Prepare yourselves. I'm about to complain about reviews. Which isn't necessarily my business since it's your choice but i would like, more. LIke even just one a chapter would be nice! Last time there were none. Sob. But i can look from the bad side which would be you all hated it and wouldn't comment. Or the bright side would be you all loved it so much you were speechless. I'm more thinking though that it was somewhere in the middle where you felt no need to review. You tell me! Well, anyway this chapter has more talking in it than the last one and many more conflicts as well. :) SO if you would like to make my day you could review. If you really don't want to than you don't have to. But i would like you to. But i giveth you free will. Well more like God did. Yeah so please enjoy!
Gabriella was heading over early to the basketball courts to do something to distract herself. But she saw more distraction then she wanted. He, was looming ahead. She ran to the woods to hide behind a tree so as not to encounter, him. He didn't see her as she peeked behind the tree, spying. God, he was perfect. Perfect form, face, perfect life it seemed. On top of the world with people obeying his every wish. Everyone at college did love him because he was so powerful and popular. He never had any problems. For that reason she did envy him. She didn't know that he did have a problem: her.
"Wow he really is so much more amazing in life. And hot. And indescribable. And I am totally getting away with myself! Girl, examine the facts! You are working, he is on top of the world while you only play the piano, he already has a girlfriend, you know he is a jerk, you intensely passionately dislike him and he would never want you as a girlfriend! And plus you are strong? Right? And you don't want him. You so do not definitely want him. Right? Remember all past incidents that rankle in your very soul, all because of him. Him!" She sighed in frustration. She stared at him again and heaped curses of diseases, poverty and all means of life destroying crises upon him. "God, God! Why did you have to make him so god damn perfect!" As she continued to spy on him Chad approached him. They started to talk but Gabriella was out of earshot. With one last look on him, she left discreetly.
Troy also left to go get something and Chad was alone. So alone. The wind whispered around him warning him, but he ignored it. The ball ran away from him to the woods but he did not interpret its meaning. He retrieve the ball and heard a bird call something sounding like "Go!Go!" He ignored its call and went back to shooting alone. So obviously alone and the perfect target. He was wearing red after all! A group of kids walked up to him as he was shooting. It was the Robbie group. The ambled up casually, but with too much innocence. Chad swished another ball through the net and as he grabbed the ball he turned to the kids.
"Hey, well guys, you are a little early but you can shoot some hoops if you want." He handed the ball to Roger while Robbie looked towards Jessie. He nodded with superiority and then looked up at Chad with dark eyes.
"Are you Chad Danforth who plays for University of Albuquerque Redhawks?? Jessie asked, feigning curiosity and innocence.
"Uh yeah." Chad said uncertainly. Jesse gasped and pulled him aside as the other boys began to shoot some hoops. And something else.
"My dad went to U of A and he loves the basketball team. Could I get an autograph from you for him?" he asked holding out pen and paper shyly. Chad was pleasantly surprised that someone was asking for an autograph from him and not Troy.
"Sweetness." He wrote it down with a grin. Jessie gave an overexaggered gasp and exclaimed a thank you while the boys snickered behind him quietly, busy.
Jesse asked innocently again, "Could Brandon take a picture of you as well? One of you shooting a basket? Please??"
"Sure. Why not?" Chad said smiling. This was great. A kid actually loved him. Wow. This was happiness. Jesse was smiling hugely with a certain mischievous glint as Robbie handed the ball to Chad with an equally mischievous smirk. Brandon stood to the side with a very knowing glance. Chad got in position to shoot and had an enormous smile on his face. Life was good. Maybe this camp wouldn't be so bad. He didn't dribble but just shot. After he shot the ball he was very surprised to see that nothing went in the net. Wait, where was the ball? It just disappeared! He circled around surprised as Brandon was snapping away and the boys were laughing hysterically. He lifted his hand to scratch his head and found a very large round object in the way. His eyes widened. Jesse shouted through his practically tearful laughter, "My dad will love these pictures!"
