Disclaimer: I own nothing
AN: Well I guess you all can see which option I chose lol
Chapter 1: As it was in the Beginning
Sharpay Evans, Taylor McKessie, Kelsi Neilson, and Claire Hanson were all zipping up their dresses and checking their hair and make up, they had to look perfect, they didn't want to be the ones to screw this day up. Gabriella Montez came out of the connected room.
"Can someone zip me up?" she asked
Sharpay came sprinting over, "There you go honey." She smiled at her now best friend. Taylor passed each woman her flowers and gave Gabriella a once over.
"Okay I think everyone's ready." She smiled confidently
"Should I let the them know?" Kelsi asked
Gabriella nodded, "Wait! Where's Jack, oh my God, he's supposed to be here, oh shit where is he?" a wave of panic coursed through her body.
"I'm on it!" Claire went sprinting out the door, two minutes later she came back with Jack.
"Chill Gabs, this is all going to be good." He reassured her, taking her arm. Gabriella nodded.
Chad Danforth straightened out his tie waiting for his friends to appear. Jason Cross, Zeke Baylor, and Ryan Evans appeared. They looked at each other, where was Troy.
Troy came in, "Guys, can someone fix the flower?" Ryan nodded and walked over, straightening it out.
"Okay," Zeke said, "I think we're ready here."
"Wait, where's Lindsay?" Troy asked, suddenly panicked that this wouldn't go as planned.
"It's okay, here she is." Jason said, showing Troy the pretty blond that had come in the room.
"Okay, I'm gonna go see how everything else is running." Zeke said leaving. This was it.
FLASHBACK TO SIX YEARS AGO
Gabriella Montez got out of bed shutting her alarm off. She sighed as she got up and got dressed. She looked in the mirror at her reflection, she was a pretty girl, in a natural way, but she still hated school. Not the studies, no she thrived on learning, no she hated the place: East High. She hated the cliques and the way they worked. She'd never been anywhere or heard of anywhere so horrible before.
She walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Her mother was there feeding her baby sister, Erin. Her father was reading the paper while eating his breakfast. Gabriella sat down at her place and began to nibble on her cereal. Silently her parents watched their daughter. They knew that she hated school, ever since they moved here four years ago.
She got up and kissed both of her parents and Erin before grabbing her bag and car keys, heading out to her living hell. She pulled into the parking lot and sighed. "Another day." She mumbled, getting out of the car.
She walked quietly to her locker, unnoticed by most of the population. "Great" she thought as she got ready to walk past the 'popular' crowd. Looking down as she past them, hoping to magically become invisible, she cringed when she heard her name called, she looked up into the eyes of Chad Danforth.
"Montez." He sneered
"What Chad?" she sighed wearily, hadn't they had enough of this? She looked behind them, Troy Bolton clearly wasn't with them, they never hurt a soul when he was around, they knew he'd leave them in a heartbeat, and the school couldn't function without it's God, Troy Bolton.
"I need you to do this for me." He stuck his math worksheet in her face. She hated this, she took the sheet of paper and tossed it to the ground, walking past them, she'd never caved and cheated, even with their taunts.
She rounded the corner to her locker, sighing in relief when she saw her three 'friends' there. She was, she supposed, close to them, but no one really knew what she was thinking or feeling, no one seemed to care.
"Brie, sleepover at mine tonight." Claire Hanson jumped up and down, her pretty red curls bouncing and her bright blue eyes shining with excitement.
"Look at the excited geeks, what'd you do? Solve a math equation?" Sharpay asked sarcastically.
"Kiss my ass Evans, like you would ever know true excitement and happiness if it ran straight into your sparkly pink self." Claire spat.
"Push me Hanson, I dare you." Sharpay challenged
"I accepted that dare years ago Evans, you've just never done anything about." She retorted.
Sharpay, thoroughly insulted, stomped away, with the posse following. "They'll never learn." Taylor McKessie sighed.
"So you in Gabs?" Kelsi Neilson asked
Gabriella smiled her fake smile that they had grown so accustomed to, "Yeah, I'm in." Claire squealed with excitement as the bell rang, They groaned, they may like learning, but no one likes homeroom with Mrs. Darbus.
They linked arms and made their way to the classroom.
