"Where the hell am I going on Saturday?" Gabriella asks through gritted teeth. She could almost feel her breathing was heavy as her lip was twitching a little. The deep brown eyes had clouded over in a blackish look that gave the impression of a storm brewing in them. Her fists were starting to ball as the two girls were looking back at her with scared looks on their faces. Her ears seemed to be letting steam out of them.
"You said you'd come Gabs…" Taylor says slowly, as if trying to coaxes a tiger that was on the loose. Gabriella's hand grips her lock as she could feel the medal almost make its way through her skin as she glares at the two of them. The blonde, who was a lot calmer then Taylor, shakes her head and places a hand onto the white locker next to her.
"It's really not a big deal." She says while flipping her hair to the back of her shoulders. Gabriella's eyes narrow again as she shakes her head.
"Not a big deal? Yeah, that sounds convincing for someone who's had their chauffer take her everywhere. Shar, you've never been there!" Gabriella exclaims while throwing her arms up in the air. 167? Why didn't anyone bother to mention they were going to 167?
It was at the beginning of the day on Thursday, and no one had bothered to mention they were going to Interstate 167 until right at this moment when Sharpay had brought it up. She would have never agreed to this. When did she agree? "Yeah Gabs, and I'm sure miss goody two shoes has been there before." Sharpay says with an eye roll which makes Gabriella's black eyes turn midnight.
"One, you call me good two shoes again and I will slit your throat." She says in a voice that sounds unfamiliar to her own. "And two… I've seen it once, and trust me Shar, your designer flip flops aren't going to be burnt to ashes there."
Sharpay crosses her arms letting out a "humph." Gabriella just rolls her eyes but lets the anger subside. It was true, Gabriella had seen it once when Carlos had to pick something up last year. It was scary, a place that was hunted down by the police but they never seemed to get caught because they were just that good. It was a whole different world down there, a world that was unfamiliar to Gabriella from the quiet suburbs of Albuquerque. Down there, it was dangerous.
"What's going on?" A deeper voice suddenly fills Gabriella's ears as she looks to the side to see that Chad was walking towards them. Zeke, Kelsi, Jason and Olivia were following behind. Her eyes glance to the side to see that Troy was talking to one of the seniors halfway down the hall, but her head immediately locks on Chad's.
"Why the fuck are you going to go to 167?" She asks while crossing her arms.
Chad looks at her stupidly for a moment with his mouth hung open a little bit. "Uh… cuz I want to?" He says with his eyes darting to the side to see if that was the correct answer or not.
Gabriella lets him know by hitting his chest with the back of her hand. He looks at her strangely and rubs the impact spot as Gabriella's heart begins to race faster as her eyes catch her favorite boy walking towards them. "Chad… do you want to get kicked off basketball for good?" She asks while he looks from side to side again.
"Uh… no…" He responds slowly while Gabriella hits his chest again. "Ouch! Would you stop that?"
"Are you stupid?" She asks in response as everyone seems to be laughing at the way Chad rubs his chest. She almost stops breathing as Troy walks up to the other side of Chad and looks at him, then at Gabriella, then back to him.
"You probably deserved it." He says while pointing to his chest as Jason and Kelsi laugh while everyone else was looking at Gabriella with desire to go.
"Come on Gabs, no one is going to catch us alright?" Zeke explains while draping an arm around Sharpay's shoulders.
"It will be fun ok?" Taylor says in a trying to be convincing tone but Gabriella just glares at her all the same.
"What are you talking about?" Troy asks but no one bothers to look at him.
"It doesn't matter. I just won't go. You guys can get expelled all you want." She exclaims while crossing her arms, Troy still having a confused look on his face.
"Wait… what?" He asks again but no one still bothers to explain to him what the argument was about. "Who's getting expelled?"
"No one." Olivia responds, almost shooting Gabriella's anger through the roof. How dare she just butt in and tell Troy who was getting expelled or not? Wait, what was she saying? It wasn't that big of a deal, she really needed to calm down. "Please Gabriella, I really want you to come." She begs with the brown in her eyes twinkling. Why did she want to go so bad, she'd probably never heard of the word "drag race".
"Gabs, if you don't go I'm kidnapping you and you WILL have to call the police." Chad says as Troy just rolls his eyes annoyed.
"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" He begs as Gabriella's arms suddenly soften. Just looking at the tan skin, the perfect blue eyes and the way his hair was flipped out above his ears seem to calm her down.
"They're trying to get me to go to 167." She says while feeling her stomach do a summersault while locking the deep brown with the piercing blue.
