Chapter 11

Chad stormed down the hallway of lockers to find Troy behind the door to his locker as he grabbed some books. He walked up to his best friend and slammed the door shut, almost injuring Troy in the process.

"Dude, what the hell…"

"You missed practice… again." Chad shook his head in disappointment. "We called and messaged last night but you ignored us."

"Look… I'm sorry. I'm just…" Troy tried to explain himself as innocently as possible but he knew there really wasn't an excuse he could use. He had to tell his band about Gabriella sooner or later.

"I know. I heard, actually. You and Sandra are over and people around the school are spreading rumors about you sleeping with Gabriella Montez." Chad chuckled lightly after speaking. His best friend could never do such a thing. He loved Sandra so much. He could believe their break up but sleeping with another girl? No way. It was just funny to him that Troy was becoming the hot topic of the school for something so ridiculous.

Troy looked away from nervously before letting out a sigh. "They're not really rumors."

Chad's chuckle came to a halt. He couldn't believe what he was hearing at the moment. Troy was his best friend, they talked about girls all the time. It was hard to believe Troy could resist kissing and telling his best friend about sleeping with the infamous Gabriella Montez (which to Chad was smoking hot). "What do you mean? You actually slept with her?" If any girl in the school had a reputation it would be Gabriella Montez. There were always rumors about her and different men and she was always seen at the sketchiest places.

"Yes. And what people are saying is true. I slept with her and we are also going to be… expecting." Troy couldn't believe what he was telling Chad and he couldn't believe he had been so distant from his best friend that Chad had to find out through other people and then have so much faith in him that he didn't even believe it for one second.

"Are you fucking serious right now?"

"I would never kid about something like this." Troy grabbed his Pre-calculus textbook and slammed his locker door shut while Chad's stare kept still. He couldn't stop looking at this guy he called his best friend. How could everything just come so easily to him? Breaking up with one girl, sleeping with another, being the lead singer of their band and sleeping with a girl he had a crush on. Chad felt nothing for the girl Troy knocked up. But instead, all he could feel was just utter confusion for Troy and his relationship with this woman. When did they even sleep together? And how could he shrug off what other people are saying about his best friend so easily. How did he build so much faith for Troy but then everything was actually false? He wasn't angry, he was just dumbfounded by all of the information he had to process at this very second.

The two of them started walking down the hallway towards the Mathematics hall towards the back of the second floor. Chad finally cleared up his thought process and voiced another concern. "Are you guys keeping the baby?" His tone of voice was serious. Not a hint of playfulness and not a hint of any positive or negative emotion, just concern.

"Yes. I'm going to be a father and although at first I was hesitant, right now I'm more excited and happy than ever." Troy looked over at Chad with a smile plastered on his face.

"What about the band? What about college?"

Troy's mind froze. That was something he hadn't thought about in depth. It wasn't because he didn't have time to think about it, but more because he didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about leaving his child before it was even born yet. "I don't know man."

"What about Gabriella? Are you guys dating?"

"I'm not sure what's happening." Troy's lips crept into a smile as his thoughts landed on Gabriella. The kiss they shared last night was incredible. A montage of them being a family started flooding his thoughts. Their little boy or girl sitting on Gabriella's lap as they all watched a movie together while his arms wrapped around her shoulder. Was this what he wanted instead of being in a band? Was this what he wanted instead of going to college?

Everyone's eyes were on her. They were on her still flat stomach. What did they expect to see anyway? Did they expect to see her stomach blow up like a balloon right after they heard she was pregnant? The bell rang as her history class was dismissed. Gabriella grabbed her backpack and stood up from her chair before making her way out of the door.

Her stomach rumbled as she walked towards the cafeteria. Lunch time became her favorite time of the day ever since she found out she was pregnant. Before she was carrying a child, Gabriela didn't really care to eat much. She wanted to stay slim and was terrified of being fat and all things associated with it. She remembered when Sharpay suggested they try out this crazy supermodel diet of cigarettes and water but that only came to a screeching halt when Gabriella almost threw up after a drag of the cigarette. She realized she was better off smoking weed than ever touching another cigarette again. To think that it seemed like just yesterday when she did all those crazy stupid things and would go as far as trying some absurd diet seemed distant. Today, right at this moment, she wanted to eat vegetables and protein and drink milk to ensure the health of this baby. It seemed like just overnight, she realized that she had to grow up… all because an irresponsible night out.

Once the brunette stepped foot into the cafeteria, she could smell the cheap grounded meat of the nachos that were served today. Was that safe for the baby? She thought to herself and shrugged. Any protein is better than just an empty stomach. She spotted Sharpay sitting by the window at their usual table and nodded towards her direction before heading in line to buy her cheap low grade nacho chili meat on synthetic cheese and corn chips that the public school system called nachos. After paying for her meal, Gabriella started walking towards her lunch table while stealing glances at the table where Troy sat with his friends. His friends were all his band mates. His band was called Public Violence. The entire school knew about his band and how good they were. Troy even had some groupies. Although they weren't the typical dumb blond, they were your mainstream hipsters that hated being labeled a hipster with flower crowns and a pack of those so called organic cigarettes Natural American Spirit.

