Chapter 2: Talking While Tanning Can Affect You
Troy pressed his forehead against the hot window. Making a smudge on the clean window with his nose, he sighed loudly. A long, loud, melancholic sigh just to make sure that his parents had heard him and just to make sure that they would feel at least just a tad bit guilty about doing this to their son.
"Stop it Troy… you know it is not that bad dude! We get to see some hot beach chicks!!" his brother, Justin, tried to make him feel better.
Ugh. Troy was kind of jealous of him. He was not a single bit bothered by this and he had way more things to say good-bye to than Troy. Troy felt sot of guilty for being such a pain in the ass for his parents. But oh well… Revenge was very sweet.
"Whatever…" Troy said as he turned on his iPod. Justin shook his head and went back to his conversation with his mom.
Troy watched the cars go by in the busy street. He looked back to get a last glimpse of Albuquerque. It wasn't the most beautiful city but it had many memories of Troy's in that city. Plus it looked very pretty when the sunrise was going on. And now he just had to leave Albuquerque because of his dad's job. According to Troy, this was so messed up. Yeah he was thankful for his dad's job but this was just wrong. They had always lived with the possibilities of moving but now it was really happening. It had always been so unpredictable and pissed off Troy very badly. He felt like his world was coming to an end.
Ok, so maybe he was being a little bit dramatic but it was just the way he felt. He had an awesome life back there and it was over now.
--
(This is 2 days after Troy's scene above.)
Gabriella stirred in her huge bed. Accidentally hitting Taylor in her jaw while doing so.
"Woops… sorry Tay!!" she apologized giggling.
"Rawr!" Taylor said half-awake… causing Sharpay to wake up. The three girls stretched while they yawned and half-giggled. All of them tired and sore from all the dancing last night. All of them had had a blast at the party. So freaking awesome… in their words.
"I want to go shopping." Gabriella said in a lazy voice as she rubbed her eyes.
"Nuh honey… you need to go shopping." Sharpay giggled as she went through Gabriella's clothes in her huge closet.
"Aw shit! No way… it's raining?" Taylor whined.
"WHAT?! IT'S WHAT?!" Gabriella ran like a maniac to open her balcony doors. Then she heard Taylor and Sharpay burst out with laughter. When she turned around glaring at them, they were rolling on the floor with laughter.
"URGH! You guys are soo mean to me!" Gabriella pouted. The girls kept laughing because they knew Gabriella didn't mean it.
The girls got dressed and headed in Sharpay's convertible towards the mall.
"Hey, have you guys seen that family moving across the street?" Gabriella asked as she applied glossy lip gloss to her perfect lips.
"Yeah… I wonder who they are…" Taylor nodded.
"Maybe we should go say hi…" Sharpay giggled.
"Oh yeah… and we should bake a pie too." Gabriella added sarcastically.
"Our moms will probably do that… I mean it's not our obligation." Taylor shrugged.
"I think that family has two kids…" Gabriella said trying to remember what her mom had told her.
"Kids? As in boys… or girls?" Sharpay asked immediately.
"I don't know… let's ask our moms later…" Gabriella said as she got out of the car.
The girls shopped and shopped for hours. Spent many dollars, but not excessively.
Gabriella lifted her shades up as they arrived at Sharpay's house. She set her shopping bags on the floor. Threw her purse in the nearby counter and flopped down on the couch. "Psh… I'm exhausted."
"Me too…" Taylor sighed.
Sharpay's mom entered the room, greeting the girls.
"Hey mom… you know the family that just moved across the street?" Sharpay asked.
"Yeah?" her mom answered.
"Well… have you met them?" Sharpay asked.
"No… not yet. Hm… do you girls think it's rude we haven't welcomed them or anything?" Sharpay's mom asked with a concerned look on her face.
"I'm sure it's ok mom… They've probably just finished settling in… so if you still want to go and welcome then, then now you can go!" Sharpay smiled.
"Right…" her mom left the room, leaving the girls alone.
"So… what do you want to do now?" Sharpay asked.
The girls shrugged.
"Let's go to the beach, I need to work on my tan." Sharpay said.
"Ok Shar, whatever." Gabriella and Taylor stood up and went to gather their things.
--
Troy sat down in his bed contemplating his room. It was all finally unpacked and in its place. His mom had made him work endlessly for the last two days. He was so tired. His room looked just like it did in Albuquerque, except different view. He sighed. He was starting his new life. That sounded so… grown-up-ish.
"Honey… Troy?" his mom knocked on his door.
Troy stood up and opened it.
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you go to the beach? It's just a few meters away… you can walk…" his mom said.
Troy groaned. "Alone?"
"Justin can go with you…" his mom shrugged.
"Do I have to ask him?" Troy sighed.
"Not if you don't want to." his mom let out a tired sigh. "Come on Troy, I don't want you to be moping around all summer. At least go do something productive. It's gonna be ok Troy." she rubbed his cheek.
"Fine…"Troy whispered.
He changed into his swim trunks and a t-shirt. He gathered his other things like his cell phone.
"Justin… I'm going to the beach…" Troy entered his room.
