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Coach Bolton eyed his team and saw the stress of the upcoming game, the Championship game that would decide it all for the Wildcats this year, was heavy upon each and every guy's shoulders. He memorized those looks of determination and yet a hint of fear in each of their eyes, knowing that this was it, this is what they had played their best to do, they had come to this game today to win.
He cleared his throat, knowing he had to give them the best pre-game speech ever but he already knew, the team needed little hyping up from him – they were already in the right mindset.
"Each and every one of you in this locker room knows what today's game means. I have watched as you all have played your hearts out on that court out there, on our home turf, as well as how you have played in other high school gymnasiums this year. You have shown real teamwork this year and a determination to be the best. Today, you go up against one of the best teams in this league, in this state even, but let's not forget the power and raw talent you all have in this team, harnessed by your team's spirit. Whatever happened two minutes ago, whatever your plans are, win or lose, for after the game, I want you to forget about it. Focus on this game, focus on this moment, and that winning spirit I have seen in this year's East High Varsity basketball team will prevail, without a doubt. Go out there, play your best, and remember to have some fun! If there's one thing about this year's team that makes it stand out to me is the amount of fun and friendship you have all shared this year. Go out with a bang! Now, let's do this!"
The guys all grinned back at their coach before Chad led off:
"WHAT TEAM?"
"WILDCATS!"
"WHAT TEAM?"
"WILDCATS!"
"WHAT TEAM?"
"WILDCATS!"
"WILDCATS, GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!"
Gabriella and Tessa entered the East High gym and saw the opposite side of the gym's bleachers decorated in red, white, and gold, which clearly declared it to be Wildcat territory. "Guess we aren't going over there," murmured Gabriella.
Tessa laughed. "Not unless you want Riley to get all annoyed and mad you crossed over to the 'dark side.' I still can't believe we're here because of him!"
Gabriella was walking to the picnic bench she and Tessa usually ate lunch at with some of Tessa's friends when she felt a hand gently grab her own and pull her out of the wave of students trying to get to one point or another on campus.
"Hey!" protested Gabriella, feeling unsure of herself and the situation when she saw the owner of the hand was Riley.
"Sorry, I just didn't feel like getting trampled over by Knights while I talked to you. I know by now that you and Tessa were joking last Monday about you being a couple. I can take a joke, but I'm more interested in you than ever before Gabriella. What do you say to coming to watch me lead the West High Knights to victory today?"
"Oh, are you joining the army?"
Riley chuckled. "Funny, you sure are a funny girl Gabriella. No, I meant at tonight's basketball Championship game over at East High. I can't promise we'll show them mercy as we cream them but it should be a good time had by all. Plus, there's going to be a huge after party that I want to take you to."
"Sorry, I can't go Riley. My mom is really strict and sets curfew at 8 on weekdays," lied Gabriella.
"Well then, it's a good thing it is Friday, the night before the big Masquerade Ball. You are going to that aren't you? Maybe you'll even do me the honor of being my date?"
'God, he really is full of himself,' thought Gabriella before she sweetly smiled at him. "Yes, I am going to the ball but I already have myself a date, several actually."
"WHO?" demanded Riley. "I thought I made it clear that you were my interest and no one else's."
"Wait, you staked claims on me, even after I told you I wasn't looking for a boyfriend? Of all the stupid… You know what? It doesn't matter, as it happens I am going with a group of friends tomorrow night so no, I will not be your date, let's leave it at that."
"Fair enough," replied Riley. "So, about tonight. It's a Friday so I know your curfew must be later than 8, enough to at least come to the game, plus it's your real first West High event. Do you really want to make yourself that unpopular and lame kid who doesn't have any school spirit? You may not be blonde and blue eyed but I know you secretly want to belong, to not be known as that freaky smart girl."
That did it for her. "Fine, I'll go. I'll bring Tessa with me too."
"The more the merrier. I'll dedicate tonight's win to you, just you."
