la maniera l'amo

Chapter Twelve

Disclaimer: Disney owns all characters associated with High School Musical franchise. All original characters are mine.

OK, so go ahead and kill me.

I deserve it.

I have no excuse or reason why I didn't or haven't post until now. I want to say writers block, which is true, or blame it on my time-consuming role in Grease, but I won't.

I'm sorry.

I just hope you all can forgive me.

And when I say expect a new chapter soon, I mean it. I'm typing it as we speak while watching HSM2 in honor of its 2 year anniversary.

Again, I'm sorry. Enjoy!

~0~

Chapter Twelve

"They want to what?"

Jimmie Zara's voice jumped an octave as he processed what Mr. Bolton had just told him. "Are they crazy? No offense to you or your daughter sir, I know how hard she's been trying, but she's not ready for that. Not at all."

"No offense taken," Mr. Bolton sighed, running a hand through his hair, a gesture that reminded Jimmie very much of his son. "I am against it, but the insurance is threatening to pull out if Julie's not out on pass again. We were told there is no other way."

Jimmie fell back into a kitchen chair as Mrs. Bolton pulled her third batch of cookies from the oven. She baked when she was nervous or upset, a habit Jimmie wasn't necessarily upset over.

"Cookie, sweetie?" she asked, holding out the tray. Jimmie took one, devoured it, and Mrs. Bolton set the pan down on the table, allowing Jimmie to eat freely.

"What is she suppose to do for a weekend here?" Jimmie asked, rubbing the excess chocolate on his fingers onto the dark denim of his jeans. "Like, she can't be here with you, no offense again, but she'll kill you. Or herself."

"Oh, I know," Mr. Bolton said. "If-when she comes, I'm hoping you'll clear a weekend to just cater to her every whim. I'll clear you from practice, schoolwork, detention-I'm counting on you, Zara."

Jimmie gulped, aware of the insane pressure he was under, before nodding and replying, "I wouldn't let you and the misses down, Coach."

Jack nodded and clamped a hand on the young man's shoulder.

"I know you won't Jimmie," the coach said with confidence. "Which is why I am asking you to do something I know you have no interest in carrying through with, but as your coach, teacher, and the father of your girlfriend, I think it's for the best."

Jimmie's face froze, unsure of the news he was about to here. From all of the sitcom situations of this sort he had watched, Jimmie was under the momentary impression Mr. Bolton was either going threaten him if he should "ever hurt his little girl" or demand him to dump his daughter, neither which Jimmie every planned on doing in the near future. Which is why, when the coach said what he did, Jimmie breathed a sigh of relief and felt his chest seize in panic all in the same moment.

"I would like you to take the basketball season off," Jack said slowly, noticing the way Jimmie tensed under his grip. "I'm not taking you off the team- if you feel you're able to come back in a few months' time, the spot will be there. I'm not taking that away. But I just feel that for the time being, you need a break."

Jimmie was numb, although well aware of the plain sense that Mr. Bolton's words held. He knew that what was sure to be occurring in the coming months, with Julie in the hospital and possibly-eventually- coming home, he would have little time and even a smaller amount of energy to keep up with his studies and the facade of a normal boy to even think about playing. He knew this, and nodded slowly, agreeing to his coach's words, although it did not ease the discomfort he felt doing so.

"Now let's get you to school," Mrs. Bolton broke in, her voice cutting through the silence. "I packed you lunch and your mother said to head straight to the studio after the last bell," she continued, sliding a brown paper bag across the counter to Jimmie, who smiled gratefully and twitched his head to brush his bangs out of his eye. The hair was no longer held back by a beanie since, per Julie's preference, he had stopped wearing them.

"Oh, I hate it when you boys do that!" Mrs. Bolton clucked. "Troy did the same exact thing- couldn't bear to get a haircut."

"Or maybe it had something to do with Gabriella telling his she liked it long," Coach Bolton suggested with a teasing grin, swinging his car keys around on a finger, turning to Jimmie. "Can I guess the hair has something to do with my daughter?"

Jimmie blushed, grabbed the brown bagged lunch and walked quickly into the foyer and out the door, calling, "Come on, Coach! Don't need another detention!"

~0~

"What do you mean you're not playing?"

Jimmie rolled his eyes as he pushed open the locker room door, allowing the noise of the gym class occurring to flood his ears.

