It was on a Saturday that Troy found himself at the local mall shopping for his girlfriend Gabriella's birthday present, who's birthday just happened to be the following day. He wasn't per say the kind of boyfriend who forgot things easily, especially special events that only culminated once a year, but it was Basketball season and playoffs were coming up soon. He'd been so caught up between his father drilling him every day before and after school, and his studies, of which is mother required before he could even think about basketball, that Gabriella completely skipped his mind all together. She was a quiet girl, so it was bound to happen once in a while. She didn't remind him of stuff like that. And apparently neither did any of his friends or at least until the last moment. So Troy Bolton was forced to accept the coming wrath of his father and forgo Saturday double-practice in favor of the over crowded and annoying mall—with Chad by his side naturally, whining the whole time.
It wasn't that Troy really hated the mall, because he adored the Sports Shop and the food court, and several other places that he liked to visit in moderation. But it was more the people that drove him insane, especially on the weekend. Saturday and Sunday brought out all the school kids with too much free time, and the overbearing parents on their days off, and the senior citizens who seemed to take offence at just about everyone. The lines were long, the food never seemed as good and the place was a madhouse, with people flailing everywhere and clogging up every space. It was a potent combination that Troy disliked.
Yet there was no other choice but to brave the insanity of the mall. Gabriella's birthday party was scheduled for noon the following day and Troy had already agreed to show up early and help her mother set up the backyard for the party. That meant it was either today or never, and the never encompassed several very stern looks from Gabriella and her mother, and perhaps a cold shoulder or two from the female teen. Troy had no doubt that she wouldn't say anything if he failed to produced a marvelous, spectacular, just for her present, because Gabriella wasn't the kind of girl to make a fuss about birthday presents, but she'd show her displeasure in other ways. Troy was a manly man, but he was still a boyfriend, and girlfriends could be scary when they were angry.
His biggest problem was easily what to get for her. They'd been dating since late in their freshmen year, and even now as juniors, Gabriella's likes and dislikes baffled Troy. She liked all things academic, but not so much things artistic or sports related. So he had first thought to get her a book, but finding Gabriella a book she didn't already own or would be interested in was next to impossible, and he passed the book shop, dragging Chad along nearly by the ear, without a second look.
He thought of something scientific, and visited a store keyed directly to an educational demographic that housed telescopes, chemist kits and dinosaur replicas. Sadly none of it had been anywhere in his price range, as he had only the previous summer gotten a job, and most of his funds had been used up already buying Gabriella lunch on a daily basis and taking her out on special dates.
Nearly two hours into the excursion Troy was ready to admit defeat.
"What am I going to do?" he asked Chad as the two of them sat in the food court. He propped his elbows up on the table and shot a glance towards his best friend who was currently gorging himself on two hot dogs, and a hamburger waiting to be devoured afterwards. "Hey, you're supposed to be helping me here. That's why I brought you along."
Chad swallowed a bite of hotdog and shot Troy a knowing look. "Man, I didn't even want to come. You're the one who was too scared of all the girl scouts and preteens. Pretty Boy, they aren't going to mob you next to the ice cream shop, if that's what you're worried about."
Troy swept a fry off Chad's place and munched on it, admitting, "You never know. You just can't predict those girls who watch the Disney channel."
Chad huffed loudly. "You're thinking too much. Gabriella doesn't care what you get her. You could get her a pet rock and she'd be happy just so long as handsome, suave, Basketball Captain Troy Bolton gave it to her."
"Hey!" Troy protested, picking up on what Chad was implying.
"It's totally the truth and you know it."
Troy rested his chin on the palm of his hand. "I was thinking about jewelry. Maybe something simple and nice."
"There's nothing here your wallet can afford," Chad said, turning his attention back to his hotdog.
Troy took a sip from his soda and let his eyes wander the surrounding area, resolved that jewelry was out of his price range, not that Gabriella wore any kind, aside from the charm bracelet that her father had given her as an infant.
The mall was large, enough so that he wasn't lacking in any sort of diversity. There were plenty of places to eat and buy clothing, with jewelry shops, gag shops, books shops, shoe shops, and a place devoted entirely to candy. There was a shop exclusively for things of an organic nature, but Troy didn't think Gabriella's mother would appreciate him getting his girlfriend a hemp tee or socks.
And so with every place he passed over he felt his nerves intensify a little more and his blood pressure increase. There was nothing, he was convinced. Nothing to get for Gabriella, and if he didn't get her anything he couldn't show up at the birthday part, and if he didn't show at the birthday party, well, Troy had already been through the scenario in his mind and it wasn't looking good.
"The dance is coming up, right?" Chad asked.
