Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Nathalie. The rest is Disney's.

Summery: Chad is afraid to ask Taylor out, Troy doesn't know if he has a girlfriend, and everyone thinks Chad has a crush on Gabriella. Who can blame them, though, after the phone message he left her? Oh, what are two clueless guys to do? Troyella, Chaylor. ONESHOT.

Author's Note: Ahem I would just like to say that this is my first High School Musical fic, and although I did reread it, work very hard, and use spell check, I also put it all together mostly in a day, so it might be a little rough around the edges. Most likely, I'll take a look at it in a week and decide to brush it up, but right now I've done the best of my abilities, so enjoy! Oh, and please review, especially if you think I rushed it.

"Going Out"

Troy eyed his best friend warily, wondering what exactly he was supposed to be doing there. When he had gotten a call at 9:30 in the morning from Chad – yes, Chad Danforth had actually awoken before noon – Troy had thought something had been seriously wrong. Yet, he had been sitting at the Danforth's kitchen table for nearly a half hour, and all his visit had consisted of was watching Chad pace back and forth, muttering incoherent words.

It was not exactly the way he had pictured spending the first day as Gabriella Montez's boyfriend.

Yes, you heard correctly. The night before – during the after party celebrating the Wildcat's victory – he had found the courage to finally ask Gabriella out, and she had said yes. As ecstatic as Troy was, however, Chad was somewhat dampening his mood, especially considering he had to plan his very first date with his new girlfriend.

Finally fed up with his so-called best friend, Troy asked, ""Dude, what are you doing?"

Chad jumped, and Troy felt a grim sort of satisfaction, because he knew that Chad had completely forgotten about him. Scowling, Chad snapped, "I'm trying to think, here, alright?"

Troy rolled his eyes, getting up and walking over to his best friend. In one swift movement, he yanked the basketball out of Chad's hands and tossed it over his shoulder. Chad blinked, looking like a kid who had just had his candy taken away. Looking him right in the eye, Troy said, "Trying being the key word. Look, you're my best friend, but if you don't tell me what's up I'm going to strangle you."

"I'd like to see you try," Chad hissed, narrowing his eyes and taking a step towards Troy. Both friends eyed each other warily for a second, before smiling and dropping the façade. The smile immediately dropped from Chad's face as he said, "It's Taylor."

Before he could get any farther, Troy grinned widely, already knowing what was to come. Glaring daggers at his companion, Chad said, "It's not funny – and stop smiling like that!"

"C'mon," Troy said, still chuckling, "it's obvious you like her."

Making a face, Chad sat back down, facing away from Troy, who easily walked to the other side of the table and slid into the chair across from him. Sighing, Chad put his head in his hands and mumbled, "Yeah, just rub it in why don't ya?"

"What's the problem?" Troy asked, confused. "You're crazy for you, she feels the same, now you just need to ask her out."

"Just? Just?!" Chad asked sarcastically, lifting his head to scowl at Troy. "Oh, so now asking out a girl is easy? What if she says no? What if I can't get the words out? What if someone else has already asked her out? Oh my God, she's going to say no, I know it. This is such a bad idea. What was I thinking?!"

Chad looked up, a crazy look in his eye, only to find himself staring up at Troy, who didn't look much better. Grabbing Troy's shoulders, Chad shook them before practically shouting, "Don't look at me like that. You're supposed to be helping for crying out loud!"

Like a deer caught in headlights, Troy just stared in bewilderment at Chad before cautiously removing his maniac friend's hands that were gripping his shoulders. Slowly, Troy responded, " Chad, I think you've been thinking about this a bit too much–"

"How, how could I be thinking about this too much? I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND!" Chad shouted, standing up so forcefully that he pushed his chair over.

Troy blinked before trying a different tactic, "Um, aren't you overreacting just a little bit? You did say you already asked her to the after party, so I don't get what the big deal is about asking her out again. She already said yes once, so she is clearly free, not to mention interested in you."

Though Troy thought he had made a valid point, Chad just seemed to get more agitated. He continued his pacing, and it was as he did this that Troy realized just what shape Chad was in.