"It's what it sounds like, Brendan," he replied. "I'm not playing this season."

Brendan Michaels, the lanky forward who, like Jimmie, was a junior and on the varsity squad, gawked at him, shaking his head to brush his bangs out of his eyes, sending water droplets to fall over Donny Dion, who was walking by Jimmie's side.

"How can you just not play?" he asked, running a hand through his curly black hair. "Jimmie Zara not playing basketball, is like, an oxymoron or something."

"He's not playing. Leave it alone," Donny suggested. "Clearly he's not gonna talk about it."

Jimmie continued to walk down the side of the gym, ignoring Brendan's thoughtful gaze as he stared at his back, following behind to a stop as he processed what Donny had said.

"Is this about a chick?" Brendan asked finally, causing Jimmie to turn and nearly laugh when he saw the look of deep thought and utter seriousness that had crossed the usually clownish boy's face. "A chick is the only explanation for your sudden insanity."

"Man, keep walking, I can't be late for chem," Jimmie said as Brendan began walking again. Only when the three were out of the gym and began walking down the corridor did Jimmie add, "And there's stuff going on, but it really comes down to the fact that I don't want to play this year. Just need a break."

"But why?" Brendan pressed, in need of more information. He dodged a group of freshman and came back up to Jimmie's side. "Man, I wouldn't be bugging you but this makes no sense!"

Jimmie was, for the first time, thankful that his chemistry classroom was in close proximity to the gym, allowing him a means of escape, until he remembered with some annoyance that Brendan was indeed in the same class as he.

"It doesn't have to make sense," Jimmie responded, slamming his books down on his desk before sinking into his seat, Donny doing the same next to him. Brendan, thankfully, sat across the room but dropped his binder haphazardly on the desk adjacent to Jimmie's and took a seat, clearly not over with his interrogations.

"Dude, this is basketball we're talking about!" Brendan cried, adding emphasis to his statement with a throw of his hands. "The thing you live for! The sport you made varsity on sophomore year! It does have to make sense!"

"It has to makes sense to me," Jimmie said through gritted teeth, willing his chem teacher to come through the door earlier for once, and not take his daily cup of coffee in the teacher's lounge. "I really don't care if all of you don't get it."

"Man, what is with you lately?" Brendan sighed, leaning back into his stolen seat in defeat. "You've been MIA all the time, missing pre-season stuff, blowing off parties....what's up? It's not just the fact that you're not playing basketball that I'm confused about."

Jimmie ran a hand through his hair, clearly a nervous habit he had picked up from a certain retired Wildcat, and replied, "I've got a lot going on right now, okay? I'm sorry if it's bothering you."

"We just used to talk, man," Brendan said by way of explanation. "I mean, I know you and Donny are like, tight and all, but we used to talk."

"He's not much for talking unless your ridiculously skinny and can twirl about on your toes."

At the sound of the trilling British accent, Jimmie's heart skipped a beat and he turned slowly around in his seat to met Tiara Gold's eyes with a steely gaze.

"Just keep your mouth shut, Gold," he said in a low voice as Donny looked on fearfully and Brendan utterly confused.

"Is she the chick?" Brendan asked, causing the other three to juniors to look at him with a mixture of amusement, repulsion, and discomfort and cry, "NO!" in a loud tone that caused the rest of the conversation in the room to cease for a moment before picking up again.

"No," Jimmie said again quietly in Brendan's direction before turning back to Tiara. "Don't do this now. I'm not in the mood."

Tiara could see well what he meant. Jimmie seemed to have aged years in the past few months, ever since the start of school. His boyish, playful flirtation was gone as well as his somewhat pompous manner of self-confidence and his cocky air of being a basketball star. Now he was subdued and more mature, taking on a quieter, more controlled nature around his female classmates.

"I merely just thought you would want your good friends to know what was going on," Tiara said in an innocent tone, shrugging her shoulders as Jimmie glared at her, the tired bags under his evident that he did not feel like fighting with her, nor feeding into her schemes.. "It seems odd you haven't told them. Having a secret girlfriend is nothing to be ashamed of, Jimmie."

At her last words, Jimmie clothes his eyes for a moment as Donny jumped out of his chair, Brendan staring incredulously between his friend and classmate, emitting a loud laugh of disbelief.