Troy nodded. The Wildcat's upperclassmen dance was something they'd all been looking forward to since freshmen year. Only Junior's and Seniors were allowed to attend, and while it was nothing drastically different from any other dance, it did have an air of maturity to it, evidenced by the music allowed and the leniency of the chaperones when it came to the dancing. Troy had naturally asked Gabriella—back when they were freshmen of course.
"So what?" Troy asked.
Chad deadpanned at him. "Get her something for the dance."
Troy shook his head. He'd already been over clothing a million times. Gabriella wasn't entirely picky over her clothing, and Troy thought he had a rough idea of what size she was, but frankly he was scared of the women's department, and Gabriella herself. He was afraid he'd get her something she hated and she'd be forced to wear it because she was his girlfriend, and everyone would know he'd been the one to buy her that atrocious sweater—and that was if he even made it out of the women's section alive. Troy even sought to avoid shoes, knowing how sensitive women were about shoe sizes, and that he'd be in a world of pain if he got her a pair of sandals two sizes too big and implied that she had big feet.
"No go," Troy said, broadcasting his fears to Chad who had excellent receptors on those sorts of matters.
"No, not like a shirt or whatever," Chad said. "Get her some of those hair thingies she likes so much or a scarf or an anklet or whatever girls are calling accessories these days. Get her something red or white to match her dress and she'll love it and think you're the best ever. Trust me, I got Taylor these bangles last year for homecoming and she went on for hours about how they matched her dress."
"Red or white," Troy confirmed. It was almost a set in stone tradition that all those attending the upperclassmen dance wore red or white clothing, the standard colors of the high school. While Gabriella hadn't shown him her dress yet, it was a sure bet that it was one of the two colors. "That could work." His eyes strayed to a department store. "So all we have to do is get in there and get out with everything still attached."
"Who said anything about we?" Chad asked, a shiver running through his body. "Those bangles I got for Taylor? Six months of therapy, man. I'm telling you, you couldn't pay me to go back in there. You're on your own."
Troy cut him a glare and downed the rest of his soda. "Some best friend you are."
One trip to the bathroom and ride up the escalator later Troy was standing in front of the necessary department store. With a half wince he took a cautious step in, and then carefully proceeded to the women's department, following the maze of signs and the unhelpful directory.
He was beginning to think Chad's advice was golden when the section was nearly empty and his eye caught a display rack of several affordable accessories. He was particularly drawn to a pretty red scarf that he was sure Gabriella would love.
He felt it with his fingers, pleased at how thin the material was and that it wouldn't look like the kind of scarves they all wrapped themselves in when the temperature dropped too low. Instead it was delicate and relatively short, meaning it could be tied around the neck fashionably. He'd almost decided on it when another one, this time instead a white scarf, caught his eye and he reached for it. Another hand met his and he jumped a little.
Troy gazed at the woman standing next to him with a pinched brow. She certainly looked out a place, at least to his eyes, standing in a pretty pink shirt and top, but almost tucked away with her jacket buttoned to the top, a hat shoved down on her head and sunglasses hiding her eyes. She kept her face turned down a little as well, which struck Troy as the oddest.
"I'm sorry," he said, drawing his hand back.
She looked up at him and pulled the scarf from the rack. "I hope so. I saw that scarf from across the room."
Troy stood there a bit awkwardly.
"But now that I see it up close," she said tersely, rubbing the material almost roughly. "No, you can have it." She nearly tossed it at him and he had to juggle the other scarf not to drop both.
"You don't like it?" he asked, strangely drawn to the teen that he guessed was roughly his age, if not inches shorter. "I think it's pretty." And he did, much more than the red one fisted in his left hand. The white one had a golden pattern to it, just light enough to catch under the artificial light of the store, and not enough to offset the purity of the scarf itself. "It would probably look great on you."
He could see the blush high on her cheeks and it looked so out of place to him on her pale features.
"I'm Troy Bolton."
She reached up, somewhat hesitantly, and pulled off her sunglasses. Striking blue eyes peered back at him. "I'm," she started then caught herself. "Well, Troy Bolton, you can call me Shar."
The hat came off as well during the introduction and Troy found himself standing before possibly the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. Gabriella was cute, no doubt about it, and adorable, but Shar was in a class Troy saw only in magazines and the movies. Her golden hair fell around her shoulders, freed from where it had been tucked up under the hat and framed her soft features beautifully. Matched with her bold eye color Shar almost embodied perfection to him, or at least what he had expected it might look like.
And that was of course why his senses left him and he became a complete geek, unable to keep himself from taking in her curves and especially her legs, even when she caught him looking and raised an eyebrow.
