Gabriella opens the door to the dark theater and runs inside, keeping a hold of Troy's hand. She leads him down the dark way until they finally see the screen which had an ad on it. She stops and looks up at the crowd to find it was crowded, but not as packed as she thought it would be. It was like an adventure for her, because they hadn't been able to be together in public for so long. She jumps a little as she feels Troy's arms slip around her waist from behind and looks back at him, smiling. "How 'bout up there?" He asks as he points to a spot with just two seats and Gabriella nods. She grabs his hand that was around her stomach and leads him up the steps to the spot toward the back and sits down.
"Good choice." She says and Troy places his lips on hers for a brief moment.
"I thought so too. That way, if the movie sucks, it's darker back here so we can do whatever we want." He says raising his eyebrows seductively and Gabriella rolls her eyes.
"It's a scary movie; I don't think you wanna do anything when you would be jumping the whole time." She says and Troy smirks at her.
"Well, it could be kind of kinky." He says in her ear and Gabriella slaps his arm playfully.
"You're a piece of work Bolton." She says as the lights of the theater dim and the screen glows. Troy places his arm around her shoulders and kisses her forehead as she rests her head onto his shoulder. This felt perfect. Them finally being back to the way they were during the summer. Nothing could get better than this.
About half way through the movie, a scene shows where the two main characters, after running away from a mass murderer begin to make out heavily and land on the bed. She feels Troy shift beside her and unconsciously pulls her closer to him. A thought lingers in Gabriella's mind from earlier today. What did Troy expect from her? And what Bridget had said in the locker-room about relieving stress. She had never stayed in one place long enough to have a relationship that lasted longer than three months. Troy and her had dated for six months before Lava Springs, and now it was like they had just picked up where they left off. They hadn't had a full make out session on a bed or anything yet, but it was stuck in the back of her head.
She didn't even know, was Troy a virgin? Oh course he was…right? He may have been the king of the school, but he hadn't had THAT many girlfriends. She remembers a talk they had about their past relationships one time since neither one of them knew about the other since Gabriella had moved there. Troy had dated a girl in seventh grade that lasted two weeks, but that didn't even count. Neither did his two girlfriends in eighth grade that lasted a month. Freshman year, she knew he dated someone for two months. Then there was Madison, who was in her physics class last year and she really didn't like her, which lasted six months. But Troy dated her while he was a sophomore. And then there was his rebound from her named Rachael, who Gabriella knew was another cheerleader, but that didn't last very long. And then it was Gabriella. So Troy couldn't have sex with one of them. Of course not. And she didn't even need to worry about it now.
She shakes her head and tries to let that thought go and focuses on the movie. "Are you ok?" She hears a voice in her ear and looks up to find Troy staring down at her. She nods and then feels his lips connect with hers. She smiles into the kiss and then finds Troy letting go and pulling her closer to his body. "You seem distant."
"I'm fine." She whispers back and feels Troy's lips connect with her forehead once again. She turns her attention back to the movie that was playing and tries to force the thoughts out of her head. Tonight was about having fun and being somewhere where other people could see them together, not worrying about what they did while they were by themselves. Troy hadn't asked anything of her yet, and Bridget was probably just trying to physic her out. She had nothing to worry about.
The movie finally goes black after another hour and the credits pop up. Gabriella looks up at Troy to find him stretching and then he returns to his position with his arm around her shoulders. He looks down at her and smiles his smile that he saves just for her. "So did you like it?"
Gabriella nods. "Yea, it was pretty good."
"It was just funny watching you jump." He says and she shakes her head.
"Um… I'm pretty sure you jumped a couple of times too." She says and he laughs.
"Me? Never."
"Yea, right." Gabriella says with an eye roll and Troy leans down and kisses her lips. Even though the lights were starting to come on, that didn't stop them. People were already filing out of the theater and they were one of the last ones in there. Troy links their hands and Gabriella feels herself smile into the kiss.
"This is almost as good as the movie itself." Gabriella's heart stops when she hears a familiar voice. She and Troy stop kissing each other but their lips remain connected for a moment, then Troy finally breaks them apart. Gabriella looks up to see her best friend and Troy's best friend holding hands and smirking down at them. Gabriella feels her face suddenly become beat red. Chad smirks and shakes his head. "So… how's your mom's book club Gabs?"
"I still cannot BELIEVE you didn't tell us!" Chloe says as Gabriella opens her locker Monday morning. After running into Chad and Taylor on Friday night, the two were thrilled that Troy and Gabriella were together. They made the announcement on Saturday while they were ice skating and sure enough, everyone cheered they were so happy. Now, it was right before English and Taylor and Kelsi were about to have lunch. Gabriella looks into the mirror in her locker and smiles as she sees the "T" placed on her neck.
