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Chapter 2: Troy Bolton
Troy looked out the window in awe as the car entered East High. He had never seen so much green in his entire life. Big lawns, trees everywhere, it was beautiful. Finally the car pulled up to a big brick building.
"Well here we are." Troy turned to the man who had generously picked him up from the airport.
"Thank you Mr. Luhrman," Troy said politely.
"No problem. You ready to see where you're going to be living for the next year?"
"As ready ask I'll ever be," he replied. Truthfully he was scared out of his mind. He was hundreds of miles away from home in a world he never expected to be in. He slowly got out of the car and closed the door behind him. He looked at the car next to him, and saw that it was a BMW 7 series. His jaw dropped, cars like this didn't appear where he grew up. He then looked around the parking lot to see that almost all the cars were over 60,000. He then noticed all the people carrying boxes and tensed up when he noticed his future classmates. Every boy in sight was decked out in Abercrombie and Fitch or looked like they had stepped out of a J. Crew catalogue. He looked down at his white t-shirt and basketball shorts.
"What am I doing?" he mumbled to himself.
"Come on Bolton! You aren't going to make me do this by myself, are you?" Mr. Luhrman joked and Troy was taken out of his thoughts.
"Oh of course not," Troy said quickly and rushed over to help him. Troy took one duffle bag, while Mr. Luhrman took the other. He closed the trunk and they made their way to the building.
"I've already checked you in and picked up your keys and uniforms so you don't have to worry about that," he said and Troy nodded.
"Thank you," Troy replied.
"Anything for our future star basketball player," Mr. Luhrman smiled and Troy smiled and blushed. "Ok so you are room 405." The walked up a few flight of stairs and walked down the hallway until he came to the room. Mr. Luhrman opened the door and they walked in to see one of the beds with sheets on it, and the desk covered with stuff. Troy gasped when he saw a 40-inch TV by the window.
"Well it looks like Matt has already arrived," Mr. Luhrman said.
"Who?" Troy asked confused.
"Matt, your roommate. He is a junior as well, and was on the JV basketball team last year." Troy just nodded. "Anyways, your uniforms are your closet, there's your computer…"
"Computer?" Troy said in shock and looked to see a Macbook on his desk.
"Yes."
"That's mine?"
"All yours," Mr. Luhrman smiled.
"Mr. Luhrman thank you but I cant take this, these things are like 2 grand," Troy said shaking his head.
"Troy, don't worry about it. The school has a deal with Mac, and students are required to have a laptop here," he replied.
"Oh…okay, well thanks then," Troy said.
"No problem. Anyways, I have to get going, here is your key, ID, and schedule, are you okay from here?"
"Yeah. I really don't know how to thank you for everything you've done for me," Troy said sincerely.
"How about you get me a championship and then we call it even," Mr. Luhrman smiled.
"Yes sir," Troy smiled.
"You have my number if you need anything?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"You're welcome Troy," he replied before leaving. Troy stood in the middle of the room and looked around. He couldn't believe he was here. He looked out the window to see two parents saying goodbye to their son. The mother had tears in her eyes. Troy sighed, wishing he had a family like that. He cleared the thoughts from his head and looked at his side of the room, which was completely bare.
"Might as well unpack," he said to himself. He opened his duffel bag and went to the closet. As soon as he opened the closet he saw a black suit, white shirt, and dark red tie.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said to himself.
"Nope." Troy whipped his head to see a boy standing in the doorway. He was about 6 feet tall, built, and of course in khaki shorts and an A&F shirt. "I'm Matt, you must be Troy."
"Yeah, nice to meet you," Troy said and they shook hands.
"You too," Matt replied. "As for the uniforms, it sucks but you get used to it."
"Yeah," Troy mumbled to himself.
"So where are you from?" Matt asked sitting on his bed.
"LA," Troy replied as he continued to put away his close.
"Wow, a long way from home."
"Yep. What about you?"
"Like a half an hour away from here," he replied and Troy nodded.
"Are most of the kids from around here?" Troy asked.
"Yeah, the only good schools in the county are boarding schools, so most of them are from the Albuquerque area."
"So Mr. Luhrman told me you play ball," Troy said, to avoid any questions about his past. If there was anything Troy was comfortable talking about it was basketball.
"Yeah, you?"
"That's why I'm here," Troy replied and Matt nodded. "You trying out for Varsity?"
"Yeah," Matt replied. "You?"
"Yep." Just then Troy's phone rang. He went over to his bed and picked it up.
"Hello," Troy answered.
"Troy. This is Robert Montez. East High's basketball coach," Robert said.
"Oh…hi…what's up?"
"I was wondering if you could come down to my office, I would like to speak to you," he replied.
"Oh…umm…sure," Troy replied nervously.
"Great, can you stop by now?"
"Yeah, no problem."
"Thanks," he replied. They said their goodbyes and hung up the phone. Troy immediately turned to Matt. "Where's the gym?"
"Walk out of the building, take a right and go straight, you cant miss it," he replied.
"Thanks man." With that Troy left. About 10 minutes later he arrived at the gym and followed the signs to the basketball office. He finally found it and knocked on the door.
"Come in," Robert called from his desk and Troy walked in.
"Hi Troy, it's great to finally meet you," Robert said shaking his hand.
"You as well."
"Take a seat." Troy sat down in one of the visitor's chairs, across from Robert. "Well first off, welcome to East High. How are you liking it so far?"
