School on Monday came before I even realized it. The fact that I was enjoying myself so much and not being guilty made me guilty for Carlos's sake. But I could still tell that deep inside I really missed my brother.
The atmosphere at East high was almost as crazy as it was before the championship game. The talk of the school was anxiousness to see Troy Bolton star in the musical. Almost everyone in the school had tickets, and this fact made me a little nervous. Ms. Darbus was even more over the top than usual, because Saturday night, the last night of the musical, had already sold out.
At practice that afternoon, Sharpay was her usual demanding self, ordering everyone around and carrying a large pink clipboard. As you can see . . . I was right with the Ms. Darbus Junior comment. The only one who could keep her in check was of course Zeke, who had happily joined props crew at her request. He brought everyone homemade snacks everyday, so I was munching on a blueberry muffin when I spotted Ryan.
Ryan was one person on the stage crew that I never really had gotten to know. He seemed to keep to himself a lot. He stared back at me in a way that made me shiver. Did he know Troy's secret? It looked as if he was coming toward me, so I looked for a distraction to get away.
"Gabriella," Troy said in my ear, wrapping his arms around me from behind, and coming to my rescue.
I stuffed a piece of my muffin in his mouth. He was still chewing when Ms. Darbus came to speak to us.
"Mr. Bolton, Miss Montez, we are going to run the last scene and we'll be done for the day," she told us, "this week will be mostly touching up on everything for the dress rehearsal on Thursday."
"Okay," I said, pulling Troy to center stage.
He nodded at her, and followed.
The scene was an easy one . . . and the first time we were really getting through the whole thing. Arnold and Minnie basically declare their love, kiss, and the entire cast comes out and sings the finale. We had done it all before . . . except for this was the first time we had to kiss. When the parts were believed to be for Ryan and Sharpay, there was no kiss for obvious reasons. Recently, it was added in to tie the show together.
I was happy that I had already kissed Troy for the first time, so it wouldn't have to be as awkward on stage. We wrapped up the scene and I was gathering my backpack to leave.
Suddenly, it felt as though I was being watched. My heart beat faster and then I felt a cold hand on my shoulder which caused me to scream.
"Hey it's just me," Troy said, handing me a can of Pepsi, "sorry I startled you."
I laughed. That's why his hand was cold! Carlos used to really love horror movies, so I guess I was just letting my imagination get the best of me. I had definitely never been a fan of them, and spent the majority of the movies with my eyes closed.
"It's okay," I said, "I'm just tired so I'm jumpy."
"Yeah, well this is going to be over by the end of the week," he realized, "It'll be bittersweet."
"It will," I agreed, "but this year probably has a lot more to throw at us."
He took my hand and I followed his lead out the door. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. As I was about to close the door, I could barely make out a figure stepping out from a hiding place. I shut the door quickly.
"You don't need to slam it," Troy laughed.
"Yeah," I forced myself to laugh.
But on the inside I wasn't laughing. Inside I was wondering why Ryan would still be spying on me. I didn't mention this to Troy, so I wouldn't worry him. And who knows? Maybe I was overreacting again.
I visited Carlos that night with my mom. I met Chad's mom too, Mrs. Dansforth, who was the doctor in charge of the wing of the hospital Carlos was it. This new hospital was better than the one from where we used to live.
Carlos still just appeared to be sleeping, his wavy brown hair just as messy as it always was. Thinking about the accident was really hard for me as I looked at him. If I hadn't have been singing in that musical we were driving to that night . . . we would have stayed home and all been safe.
Tears started in my eyes again, and I wished with all my heart that my twin would wake up soon.
"Four days until opening night," Troy said to greet me the next morning.
"Five until it's all over," I replied.
"Hey Troy, Can we interview you for the school newspaper?" a giggly freshman girl asked him.
"Of course," Troy accepted, like the local celebrity he was.
I smiled. I knew he enjoyed the attention. I decided to get to homeroom early to sort out some papers, so I took the back staircase, a short cut to the classroom. As I neared the stairs, I was entranced by thoughts of all the important tests I had coming up, and wondering when I would possibly find time to study for them. Suddenly, someone called my name.
"Gabriella!"
I turned around and found myself face-to-face with Ryan Evans.
"Hi Ryan," I said somewhat coldly and nervously.
"I've been trying to talk to you," he said.
"Talk to me about what?"
"I heard Troy's little secret the other day."
My heart sunk and felt like it was going to stop, "How many people did you tell?"
"I didn't tell anyone."
"Not even Sharpay?"
"Nope."
"But . . . why?"
"If I told her, everyone would know," he explained, "and Troy thinks you're the only one who knows."
So Troy would think I told everyone, if people found out.
"Thanks for not telling Ryan," I smiled.
"Don't smile yet," he said.
My smiled turned to a frown, "Why not?"
"I'm going to tell Sharpay . . . unless. . ."
"Unless what?" I panicked.
"I will tell her unless you go out with me."
"Ryan . . . I'm going out with Troy. . ."
"So! It doesn't matter," he told me, "because I'm in love with you Gabriella."
