A/N: Hey! Christmas is in a few days!! Sorry this chapter is short, i have hit a writer's block! :(
But, no worries, my boyfriend is coming over later, I'm sure he can help me lol, so be patient!
(Shameless Plug) Check out my new trailer, "As time ticks by", another Chaylor and Troyella, but in the future. Chad gets TWO surprises one day (hint, hint) LoL.
On with chapter 15!
Disclaimer: Still No. *Sighs*
***
A few days later, and it was the day of the annual East High Vs. West High basketball match. This day always brung a lot of hype to East High, and the basketball team revelled in it. Especially the important members; the captain and co-captain. Namely Troy and Chad.
Gabriella and Taylor were at Taylor's locker, getting Taylor's books out for her first four periods. It was Gabriella's first day back at school, after fighting off a recurring attack of the flu. After spending four days wrapped up in her duvet, while Troy and Taylor came round daily to check how she was, seemed to do Gabi the world of good. Hence her jumping up and down in front of Taylor like a wild woman.
"Calm down, Gabi," Taylor giggled at her best friends energy.
"Its game day, Taylor, how can i possibly calm down?" Gabriella replied.
Taylor arched an eyebrow, as a group of over-excited freshmen passed by her locker, decked out in red and white, with horns and whistles blaring. Yep, it was definitely game day.
"See Tay? Now, where's your Wildcat spirit?" Gabi probed, hyper.
Taylor looked at her friend, dressed head to toe in red and white. A red layered t-shirt, white skinny jeans and red pumps. Then down at herself. Hot pink vest, black skinny jeans, and hot pink Reebok classics. Perfect Wildcat colours. Not.
Taylor shrugged, while her best friend looked at her in disdain. Opening her mouth to speak, Gabi was cut off by the loud cheers of:
"What team?"
"WILDCATS!"
"What team?"
"WILDCATS!"
"WILDCATS!"
"GET'CHA HEAD IN THE GAME!"
Lots more hoots and hollers followed, the noise getting closer and closer by each second, till the group finally turned the corner.
"Look, it's the lady Wildcats!" Chad said, pointing directly at Taylor, who rolled her eyes and turned back into her locker, bringing out her maths and science textbooks.
Troy and Chad walked towards their girlfriends. Gabi jumped into Troy's arms, squealing with excitement all the way. "Hey captain!" She giggled, "Ready for the big game?"
"Uh-huh," Troy nodded, "Especially with my own personal cheerleader there to cheer me on,"
Gabriella giggled again girlishly, and pulled Troy into a kiss.
Taylor once again rolled her eyes. Chad took this opportunity to sneak up behind her, and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Do i have my own personal cheerleader?" He whispered in her ear. Taylor willed herself not to melt at this, and instead snorted.
"It depends, has Kayla said yes yet?" Taylor whispered back, quickly.
"Ouch, that burned, baby," Chad replied, his voice going back to normal volume. Taylor giggled, and turned around to face him. She gave him a quick peck on his lips, which turned his pout into a smile.
"Of course, i'll be at the game baby, just not gyrating around, showing my ass like those cheerleaders do," Taylor replied, arms still wrapped around Chad's neck.
"No, you just save that for when you're naked, and on my bed," Chad muttered, smirking. Unfortunately Taylor heard, and slapped him hard across the arm.
"Chad!" Taylor exclaimed, as Chad rubbed his bicep where Taylor had hit him hard, "Shut up!"
"Or what?" Chad asked huskily, pulling Taylor tighter to his body.
"Or else, i'll just about tell everyone we know what your favourite film is," Taylor replied, a wicked grin appearing on her face.
Chad tightened his grip on Taylor and dropped his voice to a whisper. "You wouldn't,"
"Oh, I would," Taylor said smugly, "I mean, the little mermaid? Seriously, Chad,"
"Okay, that Ariel might be half-fish, half-human, but she is HAWT!"
"She's a cartoon, Chad!"
"So? Still hot!"
"As interesting as your conversation is, lovebirds," Troy interrupted, "We have to get to Darbus, before she shoots a cap in my ass for being tardy once again,"
"Shoots a cap in your ass? Nice imagery, Bolton," Chad laughed, un-winding his arms from Taylor, who went to stand next to Gabriella.
"Dude, shut up. Let's go," Troy said, dragging Gabriella by her hand towards room 202, homeroom.
"Chaa-ad," Taylor called, as he started to walk off.
"Yo?" Chad said, turning slowly. Once he caught Taylor's 'You've got to be kidding me look' he quickly rectified himself. "I mean, yeah. Yeah, Tay?"
"That's better. Um, you know how tonight is game night?" Chad nodded at her to carry on. "As you can see, i am not relatively oozing Wildcat spirit,"
Chad gave her outfit the once over before nodding. "I see,"
"Soo...?" Taylor probed, pointing to Chad's white letterman jacket.