The boys howled even louder as Chad said in helpless anger, "Guys this is not funny!" The kept laughing raucously. Then without warning 54 more kids approached with Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, Rachel, Katie, Greg, Ryan, Jason and Kelsi. Chad quickly pulled his hand behind his back and hid any other noticeable anger. He slightly blushed though as the kids kept laughing at him hiding the ball behind his back. "You guys are all in big trouble!" Chad hissed at them all. He glared at them all until the quieted down to smiles. Gabriella was the first to approach him.
"Hey." She said nicely.
"Hey umm Brie could I talk to you for a second?" he asked slowly but pleadingly. She looked at him confusedly for a second. "Away from here?" he asked glancing worriedly about the others.
"Ok." She said unsure. He walked backwards towards the woods with his hand still behind his back. Troy stared after then with narrowed eyes.
"Ok, Chad what's with-" she started.
"Ok I need two things. First you're gonna have to tell Troy or someone that those six boys need to be punished for disrespect for their counselor and could you please help me with this?!" he asked frustratingly pulling his hand out from behind his back, holding the basketball towards her. She raised an eyebrow.
"Chad, it's a basketball." She said. He suddenly turned the basketball over to let it go but it stuck fast to his hand.
"What did they do??" she asked in alarm as she tried to pull it off. She was unsuccessful and Chad howled painfully.
"They put some glue on my ball!" he stated obviously.
"Chad, I think its super glue." Gabriella said slowly looking at his hand attached stubbornly to the basketball.
"But I need a hand for this job! I need one for my life and this is my favorite basketball." He whimpered. She pulled once more with no successful result.
"We're gonna need something else for this. Taylor!" she called her over. Chad looked disapprovingly upon Taylor who only seemed to be there when he was made a complete fool of.
"What's up?" she asked Gabriella and glancing at Chad. Gabriella only lifted Chad's arm to show that the ball still clung to his hand.
"Oh." She said softly. Chad crossed his arms while he glowered at Taylor. The effect was somewhat bizarre.
"So what? Ya gonna call me Einstein again?" he snapped.
"Lets go Newton." She said resolutely pulling him by the basketball towards the post office.
"What does another genius have to do with this?" he squawked in pain and surprise by her pulling.
"It's his 4th unwritten law. Whatever is stuck can be unstuck with an equal and opposite force." She said hurrying him along. Gabriella only heard Chad from the distance now.
"I thought it was whatever you eat comes in one end and out the other." He said.
"Chad!" she shouted at him. Gabriella smiled at them before turning to a more unpleasant task. She walked toward him. Uh oh. There was the first class smirk.
"Umm Robbie, Jesse, Roger, Anthony, Brandon, and Jason need to be detained after class." She said uncertainly but with a cold voice.
"What for?" he asked unconcernedly staring down at her.
"They glued a ball to Chad's hand." She looked up with an equally opposite stare. He still looked down at her with an unconcerned smirk. "With super glue dude!" she exclaimed throwing out her arms.
"Your problem, not mine Gabi." He said with the famous smirk and walked away to group the kids together. She stared after him open-mouthed. She quickly clenched her teeth and moved toward Rachel.
"Hey so Brie we're gonna do kickball today and," she paused looking at Gabriella curiously. "What's wrong?" she asked with concern.
"He is just so...!!" she sputtered at a loss for words.
"Brie are you ok? Who is so...!?" Rachel said laying a hand on her shoulder. Gabriella sighed but became more composed.
"Yeah I'm fine. Sometimes though..." she stifled a laugh that came to her throat unexpectedly. She made it go back to where it came from and became utterly serious again. "Newton is such a weird guy." She said. Rachel was staring at her very strangely now. Gabriella looked at Rachel impulsively and exclaimed, "I mean talk about his 4th rule! So umm weird." She said and stared at Troy again. Rachel was getting a little weirded out by her sudden mood swings.
"Ok Brie look you can go take a break if you are not feeling well. Really. You can." She said earnestly. Gabriella had just come back to earth again after having zoned out for a second.
