(That's What You Do)
When You Love Someone
Chapter One
You
Gabriella Montez threw her school bag by the door, hung her jacket on the rack and kicked off her shoes. She excitingly skipped into the kitchen, calling "Ma!" as she went.
She was happy today; she just wanted to sing aloud and do a funny dance. Nothing could bring her down, she was sure of it. Her mother had said there was something important they had to talk about, but she knew it wouldn't ruin her mood. Nothing could.
Sharpay had smiled at her today. Sure, the blonde princess had done that before, but this time it was different. This smile could only mean that Sharpay felt more towards her than just friendship. They were together a lot after school, because Gabriella couldn't help but want to spend time with her. Gabriella was in love with her; she had realized that a long time ago.
Her relationship with Troy had been crushed quickly after summer ended, and they had all become closer to the Evans twins. She was best friends with him, though he didn't approve of her close friendship with the former Ice Princess. He said that maybe Ryan had changed, but Sharpay would not be capable of that. She would always be made of ice, and he was just waiting for her to strike again. But Gabriella didn't believe that. She was positive that Sharpay really had changed, and she spent more time with her than anyone else of her friends. Even Troy, and he came to her house whenever it was possible.
She had no idea what happened, but somewhere down the road she came to like Sharpay a lot, and it had confused her at first, until she decided to tell Taylor about it. She hadn't wanted to tell Troy since she knew how much he disliked Sharpay, and telling Sharpay was of course out of the question, which resulted in Taylor being the last person she could turn to. She hadn't told her who the new 'catch' was, and Gabriella believed Taylor thought it was Ryan or someone. But Gabriella felt good about talking it through – even if she couldn't mention any names.
Gabriella entered the kitchen and found her mother in the middle of a batch of brownies; "¡Hola, mamá!" she greeted, and tip-toed up, placing a short kiss on her mother's cheek.
"Hi Gabby." Elena Montez smiled, her brown eyes shining, "I'm making brownies. Just in case Troy comes over later, you know."
Gabriella giggled, because her mother tried to wink, but it didn't look as cool as she would have hoped for, therefore it just looked funny, "¡Má! We're just friends. You know that."
"I know that, Gabby." Elena said, before turning back to her bowl, to focus on her brownies, "How was school, honey?"
Gabriella jumped onto the counter, snatching a freshly baked brownie from one of the former batches, and bit into it, with a small smile, "It was alright. One of our classes got cancelled, so Sharpay and I went out and ate pizza. Her treat."
"Oh." Elena said, her voice a bit hesitant. She turned her head to the side again, locking eyes with her daughter, "Just you and Sharpay? No Taylor?"
"Nah." Gabriella said, shrugging it off with a smile. She didn't understand why her mother wanted to know that, but there was no harm in telling her, "She went to the library and tried, for the thousandth time, to teach Chad how to do algebra. I don't think she's gonna succeed anytime soon, but at least she's making an effort." Gabriella giggled, before pausing, to get a bit serious, "Why do you ask?"
Elena shrugged it off, "For nothing, really. Just curious."
Gabriella nodded softly, not sure if she really believed her mother, when she said so. Something sounded wrong in her ears, "Okay…" there was a silence then, but Gabriella remembered her mother saying they needed to talk, so she decided to bring that up; "What was it that you wanted to talk about anyway?"
Elena stopped kneeing the pastry, and looked at Gabriella again, "Later bella. I'm making brownies first. Come down in an hour, okay?"
Gabriella nodded, but didn't say anything. Her mother seemed to suddenly get serious for some reason, and it freaked her out. She couldn't do much else, than just do what her mother said, and go upstairs to figure out something to do. Not that she had any ideas, but yeah.
She jumped off of the counter and made her way up the stairs, thinking things over. She was kinda worried what might be wrong. She had made brownies, and even if she did that often, it was unusual for her to make that many. It was bad news, probably. She hoped it had nothing to do with her baby-sister Rosa. Well, it probably didn't, because then her mother would have been freaking out, instead of making brownies. At least if Rosa had gotten hurt, or gotten into trouble.
But whatever. It was a nice day, she had been together with Sharpay, and there was five days until her birthday, which was next Friday. She had plans about a party in the weekend, but they hadn't discussed the matters completely. There was still stuff which needed to be done. She just hoped her mother could manage to do it all in time.
