AN: So, here I am! With the longest chapter yet…it was like 5 or 6 pages? I really don't feel like scrolling the mouse all the way to the zoom thing and count. No way, too much work. Hahaha! Just kidding, it's just, thanks for the reviews and all the more story alerts and story favorite stuff! I love getting those emails, so PLEASE REVIEW! So I guess that the thank yous are going to come flooding down now!
So, thank you to: ChocolatexChicaxCasey95, JennCorinthos, girlpower8900, GoDisMyHeRo (love the penname by the way! He rocks!), and World of Peace. Thanks for the reviews guys!
Aaannnddd, thanks to: xxBabyVxx, Vanessa Leah Black, tottalymad, x-samandphil-x, missezhannahx, JennCorinthos, girlpower8900, xalexBx, GoDsMyHeRo, pinkflamingos988, Crazykenpogirl, World of Peace, sakuravixen, starry3y3dangel, and TonyZivaTroyGabriellaFan90 for all the favoriting and alerting stuff! Thanks again and please review! And enjoy the chapter!
How was I feeling when I walked through those doors? Well, Happy, first of all, that I had actually made it through these doors after a whole life of wanting and imagining. Second, Sad, because I knew I was growing up and suddenly I would have so much more responsibilities, something I'm not sure that I'm ready for. And most importantly, Nervous. I actually had never been more nervous in my life. I mean, this is my head start to give the people here a taste or portion of me. And if I mess this up, I'll mess up my entire life! I can't go to any other college other than this! I've worked way too hard!
My lungs started to fail on me. I had never ever had a hyperventilating-breakdown-fainting kind of moment, but right now, I was feeling like I could die. I can't mess this up! Okay Gabriella, snap out of it! Breathe in, breathe out.
"You alright?" Chad asked me with concern written all over his face.
"Yeah, it's just. I don't know; I'm fine." My breathing started to even out. O gosh, I wonder how stupid I must've looked. Why do I worry so much about looks anyways? Who cares, right? Well, I do. Oh my gosh, do I look okay right now?!
I ran my fingers through my hair rapidly. "Um, Gabriella? You look fine, don't worry about it." Troy said nonchalantly. He was the calmest guy I've ever met. Or maybe I'm just too uptight…
We made our way to the auditorium, which was filled with kids for the All-Summer Program either for Academics, Sports, and Performing Arts. You got to choose one class out of those three topics; I chose Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences from Academics.
It was the same way in Sports, where Chad and Troy chose Basketball. By the way, I found out that they've been playing since birth and are completely obsessed with it which is slightly annoying, yet amusing.
The three of us took a seat next to each other with Chad on the left, Troy in the middle, and me sitting on the right. To the right of me sat an African American girl who was sitting oh, so professionally. She was in a tan pencil skirt and a white blazer. Her hands were folded neatly and placed over her crossed legs. She seemed like one to zoom for the success.
She also seems like a great friend.
Not that I have much experience.
But I'm pretty sure that I have the ability.
"Hi, I'm Gabriella." I smiled and extended my hand slightly towards her. I was kind of afraid of rejection.
"I'm Taylor McKessie." He smile back was pleasant, and she seemed way cooler than what she looks.
For some reason, Chad has been butting into my conversations, "I'm Chad Danforth. Nice to meet you Taylor." He shook her hand while she looked at me strangely.
Then he turned his head to me and said, "Hey, Gabster, can you maybe, you know…" It took me a moment, but I finally got it.
"Sure. Whatever you want Chadster." He smiled.
"Thanks." He stood up and traded seats with me. So much for becoming friends with Taylor. I sat down next to Troy. He, as usual, just stared off into space.
"Do you ever, talk?" I asked him. He jerked his view to my face and something inside of me tingled. Just a little.
"Well, yeah. If I have something to say."
"Oh, so you're that type of person who talks only when he really needs to, or if he feels like it, but when he does talk, it's usually something critically important?"
"Not exactly, nothing I say is important important. Just, I'll talk when I want to."
"I'm not judging you." I said.
"I know." He paused as if thinking of something important to say then finally spoke up, "Do you ever think that maybe what you're doing is what is right for you?" So suddenly, something very important about Troy was revealed to me. I've never been the type for all the drama-rama. That's mainly blamed on my lack of friends due to the consistent times that I've had to move, only staying in one place for a month or so. But something seemed really off about Troy, like he wanted to be here way more than I did, which is weird, because I've been dreaming about this since I was born.
