DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters.
A/N: I'M BACK!!!!! You have no idea how bored I was on my holiday, not even the beach took my boredom away. Anyway, I actually rounded off the plot for this story in my head and was itching to get back to it and then I actually started a Zanessa story which has kept me occupied so hopefully that'll keep me on my toes. Anyway here is the new chapter!!!!
Out Of My Element
CHAPTER 3
UNDER PRESSURE
Gabriella sat at her desk tapping it with her pencil; she glanced around at all the other students watching and silently wished she wasn't as smart as she was. At least then she wouldn't be finished with twenty minutes to spare. Almost unconsciously her thoughts strayed to Troy and a small smile flickered across her face as she thought about him, despite all their arguments and teasing, he was the only guy that could make her heart race when she saw him, the only guy who could look at her and instantly know how she was feeling and the only guy who could annoy her to a point where she couldn't remember why she loved him. The bell ran causing Gabriella to snap out of her thoughts and sigh in relief, quickly she gathered her things and headed out of the classroom, being one of the first out of the door.
"I take it you had the most boring lesson in the history of the world?" Troy's voice caused Gabriella to skid to halt and she glanced to the side of the door she had just come out of.
He grinned at her and causally walked over to her, slipping his hand in her free one and entwining their fingers.
"Considering it was History? Yes and what's with the public display of affection? This is the second time you've decided to claim me as your girlfriend." Gabriella asked and Troy went slightly red and then laughed.
"Sharpay's been at me again, it's actually getting kind of scary." Troy said and Gabriella laughed at her boyfriend who shot her a dirty look.
"It's not that funny Montez, you know Sharpay, she can be……scary." He defended himself against Gabriella's unspoken comments.
"Okay, okay, I'll let you go on this one Bolton." She said still grinning as they came to a stop by her locker.
"Thank you," he groaned and Gabriella laughed removing her hand from his and opening her locker. She quickly put her books in and shut the door.
"Ready for detention?" she asked allowing him to retake her hand.
"You, me, Chad, Taylor and Darbus stuck in a theatre for half an hour forgive me if I say I'm never going to be ready for detention." Troy said sarcastically and Gabriella laughed again.
"Don't worry, I think its going to be even better then that, I heard Ryan and Sharpay got a detention because Darbus caught them with their cell phones." Gabriella said innocently and Troy glared at her.
"Please tell me your joking, Gabi, tell me your joking." Troy begged and Gabriella looked at him solemnly, the spark in her brown eyes gave away her serious expression and Troy narrowed his eyes at her, Gabriella grinned back and the squealed when she felt Troy poke her side.
"Troy!" Gabriella exclaimed and he grinned at her, Gabriella jumped away from him and started to walk away when he grabbed her waist and pulled her back to him.
"Now this has nothing to do with Sharpay." He whispered before kissing her softly. Gabriella melted into the kiss, ignoring the shouts of astonishment from several people around them.
"Mmmm. What was that for?" Gabriella asked feeling slightly unsteady as Troy pulled away from her. He kissed her softly once more and then grinned.
"I just felt like it." he replied and Gabriella grinned stupidly and buried her head in his chest as she blushed.
"Well it was definitely nice." she mumbled into his chest and Troy laughed, kissing the top of her head quickly and then set her away from him.
"It had better be, everybody's staring at us now and I would say I'm used to it but I don't think I'm entirely comfortable with the looks." He said and Gabriella burst into laughter as she realized how awkward Troy looked, public displays of affection were never his style, especially in front of everyone walking in the hallway.
"That's because seeing us act like we might actually care about each other is completely foreign to everybody in this school, including Chad and Taylor." Gabriella pointed out and he raised his eyebrows at her and Gabriella shrugged.
"Its true, we were all lovey-dovey for the first few weeks of our relationship at school and then I think we both forgot how to act like that here." She said matter-of-factly and Troy shook his head.
"No, we stopped acting like a couple here because we kept on getting detentions for making out after every argument we had." he said and Gabriella shrugged as they headed for the theatre leaving a throng of students discussing whether or not Troy and Gabriella really were Troy and Gabriella or imposters.
"Either way, we never act like a couple here. Anyway, off the subject completely, how's basketball going?" she asked and Troy tensed automatically, Gabriella bit her bottom lip and laid a gentle hand on her boyfriends arm.
"It's going fine." He said tensely and Gabriella ran her hand down his arm and slipt her hand into his squeezing it and letting him know that it was alright. Troy relaxed slightly and squeezed back for comfort.
"That's good." She said softly as they entered the theatre. Troy smiled at her and Gabriella bit her lip again as she saw how forced it was.
"Miss Montez! Mr Bolton! Thank you for gracing us with your company." Miss Darbus said and Gabriella and Troy jumped away from each other and stared at their homeroom teacher.
"You're welcome Miss Darbus." Troy said all signs of his previous tenseness fading. Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief as she watched him relax and then turned and smiled at her homeroom teacher who was watching them with twinkling eyes.
"All right you two, Troy you can work on that tree with Chad and Gabriella you can work on the moon with Taylor." Miss Darbus ordered and Troy reluctantly let go of Gabriella's hand and walked over to his friend who was trying to figure out how to use the staple gun and had nearly ended up stapling his thumb a couple of times already.
Gabriella watched him go, slightly worried. She was well aware of the pressure on him to win the championship in two weeks and it worried her. Troy normally dealt well under pressure, but the weight of this game, his teammate's expectations, his father's expectations, and most of all the expectations he placed on himself had increased greatly since he'd found out that they had made the championship again. To Gabriella what made it worse was that they were playing a team that had beaten them at that particular level before and that only heightened the expectations on the team and most of all Troy.