She threw herself onto her bed, and stared at her ceiling, deep in thought. She let her mind go to Sharpay and how much fun they had had together in their time off; how fun it had been to eat pizza and goof off.
The blonde girl was just incredible. She didn't know what she'd do without her, because she lit up her days – she made her life better. Gabriella was aware of the fact that she was getting mushy-mushy, and if anyone had listened to her thoughts, they would have told her to shut up, but Gabriella couldn't help herself. Why not think about something that makes you happy? And Sharpay really did make her happy, whether they were together, or Gabriella was thinking extremely dirty thoughts in her mind.
One time, Gabriella had been daydreaming on her bed, getting totally flustered, even if no one was around (that was how dirty she was thinking), when Sharpay had called, and announced that she was on her way, and would be there in five. Gabriella had been extremely shocked and told Sharpay to come right on up when she arrived, while she tried to calm herself down. It was no lie, really, that when Sharpay entered her mind under those circumstances, she was aroused in no time. But she hung up her cell phone and threw some water in her face, to get ready. But Sharpay had still commented on her red face when she arrived, before going on about this guy she met at her hip-hop class. Gabriella hadn't been able to stand the thought of Sharpay flirting with some guy two times a week, so that was how she ended up actually joining Sharpay for the fun.
They still went together every Thursday, but Gabriella had never seen or heard of the guy again. She was rather happy about that, and actually came to enjoy dancing around like a maniac. She also leaned how Sharpay stayed so damn skinny even if she ate junk food and candy like no other person Gabriella knew (maybe except for Troy, perhaps). Gabriella herself had gotten much more into shape, and ate whatever she wanted to, whenever she wanted to. It was great like that. And she enjoyed watching Sharpay in her unbelievably short boys-shorts, and sports top, bending into (in Gabriella's mind) slightly suggestive positions, as she stretched out after class. It gave her a nice view of her rear, and that toned stomach.
Gabriella let out a sigh and rolled onto her stomach, burying her head into a pillow. She loved when Sharpay came to her mind, but she also hated it because she got nothing done. She could have been doing homework, or she could have been practicing on the guitar (Ryan had made it his task to teach her how to play it, and so far… it was not going well). Maybe she could have even been with Taylor, or worked on the questions for the Scholastic Decathlon Team – the next match would be up before she knew it. It would all gave been good, but instead she decided to drift into Sharpay-Land, and stay there for hours on no end. It was frustrating, it really was.
She almost jumped out of her own pants, when her cell started ringing. She sat up in bed, and reached for it on her bedside table. She could see Troy's picture flashing across the screen and wondered what that boy wanted now. Could it be a possibility for him to leave her alone for more than two minutes, maybe?
She slid her phone open, and answered him with a cheery voice; "Hi stupid!" she said, a smile on her lips, "What's up?"
"Hey gorgeous." He replied, and she could tell her was struggling not to laugh, "I was just sitting here at home, and then I thought to myself 'What is Gabriella doing?', and decided to call and ask."
"You know, Troy," Gabriella said, and studied her nails (she needed new polish… Hey, spending time with Sharpay rubbed off on her…), "if you wanted some of my mom's brownies you could just stop by like you usually do. What's up with the weird phone calling stuff?"
"Aw, you know me too well, baby…" Troy teased her.
Gabriella looked up when she heard her door open, and saw her mother come in, "Yeah, I do Troy." She told him, and shot her mom a questionable look, "Two seconds, Troy, alright?"
She covered the phone with her hand, and looked at her mother again, "What? The brownies done?"
Elena nodded, "Yeah." She said, before pointing to the phone, "Is that Troy?"
Gabriella just nodded.
"If he wants brownies he can pick up Rosa from the Davidses on his way, that'd also give us time to talk." Elena told her, voice soft.
Gabriella giggled, and went back to her conversation, while her mother went downstairs, "Mom says that if you want brownies, you can pick up Rosa on your way over." She told him, as it was something that happened very often (which it kinda did).
"I'm on that!" Troy quickly said, chuckling lightly, "I love Rosa. She's a hoot. Coolest girl I know."
Gabriella bit her lip, slightly offended, even if they were just joking around, "Well thank you, Troy, it's not like you're talking to one now anyway."
