Gabriella let her ears hear the music as she silently counts in her head with a smile planted on her face. She let the music flow through her as she leads the other girls in the routine they would be doing that night for the first home basketball game right before Thanksgiving break which was Thursday and Friday.
Gabriella felt herself moving, but yet her mind couldn't stay off of the sandy haired boy with the sparkling blue eyes. She wasn't mad at him about last night and the party because from what she saw, he looked like he didn't know about it either. She was just more mad at herself that she had to study in the first place and was falling behind because of letting herself space out in class, it wasn't Troy's fault. She would just have to talk to him like they planned right before homeroom.
Gabriella feels the song coming to an end as they all end in their final pose. Haley was right by Gabriella back from being sick with their backs against each other and their arms crossed across their chests showing off attitude.
Gabriella could hear Haley breathing loud along with everyone else as Haley said out of the side of her mouth, "You did great."
After a couple of seconds first Gabriella gets out of her pose and everyone else copies as they all kind of do their own thing. Some go get drinks, others drop to the floor to stretch, and the rest go to the bleachers where their boyfriends or friends were waiting for them.
Haley was right by Gabriella on the floor stretching out her legs. "Gabs, you should totally dance with us tonight."
Before Gabriella could respond Becky, a blond girl with blue eyes beat her to it. "Yeah, that would be really fun. Plus you're already leading us anyways and we don't exactly have a full dance team yet with ten girls." Becky urged.
Gabriella sighed, it wasn't like she didn't have the time tonight. As long as it was only a one time thing since she did have a four day weekend for studying what could one night hurt? Gabriella nodded, slowly. "Yeah, I guess. If you guys really want me too."
"Hey guys, Gabriella said yes!" Haley shouted out as Gabriella looked around and all the girls were now smiling and nodding towards her. Gabriella guessed that they had been meaning to ask her. Haley turned towards Gabriella more. "So we already have your uniform, you know the basic black pants sparkling red shirt that comes just an inch above your navel and your red ear ring." Haley said.
Gabriella felt her brows furrow together. "Re ear ring?"
"Yeah…" Becky said as she lifted her arm above her head and pulled to stretch it out. "For you belly button. We all got ours pierced and that's what we wear. You do have yours done, right?"
Gabriella nodded. "Yeah…" Gabriella could still remember the place Jake took her too their sophomore year. The only reason Gabriella did it was to spite her mom after they had this really huge argument last year and sadly it did nothing to her mom. Her mom was kind of shocked but congratulated Gabriella on her fear of needles. It didn't work out in Gabriella's favor.
"Great, and don't forget that we have to be here at 5 for the pep assembly at 5:30." Becky added and then squealed with excitement. "Isn't this great! Maybe our team will actually place this year."
Haley gave off a nervous chuckle. Gabriella looked at Haley curiously. "I am only dancing in this one? Right?"
Haley scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah…and others…if you want too." She added quickly as Gabriella remained silently.
Did she want too? It would be kind of fun. After all, she was having fun teaching them and since she already would know their routines it could be even more fun, plus she would be around Troy a little bit more so that was definitely a plus. "Um…let's see how this one goes." Gabriella said remembering she would have no extra time during January.
Haley nodded along with Becky. "Okay, fair enough, but if you do want to compete the next one is in the beginning of March." Haley said as she stood up and offered Gabriella her hand as Gabriella too stood up.
Gabriella looked up at the clock and saw that she would have time for a quick shower before meeting up with Troy.
"My head hurts." Chad complained as he, Troy, and Zeke all walked down the hallways early that morning. Troy glanced at Chad and saw him holding his hand up to his forehead with a groan. Troy knew he had it coming to him since he as pretty wasted that night when Troy wasn't feeling anything. It surprised Troy that both Zeke and Chad both got out of bed that morning.
Troy let out a laugh. "It should. You two deserve these hangovers." Troy said as they stopped at Troy's and Zeke's locker.
