Where Courage Ignites

8. Games

January 12th, 2018

This morning, I was woken by the sensation of object being placed at the foot of my bed. I opened my weary eyes in time to spot my mother departing from my room. I glanced down to the object a few inches away from my feet and quickly discovered it to be a new makeup set just for myself. I smiled and eagerly threw its lid open, burying my hands in the loose containers of palates, brushes, and lipsticks.

After I was dressed, wearing make up, and my hair done up, I tiptoed down the stairs. I checked to make sure the coast was clear and headed towards the front door when my father unexpectedly came back in through the door with the morning paper in his hands.

We locked eyes and I stiffly tried to turn away. He yelled, "I see you, Gabriella!"

My mother joined my side, nervously wringing her hands in front of her. "Honey!" She greeted him.

"What is Gabriella doing with that on her face?" He put his fist on his hip and jutted his lower jaw forward.

"Oh." Her shoulders caved forward in defeat. "I suppose it was about time you found out."

My father addressed me. "What's wrong with your face?"

"What?" I asked, totally lost.

"What is so wrong with your face that you feel the need to cover it up with make up?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

My mother answered for me. "You know it's nothing like that, David. Wearing make up is a rite of passage for a young woman, something you just wouldn't understand.

"I agree that our daughter is beautiful and certainly doesn't need makeup, like anyone needs it. At the end of the day, it's her face. She gets to choose what to do with it and doesn't need her father to shame her. Is she hurting anyone? No. Now excuse us, we're running late." She grabbed my arm and led me out to the car without hearing another word from my father.

Taylor and I placed our trays down on the table at the same time and took our seats next to each other. I let her get situated for a moment before I asked, "Do you have any plans tonight?"

"Well," she said while placing a napkin on her lap, "I was going to go to the school carnival."

"School carnival? We have one of those?"

"Of course!" She laughed. "There are flyers for it everywhere, haven't you noticed? It's only for this weekend. I was going to go tonight. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah! That sounds like fun!"

I felt a buzz in my pocket, so I checked my phone.

Troy: Hey, would you mind putting off studying until Sunday? There's some stuff I wanted to do this weekend.

That's fine! I responded, I'll see you Sunday. :)

My mother dropped me off just outside the fences surrounding the parking lot where the carnival was taking place. I quickly texted Taylor, I'm by the entrance. I paced the sidewalk while others passed by me to enter the grounds. After a few minutes, I spotted Taylor. We greeted each other and joined the line for the ticket booth. After a little while, we could finally enter the carnival grounds from beneath a massive arch of balloons. We stood in awe at the countless games we could try. There were ring tosses, rubber duckies, whack-a-mole, plinko, etc.

Taylor trailed off; "We could…" she looked around and was struck with indecision like me.

Barely visible through the long line to the funnel cakes, I spotted a familiar group sporting their usual white and red varsity jackets. I suggested, "We could hang out with Troy's group." I pointed toward the team and Taylor followed my finger to see them.

Taylor scoffed, "Yeah, right."

"Why not?" I took a step towards them.

"Gabriella," she grabbed my arm to hold me back. "I don't want to talk to them."

"Why not? Don't you want to talk to Chad?"

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm scared."

"There's no reason to be afraid. You'll be fine. I'll be there with you the whole time, I promise." I hooked my arm with hers and began walking with her towards the guys.

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this." Taylor shook her head, but kept her pace with me well.

Troy and Chad had already broken off from the group and were at a baseball pitching game when I interrupted, "That looks easy."

Troy looked over his shoulder at me, his wound up pitch frozen in the air. "You think so?" He smirked, hurling the baseball. It forcefully hit and dented the wood next to the bull's eye with a loud smack!

"Need some help?" I teased and Chad laughed.

"If you're so confident you can make it," he challenged me and tossed over one of the baseballs.

I took the ball into my hands and stood where he had been, directly in front of the bull's eye. I wound up my throw and Troy observed, "That's a unique form." I mistakenly went to throw it while giggling and the ball curved out of my hand and headed straight for the game operator waiting by the side.

I put my hands over my mouth in surprise. "I'm so sorry." I turned back to find Chad, Taylor, and Troy laughing at my failed attempt. "That was just practice! Let me go again," I pleaded to Troy. "Can I go again?"

He hesitantly agreed, "I guess." I wound my arm back again, when I felt something touch it. "Hold up," Troy said, gently lowering my arm. "We have to fix your form."

"What's wrong with my form?"

"Here, watch. You want to stand sideways to the target, like this," he placed his hands on my hips from behind me and positioned them perpendicular to the wall. "Okay?" He removed his hands. "Then before you throw it, put your knee up high, then lean into the throw when you step down. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah." I held the ball close to my chest, spotting the tiny target on the board.

"Put your knee up real high," Troy coached me. "Just like they do in the movies."

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting the bells and rings of the other stations fade away as I focused. I lifted my foot up from the asphalt as Troy instructed, replaced it on the ground and leaned into the throw, my eyes following it as it hurled right for the red bull's eye. Our stationed joined the others in a rejoicing tune of triumph as the lights flashed and the station worker handed me a prize.

