Dreams or Desire
Gabriella and Sharpay turned around to see Cassie, a fellow veteran Laker Girl standing there in shock. Gabriella quickly turned to Sharpay.
"I thought you locked the door!"
"I thought I did too," Sharpay defended and Gabriella rolled her eyes before turning to Cassie.
"Look, Cas, I can explain…"
"You lucky bitch!" The two girls looked at their teammate like she was insane. "How could you not tell me?" Both Gabriella and Sharpay let out a sigh of relief, which made Cassie laugh. "So…tell me everything! How long has this been going on?"
"Promise you won't tell anyone? Seriously Cassie, no one can know," Gabriella replied seriously, leading Cassie to roll her eyes.
"Come on Gabs, you really think I would do that to you?" Gabriella couldn't help but smile at her friend, knowing she was telling the truth. "Unless you don't tell me everything right now." Gabriella and Sharpay couldn't help but giggle.
"Well we met last year…" Gabriella was cut off when the door opened. They all whipped their heads to the door to see Kelly walk in. They immediately froze.
"Oh I'm sorry girls," their boss apologized sweetly, loosening them up a little bit. "The door was unlocked I assumed…"
"It's okay," Sharpay cut in with a smile on her face. "We were just leaving. Right girls?"
"Yeah," Cassie and Gabriella replied in unison with nervous smiles across their faces.
"Ok, well I will see you out there. Good luck girls."
"Thanks." They all then walked out, trying to be casual, even though they were all freaking out inside.
"Holy shit that was close," Gabriella said, still in shock.
"No kidding," Cassie agreed. "Good save Shar."
"Thanks. Maybe we shouldn't talk about this when we are around our boss and teammates."
"Yeah that would probably be a good idea," Gabriella replied.
"But that doesn't mean you are getting out of telling me everything!"
"I didn't think so."
--
"Why are there so many cars in the parking lot today?" Brett asked confused, as the team walked back into the locker room after one of their first practices of the season.
"Laker Girl auditions today," Troy replied easily.
"So that's why you were so tense today!" Jordan exclaimed like he had just discovered something groundbreaking. "You were nervous for Gabs!"
"Aww how cute," Luke mocked, leading the guys to laugh and Troy to glare at him.
"Who's Gabs?" Blake, a player that had been traded to the team during the off-season, asked.
"Bolton's super secret girlfriend," another teammate, Adam, informed the new member of the Laker squad.
"She's a Laker Girl, and if her crazy ass boss found out about them, she would be kicked off the team," Jordan added and Troy just shook his head annoyed.
"Wait, let me get this straight. There are hundreds of beautiful dancers wearing nothing but bootie shorts and sports bras like 200 feet from this room?" Trevor asked rhetorically.
"No, it's the final round, so only about eighty girls," Troy corrected.
"That's still a lot of girls," Trevor replied.
"A lot of fine girls," Jordan added. "I can't wait to see who's gonna be cheering us on."
"Why wait?" Luke asked and everyone looked at him confused, except for Jordan who just smiled, immediately catching onto what his best friend was thinking. As soon as Troy noticed Jordan's smile, he caught on.
"Are you guys crazy? Kelly will kill us!" Luke and Jordan rolled their eyes at their teammate.
"We can spy. And if she catches us, who gives a shit? What can she possibly do?" Luke asked with raised eyebrows.
"He's got a point," Trevor agreed.
"Come on man, Gabriella, bootie shorts, sports bra…" Jordan teased and Troy immediately tensed up as the image appeared in his head, leading Jordan to smirk.
"Fine."
--
Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance
Dance, dance, just, j-j-just dance
The ten girls on the dance floor struck their final pose and everyone in the room applauded. Once the applause died down, the girls who had just performed in front of the judges, stood up straight.
"Great job l…"
"Fuck!" Everyone whipped their heads around to see Troy, Jordan, Luke, Adam, Brett, and Trevor stumble out from behind a wall that they had been hiding behind. The jaws of the girls who had never seen six players before, hit the ground, obviously star struck. The eyes of the veterans widened, shocked that the boys actually had the guts to watch the audition. Sharpay did everything she could not to laugh, Cassie raised her eyebrows amused, as did Maria, and Gabriella shook her head at the stupidity of her boyfriend and his friends. As for Kelly, she turned red with anger as the boys brushed themselves off before standing up, and looking out at all the people staring at them in shock. They looked at each other, and without a word rushed to the door.
"Not so fast boys." The six froze in place before turning around and looking at Kelly in shock. The director turned to the girls in front of her for a brief moment, and politely asked them to take a seat, before turning back to the boys. "Would you please come here?" The boys looked at each other confused, before slowly making their way to the dance floor as if they had just got called into the principal's office. Kelly stood up and walked out from the other side of the judges table, as the boys walked onto the floor.
"Take a good look girls…" Kelly started, looking out to the potential Laker Girls, in a stern tone. "Because this is the last time you will see these men outside of the Staples Center. Can you tell us why Mr. Ariza?"
"Because Lakers and Laker Girls aren't supposed to have any interaction with one another," he replied, a little frightened.
"Exactly. So may I ask why you are here?"
"Well we wanted to see who was going to be cheering us on next season," Jordan replied casually and she narrowed her eyes at him. At that moment, Troy looked to his girlfriend who just shook her head at him, leading him to smirk.
"Something amusing Mr. Bolton?" Kelly asked, folding her arms around her chest and raising her eyebrows. He immediately looked at her and froze, trying to come up with something as quickly as possible.