"Dude, is she serious?" When Jimmie didn't reply and merely redirected his gaze towards the floor, Brendan gasped, "Shit, man, I knew it! There's a chick!"

"Oh, yes," Tiara assured, her voice laced with utter delight in seeing Jimmie's uncomfortable stance of dismay. "And not just any girl-"

"Okay, enough!" Donny cut TIara off with a firm tone. "Girl, why do you need to make other people feel like shit to get your kicks? Go screw with someone else."

Tiara's glossed mouth fell open in shock and amusement, for she had rarely heard Donny Dion speak so much, let alone call her off.

"Well, fine, if it's really not a point of interest," she sniffed, shouldering her large boho bag again.

"Wait, no, I'm finally getting some answers!" Brendan stood up from his chair, a fellow junior who's assigned seat he had been in coughing and pointing at his books in demand for them to be moved. He did so, dumping them on top of Jimmie's, before adding, "Man, details! Who, where, when?"

"Man, it's none of your business!" Jimmie exploded, unable to contain his emotions any longer. "If I wanted you to know, I would've told you. Tiara's being her usual bitchy, insecure self and trying to get in the middle of everything,"

"I was not," Tiara defended with a flip of her hair. "I was merely curious when we would get to meet the lucky gal."

"She's, uh, not around right now," Jimmie said as Tiara's smirk grew knowingly.

"Well, can you at least tell me who she is?" Brendan prodded. "Names help."

"Man, do not Facebook stalk her," Donny scolded as Brendan bluffed, "I so was not," although that was his intent.

"You'll find out at her name when you meet her," Jimmie said, Tiara adding at the same time,"Although you know her family."

Brendan, ignoring Jimmie and turning to Tiara, who offered more information, pressed, "I know who? Names, people, names!"

"Think former star WIldcat on court and stage, with his daddy dearest leading you through those tortures sessions called basketball practices," Tiara hinted, not so subtlety, but Brendan was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Indeed, it was a moment in which Jimmie almost sprang at Tiara's throat before Brendan said in a loud tone, "A Bolton? Man, Troy's younger sis? The one from grade school?"

Many a head turned in Jimmie's direction as he slammed his head on the desk, hiding in shame and Tiara smile and patted Brendan on the shoulder,

"Good job," she said. "Glad you could figure that out/"

Brendan either did not understand Tiara's jab or chose to ignore it, instead kneeling by Jimmie and asking, "Man, I want to meet her! Does she go here?"

Jimmie lifted his head slowly, glared at Tiara and flipped a finger before saying to his buddy, "She's away right now. Hopefully will be back after the holidays."

"Well, can't she come back for Harvest Moon or something?" Brendan asked, Tiara adding, "Oh, what a wonderful idea! Then everyone will know your taking Jimmie, and stop spreading those awful gay rumors."

"I"m guessing by 'everyone' you mean you," Donny said pointedly, Tiara scowling at the shorter boy. "Just 'cause you want to jumpy my man here does not mean you should make his life miserable."

Tiara's mouth fell open, no words coming out, as Jimmie, although upset, had to suppress a laugh at his friend's words as Donny leaned down and said in a low tone that only Jimmie could hear, "What about what Coach said? About Julie coming home? Maybe that'd be a good weekend-give you something to do and get everyone else off your back."

Jimmie took in his friend's words, hearing the truth and slight brilliance to what he said.

"Man, enough with Gold," Brendan whined. "I want to here the details on the Bolton girl. When are we gonna meet her? Man, if she's hot I can't make promises I'll stay away."

"Then again, if Jimmie doesn't want us to meet her, maybe she's just...a lie," Tiara suggested whimsically, holding onto her last shred of self dignity. "None of the real girls here at school good enough for you, Zara?"

Jimmie slammed a fist down on the desk just as his chem teacher, coffee cup in hand, came into the room, looking confused at the scene before him.

"She's coming to Harvest Moon, okay?" Jimmie said to an excited Brendan and a sour-faced Tiara. "Now leave me the hell alone!"

~0~

Julie clung tightly to the phone, as if it were a life vest keeping her floating in the middle of the vast Atlantic, a la Titanic. She pressed her ear closer to the phone, feeling her cartilage piercing dig into her skin as she did so.

