So, about Gabriella and how she already knows she got accepted. Well she decided to do that early thing, but I didn't really now what happens, seems as my brothers did it the regular way. But my brother's friend is really smart -like Gabriella- and she did the early thing so I decided to make Gabriella do it too. And Jason just wants to go to Florida, he hasn't actually been accepted or sent in his application...
Anyway, this is the chapter that you all find out why Chad was so focused.
Chapter 22
Chad and Mack stood greeting the people who were walking in the East High gym. Tonight they were retiring Troy's jersey. Mack had seen so many people in the last few days, what with Mikaela's funeral, then her getting kidnapped and now tonight.
"Do you think Troy's ready for this," Mack asked.
Chad nodded his head. "Yeah. I think this will really help him get over basketball so he can start a new chapter in his life."
Mack smiled. "I hope you're right."
At eight o'clock, Chad led Mack to the bleachers where she sat in the back row with Adam, Bailey, Keisha, Teagan and Calum. Caleb was seated somewhere in the middle and she could feel his eyes on her. Chad sat with the basketball team, but more importantly he took his place next to Troy, the person who wanted to be there the least.
"Welcome," Principal Matsui said into a microphone. The gym was packed with people sitting in the bleachers or on the floor, but it was silent. There was no noise except for the principal's voice. "Tonight is a special night for the Wildcats. Tonight we're honoring a player who has stood out amongst the others in spirit, skill and attitude. Usually, we would have the coach step out and say a few words, but Coach Bolton has picked a player on his team to do that."
Chad looked at Troy. He wasn't paying attention, so Chad stepped up and walked down to the podium. He adjusted the microphone to his height and started speaking. "Um...my name's Chad Danforth and...you know what. Screw the speech." The audience laughed as Chad threw the paper behind him.
"Okay, we're starting over. There are two people in this room that wish they were not here right now. One of them is me and one of them is Troy. I think everyone in this room knows why Troy doesn't want to be here. The reason why I don't want to be here is because we are losing Troy. You see, our team is full of stars, but Troy's our shooting star. I mean, think about where we would be without Troy. We wouldn't have won championships, we wouldn't have gotten there either and the whole team agrees with me on that."
Chad took a deep breath. "Everybody sees Troy as the Basketball Boy and if you've known Troy as long as I've known him- which is what...January fourth will be eighteen years...wow. You know he's more than just the Basketball Boy.
"Troy's Miracle Boy too. He was born too early and doctors were all like 'yeah this kid's gonna die' before they even looked at him. But you see, his organs were fine, it was just he was really small and couldn't really fight off infections. Obviously the doctors didn't know that Troy never backs down from a challenge."
Chad looked to Troy, who was paying attention now and smiled. "In first grade, Troy came to school and he was pretty short. So the kids made fun of him. Remember Shrimp and Dwarf and Munchkin? Yeah, those were Troy. But by the time we got to middle school, he got a growth spurt. Miracle Boy was forgotten and Basketball Boy was in the building.
"So tonight," Chad said. "we're remembering this awesome basketball player. But that's only half of him." Chad smiled at Troy, who rolled his eyes. "Oh hey, Mr. Matsui, before we retire his uniform the basketball team has something to show. Can we?"
"Does it have anything to do with Troy?"
"Oh, yeah," Cam said running down the bleachers. Zeke, Jason and Ryan followed directly behind him. Troy looked worriedly at his friends, afraid of what they thought up. "Don't look so worried Troy," Jason yelled up to him as Ryan and Zeke rolled a projector in the gym.
"Hit the lights," Chad yelled to Cam who ran over to the light switch.
"Hitting the lights!"
"What did they do," Troy asked the rest of the basketball team who were still up in the bleacher. They smiled and shrugged, clearly knowing what was happening.
"Okay," Ryan said as the other four finished setting up. "Well we found out that Chad liked to tape Troy when he was in the-"
"You didn't," Troy yelled, his cheeks reddening just thinking about what they were doing.
"We did," Chad yelled back. "Don't worry, not too much embarrassing stuff is on it. Plus we had your dad's permission to do this."
Troy leaned back as Ryan began talking. "Anyway, Chad taped when he was in the hospital and we found some interesting clips of Troy in and out of the hospital. So we decided to make a video, with a song we thought fit Troy pretty well."
With the lights off, the thing started playing music. A video of little Troy and Chad playing checkers on what looked like a hospital bed started to play soon after the music started. Then, the screen showed a twelve-year-old Troy laying in a bed, his lips moving but the vocals of the song had started and you couldn't hear him.
