Alright, guys, there's bad and there's good news. The bad news is that I still haven't written the last chapter of 'First Bad Habit'. Sad, I know, and I don't even want to know how many of you hate me right now, but it's seriously not something I can control. Things have been a mess after I came back from Berlin, because !finally! my room's finished, so I spent the last days cleaning it out and decorating it again.
The good news, however, is that this is the second chapter of 'Enemies or Lovebirds' and I gladly present it to you. It's a poor substitute, I know, but at least it's something. I'd be very happy if you'd review this piece, too, just so you know. By the way, did you already listen to Ashley Tisdale's 'Guilty Pleasure'? I just got the album and it's absolutely amazing!!! The songs definitely are fourteen steps in the right direction, eighteen if you count the bonus tracks you can receive on the German version. The funny thing is: I'm from Germany and I have got the American… strange.
Again, I'm sorry for all potential mistakes I made. Just remember that this was the first story I've ever written and I haven't rewritten it that much. Hope you enjoy it! It is dedicated to both Nicole and Krystina (come up with a nickname for me yet?). Thanks for all the support you constantly show me and all the help I've received from you and hope to further receive in the future. I'll write to you as soon as this chapter is posted.
Disclaimer: This is a derivate piece of fiction featuring characters copyrighted and trademarked by Disney Enterprises Inc. It is based upon High School Musical, copyright 2006 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved; and High School Musical 2, copyright 2007 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved and High School Musical 3, copyright 2008 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved. The author is not connected with nor is this work authorised by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., or any other motion picture studios. This work is solely intended for posting on Fanfiction, for the benefit and enjoyment of its intended audience. No commercial or financial benefit accrues or is intended to accrue to the author as a result of said posting. Any unauthorised copying or redistribution of this work might subject the party responsible for such unauthorized copying or redistribution to legal action by the owners of the aforementioned copyrights and trademarks.
Recap of the last chapter:
Troy shook his head to get rid of his thoughts about Gabriella. He really didn't want to spend the rest of the night thinking about the person he hated with passion. Especially, when she had just made a fool out of him in front of the entire population of East High. Shaking his head, he headed to the bar to grab himself a beer. There he saw Amber standing, looking slightly exhausted because of the fight with Gabriella. Changing his mind about the beer, he grabbed her by the hand instead and took her over to one of the sofas standing in the room. A good make out session would the best to forget about his ex-girlfriend, he decided. And Amber was more than willing to be the person Troy Bolton had decided to make out with.
So, being occupied with some other things than thinking, he finally was able to ban every memory of Gabriella from his mind. And if it was his choice, he'd do everything to make things stay this way.
Chapter two: School's starting
Taylor and Sharpay traded an alarmed look. What to do now? In all of these years of the two of them hating each other they had never seen anything like this. Bringing up Sophomore Year, how could Troy possibly have dared?
They were not the only ones to think that way. Chad put his arm around Taylor, as if trying to protect her from witnessing a scene like that again, and whispered in her ear: "Since when do they mention Sophomore Year again?" Unbelieving he shook his head at Troy, who was still occupied with making out with Amber.
Taylor, not being able to answer his previous question, followed his gaze and gaped at the shocking sight. "No freaking way!", she exclaimed, fuming. "One minute he fights with Gabriella and makes her leave the party, the next he's already making out with some random slut? I can't believe him!"
Ready to storm over to him and tell him a few things Troy wouldn't have appreciated, she huffed dangerously and made an attempt to do what she was longing for, as Sharpay, seeing what her friend was up to, grabbed her at the elbow and stopped her. "Don't you think it's been trouble enough in the last half an hour? I mean, without you storming over and punch him right away."
Incredulously Taylor looked at Sharpay. "You can't be serious, Shar! This is about Gabs and you're hesitating to blow up into Bolton's face?" Sharpay sighed heavily. "Believe me, Taylor, there's nothing I'd prefer more, but I think we really need to look after Gabs. I don't know what she's feeling like with him mentioning it and everything."
Taylor blushed. Damn it, why hadn't she thought about that one? After all, Gabriella would always come first for her, even if the other person was Troy Bolton, basically king of the whole school. However, for Taylor he had lost a lot of his status of being king, after he had done that awful thing to Gabriella in Sophomore Year. In her opinion, Gabriella would have every right to never talk to him again. Which was what Gabriella basically did.
