Troy sits at the table impatiently as he waits for his mother to get off the phone. He could feel the piercing sensation against his lip as he holds the ice closer to the bleeding spot. "Oh… I see." He hears in the background as his face cringes at the anger that was in her voice. "No… I'll have a talk with him… It just doesn't seem like him to do this…" Troy tries to drone the voice out but finds it almost impossible, since he knew that she was going to come here soon and raise it towards him.
"She's so mad." A voice enters Troy's ears as he turns to see the chocolate brown colored hair had entered the kitchen. His piercing blue eyes narrow on his bother as the eleven year old takes a seat across from Troy and smirks at his brother. "You're gonna be grounded until your eighty."
Troy turns away from Aaron and looks down at the floor. "It's not my fault." He says while finding the ground suddenly so much more interesting then the conversation he was having with his brother. He could almost see Aaron's eyes roll at the comment as Troy looks up again to hear his mother.
"Alright… thank you… goodbye." She says as Troy's eyes grow wide. He puts down the ice pack that he was holding up to his lip and hears the click of heels on the hardwood until they suddenly stop. Troy couldn't bring his head up to look his mother in the eyes, to see the anger in them. "Aaron… go to your room."
"What? I didn't do it!" Aaron exclaims and Troy could imagine his horror stricken face.
"Aaron James!" Lucille Bolton's sharp and angry voice hisses as Troy hears his brother mutter something angrily then stomp out of the kitchen. He doesn't hear footsteps on the steps though, so he figures Aaron was sitting at the bottom, listening to what was about to occur. "Aaron!" His mother yells and Troy then hears a stomp on the stairs.
"I'm going!" He calls back while his mother turns back to Troy.
"Troy Alexander Bolton. I cannot believe you. I get a call at work today saying my son was in a fight at school!" Troy remains silent as he stares at the floor. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
The ten year-old shakes his head and continues to stare at his white shoes. "No."
"Look at me!" His mother hisses. Troy's head immediately snaps up, not wanting to know the consequences if he didn't. "How many times have your father and I said that violence is never the answer?"
Troy closes his eyes and shakes his head. "A lot." He says in the smallest voice possible.
"You could have really gotten hurt!" She says as Troy looks up at his mother.
"Brian started it!" Troy says as his mother rolls her eyes.
"I don't care who started it or who finished it!" She exclaims and shakes her head. "I never want to hear that you got into a fight again ok?"
The fourth grader nods. "Ok." He responds.
Lucille sighs as she kneels down to Troy's level and places a hand on the table to balance herself. Her mood suddenly changes from anger to caring mother and Troy was almost thrown off by the sudden change. "It's just not like you Troy." She says while running a hand through her youngest son's shaggy hair.
Troy suddenly feels guilty and looks down at his feet again. "He said I'd never be as good as Aaron and I should just stop trying."
Lucille sighs and runs another hand through Troy's hair. "Honey… you can't compare yourself to your brother." She says while Troy looks away from her. He got this speech all the time from her, but it never really sank in. Of course he had to compare himself to Aaron. It was impossible not to. "You two are two totally different people ok?"
"I know but…" He starts but his mother holds up her hand to stop him.
"There's no use. Both of you are two very special boys who your father and I love equally. You understand?" Lucille asks.
Troy looks to the side to see the basketball hoop that was sitting in the middle of the yard. It was so much easier to look everywhere else but at his mother. She wasn't right, and she would never understand. She never had a brother that was good at everything. She never had to deal with living in a shadow. She had no idea. And for his dad? Yea, he loved him when he wasn't paying attention to Aaron's greatness on the court. Which felt like never. "Yea…" Troy says, just to agree and get his mom off his back.
His mother sighs and kisses his head. "No more fighting ok?" She says as Troy nods.
"No more fighting." He repeats as Lucille stands up.
"Now put the ice back on your lip. Your father wants to have a talk with you too when he comes home." She says as she starts to walk out of the room. Troy's eyes follow her as she leaves the room. He sighs again and then suddenly hears footsteps on the stairs as he sees Aaron standing there.
"So…" The eleven year-old starts as he walks over to Troy. "How long are you grounded for?"
Troy shakes his head and looks back at his brother. "I'm not." He responds.
