Chapter 1: Welcome To East High
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical!
Gabriella POV:
Hi. My name is Gabriella Montez. I'm 16 years old. I live with my mom in upstate New York. We just moved here. We're renting a small house, two bedrooms, one bathroom, but it's better than some of the places we lived - and it's a house, an actual house. It's been years since we've lived in a house. We usually stay in apartments.
We've always moved around a lot. My mom is just like that. She's not good at staying in one spot. She says she just hasn't found the right place yet. I really hope that she thinks this is the right place, because I hate moving, and I really, really hate being the new kid in school.
I've always been super shy, so it's hard for me to fit in. I really hate moving in the middle of a school year. I'm a sophomore, and this is my 4th high school, so far. I moved once, at the very end of my freshman year, right before semester exams - worst time to move ever, but fortunately, I still managed to do pretty good. Then we moved again that summer, because the job that my mom had lined up fell through. Then, she decided to move again, because her new job, where we used to live, was only a temporary job.
She promises this is our last move.
But then again, she's said that about our last 3 moves, as well.
I sigh, and take a shower so my hair dries before I have to leave for school. I pull on a pair of light wash skinny jeans, a blue plaid shirt with a chunky black belt around the waist. I head into the kitchen to get some breakfast before I go back to my room and comb through my dark brown naturally wavy hair. I put on a little eyeliner - not much, just enough to bring out my eyes - brown like my hair - out just a little bit. I slide a black headband into my hair, and pull on my favorite black converse, completing the outfit. I take one last look in the mirror before I head into the kitchen and find my mom, hurrying around, trying to be ready in time to take me to school and be on time for work.
"Just give me a couple seconds," She called, somehow managing to pull her shoe on and put an earring in at the same time.
"Okay," I said, and sat down at the kitchen table, pulling my latest book out of my backpack - Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen, one of my favorite authors - and started reading while I waited for her.
A few minutes later, my mom, a little flustered, was finally ready to go. We headed out to our car - nothing fancy, but it looked pretty decent, and got good gas mileage - and my mom drove me to my new school - East High School. I took in a deep breath as we pulled up in front of the big building.
"You okay, sweetheart?" My mom asked, as she pulled the car to a stop. "Do you want me to come in with you?"
"No, I'll be fine. I've done this a million times," I smiled at her. She smiled back. "Have fun at work," I tell her, as I get out of the car.
"You too," She called as I closed the door. Yeah, right, I thought, as I closed the door, smiling confidently at her, before turning to face the school.
Well, this was it. Another brand new start. I sighed, and started inside the building, heading for the main office. It wasn't too hard to find - I could only hope the rest of my classes would be that easy to find.
I got my schedule, and my locker combination, and then went out and waded through the crowd of people. I found my locker, and got it opened on the 2nd try. I put my bag inside, and took out my notebooks and folders, setting them on my shelf, arranging my locker just the way I liked it.
Someone bumped into me and pushed me into the lockers.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," A voice said. I turned to answer, but was caught by a pair of beautiful blue eyes and found that I wasn't able to say a thing. "I'm Troy," He said, offering me his hand. I slid mine into his.
"Gabriella," I replied, softly.
"What?" He said, leaning closer to me, unable to hear me in the crowded hallway.
"I'm Gabriella," I repeated, louder. He smiled at me. He had an amazing smile.
"Are you new, or something?" He asked. "I haven't really seen you around here, before."
"Yeah, I just moved from the City," I replied. Yes, it was true. I, Gabriella Montez, had lived in New York City. It's not really all that bad, as long as you know where the bad places are. It's not the first big city I've lived in. We usually don't live anywhere that's nice and peaceful and quiet. I think that's what I'm going to do after I go to college. I'm going to find a nice home out in the country where it's all peaceful and quiet.
"Oh really?" He said, sounding interested.
"Yeah, but I only lived there for a few months. Before that it was New Jersey, Maryland, Texas," I listed off a couple of the states I've lived in, and rolled my eyes. He smiled and looked like he was about to say something, but then a guy came up. He was black with wild hair.
