AN: Ok so I discovered that my next chapter was even shorter than the last so I am adding onto it with stuff from the chapter after it, which is what took so long. I had to figure out where I was cutting stuff, but I think it all turns out ok.
Chapter 5
The next morning Troy and Gabriella worked in absolute silence, no hellos or byes. Neither of them said a word. Troy was mad and moody. Gabriella was just plain mad at Troy and what he had said the previous day. A warning bell went off and they packed up in silence and left in silence. The silence stayed. All day. Neither said a word.
In gym they were still in the basketball unit. Troy still led the class. His eyes wondered everywhere around the gym but to her. He wouldn't look at her. He wouldn't allow himself to notice her. Not that she couldn't dribble to save her life. Not that she made her free throws during a drill. Not that she wouldn't let herself notice him. And the week continued in silence. Both were waiting for the other to crack. And Troy was bound and determined to win. He never lost at the silent game. Not the ones lasting a few hours with Chad. Not that day long ones with his parents. Not the one freshman year with Jason that lasted two months. He was fine living in silence. It made people less afraid of him and him less angry. Maybe that was his problem, he was angry all the time. It was little things usually got to him like his locker, his car, a teacher or a teammate. Big things he usually tried to block out and pretend that they didn't happen. What he should do with little things he did with big things and what he did with big things he should do with little things. Either way, he was contempt with this silence. And better yet, he could see her cracking. She stared at him sometimes. She looked like she was going to talk to him a number of times. He could read her easily. Not talking or yelling, like it was most of the time, was killing her.
Finally one morning in the library as they worked she said, "Can we stop acting like we're five and at least say a work or two to each other?"
"You can do what ever you please," Troy said, but not looking up at her.
"Look, I was upset, and you were there to take it out on."
"Ok."
"And I am sorry for yelling at you," an apology, great, Troy thought, he didn't do apologies.
"I am upset with myself over some of my word choices."
"No sorry in there."
"I don't say sorry," Troy said.
Gabriella looked at him for a long, hard moment, "How do you have friends?"
"What?" Troy finally looked up at her, taken back.
"You are a jerk, you yell at people constantly, you are callous and mean. None of which are qualities that most people look for in friends, and yet you are still surrounded by people all the time."
"Not all of them are my friends."
"Well they sure seem to like you."
"Just because they like me doesn't mean I like them. I really only consider Chad, Zeke and Jason my friends, the others I just tolerate."
"Do all the others know that?"
"Yeah, they just put up with me so they can be added to the list, or at least they hope to be."
"They won't ever be added to the list, you are antisocial and can't stand people."
"Well now that you have judged me, I am going," Troy stood up and got his stuff together. The silence was broken, but it wasn't broken very pleasantly. And the silence still loomed overhead until the end of the week and Friday came along. Friday was full of noise.
Troy and Gabriella got in a shouting match in homeroom over something stupid no one really knew what it was. Darbus tried to hold them afterwards and for them to talk it out reasonably. But it didn't work. They faked it to stay out of detention, but went back to shouting in the halls. Now it was over the others acting skills and how the other almost got them caught and put in detention.
They bickered in gym over a ball or something to that effect. Coach Fris split them up quickly and sent them to opposite sides of the gym. Troy was furious by the time lunch came along. He wasn't ready to face the lunchroom. He walked along the hallway that led to his spot. He heard voices. One was a girl and the other a guy. He turned the corner to see Mathew Daniels, the varsity pitcher, with his latest fling pushed up against the lockers. Yuck, Troy hated any and all forms of PDA. And even just holding hands could get to him sometimes. PDA was gross to everyone around and was meant for private. The girl tried to reach up and slap him. And that was when Troy noticed that it was Daniels latest fling but just some girl. Daniels grabbed the girl's wrist before it could come in contact with his face. And Troy hated that even more than just PDA. He was ready to strangle Daniels. Troy rammed Daniels off the girl with his shoulder. He sucker punched Daniels before Daniels knew what was going on. Troy shoved him against the lockers and held him there with his forearm.
"Just let this serve as a warning for the next time you even think about touching another girl," Troy said lowly in a deadly growl. He pulled Daniels a few inches from the lockers and slammed him back into them. "Now get out of here," Troy shoved the baseball pitcher down the hall and turned to the girl. He looked at her, silently crying, holding onto her wrist. Troy did a double take as he recognized her, "Gabriella," He said softly, kneeling next to her.