She hadn't heard the two of them exchanging one normal word in all the time they had been separated. If they had seen each other it had either been ignoring the other one or starting a fight with him. This had led to various arguments that hadn't been very pretty to watch.
And after each and every one of them Gabriella hadn't been in the best of moods. In fact, she had become quite scary, which was the reason no one dared to cross her way after a fight. Sometimes pupils feared her more than the ice queen herself if she was in one of her moods.
But not once had Gabriella let herself loose and cried after that. Nevertheless, none of the fights had been including the subject "Sophomore Year". Until now. And Taylor had the feeling that that had finally pushed Gabriella over the edge.
Freeing herself from Chad's grasp after throwing an apologetic look towards him – he just shrugged in understanding – she made her way to the stairs and hurried them up as quickly as she could, Sharpay trailing directly behind her. The party could wait, Gabriella was way more important.
Zeke was still looking the direction Troy had vanished. He shook his head, unbelieving what had occurred in the last past minutes. However, he turned around as he felt a hand being laid on his shoulder. There was Ryan standing behind him, showing a very confused face. "Did something happen?", he asked attentively, as Zeke looked at him in pure shock. Trust Ryan to miss something big like that.
Chad rolled his eyes at Ryan and looked up the stairs. Should he follow the girls? After all Gabriella had become something like a sister to him when she had started going out with Troy. And he knew that to her he was like the big brother she had never had. He looked over to Zeke, who encouraged him with a small smile. Sighing, Chad made his way up the stairs.
Upstairs, Taylor and Sharpay were standing in front of Shar's room, desperately trying to get a word out of Gabriella, who could be heard sobbing nearly hysterically from the other side of the door. "Gabs! Gabriella! Is it alright if we come in? Please, say something!", Sharpay begged. Taylor regarded her surprised. Never had she seen the blonde so caring about another girl than herself.
Gabriella, however, was still not answering, as she couldn't restrain herself from crying. Giving it up to get a word out of her mouth, she lifted herself from the bed and made her way to the door, step by step. Tears still streaming, she opened the door carefully, only to immediately be engulfed into a hug by her two best friends.
"Oh, Gabs!", Taylor whispered into her ear. "It's okay, everything's alright, shhh!" She tried to comfort her best friend, which obviously wasn't working well, seeing as Gabriella just started to cry even heavier. Taylor threw Sharpay a helpless look that was answered by a shrug. Inertly sighing, Taylor guided Gabriella over to Sharpay's bed. It was going to be a long night.
Ten minutes later, as Gabriella had finally calmed down – at least so far that she could speak again -, she looked up with red eyes. Taking in the view of her two best friends standing in front of her with worried looks on their faces, she had to fight with herself not to cry again. It wasn't helping. Tears filling her eyes again, she tried her best to contain them, but broke down in tears again. Sophomore Year. That was all that filled her head at the very moment. That of all years in which she had been at East High. The year she wanted to forget most, the one she had wanted to pretend to never have happened. But life obviously didn't work that way.
"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!", she sobbed into Taylor's shoulder, flinging her arms around the brunette sitting next to her. She couldn't believe that he had brought it up. Did he want her to suffer? At this moment, there was only one answer to that question: Absolutely!
The two girls watching her thought exactly the same thing. Both, not knowing what actually had happened in their second year at East High, exchanged one look. Maybe Gabriella was ready to open up about that, maybe the confrontation with Troy had been precisely that what she had needed.
"Do you want to talk about it, Gabs?" Sharpay asked attentively, approaching the bed and sitting down on it. Surrounded by the two people that meant so much to her, Gabriella finally found a way to restrain herself from crying. However, she was not ready to talk about Sophomore Year. She was surprised anyway that Troy hadn't already told them. After all, they did speak to him.
Although they had been very close to end their friendship with him, after the day Gabriella had broken up things with him. Though not knowing what had happened, they immediately had taken Gabriella's side, blaming Troy for the things gone wrong. Gabriella, never having had such good friends, had been so grateful, but yet told them to not break the friendship between them and Troy. The whole thing wasn't worth it, she had decided after many days of suffering. All that counted was that Sharpay and Taylor were there for her. She wasn't sure what Troy would have told them if they had taken his side, but certainly not the truth.