"I wasn't the right time." She says for the thousandth time. All weekend everyone had been on her back about not telling them. Now she thought it was funny. She looks over her shoulder and waves as she sees Mandy and Nate walking by holding hands. They wave back and Gabriella smiles. They had also been going out since homecoming and she could tell that Nate couldn't be happier. Suddenly, she feels two strong arms slip around her waist and she smiles as the guy pulls her closer to him.
"Hey gorgeous." Troy whispers in her ear and that makes Gabriella blush. She turns around in his arms and he kisses her on the cheek. She closes her locker and feels Troy's hand grab her hand that wasn't caring her English books. The warning bell rings.
"We'd better go." Gabriella says and says bye to everyone else. Troy leads her out from the group and Gabriella feels all eyes on them. She looks around at the people passing in the halls who were all staring at them. Gabriella tenses up, since she hated being in front of a crowd. Troy's hand gives her a soft squeeze which makes her look at him.
"They're just not used to it again." He says to reassure her and she nods.
"I know… you know how I am with crowds though." She says as they make it to the English room a walk in. The whole classroom becomes dead silent and all eyes look on them. Gabriella reflexively drops Troy's hand but he grabs it immediately again. He leads her into the room and walks her back to her seat. Gabriella knew that everyone was talking about how their basketball caption got a new girlfriend again. Well, not really new, but he was unavailable now. She looks up at Troy who tries to give her a reassuring smile but the bell rings and Troy lets go of Gabriella's hand and sits down in his seat at the front.
"Alright." Mrs. Jameson starts and stands up in front of the class. "I'm going to give you your rough drafts back and I want you to make corrections. You can work with a partner to bounce off ideas. You have the hour." She says and everyone gets up. Gabriella watches as Troy grabs his stuff and walks back and pulls up a desk next to her. Mrs. Jameson hands the two their essays with a smile and then walks over to other groups.
"It will stop when the week is over." Troy says as people keep looking back at the two and Gabriella nods. She feels Troy's hand lace with hers under the table and she looks up at him. He tries to give her a smile but Gabriella could tell he was struggling. Suddenly, she remembers something and understands.
"So, Tay, Sharpay, Kelsi and I were thinking about coming to tryouts to cheer you guys on." Gabriella says and feels Troy tense beside her.
"Great. More pressure." He says half jokingly but Gabriella shakes her head.
"Think of it as motivation." She says and he nods. "You're nervous aren't you?"
"I just… don't want to evaluate other people. That's my dad's job. I didn't have to do it last year cuz it was my first year a captain. I don't want the fate of the team being up to me." Gabriella nods in understanding. "I'm just stressed that's all."
Gabriella feels her own body tense up when a thought runs through her mind. "So he's going to need his cheerleader at his side for some stress relief." She wasn't thinking about the cheerleader part. It was the stress relief part that scared her. She tries to push that out of her mind but was finding it difficult. "You'll be fine, I promise." She tries to reassure him and Troy nods and looks down at his paper.
"So this is due on Friday right?" He asks and Gabriella nods. "Tryouts only last until 5. So, do you want to come over and help me with it tomorrow?" He asks and Gabriella looks down at his paper. He had a lot of red marks on it while Gabriella's was fairly clean.
"Um… can't we do it at lunch or something?" She asks, trying to avoid being alone with him this week.
Troy shrugs and squeezes her hand. "We could. But I'm not going to be able to spend anytime alone with you this week." He says and caresses her hand. Gabriella closes her eyes.
"I'll be over by six." She says and Troy smiles brightly.
"Good. You can help me relax." Troy says playfully but Gabriella feels her body tense up again. That was what she was afraid of exactly.
"I'll meet you in there!" Troy yells as Chad makes his way with the rest of the guys back to the locker-room. Gym had just ended and Troy was in a sleeveless black shirt and red shorts. He runs over to where the girls were starting to head into the locker room. "Gabi!" He yells and Gabriella turns around.
"Hey…" She says looking confused. Troy looks around to see that the gym was mostly empty. He could see Bridget standing at the door of the locker room in the corner of his eye, but he just ignored her.
"Are you staying?" He asks her remembering their conversation in English. She nods with a smile.
"If you want me to." She says and Troy feels himself beam down at her.
"You can be my good luck charm." He says and places his hands on her lower back. She smiles and wraps her arms around his neck.
"Good." She says and Troy leans down to kiss her softly. He smiles into the kiss and then breaks apart and leans his forehead against hers. "Go get 'em superstar."
He smiles again and leans down to kiss her once more, but instead hears a voice enter the gym. "Troy!" He turns around with Gabriella still in his arms to see his dad walking toward them. His dad loved Gabriella, but when it came to basketball, Troy had to be focused. Gabriella immediately removes her arms from Troy's neck and but Troy keeps his in place.
"Good luck Troy." She says and begins to run to the locker room, but Troy catches her hand first. He connects their lips together and then Gabriella breaks away after a second.
