Hey Everyone! Well, here's the high school reunion! I hope you like it! I actually have writen chapters 5 and 6 so if you want those you HAVE to review, or I might just HAVE to wait a couple of weeks to post the next chapter! :) Enjoy!
Chapter four
Gabriella was sitting in her front seat of her car in East High's parking lot, starring at the familiar school. She watched as people made their way into the school, people she recognized and some that she didn't. The sky was dark and the air was cool and calm as Gabriella stepped out of her car. She exhaled slowly, grabbed her purse, and made her way toward East High.
She smiled at Mr. Matsui who was at the front door and at Ms. Darbus who almost cried when she saw her. After a talk with Ms. Darbus about her college experience she walked toward the cafeteria. She laughed when she saw the pictures of everyone from years ago that were enlarged and scattered around the hallways. She opened the cafeteria doors and she scanned the room casually, smiling at a few people that waved to her. She almost squealed when she saw her group of friends sitting at a round table and as she came up to them, they all jumped out of their chairs to greet her.
"Gabi!" Zeke exclaimed as he hugged her tightly and spun her around.
Gabriella giggled as he continued to hold onto her and she smiled as she smelt the familiar scent of baked goods that always seemed to linger around Zeke.
"Zeke! I want to hug her now." Sharpay said with a laugh.
"I'm never letting her go." Zeke answered, holding her even tighter.
"I can't breathe, Zeke." Gabriella said with a laugh.
Troy opened the cafeteria doors after he walked through the hallways and had a long talk with Ms. Darbus. He walked in and stopped when he saw his friends and the familiar figure in Zeke's arms. He took a deep breath and made his way toward them, shaking a few old basketball teammates' hands as he walked by different tables.
Gabriella laughed again as Zeke's grasp slowly loosened on her and he set her down. He cleared his throat slightly and the group, other than Sharpay, became uneasily silent. Gabriella furrowed her brow and turned around to look where everyone was looking. She gasped, unnoticeably, and cleared her throat like Zeke had as she looked ahead.
"Hi, Troy." She said with a smile.
"Hey, Gabriella." Troy replied with a nod.
The group exchanged a quick glance and started to relax since the two seemed to be oddly okay with being around each other. Kelsi shot Sharpay a look as she started to speak.
"Gosh, I missed you so much, Gabi!" She said as she hugged Gabriella quickly.
"I missed you too!" She said with a smile, turning to Sharpay for the hug that she had been waiting for. Sharpay squealed in excitement and looked at her friend, seeing what had changed, though not much, about her.
"Don't forget to hug, Jason!" Jason said with a chuckle as he hugged Gabriella.
Chad smiled at Troy and patted him on the side of his arm as he shook his hand, even though he saw him yesterday, making Troy chuckle quietly.
The chuckle that escaped from Troy's lips made the hair on Gabriella's arms rise up and a sudden feeling of coldness fill her body. She gave Taylor an awkward smile as Taylor looked at her from across the circle of friends. The group sat down after a minute more of greeting each other and as small talk formed, the group started to feel more comfortable.
The table of friends was now cracking up as Taylor told them a story about Gabriella. Gabriella blushed as she shook her head at Taylor and put her hand to her forehead in embarrassment.
"… She was just lying in the middle of the hallway with grape juice all over her white lab coat!" Taylor finished with a high pitched cackle, sending the table in full on hysterics.
"It wasn't that bad!" Gabriella defended herself with a small laugh.
"Yes it was!" Taylor said continuing with her long laugh, she had tears in her eyes as she thought of the moment and laughed harder.
"That's ridiculous!" Jason said with a laugh, holding his stomach.
"I know!" Taylor nodded.
"And people were just stepping over her?" Sharpay asked, surprised that no one helped her up, as she twisted her wedding ring around her finger, carelessly. Zeke and Sharpay had been married for a year now and Gabriella smiled as she looked at the ring on Sharpay's finger.
"Until she tripped some guy and he had to help her up!" Taylor answered.
"Hey! That guy didn't have to help me! He wanted to!" Gabriella said with a laugh.
After the group settled down from their long laugh, Taylor and Gabriella were starting to get loaded with questions about what they had been up to all the way at Yale.
"How was the studying?" Kelsi asked her friends.
"It was definitely not easy. There were times when I would stop studying and Gabriella just sat at her desk and studied until morning." Taylor answered.
"Really?" Sharpay asked.
"It had to be done." Gabriella said with a shrug.