A girl with a flower crown and a flowy lace top on walked up behind Troy and tapped on his shoulder. As Troy turned around, he smiled at the flower crown wearing almost junior Lana Del Rey replica and invited her to sit down in between him and Chad. Gabriella couldn't help but just watch. She wanted to know if he even thought about her at that very second. She was nothing like that girl. She was considered sleazy and unmotivated in school with a mouth of a sailor. The only girl that even cared to be friends with her for more than just party benefits was Sharpay. Sharpay stuck by her no matter what and was always there for her from the start of middle school. It had been a long time since someone other than family and Sharpay that would come into her life and stay a while. Maybe it was all too good to be true. Troy didn't think about her at this very moment, maybe all he could see was that cigarette smoking, red lipstick wearing brunette hipster that batted her eyelashes at him.

Before Gabriella could clear her thoughts and sit down at her table with Sharpay, she heard her voice being called in the most familiar voice of all.

"Gabs!" Troy almost yelled his name across the cafeteria.

She turned around and looked at Troy in confusion and almost embarrassment. Right now, the entire school was spreading rumors about the two of them so making a scene in the cafeteria was probably not the best idea.

Troy made a hand motion to signal for Gabriella to sit at his table. She looked at him and then at the brunette and then at her lunch and then at Sharpay. Did she want to sit at his table and think about how much he didn't think about her? No.

She turned around and walked back towards Sharpay while completely ignoring Troy's request. She shook her head almost violently as her best friend looked at her in concern. "Shake it don't break it, man. What the fuck?"

"Nothing." The brunette sat down across from Sharpay and started stabbing her plastic fork into the make-shift nachos. The more she looked over at Troy, the more she thought about the kiss they shared last night and the more she wanted to hide her face from everyone at this school and move to a new state. Everyone knew she was pregnant and everyone called her a bitch secretly because they believed she was a man stealer. Gabriella didn't want to believe it either but it is actually too true. She was a man stealer. She kissed him and enjoyed it too much and now couldn't stop thinking about his every interaction with the female gender.

"Why didn't you go sit with your husband over there?" Sharpay teased her as she laughed a little.

"He's not my husband, boyfriend, lover, or anything. He is just the father of my child." She stuffed her mouth with corn chips as she devoured her food hungrily.

"Yeah right. He was worried sick about you yesterday. He was going crazy and texting me about where you might be. I've never talked to him so much until yesterday. Man was he worried about you and the baby." Sharpay took a bite of her salad.

"Really?" Gabriella could feel Troy's eyes on the back of her head. She wasn't looking but she could feel it. She knew he was probably a little disappointed that she flat out ignored him in front of everyone.

"Yep. I mean he seems like a decent guy."

"If he was decent, he wouldn't have cheated on his girlfriend and got me knocked up."

"Whoa there, that's a little harsh don't you think? I mean I always think that if a man cheats, there has to be something missing from his relationship. Nobody just cheats for the sake of cheating… unless you're a straight up psychopath." Sharpay sipped on the straw to her soymilk while opening her English textbook to finally study for the quiz she would take in less than thirty minutes. "Maybe you should give him a chance."

"I am."

"Yeah, the chance to be the father to your baby. But I mean another type of chance." Sharpay looked up from her textbook.

"I'm not ready." Gabriella stuffed the last chip into her mouth before gulping down some milk.

"Get ready because he's ready for you." Sharpay pointed behind Gabriella and waved with a smile. "Hey Troy."

Gabriella turned around immediately with nacho cheese stains still on her lip. She looked up to find Troy's eyes staring right back down at hers. He moved to sit down next to her and extended his hand out to wipe the cheese off of her lips.

Gabriella hit his hand in defense. "Stop. I have a napkin." She turned to look at Sharpay who was now focused on her textbook for some last minute cramming. She wiped her lips with the napkin next to her carton of milk.

"Are you alright?" Troy said.

"I'm fine." She gulped more of her milk while they stayed in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. She finally broke the silence by looking at Troy again. "Are you free on Saturday three weeks from now?"

"That's pretty far in the future, I'm not sure yet. Why?"

She looked down at her lap and then up again at his eyes nervously. "You should come to my house for dinner."

"I'd love to. But why in 3 weeks? Why not tomorrow night?"

"My dad is out of town until three weeks later. And my parents still think we're dating. So they're asking me to invite you to dinner. We have to pretend at least." Gabriella knew that her lie was probably not very well planned. How was she going to tell her parents that this was a result of a careless night? She couldn't face up to it at all. She'd rather fool them than see the disappointment in their eyes.

Pretend? So they were pretending to care about each other? And pretend to date? He didn't want to pretend. Was that kiss pretend as well? Troy nodded in agreement. Although he didn't want to just pretend they were an item, he wanted to make sure Gabriella was ready. Not only were feelings involved but there was also an innocent child involved. He couldn't bear to hurt two women he cared about at once.

Sandra was still not at school yet. She suffered a very serious anxiety attack and had been absent from school for several days now. He still didn't know how to face his ex-girlfriend, much less think about a new relationship.

"Great." Gabriella gave him a small smile. "I'll let you know when my dad is back in town."

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, I've been super busy lately. This chapter is kind of like a filler, hopefully it's not too boring. But I needed it to write a chapter to prepare for more exciting chapters :) Let me know what you guys thought about this chapter in the comments!