Troy's mouth forms in a smirk as everyone seems to be looking at him. "Oh fuck Gab, if I'm going… your going."
Gabriella's eyes that had turned back to deep brown when they looked at Troy were now clouded over in a storm again as her mouth twitches. "I'm not going."
Troy raises his eyebrows amused. She could feel the light pair of brown eyes on him, but hers didn't dare leave his to look at Olivia. He lets out a small breath as he shrugs a little. "Oh well, your loss." He says as everyone's eyes grow wide.
"Captain…" Chad starts to say as Troy shakes his head slightly, not letting his eyes leave hers.
"If she doesn't want to go, no one's making her." There was something not right going on. Usually Troy was the one who pushed her to do things that were a bit on the wild side. But this time, he just shrugs again but has a smirk on his face. "She doesn't have to go."
A sigh erupts from Gabriella's mouth. "Err… Thanks." She says a little awkwardly, trying to read though smirk that was on his face.
Almost as if on cue, the bell rings in the distant and Gabriella shuts her locker slowly. The rest the gang turns to walk towards homeroom. Gabriella takes one step forward, but suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder. She looks to the side to see Troy's eyes were staring straight ahead to see that both Chad and Olivia were looking back at the two. Gabriella suddenly feels guilt hit her stomach as she looks at the longing in Olivia's eyes. "Dude… you coming?"
"I forgot something in my locker. We'll catch up." He says while turning around and grabbing Gabriella's arm. She looks up at him confused.
"Uh… Troy?" She asks though he doesn't answer. They seemed to be going completely against the crowd that was trying to make their way in the opposite direction, but all of their eyes seemed to be looking back at the two. Gabriella's hand grabs the rubber band on her wrist as she seems to meet all of the looking eyes. "Troy… where are we going? We're gonna be late."
"You'll see." The hallway seems to skim out as they continue down. Troy turns a corner, where she sees one or two people running down the hallway to get to class on time. Just as one boy turns the corner, the bell rings and Gabriella's eyes grow wide. He suddenly stops and opens a random door.
"Troy, Darbus is going to flip a…" She never finishes what she was going to say, because in that moment, Troy's arm throws her into the empty class room. The lights were off but the sun was shining through the closed blinds. Immediately, Gabriella turns on her heels to look at him. "Are you insane?"
"Probably." He says just before his hand grabs hers and pulls her body to him. Gabriella's eyes grow wide for a moment before their lips connect together. Her eyes reflexively close as her arms wrap around his neck, suddenly getting where he was going with this. "This… beats Darbus… any day." He whispers in between two closed mouth kisses.
Their lips dance together in a slow, yet electrifying way that only Troy could do. Gabriella could already feel shock waves running through her body as he backs her up slowly, refusing to giver her what she wanted and keeps his tongue out of her mouth, but lets Gabriella sit up on the desk as she wraps her legs around him. "Troy… we're gonna get in trouble…" She says like she used to when he would convince her to do dangerous things when he was five.
Troy smirks against her lips as his hand grabs the back of her head. "You sound like that time when I took you to the river…"
Gabriella giggles a little while he finally lets his lips part and gently slides his tongue into her mouth. "You tried to kill me that day." She says while taking a breath and closing her eyes again to enjoy the sensation of Troy's hands running up and down her sides.
Troy shakes his head as his tongue traces the openings of her lips. "I wouldn't have let you fallen in." He says while his eyes close again as his bottom lip squeezes hers a little. "Please come." He begs and Gabriella's face scrunches a little, even though Troy was kissing her lips.
"Come where?" She asks while her hands play with the little hairs on the back of his neck.
"To 167." He responds while breaking their lips apart and placing kisses onto her neck. Gabriella moans in response and couldn't help but push his head to her neck further.
"Troy… I won't. It's dangerous… and if we get caught…" She tries to say while his head comes around and rests on her forehead so she could stare into his drowning eyes.
"I'll protect you." He whispers and places another soft kiss onto his lips. "Please Gab…"
Gabriella bites her bottom lip. At first, her answer is no. There was no way she was going to risk going there. She had seen it, and it was scary. She could honestly say she had never seen anything that scary in her life. Plus, she wanted control. It would always circle back to control. Troy was trying to persuade her to do something she wasn't so sure about. She needed to take control of the situation. She had to.
But then another thought comes to her head. What happens when Troy's there, alone, with Olivia? She trusted him, more then anything, but her heart was starting to sink just thinking about it. Of course she trusted him, but it just still made her uneasy. Gabriella finally looks down and nods. "Ok… whatever."
