"Hey Pretty Girl." Troy said, coming up to Gabriella's locker. Gabriella gave him a smile.
"Hey. How did tryouts go?" she asked. That was the question she had been dying to ask him. She really wanted to know how Alexis held up.
"It went great!" Troy said, a lot more enthusiastically than Gabriella expected.
"Define great." she said.
"Well, I totally made the team,"
"As expected."
"And so did the rest of the Wildcats, and Alexis did pretty good herself." Troy said.
"Really?" Gabriella asked, very happy.
"Yeah, the girl's got talent. And she is pretty cool too. I mean, she's amazing. Did you know she sings too? Oh, and her jumpshot is amazing. And she's so funny! Really awesome! She should totally hang with our group." Troy ranted out, not even saying all the amazing things he thought she was.
"That sounds great." Gabriella said, her face suddenly falling. Why was Troy suddenly all caught up with another girl?
"Oh, and Kelsi wants us to help her with her duet after school." Gabriella suddenly remembered, that would be a way to keep Troy with her. He loves it when the two of them sing together.
"I kind of promised Alexis that now that she made the team, I'd practice with her a bit." Troy said.
Gabriella was a little shocked, those two became fast friends. And she was a little jealous. But it's not as if she would admit that. Troy can hang out with whoever he wants, it's not as if she owns him. She and Troy are as tight as ever. Everything's fine.
"Well, I kind of promised Kelsi that we'd help her." Gabriella said. She decided that asking Troy to ditch Alexis was mean, so she settled for a compromise. Troy didn't say anything. He looked like he wanted to play basketball with Alexis.
"How about you spend half of the time practicing with me and Kelsi, and the rest with Alexis." Gabriella said, trying to hide her vexation when she said Alexis. They're friends, let it go, she told herself. Besides it would make Troy happy.
"Um, okay." he said reluctantly. "You sure that Alexis will understand?"
"Yeah. I'll tell her in Physics. She'll be fine with it." Gabriella said, and with that closing her locker and heading off to class without saying goodbye to Troy. She was being stupid, and she knew it. But she couldn't help it.
"Hey," Alexis said, sitting down next to Gabriella in class.
"Oh, hey," Gabriella said half heartedly. She was overreacting, she knew that. Why couldn't she just act like that?
"Thanks for letting me hang with Troy yesterday. He was awesome!" Alexis said, giddily.
"Yeah, Troy's something." Gabriella said. "That's why I'm dating him." she added.
"I can definitely see why." Alexis said. Before Gabriella could say something back, Justin sat down next to them.
"Hey Gaby." he said, taking out his homework.
"Hey Justin." Gabriella said, smiling.
"So, how'd the practice go yesterday?" Justin asked.
"Excuse me?" Gabriella asked, confused.
"Weren't you practicing for the school musical?" he asked.
"No. Just singing with my friend, she wants to submit her work for it. So I was just letting her know how it sounded." Gabriella replied.
"Well, it sounded amazing." Justin said.
The bell just rang, but the teacher was late, like usual. So, the class went on talking.
"I totally think that you should go out for the musical Gaby. You did it last year, right?" Alexis said cutting into their conversation.
"Yeah," Gabriella said. "With Troy." she added, again making sure that Alexis knew that Troy was hers.
"Yeah, he told me." Alexis said. "And he has an amazing voice too. I tricked him into singing. You two must sound great together." Alexis said.
"Yeah, we are great together." Gabriella said showing a not so subtle hint.
"Who's Troy?" Justin asked, now the one confused.
"My boyfriend." Gabriella said.
"Oh," Justin said, his heart sinking. He really liked Gaby but she had a boyfriend.
"Yeah, Troy is the captain of the basketball team! He's an awesome player!" Alexis said. Wait, Justin thought, a smart girl like Gaby is dating a moron from the basketball team?, that needs to be fixed. In that moment Justin came up with a plan, a plan to win over Gaby and have her dating an intellectual like himself. Then the teacher came in, and Justin began to put his plan into action.
Troy and Gabriella entered the music room after classes, to find Kelsi in the same position she was in before, with her head on top of the piano, collapsed from frustration.
"What horrible song did you write this time?" Gabriella asked sarcastically.
"A dreadful duet." Kelsi said.
"What's it called?" asked Gaby.
"'The One'"
"Come on Playmaker, I'm sure it's awesome." Troy said. "Play it."