"I think I've been on the right path but I can't say that I've gone a little off here and there. Why?" I asked him.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just really like it here already."
"Oh." I could feel quietness coming so I killed it making small talk, "So Chad said that you guys are basketball obsessed."
"Yeah," And he smiled, his smile, once again, making me smile, "I was captain senior year…which was last year. Last year of high-school. Isn't that weird, how fast it goes by?" He changed the subject.
"Yeah, I guess. So, you were captain?"
"Yeah, it was cool."
"That means you are really good. I should see you play sometime." I said grinning. I have no idea if that's flirting.
"Maybe." He had a lopsided grin, a grin that made my heart spin out of control. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. Something I've never seen before.
"What are you taking for the summer?"
"Oh, I'm taking Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. It's really interesting." I said, biting my tongue to not tell him more. What could possibly be more boring than a speech about psychiatry and the sciences of human behavior? I mean, it's interesting to me, but maybe not to a mysterious basketball captain.
"Really? Care to tell?" I tried not to smile bigger. If there was something that I really loved to talk about, it was this. I could go on and on about it without a break.
"Okay, so basically—"
"Welcome all students! Welcome to Stanford University! I'm Mrs. Astolot, the principal and board director here. To all you over achievers, I want to congratulate you on making it here! As all of you should know, this is an opportunity to get to know all your future colleagues for next year's freshman year! We'll help you all get used to a regular curriculum but let me tell you, this is going to be a whole lot easier than the real deal."
I sighed as Mrs. Astolot interrupted my talk about Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. I don't know if the sigh was for sadness or for relief. I was sad that I didn't get to talk about it, but yet relieved that I had saved myself from another soon-to-be-embarrassed moment.
"You all have signed up for a class, one class, which will be your major, the beginning of the year. You will have a lot of extra help and a lot of attention from the teachers because of how small the classes are going to be. You will have two weeks off before the real school year starts. It won't be that hard, you will only have a few hours in real school anyway."
"So, I hope you all enjoy your experience here! Let's start by separating the Sports and the Academic students and the Performing Arts students. I want the Sports to go the left wall and the Academics to go to the right and the Performing Arts Students to come up to the stage."
I looked at Chad and Troy, the only people I've met here so far, and waved goodbye. I was going to go into the unknown group of Academic people.
I knew this was the end of my hope. It was once at the lowest of the low, now it was even lower, if that was even possible. But then, as if she were a beacon of light, Taylor stepped right in front of me, smiling.
"I guess we never really had the chance to meet due to an interruption." This time, she was the one to give her hand, which I took and gladly shook. I laughed, her remark finally making its way to my head.
"Yeah. He's…odd. In a good way." We walked to the rest of the group. "I meant that he's pretty silly, yet cool…?" She just nodded, still looking forward.
I was offended, but not offended. Like, I was sad that she hadn't replied, but was slightly okay with it. But then I was distracted by the high pitched voice coming from stage.
"I'm Sharpay Evans and I'm here to sing!!!" She sang it so loudly; it bounced from wall to wall, making a huge impact on my ear drums. I couldn't dare cover my ears though; one, it would be rude, and two, she had a pretty voice, actually.
After her flamboyant introduction, she stepped back and grinned to a blond haired boy, then pushed him to the center of the circle that the students had made. He stepped forward, blushing, and in a voice that I could barely hear, he said, "I'm Ryan Evans and I'm a choreographer."
He stepped back obviously shy of all the eyes staring at him. I don't know how long I was staring at their group, that seemed way louder than the Sport's and Academics group, but it was long enough for Sharpay to notice me.
She smiled at me, her teeth almost blinding me by the angles of the light. Shocked, I stood still, and then she waved at me, still smiling. I smiled back, unable to resist, then she turned back to her group.
Around, me my group was looking at me. "Um, hi?" I said smiling awkwardly.
"Do you mind introducing yourself to the rest of the group?" A girl with braided pigtails and retro glasses asked me.
"Oh, yeah! Um, I'm Gabriella Montez." I waved to the large group of kids, 80 or so kids.
"What class are you taking?" Taylor asked who was standing right beside me.
"Um, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences."
