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After the fifth store of the morning, Gabriella pulled on Tessa's hand to slow down the pace her new friend was dragging her through the mall at. It was Saturday morning and the girls had left home early to get to the mall at a decent hour to avoid all the other patrons that would soon flood the mall. "Slow down Tessa. This is not a marathon and I'm getting a bit hungry."
Tessa looked back at her friend and rolled her eyes. "Well, I can tell you aren't a speed shopper. Fine, we'll go get a cinnamon roll at the food court, how does that sound? We have to find you a stunning dress though for the masquerade dance next Saturday! It's the biggest dance of the year and the most controversial since it is a dance where East High and West High are both expected to interact and mingle with each other. We never do that unless forced."
"So, East High Wildcats are the nemesis of West High Knights?" asked Gabriella.
"To a degree, yes. I can guarantee you that there will be a lot of tension too because the boys' basketball teams meet the night before in the Championship game, or at least from what I've heard from passing cheerleaders," replied Tessa. "I'm far more interested in meeting Prince Charming at the ball."
Gabriella paid for the two cinnamon rolls in a way to thank Tessa for helping her and the two girls sat down, each taking a bite before continuing their conversation. "So what would you do then if your Prince Charming of the night turned out to be an East High guy?"
Tessa shrugged her shoulders. "I'd date him, see what he was like, and take it from there."
"So it wouldn't bother you at all then that he went to a rival school?"
"No, how cliché with that make me if I did? Would you care if you found someone that night that went to East?"
"Absolutely not," responded Gabriella without a moment of hesitation. "Then again, it's not like I'd date him anyway."
"Because of Mr. New Year's, huh? Seriously Gaby, wait, can I call you that?"
"Sure, doesn't bother me as long as you aren't calling me freaky math girl."
Tessa laughed. "All right, Gaby, as I was saying, if you are this hung up on the guy, maybe we should call him again. What's the harm? You talk to him, you find out he lives in the North Pole, you talk as friends from then on. The worst that could happen is that he be a jerk and hang up on you and then what? I'll tell you what, you'll be free of this hold he's got on you."
"In theory, it all sounds so great the way you say it but I'm still nervous about calling. In some ways, I think I am hesitating because whatever happens on that call could disrupt this dream I have of that night and vanish all these wonderful feelings I'm clinging onto of how he made me feel in such a short period of time. A guy has never made me feel this way before," confessed Gabriella.
Tessa let out a low whistle. "Man, you've got it worse than I thought. We are going to have to do something but right now, since we are both done with our morning snack, we must finish our first mission and get you that dress for Saturday!"
"All right, all right! Man, slave driver!" kidded Gabriella as she got up and dumped her plate and drink in the trash and followed Tessa back out into the mall that was getting more crowded by the second.
At their fourteenth stop, yes Gabriella was counting, this time at a small dress boutique, Gabriella found a few good options and tried them on, modeling for Tessa if she actually liked the way the dress fit her. It wasn't until the seventh dress that Tessa's mouth literally dropped as she saw Gabriella. "That's it! That is so the one!"
"Really?" asked Gabriella as she looked at herself in the three-way mirror again to take in the way the ivory strapless dress hugged her upper body before flowing out into a full ball gown style with pink, yellow, and violet flowers embroidered on the lower half.
"Gabriella, if you don't buy that dress, I'll seriously have to consider getting rid of you as one of my friends," responded Tessa with a smile. "Now go and get changed! You can breathe easy now too, the dress mission is officially over!"
Gabriella grinned at this. "About time!" she called out before she went back into her room and unzipped herself, hanging it back on the hanger and changing back into her jeans and baby-t. She hung the dresses that didn't work out on the rack in the dressing room before she went back and grabbed the winning dress to go pay for it. The line was rather long so she and Tessa kept themselves amused by people watching, a favorite past time of Tessa's that Gabriella was getting addicted to.
"Hey, check out that black haired girl over there sitting on that guy's lap and trying to suck the life out of him by the looks of it," murmured Tessa, drawing Gabriella's attention to the girl and the brown haired guy she was making out with. "Doesn't she know that if she wants dressing room sex that she should be in a dressing room, not the lobby? Although, from the looks from the guy's body language, he's not that into her. Do you see how his arms aren't encircling her? It's like he's just letting her have play with his body but thinking of his math homework or something."
Gabriella laughed. "God Tessa, seriously, where do you come up with this stuff?"
"Just comes to my head, what can I say? Oh look, she's got your dress in her arms too. But I bet she won't buy it because she won't look anywhere near as stunning as you looked."
"Maybe I should get another dress then? If that girl is going to buy it, what if we show up in the same dress?"
"Gaby, honestly, we don't even know if that girl goes to either West or East since I can't properly see her face, plus, you look fantastic in that dress. No way am I letting you not buy it."
