Chapter One:
Gabriella Montez walked wearily into school. She was exhausted, having been unable to sleep much lately. Her long, dark curly hair was a mess, and had been hastily pulled into a ponytail, and she was dressed pretty sloppily as well. She had dark shadows under her coffee brown eyes, and her olive skin tone was lighter than it usually was. As she stepped through the doors of East High, sparks flicked into her vision, before vanishing.
"Hey, Gabby!" someone called. A guy with a lot of very bouncy hair practically ran over to her. Either he had a lot of sugar in his system, or the guy was naturally hyper.
Gabriella mumbled a greeting, yawning hugely. Chad Danforth, who had just bounced over, yawned as well.
"Don't do that!" he said. "It's contagious!"
"Sorry," Gabriella mumbled. "Why all the excitement Chad?" she asked.
"Why? WHY?!" Chad grabbed her shoulders, shaking her violently. She let him do it, her head snapping backward and forward from the force, and she was too tired to try to pull herself together. "Why, you ask? How dare you! You should be ashamed! You call yourself a Wildcat?"
"Get to the point," she said, wishing he'd stop shaking her. Miraculously, he did.
"You seriously don't know what today is?" Chad asked, mouth wide open.
"Why don't you enlighten me?" Gabriella replied, starting to walk down the hall to her locker.
"Okay." Chad gave her a funny look. "Um, today is the state championship basketball game."
"I thought it was last month against West High?" Gabriella replied. "You know, the time we practically blacked out the school just so Troy and I could make the callbacks?"
"That? Psshaw! That was just a warm up for today. Today, we rule the world!"
Gabriella raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I like the sound of the world being ruled by a bunch of teenagers," she said, grinning slightly despite her exhaustion. Then it struck her like a blow. "Oh, right! That game!"
"Yes," Chad said in a tone as if he was speaking to a little kid. "That game. The one Troy probably hasn't shut up about yet."
"I knew that," Gabriella said. She arrived at her locker. Well, speak of the Devil.
There he was, his sandy-blond hair swept to the side, and his pale blue eyes sparkling. Gabriella's heart did a double-take when she saw him. He had been waiting for her. When he saw her and Chad coming, he smiled.
"Hey, Wildcat," she said, using her favorite nickname for him.
Chad grinned goofily. "I'm going to go find my basketball. It disappeared to somewhere. I'll be back in a little while. Be good, kids," he added with a snicker. He laughed even more as he saw the red creeping into Gabriella's cheeks.
Troy ignored him, and walked over to Gabriella. "Hey," he said as she walked over to her locker and started to put the number code in.
"Hey," she replied, and yawned again.
"What time have you been going to sleep lately?" he asked with concern. She looked up.
"Hmm? Usually eleven thirty or something. I just haven't been able to sleep lately," was the response. Her locker door swung open, and she put her bag in it. "Homeroom now," she said to herself, taking out a random notebook.
Troy looked up. "Who's that? I don't remember ever seeing her around school."
Gabriella looked up as well. A woman was walking down the hall. She was short, shorter than Gabriella, and slightly heavyset, with a pencil skirt and fancy jacket, and wearing heels. Her expression was stern, and she was flanked by two large men, who appeared to be acting like bodyguards.
"Inspector of some kind?" Gabriella suggested. She pulled off her jacket and put it in her locker as well. Just then Chad returned, dribbling his basketball. "Think fast, Gabster!" he yelled, throwing it. Gabriella tried to catch it, but being caught off guard, it bounced out of her fingers and rolled away. She chased after the ball, until it stopped when it bumped into something. She bent down to pick it up, and found herself looking at high heels. She raised her gaze to come with the cold gaze of the strange woman.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked icily.
"Um… just getting the ball," Gabriella said, straightening up.
"Getting the ball," the woman replied mockingly. "What's your name, girl?"
"Er, Gabriella Montez," Gabriella replied.
"Miss Montez, this is a school. You don't throw balls around. Now, I want you in my office with your friend later today for detention," she said.
Chad frowned. "You mean me?" he asked.
"Yes, Mister…"
"Danforth," Chad said grumpily.
"Mr. Danforth and Ms. Montez. I want you both in my office at exactly three thirty. Am I clear?"
"Uh, where's your office?" Gabriella asked.
"You mean you don't know where the principal's office is?"
"I know where the principal's office is. I just don't know where yours is," Gabby explained, backing away.
