I really don't know what to say right now. This chapter is for all the TroyPay fans (so, yeah! If you're looking for a TroyElla, you're at the wrong page…sorry)..anyway, I hope you will like this chapter… ;)
And in case you're wondering about this whole Homeroom thing – where the students are asked for a project about musicals and with this chapter's content, don't worry, you'll find it out SOON (like two or three more chapters).. ;) you just have to keep reading and reviewing...
I don't own High School Musical, any Disney movies, characters, and/or songs…
And before anything else, read and REVIEW… ;)
It has been a week and Troy was keeping distance from his potential killer in the form of Sharpay. All their conversation was in the form of "look away, Bolton! Or I will slash you with my pen!" – if you could actually call that a conversation. Everywhere Troy would go, Sharpay is just around the corner and he would hide himself within the group of freshmen at East High, or pretend to be friends with strangers outside East High.
"Why don't you just talk to her, Troy?" asked Gabriella one morning, as she was putting her notebook on her locker, and taking out her physics book.
"Are you crazy, Gabriella?" Troy asked back. "Every time I look at her she would just tell me to 'look away or I'll slash you with my pen'." He added, trying to imitate Sharpay's monotonic and devilish voice.
Gabriella let out another sigh. As she was about to close her locker, Troy poked his head inside it as if he was hiding his face in his pillows. And before Gabriella could ask a word, a voice she knew too well came. "Don't hide yourself in there, Bolton!" he demanded and Gabriella could see how narrowed Sharpay's eyes were as it was pinned on to Troy's direction.
Troy let out his head. "W-who's hiding? I-I-I'm n-n-not h-h-hiding, Sh-Sharpay." He told her, trying to make his voice sound natural, but he obviously failed. He was stuttering even before he could look into Sharpay's eyes and quickly removed it at once.
Sharpay smirked at him. "Y-yeah, B-Bolton! Y-you w-weren't h-hiding!" she imitated him and both Gabriella and Troy exchanged glances. She straightened up and looked at him directly in the eye. "Listen, you stupid basketball freak!" she pointed a finger at him and Troy held up his hands as if he is being robbed. "You better not skip rehearsals today or you'll definitely be six feet under the grounds! Got that?"
"Y-y-yes." He answered instantly then looked at her with surprise. "Wait, what rehearsals are you talking about?" he asked.
'Big mistake.' was written all over Gabriella's face when he turned to her, then back to Sharpay who was eyeing him viciously. He gulped.
"Are you or are you not paying attention during Homeroom class?" she asked, almost snarling. He gulped at shook his head. "Do you read bulletin boards? Or you just pass by it and only stops when you see your face in it?" again, he shook his head.
With this, even Gabriella turned to her with eyes narrowed. "TROY BOLTON, YOU ARE SO DEAD!" they both scolded him and awkwardly faced each other and looked away in an instant.
"Don't you know how important a bulletin board is?" Gabriella asked him.
"Do you even know that bulletin boards do exist?" it was Sharpay.
"Don't you know that everything you need to know about school is on the bulletin board?" it was Gabriella again.
"Do you have any idea how miserable your life is without a bulletin board?" it was Sharpay again.
And all that he could manage was to shook his head and step backwards as the two girls are stepping forward towards him.
"Are you even a student, Troy?"
"Or your only concern is that basketball thing you have, Bolton?"
"Troy, I can't believe you!"
"I don't understand why God made you, Bolton."
"I told you to read the bulletin board every day, Troy!"
"And I still don't see why I should put you in my show, Bolton!"
"Honestly, Troy! Be a student, will you?"
"And be more aware that East High doesn't only exist for basketball, Bolton!"
"And for the millionth time, there is so much more than BASKETBALL, TROY BOLTON!" the two girls scolded him in unison once more as Troy was stopped by the sudden appearance of the wall on his back.
