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It was Tuesday after school and Troy was walking back to the all too familiar gym of East High for a team meeting his dad had called, slipping in meeting announcements into the boys' lockers and by word of mouth at PE. Troy had headed back to his locker after PE to grab his paper that he had to rework again after yesterday's session with Gabriella, which was not the best encounter with Gabriella or Taylor he had ever experienced to say the least.
"Hey Gabriella, Taylor," Troy greeted, sitting down in his usual seat and pulling out his paper that he had revised and finished over the weekend. He heard angry whispering behind him and before he knew it, Taylor was in the seat across from him. "Are you helping me instead?"
"No, against my advice, Gabriella is insistent on staying your tutor. I, however, wanted a word with you," Taylor explained. "You may be here for help with your academics, but Gabriella is a sweet girl who doesn't deserve to have her mind and especially her heart messed with. You did enough damage last week alone, not to mention this past summer, and I don't want to see her get hurt anymore by you, got it Bolton?"
"Always direct and to the point, McKessie," Troy returned, annoyance and anger in his voice. "Besides, I think you may have your facts all wrong in that big brain of yours. She looked perfectly fine when I last saw her cuddling with her boyfriend on Friday night before Sharpay and I left the restaurant."
Taylor rolled her eyes at this. "Hello! She was crying because of YOU, AGAIN!" Taylor exclaimed. "How could you not see that?"
"Crying? I didn't do anything!" Troy defended.
"Hmm, let me tutor you on this then seeing you aren't getting the picture. You had a heart to heart with her earlier on last week telling her you still cared and that you were the guy she fell in love with, right?" stated Taylor.
"Something like that," he responded, not knowing where this was going.
Taylor continued. "Then on Friday night, at the admittedly awkward dinner with the Evans parental units and your girlfriend and Gabriella and her boyfriend, you proceeded to act like the new Bolton. First the news about the scholarship, and then accepting the car as a gift? A NEW MUSTANG for no real reason and you didn't really question it? Don't you see that you sent Gabriella a clear message that night?"
"What message?" Troy asked, honestly confused.
"That she was right about you when she walked away from you on Wednesday. You haven't changed, as much as she wanted to believe you had. Do you know what she did after she left you? Gabriella called me right away and told me with complete happiness in her voice that she thought the guy she was falling in love with last school year was coming back to her slowly but he was. She was so conflicted because she felt so elated by that prospect but also felt that she was betraying Ryan, who she cares for a lot now too. She was torn up for no reason though because you once again showed your true colors," Taylor concluded. "And believe me, I'm not telling you all this as a favor to you. I am telling you all this so you know why none of us can look at you the same way we used to, why your teammates won't even acknowledge you by name, and why Gabriella is going to come over and tutor you with sadness in her eyes. No one else wants to talk to you and make you see what is plain as daylight, but I can't stand it anymore. Either you need to fix things, Bolton, or get out of all of our lives."
Troy stared back at Taylor, shocked by everything she just said. Taylor had always been direct and honest, but he had never seen that side of her in that manner. Seeing that Troy was speechless, Taylor got out of the seat and approached Gabriella, who had been helping Taylor's student during that time. Luckily, Mr. Thomas was not present due to a faculty meeting and the two girls were the only two tutors for the day. Gabriella stood up as Taylor came back and just gave her best friend a sad look before approaching Troy. She had tried to argue with Taylor to leave Troy alone, but Taylor wouldn't let Gabriella continue to tutor Troy without Taylor having her discussion with him and Gabriella reluctantly agreed. 'Why I want to keep tutoring him I have no idea, but I want to just help him still, regardless of what he has done,' she thought to herself as she takes the same seat Taylor had just vacated.
"Hey," Troy greeted, eyeing Gabriella carefully and seeing the sadness in her eyes that Taylor had foretold. "Are you going to scold me too?"
"Nope," Gabriella answered. "I think Taylor did a good enough job and if there is any part of the old Troy in you still, he'll do the rest. Let's get to work on that paper."
Before Gabriella could pull the paper toward her, Troy covered her hand with his, causing her to look up at him surprised. "Gabriella, did I really make you cry on Friday night?" he asked.
"Yes," Gabriella truthfully answered. "I know you didn't mean to, but seeing the way you reacted to everything Mr. Evans was offering, well, it reminded me that the guy I fell in love with was truly gone, forever."
Troy closed his eyes at this and let go of her hand as she finished pulling it to away. 'What have I done? I got so caught up in the excitement of the scholarship being offered and the car that I didn't think of what that all meant, how she saw it. Maybe she's right, maybe I am a completely different person now. But if I am a different person, I still hold only her in my heart so how is that possible?' he wondered to himself, keeping his eyes closed as he was afraid of what he'd see when he opened his eyes.