A beam breaks out onto Troy's face as her control begins to fall down the drains. She bites her bottom lip again right before Troy presses his lips to hers. It didn't matter if it was going to be scary. She'd be with Troy, so everything would be ok… right? That's how things were supposed to be right? Troy's hand grabs the back of her head again and she feels her eyes close while her arms try to pull Troy's neck closer.
Troy's tongue was just about to slip inside Gabriella's mouth when suddenly; a squeak erupts in the room. "Mr. Gorbson, I was wondering if I could extend the assignment…" A voice rings into the room and Troy and Gabriella's lips suddenly freeze. "Oh my God!" The same voice lets out.
Gabriella's stomach drops forty feet as her head immediately rips away from Troy's. Standing in the doorway were two sophomores who looked like they had just seen a ghost. Gabriella's eyes were the size of saucers as Troy immediately backs away from her as though it would help. The other girl who hadn't said anything before opens her mouth stupidly. "I uh… we're… sorry…" She manages to get out before the two of them look at each other and sprint off in the other direction.
"Shit…" Troy mumbles while running a hand through his hair. His piercing blue eyes look over and land on Gabriella's deep brown which had a scared look in them.
So much for waiting a week.
"It happened four hours ago, how the hell does the whole school know?" Gabriella whispers as every single pair of eyes seem to be on her. She crosses her legs on the choir chair while glancing at Kelsi who was pretending to listen to something Ms. Darbus was ranting about. But the small black haired girl couldn't concentrate. She couldn't believe the two girls walked in on her and Troy. How could this happen? The deep brown color remains looking at her lap as she couldn't meet anyone in the room's stare. Especially the pair of light brown eyes that she could almost feel burning into her skull.
"Time is of the essence, and every rehearsal and class period are vital…"
"It's high school Gabs…" Kelsi tries to explain but that just makes Gabriella's stomach drop even further. "You couldn't expect it to stay quiet for that long could you?"
Gabriella shrugs with a small pout on her face. "I tried."
A sigh comes from Kelsi as Gabriella continues not to look up. She was going to hate her. Olivia was literally going to rip out her organs and stomp on them. Gabriella didn't eat lunch with everyone, since she hadn't eaten though it wasn't unlikely for her to skip meals still when she was stressed. Taylor had tried to calm her down during lunch, but it didn't seem to be helping. The white in Gabriella's eyes had officially turned to a pale red color, but she refused to let tears slip down her face. She couldn't stand the staring. "So… is she trying to kill me with her eyes?" Gabriella asks while still keeping her head down.
Kelsi pauses for a moment before as Gabriella tilts her head to the side a little to see the small girl looking out to the other side of the room. "No… her eyes are a little red though, but no worse then yours."
Gabriella's stomach sinks again. She was a bad friend. The worst. How could she do this? Olivia was going to hate her, and probably never talk to her again. How could this happen? She knew nothing good was going to come of everyone knowing. But what scared her the most is the fact that she was now emotionally attached to Troy. She wasn't going to give him up, not for anything. Even if everyone thought she was a slut now.
"Alright, take some time to practice your solos now and just free your mind from all other objects." Darbus states in her dreamy voice as immediately everyone gets up and the gossip starts. Gabriella's eyes finally lift up to see that a couple of girls were pointing to her already. But then the deep brown lock on the small girl across the class room who was looking around as though confused. She had to talk to her. She couldn't let Olivia hate her. As frustrated as she was before, she really did want to be friends with Olivia now that she had Troy. She had to say something.
"I'll be right back." Gabriella mumbles to Kelsi who just stares up at her for a moment. Her eyes never leave Olivia's back even though she could hear others talking in the distant.
"They saw them in the classroom…"
"…His tongue was in her mouth…"
"Jenny said she thought she saw them kissing at New Year's."
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as Olivia's small body turns around. Gabriella's eyes open again as Olivia's mouth hangs open a little. It was evident through her light brown eyes that she had been crying earlier. She has an unreadable expression on her face, but Gabriella was just waiting for her to blow up and point to her calling her a slut. It seems like everyone in the room stops talking and looks at the two. Troy's old girl and Troy's new girl. Well, technically she wasn't new; she had been there all along. They were expecting what Gabriella was, a cat fight. "Um… hey… could I like… talk to you for a second."
Olivia's mouth continues to hang open stupidly. If Gabriella wasn't petrified she was going to hate her, she probably would have laughed. But she bites her glossed bottom lip and closes her eyes. "Um… sure I guess."