"No Rachel, I'm sorry. I'm fine. Really. I have never felt better ever." She said seriously, back to her normal self.
"Ok. If you are sure." Rachel said unsure.
"Yes. I am so fine!" she said wearily.
Rachel nodded a little slowly and they both walked over to the other counselors. "Whatever is stuck like a thorn in your side can be unstuck with an equal and opposite force. God Newton!" She herself was getting weirded out by her mood swings. This was definitely something she had not experienced before. "It's just because of the first day. You shall be fine." She shook her head vehemently. Very tough first day.
After sports-or-any-game-that-has-to-do-with-outside was done Gabriella had brought the boys under custody and spoken to them. She spoke kind but firm words. Counselors were not to be disrespected and they were not allowed to handle the super glue without supervision.
"But I already have great vision." Jason said confusedly. Gabriella rolled her eyes but explained patiently. "Oh." Jason said and went back to pouting.
They were let off very easily this time but with a warning. After her speech the super glue was confiscated and she hoped that penitent hearts would result. "Understand?" she said sternly. They however didn't seem thoroughly moved. They all shook their heads sullenly. As they left Robbie turned around and gave her an especially mysterious smirk that made her shiver.
Three hours later Sharpays fashion class was starting. Sharpay was extremely excited but also very calm for her, which resulted in her manner changing very quickly, along with her voice. Taylor and Katie were helping her as well. As all the girls were entering the room Ted also entered with two young people. He beckoned over Sharpay. She walked over to see two boys standing beside him. One with a creative spark and the other with ginourmous eyes.
Ted said softly to Sharpay, "Sharpay, umm, well Trent and Connor would like to be in this class." Ted was rather uncertain and felt very out of place with all these little girls surrounding him.
"They want to be in my fashion class?" Sharpay asked incredulously with confusion. Both the boys nodded their heads, Trent with a big smile and Connor with eyes full of awe.
"Yeah they do." Ted added.
"Umm, is this ok with Maria?" Sharpay said unsurely.
"Yeah I asked her and she said it was ok if they really wanted to do it and if you were willing to." Ted said in a cracked whisper. Sharpay looked sweetly at the boys and bent down to their height.
"You guys can be in my class but you have to stick with it," All of a sudden her demeanor changed to a thundercloud with a dark dangerous voice. "and behave!" she barked with very scary eyes. Trent nodded swiftly with and even bigger smile and Connor nodded with even bigger eyes. "Ok." She said sweetly again with a smile as she led them over to a table. Ted looked at her with eyebrow raised then looked over to Katie. Katie shrugged as if no big deal. Ted left and the class started.
"Ok guys just for an introduction in case you don't know I'm Sharpay, that's Katie and that is Taylor. This is a fashion class. So I hope you all know what you're in for. This is not a talent class. This is an expressive art where you have to be creative and yourself. You have to be funky yet subtle. You have to be cool and comfortable. Fashion isn't just an art. It's a statement. You have to bring yourself into your creations and imagine. Today, we shall start it off easy. We will just be drawing. You don't have to draw perfectly but use your imagination and lots of colors. If you want to. You don't have to use colors. Proceed." She nodded at Katie and Taylor to hand out the paper.
The class was going perfectly until one girl burst out crying. All the others girls around her rolled their eyes. Katie and Taylor ran over to her since Sharpay was deep in discussion with Trent. "Misty, what's wrong?" Taylor asked in a caring tone.
"My paper has a hole in it!" she bawled.
"Well you can start another one." Katie offered helpfully.
"No! This one was perfect and I was erasing so carefully until it just ripped!" she wailed.
"Well Newton's 5th unwritten law is a dud. What you erase can be erased. Get it?" Taylor said laughing. Katie rolled her eyes.
"Misty you're just gonna have to start over! You can't get things perfect every time!" she exclaimed and handed her a new paper.
"Well I guess I could try. But it won't be as good." She sniffed. Katie and Taylor walked away with Taylor still smiling hugely.
"Taylor please stop with the unwritten laws of Newton!" Katie exclaimed under her breath.
