Gabriella grabbed the bowl of pop corn and carried it into the living room. She placed it down in front of her best friend as he was already laying comfortably on her couch. It was rare to find them anywhere else after school if there was no sports games that night, or it wasn't the weekend since they never did really go over to Jason's house.
She waited for Jason to move his feet off of the couch, but when he made no move she just sat down on top of them. They were currently in the middle of watching a movie while doing homework. Gabriella had various English papers due the following week as she had already finished her fifty questions in math; compared to Jason who hadn't even started on that.
"I don't know how you can do your homework while laying down," Gabriella commented casually while looking at him out of the side of her eye. He was laying on his back as his notebook was situated on his chest with his wrist bent stiffly to write as neat as possible.
Jason cracked a smile. "Maybe it helps that you're sitting on my sore muscles. Why don't you just massage them instead?" Jason teased as Gabriella knew he was only joking, although he wouldn't of minded if she actually did do it.
She sighed while they were quiet once more. It had been a stressful week for everyone. Basketball cuts were made drastically as only twelve guys made the varsity team, and twenty-five guys tried out. Her dad was almost always in his study the last four days making decisions, and if things got really bad and for some odd reason his memory didn't serve him right, he would ask Gabriella what she thought of one of the players.
Unsurprisingly Jason didn't get cut as the guys found out earlier in the afternoon after the last try-out session if they made it or not. But what surprised most people was that Troy Bolton is now a starting player for their school. As gossip spread on Tuesday after Monday's grueling practice day, more and more kids came throughout the week to watch Troy and Jason battle it out on the court.
Jason's laugh took Gabriella out of her thoughts once more and she looked at him funny. "How entertaining can math be?"
Jason's brown eyes looked up at hers and he gave her a toothy grin. "Not very. I was just thinking about how messed up Bolton is in the head." Gabriella gave him a pointed look as she really wasn't in the mood to talk about that again. "I mean, did you hear his answer today? He was so far off that even the teacher was puzzled by him."
"Some people aren't good at math Jase."
Jason rolled his eyes as he could sense that Gabriella wanted to change the subject. She was never the best person to talk to about Troy. She was in a sense though when he needed actual advice on what to do about him, but if he wanted to just kick back and let out his frustrations about the guy then he should just go to one of the guys on the team; although ironically now Troy is one of the guys.
"Is it weird?" Gabriella asked after a moment of silence and getting comfortable again, or as much as she could considering she was still sitting on the bottom of his legs.
"Is what weird?"
"Seeing your brother walking around school?" Gabriella just had to know. "Especially now that he's on the basketball team with you?"
Jason snapped up from his position on the couch, making Gabriella leap up and then down onto the soft cushion. "My half-brother. Half-brother!"
"Sorry," Gabriella said sarcastically. "I was just wondering how my BEST FRIEND was feeling."
Jason sighed while running his hand through his air, instantly regretting snapping at her. "I didn't mean it, okay? I'm just…"
Gabriella waited for him to finish. She wasn't just gonna let this conversation go. They had an open relationship; to the point where they could talk about anything, but it was still rare to see the two talking seriously as they liked to keep their friendship upbeat.
"Just what?"
Jason avoided Gabriella's eye sight. If anyone else heard him talking like this, they would classify him instantly as being a wimp. "I'm just…scared."
"Scared?" Not once had she ever heard him admit that. "Scared about what?"
Jason looked at her in a deadpanned kind of way. "Gabi, come on, you're not blind. That guy's really good. Everyone can see it; especially your dad."
Gabriella sighed sympathetically. "You two play two COMPLETELY different positions. You have nothing to worry about Jase." They were both silent and Gabriella worked her mind into overload. There had to be another reason why Jason was like this. "Is your dad still riding you about basketball scholarships? Does he know yet that you were looking into Eastern schools?"
"Like he cares," Jason scoffed while glaring down at the ground. Gabriella laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I'm really sorry. Maybe if you told your mom?" Gabriella suggested.
"Yeah, because that always works out. She'll probably just tell me to do what dad says so we can avoid another fight."
"Maybe my dad can help. He's usually pretty good with this kind of thing." Gabriella suggested optimistically.