Gabriella did her best to put a stop to her automatic gag reflex. "See you tonight then, bye Riley."
"As much as I hate to admit it, Riley had a point. I should be here since it is my first West High event. Plus, with all the hype running through West's halls, I was a bit curious about how this game would all play out," admitted Gabriella.
Both teams came out onto the court and started warming up a little. They both had warmed up fully before the little pep talk sessions with their respective coaches but had this chance to get a little bit looser again. Gabriella's eyes fell on a familiar brown haired guy who led his team through some quick warm up throws.
"You never called him back, huh," remarked Tessa, noting that Gabriella was watching East High's basketball captain. "You know, technically if we are sitting on this side of the gym, you should at least be scoping out West High's basketball captain. Oh wait, they both are interested in you equally. How's a girl to choose?"
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Shut up Tessa! Troy isn't interested in me and Riley, well I'm not into Riley, let's leave it at that, especially after today's episode. And no, I never did call back Troy. What was I supposed to say now that I know it really is him and that he has a girlfriend now?"
"How about, 'Hi, it's great to see you again Troy. Why don't you ditch your current annoying girlfriend and be my boytoy?' It has a certain ring to it."
"Seriously Tessa, only you could pull that off without looking, well, Tessaish."
"Tessaish?"
Gabriella grinned. "My own terminology and proud of it!"
The two girls laughed just as the buzzer sounded indicating the start of the game.
'Come on Troy, keep it together,' thought Troy as he almost messed up passing the ball to Chad, who had just scored. Ever since Troy noticed at half time that the girl he thought was Gabriella was sitting up in the West High stands, his mind hadn't been as focused as it should have been. There were now only four minutes left of the fourth quarter and thanks to Chad, East and West were now tied evenly. Troy briefly glanced up again into West's stands as his gaze was this time returned by her own since she had been watching him intently for the last few minutes.
Even from where she sat, Gabriella could tell something was distracting and bothering him. Not knowing what it was, Gabriella gave into her sudden urge to support him and smiled at him, giving him a thumbs up. She saw Troy nod and smile back at her before he got refocused on the game, which at this moment meant getting in front of Riley and blocking his attempted three pointer, gaining control back of the ball for East and doing a layup to put East back on top.
Tessa saw this little exchange and just shook her head. "All right Gaby, enough with this coy flirting from afar. It's clear to me even that you really like this guy. You better hope Riley hasn't seen it from down there though."
"What do you mean?" asked Gabriella, truly confused by what her friend said although she wasn't fully paying attention. Gabriella wasn't able to tear her eyes away from Troy as he got back in front of Riley and blocked a pass this time to pass it to a teammate of his with dark skin and a bushy head of hair who then made a three pointer before someone from West could block him.
Noting that Gabriella wasn't really giving her the full attention she desired, Tessa shrugged her shoulders. "Just that the jocks at West are usually pretty territorial and if Riley has expressly invited you to the game, which he has, he would not take kindly to you making googily eyes at his opponent, especially if they lose in two minutes of game time, which they are headed towards."
Gabriella looked up to the scoreboard and saw that Tessa was right. The score was 58 to 51 at the moment. "So you are telling me that you of all people want me to date Riley?"
"No, I'm saying that you should follow your heart but be careful, that's all. God, in no way, shape, or form do I ever want you to think I want you to go out with our basketball captain. He may be honors material but he definitely lacks what a girl like you or me would need to be satisfied dating him. And yes, I do love teasing you about him but I'd never seriously push you towards him, I want you to know that now."
"Thanks Tessa," said Gabriella with a smile, glancing over at her friend for a brief moment before she turned her attention back to the game.
Troy shot a look at the timer and saw there were thirty-three seconds left on the clock, enough for West to tie it up for overtime or enough time for East to create a nice cushion for a victory win. 'I'd rather it be the latter,' thought Troy as he caught the pass from Jason, dribbled it down and was about to shoot when he felt himself get knocked down. He looked up at the offender and groaned as he saw Riley sneering down at him. 'I should have known.'