It looked as if Chad hadn't slept at all that night – there were alarmingly big bags under his eyes – and his hair stuck out at odd angles, making it clear that he hadn't yet taken a shower. The fact that he was only wearing boxers and a muscle shirt only supported this theory. His movements were jerky, almost as if Chad had drunk a bit too much coffee, but Troy doubted that because Chad was far too tired to be hyped up on caffeine.

As Troy watched, Chad's eyelids began to droop. Shaking his head, as if to shake away his sleepiness, Chad looked up and said, "Yeah, but I want to ask her out as in ask her to be my girlfriend, not just as her to go out on a date. They're two whole different things, trust me. All those cheerleaders I went out with? Yeah, they taught me the general idea. You have to ask a girl on a date, and then ask her to be your girlfriend. They're two completely different things. It's not easy, let me tell you. That's why I've never actually asked a girl to be my girlfriend before." Shaking his head even more, Chad walked over to retrieve his basketball, muttering, "At least I wouldn't have to worry if a cheerleader would say yes or not."

But Troy wasn't paying attention. Chad dribbled the ball a few times before catching it in his hands. Eyeing Troy's rapidly paling face, he asked, "What's up with you?"

Troy looked apprehensive as he asked in a panicked voice, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up a second. There's a difference? Why didn't someone tell me that?" Now Troy was up and pacing, running a hand through his damp hair. Turing to face a startled Chad, he asked, "What did I asked Gabriella? I did ask her if she wanted to be my girlfriend, right?"

"How should I know?" Chad asked, shrugging. "But this isn't about you; this is about me asking Taylor out. What am I supposed to do? What do Scholastic-Decathlon winners like in a guy, anyways?" Letting his nerves get the better of him, Chad started to dribble his basketball nervously, ignoring the rather loud thump it made every time the kitchen floor and basketball met.

" Chad, what did I tell you about playing basketball in the house?" Mrs. Danforth asked sternly, coming down the stairs and stepping into the kitchen, supporting a suit. Spotting Troy she smiled and said, "Oh, hello, Troy, I didn't know you were here."

Troy wasn't paying attention – he was too busy doing some more pacing of his own, and muttering to himself. Mrs. Danforth frowned, asking Chad worriedly, "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, Mom, just worried," Chad said, clearly annoyed. He then turned to Troy and shouted, " TROY!"

Troy jumped, looking up in surprise. Not even registering the presence of Mrs. Danforth, he ran over to Chad and pleaded, "You have to call Gabriella and see if I asked the right question. I can't just go into school Monday not knowing if I have a girlfriend or not!"

"Why should I?" Chad countered. "You're not helping me with Taylor – you're making everything worse! Some best friend you are. Which question did you even want to ask, anyways?"

"I WANTED TO ASK GABRIELLA TO BE MY GIRLFRIEND!" Troy shouted. Groaning, he said, "Fine, if you won't help, I'll just call Taylor and see what she says. Gabriella must've told her about last night."

"Wait, wait," Chad said, desperation evident in his voice, "if you call Taylor you have to ask her if she likes me and wants me to ask her out."

Troy made a face, replying in disbelief, "Are you kidding me? How sixth-grade can you get, Danforth?"

"Well I'm not the one wondering whether I actually have a girlfriend or not," Chad shot back, obviously pleased with himself. "So if you ask Taylor, I'll call Gabriella and ask her, how's that?"

Troy eyed Chad suspiciously for a moment before nodding and saying, "Fine – but you have to get an answer."

"Just as long as you do," Chad said, spinning around. "Mom, I've got to use the phone."

Troy frowned, his cell phone halfway to his ear. Grinning sheepishly, he put it down and said, "Oh, sorry, Mrs. Danforth. I didn't realize you had come in."

Mrs. Danforth chuckled before saying, "So I saw. Girl troubles?"

"Yeah," Troy said. "Hey, would you happen to know what the difference is between asking a girl out on a date and asking a girl to be your girlfriend?"

Chad scoffed and picked up the phone, asking, "What's Gabriella's phone number?"

