Chapter 1: Motive
It was early in the morning, too early for most teenagers to be up let alone at school. Sharpay had been coming into the theater every morning for the past three years, trying to get a workout before the school day started. Most girls thought she naturally had a body like that, and she was naturally slim but dancing out her frustrations kept her toned. With a couple cups of coffee, sweat towel, and her ipod she was ready to go. Every morning Sharpay would get to dance alone for at least a couple of hours, but today was different, someone had been watching her. A tall, lean black figure had slipped into one of the seats and watched her routine. When she stopped to take a water break, Sharpay noticed him slipping out the back. "Ahhh." She screamed and jumped back a few feet. Quickly, Sharpay grabbed her things and left.
Later onn...
The school bell rang at 7:55 like any other day, but this was far from being any other day. Troy was at his locker getting books when Gabriella skipped up and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Morning Wild Cat." He shut his locker and turned her around to kiss her. "Morning Gabs, how was your grandma's birthday dinner?"
"Like any dinner with grandma is like. All this talk about Stanford and 'you know Stanford is the best university on the west coast, hijah.' Just wait until you come over tonight, she's dying to meet you Troy." She smiled, thinking it can't get better than this. Gabriella couldn't be more satisfied with her life. She had a great mom, the best of friends, a scholarship to Stanford, and most importantly; Troy. Gabby thought she was living a fairytale, it never occured to her how fast everything could change.
Troy leaned down and kissed her nose, "Well i can't wait to meet grandma Montez, what time should i get there?"
"Dinner's at six thirty so around six if thats okay with you." Gabi let go of Troy to answer a text message, it was from Taylor.
To Gabriella,
Hey, i'm walking into school now. U at Troy's locker?
xoxoTaylor
Gabriella smiled and hit the 'reply' button.
To Taylor,
Yes, of course! I'll see u soon.
xoxoGabi
Sure enough, a couple mintues later Taylor was walking up while holding hands with her boyfriend, Chad. "Hey guys!" Taylor squealed, making anyone around them wince a bit, that was just her happy voice.
She went up and hugged Gabi while Troy and Chad did there little handshake. The four friends went on with there normal chat just like they did every morning. When it was time to go they headed to their homeroom with Ms. Darbus. As Troy walked in the room his eyes layed on a certain brown-eyed girl with blonde hair. Sharpay. When he saw her petrefied look and scared eyes he coulda' swore it made him wince. What was going on with him? There was something going on with East High's Icequeen. And unfortunately, it worried him.
"Take your seats children. Even though you're at the end of your highschool journey I will not tolerate slacking off. You know the drill, put your cellphone's in the tub and take your seats." Ms. Darbus announced from her desk in the front.
Troy was the first to reach the cellphone tub, he noticed Sharpay's pink, rhinestoned sidekick was already in there. That was odd, her's always seemed last in there. Yeah, something was wronge. He stayed quiet,
placed his cellphone in the tub and went to his seat in the front. Before Gabriella got to her seat, he peaked around his shoulder and met Sharpay's scared eyes. It seemed to keep him occupied until Darbus told him to face forward. The rest off the class went by pretty fast, Ms. Darbus announced the what the Spring Musical was going to be and when auditions would be. When the bell rang they all got up and started to leave, except for Sharpay. She took her time to gather all her things up.
"So i'll see you at lunch?" Gabriella asked Troy as they got out of the classroom. The hallway was pretty full by now, people passed them to get to there next class.
Just then Mr. Jones, Troy's history teacher came up to him. "Yeah, see ya." Troy gave Gabi a quick kiss on the cheek and then turned his attention back to his teacher. "Hey, Mr. Jones."
"Bolton, ahh yes just the guy i needed to see. About your semester research paper, you need to type me up a bibliography stating all your sources or else i can't give you a full grade. You will get that to me by the end of the school day for credit. Good bye." Mr. Jones said in hurry and then took off. It took Troy a minute to start walking again, and that's when he saw a guy at the end of the hallway raise a gun. His eyes practically bulged out of their sockets, then he heard it go off and someone grab onto him.
Everyone in that hallway was scurrying to get away, all of this making Troy confused. He didn't even think about the person who was still holding onto him with a pretty good grip. The next thing he knew, he was in a dark janitor's closet trying to catch his breath. He found the light switch and flicked it on, surprised to see Sharpay in the same room. She was the one who pushed him out of the way. "W-what the hell just happened?" Troy stuttered, not realizing what was right infront of his eyes.
Sharpay stayed silent.
He then saw the red spot on Sharpay's white blouse, and it was getting bigger. Troy couldn't speak, is that what he thought it was? "O-o-ohh god." He kneeled down and lightly touched the red spot in her stomach area. "Y-you're hurt, Sharpay!"