She tried to quickly wipe away her tears, knowing how he hated it. He didn't say anything about it though. He picked her up with one arm under her knees and his other under her back. He carried her to the nurse not letting himself get irritated by her tears. He kicked open the door to the nurse's office. There was no one but the nurse in the main room. He carried her back to one of the dark rooms and laid her down on a bed. He walked out to the nurse and said, "Check out her wrist, give her some ice and send her home," Troy said in a tone of voice that the nurse would listen to and do just what he said.
As he was walking out he heard the nurse ask him, "Did you do this?"
"No, Mathew Daniels did," Troy said before letting the door slam shut. He went to the lunchroom even though it had been the original place he was avoiding.
"Dude where were you, what happened?" Chad asked.
"Mathew Daniels happened," Troy said.
They all knew of Daniels reputation. He was a notorious violator of the PDA rule. He had his tongue down a different girl's throat each day with two day flings. Though most girls welcomed it even though they knew his reputation. But there were a small amount of girls that didn't welcome it and that percentage and those incidents are what Troy really hated. Most people didn't understand this hatred. But those few who did, had a lot of respect for Troy in that aspect.
No one pushed the subject any further. They didn't want Troy to explode and cause any damage. Daniels was a sore subject for Troy. Almost any varsity captain was a sore spot for Troy. They didn't like him and he didn't like them. They were asses and Troy was younger than them, but yet better than them.
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"Troy, sweetie, wake up," his mother, Jenny, coaxed the next morning, like she did most weekdays.
"Saturday, no school," Troy said from below his pillow.
"Ellie," His mother said. Troy popped his head up tiredly. "You dad and I are going shopping for her birthday presents before we take her to the zoo this afternoon. Watch her and keep her from asking where we are."
"Ok," Troy said letting his head hit the pillow again.
"She's up now and your dad is feeding her breakfast, get up, we leave in fifteen," she said before walking out of the room.
Troy sighed and pushed himself up. How could he forget, his sister's birthday. It was in six days. Of course he could remember why he had forgotten, Mathew Daniels. He grabbed a shirt and shorts and pulled them on. He walked tiredly downstairs to the kitchen. It was 9:30 am; he was usually asleep until at least noon on Saturdays.
"Morning sport," Jack said as Troy walked in.
"Too early," he mumbled and his mother handed him a plate of eggs and toast with a fork. She set a glass of orange juice in front of him as he took a seat at the table."
"Troy, wakey, wakey," Ellie said.
"Why do four-year-olds wake up so early, I thought that they slept a lot," Troy complained as he started to eat.
"That's babies, Troy, now eat," Jenny said.
"I'll be five in sixes days," Ellie said looking at her fingers, trying to hold up five of them, but she didn't really know how many five was. Jack helped her out and she held up five fingers towards Troy.
"Yes you will be," Jenny said as she fixed Ellie's hair, pulling it back in a pigtails as Ellie finished eating. After Jenny finished, she and Jack left for the mall.
"So what are we doing today Ellie?" Troy asked as he rinsed off his plate and glass before setting them in the sink.
"Chalk!" she said excitedly, "All my drawings are bye-bye."
"Yeah, it rained a couple nights ago," Troy said. She had to be artsy. "Ok, lets go," He picked her up and rested her on his hip as he checked the front door to see if it was locked. He locked it and turned off most of the lights, but left some on to look like someone was inside. He walked out to the garage and picked up a bucket of chalk full of different colors and walked out to the driveway. He set her down in the middle of the lane of the basketball court painted on his driveway. He set down the bucket next to her and then sat down himself. He laid down by her, propping himself up on his elbows. He wasn't really into drawing, but watched her do it. He tried to remember some of the things that he had seen his mom do when drawing with Ellie. His mom was always going on about proper stimulation to a child's brain. There were questions you were suppose to ask them to make their brain grow and develop, and right now Troy was trying to think of those questions. There was one thing that got to his heart, and that was Ellie. Not many knew why, but everyone could see that he doted on her a little bit. She drew what he guessed was a butterfly before getting up and moving away to a new spot. As she stood up, Troy remembered what he was supposed to ask. "Ellie, can you tell me about what you drew?" Troy asked.
"A butterfly with blue wings and two yellow eyes," Ellie said already starting another drawing.
"Can I write that down so you can tell mommy about it later when she comes home," Troy said. Their mom was really active in Ellie's life, wanting to know everything Ellie did when she wasn't there.