"Hey, Troy, you coming?" He called, turning and walking backwards, bumping into a few people. Stupid jock, I thought, rolling my eyes (I have a habit of doing that a lot).
"Yeah, just a sec," He called, and then turned back to me. "I got to go," He smiled, almost apologetically. "I'll see you later?" He said, backing away, and then he turned and jogged after the other guy, until a teacher yelled at him to slow down, he wasn't on the basketball court anymore.
"Sorry, Ms. Darbus," He called, but didn't slow down a bit. I sighed, and closed my locker, deciding to try and find some of my classes before school started. My first class - homeroom - was easy to find - I had Ms. Darbus. But before I could find any other of my classes, the bell rang. I sighed, and went to Ms. Darbus' room, stopping to ask her where I sat.
"What's your name?" She asked, looking at me over the top of her glasses.
"Gabriella Montez," I replied. She directed me to my seat in the back of the room. I slid into the desk, hopefully unobtrusively, looking around the room. It slowly filled up. None of the other students seemed to notice me. The bell rang, and Ms. Darbus made us all sit down.
"I'd like to introduce our new student, Ms. Gabriella Montez," She announced to our class. My face reddened, and I stared at the desk. "Ms. Montez, would you stand up, please?" I slowly stood up out of my seat while all the other students stared at me. "If any of you see her throughout the day, please do your best to help her find her classes, etcetera, etcetera," She said, waving her hand. "You may sit," She said, and then continued to talk. I blocked most of it out, staring at my desk some more. Finally, the bell rang.
As I stood up, a cute black girl wearing a yellow long sleeve shirt and a matching yellow and red striped scarf came over.
"I'm Taylor," She smiled, and offered me her hand. I smiled at her and took it. "Do you want some help finding your first class?" She asked.
"Sure," I said, pulling out my schedule. She looked at it over my shoulder.
"Oh, we have the same class!" She exclaimed. "Come on, let's go, we don't want to be late," She said, and hurried out of the room.
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The rest of the day passed pretty smoothly. I had a couple classes with Taylor, but no classes at all with Troy. I sat with Taylor at lunch, and I asked her about him, when I saw him sitting over with all the jocks and cheerleader type people.
"Troy Bolton?" She asked, looking over at him, seeming surprised that I would ask about him. "Sorry, hunny, but don't waste your time on that boy. He isn't worth it."
I shrugged. "He bumped into me this morning. He seemed pretty nice, that's all," I replied, picking at my food.
"I guess out of all of them," She nodded over towards his group, "I'd have to say Troy's the nicest. He's not really interested in people like us, though, you know what I mean?" I nodded. We were both in accelerate learning classes, some of the smartest people in our grade. "He's a jock, we're, well," She hesitated.
"Nerds?" I filled in for her, and she laughed.
"I didn't know if that term would insult you or not," She said. I shrugged.
"Nah, I know I am, but hey, at least we're cute nerds," I replied, and we both giggled. A couple other people trickled over to our table and we started talking about other things. I couldn't help but glance at Troy every once in awhile though, and I saw him glance at me, too. I blushed and looked at my tray, as everyone else carried on with their conversation.
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I walked home by myself after school, thinking about my day. I'd met a cute guy who may or may not be interested in me, and I'd made some new friends already. I usually didn't really make friends or get close with them, because I knew that I'd just be leaving soon, and we'd be out of touch anyways. I was seen as a loner a lot, but I really wasn't. I just didn't want my next move to be any harder then it had to be.
That's why I've never had a boyfriend before. That, and I'd never really found a guy who I was interested in enough to want to date, who actually was interested in me too. I'm really shy around guys, so yeah. I never really found a reason to have a boyfriend anyways.
I was starting to think that maybe that would change this year though. Maybe I'd find a guy here at East High. Not that there's really any particular guy, though…
Well, okay, so maybe I sort of like Troy. But I mean, like Taylor said, guys like him just aren't interested in girls like me. So I tried to ignore it.
The next couple days passed, and I didn't talk to Troy again. I saw him looking at me a few times at lunch, but I also saw him with this one girl - blonde, preppy, cheerleader like, exact opposite of me. She was all over him, following him around like a little puppy dog, but it almost seemed like he wasn't all that interested in her. On Friday I asked Taylor about her, because no one else was at our lunch table yet.
