Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical, any of the characters, or any of their songs. I'm not even entirely certain about this storyline...
Also, there will be quite a few songs in this fic, and most of them will be by other, more talented people. However, the one towards the end of the chapter is my own, and no one else's. Sure, the music I wrote to it sounds a lot like Scream from HSM3, but I swear the words are mine.
Chapter Three: Where the Shadows Fall
Gabriella got through afternoon classes somehow, managing not to dwell on Kelsi's cryptic message. At the end of the last class of the day though, the teacher called her while everyone else was packing up their stuff. "Miss Montez, could you wait a couple of minutes?"
"Sure, Mr Jacobs." She made her way past the newly wiped benches, past arrays of test tubes and racks of Bunsen burners to the teacher's desk, her eyes wandering to the door and the milling students there, secretly wishing she could just go home and think for a while. She was distracted, though, by one person entering the room. She looked quite young, and Gabriella guessed she was a freshman. Her hair was a light, sandy brown and fell straight to mid-way down her back, and her striking blue eyes seemed very familiar. The girl gave a shy smile, which Gabriella returned.
"Ah, Miss Bolton. Gabriella Montez, this is Natasha Bolton, in my ninth grade class." Gabriella struggled to concentrate on what Mr Jacobs was saying. Bolton? As in... come to think of it, they did look remarkably alike. And no one had ever said that Troy was an only child. She quickly attempted to pull herself together. "Natasha her has been surpassing herself in my class. She's way beyond her classmates' level, and I'm afraid she's going to get very bored in class unless I do something about it. What I'm going to do is set her some harder work... the sort you've been doing."
The bespectacled, gently smiling teacher gave Gabriella a meaningful glance. He had taken to setting her some college-level work, since she was more than capable of the material everyone else was doing. That he wanted this ninth-grader to do the same spoke volumes.
"So, you want me to work with her?"
"Just get her started off, and answer questions if she has them. I'm sure you'll both be fine."
Natasha can Gabriella smiled and headed off towards their lockers. Gabriella realised she needed to ask the obvious question. "Say, Natasha..."
"Tash," the younger girl cut in, and smiled brightly. "Everyone calls me Tash."
Gabriella chuckled softly. "Okay, Tash. I was wondering... is your brother Troy Bolton?"
To Gabriella's surprise, Tash's face became hard, and cold too. "Yes, unfortunately. Ever since Mum and Dad died, he's become a complete loser. He does badly in school, his team is a joke, and worse, he's always getting in fights. The other day, I even caught him drinking."
Gabriella was shocked. This was Troy's sister, and yet the picture she painted was completely at variance with what she knew from everyone else, and her own experience. The Troy she had met, albeit under the most extreme circumstances, could never be in a fight; it just wasn't in his character. And drinking? It sounded so unlikely, but...
She went home that night even more confused than before, having arranged with Tash to meet the next afternoon. She managed to distract herself with homework for a while, but homework is unpleasant in all ways possible: on the few occasions when you might actually want it to take a while, you'll probably find you're done in around half the time you expected.
She spent a restless night, asking herself meaningless questions. Not only did she not know the answers, she didn't even know if they were the right questions, and that wasn't a problem she was used to having. She eventually dropped off, but awoke early, still tired, and in a decidedly bad mood.
Her bad mood persisted through the first lessons of the day, and her friends knew enough to act in the appropriate way: not avoid her or exclude her in any way, but not pester her with stuff. By the time free period arrived, she was feeling a bit better, and after waiting the five minutes Kelsi had recommended, she made her way to the music room. The smaller girl was already there, waiting for her with a slightly anxious expression on her face, and she hesitated when Gabriella arrived.
"I'm not entirely sure I should be doing this, you know," she confided softly. "This isn't really my secret to tell. The thing is, I don't know what to do about it. Maybe… I think something's telling me that you might."
Gabriella didn't really trust herself to reply, and instead followed Kelsi into the room. The two girls crept past the racks of guitars, tribal drums and tuned percussion instruments, until they were crouched behind a set of timpani, the covers dusty from disuse. Looking through a tiny crack between the C and G drums, Gabriella saw a large, shiny black grand piano, its lid opened to reveal the strings and hammers inside, but more to let the music it contained out.
Squinting, she looked along the length of the piano, between the lid and the body, and saw just two eyes visible over the music stand: two impossibly blue eyes, that looked like they had to have been painted: nothing natural could possibly be that blue, could they? She knew those eyes. They were the eyes she had seen first on the face of the man who had saved her life, and later, as now, surrounded with ugly bruising and with a sad, haunted look to them. Troy's eyes.
With no warning, the piano began to play, and Troy sang along. Gabriella didn't know the song, but it made her sad to hear it, even sung by what she realised was a very beautiful voice.
"The sun sets, and shadows fall
Across the sky; I wonder why my
Head is filled with shade and light,
And why I never stand and fight.
"No one sees the me I know:
They just see a face where the shadows grow and
They blind me, radiant stars in the
Twilight corners of my mind.
"I search the night for the beacon light,
But there's no break of day:
"I don't want to live in the dark,
But the monsters roar and leave their mark.
Perhaps I'll never see the day after all,
'Cos I'm where the shadows fall.
"The tracks are straight, no turning back,
Is my fate sealed? Find the crack and
Tear the wall down, blaze my own trail
Through everything in my way.
