Chapter 7

Sing your heart out

The gang stuck together for rest of the day. It was Thursday evening and Gabriella return home with Taylor. The two were tired, but Taylor refused to leave Gabriella's side. Chad and Taylor had tried in many round about ways to convince Gabriella to stay. But in fear of losing her, they had to give in. She was leaving and that was all there was to it.

Gabriella and Taylor walked in the large house quietly. Relieved to see it was empty.

"Where do you think he is?" Taylor asked a Gabriella in a whisper.

"Well, my mom was supposed to be coming home last weekend… you know how that goes…. Maybe Tommy's picking her up…." Gabriella assumed, then let it go. Her mind was being pledged with memories of Troy.

Gabriella folded her hands together and looked at the wooden floors. Even with her best friend there her loneliness was consuming her.

Taylor instantly read her friends body language.

"Come on." Taylor put her arm over Gabriella's shoulders leading her upstairs. "I have an idea!" Taylor smiled suggestively. She was up to no good. Gabriella rolled her eyes and laughed.

"I'm afraid to ask."

They climbed the stares and emerged in Gabriella's now less personalized bedroom.

Taylor ran over to Gabriella's CD player, popped in Gabriella's Paramore CD and grabbed Gabriella's black scarf and hair brush and started singing as she danced around the room. The Song CrushChrushChrush filled the room.

Gabriella watched her best friend prance around her room in high spirits and all smiles.

"Come on girl!!!" Taylor giggled throwing Gabriella the stereo remote. Gabriella caught it, she let go and jumped into the song with Taylor.

"NOTHING COMPARES TO… A QUIET EVENING ALONE…" They sang as load as their voices could carry.

The two sang at the top of there lungs through three more songs. Gabriella felt so alive, it felt like nothing bad was happening, as if the last two weeks had been completely erased, She wasn't leaving, Troy still loved her and Sharpay was just Sharpay, not Troy's girl friend Sharpay.

"Hey!" Tommy shouted from the door frame. Instantly the smiles and false reality was gone, and everything set in again Gabriella felt a thousand times heavier with the weight of the crashing realization.

"Oh, uh… sorry I didn't know you were home…" Gabriella said nervously.

"No problem." He smirked, his dark eye looking Gabriella up and down.

There was a few moments of silence filling Gabriella's soft room. Taylor had to take control.

"So Gabi, I kinda wanted to talk to you about tomorrow." She said catching Gabriella's attention. "Um, in private." Taylor added giving Tommy an annoyed glare.

Tommy made a disapproving sound but with a arc of his brow he sheepishly started to leave the room. "Oh yeah Gabi…." He turned to her dark brown eyes meeting light brown eyes. "Your mom says that she's tied up and sorry for not getting in touch with you, she'll visit us in NY"

Gabriella took a breath, begging the oxygen for strength. Her mother's absents was seemingly normal to her. But the way he said it, the look on his face.

"Ok thank you bye bye now!" Taylor say pushing him out of the room closing the door.

"Leave it to a guy to ruin a perfectly fun moment."

"Yeah." Gabriella said absentmindedly, she slowly sat on her bed.

"Hey, you know what I think we should do?"

"What?" Gabriella said half heartedly

"I think we should sing in the talent show!!" Taylor squealed. Gabriella moved her eyes slowly to her friend who must be losing her mind.

Gabriella walked up to her friend placing her soft hand on Taylors forehead.

"um, are you feeling ok, because for a second there I thought you said you wanted to sing in the talent show…"

Taylor rolled her eyes a sucked her lip. "Girl get out of my face I'm fine… and quit avoiding my idea, come on it's your last week here and the principle already said it was ok, there taking admissions right up to an hour before the show…please" Taylor reduced to begging. "Please do it for your very best friend in the whole world…..ppplllleeeaaasssee"

"Ok ,ok just stop…" She pulled a clinging Taylor off of her arm.

"Thank you thank you thank you…." Taylor gave Gabriella a bear hug.

"I have to say this does surprise me Taylor…."

"No more procrastinating, let get to work." Taylor whipped around focusing on the CD player.

"Wow, can you please step back into the role of my best friend Taylor, because your acting a lot like Sharpay… It's kinda freaking me out."

"Eww you have my deepest apologies. OK now chose a song" Taylor shoved a hand full of CD's in Gabriella's hands.

The girls stayed up all night, but they finally had it. Around four am Taylor drifted off into a cat nap, while Gabriella sat at her desk thoughtfully writing. A tear fell down her cheek as she finished her song.

