A/N: Thanks as usual for the fantastic reviews, they really keep me going ;)! (Well you know ... food and water and oxygen helps too OO hahaha...) Oh, and if anyone wonders later-- the song used in this chapter would be the DHT version of "Listen to Your Heart" (not the dance mix, obviously hahaha!)
Chapter Four: The Double A-- Auditions and Art.
The arrival of the auditions came with much anticipation-- well, at least on his part. Everyone seemed so wound up lately with the amount of work and planning for next year that hardly anyone dared showed a strand of enthusiasm for anything that wasn't studying. Except him, of course. And Gabriella, when he could convince her. Currently they were sitting in the large auditorium they had once sang together in, comfortably situated in the red cushioned chairs as things progressed. Auditions for minor roles came first-- and after an interesting display of interpretive dance (which really wasn't in the script) Darbus announced the start of the lead role auditions.
Now, this would be the part Troy should be excited about, right? Well-- of course he was excited, he just wasn't very focused. Ever since the news of Damien and the big game he'd had his mind on anything but what was right in front of him. He felt an arm nudge him softly, waking him up from his daydreams of sure failure against the one kid he needed to not fail in front of most.
"You ready?" Gabriella whispered, as Sharpay and Ryan took the stage-- they'd offered to go first, you see.
"Ready for what?" he asked dumbly, momentarily disoriented completely.
She looked at him with an odd expression, akin to him growing a second head. "Er... the audition?"
"Oh! Oh right, of course!" he covered frantically, reaching up to scratch his head and make sure that the bulk of him was on planet earth-- not wherever the hell it'd been before.
She didn't seem satisfied, and bit her lip in concern. "Are you all right, Troy?"
He looked at her and paused-- but only for a moment. He hadn't told her about Damien yet, or the look in his father's eyes whenever he talked about it. It was just... he didn't know what was stopping him. He'd always shared everything with Gabriella, and during the school years together they'd oftentimes skip lunch in the cafeteria and spend it on the rooftop just talking. If it was any other subject, he probably would have done the same. But this one? He couldn't bring himself to share it, like it was this personal battle in which he was the only guy that could solve it.
Typical boy.
In any case, he nodded and on an act of spontaneity leaned down and kissed her. "I'm fine Gabriella," he lied. It felt awful, but at the same time necessary. This seemed to quell her concern and the two drew their attention to the front of the auditorium where Sharpay and Ryan were taking the stage, for the first time ever-- not in full costume.
Perhaps they had learned their lesson from the years prior, but their act had distinctly changed. While inexplicably fraught with all the liveliness they couldn't help but provide, they had both toned down quite a bit. From the corner of his eye he could tell Gabriella was getting nervous, listening intently as Sharpay hit notes she couldn't possibly dream of achieving. Their rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow was, if anything, memorable. The room filled with applause and Darbus seemed quite pleased with herself (as well as her two top Drama students) and looking down at her list, called out the two words that Troy had been waiting for.
"Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez," she called, her voice as shrill as ever over the crowd. "You're up!"
They stood up from their seats, and made their way up to the stage-- Gabriella had grabbed a hold of his hand ever since they had entered the auditorium, and hadn't let go since. Now it was still quite contently clasped tightly around his. "Oh I can't do this," he heard her mutter under breath, and he gave her hand a squeeze before muttering back to her.
"Yes you can."
Further protests stopped seeing as they were now on stage. Kelsi was at the piano, and although she hadn't composed this musical-- instead arranging existing songs-- she was still at the head of all the musical creation and the such of it. The storyline itself was a sort of Romeo and Juliet type of thing, only set in the modern day (and this "Romeo" worked as a shoe shiner while "Juliet" climbed up the ladder as a famous actress-- you can see the dilemma). It was a classic in any case, and fitting that it should finally be performed at East High. Troy and Gabriella were set to perform one of the songs that marked a turning point in the relationship between the two leads, and so the pressure was on and it was heavy.
After the signal from Darbus to begin, he heard the piano start in the background and now he couldn't help but feeling like all eyes were on him (possibly because they were). Gabriella tugged on his hand, his mind falling back into the present and one look at her and his fears seemed to subside. When she opened her mouth and a steady note came out, he was sure that things were going to be all right after all.