"Oh… I want to go!" Justin said like a little kid.
--
The girls laid down in their towels (they went to the public beach you know… not their backyard just the public one.)
"I don't like this spot… let's move!" groaned Taylor.
"No Taylor. We are going to stay here. We have already moved 5 times chick! So just suck it. Ok? Ok." Sharpay said with only moving her mouth.
"Urgh!" Taylor said as Gabriella laughed at her friends.
She saw two boys arrive at the beach, but didn't pay much attention to them. But for some reason, she couldn't stop glancing over to where the boys where. She couldn't see them clearly so she didn't know what they looked like. She tried to shrug it off by starting a conversation with Sharpay and Taylor.
"So…"Gabriella said casually.
"So?" Sharpay asked.
"Yeah so… tell me something you guys are so quiet." Gabriella complained.
"I read that you shouldn't talk while tanning, it affects you." Taylor said as a matter-of-factly.
Gabriella burst out laughing. "Where the hell did you hear that?"
"I read it in a freaking magazine!" Taylor snapped.
Sharpay giggled. "Ahh… you guys crack me up. Taylor I don't think it's possible that you can get affected by talking while tanning. That's freaking non-sense."
"Whatever…" Taylor shrugged as she fell silent again.
"She's so crazy!" Sharpay laughed.
"I'm still here Shar!" Taylor said in a sing-song voice.
"I know Tay!" Sharpay said back mockingly in the same sing-song voice.
Gabriella saw somebody coming out of the water. Someone extremely good-looking. She could see he had electric blue eyes, light brown shaggy hair and very shaped abs.
"Oh. My. God. Who the freaking hell is that God?" Gabriella said out of the blue as she lifted up her shades hoping he would look even more good-looking. Which he impressively did.
"Gabriella… you're affecting yourself!" Taylor said in a sing-song voice.
"No… Taylor you have to look at him. AND FOR THE LAST FREAKIGN TIME: IT DOESN'T AFFECT YOU IF YOU TALK WHILE YOU TAN … GOSH!" Gabriella said raising her voice.
Sharpay laughed hysterically while Taylor glared at both of them. When the commotion ended, the girls lifted up their shades too to take a look to the so called God.
"Oh my gosh. He's so…" Sharpay couldn't finish the sentence.
Gabriella's mouth turned into a smile. Suddenly, the boy waved at someone. Gabriella looked at that 'someone'.
Oh Crap.
The somebody was non other than Sherrie. The bitch. She was so… probably no good words could describe her. She had dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and was slim. She didn't have much curves but boys were still attracted to her. She was popular, well sorta. She was in the cheerleading team, which Gabi was captain of. Sherrie had always envied Gabriella because she was the captain and because well Gabriella was good at everything she did, and people still liked her. Many people didn't like Sherrie. Most of the people didn't.
Sherrie was waving in a very flirtatious way. Batting her eyelashes like crazy. She looked pathetic almost. The boy was waving back shyly with a wry smile.
"Urgh. Sherrie has to just ruin this freaking summer!" Gabriella complained feeling very frustrated. Even though many more guys were attracted to Gabriella, Sherrie just had this way to make them into her or worse: steal Gabriella's man. She had done that many times but oh boy did she regret it every time. Let's just say for Gabriella: revenge was oh so very sweet. It's like she gave boys a love potion, if there was such thing as one.
"Chill Gabi! You don't even know the guy. For all you know he could never speak a word to you this summer so just let it go." Taylor explained.
"Gee, that just made me feel a whole lot better Tay… thank-you! Oh and you better watch your words you just might get 'affected'" Gabriella replied with a ton of sarcasm on her voice.
"Your welco… hey! Stop teasing me about it! I read it on this freaking month's Cosmopolitan! It's sitting in my bed right now so if you guys need the proof so badly just get your asses outta here and go read it!" Taylor replied.
"Ugh… Taylor… Taylor… Taylor…" Sharpay sighed as she shook her head.
Gabriella giggled. She returned her attention to the oh so gorgeous boy. He was having a conversation with Sherrie. Ugh. It made her so mad. She just felt the urge to have him, and the weird part was that she didn't even know him. This was crazy.
--
"Dude… who was that chick?" Justin asked Troy on the way back home.
"Her name's Sherrie… she's pretty nice. I asked her out on Friday." Troy smiled.
"Man! You've already got a date and I don't? You suck." Justin said disappointed as Troy laughed.
"Too bad so sad…" Troy muttered under his breath.
Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.
--
"Gabi? What's the matter…? You're so quiet tonight." Taylor asked concerned.
"Oh Taylor it's nothing… she's just planning her evil plot to destroy Sherrie and keep that beach hottie all to herself." Sharpay put on a charming smile.
Gabriella sarcastically smiled back. "Actually… I was."
"Wow… sadist." Taylor said as the girls laughed.
"Nah… well I was thinking … I could just go to like talk to him. He's obviously new in the city. I haven't seen him anywhere before." Gabriella shrugged.
"How do you know if he was in jail all this time?" Sharpay asked.