"Maybe…" Jason trailed off as he just sat there.
Somewhere throughout their conversation Gabriella's hand left his shoulder blade and rubbed the top half of his back in another form of comforting. Jason didn't like the way the conversation just ended. He liked avoiding all these problems. If he had it his way he would just forget about it all together.
He forced a smile on his face as he picked up the energy he had left in him. "Let's go for a swim."
"But you don't have your swimsuit here." Gabriella pointed out right before Jason jumped up from the couch and scooped her up without warning.
"Who said anything about swimsuits?" He teased before rushing out of the room and to the backyard where Gabriella's pool was.
"You better not drop me!" Gabriella shrieked with laughter as his one hand grazed her ticklish spot on her stomach.
"Hush now Montez." Jason cooed with his own laughter as her face scrunched up and he jumped into the deep end with her in his arms.
When they both swam up to the surface, Gabriella was busy spitting out water as laughter erupted from the basketball star's mouth. "You should've seen your face Gabi."
Gabriella feigned anger. "I'll show you."
And from there a full out water war took over their minds; knocking out their conversation from before.
Troy walked down the steps limply as he had just gotten done with the last session of basketball try-outs that Thursday an hour ago. He went to the kitchen to find something to eat, but stopped as he saw his mom walk in.
"You're home early."
Lucille walked over to her boy with a huge grin on her face. She threw her arms around him. "I am so PROUD of you! I knew that you would make it." When she pulled back Troy stood awkwardly as he made a face. "Oh, I get it. You're too old for receiving hugs from your old mom."
Troy rolled his eyes. "I would hardly call you old mom, and it's not that. I never knew how out of shape I was until this week started."
Lucille pushed his bangs out of his eyes before going to put her briefcase and purse down on the table. "I'm sure everyone else is like this too."
Troy scratched the back of his neck as his eyes diverted to the window where a screeching could be heard, and then a splash.
"It's beginning to get chilly out. I hope the pool is heated." Lucille mumbled while going to stand next to Troy who's by the window.
"…Yeah." His eyes saw two heads bobbed up, and he didn't know why, but he was surprised to see Gabriella and Jason still together after school as well. It would only make sense that they were in the pool together.
"I don't think you've ever mentioned this before, but do you have any classes with Gabriella?" Troy looked at his mother before finding it a little weird that they were still watching the neighbor's daughter and his half brother dunking each other in the water.
Troy moved away and decided to just sit on the bar stool at the kitchen's island. "A few."
"She's a nice girl, isn't she?" Lucille continued to gush while still watching out the window.
"Maybe a little too nice." Troy mumbled.
"What was that? Too nice?" His mom turned around finally and looked at him curiously.
Troy shrugged his broad shoulders. "Yeah…you know? Just…she's too nice. She's always getting in between me and Cross at school." Troy said Cross with various emotions. Anger. Distaste. Hatred.
Lucille sighed. "I haven't gotten a call from the school in so long about you two fighting. If she's the reason that's preventing you two from getting expelled then why are you being so negative?"
"Because it's frustrating!" Troy exclaimed while avoiding his mother's eye. "You raised me to stand up for what I believe. So what if I believe that Jason Cross is a Jackass?"
His mother made a 'tsk sound with her tongue in annoyance to his one slip up of a cuss word, even though he's used a lot worst in the passed. "I also raised you to take the high road in life. Unfortunately for this situation, that means ignoring whatever Jason says to you."
Troy huffed while rolling his eyes.
"Right Troy?" Lucille asked in a tone that she rarely used. He met her narrowed eyes and nodded his head reluctantly.
"The high road. Right."
Jason walked into his house with an erie feeling in the pit of his stomach. The past years when he was a freshmen making the varisty team, his dad was so happy. Then when he became a sophomore, the happiness slowly faded as that was just what his dad suspected. Then the next year when he was a junior, Jason was the team's main player as Coach Montez tried to switch it up, but someimtes against harder schools, he just needed to put Jason in to win. But now Jason didn't know what to expect as this was the first year that he actually might have competition.
"Jason, is that you?!" His dad's voice called out from the den.