Taylor cheered, "Yay, Gabby! Woo!" as Troy and Chad clapped.

"Here, it's yours." I held out the small stuffed rabbit by its oversized belly to Troy.

He shook his head. "You won it, you should keep it."

"Nonsense! I used your turn. Please, take the bunny."

Troy took the little stuffed animal and said, "Well then I have to win you one now."

Chad impatiently sighed and said to Taylor, "We're going to be here awhile."

"Let's do something that's more up my alley," Troy sent a nod to Chad and waved him forward. Chad joined Troy as they led Taylor and I from the last game, talking out a plan amongst each other. Troy nodded towards the game of the line we joined, a simple basketball shooting set up. Soon enough it was their turn, so they approached the bottom of the game and stood side by side, each wielding an orange basketball and preparing to shoot it. The start buzzer sounded and the game operator yelled, "Go!"

They quickly shot their baskets and blindly grabbed for more balls as they slowly rolled down the ramp. They were in perfect synchronization for a few shots before Troy's slowly started overpassing Chad's rhythm. Before we knew it, the operator announced. "Stop! Good job, boys! I think we might have two winners today." The frumpy man in his oversized red and white checkered jacket dug his hands into a trunk. He exposed a stuffed teddy, white in color with a red heart stitched onto its chest. "For the winner, a perfectly huggable teddy bear named…Teddy."

Troy took the bear, then turned around to find me and said, "It's yours."

I slowly stepped towards him, reaching my hand forward and wrapping my fingers around the bear's soft arm. "Thank you," I said, taking the bear from him and holding it close to my chest.

Next, the man handed off a long, stuffed green snake to Chad and said, "For second best, a slithering serpent whose name escapes me, here you go."

Taking the long stuffed animal, Chad looked at it peculiarly for just a moment. Suddenly, he turned towards Taylor and asked her, "Does he look like a Hank to you?"

"Hmm," she took the snake's small head in her hands. "More like a Gregory."

"Gregory," Chad repeated. He grabbed Gregory by the back of the neck and began making him slither up Taylor's arm. "Gregory," Chad said, "c'mon man. Knock it off. Personal space."

Taylor laughed as Chad reached her neck with the snake and its little red tongue began tickling her.

Chad guided Gregory all the way around Taylor's other arm so that it rested around her neck like a scarf. "I think he likes you."

"Does he like Gabriella?" Taylor said teasingly, positioning her hand under its head and bringing it close to me.

I squealed in mock disgust and held my stuffed bear out for protection before retreating behind Troy.

While we laughed, a group of girls passing by abruptly halted and joined us. "Hey Troy," a strikingly blonde one spoke.

"Hi Sharpay," Troy responded politely, but judging by his rigid stance, he was uncomfortable speaking with the girl.

"How have you been?" She batted her eyes. "We don't talk much anymore."

"Yeah, I'm just busy." Troy reached a hand behind his head and began rubbing his neck, seemingly tense.

"I see," she looked at me. "Is this your," she trailed off.

"Umm, this is my friend Gabriella and her friend Taylor."

"Sharpay Evans," she reached out a hand to me. As she shook my hand she mentioned, "Troy and I dated before." I nodded in response, unsure how else it was expected of me to respond.

A cheerful voice from behind me said, "Is that Sharpay?" I turned around to find a brunette, middle-aged woman dashing up to us with a man trailing behind.

"Mrs. Bolton!" Sharpay said, opening up her arms to greet the woman with a hug.

"How are you, dear?" The woman excitedly asked her.

"I'm well, Mrs. Bolton. How are you?"

"Just running around after Troy, as always." The women laughed.

One of the girls Sharpay was with grew impatient, saying, "Sharpay, we're going to go ahead."

"Wait," she ordered sternly.

The group of girls all crossed their arms in protest.

"I should go," Sharpay said to Mrs. Bolton. "It was great running into you."

Mrs. Bolton said, "Of course, don't be a stranger. You're welcome over anytime, dear."

"Thank you, Mrs. Bolton." They hugged each other once again and the blonde and her posse left. I let my eyes follow them as they strutted away, wondering if that was still Troy's type.

"Are you one of Troy's new friends?" I twisted my head and found Mrs. Bolton was addressing me.

"I – yes, I'm Gabriella."

"Gabriella?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Oh, so you're Gabriella!" Her eyes lit up in excitement.

"Yes," I repeated.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Gabriella. Troy's mentioned you."

"He has?" I asked incredulously.

Mrs. Bolton softly laughed, "Yes."

Troy cut in, "Isn't anyone else hungry? I'm starving."

"Me too!" Chad said.

Mr. Bolton, a man I vaguely recognized from the school hallways, said, "Take some of our food tickets, Troy. There should be enough for you and your friends." He dug into his jean pocket and took out a small roll of yellow tickets.

"Thanks, dad." Troy took them.

"Thank you, Mr. Bolton." Chad chimed in.

Troy began leading us away from his parents and towards the food stands, the smells of sugary funnel cakes and savory hot dogs quickly overwhelming my senses.


A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Do you make anything of Troy and Gabriella winning each other prizes, or his discomfort around Sharpay? I'd love to know what you think.