"Whoa! Are we missing something here?" came Chad's voice. The three of them turned to the African-American boy who was wearing his red Wildcats' jacket; in his left arm was their game ball, and on his right was Taylor's arm wrapped in his.
"What's happening here?" asked the confused-looking Taylor.
"Ask him!" both Gabriella and Sharpay answered in unison once more, pointing to Troy's direction. They quickly gave each other a glimpse and the African-American couple looked strangely at them. Chad was the first one to look to Troy's direction who was still shocked at Gabriella and Sharpay scolding him.
"What's up with them, Troy?" Chad asked him, stepping closer to him.
"Well, you see…" he started. He looked at his companions, Gabriella and Sharpay was looking away from each other, Chad was waiting for his response, and Taylor was gazing from either Gabriella and Sharpay, to him, then back to the girls. "It was all the bulletin board's fault!" he blamed it and all the four of them looked at him with amazement.
"Oh, no! You did not just blame the poor bulletin board you freakin' basketball boy!" Sharpay almost roared and together with Gabriella, they took a step closer to Troy.
"But it's true!" he defended himself. "If it wasn't for the bulletin board, you two wouldn't scold me as if you two are my mother!"
Gabriella and Sharpay opened and closed their mouth. They were found speechless by his words for a moment and instead, both the brunette and blonde girl eyed him sharply.
Gabriella shook her head and sighed. "Whatever, Troy."
"Yeah, whatever, Bolton!" Sharpay told him as well and crossed her arms. "Just be sure to show up for rehearsals or you will never see basketball again!" she added before she walked out of their sight. Troy, Chad and Taylor followed her with a gaze until she disappeared from the corner of their eyes.
"What's with the rehearsals?" Troy asked turning to Gabriella, who was looking at the floor.
"Go ask the bulletin board, Troy." She answered him, almost hissing, and vanished to where Sharpay had gone. They all followed her with a gaze.
"What's with the bulletin thing, Troy?" Chad asked, turning to Troy when the bell had rung all over East High.
For the rest of the day, neither Gabriella nor Sharpay was looking or giving a word to Troy. He wasn't comfortable with it. He was always comfortable with Gabriella persuading him to talk to Sharpay; and with Sharpay who always give him a deadly glare while telling him to 'look away, or I will kill you'.
'Fuck with that stupid bulletin board!' he silently cursed in his mind. 'Why did it even existed in the first place? Damn it! Who the fuck even invented the bulletin board?'
When he tried to approach his best friend, Gabriella, at the end of their chemistry class, his attempt failed. She quickly rushed through the door, just behind Sharpay and next to Ryan. Troy sighed in frustration.
"For the record, Troy." Taylor called out to him and Chad's hand was on his left shoulder. "Just read whatever's on the bulletin board."
Chad nodded in agreement and tapped his shoulders as the couple went out of the classroom as well.
There is only one bulletin board he saw at East High, and it was situated near their Music Room. It was actually the most prominent one because of the banners and glitters around it. He went to see what was posted on the bulletin board.
AUDITIONS ON-GOING
for the
Twinkle Towne Musicale
He shook his head upon seeing the first bulletin posted. "this is definitely not the reason why Gabriella would be mad at me, but this would be the reason why Sharpay would get mad at me… if I was a part of her Drama Club."
The next one says:
For Mrs. Darbus' Homeroom class
The last set of groupings who will perform the following:
He read the further notice on that particular bulletin post. He found his name under the first group. "Shoot!" he mumbled to himself. "This must be the reason why Gabriella and Sharpay hated me for not reading the bulletin posts."
Group 1
Bolton, Troy
Evans, Ryan
Evans, Sharpay
Montez, Gabriella
Will perform selected scene/s from: Aladdin
"Aladdin! Great! Just great!" he sarcastically muttered to himself upon reading the bulletin post. And before he could even remove his eyes on the bulletin board, his eyes caught a sight of his name written in sparkling glittery pen on a pink, and rose scented paper.
