The intensity of the game was over. The crowd was defeated as the team that consisted of five varsity players and six JV players were even more defeated on that Thursday night as the two teams were still on the court getting talks from their coaches as half of the crowds dispersed, the parents went to go wait out into the lobby so they didn't get mulled over by the usually excited students, but tonight it was different. The only excited students would be the Knights as East High had just gotten their first defeat in their record book that year.
Gabriella sought out her boyfriend as she was off of the bleachers and waiting on the sidelines right under one of the two baskets. She knew that it hurt that they lost, but it hurt even more since it was against the team they always ended up playing for State Champs, the team that they split the town with, and the team that gave them crap as East High retaliated with their own taunting. Nothing good could come from the two schools being mixed.
"Hey Gabs…Haley and I are gonna head out." Jake's voice registers throughout Gabriella's mind as she turns to where the sound came the strongest of the two sides of her and sees her best friend with Haley and him holding hands.
"Okay, you did great tonight Hales." Gabriella said as they both were in their tight black pants, with black flat dancing suits, and their red and white sparkling tops that came midway on their torso as they cut off right below the rib cage so it showed off most of the girls' thin stomachs or in Gabriella's case toned stomach that just seemed to stand out as being more fit than others and their red belly button piercing.
"You too, I just can't believe that this was your last time dancing with us and helping us on the routines." Haley gushed as Jake rolled his eyes playfully as his girl's dramaticness.
Gabriella thought back how the next day no one had clubs going on since it was Friday and the last day of school before two weeks off for Christmas Break and then when they got back Gabriella would be starting her intense training, or at least semi-dance practice as she was hoping her mom would get distracted by Eric.
"I know, but remember you ever need help organizing a dance routine and get stuck on something, you can always ask me for help." Gabriella reminded her as Haley and another girl were taking over the routine making.
"Thanks Brie." Haley said as most of the girls had gotten used to calling Gabriella 'Brie'.
"So we're gonna go, and don't forget about that huge ass English test tomorrow. Half of our grade, whoever heard of that?" Jake asked with a low sarcastic tone in his voice as Gabriella hid her shock at the mention of their AP English test that she did know about for a month now, but it just slipped her mind and moved to the bottom of her priority list.
"Yeah…" Gabriella said trying to hide the fact that she totally forgot. She didn't need a lecture from Jake, not when things were going so good for her and Troy and him. "Fifth period for 90 minutes." Gabriella said as her and Jake shared a hug and Jake and Haley left as Gabriella turned her attention back to the court to see that the gym had cleared out a little more seeing as East High had no reason to compliment their team at losing.
Gabriella saw that Coach Bolton didn't look mad as he was slowly pacing in front of the 14 metal chairs that held his 'team' for that night as he was talking with a straight face on, but he wasn't mad as Gabriella had seen him mad before and he got really scary with a beat red steamy face on.
She saw that her boyfriend's head was down in shame as he at least had some good things to look up to in that game. He was the lead scorer with half of the points made as the final score for the game was, 60-72 in West High's favor. Gabriella sighed as she saw Coach Bolton walk away from the team after he patted Troy on the back and their team dispersed to the locker rooms, to the stands where their girlfriends were, or out to their parents except Troy who just sat there.
Gabriella knew that there was no way that their school's basketball team could play West High again unless they both made it to the playoffs and usually it wouldn't be until the last game which really mattered if they both kept up their winning streaks.
Gabriella saw that the West High team had just been released all with victorious grins on their faces as the people who came to watch the game for the Knights engulfed them in cheers as Gabriella rolled her eyes and walked over to her boyfriend who looked up at her upon hearing her voice, "Hey Wildcat." Gabriella said softly as she didn't want to sound like this lose didn't affect her.
"Hey…" His voice was meek as he looked down at the ground again as if blaming this whole loss on himself when there were several other guys.
"Want to get out of here or are you gonna hop in the shower first?" Gabriella asked as she sat down next to him showing that she was going to stay with him either way as she promised the night before that he would always have her.
Troy sighed as Gabriella saw his slumped shoulders go up and down in a slow shrug, "I don't really care."
Gabriella frowned. She understood why her boyfriend was so down, but that didn't mean that she wanted to see him this sad. Gabriella wiped away his matted bangs off to the side as she stroked his cheek tenderly, "How about you shower here and then we can just go to Tyson beach and do absolutely nothing." Gabriella said with a small hopeful smile as Troy looked like he was thinking this over.
After a moment of silence Troy stood up making Gabriella's hand that was on his cheek fall down and to her side as he turned towards Gabriella and offered her his hand and pulled her up. "I would like that." Troy said in a quiet voice and Gabriella nodded.
"Okay Wildcat," Gabriella put her hand to his cheek again and he leaned into her touch with a tired sigh. "You played great tonight." Gabriella admired.
Troy rested his hands on her hips and held her in place as he stepped closer to her and rested his sweaty forehead against her smooth one. "Thanks." Troy finally said as if debating in his head whether to say anything at all.
