DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters.
A/N: Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while. So sue me, I was having trouble and finally got over it by writing a few one-shots, so enjoy this chapter!
Out Of My Element
CHAPTER 4
DON'T YOU DARE
Gabriella ran up to her locker completely out of breath and panicky. She was late. Very late in fact. Troy had stayed over at her house till close to eleven-thirty the night before, watching movies and talking to her. After his rant, Gabriella had no idea what he'd wanted to talk about and it turned out he had wanted to talk, sort of. Her mother had come home earlier then Gabriella had anticipated and had caught them in a……decidedly heated moment that involved him shirtless and her bed. This had been the follow up of a very fiery argument, which had originated because of pizza. Troy had left soon after that. And as much as she loved her boyfriend, there was no way he was getting out of this little hole he'd helped dig. Because not only had he made her late, but he'd also managed to make sure that her Dad flew home early from Switzerland just to lecture her about 'birds and bees' as her mother had managed to tell her with a straight face as soon as she'd gotten up. Basically, it meant that Troy was a dead man.
"Miss Montez, you're late." Gabriella past a teacher in the deserted hallway and smiled an apology. Yes, she definitely was going to kill him.
Quickly she made her way to Miss Darbus' room and prayed that her teacher was in a good mood. Because Gabriella, really didn't want a detention. She was lucky she'd escaped a grounding, besides she couldn't kill Troy if she was handed a detention. Gabriella opened the door to her homeroom and was relieved when she heard Miss Darbus announcing musical auditions, which was always a good sign. It meant that Miss Darbus wasn't likely to hand out a detention, even if she was………a good fifteen minutes late. Gabriella gulped as she shut the door and everyone turned to look at her. She caught sight of Troy's horror stricken face and knew that he was well aware of how mad she was at him.
"Miss Montez, how pleasant of you to join us." Miss Darbus said her earrings dancing on her shoulders as Gabriella smiled weakly at her.
"Uh-" Miss Darbus cut her off.
"Miss Montez, I do not need to hear your excuse because I'm sure that it involves Mr Bolton and a decidedly 'passionate' moment between the two of you. After all he only just arrived a few moments before you." Miss Darbus said, her eyes twinkling as she watched Gabriella's face go bright red.
Gabriella's eyes found Troy, who had sunk even lower in his seat and was the colour of a tomato. 'You are so dead' she mouthed at him and he just gave her a helpless look that Gabriella would have laughed at if she hadn't been completely furious at him. Quickly, she made her way to the desk behind Taylor and sat down, sinking low in her desk and glaring at the back of her boyfriends head. She ignored the snickers of some of her classmates and the half-sympathetic, half-amused look Taylor shot her and the plain amused one that Chad gave her and tried to think of the best way to murder Troy. She'd gotten as far as wondering how to get into his bedroom in the middle of the night to kill him when the bell rang. 'Thank you God' she thought gratefully and stood, she quickly grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom.
Gabriella rolled her eyes as she walked past some of the girls in her homeroom that giggled when they saw her. She could tell this wasn't going to be a good day. What had just happened in homeroom had confirmed it. And she knew that Troy was not going to make it any easier on her, especially if he was in the same mood he had been in yesterday and the day before that. Gabriella reached her locker and spun the dial.
"So……what happened last night?" Taylor's voice caused Gabriella to jump and she turned to her.
"Do you realize that you do that to me nearly every day?" Gabriella snapped at her and Taylor chuckled.
"Yep. It's routine. Anyway, spill, what happened?" Taylor said and Gabriella glared at her.
"Nothing happened." Gabriella replied and Taylor snorted.
"Yeah right nothing happened last night. Do you think I'm stupid or something? You were late and you're never late." Taylor said and Gabriella snorted.
"So? Troy was late too." She said and this time Taylor was the one that snorted.
"Yeah, but Troy's always late." She pointed out and Gabriella gave her an odd look.
"No he's not. Troy's on time most of the time, your boyfriend, however, is never on time." Gabriella said and Taylor shrugged.
"No he's not!" Taylor protested and Gabriella raised her eyebrows.
"Taylor, in the past week how many times has Chad been late for school or to pick you up?" Gabriella asked and Taylor blushed.