What Gabriella and Taylor didn't know was that they weren't the only ones practicing for the talent show that night.

Sharpay's house Thursday night 10:30pm

"OK Sharpay I've got it, not look I'm tired and I've still got homework, and thanks to you I not longer have any help with that so I'm going now…" Troy picked up his backpack in a huff. He was pissed, now catching on to Sharpay game. But what he couldn't figure out is how she seemed to always be one step ahead.

"Oh you don't need to worry about your grades Troy… Daddy will make sure all of that is taken care of…" Sharpay smiled, she bit the edge of her lip in anticipation for his reaction.

"You know what…. I don't even want to know Shar…. See you tomorrow." Troy said defeated.

Defeated was Troy's basic existence. He had given up. Gabriella didn't want anything to do with him, she took it as far as leaving school to show him that. And he was nothing without her. Nothing. Troy walked out into the darkness, Sharpay had given him a ride to her house, his car was still at the school, he didn't mind the walk, it was only a mile or so as they all live fairly close to each other. Troy didn't want to go home yet, he'd lied about needed to do homework, well… he hadn't lied about the face that he had homework, just about the fact that he was going to do it.

He didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered but basketball, that was always with him. That was before 'her'. Troy felt his heart go sour. He didn't want to feel the anger that was coming to the surface to help deal with the pain, but it was anyway. Troy couldn't help it, she was gone. He was becoming angry, and hard to be around, but he didn't care because Gabriella was gone.

Troy looked up from his thoughts and found himself in the park, starring at 'their' tree. One of 'their' spots. The very place where he slipped the ring on her finger to prove his promise to her. And then he broke her heart.

He had to hand it to Sharpay. She was good a ruining peoples lives then controlling them. Troy felt like a puppet on a string, here he was giving into her every command, whilst Gabriella is running as far away from him as possible. And he was just letting it happen.

'What's happening to me...?" Troy whispered to himself.

Just then something caught Troy's eyes. A girl, sitting Indian style on a nearby wooden park bench. She seemed. Upset. Her cheeks, glistened in the night, reflecting off the streetlight. She adjusted her thin glasses as she looked back down at her notepad. Troy slowly and quietly walked closer, and the closer her got the more he recognized.

"Kelsi?" Troy asked softly.

Kelsi turned her head sharply in Troy's direction. The sound of his voice in the silent night started her from her grieving thoughts.

"Um…uh Troy what are you doing out here?" Kelsi discreetly cleared her face of the stale tears and closed her notebook.

"I could ask you the same question…"

"Well, I was just about to leave." Kelsi quickly got up and started walking away.

"Wait!" Troy reached out for her. Kelsi slowly turned around. She was out of sorts, she didn't know how to act around him and she was frightened that she would blurt out the truth and blow Gabriella's plan to leave. God did she want to. It came down to Kelsi not trusting herself.

"How is she?" Troy asked, tears involuntarily surfacing at the mention of Gabriella.

Kelsi took a deep breath. She felt sorry for Troy. She was mad as hell at him… but she could see something wasn't fitting; something was off about all of this.

"She's….not good Troy…." Kelsi said honestly. Troy felt like being punched in the stomach would have been more comforting.

"You know…why did have to go and do a thing like what you did…." Kelsi started, and then stopped herself, this was dangerous territory, and she needed to back off. Troy sensed her hesitation and was grateful for it. No one believed him and he was through fighting, he didn't want to fight with Kelsi.

"I love her Kelsi…." He confessed biting back tears.

Kelsi shifted uncomfortably trying to fight the tears that were coming.

"Will you just tell her that?" Troy pleaded. Tears now falling freely. "Please, just tell her…."

"She will not hear it Troy…." Kelsi said thoughtfully.

"I know you can get through to her Kel, please…. Just tell her to listen to her heart…."

"Ok Troy… I'll try."

Troy let out the air he was holding in. "Thank you."

"See you tomorrow Troy…"

With that Kelsi walked away, her heart warm with Troy's confession, a confession that wasn't anything new, all of East High know Troy was in love With Gabriella. Could this work? Could Kelsi hold the key that will bring Gabriella and Troy back together?

I'm not getting alot of reviews on this story. I'm not sure about keeping it going. Let me know what you think... And I have a question and it will really help me alot. If you were Gabriella, and you know your were going to see Troy at the talent show... what song would you sing... tell me your favorite song for Gabriella and I may end up using it!! Please Review. Thanks! Kelleigh