Eventually, he forced his eyes open and saw that Gabriella had almost finished the paper, nodding her head at different parts. When she was done, she looked up at Troy and gave him a small smile. "Very well done, I see a lot of improvement. I marked where I thought you could improve and expand on ideas more. Your citation of sources also needs to be worked on. Have you seen how to correctly do it by standards?" Gabriella asked.
"No, never," he answered. Troy watched as she got up and got a book from the bookshelf before coming back. "Is this the standards book?"
"Yup," Gabriella answered. "Here, let me show you some examples."
Gabriella spent the rest of the session showing Troy the correct ways to cite things for different sources and had him practice a few. Satisfied that he knew what to do on his own, Gabriella started getting out of her chair before she felt his hand around her right wrist.
"Gabriella are you leaving?" Troy asked, not wanting her to leave.
"I have to go, Ryan's waiting," Gabriella explained, dropping in Ryan's name for emphasis. "I don't like keeping my boyfriend waiting."
Troy blinked at this. "That was a very un-Gabriella like stab at me," he responded. "Look, I know a lot has happened between us and to us in the past three to four months but…"
"Save it, Troy," Gabriella got out. "I can't hear another one of your sort of reconciliation speeches, not now. I got my hopes up too high last week, thinking maybe you were coming back to me, but now I know I was just fooling myself. And as to the un-Gabriella like stab, how do you even know what is and isn't something I would do or say? You don't have any idea as you haven't spent any time with me outside these tutoring sessions. Who knows, maybe I became a new Gabriella Montez, one without Troy Bolton in her life."
Before he could say anything further, Gabriella pulled her wrist out of his grasp and ran out of the library, leaving Troy sitting there feeling the full intensity of Taylor's glare.
Troy skidded into the gym just as his dad started speaking.
"All right team, I called everyone together to get a feel for where everyone is at. I know I haven't called any practices, but I believed that all of you want this championship this year just as much as you did last year. I'm assuming you are all here today because you want to be part of another championship team, right?" Coach Bolton asked.
"Right!" the guys gathered around him responded.
"You want to go out there and beat the Knights and beat the other teams to show you are once again the best of the best, right?" he pushed.
"Right!"
"Good!" Jack said. "We're going to start holding practice twice a week until the season really starts, but I want all of your dedication at these practices and I want you conditioning and playing on your own in between those times. It's important you all keep in shape and that you keep your mind in the game. I'm happy to say you voted at the end of last season on your captain and once again, you chose Troy Bolton, who I know is more than happy to lead you to another victory."
A less than enthusiastic cheer erupted from the team, causing Jack to look at his son with concern but Troy just shrugged.
"All right, I want you guys to go out and start practicing. I will get the practice schedule posted in the usual place in the locker room late this week. See you all on the courts!" Coach Bolton concluded. "Troy, stay for a second."
After all the other guys have left the gym, Jack and Troy make their way to the office in the locker room and close the door. "What is it now, Dad?" Troy asked wearily.
"Where are Jason, Chad, and Zeke?" Jack questioned, cutting to the chase. "I didn't see them there and none of them said anything to me about not coming."
Troy shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't the faintest clue, I don't hang with them anymore, if you haven't noticed."
Jack stared at his son, finally realizing that maybe his son had changed during the summer. "I have but I don't know why. What happened to the team being together this summer and being the most important thing to all four of you?"
"I've been practicing my behind off all summer and up to now!" Troy exclaimed.
"I'm not talking about just you. Maybe that's the problem here," Jack responded. "Look, when I talked to you about you being a part of the team only for so long until graduation, I didn't mean ditch them now when you still have one full good year and season together. Yes, scholarships are important but they are not everything, and they are certainly not worth losing your friends over. The four of you have been inseparable for years, especially you and Chad. How did it get this so bad?"
Troy sighed heavily. "It all started at Lava Springs. I was getting so much attention there from the Evans family and from the U of A Redhawks, I just slipped into that world. Now, Mr. Evans said that I'm guaranteed the scholarship and I feel obligated to them, like I owe them so much," Troy said. "Along the way, I started missing out on stuff, like the staff baseball game and some dates with Gabriella and other things. Next thing I knew, they weren't talking to me, anyone, not Chad or Gabriella."
Jack studied the pain on Troy's face, knowing his son was in real turmoil. "Troy, listen to me. Whether or not you get this scholarship will not dictate your college choices, I promise you that. Yes, your mother and I are trying to get everything we can spare for your college tuition, but we do that out of love for you. I don't want to see you killing yourself or losing your identity and your life over trying to obtain a scholarship. I've watched you grow up since you were born and I've never seen you as miserable as you have been these past few months. I never said anything because I thought it was just teen angst. I guess I should have."
