"So when do you have practice?" Taylor asked as she stood at her locker with Gabriella two lockers away.
"Um…" Gabriella shut her locker with a little bang as she leaned against her own. "For right now we're just practicing in the morning and then when Troy's basketball practices start we're gonna practice then, and when January comes around it's gonna be back to 24/7." Gabriella said as still hung over students walked past her on Monday morning.
"Wow." Taylor said as she arranged her books in her locker.
"What?" Gabriella asked becoming all of a sudden a little worried.
Taylor turned her head to look at Gabriella for a brief second before turning back to her locker. "It's nothing." She reassured her. "It's just, how is your body gonna react to being low key on dancing and then all of a sudden dancing for three fourths of the day?" Taylor asked with slight concern as Gabriella sighed.
Gabriella decided that if her and Troy weren't gonna worry about it right now then why should she have to worry about it at all. "Tay, I'm gonna be okay. I've done it before so I'll just have to pull my act together in two months." Gabriella explained as she purposely let her right hand play with the golden charm bracelet around her left wrist hoping Taylor would notice it to change the subject.
Gabriella smiled as it seemed to work when Taylor shut her locker and turned to look at her, her eyes went wide with surprise. "What is that? Where did you get it? It's absolutely beautiful." Taylor cooed as she took Gabriella's arm in her hand and examined her bracelet.
"Troy." Gabriella said as she felt herself blushing a little. "He just surprised meSaturday night with it." Gabriella told Taylor as Taylor looked Gabriella in the eye.
"Saturday Night?" Taylor smirked as Gabriella's face dropped and she realized what she walked herself into. "Like in a bed? In your empty house?" Taylor emphasized as Gabriella scratched the back of her neck and felt her face go even redder. "I knew it." Taylor pronounced.
"You did not." Gabriella half whined at the excitement Taylor was getting out of this.
"Okay, so I had my unspoken theories, but I now know it." Taylor said as she nudged Gabriella.
Before Taylor could say anything else Gabriella quickly changed the subject. "So how was the rest of the dance?"
Taylor automatically launched into a story about Chad and Sharpay having to dance together and how Sharpay's heels kept going into Chad's feet, but Gabriella stopped paying attention when she felt two very familiar hands slip around her waist.
"Hey there pretty girl." Troy said as he wrapped his arms around Gabriella from behind and nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck affectionately.
Taylor and Chad rolled their eyes as they tried to start their own conversation to distract themselves from Troy's and Gabriella's way of showing off their relationship. "How was the morning run?" Gabriella asked as Troy turned her so her back met the cool locker and he caged her in with a sweet smile on his face.
Troy brought his face closer as his hands ran across Gabriella's sides and rested firmly on her lower back. "It went good. Getting ready for try outs."
"Ah…so it's like a pre try-out?" Gabriella asked as Troy rested his forehead against hers and nodded.
"Yeah…hey, how come Jake hasn't ever tried playing basketball?" Troy asked and knew that it earned him brownie points for asking about her best friend once he saw the smile on her face grow.
"I don't really know for sure, but the last I talked to him about it he said that he was going to be busy doing this one indoor football thing." Gabriella said with a smile.
"That's cool. It's probably the camp he's been telling me about that has Ohio State scouts coming to look at him." Troy said with a shrug as he saw that Gabriella's face faltered for a second.
Troy couldn't choose if Gabriella was mad or sad, but he knew she wasn't happy right now, that was for sure. He had never really seen her sad before where she would bawl her eyes out or anything, but he had never seen her mad either. And when the day would come Troy knew he would hate both of them.
Troy put two fingers under Gabriella's soft chin and lifted her head gently and looked her right in the eye as he saw his reflection glimmer shortly. "What's up? I thought you would be excited for Jake?"
Gabriella tried to play it off like she knew that her best friend was being looked at by scouts, especially scouts that came from far away, even though there were other schools that were further, Ohio still wasn't the closest. Gabriella shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she found that something inside of her was getting kind of mad that Jake hadn't told her this yet, but yet he found time to tell her boyfriend who he just recently started talking to two weeks ago!
Gabriella looked Troy in the eye and a slim part of her felt a little jealous of Troy that he got to hear her best friend's news before her. She felt like as being Jake's best friend she would have gotten to celebrate this news with him, but he didn't even bother telling her that he was even considering Ohio State for college, but Gabriella tried to play it off as being sad, because she was sad, but for a different reason what Troy thought.
Troy nervously bit his lip as he watched Gabriella shift her eyes down to the ground again as he wondered if maybe that was the right way to phrase that particular question. Troy felt Gabriella lift her shoulder up and drop them again in a shrug as she sheepishly looked up at Troy again.
"I am, but…God this is gonna make me sound so selfish." Gabriella let out a small laugh as she ran her hand through her hair. She was going to tell Troy how she felt, how just a part of her felt jealous and left out that Jake wouldn't even bother telling her, but found that kind of stupid. She wasn't the jealous type, she didn't get jealous of anything, so why admit it now?
"I'm sure that God would forgive you if you told me." Troy said with a sweet smile as he was hoping that would produce a smile on Gabriella's face, but saw nothing.