That same morning Troy Bolton got out of bed and turned his own alarm off. Stretching he made his way into his bathroom. He got ready and headed out of his house for his morning run. An hour and a half later he returned to find his parents still in bed. He smiled as he showered, thinking about school. He really didn't mind it. Today was going to be a particularly good day because basketball tryouts were after school. Once he was out and ready to go he went downstairs for the best homemade breakfast in the world, cooked by his amazing mother.
"Hey mom and dad." He greeted his parents.
"Morning baby." His mom said
"Troy, Dylan's coming into town in a couple of weeks." His dad told him.
"Seriously! How long will he be here for?" Troy asked excitedly, basketball and seeing his older brother who was a freshman at UCLA were the only things that REALLY excited Troy.
"He didn't say love, but he's coming home for a visit." His mother smiled, the two boys had always been incredibly close.
Troy kissed his mom and dad goodbye as he grabbed his bag and keys and headed off to school. He parked his car and walked in the building, greeted by everyone and flirted with by girls. He sighed, he didn't know why they liked him. He knew he was told he was attractive, although he always thought he was pretty average, with brown hair and blue eyes. Maybe they just flirted with him because he was captain of the basketball team. He shook his head when he found the space around his locker vacant.
"Don't know if that's good or bad." He mumbled to himself. At least his 'friends' weren't bothering him about this or that and Helen Parker wasn't hanging all over him, calling herself his girlfriend. But then again, them not being here might mean they're bullying someone innocent. Troy never liked bullying. He constantly scolded his friends whenever he saw or heard something about it.
"Just because we've been deemed popular by the rest of the school doesn't mean we're better than anyone else." He knew his friends didn't like his attitude, but there was nothing they could do about it. He wouldn't change it for anything, his values meant a lot to him, and the school as a whole made him popular, not those few people that he got stuck hanging out with. The school considered Troy Bolton their king and the most popular guy for three reasons, 1. He was incredibly hot (which he didn't know), 2. He was the best basketball player the school ever saw (which he thought was bullshit, they hadn't seen other generations how could they know?), and 3. The most important reason was that he was incredibly selfless, he didn't think he deserved the recognition he got, and he was always looking out for others. He never tolerated the bullying his friends did and ALWAYS called them out on it when he knew it was happening, even if the entire student body was watching them get beat up.
He sighed when he saw his friends walk up. Helen Parker, an audacious brunette with green eyes draped and arm around Troy's waist. He shrugged out of her grasp.
"Troykins." She pouted, "Why do you pretend not to like me?"
"It's not pretend, it's real life." He mumbled. His friends always thought he should be with the captain of the cheerleading squad, but Sharpay Evans thought of Troy as a brother and had her eyes on Zeke Baylor, another basketball player. Her friends thought she also belonged with Troy. After a year of yelling at them they finally got it, to Troy and Sharpay that would be incest. So the co-captain of the cheerleading squad went after him, Sharpay's best friend Helen Parker. Troy almost hated Helen, he thought she was arrogant and self-absorbed.
"Ready for tryouts?" Ryan Evans asked Troy.
"Always dude." Troy smiled catching the ball Chad Danforth threw at him. The bell rang, they all groaned. All of them hated school except for Troy and Ryan, they were in all honors and A.P. classes, but still, no one could deal with homeroom with Darbus.
AN: Okay, there's the first chapter. The whole thing is pretty much in flashback format btws. If I slip into the present time I'll let ya'll know, but I don't think I will. I've thought about what you guys said, and most said to post the first chapter, but not post anymore until I finish another story. I like that idea, but I think I'm going to post it like a regular story. I think the ideas for this might be clogging up my head, and if I get a couple of chapters of this out I should be able to update my other stories more often. I just get bogged down with too many ideas. I'm pretty much done with my oneshot craze, unless I hear a song I HAVE to write about. I have one more up my sleeve, I started it, but stopped to write this because it was bugging me. Anyways, let me know what you think. This was really a get to know how Troy and Gabriella work kind of thing, and how they view school and the school views them. I love you guys and thanks for your patience with me! If you have suggestions for any of my stories could you please PM me, especially Life at EHS, I reread the story again today, but still got nothing. I've got ideas for my other stories, but like I said, I need to spit this out first because it's bugging me!
Mollie XOXO