Jason slowly trudged his way through the entry way, living room, and down the one step to enter the den which was more of his father's study. "Yeah. It's me."
His dad didn't look up from the newspaper he was reading as he had an unreadable expression on his face. "So the parents of the varsity basketball team got an e-mail today. It was funny because for the first time I had to reread it three times. I just didn't understand it." His father continued as he didn't look his son in the eye, but instead concentrated extra hard on the newspaper in front of him. "Of course Coach Montez went through the practice schedule, game schedule, players who are from the previous year, and then new players."
Jason winced as he knew that it was too good to be true that his father wouldn't hear about this until the first game which is in three weeks.
His father laid the newspaper down with an anger in his eyes. "Troy Bolton."
It was two words. Two words that made Jason feel ashamed of himself. Two words that he grew up to hate because of the man in front of him.
"How could you let Troy Bolton play on your team? Do you know what this could mean for scholarships?" Andrew Cross spat out at his son.
Jason shrunk back, and away from his father who taught him all the wrong things growing up. "He's good dad. There's nothing I can do about that."
Andrew clicked his tongue in annoyance before lazily flicking his hand to the door. "Go practice or something. You're gonna need it if you're already saying he's good."
"Dude, now that you're on the basketball team, you have a lot more options as to who to bring to homecoming."
Troy rolled his eyes as Chad silently made a mental note that Jason and Troy did a lot of similar things.
"Who said I'm even going to homecoming? I really should focus on basketball. It's not every year that a beginner makes starting varsity." Troy pointed out as they walked to their lockers.
It had been a week and a half since Troy made the basketball team, and now in five days, on Saturday night, their school's homecoming dance was taking place where everyone is expected to dress up in costumes in spirit of Halloween that was in the next two weeks.
A couple of girls on the cheerleading squad who are juniors walk by Troy's and Chad's lockers. They giggle and say hi in a shy way.
Troy awkwardly waves to them before they rush off, and Chad chuckles under his breath. "See? You can ask ANY girl and she will fall at your feet now."
Troy grabbed his books for his first two classes. A couple of girls' voices are heard from down the hall seeing as it was pretty early for school and the buses were just starting to arrive. Troy turned his head and his eyes narrow a little as he sees the brunette who seemed to be all over school lately. He knew that she was popular, but not that popular that she would be EVERYWHERE.
"Not everyone." Troy mumbled as he knew of one girl for sure that would say no to him. That girl just happening to be best friends with Jason Cross.
Chad followed Troy's eye line. "Okay. So maybe not Montez, but she doesn't really count. But wouldn't it be awesome if you did go with her? I heard like five guys asked her already and she said no. Whoever she's waiting for is one lucky bastard. Maybe I'll ask her?" Chad asked more to himself than Troy.
"You go ahead and do that dude. She's too much work," Troy commented with a smile as he shut his locker door and leaned against it while still staring at Gabriella who was talking to Taylor and Sharpay. "Plus, I thought you liked McKessie?"
"Danforth! Bolton!" A deep voice called out as it made the hairs on the back of Troy's neck stand on end. Jason walked up with Zeke behind him; a smug smile on his face as he basked in the glow of being greeted by various female students already into the early morning. "Zeke's parents are out of town homecoming night. He's hosting a party for the upper classmen after the dance since that's pretty lame. You in?"
Troy was shocked. He was more than shocked as he looked at Chad for less than a second and then Zeke who had an easy going smile on.
"My cousin's bringing a keg or two. Should be okay with my hot tub and all too." Zeke smiled.
"You two in?" Jason asked with an unfaltering urgency.
Troy didn't notice that Gabriella came up behind Jason yet as she took Zeke's spot who wandered off down the hall to greet his girlfriend Sharpay, and then Taylor.
"Why?" Troy asked warily. It just didn't make sense that Jason would be inviting him to a party. Sure Troy had been to a couple of parties, but he generally didn't like the whole drinking scene with the police showing up as early at midnight.
Jason rolled his eyes, but before he could answer the Co Captain of the cheer squad cut in. Gabriella spoke with a soft voice. Softer than what Tory's ever heard her use when around him and Jason in the same room, or hallway.