The woman glowered at her, and Gabriella shrank away. Chad walked over. "My office is the principal's office," she said coldly.
"Then where's the principal's office?" Chad asked stupidly.
"My office, Mr. Danforth. I'm the principal."
"What? What happened to Mr. Matsui?" Troy asked, joining them.
"He had a heart attack," the new principal replied.
"Oh!" Gabriella said worriedly. "Is he okay?"
"He's dead."
All three friends looked horrified. Gabby was staring at the principal with her mouth wide open. She sounded so calm when she said he was dead, as if she couldn't care less.
They just stood there, speechless.
Gabriella opened her mouth to speak, but the new principal held up her hand for silence. Gabriella tried to speak anyway, but no sound came out. She closed her mouth, chewing her lip, uncomfortable under the principal's piercing gaze.
"Good. Now, get to class," the principal said stiffly. Gabriella turned to hand Chad his favorite basketball, but one of the principal's bodyguards's snatched it away. She jumped in fear and surprise, bumping into Troy. He helped her regain her balance. "No balls," the principal said. "Good day. I'll see you two in detention." And she walked off.
"She scares me," Chad mumbled.
"Me too," Gabriella said.
Chad turned to the brunette. "You're scared of everything."
"I am not!" she said defensively.
"Sure you are. Everything from spiders to horror movies."
"I'm not afraid. I just don't like spiders. I'm not scared of them. And everyone's afraid of horror movies. I don't see what's so fun about being scared when watching horror movies," Gabriella snapped.
"Chad, knock it off," Troy snapped before Chad could say something else.
Chad shrugged. "Whatever. I'm going to class before that monster of a woman comes back and does something else terrible." The other two nodded, and they all walked off to homeroom.
Ms. Darbus, oddly, wasn't there yet, especially since the warning bell had already ringed. Gabriella sat down in her seat at the back of the class, and held eye contact with Troy for a minute, smiling at him. He winked, and sat down.
Grinning to herself, Gabriella started fumbling around with her textbooks, checking her homework assignment.
"Miss Montez. Miss Montez."
Gabriella blinked tiredly and opened her eyes. What had happened? She looked around. She was still at her desk, but the classroom was empty, except for Ms. Darbus who was standing in front of her, looking down with a grim expression.
"Wha—Where—how—?" Gabriella blinked back sleep.
"Are you feeling okay? Class ended eight minutes ago," Ms. Darbus said. "You might want to go to the nurse's office."
"I'm fine," Gabriella said, climbing shakily to her feet. "Eight minutes?"
"Yes."
"Oh no." That left her with only two minutes to get her books, and get to her next class—and figure out what her class was. Groaning, she dashed out of the classroom and down the hall, leaping down a staircase, and sped around a corner. She stumbled, and fell forward, sliding across the floor. Grumbling, she climbed back to her feet and continued to race to class. She got to her locker, and tried to open it, but her haste made her clumsy, and she got the combination wrong. It took her three goes before she succeeded, and the locker finally swung open.
What was her next class again? She wracked her brains, trying to remember, but all she got was a blank.
She pulled out her folder, flipping through the neat pages, looking for her schedule. It took her a while before she finally found the page, way toward the back, and scanned her schedule. Calculus. She shoved her folder into her locker, and scrambled to find her Calculus book. Then she pulled it out, slammed the locker door shut, and sprinted to class.
When she arrived, she was red-faced, out of breath, and panting tiredly. She pushed the door open.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, Mr. C—" she froze. Everyone in the class turned to stare at her. Including, at the front of the class, not Mr. Collin, as she had been expecting to see, but the new principal.
"Ms. Montez, when I went through your student file, I expected to find a much better mannered young lady than this. So far, you have proven otherwise. Playing ball in the halls, late for classes, I hope you don't do anything else. You'll be working quite late tonight," she said.
"But I—" Gabriella protested.
"No buts, girl. Now, get down to my office. I'll see you sooner than I thought."
Gabriella paled. Sighing, she turned around and left the class, walking towards the principal's office with her shoulders hunched over. This couldn't be good.
Okay, first chapter. I've had this idea in my head for a long time. No worries, this new Principal is about to get much worse. What will Gabriella and Chad's detention be like? What will happen with the state championships? ...Will there be state championships?
Well, that's the wrap up for today. Don't forget to review. Constructive criticism will be gladly recieved. That's it for no, then. -Sheva