Chapter 6: Middle-School Emotions

The next two weeks passed by quickly, almost too quickly for Troy and Gabriella. Musical practices were keeping them busy being that they were the lead‘s, and Troy was beginning to understand what his father had meant when he’d said Troy would have to give one hundred and ten percent. He’d assumed that being in a school production wouldn’t take all that much preparation or thought - that it was just reading some lines and singing a few songs on key. But that all changed on the first day of practice when Ms. Darbus split the cast into groups where they would practice a little something called ‘blocking.’ At his blank stare, Gabriella kindly explained that blocking was basically when the director told you where to stand on stage during certain parts of a scene and how your body language played into the character. After hearing this, Troy decided it couldn’t be too difficult to figure out, but was once again very wrong. Ms. Darbus would tell him to stand somewhere, then change her mind, then change her mind again, and again, so that by the time practice was over they had gotten little to no acting accomplished. But Troy had no problem with this because for three whole hours he got to spend time with Gabriella. Something happened to him when he was around her, something he really liked. He felt different when they were in the same room, singing together. It was like he was a different person around Gabriella - more confident, more at ease, less jumpy, and he could look out at the auditorium quarter-full of people and not feel as much fear as he used to. Of course, he still had a long way to go before he would be as comfortable on stage as Gabriella, but he was making progress little by little. And he found that he really did enjoy being on stage and singing. With Gabriella there singing with him, looking up at him with that special smile of hers, Troy felt normal for the first time since coming to East High.

“So, Troy, wanna tell me where you’ve been lately?” Chad asked as the two friends sat down to lunch. He reached into his brown paper bag and pulled out a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a turkey sandwich, his curls bouncing as he took a large bite.

Troy set his lunch tray down and prodded today’s mystery meat loaf with his fork before choosing to eat a scoopful of corn instead. “Ok, but you have to promise me you won’t laugh.”

“Ok,” Chad mumbled with his mouth full of sandwich. “Go.”

Troy paused. “Well, you know the winter musical?”

Chad nodded.

“Well, I’m kind of in it.” Troy said. “The lead role.”

Chad stopped chewing for a moment, raised his eyebrows, swallowed and leaned forward in his seat. “You?”

“Yeah. Is that really stupid?” Troy asked.

Chad shook his head. “No, man. If you want to do it then who am I to tell you otherwise? But I gotta ask, how in the world did you get signed up for the East High winter musical?”

Troy told him the story, but when he mentioned Gabriella Chad held up a hand to stop him. “Wait, Gabriella as in Gabriella Montez?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Dude, you can’t be around her.” Chad said, stuffing a chip in his mouth.

“What are you talking about, she’s really great once you - ”

“No man,” Chad said forcefully. “I mean you can’t be around her.”

Troy was taken aback at Chad’s sudden change in tone. “Why not?”

“Because she’s a bitch.” Chad said.

“Hey!” Troy said with equal force. “Don’t say that about her! You don’t even know her.”

“I know her better than you do.” Chad replied.

“Oh yeah? Then if you’re such great pals then why aren’t you sitting over there with her?” Troy said gesturing over to the opposite side of the cafeteria where Gabriella and her friends were chatting animatedly.

“I never said we were friends. I just said I know how people like her are.” Chad said with a low voice, eating another chip.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean ‘people like her?’” Troy asked.

Chad hesitated, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. “Just trust me on this, Troy. You don’t want to get involved with her crowd.”

“Well we’re both in the musical and I can’t back out, so I don’t have much of a choice.” Troy said. He tried again to discern what his mystery meat really contained but then gave up, taking a sip of his soda instead. “What are you so worried about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Chad said.

Troy stared at him a moment before he continued to eat his lunch and Chad started to talk about their new Geometry lesson, turning back into the fun, happy Chad Troy had befriended. But he couldn’t help but wonder what it was Chad was hiding, and why the mention of Gabriella made him act the way he did.

Gabriella hummed to herself as she made her way to History class, feeling happier than she’d felt in a long time. Her mind kept wandering back to last night’s practice and the progress they were making in only two weeks. Somehow, this musical seemed different than the others she’d performed in. Before, she’d had to act alongside guys that were complete jerks and pretend to be happy around them because that was what her part called for. But when she was on stage with Troy, she didn’t need to pretend at all. She was just genuinely happy. She’d forgotten what it felt like not to have any worries, even if it was only for a few hours a day. Being with Troy, it felt like days could go by and she wouldn’t have minded in the least as long as they were singing together. And she noticed that little by little he was loosening up. Of course, he was still the same shy Troy, but more like a 2.0 version with new features.

There was still one thing Gabriella couldn’t understand. Whenever she was near Troy, she began to act differently. Chills, sudden waves of heat, a jittery voice - on rare occasion she’d even been at a loss for words when Troy started up a conversation. It completely annoyed her that she felt like a middle school girl again, but strangely invigorated her and gave her a heightened excitement whenever he walked into the auditorium.