Chad finally caught on. "Oh. Ooooh. Here, baby," He said, taking the jacket off, and handing it to Taylor. She smiled brightly and slipped it on, loving the way it felt warm, and draped over her small features.
In appreciation, Taylor pushed Chad up against her recently closed locker and gave him a passionate kiss that she knew he'd be remembering all day. As soon as she pulled away, she grabbed his hand.
"Come on, Chad, the warning bell is about to sound!"
In his still shocked, yet blissfully happy state, Chad couldn't help but follow his girlfriend silently.
Not even Darbus could get him in a bad mood now.
... ... ... ... ... ...
At the end of the day, Coach Jack Bolton had the entire boys' varsity team down in the locker room. This had always been a routine: get the team down, give a coach pep talk, have Troy's 'captain' pep talk, and let Chad do his thing.
Then go out there and kick some West High ass, Jack thought to himself, a smile flitting over his face.
"Dad – Uh, Coach?" Troy's voice eroded Jacks thoughts, "We're all here,"
Jack nodded coherently to his son, and turned to the team. "Okay, team, it's us vs. West High tonight, again. I just want you to know, whatever the score out there, you play your upmost best, right?"
He waited for the team to nod before continuing.
"So i, as a coach, have been at this match annually for the last thirteen years, and this is the fourteenth year i don't want to be disappointed, right? So, play your best. Troy, Chad, i trust you can take it from here?"
Jack stepped back as Troy and Chad made their way to the front of the room. Troy started. "Okay guys, we're at this point again. Us and Knights. And do you know what we're gonna do? Kick some fucking West High butt!"
The rest of the team whooped and Jack shot Troy a mock stern glare. "Language, Bolton," He said, though his amused smile spoke differently.
Chad cleared his throat and stepped up. "What team?"
The familiar yell of "WILDCATS!" followed the team as they made their way out to the biggest game of their season.
... ... ... ... ... ...
"Gabi, sit down, you're making a fool out of yourself," Taylor said dryly, pulling Chad's jacket tighter around her body.
Gabriella was standing on her chair, wearing Troy's letterman jacket, screaming along to the Wildcat cheer that rocked the stands. Frankly, it was giving Taylor a headache.
Before Gabi had chance to reply, Principal Matsui came to the centre, amidst the boo-ing of Knight fans, and put the microphone up to his mouth.
"Okay, East High!" He started, grabbing everyone's attention, "We have started a new scheme. From the bright mind of our head cheerleader Kayla Symmons," Taylor scoffed at this, "We have devised a new way of showing the Wildcats we care. The cheerleaders we be assigned to one player, and wear their number for the rest of the basketball season!"
It was at this point Taylor started to get interested.
"Shall we see who's wearing who?"
At this point, Principal Matsui talked his way through the team, and each girl came out in a new outfit, with the special guys name and number on the back. It came down to the last two.
"Now, who's wearing our captain? Well, displaying number 8 is Kate Smith!"
A petite girl, with auburn coloured hair ran out in her uniform, "BOLTON, 14" inked onto her back.
Gabriella shrugged. "She's a nice girl. And dating Carlton Samuels, so all is good,"
Taylor nodded, and glanced around. Chad was the last name, and she needed to know what girl he had. Then it all clocked up in her head. Shit.
"And lastly, but certainly not leastly, we have our co-captain, Chad Danforth. Wearing his number with pride, is Kayla Symmons!"
Taylor narrowed her eyes as Kayla skipped onto the court, pom-poms in hand. Her outfit was the same, apart from "DANFORTH, 8" spelled out neatly over the back.
Now, Taylor wasn't normally a jealous person. Attraction for Chad from other girls came with his nature, and she couldn't blame them. He was gorgeous. But, when a psycho-bitch who it seemed NEVER gave up, rolled up with Chad set in her sights, it unleashed something in Taylor that she couldn't control.
"That bitch!" Taylor seethed, "Can you not see this Gabi? It was her idea: she knew if she got Chad, she'd be spending a lot of time with him this year! Arrrgh, i hate her!"
Gabriella smiled sympathetically at her friend, and sat down next to her. Taylor had had it bad this past month or so, and Kayla was normally the stem of all it. She had no time to console her best friend, as both teams came out, and the game started.
... ... ... ... ... ...
The game was tied at 57 – 57. Never had a East High/ West High match been so close. Gabriella and Taylor were literally sitting on the edge of their seats. The Wildcats were in turmoil; Troy was sweating, Chad was out of breath and Zeke and Jason were finding it hard to block the ball. Coach Bolton was literally ripping his hair out from the bleachers.
