Not So Human
Prologue (Snortsalot)
His feet pounded against the pavement, his eyes closing in contentment as he listened to the rhythmic thumping of his sneakers. He always enjoyed going for a run in the mornings. It was highly refreshing, and a perfect way to start his day.
But today, it wouldn't be.
Looking around, he smiled easily. The weather was hot, not skin-melting hot, but hot enough to make him take his sweatshirt off. The sun was already rising, sunlight spilling from its contours into the cloudless sky, which was a beautiful shade of pink. Dawn really was his favourite part of the day. A gentle breeze swarmed around his face, lightly ruffling his dark-blonde hair, and he chuckled quietly as he almost stepped on a beautiful butterfly.
It seemed all so perfect, perfect to the point where it became a little... unsettling. Not only this peaceful summer day, but his entire life. He was basketball captain at his junior high, to be a freshman in high school soon. Being the basketball captain meant lots of good friends and (unfortunately) heaps of obsessive female stalkers. To top that, he had the highest GPA after Gabriella Montez and Taylor McKessie.
He was popular and smart. And he loved every second of his life.
Well, mostly.
Now he just had to snatch Gabriella Montez, the one girl who was just as popular as he was, mark her as his own, and his life would be complete. As in, loving-girlfriend-family-friends complete. He'd harboured a crush on her since the summer she'd come to school after a very obvious growth spurt, and he was sure she returned the feelings. But he couldn't build up the courage to ask her out, even when he knew that she felt the same way. If there was one thing that Troy Bolton hated about his perfect life, it was his seemingly-intrinsic lack of talent for asking girls out. Especially beautiful ones who looked like they were seventeen when actually, they were fourteen. Otherwise known as Gabriella Montez.
He stopped at the corner of the street to watch out for cars, before crossing the streets.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Suddenly the thumping was cut off by another sound. The sound of a car.
He looked around and his eyes widened in terror as he saw a car speeding towards him with an amazingly high speed.
Before he knew it, he felt his knees buckle underneath him. A deafening screech of tyres was heard, and the last thing he saw was a bob of curly blond hair. Then he collapsed onto the ground with a loud smack.
There were voices.
Strange, mind-numbing voices. Not whispers, not scrapings, not snores. Nothing quite like he'd ever heard before. They were like an echo of echoes. A mantra of collective echoes that hurt his entire body. He felt as if he was standing at the end of a hollow tunnel, and there were... echoes. Bouncing off everything.
They were everywhere. His teeth hurt from those voices.
The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was the bright green eyes of his mother hovering over his face, concern shining through them.
'Oh, my baby.'
Strange, Troy thought. He'd never noticed his mother could speak with her mouth tightly shut and her lips pressed together anxiously. He wondered why...
And then...
Lucille Bolton screamed as she finally acknowledged the fact that her son had actually opened his eyes, and that she was not hallucinating, making him groan again from the noise.
"Mom…"
Lucille hugged her son tightly. "Oh my God. Don't ever scare me like that again, Troy Alexander!"
His eyebrows furrowed when he finally looked around and realized he was in a hospital. A bloody hospital. The white room looked cold and emotionless, and an utterly revolting stench of medicines and something unrecognizable lingered in the room. He hated hospitals. Always had. Feeling a heavy weight on his leg, he looked down and saw it was placed in a cast. Broken.
Bloody hell.
"Mom, what happened?" Troy asked, blinking up confusedly at his mother. Lucille gave her son a look of sympathy and felt a pang in her heart by the confused and scared look in his eyes.
'Poor kid.'
Seriously, how did his mother do that? Talk with her mouth shut?
"Mom, you're scaring me!" he exclaimed weakly, thinking Lucille had said those words out loud.
"You were in an accident a few days ago, baby. You went out on your morning run and someone hit you with their car. They apparently sped off, but someone saw you laying there and called 911."
'I still have to thank this man for finding him.'
"Wait, a few days ago? How long have I been out for?" Troy asked, still confused. He didn't remember a thing from that day.
'How am I going to tell him this?' The way Lucille 'said' it was panicky and made Troy even more worried.
"Mom, you don't have to be scared. You can tell me," Troy urged, receiving a weird look from Lucille that he sent right back.
"Eight days." Troy's eyes bulged and he gulped.
"M-more than... a—w-week?" he stuttered weakly and Lucille nodded with a sad smile.
'I knew he was going to react like this.'
"We've all been so worried. I'm so happy you're okay," Lucille said, stroking his hair away from his face. Troy wondered why his mother talked with her mouth shut and then talked with her lips parting. Weird. Was it all in his head? Did the accident do something to his brain?
"Well, looking at my leg and feeling my head, I'm not exactly," Troy commented with a soft chuckle. Lucille smiled.
