Chapter 11

"Yeah! Great! Thanks."

That was Troy on the phone with his aunt. He was over at Gabriella's house, using her phone to tell his aunt he was practicing at Gabriella's house. Now he had amazing news to tell her!

"Brie! Brie!" Troy exclaimed, running over to the living room.

Gabriella jumped. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Troy told her. "I just got off the phone with my aunt. And I've got awesome news!"

Gabriella asked, "Well...what is it?"

"You know how we can't compete in all the dances at the competition, right?" Troy said. "That's why we chose to do the cha-cha."

She nodded.

"Well, my aunt's dance students are also entering the competition. Well, some of them anyway. And she asked us to be part of her team!"

It took a few seconds for the news to sink in, but when it did, Gabriella squealed. "You mean we're part of a real dance team!"

"Yeah, from Johnson's School of Fine Arts!" Troy exclaimed.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Gabriella screamed (Troy had to cover his ears).

Then before they could stop themselves, their arms were around each other in a tight hug.

"Remind me to thank your aunt later," Gabriella said.

They pulled apart and stared into each other's eyes, their arms still around each other.

They didn't realize the position they were in until the doorbell rang.

"I'll get the door," Gabriella said awkwardly.

Troy just stood there. For some reason, he wanted to hug her again.

Gabriella opened the door to find Haley on the doorstep.

"Haley, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I just wanted to come over," Haleya answered. "Hope I'm not bothering you."

"Who's that?" Troy asked, coming out into the front hallway. He stopped when he saw Haley.

Haley's jaw dropped. "Troy is over at your house?"

"We're practicing for the dance competition," Gabriella told her quickly.

"Oh, right," Haley said. But something told her they were doing more than just "dancing."

"You can come in, though," Gabriella said, stepping aside.

Haley walked boldly into the living room and sat down on the couch.

"Why'd you come?" Gabriella asked. Troy was wondering the same thing.

After a few seconds, Haley asked, "Are you guys really gonna be in teh Annual Dance Competition?"

Troy and Gabriella nodded.

Haley didn't seem thrilled by the news, though. She just closed her eyes and shook her head.

Then she said, "You guys better watch it."

"For what?" Troy demanded.

Haley only said three word: "Tiffany and Sharpay."

"What?" Gabriella asked. "Are they trying to sabotage our chance of winning or something."

"No," Haley answered. She turned to Gabriella. "Tiffany is trying to sabotage your chances of competiting, Gabi."

"I was at the mall today," she continued. "I overheard Tiffany telling her friends that it was an outrage that Troy was dancing you and not her. She says she is a much better dancer and that Troy will have a much better chance of winning. She's planning to all these things to injure you so you can't compete."

Troy narrowed his eyes. "What about Sharpay?"

"Well, first of all, she is transferring to East High," Haley said.

"WHAT?!" Troy shouted.

Haley jumped but Gabriella was used to his outbursts by now.

"Are you serious?" Troy shouted.

Haley nodded. "I swear I'm not lying. She seemed really happy about it. But she's also really mad that she has to dance with this clumsy kid while Gabriella gets you, Troy. And Sharpay and Tiffany met and started to argue about you."

Troy rolled his eyes. Typical.

"And then they decided to team up against you, Gabi," Haley said, turning to her best friend. "Be careful, guys. I'm serious. I think Tiffany meant business. And I think Sharpay does, too."

She left after that but her words were still in the air.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" Troy finally shouted. "They're both such idiots!"

"Troy, calm down," Gabriella said. "It's not like they're gonna try and kill me. What's the worst that could happen?"

Troy wanted to answer. He really did. But he couldn't.

An incident that happened three years ago kept running through his mind...

"Sharpay?" Troy asked. "Where's Lily? She and I are up next?"

"Change of plans," Sharpay said. "Lily's sick or something and she went back to her dorm room. Anyway, I'm filling in for her."

"But she was fine a few minutes ago," Troy said. "What happened."

"There were nuts in her salad," Sharpay answered. "Apparently, she's allergic."

Troy had no choice but to dance with Sharpay in the performance. Afterward, he went to check on Lily in the dorm room. He went to the kitchen and asked why they put nuts in their salad when Lily probably told them she was allergic. They had assured him that they didn't put any nuts in their salad. In fact, someone had stolen some about an hour ago.

Before he went back to his dorm room, he could hear Sharpay saying, "It totally worked. I danced with Troy!"

After that, he always made sure to pick Sharpay as his partner...

Troy didn't want to scare Gabriella so just sat there on the couch like a frozen statue.

Gabriella snapped her fingers in front of his face, saying, "Hello?"

"Sorry," Troy said. "It's just that I don't wanna dance with Sharpay. She's been my partner ever for three whole years now. And Tiffany's probably now better. And you really need that extra credit."

"Well, it's not like Sharpay's gonna try and kill me or anything," Gabriella assured him.

Oh...

She had no idea how close she was.

Ok, just to let y'all know, this I adapted from How i survived middle school by Nancy Krulik. I changed the characters names into kids that I know. And I will be posting the originals but I will be writing my own ones in between.