average in the class and spent a moment admiring it, dreaming of being valedictorian. Gabriella's almost effortless brilliance had shaken her confidence last year and as much as she told herself she missed her friend she was also secretly glad to have her place at the top of the class back in her reach. She glanced through the other results finding names she expected except for one. She blinked hard and looked again.
There was no denying it. On the page in perfectly black print it declared 'Troy Alexander Bolton 4.0.'
Lunk-head basketball boy had a 4.0!?
As her mind started to recover from the shock a familiar sense of guilt started to creep in. Obviously Troy and Gabriella were better suited than she had realised. She had to admit that Gabriella had been much happier in the first week of school before she and Chad had destroyed her friendship with Troy but she'd comforted herself with the thought that their friendship couldn't have lasted anyway because they were too different they had nothing in common and surely Troy's limited view of the world would drive Gabriella nuts before long. But they weren't so different! This paper indicated that Troy was not just smart but seriously academic. She looked at his class list and saw that while they didn't have classes together he was in predominantly AP classes. To keep up with that workload and basketball training indicated serious commitment to his studies even though she rarely saw him in the library. He was clearly the best qualified for the remaining spot on the scholastic decathlon team. She just had to get him to agree.
-o0o-
Taylor blushed in embarrassment when Chad and the others hooted with laughter when they saw her waiting with the other basketball groupies after training. A less determined person would have given up but Taylor stepped forward. "Troy can I have a word with you?" she asked formally.
Troy stopped reluctantly to hear what she had to say. He knew Taylor had been the brains behind the situation the team had set up to get him to betray Gabriella and though Taylor's involvement hadn't hurt him the way his so called friends' part in the conspiracy had he still resented her for it.
"I wanted to ask you to consider joining the scholastic decathlon" Taylor said nervously. "With your grades and your knowledge of sports you'd be a real asset to the team."
"You want me to what?!" Troy asked angrily. "Why on god's earth would I want to join you little team of backstabbers. The last thing I need is another team I can't trust. Never mind that your little competition meets at the same time as basketball. Stay away from me!" He turned away disgustedly without waiting for her to reply.
The juniors on the team jeered at her but Chad who avoided her gaze hustled them away.
Jack Bolton watched the confrontation with concern. He was glad Troy had turned down whatever it was Miss McKessie wanted him to do especially after the debacle with the musicale auditions the previous year. Troy's game had barely improved in time for them to win the championships and the relations with his senior teammates were still strained even this year the last thing his son needed was to distract himself from basketball with another extracurricular activity. Troy related well with the new members of the team becoming an outstanding mentor for them and the junior varsity but hadn't formed close friendships with anyone since falling out with Miss Montez. He also showed no interest in dating even over the summer and had spent most of the summer training and working for a landscaping company which had increased his strength and muscle mass. His skills were constantly improving and determination on the court was everything a coach could wish for. The coaches at U of A had already started negotiating his scholarship offer but Jack had a sinking suspicion that his son no longer actually enjoyed playing basketball. An opinion Jack was careful to keep from his wife, Jack knew that Lucille was also worried about their son though she was more concerned with Troy himself than his basketball career. Her son had been terribly hurt by something before the championships the previous year and she strongly suspected Chad had had something to do with it. The two boys had been thick as thieves for more than ten years and all of a sudden Troy had started spending a lot more time at home and Chad had stopped coming around. Troy refused to talk about what had happened, stating only that he no longer trusted the curly haired boy and that that broken trust could never be repaired.
Chad tried to follow Troy as he strode away from Taylor, but his co-captain blew him off. Chad had originally been thrilled to be awarded co-captainship with Troy this year not so much for the glory of the position as for the opportunity he thought it would give him to mend his relationship with Troy. Troy however had seen it as a vote of no confidence from his teammates and had withdrawn even further from his former friends.
Troy was still angry as he arrived home. He was furious that after she'd destroyed his friendship and fledgling relationship with Gabriella for the sake of the scholastic decathlon team the hateful bitch had the nerve to even speak to him again let alone encourage him to join her bloody team. She was lucky the decathlon competitions were held at the same time as basketball of he'd be tempted to go along and sabotage her and her stupid team.
Troy had tried time and again to apologise to Gabriella for his words that dreadful day only backing off when she'd had her mother accuse him of harassing her. In the end he'd promised to leave her alone, only asking that Gabriella be told that Troy would still want to be her friend if she ever changed her mind. Troy continued to observe Gabriella from a distance (not in a stalkerish sort of way) and he could see that she wasn't happy. It hurt him to know that he'd hurt her so much and prevented her from making real friends at East High.
Spending less time with his former friends, Troy had thrown himself wholeheartedly into basketball training, improving his strength, endurance and skill but that had still left him with too much free time to brood and he'd found studying had helped keep him mind off how lousy his life had become. He denied even to himself the secret desire he had to prove himself worth of Gabriella's friendship by learning as much as possible and improving his already high grades.
Troy had been disappointed though not surprised when Gabriella hadn't returned to East High for senior year. He hoped she'd be happy in her new school and prayed nightly that she wouldn't be hurt again, and that one day in the future they might meet again once she was ready to forgive him. In the mean time he focussed on surviving his senior year and getting the best grades and on court performance he could in the hope of winning a scholarship as far from East High Albuquerque as he could get.
A/N: Thanks to WhiteKnightofHyrule for making me think about what might have happened if Gabriella hadn't forgiven Troy.
This is a one shot. I will never continue it because Troy and Gabriella without each other is too depressing for words.