Zeke groaned as he put his forehead against the cool metal door of his locker. "And why don't you have one?" He asked with a groggy voice.
Troy laughed again as he threw his backpack into his messy locker. "Because I my friend, didn't drink hardly anything last night." Troy said.
Chad huffed, "Yeah, or else you'd be in the dog house more with Gabs."
Troy mentally rolled his eyes, he knew Chad was probably right. If he came to school with a huge hangover and was barely able to stand up without swaying or getting dizzy Gabriella would probably get mad or worst…disappointed.
Troy shut his locker not denying what Chad said as he looked up and saw Jake walking down the halls with Brent at his side. Troy made eye contact with the blond haired guy, "Hey Hill." Troy called with a smile.
Jake and Brent stopped walking as they did their guy handshake and Bent walked past the three boys with a glare on his face. Jake soon followed his path, but stopped by Troy. Jake turned to Troy with a straight face on unlike usual where he would usually smile and give Troy a high five or clap on the back.
"Um…" Troy knew Chad and Zeke felt the same awkward feeling he was as Jake stood in front of them with a slight pissed off demeanor about him. "We'll see you two later." Chad said as him and Zeke walked off looking back once to see if anything else happened, but only saw the blonde standing in front of the basketball boy.
"Hey…did Gabi and you get your studying done?" Troy asked as he swore he saw a flash of anger go through the boy's eyes in front of him.
Jake narrowed his eyes and shrugged, at least Troy had the decency to drag Gabriella to a party and let her best friend drive her home without calling once. "We were up studying until one in the morning from the loss of time at the party, and I'm pretty sure that she might have a small bruise on her back because of some idiot who knocked into her, but…yeah." Jake said with an edge in his voice.
Troy's face immediately flashed concern. Gabriella never told him last night that that happened, but maybe Jake was just exaggerating a little since he was her best friend. "Wha--…" Troy took a deep breath as he tried to think of something else to say. "Well man, I'm sorry. I'm gonna talk to Gabi and I'll help her next time." Troy said. What really more could you actually say?
Jake breathed in deeply. Troy was Gabriella's boyfriend. And from what he heard around school already the party at Zeke's was spontaneous and no one really knew about it. It was basically show up whenever. He should probably give Troy the benefit of the doubt since Gabriella seemed 99 percent of the time happy and it was mostly because of Troy.
"Look…I'm not really mad, just…concerned about Gabs." Jake said with a sigh as he leaned up against the lockers.
"What? Why?" Troy asked in a hurry. What was wrong with his girlfriend that he didn't know about? Was Gabriella okay? She wasn't hurt, was she? Or did she get into a fight with her mom? No…Gabriella would've told him, wouldn't she?
Jake let out a chuckle. "Nothing what you're thinking Bolton, but…I don't know. She's been under pressure before and let me tell you, junior year was probably my hardest year at school. With all the tests, ACTs, getting in most of your credits so you can take easy classes next year. It's a lot of work and now with her dad being back, and dancing will pick up for her soon, it's just a lot…for everyone." Jake added.
Troy nodded. He knew exactly what the blonde was talking about. The teachers were really laying into them and the classes were getting harder. "Yeah…"
"But I want you to know, that if you do upset Gabriella then I will interfere." Jake said in a casual tone that still got the point across as Troy nodded. At least he knew that if he wasn't there for Gabriella then she would always have Jake. "I don't like seeing her get hurt, but…hopefully you're better than the others." Jake said as he looked around and saw Gabriella down the hallways. "I better go and let you two talk."
Jake started walking down the halls as Troy registered what Jake said. Jake didn't sound that mad, so Troy didn't think he had anything to worry about since he wasn't planning on hurting Gabriella at all. "Oh yeah, and Troy?" Jake called as he turned around on his heal, but kept walking backwards as Troy nodded his head, "Good luck at the game tonight."