Chad and Zeke rushed over to Troy's side and helped him up as a ref blew his whistle to indicate the foul and to give Troy his free shots. "Are you all right man?" asked a concerned Chad, seeing Troy rub his right arm. "Did you land on it?"
"Either that or it was the push I got on it from West's dear captain," muttered Troy, eyeing Riley with a distinct dislike in his eyes.
Brushing it aside, Troy stepped up to the line and made all three shots, helping give East a much needed cushion to continue playing the game with a little more air to breath until the final buzzer went off, declaring East High the new New Mexico State Champions.
Reluctantly, West High's team stood in line to shake East High's team's hands before the Wildcat varsity basketball team was swept up by a crowd of excited East High student body as well as family and staff.
Gabriella watched from the stands as West High students started dragging their feet out, obviously disappointed with the turnout of the game. Tessa and she remained seated so they wouldn't have to deal with the swarms of people trying to leave the scene of the latest loss to the rival school. While they sat there, Gabriella couldn't help but let her gaze wander back over to the brown haired guy who led his team to victory as their captain. She grinned as he saw the excitement practically exuding from his body as his team had him up on their shoulders along with the bushy haired guy and their coach. Eventually, the three were put back on their feet and Gabriella averted her eyes when she saw the girl from the mall rush up to Troy and kiss him soundly on the lips. 'He'd be perfect except for that,' she thought, instead turning her gaze over to the West team who looked to be getting some sort of talk from their coach back down on the sideline.
Eventually, when most of the West High crowd was gone, Tessa and Gabriella made their way down the bleachers. By then, the West High coach was done with his speech so the basketball players started dispersing, going into the away team's locker room to collect their things.
"TESSA!" called out an unfamiliar voice.
Tessa whipped her head around and smiled. "TAYLOR MCKESSIE!"
Gabriella watched as a dark skinned beauty hugged her friend tightly before turning a questioning look on her. "Who's your friend?" asked the girl.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Taylor McKessie, please meet my new good friend Gabriella Montez. She just moved here about two weeks ago from South Carolina."
Taylor smiled and extended her hand to Gabriella. "Hi Taylor, nice to meet you," said Gabriella as she shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you too Gabriella. I must say, you don't have even the slightest hint of a drawl."
Gabriella laughed. "Tessa said the same thing. I've actually been moving around a lot for the last few years so I didn't have enough time to really pick it up on a normal basis."
Taylor nodded her head. "I can understand that. So how do you like West?"
"It's all right, better now that I have Tessa here to hang out with. Do you go to West?" asked Gabriella, sure that the girl didn't since she was wearing red and white clothing.
"No, I go to East High. I actually usually don't even go to these things but I lost a bet with one of my scholastic decathlon teammates so here I am, dressed in the school's colors. Tessa and I actually are friends from volunteering at a children's homeless center on the weekends. You should join us. It's actually a lot of fun and it looks great on the transcripts for college," explained Taylor.
Gabriella gave Tessa a questioning look but only saw encouragement from her friend. "Sure, I'd love to. I'm sure Tessa will give me the details."
"Excellent! Well, I see your boys are coming out so I best leave before they start something. I'll see both of you in the morning?"
"You bet, see you Taylor!" returned Tessa with another smile.
Taylor just waved before she walked over to the exit and went out the door. "Are things really that bad that two friends from opposing schools can't talk to each other?" asked Gabriella.
"Well we can but it's hard when people in the schools know who you are because you tend to get hassled more. Taylor is well known at East for being captain of the scholastic decathlon team while I'm known at West for being the brianiac with artistic flair. And if you aren't careful, you are going to be known at West and East both for being the cause of an even deeper rivalry between the two schools," commented Tessa.
Gabriella looked at her friend puzzled. "What are you talking about?"
"Just that Troy Bolton seems to be staring at you while I already see Riley advancing. What am I going to do with you Gabriella? I told you not to put that enchantment spell on both of them, now this is never going to work," teased Tessa just before Riley finally reached them.
