la maniera l'amo
Chapter Ten
Disclaimer: Disney owns all characters associated with High School Musical franchise. All original characters are mine.
I have to send an icrediable amount of love out to all of you, especially Kro22, girlpower8900, Persephone Lemonade, Laugh-Dance-Love, zacvanesssaxxx,and geekspen for their amazing reviews.
I'm posting this a bit sooner than planned, which I means I plan to post again Friday or Saturday, because I found out I have an insane work schedule this week. :-(. I hope that is okay with all of you and I can't thank you enough for bearing with me.
Just a note on the time frame of this story: As of chapter 10, it is late October and Julie has been in the hospital for about nine weeks now, since the end of August. Just wanted to clear that up.
I was a bit nervous about the coming chapter, so please let me know what you think! Your reviews make my day, no lie. I guarantee I will wake up tomorrow and sign into my email as quickly as possible just to check.
Thank you sooooo much! Enjoy!
~0~
There is some thrill to the first day of school. Any student publicly will whine, moan, and complain about having to set foot back in "the hell hole" or "prison" or any other cleverly conceived nickname for the school building. Privately, though, summer can get tediously boring and one begins to miss friends, therefore allowing the first day of school to be somewhat enjoyable, that same joy extending into the later weeks of September.
Now, though, school was back to being annoying and time-consuming and, as she sat drumming her names on her desk in attempts to stay awake during a boring theology lecture, Tiara Gold thought of the golden sand and shirtless surfers, she began to wish desperately for summer to come again.
Looking subtly about her to engage in her favorite pastime of people watching, Tiara's eyes skipped over Any Henderson and her particularly vile pink sweater to land on the sleeping figure of Jimmie Zara, causing a slow smirk to spread across her face as she began to think of the plethora of ways she could alert the teacher of his present state and have him sent to detention. To Tiara, there was no greater thrill than bantering with Jimmie Zara. Something about the brash, outgoing basketball player sent her heart aflutter.
Tiara knew very well though of why Jimmie Zara had quit the school garage band, of which he was guitar player, and why he was receiving so many excused absences from basketball games and now school days alike. She knew very well why he was slumped over his desk right now, possibly drooling as his beanie slid off his head.
With the teacher's back turned to the board, Tiara reached over from her seat across the isle to pull the cap off of the skater's head, promptly waking him from his slumber as he shot up, looking around, dazed.
"What the-" he began but Tiara cut him off with a sight kick of her ballet flat. His head snapped around to look at her and their eyes met, Tiara raising an eyebrow as if to question why he had been sleeping. Jimmie shrugged and twitched his head in the direction of their still droning teacher, reminding her they couldn't exactly talk. Tiara rolled her eyes and turned to her notebook, flipping to a clean page.
How is darling Juliet then?
Ripping the page quietly from its seams, Julie folded it neatly, placed it inside Jimmie's hat, and handed the bundle back to him. She kept her eyes forward, the innocent picture of the attentive student, and waited until she felt a soft tap on her foot to stick and hand out and feel a piece of paper placed in it.
It's Julie. She's, um, okay. Why do you care?
Just as Tiara was about to put pen to paper again, the bell ran, instigating the rush of students as the ran to break free of the classroom. Tiara took her time, smoothing her skirt as she stood before collecting her books and walking towards the door, where Jimmie was waiting for her.
"Ah, always the gentleman," she teased, nudging him playfully with her hip, causing a slight grimace to cross Jimmie's face. Tiara pretended not to notice and hid her scowl.
"I just want to finish this conversation," Jimmie explained as they stepped into the hallway, where juniors and seniors split, some going to lunch, others heading off to class or a free period. "It can't be good if you actually give a shit about how my girlfriend is doing."
Tiara looked up at him in surprise.
"Oh, so she's your girlfriend now?" she asked, sidestepping a group of rowdy freshman, subconsciously wondering why the pair was even in the junior hallway. "It's official?"
"Yeah, she is," Jimmie defended, his voice coming on harder than he meant it. "Why?"
Tiara shrugged her shoulders and flipped her glossy braid behind her shoulder.
"Must be fun going out," she mused, putting a finger to her chin in thought. "What's your favorite date spot: the therapist's room or the clinic?"
Jimmie stopped, causing the students behind him to yell loudly as they made their way around him. Tiara turned on her heel and stood in front of him, hip cocked out, knowing she struck a chord.
"You're a bitch," Jimmy said through gritted teeth. "You know that?"
"How am I a bitch if I just state the frank truth?" Tiara asked, tilting her head in a questioning manner. "Really Jimmie, it's not as you have a real relationship. I think it's adorably sweet all you're doing for her-you've given up a lot. But really, don't you want someone who's a little less-oh, how do I put this- mentally unstable?"
