The days after the city Championship seemed to fly by as Troy and his team only practiced harder. Sure that was a great win but lets face it, State was where it was at. If they thought some scouts would be at the city game then just imagine the amount at the State game. The boys of the East High Basketball team seemed to be on their last leg as they ran up and down the court during their afternoon practice.

"I'm going to need more hustle out of you boys if you want to win state this year!" Screamed Coach Bolton, head of the winning team. "That is pathetic Jason! Is that one hundred percent?" he screamed louder in the boys ears, they had been practicing for three hours in the hot sticky gym.

"Ill show him one hundred percent," growled Chad Danforth as he ran next to his best friend. Troy just rolled his eyes in his fathers' direction and ran down the court with Chad. He couldn't take many more of these practices, they were driving him insane, and soon his body was just going to shut down on him.

"THAT IS IT! ON THE LINE! NOW!" Screamed the coach once again as his assistant blew the dreaded whistle that seemed to pierce your ears as you ran through the gym. The team groaned and cussed under their breathe as they ran down to the line. Troy silently stood there, hands on his knees; sweat dripping down his face onto the slick floor, cursing his coach. On the court, there was no relation between them, he was the player and his father was the coach. He even called him Coach Bolton. He stood next to Zeke and Chad waiting for the whistle to be blown again.

As it blew the boys took off, running from one line, hurriedly bending over to touch it, only to sprint back to where they had started. It was the fifth time they had been called to the line today, ten suicides each time. It was to the point where they were hoping for an asthma attack just so they could stop the madness and sit out for a while.

Finally, after what had seemed like hours, coach blew the final whistle, signifying the end of practice as the boys slowly and tiredly walked to the showers like soldiers after a battle. They flung the heavy doors open to the locker room and a couple just collapsed onto the floor right there, breathing hard. Troy and Chad walked to their lockers.

"Dude, I don't think I can take much more of this," said Chad in between heavy breathes as he took his shirt off and threw it in his locker. "Your dad is killing us out there, how are we supposed to play if we can barely walk?" Chad asked him desperately, putting some deodorant on.

"I don't know, I don't know," Troy said sitting down and running his hands through his hair. "I think he is over doing it, you know? I think he is trying to hard, and the running, I don't think I can take that anymore, I mean Jason was running faster than most of the guys!" Troy shook his head and stood up, taking his own shirt off and starting to change back into regular clothes.

Troy and Chad pushed the gym doors open that lead into the hall of East High only to find two girls sitting on the ground helping each other with chemistry homework. They both were scribbling down notes out of a book with neat and perfect handwriting unknowingly being watched by the two boys until Taylor McKessie heard the squeak of one of their basketball shoes and turned quickly to look up and see them both.

"Hey guys!" she said excitedly standing up and pulling Gabriella up with her, "How was practice?"

"Horrible."

"Death deifying."

"No, Troy, death would have been better, and less painful."

Taylor looked sympathetically at the two boys, who honestly looked like they had just gone through a natural disaster, "Sorry guys, but the season is over soon anyways right?" she said hoping to spark a glimmer of hope in them.

"Yeah, doesn't it end after state?" asked Gabriella packing the last of her notes into her backpack as she looked at them.

"Yeah but then club starts up again," groaned Troy looking at Gabriella.

"It's a never ending circle really, but we can handle it, because we're amazing" smirked Chad as he looked over at Troy and laughed, the girls both rolling their eyes at him. They were something else, always cocky, nothing could crush their ego, and they were lucky the girls put up with it.

"Whatever," Taylor said smiling at Chad and his ego, her theory was that if they cut his hair, he would lose all of his egotistical ways, kind of like Samson and his strength, she laughed silently at that thought as the four of them began walking through the empty halls to the parking lot.

"Why were you guys waiting for us anyways?" Troy asked curiously as they walked down to their cars, ready to separate.

