Disclaimer: Disney owns everything. But I own the concept, and whatever characters are in here that you don't recognize.
Authors Note: alright yea, another Troypay fic, I'll be finishing About Me and You today or tomorrow, and Oblivious still has awhile to go. I based this on my summer experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
School ended as quickly as it began, I had a week off before I started my summer job. I need money to fix up the old muscle car my grandfather left me. I'll be working at a summer program for underprivileged kids from 8 to 4 every weekday until school starts up again. My boss tells me that along with my other group leader, Liz Jenkins, it will be my job to work with 9 children. Nine kids, two leaders? How hard could it be? I figure that I will play basketball with the boys while she plays dress up with the girls, throw in trips to the pool, along with field trips and movies, bam welcome to the easiest summer job ever.
This year has been quite the rollercoaster, I thought I was in love but soon realized that all I found was a good friend. Speaking of whom, Gabriella will be spending the whole summer in her hometown with her friends, while Chad will be off at basketball camp, which leads me to the other benefit of this job. It takes up all the free time I'll be having this summer.
Monday morning comes and I'm filled with a mixture of excitement and nervousness, today I meet Liz. We have until Wednesday to set up the room which is the day the kids come and the real fun begins. I hope that we will get along, I don't even want to imagine how long the summer would drag if we didn't. I wander into my assign site, and then find my classroom. On the board "Welcome Fritz Seniors" is written in big flashy letters along with a class list that's posted on the side. The age range is from 9 to 12 year olds; 6 boys, 3 girls. Not bad I think to myself, the perfect amount to play some games of 3 on 3. I hear footsteps coming down the hall, my boss, Mike, enters the room with arms full of papers.
"Troy, great you found it, there's been a change in plans though Jenkins got shipped to summer school, you're new partner is Evan" Great, I think another guy, good thing we only have 3 girls, until a female voice breaks my thought, "Evans, Sharpay Evans". You round the corner to enter the room where we both stand shocked.
"What are you doing here, Bolton?"
"Well", Mike says before I can answer, "I'll take that as an indication that you two know each other, this kids come Weds. You have two days to decorate the room and plan your summer, if you need me call the main site."
And with that he's gone. We stand in silence, you're staring at me almost daring me to be the first to speak, I bite because the silence is deafening.
"You're uhh you're not wearing the uniform" I say lamely as I point to the Neighborhood Center t-shirt I'm wearing.
"No one wears those until the kids come on Wednesday" you reply sharply.
"How did you know that?"
"I've only spent the past 2 summers here, Bolton, any more stupid questions?"
"Nope", I reply defeated, "no not really"
"Ok, so where is our class list, I want to see if I know any of the kids" I hold the paper and you excitedly grab it from my hands, you sit on the table to read the names and because I'm feeling bold I hop on and sit next to you.
"That ones my boyfriend" you say as you point to Xavier Santana age 11.
"Your boyfriend?" I question
"You'll see, if you step anywhere within a 4 foot radius around me he will mess you up" you coolly state.
"Alright this isn't going to work."
"He's not really my boyfriend, Troy, he just thinks he is…" you state.
"I know that, that's not what I was", I jump off the table and stand in front of you, "this is never going to work if we can't work together. The kids won't listen to us if we can't listen to each other."
You exhale deeply, "Yea, you're right."
Wow that was easier than I expected it to be, "So, a summer truce?"
You stare me up and down, as if in deep contemplation, "Truce, but just because of the kids.", you say shaking my hand.
"Alright", I think, "just for the kids…"
"AHHH TROY, TROY" you scream jumping on my back, "huge bug Troy over there please please kill it, don't put me down troy it could eat me!"
"Hold on hold on I'll get it" I say as her clutch on my back tightens, "bam, there ya go its all gone."
You slowly get off of me and face me with a shy smile, "thanks, I can deal with a lot of things but bugs just aren't one of them".
"No problem, you could have suffocated me there for a second there"
"Yea, I'm stronger than I look; enough about all that though, want to decorate the room first or plan our summer?"
"Well, what's more fun?"
"They are both on the same level sort of"
"Hmm then how about we rock paper scissors for it? I win we decorate you win we plan."
"Gosh this is going to be just like having an extra kid running around isn't it?"
I blow past your comment and get my fist in position you take my lead, "Rock Paper Scissors Shoot."
"Ah Ha" you jump, "Rock beats Scissors" you grin as you knock my scissors with your fist.
Planning our summer wasn't that bad, we both had a lot of ideas. We have the camp van every Thursday so we planned a different field trip each week that incorporated that week's theme. There are 9 weeks of camp so we decided on, Welcome Week, Friendship Week, Food Week, Sports Week (after petitioning from me), Hollywood Week (because I got Sports week), Culture Week (in which we have to represent a country at the camp's culture fair), Animals Week, Nature Week (when we would go on our big camping field trip) and Colors Week (which was actually a "battle of the camp" where each class is a color and competes in different activities for different prizes; the councilors also compete in an event in which the winners get a hundred dollar bonus.
The planning took us up to lunch. "What do you normally do for lunch?" I ask you.
"Well when the kids are here the school district provides them with a lunch, so I brown bag it and bring a salad or something."
"Alright that's cool, is that what you did today?"
"No, today we are going out with the other councilors, kind of a getting to know each other thing."
"Oh, ok that's cool"
"Do you want to drive or should I?"
"I don't have a car."
"Oh, that's right…let's go then."
"Am I going to be the only one in this shirt?"
You turn around and laugh, probably the sincerest laugh I have ever heard come out of you, I liked it. "Probably, its not really a big deal though Troy".
"Ok, if you say so…are these people nice?"
"Troy Bolton, I cannot believe it, are you shy?" you poke me in the stomach.
"I'm not shy."
"Fine, then lets go" you grab my hand and drag me to your car.
Lunch wasn't bad at all. It was interesting to see you interact with people other than the ones we know at school. Not a spec of your 'ice queen' persona shows through. Everybody there was really nice, there are 3 other sites, but all of them have two classes inside them. "It's just us, because that's the only room the church could give us", you explain. I pretty much stuck with you the whole lunch, letting you introduce me to your friends and guide me through conversation. Before I knew it, we were back in your car making our way back to the center.
"They all seem nice"
"Yea, they are…I'm surprised Amanda and him weren't there."
"Him?"
"Oh, Kyle, my ex…he works here and we really aren't on good terms, Amanda is his new girlfriend" you explain with a hint of sadness in your voice. "Whatever he's a jerk, screw him"
I decided not to pry because I was finally making ground with you, I didn't need to push too hard and blow it. The rest of the day went quickly as we decorated the room, we gave each of the kids a section of the wall with their names on it, so they could hang their arts and crafts up there. We put up pictures of all the things we would be doing this summer, and Sharpay and I gave ourselves a wall where we would proudly hang crafts of our own.
"Voila", you say as you step back, "I'm not going to lie, we got a lot done today, all we have to do tomorrow is go shopping for supplies and plan our activities for the first week."
"Sounds like a plan" I say as I hang your name up above mine.
"Do you need a ride home?"
"Well I rode my bike so…"
"Troy that's like a 45 minute ride!"
"Its not that bad"
"I'll take you home, just put your bike in my trunk"
"No, you don't have to…"
"Troy Bolton you live down the street from me, I will literally drive past your house to get to mine, get your friggin bike and skinny ass in my car before I get pissed."
I comply because you are scaring me. You drop me off, "I'll pick you up tomorrow at 7:45" you say and drive away before I can resist.
As I lay in bed trying to sleep I reflect on my first day of camp, maybe this summer won't be so bad.