"It'll be really fun. We could all use some unwinding time before school gets even more hectic, right?"
Just hearing her voice ticked him off as he had to wonder if she was always so nice. "Dude, you're part of the basketball team now. It's time to start acting like it and by acting like it; that means team bonding." Jason reasoned with a glint in his eye.
"And by bonding we drink?" Troy asked sarcastically.
"Right." Jason said with a tight smile as he tried to stay pleasant for at least a couple of more minutes until there weren't other students swarming around with teachers around the corners. "You in?" He challenged.
Troy narrowed his eyes to match. It might be a bad idea. His mom wouldn't approve, but he was done letting Jason think that he was winning. "Hell yeah."
"Right. Danforth knows where Baylor lives."
With that Jason was gone and Gabriella hesitated between the two groups as Jason joined Zeke, Sharpay, and Taylor.
"Um…I don't think we officially met. I'm Gabriella." Gabriella held out her hand to Chad as he shook it with a bright smile on his face.
"Danforth. Chad Danforth." Troy had to hold in a snort of a laugh.
Gabriella looked at Troy next as she held out her hand. Maybe Jason asking Troy to the party was a good sign. After all they had been practicing together after school everyday for almost two weeks, and they are starting in the first game together. It would only make sense if they got along off the court.
Troy gripped her hand and let up on it as he realized he wasn't shaking Jason's hand, and taking his hate out on Gabriella wasn't a good idea; even if she was Jason's best friend.
"Troy Bolton. I've been your neighbor for the past ten years." His voice came out bitter.
Gabriella retracted her hand quickly after that comment, and she knew her face showed that she was upset at how rude Troy was. She could feel Jason's eyes studying her intently as he probably was just bidding his time to step in, but she could handle one rude boy. God knew that she had been on plenty of dates with rude boys.
But she kept her cool instead. The bigger, nicer part in her figured she at least owed it to him since all that Jason had put him through.
"That's right. I've seen you playing basketball a couple of times. You're really good." She commented.
"I also don't need people defending me against their little jackass of a boyfriend." Troy snarled.
Gabriella took a moment to process what he meant and then realized that he was probably talking about all the times she had interfered with Jason and his little snide comment contests.
Her eyes narrowed, but quickly went back to normal as she played it off as a little joke and forced a laugh. "You think Jason is my boyfriend? No. Not in a million years."
Chad laughed along with Gabriella to make it less tense as he 'accidentally' kicked Troy in the leg when Gabriella wasn't looking.
"So are YOU going to the dance?" The afro clad boy asked.
Gabriella looked at the ground and Troy looked her over closely. She was petite with the big brown eyes that looked so innocent, but Troy was guessing they could turn from innocent and pure to a wild vixen in seconds. Her long brunette hair was curled perfectly as it framed her flawless face. She really was beautiful, but that doesn't mean he liked her; especially since she was always so nice. What was up with that?
"Um…" She looked up within seconds. "I really wasn't planning on it. The party though sounds fun."
Troy stayed silent as his best friend chatted with her. "You have to go. Everyone's voting for you to become our Homecoming Princess."
"What about you guys?" Gabriella changed the questioning off of her and just stuck to her original question.
Gabriella looked at Chad. "It's like mandatory to wear costumes. How many times do you get to do that? Plus, I'd go if you went."
Gabriella blushed while looking at Troy now. "What about you Troy?"
"I'm not one for dances. Especially costume ones." His answer was short. His answer was blunt. His answer cut to the chase. For some reason she was still taken aback by it.
"Gabi, let's go! We have things to do!" Jason shouted from down the hall.
Gabriella looked back at Troy and Chad as if she was apologetic. "See you guys around. Maybe at the dance?" She hinted before she disappeared into the throng of people heading to their homerooms.
Troy jogged into his house to grab two Gatorades, but stopped once again as he saw his mom walking down the hallway to drop off her keys on the hook they kept in their kitchen.
"You're home early again." He commented.
She greeted him with a smile as she would go near him, but he was all sweaty. "I have to get use to coming home early on game nights, so why not start early? Is Chad staying for dinner?"
Troy shrugged lazily. "You know Chad. As long as food is involved, he's always around."