"I guess that takes you off of that list than," Jimmie shot back, "considering your bipolar disorder hasn't been treated yet."
Tiara smirked and nodded.
"Someone's brushed up on their comebacks," she observed. "But really, isn't it becoming quite annoying, giving up all you do?"
"I"m not giving anything up," Jimmie begged to differ. "It's my choice. You need to deal with that or fuck off." He turned to walk away and made it a few feet before Tiara called out, "Bring her to Harvest Moon."
Jimmie spun around again and walked closer, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"And why in hell would I do that?" he asked. "She's in the hospital. It's not camp, I can't just take her home for a day."
"Oh, but I thought you could," Tiara said. "Doesn't she have to go on mandatory pass or something of that nature?"
Jimmie nodded his head and looked at her questioningly. "Why do you know all this?"
"I took the liberty of doing a little research," Tiara said. "Since I've been sworn to secrecy, I can't talk to anyone and I had some questions."
"Yeah, she does have to go out on pass," Jimmie said. "But that does not mean I'm taking her to Harvest Moon. Passes are stressful enough for her."
Tiara shrugged and looked down at her nails, painted red as if to go with her personality.-loud, obnoxious, and biting.
"It was only a thought," Tiara said, examining her nails. She looked up with a small smile, almost devious and malicious, and said, "I'd just so love to meet her."
Jimmie took that as a large enough sign not to allow Julie anywhere East High quite yet.
~0~
Gabriella rolled over with a moan, smiling as she took in Troy's sleeping form, bangs falling lazily falling over his closed baby blues as he quietly snored. Gabriella giggled and brushed his bangs away before pressing a kiss to his bare chest, right above his heart.
Trying to be as quiet and move as little as she could as so not to disturb her sleeping beau, Gabriella sat up and stretched her arms, slightly sore and cramped not only from sleeping curled in a ball, but from the three different times Troy had made her orgasm the previous night.
She was about to put a foot on the ground, as Troy had slept by the window and she closer to the door, when she felt a muscular arm snake around her waist and pull her back onto the bed with a moan.
"Troy!" she whined. "You need to sleep!" She giggled as he rolled overtop of her, his arms on either side of her head to support his weight.
"I slept on your lawn yesterday, remember?" he reminded before leaning down to kiss her, but Gabriella turned away.
"I have morning breath," she tried to explain as Troy kissed her check, jawline, and started down her next. "Troy...come on...we need to put clothes on...."
"Why?" he breathed against her skin. "I like you better without."
Mustering all possible self control, Gabriella pushed Troy away and sat up, almost giving in again when she noticed just how sexy her boyfriend looked with bed-head.
"We need to- I need to clear some things up," she said. "Considering how little talking we did last night."
Troy smirked and stood up, letting the sheets fall aside as Gabriella's heart thumped twice before he pulled his boxers on, laughing and asking cockily, "You enjoy the view?"
Gabriella, out of character, nodded and crawled on her knees across the bed, snaking her hands up his stomach and around his neck. Troy swallowed at the touch of their bare skin.
"Come back here, you. I want to say something."
She pulled him back down, he pulling her into his lap so that she was resting back against his chest.
"So what's up?" he asked, kissing the crown of her head lightly. She turned as far as she could without breaking their embrace.
"I," she began, looking right into his eyes, "am sorry for possibly overreacting about yesterday and I forgive you and don't want to make a big thing out of it. That's not what I"m trying to do by talking about it."
"No, no, I get it," Troy assured her, lacing their hands and looking down as he added, "I was an ass and I'm sorry. I have a tendency to say shit I don't mean to when I'm mad."
"It's okay," she said. "Believe it or not, Sharpay said the same thing."
Troy's brow creased. "You talked to her?"
Gabriella put a hand on his chest.
"I know that there is a rift between you two," she said. "I understand. But you also need to remember that your sister asked for her. You want what's best for Julie, right? What's going to help her?"
Troy nodded, his eyes still steel blue with slight anger.
"Just tolerate her for Julie's sake, okay? You don't have to be with her, talk to her, see her. I'll deal with that. But she's there to help Julie, okay, and she helped me yesterday. She's not all evil, Troy."
Troy closed his eyes for a moment, running the hand that wasn't holding his girlfriend's through his hair.
"It's just hard to get past that old bias," he said ruthfully. "When Sharpay was going through everything, she was pulling Julie right down with her, Gab. I guarantee you if Sharpay hadn't gone through this, Julie probably wouldn't have."
"She could've though," Gabriella pointed out. "Why didn't you want Sharpay there yesterday?"
