Sweetest Devotion ||Troy Bolton||

Chapter Fourteen

As Sophie walked into Ms. Darbus' classroom the next day, the sight that greeted her amused her greatly. Watching Sharpay offer their homeroom teacher a gift with a sweet smile on her face wasn't all that amusing. No, what amused Sophie was that when Sharpay turned around, her smile immediately dropped into a smug look before walking to her desk surrounded by her delusions of superiority. She wondered briefly if Sharpay thought bribing Ms. Darbus would secure her a leading role in the musical.

Sophie was brought out of her thoughts when Troy and Chad walked into the room laughing and joking around. Troy kissed his girlfriend's cheek before sitting down, ignoring the catcalls coming from his teammates in the process.

As the school bell rang, Gabriella caught Sophie and Troy's eye in the back of the room. She made a show of turning off her phone before locking her lips. Sophie and Troy were laughing quietly as they turned back around in their seats. Their laughs dies on their lips as they caught Ms. Darbus standing in front of them with her signature unimpressed look covering her face.

"Well, I expect we all learned our homeroom manners yesterday, people, correct? If not," Ms. Darbus dragged out, "we have some dressing rooms that need painting."

Sophie and Troy exchange small smiles as they make subtle faces at each other during Ms. Darbus' speech. Ms. Darbus steps up onto the small stage at the front of the classroom before she continues talking.

"Now, a few announcements," begins Ms. Darbus, "This morning during free period will be your chance for the musical auditions, both singles and pairs." Sharpay begins to squirm in her seat and clap quietly with childlike glee and a large smile on her face. Ms. Darbus continues to talk over Sharpay's excitement with her own joy over the upcoming spring musical.

"I will be in the theater until noon for those of you bold enough to extend the wingspan of your creative spirit," Ms. Darbus adds in one breath, spreading her arms out and tossing her head back gently as she seems to get lost in the thought behind her words.

"What time is she due back on the mothership?" Sophie hears Chad snicker in his seat behind Troy. Sophie can tell Troy didn't appreciate the joke as much as he usually does. Sophie huffs as she leans back in her seat, knowing Troy was still considering the possibility of joining the school musical but was too scared to go against the norm.

'This is gonna be a long day,' Sophie thought.

As soon as the bell rings, Sophie waved goodbye to Gabriella before hopping out of her seat to follow a conflicted Troy to his locker. As he put his books away-and some of hers- she tried to sooth her boyfriend by holding his hand and rubbing his back with her free hand. He was getting so worked up by the idea of the musical and what everyone around him thinks. Just as she was about to throw some words of comfort his way, Chad rounded the corner. Smiles were immediately thrown onto their faces as they all began to walk down the hallway.

"Yo, what's up guys," Chad started. After hearing quick greetings from the couple, Chad started to talk about the reason he sought Troy out in the hallway. "Hey, so, um, the whole team's hittin' the gym during free period. What do you want to have us run?"

"Uh, dude, you know what, I can't make it. I gotta catch up on some homework," Troy lied. Sophie pinched his side for having such a stupid excuse. It was only the second day back from break. Chad was gonna catch onto his lie.

"What? Hello, it's only the second day back. I'm not even behind on homework yet. And you know, I've been behind on homework since preschool," Chad laughs. Sophie was glad he didn't notice the forced chuckle that came out of Troy's mouth.

"That's hilarious. I'll catch you later," Troy says as he lets go of Sophie and and walks into a nearby classroom. Confused as to why he walked in, Sophie watches as he greets the people inside. She hears Chad mumble something about how 'There's no way' Troy could be doing homework. She gets distracted by the guy who greets Chad in the doorway long enough to not notice Troy exiting the classroom from a second door.

Chad noticed Troy's absence from the room around the same time Sophie was suddenly yanked by her hand down the hallway.

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever!! I don't have a computer anymore so I haven't been able to. But I went through my notifications and saw everyone's comments and votes so I borrowed my aunt's computer to write this. I hope you enjoy it and I love to see comments and votes!!  Also, I just wrote this in 30 minutes so I'm sorry if there are stupid mistakes. So yeah.