Aaron raises his eyebrows and nods. "Nice. So that means you and Chad are still coming to my tournament this weekend." He states more then asks as Troy looks away from him. Great. That meant that he had to sit with a bunch of parents and listen to them say how great Aaron was, and how proud his mother should be of him. Well, at least he was still able to go with Chad.
"I guess." Troy says jealously while putting the ice back onto his lip. He looks back out to the basketball court and stares at it for another minute. He then puts the ice back down and gets up from the table. Aaron looks over at him with a confused look on his face.
"Hey! Where you going?" He asks while Troy points his thumb over his shoulder.
"Backyard." He responds. Aaron makes a movement to come too but Troy runs out the screen door before his brother could follow him. His lip throbbed a little, but other then that he was ok. He grabs the basketball that was lying on the ground and walks over to the hoop. He stands stiffly and takes his shot, watching as it bounces off the backboard and away from the net.
He shoots five more times before hearing the screen door open again. His piercing blue eyes glance over as Aaron walks over with his hands in his pockets. "You gotta bend your knees more, your stiff."
Troy looks away from his brother, not really wanting advice from him right now. "My shot's fine." He responds but his brother walks over to him and places his hands on the ball, taking it away from Troy's grasp.
"Come here." He says and faces the basketball while Troy glares at him a little and finally looks at him. "Use your knees more…" The eleven year-old says and bends down. "Then push off with the balls of your feet." He does and Troy watches angrily as it sinks into the basket.
Troy looks at his brother with envy. "What are balls of your feet?" He asks as Aaron gets his rebound and lifts his foot up.
"Right here." He responds, pointing to them. He passes the ball to Troy who catches it with grace. "Try it." Troy nods and bends down further with his knees and pushes off. He watches as it sinks in perfectly. Even though he was happy to actually get it in, he was also mad that his brother was right about the shooting thing. "See? Easy as pie."
Aaron takes his rebound and shoots it again, making it as well. Troy desperately wishs that he could be his brother. Maybe then he'd actually get the recognition of being good that he deserved, since after all, he was the harder working Bolton. But as he discovered how unfair life was, it didn't matter. Aaron would always be the better Bolton, whether Troy liked it or not.
A giggle erupts the air as Gabriella slides a little on the sand, but attempting to hang onto the red cup for her dear life. She giggles as she falls down, connecting her backside with the sand. A spit of laughter comes from her throat as she snorts a little while stretching her legs out that were in her jeans. She reaches up and grabs a hand that was dangling in front of her and pulls it down too, so the gorgeous brown-haired blue eyed boy was now sitting next to her. "Hey!" The boy says while leaning close to her ear and blowing hot breath onto her neck.
Gabriella was drunk. Troy was drunk. It was as simple as that. They had arrived at the Central Augusta party about three hours ago, and now both were completely wasted. Gabriella really wasn't much of a drinker, sure she did it once in awhile, but nothing major. But when Troy started drinking, and then offered some to Gabriella, she couldn't resist. And before she knew it, she found herself completely smashed.
"Are you guys ok?" Taylor voice asks from the heavens as Gabriella looks up to see her best friend was looking down at her with her own drunken boyfriend sucking on her neck. She was also standing next to Sharpay and Zeke, who were basically having sex in front of them, only they were wearing clothes, for right now. Jason was standing beside them, talking to one of the younger players of the East High basketball team. They were all drunk, except maybe Taylor, who was just a little tipsy.
"We're great!" Gabriella practically yells as she feels Troy's lips connect with her neck as he begins to suck on it. She giggles again and feels his arm drape around her shoulder with a red cup in that hand. Gabriella grabs the cup and pulls it up to her lips to take a sip of whatever he was drinking. "Troy!" She whines as she feels his lips connect with her sweet spot.
"I l-love it when you sc-scream my name." He slurs into her ear that would usually sound husky if he was sober, but now it just sounded weird. But it causes Gabriella to giggle again and lean towards him, connecting their lips together. Troy wastes no time to shove his tongue into Gabriella's mouth, with her grabbing both sides of his face to pull him closer.
She feels Troy's hand slip under her shirt and begin to make its way north. But then she suddenly hears someone above her and then feels her and Troy's head being pulled apart. "Ok, that's enough." Taylor says while Troy's hand slips from under her shirt and he looks up at Taylor angrily. "And I think you've both had enough." She says while wrestling the red plastic cups with the two of them.