Troy Bolton,
You're one day absent from rehearsals! Don't ruin my show because if you do, you know what I'm going to do with you!
Toodles, Sharpay.
P.S. Rehearsals every 5:30 in the afternoon at our mansion.
His list on 'How To Survive A Life With Sharpay Evans' has added another rule: Always check what's on the bulletin board. (Unless you want your best friend to suddenly turn into another form of Sharpay Evans and be murdered twice).
He looked at his wristwatch that reads ten minutes till five-thirty. "Oh, shit!" he ran as fast as he can towards the gates of East High just to be at the Evans' mansion. He still wants to graduate, go to college, and definitely play basketball before he would wish to die.
At exactly one minute till five-thirty, Troy reached the gates of the Evans' mansion and saw not three figures, but four figures, entering the door of the multi-million dollar mansion. Even if he was exhausted, he forced himself to ran towards them and reached Sharpay's shoulder instead of Gabriella's. Panicked, not only did she shrieked in shock but she also punched Troy right in his nose.
Troy was on the grounds, holding his nose in pain as Gabriella and Ryan went beside him. Sharpay looked at her surrounding as if telling herself she didn't do anything. Her hands covering her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
"Oh my God, Troy." Gabriella called out, her voice was worried. "Are you alright?"
"I think so…" he weakly said. When Troy let go of his nose, a small amount of blood was on his index and middle finger.
"Oh, God! Your nose is bleeding!" Ryan declared and helped him stood up.
"Yeah, I can see that." Troy managed to answer upon standing up.
Troy and Sharpay exchanged glances for a moment before entering the mansion. Troy was assisted by Gabriella and Ryan, while Sharpay and the other girl followed them.
"Do you feel better now?" Ryan asked Troy after the bleeding of Troy's nose stopped. It has been twenty minutes past five-thirty and the five of them were at the second floor of the mansion, on their music hall.
Troy nodded. "Yeah, I feel better now. Thanks." He replied and looked at Sharpay.
Sharpay looked back at him. "What?" she asked shortly. Ryan and Gabriella looked at her as well.
"Shar, I think you owe him an apology." Ryan told her.
"WHAT?!" she yelled in disbelief. "I owe nothing to him!"
Ryan opened his mouth but distracted by Troy's sudden interruption. "Yes, you do." He told her shortly. "You owe me an apology for two days of almost being a bed-ridden when we were paired up together because, as you said, you 'accidentally' kicked my…" he aired an quote-unquote and suddenly stopped at the faces of Ryan, Gabriella, and the other girl with them as if they were intrigued with his sentence.
Sharpay eyed him fiercely as she bit her lower lip and folded her arms.
"Never mind." He told them and threw his hands in mid-air. "Let's just get this rehearsal thing done."
"The best thing I've heard from you so far, Bolton!" came Sharpay's cold voice and turned to the other girl. "By the way, this is Kelsi. She's Mrs. Darbus' composer for the Twinkle Towne Musicale and I asked for her help because I thought you wouldn't be here today." she explained and he smiled at the girl named Kelsi, who was sitting on a stool behind the piano. "And that's Troy." She told Kelsi who smiled back at him.
Ryan stood up to his twin sister's side. "Recap," he called out for Troy's attention. "Gabriella will be the production assistant, I will be the one providing the costume, Sharpay will play Princess Jasmine, and you'll be Aladdin." He explained to him shortly. "Oh, and Kelsi will be arranging the scores for the music." He added and Kelsi nodded.
"Wait. Why am I playing Aladdin?" Troy asked.
"Why not?" Sharpay asked. "Oh, on second thought!" she turned to Ryan. "Yeah, Ry! Why is Troy playing Aladdin?"
"Would you rather let Troy choose your costumes for you, Sharpay?" Gabriella asked her in a challenging tone of voice.
Sharpay looked from Ryan, then turned to Troy, and back to Ryan once more. "No." she perkily answered. "Troy doesn't know Hollywood and I wouldn't certainly want to look as lame as he is." She added, half-insulting and half-joking.
