...Gabriella...
Gabriella stepped through her door with the widest grin on her face. Brandon came limping up to her and smiled "Hey Gabby! Where've you been? You're usually not home this late. Did something happen?"
Gabriella nodded, still grinning. "I was at the lake."
Brandon, confused, asked "For what?"
"I was with Troy."
Brandon froze. His face grew red with furry as he shouted "I told you to stay away from him!!!"
Gabriella rolled her eyes and replied "Calm down Brandon! I was there to teach him a lesson."
"What kind of lesson?" Brandon seethed lowly, outraged with his sister.
"You told him to stay away from me and you and he didn't listen, so I pushed him into the lake."
Brandon's face came overwhelmed with surprise again, but this time, it was in a good way.
"You're not serious." He said, a smile growing.
Gabriella patted his back and reassured "Told you I had it covered."
"But he was wearing a $100 shirt."
Gabriella shrugged "I don't care. It took more than a hundred bucks to fix your ankle."
Brandon pulled his sister into a very tight, lung crushing hug and whispered in her ear "Thanks. I only have the guts to beat him up."
"Well then you've got more guts than me," Gabriella replied "If he doesn't learn from that, I don't know what will."
"Don't worry," Brandon said "If he comes anywhere near you, I'll make him think there's a darker color than black."
Gabriella kissed Brandon's cheek and said "Thanks. Well, I gotta go meet up with Sharpay and Taylor. We still have some catching up to do."
Brandon nodded in understanding and watched her grab her purse, running out the door to meet up with her friends.
"Thanks Gabriella." Brandon said to himself.
----
...Troy...
Troy sat on his bed, dry and clean. He wanted to get Gabriella back for her actions, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Curse my soft heart." Troy seethed to himself.
He lay there for what seemed like hours before his eyelids became heavier and heavier. He blinked and found that he couldn't open his eyes anymore. His mind faded into unconsciousness.
2 hours later, Troy jolted to a sitting position and cried "That's it!"
He ran over to his phone and pressed speed dial 2. Putting the phone to his ear, someone answered groggily "Troy, what the hell are doing calling me at 2 o clock in the morning?!"
"Oh suck it up!" Troy snapped "Listen, I need you to do something for me."
The person asked "Does it involve moving tonight?"
Troy rolled his eyes "No, but you have to get up early for school tomorrow."
Troy's friend groaned "Why? I'm always late anyway."
Troy said "There's a first for everything. It involves messing with Montez."
"Which one?"
"Both of them." Troy slyly answered.
"Hmm... this conversation just got more interesting. What do I have to do?"
"Just meet me at my locker at 6:00. Don't be late."
"Oh I won't. And Troy?"
"What?"
"Don't you ever call me at 2 in the morning again."
"Whatever."
With that, the two boys hung up and fell back on their beds. Troy grinned and whispered to himself "Don't keep me waiting Chad."
----
...6:00 in the Morning...
Troy waited at his locker for Chad, tapping his foot impatiently. He was about to bring out his phone when he saw his best friend slumping down the hallway, his eyes half open.
"Hurry up Chad! People are gonna get here in a few minutes!"
"Give me a second!" Chad mumbled, thinking he was shouting it. Troy just rolled his eyes.
Once Chad finally reached him, Troy said "Okay, so this is what I have in mi-"
"How long is this gonna take?" Chad asked "I have to make up a test."
Troy sighed "Since when do you care about failing a test?"
Chad answered "If I fail again, I get kicked off the team. I have to go in a half an hour, so hurry up."
Troy sighed again and replied "Okay, we'll cut out part of the plan. But it should take about 20 to 25 minutes, okay?"
Once Chad nodded, Troy reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Handing it to Chad, he gloated "This, my friend, is the beauty of Photoshop."
When Chad opened it, his eyes widened so large, he was sure that they would dry out in a few seconds. His mouth dropped as he lowly asked "How did you get this?"
"She has a Myspace that's set to public view. Need I explain the other part?"
Chad shook his head slowly, a huge grin coming to play on his face. "Say no more," he said "How many copies do we need?"
"Enough for the whole school and a few more in case someone loses theirs. Man, this is gonna be so sweet! Let's go!"
With that, the two friends darted down the hallway to the library copier machine, laughing the whole way.
----
...At Lunch...
Gabriella couldn't take it anymore. All day, people have giving her weird looks. Boys have been checking her out and flirting with her heavily, having their girlfriends glare at her. She consulted all the pranksters, but they promised that they weren't doing anything. She asked Brandon if he told them a funny or nasty story about her and he assured that he wouldn't do something like that to her.
Lunch finally came and Gabriella was still getting the weird looks. She saw two boys run up to her and bump her hips at the same time. Unfortunately for her, Brandon was staying late after class and wasn't at lunch yet. But their girlfriends chased them away from her, sending their glares to her.