The line moved so Gabriella and Tessa moved with it, their view of the couple now being blocked by some clothing racks. "God, how long is this line going to take? We're still tenth in line," moaned Gabriella.
"Yeah, it doesn't help that there's only one cashier," agreed Tessa. An idea formed in her head as to how to keep Gabriella's mind otherwise occupied though. "Gaby, can I see your phone please?"
"Why?" asked Gabriella, suspicion in her voice.
"Because," answered Tessa.
"Because? What are you, four?"
"Do you want a relief of this boredom of standing in line or what?"
Gabriella eyed Tessa carefully before deciding to let her friend have her cell phone, not really sure if that was the smartest thing to do but it seemed like it was the only thing that would get her to shut up. Tessa grinned as she took the phone from her friend and they moved another spot, giving them a view of the once upon a time making out couple. Now, when Gabriella glanced over, she saw just the guy sitting there, a totally bored look on his face as he rested his head against the wall. 'You know, he looks strangely familiar,' she thought, wishing she could see his eyes, which were closed at the moment. 'Naw, Gabriella, you must be imagining things. Who do you know here in New Mexico besides the West High students? He has on an East High varsity jacket, you can't know him.'
She stepped forward with the line, getting blocked again from him, distantly hearing a cell phone go off followed by a masculine voice. Gabriella didn't think anything of it until Tessa excitedly shoved the cell phone into her hand. "What do you want?" she asked, not realizing the phone was connected to the caller.
"Gabriella?" asked a voice through the phone, making Gabriella realize the call was live.
'Oh my God,' she thought, glancing down at the name on the screen and seeing "Troy" on it. Out of nervousness, Gabriella ended the call, glaring at Tessa. "I can't believe you called him!"
"And I can't believe you hung up on him! Gabriella, he was on the phone!" exclaimed Tessa.
Gabriella's ringtone went off and she groaned as she saw Troy's picture on the screen. "Great, now he's wondering why I freaked and hung up on him, I'm going to just ignore it."
Tessa's gaze froze as she looked at the picture of a brown haired guy with nice blue eyes on her friend's cell phone. "Gabriella! Do you know who that is?"
"Umm yeah, that's the guy I met on New Year's, Troy," responded Gabriella, unsure of where Tessa's excitement was coming from.
"Yeah, that Troy, but do you know who he is?" asked Tessa.
"The guy I sang with on New Year's Eve?" answered Gabriella, unsure of where Tessa was going with this.
"That's Troy Bolton! The captain of East High's varsity basketball team and the thorn in Riley's side! Gaby, do you know what this means? Your dream guy from New Year's lives in Albuquerque, here! We could actually make this work!"
All this confused Gabriella. 'But I met Troy at a ski lodge, a long distance away from Albuquerque, how could this be true?'
Her thoughts though were interrupted when the two girls finally reached the cashier, who promptly took the dress from Gabriella's hands and wrapped it up after scanning the price tag. Gabriella absentmindedly handed the cashier her credit card and signed for it, putting the credit card back in her wallet along with the receipt. Seeing Gabriella was now very distracted, Tessa took the dress in its white cover from the cashier and gave her a small smile while she scooted Gabriella over, out of the way for the next person in line.
"Gaby, you all right?" asked Tessa, excitement replaced with concern in her voice. "Gabriella, aren't you even a bit excited that we found your guy?"
Gabriella closed her eyes for a moment, trying to sort out her thoughts when her cell phone went off again. She dared a look and saw that those amazing blue eyes from the picture were staring at her again. 'Oh my God, that guy that looked familiar, was that Troy?' she wondered as she moved to cross the store so she could get a better view of the dressing room again as the ringtone was silenced as the call went to voicemail.
Tessa followed her friend in confusion and nearly bumped into her when she stopped but soon realized the puzzle that Gabriella was putting together in her mind.
Gabriella stared at the brown haired guy who was at the moment saying something to the girl he had been kissing earlier, his side profile in clear view but not his full face. "Oh my God, Tessa. I've been crushing on a guy who has a girlfriend," she moaned as she realized how this all fit together. "God, how stupid am I?"
Tessa, not liking to see her friend distressed, wrapped her arm around Gabriella's shoulders. "Shh, now come on, we didn't know he was with her when you guys met."
"Maybe, but he's with her now and that's what matters," replied Gabriella, shaking her head at her disappointment and the sad fact that she actually felt her heart twinge a bit in pain. 'Get a grip Gabriella, it's not like he was your boyfriend or anything,' she scolded herself.