"Your welcome." Gabriella pecked him on the lips and gave him a small smile. "Now go shower up and I'll be in the hall waiting." Gabriella said as Troy nodded and started his way over to the locker room doors when all of a sudden he didn't take one step as he jumped in surprise and his hands immediately flew to his rear and turned back around to see Gabriella trying to hold back her laughs.
"Did you just?…" Troy was dumbstruck as Gabriella had never pinched him much less in the butt area in public.
Gabriella put her hands up in defense, "Well every girl says that you look like you have a pinchable butt and for the record…you do." Gabriella let out another perfect giggle as Troy couldn't help the smile that came over his face too as he rolled his eyes playfully at his girlfriend and started making his way to the locker room again.
Gabriella was in the hallway now for about ten minutes as it would've been double that amount of time if Mrs. Bolton didn't see her and stop to talk to her which Gabriella didn't mind at all since it took up time. Gabriella leaned against the cold white wall outside the boys locker room door as occasionally some people from their school would walk past and say 'hi' to her as they would continue on their ways.
Gabriella was looking at the ground thinking about how in three weeks it would be her birthday and how Troy, Jake, Taylor, and Sharpay were talking that day in homeroom and how they wanted to throw her a huge party.
"You look lonely." A slick and almost creepy voice of a guy broke her out of her birthday thoughts as she heard footsteps come nearer and then stop as she turned her head to see none other than a dirty blonde, fluffy haired that hung just above his eye brows and swept almost too perfectly as the captain of the knights smiled a tooth grin down at her while his muscular body which was a little bit smaller compared to Troy's leaned up against the wall next to Gabriella as he still had almost a head taller in height like Troy compared to her. "Care for some company?" He asked cockily as Gabriella looked at him with some annoyance as almost everyone knew that she was dating Troy since their town wasn't that big, but it wasn't that small either.
"No thanks Lundy." Gabriella said in as much of a polite tone as possible considering he was basically Troy's number one enemy, a Knight who just beat her school in a sport, and she had a boyfriend for almost three months. "I'm actually waiting for someone and--"
"Please tell me it's not Bolton." Lundy said with a sneer. "You can do so much better ba--"
"Don't make me gag." Another male voice booms out as Gabriella looked behind her shoulder to see Troy walking towards them with his red sports bag on his shoulder as he made it to the two of them with five long strides and slung an arm over Gabriella's shoulder who gladly leaned back into her boyfriend's chest.
Gabriella smiled sweetly up at Troy as Troy's hand ran down Gabriella's wrist that held her bracelet that Troy gave to her homecoming night before connecting their hands as he smirked at Lundy.
Lundy looked at the two disgusted as he flicked his hair to the right side to clear it out of his face. "Well…don't you two look cozy." He said with a skeptical look and disgust laced in his low voice. He started walking past the two as he bumped shoulders with Troy who stood his ground. "Good game Bolton." He said in a bored tone as Troy's grip on Gabriella's hand tightened a bit as she brought her other hand up and stroked his knuckles waiting for him to calm down before they left to just sit in the back of his truck to at least try to forget about the God awful game.
Troy walked into school as he wasn't greeted with the same amount of people as usual, but then again half of the school was out sick it seemed like with the fucking flu that just had to come up around the game last night. Troy walked towards the hallway his locker was in as most people gave him sympathetic smiles due to last night.
He was getting irritated with people not being their usual selves around school that day as it was the day before Christmas Break. People usually were ecstatic about this, as he knew that they would be back to their usual selves when they get back from vacation, but today he didn't need people giving him pity looks as he had already talked to his dad last night and this morning about how he should be feeling proud that he personally had an awesome game, and then he ran into his mother who acted just how a mother would and made sure to point out all his good qualities and cooed at him about how proud she was of him.
He reached his locker and looked a couple down to see that neither Zeke nor Chad was there that day as he didn't exactly expect them to be as he talked to Chad after dropping Gabriella off last night and Chad could barely speak as every other sentence it seemed like he had to stop and clear his head so he didn't overdo it and puke his guts out.
Troy dumped his little black drawstring bag in his locker and shut it with more muscle than what he meant to as people around him stared.
"Ah Mr. Bolton…" Troy almost cringed hearing that voice as he straightened himself up and turned around so his back was facing his locker and smiled at the older aged woman in front of him who he thought hated him, but turned out she was coming around. "I saw your performance last night, and from what I saw Ella was not wrong about your performance in that sport." Ms. Darbus said as Troy's eyes almost bugged out of his head as he looked left and right down the hallways to see if anyone heard what Ms. Darbus just said.
Ms. Darbus laughed once Troy looked at her again after realizing no one was paying attention to him anymore. "Don't worry Mr. Bolton, that cat's not out of the bag yet."
Troy nodded, "Well…" Troy was surprised that Ms. Darbus would actually come to the game, but he still didn't need her of all people who hated him for two years until he started dating her granddaughter give him sympathy even though she meant nothing by it. "thank you Ms. Darbus."