"Taylor!" Gabriella cried when she saw her friend "Where's Sharpay? I need her help."
"With what?" Taylor replied, a look of concern taking over her face.
"People have been giving me weird looks all day, especially the boys. Their girlfriends just glare at me. I don't know what's going on!"
"I've noticed that too." Taylor said "Why do you need Sharpay?"
Gabriella answered "She's always 'in the know'. She knows what's going on with everything."
"That makes sense," Taylor agreed "Oh, here she comes. Let's go ask her."
Gabriella and Taylor ran towards the blonde, who looked very frantic and angry at the moment. "Sharpay! I need your help!"
"Does it have to do with the picture?" Sharpay seethed, her eyes scanning the cafeteria wildly.
"What picture?" Taylor asked.
"You mean you haven't seen it?" Sharpay replied, her face softening at her best friends "It's horrible."
"Is it a picture of me?" Gabriella asked worriedly.
"Yeah. You know Mindy Harrison?"
Gabriella nodded.
"You know how that cheerleader took that picture of her when she was changing?"
Gabriella nodded sadly and whispered "That poor girl."
"And poor you! Someone kind of... they... uhh... here" Sharpay sighed and handed Gabriella the crumpled paper in her hands. Gabriella took it and, giving her friend a skeptical look, flattened the paper on her thigh. What she saw made her heart stop and her blood become cold. It was her face, hair straightened attached to Mindy's nude body. Leading from her mouth was a speech bubble saying "So this is what you get from the bottom of a lake."
"Bolton." Gabriella seethed through her teeth. She re-crumpled the paper and threw it into the trash can furiously, stomping over to the jocks table.
"This means war." Gabriella thought to herself.
----
...The Jock Table...
The entire table erupted into another fit of laughter, hysterical after Troy and Chad told them what they did.
"You seriously did that?!" Jason asked through laughs.
"Yup." Troy answered simply.
"How did you pull it off without getting caught?" Zeke wondered.
"The librarian is never fully awake in the morning. She asked to see what we were copying and I just handed her my history homework." Troy replied.
"She didn't even look at it. She just said 'Okay' after he took it out of his book bag." Chad added. "It was hilarious."
"You guys are screwed if Montez finds out it's you, especially Brandon." Jason warned, gulping down his water.
"I don't care," Troy shrugged "If he threatens to beat me up, I just laugh. When's he ever gonna figure out that he'll never win with me?"
"You mean with us?" Chad asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Right. You guys did most of the work anyway. Thanks."
The conversation continued until a scream was heard ringing through the cafeteria.
"TROY BOLTON!!!"
"Uh oh," Jason whispered "Montez alert."
"I got this." Troy said back. He turned around in his seat and asked sweetly "Yes Gabriella?"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!" Gabriella shouted, pulling out Taylor's copy of the picture.
"Why, I don't know what you're talking about." Troy replied innocently, trying to suppress his laughter.
"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! YOU AND BRANDON ARE THE ONLY ONE'S WHO KNOW ABOUT ME PUSHING YOU INTO THE LAKE!!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!?!"
The color drained from Troy's face when she mentioned the lake. He shot out of his seat and grabbed her, putting a strong hand over her mouth.
"Follow me." He whispered in her ear.
"Mmpphhh!!! Humph!!!" was all Gabriella could mutter. Troy pulled her into a random janitorial closet while shouts like "Yeah Troy!" and "Get some!" rang in his ears. He rolled his eyes and locked the door, preventing her from getting out.
"What the hell Bolton?! What's wrong with you?!" Gabriella shouted.
"Stop!" Troy demanded. Gabriella fell back on the ground, still in her furious state.
"Listen," Troy started "If people figure out that I was pushed in the lake by a girl, my reputation goes in the lake with me. Do you understand?"
"You honestly think I care?!" Gabriella snapped "You've put my brother through hell for the last 4 years for now reason and what do you have to show for it?! You're stupid reputation?!"
Troy rolled his eyes and calmly said "Gabriella, I have a very good reason as to why I'm doing this to your brother. I want to-"
"Humiliate him for life?!"
"No!" Troy defended "I just want to-"
"You know, you really had me fooled Troy," Gabriella said with her arms crossed "When I first got here, I thought that you looked like a nice guy. Then you go and do that to Brandon. I can't trust you Troy. Don't even talk to me."
"Gabriella..." Troy tried.
"Don't even. Just go back to your posse."
Troy froze as she walked out. He stared at her slightly slumped body with sorrow and whispered to himself "If only you knew..."
Srry guys! I wanted to get this out yesterday, but I was too busy spending my xmas money. lol! So what does Troy mean by "If only you knew..."? If only we/she knows what? REVIEW!!! Thnx :)
Rachel :)