"Awe, I'm sorry Gabriella." He said, "I was waiting to break the news to you gently, but it slipped out of me. I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." he paused, for a second, "Where you I pick her up from?"
"The Davidses." Gabriella quickly said, as she got off of her bed, and started walking downstairs, to get to her mother, "Please take your time, I have to speak to my mother about something."
"I will." Troy confirmed, "See you later Gab." He finished, before hanging up the phone.
Gabriella placed her phone in her pocket, and sat down by the kitchen table, where her mother was placing a plate of brownies and two glasses of milk, for them to have while discussing this 'important' matter.
"What's up, mom?" she wanted to know, as she grabbed a brownie, breaking it in two halves, before stuffing one into her mouth, "Should I be worried?"
Elena sat down opposite her oldest daughter, and gave her a reassuring smile, "I wouldn't say so, bella." She said, "I just have to talk to you about this…" she continued, slipping a piece of paper out in front of her.
"What is it?" Gabriella asked, eyebrows squeezed together in thought. She became more worried about this, as the minutes ticked by. But hell, it was just a piece of paper in front of her, she just wanted to see it, so she could feel better about it.
"Rosa is going on a school trip in a few weeks, but unfortunately the school only covers half the expenses, so I have to pay the other half. It's a lot of money, so we're going to cut down on some other stuff for the next few weeks, and I have no idea where to cut down from. Since you're much better at this than me, I figured you could help?" she finally stopped talking, and took in a deep breath, after having not breathed while ranting. She was flustering red.
Gabriella took a look at the paper her mother handed her, and her eyes scanned the lines; apparently it was all their expenses. What they paid for the house and such things. As it was now, things were running smoothly, but if the trip cost as much as her mother implied, they were definitely going to have to cut back on something.
They'd sat money away for her birthday for several months, so they had a lot of money there. But they could also cut back and buy a little less expensive food for the next couple of weeks. She wasn't sure if her mother would agree on that, though; they were used to very delicious food (not that cheap couldn't be delicious). Her mother lived to cook, and she bought what she knew was best for her children, in the most expensive stores. Gabriella wouldn't want to miss that food. She loved it.
"Well?" Elena asked, her eyes lightening up, as she looked expectantly at her daughter. Gabriella knew she was so proud of her; that she could figure all this out, because Elena herself wasn't good at stuff like that, "Anything, Gabby?"
Gabriella bit her lip, "We have all these money saved." She replied, and pointed the savings out for her mother, "We could just use them. It's enough money for Rosa's trip – more too…"
Elena arched her eyebrows together, and watched her daughter for a second. Gabriella saw wonderment flash through her eyes, and hoped her mother wouldn't comment on the real purpose of the money. She didn't want her mother to feel guilty for taking the money.
She quickly added; "It's the only ones we have. Rosa has to go on her school trip; don't you think so?"
Elena swallowed hard, still looking a bit confused, "Really?" she asked, "We have no other options?"
Gabriella quickly shook her head, a soft smile on her lips, "No. But just take them… it's alright." She added, to reassure her mother.
Elena nodded, and took the paper from Gabriella's hands, and stood up; to go into the living room. She peaked softly at Gabriella before she was out of sight, but Gabriella gave her thumbs-up, knowing how her mother could be; it was alright. But still, when her mother was out of sight; she groaned. Not birthday for her, apparently. And it seemed like no one had remembered anyway. No one had mentioned anything about wishes or a possible party.
How sad.
--
When Gabriella got upstairs to her room again, she turned on her computer and turned on her stereo, before sitting down on her office chair. The CD in her stereo was one Sharpay had made for her some time ago. They had had a fight about something completely silly (Gabriella couldn't even remember what it was), and to make it up to her, since it was mostly Sharpay's fault, Sharpay had mixed the CD for her, to make it all good again.
I never promised you a ray of light
I never promised there'd be sunshine everyday
I'll give you everything I have
The good, the bad
Gabriella smiled to the song, and hummed along softly. She had fallen for some of the songs immediately. 'Halo' was one of her favourites since it described their relationship fairly well. She didn't know if Sharpay felt like Gabriella really did put her on a pedestal, but Gabriella knew she did; she practically whorshipped the ground Sharpay walked on. Every thing the blonde did was amazing in Gabriella's eyes. Whether she didn't do her homework (which Gabriella would have freaked for, had it been anyone else), or sang along loudly in her car when the top was down, making Gabriella extremely embarrassed, because everyone was looking. Or even simple things like, when she chewed er apple too loudly, or made annoying sounds by clicking her tongue.