Relief spreads through Gabriella's body. Well, at least she would talk to her. It may end up in Olivia never talking to Gabriella again, but at least it would be something. A small smile erupts on Gabriella's face as she turns towards the larger woman with wispy blonde hair. "Ms. Darbus, Olivia needs help on one of her songs, could we go in the hallway and work on it?" Gabriella says in the sweetest, sucking up voice possible.
Ms. Darbus lowers her glasses but gives Gabriella a small smile. "Just don't be too loud." She says while Gabriella smiles again. But that smile fades as she realizes, this couldn't come out good.
They walk into the hallway and Gabriella immediately shuts the door to hide the eyes that were on the two girls. No one else was there, so she turns slowly around to see that Olivia still had an unreadable expression on her face. "Yes?" She says in a trying to be controlling voice, but Gabriella could tell she was trying her hardest not to yell.
"So um… you've heard haven't you?" Gabriella says in a small voice, looking at the ground unable to meet Olivia's eyes.
"…Julia told me third hour." She says while crossing her arms.
Gabriella's eyes glance up, but couldn't hold her stare. "I'm so sorry Liv… I didn't want it to come out that way and I just… I'm so sorry." She says while finally lifting up her head to see that Olivia was biting the side of her cheek.
"Um… how long?" Olivia asks in a small voice that wasn't threatening to yell, making Gabriella feel guiltier.
Gabriella bites her bottom lip for a moment. "Um… since Christmas…" She says trying to soften it by not making it sound like they had a thing while she and Troy were going out. Olivia's eyes shut almost as though in pain and Gabriella bites her bottom lip again. She hated her. She completely hated her and there was nothing else to it. "Liv, I'm so sorry. I just… it just happened and… I know you hate me, and are probably never going to talk to me again… but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry and I never, ever wanted you to be hurt."
Silence fills the air as it seems like Gabriella could hear her heart beating against her chest rapidly as her eyes were looking at Olivia. She seems to be thinking things through as she slowly opens her mouth. "I don't hate you…" She says slowly, in a soft voice that didn't sound angry. "I mean… I dated him… I know how addicting he is."
Gabriella smiles softly at this. She knew exactly how addicting Troy was. "I deserve you to scream at me and call me a slut." She says while grabbing the rubber band and snapping it slowly.
Olivia lets out a small laugh as she shakes her head. "No… I guess I knew all along…" She says while glancing at the ground. "I just really didn't want to see it."
Gabriella smiles softly again, knowing exactly how she felt. "Yeah… I know what you mean…"
Olivia nods as she looks up again and connects her eyes. They were so similar, yet so different that it was hard to explain. "I'm not happy." Olivia says honestly. "And I'm not going to lie, right now I can't say I'm happy for you. Or want it to work out." Gabriella's stomach drops a little, though she knows she can't expect anything more.
"I deserve that." Gabriella says.
Olivia smiles softly again. "But I guess I just have to get used to the fact that it will work." She says while letting out a small sigh.
Suddenly, a ringing enters Gabriella's ears, letting her know it was the end of the period. Students suddenly start to file out as the door to Darbus' room opens and it seems that everyone was staring at the two. "I guess that's all I can ask for." Gabriella says while Olivia gives her a small knowing smile.
It was now out in the open, she and Troy were an idem.
Both Olivia and Gabriella turn towards the hallway and begin walking in silence, not saying anything because there was nothing to say. Gabriella tries to put on a confident face as all eyes were on the two girls who were wordless. They turn down the junior hallway and Gabriella watches as it seems every pair of eyes turn to her. Including a pair of piercing blue that have confusion written in them. The two petite girls make it to where a few feet away from Troy as Olivia gives Gabriella a small nod, though she doesn't have a small on her face. Not that Gabriella would expect her to. It was almost a nod saying that it was done; there was nothing else to it.
"Is she pissed?" A deep voice enters Gabriella ears as Olivia walks away. She looks up to meet the pair of piercing blue eyes.
"Yeah… but you can't expect anything less." She says while smiling up at Troy.
He wiggles his eyebrows a little while all eyes were on them. Gabriella was trying not to look, but it seems like everyone was holding their breaths in anticipation to see what was going to happen with them. "So what now?"
Gabriella smirks. "We go to study hall like always."
Troy smiles as they turn in the other direction. Their steps were in sync as her hand brushes up against Troy's. He slowly reaches down and takes it, not caring that everyone's mouth seems to drop. Their fingers lace reflexively as he looks down at her as though asking permission to show PDA. Gabriella lets a smile play on her lips as she nods a little, hearing a random yell she didn't recognize in the distance that makes the smile grow into a grin.
"It's about fucking time!"