Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical – and one of you will probably recognize the ending.
Karma
"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours."
-Wayne Dyer
The subsequent events after Zeke's confirmation of Gabriella's true identity took place in three parts. Three parts that came about so quickly it would be impossible to fully describe them within the allotted seconds. However, these same events are remembered in the minds of all involved in such clarity and poignancy that they feel as though these three events took years to play out. That being the case, the following three events will be described as objectively and descriptively as possible, purely for the benefit of those of us who were fortunate enough to not participate.
That said, we'll continue.
"Gabriella." Zeke confirmed with a slight nod.
"So, not The Boss?" The three terrorists asked, their confidence growing.
"Not The Boss." Zeke confirmed with a smirk.
Event Number One:
It was as though every being in the room had lost all ability for movement. Frozen in place, the only action that could be taken was through the vocal cords. Three statements were uttered within this short period of immobility, each statement with its own dynamism, each statement uttered at exactly the same moment.
"NOW!" Jack yelled.
"GET DOWN!" Zeke ordered.
"Eeeehhhh!" Gabriella whimpered.
Event Number Two:
All commotion that had previously been suspended suddenly reactivated in seeming overdrive.
Gabriella's legs started to collapse from under her, her sheer terror causing all control to be lost. Fortunately, Jack was standing directly behind her and had been anticipating this loss of motor ability. At the same time that her body was descending to the floor, Jack grabbed around her waste and threw her body with frightening ease over his left shoulder as though she were a limp plank of wood and he a burly construction worker. Not comprehending any of the surrounding activities, Gabriella's mind was laggard in understanding the sudden appearance of Jack's ass in front of her face or why her own was thrust promiscuously into the air. As these questions slowly formed inside her head, Jack barreled his way past the terrorists, past Zeke, and through the one door leading to the outside.
At the same moment that Gabriella's knees had started to fail her, two of the unnamed terrorists dropped to the floor in much the same manner. Unfortunately for them, there was no Jack to catch them mid-fall, leaving them to crash unceremoniously onto the splintering wood floor. The smaller of the two terrorists quickly scooted himself beneath the nearest chair, hoping it would provide enough cover while the other found a corner of the room and cowered masterfully with his arms covering his head and his nose scrunched in terrified anticipation.
Zeke and the last remaining terrorist, on the other hand, were both thinking slightly more coherent thoughts than the first two terrorists had been. Watching as Jack took off through the door, these two automatically followed him out. The only difference being that, once outside, they both turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, away from Jack and into the woods.
This is where everybody was located just before the third event began. The two terrorists were trembling inside the cabin, Zeke and the other terrorist were running away from the cabin just about to disappear into the woods, and Jack, with Gabriella still slung over his shoulder, was running toward the trail that had first led them into the clearing.
Event Number Three:
This was where the gun firing began. Jack and Gabriella's butt finished disappearing into the trail as Jack's two back-up agents stood from behind the nearby foliage. Raising their automatic rifles to their shoulders and taking aim with both eyes opened, they began firing at the two attempting escape. Within seconds, the unnamed terrorist was down and Zeke had disappeared completely.
Without skipping a beat or losing another second, the back up agents set down their rifles and pulled out a small stick of dynamite. They lit the fuse and expertly threw it through the cabin window and into the cabin where the first two terrorists were still crouching, now with a hint of blubbering escaping from their throats.
The two back-up agents quickly gathered their equipment and ran after Jack.
The subsequent explosion was inevitable.
Pause right there.
Now rewind the scene.
Rewind to before the explosion.
Rewind to before the gun firing.
To before the running and cowering.
To before the collapsing and before the shouting.
Rewind to just about the moment Zeke entered into the cabin, after he'd opened the door but before he'd noticed Gabriella's presence.
Now freeze the frame and zoom out. Zoom away from the cabin, away from the forest, zoom away from the city and up into the sky. In front of you is a sea of houses and roads and parks and businesses. You are close enough to see the cars moving like little Tonka toys but far enough to see the entire expanse of the Albuquerque city limits and surrounding suburbs.
Now take this image and change your focus. Shift over to the left. You should see a grouping of houses connected by an organized set of roadwork to form a large neighborhood.
Zoom in. A specific house will come into view. It is the largest house on the street with a bright orange roof and a dark blue pool in the back yard. The newly paved driveway holds three large vehicles, two are black and one is a freshly painted bright pink with stenciled initials on the hood. Each vehicle is blocked into the driveway by a wrought iron gate that separates the driveway from the road.
Zoom in further and you will see three teenagers frozen within this frame. A petite blonde girl is in the lead. Her hair is blowing out behind her, due in part to her hurried run but mostly the strong breeze that is opposing her movement. Behind her is a dark haired boy with a worried expression on his face. He is carrying a book bag that seems to be filled to its breaking point though the strain it is undoubtedly causing on his back is imperceptible in his strong stance. The final teenager is standing in the doorway to the large house, his mouth is open as though he had been caught in the middle of a sentence. His brow is furrowed disapprovingly and his hands are firmly set against his hips. He does not seem to be following the other two towards the vehicles.
