Against All Odds
Confessions

"Okay students!" Ms. Darbus yelled across the room. "Silence! Please take your seats."

She waited as the remainder of the students not in their seats scrambled across the room to sit down.

"Okay, class. Today we're going to start something new, and it's going to last us the rest of the year. I'm going to put you into pairs, and for one period a week, you'll spend the entire period getting to know each other. Each time you will have an assignment to work on. Today's activity will be a simple questionnaire that will be worth fifty points. This will not be something to blow off."

She looked over at Sharpay, who had thrust her hand in the air, holding it up impatiently.

"Yes, Sharpay?"

"What is the point of this assignment, Ms. Darbus?"

"The school thinks that we need to do more activities that forces students to work with others they normally don't work with. It's to broaden your culture, or humanities, or something. I just do what they tell me. I would rather be teaching Shakespeare today."

The class livened up at the fact they wouldn't have to endure Darbus drain on and on about William Shakespeare.

"Ok, so now for you partners."

'Please let it be Gabriella. Please let it be Gabriella.' Troy thought over and over.

'Okay, God. If you partner me with Troy, I won't ask for anything else.' Gabriella thought. 'Or at least I'll try not to.'

Chad sat behind Troy. 'Oh, yeah. If I get partnered with Taylor, we could definitely 'get to know each other.'"

Sharpay looked disgusted. 'If I get stuck with some awful skater dude, I'll die. I will, I will DIE.'

"Sharpay Evans and..." Sharpay winced as she waited. "Zeke Baylor."

She let out a sigh of relief, and turn around to face Zeke who was smiling at her.

'At least it's better than a skater dude.' She thought.

"Chad Danforth and Melanie Smith."

Chad looked over at the girl hunched over a pad of paper. She was clad in all black - her clothes, her hair and nails. Even her lips were black. He could see her scribbling furiously on her sketch pad.

'Great.' He thought.

"Taylor McKessie and Mark Robbins."

Taylor was slightly sad she wouldn't be working with Chad, but at least she knew Mark. He had been on the Scholastic Decathlon Team just as long as she had been.

Ms. Darbus continued to rattle off pairs. Troy felt more and more relieved when he and Gabriella were some on the only ones left without a pair.

'Maybe me and Gabi will get paired together.' Troy turned around and smiled at her in the back of the room, and she flashed a smile back his way. He loved it when she smiled.

"Gabriella Montez and Tim Nichols."

Both Gabriella and Troy sighed with disappointment. Gabriella looked over at Tim. She didn't even know that was his name, but she saw him look up when Ms. Darbus called out his name. She had noticed him in the class, but she swore she had never heard him speak. He sat in the far back corner, and spoke to no one. Once or twice she had seen him during lunch hours, when she was running late. He didn't sit in the cafeteria like everyone else, but out in the foyer by himself. She tried to figure out which 'group' he belonged to. It wasn't like it mattered, ever since the call backs, the entire school had begun to mingle. Then in hit her. He didn't have a group. He was a loner.

'Well, maybe I can change that.' She thought. 'Everybody needs friends.'

Ms. Darbus continued with the last pair, but Troy already knew who he'd be partnered with. Zane Brown. Zane scared everyone. He had long grungy hair that he always pulled back in a pony tail. He wore heavy death metal shirts, and chains that clad his legs and arms. He stood at about 6'4'' and he looked as if he were about thirty years old, which scared practically everyone in the school.

"Ok students, you have forty minutes. You may go anywhere in the school, but as long as you don't disturb anyone. There will be hall monitors, so don't get any ideas. Now shoo!"

The students groaned as they met up with their partners. Zeke and Sharpay had decided to go to the cafeteria. Chad had allowed Melanie to choose, and they ended up in the art studio. Taylor and Mark went to one of the empty lab rooms.

Gabriella walked up to Tim. "Hi Tim, I'm Gabriella." She held out her hand. He stood there, without responding for a minute or so until he looked up. He saw her friendly smile, and shook her hand.

"Tim." He said quietly.

"It's nice to meet you Tim. Where would you like to go?"

For once in his life, Tim was being treated like a normal human being. He knew both of his parents were ashamed of him. People at school thought he was some sort of freak, and never spoke to him. ANd for the first time here was someone who was genuine enough to treat him nicely.

"The foyer?" He said, again very quietly.

"Sounds great, Tim." They began to leave, but before they did, she turned to face Troy and gave him a smile that made his chest tighten.

'Why couldn't I be with her?' He thought to himself.

"So, Zane. Where do you want to go?" He tried to sound confident. It was kind of hard with Zane cowering over him.