To be honest, now that she thought about it, she was sure he hadn't even told Chad or any of his other mates. Otherwise it would have only taken five minutes for the news to go around the entire school. Gossiping was East High's favourite thing to do, although sports came to a close second.
But Gabriella was obliged that the reason why East High's so called 'Golden couple' was over had stayed in the dark. Until then she always had believed in the fact that gossip always made a mountain out of a molehill, but now she knew better. Not one of the rumours she had heard until now about their break-up had even come close to the real reason and not one of them had been as horrifying as the truth.
She looked up, as she heard someone knock on Sharpays's bedroom door. Shar strutted over, ready to blow up into everyone's face who had the nerve to disturb them. But instead of hitting someone, she gave a slight gasp. "Chad!", she exclaimed and then nervously looked over her shoulder. "I don't think Taylor is free at the moment."
Chad gave a short snort. "Shar, for once I don't want to make out with my girlfriend. Although the thought is very tempting.", he added, grinning. Sharpay rolled her eyes and Chad got serious. "Can I talk to Gabriella?" He really felt like he should be there for her, especially because it had been Troy upsetting her.
Sharpay gave a small smile and gave way for him to walk in. The instant Chad saw that Troy hadn't only upset Gabriella, but also brought her to tears, he cursed silently. He didn't know what his mate had done nearly two years ago, but it had to have been awful. Sometimes Chad asked himself why exactly he was still Troy's friend without questioning the goings in Sophomore Year, and this particular moment was surely one of them.
"Oh, Gabs!", he rushed over and engulfed her into a hug. "Chad!" Taylor sounded appreciating. She really didn't know what to do anymore, but she was sure that Chad would find a way to bring everything back on track. Well, maybe not everything, but the most important things.
Chad threw his girlfriend a questioning look, but Taylor couldn't give him any information.
And Gabriella certainly didn't intend on doing so. Therefore, Chad didn't say a thing as he continued to hug Gabriella. But, he silently swore to himself, he definitely would find out what was going on between his little sister and his best friend. After all, they couldn't go on hating each other forever and somewhere along the line, he was sure, one of them would break and tell what had happened.
Although he slightly did start to doubt his theory after Gabriella suddenly sat up. "Okay, guys, enough crying for today. That git down there doesn't deserve one single tear!" Surprised by the sudden change of things, Taylor jolted up in shock and Chad nearly fell over the edge of the bed.
Sharpay, however, smiled widely. That was the Gabriella she knew, the girl who never gave up to reach whatever her aim was, the girl who never backed off, the girl who fought Troy Bolton, though he had crushed her a few years ago. And that was the girl Sharpay liked most. It wasn't that she didn't like Gabriella when she sometimes showed her weakness, but Sharpay wasn't very good with emotions if they were sad ones. And the Gabriella she liked most was most likely never sad. And that meant lots of fun, partying and – of course – shopping.
Except for that it was impossible to go downstairs again and get on with partying like the incident never happened. And it also wasn't possible to go shopping now, seeing as the clock already showed eleven pm. But what was very possible was having fun. And Sharpay figured that that was what Gabriella needed most at the moment.
So she shooed Chad out of her room and slammed the door forcefully behind him. Not caring about Taylor's protest, she picked up her cell phone and texted Ryan to make sure every guest had left the house after the party downstairs had ended. Even if he had to drum them off.
Then she turned around, looking at the two girls watching her intently. "Now, let's get our own party started!" Gabriella broke into a smile. In a way, Sharpay really was the best friend one could ever have, even if she sometimes seemed to be a bit insensitive.
*
The sun was rising again after the long night filled with fun and little sleep. The day promised to be a very good one, at least concerning the weather. The leaves on the trees shone from the sunlight, reflecting it, so that it fell through the window of Sharpay's bedroom and straight on Gabriella's face.
The girl ungraciously turned her body, so she was lying on her back, not on the side, on which she had been sleeping for the few hours that had been left before they had to get up and go to school. School. The word floated in Gabriella's mind and sank in. Damn!
