Troy had long been accepted to the University of Albuquerque. While most of his friends were biting their nails and running home immediately after school every day to check their mailboxes, Troy had been coasting along since December. Even better than that, Chad had gotten accepted around the same time, despite his constant whining that he didn't have Troy's connections to the team or the admission's office. Chad actually got the same exact athletic scholarship and in addition to that Chad had gotten additional amount for academic performance.
This turn of events had completely resolved all the drama that had happened the previous summer and Troy and Chad were back to being the best of friends, especially now that they didn't have to worry so much about school. In fact, with classes winding down and most of the pressures of school completely relieved Chad and Troy had taken to organizing pick games of soccer, basketball, baseball and all other kinds of sports after school during the times when they didn't have formal practice. It turned out to the be the most fun he could remember having and he couldn't believe he and his friends didn't play informally like this more often.
It wasn't just for the Wildcat jocks either. All different kinds of people would show up to play, of all different levels, and sometimes the team was in for a real surprise. East High didn't have a soccer team, but a lot of the kids who showed up to play were members of outside leagues so the games very often got intense, much to the thrill of those playing and also those watching. By the end of the year the pick up games could usually draw a crowd of over 50 people.
Another surprise was Ryan Evans. Troy had heard he was good, but he hadn't expected him to be that good. Ryan Evans was the kid who had to take gym four times a day his senior year because he had never bothered to show up the three years previous. Troy was also pretty sure he'd never even been to the part of the school where all the sports fields were before this year, yet there he was, ridiculously over dressed and throwing strike after strike.
So not only was Troy having more fun with his friends than ever before, as well as making tons of new friends, but a few times a month during basketball season he and Chad would drive over to U of A and they got to hang out with the team together. The boys had welcomed Chad just as enthusiastically as they had Troy. Troy and Chad would join in on practice every once in a while, but they always tried to make it to the home games, which in turn meant they were always invited to the victory parties. They both realized they were getting a huge leg up on the whole college social scene, and it was making their senior year quite memorable.
So, when April came around Troy had been confident that he was having, hands down, the best year ever, which is a very dangerous thing to feel so confident in. Being blissfully and totally happy can only last so long, and Troy, though deemed by many as "the Golden Boy," was no exception.
It was 5:00 PM on a spring day when Troy was sitting at his kitchen table, sweating and exhausted, having just gotten in from baseball practice, when his cell phone began to play "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, and that meant one thing. Gabi was calling. He dove for the phone to answer it as quickly as possible, not because he was at Gabi's beck and call or anything lame like that, but because he really hated that song. Troy and Gabi had been watching a movie at her house, and Troy had picked the movie and since it wasn't about people falling in love and making out passionately in the rain Gabi hadn't been all that interested so she had hijacked Troy's phone. When he got it back his screen read "Troy and Gabi 4eva!" and had a picture of them together as the background. The picture was cute, but he kind of hated opening his phone and seeing his own face every time. It seemed kind of egotistical. And the whole thing was also kind of girly.
He wanted to change it all back, but it was Gabi and she would probably get upset. She wouldn't say that she was upset, no definitely not. She would smile all big and say it was fine and then later Troy would find out that everyone absolutely hated him for doing something so horrible to sweet and precious Gabriella Montez and then she would say that she needed a break and he wouldn't really get it at all and, really, he just wanted to avoid all of that if possible.
But, yeah, now she was calling. He managed to pick up before the chorus got going, and for that he was relieved.
"Hey, Gabs!" He said as cheerfully as possible, masking the residual irritation of that stupid song.
"Hey, Troy. We need to talk! Can I come over?" That was weird. Troy tried to read her voice but was coming up with nothing. Usually the business of needing to have a talk was a bad sign, but Gabriella sounded completely happy and cheerful. Possibly even a little overexcited.
"Yeah, come on over. I'm just hopping in the shower, but I'll probably be done by time you get here."
"Perfect! See you in 20 or so minutes!" And with those final exclamations, she was off the line. It was rather unlike Gabriella, who always spent an inordinately long time saying goodbye. But they were seeing each other in just a few minutes, so maybe she had for once realized the drawn out farewells were unnecessary.
Troy was just finishing putting his clothes on when he heard the doorbell ring. He barreled down the stairs in his usual manner of skipping as many of them as possible and then using his momentum to slide full on into the door. It usually freaked out the people behind the door, but Gabriella was a regular guest at the Bolton house and long been accustomed to the accompanying racket.
