OCEAN EYES ☾ { TROY BOLTON }

9 ~ 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚞𝚙𝚜 & 𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚔𝚜

𝐴𝑆 much as Hayden loved food, thrill wasn't exactly the emotion that coursed her body when the bell for lunch to start rang out through the thundering speakers of East High. The five hours of sleep she received had for some reason felt like two, given the heavily fatigued and groggy state she'd been in upon waking from the displeasing slumber.

The morning honestly seemed to go by in a blur to the girl as she could barely even remember what she did in her early classes—let alone learned. She was notably dragging her way throughout the annoyingly hot weathered day, hardly uttering a word back to anyone that'd been kind enough to speak to her.

The occurrence with her father had taken a bigger toll on her mind than she would've imagined.

Throughout the morning, she often caught herself rubbing the tips of her fingers alongside her slightly bruised, heavily powered neck, and feeling a sense of sorrow or possibly guilt. She drew her father to act on such a level, therefore the consequences she received, she felt herself to be the fault of.

The two never had a good or frankly normal relationship to begin with. It wasn't normal for dads and daughters to have such a bad relationship that every conversation turned into some sort of nasty argument or dispute. It wasn't normal for neither of them to be able to recall the last time a meaningful hug or moment was shared.

It was rather sad.

Hayden truthfully believed herself to not have an ounce of love left for her father, and those particular events that she feared would haunt her disorderly thoughts forever, did nothing but add more fuel to the years-long raging fire. It may have made her look conceited or point blank vicious in the eyes of others, but she finally realized that love just wasn't enough for her father. He was never going to change and she accepted that fact. She didn't need him.

As long as she still had the ones in her life that she'd given love to and retained that love back, she was fine—more than fine.

"So, I've come up with an amazing idea!"

Gabriella's tone came off effectively cheerful and loud enough to break Hayden from her thoughts. The Montez girl's lunch tray that consisted of a ruby red apple, a tuna fish sandwich, and a small carton of chocolate milk, rattled against the round lunch table Hayden, Martha, and Taylor were sat at as she excitedly dropped it from her grasp.

The girls jumped at her sudden appearance, all three simultaneously twitching their brows in the slightest bit at the newly found enthusiasm looming over them.

Taylor was the first to speak, "About what?"

"You know how we have that big chemistry test this Friday? Well, I was thinking that all of us could—"

"Woah, woah, woah. Run that back a second," Hayden interrupted, planting her sole concentration on the buzzing brunette beside her to make absolute sure she'd heard her right. "You say we have a test, this Friday? As in two days from now?"

Gabriella chuckled, shooting a look over that made the clearly uninformed girl all of a sudden feel foolish. "Yeah, the one about solving basic stoichiometric problems."

Hayden blinked. "Basic stoi—what?"

"Basic stoichiometric problems. The material we were literally discussing all class period today." Taylor said, eyeing the girl with the smallest bit of concern. She'd noticed her lack of presence during class—more so than usual—but decided not to speak on it. It'd been apparent the green-eyed girl was deeply troubled, and though Taylor hadn't known her for long, in the time she did, it seemed to show that she wasn't one to so openly release her problems to someone she's known for a little over two weeks.