CHAPTER 6

I hope you guys will enjoy this :) sorry for late update. I moved and now im going back to school. Really sorry about that. It shouldn't have been an excuse. Also, updating Lovebug tonight, so make sure you read it…

LAST TIME:

Gabriella woke up from the dreadful nightmare she had been part of.

It felt like she was living the scene twice. She had felt the pain. The pain caused by the bottle that had hit her head and now the pain coming from her injured ribs. The nudge that Troy gave her had been so fiercely done that it damaged some of her broken bones. […]

Tears sled down of her eyes fast. Why did that have to happen? Why did it have to be this way?

She didn't mind herself being hurt, but her little sister didn't deserve to be part of that scene. If it was that much to handle for Gabriella, imagine her eleven year old little sister who had fought cancer nearly since her five years of birth.

[ She wanted to forget about her past once and for all and not come back to the old times. But Troy was part of the past, and he needed to be destroyed because he constantly brings her back to those dreadful moment unconsciously .]

Gabriella still encountered Troy in the hallways and at lunch. And the fact that she had the same class as him for science everyday had her thinking that she couldn't just avoid him. And even if she tried to skip the class each time, you couldn't avoid a next door neighbor now could you?

That though made her sight when she sat on her stool next to Troy on Friday. The weekend was coming up and she was happy that the week was over now. It seemed as if it was on purpose that God made it extremely pass extremely slow.

Troy looked up when she sat down and took her book out, but she paid no attention to him, just like she had for the past week.

He left her alone, not talking to her, not touching her just like she had asked. But he just couldn't stop looking at her every time he saw her. Troy thought all of this was just ridiculous and stupid. Something was -and he didn't know how big that was- attracting him to her.

When he saw Gabriella on her first day, he'd thought that everything would go right between them, that they would get along perfectly. It reminded him of the day they had met. It would be 'The start of something new'.

But it was New. Totally, just not in a good way. And man, he wanted her. He wanted to know that he could just be the one he was last winter again, to know that he had someone besides Chad and Zeke to be goofy and his self around. He needed someone to make him happier, to make him dream.

If someone had spread the rumor of seeing Troy Bolton singing karaoke that night, it would have made just everyone take the situation as it is : just a rumor. Because no one in East High ground would dare to say that Troy Bolton, the head captain of the basketball squad had another talent besides he's basketball skills.

The class started and Troy tried to listen to the lecture of the day. Then Mr. Eugene made two students distribute a sheet of paper with a big table on it. They were going to have a partner assignment for the next hour.

"So you guys, we are going to visualize the different states in the reproduction of cells. If you guys studied or at least read the information from the sheets I gave you two days back, then this exercise will be easy. What you ought to do is to group those different pictures to the timeline, which you can form in the table. Then in the big boxes of the table, you will describe what brings out the differences between all of them. There are small pictures of every state in the whole process. The second exercise is for next time so I want you to focus on the first one today. We are still going to do a projection, and you guys will have to answer the questions from what you learned on the documentary."

Some of the students in the back groaned and the teacher smiling, walked to the door and lowered the lightning of the room, so that the students might be able to take notes when watching the projection.

Gabriella was annoyed. This assignment meant that she would have to work with Troy, and therefore scoot over, closer to him so that they may both see the sheets of paper in the middle of the table. She moved her chair closer to Troy, avoiding his gaze and stared right in front of her, watching the video.

At first, Gabriella took the job of writing down the answers. But after a while, Troy whispered that he wanted a chance to do the assignment too. Now Gabriella sure didn't want that. Troy was a jock, and she was a judge.

Gabriella was the king of people that built prejudice before even knowing the name of the person. She had become that way over the past few months thought. Old Gabriella accepted everyone just the way they were. But she changed. A lot.

"Whatever" she muttered under her breath "I tell you the answers, you write them down"

He chuckled softly and she glared at him."This isn't funny Bolton"

He smiled more and she furrowed her brow, but turned to the screen when it changed.

"Telophase" They said low in unison.

Troy smiled at her surprised look and she looked away, thinking. She'd give him his chance for the next picture.

She looked at him when it changed, waiting for him to find out the answer.

"Aren't you going to tell me what to write down?"He asked

She shook her head and he smiled.

"Anaphase"

She smiled for the first time with him.

It was the right answer.

***

"Come on Gabs! It could be fun! "

"Sharpay's right Gabriella, it might be!" Anna pushed her sister from the back, with Sharpay pulling on Gabriella's arm to get Gabriella walking."You love track!"

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean anything! Plus, I haven't been on a track field since I was in like middle school!" Gabriella complained, trying to set herself free but with no success. "NO! I don't want to go!"

