Okay, I would have gotten this up yesterday, except I had a party to go to.

Chapter 19

The police's guns went back up as Daniel fired at Troy. His eyes held a look of crazy pleasure. "Go ahead, kill me," he said, egging the police. "I've seen both of them suffer. That one will die soon," he pointed to Mack. "Her brother will go one of these days. The kid's seen more of the hospital than his own house."

Mack was beginning to have real trouble breathing. 'I'm going to die,' she thought. She looked at Troy. A police officer was using his walkie talkie to signal for an ambulance for him and another one was checking out his arm. 'This is all my fault, I deserve to die.'

Daniel aimed the gun at Troy again, this time aiming for his head. Mack's eyes widened; she did not want to die seeing her brother get shot- again.

"Just put the gun down," one of the officers said.

"No, not until this one dies," he said, speaking of Mack.

"Either put the gun down or we shoot you."

Daniel glared at the officers and turned to look at Mack, she was turning blue and wouldn't make it much longer without breathing. Her eyelids were getting heavy and he smiled. "Fine, you win."

He put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, right as Mack's eye shut. The police officers ran over to Mack and held her, taking the strain off her neck. One of the officers cut the rope with a pocket knife and then untied it from around her neck.

"She's barely breathing, if she's breathing."

"Get her outside, theres an ambulance out there. We need to get her oxygen."

Troy could barely understand the words of the officers talking about his sister. His brain was trying to deal with the pain of seeing his sister hanging by her neck and the pain of the bullet logged in his arm. He looked down, his arm was covered in his own blood and surprisingly it was making him kind of queasy.

Then he looked on the floor in front of him. Dead on the floor was a man he had hated for as long as he could remember. This was the man that tortured him and his family as well as Cam and Calum- his own children. But, it was Cam and Calum he thought of immediately after seeing the man on the floor.

This was the man that was cruel and heartless toward them, but he was their dad.

Troy couldn't even being to imagine what he would do if his dad was like that. If the lovable Coach Bolton was a monster at home. Sure, he was strict and tough, but that was because he loved his kids and wanted them to excel. Daniel Boucher wanted his kids to do what he himself had not been able to do- make as much chaos and frustration for the Bolton family as possible.

It was hard for Troy to think that his father had ever been friends with the piece of trash laying on the floor in front of him. They were mirror opposites when it came to family and sports. Sure Coach Bolton loved sports, sure he wanted Troy and Mack to get scholarships to some big shot university because of sports- but if they didn't that was perfectly okay. 'Especially since I can't now,' Troy thought. 'No university would want some star who can't play because he was too proud to use the help he was given. Even if I could play...'

"Hey, what's your name kid," one of the officers asked.

"Troy," he answered.

"Troy Bolton?"

He nodded and the man grabbed a piece of paper. "My son loves you. Would you mind?"

Troy was taken back. He had never been asked to give an autograph before. He was run down, he was useless, he was broken. "Billy, my son, was heart broken when he found out you couldn't play anymore. He wanted to see you win East High another championship so bad."

Troy smiled and signed his sloppy signature, Gabriella wouldn't approve of his handwriting was the only thing going through his mind. "You changed him Troy. He was never that confident, but when he saw you run out to sing last year- was he impressed! All I heard that night was 'did you know Troy Bolton can sing and play basketball!' He really looks up to you."

"How old is he?"

"He's in fifth grade and I see him outside every day faking right, shooting left...something like that. He said it was the last play of the championship game last year."

"Coach said to fake right, break left. Watch out for the pick and keep an eye on defense. You gotta run the give and go, take the ball to the hole and don't be afraid to shoot the outside J," Troy sang softly.

"Did you just make that up?"

"Oh no," Troy said. "That's our team's practice song."

"So you all sing?"

"It's mostly me, but the guys join in."

The officer's walkie talkie buzzed. "James, we got another ambulance ready for the kid upstairs. We sent the girl off."

"Okay, I'll bring him down."

Troy stood up, his hand placed over his arm and couldn't help his mind from wandering off. He was almost eighteen- in January, but the lady over the walkie talkie had called him a kid.

"You're just going to be a kid, that's what you're going to do. Ever since you were born you've been trying to live up to other people's expectations."

"But Chad-"

"Oh no. You're not doing that. You are going to be a kid and you're going to like it. Got it?"

The conversation with Chad at the hospital, he smiled. Maybe he was just supposed to be a kid, not an adult, not a star, a kid. A regular, ordinary, normal kid.

Troy looked down at his arm. 'Okay, not normal,' he thought. 'Hospital, ready or not here I come- again.'

When Troy exited the house, Jack and Gabriella ran over. "Troy! I told you not to go in there, the police had it handled- what happened to your arm," Jack questioned.

"Mr. Boucher shot me."

"Troy," Gabriella said hugging him.

"I'm fine, it just stings...a little."

Jack turned and walked away toward his car. Troy saw disappointment in his composure. "Why didn't you do what I said," Jack whispered when he sat down in the car. "You could have gotten killed." He started the car and sped off.

Troy watched the car go and sighed. He and Gabriella went to the ambulance and climbed in. Just being in the ambulance made Troy feel guilty. His father had told him not to be the hero, not to go in the house and save Mack, and he had done it anyway. Now he had a bullet in his arm and Mack...

He shut his eyes. Mack...she didn't deserve any of this.

"Are you okay," Gabriella asked.

"I don't know, is Mack okay?"

"I think they said she would be fine. She was breathing again when they left. They just want to check her out at the hospital, she probably won't have to stay the night." She looked at Troy's arm.

"I will though."

"You never know," she said.

"I know the procedure, Gabriella. They go in my arm and get the bullet and then I stay one night to make sure I don't get an infection."

"How do you know, you've never been shot before."

"Gabriella, I know."

"How?" He stayed silent. "How do you know so much about this and why aren't you scared?"

"Do you know anything about my past?"

"I don't care about your past," she said. "If you were a bully in kindergarten I don't care."

"I never went to kindergarten."

Gabriella frowned. "Then...how can you say 'it's just like kindergarten?' Why didn't you go?"

"I did, for a week. Okay Gabriella, I was born way too early. The doctors gave my parents fifty percent chance of survival and if I did survive, I wouldn't be normal. My immune system wasn't fully developed. I mean, I couldn't go outside without a coat on until I was three and then when the doctor okayed me going outside, I got pneumonia." He looked at her. "You see, I went to kindergarten and I got Chicken Pox and my mom wouldn't let me go back."

"I longed and dream of kindergarten, Gabriella. It was like a fairy tale to me. It was me and Chad and when Zeke and Jason moved in, they were my friends too. Until middle school, I was the freak. Then I got a growth spurt and I was known as the basketball star, end of freak career."

"Wow," Gabriella said. "I never knew."

"You never asked."

"So, we're both freaks."

"Yeah," Troy said. He put his arm around her. "You're my favorite freak." The two of the started laughing as Troy's blood got all over Gabriella.

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