Just Friends

a King Author IV story

Summary: Chad and Gabriella are just friends. But what happens when Chad writes a song for Gabriella, and she reads it? Chadriella/Chadella.

DISCLAIMER: I disclaim.

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ONE: Just Friends

Chad and Gabriella walked down the halls of East High, casual as ever, like they didn't care for anything in the world.

"So, you wanna go to the movies? I don't have anything else to do today. And today's Friday! My schedule should be full on Friday," Gabriella told Chad.

"It should?" Chad asked.

"Yes, I'm head cheerleader, duh. Anyway, I hear Underdog is pretty good," Gabriella said.

"Underdog? If you want to see it, I guess I'll see it, too," Chad said. He wasn't a fan of dog movies. The ones he watched were all about the same thing. Boy finds dog, they have good times together, Mom finds out, boy has to get rid of dog, boy takes dog to an open field and throws a Frisbee/football/stick and tells it to fetch, it fetches and comes back, the boy tells the dog he hates him, boy runs off, couple of weeks later the dog is in trouble, boy finds out and rescues him, then his mom says he can keep him and everything ends happily ever after. So predictable.

"Cool. Can you pick me up?" Gabi asked in a voice you can't say no to.

"Fine. I'll pick you up at seven and we can catch the 7:10 movie," Chad said turning to their homeroom. Chad followed behind her and took a seat behind her.

"Hey, head cheerleader. Since it's your first time being a cheerleader, a head one at that, you'll have to properly inducted," a boy said who was sitting beside her. He puckered out his lips and closed his eyes.

"As if Troy. Who would want to kiss those lips?" Gabriella asked just a little too loudly. Every girl in the room raised their hand.

"Are you serious?" Gabriella asked blankly. She turned around in her seat to see what Chad was doing. He was writing something in his notebook, gently humming.

There she is again

The girl I'm in love with

It's cool we're just friends

We walk the halls at school

We know it's casual

Its cool we're just…

He looked up to see Gabriella looking at the words. He quickly jerked it up so Gabriella couldn't see what he was writing. On the cover of the notebook, it had written in Chad's handwriting: Chad's Lyric NOTE Book.

The word lyric had two lines going through it so it read Chad's NOTE Book.

"What was it that you were writing?" Gabriella asked.

"Uh, notes! That's it! Yeah, notes," Chad lied.

"We're in homeroom. We have no notes to take," Gabriella said.

"Notes? Who said I'm writing notes. I could be writing anything in my secretive notebook that's for my eyes only and nobody else's," Chad replied. "Especially you."

"Me? How come I can't read it? I'm your best friend. You can trust me. Anything you have written in that journal, I can take it," Gabriella told Chad with a face you couldn't say no to.

"No." Guess it wasn't a good enough face.

"Hello class! Welcome to the first Friday of the year! With every first Friday of the year, we also have auditions for our Fall Musicale, this time titled Autumn Leaves. If this is successful enough, a follow up musicale will be in the winter entitled Winter Snow…" Mrs. Darbus began.

Chad began scribbling in his notebook again, finishing what he started.

A couple of minutes later, the bell rang. Chad quickly closed his notebook and got his books ready for the next few classes. When he came out of homeroom, Gabriella was waiting for him.

"Ready to walk the halls?" Gabriella asked, taking his arm in hers.

"We know it's casual," Chad remarked as they walked to their next classes.

This is my first Chadriella or Chadella, whatever you want to call it. Hopefully, the next chapter will be up tomorrow. Anyway, read and review.