In one swift motion, the brunette was up on her feet and looked around the room. Her two best friends were still sleeping peacefully, Sharpay in her bed, Taylor on a mattress that had been laid in the room after all three of them had decided that it was too late to stay up any longer. Gabriella quickly searched the room for a clock, until she realised that she wore a watch. Trust her to forget something like that in such early hours.
And it really was still early, Gabriella saw with a sigh of relief. They hadn't overslept like she had feared. Thank God! It wouldn't have been pretty to already get into detention on their first day of school after summer holidays. Which reminded her of the fact that she urgently had to get home because she had forgotten to bring clothes for school. And she wasn't very fond of the idea to turn up in her party clothes. As a first, it would get her a detention the instant she entered the school building and as a second, the boys attending East High weren't exactly known for their shyness when it came to girls with hot outfits.
Shuddering at the very thought of that, Gabriella carefully made her way to Sharpay's desk – it was painted in pink, what else – to write a note, so her friends wouldn't worry about her when they woke up. And she didn't want to wake them, either. Sharpay could get really scary if someone woke her up, even if she could have slept for additional five minutes.
Hastily having scribbled a message on a piece of paper, Gabriella left the Evans' household to drive home in her car. Turning up in the driveway, Gabriella realised that her mom's car wasn't there. Obviously she still was on her business trip. Hadn't she said she would be home at her first day of Senior Year?
Shrugging, Gabriella searched for her house key. Finding it in one of her pockets, she grabbed it and opened the door. The instant she entered the house, she saw the red button on the telephone blink. There was a new message on the answering machine.
Pressing the button for replay, Gabriella ascended the stairs, the voice of her mom filling the house. "Gabby, darling, I'm so sorry, but I can't come home for another two weeks. You know how much I'd love to come home, but there's this contract that hasn't been signed yet and it really is important. So please don't be angry with me. Money's where it always is. Miss you, honey. Mom."
Gabriella just sighed. Of course there was a contract. There always was an unsigned contract which was important. Not to be unfair Gabriella admitted that she knew her mother didn't want to be away from her. It was just that her company requested a lot from their employees and it wouldn't help to not obey the officer. Otherwise, Mrs. Montez would have to fear to be dismissed.
Changing her clothes, Gabriella already thought about school. How would school be, with being a senior and all of that stuff? Not to forget that she was member of the decathlon team and the captain of the dancing squad, that she intended on leading to state championship. It definitely was going to be a very busy school year. A fact that didn't exactly lift her mood, which had sank abruptly, after hearing the message her mom had left.
*
Ten minutes later Gabriella sat in her car, on her way to school. Letting music blast out of the stereo boxes of her cabriolet, she leaned back and tried to relax herself. The air was warm, after all it was only a few weeks after midsummer, and so Gabriella had opened the roof of the car. Her hair was flying in the air stream and the sun shone upon her face.
Relishing the sunbeams, Gabriella turned up at East High. Searching the school's parking lot for a free spot, she caught one, right before a boy in a metallic blue car. The boy honked, as he recognized Gabriella. It was Christopher Bell, the captain of the football team. She had gotten to know him quite well in the last school year, but they weren't a couple. Actually, they were nowhere close to being a couple, as they had tried it with each other, but had both decided that they were better of as friends.
Gabriella smiled apologetically and Christopher or Chris as he was called by most of his team mates, waved back. He wasn't upset that she had taken his chosen spot. The only annoying thing was that now he would have to search for one out of the school grounds. Sighing, he turned his car and drove off fast to make it to home room in time.
Being able to log-off for a short moment, Gabriella allowed herself to just sit in her car for a few more minutes. She really wasn't in the mood to face East High's population, especially after yesterday night. Remembering what had happened, her bad mood that hadn't completely worn off during the car ride came back to her. Great! That was totally the way she had wanted to start her last year at High School, Gabriella thought bitterly to herself.
Anyways, sitting in the car wouldn't make things any better. So she opened her car door and stepped out of it. Searching for any familiar faces she wandered over to the main building. She was wondering about the teacher they would get for home room this year. She desperately hoped that it wouldn't be Mrs. Darbus again. The feared teacher had defrosted a little bit after she had gotten a salary raise in Sophomore Year, but still hadn't made her way on Gabriella's list of favourite teachers.