"Oh! Me too!" A guy dressed in brightly colored clothes said. Once he said that, the whole crown turned and looked at him. "Oh! Um, my name's Jason Cross." He smiled hugely.
"Why don't we all just split into groups of what classes we take?" Taylor said clapping her hands together. She always seemed like the one to take control.
"I'll set my timer," her hand shot up from her sand, a timer suddenly in hand, "to fifteen minutes. Then we'll switch! So—AHEMM." She gave everyone a stern look. Boy, was I right.
"So we were given this time to mingle! Classes, separate!" She clapped her hands together with a smile while calling out classes that were printed on a list.
"Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences." I shot my head up and walked straight over to where she was assigning our group. The classes only had an average of 10 to 15 people; in my case, 10 people.
There was a girl with braided ponytails looking fabulously farm-girl like. There was some other boy who looked like he was ready to kill me and everybody else in the room. With his jet black hair gelled back and a black leather jacket and his black ripped jeans and that left-sided Elvis Presley smirk he was always wearing.
I walked over to him, way amused, "Hi." I stuck out my hand as he shook it aggressively.
"Hey. I'm Trevor Dallas. What's your name?" His smirk was pasted on his face as if permanent.
"Oh, I'm Gabriella Montez."
"Oh! Gabriella Montez! I think your mom works with my mom. My mom is always talking about Elena Montez and her smart excellent daughter Gabriella Montez. It's weird actually."
"How embarrassing. Well, it's nice to know that I 'know' someone around here." I put air quotation marks around the word, know.
He laughed and suddenly he was smiling a real smile. "Yeah! That's true; it's going to be great with you in my class."
As I replied, someone else caught my eye. Troy was looking straight at me from across the room. I know, it sounds totally and hilariously corny, but it's true. If you want to know if we were the only ones in the room, it wasn't only us two. It was Troy, me, and a blonde girl who cut off our 'connection'.
"Hi! I saw you from up there!" she pointed to the stage where the rest of the Performing Arts people were mingling. "I'm Sharpay Evans! But, I'm sure you knew that. What class are you taking!? Where are you from? What's your name?!" Her smile was slightly crazy but all the more welcoming, like I could be myself with her. I looked right next to her to where Trevor was standing.
"Hey Trevor? Maybe we could talk another time?" I said hopefully, as much as I wanted to talk to him, Sharpay seemed jumpy and freaky and the sort of person who would be pissed off to be blown off. Plus, she already had a ton of questions.
"Oh yeah, sure! I'll catch you later then Gabs." He waved a small little wave then clicked his tongue, the smirk pasted back on his face. I turned back to Sharpay.
"You still want me to answer those questions?"
"Oh, yes! Absolutely!" She snapped her pink bubble gum. I don't know what was more stereotypical, her blonde hair or her pink bubblegum snapping.
"Okay," I ran over in my head all the questions she'd asked, "Okay, so first of all, I'm taking the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences class in the Academics group, um, I'm from Albany, New York, And my name is Gabriella Montez."
"Okay Gabby! Let me tell you about myself! She pulled me away from the big group of Academic students and into the middle of the auditorium. I saw Troy again who was talking to some other people but then turned his sight towards me. There was something about it, and this time, no blonde was popping up out of nowhere, and it was just us two.
I don't know if it means anything, I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I mean, he's only tall, and fit, and athletic, and cute, and nice, and mysterious. I mean, that's it, not much I guess. He smiled at me and I smiled back. Then he waved and I waved back. I bet we looked like total retards.
"Ooohhh, who's that hottie?" Sharpay said looking at him too. He turned his head away when a tall black guy hit him with a basketball and Chad screamed, "PWNED!"
"Oh my goodness, that guy is even hotter!" She said.
"What do you think of him?" she asked me.
"Well, which one?" And just like Chad, I felt like we were best friends already and will be forever. Big commitment, huh.
"There's only one to look at Gabriella. Do you mind if I call you Gabs?"
"Not at all." I smiled.
"Oh, yay! It's just, I heard that boy over there call you Gabs and I was just like, Oh! Catchy!"
"O…kay?" I laughed.
"Well, back to the real subject. What do you think of him?"
"Well, Sharpay, may I call you Shar?"
"Oh! Yes! It's so catchy too! It's like Gabs! Shar! Gabs! Shar! I don't know, it sounds awesome." She said as I laughed.