Troy smiled and nodded his head as Jake turned around again and walked further down the hallway. He knew now that Jake wasn't mad at him for sure and everything would go back to how it was before. That's probably one of the things Troy liked about guy's personalities more than girls, if one guy had a problem with another, they would come out and say it, no beating around the bush or anything, and then after a brief encounter or no encounter at all it would all be taken care of most of the time.
Troy turned and came face to face with his girlfriend. A smile took over his face as he noticed her soft brown eyes and her cute smile on her face. "Hey Wildcat." Gabriella said quietly as almost in a shy way.
Troy kissed her on the cheek. "Hey beautiful." Troy pulled back as he kept his two hands firmly on her waist. "About last night…" Troy trailed off quietly.
Gabriella looked up at him even more. She knew that she was tired last night so she didn't exactly have the greatest listening and understanding skills. "Hey, no need to say anything, I got my studying done and it should all be good." Gabriella reassure him as she lifted one of her arms up and rested it on his upper arm.
Troy felt his skin heat up with just the lightest touch by Gabriella. "No…" Troy bit his lip. He never was good with explaining himself, and this was no exception. "I just want to make sure you know I had no idea that Zeke was having a party." Troy said as he inched closer towards Gabriella as his nose rubbed up against Gabriella's. "I mean…absolutely…no…idea." Troy said slowly as his lips brushed ever so lightly over Gabriella's mouth.
Gabriella nodded. She believed him. Why wouldn't she? It wasn't like he had ever given her a reason not to believe anything that he told her. "Yeah wildcat, I know." Gabriella said. "I was just tired, disappointed, and angry at myself that I fell behind with my work." Gabriella said.
"Hey, how about you and me get together after the game tonight to study." Troy suggested as Gabriella's pelvis rubbed up against his as they backed themselves up against Troy's cold metal locker.
Gabriella looked up at Troy as their foreheads rested against each others. "I think our studying has two different meanings Wildcat." Gabriella let out a little laugh as she imagined what Troy could be thinking about.
"No." Troy said seriously as he thought back to his AP Math that he was having a little trouble on. "I'm serious. How about after the game whether we win or lose we go back to my house and study. My parents are going to be gone as they're driving up north a little to pick up my grandparents for tomorrow and they won't be back until mid morning." Troy explained as he saw the amused smile on Gabriella's lips and heard her letting out a chuckle.
"Wildcat, I can now definitely assure you that our meanings of studying is different." Gabriella laced their hands together as the warning bell went off. "Come on."
They two started walking to homeroom as Troy looked at Gabriella with his serious face again. "No Gabi, I'm serious. I have some tests that are coming up and maybe you could help me in math?" Troy asked almost shyly.
Gabriella did a double take as she came to terms that maybe Troy was actually serious about studying after his first basketball game nonetheless. "Um…yeah. I would like that." Gabriella said.
Troy nodded with satisfaction. "Why was it so hard for you to believe me?"
"Well…" Gabriella said slowly and an joking eye roll. "Usually when you say you want to study we do other things and it doesn't help that your parents are going to be gone for the night." Gabriella said as they stood outside Ms. Darbus' homeroom.
"Well…" Troy drew out the word just like Gabriella, mimicking her as Gabriella let out a small giggle. "I want to study. Not do other things, just study." Troy said simply with a smug attitude before pecking Gabriella on the lips and pulling back with a grin. "See…I can play nice."
"You played a really good game tonight Wildcat." Gabriella said for the hundredth time that night as they walked into Troy's empty house seeing as Jack and Lucille went straight up to Lucille's parents house right after the game.
Troy chuckled at how cute Gabriella sounded right now. They had won by ten points and Troy was their lead scorer. "Gabi, you've been telling me this for the past twenty minutes, I think you're actually burned it into my memory." Troy joked as he shut the door behind her.
Gabriella laughed, "So? When I danced you wouldn't stop congratulating me for a week. So I figure it's pay back." Gabriella countered as she stuck out her tongue like a little kid and saw the glint in Troy's eye as she let out another squeal and started to run up the stairs with Troy following hot on her trail.