Gabriella sighed as she pushed open the big white doors to East High School. Her already bad mood was sinking to the absolute freezing point as she spotted Troy and Amber, the head of the cheerleading squad and Gabriella's worst enemy, kissing, or in her opinion, making out, in the hallway, not caring about any school rules against PDA. Gabriella shuddered as she thought about the two most popular teenagers next to her swapping their spit. As a result of that she didn't even attempt to smile as she felt the eyes of a good two hundred people being directed at her. She just kept her head down, moving through the crowd and stealing side glances at the people that moved to give her space.
Again she sighed heavily. It hadn't always been like that, of course it hadn't. When she had started school at East High over two years ago she had been nothing but the shy, studious girl that had gone unnoticed by the jocks and popular pupils. She would bump into one of them and carelessly be thrown to the ground without even being acknowledged. Or she would try to do her homework the best she could with the most effort she had ever made, only to have it stolen by one of the more popular students who didn't make any at all.
But then, however, everything had changed. To be exact, one boy had changed everything. And everything had included Gabriella's life as well as … Troy Bolton's. Not wanting to think about that one, Gabriella banned any thoughts of him from her head. Speeding up and turning into one of the corridors, she made her way to her locker.
Where somebody already was waiting for her. Sharpay and Taylor had positioned themselves at the wall beside her locker and watched her coming their way.
"Gabriella!" She turned around, surprised by hearing the voice. It belonged to a blonde girl, obviously a Freshman. Gabriella was sure that she had never seen her. "Uh, hi! Do I know you?" The blonde shook her head quickly, clearly browbeaten by the question. Gabriella smiled kindly, not wanting to frighten the girl more than she was anyhow.
This seemed to have a calming effect on the younger girl, seeing as she found the courage to finally open her mouth again. "Uh, I just wanted to know when try-outs for the dancing squad are held." Gabriella was surprised. She hadn't expected a young one like this to try out for the team. Usually, the new students waited a year before they signed up for anything that wasn't engaging.
But Gabriella wasn't horrified by the thought of having such a young girl in the squad. If anything she found it tempting to see that there were girls who were eager to enter the squad. And the girl in front of her visibly was more than ready to get in.
Smiling widely, Gabriella answered: "Oh, I haven't made it up yet, but I promise you I'll tell you as soon as I know it, alright?" The blonde broke into a smile. "Okay!", she beamed up at Gabriella and made a move to vanish into the crowd, as the Senior grabbed her arm.
"Wait!", she exclaimed. "Tell me your name, or I won't be able to find you in this crowd!" She gestured to the huge amount of students in the entrance hall. The young girl blushed. How could she have been so dumb? "Becky", she answered shyly before finally taking off in a different direction.
Gabriella giggled. Becky reminded her of herself in that age. Always shy and timid, too afraid to speak with older girls properly. Turning around, she finally made her way to her locker and opened it. Throwing her stuff in and slamming it shut again, she approached her best friends to ask if they already had their timetables.
Presenting the tables, Sharpay held one out for her. "We already got yours, too!", she said proudly and Gabriella squealed with delight. Now she could spare herself the way to the other side of school. "Do we have same lessons?", she asked, eager to hear their answers.
Together they discovered that they would have home room – to Gabriella's great sorrow, they had gotten Mrs. Darbus again -, Maths and Sports together, additional gym and lunch times. "Yeah!" Taylor cheered. "I already checked with Chad, the guys and he have the same things together and that means we're sharing with them, too!"
Gabriella made a face. She was happy about Chad, Jason and Zeke, but the three of them automatically stood for …Troy. And about that she wasn't happy. Not wanting to ruin the good mood she had gained from her conversation with Becky, she quickly changed the subject.
"You saw that girl from just now?" Sharpay and Taylor nodded. "That was Becky. She's a Freshman and wanted to know when try-outs were held." Sharpay smirked. "You gonna let us try out, too?" Gabriella rolled her eyes playfully. "As if you had to ask! I saw you two dance last year and you definitely made the squad, so much I can tell you!"
Taylor laughed with them, but got serious soon after. "And what did you tell her?" Gabriella stopped laughing and began to think. "Well, we really need to hold try-outs early this year because we truly need a better team than last year. If we want to win the state championships this year, we definitely need to work harder. I'm not saying that we sucked last year, but I know we can do better. Especially if we have a few new members like Becky."