Gabriella- How can I
Troy- How can I
Gabriella- How can I define you
Troy- I'm bound by you
Gabriella- I am in love with you
Troy- What we have is so true
Together-
I never would
Have believed it
But now I see
Gabriella- I've found the one
Together- The one to hold me
Troy- Number one
Together- You're my only
Gabriella- The first one
Together- To show me
What love could really be
You're love is unbelievable
So unbelievable to me
Troy- How can I
Gabriella- How can I
Troy- Show you
Gabriella- What should
Troy- I do
Gabriella- I wanna shout from the rooftops
Troy- I wanna scream your name 'til my voice is lost
Together-
I never would
Have believed it
But now I see
Gabriella- I've found the one
Together- The one to hold me
Troy- Number one
Together - You're my only
Gabriella- The first one
Together- To show me
What love could really be
You're love is unbelievable
So unbelievable to me
Troy- You're the one I see
Gabriella- The one who's there for me
Troy- You're the one I feel
Gabriella- The one I know who's real
Troy- You're the one I think of
Gabriella- The only one I'll ever love
Troy- The only one I'll ever love
Together-
I've found the one
The one to hold me
Number one
You're my only
The first one
To show me
What love could really be
You're love is unbelievable
So unbelievable to me
Together-
I've found the one
The one
Who's unbelievable to me
The only one
The only one for me
"Wow," Gabriella said. That song was beautiful. How could Miss Darbus not chose it? And once she does, Troy and her will be on stage singing it together. She will make Troy tryout. That song is just too great to pass up.
"You did it again Kels." Troy said, he was pretty much speechless.
"It was great," another voice said, from across the room. Again Justin was standing there.
"Hey, Justin." Gabriella said. He comes by a lot, she thought. "Oh, this is Troy."
"The famous Troy," Justin said. "Hey man."
"Hey," Troy replied back. Troy was a little surprised that Gabriella knew someone he didn't. He knows everyone, but not this guy.
"Gabs, can I ask you a question?" Justin asked. Troy gave her a look, but didn't say anything.
"Yeah, sure." Gabriella said.
"I should go over to see Alexis," Troy said leaving the room. "Bye," he said to Gaby and Kelsi, not to Justin. He had a weird feeling about that guy.
Gabriella and Justin were in the hallway after Gabriella finished up with Kelsi. Troy was off with Alexis, so Gabriella needed something to do. And Justin seemed like good company, so why not hang with him?
"So, you missed the Scholastic Decathlon Meeting today," Justin said.
"Yeah, Taylor said I could skip it today because Kelsi needed help. Kelsi and Taylor and Troy and a bunch of other people are like, I guess part of my group. So, Taylor let me off the hook." Gabriella explained.
"Wow, drama club hanging out with the science nerds, and the science nerds hanging out with the basketball players. East High is, different." he said, struggling to find the right word to describe all the groups meshing together.
"I'm not a fan of labels." Gabriella said.
"Right." Justin replied awkwardly. "Um, Alexis joined the team."
"Basketball team," Gabriella said, already knowing she made it.
"No Scholastic Decathlon and basketball." Justin corrected.
"Oh," Gabriella said weakly. Gabriella realized that just yesterday she told Alexis that she wasn't invading on anybody's turf, but Alexis was turning out to getting as close to invading Gabriella's, without actually invading it.
"Yeah, and Taylor's annoyed because with Alexis here Taylor's not the smartest girl in school anymore. How shallow is it to be annoyed about being the smartest? Talk about labeling." Justin said.
"She's not shallow. She just wants that top spot because if you look at it by GPA that's what could get her a scholarship or get her into Harvard or something like that. I think that's it." Gabriella said, defending her friend.
"Right," Justin said awkwardly.
"What was the question you wanted to ask me?" Gabriella asked, trying to break the silence.
"Oh, right. See, I do well in science in math, but when it comes time to do it in class I freeze up." he began. "Like today in class, I got like every question wrong." Justin said.
"So, you want me to tutor you?" Gabriella asked.
"Maybe a little," Justin said.
"Sure." Gabriella said to Justin's surprise. "We can meet after the Decathlon meetings."
"Great!" Justin said.
He was surprised that Gabriella actually bought it. He had to know science, he was on the Scholastic Decathlon team after all. Science was his thing, he didn't have a problem with it. But he didn't need to tell Gaby that. Phase one, complete.
But he didn't give Gabriella Montez enough credit. She knew he knows science, so she deducted that he liked her. So why would she agree to tutor him? To make Troy jealous of course.
