On The Way…
After everyone arrived at school, they took their seats on the school bus that would escort them to the airport. Chad, who barely made it on time, scrambled onto the bus in an exhausted state, panting heavily. "Sorry, Darbus. There...chocolate…food…dog…crash…"
"I don't even want to hear it!" Mrs. Darbus spat, her distaste for the tardy student ever apparent. Her hazel eyes hidden beneath the thick rims of her glasses wandered down to his built chest, which was covered by a white T-shirt with a picture of a mug of beer and the words, 'WHERE THERE IS BEER, THERE IS CHAD.'
She let out a long sigh, rubbing her temples with her rough hands. The letter which she sent home clearly stated that appropriate attire must be worn. Leave it to the school's most notorious rule-breaker to directly ignore the instructions.
Without another word, she adjusted her wool scarf around her neck and boarded the bus herself. She let out an over-exaggerated sigh as she plopped down on the front seat. The drama teacher would be one of the chaperones on the trip, much to her own dismay. What made it even worse was a fellow student's father on this trip: Coach Bolton. He had been asked to join the trip as well, despite the fact that it was known all over school that Coach Bolton and Mrs. Darbus did not get along very well.
Chad instantly spotted his friends in the back of the bus. "Hey," Chad chirped brightly, slipping into the seat next to Troy just before Gabriella had the chance to. Discouraged, Gabriella stepped back and took the seat next to her best friend, Taylor McKessie. Troy groaned inwardly as Chad stole the seat. He had only prayed that he wouldn't be stuck with Chad for the flight. Sure, he loved Chad like a brother, but sometimes he could be an annoying pain in the ass.
"Hey Taylor," Gabriella said as she grabbed Taylor's carry-on bag, quickly stowing it in the overhead bins of the school bus.
"Hey Gabs…" Taylor rubbed her eye with the back of her hand. "How excited are you?"
Before Gabriella could answer, the whole bus went silent.
"Oh...my…GOSH!" Gabriella sucked in a dry breath before pointing to the dirty school bus window. "Where does she think she think she's going?!"
Sharpay stepped out of her light pink convertible, wearing a long fur coat, a pair of maroon colored, knee-length stiletto-heel Valentino boots (which happened to match her new maroon Prada tote), gray leggings, and a black V-neck Juicy Couture sweater. Her neck was laden with a messy tangle of gold chains and Swarovski crystals. Her bottle blonde hair was tied in an asymmetrical ponytail that rested on her right shoulder. Ryan quickly stepped out from the car behind her, handing pink bags after pink bags to Belfred. When he was finished giving his BROADWAY CAMP bags and her pink bags to Belfred, he adjusted his blue sequined dress shirt and pulled his brown leather belt a hole tighter, making sure to exaggerate his newly toned bod.
The whole bus filled with laughter as Sharpay walked onto the bus, the tail end of her white mink coat getting stuck in the closing bus door.
But not everyone on the bus was laughing. Troy sat silently, his black bag separating his body from Chad's.
I hope was just kidding when she said that my Dad was going to chaperone…He thought to himself as his gut reeled with untapped nervousness. He wanted this trip to be the one time where he could get away from his father – the one time in his life where he could spend his time taking things in instead of focusing on drills, strategies, and foul shots. He also didn't want any arguments. Last time that Darbus and his father had had a talk, it was an argument about him being in "Twinkle Towne", the winter musicale.
Zzzzzzzzzt! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Zzzzzzzzzzt! Troy's body reeled as he looked at the LCD screen, checking the caller ID on his cell. DAD, it read. He shakily picked up the vibrating cell phone with his clammy hands.
"H-hello? Dad?"
"Hey sport! Um…I just wanted to let you know that I can't make it to the trip…"
"Why not?!" Troy tried to sound angry, but it was hard for him to lie with an ear-to-ear smile beginning to take shape across his face.
"Aww….I know you're upset…but…it's just that, Mom already took the car to go and pick up some things to send you, and I called a Taxi…well, that taxi service just called. They said their GPS systems went out…so I'm gonna be a no show. I'm really sorry, bud." Mr. Bolton's voice shook with worry. "Y'gonna be alright?"
"Yeah…fine. I gotta go, dad. BYE!" Troy waited until his dad hung up before smiling and letting out a small hiss, "Yess!"
Chad turned around to his friend, and much to Troy's prediction, his face was already messy chocolate smudges all over. "What's up dude?"
"Nothing, nothing," Troy said, pushing the thought aside, "Just dad saying he can't make it to the trip."
"Dang, dude that sucks! I thought we could run some drills so we wouldn't lose our touch while on vacay!"