She watched as the guy, who she pretty much was sure was Troy from New Year's now, looked back down at his phone and sighed, fiddling with it one more time and putting it up to his ear. Gabriella jumped as her cell phone's ringtone went off again, this time catching his attention as she was that much closer to him. He looked up, searching around the room, not seeing her as she backed up and hit a wall, still able to watch him but hidden for the most part from him behind a clothes rack. 'God, what am I going to do?' she wondered, panicked by the idea that he could spot her, like this, right now.
Troy looked down at the picture of the girl he met on New Year's, puzzled by why she had called him earlier and then sounded angry at him for it. He tried calling her back earlier before Alicia came out with three different dresses for his supposed approval but just got voicemail. 'May as well try it again,' he thought as he pressed send and put the phone to his ear.
A light, musical ringtone was heard in the store and he wondered at the coincidence of it as he looked around. 'Nah, couldn't be her. She's God knows where, how far away from here. Just wishful thinking. But what if it wasn't?' he wondered.
Troy decided to test this by hanging up even before he got to voicemail and dialed again, hearing the ringtone again. 'No, that's too coincidental now,' he thought as he hung up and then tried one last time, hearing the silence and then the same ringtone once again, this time accompanied by movement from the front of the store, not that far away from him.
He looked in that direction as he stood up, ignoring the dresses that fell to his feet, the ones that Alicia had placed on his lap moments before as her possible maybes. Troy quickly walked towards the sound of the ringtone and stopped dead in his tracks as blue eyes met brown eyes, familiar chocolate brown eyes. "Gabriella?" he called out with a shaky voice.
The owner of the familiar brown eyes, with her wavy dark brown hair down around her shoulders, looked at him startled as he saw confirmation that she did in fact recognize him too. "Troy?" she asked, her own voice unsteady at the thought of coming face to face with him again.
"TROY! WHERE ARE YOU?" called out another familiar voice, making Troy groan as he heard it. That same voice also seemed to wake Gabriella out of the trance she was in and he helplessly watched as she shook her head and took off running from the store, her friend by her side. Troy tried to run out into the mall after her but lost her shortly after in the crowds. 'She could have ducked into any of these stores and I'd never find her,' he realized, sighing.
Unwilling to go back to Alicia right away, Troy wandered over to the railing in the middle of the mall, overlooking the three floors below from where he stood on the fourth floor. 'I can't believe Gabriella has been here, all this time, without me knowing. Is real life cliché enough for me to have met someone miles away from here at a ski lodge to only have her be here all this time?'
Not knowing what else to do, Troy called Gabriella's number again, sighing again as it went straight to voicemail. After hearing her sweet voice on her voicemail and then the beep, Troy decided to leave a message. "Gabriella, it's Troy, the guy from New Year's. I think I just saw you for the first time in weeks and I wanted to confirm that I wasn't just seeing things, that I wasn't dreaming. If you are here in Albuquerque, I'd like to meet up with you. Please, call me back, you have my number."
After he hung up the phone and put it back into his pocket, Troy ran his right hand over his face before he leaned his elbows along the railing, watching the people move around below him while he let his thoughts roam. Of course, most of those thoughts touched upon a certain dark haired beauty who had just stepped back into his life but he also started thinking of all the pressure his dad, his team, his friends, and the entire East High student body had been putting on him in regards to the upcoming game on Friday. 'If we lose, it'll all be my fault. If we win, I'll be a hero. Guess that leaves only one option. Too bad it really isn't all in my control. And what of Gabriella? Where does she go to school? How could I have missed her all this time?'
Troy allowed his thoughts to take him away from the mall for a few more minutes before he heard Alicia's voice calling out to him to return back to the store he left before. After schooling his expression on his face, Troy turned around and gave Alicia a smile that hurt his cheeks and walked back into the store, taking the seat he had previously occupied, and continued to watch Alicia model different dresses until she finally found the one that she wanted.
'Thank God, I'd have killed myself if I had to sit through any more of these dressing rooms,' he thought to himself as he went with her to stand in line, eyeing the ivory dress in her hands. "Guess you found your dress for the masquerade ball, did you find your mask yet?"
"No, that I'm going to shop for tomorrow but you aren't allowed. I have to have something to surprise you with. You are going to pick me up on Saturday, right?" returned Alicia.
"Actually, I can't," answered Troy, his voice full of regret even though he didn't feel any. "It's tradition for the basketball team to go together, one last outing as an official team for the season. We go to dinner before and then the ball. I'll definitely come and find you there though."
"But you have to pick me up and take me there Troy! What type of boyfriend are you to let your girlfriend go to a dance without an escort?" complained Alicia.
"A boyfriend who is captain of the varsity basketball team and who would be shamed if he didn't keep up with tradition. I have to go with the team, there's no way around it, I'm sorry."
Alicia suspiciously eyed Troy. "Are you sure you aren't just picking up some other girl and taking her instead of me?"
