CHAPTER 3
"Hey, Troy, I've got to shoot but I'll see you in the gym at lunch," Troy's dad called out as he left the house.
"Actually, dad, I-" But Troy's dad had already left, so Troy left the sentence unfinished. After all, his dad would find out later that he wasn't going to be attending practice.
Troy sighed. It seemed like whenever he did anything there was always someone who wasn't happy. 'I guess that's the price of going against the status quo,' he thought. He grabbed his bag and headed out of the house. Maybe he would have time to catch Chad before he headed off to the music rooms.
'It's hard to believe, that I couldn't seem that you were always there beside me…' Gabriella smiled at Troy as she sung and Troy felt a familiar lurch in his stomach.
'This feeling's like no other, I want you to know…' They carried on singing together and the warm feeling inside Troy increased.
'So lonely before, I finally found…what I've been looking for." Troy and Gabriella finished the song, their perfect harmonies fading away, and Troy felt as if nothing in the world could ruin the moment. Nothing but –
Chad glared at Troy and gestured furiously from the music room window for Troy to join him. Troy knew Chad so well that he could almost hear what he was thinking.
'Get the hell out of that classroom, dude, and go shoot some hoops!'
Despite the sinking feeling in Troy's stomach, he just smiled at Chad and shook his head. Chad's face grew, if possible, even more livid. He pushed on the music room door but found it was locked. Troy turned back to Gabriella and Kate, who were both looking at him with worry clear on their faces.
"Just keep playing," Troy murmured to Kate, and she began to play 'Breaking free'. As he began to sing, Troy watched Chad stalk away, shaking his head as he went. Troy felt worried; in a way, he had been trying to make a point to Chad by singing instead of going out to talk to him but, on reflection, maybe it hadn't been such a good idea. Furthermore, Chad's visit had reminded him that he was missing basketball practice to sing with Gabriella not just this lunchtime but also practice after school, and evidently his absence had been noted. His dad was going to kill him when he got home.
"Troy?" When Gabriella said his name, Troy realised he had stopped singing. He went red.
"Um…sorry," he mumbled. "Take it from the top?" They began singing again, but Troy couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling inside him that he was going to have to make a difficult choice.
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