"Um…okay then." Gabriella said in a somewhat awkward voice. "I just…Ohio State is a long ways away from here." Gabriella shuffled her feet feeling kind of stupid for actually admitting these feelings, but at least this wasn't a particular lie, she still felt this, she just had so many emotions running through her.
Part of her felt excited also. This was her best friend's dreams coming true, and even though he hadn't gotten a scholarship yet, it was just the fact that he was that good to even get considered for one. But then again, she wouldn't want to admit that she was happy for him either because first she wanted Jake to know that she was disappointed in him that he didn't tell her.
"And I just…a year is a long time away from each other." Gabriella said quietly. Troy opened his mouth to speak but Gabriella beat him to it again as she said in a rushed voice, "And Ohio State is kind of far away from here. And then what if he doesn't come back for vacation? And then we're gonna go to college in a year and a half and I don't see myself at Ohio State so we might be even farther apart." Gabriella rambled.
"Hey." Troy said softly as his nose grazed Gabriella's and she could feel his cool breath on her face. "Have you told Jake any of this yet?" Troy asked.
"No. He would take that into consideration for colleges and I can guarantee you that he would drop the idea of going to Ohio State right away." Just then the bell rang and she flashed Troy a smile as she tried to lace their hands together to walk off to homeroom, but Troy didn't budge. "Wildcat, what are you doing?" Gabriella said in a light mood all of a sudden as Troy kinked an eye brow and put both of his hands on her arms to keep her from leaving her spot against the lockers. "Wildcat…we're gonna be late."
"I think you should talk to him." Troy said softly as Gabriella's face hardened a little. "I mean, it could be really good for you two."
Gabriella didn't mean for it to come out like it sounded, but she couldn't help the words that flew out of her mouth. "Really good for Jake and me, or just good for me?"
Troy tried to press his lips to Gabriella's to show that he was just trying to be caring, but he caught her cheek instead as she turned in just the last possible second. "Gabi, it would be good for the both of you." Troy said. Gabriella avoided contact with Troy as she kept her head turned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Gabi, come on. You know what I mean, don't you?"
Gabriella huffed, "How could it be good for Jake if I told him that I hate the idea of him leaving on a possible scholarship just for my personal gain?" Gabriella snapped as she took a deep breath to try to calm herself. This was her dramatic side coming out which she could thank Ms. Darbus for, or otherwise known as her grandmother. All her life she has been telling the people that matter most to her about what she thinks and what her feelings were, but did that stop them from dying, leaving, divorcing? No. So why start sharing her feelings again?
"I just…I can't do that to him, he's worked so hard for this and why should I tell him that I'm gonna miss him if that means jeopardizing his choice in choosing what college?" Gabriella made up an excuse.
"Just talk to him. Tell him how you feel and you'll then feel better about this college thing later on when it really becomes necessary to talk about it." Troy suggested as Gabriella could feel her blood boil even more as Troy spoke those words. Didn't he hear her, she didn't want to share her damne feelings!'
"What, no." Gabriella said quickly. "Just because you've talked to him for two weeks in the hallways doesn't mean that you know how he'll react to this." Gabriella hissed. "Excuse me." Gabriella said as she pushed past Troy.
Troy sighed as Gabriella collided with his shoulder and kept walking down the hallway towards Darbus' classroom. "Gabi, come on. You can't be this mad." Troy pleaded with her as he tried to grab her arm, but she yanked it out of his grasp and continued walking. "Gabi, come on!"
"You aren't his best friend. You haven't spent almost everyday talking to him for the past two years. You barely even know him and yet you're telling me that if I tell him my feelings that everything will be okay in the end!" Gabriella exclaimed as Troy matched her quick and long strides down the hall and they took a sharp turn.
Troy sighed. This was the angry side of Gabriella and for some reason, he still felt like she was holding back, and he just wished that she would calm down before he saw her anger full on. "No, well…yeah." Troy said weakly.
"Well newsflash Bolton, everything won't be okay if people just open up and talk about their feelings." Gabriella stopped in her tracks outside of their closed homeroom door indicating that they didn't make it in time. "And do you know what really sucks about this Bolton?" Gabriella asked sardonically.
Troy almost winced at her sarcasm coming from her voice as he gave her a pathetic stare that told Gabriella flat out that he already gave up in this argument.
"It really sucks that I had to hear about Ohio state through my boyfriend." Gabriella said in a dangerously low voice before turning sharply on her heel and pushing open the wooden door leaving Troy to quickly catch onto what Gabriella implied.
Troy groaned quietly as he saw Ms. Darbus glaring at him from inside their homeroom class. She was tapping her foot in a slight impatient way and her eyes narrowed on him. Troy took small steps as he entered the classroom and all eyes were on him, except the chocolate pair that he couldn't get out of his mind all of Sunday. How was he supposed to know that Jake hadn't told her? They were best friends, he just figured he would have told Gabriella before him.
"Gabs, just talk to me." Jake pleaded as he pushed past kids to keep up with Gabriella's quick and swift dancing legs that easily helped her get through hurrying kids seeing as the bell had just rung indicating that school was done and Gabriella had detention to get to since she was late to homeroom.