Sharpay cocked an eyebrow. "I saw her squirming while talking to you. Do you think she'll make the team?" Gabriella just laughed. "She was being shy, Shar, nothing's wrong with that! And you didn't see the look in her eyes. If I'm not mistaken, she loves to dance and I'm sure she's good at it, too."
The warning bell rang and the three of them made their way to home room, while still talking about the squad. "I say we're setting them on Thursday. That's in three days and until then everyone can make up their mind if they want to try out or not, alright?", Gabriella suggested and entered the class room. Taking her normal seat, Sharpay and Taylor took the ones next to her.
Both agreed with Gabriella and they settled the subject just in time to watch Mrs. Darbus make her appearance. "A good day back at school, class!", she greeted them and gave out assigned things and dates. After having done her duty, she took to ranting about the art of acting and its holiness. Groaning simultaneous, the three girls logged off and attempted to catch up on their missing sleep.
But in life nothing goes the way you want it to go. In exact the moment, Gabriella had finally gotten herself to relax in her seat, a piece of paper hit her head. Angry about the interruption of her attempt to doze off she caught the paper and read the message written on it.
"Straight A student trying to sleep in class? You disappoint me, Montez!" Gabriella bit her tongue to not cry out in irritation. There was no doubt about who had sent that pellet. Slower than slow she turned in her seat and shot daggers in the direction the message came from.
Piercing blue eyes bored themselves into beautiful brown ones that didn't seem so beautiful at the moment. The anger openly present in her eyes, she continued to glare at Troy. But he didn't do her the favour to look away, if anything his look became more intense. Blood boiling inside her, she turned to the front again and grabbed a pencil.
"Piss off!", she wrote and sent the pellet back, hitting Troy straight on the head. With a satisfied grin, Gabriella relaxed in her seat again and closed her eyes. The next paper ball coming to her didn't even get a glance, she completely ignored it.
*
Seven hours later, the first day of school finally was over. At least for most of the students as Troy had called a first basketball practice for the team. And at the moment he thanked himself for that. Being a senior for seven hours and having already had four not very pretty arguments with his ex-girlfriend, he was desperately looking for a chance to release his anger about her. And so, after only half an hour training, most of the players were already sweating heavily and some even were at their limit.
Troy was shocked. Had they done nothing over the holidays? He hadn't expected them to be at the top of their performance, but he hadn't been prepared for this. Only his three closest friends and he himself were still standing on their feet without breathing like a walrus. And he didn't actually like that.
Unbelieving he shook his head. "God, guys! Is that all you have to give? If so, I really should think about holding new try-outs and believe me if I say not even half of you would make the team." Several of the younger members exchanged afraid looks. The older ones weren't more confident and even Chad shook his head. What was up with Troy?
That was exactly the same thing Gabriella was thinking at the very moment. Having had P.E. in her last lesson, she had forgotten her cell phone in the girls' locker room and decided to come back for it before someone could steal it. What she hadn't expected was Troy and his team training in the gym. After all it only was their first day back.
So she had carefully made her way to the locker rooms to fetch her phone and as she had come back there had been no chance to get away unseen by Troy. And being confronted with him was the last thing she was tempted for right now. Even if she had won the last two arguments with him.
But now, watching Troy threatening his team with booting, she couldn't contain herself any longer. Having watched the way Troy had treated his team in the last half an hour, Gabriella knew that he wasn't in one of his good moods. Her opinion was affirmed as he commanded for them to run even more round than they already had. The brunette knew that he only wanted to show them what would happen if they didn't train themselves enough, but what was too much was too much.
Stepping a few metres forward she said: "Have you gone nuts, Bolton?" All boys flinched in surprise and flung their heads around to her. Troy couldn't believe that Gabriella was standing in the gym. "What are you doing here, Montez? This is a closed practice!"
"Really?", Gabriella replied, cocking one eyebrow. "Didn't figure that." Troy watched her carefully. Why was she here? He was sure that she was up to something. "And why the hell should I have gone nuts?"
"You don't see? No, of course not, when do you ever care not only for yourself but for anything else?", Gabriella exclaimed and then pointed to the basketball players. "If you make them run another round, they won't be able to play basketball ever again! You can't make them run so much after they have done practically nothing the entire summer!"
