"Good try!" Troy shouted to his panting and heaving team.
They were just ending a particularly awful practice: Chad and Jason had collided, messing up the entire play, making Bill Morrison trip over them and sprain his ankle, Zeke had called the wrong play eight times and gotten everyone confused to the point of screaming at Troy, and Troy felt so raw that he could hardly move without wincing in pain. And he still had the suicides to look forward to.
"Why don't we-um…" He could hardly voice that he wanted to throw the practice to his tired team so he turned to Chad and asked, "Any suggestions?"
Chad shrugged in defeat. "Let's just scrimmage."
"We only have red jerseys," Zeke noted, scanning the sea of sweaty teenage boys. Troy fidgeted nervously and added, "And mine's blue." He tugged at the edge of his shirt tensely.
"How about shirts vs. skins?" Jason shrugged. "Troy can just be skins?"
Troy felt his stomach back flip as the team muttered their agreement. Chad assigned teams and everyone dashed to opposite ends of the gym to eagerly start their game. They all loved basketball but sometimes it was nice to relax and just have a little fun. Scrimmage did just that for them.
"Come on, Troy!" Jason shouted, tossing his jersey onto the floor beside the bleachers. "We can't play without you!"
Troy felt his heart beat wildly in his chest. He searched for a plausible excuse and came up with, "Actually, I have to finish up my suicides. You guys go ahead. I'll come when I can."
He then ran over to the far side of the gym and began his long set of suicides, wondering vaguely how his tired body would be able to keep up with the strenuous effort. He ran back and forth across the gym, his chest heaving. By the time he had reached over half, he collapsed onto the floor heavily.
Jason, Chad, and Zeke called the practice and the team ran madly to the locker rooms, cheering out their school spirit. The three friends jogged over to Troy who looked asleep on the cold floor of the gym. His eyes were closed and his chest was moving to a steady beat as it tried to balance the beating of his heart.
Without opening his eyes, he said, "I should probably finish those up."
Troy pulled himself off the floor with great effort but then faltered from exhaustion. Chad's quick hands caught Troy as he wavered and Troy hastily recovered himself by saying, "Thanks… um…"
Chad noticed by now that without his help, Troy could hardly stand on his own. He and his friends shot worried glances at each other and Chad helped Troy to sit on the bleachers. "How many have you done?"
"Forty-nine."
"I'll finish them up for you," Chad offered, picking up a stray water bottle and handing it over to Troy who took it gratefully and didn't bother to ask whose it was before drinking its contents.
"Yeah," Jason agreed quickly.
"We'll all do them," Zeke said, shooting a glance at Troy.
"Nah," Troy said after finishing his drink. "I think that the water helped but thanks anyway."
He tried to stand but found that he couldn't bring himself to do it. Troy looked over at his friends and shrugged, hoping they would leave him alone. He gave a grunt of pain and pushed himself off the bleachers only to be caught by Zeke's strong hands.
"Dude, we can handle seven suicides," Jason said as Zeke lowered Troy back onto the wooden bleacher. "You're working yourself too hard. Just relax a bit."
Troy smiled weakly as his friend began running across the gym. As soon as they had reached out of his range his muttered a very grateful, "Thanks." Before nodded slowly off to sleep.
----
Chad signaled to his friends as he saw Troy drift to sleep. They all had the same looks etched across their faces: worry. Troy had never been so forgetful and he had also never been so weak. It wasn't like him to stay out of a scrimmage; no matter how many suicides he had to do. He was the energetic Troy Bolton! He knew no break.
Zeke gently prodded Troy's sleeping form and whispered, "Wake up, Troy. Come on, we have to go shower."
Troy's eyelids barely fluttered open and he lifted his head towards his friends. "Whazzgoinon?" He asked sleepily. The friends chuckled and helped him off the ground. They then slowly made their way to the locker rooms, half-carrying Troy down the halls.
As soon as they made it in the correct locker section, they laid Troy on the metal bench so he was back down with one leg in a V shape on the bench, the other dangling onto the floor and on arm laid across his chest with the other's knuckles just barely brushing the cold ground.
"No!" Troy shouted. "No! Please don't!"
Troy shuddered into life and let out a deafening scream. His chest started to heave and cold sweat began to drip down his face. He swung himself over the bench so he sat and put his head in his hands. His body began to shake uncontroablly.