This is where we will begin the next scene.
"-expecting to find, but don't call me when you get killed!" Ryan shouted after his sister and her, is he her boyfriend now?
Sharpay just waived her hand behind her dismissively as she hurriedly approached one of the family cars sitting in the driveway. Remembering that she hadn't driven since the accident, Sharpay quickly tossed the keys to Troy barking "You drive," and ran around the car to hop into the passenger seat.
Troy got into the car wearing an apprehensive look on his face but once he put the keys into the ignition and started the car his apprehension gave way to a grin, slowly spreading across his face. He listened to the potent vibration of the oversized Cadillac Escalade and happily savored the authoritative feeling that came along with it.
"What?!" Sharpay barked at him, her nerves causing her already overactive anxiety to rise substantially.
Troy glanced over at her with a euphoric expression. "I just feel so powerful right now," he sighed dreamily.
"Well, feel powerful driving!" She snapped, annoyed at already being delayed.
Troy reluctantly sobered his excitement and put the car into reverse. They had a job to do.
After a short drive and two wrong turns, they were finally at Zekes house and ready to act the part of a lifetime. They just had to make it to the front door first. Troy took a deep breath as Sharpay fidgeted with her seatbelt.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Just act like you don't know anything," Sharpay replied. This was the fifth time she'd reminded him of that. Troy was relatively certain she was no longer saying it for his benefit.
The two finally got out of the car and cautiously walked up the sidewalk path to Zeke's front door, nerves causing their movement to be noticeably more erratic. Troy gazed at the house pondering how, in all the time he'd known Zeke, he had never actually been to this house. Shouldn't he have recognized that as being strange? He'd been to all his other teammates houses. Deciding to remonstrate on his own retrospective negligence later, Troy turned his full attention to the closed door that Sharpay had just knocked upon.
The two waited with baited breath, watching the door with heightened anticipation.
"Just act like you don't know anything."
They waited a while longer and Troy started to feel a burning in his chest. Quickly realizing that he'd been holding his breath, he allowed it to release slowly through his clenched teeth which caused a slight whistle to sound. Neither seemed to notice.
"Maybe you should ring the doorbell," Troy said to Sharpay after a few more minutes of silence.
Sharpay nodded and pressed the doorbell. They continued standing there noiseless, listening to the ringing echo throughout the house before them.
And still they waited.
And still nobody came.
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Sharpay finally burst, turning around and walking back down the sidewalk path. "It's obvious nobody's home."
"You're right," Troy said, relief etched across his face. He turned and started to follow Sharpay back to the Escalade, but Sharpay didn't stop there. She was going around to the back of the house. "Sharpay?" Troy called apprehensively after her. "Sharpay, what are you doing?"
"We said we were going to search his house, didn't we?" She responded over her shoulder without missing a step. She reached her hand down and grasped the handle to the gate of the wooden fence that enclosed the backyard. Troy watched anxiously, hoping that the gate would be locked. No such luck, Sharpay swung the gate open with ease and proceeded into Zeke's backyard.
Troy ran to catch up with her hoping that he could dissuade her from continueing this foolish mission. "Do you really think a practiced terrorist who has, among other things, his real identity to keep as a secret would just leave his back door open?" he said as she stepped up to the sliding glass door and grasped the protruding handle.
Sharpay shrugged slightly then used all her might to yank on the door. It opened with ease. Turning, Sharpay smiled sweetly and replied "You were saying?" before she ducked into the house, leaving Troy conspicuously standing in Zeke's backyard.
"What is it with you and breaking into homes?" he muttered, shaking his head as he cautiously stepped forward to join Sharpay in the formidable house.
But before his eyesight had even adjusted to the dim, Troy was stopped dead by the onslaught of what appeared to be Mickey Mouse's. The sliding glass door had led them into Zeke's kitchen where everything was in the shape of a Mickey Mouse. The clock on the wall, the cookie jar, even the stove top burners were all shaped in that familiar three circled shape. Troy surveyed the room, letting out a long low whistle as he and Sharpay slowly tiptoed further into the house, curiously examining every surface.
In an attempt to escape the Disney kitchen parade, Troy stepped into the living area with the hopes of finding any normal décor. But all that he was faced with was more evidence of this strange obsession. The wallpaper contained a repeated scene with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald all riding bikes around a park. There was a Mickey Mouse bag sitting next to the Mickey's-hand-bean-bag chair. The lamp in the corner of the room was a totem pole of classic Disney cartoon characters, even the rug residing in the middle of the floor was shaped like Mickey's shoe. Everything in the room bore some sort of reference to Disney except one item.
Troy looked over at Sharpay incredulously. "Is this what you were expecting?"
Sharpay laughed.
"What are we even looking for?"
Sharpay shrugged and glanced once more around at the incredibly manufactured decorations.
It was with this last glance that her gaze fell on the one and only item that hadn't been touched by Tinkerbelle's fairy dust. It was a plain brown journal sitting, of course, on top of a plastic Mickey Mouse end table. But the journal itself contained not a single reference to anything Disney.
