Sweetest Devotion ||Troy Bolton||

Chapter Eight

Thankfully, after Jason's blunder with Ms. Darbus, the bell rang. Troy raced out of the room instinctively, something he does at the end of every class. Sophie, however, decided to skip to the back of the class to talk to Gabriella.

"I can't believe you're here!" Sophie squealed, bouncing up and down.

"I know!" laughed Gabriella

"How-"

"My mom's company transferred her here to Albuquerque," Gabriella grinned as they made their way out of the door. Seeing Troy leaning against the wall, Sophie grabbed Gabriella's hand and dragged her over to Troy.

"Babe, look, Gabby's here!" Sophie shrieked.

Laughing at the obvious statement, Troy said, "Yeah, I can tell. It's good to see you again Gabriella."

"This is great! Now I'll have someone to sit with at lunch," Sophie continued.

"You sit with me-"

"It's different T," she dismissed.

Gabby didn't realize how much she missed Sophie and Troy until she saw their light-hearted bickering.

"I can't believe you guys live here. I looked for you at the lodge on New Year's Day," Gabriella interrupted.

"My parents had us out the door first thing," Troy whispered, wrapping his arm around Sophie's waist as they began to walk.

"Why are you whispering," questioned Gabriella.

"What? Oh, uh, my friends know about the snowboarding-"

"What Troy is trying to say is that he doesn't want his friends to know that he can sing, so he is whispering in the hopes of keeping it a secret." Sophie interjected in a mocking whisper.

"What she, uh, said." Troy mumbled as someone greeted him in the hallway.

"Too much for them to handle?" guessed Gabriella.

"No, it was cool," defended Troy, "But, you know, my friends-"

"It's not what Troy is well known for so if he tried to be different the school would explode." Sophie scoffed.

"Well, it wouldn't be that-"

"The school would crumble around us," Sophie continued, "Well, at least that's the way you're acting."

Sophie hated that Troy wouldn't do something he loved just because it didn't meet his friend's expectations. His friends are her friends too so she knows that they are great people who would warm up to the idea of Troy singing for fun. Troy doesn't agree and Sophie isn't going to be the one to tell Troy's friends about his talent. So until then, Sophie is going to go along with this 'secret' despite knowing it will get out somehow.

"So, uh, anyway," Troy drawled out, "welcome to East High."

The trio made their way to the school bulletin board, looking at all of the announcements posted there in a somewhat awkward silence.

"Now that you've met Ms Darbus, I bet you just can't wait to sign up for that," Troy added, trying to get away from their previous conversation.

"I won't be signing up for anything for a while, I just wanna get to know the school," Gabriella concluded, "But if either of you sign up, I'd consider coming to the show."

"I can't speak for Soph, but for me? That's completely impossible." Troy argued, looking uncomfortable as he stuck one hand in his pocket and leaned back.

Sophie jumped as Sharpay Evans came out of nowhere and started speaking to them.

"What's impossible, Troy? I wouldn't think 'impossible' is even in your vocabulary," Sharpay flirted, not even noticing that everyone's smiles were getting more forced by the second.

"Where did you come from?" Sophie breathed, still shocked over the sudden appearance of Sharpay in Sharkpay mode.

Ignoring Sophie completely, Sharpay continued, "Oh, so nice of you to show our new classmate around."

Noticing the three in front of her precious musical sign up sheet, Sharpay talked over anything the three were about to say in response.

"Oh, were you going to sign up too? My brother and I have stared in all the school's productions and we really welcome newcomers," Sharpay bragged. Glancing at Sophie she added, "There are a lot of supporting roles, I'm sure we could find something for you."

"No, no, no," Gabriella rambled, trying to get away from the conversation, "I was just looking at all the bulletin boards. Lots going on at this school, wow."

Seeing her chance to get away, Gabriella complemented Sharpay's penmanship and walked away, waving to Sophie over her shoulder.

"So, Troy, I missed you over vacation," Sharpay pounced, "What'd you do?"

"You know, um," Troy stuttered, "played basketball, snowboarding, hung out with Soph, more basketball."

"When's the big game?" Sharpay flirted once again, fluttering her eyelashes.

More amused than anything by the amount of flirting Sharpay was doing with her boyfriend, Sophie let Troy swim with the shark some more before saving him. She even backed up to lean against the lockers despite the urgent look on her boyfriend's face.

"Two weeks," Troy announced, slowly backing away the closer Sharpay got.

"You are so dedicated, just like me. I hope you come watch me in the musical! Promise?" Sharpay demanded.

Knowing that Troy keeps all his promises, even ones he doesn't want to, Sophie decided it was time to go.

"Woah, there Sharpay. This is getting pretty intense," Sophie laughed, seeing a crazy glint in Sharpay's eyes. "Come on babe, we have to get to class. It was nice to see you again, Sharpay."

With that, Sophie grabbed Troy's hand and dragged him away, still chuckling as she waved goodbye to the local primadona.

"Left me with Sharkpay for a little too long," Troy complained, using Sophie's nickname for the girl.

"You can swim."