Chapter 2: Making Friends
As Ms. Darbus continued reading off the announcements Gabriella turned to Taylor to ask who the blue-eyed jerk was.
"That my new friend," whispered Taylor, "is Troy Bolton, lunkhead basketball captain. The bushy haired one is Chad Danforth his right hand man. You do not want to get involved with their kind, they're all Neanderthals."
Gabriella made and "o" shape with her lips indicating that she understood. "What about the blonde haired girl?"
"Sharpay Evans, formerly known as the school's Ice Princess but she's cool now. You can meet her when I show you around during lunch."
The bell rang signaling the end of homeroom. Students shuffled out of their seats and began to make way to the door towards their first period classes.
"What do you have first period Gabriella?"
Looking down at her schedule she answered, "English with Mr. Dirk, and call me Gabi."
"Really? So do I, let's get going Gabi." With that Gabriella followed her new friend out of the room and into the hallway. "Can I see your schedule?"
Gabriella handed Taylor her schedule and watched her examine it whilst walking to their next class.
"OMG! Besides Drama and gym we have the same classes!"
"Seriously? That's fabulous. And I thought today was going to be a bad day." Gabriella sighed in relief as she discovered that she wouldn't have to walk the halls alone. The two walked into Mr. Dirk's class and Gabriella handed him her class schedule indicating that she was a new student. Afterwards she went and took a seat next to Taylor. Hearing laughter flow into the classroom Gabriella looked up and saw none other than Troy Bolton walking into the room along with Chad and two other guys she did not know.
"Don't tell me he's in this class as well."
"Unfortunately he is," Taylor replied with a look of disgust. "Those other guys with him are also from the basketball team, Zeke and Jason, we have homeroom with them as well. Like their friends they are lunkhead basketball boys, so not worth the time."
Gabriella's next few classes went by with a breeze and before lunch she discovered that counting homeroom she already had three classes with the infamous Troy Bolton. She walked into the cafeteria with Taylor and followed her to a table occupied by Sharpay and a few others.
"Hey guys, let me introduce you to Gabriella," Taylor said as she sat down in her seat having Gabriella follow suit. "Gabi this is Sharpay formerly known as 'Ice Princess', her twin bother Ryan, our composer Kelsi, Martha …."
Taylor pointed to each person as she made the introductions and Gabi smiled at each of them. Once Taylor had finished Gabriella said, "Nice to meet you, please call me Gabi, all my friends do."
"Welcome to East High Gabi, sorry you had to start the day off by meeting Troy Bolton," Sharpay spoke.
"It's okay. Thank you for standing up for me back there."
"No problem, anything for a friend."
While eating their lunches the group chatted so they were able to know more about Gabriella. She informed the group how she had previously lived in San Diego before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She kept out facts such as being captain of her school's Scholastic Decathlon team and her passion for music, thinking that she would bring it up only when necessary. Once they had finished eating Taylor and Gabriella got up to begin her tour of East High, also being accompanied by Kelsi and Sharpay.