"I know there's something in the wake of your smile, I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yeah, you've built a love but that love falls apart, your little piece of heaven turns too dark."
Her voice was steady, quiet, not as confident as Sharpay's had been-- but so much more full of something that Sharpay lacked, the ability to lay herself open for the world to see. Vulnerability at its finest. He cut in now, his own voice feeling foreign despite the fact they had spent weeks practicing the song.
"Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile, the precious moments are all lost in the tide, yeah, they're swept away and nothing is what is seems, the feeling of belonging to your dreams."
Together now they looked at each other, locking eyes and he tried to hide his grin-- the scene was about breaking up, guilt, and succumbing to a bitter fate. (Not about grinning, in other words.)
"Listen to your heart when he's calling for you,
Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do,
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye."
And so they continued through the song, moving around the stage and giving the only performance they knew how to give-- as sincere and honest as they both were. Well, as he was usually. When they finished, the veil they both seemed to fall under when singing was lifted and the applause from those present now rang strong. Smiling, he looked at Gabriella and gave her a wink-- they had survived after all. The room soon emptied after further congratulations and a couple more "Job well done!" type comments were expelled, and hand in hand Gabriella and Troy left the auditorium chattering on about their performance and how they'd done in comparison to the others. The chatting all came to an abrupt stop at the sound of two very angry voices yelling in the hallway just outside.
"You got three days last week! TODAY COUNTS AS MY DAY." A female voice bellowed and Gabriella immediately bit her lip-- knowing exactly who was behind it. As both her and Troy quickly rounded the last corner they came face to face with a scene that might have been considered amusing under any other circumstances. Chad and Taylor were face to face-- throwing up their arms wildly as they yelled at each other, generally looking as though one of them was either going to burst a vein or they were both going to implode.
Chad crossed his arms defiantly. "You FAIL to remember that just a week ago you had every lunch period with them-- now how is that fair? I don't think it is! IS IT! NO IT ISN'T!"
"WHY DON'T WE LET TROY AND GABS DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES?"
Holy smokes. If someone so much as dared yelled one more time, someone's eardrum was going to have a bitch fit. Immediately, Gabriella launched herself between the two of them. "What's going on?" she asked disconcerted, and realizing that the two were now present the exes broke apart-- glaring as hard as they could at each other over Gabriella's shoulder.
Troy stepped forward, a bit shocked that it had come to this at all. "She's right-- what's going on? Is there really a need for this much yelling?"
"You can ask HIM!" Taylor chirped once more before crossing her arms and facing the opposite wall. Behind her, Chad made a face that might have been accompanied by a rude hand gesture (if she hadn't been a girl, that is).
Chad turned to face Troy, his face falling in obvious embarrassment. "We er-- well, we erm... we couldn't decide who's week it was to hang out with you guys." Leaning in towards Troy he added in a whisper, "And remember what I said about mountain lions and not petting them? Well this one is a godforsaken grizzly bear."
"I HEARD THAT."
Before Taylor had a chance to cut in further, and catching the helpless look in Gabriella's eyes he cleared his throat loudly and stepped in between the two as well. Looking from one to the other, he spoke. "Listen, guys-- we're starting to feel like kids in the middle of a nasty divorce. Can you... I don't know-- maybe talk it out?"
Taylor and Chad both looked at him as though he was going insane, and before anyone had a chance to agree or disagree Chad cut in and threw up his hands as though in defeat. "Forget this, I'm so over it." Shoving his hands into his pockets he muttered a 'See you later.' to Troy and took off stalking in the opposite direction.
Taylor took this moment to heave a sigh of frustration, and as Troy's eyes followed Chad down the hall-- they fell onto the large clock, marking exactly 4:30 PM. "Oh shoot," he said aloud, and checked his own watch just to be sure. He was late. His mom was going to be mad. Fantastic. "Listen Gabriella, I've got to go-- mom wanted me to meet her at this art exhibit, she thinks we're not spending enough time together." He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, at least his mom had her heart in the right place. He hoped. Giving her a quick kiss and throwing a goodbye in Taylor's direction he took off running towards the parking lot.
"Okay, Troy, sounds good?" Gabriella said to the piece of air that had previously been Troy. He was really acting odd lately.
Taylor rose an eyebrow as they watched him. "What's with him?"