"Don't push me Jake." Gabriella warned as she turned the corner and froze in her spot as she saw Troy casually leaning against her locker, checking his watch that he wore on his left wrist. Gabriella looked back to Jake who got caught up in a group of his football buddies, and saw that he was trying to push past them and then back at Troy who was busy saying something to Chad and Taylor before they walked off down the hall.
Gabriella felt her heart skip a beat as Troy looked up and their eyes connected as his face instantly lit up and his white teeth showed through his pink soft lips surrounded by his tan skin. Gabriella's straight face turned into a frown as she shook her head slowly. She didn't exactly know what she was saying no to, but she was and Troy's face faltered a bit as he seemed to be just staring at her now.
"Gabs, you have to talk to me sooner or later…Just tell me what I did wrong." Jake's voice rang through her head as she tore her eyes away from Troy's and glared at Jake. She had been avoiding him all day while trying to sit the farthest away from Troy in all of their classes together.
"How about I talk to you after you decide to tell me about Ohio State." Gabriella hissed as she knew deep down that maybe this wasn't fair on Jake, her punishing him for actually getting scouts to come and see him play, but he hurt her as a best friend. How long has he known about this? How many other people has he told? Did he not trust her enough with this information? Did she do something to him that he was repulsed by? Gabriella had been thinking about that the whole day and found that her anger was growing.
Jake froze in his spot as his face drained a little color and Gabriella received her answer just by looking at him. He meant not to tell her right away and that surprisingly didn't anger Gabriella, but saddened her.
"That's what I thought Jake. I know about you and Ohio. I would've understood if you told me, but instead I got to hear it from my so called perfect boyfriend Troy." Gabriella snapped as she started walking to her locker and Jake seemed to fall out of his trance as he heard Gabriella's footsteps start up again and he jogged to catch up.
"Gabs--" Jake started.
"Gabi--" Troy said at the same time Jake spoke as the two stopped talking at the same time once Gabriella sent them both glares and stood in front of her locker which was still being blocked by Troy.
"Move Troy." Gabriella said as he quickly stepped off to the side and let her put in her combo.
"At least we're on a first name basis." Troy mumbled as he scratched the back of his neck and Gabriella quickly turned to look at him.
"What?" Gabriella hissed. "You think this is funny Bolton?"
"Or not." Troy mumbled again as he looked at Gabriella with pleading eyes. "Gabi, I just…I thought you knew. I never would have told you to just talk to him if you didn't know." Troy desperately said as this was the first time today Gabriella was actually giving him the time of day.
"Gabs." Jake cut in as Gabriella dumped all of her books down in the bottom of her locker and grabbed her book bag that held her homework in. "I was going to tell you. It's just.."
"It's just what?" Gabriella slammed her locker shut as she turned around swiftly. "You forgot!" Gabriella laughed sarcastically.
"No, it's just…" Jake looked at Troy as Troy shot Jake a sympathetic look. It was pretty easy to say that Jake felt as bad as Troy did. "Can we talk later tonight?" Troy knew that he was hinting that he wanted to be alone, and personally he found that Jake should've just asked that in the bluntest way he could. Troy knew that they were friends, and it probably would've been easier to talk to Gabriella alone, but Troy didn't have time since he was now grounded for getting a detention for being late to class and he had to go straight home for an entire week.
"I don't have time." Gabriella said as she walked past them and left the two standing there.
"Dude, I am sorry." Troy said as he turned to see Jake's defeated look.
"Hey, no worries. She'll come around." Jake said even though Troy knew that Jake didn't believe it himself. Troy's head snapped up from Gabriella's retreating figure to Jake who let out a sigh. "It's just, we've never really fought before and I don't know why she's taking this so personal all of a sudden. You know?" Jake asked.
"Well…" Troy really didn't want to get in the middle of this seeing as he was already in the red zone with Gabriella and it probably wouldn't help him if he got on Jake's bad side also. "I think she's upset more because…well,…it's a serious subject." Jake looked at Troy with a creased forehead. "It's about you leaving for college halfway across the country." Troy pointed out in a duh tone.
"How can she be mad though? I haven't even made a decision. Hell, I haven't even gotten a scholarship, they're looking at one other quarter back in Texas." Jake said.
Troy rolled his eyes, "I don't think it's about that." Troy finally put it all together. Gabriella wasn't mad at Troy for saying she should tell Jake what she was feeling. It took him half the day to figure that one out, she was disappointed and feeling hurt that Jake never told her in the first place, and Troy was just an easy target to take her anger out on since he knew about it. "Hey, how come you didn't tell Gabriella about the scouts before this?" Troy asked.
Jake shrugged, "I didn't want her to be sad." Troy nodded his head at Jake's simple answer that held so many emotions, that if Gabriella heard him she was sure to forgive him, maybe even them both.
Author's note- So what do you think. Don't hate me because they got into a little arguement. I promise everything will turn out okay soon. Tell me what you think in a review, thanks. Oh, and I just read an awesome first chapter to Trust Your Opposite by hsm0007. Check it out if you want a new story to read. Thanks--