Gabriella sighed as she headed down the street toward Suze's, a cute little bistro on Newbury street where she was meeting Sharpay for lunch. She'd just left the Center after finishing her chat with Troy. They had continued talking about the basketball teams, and Gabriella realized the Troy had somehow found a sort of respect for her after finding out that she was the captain of the girl's team at West. With a slight smile she headed into Suze's pausing to look for Sharpay who waved enthusiastically to her from a booth in the far corner. With a grin she headed over, tugging her hat off her mess of dark curls and smoothing out the flyaways that had popped up.
"Hey Shar," she greeted as she hugged her friend tightly. "It's too bad Tay couldn't make it." Taylor was their other good friend, and she'd recently went to D.C. for a sustainability convention for their school.
"I know!" Sharpay replied sadly, "But we'll definitely get together when she comes back, for now just tell me how things went with this Troy guy today."
"Well," Gabriella started as she sipped on her lemonade that Sharpay had ordered. "It actually went fairly well, I mean, we started off kind of rough, there was this whole school rivalry thing."
"Ooo," Sharpay interrupted, "Rivals? He goes to East High?" Gabriella nodded as Sharpay's eyes widened, "Troy? East High? THE Troy Bolton?"
Gabriella giggled at Sharpay's reaction, "Yeah, I know! Who knew the seemingly perfect guy from our rival school is at the Center needing help!"
Sharpay groaned, "Come on Gabriella give the guy a break!"
Gabriella slapped Sharpay's hand playfully, "Oh gosh Shar, now you go all soft because this is the Troy Bolton that you thought was 'Oh so cute!' at the basketball game last month right?" Sharpay giggled and Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Whatever, at least I managed to get him to talk to me today."
"Really?" Sharpay leaned forward in her seat, "What about? Oh wait- let me guess." She rolled her eyes and pretended to think really hard. "Could it be… basketball?"
Gabriella giggled at Sharpay's expression and playfully shoved her shoulder across the table. "You got my usual right?"
Sharpay rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes, it amazes me how much you can eat and still remain the smallest West High Lady Knight ever!" Sharpay scowled as the waitress came by just then with their orders. A fishwich for Sharpay, a hotdog, hamburger, basket of fries, and a chocolate milkshake for Gabriella, Sharpay groaned. "Please please tell me your secret!"
Gabriella bit into her burger, "I have none." She said happily with her mouth full.
"Ugh, Gabby sometimes it amazes me that we're even friends!" Sharpay exclaimed scornfully, before playfully glaring at Gabriella.
Gabriella feigned hurt, "At least I have a good sense of fashion!"
"True, true." Sharpay replied, "We still have that shopping date to take care of, how bout next week Friday after school?"
"Mmmm, ok, I think I'll have to go in to the Center on Saturday, just by the way." Gabriella responded flipping open her phone and checking the time. "Gosh Shar we've been here forever!"
"Yeah, I suppose," Sharpay said lazily, "come on we have no where to go Gabs it's the weekend live a little, I'm sure you did all your homework already." Gabriella shrugged and Sharpay smirked. "Ok, ok we can go." Sharpay snagged the check, and the girls split the bill. After leaving a tip, they stepped out into the street, where they both entered Sharpay's car and headed toward Gabriella's house.
When they arrived Sharpay gave Gabriella a hug, "I'll see you tomorrow at school hun."
Gabriella giggled, "Sure thing! Text me for help on homework because I'm almost positive you didn't do it!" Sharpay growled good-naturedly and smiled.
"You know me too well! Ciao!" Gabriella waved as Sharpay pulled away from the curb, and she headed inside where her mom was fixing dinner.
That night at the table Gabriella and her mom were chatting about the latest designs that her mother was going over at the fashion magazine where she worked.
"Marge has been telling me that the 'in' color this season is going to be purple, while Carol is swearing it's going to be orange!" Liz, Gabriella's mother, vented, as she devoured the pasta that was on her plate, she glanced at Gabriella. "They both have such different personalities and tastes I just don't know who to trust anymore, what do you think sweetie?" She shoved the swatches of color towards Gabriella's plate and she carefully picked them up.