"Bye Gabi." He says and watches as Gabriella runs to the locker room. Troy turns around and finds his dad walking toward him laughing.
"I think she's scared of me." He says and Troy shrugs.
"Just during basketball. When you yelled at her last year." He says and Coach Bolton laughs again.
The guys start to file out of the guy's locker room and Troy looks up to see Chad leading them. He walks over and smiles. The crowd was bigger than the preseason practices and Troy felt nervous for a moment. He wanted the best team this year, but he didn't want to have to choose part of the varsity. The guys all walk over to where Coach Bolton was standing, ready to talk to all of them.
An hour later, Troy hears the whistle blow and he stops with the ball in his hand. "Alright guys, get some water." Coach Bolton yells and everyone immediately goes to the side of the gym. Troy wipes the sweat off of his forehead and follows them. He looks up into the stands to see that about twenty people were in the stands watching. Most of them were cheerleaders, probably looking out for their new boyfriends. But below them, Troy could see that Taylor, Sharpay, Kelsi, Chloe, and Gabriella were sitting there. He sees Gabriella give him a thumbs up which he returns. She then blows him a kiss which makes him smile as he walks up to Chad. "Nice job Captain." He says and pats Troy on the back.
"Thanks." He says and takes a sip of water. Troy could feel the paper that was his number for tryouts rubbing annoyingly on his back. Of course, Chad had gotten him "14" before anyone else could. He hears a whistle echo again and he sighs as he throws his water bottle down.
"Alright, let's set up a scrimmage. Odds on one team, evens on another." Coach Bolton says and then looks on Chad's back to see the number "6". "Chad, switch with Kyle, you be the captain for the odds." He says and Chad nods and walks over to Kyle. Troy smiles as his favorite freshman walks over to the group that was standing behind Troy.
They set it up where they would rotate every five minutes and Troy, two juniors, a sophomore and Kyle all start. Chad walks up with two juniors and two sophomores and smiles at Troy. He turns around and smiles at Taylor which Troy does the same with Gabriella. A junior from each side tip off and they start the scrimmage.
Twenty minutes later, Troy passes the ball to Kyle to takes a shot and misses. "It's ok man!" Troy yells and runs back to the other side while a junior point guard takes the ball back. Troy steals the ball away and runs back making a perfect lay up. Another whistle sounds which was the cue for a rotation and the ten guys that were on the court run off.
"Troy!" He hears his dad yell and Troy runs over to he was standing. He could see notes all over his clip board. "So what do you think so far?"
Troy tries not to groan. He didn't want to have to make decisions about the team. He suddenly felt the weight on his shoulders that this team would determine if he could get a scholarship or not. Sure, he probably had U of A, but he really didn't want to go there. He suddenly felt pressure that wasn't there while he was playing. "They look good."
"I know it's the first day, but I was thinking maybe moving Boyle up to varsity. The freshman will probably be on the freshman team, but I'm thinking I can move Kyle up to JV. He's pretty good." Coach Bolton says and Troy nods. He wanted Kyle for sure on JV. "What do you think about Henderson?"
Troy shrugs. "I don't know Dad." He says honestly. Sure, basketball was a way to calm his nerves, but at the moment, it was just getting him even more stressed out.
"Alright, guys, nice job. Same time tomorrow." Coach Bolton says at 5 PM and everyone immediately stops. Troy looks up to see Gabriella standing and smiles at her. She waves back and he picks up a stray ball and puts it back onto the rack. "I'll meet you at home." His dad says and Troy nods. He follows the rest of the guys into the locker room.
"God, it's so good to be back out there." Chad says as Troy strips off his shirt and then his shorts. He grabs a towel and wraps it around his waist before following Chad to get to the showers. After he was done, he puts back on the clothes he wore for school that day and grabs his gym bag.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." He says and everyone else yells goodbye to him. Even though he knew it wasn't a big deal, he still felt extremely stressed out from the tryout and everything else that was going on in his life. Troy walks out the door and starts to head for the stairs when he sees a girl standing up against a locker smiling at him.
"Looking good superstar." Gabriella says and Troy smiles at her. He drops his bag in front of her and picks her up in his arms.
"Thanks." He says and pulls her into a hug, instantly feeling better that what he was feeling. He lets her go and leans his forehead against hers. "And thanks for coming. I'm sure it wasn't that fun to watch."
Gabriella smiles playfully at him. "Watching my boyfriend sweat doing something he loves? Sounds like fun to me." She says and Troy smiles down at her. His lips connect with hers and he feels about a thousand times better then how he did in the locker room. His tongue grazes her bottom lip, begging for entrance but she pulls away and picks up his bag. "Come on." She says handing the gym bag to him. Troy takes her hand and leads her up the stairs, trying to forget about the stressful tryout that just took place.