"Sorry! I just get a kick out of him." Taylor said with a grin. Taylor wasn't sure if she was talking about Newton or Chad.
That night Gabriella walked to the art room to play taps to complete the day. The first day. It was only the first day! An eternity of weeks stretched ahead. Her head was swimming of all the new kids she had met today that she hadn't met before. Brats, nice ones, quiet ones, sucking up ones, and, scary ones. Something about Robbie told her to be careful about him. But then she thought of Luke. She had talked to Luke later that day and she found him to be one of the sweetest kids she had ever met. Sord of like he really grew on you, but in a good way. It was like he never said a mean word about anyone but also had a funny cleverness about him. He wasn't shy but had a respect for almost everyone while at the same time, was a fun kid. She had never grown to like a kid so much over the span of 24 hours.
Then like a particularly unripe lemon in her mouth her thoughts soured. She also knew what it was like to grow to dislike a person so much over two days. Troy had been acutely annoying to her all day, unexpectedly giving her a sharp little jab here, a nice insult there. "Hey Gabi lets not try to trip over our feet, shall we?" "Nice foul, so can you please score some points now?" "Tsk, Tsk Gabi, can you please hurry up? The kids would like some food too." She had ignored him at the time but now his comments were smarting. They were so stupid but they still stung. Why was he being such a jerk? "All I did was spray a little bug spray at him! Gosh! He acts like I'm an annoyance, to him! But that's what I expected to get from a jerk. Annoying!"
Although he continued to be a pain in the butt she had to ignore him. She had to set a good example for the kids. She wanted the kids to obey, accept and like her. She wanted them to want to obey and like her. She sighed frustratingly. She just had to ignore him. But that in it self was hard since she was not a person to be silent when struck at. But ignoring him would make him mad. Seeing her mad only gave him the satisfaction. She wouldn't give it to him. Not without a fight. She smiled confidently as she entered the art room. She went over to the piano. She checked to see that it was connected to the loud speakers outside near the cabins. Then she slowly, soothingly played the few simple notes that made up taps. "Day is done and over." She smiled.
She turned off the speakers and as she was walking by she looked at the piano again. Surely, no one would care or hear for that matter if she played just one more song? For practice, since she would be away from a piano practically all summer anyway. She ran over to the huge instrument without hesitation and sat down. She found it very amazing how quickly she forgave the piano when earlier it had betrayed her with, her memories. Instead of dwelling on these thoughts her fingers struck the keys with a soft haunting song that echoed through the still room. Sweet, mysterious notes that reached Troy who had just reached the room to lock it up. He was amazed at her skill. He had never heard something so beautiful or how she just made it perfect by bringing a certain emotion into the piano that made it sound, so amazing. He stood stuck to the spot outside the room, listening to the music, wishing it could go on forever. It put him under a spell that made him only listen to her in awe. After she finished he stood for a second still in wonder over the magic she had just wove over him. But he quickly snapped himself out of the trance and opened the door.
"Can you get out of here? I got a camp to close." He said rudely. She glared at him but said nothing as she walked down the stage and across the floor. Ignoring was what she chose and ignoring, it would be. As she was walking by all Troy could think about was that spell she had put him under. It made him so vulnerable that it scared him to think that this, girl, would even try to do that to him. He grabbed her roughly on the arm and she looked at him. Her eyes were fearless but hollow. She seemed to be searching for something desperately, something to make her life complete. They were as haunted as the song she had just played. He softened his grip as he stared into her eyes.
"Goodnight Gabi." He said in a mocking tone. He had said much less than what he wanted to, but those eyes had killed him. Those were they eyes that saw her soul. He had seen them.
Gabriella chided herself for letting her guard down before Troy Bolton. She quickly blinked and her old set of fiery unmoving eyes appeared. She pulled as roughly away as he had grabbed and gave him a curt nod. She walked away as he stared after her. Troy shook himself and locked the door forcefully. Gabriella was shaking her head as she walked along. "God Newton, you suck!"