"No, this is all my doing and is something I need to fix on my own. I just wish that I would get lucky and wake up and find this was all a nightmare. Dad, I never would have thought in a million years last school year that I would be where I am now, an outsider with my friends, the boyfriend of Sharpay Evans, and a spectator to Gabriella Montez's love life," Troy confessed. "I just don't know how to make everything better. I know what I want now, at least I think I do, and now I just have to figure out the best way to get that."
Jack clasped both of Troy's shoulders in his hands and gave them a little squeeze while looking into Troy's eyes. "Whatever it is that you decide, lead from the heart. Your head is important too but at this point, where you are at, I think your heart knows more of what needs to happen for you to get your life back on track. Maybe I'm a bit contradictory from what I said to you that night out with the truck but I want you to be happy, and if it means that you go to junior college for a few years and skip out on basketball but have the time of your life, I will be happy for you."
"You mean that, Dad?" Troy asked, surprised to be hearing these words.
"I do," Jack confirmed. "Now, I am telling you that it's not going to be easy and none of this has to do with luck. You are going to be the one to make things right and to get your life back on track, no one else. You are at a crossroads in your life and you need to make an active decision as to where you are going."
"Want to take a ride with me?" Troy asked, getting an idea.
"Umm, sure," Jack responded. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see," he answered, reaching for his keys in his pocket as they left the office and headed to Troy's truck.
In about fifteen minutes, Troy parked the truck and got out, seeing the realization of what they were doing here dawn in his father's face. Troy and Jack walked together towards the courts but stopped at the last possible tree to watch from a distance as to not interrupt the game in progress.
Ryan stole the ball from an opposing team member and passed it quickly to Zeke, who shot it over to Charles, who then made a 3 pointer. The guys didn't stop to congratulate him though as the other team passed the ball in quicker than anticipated, but Chad moved in on the guy who possessed the ball and blocked the shot, taking control once again.
Gabriella, Taylor, and Kelsi watched from the stands, cheering when appropriate. All of them screamed though when the guys finally scored the last point to win the game just as the ref blew his whistle. All five guys approached the bleachers and sat down as they drank water and wiped the sweat off their faces.
"You were amazing!" Gabriella exclaimed, coming down and sitting next to Ryan, giving him a quick kiss. "All of you were."
"Well thank you," Zeke responded with a grin. "With all that stealing Charles and Ryan were doing, I would have thought we would be arrested!"
"Haha," Charles got out with a dry laugh at the lame joke. "Hey, we needed the ball so we got it, so?"
The rest of the gang laughed, enjoying the feeling of victory. Taylor sat down on Chad's lap and carefully helped wipe the sweat off of his face with his towel while Kelsi ran to get more water for Jason. Gabriella ran to help Kelsi with the water and came back with full water bottles for Charles, Jason, Zeke, and Ryan all but then dashed off again with a bucket after they had agreed upon a plan to cool off the guys. Luckily, the water fountain had a small hose attached at the bottom and was behind the bleachers as both girls giggled over what was about to happen. They struggled with the bucket as they brought it back to where the guys were.
"Hey Taylor, you better move!" Gabriella called out at the last minute, giving Taylor the chance to jump up just as Kelsi and Gabriella threw the water in the bucket onto the five unsuspecting guys, getting each and every one of them.
Taylor, Gabriella, and Kelsi laughed so hard at the shocked faces Chad, Zeke, Jason, Charles, and Ryan had, each shaking their heads to get some of the water off. They shrieked though as the guys lunged at them from the bleachers, chasing them around the park. Chad caught Taylor easily and picked her up, screaming, as Jason went after Kelsi with Charles' help. Kelsi surrendered after a few minutes, knowing she would get caught eventually just like Taylor and not wanting to get hurt.
Gabriella, on the other hand, ran for her life, Ryan and Zeke both on her tail. She laughed and screamed as she continued to dodge their grasps but found her momentum stopped as she hit someone and fell down on the grass. "Ugh," Gabriella managed to get out as she looked up to see who she had hit. "Troy?"
Troy nodded and extended a hand down to her to help her up. "Quite a stunt you and the girls pulled out there," he commented, just as Ryan and Zeke caught up to her, halting immediately as they see Coach Bolton and Troy there with her. "Hey guys."
Ryan and Zeke gave Troy a quick nod but turned their attention on Coach Bolton who was very out of place at the park. "What's up, Coach?" Zeke asked.