"Well technically we aren't interacting with them. The rules never state that we can't be in the same room as them." Kelly narrowed her eyes at the blue-eyed basketball player as Gabriella did everything she could to not slap her palm to her forehead and groan. Seeing the look on her daughter's face, Maria couldn't help but laugh to herself. Continuing to glare at him, Kelly walked over to Troy.
"Well considering the rumors I've heard about you and my girls…" That's all it took for Troy to freeze and turn white. "I think it might be a good idea to enact that rule. Don't you think Mr. Bolton?"
"Yes ma'am," he mumbled.
"Good. And just so you know, even though I have yet to find out what you have been doing with one of the girls, doesn't mean I'm not going to. I'd be careful if I were you." Troy just nodded fearfully as Gabriella's heart began to pound even harder. "Ok, now if you six aren't out of here, and I mean stat, I will personally make sure your coach makes sure that you run suicides until you can't walk for a week." Not needing any other motivation, the boys rushed out of the room. Kelly then turned to the girls and plastered one of her cheesy smiles on her face. "I apologize for that interruption. Let's continue."
--
"You're dead dude!" Jordan exclaimed as he swung the Wii controller like a tennis racket.
"In your fucking dreams," Troy shot back, swinging his own controller and hitting the ball back to the other side of the court.
"Are you guys insane!" Troy and Jordan froze, forgetting about their game and along with Luke, was sitting on the couch, turned to Gabriella who sure enough, was looking at them like they were insane.
"It was Luke's idea," Troy immediately defended, leading Luke to glare at him.
"I don't care whose idea it was! How stupid can you guys be?"
"Come on Gabs, is it a crime that we wanted to watch 80 girls wearing almost nothing," Jordan replied, which led Gabriella to raise her eyebrows at Troy, who glared at Jordan.
"That was them. I only decided to go when Jordan mentioned that you were going to be in bootie shorts and a sports bra." Gabriella just rolled her eyes.
"You guys are seriously retarded."
"Thanks babe."
--
"So there is something I need to give you, but I wanted to wait until Jordan and Luke left," Troy said as the two cleaned up after dinner, and she looked at him confused.
"What is it?" Troy picked up a big envelope from the counter and handed it to her.
"This came for you in the mail," he replied with a smile. Her eyes widened as she took the big envelope that read UCLA Medical School in the right hand corner. Without hesitation she ripped the envelope open and removed it's contents, before reading the letter that was on top multiple folders and papers. "Did you get in?" Gabriella looked up and smiled before nodding. "Congratulations baby! I'm so proud of you!" He exclaimed wrapping his arm around her and kissing the side of her head.
"Thanks," she mumbled, her face falling. He looked down at her confused.
"What's wrong?"
"I didn't get any financial aid," she replied sadly. "Which means I can't be a Laker Girl anymore."
"What? Why?" Troy asked frantically.
"I get paid a little over 2,00 dollars a year, if I want to go to med school I have to get a job that actually pays a decent salary."
"That's not true. You can get loans or I…"
"Don't even think about it, you're not my sugar daddy," she interrupted sternly.
"But I want you on the baseline cheering for me, and I don't want you to have to give up something you love," he defended.
"And I don't want to give it up either, but I can't let you do that Troy. As sweet as it is, I just can't Troy."
"Ok."
--
"To Gabriella, who will soon be a student at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine," Maria toasted to her daughter as they sat down with their respective significant others. Once Gabriella called Maria to tell her the good news, she insisted on having a celebratory dinner.
"Thanks mom," Gabriella replied after they all clinked their glasses together and took a sip of their drinks.
"You're welcome sweetie, I'm so proud of you. We all are." Gabriella smiled but before she could reply, the doorbell rang.
"Were you expecting someone?" Craig asked Maria, confused.
"No," she replied with the same perplexed expression.
"Hello? Maria!!" They all froze and their eyes widened at the sound of Kelly's voice.
"What is she doing here!" Gabriella exclaimed in a hushed tone, frantically.
"Crap! I totally forgot we were supposed to go over the training camp candidates tonight!"
"Well what are we going to do?!" Troy exclaimed in the same frantic tone.
"I'll go distract her, find a place to hide!" With that they all scrambled up out of their seats. Maria rushed to the main entry hall, as Troy ran around the kitchen trying to find a place to hide and Craig and Gabriella cleared his place setting, hiding it behind the coffee machine.
"Yes, of course you can say congratulations," they heard Maria say loudly, obviously to warn them. "She's in the kitchen."
"The pantry!" Gabriella exclaimed. Troy ran into the pantry and closed the doors as Craig and Gabriella ran back to their seats. Just as they sat down Kelly and Maria walked in. Maria did everything she possibly could do to not let out a massive sigh of relief when she saw that Troy was no longer in sight.
"Gabi! Congratulations!" Kelly automatically exclaimed, opening her arms. A fake smile spread across her face, and with her heart pounding, she hugged Kelly.
"Thank you."
"So when did you find out?"
"Last night," Gabriella replied quickly, trying to get the conversation over as quickly as possible.
"Anyway, I would ask you to stay, but there is no food left," Maria said, also wanting to get Kelly out of there as soon as possible.
"Oh it's alright, I already ate anyway, so I'll let you guys get back to your dinner." They all smiled and said their goodbyes, before Maria walked Kelly out.
"Coast is clear," she announced as she walked back into the kitchen and Troy walked out of the pantry.
"That was way too close," Gabriella sighed.
"Yeah."
Please Review!!! Sorry it took a little longer than usual but I had some writer's block. Only a few chapters left!!! : (