Troy passed Chad his cell phone, and instantly Chad began to search for the number, ignoring his mother, who was replying in a thoughtful tone, "I can't say I do. Things are a lot more complicated now then they were when I was young."

"Oh," Troy said, looking a bit put out.

Before he could say anything else, Chad shoved the cell phone back into Troy's hands and said, "Shut up, it's ringing."

Mrs. Danforth shook her head in despair, grabbing her briefcase and walking out of the room. Chad started pacing as he waited for Gabriella to pick up. Troy watched, his stomach sinking lower and lower as Chad became more and more impatient. Finally, with a stricken look on his face, Chad said, "She didn't pick up! What do I do? Do I leave a message?"

"Yeah! Hurry up," Troy said eagerly. "And act natural."

Chad, looking very much like he wanted to make a few very rude hand gestures towards Troy, clenched his fist. He opened his mouth to say something, but then turned back to the phone, saying into it, "Um, yeah – this is Chad. Chad Danforth, from school. Gabriella's school, I mean." He laughed nervously and Troy groaned, knowing it was hopeless. "Anyways, I have to talk to Gabriella. I just wanted to ask to her about… something. It's kind of personal. And important, very important. So, just call me back. My home phone's 657-8299, and my cell's 492-6180. Okay, so, bye."

Chad hung up, rather pleased with himself, only to find Troy staring at him, mouth open. Confused, Chad asked, "What? That was natural. Now we just have to wait for her to call back."

Troy was now red with anger. Seething, he hissed, "I said act natural, not act like you want to ask her out!"

"I didn't sound like I was going to ask her out!" Chad balked, looking alarmed and warily eyeing Troy's teeth, which were making audible grinding sounds.

"Oh, really," Troy challenged.

Chad blinked, clearly confused. Then, replaying the conversation in his head, he started to pale. He stuttered, "I didn't – I didn't sound like I wanted to asker out… right?"

"YES, YOU DID! NOW GABRIELLA'S PROBABLY THINKING YOU'RE GOING TO ASK HER OUT, WHEN I WAS ALREADY SUPPOSED TO BE GOING OUT WITH HER!" Troy roared, furious.

Jumping so high he nearly dropped the phone, Chad hastily said, "Well, I'll leave another message explained, alright? Then you can call Taylor."

Troy watched, fists clenched in rage, as Chad hit the redial button and waited. He had just planned out what he was going to say in his message when an older woman's voice picked up, saying, "Hello?"

Chad jumped in surprise, this time actually dropping the phone. Dropping to his knees, Chad fumbled around for the phone and hastily shut it off, hissing, "Someone picked up!"

"Yeah, I noticed," Troy said sarcastically. Then, turning serious, he glared and practically shouted, "What were you thinking!?"

"I panicked!" Chad said defensively. "And that wasn't Gabriella's voice. Besides, there's no way she'll come to the phone knowing it's me – not after that message."

"Well I'm not calling Taylor until you make everything right with Gabriella," Troy retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Fine," Chad huffed. "Her house is nearby; I'll just go over to Gabriella's and talk to her in person. Then I'll call you when I'm done, tell you the results, and you can call Taylor, alright?"

Troy hesitated, clearly unsure as to whether Chad could manage to not mess up this time around. After running through his option and realizing this was the only one left, he nodding painfully and said, "Okay, but only because there aren't any other options. And you have to call me right after."

"Right after," Chad agreed hastily. He grabbed his basketball and said, "Well, I'm going – call you in fifteen."

"Uh, Chad?"

Chad turned around, the front door already open. Annoyed, he asked, "What? I want to get this over with."

Troy smirked and, gesturing to Chad's attire, said, "You might want to get changed, first." Eyeing Chad again, he added off-handedly, "And a shower wouldn't hurt, either."