She looked down at her flat stomach and sure enough, there was a huge red spot on her new blouse. All of a sudden it felt hard to breathe, making it hard to respond.
"We have to wait a couple minutes until we know the shooters gone. Here-" Troy took off his light-blue bottom down shirt off and pressed it against the wound. "Shit, you're losing a lot of blood." He got up and went to the door. It was locked. "No! It can't be locked!" He giggled the door knob and hit it with his shoulder to try and get it open. With no avail he turned around and looked down at Sharpay who was grasping her tummy. "It won't open."
"AHHHHHHHHH." Sharpay let out a scream and nearly passed out right then.
Troy turned back to the door and banged on it with his fists as hard as he could. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP! WE NEED HELP! HELP! IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?"
She was fading fast, but she noticed a fire extinguisher and had an idea. "T-t-t-troyyy." Sharpay tried her best to talk, it came out in a choked whisper though.
He heard Sharpay and looked down to see her pointing at the red fire extinguisher. Troy picked it up and hit it against the door, with a few more hits he was able to make a hole in it and open up the door from the outside. Once it was open he let out a deep breath and then noticed Sharpay had passed out. His hole shirt was covered in his blood. Troy panicked, picked her up bridal style and headed down the hallway.
It took him a good five minutes to finaly reach the front entrance of the school. As soon as he walked out with her, SWAT teams swarmed them and took Sharpay out of his arms. They made him get down on the ground and put his hands around his head. The whole time he watched the paramedics put Sharpay on a gurnee and lift her up into the truck. He wanted to go with her to make sure she'd be alright but they told him he'd just get in the way. So Troy got in his beat up up truck and speeded off, not taking notice to his friends or girlfriend who just walked out of the school's gym.
Gabriella, Taylor, and Chad saw Troy in only his white under shirt with blood on it, get into his truck and speed off. Gabi freaked out, "Troy's hurt! He had blood on his shirt. Chad, you have to take me to the hospital. Now!" He nodded and the three of them got in Chad's yellow jeep and speeded away.
Troy got there the same time the paramedics did, he quickly shut off the engine and jumped out of his car. The paramedics took her out of the truck and immediately rushed her into the hospital's emergency room.
Three or four nurses rushed up to Sharpay on the gurnee, followed by a doctor. "Highschool shooting. Wound in the medial abdominal area." The girl paramedic told the doctor.
"Alright lets get her into surgery, it looks like we gotta go dig out the bullet. Prepare OR rm. 3." The doctor announced and went to go scrub up.
Troy watched them wheel Sharpay down the white hallways, he couldn't keep his eyes off her face. She was so pale looking, it looked much worse with the oxygen mask she was wearing. They were finally at the point where only medical staff was allowed in. Before he could walked through these huge doubled-doors a nurse stopped him. "I'm sorry you can't go any further. You have to go wait in the ER lobby, i'm sorry but you're not even family. I have to go call them now."
He nodded his head and walked back the way he'd came. As soon as he got back into the ER he saw Gabi, Taylor, and Chad rush in the sliding doors. "Troy!" Gabriella ran up to him and touched the blood on his shirt. "Are you hurt, babe? What happened?" She laid her head on his chest and squeezed him tightly.
Troy shook his head, "No i wasn't hurt, Gabs. But Sharpay was. Somehow she moved infront of me right before the gun went off and then we got stuck in a janitor's closet. I'm sorry i just had to come to see if she was going to be okay."
Gabi's facial expressions were alittle shocked and hurt. But all that mattered was that Troy was okay. "It's okay, i'm just glad you're okay."
"Dude is Ice Queen going to be okay?" Chad and Taylor walked up to them.
"Shut the fuck up Chad! She just took a bullet for me, okay. Don't call her that!" Troy roared with anger. Somehow he felt protective over Sharpay now, ever since she took a bullet for him. He owed her.
Chad's eyes widened, "S-sorry man i didn't know. Umm did someone call her parents?"
"Like you give a shit! Just leave 'MAN'." Troy gave him a disgusted look and then walked away. Gabriella gave Chad an apologetic look and then went to find Troy. She knew exactly where he'd be, up on the roof.
That's exactly where he went when his grandma was sick in the hospital, it helped him clear his thoughts. She walked up to the roof and found Troy looking out over the edge. Gabi went up to him, "What was that all about Troy? Did you have to be such a jerk to your bestfriend?"
Troy turned his head to look at her, "He deserved it, Gabs. Sharpay isn't a bad person like everyone thinks she is. She just took a bullet for me! No ice queen would fucking do that!"
"Language. And okay Troy i get that you feel graditude for her but you have no right to treat your friends like crap! You know Sharpay did that because-" Gabriella stopped, suddenly regreting that sentence.