It was quiet for a moment before Troy finally said, "It's not that I didn't want her there, because I did, I guess. It's just-we used to be close, Gab, and then she got sick and I remember getting so mad at her when she wouldn't fight, wouldn't try. I got mad because I was losing a friend and she was pulling my sister down with her."
Gabriella didn't respond when he stopped, knowing he hand more to say. She merely wrapped her arms around his neck and let him continue
"I just remember the tears and the silence, everything that's going on now. And I hated it. For me, though, if something happens I hate that I can try not let happen again, I don't. Like with us. After Lava Springs, after you taking off...you learn from your mistakes, you know?"
"So you were mad at Sharpay because you blame her for Julie," Gabriella guessed.
Troy nodded, running a hand through his hair, a clear sign of his frustration.
"Mad at her because she was such a role model for Julie and she was stupid and didn't see it! Maybe Julie would be sick, who knows, but I'm sure being around Sharpay doing her time didn't do anything to help, you know?"
Gabriella nodded slowly.
"Julie wants her there, though," she reminded gently. "And I'm sorry. I should've talked to you first."
Troy leaned back again the wall, looking out across the view that expanded from his window.
"You did the right thing," he murmured quietly. Gabriella crawled off his lap and sat angled to him as to see his face better.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "Troy, really. I learned my lesson. I can't overstep. I understand."
Troy shook his head and took her hand, looking down and then up into her chocolate gaze.
"You sometimes know me better than I know myself," he said quietly. "You read other people better and know what they need. Julie was the happiest I've seen her yesterday. No matter what my bias is towards Sharpay, she made my sister happy. I can't hold bringing my sister some comfort when she's in hell against you."
Gabriella gave a small smile and moved closer to Troy to kiss his forehead, standing up on her knees to do so because of the height difference.
"You are holding up so well," Gabriella said softly, sitting back on her heels to become eye level with her boyfriend. "Really."
"I don't feel like I am," Troy admitted. "Not at all."
~0~
"Jase, Zeke, c'mon!" Chad called, cupping his hands around his mouth for added theatrical effect. "Hurry up!"
"Man, okay, we're coming!" Zeke appeared at the base of the stairs, a gym back over one shoulder and a stack of tupperware containers in the other hand.
"Man, what the hell?" Chad asked, gesturing to the baked goods. "You bringing your Home Ec class with you or something?"
"Comfort food," Zeke snapped.
"Dude, we're not chicks," Jason added, coming to a stop behind Zeke with his own bag slung over his shoulder.
"I'm aware of that, thanks," Zeke said, looking back at his friend, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Chicks are the only ones that like, eat a lot of junk when they're all depressed, right?" Jason said. "And we're not chicks."
Zeke opened his mouth to retaliate, but Chad just shook his head.
"Good point, Jase," he said, going along with his lovable but sometimes slow best friend. "Zeke hasn't gotten any action for a while. That's why he's acting like a chick."
"Dude!" Zeke kicked Chad in the shin as his hands were unavailable to hit him across the back of the head. "At least I'm not having sex with my cell phone."
Chad's dark skin flushed red at the mention of what he spent his nights doing with Taylor.
"It's not my fucking fault she had to go to school across the damn country," he mumbled, pushing opening the door and holding it open as Zeke and Jason made their way across the quad to Chad's red truck, bought with the graduation money his parents had given from from Riley's.
"It sucks that all the girls left," Jason agreed, dumping his bag and basketball in the bed, Zeke doing the same.
"Except they didn't," Zeke said, pulling opening the passenger door. "Sharpay's here. And a few of the cheerleaders from our class."
"But none of our girls," Jason elaborated. "Like, the ones we were cool with. Gan, Tay, Kels, Martha and them all."
"Stupid performing arts schools," Chad agreed, sliding into the driver's seat. "What's out East anyway? Snow? Visit Utah for break. They didn't have to move there."
Chad started the engine and looked over his shoulder to safely back out of the lot as Zeke said, "Hoops would luck out and get to go to school with his chick."
"Don't even get me started with him and Gabster," Chad said as he pulled onto the main road. "It's like a freaking fairy tale or something, those two."
"Not so much anymore,"Jason put in. "Now it's like, a horror movie or something with his sister."
Zeke shook his head.
"Feel bad for the family," he said. "Just hope Troy's okay. We all know how upset he can get."
"Dude, he was like, depressed after him and Gab had that fallout last summer," Chad said. "I don't want to see him now."
"Well, we're going up to like, make him happy again, right?" Jason asked. "Because I wasn't totally clear on why we were doing this."
"Yeah, and it's an excuse to cut," Chad reminded. "I so wasn't arguing with that. But we need just need to get Troy's ass on the court, away from hospitals, and drunk."
"That," Zeke said with a clap to Chad's back, "sounds like a foolproof plan."
~0~
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