"No idea," she replied, shrugging. The two girls turned round and headed towards the exit together-- they had a long night of studying ahead of them.
This was her element. I mean, she was in her element. The large hotel reception room was full of easels holding various pieces of art from around the county. You see, for as long as she could remember-- she painted. That was her thing. She doodled on the sides of her notes, she sketched where she shouldn't, and she painted. It'd started off as a silly sort of hobby when she first painted her own room-- in the house before this one. Then she just couldn't put the brush down and before anyone had realized it-- Clara Bryant and picked up herself a hobby, and one that she wasn't half bad at either.
Weeks ago, she'd submitted one of her pieces into the exhibit. She was always a little bit weary about those sorts of things, I mean-- wouldn't you? To have some complete stranger judge something that might as well be a piece of her was just, unnerving. Somehow she'd swallowed up the courage to do so and when she was finally informed that she'd actually won second place-- she was ecstatic. Sure, it wasn't first or anything. But it was second, and second was a pretty damn good place to start-- especially in a county where none of her work was recognized, and she hadn't grown up around the people that ran this thing. Walking around as she viewed the various pieces she couldn't help but feel just a little bit more at home in this town. The reception room was uncharacteristically full, and after chit-chatting a bit with the sponsors (who congratulated her on many levels)-- she now found herself here, alone. That was, until she totally bumped into someone, and hard.
She felt a pair of arms grab onto her to stop her from falling face first on the carpet, and then immediately let go as well. Rubbing her shoulder, she glanced at the source of all the pain. "Geez, are you out to get me or is it just my luck?"
Again, she was met with the same pair of blue eyes and the same mop of brown hair. The kid from the locker room-- appropriately wearing an apologetic expression. What was his name again? Cory? Tom? Maybe it was somewhere in between.
AHA! Troy. That's what it was.
"Sorry about that," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It's really not my mission to disable you."
She rose an eyebrow, wary of starting to get on speaking terms with anyone of her school-- but what the hell, the kid looked like he was out of place here and bad. The shifty eyes, the hands in the pockets, it all amounted to one thing: he was dragged here.
"So, you don't really look like this is your thing?" she offered, and began to walk down the aisle of pieces again-- she expected he'd either follow or... well, not. The outcome was really the last thing on her mind.
As expected, he began to walk beside her-- still shifting uneasily every once in awhile. "Not really, my mom wanted to spend some extra time together," he replied, shrugging. "Now I've lost her-- had no idea these things were so crowded."
Moms wanting to spend time with kids? This was news to her.
"Oh, well-- this one looks especially crowded," she replied absentmindedly, her attentions drawn to a piece that had done a magnificent job with color. "I mean, I've been to loads of them and they're never this busy."
He paused with her, looking at the piece she was but not seeming to find the connection at all. (To his credit, he did a good job of looking as though he did.) "So you do this type of stuff?"
She paused, biting her lip in thought. "Yeah, well, it's an interest. People have interests."
She'd been so enamored in what she was looking at that she hadn't even noticed when he'd stopped talking. Thinking he might have left, she turned around-- only to be met with the back of his figure, paused and looking at what appeared to be a piece of art. She was surprised, I suppose you could call it. Walking up next to him she crossed her arms and gestured to the piece. It was the picture of a girl-- very young, around five or so with long blonde hair. The portrait could have looked common under any other circumstances, but the girl's blue eyes were wide and vulnerable-- in them visible the sweetest innocence of a child. Dreams, ambitions, and imagination wrapped up in one expression.
"You like that one?" she asked.
After a long pause, he crossed his arms and nodded. "Yeah, I do," he finally said. "She looks sort of-- I don't know, sort of like you wish you could now. Like all that matters is playing in the mud and fairy tales." His attention was suddenly caught by something else, and he looked upwards, a grin sliding onto his face. "I think I see my mom, better get back before she starts thinking I bailed on her," he made to leave and with a slight pause gave her a nod (the sort of nod you use for saying goodbye). "See you around Clara Bryant!"
She realized he was mimicking her last informal departure. Ha. Funny. He was a riot. As he left she crossed her arms, viewing the piece they had just been looking at. Her eyes fell to the silver ribbon on the bottom right edge and her face broke out into a smile.
Second place. Nope, it wasn't a bad place to start at all.