"Newspaper." Gabriella answered.
"House arrest?" Sharpay tried.
"Neighbors."
"On crack… hidden in every alley all the time, buying crack from crack dealers and smoking all the crack hidden in his room enjoying the presence of all of that lovely crack?"
"Wow… I never knew you could use the word crack so much in one sentence." Taylor said.
"Hm… he wouldn't look that hot you idiot." Gabriella answered.
"Ok then… how about…" Sharpay started.
"Rawr! Sharpay you're so negative!" Gabriella laughed.
The three girls laughed at their silliness.
"I'm tired…" Taylor yawned.
"Me too…" Sharpay yawned too.
"Why do yawns have to be contagious?" Gabriella asked out of the blue.
"I don't know but I hate it too." Sharpay said as she tried to get comfortable in the bed.
"I never said I hated them." Gabriella argued.
"You implied it though." Sharpay argued back.
"Nuh-uh…" Gabriella said.
Before Sharpay could argue back, "Good night Gabi and Shar!" Taylor cutted her off.
The girls laughed. "Nighty night chicks!"
The next morning,
Gabriella woke up letting a big yawn out of her mouth. Seeing the girls all asleep, she decided to go to get the mail. She changed into something decent, and put her hair up in a messy ponytail. She yawned once more and headed out of the house.
She walked to the mailbox. All of the street's houses' mail was in one big recatbgle thing with divisions for each house. She opened her box and grabbed the envelopes and few magazines from there. She headed back to the house and tried to opne the door. Gabriella cursed out loud realizing she didn't have any house keys and the door was locked. She knew all of their parents were all in work. And the girls wouldn't wake up with the doorbell's noise.
"Argh! What am I going to do?" Gabriella wondered out loud.
She then noticed someone coming out of the house that the new family had just moved in. It was the boy from the beach. He was heading to the mailbox. Gabriella quickly left the mail she had just gathered on the house's porch and headed casually towards the mailbox.
"Hey um I know we don't know each other or anything but is there any chance that I could use your phone? I kinda got locked out of my house." Gabriella laughed nervously.
"Uh… yeah sure." the boy got out his cell phone and handed to Gabriella.
"Thank you so much. It will only take a second." Gabriella took the phone and dialed Sharpay's cell phone number. After three rings, Sharpay's voice came through the receiver.
"Um who's this cause if you're a freaking stalker I know kung-fu!"
Gabriella laughed out loud. "Sharpay you freak! It's me… and you don't know kung-fu!"
"Yeah I know whatever. Why are you calling? No… where are you?" Sharpay asked.
"I got locked out of the house… I went for the mail and I forgot the house keys. So can you please unlock the freaking door?" Gabriella asked with a fake sweet voice.
"Gosh… someone is not happy today… yeah I'll unlock it." Sharpay answered.
"Urgh… well I'll be there in a sec." Gabriella answered.
"Hey who's cell phone are you calling from?" Sharpay asked but Gabriella hung up immediately. She handed back the cell phone to the boy.
"Thanks…" Gabriella wanted to leave but her legs wouldn't move.
"So… which one's your house?" the boy asked.
"Um it's that one over there." Gabriella pointed to her house. "You're the one who moved into that one right?" Gabriella asked pointing to his house.
"Yeah… Just about three days ago."
"Where from?" Gabriella started to get curious, heck she was curious from the moment she saw him.
"Albuquerque, New Mexico." the boy responded. Damn, he was good looking.
"That's far away." Gabriella said.
"Yeah it is…" Troy answered.
"Well I gotta… you know… go." Gabriella turned around.
"Hey!" the boy called after her.
"Yeah?" Gabriella turned around again.
"What's your name?" the boy asked her.
"Gabriella… Gabriella Montez." Gabriella smiled. "You?"
"Troy… Troy Bolton." he smiled back. Gabriella turned around and headed home. Not glancing back because she knew she would just keep staring.
Troy watched her all the way she headed home.
"Gabriella Montez…" he muttered softly to himself after she entered her house. He smiled big.
--
"It was him!" Gabriella kept saying over and over more to herself than the girls.
"Who? Him who?" she was driving Taylor and Sharpay utterly nuts.
"The boy from the beach! He's the one who moved in with the family!" Gabriella said still not believing it.
"Really?" Sharpay asked.
"Yeah… his name is Troy Bolton." Gabriella smiled.
"Aw… you're smiling." Taylor said.
"Love at first sight!" Sharpay said dreamily.
"Agh. Sharpay don't be ridiculous." Gabriella denied it.
"Eh… don't deny it Gabi!"
"Ok… maybe a little bit." Gabriella giggled softly.
"Come one the movie's starting!" Sharpay and Taylor went to the other room, leaving Gabriella alone.
"Troy Bolton…" she said softly to herself. She smiled big.
Gah. Your guys' reviews were awesome. And I love every single one of you D ok now you know what to do. You know that lavender-ish colored (or maybe periwinkle) button that one that looks so appealing and oh so lovely? Well you click on it and you leave me one of your wonderful reviews! Yay! Much love: Claudia.