"Tay!" Gabriella whines as she tries to grab it back, but just misses her hand and falls into Troy's lap instead. She giggles a little as she turns over to see Troy was laughing at her from above.
"Taylor… you need t-to just r-relax." Chad slurs out while Troy stroks Gabriella's side up and down, since she was still in his lap.
Taylor rolls her eyes at him. "How can I relax when I have six trashed friends to baby-sit?" She asks frustrated as Troy looks up at her and blinks a couple times.
"I dunno…" Troy responds while Taylor rolls her eyes again.
"It was a rhetorical question Troy." She says as Troy's mouth forms the shape of an "o". But his eyes look down to Gabriella's again as he suddenly connects their lips together in a heated and very sloppy kiss. Gabriella giggles into his mouth as she wraps her arms around his neck, feeling her tongue slip into his mouth as well.
"Let's… get… the hell…" Troy says in between kisses and tries to drag her up, but Gabriella could tell he was struggling. She could feel his tongue being shoved down her throat, and if she was sober, she would have found it extremely unfamiliar to his normal kisses, but it didn't matter since he was wasted. They finally manage to stand up and Gabriella turns to Taylor while pointing to their hotel that was three down from the one they were at.
"We're leaving." She says while feels Troy suck on her neck. Taylor looks at them.
"Um… maybe you guys should wait until we leave too." She says but Gabriella shakes her head while Troy starts to walk forward, while still hanging onto Gabriella.
"We'll be fin…" She starts to say before feeling her feet trip and falls down, with Troy coming with her. They land knotted together while Gabriella was giggling and Troy was chuckling. It was going to be a long walk back.
Gabriella could feel the sun beat down onto her face as she rolls over. Her head was throbbing like no other as she feels her back tense up as she begins to stretch. The blood rushes through her ears for a moment before she relaxes again and opens her eyes, adjusting to the light. She sits up while rubbing her eyes, still feeling the throb her head was causing her as she sighs. "Tay? What time is it?"
No one responds. She sighs again and opens her eyes, assuming that Taylor spent the night at Chad's. But when her eyes do open, they find themselves in a place that wasn't her room. She looks around desperately, but then realizes that the place was familiar. She rubs her head again and leans her back against the head board. She hears the bathroom door open off in the distance somewhere. "How're you feeling?"
Gabriella looks up to see that her boyfriend was standing in a pair of blue basketball shorts and no shirt on. She squints, almost hoping that it would help the headache go away, but finds it unsuccessful. "My head feels like someone dropped a truck on it." She says while hearing his footsteps as he walks over to the bed. She feels the weight right next to her as she opens up her eyes again and watches Troy smile a little. "Why are you fine? I thought you hate mornings."
"I do." He responds and gently kisses her lips. "But I went running." He says and Gabriella finally notices that his hair was wet, making her assume he had just gotten out of the shower.
Suddenly, a thought occurs to Gabriella. It makes her stomach flip for a moment. "Wait… did we…?" She starts to say but Troy shakes his head, making her sigh with relief.
"No… you passed out about five minutes after we got in here." He says which makes Gabriella feel so much better. It wasn't that she never wanted to have sex with Troy, but she really would have rather not do it when she was wasted and couldn't remember how it would have felt.
"Oh…" She says slightly embaressed and then feels Troy's arms slip onto her lower waist. A small smile plays on his lips as he leans towards her.
"Well… we could do it now, just to make up for not doing it last night." He says with his husky voice that had now returned to him. Gabriella rolls her eyes but feels his lips close the gap between the two.
"Nice try Bolton." She says but then suddenly feels his lips land on hers. She feels his tongue massage her own, so much more gently then he did last night. Her hands run up his bare chest, and she swears she hears him moan into her mouth at the sensation.
They continue to kiss for another fifteen minutes before finally letting go. Troy rests his forehead onto Gabriella's, whose still hurt like no tomorrow, but it was feeling a little better just being with him. "I should go… my coach is coming in a couple hours and I wanna make a good impression."
She watches as Troy gets a somewhat sad look on his face, but then shrugs it off. "Yea…" He just says while Gabriella plays with the hair on the back of his neck. She didn't want to be away from him, but she knew she had to.