"Great!" Gabriella squeaked, standing up from her seat with hands closed from clapping her hands once. "Let's get started then."
"Right." Ryan agreed. "Kelsi?"
Kelsi smiled. "With pleasure." She answered, speaking for the first time. "Sharpay, Troy. Please come here and practice your song with me." She requested.
Sharpay went to Kelsi's direction, followed by Troy.
"I assume you're familiar with the song 'A Whole New World'?" Kelsi asked before playing the piano. Sharpay nodded while Troy shook his head.
Everyone looked at him. "I'm not much of a Disney movie fan." Troy told them.
"He's lying. That's actually one of his favorite songs." Gabriella announced them and Troy looked at her, disbelieving. "He's just too shy to sing." She added.
"You can't be that bad, Bolton!" Sharpay said.
Troy breathed deeply as Kelsi started keying the notes on the piano keys and he was waiting for his cue. He closed his eyes as Kelsi was letting him listen to the keys first. On his mind, he pictured
Sharpay as Princess Jasmine and himself as Aladdin. He imaged the two of them together journeying into another world, escaping the brutal world with the girl of his dreams, enjoying the moment with her, and just plain falling in love with each other.
"Ready, Troy?" he heard Kelsi asked. He just nodded. "In 3… 2… 1." Kelsi counted, just enough for him to hear her and he started singing, imaging the pictures he had made a while ago.
I can show you the world
Shining shimmering splendid
Tell me Princess now when did you last let your heart decide?
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us 'no'
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming
And came Sharpay's voice.
A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here it's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you
(Now I'm in a whole new world with you)
They ended up their practice song there. Ryan, Gabriella and Kelsi were all speechless upon hearing their voices together. They were in complete admiration for both Troy and Sharpay who were looking deeply in each other's eyes from the middle part of their practice song.
When Kelsi, Ryan, and Gabriella clapped their hands, Troy and Sharpay broke into each other's gaze as if they were pulled back from a dream into reality. When the two of them looked away from each other, their three other companions exchanged glances and grinned, as if they understood each other in silence or they were just thinking the same thing towards Troy and Sharpay.
"Mister and Miss Evans, and guests." The five of them turned to Jeffry, the Evans' butler. "Dinner is now ready." He announced.
"Oh, right!" Sharpay almost hissed and walked past Troy. She was almost trembling when her elbow touched Troy's skin. It was as if she was hit by electricity of the lower voltage. She decided to shook it off her head.
"Well, we'll resume the practice after dinner." Ryan announced and escorted both Kelsi and Gabriella out of their Music Room, followed by Troy.
There are two dining rooms known inside the Evans' mansion. The first one is the main dining area with a rectangular dining table with thirty people capacity; and the other one is just near the balcony on the second floor, with a circular table, with a capacity of eight to ten people.
Their dinner was brought upstairs, just like what Ryan had instructed their servants. Different meals were on the circular table. Gabriella was sitting in between Ryan and Troy, Kelsi was beside Sharpay, and Sharpay was sitting next to her twin brother, almost facing Troy's direction.
Both Troy and Sharpay were glancing up at each other in secrecy. Whenever Troy would glance up at Sharpay, he swore he caught a smile on her face – but it was too soon that he thought he was just imagining things. And whenever Sharpay would glance to Troy's direction, she swore she caught him looking in her way.
After dinner, they were offered Black Forest cake for their dessert. Sharpay refused to eat more, and told her companions that she's on a diet in an almost joking manner. She stood up and told them that she'll wait for them in the music room. Troy watched her disappear in the corner of his eyes for the second time this day.
"Troy, what are you still doing here?" Gabriella hissed over her slice of Black Forest cake. Troy merely looked at her, asking her 'what?' in silence. "Go right after Sharpay." She told him and wrinkles started forming on his forehead.