"Gabi, you know what you're in for!" Troy shouted as he came closer to Gabriella before she all of a sudden turned right down the upstairs hallway making her way towards Troy's room. Troy sped up and wrapped his arms around her from behind and carried her into his room to the bed. "You know you deserve it." Troy said as his fingers started moving across her stomach making Gabriella squeal in laughter.
"Wildcat!…stop, please!" Gabriella laughed as Troy continued tickling her.
"You dance good tonight, I didn't know that you were on the squad now." Troy pointed out as he continued to tickle her with a goofy smile on his face. He loved putting a smile on her face.
Gabriella was breathing hard as Troy let up so she could catch her breath. She finally just laid back on his bed with Troy copying her and their feet still on the ground as only their backs were on his bed. "No, I'm not on the squad, it's just they don't have a full team yet." Gabriella said.
"Well you danced well." Troy said as he turned on his side resting on his elbow. They were silent for a minute just taking in the calm feeling. "So….how about that studying?" Troy asked.
"Yeah." Gabriella breathed. "But my bag is all the way downstairs by the door…that's so very far away." Gabriella said dramatically as if she couldn't walk and Troy rolled his eyes as he kissed the back of her hand.
"Well I guess you're pretty damn lucky that your boyfriend who cares about you left his bag downstairs too or else you'd have to walk your pretty little ass downstairs to get it because God forbid you get up." Troy said as he quickly pecked her on the mouth and started walking away.
"Actually, can you just bring up my binder? I don't need everything in my bag." Gabriella said as Troy nodded.
Troy spotted their backpacks by the doors and flung his on his shoulder in one quick movement. He knelt down on the ground by Gabriella's black backpack and opened the biggest zipper of what seemed like hundreds. Troy always wondered how much stuff girl's carried around? He frowned when he didn't see the binder so he opened the next biggest one, and found nothing, but a…picture?
Troy let the curiosity get the better of him as he flipped the picture over and saw…Ms Darbus? Troy quickly dropped the picture as if it was on fire back into Gabriella's bag as he just scooped up her bag no matter what she said about her binder and ran up the stairs. They definitely had to talk, maybe it wasn't what he thought, but that would mean Troy thought something about this, and he had no idea.
Maybe the picture was in there because Sharpay asked Gabriella to blow up a copy of it because…Troy couldn't think of anything and found it useless. Why would Gabriella have Ms. Darbus' wallet size photo from this year?
Troy opened the door to his room and saw Gabriella sitting against the head board of his bed looking at the picture of them that he had on his side table at homecoming. "Your mom was right, you do have cute teeth." Gabriella teased as Troy just nodded. Gabriella looked up and saw that he brought her backpack. "Thanks Wildcat…what's wrong?" Gabriella asked as she saw Troy's distant face.
Troy wasn't mad, but he was confused. Why Ms. Darbus? The teacher that seemed to be so hard and strict on Gabriella the most out of everyone, the one that started cracking the whip on Troy even more when he and Gabriella became official. The one who worshiped the musical arts.
"Um…I found…" Troy didn't want it to make it seem like he was snooping. "I found a picture." Troy said slowly as he looked up shyly hoping that his tone was giving Gabriella somewhat of an idea of what he was talking about.
"A pic--Oh." Gabriella's face turned into realization as her jaw dropped, obviously she didn't want Troy to know something, or this wasn't exactly how she wanted to tell him something.
"Yeah…" Troy sighed. "Oh." Troy sat down by Gabriella as she scooted over for him on the bed. "You want to explain because my mind is drawing a blank." Troy admitted as he looked over at Gabriella who was fiddling with her thumbs.
"It's nothing bad. I'm not some creepy stalker or anything." Gabriella said as Troy cracked a smile.