"Uh, I'm going to choose not to answer that." Taylor said and Gabriella gave her a look that said 'told you so' and Taylor hid a wince. She hated it when Gabriella pointed out something about Chad that she'd tried to ignore.
"Uh-huh." Gabriella said and grinned at her friend.
"So are you going to tell me what happened last night?" Taylor changed the subject quickly and Gabriella blushed bashfully and Taylor grinned.
"Troy and I just spent some time together last night." Gabriella said shrugging and Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Physical time together or talking time together?" Taylor probed and Gabriella blushed.
"Uh……" Gabriella trailed off and it was Taylor's turn to raise her eyebrows.
"Physical?" she guessed and Gabriella shrugged, growing redder by the second.
"I, uh, guess you could say that." Gabriella mumbled and Taylor laughed.
"Oh Gabriella, what happened?" Taylor giggled and Gabriella shrugged, shutting her locker and turning to her friend.
"Mom caught us," she started and Taylor burst into laughter.
"Doing what?" she giggled and Gabriella smiled a little.
"Um, well, Troy might have been shirtless and I might have been under him and we might have been on my bed and my shirt may have been coming off." Gabriella said and Taylor nearly collapsed in hysterics as Gabriella smiled sheepishly.
"And let me guess, that's why you want to kill Troy." Taylor said and Gabriella nodded.
"Kind of. He's also the reason that I'm late." She said and Taylor shook her head.
"You're unbelievable." Taylor shook her head and Gabriella just shrugged.
"So? He is too." Gabriella said and walked off, leaving Taylor feeling confused and still very, very amused.
Gabriella sighed in relief when she heard the bell ring for free period. It was good timing, she was bored out of her mind and was sick of getting looks off some of the people in her class who had heard about the episode in homeroom that morning. She quickly got up and gathered her things and headed out of the classroom, towards her locker. She threw her books into the locker and then headed off to find Chad. Out of experience Gabriella knew that Troy would be at Chad's locker, waiting for him to find some missing part of his training uniform so they could head to free period work out together.
"Chad!" Gabriella yelled suddenly when she saw the familiar afro, hovering half-a-head above the crowd. He turned with a confused look on his face and then winced when he saw who it was.
"Hey Gabriella." He said looking terrified; Gabriella held back laughter and came to a stop in front of him.
"Where's Troy?" she asked and Chad tensed up.
"Uh, well, you see," he stalled and Gabriella folded her arms and frowned.
"You don't know do you?" she asked and Chad shrugged, fidgeting with his training shirt.
"Chad, you can just nod or shake your head. I'm not going to get cranky." Gabriella said and Chad shook his head quickly and backed away from Gabriella who rolled her eyes and then turned on her heel and stormed off in the opposite direction.
'Where is he?' Gabriella thought frustrated, fifteen minutes later. He wasn't in any of his usual places and he definitely was not at free period work out. Gabriella walked past the theatre and stopped. She bit her lip. 'He wouldn't, would he?' she thought and then shrugged. He could be in weirder places. She yanked open the theatre door and walked in. She walked in and headed for the main entrance to the theatre. She walked into full view of the stage and immediately jumped to the wall. The musical auditions had started. 'Not good.' Gabriella thought and immediately headed for one of the side entrances. She had less chance of being seen there. Walking as silently as her heels would allow, Gabriella turned a corner and stopped dead in her tracks.
Troy was lying on his back, his head resting on some books, sound asleep. Seeing him lying there, looking so peaceful, almost melted Gabriella's heart. Almost. Walking over to him, she knelt down and lifted his head off the books. Pushing the books away Gabriella shifted so that her back was against the wall, her legs were spread out in front of her and his head was resting on her lap. Giggling softly, she ran her hand through his hair and watched as his eyes fluttered open.
"Hi." She whispered and one of his hands searched blindly for her other hand. Gabriella gave it to him and he interlaced their fingers loosely and kissed the palm of it. Gabriella nearly melted on the spot. It wasn't a kiss on the lips, but it was one of those things that he did that brought her to her knees.
"Hey yourself." He replied sleepily and Gabriella smiled softly at him.
"Your still dead, you know that right?" she asked and Troy made a sound in the back of his throat that Gabriella could only describe as his sleepy attempt at a chuckle.
"Which reason? The fact that your Mom caught us making out or that in a round about way I made you late for school?" he asked and Gabriella leaned down and kissed his forehead softly.
