Authors note: There are a few things I wish to say 1) I don't own High School musical and make no profit from this. 2) I'm Swedish and thus have problems with spelling, grammar and information about such things as places and other stuff in the States. 3) This will be my first HSM fic and I hope you enjoy it.
Third times the charm they say. Let's try again.
Prologue
No light managed to penetrate the thick dark curtains hanging over the windows. The hot summer air outside made it even hotter inside as circulation was impossible. But the person sitting on the floor in the dark room facing the wall didn't seemed bothered by this.
The wall was covered in newspaper clippings, pictures and posters. They were all of and about one person, 25 year old professional basketball player Troy Bolton. Everything that had ever been written about him seemed to be on that wall. But among that were few other things such as a stolen jersey with his number, a poster of Troy on the court with an autograph and even a doll that looked like Troy in that plastic way only dolls can.
On the floor was the newest article which had been ripped out of the magazine. The headline read in bold letters: "NBA star Troy Bolton and Broadway actress Gabriella Montez engaged to be married?" Under the headline was a picture of a smiling Troy with his arm around Gabriella's back. A red circle had been put around Gabriella's hand. An enlarged photo on the side showed that same hand with a ring on it. The picture had been taken by paparazzi while the pair was out strolling.
Slowly and carefully she began cutting away Gabriella's head. When it was done she replaced it with a picture of her own. She then took a black marker pen and began to cross over 'Broadway actress Gabriella Montez' and changed it to her own name. Lastly she stroked the smiling face of Troy with her finger and whispered, "Soon."
Chapter One.
One month earlier.
Troy sat at the kitchen table and slowly ate his breakfast. For once he wasn't in a hurry to get to practice, interviews, meetings with various people and magazines or anything else his publicist could come up with. Today he only had one thing on his agenda and then he had the rest of the day free to do whatever he want.
As he was trying to decide if going out to do something would be more satisfying then being home relaxing his girlfriend came rushing in. Gabriella was clearly in a hurry as she tried to fix her hair and make a sandwich at the same time.
Gabriella was fidgeting, tense and clearly nervous. Troy recognized all the signs that she was doing something big that day. He knew she was going to the studio to start recording her next album but that alone couldn't have gotten her this worked up.
"You doing something today besides working with Kelsi?" he asked as she took a bite out of the sandwich. When Gabriella decided to try professional singing she asked Kelsi, an old high school friend, to write her some songs. They had become hits with the record company and then with the people and Gabriella and Kelsi had been working together ever since. Kelsi's career as song writer and play writer had gotten a boost too.
Gabriella finished chewing and said, "They moved up my audition for Phantom of the Opera to nine today." Beside a normal singing career Gabriella was also making a name for herself on Broadway. She figured it was because of that first musical in high school, which Troy also had been part of, and she had loved singing and acting since.
Mentioning that particular musical made Troy have a quick flashback of a conversation he once had with his best friend Chad about his face being inside Chad's mom's refrigerator and shuddered.
"You are going to be great," he said seeing her getting more worked up as they talked about it.
She took a deep breath and then gave Troy a pained look. "My stomach hurts. Maybe I should skip it."
Troy smiled, picked up the plate he had been eating from and walked around the table. He stopped behind Gabriella, bent down and gave her a kiss.
"You always say that and you always blow their minds away once you star singing. There's no difference this time."
"I'll make a fool out of myself or forget the song. What if I faint? Uhh" she tried to calm down. "What are you doing today?"
"The Make a Wish foundation has a deathly sick boy who wants to meet me. After that I'm free, but I imagine it will take most of the day," Troy said softly.
"Poor child," Gabriella said, "Do you know what's wrong with him?"
"Cancer. They don't expect him to live to the end of the month."
Gabriella glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh, I'm late." She rushed up, walked quickly over to Troy and kissed him. "Good luck," she said before walking out.
"Good luck too," Troy called out as she left.
Gabriella was drumming on the steering wheal and hummed Think of me the song she just performed for the casting assistant of Phantom of the Opera. There had been several others there also auditioning for the role of Christine, some who were pretty famous, so Gabriella couldn't say if she would get the role or not.
She was now on her way to the studio where she would meet Kelsi and John, her sound assistant. She could only imagine how hard the next couple of month would be if she got the part of the musical. Just the singing part of her album would take a couple of weeks to record, if she then added the publishing after it was finished along the month it would take to train and then perform the musicale, she would be close to dead when it all was over and she wouldn't even begin to think about a tour.
But it was what she loved to do and beside, Troy always teased her calling her over achiever.
Troy walked up to the reception disk of the hospital and politely asked about the boy he was there to see. Hearing that he was in the room 317 which was three floors up Troy went to the elevator.
As he stepped out he nearly collided with an older man who looked exhausted and sad. The man's eyes looked relieved when he saw Troy.
"I'm sorry," Troy said.
"It's okay. You're here to see my son?"
"Your son would be Peter Rainer?" Troy wondered.
The man nodded and held out his hand. "I'm Joseph Rainer." Troy shook the hand and introduced himself.
They began walking towards the room and Joseph told him about his son's condition.
"It won't be long now. Peter's health is so bad that it's a wonder he made it this long. He's only ten years old," Joseph said, getting emotional.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I wish there was something I could do."
"But you will. You're granting Peter his greatest wish; to meet you. You have been his idol for years. You have no idea how much this will mean to him."
They stopped outside a door with the correct numbers on. As they walked in Troy got the first look of ten year old Peter. He looked fragile, was bald and had multiple tubes all over his body. By his bedside sat a woman, just as exhausted and sad as Joseph. Troy guessed she was the mother. She smiled seeing him and then turned to the boy.
"Peter, sweetie. Wake up. There is someone here to see you."
The boy opened his eyes and saw Troy.
"Troy Bolton," he gasped.
"Hi, kid," Troy smiled. The woman stood and motioned for him to sit down.
"We'll be outside," she whispered.
"So," Troy began when they were alone, "I heard you are a fan. Have seen any games?"
Peter nodded, "Dad got tickets a year ago. We saw your final game of the season."
"That's cool. Hopefully when you get out of here you can come to another one."
Peter smiled a little sad, "I'm not gonna get out of here. I know that."
"You can always hope," Troy smiled.
Troy stayed with Peter for two hours. They talked about nothing and everything. After that Peter was so tired that Troy had to leave. After he said goodbye to both Peter and his parents he was on his way back to the elevator when he ran into another person.
"I'm sorry. This seems to be repeating itself today."
"It's okay," they young woman said. Troy apologized again and then walked past her. The woman stayed where she was.
"Believe me. It's okay," she whispered.
To Be Continued…