"Now that this studying is over with, what are you going to do?" Troy asked both of the girls.
"I'm looking for a pharmacist job close by. I already sent my applications out to a few places." Taylor answered, and then turned to look at Gabriella as she answered.
"I'm working at the Albuquerque hospital down the road. I'm pretty sure I'm starting next month." Gabriella said, getting proud smiles from her friends.
"So you're working with the blood and gore stuff?" Jason asked as he crinkled his nose.
"Yeah, I am." Gabriella said with a laugh.
"So you can work with anything from removing like a pole from someone's stomach to… pregnancies?" Sharpay asked as she looked at Gabriella.
Gabriella sensed that that question was meant to be taken in a different way and as she looked at Sharpay, she knew that she would definitely have to talk to her later, privately.
"Yeah. I can do it all." Gabriella said with a smile.
"Awesome." Chad said with a nod.
Everyone laughed as they looked at Chad and continued with their conversation, just how they always did before college, only now, Gabriella and Troy tried their hardest not to have long moments of eye contact.
Gabriella excused herself from the table after a couple of hours to go to the bathroom. She pushed the cafeteria doors open and walked into the hallway, making her way toward the bathroom.
She felt an eerie feeling and goose bumps slowly made their way to the surface of her skin. She stopped when she felt like something was really wrong and she looked to her right.
Her heart started to pound and her hands became clammy as she looked at the janitor's closet, the door was wide open and everything inside was visible. She tried to fight the memory that was coming back into her mind; she blinked quickly, trying to push it back into her 'to-never-remember-again' area of her brain, but it came, faster than she thought it would.
"Well, well, well, missy. Are you trying to hide from me?" Gabriella could almost feel the weight of her arm being grasped by that sickening man and she shivered as more memories came back to her.
"You're coming with us. Don't fight back or I'll kill him." Gabriella starred into the darkness of the closet and thought, or imagined, that she felt the warmness of the other man's breath on her neck, his hissing whispers close to her ear.
"Gabriella!" She heard Troy's voice, shaking and screaming after her, echoing inside her head and she snapped out of her flashback when she heard her name being said.
"Gabriella?" She heard Troy say with concern in his voice.
Gabriella looked away from the closet and at Troy, who was standing behind her, with a questioning look on his face.
"I thought you were going to the bathroom?" He said as he looked at her.
"I am… I just kind of spaced out for a second. I'm fine though, so I guess I'll just be going now." She said with a nod as she pointed to the bathroom.
"Okay… are you sure you're okay?" Troy asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Gabriella nodded again and pushed the bathroom door open, glancing back at Troy quickly, he was standing in the same spot she saw him last in East High, only this time he was standing up and blood wasn't pouring out of his shoulder.
Troy stayed in his spot as he watched the door of the bathroom swing shut and block the sight of Gabriella. He knew that Gabriella really wasn't fine. He knew that look on her face as being nervous and unsure; the one he never liked seeing. He knew that she was remembering that terrible day at East High because he was remembering it too and that was exactly what made him leave the hallway as quickly as he could, going back into the cafeteria.
The previous East High students were slowly making their way out of East High and the group of friends was walking down the hallway when Chad shouted,
"What team?" He asked as he pumped his fist in the air.
"Wildcats!" The hallway of people shouted, along with the group of six.
"What team?"
"Wildcats!"
"Wildcats!" Chad shouted back.
"Get-cha head in the game!" Everyone shouted with smiles clear on their faces.
Mrs. Darbus clapped excitedly from the door way of East High and waved goodbye to her beloved family of students. The group split as they walked to their cars and as Gabriella buckled her seatbelt, she caught a glimpse of Troy and looked out of her side window.
Troy was sitting in the front seat of his car, his seat belt was now around him, and he was putting a silver CD into his stereo. The sound of quiet music floated toward Gabriella and she continued to watch him until he glanced up from his steering wheel and saw her looking at him. He smiled a smile that made Gabriella's heart flutter and he waved to her before he pulled out, paralyzing her to continue to look ahead of her.
She felt something in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't anything physical, but emotional. She was starting to feel something she hadn't felt since high school, feelings only felt when Troy was around. She tried once again to push this part of her past behind her, but she continued to feel this feeling as she pulled out of East High's parking lot. No, this feeling wasn't love or giddiness. It was fear, something she recognized like the back of her hand.
Like it? Review if you want to see the next chapter soon!
Much love,
unknownbyhim22