Gabriella shot Tessa a look before she forced a smile and looked over at Riley. "Hey Riley, I'm sorry about the game," said Gabriella, actually meaning it. 'Being on the losing team always sucks.'
"Yeah, well, if Bolton over there was a bit stronger he wouldn't have fallen and wouldn't have gotten those extra free throws for a foul I didn't really commit. Stupid idiot," bit out Riley before he changed his tone. "Come on Gabriella, why don't we go out? You can help me relieve some of this pressure and stress from the loss."
Tessa knew that what Riley was suggesting wouldn't end well so she decided to step in. "Actually, Gabriella has curfew soon and I don't want her mom to get mad at me for keeping her out late," lied Tessa, hoping Riley wouldn't look at the clock but he did.
"Her mom wants her home by 7? On a Friday? I know Gabriella said her curfew was at 8 on weekdays," argued Riley.
Tessa didn't come back with something right away so Gabriella decided to save herself. "Well, to be honest, Tessa and I had plans already to go have dinner before I go home. My mom is expecting me home at a decent hour tonight as I'll be out late tomorrow night at the ball."
Riley nodded his head in understanding, surprising both Tessa and Gabriella. "I see. Well we wouldn't want you to miss out on the ball tomorrow night. I must confess I'm actually looking forward to it. How about me and some of the guys join you two girls for dinner? I promise I won't keep you long."
Gabriella nervously bit her lip and exchanged a look with Tessa. 'Riley is already in a worked up mood, this would do no good to get him mad now.'
"Sure, but Gaby and I are driving on our own there so we can make sure she gets home on time, all right?" agreed Tessa.
"Deal," replied Riley. "I'll just walk you two lovely ladies to your car before I take mine then."
"Okay," replied Gabriella, relieved that at least Tessa would be with her for a torturous dinner.
"GUYS, come on! Dinner with beautiful company awaits!" called out Riley to his best buddies on the team who headed over in their direction to join them.
Riley wrapped an arm around Gabriella's back and rested his hand on Gabriella's hip as they exited the gym. Feeling a bit unnerved by this, after a few seconds later when they were in East High's parking lot Gabriella shook his arm off, pretending to turn to talk to Tessa in the process so it wouldn't look like a deliberate dismissal, which it was.
Gabriella got behind the wheel of her car and started it, waiting for Riley to drive around in front of her so that they could follow him to the restaurant, his buddies pulling up behind the girls. "God, it's as if they need to make sure we get there," complained Gabriella.
"Well if they were smart, and I'm saying if, they would know that we would bolt at our earliest opportunity," said Tessa. "They could just be making sure we supposedly don't get lost."
"Who knows," replied Gabriella with a roll of her eyes. "Guess it's going to be a long dinner."
"Hey, at least you have me," returned Tessa with a grin. "We'll make the best of this, promise."
Gabriella smiled over at her friend, again thankful she was there with her. Shortly after, her phone beeped from her purse. "Can you get that for me Tessa?"
"Sure," said Tessa as she reached into her friend's purse and pulled out her cell phone. She pressed OK to see the text message and start laughing. "Wow, tonight is proving to be one of those interesting nights. You just got a text from East High's golden boy."
"Really?" asked Gabriella, taking a moment to look from the road to her friend.
"Really," replied Tessa as she started to read the text out loud.
Troy was feeling on top of the world after the win, despite his sore arm, especially when Chad and he held the championship trophy in their hands together after being put down. Suddenly, Troy felt a pair of lips crashing onto his and saw with his open eyes that it was Alicia. 'The way I'm feeling right now, even she can't bring me down,' thought Troy as he actually kissed her back, the first time in a few days.
Alicia pulled back with a smile on her face. "Great win Troy! You were amazing!"
"Well, so was my team," replied Troy with a chuckle. "You can't forget them."
"Of course I can! You are the only important player on the team, everyone knows that."
