AN: New story! Ah! This one I'm quite proud of. Please review and give me your true thoughts about it. You know I love constructive criticism! Nothing really happens in this chapter, but bear with me.

Title: Tales of a Broken Man: The Troy Bolton Story
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: A memoir on the life of famous NBA basketball player, Troy Bolton.
Genre: Drama/Tragedy
Chapter: The Start of Something New

The Start of Something New

A lot of people have been wondering when, or if, I was going to do this; write a memoir of my life. After all, much of my struggles in life have been documented in the news all over the world, and many people want to know what went on behind the scenes; in my own home my own head.

Other people think I'm crazy. They think I'm just milking my life's tragedies for all it's worth; that I'm enjoying this.

I don't understand how people can be so heartless, but it's true. Even thirty years later, I still get letters in the mail from people criticizing me for how I handled the situation and being so public with it. But how are you supposed to handle these things? I've never done it before, nor had I ever thought I would have to. Maybe in my worst nightmares, but never before in real life.

When something that tragic happens and gains worldwide attention, is there any right way to deal with things? No. Everything you do will receive negative response. But I wasn't thinking about what other people were going to say when I was interviewed by Dateline or People magazine. I just wanted to get my story out. I don't want people to forget.

In case you've been living under a rock for thirty years, or if you weren't born at that time, then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. If you don't, I wonder why you're reading this?

But that's why I'm here. To tell my story.

To start, anything that happened in my life prior to December 31st, 2005, seems unimportant. Like I wasn't even living until that day.

During Christmas Break from school my sophomore year of high school, my parents took me to go snowboarding in Colorado. Most of the time was spent playing basketball with my dad – I was starting varsity and captain of my school's team at only 15 – while my mom lounged around, working.

Then my parents decided to actually do something, so they went to the New Years Eve party and told me to go to the kids/young adults party.

It was then that I was born. Yes, that sounds a little corny, but there's no other way to describe the feeling I got when I first laid eyes on Gabriella Montez, the most beautiful girl in the world. My heart when out to her when I saw the terrified expression on her face. We'd been picked to sing karaoke together, and I really didn't want to, since I didn't think I could sing. But I just couldn't leave her up there like that, nearly in tears.

So I sang, and she sang, and we were both really good. I think that was when I fell in love with her.

But after that night, I figured it was over. We'd exchanged phone numbers, but if we lived across the country from each other, how could we ever be together?

And then a miracle happened. When I went back to school a week later, East High in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I saw her again, in my homeroom. Turns out her mom was transferred here from San Diego, California. And there she was, in Albuquerque, to stay.

It didn't take long for us to realize that we could never be together. I was Mr. Popular. The Basketball Guy. School Hero. She was exactly the opposite. Unknown. Geeky. Shy. When people would see us together, they wouldn't understand it. What was I, Troy Bolton, doing with the new girl?

The school went into an even more chaotic uproar when they found out that Gabriella and I had tried out for the Winter Musical together and had made callbacks. No one was allowed to be in musicals, except for Ryan and Sharpay Evans, a.k.a. The Ice Princess and Her Twin Brother.

Gabriella and I decided to do the callbacks for the musical. After all, we wanted to, so why let our peers scare us into not following our hearts?

However, our friends didn't see eye-to-eye. Gabriella had a Scholastic Decathlon competition rapidly approaching, as did I with our championship basketball game. Our "friends" wanted us completely focused on what they thought was out main priority. So they tried to break us apart.

They filmed me saying some horrible things about Gabriella, unbeknownst to myself, and Gabriella saw it. For a while, I had no idea why she was giving me the cold shoulder or why she wasn't talking to me. All I know is that those couple of days were some of the worst I've ever felt in my life.

After my friends confessed what they'd done, I did everything in my power to get Gabriella to forgive me, resorting to climbing her balcony and serenading her. Finally everything was all right, all was forgiven, and our friends finally let us do what we wanted.

Along with a minor mishap in which the callbacks were rescheduled to the exact same time as the game and her competition, we were able to make every event, and succeed in all of them.

Gabriella and I went on to star in the musical, which opened, and closed, to raving reviews. On opening night, I finally asked Gabriella to officially be my girlfriend and luckily, she said yes. I'm not sure what I would've done if she'd said no. I definitely wouldn't be here, I know that.

We graduated from East High two years later, in 2008, with Gabriella as valedictorian and me as class president. The two of us also sang the National Anthem together and our two friends, Sharpay and Ryan, sang the song "Graduation", bringing most of us to happy tears.

I got a basketball scholarship to my dream college, USC, and Gabriella got an academic scholarship to every school she applied to, including USC. She decided to go there with me, and, after living in the dorms for a year, we moved into an apartment together starting our sophomore year.

On December 31st , 2010, five years after we first met and our junior year of college, Gabriella and I took a little trip to the Colorado ski resort where we first met, and at 12:00 midnight, as we were ringing in 2011, I proposed to her with a beautiful 2-karat diamond ring. She burst into tears, screaming yes while she hugged me tightly. Everyone around us started clapping.

We graduated college, both with honors, in 2012. All through school, NBA representatives for various teams tried to get me to drop out of college so I could play on their teams. I knew it was risky to decline, since they might decide that they didn't want me once I'd graduated, but I wanted a back-up plan. In case an NBA career didn't work out, I got a degree in Business and Marketing to fall back on. Besides, I didn't want to have to be away from Gabriella sooner than I had to be.

After graduating, we stayed in our apartment while Gabriella got a job as a professor at USC. She'd majored in Chemistry, so in turn she became a Chemistry professor. And I waited around for NBA draft day to approach.

I was lucky. I was the second person picked to play on the Los Angeles Lakers and they automatically made me a starting forward. My dream had come true.