"Because she likes me? Is that it, huh? You know what Gabi, you're so insecure that i'd leave you for her so of course you'd say that. You have no right to judge her!" He screamed in her face. Troy didn't even the tears in her eyes, he wouldn't look at them. After a couple more seconds of silence he started walking towards the door. Before he left, Troy turned back to meet Gabriella's sad gaze. "I don't think i'll beable to make it for dinner tonight." With those final words, Troy made his way back down to the ER. Once he got there he went straight up to the nurse's desk, "Hi i was wondering if my friend has gotten out of surgery yet?"
A short hispanic nurse wearing Tweetie Bird scrubs answered him. "You're the one that brought that girl in from the school shooting right? Let me find out and i'll let you know."
"Thank you." Troy watched her go back through the double doors. He was pacing frantically when the nurse came back out with the same doctor from earlier. "Hey Doc, is she gonna be okay?"
"Well the bullet was in between the small intestine, although we were able to get it out during the surgery. Ms. Evans should make a remarkable recovery, thanks to you son." Dr. Hatch said with a smile.
A wave of relief went through Troy's body, knowing Sharpay was going to be okay made him feel more relaxed from this whole situation. It made him smile, "Can i go see her?"
"Well we normally don't let anyone in there without parental approval but since the Evans won't be here until another hour i supose so." Dr. Htch granted, "She's in room 426." Then he retreated back into the doubled doors.
Five minutes later Troy was right infront of room 426. He was kind of nervous about going in and seeing Sharpay, this whole situation was really strange. It's not like Sharpay was one of his friends, not even close to that, although they were close in elementary school. They would play tether ball or four square at recess and then go back to Troy's house after school and play basketball. A lot of people didn't know Sharpay like he did. She was just as much of a tomboy when they were little, but who would believe them. That was always kind of like their little secret. And then they went to middle school where there was no longer recess and from there on Sharpay built up this mean, stuck up reputation.
When he sucked in his pride, Troy put his hand on the door knob and walked in slowly. His eyes immediately fell on Sharpay who was still asleep, it looked different to see her in a pale blue gown, hooked up to an IV, and have those oxygen things up her nose. It acually cause Troy to let out a chuckle.
"If I found out you put pictures of me on the internet, you're dead Bolton!" Sharpay whispered, her eyes only fluttering open a tiny amount.
Troy looked down at Sharpay and saw her waking up. "Don't worry Evans, I had Taylor come in a do it for me. You should be getting lots of Tweet's pretty soon." He gave her his signature grin.
All of a sudden her facial expression's turned serious. She began pulling on a lose thread of her hospital blanket.
He sat down next to her and placed his hand gently upon hers, "Whats wrong, Sharpay?"
"You know what i realized today, Troy? Life can change in the blink of an eye. If i would've died.. Troy I'm the biggest bitch at East High. I bet you know one at school would've gone to my funeral." Sharpay sniffled back a couple tears, still hasn't looked up at Troy.
"Ryan would be there." Troy joked, trying to ease the tension between them.
A couple tears fell down her pale cheek, "Doesn't count, he's my twin."
Troy frowned and squeezed her hand, "I would've gone. Sharpay i care about you, and i know you care about me. It's just hard for us to show it."
His words couldn't help but make her smile, "Yeah i guess."
It was silent between the two teens for quite awhile. They both stared down at maroon colored blanket. Then suddenly Troy spoke up, "Why? Why did you risk your life to save mine?"
For the first time Sharpay met Troy's gaze, "Remember that one time back in fifth grade? When i ate that granola bar that had peanuts in it. You carried me on your back all the way up to the nurse's office. That nurse said i could've died if you hadn't gotten me there in time. So when i saw that gun raise that memory from 5th grade popped into my head and i just jumped infront of you. Stupid, huh?"
At that momment Troy felt something he had never felt, love and admiration for the one and only Sharpay Evans. "The most stupidest i've ever heard." He joked.
Sharpay slapped his chest.
He shook his head and smiled at her, this was different smile though. One he usually gives his girlfriend. "Ya' know, i think that's the sweetest thing you've ever done for me."
"Well don't get used to it Bolton, that sorda thing only comes once in life time." Sharpay smirked.
"I owe you, Pay." Her nicname just slipped off his lips.
Sharpay raised her eyebrow in amusement, "Hell yeah you do! But i don't want anything from you Troy."
"Friends?" Troy stuck out his right hand, grinning.
She rolled her eyes and shook his hand, "Friends."
Someone was watching them, this person heard there whole conversation. And all they want is revenge. "I'm sorry but you can't be standing out here sir. Please leave." One of the nurses told them, then wheeling away the big phlabotimist tray. But they didn't leave, not without one more look at his first victim.
A.N~ So that was chapter 1. I can't believe i acually updated this chapter the same day as the trailer! I hope you enjoyed. So who do you guys think that mysterious person was? I think to make things more interesting i'm going to make it a suspense story as well. Let me know your suggestions ;)