Boxing

The next day, Gabriella slowly made her way to Coach Brown's office. She found he wasn't there. She looked out the see through mirror. She saw the same room she was in for the beating up of Zeke Baylor. She saw all the people who were in that room; Troy Bolton…Troy…WAIT! Oh my God, I wasn't just repeating Troy's name was I? She cursed herself. Anyways, there was Zeke Baylor, Chad Danforth, Jason Cross, and a few other kids. Of course there was Coach Brown. The kids who were in the ring were Troy and Jason. Gabriella walked to the boxing room. Coach Brown turned his head and blew his whistle. "Break!" Troy and Jason took off their head protectors, and Gabriella saw Jason was a blond! She looked at the chairs. There was Jason. So that meant…the blond was Ryan Evans! This is not fair, not fair at all. Gabriella thought to herself. Brown started walking towards her. He nodded, "Miss Montez."

"How could you put Ryan on the team instead of me!" She said outraged.

"Because we didn't have enough team mates," he said plainly.

"I know I have a better hit than him. And more muscles!"

"I told you already—this is a guys team," he said.

Gabriella couldn't control her anger. Without thinking, she punched his face. The hit was so hard, he fell to the ground. The team ran up to Brown. Some grabbed his end, and some grabbed his top. Ryan walked up to her, "we're telling the principal," he said, and then walked away.

"SNITCH!" She called after him.

Gabriella found herself in the principal's office. "How did you do that?" Mrs. Murillo asked.

Gabriella frowned like the woman was stupid. "I punched him. Wanna see how?" She said getting up from her chair.

"No. Ma'am, now why did you do that?" The shorthaired blond asked.

Gabriella sat back down. "Firstly, do you realize how sexist this school of yours is? I wanted to be on the boxing team, and he said he wouldn't put on the team. So now he has this skinny white kid with no muscles on his team—"

Mrs. Murillo raised her hand for her to stop. "Now you just made a racial slur there." She said. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. But do you realize—"

"I see your grades Miss Montez. They are miraculous. The SATs are coming up very soon, and you can keep are school's grades up. For only that, I am not suspending you," she told her. "But do you realize that Mr. Brown can lose part of his memory?"

Gabriella looked away, "no…" she mumbled.

"Now, get back to class."

"Whatever," Gabriella mumbled, and left.

When Gabriella got home that day, she saw Janet drinking out of a mug. "Hey, Janet," she said.

"Hey, Gabriella." Janet greeted. "I heard you punched your coach today."

"I did. He put this skinny kid with no muscles on the boxing team, and didn't put me on it! Only because I was a girl," she told her.

"Oh…okay." Janet said taking a sip from her mug. "Wanna go shopping?" She asked.

Gabriella's eyes widened. "Um…for what?"

"Clothes, silly!"

"Oh…clothes for what?" Gabriella asked again.

"School, and for when you come to the studio. C'mon, I'll pay for everything," Janet told her. Do I look like I need a shopping spree? Gabriella thought to herself before looking down. I guess so.

"Okay…"

"Yes! And did you get suspended?"

"No, for my grades they kept me," Gabriella answered.

"Oh, okay. Lemme get my bag, and then we can go," Janet said getting up.

"Okay." Gabriella replied. When Janet came down from the steps with her bag in hand they left to the mall in Janet's Toyota© Camry. The first place they went to was JC Penny. There at JC Penny, Gabriella didn't find much of anything that she liked.

"Do you see anything?" Janet asked her. Gabriella shook her head no. "Okay, let's get something to eat." They left the store and started walking to the food court. An outfit in a store window caught Gabriella's eye. She tapped on Janet's shoulder and pointed to the manikin. "Let's go there." The blond said. They did, and the store they were in was Urban Outfitters. The style was different, vintage, kind of. The only thing she didn't like about it was the price. "Gabriella? Get two outfits here, then let's go to American Eagle," Janet suggested. Gabriella nodded. Her first outfit was a knee length white dress, topped with a long green jacket with a pair of black stockings. (Picture in Profile) Her second choice was an oversized purple and black t-shirt. She had high skinny jeans that were faded. When she wore it, her jeans would be over her waist. (Picture in Profile) Janet nodded in delight, "good choices." After paying, they left to American Eagle. "You can get five outfits here," Janet told her. Gabriella's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah. IF! You can do it in under twenty minutes." Janet challenged.

Gabriella's eyes widened again for the third time that day.

Janet nodded, "Mmm-hmm."

Gabriella dashed to a rack; she found five outfits in twenty-one minutes. The challenge was a test of her girly-ness. "I'm done!" She sighed.

