Chapter 4
Taylor had hoped that things would be better come Monday but they weren't. It was just really awkward. Gabriella wouldn't look at her let alone talk to her and Taylor felt like the worst friend in the world.
Chad wasn't feeling much better himself. Troy barely acknowledged him all morning and completely ignored the rest of the team. He was starting to regret ever suggesting breaking Gabriella and Troy apart.
At lunch Troy refused to sit with the team and ignored Chad's invitation to sit with them. Gabriella reacted similarly when Taylor tried to get her to sit with the Decathlon team.
Knowing that they had to do something because this whole mess was their fault, Taylor and Chad looked across the cafeteria at one another and met in between their two tables to discuss how to fix their mistake.
"We have to fix this Chad, they're both miserable," Taylor said sadly as they sat on the wall by the stairs.
"I know but how? We can't exactly put them in the same room together. They just proved that they don't want to talk to one another," Chad sighed.
"We have to tell them the truth," Taylor said.
"What tell them that it's our fault they're miserable?" Chad asked in disbelief, "Troy said those words not us, we didn't tell him to say that stuff."
"We didn't but at the same time we did," Taylor said softly, "we knew that if you said the right things he would react the exact way that he did. It's our fault and they deserve to know that."
"I guess you're right. Are you prepared to lose Gabriella as a friend though if this doesn't work the way we want it to?" Chad asked.
"I'd rather her hate me and know the truth than be miserable and clueless. Are you prepared to lose Troy?" Taylor countered.
"Considering I might have already I'd say I'm prepared," Chad admitted.
"Good luck," Taylor said.
"You too," Chad responded with a small smile, "hey Tay," he quickly added before she could walk away completely.
"Yeah," Taylor said curiously.
"Even if this goes the opposite to how we want, I'm glad that it happened. I've missed having you to talk to," Chad admitted softly.
Taylor gave him a small smile, "I've missed you too. You know if this goes wrong we might have to start hanging out again."
Chad chuckled as he watched Taylor walk away.
Taylor went over to her friends and told them that they had to find Gabriella before the end of the day to tell her the truth, their plan, and to apologise for hurting her.
Chad went over to his own mates and told them a similar thing. Zeke immediately jumped at the opportunity to bake something to help Troy forgive them, his next class was cooking.
Both groups agreed to talk with their friends during their free period which was after their next class.
Chad, Zeke, and Jason made their way up to the rooftop garden to find Troy during free period.
"Hey," Chad said to Troy so as not to scare him with their sudden appearance and to start the conversation, "umm we just had another team meeting."
"Oh. Wonderful," Troy said, clearly irritated.
"We had team meeting about how we haven't been acting like a team," Chad hesitated, "I mean us not you. Look about the singing thing we…"
Troy interrupted, "what? Dude I don't even want to talk about it."
"We just want you to know that we're gonna be there ok, cheering for you," Chad informed him with a smiled.
"Huh?" Troy asked in disbelief as he looked in confusion at his friends.
"Yeah, if singing is something you want to do we should be boosting you up not tearing you down," Zeke input.
"Yeah, I mean win or lose we're teammates," Chad added, "that's what we're about. Even if you turn out to be the worst singer in the world."
"Which we don't know because we haven't actually heard you sing," Jason added.
"And you're not gonna hear me sing guys," Troy said in annoyance, "because Gabriella won't even talk to me and I don't know why."
Chad, Zeke, and Jason exchanged a guilty look.
"We do," Chad admitted quietly, hoping that at the last minute he would get away with not having to own up to their mistake.
"I baked these fresh today," Zeke said quickly before Troy could question them, he took out a package from his small esky, "you'll probably wanna try one before we tell you the rest."
Troy looked at them in confusion but still opened the package and ate like Zeke suggested although he had a feeling that it might not be a good idea. After a few bites he looked expectantly at his friends and heard Chad sigh uncertainly.