"Actually, I think the team is far more important than me. We work together and that's what works for us," answered Troy, seeing that a few of his teammates had heard his girlfriend.
"I still think it's all you Troy," returned Alicia with a smile.
Troy, knowing it was a losing battle to keep arguing with her, just shook his head and disentangled his arms from around her. "I've got to go and say hi to my mom and dad. I'll see you later?"
"I'll be there at the celebration party," exclaimed Alicia before giving Troy one last kiss and disappearing from his sight.
"Dude, seriously, you really do need to dump her," commented Chad who had heard the whole thing. "I guess you were right, she really has changed from the girl she used to be, or at least who we all thought she was."
Troy nodded his head. "Give it time Chad, give it time," replied Troy as he remembered that encouraging smile he got from the dark haired girl up in the West High stands. He looked around the gym, hoping she was still there, only to feel his gut wrench a little to see her talking to Riley Sutton. 'God, she can't really be his girlfriend can she?'
"What is it man?" asked Chad as he and Zeke joined Troy's side, looking to see what had his attention when Troy didn't answer Chad. All three watched as the two girls left the gym with Riley and his buddies, Riley's arm around one of them, until they were gone from their sight. "So, which one of those two is your dream girl? Riley's girl or the one smart enough not to let him touch her?"
Troy shook his head, not wanting to believe that who he thought was Gabriella from the ski lodge was really dating his biggest opponent and the biggest jerk around. "She can't be dating him," murmured Troy, mostly to himself but loud enough to be heard by his friends.
Zeke and Chad exchanged a look, knowing that the petite Hispanic girl was the girl Troy had been thinking of in the last week. "Look man, maybe she is just friends with him," suggested Zeke, not wanting his close friend to be depressed by this incident on the night that should rightfully be their celebratory night.
"Yeah, maybe, if I'm lucky and if that's even her," responded Troy, not looking at either of them. "I'm going to go shower and then change at home before we head out. Still going to Mike's for dinner?"
"Best Italian and Greek food around, you bet!" exclaimed Zeke.
Troy nodded his head. "See you guys there then in about an hour."
After grabbing his stuff from the locker room, Troy headed out to his parent's car that they let him borrow every once in a while and drove home. Once there, he dropped his bag in his room and sighed as he sat on the corner of his bed, lost again at just the mere thought of the girl he was almost positive was Gabriella. 'Maybe I'll text her, maybe she'll actually respond this time. Yeah, if it isn't her, she should tell me it was mistaken identity, right?'
Troy pulled out his cell phone and texted:
I think you were at the big East vs. West game tonight. If you were, thank you for your secret support, it meant a lot especially as you sat on the opposing side.
He pushed send and dropped the cell phone on his bed, figuring she wouldn't text him back right away if she even did. Troy jumped into the shower and used the time to clear his head before wrapping a thick towel around his waist and returning to his room. He heard a faint beep and picked up his phone reading an incoming text.
I'm sorry I never called, it really was me at tonight's game. You did great! Congrats!
Troy felt a grin return to his face as he read the message for a fourth time before he texted back.
It's okay, I'm glad it is you. I still want to talk and meet up one day now that I know you are here.
He sent the message and put the phone back down on his bed while he changed into a pair of khakis and a nice blue button up shirt. After running his hands through his hair in the bathroom and replacing the towel back on the rack, Troy returned to his room and picked up his cell phone, disappointed he didn't have a response back. Nervously, Troy reread what he said and mentally kicked himself. 'No wonder she didn't text back, she probably thinks I'm a crazy stalker. "I still want to talk and meet up one day now that I know you are here"? God, I probably scared her away.'
Troy groaned as he slipped his cell into one of his front pockets of his jeans and grabbed the keys to the family compact car again and headed out to join his teammates for a celebratory dinner before the party. Once there, he pushed back his worries about Gabriella and just lived for the moment, enjoying the feeling of victory as his teammates immediately swept him up in their own excitement.