We're All In This Together (A High School Musical Fanfiction)

Episode 1: Troy and Gabriella

Troy Bolton was late for class. Again. He flipped his chocolate brown hair almost to the point of breaking his neck and jogged down the familiar halls of East High School, pivoting into his homeroom class just as the late bell sounded. Several students offered him greetings, which he returned with a nod or a high-five.

"So nice of you to join us, Mr. Bolton," Mrs. Darbus said sarcastically as Troy took his seat down in front. He tried to look innocent, knowing how freely the Darbus doled out detentions to get help with set-making. Fortunately, Mrs. Darbus's attention had already moved on from Troy. As she delved into one of her infamous dramatic speeches about theater, Troy twisted around to make a crack to his best friend, Chad Danforth, in the seat behind him. However, this morning the seat was vacant.

Troy frowned. His eyes moved around the classroom until he determined Chad was not here. At the back of the class, his girlfriend, Gabriella Montez, caught his eye. Where's Chad? Troy mouthed. She shrugged cluelessly, before pointing to her best friend, Taylor McKessie, who also happened to be Chad's girlfriend. Ask Taylor, Gabriella mouthed.

Troy knew enough about no-nonsense Taylor to know she wouldn't deign to answer him until after Mrs. Darbus had dismissed them, so he turned back around in his seat and risked sneaking a text to Chad on his phone. Everyone knew the only thing Mrs. Darbus hated more than tardiness was cell phones, and so Troy tried to be discreet.

Where r u? he texted. It sent at 9:17, but by the time homeroom let out at 9:44, Chad still hadn't responded. Troy didn't let himself get worried. Chad was a big boy; maybe he was just cutting class for some reason. Troy was sure he'd find Chad shooting hoops in the gym during free period.

"Hi, Troy!" Sharpay Evans said perkily, coming up beside Troy as he strolled to his locker after homeroom. "When's the big game?"

Sharpay asked this question every morning; it was sort of their routine. "Last Friday," Troy answered, aware that Sharpay was too busy applying her lip gloss and texting at the same time to pay attention to Troy's answer. 

After the obligatory pause during which they arrived at Troy's locker, she looked back to Troy. "Oh, well, good luck!" Then she strutted off down the hall, stopping traffic as she went. Troy shook his head as he opened his locker. Sharpay was a mess, but thankfully she'd become minutely less catty since Troy and Gabriella had beat her and her brother Ryan out of the callbacks. Even though he had had a week to wrap his mind around the idea of being Arnold in the Twinkle Towne musical, Troy still couldn't believe it. Just a few weeks ago all he'd cared about was basketball. But then Gabriella had entered his life, and everything changed.

"Hey, man, what's going on?" asked Zeke as he and Jason sauntered up to Troy.

"'Sup, man?" Troy returned, pulling out his math book from his locker and slamming it shut. "Hey, have you seen Chad? He wasn't in homeroom."

"Nah, man. Ask Taylor," Jason suggested.

"Yeah, she always has tabs on him," Zeke agreed with a chuckle.

Troy felt a twinge of irritation. First Gabriella, and now two of his closest friends seemed to think that Taylor could better keep track of Troy's best friend. We've been like brothers since preschool, Troy thought to himself as he headed toward his math class. So how come everyone expects Taylor to know him better than I do?

As Troy, Zeke, and Jason entered the math classroom, Zeke subtly slipped Troy a bag of homemade cookies. "Try these," he whispered, before the teacher arrived and started the class. Troy placed the cookies in his backpack for lunch later on. Since Sharpay had fallen in love with Zeke's cookie recipe, he'd been giving Troy samples of each new batch so Troy could "taste test" them before Zeke presented them to Sharpay. Troy didn't mind; Zeke's cookies were even better than the kind Troy's mom made, and that was really saying something!