"I don't care Bolton. You choose."

"Okay, let's go the gym."

"Typical jock." Zane said loudly.

Troy ignored his comment, trying to make these forty minutes go as fastly as possible. As soon as all the groups had made it to their spots, they pulled out the questionnaire Ms. Darbus had handed on their way out.

Chad and Melanie each sat on a stool in the studios. She held a pen in her hand and Chad watched as she doodled scribbles across the page.

"Ok, Melanie. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?"

"I'd bring back my dad. He died when I was six." She said without hesitating. Chad immediately felt a sting in his heart as she said this.

"What about you? What would you change?" Melanie asked.

"Uh. I think I would have been a nicer person years ago. If Gabriella and Troy hadn't opened all of our eyes, I still might be an arrogant ass. I like this side of the fence better." He said tossing his basketball into the air.

"It's pretty crazy, huh?" She asked, her eyes never leaving the paper in front of her.

"What's that?"

"How much two people changed an entire school."

Zeke and Sharpay sat at a table in the cafeteria. Sharpay sat drectly on the table filing her nails, while Zeke sat on the bench with his hands resting on the table.

"Ok, Zeke. If you were on a deserted island, what three items would you bring with you?" She asked looking down at the paper on the table, not missing a beat with the file in her hands.

Zeke paused a few moments as he thought about the question. "Ok, I'd bring a knife, a lighter, and some rope. What about you?"

"A blow dryer, my facial mask, and my microphone."

"You do realize there would be no electricity on the island right?"

She stopped filing her nails and looked over at him. "So what's your point?"

Taylor sat with Mark in a room they both knew well – the chemistry lab.

"Ok Mark, if you could be any animal, what would you be?"

He snorted. "I'd be a liger."

Taylor looked at him funny.

"You know, a liger?"

She continued to stare.

"From Napoleon Dynamite?"

Tim and Gabriella sat on the floor of the foyer. She sat with her legs crossed Indian style, and he just sat there with his legs sprawled out.

"Who is your hero?" Gabriella asked him.

He sat there for a moment, pondering the question.

"Myself."

Gabriella narrowed her eyes as he said this. "Why's that?"

"Hey that's not one of the questions!" He joked with her. It felt funny to joke with someone, but he really liked Gabriella. She was a kind person, and he felt comfortable around her.

"I know, I just wanted to know." She responded genuinely and Tim smiled.

"No one's ever been there for me. Not my parents, and I've never had any friends. I had to learn how to be strong on my own."

Gabriella nodded her head as she wrote his answer on the paper. "Well, I guess that's pretty admirable."

"Well, thanks. What about you? Who's your hero?"

A smile came to Gabriella's lips. She knew who her hero was. Not just because he had saved her at the party, but because of everything he'd done for her. For singing with her at the call backs, for treating her like a normal person. Just for everything.

"Troy Bolton."

Tim didn't know why he felt so jealous. He had seen Troy and Gabriella walking around the school a lot, and he knew they were pretty close. He should have expected her to say Troy. Yet, he still felt jealous.

"Alright, let's at least try answer a few questions Zane. I really don't want to fail."

"I don't really care what you want Bolton."

Troy's head fell to the side in annoyance. "Please, Brown. You might not care, but I do, and the sooner we get this done the sooner we don't have to talk to each other. Okay?"

"Fine. Tell me about a person who has inspired you," He said flatly reading straight from the paper.

"Gabriella. You?"

"My dad. He inspired me to learn how to throw a mean right hook."

'Oh, God.' Troy thought. 'This is going to be a long semester.'

After school, Troy walked Gabriella home. Basketball was over for the time being and the musical didn't start practice for another week, so they took the opportunity to spend some time with each other.

"I'm serious Gabi. He said he was inspired by his dad to learn how to throw a right hook. If I die before this year's over, will you come to my funeral?"

She laughed. "Troy you are not going to die. You just have to find some way to open up to him. It was weird, but after a few minutes I couldn't get Tim to shut up." She laughed.

"Yeah, who would of thought he even knew how to speak?"

They joked the rest of the way home until they reached Gabriella's house.

"Well, thanks for walking me home Troy."

"Not a problem, Gabby. I'll see you tomorrow at school" He started to walk away.

"Hey Troy?"

He turned back around. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to stay for a while? I mean we could, like, watch TV or something. I don't know, only if you want to." She rambled on.

Troy laughed. "Yeah, Gabi. I'd love to."

"Okay, great!"

They stepped into her house, and Gabriella closed the door.