Finally, East High gained possession.
Jason dribbled the ball, passed it chest throw to Zeke. Zeke, being tall, managed to throw of a couple of West High defenders, and threw the ball at Troy, who was close enough to the basket. Troy threw it in as Chad glanced at the clock. 12 seconds...
The ball circled the rim of the basket, for what seemed like an eternity.
10, 9, 8...
Much to the dismay of Troy and Jack, the ball fell off the rim, and right into the hands of... Chad. Without thinking, Chad immediately threw the rebound towards the net.
3, 2...
SWOOSH!
Nothing but net! The ball was in!
BUZZZ!
The buzzer sounded, signalling the end of the game. Chad, still unable to comprehend what had just happened, was dragged forward into a screaming crowd, all chanting his name.
Chad Danforth had scored the winning basket.
Not Troy, Chad.
A huge smile crossed his face as reality sunk in. He looked at Jack who was nodding appreciably, and into the bleachers where his dad sat, possibly clapping the loudest, and his mom chattering excitedly with Lucille Bolton, Troy's mom, proudly. He re-scanned the crowd, and saw her.
She never usually came to basketball games, much preferring to sit in the library and read. But, since she had succumbed to Chad, she had succumbed to the sense of being at every basketball game too. Nevertheless, she would always be there, cheering for him, wearing his number.
But, right now, she wasn't the only one.
"Chad!"
He tore his eyes away from his girlfriend to see Kayla Symmons running towards him. If that wasn't bad enough, she had "DANFORTH" printed all over her. His mouth dropped open in shock, and she giggled. "Do you like it?" She twirled, letting him see it more.
"Why are you wearing my name and number?" Chad asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"New scheme. And, i get to hang with you, ALL year!" She said, excitedly.
"Great," Chad muttered through gritted teeth.
"Oh, and well done for your winning basket!" She squealed, giving Chad a kiss on his cheek. Yet, she held it for WAY much longer than usual.
"Yeah, yeah, that's nice," Chad said in disgust, practically pushing her off him. She rolled her eyes, and walked off to talk with her other cheerleaders.
Chad breathed a sigh of relief, and glanced around for Taylor; but she wasn't there.
... ... ... ... ... ...
Taylor was walking to her car, a sour look on her face.
She should have known Kayla wouldn't have given up that easily, and now the whole name & numbers thing was just another way of trying to get into Chad's pants. And that kiss? Okay, it was just on the cheek, but it still hurt Taylor more than a stab to the heart.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, signalling she had got a new text. She took it out, and bit her lip in uncertainty as she read it.
Tay,
I'm coming back today, from Keisha's. Tell mum to get some dinner ready. And, us two? We need to talk baby sis.
-Lee-Lee x
Texting back a solitary 'Okay', she proceeded on walking to her car. She hadn't talked to Aleesha in 5 days. What had she been doing? Did she still have the baby? Or had she already had the abortion?
"TAYLOR!"
She spun around as she heard her name. Chad was running towards her, still wearing his basketball kit. She smiled for a moment, letting her guard down. But, as soon as he reached her, she placed her frosty exterior back on top.
"What, Chad?"
"I'm sorry,"
She gaped at him in shock. Was he apologizing?
"Sorry? For what?"
Chad took a deep intake of breath. "I had no idea about the cheerleader thing. If i did, i swear to god it wouldn't be that psycho wearing 'DANFORTH', trust me,"
Taylor smiled. "It's okay baby, honestly,"
Chad smiled. "You wear my number much better though, anyway. You know that right?"
Taylor bit her lip. "Hmmm, It did appear that way to me too,"
Chad smirked. "Do you wanna see how you make me feel when you wear it?" He pushed her back, so she was leaning on the hood of her Volkswagen beetle, and kissed her passionately. She moaned in his mouth, but wouldn't let him deepen it. When he dragged his tongue across her bottom lip for the fourth time, she pulled away.
"Not here, Chad,"
"Why?" He pouted like a four year old.
"Because we're on school property. And, i need to get home and get ready. Party at Troy's, right?"
Chad nodded and tucked a stray curl from Taylor's face. "Yeah. Imma pick you up at 7, aiight?"
"Uh-huh," Taylor replied, kissing Chad softly, opening her car door at the same time.
"Cool, see you later Tay-Tay!"
She waved as she drove off in her baby blue Volkswagen beetle, blaring Rihanna and Chris Brown's Umbrella Remix down the street.
Chad smiled to himself, before realising he was in his kit, and needed to get ready for tonight, running back inside.
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N: Yo! Cheesy ending, but still!
Next chapter is the after-party, and Aleesha gives Taylor a difficult ultimatum. Dun, Dun, Duuun!
LoL... Till next time :) !
Review!
-Emily x