Lucille laughed. "Pizza sound okay?"
"Sausage?"
"When do we ever have anything but sausage?" Lucille retorts with a smile while pulling out two frozen pizzas from their freezer.
Troy hopped up on the counter as he decided now that they're already in a casual atmosphere, he should really tell her what's going on Saturday night.
"Um…so homecoming is Saturday."
Lucille glanced behind herself as she fussed around with the oven settings. "Oh?" She sounded interested enough as she was playing the cool mom role, as she didn't want to sound too interested. "Did you ask anyone to go?"
"That's the thing. I have no idea if I'm going or not. It sounds kind of lame, and if it's anything like sophomore and freshmen year then it's gonna be."
"It's your last homecoming honey. You don't want to miss it, do you?" She asked as she turned to look at him.
"Well…afterward, no matter if I go or not there's this team bonding thing at one of the guys' house. So I'm gonna be late getting in." Troy said as he avoided the truth fully.
"How late?" She smiled as she saw her son try to work his way around getting out of the truth of the story. She's thirty-five. She still remembers lying to her parents and making up stories to go to after parties.
"Um…twelve…one at the latest. You know…it depends on what we do." He tried to play it off casually.
"Uh huh."
Troy hopped off of the counter and started his way to the back door. "Great."
"Oh Troy?" His mom called before he could fully exit. Troy bit his lip nervously as he turned back to look at her. "Make sure you have a designated driver."
He smiled at her as he knew he was caught. "Will do."
He rushed down the steps and over to Chad who was sitting down on the grass. Troy tossed him his drink before dumping his drink onto the ground and picking up his basketball.
"You know, I've been thinking." Troy shot the ball as they both watched it sail into the net. "Maybe going to the dance won't be so bad after all."
"Oh really? You've been thinking that?" Chad mocked with a laugh. It was very true however as Troy didn't go the previous year. He was like most guys. He didn't have a girlfriend at the time, so why get dressed up when he could be doing something else? Plus, for some other reason he wasn't to sure about, he just didn't like going to dances. They just weren't appealing to him.
"Yeah. I figure how hard is it to throw on a costume you're only gonna wear once? If other guys can do it, then why can't I?" Troy grabbed his rebound as he dribbled it back behind the three point line. "Plus I heard from some of the players on the team that Baylor has a sweet home. So the party hopefully won't be dull."
Chad knew exactly who he was talking about. He was talking about Jason as he mentioned 'other guys'.
"You know Cross is just looking for trouble." Chad stated.
Troy shot the ball. "Yeah? Well…he invited us, and I'm not backing down."
"And to think that you two are actually brothers. "Chad chided.
Troy glared before shooting his rebound violently. "We're half-brothers. Nothing more, and unfortunately nothing less."
Author's note--I want to thank EVERYONE for reviewing. I love them, and I know this story is one to get me back into the groove of just writing Troyella, I don't want you guys to think I'll be updating as much as I have with the first three chapters. I'm very busy, and this is just the story I write when I feel a craving coming along for some Troyella fluff and romance. I'm gonna be starting my sequel to Love In Disguise pretty soon, and even though that won't be updated often because of school, that one is my first priority.
So I want to say a few things. 1) If you've every seen One Tree Hill then you might recognize that the plot is resembling slightly. Two brothers, connected by one dad. And then of course there is a girl who is friends with one, and then ends up marrying the other. Well...trust me, there's no marriage yet. And my story is going to be different. There's not gonna be jumpng from one character to the other. I'm not gonna have one of the brothers take drugs. In conclusion of my little rant, my story is gonna be different!
2) I'm gonna try to speed up the process of Troy and Gabriella getting together. I've noticed that some of my readers don't like to prolong it any longer than necessary, which I totally agree when it comes to these types of stories that just focus on Gabriella and Troy. So I don't know how long this story is going to last, and I really, truly don't know what's gonna happen in it. In these types of stories, I just write whatever comes to mind while I'm in school. I usually get my muse there, and then come back and write the next chapter.
3) Reviews are good people. And I really appreciate them. Also, If you have any questions at all, just review me or pm me or whatever, and I'll try my best to answer. Thanks.