"Good. I mean I've really only been in my room, but nothing bad has happened," Troy replied.
"Excellent. Now I want to talk to you about a few things," he said and Troy nodded, "first off, I want you to know that you are one of the most talented players I have seen in a long time."
"Thank you sir," Troy smiled.
"You're welcome. However, you do have to go through tryouts," Robert said and Troy nodded. "Truthfully, if I could sit here and say you have a spot I would, but I cant, and I also want to see you play with the rest of the team."
"I understand," he replied and Robert smiled.
"Good. And one more thing. I know about your background, your parents," he said and Troy sighed. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about Troy, but I am bringing this up because we both know that the kids here didn't grow up like that."
"No kidding."
"It is completely your decision on whether or not you want to tell people, but if someone gives you a hard time, especially someone on the team, I want you to tell me right away," Robert said.
"Ok," Troy replied.
"Well that's all," Robert smiled.
"Ok, thank you sir," Troy said politely.
"You're welcome," Robert replied. Troy turned around to leave but was soon stopped.
"Troy…"
"Yeah…"
"Call me coach," he smiled. Troy smiled back and nodded, before leaving the office. He left the gym and looked around at his surroundings. He figured he might as well explore, so he started to walk around the campus. There weren't as many students walking around, he assumed that they were all unpacking. Figuring he should be doing that, he went back to his dorm. He walked up to his dorm to see Matt had left, he shrugged, not knowing that Matt was being informed about him at that moment…
--
"Lastly, I was informed a week ago that East High has recruited a guard out of LA," Robert told the returning basketball players. "He's a junior, his name is Troy Bolton, Matt I understand you are his roommate." Matt nodded. "I want you to make him feel as welcome here as possible."
"Ok," Matt replied.
"Does he have to try out," a JV player asked.
"Yes, but I don't want anyone complaining that he took a spot that was supposed to be yours etc. I don't care if you've been going to this school for 3 years, I don't care who your father is. If there are 6 players better than Troy, then he wont be on Varsity. If there aren't, he will be." They all nodded in understanding. "JV, you can go, Varsity stay."
"So coach, what's the real deal with this kid?" Brett, the player who was lined up to be captain, asked once the JV team left and the five boys, who were all seniors, laughed lightly. The previous year that had all been on the Varsity team, but were subs, for it was rare for a junior to start.
"He's better than all those guys combined," Robert said and the guys laughed. "Guys we were so close to winning states last year. I am confident that this boy is our answered prayer. Do you guys want to watch his highlight tape?"
"Yeah," they all replied.
"Ok, but first, I want you guys to know something, can I trust that what I tell you doesn't leave this room," Robert said seriously and the boys responded with positive answers.
"Good. Troy didn't grow up with the life you all did. He is here on a full ride scholarship. It is a new program that Mr. Luhrman is trying to put together, where we get talented athletes from inner cities and bring them here where they can really shine."
"Coach, I don't give a damn where he grew up, as long as he can play," one of the players said and they all agreed.
"That's what I like to hear."
"Now can we see the tape," a player pleaded.
"Yeah," Robert replied and put it in the player. They all began to watch and were immediately blown away. Robert watched it with a smile on his face, while the boys shook their heads in belief at some plays, whistled, and many oooh's and oohh shit's were heard throughout the room. Ten minutes later the video was over and Robert turned around to see the entire Varsity team amazed. He couldn't help but chuckle at their reactions.
"Troy Bolton, welcome to East High's Varsity basketball team," Brett said and everyone laughed.
"And I thought you were exaggerating when you said he was better than all the JV players combined," Jake, a senior said.
"Well I wasn't."
"Why are you having him try out coach?" one of the players asked.
"Because if he doesn't, then I am going to get 5 phone calls from parents saying that I didn't give everyone a fair chance. Yeah it sucks he has to try out, but everyone in the room knows that he will blow every one of those kids out of the water," Robert replied.
"Can we at least tell him he's on Varsity, so he doesn't have to worry about being nervous?" Jake asked.
"No, cause if someone finds out, I'm screwed. But why don't a few of you organize a pick up game and invite him. Make him comfortable around you. Brett," he acknowledged the captain, as if saying 'it is your job to do this'.
"Yeah, I'm on it," he replied.
"Good. Thanks, you guys can go." They all thanked their coach and left.
Twenty minutes later Troy was lying down on his bed listening to his iPod, when he heard a knock on the door. He took the earphones out of his ears and got up. He opened the door to see two guys, a little older than him standing there.
"Hi," he said a little confused.
"Hey, you must be Troy," Brett said.
"Yeah," he replied still confused.
"I'm Brett, I'm the captain of the varsity basketball team and this is Jake," Brett said.
"Oh," Troy replied, a little less confused. "Nice to meet you guys."
"You as well. We stopped by cause a few of the guys were gonna play a pick up game, and we were wondering if you wanted in," Jake said.
"Oh, yeah, sure," Troy said a little shocked. "Let me just grab my stuff." The boys nodded and Troy put on his shoes and grabbed his key and walked out of the room with the two boys.
--
Robert walked to his car, heading home from a good day at work when he passed the outdoor court. He turned to see about 6 boys playing, one of them Troy. He smiled widely when Troy made a basket and high-fived Brett. He had never been this excited for a basketball season, and it was all because of a junior by the name of Troy Bolton.
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