"Yes," Ellie said as she continued her next 'masterpiece'.
Troy grabbed a piece of black chalk from the pail and wrote down Ellie's words in perfect block letters beside it along with her name. Troy heard a chime. It was from a sound system his dad installed a couple years back. When he and his dad were out back practicing they couldn't hear the doorbell so they installed a chime out back so they could hear it. You couldn't see the front door from the driveway, so they wouldn't know if anyone was there.
Troy figured it was Chad or someone from the team, "Around back," he yelled. He knew that the person could hear him. He also knew it would take them a minute to walk around. He leaned back against the basketball pole and tossed the chalk into the bucket after he finished writing. He heard the person coming. When they came into sight they were the last person Troy expected to see come around the corner of his house, "Gabriella?" He scrambled to his feet, "What are you doing here?" He looked at Ellie still happily drawing.
"Hi, um, I know this is a little weird, I just wanted to get the history homework from Friday, yesterday, whatever," she said nervously, "And to say thank you." She looked at her hands.
"Um, ok, your welcome," Troy said unsure. "Ellie," he walked over to her, "come one we are going inside for a second."
"But I wanna finish," Ellie whined.
"You will when we come back, we are just putting it on hold for a short time. You'll get a chance to finish it in about five minutes," Troy coaxed the little girl.
"I am not walking," The little girl said stubbornly, crossing her arms.
Troy laughed at her as he picked her up, "Good thing you don't weight more than a feather," He set her on his hip again, "You know if you make a mad face for too long, your face will stay like that and you will never be happy again," he told the pouting girl. Ellie smiled, "Good girl," he said before turning to Gabriella, "Come on," he nodded at the door.
"Who are you?" Ellie asked, seeing Gabriella over Troy's shoulder.
"Gabriella, I go to school with Troy," Gabriella said, not sure how to state her relationship with Troy, or the lack of one.
"Gaberila?" Ellie tried to say it.
"Call me Gabi, it is easier for you," Gabriella said.
"Gabi! Troy, I like her name, why can't I have that name?" Ellie asked Troy as they walked up the stairs that Gabriella guessed led to his room.
"Because then you wouldn't be you, you'd be someone else," Troy said as he opened the door to his room. He set Ellie on his bed. He was now unhappy that he hadn't made his bed that morning nor was his room cleaned yet that weekend. There were random clothes everywhere along with papers and some CDs, and just basically a lot of junk. He pulled out his backpack and then the folder he kept all his history papers in. He glanced up and saw Gabriella standing awkwardly at the end of his bed.
"I was also hoping to maybe get your part of the project so I can start typing it up and get it ready to turn in next Friday," Gabriella added.
"I finished one part, but not the other. I can give you the part you finished and then get the other part to you later," Troy said. He found the homework assignment and set it down as he dug through again for his project. He pulled it out the part he finished and set it on the homework. He scrawled the homework on the top margin of the paper and then put everything away except the project. "Here," He handed her the papers.
"Ok Ellie, now we can go back outside to finish," Troy picked up the little girl again and walked back out, "You'll have to go out the back, front's locked since no one is actually in the house right now."
"Ok," Gabriella said following him out back.
"Do you want to draw with us?" Ellie asked her.
"Ellie," Troy warned. He couldn't decide if he wanted Gabriella to stay or go. He set Ellie back down in front of her drawing, "You don't have to stay, that is just Ellie," he added to Gabriella.
"It's, ok, I haven't done this is a really long time," Gabriella said smiling. Troy liked her smile. Gabriella sat next to Ellie on one side and picked up a piece of chalk and started to draw. Troy watched her interact with his sister for a moment before coming over and kneeling on Ellie's other side. Troy really didn't like to draw by the fact that he was bad at it, but he picked up a piece of chalk anyways and started to. He really didn't know what he was sketching, he was just drawing. When he finished, he decided it looked like a dragon. He grabbed the black chalk again and wrote that next to his drawing with his name.
"And what is this one Ellie?" Troy asked.
"A pretty flower with pink leaves," Ellie said adding some finishing touches. Troy leaned forward on his knees and braced himself on his left hand as he used his right to write her words above her drawing in those perfect block letters. Gabriella mentally cursed herself as she saw the muscles in his arms work and noticed that as he leaned forward, his shirt came up to expose the top few inches of his boxers and some of his tanned back. She quickly looked down at what she had drawn.