"We were worried that you weren't focussed on the game, you were spending every waking moment with Gabriella. I spoke with Taylor and we came up with a plan to live stream you talking negatively about the callbacks for Gabriella to see. We thought that maybe you'd both decide that you'd rather focus on what you're known to be good at and not want to try something new. I knew that if I phrased what I said a certain way then you would say exactly what we needed you to. We just weren't expecting you both to be so miserable," Chad admitted, "we didn't realise that you really cared for one another. We can't exactly be considered your friends for not realising the obvious. We also can't be considered your friends because we were selfish, we didn't want you to do the auditions because we thought that it would mean that you wouldn't be focussed on helping us, your teammates, out. We were wrong Troy."
"We're sorry man, we should have known," Zeke added.
"It's our fault everyone's miserable," Jason agreed.
Troy looked between the three of them not knowing how to react. On the one hand he wanted to knock them all out but on the other hand he understood why they had reacted the way that they did. He knew that it wasn't easy to accept someone you've known forever doing something that you've never known them to do.
"Look I'm annoyed but I'm not mad. I get why you did it I just wish that you hadn't cause now I have to figure out how to get Gabriella to forgive me. I really do care about her guys, I just hope that this hasn't ruined my chance," Troy stated truthfully.
"If anyone can get her to come around it's Taylor. She's basically giving Gabriella the same speech that we've just given you right now. If for whatever reason that doesn't work then we'll help you make it right again," Chad promised.
Troy laughed slightly, "yeah thanks but no thanks. I think you guys have caused enough damage. I'll handle it on my own."
Meanwhile Taylor and her team walked into the science lab and over to Gabriella.
"Gabriella we were jerks. No we were worse than that because we were mean jerks," Taylor started gently, "we thought that Troy and the whole singing thing was killing our chances of having you on the Scholastic Decathlon team."
"I heard what he had to say I'm your the team now done," Gabriella said in annoyance.
"No. Not done," Taylor said, "we knew that Chad could get Troy to say things to make you wanna forget about the callbacks. We planned it and we're embarrassed and sorry."
"No one forced Troy to say anything," Gabriella said, "and you know what it's okay we should be preparing for the Decathlon now so it's time to move on."
Taylor couldn't believe how stubborn Gabriella was being and she refused to give up that easily knowing how much the callbacks and Troy obviously meant to Gabriella.
"No, it's not okay," Taylor said firmly, "the Decathlon is whatever but how you feel about us and even more Troy that's what really matters."
Gabriella just gave Taylor an icy look and went back to working on her equations.
Taylor sighed, what else could she say or do, "we tried," she said to the team.
They left Gabriella in the science lab with Taylor feeling worse than ever.
Taylor wasn't watching where she was walking when she left her friends to go to her locker and she walked straight into Chad.
Chad was grinning with his friends reunited on either side of him when he noticed Taylor walking towards them looking disappointed. He also noticed that she was unfocused and he had to put his arms out to catch her before she walked into him.
"Taylor? What's wrong?" Chad asked worriedly.
Taylor sighed, "Gabriella hates me. This entire thing was a mistake we should never have thought that it was a good idea."
Troy sighed, "look Taylor I'm not happy either but I'm sure Gabi will come around. Life's too short to be miserable. Besides you all had a fair reason to do what you did we were distracted when we should have been focussed on our teams."
"Well if you're planning to talk to her I wouldn't do it now. She's not exactly happy with you either. Your words really hurt her," Taylor admitted softly.
Chad put an arm around her shoulders in comfort, "if Troy can find a way to forgive us then Gabriella can find a way to forgive you."
"I hope you're right," Taylor sighed, "I'd better get to class."
Chad nodded and let her go. It was then that he realised that he never wanted to let her go. He knew that if this all went to plan he was going to ask Taylor out after the championship game.
That night Taylor received a text from Gabriella saying that she and Troy had made up and would be doing the callbacks. The text also said that she accepted Taylor's apology and that she would still join the Decathlon team as long as she could be captain for the competition. Taylor immediately told her that she could take whatever position on the team that she wanted and she also re-apologised to make sure that Gabriella understood just how sorry she was.
Chad received a text from Troy stating that he'd spoken to Gabriella and they'd worked everything out. Chad was relieved to know that their plan hadn't totally destroyed Troy and Gabriella.