"You're still thinking about him?" She said, raising her eyebrows. I blushed and looked at my tray. "That's Sharpay," She said, answering my question. "Her and Troy had a thing last year, but he broke it off, and she's still trying to get him back. It's almost sad really, the way she follows him around like a little puppy," She said, mimicking my exact thoughts.
"Yeah," I agreed, softly.
"Do you like him?" She asked me, curiously. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, but, just wondering, you know," She said. I shrugged, blushing a deep red, and giving myself away. "Well, why don't you talk to him sometime, then?" She asked.
"Like you said," I looked over at him, "He's not interested in girls like me. He likes girls like Sharpay," I said. "And I'm far from that."
"Trust me, girl, that ain't a bad thing," She retorted. "The only person who even likes her is her brother, and that's probably just because he has to. She's a spoiled little brat," Taylor said, almost venomously. It was surprising, coming from her; she was always so sweet.
"Yeah, I guess," I said softly.
"Look, just forget about him, alright? Some of us are going down to the movies tomorrow afternoon, why don't you come with?" She asked.
"Alright, that sounds good," I said, after a brief moment's hesitation, and we started making plans.
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I was just leaving the school to walk home when I heard someone call my name. I turned to see none other than Troy Bolton jogging towards me.
"Hey," He smiled.
"Hi," I replied, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say.
"How are you liking East High so far?" He asked.
"It's pretty good," I said.
"You on your way home?" He asked. I nodded. "Do you mind if I walk with you? I've got some time to kill before the game tonight," He said.
"Sure," I said, smiling nervously. We turned and started walking.
"So are you going to come to the game tonight?" He asked me.
"I don't know, probably not," I said, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye.
"You should," He said. "You can watch us kick some serious butt," He joked. "We're undefeated this year, you know?" He said, almost as if he was trying to impress me.
"So I've heard," I laughed. "I also heard that you've almost made it to state for the past 3 years, but West's beat you every time," I said, wanting to know how he'd react.
"Well, not this year. This year they're going down," He said, sounding pretty sure of himself.
"You think so?" I asked.
"I hope so," He said, not sounding so sure anymore.
"Yeah, me too," I said, smiling at him. He smiled back. His smile gave me butterflies. I blushed and looked away.
"It would sure look good for college," He said. "I'm hoping to get a basketball scholarship," He told me.
"Think you can do it?" I asked. He shrugged.
"Hope so," He said again.
"Well, umm, this is my house," I said, looking up at him, standing in front of the house. He looked at the house and then back at me.
"Yeah, so I'll see you later?" He said.
"Yeah, if not tonight, then Monday," I said.
"Bye," He said, and we both turned, me going into the house, and him walking down the street, back towards the school. I went inside and did the dishes in case I decided to go to the game tonight after all.
By the time my mom got home from work, I was still undecided about whether or not I wanted to go to the game.
"Gabbi, you won't mind staying home alone tonight, would you? I'm going out with some friends for supper," She told me.
"No, it's fine, I was going to go the game, anyways," I said. Since she wasn't going to be here, I might as well go.
"Oh, alright, well have fun," She said. I smiled and told her the same before heading to my room to fix my hair and makeup.
As I put some lip gloss on, I wondered why I was bothering. Troy didn't think of me as anything more than a friend - if even that - and he never would. I sighed, and put the lip gloss down. What was the point? My mom was already leaving, I heard her call out goodbye as a car pulled into our driveway. A very nice, expensive looking car. She would never know if I didn't go.
I changed out of my jeans and into a pair of jogging pants, flopped down on my bed, and started to read. I never did like basketball games, anyways.
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The next morning I woke up when my phone went off. I grabbed it and looked at it. It was a text. I hit open.
From: Unknown
hey, i missed u at the game last night.
To: Unknown
who is this?
From: Unknown
oh, sorry, it's troy. taylor gave me ur number.
To: Unknown
oh, okay.
I programmed his number into my phone, smiling. He'd asked Taylor for my number. I didn't know they ever even talked. I quickly texted her.