"Jimmie, you're joking, right?" she nearly pleaded, unable to wrap her mind around the concept that he wasn't. "This is...that idea...you can't be serious about that."

"Julie, I want to say I'm not," her boyfriend's voice came over the other end. "I know it scares you-I get that. But think of the alternative. You really just want to sit around for 36 hours with your parents breathing down your neck?"

Julie closed her eyes and shuddered at the mention of her upcoming pass.

"I'm trying not to think about it," she answered, eyes still closed as she fell onto her bed. "You know I don't want to come home."

"But you are," Jimmie countered, "and nothing you do will change that."

"Why are you not on my side about this?" Julie demanded, the hurt she was feeling creeping into her tone. With Jen gone, she had begun to feel more and more alone.

"I am," Jimmie insisted, "but I'm being realistic. I don't want you to struggle anymore than you're going to have to."

"And making me go out and buy a dress, go to a dance, and compare myself to every girl in the room is going to make it easier?" Julie asked, her voice rising with hysteria.

"You'll be with me," Jimmie comforted. Thinking of Tiara, he added, "And you know you'll be the hottest one there. Plus, you'll get to meet my friends."

Blushing, Julie toyed with the chord of the phone as she asked, "They don't think I'm real, do they/"

"Well, they didn't until I mentioned your name," Jimmie admitted, hoping this wouldn't cause her to freak out.

"Let me guess: every guy is jealous of you and every girl wants to kill me," she guessed in an amused tone.

"Your not mad?"

"They were bound to find out about me eventually," Julie said. "No use getting pissed over."

"Good mindset. So you're cool with the whole dance plan than?"

"Honestly, no. But I don't have a choice, do I?" she guessed, a feeling of dread growing in her stomach as she thought about the whole ordeal.

"Nope. Hey, listen, the bell just rang, but I can go hide out in the bathroom and stay on the line if you want..."

As much as Julie wanted nothing more than to talk, she knew that she would beat herself up later if she prevented Jimmie was missing crucial class time. The boy had already given up so much to come up to see her.

"No, no, go," she said. "Just call me later, okay?"

"I promise," Jimmie said. "Hang in there, okay?"

Julie nodded even though Jimmie was unable to see and said in farewell, "I'll expect a call after dinner!" She heard his laughter and the line cut off.

Julie let the phone fall from her fingertips burying her head under her pillow to muffle her scream, not wanting the nursed to come running in to yell at her for a noise violation.

"Eff my life!" she groaned, jumping when she heard a voice reply, "Honestly, fuck all of our lives. Not that they're not already screwed enough."

Julie looked up to see the small blond girl from the room across the hall, the same one whose mother had stared her down a few days' previous when Jimmie had forced her to venture out of her room for the first time,

"Can I, um, help you?" Julie asked, a confused look crossing her face as she looked past Jen's previous and currently unoccupied side of the room to the girl's face, realizing that she was much older than Julie had initially thought her to be.

"I couldn't help overhearing your phone call," the girl said apologetically, taking a tentative step into the room. "The older girls are in group right now; the hall's pretty quiet."

Julie swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood up.

"You can come in," she said, motioning her visitor in and then pulling two of the chairs set up in the room closer together. "But really," she continued, "why are you here? I was under the impression most of the unit really didn't like me."

"Honestly, most of us really want to be your friend," the girl replied. "And it's not that we don't like you. What pisses us off is watching you not try, watching you continue to give in while you have so much going for you, so many people here for you."

The conversation grew quiet for a moment as Julie processed the words, the meaning becoming clear even though a large part of her wanted to find no comfort in them. Despite the longing to find no comfort, another part of her did.

"Wow," she finally murmured. "Well then."

"Yeah," the girl agreed. "And the insanely hot brother you've got visiting you? He doesn't help. And the boy toy. Girl, what is in the water where you live?"

Julie laughed, cracking a smile for what seemed like the first time since she had been admitted.

"I'm Julie," she said, extending a hand.

The blond girl nodded and replied, "Anita. Don't laugh-my parents named me for my grandma."

Julie shrugged.

"I know a girl named Sharpay," she shared. "Your name's as normal as calorie counting to me."

Anita laughed, getting in on a joke Julie knew only a fellow ED patient would understand. And, for the first time, the dead weight in Julie's chest seemed to ease.

~0~

Reviews? I was nervous about this one.

xoxo