"Ellie, would you like to sign you name underneath?" Troy asked offering the piece of chalk to her.
"Yes," Ellie took the chalk from him and sloppily wrote her name under the picture. "Your turn Gabi," Ellie offered the chalk to Gabriella after she finished.
"Ok," Gabriella said unsure, but she took the chalk. She guessed that she drew a sun and she wrote that next to the drawing in block lettering like Troy, only less perfect and elegant.
"And your name," Ellie reminded. Gabriella looked at Troy, who nodded. She signed her name quickly underneath.
"Ok, I think it is time for me to go," Gabriella said standing up.
"Do you have to?" Ellie complained.
"Ellie," Troy said in a warning tone.
"But I don't want her to go!" Ellie started to throw a temper tantrum.
Troy went red with embarrassment. "Eleanor Belle," Troy picked her up and she continued to squirm. Her arms were flailing and one fist came in contact with Troy's head. Troy grabbed both of her wrists out of the air. "Ellie," Troy battled her for control for a moment, "Ellie, don't hit, it isn't nice. This little temper tantrum says that it is time for Gabriella to leave since you can't seem to control yourself. And I think that it is time for a time out." Troy forgot about Gabriella as he took Ellie inside. He turned a chair to face a wall and set Ellie in it. "Stay there without saying a word until the timer goes off," Troy told her. He went to the microwave and set a silent timer for four minutes. He then remembered Gabriella and he went to see if she was still out back. She was standing uncomfortably about the free throw line, looking around. "I am very unhappy with Ellie for that little outburst, and I am embarrassed that you had to see it," he said.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just say sorry rather than that long spiel?" Gabriella asked.
"For most people it would be but for me, no. Sorry without a reason is worthless anyways. And that would be my reason," Troy said.
"That is true," Gabriella nodded.
"You should go before Ellie gets sprung, she's going to come looking for you," Troy said.
"Yeah, ok, bye Troy," Gabriella said and she walked away.
"Are we meeting before school Monday?" Troy called out.
"Yes," Gabriella turned to look at him. He seemed to hesitate, but he put up a small wave. Gabriella returned it and walked away.
Troy went back inside and saw Ellie still in her chair. He checked the timer and saw she had a little less than two minutes left. He didn't pay attention to her as he went about the kitchen getting a glass of water for himself and he filled a sippy cup for her, but left it on the counter for until her time out was over. He then started to fill up ten water bottles for later that day. On Saturdays rather than having a traditional practice, Troy led his team on a five mile jog around town for conditioning.
His parents returned not long after Ellie got out of time out. Jenny talked to Ellie about her drawings on the driveway so she wouldn't notice Troy and Jack bringing in bags of gifts into the house and up to their parents room. As Jack was getting Ellie ready in the car, Jenny stopped Troy, "Sweetie, who is Gabriella?"
"What?" Troy said stupidly as he hadn't been paying attention.
"Gabriella, outside on the drive, who is she?" His mother repeated, motioning to the driveway.
"Oh, just a girl from school, she's my partner for a history project, she was coming to get what I had and the homework she missed Friday," Troy said nonchalantly.
"And you wanna give me the details behind Ellie's time out?"
"After I gave Gabriella the papers she needed, Ellie being Ellie invite her to stay and draw. Gabriella is too nice to say no. After we finished, Gabriella said she had to leave, and Ellie threw a tantrum. I gave Ellie a four minute time out like you do and sent Gabriella home before Ellie's time was done," Troy explained.
"And the timeout was all you did?" Jenny asked.
"Mom, I can't believe you are asking that, yes, time out was all."
"Your dad told me about you getting in fights at school."
"The one a week ago was stupid and I mad that I did it, but the thing Friday was for a good reason."
"Even for a good reason, fighting is not good."
"Mom, the guy was forcing himself upon a girl, I had to do something."
"I just don't want you to grow up to be a violent person."
Jack came out at that moment, stopping Troy from saying something, "Are we all ready?" Jack asked.
"I think so, Troy we'll be back around eight, there is leftovers in the fridge or a ten on the side table by the door if you want to get something for yourself. And maybe try and straighten out your room some too today," Jenny said and they were gone.
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AN: Yes that is longer than just the first chapter. Now the next chapter will be like the second half of this chapter. If I put it all together, it would be really, really long and take me forever to type. So I am cutting it here and will work on the next chapter for the next few days. It is a longer chapter too chapter so it will take just a few days to do. Please leave me a review telling me what you think.