-0-o-0-

Fifteen minutes later, Chad was standing in front of the Montez family's front door, pacing nervously and going over his lines. Murmuring them softly, he tried, "Gabriella, we need to talk – no, no, that's like I'm breaking up with her. Uh… oh, got it! Gabriella, I'm not sure if you got the message…." He hesitated before deciding, "No, because then she'll definitely listen to it, if by some miracle she hasn't already. So maybe I could just say, 'Gabriella, I don't know what you think I feel about you'-"

"Do you want to ask my sister out? Because, you know, she has a boyfriend now."

Chad jumped, spinning around to face the figure in the doorway. It was literally an older version of Gabriella – she looked to be about twenty and had much shorter hair, but everything else was the same. Outraged, Chad replied, "NO! I DO NOT LIKE GABRIELLA! I – wait, did you say she has a boyfriend? His name's Troy, right?"

Eyeing Chad uncertainly, the girl said, "Um, I don't know his name. Do you want to talk to Gabby?"

"Yeah, yeah," Chad said distractedly, following the girl into the house. He looked around distrustfully, hugging the basketball he had brought along to his chest. Hesitating as they passed an open door, Chad stopped to look in, only to jump back a foot and bump into a table. Making a wide path around the door, he looked up at the girl and smiled sheepishly.

She raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Gabriella's in the kitchen, right here. I'm Nathalie, by the way."

"Right, okay," Chad said. "Thanks."

He looked around, finally zooming in on the door that Nathalie was pointing at. Looking very much like he was walking into a deathtrap, Chad slowly walked into the kitchen.

Gabriella was sitting on a stool, a plate in front of her, with a dreamy look on her face. Chad glanced around at the modern kitchen, which did nothing to make him feel more comfortable about the situation. Nervously fiddling with the basketball, he started spinning it around.

Losing control, Chad tried to catch the ball as it bounced to the ground. Failing, he winced as it hit the kitchen floor before hastily running after it. Smiling in triumph as he captured his basketball, he was utterly shocked when, from behind him, Gabriella asked, "Chad? What are you doing here?"

Spinning around rather ungracefully, Chad grabbed the edge of the island in the middle of the kitchen to keep from falling on the slick floors. Looking up slowly, he forced a smile onto his face and said, "Hey, Gabriella. Um, we need to talk."

Gabriella blinked, and Chad groaned, saying, "No, no, no, I didn't mean it like that!" Slapping his head, he swore, wincing as Gabriella jumped in surprise, and said in a somewhat calmer tone, "Look, have you listened to the message I left you?"

Looking rather confused, she said, "No, I saw that you had left one, but haven't gotten around to listening to it. Sorry no one picked up the phone – if you want I can listen to it right now-"

"NO!" Chad exclaimed forcefully. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, "Gabriella, I just need to know if you're going out with Troy."

"Yeah, he asked me out last night. Why, did he send you here or something?" Gabriella face, which had started out blissfully happy, turned worried as the idea that Troy had sent Chad entered her mind.

Noticing this, Chad hastily said, "No – well, kind of, but that's not the point! The point is, did he ask you to be his girlfriend, or did he just ask you if you wanted to go out on a date?"

"Well, I thought he said he wanted me to be his girlfriend – that's what he meant, right?" Gabriella was definitely confused now, and starting to panic.

Grinning from ear to ear, Chad said, "Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what he meant. Congrats! You two are going out! So, that's all, really – just wanted to know. So now all you have to do is delete that message, and I'm out of here."

Chad was ecstatic. Troy had definitely asked Gabriella to be his girlfriend, she had said yes, Gabriella hadn't heard the message, and Troy would finally be able to call Taylor. All was right in the world.

Unfortunately, his good mood was abruptly ruined as Nathalie came in, holding the phone. Looking at Gabriella, she said, "Gabby, someone called for you – Chas something-or-other, I think. It sounded like he wanted to ask you out."

"NO!" Chad shouted yet again, and began to bang his head against the nearest thing, the refrigerator, in desperation.

Confused, Nathalie pointed the phone at Chad and asked, "Is he alright. Seemed a bit jumpy, to me."

Gabriella blinked in surprise, turning to ask Chad, "You want to ask me out?"

"You want to ask her out?"