"See something you like?" she asked, making him feel like a right pervert.
"No, oh, I'm sorry," he stumbled. "No."
The corners of her mouth pulled up a bit. "So you don't like?"
His eye shot to the floor and he lost his grip on both scarves. "That's not what I meant," he tried, and reached down for the beautiful scarves on the floor, loosing his balance in the process, and stumbling into the display. His weight brought it down and his female acquaintance barely had enough time to jump out of the way as Troy began a chain reaction, toppling one display after another.
"Do you do this often?" Shar asked with a smile.
Troy picked himself up uneasily. "I'm so sorry, Shar. Are you alright?" He gave her a once over, realizing how close she had been to going down with him.
"Yeah, fine," she said, jamming her hat back on her head and the sunglasses over her eyes. She gave a sharp look around, noticing the sales people coming towards them due to the catastrophe that had just occurred. "Listen," she said quickly. "I like you. You're cute, but I've gotta go. See you around, Troy Bolton."
Then she was gone, and Troy wondered if she was even there to begin with, until he smelled the remains of her sweet perfume and needed to hold himself up against another rack of clothing.
The manager of the store appeared halfway through Troy attempting to get the racks back up and the clothing off the ground. "I'm leaving," he said, with his hands up in defeat. He recognized the glare on the manager's face and realized he could be quickly escorted to the mall's security holding cell with his parent's required to pick him up at a moment's notice.
"Hey, wait," he said, as he was ushered away from the mess. He swept back into the scene of the mess and scooped up the two scarves.
He bought the red one for Gabriella, and the white for Shar before he even knew what he was doing.
Chad was gone from the food cart by the time Troy got back, which slightly upset him
because he had expected his friend to wait up for him. He checked his cell, and scrolled through the text messages of his friends until he found Chad's, which informed him of his departure nearly fifteen minutes earlier. Troy groaned a bit, as Chad had driven and Troy was now faced with the bus as his own option home.
He escaped from the mall as soon as possible, the bag with the scarves clutched tightly in his hands. He wanted to get home as soon as possible and wrap Gabriella's present, before he came to his senses and realized he needed to be giving Gabriella the white scarf, and that he'd bought said scarf for a girl that he'd probably never see again, as he did not recognize her from school.
And what, he asked himself, had actually possessed him enough to buy both. Troy Bolton was not the type of guy to be so easily taken in by a pretty girl, even if she was the before mentioned vision of perfection. And Shar had even decided she didn't want the scarf after examining it, so why, Troy asked again, why had he paid for it? In the back of his mind he was taunted with the fact that it smelled like Shar, but Troy's girlfriend was Gabriella, not Shar, and so he pushed the thoughts away as fast as possible.
What he needed to concentrate on was getting home. His dad most certainly was already waiting for him out on the court, tapping his foot and sighing dramatically like he always did when Troy put off basketball for any semblance of a social life. The sooner Troy got home the sooner he could get to running laps and letting his dad vent his aggravation, and maybe if he was lucky he'd have enough time to wrap Gabriella's present (the red scarf he reminded himself annoyingly) and call his girlfriend about the following day. And maybe stash the white scarf under his bed and try to never think about it again, but only if there was time.
The bus stop that Troy needed to get home was located a bit away from the mall, two streets down and one street over. The route had been in place long before the mall and hadn't been updated since, which mean Troy had to jog a bit if he wanted to make the next bus, or wait twenty minutes for the one that came afterwards.
A scream cut through the air and startled Troy out of his jog. He turned on heel towards the scream and stood in place, breathing a bit hard. Then he heard it again, and ever the hero he took off directly for the source.
It was Shar, he realized turning the corner. It was Shar being manhandled by two guys pulling her ever closer to a dark SUV. The picture radiated wrong to Troy, and he sprinted as hard as he could to close the distance, aware that she was in serious trouble.
He was only vaguely aware of Shar screaming at him, though the words were a mere blur. He took a flying leap at the man nearest Shar, catching him in the chest and pulling him down to the ground. They struggled for a bit and despite the man's size Troy managed to avoid flailing hands that tried to grab at him.
"Troy!" Shar yelled to him, the other man in black having let her go.
"Run!" Troy enforced, feeling his strength go. "Run and get help!"
"No, Troy," Shar screamed. "Stop!"
"Shar?" Troy questioned at the expression on her face.
Everything else was lost to him as the second man leapt into the fray and Troy was overtaken and knocked to roughly into the cemented ground where he lost consciousness.
And so it was on a Saturday, while shopping for a birthday present for his girlfriend, who's birthday just happened to be the next day, that Troy Bolton began the first day of a life changing experience.