Troy got considerably even more upset than he had been anyways. That was exactly his point. They hadn't done anything the whole summer! They should know what would happen if they kept it that way! "That's none of your business, Montez! You don't know anything about basketball and you especially don't know how to train a team."
Gabriella couldn't believe him. Her? Not knowing how to train a team? "I don't know if you had noticed, Bolton,", she replied coldly, "but I do know how to train a team, thank you very much. I do have one to train, so I think that should count for something, don't you think?"
Troy just laughed irritated. "The keyword being should, Montez! And I know how to train my team and what's best for it!" Gabriella starred at him. He surely couldn't believe a single word of the bullshit he had just said. "I know, Bolton,", she emphasized, "that you only make them run because you are pissed off. Pissed off at me, I guess, but that's no reason to make them suffer!" Some players shot her a thankful look.
Troy was furious. How dared she? "You know nothing about me, Montez. Absolutely nothing. And you'll never know anything about me."
Gabriella stopped dead in her tracks. He had said she knew nothing about him. He had actually said it. She was frozen by the lie. It was the biggest one she had ever heard in her whole life. Well, maybe the second biggest lie, close to the one he had used after that 'incident' in Sophomore Year. She knew more about him than anyone else in this school. She was sure that he hadn't even told Chad half of the stuff he had told her while they had been together.
So she just shook her head and nearly laughed because of the surrealism of the situation. She couldn't believe he had actually said that. But he had and he knew exactly how deep it would hurt her, she assumed as she looked into his eyes, shining with mockery and hatred. And that was the thing she couldn't take.
Steaming, Gabriella turned on her heel and stormed out of the gym, but not without slamming the door forcefully behind her. Troy jumped, taken by surprise. He hadn't known his ex-girlfriend, small and petite as she was, was so strong to bang the gym door. Although, he assumed, he should have known after the many slaps he had received in the last year and a half. Shaking his head he run his fingers through his hair and looked apologizing at his team mates.
"I'm sorry that you had to listen to her ranting, but that's Gabriella when she's angry.", he tried to say calmly – "Say what! Talk about a news flash!", he heard Chad whispering to himself sarcastically -, but failed miserable doing so. His voice trembled with anger and inside his blood was boiling. How dared Gabriella to speak to him the way she had just did? He wasn't captain of the basketball team and most popular guy of the school for nothing. But…, if he thought about it, he also wasn't the one Gabriella hated most for nothing.
Shrugging, he banned her from his mind and blew the whistle. He was going to make the team train hard this year. He wanted to win the championships again and one of the reasons why he would train the team harder than usual was a little run-in with West High's basketball captain. He knew that they were tempted to beat them this year, and Troy definitely wasn't going to let that happen.
*
As Gabriella made her way back to the main building, she was still trying to get over her anger. Not looking where she went, she nearly run into Brandon, who smirked at her. "Hey there, hottie!" Gabriella rolled her eyes. He still hadn't gotten the message.
And he probably never would, so she just remained still and made her way over to the doors. From the distance she could hear Brandon call after her. "You look stressed, you know that?" Gabriella didn't answer. Of course she looked stressed. Who wouldn't after a run-in with the biggest jerk alive? "But if you ever want to release some of that, you know where to find me, do you?"
Gabriella didn't even need to turn around and look at him. She already knew that there would be a suggestive grin playing around his mouth. She shuddered. She would prefer to kiss a giant squid before she would kiss Brandon. Not turning around, she automatically raised her hand and showed him what she thought about his suggestion. She could hear him snigger by her reaction.
Gabriella groaned audible. This was going to be a long school year. And she wasn't looking forward to it.
Hey! So that was the second chapter with the third to come. On a regular this time, because – as I already mentioned beforehand – I don't have to write it anymore. I'll concentrate on FBH the best I can, but as always I can't promise anything.
I'd really appreciate it if I'd get some reviews, because you know: Reviews make me happy. That used to be chocolate, but I don't eat that anymore, so I need the reviews :) And anyone who's got any questions concerning this story or any of my others: Don't be afraid to ask. I don't bite.
Until next time,
ElectrifyingChemistry
Lena