'At least he still can use that pretty smile.'
Troy looked at his mother, a hot blush rising up his cheeks. "Mom, don't," he whined. Lucille raised her eyebrows, before feeling his forehead.
"Are you sure you're okay, honey? I didn't say anything," she said, looking at him, concerned.
Troy swatted her hand away, and Lucille stood up, walking around the room. "No, you just said them with your mouth shut. So, technically, you did say them. Don't try to deny it, Mom."
Lucille, who was watching some painting that was supposed to lighten up the room with unveiled distaste, turned around and blinked at her son, mouth agape.
"I didn't say that, Troy," she said gently, staring at her son in awe.
"Mom," Troy started to warn, but his mother cut him off.
"Those were my thoughts!"
"MR. BOLTON! I DO NOT TOLERATE PEOPLE FALLING ASLEEP IN MY CLASS!"
Troy's head shot up from his desk with the air velocity of a Concord plane. He stared at Ms. Darbus dumbly, while a few snickers were heard throughout the class.
"Well, not my problem," he mumbled quietly.
'He's so dead.'
'Serves the lunkhead well.'
'This is going to be fun.'
He rolled his eyes at the thoughts of people in the likes of his best friend Chad Dumbass Danforth, Chad's girlfriend Taylor Fussy McKessie, and Sharpay Bitch Evans.
Yeah, that was right. Troy Alexander Bolton, the pronounced 'King of East High', was a mind-reader. Ever since his fateful accident in Eighth grade, he had been able to and it often annoyed him. Ironic, yes. People with supernatural abilities like his shouldn't be whiny and grumbly. He had become sulky and annoyingly solemn because of that damn accident. No one knew that, of course, except his parents and Chad.
"Detention, Bolton."
Troy groaned and scooped down to hit his head to his desk, missing Ms. Darbus's triumphant smirk. Evil hag.
Chad patted his shoulder dramatically. "Sucks, man."
"I swear. That woman hates me. Like, with every damn fiber in her body." Troy glared at her football-sized head.
"No, she doesn't. She treats Chaddykins the same way."
Chad turned to glare at Sharpay. "Shut up, Chihuahua."
The blond drama queen's hazelnut brown eyes darkened considerably as insults started to fire between them.
'Damn drama whore.'
'Son of a bitchy bitch.'
Troy rolled his eyes. Chad Danforth and Sharpay Evans were like fire and ice and it was not uncommon to see them insult each other in the freakiest ways – like giving each other nicknames. But everyone was so used to it, they didn't even get detention. Darbus just kept glaring at someone or something in the back of the class. Unfair.
After a few minutes of exchanging worn out glances with Taylor about Chad and Sharpay, the bell rung, saving the poor boy from any further misery.
"Class dismissed. I'll see you in detention, Mr. Bolton. And Sharpay, could you stay behind, please?" Darbus said in her shrill voice. Troy sighed and stood up, before fleeing the class quickly, Chad blowing a quick kiss to Taylor before trailing behind Troy.
There were two things Troy didn't notice as he left the class room.
One – Sharpay Evans turned pale as a ghost as Darbus asked her to stay behind.
Two – Gabriella Montez, best friend of Taylor McKessie, Troy's long time crush and the 'Queen of East High', stared after him curiously, with a teeny-tiny frown adorning her forehead.
"Anybody there?!"
Gabriella blinked, dazed, and looked over to the owner of the voice to see a pretty redhead staring at her. The girl was petite and had a pair of glasses that covered her green eyes. She reminded Gabriella a bit of Kelsi Nielsen, but she was sure that it wasn't her, as the girl looked more confident, had different facial features and wore old-fashioned clothes.
But how the hell was Gabriella there? She'd been in her living room watching T.V, right?
"Yeah?" The words left her mouth almost as if she had no say in it and she tried to furrow her eyebrows confused. But it didn't work. What was this?
She tried to touch her mouth, but her hand refused to move. Weird.
"Did you hear a word I said?" the girl asked in a high-pitched voice, gritting her teeth. Definitely not innocent, sweet Kelsi, Gabriella thought.
"No, sorry, I was thinking of David," she answered, the words leaving her mouth on their own again and she let out a sigh as her head turned to look at the incredible view of what seemed to be a park.
David? Okay, what? Who the hell was David? She didn't even know the dude! This was definitely getting freakier by the minute! Not to mention, the strange pull on her stomach was getting more painful. Urgh.
Life for witty Appealers really sucked.
The girl laughed. "Oh, Holly, Holly, Holly. What do I have to do with you?"