To: Taylor
hey, when did you give troy my number?
From: Taylor
last night after the game. i didn't think u would mind, sorry.
To: Taylor
no, its fine, i just didn't kno u 2 talked
From: Taylor
we don't. it was really weird, lol.
To: Taylor
oic, so r we still on for tonight?
From: Taylor
u bet :)
From: Troy
well u missed it, it was a great game. i told you we were gonna kick their butts :)
To: Troy
lol, well congrats
From: Troy
haha, thanks. so i was wondering… do you wanna hang out or something today?
To: Troy
well, me and taylor were gonna do something later, but maybe tomorrow?
I quickly texted back. I was so excited. He was actually asking me to hang out!
From: Troy
okay, sounds good. ill pick you up around 10, will that work?
To: Troy
sounds great :) see u then
I got out of bed and literally jumped up and down with joy. I danced out of my room and out into the kitchen. My mom sat at the table on our laptop, drinking her morning coffee, still looking half asleep. She never had been a morning person.
"Well, someone's happy today," My mom smiled. "Any particular reason?"
"Not really," I said, "Just excited. Me and Taylor are going to a movie later today, okay?" I said, opening the fridge and pouring myself a glass of orange juice. "And tomorrow I'm going to hang out with some friends," I said, and hoped she didn't ask who, or what we were going to do.
"Alright, sweetheart. Just be careful," She told me.
"Don't worry," I said, and gave her a hug. "I always am." I danced back to my room to decide what I was going to wear today - and then tomorrow.
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The movie was okay, but I've definitely seen better. We had a great time though, and I told Taylor about hanging out with Troy, which she got super psyched about. She was almost more excited then me! Almost. Not quite… I don't think it was possible to be more excited then I was. I could barely sleep that night, I was so excited. I finally did fall asleep though, and I didn't wake up until almost 8:30. I jumped in the shower, and then hurriedly ate my breakfast. I blow dried my hair and took twice as long on my make up as I usually did. I tried to find something new to do with my hair, but ended up just leaving it down the way I usually did, and put on a little eye shadow to make my eyes stand out, instead.
I was wearing a short sleeved pink plaid shirt with a dark grey vest over top of it, a pair of light wash jeans, and, as usual, my black converse. After a quick look in the mirror, I added some dangly silver earrings.
"Gabbi!" My mom called from the kitchen. "Your ride's here!" I hurried out.
"Thanks, Mom," I said, kissing her cheek before heading towards the door. "Have a good day," I called, as I walked outside, closing the door before she could respond. Troy's truck looked old, but not trashy. I opened the door and stepped shyly inside. He smiled at me.
"You look nice," He told me, as I closed the door and put my seatbelt on.
"Thanks," I smiled shyly, blushing. He smiled at me, before putting the truck in reverse and pulling out.
"I wasn't really sure what you wanted to do, but I thought maybe we could like, go bowling or something? Unless you don't want to," He sounded hesitant. It surprised me, coming from him. He always seemed so confident and sure of himself at school. But then again, I've never really talked to him at school, so I guess I wouldn't really know.
"No, that sounds great," I replied, honestly. "I have to warn you though, I haven't been bowling in forever, so I'm probably going to do horrible," I laughed.
"Don't worry," He said, smiling. "I go bowling all the time, and I still suck." I laughed again.
"Doesn't surprise me," I teased.
"Oh, come on, what's that supposed to mean?"
I just shrugged and smiled, not giving him an answer. He laughed at me. I liked his laugh. But then again, there wasn't much I don't like about him. I like his smile, his laugh, how he's always so nice to everyone, and his eyes, they are absolutely gorgeous…
The rest of the ride to the bowling alley passed quickly. We got there, and he paid for both of us. We talked, and teased each other as we put our shoes on and picked our balls.
To my surprise, I got a strike on my very first try.
"I thought you were bad!" Troy laughed at me.
"Trust me, I'm amazed too," I said, as he went up to go. He got a gutter ball. I couldn't help but laugh at him.
"Oh, ha ha, really funny," He said, but he smiled. With his next roll he knocked down 8 pins.