"Eh, we had finished our Academic meeting and knew it wouldn't be long until you guys were done, so we decided to wait." Gabriella replied as she gave Troy a kiss goodbye and got into her own car. Troy closed her door for her and watched as she pulled out and started home.

Chad was giving Taylor a ride home so he went up to Troy to say goodbye, "See you man, let's hope its better tomorrow." He said half-heartedly

"Doubt it." Troy replied getting into his own car.

Chad, still walking slowly, worked his way over to his car again, where Taylor was already sitting in the passengers seat.

"Another day down, not that many more to go," Chad sighed as he turned on his car and went to back out.

"It cant be that bad, Chad," replied Taylor as she buckled her seatbelt and turned on the AC.

"Oh you have no idea," he replied turning towards her, "He is a mad man, ruthless, I don't know what we are going to do, but at least I can leave practice, practice follows Troy home," They were now onto the main road

"Well like you said, it will be over soon," she said with a sigh as she looked out the window. Albuquerque was nothing special, sure it was green, with rather pretty mountains, but during the summer it when it was around 110 out, it wasn't all that fun, and within a few weeks it was going to be that way.

"So how was your Nerd Heard meeting today?" he asked with a smirk that earned him a glare from Taylor.

"Our Academic Decathlon meeting went just fine thanks," she said while rolling her eyes and putting extra emphasis on the title. "Almost set the lab on fire, but you know, nothing major." She said casually as she changed the station. Chad just laughed at her, they were pretty much the most unusual couple you would see around; even worse than Troy and Gabriella. Taylor was organized, practical, generous, and always thought of others. She was pretty much everything Chad wasn't. But they loved each other anyways, although neither would admit it to the other. They hadn't been dating for all that long anyways, and thought it would be awkward to just go out there and say it.

Chad slowly pulled into Taylor's driveway and put the car in park, "Here we are," he said looking over at her.

Taylor got out and grabbed her backpack and placed it on the ground, popping the handle out to roll it inside. She was about to shut the door when she remembered, leaned in and gave Chad a quick kiss.

"Call me tonight," Chad said

"I might," Taylor said playfully as she shut the door, but the window was still open, "I have a lot of homework anyways," she laughed as she began walking towards her door.

"Oh don't act like you wouldn't rather talk to me!" Chad yelled out the window as he pulled out of her driveway and began to drive himself home.

Meanwhile Troy threw down his car keys and was about to make his way up to his room when he heard his father calling his name.

"Troy! Get over here there are some plays I want to run with you!"

Troy groaned tiredly as he slowly made his way back down the stairs and into the kitchen where his dad had his white board and marker, he carried it wherever he went. He listened for about an hour in a monotonic state as his dad ran play after play through him, asking him which guy is best, which play is best, how many seconds it should take. He even went as far as taking the roster from West and North high and sticking them into the play asking how he would defend each one. Troy found his eye lids drooping with the passing minutes, he still had homework and needed to shower and all his dad could talk about was basketball.

"And Troy what do you think of this—" His dad said before being cut off by the desperate boy.

"Dad, its great, it will work, we will do it, if number 22 from west was against me I would just go to the right, which is his weak side, now could I please, please just go upstairs, do my homework, and go to bed?" he asked exhausted, looking like he would collapse onto that stupid white board if his dad didn't let him leave.

"Well." Said his dad a little taken aback, "Im just trying to help you out Troy, I mean if you don't want this as much as the rest of our team who are we kidding here? You need to be focused more than anyone else out there and here I am, just trying to be a good coach, and help you out and you complain!" he was getting defensive, like he always did when Troy complained about the basketball overload. But what could Troy do, he knew if he kept fighting it, it would just lead to more conflict, so he just nodded, said a few 'I know's' and sat through another grueling half hour of wretched basketball talk before he found himself practically crawling up the stairs into his room. He collapsed onto his bed, forgetting about homework or his shower, or even his clothes for that matter and he was asleep within minutes.