I Did Not Leave South Side For This!
Chapter IV - I Swear I'm Not Crazy
"Yo Tia!" Jay's voice cut threw the crowd of students and reached my ears. I was standing at the entrance to the court, having texted Jay earlier this morning to meet me there. I lifted my head to see where the voice had come from. I grinned when I saw Jay making her way through the crowd towards me.
I wanted to fit the atmosphere of the game so I wore a red top with white shorts, my brown hair was in pigtails and a dark brown fedora say snugly on top of my head. If you're going to be a journalist, you've got to get into the mind of a journalist. Though, granted, I felt more like Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb then an actual journalist. Jay was not much better herself, she was lugging around all this fancy photography equipment, which my brain would not allow me to understand. She looked exhausted by the time she reached me. I would be too, dragging all that totally unnecessary equipment around everywhere with me.
Jay wore jeans, a white tank top and a red scarf around her waist. She also wore red converses, that I thought were rather snazzy. I removed the pencil from my fedora and scribbled down a note to order a pair when I had the money.
"Tia! Thanks for inviting me!" Jay greeted me in her ever cheery manner. She beamed at me and we hugged awkwardly. It was an awkward hug but not as awkward as when I hug my step siblings all the way in Canada.
"Hey it's no problem!" I grinned back, tugging on my pigtail nervously. This was my first story and I did not want to fuck this up. "Shall we head in?" I head nodded to the set of double doors. Jay seemed to agree with me as she had opened the door and was searching for our seats.
We found them in the end.
We had front row seats, reserved specially for us. I know this was only a school basketball game, but boy did I feel posh with reserved seats!
The Wildcats entered the court, resulting in a deafening cheer from my side of the court. I cheered too. Even though I had never been one for sports I had to admit that the atmosphere of the room was getting to me. But exercise in general? Ew. All the exercise I did was tap my finger on the television remote to change the channel. Though I did get my weekly run when Sharpay dared to approach me. The thought of exercise makes me tired.
The West High Knights entered a few minutes later. A massive cheer erupted from the opposition's side of the room. Jay nudged me and grinned. "There are some cuties on that team, especially the one with blonde hair and dimples."
I raised an eyebrow at her inquisitively. "And how would you know that?"
She winked at me and gestured to the camera. "Super zoom."
I laughed in reply and adverted my attention back to the court.
The game had just begun and was in full swing. frantically scribbled away, desperate to catch every single detail of this game that would decide the fate of our school basketball team. Jay was clicking away like she had done this a million times before, like a true professional. Or she just liked the sound of the click of the camera, I hadn't decided yet. Either way she was awesome.
The basketball captain wasn't half bad looking, he moved as fast as a plane and as swift as a bird on the court. He passed the ball to one of his fellow team mates, a tall guy with dark skin. I tipped my head to the side and raised an eyebrow. I was laughing behind my eyes. I had seen this guy before. He was forever trying to woo the pink princess while I was forever trying to avoid her. We had accidentally bumped into each other in the hallway once when I was trying to outrun Sharpay and Ryan before they spotted me. He ended up knocking me over. He apologised profoundly and gave me a home ales muffin to settle my troubles - which was sweet. Yeah. I liked the muffin man.
There was a roar from the Wildcats' crowd. I looked up confused and found I had missed a goal. "Damn it!" I yelled, massaging my temples. I had been so caught up in capturing every detail, I forgot to capture the first goal of the game.
Wow.
Idiot alert.
"Don't worry about it." Jay said calmly, still clicking away. "I got it on film."
My face lit up for like the fifth time that morning. "Thank you so much."
Jay kept her attention on the game but waved a hand idly. "No sweat! I'm the photographer, it's my job to capture everything."
So that's how the rest of the game went, Jay capturing the important parts of the game, like goals and fouls, while I described the swift movements of the players and the atmosphere of the crowd.
Everything was going smoothly until there were sixteen minutes left in the game.
The Wildcats and West High Knight had just returned from half time.
The game was just getting back into motion when it started.
"Sixteen, Sixteen minutes left better get it done." I heard the chanting and pressed down on my pencil, making the nib snap. I cursed and looked up, my ears intently listening to check if I had heard someone singing or it was just my imagination. My eyes narrowed as I scanned for the culprit.
I must of looked pretty weird for Jay to ask me if I was okay.
"Hmm? Oh? Oh! Yeah I'm fine. Couldn't be better."
Jay raised an eyebrow, clearly creeped out. "Okay..." She mumbled.
"Hey Jay."
"Yes?"
"You haven't heard any chanting, have you?" I asked, my eyes wide. I was too young to be going to crazy.
"Chanting? You mean the cheerleaders?"
I shook my head, my eyes turned into saucers when I heard the chanting again, I stuck a finger in the air. "Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen more minutes get ready, game on!"
"That chanting."
Jay looked at me like I was mad. "I don't hear any chanting. Maybe the heat is getting to you, Tia? It is awfully hot in here."
I shrunk down in my seat. "Maybe it is." I mumbled, tapping my pencil on my pad. If chanting was here then this was a situation I couldn't GTFO of.
"Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen minutes left running out of time! Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen more minutes till it's on the line! Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen minutes left gotta get it done. Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen more minutes till we're number 1!"
My face paled, the chanting was coming the basketball team.
"Let's go team!" The Coach called, clapping his hands together to get the team more motivated.
I suddenly sat up and frowned. I was sick of people thinking I was crazy because I insisted this school was a living musical. You know what? I was going to prove it to all those doubters on reddit and beyond that this school, my school, was a living musical. With that in mind I drew out my dicatophone and hit the record button on the side of the instrument. I thrust it into the air, reading for the world to hear the sounds of High School Musical.
AN: I'm separating this chapter into two because it's going to be incredibly long and I will probably never update for you lovelies otherwise! Sorry if this chapter was a little boring! I am very tired and it took a long time for me to find the inspiration to write this. The second part of chapter will be up by the end of the month and that is a promise!
QotD: So what did you guys think of this chapter? What do you think will happen next?