Troy sighed; this was exactly why he hadn't wanted his dad to come. He wanted this vacation to be perfect and didn't want basketball on his mind at all. If his dad were to come, basketball would obviously come up as the center of the subject. Sometimes, Troy wished that his dad could talk to him as his father, not his coach. He had always said to Troy, that he's dad first and Coach second.
"Yeah, I guess. So…anything new with you and Taylor?"
Chad grinned, "I plan on taking that hottie on one romantic vacation she'll never forget!" Troy chucked slightly at his cheeky friend.
"EW MOVE!" A shriek was heard from the front of the bus, as Princess de la Blonde made her way to the back, with her little poodle, Ryan, trailing behind her. Troy and Chad exchanged frightened looks. Troy especially had wanted to avoid contact with Sharpay as much as possible; if anyone knew how to turn a relaxing vacation into a crazy, wild and twisted one with loops and turns, it was Sharpay. Troy wanted the drama to be at the minimum. He had enough of that at school.
"Looks like Blondie decided to bring along her whole wardrobe!" Chad joked as Sharpay pouted and looked around the bus.
"Ew! Am I supposed to SIT in here? I could get HERPES here and DIE!"
Taylor and Gabriella exchanged knowing glances. Taylor said to her in the calmest tone possible, "Sharpay, you're only going to be in here for twenty minutes. We just need to get to the airport."
Sharpay huffed, ignoring Taylor's words. Instead, she shrieked loudly, "BELFRED! I NEED DISINFECTANT! PRONTO!"
Belfred hopped onto the bus, white rubber gloves covering his diamond cufflinks. He pulled a tiny purple packet out of his back pocket, ripped it open, and quickly unfolded a palm-sized cleaning wipe. After scrubbing down the seat, he opened the tiny pack he had carried onto the bus, pulling out a can of OUST in Pagoda Beach scent, quickly spraying anything within two feet of Sharpay's brown leather bus seat- including people.
"Hey...yo! Fancy pants! Can you hurry this up? We got a flight to catch!" Mr. Cox, the bald bus driver spat to Belfred.
"My apologies, sir," Belfred replied in a sophisticated manner. "One moment…" He quickly pulled a pink monogrammed blanket out of the pack and laid it over the seat cushions. As he turned to leave, he heard Sharpay's squeaky voice. "Belfred…pillows?"
"Sorry, Miss Evans. One moment…" He ran out of the bus to the car, pulled two fluffy pink pillows out of the trunk, then turned on his heels and onto the bus. "Here Miss Evans. Have a safe trip!" Belfred said as he placed the pillows on her seat.
Without even a thank you, Sharpay motioned for him to leave before sitting down and pulling off her coat.
"Jeez…" Gabriella said before turning back to face Taylor. "That girl couldn't be any slower!"
"Anyway…"Taylor drawled slyly. "What are you planning to do with Bolton?" she jabbed her slim chocolate brown finger over toward where Troy was sitting.
"We were thinking about going to the Eiffel Tower…but besides that, we haven't really planned anything together. He has been upset ever since he found out that Mr. Bolton is coming on the trip…" Gabriella turned her head just as Troy turned his, their eyes catching. Troy winked as she blushed, pulling away from his gaze.
"Well…" Taylor said, hiding a smile as she pulled Gabriella's shoulders toward her, so that her head would do the same as she stared at the two boys across them. "Well…I think that when he gets there, he'll want to spend a lot of time with you."
Finally, the bus took off.
Chad bounced in his seat, listening to 'Push it to the Limit' on his iPod nano. Troy felt himself grow annoyed with him and it hadn't even been five minutes yet. His gaze traveled to where Gabriella sat and he smiled. He couldn't wait until they got to Paris. Best of all, his dad wouldn't be there telling him to focus on basketball. Life couldn't get any sweeter.
"You gotta PUSH IT!" Chad sang to himself, turning to Troy. "Don't you think Corbin Bleu's the bomb? I mean, his afro is awesome! Not as hot as mine, but pretty close!"
"Sure Chad…"
"And that dude can MOVE! It's like…BAM! Up! Push it! Down! Push it! Up! Limit! Limit! Push it!"
"Uh-huh Chad."
"And then, it's back down and he leans back and there's a bunch of people behind him cheering him on!"
"Yeah, okay…"
"So you're just like, 'Push it Corbin! Push it!'"
"Okayyyy."
"He's not too bad looking either."
"…"
"What? He's not! He's actually very good-looking!"
"…"
"Don't look at me that way, Bolton!"
"…"
"I'm not…you know…I swear it!"
"…"
"OKAY! THIS IS KILLING ME, TROY! SAY SOMETHING!"
"Err…look! Airport! We're here!" With that said, Troy climbed out of his seat and gathered all his bags together as twenty other students did the same.