Gabriella loved every part of Sharpay – she was the Goddess. She was what Gabriella lived for right now, even if she hated herself for being one of those girls; desperately in love with someone who'd never return their affections.
A new sang came on ('Feels Like Home' by Chantal Kreviazuk) and Gabriella logged onto her MySpace profile (wonder who made it for her? You have one guess. Correct. Sharpay), while reading through her emails. She logged off MySpace pretty quickly again and opened Word to start her homework. She had a million assignments she could start on, but she didn't really feel like it. She started by writing her name and class on top of her French paper, and grabbed her textbook to get started.
She didn't really like this subject very much; it wasn't really her thing with languages. She was more of a numbers-girl. Math and Science and all. Sharpay was great with languages though, and she was quite the writer too. Well, of course, she was an artist, and more often artists' brains were overactive, which was why they were artists to begin with; song-writers, authors, singers… you name it.
Sharpay could do most of that – she was a true artist. While Gabriella herself could act and sing, it wasn't to the extension Sharpay could. Sharpay really knew how to do it perfectly, and Gabriella did it because she thought it was fun. That she had a good singing voice was just her luck; she didn't work with it the way Sharpay did.
Sharpay didn't have French, though. It was the language the blonde girl didn't have, and Gabriella often mentally smacked herself for choosing it. She could have chosen Spanish and gotten easy grades. But nooo, stupid Gabriella Montez had to choose a subject where she had to work for it!
Gabriella sighed and looked at the notes she had written. To top it all, she didn't just have to write in French, she had to write something with meaning, like they did in Creative Writing (another of Sharpay's classes).
The assignment read;
Write in French about something that makes you happy, sad or any other feeling. The assignment must be at least one computer-written page. It will be graded.
She pushed her chair back slightly and dumped her head to the table, groaning loudly. She was never going to get through this. There was just no way she could write a whole page in French.
Her head shot up when she heard her cell going off in that annoying ring-tone which was for when Sharpay called. The two of them were singing 'You Are the Music in Me' to each other, but Sharpay had recorded them in chipmunk voices, so it sounded completely silly and nothing like them at all.
She got her phone out of her pocket, and smiled at the cute picture of Sharpay making a kissy face on her display. She slid her phone open with a cheery; "Hi gorgeous!"
"Hey baby, you're hot too!" Sharpay greeted, from the other end of the phone. She sounded happy, Gabriella noted.
Gabriella kicked back in her chair, getting comfortable now that she was talking to Sharpay, "So. What's up?" she asked, hoping this would take awhile, so she could push that French paper in front of her, though she knew she shouldn't.
"Not much." Sharpay replied with a chuckle, "Juuuust calling up my best friend, 'cuz I'm bored. No one's free. Wanna do something?"
Gabriella knew it wasn't meant like that, but she couldn't help but tease Sharpay with a, "No one's free, huh? So I'm last solution, I see. Nice to know."
"Haha, very funny, Montez, it wasn't meant like that." Sharpay quickly assured her, sounding somewhere in between worried if Gabriella had taken it serious, and laughing of their joke, "I love you, you know that." she added, with a chuckle.
"I know, I know." Gabriella assured her, heart fluttering by one sound of Sharpay's laughter. She stopped for a second to listen to the comforting sound of Sharpay's breathing, before continuing their conversation; "I couldn't do anything anyway."
"Aww, why not, missy?" Sharpay wanted to know, "You watching Rosa, 'cuz I could always join you?"
"Nah, I'm stuck here doing my French paper." Gabriella informed Sharpay, as her eyes caught her computer again, and she was reminded of her unfinished business.
"French, huh?" Sharpay laughed from the other end of the phone, "That's why normal people choose Spanish."
"Normal like you, eh?" Gabriella questioned and arched her eyebrow, even if Sharpay couldn't see her. She just loved to tease her best friend, because Sharpay's reactions were always different.
"You're dead, Montez." Sharpay told her, "I tell you, you're dead."
