"Hey Montez."
Gabriella swung around and giggled, "Hey Evans, thanks for coming!"
"Well of course I'd be here! For my best friend!" Sharpay squealed leaping at Gabriella and wrapping her in a hug. "Good job by the way."
"Thanks, team effort." Gabriella responded linking arms with Sharpay as she took a sip from her water bottle. "How about we-"
"Gabriella!" Sharpay hissed as she suddenly spun so that Gabriella and her were facing sideways toward the bleachers.
"What?" Gabriella questioned, completely oblivious as she continued drinking her water.
"What is he doing here?" Sharpay whispered urgently as she jerked her head sideways to the visitor's bleachers.
"Huh? Who are you talking about Sharpay?" Gabriella glanced about the gym at the disappearing crowd.
"Him! Troy!"
"What where?" Gabriella asked completely shocked immediately grabbing Sharpay's arm. "He's actually here?"
"Apparently." Sharpay replied dryly as she indicated where Troy was with her eyes.
Gabriella slowly turned slightly so that she could see the Wildcats bleachers better, and as soon as she did she saw Troy slowly walking down one of the aisles toward the exit. She gasped as he flicked his hair to the side and jumped off the bleachers, heading out of the gym.
"Oh my gosh! Shar what was he doing here? He said he doesn't think the girl's team at East is worth watching." Gabriella snapped the spout of her water bottle down and gazed at Sharpay with a confused expression.
"Well," Sharpay started, linking arms once more with Gabriella and continuing to walking toward the locker rooms, "maybe he came here to see you play?" Sharpay glanced over at Gabriella who had previously told her all about the afternoon's events with Troy.
Gabriella snorted and ran a hand through the curls of her ponytail. "I can squash that theory in a heartbeat Sharpay, I definitely think it was for something else."
"You never know Gabr-"
"No way Shar, I'll just talk to him Saturday, he didn't look like he wanted to be seen here." Gabriella interrupted abruptly.
"Well I guess that explains the whole leaving last thing." Sharpay mused, still uncertain, as Gabriella began pushing the door of the locker room open. "I'll wait for you outside okay?"
"Sure, thanks, I'll try to be fast!" Sharpay waved and headed out to the parking lot, thinking all the while of the strange fact that Troy Bolton had been at Gabriella's game.
"Bye Shar! I'll see you tomorrow okay?" Gabriella slammed her locker shut as she turned to Sharpay who was fiddling with the rhinestones she had stuck on her phone.
"Wha-, Gab did you say something?" Sharpay pulled out two earphones that were veiled by her hair and glanced at Gabriella.
"Never mind, I was just talking about that saleā¦" Gabriella joked as she began walking away from Sharpay whose mouth had just dropped open.
"Sale?! Which one? What? When? How? Oh my gosh, game plan!" Sharpay declared as she began fumbling in her bag. Gabriella instantly began giggling as she watched her friend and after a few seconds slapped a hand to her shoulder. Sharpay immediately yelped and grabbed at her now stinging arm, "What was that for?"
"I was kidding Shar, no sale." Gabriella said playfully as she started walking towards the exit of the school. She turned around to see Sharpay's reaction and smirked as she saw the glare slowly but surely appearing on her face.
"Gabriella Elizabeth Montez!" Sharpay screeched as she began marching toward Gabriella in her pink stilettos. Gabriella giggled as she quickened her pace, grinning at the fact that she had chosen flats to wear to school that day, which though she hadn't planned on it would come in handy for running away from Sharpay.
Still laughing Gabriella burst through the doors and skipped a couple paces away from Sharpay before she stopped short. Her face was ashen, and she immediately swallowed, with a sigh she glanced back at Sharpay who was slowly making her way over to her.
"Gab you okay?" Sharpay asked hesitantly as she caught sight of Gabriella's face.
Gabriella merely nodded as she turned back to the parking lot where she spotted her mother waving from the window of her SUV. With a sigh she licked her lips and turned toward her friend, "I guess I just kind of forgot today was the sixteenth." She said running a hand through her curls and once again glancing at her mom.
Sharpay's face dropped, as she coughed awkwardly into her palm before looking at Gabriella gently. "Gab, I'm so sorry I thought you remembered, but were you know trying to forget or something." She mumbled this but was soon drawn to silence as she studied Gabriella's now quite saddened face. "Gabriella- don't cry."
Gabriella shook her head sharply, "I'm not, honest." With a sniff she sighed and looked up at the sky, "It's just everytime I remember well, I don't know, for some reason I feel guilty that I even forgot about today. I mean it happens every two months, I should have prepared or something!"
Sharpay nodded her head softly, "You know you couldn't actually have 'prepared' for this Gabriella. It's been three years you know, your suppose to move on with your life, it's what Matt would have wanted." Gabriella cringed as she heard that name, having not heard it in two months.
"You know you always give me the same speech every time Shar?"
"Well do you know you say the whole 'prepared' thing every single time Gab?" Sharpay gently joked back as she smiled softly.