"Watch where you're going!" Gabriella bit back a slight scream when she bumped into something pink and sparkly. Refraining from a sarcastic comment Gabriella looked at the girl she had run into and winced. Why did she have to run into Sharpay Evans of all people? Gabriella quickly racked her brain for some sort of defense before Sharpay attacked her. Sharpay spun around and stunned Gabriella by smiling sheepishly.
"Sorry Gabriella, I didn't see you there." Sharpay said and Gabriella gaped at her in astonishment, she had never expected Sharpay Evans to apologize for anything, including bumping into her.
"Uh, its fine Sharpay," she replied, when she'd found her voice, and Sharpay smiled again.
"I'm still sorry. Anyway, what'd you do over vacation?" Sharpay asked and Gabriella opened her mouth and closed it again before answering.
"Um, just hung around here actually. Nothing special. What about you?" Gabriella found herself replying as she made her way over to where Taylor was working silently.
"We went to France actually. It was a lot of fun." Sharpay replied following her. Gabriella smiled at Taylor, who shot her a questioning look. Gabriella shrugged before turning back to Sharpay.
"That does sound like fun. Did you go to the Eiffel Tower?" she asked and Sharpay nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah we did. The view was amazing, you could-" Sharpay was cut off by an angry shout and all three girls jumped. Gabriella gulped as she saw Coach Bolton storming down one of the aisles.
"Where's my team Darbus?" he yelled and Gabriella stole a glance at Troy who seemed frozen to the tree he was working on.
"Coach calm down-" Miss Darbus began and he cut her off.
"No, I won't calm down; we are playing in a championship in two weeks! Two weeks! And Troy and Chad cannot afford to miss any of the practices! Every single one counts!" Miss Darbus stopped herself from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty and nodded.
"Troy, Chad! Get in the gym now!" Coach Bolton yelled at them and Troy jumped down from the tree and was off the stage and out the door before anything else came out of his father's mouth. Gabriella watched him go, worriedly chewing on her bottom lip as the door banged shut as Chad ran out of the theatre.
"Gabs are you okay?" Taylor asked looking at her friends face, Gabriella yanked her gaze from the door that Troy had run out of to her friends and sighed.
"I'm fine, but I don't think Troy will be." She said quietly and before Taylor could speak Sharpay spoke up.
"He'll be fine Gabriella. I've known Troy since kindergarten, and although I don't know him as well as you do, I do know Troy deals well under pressure. He'll be fine." She said and Gabriella was suddenly very grateful that Sharpay was there. Yes she hardly knew the girl, and yes it was strange that she was being nice to her but at least she'd offered some comfort to her.
"Thanks Sharpay, I hope your right." Gabriella said softly, her gaze finding the door again.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Gabriella was lying on her bed reading a book when her door banged open and Troy stormed in. She jumped and sat up as he nodded his head at her and then continued to storm around the room. Gabriella noted the look of frustration mixed with anger on his face and crossed her legs to watch him patiently; knowing that when he was ready to talk he would talk or yell. Which ever one suited him the best at the moment. After a few more minutes of storming around her room he stopped by her balcony doors and faced her, telling her he was ready to talk.
"What happened?" she asked softly and Troy ran a hand through his hair.
"Dad happened. That's what happened. Dad thought that it would be great for him to coach me. Oh yeah, it was such a brilliant idea, best idea he and mom ever thought of. It got him out of the house and it let him have father-son time with me," Gabriella waited silently as Troy took a breath "He doesn't own every single second of my life and he doesn't have any control over Darbus and her detentions. But do you think that he thinks like that? Oh no, all it ever is now is the championship. So if I get a detention it affects the championship, if I decide I want to go out with you instead of going for a run it affects the championship. If I decide I don't want to go to training it affects the championship and the team for that matter. But it doesn't end there, oh no, it goes on. If I don't make that basket it's the difference between a win and a loss, if I don't stop that basket it's the difference, hell if I screw up at all apparently it's the difference between a win and a loss and we're not even playing yet!" Troy's voice was growing louder and louder and Gabriella decided that interrupting him was the worse possible thing she could think of doing at the current moment.
"Do you think he doesn't know I already get that? He's even blaming you for distracting me and the stupid game is two weeks away and everybody seems to know that we're going to win. How would they know? They don't know how insane it is to be placing bets on who's going to shoot the winning basket! We are playing a team that has beaten us before we've even gotten to the championship! Everything is against us, am I the only one that sees how insane we are? Am I the only one that's feeling the pressure?" Troy shouted at her and Gabriella stood up and moved over to him.
"No, baby, you're not the only one that sees it. It's okay Troy," she said softly wrapping her arms around him. Troy buried his face in her hair and breathed in the smell of her hair. Citrus and the smell of her perfume mingled together and filled his nostrils and he sighed.
"Thanks." He muttered after a moment and Gabriella rubbed his back and kissed his shoulder. She pulled back and Troy kissed her for comfort. Gabriella brushed his hair back when he'd pulled away from her.
"I love you Troy." she said softly and he smiled, resting his forehead on hers.
"I love you too Gabriella." He replied softly and she kissed him again. Troy returned her kiss and for a moment all the pressure he'd been under lifted as he forgot about the championship, his dad and the expectations of everyone around him.
A/N: I know the bit with Sharpay was random, but just go with it. As for Troy and the pressure, if you've ever played in a championship or grand final, with your parent as your coach you'll get what he's on about especially when you have the expectation of every one around you piling on top of you. It's always worse when you're aware of how much people are relying on you to do the right thing. That's basically what Troy was on about. Anyway, I'll hopefully update soon. I'm going to have to cause I think I owe you after disappearing for a month!