We teased each other the entire time we played, and in the end, he beat me. I had a score of 82, and his was 106. After we finished, we went over to the arcade and played for a while. Then we went to one of those claw machines.
"Aw, look at it, it's so cute," I said, pointing through the glass at one of the teddy bears. Troy put a dollar in the machine. I laughed. "You're never going to get it," I told him, as the claw missed it.
"You want to bet?" He said, putting another dollar in. I laughed. He must've put at least $20 into that thing, but he did finally get the teddy bear.
"And you thought I couldn't get it," He smirked at me, pulling the teddy bear out of the machine.
"It only took you, how many tries?" I teased, smiling as he handed me the teddy bear.
"That's not important. The important thing is that I got it," He said. I laughed.
"And it only cost you about 3 times as much as it would've if you would've just gone to a store and gotten one."
"Are you saying you don't appreciate my efforts?" He accused, pretending to be mad.
"Of course not," I laughed.
"That's what I thought," He smiled smugly.
"I'm just saying there was no point to it," I smiled as the grin disappeared from his face.
"Well, in that case, maybe I'll just take that back," He teased.
"A real gentleman would never do such a thing," I said, with unnecessary drama.
"Are you saying I'm not a gentleman?" He said, faking astonishment.
"Oh, of course not," I said, gasping. He looked at me, and we both burst out laughing.
"Come on," He said. "Let's go get something to eat." We walked out to his car and he drove over to a little café/bookstore. I smiled as we walked inside. This was definitely my kind of place. We walked over to counter, and a woman with dark hair and a pretty smile came out.
"Hey, ma," Troy said, "Can you get us some cheeseburgers - is that okay?" I nodded. "And a pepsi and," He paused, looking at me.
"Water's fine," I said, quietly. I studied the woman, trying to see if anything about her reminded me from Troy. She was extremely pretty, and I noticed that her eyes were the same blue as Troy's.
"Water," He said.
"Alright," She said, disappearing into the back. Since it was lunchtime, there was a whole crowd of people. Troy led me over to a secluded booth in the back corner, where we sat and talked while we waited for our food. He asked me about some of the places I've lived in the past. I tell him about it, funny stories and stuff, but I don't talk about any of the personal stuff. He doesn't try to dig too deep either, he's happy with what I tell him.
After we finish eating, we sit and talk for awhile.
"My mom will probably be mad if I leave before introducing you," He told me. "As soon as the crowd clears out she'll probably come over," He told me.
"Okay," I said.
"Don't worry," He smiled at the worried expression on my face. "It'll be fine. It's not my mom you have to worry about," He frowned, a clouded expression covering his face. I was about to ask what he meant, but he quickly changed the subject before I could. In no time at all, we were laughing again. It was so easy being with him. I liked it a lot. I realized I liked him a lot too. Like a lot, a lot.
He was right, once there weren't so many people, his mom made her way over to use, and he introduced us. She talked for awhile, and she seemed really nice.
"Well, I have to get back to work," She said, after a few minutes. "It was nice meeting you, Gabriella. Hopefully I'll see you around," She said, and went back over to the kitchen.
"You ready to go?" He asked me.
"Yeah, I guess," I said, even though I wasn't anywhere near ready for this day to end. I knew it had to though, at some point.
We went out to his truck and he drove me home. He walked me up to my front door. I was holding my teddy bear.
"I had a really fun time today," I told him, suddenly shy.
"Yeah, me too," He said. "We should do this again, sometime."
"Yeah," I agreed. "We should." He looked almost as nervous as I felt. He took a step closer, and I wondered for a brief moment if he was going to kiss me. And then, before I realized what was happening, he did. It was a sweet kiss, his lips pressing lightly against mine for just a few brief seconds. I stared up at him, biting my lip after he pulled away. He smiled. I smiled back.
"I'll see you around," He said, softly.
"Yeah," I said, and he turned and got in his truck as I went inside. I watched as he pulled out of the driveway and drove away.
A/N: Hey everyone.
Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. Please review and tell me what you thought, so I know if I should keep writing or not!
Thanks,
xoxox