"Are you crazy?" he hissed back.
Ryan cleared his throat to get their attention. Troy and Gabriella stopped hissing.
"You know," it was Kelsi. "Troy, I think you need to practice with Sharpay so that you'll both feel at ease when you will be performing your piece during your Homeroom class with Mrs. Darbus." She suggested, although her tone was actually telling him to go right after Sharpay.
"Yeah, Troy." It was Ryan. "Besides, Sharpay wouldn't want her show to be ruined. Because if it gets ruined, you know what she'll do to all of us." His tone was the same with Gabriella and Kelsi. Three against one is really unfair, and so does his fate. He put down his fork and stood up.
"Good luck." He heard Gabriella's excitement in a hiss.
He forced a smiled on his face as he was turning to where Sharpay had vanished. He silently prayed for his life to be saved with Sharpay's after attacks. As he was nearing the door that leads to the music room, he was trembling more and more. He decided to peek first at what Sharpay was doing, because he feared the worse – I really wish that Sharpay wasn't holding a gun or a knife or anything that she could use to kill me.
A pre-recorded instrumental was being played, he saw Sharpay put her headphones while sitting on a chair and before he knew it, he was hearing her sing again.
Ooh.. ohh.. (kiss the girl)
There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don't got a lot to say but there's something about her
And you don't know why but you're dying to try you want to kiss the girl.
Yes you want her
Look at her you know you do
It's possible she wants you too there's one way to ask her
You don't take a word, not a single word go on and kiss the girl
Sha la la la la la my oh my looks like the boy's too shy ain't gonna kiss the girl
Sha la la la la la ain't that sad …
She stopped there and sighed deeply. She covered half of her face with her left hand and took off her headphones using her right hand. The pre-recorded instrumental, however, kept on playing. She waited to finish it before turning it off. Troy was left in a daze, as if the song that she just sang was actually meant for him. She doesn't say a lot of words like Gabriella and he's really dying to kiss her – again.
When Sharpay turned around, she was surprised to see him standing there. Troy snapped back to reality. "Uhm, I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here." He muttered. He was actually waiting for her to yell at him, but she was just merely looking at him. "Uhm. Nice – nice song." He said. "You – uhm – you sound really great, Sharpay."
She smirked. "Yeah right." she turned away and sat on a sofa near the piano stand, just behind where she was singing a while ago. Her hands were on her face and she looked disappointed. Troy sat to her side – he's not really sure if it's the right thing to do but he wants to cheer her up or to make her yell at him.
"Hey, that's not the Sharpay I know." He told her, faking a laughing sound but Sharpay just remained silent, still covering her face. "Sharpay…" he called just to get her attention – still, no reaction. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked her as he started touching her hand and removing it from her face.
Sharpay didn't look at him, nor gave a respond. "Look at me." He hissed but she did not do what she was told. "Come on, look at me. It's not hard to do, right?"
Sharpay sighed and gently shoved his hand. "I'm not in the mood for any jokes right now, Bolton." She told him, almost hissing, but her voice still sounded cold and monotonous.
He was studying her face – her lips were painted with pink lip gloss and her cheeks were pink, although he wasn't sure if it's natural or make-up and her eyelashes are curled up. When Sharpay became aware that he was staring at her, she became uncomfortable. "Look away, will you?" she ordered him.
But instead of doing so, Troy leaned closer to her. Sharpay wondered what he was doing and she decided to look at him. His lips were tempting and his eyes reminded her of clear blue skies that she was frozen with where she was sitting.
When Troy was close enough, that it's only a centimeter away and their noses are actually rubbing against each other's. Troy could smell her strawberry flavored lip gloss and Sharpay breathed Troy's Black Forest scent. "Sharpay, will you…" he started as he was leaning slowly but closer to her. "…let me…" just a centimeter more and his lips would be touching her lips again. "…kiss you?" he finished as their lips are colliding with each other.
review.. ;)