"One minute late!" Janet said shaking her head. "That was a test of your girly-ness. You will be judged on your choices." She looked through her outfits. "Hmm…good choices. You're not a girly girl, but you wear nice clothes. Only thing left…is a hair job." She said the last sentence pulling off Gabriella's hat and scrunchie. Her jaw dropped, "wow, that's long…" Gabriella smiled. "Really, really long."

"Cut it OFF!" Gabriella asked.

Janet laughed, "okay, let me just pay for all this." When it was paid, they went to the hair salon in the mall. "Paulo?" Janet asked.

A man with a thick French accent said, "Janet, my baby!" He gave her two kisses two inches away from her cheek.

"Paulo!" She greeted doing the same actions.

"Who is your…friend?"

"This is Gabriella, we're giving her a makeover," she told her.

"Ah…so Gabriella, what do you want?" He asked.

"A hair cut making my hair to my shoulders, and whatever make up you choose is fine—but no dramatic." Gabriella told him.

"Is possible. Let's wash it first." Paulo washed it, and combed it afterwards. "Okay, Gabriella—I'm going to start cutting it now…" he told her. Then he cut it a little longer after her shoulders. Next he started drying it, after that, he gave it soft curls. Then he put on make up.

"Don't look yet!" Janet told her. "I bought you this dress," she said holding up a green one piece. Gabriella's eyes widened. The dress was very pretty.

"Thank you, Janet," she said, with tears filling in her eyes. Janet walked over to her and gave her a hug.

"Now go get dressed." She told Gabriella. Gabriella got up to the bathroom.

"What a sweet moment," Paulo said about to "cry". "Don't look at me!" He said.

"Whoa!" Janet said when Gabriella walked in. She was twirling around in the green dress that really highlighted her slim figure. "You look great!"

Gabriella bowed. "Thank you."

"You don't even look the same! Let's go tell your dad." Janet suggested. Gabriella nodded.

When they got to the car, Gabriella said she needed to let Janet in on something. "What?"

"If my dad isn't there," she started, "it means…" she gulped. "He's having an affair…"

Janet stopped opening the door. "What? How do you know?"

"I came home early on day in the fourth grade, and I saw him kissing another woman while she was pushed against the wall…"

"Was this before your mother's death?"

"Yes…"

Gabriella opened the door to her family's house. It wasn't a good welcoming she got, sadly. Pushed against the doorframe of the living room, was a well-dressed red head woman. In front of her was a man, who was her father, kissing her. "Daddy?"

He father pulled away looking at his daughter with a drunken face. He looked back at the red head. "Go through the back door…now!" The red head got up from the frame, and left. He walked over to Gabriella and grabbed her shoulders hard. He pushed her into the computer table and she started crying. "You never speak of this to your mother, you hear me?" She didn't respond. He slapped her. "DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Gabriella whimpered. "Yes…"

"Wow…Gabriella I had no idea…"

"Don't worry…he's done much worse." She told her.

"Like what?"

"Just forget about it, and let's go home. He should be home from work. And ever since then, he's learned to do it at the woman's house," Gabriella told her.

"Okay…" They both got in the car.

"There's this boy…" Gabriella said out of the blue.

"Ooh…what's his name?" Janet asked.

"His name's Troy. I don't want to like him, but…"

"You do?"

Gabriella nodded, "yeah…"

"I bet he likes you. And he will even more when you get to school tomorrow."

Gabriella walked into the school wearing a patterned white, gray, and yellow sleeveless shirt with skinny jeans (Picture in Profile). Her hair was like it was when she got it done yesterday, and her makeup was more natural. Many guys stared her at and whistles were blown. Do I really look that good? She asked herself.She walked by Troy's locker. She stopped there. "Hey." She said. Troy was staring at her. She put her hand on his locker pushed her weight on it. "Hello?" She said waving her hand in his face.

"Uh…uh…do I know you?" He asked.

"Yep, I'm Gabriella."

"Prove it." He told her.

Gabriella brought up the sleeves to her dress. "The bullets?"

"I still don't think so."

Gabriella sighed and punched his arm. "There?"

He grabbed his arm in pain. "Yep…I believe you."

Gabriella smiled pleasingly. "Don't think that my hit isn't the same. It is." She said then walked away. She saw that Taylor was talking to some of her friends. Taylor noticed her too and ran over to her.

"Gabriella! I'm really sorry about what we did…" she apologized. "You are Gabriella right?"

"Yeah. And I am going to get payback."

"Gabriella please don't!"

"No, I am. Things like that don't just fly."

"We're sorry! Please don't!"

Gabriella sighed. She didn't feel like hearing this girl plead all day. "Whatever. I'll let it fly. Just don't think we're best friends."

Taylor nodded. "Okay. Trus?

"No." She said then walked away.

Okay…I think I only have one reader. But okay…I work very hard on these so it would mean so much if you did review.