"Well," Gabriella scrunched up her nose in thought, "I'm going to have to say that purple is just way more appealing to me, orange is so…" Gabriella made a face, which Liz had to bust out laughing at.
"Purple it is then, though you may be a tad biased seeing as that is your favorite color!"
Gabriella grinned and stuffed a mouthful of pasta in her mouth, she swallowed, "of course I'm not biased!" She giggled mischievously as Liz laughed and took a sip of her water.
"Hmmm, well now that we have a new color for the season, why don't we get a jump start on the fashion industry and go shopping next Saturday for some 'purple' items!" Gabriella laughed, she loved how her mom was so fun and carefree, but was still able to maintain that role model and authoritative figure in the household.
"Sorry mom I can't, I have to go to the Center to work with my new companion."
"Oh? You got a new one already? Whose this one?"
Gabriella looked at her plate, "Troy Bolton." She glanced at her mother's face, pure shock. "But mom!" Gabriella exclaimed as Liz moved to speak, "Don't make a big deal out of it, I'm sure he doesn't want you telling the whole world that he's being sent there."
Liz brought her hand to her chest, "Oh no Gabriella, Starla's boy?" Gabriella nodded. "The poor dear! He must have been hit hard when Starla passed away last year."
Gabriella shrugged, "I guess so mom, but I don't know, Ann said the dad's been taking it out on him a lot too, so it could be more of that." Liz shook her head sadly, and nodded softly.
"You help him best you can honey," she cleared her throat, "so uh got any homework left?"
Gabriella gave her a bemused look, "Mom, homework on Sundays, that has never happened, you know that." Liz chuckled, regaining her usual perky attitude.
"I suppose so, how bout you go change into your pajamas and we'll have a movie night, okay?"
Gabriella laughed and nodded as she trotted up the stairs, and Liz went to go fetch the Ben and Jerry's.
Gabriella shoved her sunglasses onto her face as she hopped into Sharpay's car. The school day had been quite uneventful, and she relished the fact that she'd managed to finish her homework during her various study halls throughout the day. Sharpay on the other hand had done nothing, except draw up a game plan of the stores she wanted to hit at the mall that afternoon. Gabriella would have been the fun sucker and told her to do her homework, but it was a known fact that when it was Friday Sharpay didn't do homework until Sunday. With a giggle Gabriella watched as Sharpay grooved to the music blasting out of the car radio and let out a squeal as they pulled into a parking space at the Fairview Mall.
"I cannot believe it's Friday already!" Sharpay stated excitedly as she swung her purse onto her shoulder and began rummaging around in her school bag. "Hmmm now if I can just find the game plan we can go." She mumbled as she threw various fuzzy pens and notebooks out onto the back seat. Gabriella rolled her eyes as she watched her friend, hoisting her own oversized purse onto the crook of her arm.
"Come on Shar, we haven't got all day! My mom wanted me home early today so I can help her make dinner." Sharpay glared through her oversized aviators at Gabriella.
"We need a game plan," she seethed as she continued her search, "If we don't have it then we'll be all- ahah!" She extracted a sheet of folder paper with scribbles all over it and placed it in her purse. "There we go, okay let's hit it!" Gabriella laughed, you had to love Sharpay no matter what.
Four hours later, the girls had managed to get through everything on Sharpay's list, and had congregated along with their many shopping bags into the mall's food court. Sharpay took a sip of her smoothie as she glanced at Gabriella, " We did good huh?"
"Better then most days!" Gabriella said as she stretched out, "Gosh I'm tired though."
"How bout we come again next week!" Sharpay exclaimed enthusiastically.
Gabriella shook her head, "Shar you have to save some of your money, you can't spend every ounce of your parent's fortune, no matter how rich they may be. How about we just go to a movie next week."
Sharpay sighed and shrunk back into her chair, "I hate it when your right Gab, ugh fine movie it is." She glanced at her watch, "We better start heading home though, your mom said she wanted you early right?" Gabriella nodded hurriedly as she gathered her things together. The girls then headed out of the mall, and towards home, where Sharpay soon dropped Gabriella off.