He let out a mortified whisper, "That was so scary."
Chad quickly got onto the bench beside Troy who began to tremble crazily. He clutched his head tightly in his hands and let cold air slice through his clenched teeth. Chad put a reassuring hand on the small of his friend's back and demanded, "Jason, go get Mr. Bolton. He'll know what to do."
Jason disappeared as quickly as possible in a desperate search for the teacher's lounge. The doors in the locker room slammed shut with a bang. Chad rubbed vigorous circles on Troy's back, whispering words of comfort when he looked up and saw Zeke watching them wide-eyed.
"What's going on with him?" He asked.
"I don't know," Chad said loudly and frustrated. "You really need to get him something with caffeine though, Zeke, or his head will only get worse. And I can't imagine a headache making this any better."
Zeke nodded, wide eyed, and backed quickly out of the locker room, then sprinting to the vending machine, desperate to find a drink. Chad watched the hair on the back of Troy's neck begin to stick on his neck and become wetter and wetter. He felt a warm spot of water on his shirt and said, "Come on, Troy. Let's get this off. You'll be too hot with it on."
Troy shook his head but Chad took it as a shake of pain not a plea for him to stop. Just as Chad had his hands around the bottom of Troy's shirt and pulled the end off his back, Mr. Bolton, Zeke, and Jason showed up.
"Is he okay?" Jack asked worriedly.
Hey, Troy had to get his thespian background somewhere.
"I'm not sure," Chad said and explained what had happened as he, Zeke, Jason, and Troy left the gym. Mr. Bolton nodded and walked over, sitting on the bench next to him. Zeke tried get the shaking teenager to drink the Mountain Dew he was holding but all Troy did was shove it away declaring, "I don't deserve it! I don't… don't deserve."
Jason leaned against the doorway and a realization hit him. "He's having a panic attack…" He announced in awe.
Mr. Bolton and Chad brought Troy to the car and laid him gently in the backseat. Chad drove with Troy in the backseat while Jason and Zeke followed them in Zeke's car. Chad sat, rubbing Troy's shaking knee, and said, "Don't worry, Troy. You're the strongest guy I know. You'll get through it."
He could've sworn that he saw Mr. Bolton's face in the rearview mirror flash from worried to anger to downright confused in a matter of seconds. They pulled smoothly into the white driveway and parked beside the driveway. Chad scrambled as quickly as he could to get Troy out of the car. Once Zeke came to a halt behind them, Jason ran over and helped too.
It took only about a minute to get the slowly moving Troy to the door and to hand him gently off to Mr. Bolton. Mr. Bolton tenderly wrapped Troy's arm around his shoulders and swung open the door. He coughed, signaling to the boys that they needed to leave. Jason and Zeke took the hint and walked to the car, watching Troy over their shoulders, but Chad stubbornly remained behind and said, "I know that Mrs. B is out this week. You want me to stay and help out with Troy?"
"I'll be fine, Chad," Troy said through gritted teeth. Chad nodded and placed a strong hand on Troy's trembling shoulder.
"Call me if you need anything, 'kay?"
Troy nodded and let out an aggravated hiss for that had extremely upset his head. Chad gave a worried look and nodded his good-bye to Mr. Bolton. He jogged back to the car and slammed the door shut. Mr. Bolton waved good-bye to the boys as they drove down the street. As soon as the red SUV turned the corner, his face softened and he shoved Troy into the house roughly.
Troy stumbled and fell to the ground heavily. He flipped himself over quickly so that he was facing his father for he never knew what to expect when his back was turned. Jack slammed the door shut and faced his son angrily, saying, "That was quite a scene you put up out there."
Troy gulped and nodded, using his hardly responsive limbs to propel himself further away from his livid father. Jack stared at his son with a cruel smile twisting his lips, "You remember what happens to people who put up a scene?"
Troy mind worked on overdrive remember the stories his father had told him of his own childhood. Troy's grandfather would get so angry at Jack when he acted out that he would whip Jack over the back with a belt. Troy gulped and let out a shaking, pleading voice.
"Dad, please. No."
"Stand up, Troy."
Author's Note: Okay, it was short and not very well written but I'm bad at updating so I decided that when I got the time, I was going to write. Tell me what you think please!