"How so?" Gabriella asked, trying to hold back her laughter, "If you kill me, though, you have to promise to do my French paper and hand it in for me? That last grade means everything to me."
"I don't do French, beautiful." Sharpay said, in a sing-song voice.
Gabriella groaned, "Shit Shar." She said, hopelessly, because she was really worried. Normally, she'd just get started and finish it with no complaint, but she really didn't want to do this, "I'll never get this done."
Sharpay sighed, and Gabriella could hear she was feeling with her, "What's it about, then? What's the assignment?"
Gabriella smiled, and high-fived herself for getting Sharpay's help, "I have to write about something that makes me happy in French. One page long."
"In hand?"
"Computer-written."
Sharpay groaned, "Oh well… Good luck!" she cheered.
Gabriella's eyes widened, and she quickly stopped her friend from hanging up, "No, no, no!" she exclaimed, voice shrill, "Don't hang up on me. I need your help." She finished, and with an extra thought added, "…please?" because she knew it'd make Sharpay happy.
This time Sharpay sighed, "Fine. If you have to write about something that makes you happy, you just have to figure out what."
"I don't know." Gabriella quickly said. She had no idea what to write about. Plenty of things made her happy, but she knew she wouldn't be able to write a whole page about any of it.
"Think." Sharpay ordered, her voice edgy, "What makes you happy?"
You.
"And why does it make you happy?"
Because you're amazing.
"Then you need to figure out how to put your thoughts into words." Sharpay continued on, "Write a few keywords down for your own sake, and get started. Remember to think in French too."
Gabriella didn't reply. She just nodded to herself and tried to think of what to write in French. If she was going to write about Sharpay, it would be easy to fill a page. And the blonde would never read it, because she didn't speak French. All Gabriella had to do was look up the words she didn't know. It seemed very easy now.
"Gabriella?" Sharpay's voice cut through; breaking Gabriella's train of thoughts, "You still there?" she questioned.
Gabriella snapped herself out of it, "Yeah," she said, and awkwardly cleared her throat, to pretend everything was okay, even if she had just been consumed in Sharpay-Land, thinking inappropriate things, "yeah, I'm still here Sharpay. Thanks for the help. You're awesome."
"I know!" Sharpay giggled, before adding; "But I'm gonna leave you alone, my dear. Enjoy your French paper."
And then she hung up, before Gabriella managed to reply. Gabriella chuckled of Sharpay and her weird ways. She made her laugh. She made her whole day better as soon as they spoke. The whole thing about her non-existent birthday was forgotten when Sharpay was talking to her. Everything got that much better. Gabriella got out of the chair and danced across the floor to turn the volume on her stereo down, as one of her favourite songs was coming to an end…
I just hung up the phone
You've got a way of changing my day
You proved me wrong
When I was convinced I was alone
Yeah, that's what you do when you love someone
--
Gabriella leaned back in her chair as she shut off her screen, even if the computer was still running. She was done, and she was proud. She had finished her French paper completely, and it had only taken her around an hour. Sharpay really did inspire her a lot; not that she'd ever admit it out loud. She had had a hard time admitting to herself that she was attracted to her friend, but admitting it to anyone else would be torture.
She reached her left hand to the side and stroked Princess Cutie (Sharpay had named the kitten – give her all credit. Gabriella didn't want it!) across the stomach. She was rolling around, purring loudly. She was still rather small, being only a kitten, and Gabriella loved her to death. Sharpay had gotten it for her a few months back, and said it was a gift of friendship. It hadn't been for anything special – her birthday was only coming up now, and Christmas was over a long time ago.
Sharpay had had to convince Elena to let Gabriella keep Princess Cutie, and eventually she had given in. Gabriella knew her mother loved Sharpay; she adored the blonde girl, and always asked Gabriella a lot of questions about her, and made sure to invite her to dinner all the time.
Rosa adored Sharpay as well – she looked so much up to her sister's friend that Gabriella found it amusing. The 9-year-old would do anything to get Sharpay's attention when she was there, and when she wasn't there, Rosa would always ask Gabriella when she'd come over again.
Princess Cutie finally got enough and latched out after Gabriella's finger, which annoyed Gabriella enough to lift her off of the table, and to the floor. Gabriella stood up, before heading out of the room. When she came to the bottom of the stairs, she stopped and furrowed her brow in confusion.
