Chapter Two
"Mom." Isabella Meno called "Have you seen my iPod?"
"No, sweetie. But I think it's in the kitchen."
It was a typical day in the Meno house. Rushing to get to school or work. Isabella looking for something and Gabriella not knowing where it is. But she wasn't Gabriella anymore, she was Vanessa.
Isabella was sixteen, the same age her mother was when she moved to Albuquerque. Gabriella had gone away to college in California and no one in the vicinity of East High ever heard from her again. She returned as Vanessa Meno five years after leaving. She kept a low profile after returning because she was having money problems and didn't want her high school friends to know about it.
Isabella kept a low profile as well. She was shy, like her mother was when she was young. Isabella was kind and respectful. She was an average student at East High. She had a lot of acquaintances but not a lot of friends. One of those acquaintances was Jack Bolton.
"Jack! Get down here." His father called "You're going to be late for school."
Jack Bolton, named after his grandfather, came rushing down the stairs of his large house with a basketball in his hand. "Gosh, Dad. I'm not going to be late. I'm never late."
Unlike his father, Jack was never pushed into playing basketball. He felt that it was his duty to carry on the Bolton family legacy. His dad and even his grandfather had been basketball stars at East High. He liked basketball, and it would probably help get him into college. Jack felt like something was missing though. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it was coming.
It was similar to the way Troy had felt when he tried out for the musical that one year. He and his wife Sharpay had decided not to tell Jack about his one time performance in a school musical. They told him that his mother was great actress and his father was a great basketball player, but never that his father had a great singing voice or that his mother was sneaky when she was in school.
Troy drove Jack to school on his way to work. Jack told his father that he thought basketball practice would run late that day because Mrs. Darbus (who was still teaching at the school 20 years later) had to use the gym for some drama thing.