Chad froze, slowly turning to face the entrance of the kitchen, where a shocked Taylor stood. The basketball dropped to the ground, and Chad said sarcastically, "Great – this is so my life. Now I have to play the love-struck loser in some sort of made-for-TV Disney movie."

Nathalie giggled, but no one else made a sound. Taylor just stood there, an indescribable look on her face, while a bewildered Gabriella was frozen, mouth open.

Chad, ignoring Nathalie, ran over to Gabriella and got onto his knees, pleading, "Gabriella, don't listen to her! I only called you because Troy said the only way he'd talk to Taylor would be if I called you to make sure that he had actually asked you to be his girlfriend, and not just out on a date. But then you didn't pick up, and I left a message but it sounded like I wanted to ask you out, so Troy made me come over here to straighten it out, that's why I'm here. I don't want to ask you out and Troy definitely wants to be your boyfriend. I actually want to ask out Taylor, but I was afraid she'd say no."

"Maybe you should tell Taylor that," Gabriella said, pointing to the now-vacant kitchen door.

Chad spun around on his knees, mouth open. "Where'd she go!?" he cried. "Oh, no, I have to follow her." He got up, and was halfway to the door before he spun around, asking Gabriella, "We're cool, right?"

Grinning happily, she nodded, and in the next second Chad was sprinting out the door. Looking to the left and right, he could see the distant figure of Taylor McKessie running down the sidewalk. About to take after her, Chad swore when his cell phone began to ring. Picking it up, he asked, "What?"

"You done yet?"

It was Troy. Annoyed, Chad started to jog in the direction of Taylor as he said into the phone, "Yeah, Gabriella's your girlfriend, she doesn't think I'm into her, it's all good. I got to go."

He hung up, not waiting for Troy's response, and began to sprint.

Chad was so wrapped up in what he was going to say once he reached Taylor – all of those suicides during basketball practice were finally paying off – he didn't notice Taylor had stopped running until he had already ran past her. Spinning around and grasping her shoulders, Chad started to explain yet again.

" Tay, you've got to hear me out. I don't like Gabriella, I only left the message because Troy wanted me to ask her something, and I accidentally sounded like I wanted to ask her out – that's why I went over her house, I wanted to fix it. I never liked Gabriella as more then a friend, I actually like you – but I was too afraid to ask you out because I thought-"

"-I'd say no," Taylor finished.

Chad blinked down at her, confused. Just then, he realized she was smiling. Slowly, he asked, "Wait, how'd you know that?"

Taylor simply held up her cell phone, saying, " Troy just called – about a minute ago. He said wanted to know if I would say yes if you asked me out, and then proceeded to explain that you were acting like an idiot by being too afraid to ask me out."

"I was not being an idiot," Chad huffed, crossing his arms. "You're intimidating, sometimes! And then there's the whole problem of asking you out on a date verse asking you to be my girlfriend – wait, does that mean you'd say yes, if I asked you out?"

Taylor shrugged noncommittally before asking, "Depends. Are you going to ask me?"

"Only if you say yes."

"Then yeah, I think I'd say yes."

Chad grinned stupidly, saying, "Great!"

He then leaned in, and looked about ready to kiss Taylor when she smirked and said, "You know you haven't actually asked yet, right?"

"Oh," Chad said sheepishly. "Yeah. Well, do you? Want to go out, I mean. Like, I want you to be my girlfriend – I don't just want to go out on a date. A date would be pretty cool, too, though – what about tomorrow? I'm not really sure what girlfriends and boyfriends do on dates, I've never really asked a girl to be my girlfriend before, but I'm guessing you know, so we can do whatever girls like you like to do with their boyfriends - just so long as there's no studying involved. Studying is good, though, if you really-"

"Chad," Taylor interrupted. "Shut up."

And then she kissed him.

It was amazing, and Chad knew right then that he never wanted to kiss another girl again, because no one could compare to Taylor. Eagerly, he deepened the kiss, and as he did Chad couldn't help but think that being the love-struck loser in some sort of made-for-TV Disney movie wasn't so bad after all.

-0-o-0-

Okay, I hope you liked it! And tune in for HSM2 tonight!