She could hear the TV going (Disney Channel), which meant that Rosa was home. And if Rosa was home, that meant Troy was here. She could actually also hear his voice coming from the kitchen, and immediately went in there, wondering why they hadn't called on her, since it was her friend arriving here. She knew her mother was practically in love with Troy (she was very disappointed back when they'd split up), but it was still weird for Gabriella when her mother and her best guy-friend hung out without her.
They looked up when they saw her enter the kitchen, and immediately got silent. Troy was eating a cookie (probably his one thousandth), with an extremely guilty look on his face, while her mother offered her a small smile.
They had been talking about her.
Gabriella sat down next to Troy, after giving him a peck on the cheek. She grabbed a cookie and looked from side to side; wondering what was up. "So." She stated, sarcasm streaming through her voice, "Thanks for bringing me down for the fun."
Elena winked at her daughter, "You were on the phone with Sharpay and doing you French paper, so we didn't want to disturb you."
Gabriella scrunched her nose, "How sweet of you."
Troy eyed her and stuffed another brownie into his mouth. Then he offered her a smile, when she turned to look at him, and she looked disgusted.
"You eat like a pig." She said, and swallowed lightly. Then she turned to her mother, "You were talking about me, right?"
Her mother defended herself so quickly that Gabriella could only believe she was lying; "No!" she said, "We were talking basketball!"
Gabriella bit her lip. Her mom knew nothing about basketball. How would she be able to talk about it with Troy? Something about that seemed very unrealistic, and that proved Gabriella in her beliefs; they were talking about something she shouldn't know.
What was up?
"Suuuure." Gabriella mumbled on purpose, with a saying smile.
"Right Troy?" Elena asked, shooting him a hard glare – he could play along.
"Yeah," Troy quickly agreed, with a slight nod, "yeah, of course. I was teaching her about three-pointers."
Gabriella pushed her chair back and stood up, "Alright," she said, "you guys are clearly not nice to talk to, so I'm gonna go say hi to my wonderful little sister." She went for the living room door, and paused to look back at them, "She's much nicer to talk to." And then she left the two of them alone, and threw herself onto the couch next to Rosa.
"Hi Gabby!" Rosa cheered, and briefly looked away from the TV to glance at her sister, "Sharpay here?"
Gabriella sneezed, "No," she replied, and shook her head, "no, she's not. She didn't want to come when she heard you weren't here."
Rosa immediately shot her head to the side, brown eyes wide, "No!" she exclaimed, "Call her up and tell her to come right now!"
Gabriella chuckled, "No." she said, pronouncing the word in Spanish, "She's busy now. I told her you weren't home, so she found some other little sister to hang out with. I'll ask her to come over tomorrow, though."
Rosa cheered up by the thought of Sharpay coming over already tomorrow, and gave her sister a hug, before turning back to her TV. Gabriella chuckled to herself, and stood up, to go upstairs and start some other homework. When she had nothing else to do, so might as well start it.
She said bye to Troy on her way up the stairs, so she wouldn't have to do it later when he was leaving, and hurried into her room, starting the CD over again, letting Bethany Dillon's voice stream through her speakers.
"Oh, that's what you do when you love someone…" Gabriella sang, as she sat down on her chair again, and glanced briefly at the wallpaper on her computer.
Sharpay was smiling at her, those brown eyes filled with love.
Oh wow. That was pretty hard to type out. I've had this whole first chapter written in my notebook for a veeery long time (I brought it with me to school, to write on, when I wasn't listening in Biology), and decided that now was the time to get it done. I hope the next chapters will be just as lengthy as this one, and that it won't be too long before it get them written.
I know I should have written on the next chapter of 'A Lot Like Love', but I decided to do this instead. I wanted to get this posted, but I can't say when the next chapters will be up. I have to at least write one chapter for 'A Lot Like Love' between chapters for this story, and it might even be two. So I'm telling you now, that there will be long between updates, just so you know.
I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and that you'll leave me a review.
And sorry for any mistakes. I will correct them, if you guys find any.
Disclaimer; I don't own High School Musical, 'Halo' by Bethany Joy Lenz or 'When You Love Someone' by Bethany Dillon (the title is taken from the song).