"That's what I came out here to talk to you, Jason, and Chad about. Can you round them up? I want to talk to all of you," Coach Bolton said.
Zeke showed his understanding and ran to the bleachers to get the other two. Ryan sensed this was a basketball team meeting so he reached down to grab Gabriella's hand, realizing Troy still held her other hand. Troy saw Ryan staring at Gabriella's hand still in his and immediately let go and watched as Ryan led Gabriella back to the bleachers where Taylor, Charles, and Kelsi were sitting.
"Hey Coach," Jason and Zeke greeted, turning Troy's attention back on them.
"You guys missed the meeting today," Coach Bolton stated. "You not joining the team this year to victory?"
Jason and Zeke looked uneasily at each other so Chad decided to step up and said, "Actually, we aren't. We figured since the team was just about Troy that you didn't need us. We joined a city league and have been enjoying it since."
Coach Bolton stared at the three boys for a moment. "What do you mean that the team was just about Troy? It never has been. Remember, there is no I in team," Coach said. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Well, we didn't have any team practices like we have had every other summer before. And with Troy being on his focused quest to getting a scholarship, we thought that you just didn't need us anymore," Zeke explained. "Which sucked by the way."
"I'm sure it did," Coach responded. "But that's not the truth. I thought all this time that all four of you were practicing together, which is why I never called you over to our house to practice. I didn't call team practices because you were all working together so I figured you would take it upon yourselves to practice. You are all growing up and I honestly believed you would focus on what you all want and go after it. I'm at least glad to see you guys have joined a city league, but the whole team needs you three this year to have a shot. What can I do to get you back?"
Chad, Zeke, and Jason looked at each other, not sure how to answer. Troy knew though what they needed. "Dad, let me talk to them alone, okay?"
Jack studied his son for a moment and nodded. He went back to the truck and sat, watching the scene unfold from there.
"All right, before you tune me out, please, hear me out," Troy said, cutting them to the chase. "I know I was a jerk, I find myself saying that quite often lately, but it is the truth. I should have made a bigger effort in getting you guys involved with playing with the Redhawks, even after the spotlight was retrained on me after the initial dinner. I know I can't wave a magic wand and make everything better, I'm not as naïve as that, but I do want us to play as one team this year to make it another landmark for our school and for ourselves. There are a lot of scholarships out there and the scouts are going to be heavy this year, looking at all of us, not just me. I want you all to get that chance to be seen as the star athlete you are because you deserve it."
"How do we know you aren't going to go all hot shot on us again?" Chad asked, desperately wanting to believe this could be true.
"I give you my word, which I know isn't worth much now, but that's all I can say. It's taken me weeks to understand what you guys were all trying to tell me, but I think I finally understand, at least I'm starting to. Look, I'm not looking for you to forgive me, heaven knows I wouldn't. But what I am asking is for you to rejoin the team and play your heart out for yourselves and each other. The team is not the same without you and I am not either," Troy confessed. "So, what's it going to be?"
"We've got conditions," Jason said, Zeke and Chad confusedly staring at him. "Like, we need practices to work around our city league games until they are done."
"I'm sure my dad can do that," Troy responded. "Is that it?"
Jason looked over at the other two. Chad spoke up this time. "Charles and Ryan are on the team too. They are both very talented out on the court, as I am sure you just saw, and we can't do it without them."
"Ryan and Charles?" Troy questioned. "I'll talk to Dad about that too. And Chad, I have seen your leadership in action. I've been thinking about it and if you will accept, I want you to be Captain. I'll bow out but I still want to play."
Chad stared back at Troy astonished. "Me, Captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team? No way man, not by myself!"
"Come on Chad, you can do it," Zeke said.
"Yeah man, you've done great so far with us in the league," Jason threw in.
"But the East High team is more than just my good friends," Chad responded. He looked over at Troy who had been quietly observing the conversation. "I've got an idea, Troy, I'll take on being Captain if we are equals."
"What?" Troy asked, confused.
Chad laughed. "I am asking you, Bolton, if you and I can be co-captains together. You in?"
Troy felt a grin spread across his face. "Of course man, totally!"
"Good, so it's settled," Chad declared. "Better go tell Coach the good news, he has five additional players than he had at the meeting today."
"Definitely. And listen, I just want to say I know I have to work to get your friendship back and I don't expect everything to be easy," Troy said.
"That's nice to hear," Chad replied. "Oh, and Troy?"
"Yeah?" Troy asked, turning back around from his trip back to his truck.
"It's nice to see you taking the first steps back to the genuine Troy Bolton I have grown up with," Chad called out with a smile before he turned and ran to join the other two heading to the bleachers.