"Well, I kind of figured that. At least if you were a stalker you would have me a hot handsome guy to stalk." Troy said as Gabriella rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"Okay, obviously I didn't want to tell you this like…well this." Gabriella said uneasily. It wasn't that she was never going to tell Troy when the news wasn't that bad, it was just…kind of weird to see her almost everyday then. "Ms. Darbus or as I first called her Grandma is my mom's mom." Gabriella said slowly as she looked up at Troy after a second of him not saying anything only to see him scrunch up his face in confusion.
Gabriella let out a little laugh, "Wildcat, don't hurt yourself thinking." Gabriella joked.
"But…how? What about their last names?" Troy asked knowing Montez and Darbus weren't exactly the same in anyway.
Gabriella sighed, "If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Only like, some teachers know that I'm related to her, not even Jake knows that I am." Gabriella said and Troy felt proud that she would actually trust him with this. Not that she had any choice since she probably couldn't come up with a cover story about the picture anyways.
"Okay, I promise." Troy said as he interlaced their hands.
"Well…it started when I was five." Gabriella said as she looked at the basketball comforter they were sitting on. "My parents had just started fighting even more so than ever before and at this time my last name was Arias…and then one night we got a phone call as they were fighting and it was Ms. Darbus or at the time she was Mrs. Montez, my grandpa had passed away." Gabriella said. "His name was William Montez."
Troy looked at Gabriella and could only see the side of her face as her eyes stayed concentrated on the bed spread beneath them as if she was replaying everything in her eyes again.
"We lived here at the time, and after the funeral my mom filed for divorce." Gabriella said as she squinted her eyes now. "My mom somehow got custody of me as my dad was traveling all around and we moved to this quiet little town in Kansas. My mom and now the widowed Ms. Montez fell apart from each other and their relationship kind of died as my grandma found out about the divorce. She always liked my dad no matter if he worked all the time because my grandfather worked like that too." Gabriella explained as she felt Troy's thumb against her knuckles.
"Um…" Gabriella bit down on her lip. "Well three years after that I changed my last name to my mom's maiden name Montez, and obviously that stuck, and then five years after the divorce when I was ten we get a phone call saying that my grandma is marrying."
Gabriella let out a small laugh as Troy couldn't help the smile on his face. Just thinking about the over dramatic teacher marrying, it was entertaining to imagine, but yet it was somewhat nice knowing there was happiness.
"We went back to New Mexico for the wedding that my grandmother was getting herself into with a man neither my mom nor me knew. His name was Mike Darbus and my grandma was convinced that my grandfather would want her to move on and be happy. So my mom and I go back to our home after the wedding and then four years later we get a phone call saying he past away." Gabriella said again with a sadness in her tone.
"My mom and her relationship wasn't the best at the time, actually…" Gabriella let out a sarcastic laugh with a smile. "It still isn't, but…this was enough to convince my mom that we should move back so we moved back after her company transferred her here in the summer before high school. My grandma kept her last name Darbus and now that's that." Gabriella nodded as she looked up at Troy's shocked face and grinned.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but please don't say anything." Gabriella said.
Troy nodded coming out of his trance. It was a lot but he could handle it. "Um…but why is she so hard on you at school? And then me, she knows about us and that's why she's like that towards me?" Troy asked as he thought out loud.
Gabriella nodded, "I think she acts like that towards me because that's just her way of keeping me safe and setting her boundaries for me. My mother was never the best one for boundaries unless it was for dancing. And that's another reason why they don't get along, my grandma didn't approve of me working so hard at dancing at such a young age."
Troy nodded. "Well…your secret is safe with me." They were both silent as no more words needed to be spoken. All thoughts of studying that night were out the window as Troy wrapped his arm around Gabriella and she put her head on his chest. "You know, I think we just rewrote a new definition for studying."
Author's note- So tell me what you think, I kind of rushed through this because I've been really busy lately. But tell me in a review and I hope your guys' opinions on jake haven't changed. I'm starting to really like his character and i'm getting into writing about him more, and you do have to remember that he is just a concerned best friend. I mean, who hasn't played the concerned best friend part in life? Review please, and thanks--