A/N: I changed this a little bit; I kind of disliked this chapter. REDONE again, to minimize Taylor's role.

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters and am not financially benefiting from this story. So don't sue me.

Summary: Freshman year at East High. How was East High before the musical and Gabriella's arrival?

A/N: My first fan fiction (technically 2nd, but I didn't finish the first one and pulled it), so I am hoping it does well. I never thought I would write a HSM fic especially but here we are. I am thinking of making this a 4 part series (one for each year of HS because I have the first two already planned), but I know that I am getting waaaaaay ahead of myself. So review the chapter if you feel the need, it will be greatly appreciated.

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On, with the story…

Today was the day about 500 new freshmen would walk the halls of East High, expecting the abuse a normal freshman would take. East High would integrate the two local middle schools, Red Rock MS and Yucca MS. Troy Bolton and his best friend, Chad Danforth were both from Red Rock MS and fresh from winning the Middle School basketball championship of New Mexico. Jason Cross and Zeke Baylor also were on the basketball team at Red Rock. Sharpay and Ryan Evans were from Yucca MS and had just finished playing the leads in Yucca's spring musical. Kelsi Neilson and Taylor McKessie were also from Yucca.

The long awaited first day started for all with Homeroom, and unfortunately they all had the vice principal, Mr. Elin. He was known for being a jerk to freshman. Everyone was pretty tense in their seat from being mostly surrounded with people they didn't know or just weren't with friends. Sharpay was doing okay because she had her twin brother Ryan and her best friend, Kelsi with her. The other four basketball boys were also doing just fine talking to each other about basketball. Taylor though was just keeping to herself with normal first day of high school jitters. Then, Mr. Elin walked into the room.

"Welcome, Freshman to East High. Prepare yourselves to spend the next four years of your life inside this building," he announced a little too cheerfully, "See those maps and schedules you were given? Don't lose those you will need them for this first week especially."

He continued to talk and explain the rules and other formalities of the school. Also the 6 basic classes they would take English, math, science, foreign language, P.E./health, and history. There were choices in what level of math class and English class and what foreign language but besides that their schedules for the year were set. He also mentioned that since it was the first day it would just be a walk through of the classes they had with only 15 minute periods, break, and then an extra curricula's fair for them to pick the different activities they would participate in.

They all had the same classes together, though no one was paying attention to that fact. The others probably wouldn't realize it for a week or even a month. Troy was only noticing the pretty blonde girl he shared all his classes with. P.E./Health came first with Troy's dad. 'Yippee!' Troy thought sarcastically. Then they had History with Ms. Colbin which was sure to be a discussion class with how much she talked in 15 minutes. All of them were taking the highest level math class Algebra 2-Trig with Mrs. Kirchen, which was sure to be the hardest class. Honor English was fourth period with Mrs. Marken. The classes after that were Biology with Mr. Lindey, who was a little weird and Spanish 1 with Senora Sanchez who was also a little odd.

After break, all eight walked into the gym, separately of course, to an array of tables each with a sign announcing what activity they were. Troy and the boys walked over to the sports section of the fair and checked out the different teams. They all took flyers from basketball table that Troy's dad was running with dates and times for conditioning and camps for pre-season.

"Remember, boys keep practicing. Practice makes perfect," Troy's dad said in a stern tone.

"I'm glad I won't have to deal with him as a coach yet," Troy said quietly.

"Yeah, no one has made varsity till junior year anyway," Chad commented.

"Too bad he'll make me practice like them anyway," Troy mentioned under his breath. He glanced over at the fine arts section and saw the pretty blonde girl again.

'Who is that?'

Meanwhile Sharpay was dragging Ryan and Kelsi over to the fine arts section and the drama club booth. Ryan secretly wanted to play a sport but did the plays to please Sharpay and was eyeing the sports section of the fair. Kelsi also had privately been writing plays and desperately wanted one of them to be done so she could direct and play the music of her own play or musical, rather than just playing the piano to the songs. Sharpay signed all three of them up to the drama club and to participate in the Fall Play with Mrs. Darbus.

"It's wonderful to see the marvelous young people I have heard so much about from their middle school drama teacher continue to pursue their passion of DRAMA! It is the most dazzling of all activities!" Mrs. Darbus called after them as they were walking away.

"A tad bit on the enthusiastic side isn't she?" Ryan said with a chuckle.

"Or a just a little bit nutty, to put it lightly," Sharpay said as she and Kelsi started into a fit of giggles.

Ryan stared at the basketball table where Troy and the guys were listening to Coach Bolton go on about practice. Sharpay noticed that Ryan wasn't really paying attention and looked over where he was looking. She forgot about Ryan when she saw a taller, brown haired boy. 'He is cute.'

Taylor was aimlessly walking through the fair until she found something that finally interested her, Scholastic Decathlon. She was nervous to go up to the senior running the booth, after all she was just a lowly freshman. Finally she worked up the courage to sign herself up for the team, next to only 5 others.

They all wandered around the fair signing up for things that interested them, but not signing up for anything too time consuming because they all knew what they were going to do this year. Troy and his boys with preparing for JV basketball season, they all knew varsity was out of the question. Sharpay, Ryan starring in the Fall Play because that just how good they were, while Kelsi would continue her amazing piano playing.

The bell rang and they all scattered to wait for their parents outside, glad that the day was over but dreading starting the actual classes. Which meant actually having to get to know to new people and playing the annoying learn-all-the-names-of-the-people-in-your-class games, and none of them were really up for that. Except maybe Troy getting to know that mysterious blonde girl, and Sharpay the good looking brown haired boy. This year was sure to be interesting.

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There you go Chapter 1. I am going to start writing chapter 2 really soon because I really know what direction I want to go with this story and I already have my main pairing (Troypay) and the story might shift to more them centered. Reviews appreciated!