"Hmmm," Gabriella smiled as she looked over at her mom's car. "I guess I better get going now then." She sighed as she brushed her bangs from her forehead.
"You'll be okay then?" Sharpay asked as she hugged her best friend tight. Gabriella nodded before she waved and ran to the passenger side of her mom's car and got in. Sharpay waved her hand in farewell and turned around as Gabriella's mom sped out of the lot. Sharpay shook her head sadly as she sat on a concrete bench, it had like this ever since June sixteenth from three years ago, when Gabriella's brother, Matt, had commited suicide. Gabriella would come to school, bubbly as ever, but as soon as she saw her mother waiting out in the parking lot it was like she immediately withdrew from the world. Gabriella always took the bus home with Sharpay, but on the sixteenth, every two months, she and her mom would drive to the local cemetery where Matt had been buried. Gabriella had been the closest to Matt as she grew up, looking up to him as she had no father figure. (being that Liz's husband had left before Gabriella was born) It was for that reason, that Sharpay supposed Gabriella liked helping out at the Center so much, in his memory. For at the Center Gabriella was able to help people who had been just like Matt, wanting to commit suicide. Ever since Matt's death Gabriella had taken a special interest in those type of people, people she could save from being another Matt. Once, Gabriella had worked with a fifteen year old named Mia who was under serious depression, she'd given the girl her all, tried to make her happy again. But Mia took her life anyway, and Gabriella could never forgive herself, she'd cried to Sharpay over and over again, just as if she had lost Matt once more. It had taken Gabriella a while to go back to the Center after that, and she still wasn't working with peers who had severe depressions that could lead to suicide, but Sharpay could still tell that she cared for them, a lot.
With a sigh Sharpay heaved her tote onto her shoulder as she saw the yellow school bus making its way towards her. She hoped that one day Gabriella would be able to look back on her brother with fondness and not with the intense sadness that clouded her face at any mention of him.
The crunch of gravel was the only sound as Gabriella and her mom walked through the cemetery. It was a cold dreary day, and Gabriella liked it like that, it absolutely reflected her mood. With a sigh she drew her sunglasses over her eyes and glanced over at her mother. After about six months after the day Matt died she and her mom had stopped talking about him. It wasn't awkward, it was almost as if when they didn't talk about him they almost forgot that he'd ever been there, which saddened Gabriella, but she'd rather it that way then have to be reminded of him everyday. She touched her throat where the heavy brass locket hung around her neck. It was the locket Gabriella had received from Matt the day before he died, he swore it was an early birthday present, but as Gabriella looked back, she supposed it was a good-bye gift. Something to remember him by, and thus she had a picture of her and Matt wrapped in a hug, tucked inside, a constant reminder of the person she was missing, and yet the trinket was still comforting. She and her mother stopped by a black marble headstone that was still shining as if it were new, and like every time she came there, Gabriella had a flashback of the day they had buried Matt's urn and it felt as if he were gone forever. Gabriella watched as Liz placed a bunch of lilies at the foot of the headstone and they stood there in silence, as words weren't needed as both women's minds were already thinking about the same beloved person.
They stayed that way for a good half hour, eyes glazed over with the occasional tremble of saddened lips. After a while Liz shook herself and wrapped an arm around Gabriella's shoulders. "You about ready to go sweetie?" Gabriella nodded slowly and ran a hand through her hair sighing softly.
"Can I have just a few more minutes?" Gabriella asked as she kept her gaze fixed on the inscription on Matt's headstone.
"Sure honey, I'll wait for you in the car unless you want some company?" Gabriella shook her head quickly, she always wanted to spend a few moments alone with Matt, it reminded her so much of when he'd actually been there. She watched as her mom walked away from her and over the small hill towards the parking lot. Gabriella exhaled and closed her eyes summoning Matt's face, so familiar, into her mind. She let the breeze blow over her, the sweet scent of mowed grass fill her senses and she felt utter calm; that was until she heard the shout.
"Dad!"
"What are you doing here?" It sounded like someone was slurring as if heavily drunk, and Gabriella quickly crouched behind a giant headstone and poked her head out, investigating the scene unfolding before her.
"I'm-I'm visiting mom." The first voice said hesitantly, and there was instantly a scuffle and a sharp cry.
"I know for a fact that she wouldn't want you coming to see her!" The second voice stated slightly less warbled then the first time they had spoken.
"Dad, come on your drunk just stop it!"
"I ain't drunk boy!" The second voice shouted and Gabriella shuddered straining to hear the first voice that reminded her so much of someone.
"Dad pleas- argh!" Gabriella gasped as a loud slapping sound filled the still air of the cemetery, and she immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. Shrinking back, she waited a few seconds before peeking once more around the headstone. This time she immediately let out an involuntary gasp, and it was a good thing that she wasn't noticed, for it was none other then Troy and his dad who stepped into her view just as she shrank back in fear.