"Keep up the good work and don't be late to class this morning, Ella can't get anymore detentions unless she wants an ISS." Ms. Darbus said back to her strict tone warning Troy that Gabriella could possible get an in school suspension.
Troy nodded as he scratched the back of his neck and narrowed his eyes a little as Ms. Darbus turned her back on him and continued to swiftly walk down the hallway as Gabriella came into view and the two didn't even exchange a greeting as they walked by each other and Gabriella was in front of Troy now.
"Hey--" Gabriella stopped abruptly as she spotted the purple bags underneath the brown haired boys eyes. "Wildcat." Gabriella said in an unsure way as Troy sighed and offered Gabriella a small smile.
"Hey beautiful." He greeted as he only felt like he wanted to be near her and this school was just becoming too small with the pity glares hew as receiving from not just students but teachers who hated him too.
Troy wrapped his arms around Gabriella's waist as he pulled her into a hug. She was wearing light faded blue jeans with one ripped hole in the knee, black flip flops, and a black graphic T that had a black and white tree on it and red apples. Her hair was in it's natural curls at they reached just her shoulders so he could run his hand through it without accidentally pulling on it.
"So…I saw my grandma talking to you, what was that about?" Gabriella whispered as the two stepped closer to each other and Troy switched position so he could cage her into the lockers as he saw out of the corner of his eyes a group of cheerleaders and soccer players talking all with frowns on their faces as one of the cheerleaders pointed over at him as they just shook their heads in a sad manner and Troy couldn't believe that they would have the nerve to act like it was all his fault.
Sure he was acting like that, but that's because it was natural to blame yourself, and he was the one who was actually playing and knew how he felt and what it felt like, they knew nothing of what he was feeling but yet they still had the nerve to point out his flaws as they had no idea what hard work was.
"N-nothing." Troy said as he shook his head clearing his angered thoughts.
Gabriella looked at him strangely as her hand reached up and stroked his cheek all the way down to his unshaven chin for that day as she brought it down and rested it on his upper right arm was outstretched so his hand could rest on the locker next to her.
"Okay, if you're sure." Troy heart the unsureness in her voice as Troy sighed and heard the bell ring from right above them.
He heard the shuffling of feet behind them as he caught part of a conversation that made his blood boil as Gabriella just looked at him curiously as she had no idea what Troy was listening too.
"I feel so bad for him." One girl with a high pitched voice spoke very loudly, but that was just in her nature as Troy thought that he recognized that voice to belong to a girl on the cheerleading squad for the football season.
"I know. I just wish he would pick me for comforting." Another girl voice said as Troy shut his eyes and leaned his forehead against Gabriella's unrepentantly as she still let him do this as she wrapped her arms around his torso not even knowing the conversation the two girls that just walked past them were having.
Their voices were fading quickly as he caught the next line, "Montez is one lucky girl. She's so…."
"Are you ready to go to homeroom or do you want to just skip and head to first hour?" Gabriella asked as Troy pulled back and saw that the hallway now had very few people in it.
"Um…" Troy hesitated as he thought back to all the students even with the flu going around that haven't seen him that day and haven't had a chance to say sorry to him or give him that annoying look that told him that he will do better next time. Troy shook his head, "You're gonna think I'm crazy." Troy said.
"What are you talking about Wildcat?" Gabriella asked as her two small hands moved up and down on his back as Troy leaned his forehead down on her shoulder, just resting it there as he found that he had a head ache occurring.
"What would you say if I told you I want to get out of here?" Troy questioned as he kept his head down on Gabriella's shoulder just taking in her strawberry scent as some of her curls brushed against the top of his head.
There was a silence as Gabriella's hands ceased movement on Troy's back, "Like…leave this hallway? School? City? State?" Gabriella asked as she was trying to figure out what Troy meant.
"Yeah…school. I want to get out of here. I can't stay here knowing everyone is watching me with their…judging eyes." Troy said as Gabriella stayed silent and Troy didn't look up yet being afraid of whether Gabriella would talk him out of it or scold him for thinking about skipping school, but then he remembered Gabriella wasn't all that innocent either. She pulled pranks with Jake from time to time and she was in detention even more than him.
"I want to…go some place where we can just…let go." Troy said as he looked up bravely as saw that Gabriella's lips curled up a little.
"I have the perfect place." Gabriella whispered.
"You seriously want to come with me?" Troy asked as Gabriella leaned up and connected their lips and pulled back before Troy could continue with the kiss.
"Let's see…it's the last day before vacation…you're my boyfriend…and it helps that you are extremely good looking." Gabriella said as she slipped out of Troy's arms against the lockers and started walking down the hallway. Troy just looked at her retreating back in shock as she turned around laughing, "You coming Wildcat? After all this was your idea." Gabriella laughed some more as Troy quickly nodded and jogged to catch up as Gabriella jumped onto his back and Troy finally felt no appraising eyes on him.
Author's note--What do you guys think? What kind of things with Gabriella and Troy get into? Only I know, but if you want to voice your opinions then I'm happy that you actually have one and are taking the time for reading this story. Review please and thank you to whoever has reviewed in the past, i love reading them.