"But I'll call you later ok?" She says while giving his lips another peck and getting out from under the covers.
"Let me know how it goes." He says while kissing her cheek lightly. Gabriella smiles and nods.
"Will do… bye Troy." She says with a wave while walking out the door.
Four hours later, Gabriella found herself standing in the lobby with Taylor standing next to her. Sharpay was standing in the front of the two, arguing with Amber about something unimportant. They were going to meet her coach, since Gabriella had never met her and the two captains had to greet her of course, while Gabriella just asked Taylor to come too. She still had a headache beyond all belief, but it was slowly starting to go away, which she was incredibly thankful for. "Sorry you were stuck babysitting last night." She says while Taylor shrugs.
"Shit happens. It's not the first time." She says while Gabriella smiles at her softly. "It was probably more fun watching you and Troy act wasted then getting drunk."
A blush erupts on Gabriella's cheek. She couldn't remember much about what happened last night, and Taylor had filled her in a little on what she saw. "Thanks Tay." She says sarcastically while hearing Sharpay huff about something.
"What? So this it's this Marcus guy now?" Sharpay exclaims. "I don't want to keep walking into the room to see you two fucking on the bed!"
Gabriella was shocked at the fact that Amber's normally calm demeanor was completely thrown off and angry now. "Don't give me that shit Sharpay! All you do screw with Zeke! Don't be pissed off just because I now have someone too." She says while Sharpay rolls her eyes.
"I don't care who you're messing around with!" Sharpay exclaims. "Just don't do it in our room!"
Amber crosses her arms and stares at the blonde girl. "I'm sorry you're jealous of what I have with Marcus, but it's my room too."
Sharpay's eyes grow wide. "Jealous? JEALOUS?" She says exasperated. "I'm not jealous! I have a boyfriend… remember? And at least mine's not some random guy in the middle of Mexico."
Amber rolls her eyes. "Yea… I do remember. You remind me constantly." She says while glancing towards the door. "And what I do is my business. You can't control me." She says while taking a step forward towards the blonde.
Suddenly, the door to the hotel opens and Gabriella's eyes look up. Standing there was a tall woman, with bleach blonde hair that seemed almost white. The woman seemed to be a stick, but she had to at least be 5'11''. A smile erupts on the woman's face as she strides over and Sharpay and Amber immediately put fake smiles on their faces. "Ladies!"
"Hey Zoey." Sharpay and Amber say at the exact same time, while they both glare at each other in the corner of their eyes. "How was your flight?" Amber asks, probably sucking up to the coach. Gabriella looks at Taylor who gives her a small nod, confirming that was indeed her.
"It was great." She says while setting her suitcase down. "And hearing from your messages it sounds like everyone's doing great." She says in a peppy voice that reminds Gabriella faintly of Sharpay herself.
"Mhhhmmm." Sharpay says while glancing back to see that Gabriella and Taylor were still leaning up against the wall.
"Taylor!" Zoey exclaims while walking over and giving the dark girl a hug. She lets go and then turns to Gabriella. Now that she was up close, Gabriella could see that she had bright blue eyes, but couldn't help but think how they weren't even close to the color of her favorite pair of blue eyes. "And you must be…"
"Gabriella Montez." Gabriella says while the woman extends her hand out. Gabriella takes it to see the coach smiling brightly at her.
"I read your transcript." Zoey says while beaming at the her like she was the answer to her prayers. "I was very impressed."
"Thank you." Gabriella says while watching in the corner of her eye as the two captains walk over to them.
"She's the best." Sharpay says while Gabriella smiles a little seeing the frown that erupts on Amber's flawless face.
"She is very… unique." She says while Gabriella does her best not to give the girl a dirty look.
"Well… then you'll fit right in here." Zoey says while grabbing her suitcase. The woman walks towards the check out counter with out another word while Gabriella glances at Taylor.
"She seems… ummm… nice?" Gabriella says, not exactly sure what to make of the woman yet. Taylor nods and the two girls glance to see that Sharpay and Amber were glaring at each other, but didn't say another word.
"Yea… she is." Taylor responds and then sighs. "But I swear those two aren't gonna make it for another week with out ripping each other's brains out." Taylor says in a hushed voice while Gabriella shrugs.
"Let's just pray that Shar's the winner." She says while continuing to look at the two girls who hated each other.