But then Andrew would call in the middle of practice or try to meet up with her between classes, ruining her good mood. He’d even followed her to practice once and tried to get her to skip and go for a ride with him, finally leaving after a big blow-out that attracted nearly everyone in the auditorium’s attention. When Gabriella went to sit down at the back waiting for Ms. Darbus to arrive, she was nearly in tears. But no one noticed. No one except Troy - at least, Gabriella thought. Out of the corner of her eye she could’ve sworn Troy was watching her with what looked like concern in his eyes. But she must’ve imagined it because when she turned to look at him to see for sure, he had walked away. Somehow that had hurt her more than her and Andrew’s fight.

But today was looking up to be a good day. She hadn’t heard from Andrew in almost three days and she felt fresh and energized even though it was almost time for the last bell to ring. She was almost to her class when she heard someone call out to her.

“Hey, Gabriella!”

Gabriella could pick his voice out from a crowd by now and turned around to face him with a happy smile.

Troy noticed her expression. “Well someone looks happy today.” He commented.

Gabriella grinned. “It’s been a good day. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to know if we had practice after school. I didn’t have time to check my schedule this morning.” Troy said.

“Actually we don’t.”

Troy’s shoulders slumped and he groaned. “Oh man, I was really looking forward to it too.”

“You really like doing this, don’t you?” Gabriella asked.

Troy nodded. “Yeah… I do.”

Gabriella gave him a knowing grin. “I told you so!”

Troy gave that adorably sheepish grin of his but didn’t reply. There was a pause of silence. “Well, I have to get to class, so I guess I’ll just see you on Monday.”

Gabriella nodded too, her smile a little less prominent now. “Yeah, guess so.”

Troy began to walk down the hall, Gabriella still watching after him with a bit of sadness. She fought to shake it off, but recently she had found it harder and harder to do so once those feelings began to develop. Even more recently it had grown harder for her to come up with an adequate reason to ignore them. All of a sudden, she heard herself call him back.

“Hey, Troy?”

Troy turned around and walked back. “Yeah?”

Almost immediately as Troy’s eyes connected with hers, the words flew out of Gabriella’s head completely and she just stared up at him, her mouth slightly open as she searched her brain for the question she’d had a few seconds ago. Why did he look so good all of a sudden?

“Gabriella?”

“Do you want to come over to my house after school today?” Gabriella blurted, the words rushing out in one thick sentence.

Oh my God, that was not what I wanted to ask. Or maybe it was… now that she thought about it, it didn’t seem like that bad of an idea.

“I just mean, we could use some work on one or two of the scenes and I thought maybe…” Gabriella felt herself regress back to middle school again, her knees quivering slightly as she fought for control.

“Sure.” Troy responded.

Gabriella looked up, a little surprised at how quickly he’d replied. “Really?”

“Yeah, I really do need some work on a few scenes, and I don’t have anywhere to be.” Troy said.

Gabriella opened her mouth to speak, but was lost for words and instead cleared her throat. “O-Ok, well uh, let’s meet at my locker right after class and we’ll go.”

“Ok. Sounds good. See you later.” Troy said with a smile and started walking to his last period, the grin on his face growing with a new spring in his step as the full realization of what had just happened hitting him a few seconds later. He was going to spend time with Gabriella. One-on-one time with a very beautiful, very funny, very incredible girl. No Darbus, no cast, just the two of them.

And then it dawned on Troy, and his insides turned to liquid and churned about in his body with each step he took as he stepped into his classroom and slid into his seat. He was suddenly feeling sick to his stomach, feeling dreadfully nervous and slipping back into his old skin which he had yet to completely shed.

He was going to spend time with Gabriella - a very beautiful, funny, incredible girl. Alone.

That one solitary thought stuck with Troy all through his last period, haunting him like a nightmare and causing every ounce of excitement and happiness evaporate as he realized what he had gotten himself into. Suddenly, Troy didn’t feel so confident anymore and remembered all of his past failed attempts to talk to girls and the old familiar heat rushed back into his cheeks with embarrassment at his memories. Why on earth had he agreed to this? Why did she have to look so pretty with her big brown eyes so hard to say no to? Even more, why did she have this effect on him?

When the last bell finally rang, Troy gathered his things and headed to his locker, trying not to hurry but also knowing Gabriella probably wouldn’t appreciate him being late either. As a result he ended up moving in a sort of jog/walk that made him look a little more than ridiculous. Almost too quickly he was at his locker and packed up the books he needed. As he headed in the opposite direction to Gabriella’s locker he tried to calm himself down. This wasn’t something he should be worrying about. It was just a study date - no, not a date. Just… studying lines. Together, alone, most likely in her bedroom…

He shook his head, hardly believing he had just thought that. His palms were now slightly sweaty and he wiped them on his pants as he went along the hallway. Finally he saw her, packing up her bag and biting the bottom of her lip as she struggled to remember what else she had for homework. God, she looked so cute… Troy shook his head again and took a deep breath, thinking of all the reasons why he shouldn’t be so worried.

He couldn’t think of a single reason.

“Hey.” Troy said once he’d gotten within her hearing range.

Gabriella looked up and smiled. “Hey! You ready to go?”

Troy nodded and feigned a casual look. “Sure.” Maybe acting would come in handy in life after all.

Wow... so much for quick updates. To all those who have waited for this - I am SOOOOOOOOOO sorry!! I completely forgot about this story and a year later, I found the file for chapter 6. I am going to try really hard to update more and maybe get a few more fics out within the next few months, so don't think I haven't forgotton about all my readers!! Thanks for reading!!