Troy couldn't help but roll his eyes at this. "Alicia, honestly, you are being a tad overdramatic here. I'll call up Chad and he'll confirm the plans for Saturday if you want but I'm not lying, honest. Why don't you trust me?"
"Because I saw that picture of that girl on your phone on Monday when she called!" exclaimed Alicia, instantly covering her mouth as she realized what she said out of anger.
He looked at her in puzzlement. "What picture of what girl?"
"Nothing, it was nothing. I guess I'll just have to go to the dance with some other guy then," responded Alicia, hoping that would derail Troy from the picture topic.
"Oh no, you don't get away that easy. What call are you talking about?"
"I don't know what you are talking about."
Then it dawned on Troy, the memory of hearing his phone go off from Alicia's kitchen on Monday but having her deny it was his phone. "So my phone really did ring that day and you lied to me about it. I can't believe you Alicia!"
"So what if I did? If you weren't having an affair, that girl wouldn't mean anything to you, at least compared to me!"
"I'm not cheating on you!" protested Troy. "I bet it was just a friend that called but for you to ignore it and then lie to me about it was just wrong."
"But Troy-!" she started.
"I don't want to hear it Alicia. I'll stay with you while you pay for the dress but then I'm taking you home. I can't believe you!" he exclaimed, pulling his cell phone out to scroll through his call history, not seeing a call there from Monday around that time. "You even took the time and effort to delete it out of the log didn't you?"
Alicia's silence was enough confirmation for Troy. 'God, what did I ever see in her?' he wondered while he stood stoically next to his supposed girlfriend.
Within thirty minutes, Troy had dropped Alicia back off at her house in tense silence, and headed over to Chad's house. Once there, he parked and ran up the steps to wait for Chad to open the door for him after he rang the doorbell.
Just by looking at his best friend since preschool, Chad knew that something was wrong. "What is it man?"
Troy followed Chad up to his room before he sat down on the floor in front of Chad's bed, leaning his head against the footboard. "Had a rough day with girls, let's just say that. Oh, and Alicia? It's so going to be over soon, I can feel it. Either she's going to cheat on me or I'll just lose it one day. She's driving me crazy!"
"What did she do now?"
"Oh nothing besides intercept a call from some girl, who I have suspicions of who it was, and then deleted it from my call log so I don't have a confirmation of who it is while lying to me that I even got a call on Monday."
Chad shook his head. "That's harsh man. I told you getting a girlfriend would be trouble. I admit though that I didn't peg Alicia to be the one to be this bad."
"Neither did I. I just want a girl who is genuinely sweet and isn't afraid to be herself. Someone who doesn't change like night and day and who I can have fun with. Honestly, is that too much to ask?"
"Maybe in your dreams you'll find her," said Chad with a laugh. "But hold up, you said that you had a rough day with girls, plural. Unless Alicia has split personalities, which wouldn't surprise me since she's got this different persona now, there's someone you aren't talking about."
Troy shook his head. "You'll just laugh at me Chad."
"Try me," countered Chad.
"Fine. I think I might have met this girl I met during winter break at the mall, well re-met if that makes any sense. Actually, I think she's the one that probably tried to call when Alicia ignored the call. She's one of the few girls that I actually have a picture of in my phone associated with her number come to think of it," replied Troy. "Her name is Gabriella and she just, I don't know, being with her made me so happy in such a short span of time, like we were connected. If that really was her today though Chad, I need to find her. She could be what I've been missing all this time."
There was nothing but silence after his confession so Troy dared a look in Chad's way and rolled his eyes as he saw Chad sitting there, trying to hold his laughter back. After a few more seconds, Chad became unsuccessful and full out laughed at his best friend, unable to catch his breath for five minutes.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you," muttered Troy, placing his head in his hands.
Once Chad caught his breath and was able to control his laughter, he looked over to his friend and saw how truly upset he was. "Oh come on Troy, I'm sorry but you know how I get with all this soft mushy emotional stuff. Look, if you think that Alicia isn't the one for you and you want to try it with this Gabriella chick, I'm all for helping you, you know I will. That's what best friends are for after all."
Troy looked over at Chad and saw the sincerity there. "I appreciate that Chad. Maybe, for right now, we could just place some video games or something? I need something to take my mind off of all of this so I can maybe revisit it and think it over again."
Chad nodded his agreement and went over to the TV in his room to turn it on and then the PS2 he had already set up. He sat back down next to Troy after he handed him the second controller and grinned as he heard Troy's chuckle as NBA 2007's title came onto the screen.
"Nothing like virtual basketball and trying to cream your best friend to take your mind off of something," joked Troy with a smile.
"Nope, nothing like it at all," agreed Chad as the two got down to business of picking their teams and starting the game.