Gabriella followed Carrie out to the van. She had already started to notice that Carrie was the quieter of the two sisters. Carrie never used more than one word answers, some of them weren't even audible. Her favorite answers consisted of "mmhmm" and "duneven". Gabriella's observations were confirmed when she asked Carrie if they were all going in the van.
"Mmhmm" said Carrie as she continued walking towards the van. Gabriella knew she didn't say it to be rude, that as just how Carrie was.
Troy was still trying to get into the front seat of the van, but wasn't having much luck. Sharpay was keeping true to her threats and hitting Troy, the big basketball guy, hard enough to make him wince. He tried to pretend it didn't hurt, even if his face was giving him away.
"Sharpay stop, you're just wasting time. Don't you want to get to that party before all of your precious Smirnoff is gone?" said Troy, trying to get Sharpay's mind off of beating the pulp out of him. It seemed to work because Sharpay gave him one last punch and walked over to the driver's side of the van.
"Hey where's Delia?" asked Gabriella.
"She took my car back to her house so we could have the van to fit everyone in." said Troy. Sharpay turned the key in the van and the engine turned over a few more times before roaring to life.
"Everyone ready?" asked Sharpay as Gabriella got in the van and slammed the door shut. "Damn girl, we would like to keep the door connected to the van." she said with a laugh.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to." Gabriella said laughing, she knew Sharpay was joking. Sharpay turned the car around and started heading for the end of the driveway and took a right. They kept going down the road for what seemed like forever. Gabriella could tell they were heading for the country, she couldn't tell how she felt about that. She liked the country, but it was so far out of town, what if she wanted to go home?
"I have some more animal crackers Brie, unless you wanna just keep making that thinking face of yours and keep it to yourself." said Troy, holding out a giraffe for Gabriella to take.
"You know I'm not sure if I should even eat those things. I'm starting to feel sick from the elephant. How long have they been in your pocket?" asked Gabriella as she gave Troy another one of her smirks.
"Hey! This one is from the bag. I just took it out." said Troy pointing at the bag by his feet "And that elephant was fresh so don't even blame your sickness on him!"
"I love how you're talking about the elephant like he was real." said Gabriella as she couldn't stop her laughter.
"I'm done talking to you. You're so not getting this giraffe anymore. You lost your chance." said Troy as he turned around in his seat, popped the giraffe in his mouth, and crossed his arms.
"Aw, come on. I wasn't trying to be mean. I really want the giraffe" said Gabriella as she reached up and put her hand on Troy's shoulder "Can I please have a giraffe? I promise I won't be mean anymore."
Troy just kept facing the front and tried to ignore the fact that the feel of her hand on his shoulder gave him butterflies. As this whole episode was going on, Sharpay was laughing to herself. She couldn't help but smile as these two in the beginning stages of flirting. She had always loved that part of relationships.
Eventually Troy gave in and handed Gabriella another giraffe cookie and the rest of the trip was silent except for the radio playing and the occasional singing from Gabriella. When Troy was deep in the trance Gabriella had over him with her voice, the song "With you" by Chris Brown came on the radio.
"AH THIS IS MY FAVORITE SONG!!" screamed Sharpay.
Everyone laughed at how badly Sharpay was singing to the song, but no one wanted to say anything. They all knew if they did say something she would just keep singing anyways, she didn't care what anyone else thought of her. Gabriella envied that about her. She decided she was going to take a chance and belt it out with her.
"And oh, I'm into you and girl no one else would do. With every kiss and every hug you make me fall in loveā¦" sang the girls in unison. Pretty soon everyone in the car was singing along, with the exception of Carrie of course.
Through most of the song Troy was staring at Gabriella, she looked so beautiful when she laughed. He could tell she was having fun, and he loved watching her in that kind of joy. There were a few points during the song where Gabriella would look at him and they would lock eyes. Sometimes they'd even end up singing to each other.
Gabriella was surprised at how good of a voice Troy had. She tried to sing soft sometimes to just listen to his voice, but Sharpay's voice was kind of overpowering. Gabriella didn't know that Troy was also trying to sing quiet so he could hear her voice. Eventually the song ended and they all sat back in their seats, laughing.
"Great Jam session everyone!!" yelled Sharpay as she slapped the steering wheel. "And you, Bambi, are fricken amazing!! Where'd you learn how to sing like that?"
"Stop" said Gabriella as she started blushing and looked out the window.
