Kelsi sighed and tapped her fingers on the piano, impatiently. Gabriella and Troy were supposed to be at her house at 7:35. That's the time she had given them. Clearly. It was now… 7:36. No Gabriella. No Troy.

Did they hate her or something?

She sighed. Again. Tapped her fingers some more.

Dismally, she grabbed her notebook from her backpack, flipped it open to a clean page, and grabbed a black pen. Time to write some more.

"She silently suffers," Kelsi murmured to herself as she scrawled, "No one to hear. Running mascara, black and…" She paused. "Clear? No. That doesn't make any sense." She sighed. "No, you know what, I'm just gonna make it not rhyme." She continued to write.

Suddenly, a door slammed shut, and she heard footsteps. She raised her head to look, as best as she could through her long, dark, straight cut bangs.

"Kelsi, I'm here." It was Gabriella. She entered the room looking flustered, dropping her bag on the floor and sitting down in a chair nearby the piano.

"Good." Kelsi nodded, putting her notebook away. "So where's Troy?"

"Like I know."

"Oh." Kelsi snuck a glance at her watch again. 7:37. She blew out her breath, looking up at Gabriella.

"I like your hair," she told her.

"Oh, yeah?" Gabriella held up a strand she had dyed red. "Thanks. My mom kind of flipped at first, but she got over it."

"Yeah. I tried to do the same thing, but with blue. My parents would never go for it though. Yours must be cool."

"Not really." Gabriella laughed.

The door slammed again, and the girls waited for the next arrival. A few seconds passed. Nobody entered the room.

"Uh," Kelsi began. "Hello?"

"Hey. It's Troy," came the response. He still hadn't entered the room.

"Are you… coming in?" Gabriella wondered.

"Yeah."

The girls looked at each other curiously.

Just then, Troy finally appeared. Half of him. The other half appeared a second later, and then all of Troy walked slowly into the room.

"Sorry," he apologized coolly. "My jeans are super tight."

"Oh, okay." Both girls nodded.

"So, let's do this rehearsal thingy," Kelsi proposed. "Gabriella, did you work on your part at all?"

"Yeah, kinda. But I dropped red hair dye on the paper halfway through, soooo…"

Kelsi nodded. "Okay. We'll have to work on it here, then. Troy?"

"Huh?" He shook his head, pulling himself out of his happy place. "Oh. Yeah. Same."

"You dropped red hair dye on your sheet music?" Kelsi asked.

"Uh… yeah."

Gabriella snorted.

"Okay then." Kelsi shrugged. "So… I'll play now, and you guys sing. We'll pick it up where we left off last time. Which…was at the beginning."

Gabriella and Troy looked at each other. Gabriella smiled a bit and looked away. Troy leaned over and whispered into her ear.

"I made you a mixtape…"

Gabriella giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Let's get these teen hearts beating faster, faster," she replied.

"Okay guys, you're cute, but can we sing now and stuff?" Kelsi prodded.

Gabriella caught herself in the middle of a new round of girlish giggles. "Yeah. We're good…" But she couldn't look at Troy, that adorable flippy thing he did with his hair, his band T-shirt, wristband with a little mushroom on it, girl pants… without smiling. He made her want to smile when no one else could. Ooh, good picture caption, she thought.

Kelsi sat up straight, clearing her throat before beginning to play. Gabriella and Troy attempted to sit up, and began to sing obediently.

"We're soaring, but falling… there's no star in heaven we'll ever reach…"

"WTF?" Kelsi actually pronounced each letter. "Those aren't the words, guys."

Gabriella and Troy just sighed.

"They should be," Gabriella grumbled.

"I know, right?" Troy added.

Kelsi kept playing.