"I search the night for the beacon light,
But there's no break of day:
"I don't want to live in the dark,
But the monsters roar and leave their mark.
Perhaps I'll never see the day after all,
'Cos I'm where the shadows fall.
"I see the false dawn gilding the skies,
I won't be taken in by the lies.
I want to stand up and shout!
"I don't want to live in the dark,
But the monsters roar and leave their mark.
Perhaps I'll never see the day after all,
'Cos I'm where the shadows fall,
Yeah, I'm where the shadows fall."
It was a sad song, but there was just a glimmering of hope there, she realised. She was learning more about Troy Bolton all the time: yes, he was sad, and alone, and maybe even afraid, but he hadn't given up: there was determination there, a steel core that would not buckle, no matter what was thrown at him. The song was uniquely Troy, and Gabriella decided that he must have written it himself. Everything just gave her more to think about.
Once he finished the song, he seemed to be doing nothing in particular, just the musical equivalent of doodling over the keyboard, although it still sounded nice. He seemed thoughtful, and rather pensive. Kelsi touched Gabriella's shoulder briefly, gave her a weak smile, and then left the room the same way she had entered. Gabriella was about to follow her, but something made her stay. Eventually she stood up and made her way quietly to the piano. Troy didn't notice her until she was almost on top of him. He whirled around, his expression dark and desperate, almost like a wild animal who's been cornered. Instinctively, Gabriella raised her hands in front of her, the universal signal of non-aggression, and backed up a step.
"Hey, don't worry. I wasn't going to do anything."
Troy's eyes softened when he recognised who it was. Apart from that evening, he had seen her around a few times, trying to get a gauge on her, as he did with all new people since they were, of course, potential threats. From an aesthetic stand-point, he had to admit that she was gorgeous. Her heritage was obviously Latina of some sort, maybe Dominican or Puerto Rican, he wasn't sure, but there wasn't much hint of an accent, which suggested that her family had moved to the States a while back. There was also something slightly different about her… perhaps it was the somewhat slanted eyes and very expressive eyebrows, but it was almost like there was some east-Asian in her background. Whatever it was, it gave her a unique look: exotic, but at the same time strangely innocent. Troy was honest enough with himself to know that he was attracted to her… and realistic enough to know that he'd never do anything about it. Maybe a few years before, but not now.
She also seemed strong, in a way he didn't really recognise. It wasn't like Taylor and Sharpay, who had become stronger through each other, or like Chad, whose strength was something as simple as always being able to cheer his friends up. Thinking about it, Troy realised that Gabriella was had become strong by being hurt, by feeling pain, and recovering and carrying on with her life. Troy frowned at that; it seemed that that outlook would make a person cold, unwilling to be vulnerable to the same pain, but Gabriella was guileless. She loved, Troy could tell, freely, and that love was expressed through everything she did. And Troy wondered, just for a moment, if some of that might be spared on him...
Realising he had been looking at her a little too long, he looked away before speaking. "How are you? After your little adventure the other night, I mean."
Gabriella chuckled. "I'm fine. Nothing left but some sore spots on my arms and legs. Which is more than I can say for you," she continued, looking a little concerned now. "Those stitches look ugly. Was there a problem?"
"Oh, no," Troy hastened to reassure her. "No problem. Just that, my foster mum did them at home, to save a trip. Not much in the way of anaesthetic."
Troy had said it to imply that they had found something to use, if only ice packs. Gabriella, as always, realised the truth: the stitches had been done with nothing to numb the pain. He must have been in agony. She couldn't bring herself to ask quite yet, though, and moved on to something else that had been bothering her.
"So, that's quite a black eye. My mum didn't mention you having one when you brought me home."
Troy shrugged a little awkwardly. "Ah, I'm afraid that was my fault. Rode my bike into a wall."
The warning bells whooped in her mind. A bike crash? That must have been one hell of a funny shaped wall. Plus there was the fact that Chad claimed he had missed a pass during basketball practice, while Tash maintained that he got into fights. What was going on? She knew better than to press that now, though, since Troy already seemed to be slightly defensive. She smiled warmly at him.
"Well, thanks to the concussion, I never had the chance to say thank you. You saved my life, you know."
Troy looked uncomfortable. "Actually, I think you got hurt for no reason. I don't think the truck was that close."
Gabriella shook her head gently, slipping down and sitting next to him on the piano stool before he could react. "I felt how close it was. If you hadn't tackled me like that, at the very least I would have a severely broken arm. So, thank you."
She was slightly amazed to see that the boy next to her was blushing. Blushing? Just from a thank you? She decided to change tack again.
"You have a wonderful voice by the way."
This time Troy smiled genuinely, his face lighting up as he smiled at her. "Thank you. You know, I don't know if anyone else has ever heard me sing before. You might be the first."
She looked away, suddenly and inexplicably shy. "Do you think... do you think we might sing together, sometime?"
Troy actually turned his head and looked at her, a soft smile playing around his lips. "That would be nice. Right now, though, I think I have practice."
Gabriella nodded, and stood up to make her way out and to her next class. Just for a moment, though, and out of her sight, her fingers brushed against his. Both of them froze for a moment, tacitly allowing the touch to linger as it might not, otherwise. Then, with a final smile, they went their separate ways.