When Troy flung the door open he was greeted with a Gabriella who was absolutely beaming. She was also bouncing up and down on her heels and she even had tears in her eyes. They were obviously happy tears, though. Gabi was one of those people who could happy cry, like in the movies. Troy so did not get it.
Troy did not have to wonder for very long what the source of all this emotion was, however. As Gabi had an envelope bigger than her entire torso in her hands and it was rather clearly emblazoned with the word "Georgetown."
Troy was now also feeling very happy. Georgetown was Gabi's dream and it was happening and she was clearly over the moon about it and Troy couldn't help but get excited himself. He immediately picked her up and spun her around a couple of times.
"Gabi! This is so great! Congratulations! I mean, I knew you were going to get in, but it's nice that it's official now."
She looked sheepish at his confidence in her ability but nevertheless the smile didn't leave her face. Troy had a feeling it was going to be permanently stuck there for a good while.
"Thanks, Troy. Stuff like this is never definite, but I'm so relieved."
But it turned out Troy was wrong, because not 5 minutes after Gabi arrived on her doorstep, she completely wiped the smile from her face and promptly broke up with Troy. And 10 minutes after that she was out the door.
x x x
Ryan was kind of confused. He knew one thing, though, and he had definitely been drugged. His vision was swimming and he couldn't move any of his limbs. From his experience with horror movies, this was decidedly not good. What if he was the minor character he was wiped out so easily no one even remembered once the movie ended. Just that first victim with whom the audience has no emotional attachment, merely a plot device to let everyone know a killer's on the loose.
Ryan was just starting to think that his current train of thought was rather unproductive as far as finding of a way to escape was concerned, but before he could quite manage he passed out again.
This was much to the concern of three people named Michael, Jacob, and Todd. Those were the same three people who had dressed in black and broken into the Evan's home and they were also the ones who had administered the drugs. They were now realizing they had been a perhaps little too generous with the drugs part, as Ryan was going in and out of consciousness as well as babbling incoherently. He could only remain awake for a few moments, and he usually spent that time mumbling angrily that he "wasn't a plot device" and that he "deserved a more prominent role" because he had "emotional depth."
The three men looked nervously at one another once the boy had passed out again. It was actually rather important that Ryan stay alive, so they were all a bit nervous that he was still so out of it. However, after checking both Wikipedia and WebMD they realized he just needed to sleep it off, so they let him be and went one room over to make something for dinner. None of them were very good cooks, however, so they ended up just eating five boxes of macaroni and cheese.
x x x
Okay, so, Troy wasn't devastated or anything like that. After the fourth or fifth time they had broken up Troy and Gabriella both realized their relationship was definitely "a high school thing." Yeah, it had been really great in the beginning, but it was their first ever relationship, so of course it was amazing. Troy had never had anyone to make out with on a regular basis and Gabriella finally had something other than homework and extra credit work to occupy her spare time.
They both knew it was coming because Troy was always absolutely sure he would go to U of A and Gabi had applied to east coast schools exclusively. Still, Troy had surprised himself a bit by how little he had been affected by the break up. In fact, the first thought that had popped into his head once Gabi had left was that he would finally be able to restore his phone to its previous levels of manliness. In many ways, the emotion he was feeling most strongly was relief.
The pressure was really off now. His future plans were set, he didn't have homework or basketball championship games to worry about and he didn't have to always check with the people around him to make sure he hadn't accidentally hurt his girlfriends feelings once again.
In fact, by dinner Troy was even able to convince himself that things were better this way. He was still top dog and everything was still going in his favor.
And that may very well have been the case, but as mentioned previously, these kinds of thoughts are rather dangerous. Troy should have been humbled by his brush with unhappiness, but instead he chose to wink cheekily at himself in the bathroom mirror, while thinking something along the lines of "you still got it, Bolton."
These kinds of actions are rather ominous. Some shit was about to go down.
Author's Notes: Cough. Yeah, it's still full of crack and I'm still writing, despite the fact I'm not sure if anyone likes it, haha. Well, too bad, it's getting written anyway! I mean, I'd prefer if people were reading it or whatever, and liking it, most preferably. But either way, I'm pretty sure it's going to get written. And it's going to be more than five parts because my brain has gone crazy places. I'd love it if you'd review! Perhaps a guess as to who the kidnappers might be? You'll never guess! Not yet, anyway.