Sharpay quickly snatched it up and examined it. "Mission Book," She read off of the inside cover. She glanced over curiously at Troy who was watching her intently before returning to the book. "'End Goal: Protect Ashley Tisdale at all costs'"
"Wait a minute," Troy interrupted her dubiously. "If his goal was to protect Ashley then why has he been working with the terrorists to get her?"
"But he was protecting Ashley by directing the terrorists toward me. He hasn't been working with the terrorists, he's been working against them," she explained quickly.
"So he's pretending to be a bad guy when he's actually a good guy who's also a little bad?"
"Exactly," Sharpay nodded then turned her attention back to the journal and continued reading. "Ashley will remain in the tallest tower of the Cinderella Castle in Disney World until the goal is accomplished - Oh my gosh, Troy! Do you know what this means?" she asked excitedly.
"I – uh, no."
"It means!" she said excitedly as she tucked the journal under her arm and started walking back to the sliding glass door. "It means that we know where Ashley Tisdale is! We can find her and tell her what Zeke is doing. We can tell her to put a stop to all this!"
Troy snorted. "Just like that! We're just going to ask her to put a stop to it?"
"Mmhm."
"And how do you suppose we'll get to the tallest tower in the Cinderella castle in Disney World? Movie magic?"
"Don't be ridiculous. We'll take the first flight out of Albuquerque," Sharpay replied flippantly.
"The first flight. And how do you suppose we do that?"
With that Sharpay turned to face Troy with a conspiratorial grin darkening her features. "Daddy doesn't leave me an emergency credit card just for shopping sprees, you know."
"This is the final boarding call for flight 275, non-stop to Orlando, Florida"
"Come on!" Sharpay shouted. Even in her heals she was running faster than Troy, though it should be considered that he was still carrying the overstuffed book-bag. They were running through the furthest terminal in the Albuquerque International Sunport Airport trying to find their gate before it closed and if that announcement was any indication, they didn't have a large grace period.
They scurried up to the gate just as the attendants were about to close the door. Amidst heavy breathing and frequent wiping of their brows the teenagers thrust their tickets at the droopy eyed flight attendant and forcibly shoved their way into the tunnel while, at the same time, expertly avoiding the exasperated glares of every flight attendant along the way.
Their quick paces slowed down once they actually stepped foot onto the aircraft proper. They hesitantly walked down the narrow aisle as they repeatedly glanced above their fellow passengers heads to read the seat numbers. "I always have the worst luck with seating assignments," Sharpay whispered over her shoulder as she scanned the plane for her seat.
Troy smiled but didn't respond, he had found her seat and he already knew her luck had yet to change. Their seats were in the very last row. The row that can't recline due to the bathrooms located directly behind them. Troy and Sharpay both had aisle seats, but Sharpay's seat was next to the two largest people he had ever seen. In fact, he wasn't sure her specific seat was even visible beneath the spillover of these two people. Sharpay let out a low groan and whispered in a slight panic, "I'll pay you any amount of money to switch seats with me right now!"
Troy just laughed and squeezed past her to sit in his seat comfortably and with plenty of room. Sharpay narrowed her eyes at him and muttered something that to Troy sounded a bit like, "useless, good-for-nothing, selfish little twit," but he couldn't be sure. He leisurely stowed the overstuffed book-bag under his seat and then smiled up at her triumphantly.
"Miss," Sharpay felt an annoying tap on her shoulder. Turning, she came face to face with an irritable flight attendant wearing a transparent smile. "Miss, I am going to need you to kindly take a seat. We would like to be departing shortly but we can't do so until you are buckled in."
Sharpay returned the transparent smile. "Of course." She looked to where her seat was, fake smile still in place. "Excuse me, sir. If you don't mind, this is my seat."
The man looked at her with squinty, watery eyes. Two minutes later his chins stopped jiggling. "I bet you've never seen two people as fat as us before, have you?" he shouted up at her as he tried to tuck in some of the flab. Sharpay didn't know how to respond to such a question so she just continued to smile and chuckled lightly, hoping that the question was rhetorical.
Finally, the man scooted over enough to allow Sharpay a sliver of chair to squeeze into. She tried to make herself as small as possible and hoped beyond hopes that this man wouldn't say any more to her.
"You know?" he shouted over to her. Sharpay cringed and refused to meet his gaze. "You size fours are so annoying. EAT Something!"
Sharpay's mouth fell open in astonishment. She glared over at him about to tell him that maybe he should be the one to change his eating habits but he was already looking away, apparently fully absorbed in the magazine that his wife was holding.
Troy snorted with laughter and quickly ducked down so that nobody would notice. But the woman sitting next to him did. With an amused smile she nodded a polite hello, which Troy tried to return with a more composed face.
"So I bet you think these are real," the woman said proudly, indicating her breasts. Troy's merriment instantly fell away. "Well let me tell you a story. I like to call it the story of a survivor..."
Karma. It gets you every time.
Just to clarify – Gabriella is not The Boss. She was pretending to be The Boss because the terrorists thought that she was. So, using our own deductive reasoning: who looks enough like Gabriella to confuse the terrorists? And that is who The Boss is. Sorry if it was confusing.
Well, please review!