Lately I've been winning battles left to right
As the words changed so did the video. The next was a portion of the video that Chad had made when Troy had gotten shot.
But even winners can get wounded in the fight
The next few lines of songs had video clips from games. Middle school games, high school games, games played in backyard, they were all there.
People say that I'm amazing
I'm strong beyond my years
But they don't see inside of me
I'm hiding all the tears
Troy froze. At I'm hiding all the tears a video clip of him when Gabriella wouldn't talk to him and he looked about ready to cry. He glared at Chad, who wasn't paying any attention to him, but watching the movie.
During the chorus was just pictures. Pictures of Troy, Jason, Zeke and Chad. Pictures of Troy laughing. But Troy noticed that all the pictures were from when they were younger, varying in age but third grade was the oldest.
They don't know
That I come running home when I fall down
They don't know
Who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
Cuz deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
While there was a pause in the vocals and only music playing in the back ground, there was a video clip of Troy walking down the hallway of a hospital. He couldn't have been more than ten and it was very apparent that Chad was walking backwards with the camera.
"Chad do you have to tape me? I'm just getting a drink," the little Troy whined.
"Come on this is the Troy 24/7 show, what kind of question is that? Just tell the audience what you're doing," came Chad's voice, even though you couldn't see him.
"I'm walking down the hallway with an IV. Happy?"
"And there we go folks, Troy's kind of grumpy today."
Then when they vocals came back, it changed to Troy fooling around in front of the camera, but you could tell that Chad was more focused on trying to hear what the doctors had to say that were talking to Coach Bolton. Chad, who was nine when he was taping this, was zooming in on the doctors when the first line of the singing part came on.
Unafraid because his armor is the best
As the next line started, the clip changed again. It was at what looked like Troy's fifth birthday party, but he was just about falling asleep in his cake. So Chad blew out the candles and Coach Bolton picked him up.
But even soldiers need a quiet place to rest
The next few lines were clips of the callbacks and championship game.
People say that I'm amazing
I never face retreat
But they don't see the enemies
That lay me at his feet
Again, the chorus had pictures. But this time, there was pictures of basketball games and the musical. There was a picture that had Jason, Zeke and Chad holding Troy up who had a basketball and a picture of the sixth grade basketball team, Troy and Chad were laying on their stomachs in front of their teammates.
They don't know
That I come running home when I fall down
They don't know
Who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
Cuz deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
Random clips of an older Troy started playing as the song got near the end. There were clips from freshman, sophomore and junior year all in chronological order.
They don't know
That I come running home when I fall down
They don't know
Who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and look up for a smile
Then there was the clip of Troy falling down the game his heart stopped at I drop my sword. Then pictures started playing again and the last picture of Troy from senior year turned into a picture of him from elementary school.
Cuz deep inside this armor (deep inside)
Deep inside this armor
Deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
As the lights turned back on, Chad looked up in the bleachers. He could see Troy had his head in his hands. Chad walked up and sat next to Troy, who looked up and smiled.
"That was pretty good Chad. Where's you learn how to do that, the editing and stuff?"
"We had a little help from the computer teacher," Chad said. "So you liked it?"
"Yeah, that was good. Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Now, you won't get emotional when they hang your jersey up over the court will you," Chad asked. "Because I really don't want to get wet."
"Oh shut up. Which reminds me, where did you get the footage of me when Gabriella wasn't speaking to me because of you?"
"Remember how Zeke had his lunch box..."
"Chad!"
"Cookies weren't the only thing in it."
"Chad!"
"We didn't think you were going to get emotional, plus we thought you might be able to show Gabriella that if she didn't forgive you. We were just trying to help!"
"Hey Chad," Cam said sitting down next to him. "Mr. Matsui is trying to continue with the ceremony. If you two would shut up, he could."
Both Troy and Chad kept their mouths shut the rest of the ceremony. As Jack and Mr. Matsui helped get Troy's home jersey to hang from the ceiling, the crowd was silent. Troy's away jersey was framed to be put in the front lobby. When the white jersey started to dangle by itself from the rafters, Chad looked at Troy. He was smiling.
'Yeah,' Chad thought. 'This is exactly what Troy needed.'
Sorry if the video thing confused you, but I had it all planned in my head and was harder to put on paper.
If any of you want to hear the song, it's Warrior is a Child by Gary Valenciano. Also I have a link to the song in my profile (its got a montage to Sasha Cohen, but this is the only place I can find the song.)
Tell me what you think!
Review!