"Okay, this is like the third time I asked this, but what do you think? Do you think he'll like me?" she said sounding really serious for a chance.
"Who, Troy?" I said still confused of which guy she was talking about.
"Wait, you know him?" she looked at me totally flabbergasted.
"Yeah, I rode with him and Chad on the plane. They're pretty cool actually." I nodded my head.
"No way." She said with a straight face. "Introduce me." She commanded.
"What?" I said shocked.
"Please? I mean, you know him already." She begged.
"No way! I mean, no. It's just so weird. Go introduce yourself! His name is Troy Bolton and his friend is Chad Danforth."
"Okay fine." She started her way but then ran back to me, "But you're coming with me." She grabbed my arm and ran to where Troy was standing with the African-American guy and Chad. I screamed the smallest scream, also known as the biggest gasp.
Once we got there, Sharpay fixed her hair and straightened her clothes, a plain white t-shirt and dark skinny jeans with bright pink heels. I looked at my outfit, faded and ripped (not intentionally) straight jeans and a big green shirt with the logo "Lucky Charms" on it, and my favorite sweater, my Nightmare Before Christmas black hoodie with the big white skull on it. I looked atrocious compared to her.
"Hi! You must be Troy Bolton! I'm Sharpay." I kind of felt jealous; Troy would like her better than me, that's for sure. No, wait, what am I talking about! I don't even like him like that, and he doesn't like me either. Well, at least she's doing well.
Troy nodded at her and was about to reply but she walked right past him. I sucked in my breath, oh man, this is bad. She gently extended her hand towards the tall African American boy's hand and he shook it awkwardly. I bit my lip, oh gosh.
Then she looked over to Troy, "And I think your name is…" she tapped her chin, dang, she was a great actress, after being so hyper like she was before, "Oh right! You're Chad Danforth." Troy had a confused expression on his face. And he looked kind of cute.
"Actually, I'm Troy Bolton, and" he pointed to Chad, "That's Chad Danforth and, "he pointed to the tall guy, "that's Zeke Baylor."
Zeke smiled at her and gave a small wave smiling. "Heey…"
"Oh!" Sharpay said looking so not embarrassed. Well, there goes the friendship. "I'm sorry." I bit my lip and closed my eyes, not catching the strange look Chad and Troy were giving me. Embarrassed, I turned on my heel the hide somewhere quiet and small. Then I heard her.
"It's just my friend here, Gabriella, I guess I just confused her and she was just trying to help me and I got it all mixed up. Hey, Gabriella! Come here, where are you going!" She ran up to me and took a hold of my hand, "Come on! I just mixed up their names, isn't that embarrassing!"
"I'm so sorry Sharpay!" I said apologizing as much as I could as we walked back to Troy and Zeke and Chad. I got the feeling that I was way more embarrassed than she was. I was blushing so bad, so horrible; I hate it when this sort of stuff happens.
"Oh, it's fine!" she waved her hand. I didn't know she was so forgiving and smiley and…cheerful.
"Thanks. I'm sorry." I said bashfully.
"Hello Gabster! Whatcha guys doing?!?!" Chad came over running and bear-hugged me. "Did you make any friends? Did you meet Taylor? Isn't she cool? She's so smart too. And she's—"He let go of his hug and then blushed as he walked backwards and leaned against the wall. I just looked at him; sometimes he could be so weird.
"And what, Chad?" Troy inquired with a teasing face.
"Nothing. I just ran out of sentences, I just didn't think. It's nothing!" We all just gave him a look. "What?" he said putting his hands out to mockingly defend him, "It's nothing!"
"Okay, whatever you say." Zeke said. It was the first time I'd heard him talk. I looked over to Sharpay, who looked way thrilled. She walked over to him and started talking to him as they walked away giving us a small wave and smile. I turned my look back to Troy and Chad, I guess it was just us three again.
"So, you guys want to maybe, go see…Taylor?" I said suggestively.
"Yes! I mean, okay." Chad said straightening his excited face. I laughed with Troy.
"Gosh, you suck at hiding it Chad. I can't wait to see you talk to her." Troy said teasingly. And I couldn't not laugh, I mean, everything he said amused me in a way. I wanted to hear every single word that came out of his mouth. I wanted to hear his voice.
But nobody has to know; I mean, it means nothing…right?