"Both." She replied and Troy grinned, waking up a little more.
"You know Montez, it was worth it." he said and Gabriella just smiled.
"I hope it was to you, Dad's flying home to give me the 'birds and bees' lecture." Gabriella said and Troy burst into laughter, Gabriella hit his head lightly as he laughed.
"Sorry, but that's funny." Troy said calming down. Suddenly both jumped as a loud, horrifying screech tore through the theatre.
"What was that?" Troy asked sitting up quickly and looking around. Gabriella sighed quietly. It was always over to soon. The moments when they were just an ordinary couple who talked and acted like a couple. Not when they were the fieriest couple at school, who appeared to have nothing in common and only ever seemed to argue over nothing, the couple who always made out after a huge argument, the couple who had no deeper, more meaningful side to their relationship. Just an ordinary couple that held hands when walking, and talked when there was nothing else to do.
"Gab, come and see this." Troy's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Gabriella stood up and joined her boyfriend. Who was watching the beginning of Sharpay and Ryan's musical audition with evident amusement and sarcasm. Gabriella stood beside him and watched, in pure astonishment, the show Ryan and Sharpay were putting on. Her hand found his and Gabriella smiled softly when she felt Troy entwine their fingers.
"So good to be seen, so good to be heard, don't have to say a word," Troy snorted quietly as he watched Sharpay lean over so far she was blocking Ryan's face. That girl was slightly too theatrical and slightly too high-pitched.
"So lonely before, I've finally found what I've been looking for." They both sang finishing on what they must have thought was a high note, Gabriella winced as they finished. That had all been way too much. She held back a giggle as she watched Sharpay shoot the pianist a look telling her to applaud and to think that it was the same girl that had been reassuring and nice only the day before.
"Are there any last minute sign ups?" Miss Darbus yelled bringing both Gabriella and Troy's attention to the fact that they were still in the theatre. "No? Good." Miss Darbus said and Gabriella shot Troy and evil look. He shook his head at her.
"Don't you dare, Gabriella! Don't you dare." He hissed as she let go of his hand and stepped out of the shadows that they were standing in. She sent him one last look and Troy slipped behind the wall, not wanting to see what his girlfriend was going to do.
"I'd like to audition Miss Darbus!" Gabriella exclaimed before her teacher could leave the theatre. She watched as Miss Darbus stopped in astonishment and turned to look at her.
"I'm sorry Miss Montez but the singles auditions are long over and there are simple no other pairs. As you can see." Miss Darbus nodded around the empty theatre and Troy closed his eyes. He knew what was coming.
"Please Miss Darbus." Gabriella begged in a small voice that she knew would undo Troy completely. 'I'm gonna regret this later' Troy thought miserably as he stepped away from the wall.
"I'll sing with her." Gabriella turned her head to see her boyfriend walk out from behind the brick, one and raised and the other rubbing the back of his neck.
"Troy Bolton." Miss Darbus sounded so shocked when she saw Troy that Gabriella thought that she was going to have a heart attack on the spot.
"Where's you sports posse or whatever it's called?" Gabriella eyed her teacher, who was acting like she was speaking to a three year old.
"Team." Troy corrected raising his eyebrows.
"Ah, yes. Well, unfortunately for you two you didn't respond in time when I called for the pairs auditions. Free period is now over." Miss Darbus said sounding slightly hostile and Troy wondered what exactly he'd done wrong as they watched their teacher walk out of the room.
Gabriella closed her eyes. That really hadn't worked. Troy turned to her and raised his eyebrows asking 'What now?' and Gabriella shrugged. Her plan had been to humiliate him in front of Miss Darbus and now she couldn't even do that.
"Uh, excuse me guys, but can you really sing?" Gabriella and Troy both spun to face a petite girl whose auburn hair was covered by a cap and whose face looked faintly hopeful. They exchanged a glance. 'Don't you dare.' Troy mouthed at Gabriella who looked thoughtful.
"Yeah, we can, why?" she replied and ignored Troy who slapped his forehead and groaned as the girls face lit up in absolute delight.
A/N: Okay, this will sort of follow the movie but I'm going to tweak a few things here and there. And can anyone sense that Gabriella's not entirely happy about something? Well, hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner rather then later. Sorry for the delay!