"Oh apparently Bambi doesn't know how good she is! Don't be humble, embrace the talent woman!" replied Sharpay as she kept turning around to look at Gabriella.
Gabriella was relieved when they pulled into the party right at that moment. She whipped open the door and jumped out before she was questioned more on her singing voice. Gabriella looked around and saw clumps of people all over the place with a keg strategically placed here and there.
"Wow, seems pretty classy" whispered Gabriella to Troy as she leaned in towards him.
Troy laughed and answered "I promise it'll be fun, and if it's not we'll just keep each other entertained until Sharpay hits her limit, sound good?"
"Sounds like a plan to me sparky." answered Gabriella as she sat down on the bumper of the van.
"Sparky?" repeated Troy as he raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, I'll let you try it out for tonight though."
"Sparky?!" yelled Sharpay as she walked back over to them with two Smirnoff's in her hands "I like it Troy! I'm calling you that forever now. Thanks Bambi!"
"Shut up Sharpie. If you call me Sparky then I call you Sharpie, make your choice." answered Troy.
"Whatever, I don't even care anymore. You're Sparky now." Sharpay said as she started walking back to the keg and did two shots with 3 other girls.
"She really goes to town on that stuff huh?" asked Gabriella.
"Yeah, she knows she has people to take care of her so she goes a little overboard sometimes." said Troy as he looked over at Sharpay and shook his head. "So do you want a drink or anything? I don't really know if you're into this sort of thing or not."
"I might take a Smirnoff, but that's as much as I'll do." laughed Gabriella "I'm kind of a lightweight and don't want to go home drunk or anything. Sorry I'm kind of a bore."
"You're not boring. I'm not drinking at all, so you're better than me." said Troy as he walked over to the drinks and grabbed Gabriella a Smirnoff and handed it to her.
"Well if you're not drinking than I'm not either" answered Gabriella as she handed the Smirnoff back to him.
"Let's not have another animal cracker fight." Troy said laughing.
"I really don't want it. I'm fine right now." Gabriella answered.
"Ok fine, but if you do want something, let me know" said Troy as he set the Smirnoff on the ground and scooter closer to Gabriella, not even realizing he was doing it. He felt like he was drawn to her in some way. "Well what should we do with our time then? It's going to be at least a couple hours before Sharpay hits her limit."
"I don't know, you wanna play a game?" said Gabriella as she made a face "Wow that sounded really childish huh?"
"No! I want to play a game. Which one?" asked Troy as he sat up a little straighter.
"We could play Truth. That was a must have at sleepovers back in the day." Gabriella said with a laugh. She looked over at Troy and saw a confused look on his face. "You're telling me you don't know what it is? Think about the name, it's pretty self explanatory."
"Well then explain it to me miss smarty pants." said Troy with a smile.
"It's like Truth or Dare, but without the Dare. And you have to answer every question, you can say pass but the next question you have to answer no matter what." Gabriella answered.
"How do you win this game?" asked Troy.
"If you ask someone a question and they don't answer, the next person has to answer the question given to them. If the other person doesn't answer then the game just keeps on going." answered Gabriella "Understand?"
"I think so. Do you want to go first, or me?" Troy asked.
"I'll go first" said Gabriella "Ok Sparky, what's your relationship status at the moment?"
"Ha, way to start off with the hard ones. You can't even ease a guy into this?" Troy answered as he rustled his hair a little.
Gabriella was kind of scared by his reaction. She thought it would be an easy question, but maybe she shouldn't assume things so quickly.
"Well I have a kind of girlfriend right now, we've been seeing each other for awhile, but she recently moved to California. We never really talked about what our status was when she left, but we still talk on the phone and everything. So honestly I don't know what my relationship status is. Does that answer your question?" asked Troy as he continued rustling his hair.
"In a round-about way, yeah" answered Gabriella as she continued looking at the ground, not knowing how she felt about what he just told her. "Ok your turn to ask me a question."
"Ok, do you love Dean?" asked Troy bluntly. He knew it would make her feel uncomfortable, but she had to answer. He had been wondering the whole night, he thought now was the perfect time to ask. He could tell by the look on her face that this may have just ended their friendship, but he had to take a chance.
Gabriella sat there, completely caught off guard by what she just heard. She knew she was going to answer; she was too stubborn to lose this game. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel like a horrible person for even having to think about this question. She had been with Dean forever, of course she loved him. Right?