It was Saturday and Sharpay had insisted that Gabriella accompanied her to the track and field try outs. Now, this might sound crazy to you, I mean, how can Sharpay be doing track right? But this time, for once, she wanted to try something new. She was brought up in theatre and dance; Sharpay wanted to get more active now. Even if she loved those two things, she wanted to experience new challenges now, knowing that the doors of art would always stay open for her no matter what.

She was trying out for speed racing. That's what she loved the most. Speeding.

"It will be fun! Come on Gaby!"Sharpay nearly shrieked when they got near the field.

The blonde finally let go of her friend's hand and just shook her head when Gabriella stumble over Anna. "Gabriella, come on. What do you have to lose?"

The brunette shrugged. Gabriella knew Sharpay was right on that one but she just didn't want to. Done.

"You can't just sit around all weekend and do nothing!"Sharpay added, trying to find new arguments to convince her friend.

"I don't sit around and do nothing."Gabriella protested.

"Homework definitely does not count Gabs. Now come one. You know better than this! You love sports and even better you love track! It will be fun I promise! "

"Stop saying that. If I try out, will you then leave me alone to my own choices?"Gabriella asked looking at both girls.

They nodded and willingly she moved towards the field.

"Fine then" Gabriella muttered under her breath, stepping on the track field.

"Who do we have here trying out for track and field?"The coach said coming into view and smiling to the small group of kids."Well welcome, I'm Alexander Dubois. Coach and adviser. So before you guys start moving to what you want to try out for, you guys need to warm up. We don't want you guys to get injured before making the team right?"

He gestured to the group of boys and girls jogging around the track."Care to join them for that. Good luck to everyone, and please, have fun and do your best."He smiled and walked away.

Gabriella and Sharpay jogged around, following the rather small group of people that were already in the team.

"They are freshman kids who were in the squad before they even went to high school. They practice at this time of the day. But the older ones have practice in the afternoon" Sharpay explained to Gabriella while they were coming back to the benches to grab a bottle of water.

"Alright. Are you guys ready?" The coach asked from behind the girls. They turned around and nodded. "What are you going for " He asked looking at the board he had in his hand.

"Speed." Sharpay smirked, feeling excitement raise in her from her fast beating heart to her toes."Totally speed"

The coach nodded and told her she could go get ready and that he'd be over to time her in a little while.

Sharpay smiled before she jogged where the coach had pointed to her for her 100 meters tryout.

"And you?" he questioned Gabriella.

"I'm going to go for high and long jump. But mainly high."Gabriella said, suddenly nervous.

He nodded before leaving her side to head over to other kids.

Gabriella looked around for her sister and smiled as the little girl came running down from where she sat on the upper benches.

Anna hugged her sister, looking up at her with a supportive grin. "God bless you Gabs. I'm sure you'll do great."

"Don't be so sure about that Ana-bee. Don't forget I haven't done this thing in 3 years."

The older sibling patted Anna's hair when the young kid let go of Gabriella, smiling at the smoothness of her longer hair now.

At the end of their try out, both girls, especially Gabriella, had to admit that they enjoyed themselves.

They were both nervous at first, but somehow, they felt like this was their place to be, their element and they just gave all they had into their respective section.

That's why the trio was now heading downtown for pizza, to celebrate their achievements.

"Congratulations, Ms Sharpay, Mr. Wavier, Ms Trafford, Miss Montez and Mr. Rousseau. You've made the teams and I hope to see you here on Wednesday after school for the very first practice with the whole team. 3 o'clock. Schedules will be distributed then."

The girls piled in a booth and chatted while they waited for their order to arrive. This was their favorite parlor because it had the best pizzas in town for a fair price. Few people knew about how good the food was due to the far away placing of the diner.

"I'm actually pretty excited about this whole track thing and I realized that it's not going to be a waste of time like I thought it would be." Gabriella sipped on the water, the waiter just brought them "I really enjoyed myself and it's amazing how I didn't mess up until coach put the bar like extra extra high for me. I was pretty happy thought even if it fell once or twice. We're in the team!" She hi-fived her friend and they all smiled to each other.

"Anna, do you still love ballet and hip hop?"Sharpay asked after a moment, intrigued as to what she had missed in the last years of being separated from the Montez's family.

"Totally. We're in a small town though, so I don't know if there is like a big dancing studio or dance school like in Malibu."

" You're right but I have this friend of mine who teaches a dance class. It's not the upper thing like you are used to, but there are lots of kids who attend, even from other towns, and it's pretty popular. She teaches jazz and hip hop. Her name is Kelsi and Martha, her co-worker shall we say, is the bomb in hip hop choreography."Sharpay smiled as she saw sparkles reach Anna's eyes. "They practice every Friday if you are interested "

Ana didn't seem to think twice about it before she exclaimed enthusiastically "Sign me in!"