Holly? But she was Gabriella. Gabriella Montez. Not Holly… something. She tried to form words to ask about the name and the other male name – she thought it was David – but it was hard to leave her mouth. She tried bringing her hand to her mouth and make her jaw move, but couldn't. Irritated, she let 'Holly' do whatever she wanted.
'Holly' smirked. "I'm sorry, Yvonne. But he's just so handsome!"
So this girl's name was Yvonne...
Yvonne giggled, rather obnoxiously in Gabriella's opinion. "I know."
For some extremely unfathomable reason, Gabriella felt herself glare at Yvonne. "He's mine!"
Okay, who's mine? She thought. What the hell am I talking about? Sheesh, this is even weirder than Sharpay Evans' unexplained fear of Darbus.
"I know. I know. Calm down." Gabriella felt warmth rush to her cheeks and looked down and saw she was wearing old-fashioned clothes too. Or rather, rags with which she'd gladly clean her living room. Ew, what the hell happened to her infamous Montez style? Thrown out of the window like Gabriella Montez, apparently.
Suddenly a masculine voice was heard, "Hey Holly, Yvonne."
Gabriella felt her heart begin to pick up speed, something she had never experienced ever since Troy Bolton got his car accident and had changed for the worst. Again, what?!
Yvonne smirked at her teasingly, and Gabriella found herself wondering why the hell Yvonne was her friend, and the two girls turned to the owner of the masculine voice to see it was ironically... a clone of Troy Bolton himself.
This nightmare can't get freakier, Gabriella thought.
The same cerulean eyes, the same lean figure, the same sandy brown hair. She was pretty sure it was him.
"Hey David." As the words left her mouth, she felt very confused. What was happening? She couldn't believe it. She was here in the past, she was obviously being this Holly girl and somehow this Holly was crushing on a Troy Bolton clone. It was too much to wrap her brain around, especially since it seemed to be working on its own. Damn her brain to hell.
"So, how are you, David?" Yvonne asked, giving him a wide – and flirtatious, to a degree – smile, which he returned. Gabriella felt herself glare again, to which Yvonne rolled her eyes discreetly.
"I'm good. And how about you girls?" David smiled the same charming smile that Troy used to smile and sat down, slinging his left arm over Gabriella's shoulder and the right one over Yvonne's.
Okay, why was this absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Troy clone freaking touching her?!?! Oh, yeah, she had no idea.
"Just the usual things," Yvonne said, still smiling widely. Gabriella almost felt her chocolate brown eyes turn green with jealousy. Holly must've really liked David, she decided.Why wouldn't she? She thought.
"And you, Holls?" David said, still smiling Troy's typical smile. Gabriella's heart fluttered wildly, and she had a vague idea why.
Damn, if only Troy would have that smile back...
"Fine," she muttered venomously. Suddenly David's eyes averted from her face, looking at something else and he frowned.
"Look, I've got to go. I'll speak to you some other time, okay?" he said, squeezing both of their shoulders friendly, before standing up and running off.
"What was that?" Gabriella asked Yvonne, her voice clearly angry Yvonne's flirting.
Yvonne bit her lip. "Sorry, Holls."
"Sorry, my ass," Holly growled.
Then her green eyes lit up and she smirked at Gabriella. "I have an idea."
Gabriella gulped and felt her eyebrows furrow. She inwardly rolled her eyes. Now it suddenly was possible. "What?"
She observed Gabriella with her sharp eyes, and Gabriella had the distinct feeling in the marrow of her marrow that she was up to no good. "A love potion."
Gabriella shot awake on the living room couch, gasping for air. What the freaking hell had happened? Who was Holly? And that Troy look-alike?
Her head continued to spin on her shoulders for several minutes.
She looked around herself wildly, as if to ensure herself of something. She was still in her living room, her boring living room, and moonlight was spilling from all the windows. The T.V, however, was switched off.
When she could breathe normally, she fell back and thought about the dream – or was it something else? – she just experienced. She wanted to know. She really did. She closed her eyes and tried to replay the dream… or rather vision… or whatever it was...
Then she shot up again. Troy Bolton.
The only guy she hadn't seduced yet with her magical appeal. It was him she needed. It couldn't be coincidence that David looked exactly like Troy. There had to be something behind it.
And she was determined to find out what.
A/N: Muahahahahaha. Like it? Love it? Review it! We love to hear what you think of our newest invention. Also, be sure to check out our own accounts, snortsalot and Midnightazia. And for the record: snortsalot (Joyce)wrote this chapter. Midnightazia (Momo)is in charge of the next one!
- Snorting Midnight
Disclaimer: Ah, damn, Joyce wishes she owns Zachary. But unfortunately she can only dream of meeting him and make awfully embarrassing conversations about it with Momo. :)