The Ghost at East High

“Did you leave them in your locker?” Troy suggested, as tightened his own pair gym shorts around his waist.
“No I’m positive I brought them back,” with a sigh, Chad grabbed the ones Troy had pointed out earlier, obviously giving up in finding his shorts. He pulled them on, and exited the locker room.
"What team?" he called, sprinting into the gym.
"Wildcats!" called the guys who where waiting patiently in the gym, joined by a few girls. It wasn’t often for girls to voluntarily join gym, but there were some.
Chad gabbed a basketball off the cart, and began dribbling it. After a minute or so, he tossed it to Troy. This is the way they always started their warm ups.
"What kind of a pass was that?" Troy joked, bounce-passing the ball back to Chad, "Show me a real Wildcat pass!”
"All right, then," Chad played along, dribbling the ball behind his back, and then throwing it under his leg. "How about that, Mr. Captain-of-the-basketball-team?”
"I'm not captain yet; Coach hasn't even made any cuts yet," Troy commented, "And that's a very popular pass, " he then grabbed the ball and took a corner shot into the net, nodding to Chad to take it. Chad smiled and took the rebound. He taunted Troy with the ball by circling around him. He ended by making a 3-pointer.
"You're right. I’m going to be the team captain.”
"I think that's going a little too far," Troy smirked at his friend, watching him carefully, and just when the time came, reached out and grabbed the ball.

whistle blew hard in the boy's ears, "Get'cha head in the game guys!" the gym teacher, and none other than Troy's father yelled at them. Chad stopped in his tracks; so did the rest of the Wildcats. Troy turned to his dad and just shrugged. Coach Bolton sighed before turning away. Troy looked back at Chad and started to race down the court as everyone went back into 'hyper-action.' Chad sprinted after Troy, as if challenging him to a race.
"You think you're fast, huh?" he called.
"No, no, no, I don't think I'm fast," Troy said, holding his hand out in front of his friend with a stopping signal, "I know I'm fast," he said as he started to race down the court once more, diagonally dodging between everybody else.
"Oh, yeah?" Chad laughed, almost running next-to Troy. That's what he liked about warm-ups; everything he did with Troy was a competition. When Troy got to the end, he grabbed a ball along the ground and shot it into the net.
"Beat that!" he called to Chad. Chad shrugged and caught Troy's rebound. He bounced the ball between Troy's legs, then ran around to his other side to catch it. He shot a free throw and laughed.

Taylor, late for the first time, rushed into the school, sprinting desperately to her locker and straight to Science class. It was the first out of two classes she shared with her best friend, Gabriella. Drama was the second, shared not only with Gabby, but with Troy, Chad, and the rest of the gang. Taylor took a sharp turn down the hallway, and burst in.
"What's you're excuse this time?" Gabriella laughed as Taylor rushed into the room. She mixed together two substances that she held in her hand. The solution bubbled.
"Was there ever a first time?" Taylor asked, putting her books down and sighing as she copied down the notes on the chalkboard before joining her friend in the experiment.
Gabriella smiled, "I was just kidding, Tay!"
"I know you too well to know if it was a joke," Taylor returned the gesture, finishing the last of her notes.

"Were you hanging out with Chad again?" Gabriella teased, drawing a heart on the side of her Science notes. Inside the heart, she wrote 'T and G'.
"It's a possibility; you'll have to find out yourself," Taylor answered, glancing at the doodle on Gabriella’s paper and rolling her eyes. She then gave a sigh when the teacher wrote down some more things, as she got straight to copying them as well. Gabriella shifted her gaze up to the chalkboard again, and unenthusiastically took down the new notes. She couldn't stop thinking about Troy and what he what he could possibly be doing that very moment.
"Gabby," Taylor waved her hand in front of her friend's face to get her focus back, "Earth to Gabriella Montez on Planet Love-Birds!”
Gabriella shook her head and turned to Taylor, "What?" She had gotten her focus back, all right.
"You’re just a little behind in notes," Taylor said sarcastically. Gabriella looked from the chalkboard to her notebook. Taylor was right; half of the notes she had just jotted down were gone.
She gasped, "But, I just wrote th-Where's Sharpay?" she looked around to see if the blond was in sight.
"Who knows, she's probably lost or something. It is her first time not being in the same first period as Ryan," Taylor said, looking around, "But who knows? She's always late…”
Gabriella's smile faded, "You don't think Sharpay erased my notes? I'm sure I wrote them,”

Ryan walked behind his sister into the school, looking around for a few people he might recognize, as Sharpay proceeded to her pink-painted locker. When Ryan was sure she wasn’t looking, he took a turn down the opposite hallway, where his locker was happily stood a good distance from Sharpay’s. Over the summer, he’d decided he’d step out of his sister’s shadow.
"Ryan, I--Ryan? RYan!?” She had swung open her locker, examined herself in the full-length mirror, and silently debated her outfit choice before she noticed Ryan wasn’t behind her.
Sharpay glared at Ryan as he casually walked over, slamming her locker closed, "What's our next class?" she resumed walking down the hallway, going nowhere in particular.
"Algebra, which is this way," Ryan said, with a small smirk upon his face.
Sharpay narrowed her eyes, "What are you smiling about?" she sighed and shifted courses.
"Nothing," Ryan answered, shaking his head and waiting for Sharpay to pass by him, maybe so he could take a better path and get to class faster. After all, Sharpay didn’t even share a first period class with him.
Sharpay gave her brother a knowing smile and began down the other hallway, really having no idea where they were going, or even if they were going the right way. She wasn't even sure about what classroom she as headed to.
Ryan was about to speak up but realized his sister had to figure out her own way for once as he kept going, then took a left turn towards Algebra, and easily found the classroom.
Sharpay continued walking down the deserted hall, "Ryan, this is stupid. Are you sure we're going the right way?" she turned around to scold her brother, but he was nowhere in sight. She crossed her arms.