Okay guys this story is wholly based in the mountains for the 3 weeks. I'm sorry I haven't continued with Working With the Star, a new chapter will coming for it soon! I keep getting all these ideas in my head and have to write them down! Hope you like this one.

xxx

Gabriella Montez expertly ducked as a boiled egg came flying her way, splattering all over the locker behind her. She looked in the direction in which it came from and who would she see, a group of 18-year-old males laughing at her, the same males which had been laughing at her since her very first day at East High, in seventh grade.

"Too bad you didn't get that ugly hat" Zeke Baylor said to Troy Bolton, the egg thrower.

"More like too bad I didn't get her ugly face" Troy replied. Gabriella was certainly not an ugly girl; she had a soft and pretty face, one that you could rarely find walking down the street. Her father had always said she was a natural beauty. And Troy knew this too; he just loved the feeling of importance and superiority that came from insulting her.

Gabriella glared at the boys so harshly she thought she might shoot red laser beams from her eyes. She felt brave for a few moments, until she saw Troy's face which was almost one hundred times harsher than hers, and immediately, Gabriella felt scared of him, like always. She turned away and tried hard to find a sense of comfort through clutching her books tightly to her chest. She blinked away a tear that was ready to fall. Every single morning Gabriella had to cop some stupid prank from Troy Bolton and his posse, however she was getting pretty good at avoiding them sometimes, after all the years of experience. Gabriella was smart enough to realise that it was only Troy that was the one who hated on her, his friends didn't really give a damn, they just followed Troy like he was the King and they were his servants. She may have discovered that, but she never discovered what Troy had against her. She stayed out of everyone's way, including his, she never caused a scene, and whenever there was trouble about, she was nowhere to be found.

When Gabriella finally reached her locker, she sighed out loud. Every second of every day she just wished that she could have at least one friend to say hello to in the morning, but she had no one. She was friendless. She was too quiet to speak up and no one at East High made the effort to talk to her. Every single time that was a pairing in an assignment, Gabriella's partner had forced her to do all the work by herself. She sighed again as she moved the thought from her mind and began to slide out her math workbooks. She moved as slow as possible, trying to put off walking in the corridors of hell for as long as possible. She lifted her leg up to balance her bag on her knee, but dropped everything in fright as she heard her locker slam dangerously close to her head. She looked to see who the culprit was and her heart pace sped up when she saw that it was Troy Bolton. God he was gorgeous, even though his mouth was hard and his eyes were as cold as ice, he was close to perfect.

"Got that math homework I asked for last night Montez?" he said firmly. Gabriella swallowed the lump swelling in her throat and nodded slowly as she pulled out the frequent additional copy of the math homework due. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw him turn away after snatching the paper out of her hand and began to concern herself with her own copy of the same homework, "oh, one more thing. Chad forgot his homework today, so I'll be taking that" Troy said, snatching the paper from her hands.

"But, but…but it's th-"

"B-b-b-but, but, but" Troy mocked, "Like I care!" Those were his final words as he left to go to math, which was unfortunately the same class as hers.

"Great" Gabriella muttered, she was to go to class with unfinished homework, again!

. . .

Well, just as Gabriella had suspected, she landed herself a detention that very afternoon for her incomplete homework.

"Attention please all seniors, I would like all of you to assemble in the Grade 12 meeting area at once to discuss the upcoming camp. Thank you, see you soon"

All the seniors started to move again after freezing whenever there was a voice through the loudspeaker. After about 7 minutes, the entire year were seating in the meeting area, chattering loudly amongst themselves while they waited impatiently for the year coordinator to arrive.

"Okay everyone be quiet, I'm here" Mrs. Milkins, the year coordinator said, getting all their attention. "As you know, there has been the discussed camp looming very soon. But this year it's been changed to more of a program" she said, whispers immediately spread around, some getting pissed off that it had changed when they were already excited for the activities.

"To what?" Chad Danforth snapped.

"Navigation skills" she answered just harsh as Chad's tone. And instantaneously an uproar of groans began.

"That will be ass numbingly dull" Chad said, getting a detention from his language.

"We are all going to Mt. Buraugh and into the harsh bushland. You will all be pair into two, one navigating with the map and compass and the other compiling the appropriate signals using the bushland itself, such as rocks, pebbles, mounds of dirt, leaves, sticks etc."

"Do we get to choose who navigates and who does the other stuff?" Troy said, already planning his journey with his best friend Chad.

"No Mr. Bolton you don't, and I'm sorry but you and Chad will not be together. I will be choosing the pairs" she said, and immediately, Gabriella relaxed, she wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of trying to find her own partner. But meanwhile, Troy and Chad sat there extremely pissed off, knowing they wouldn't have their own way. "Everyone! Quieten down, listen! I will be now calling out your pairs, so listen carefully alright?!" she yelled. Gabriella listened for her name and hoped to hell she would be with someone who was half decent and was prepared to be nice to her. And finally, Gabriella's name was called out, I hope I'm with someone nice, please put me with someone nice, followed by Troy Bolton's, SHIT!

"WHAT?!" Troy yelled, standing up tall above everyone else, "you can't be serious!!" he yelled again.

"Troy I am, now sit down before I give you a detention" Mrs. Milkins said.

"That's so slack, everyone knows she's a loser and that I hate her! Why would you put me with her? To make my experience miserable?! I won't do it!" Troy said, trying to hold all the other anger in.

"Well it's up to you if you come or not, but I can tell you, Miss. Montez is a lovely girl and she will be the one passing 12th grade, and not you" she said eyeing him back into a sitting position.

Gabriella shifted her gaze over to Troy who was already glaring right at her. Gabriella looked at Mrs. Milkins, then back at Troy and shrugged, implying that they had no choice in the matter. Troy didn't break his glare at Gabriella once. He pursed his lips tight together and shook his head. It looked as though he would kill her right there.

This is not fair. Gabriella thought.

This sucks more than a prostitute in Reno. Troy thought.

. . .

That night Gabriella did her homework, as well as the homework that Troy needed, but kept getting distracted by her forever-set memory of being partnered with Troy for the bush navigational program!

"It's not fair mum. He's so mean to me and I don't do anything to him and now I have to survive 3 weeks, in a tent, in the middle of the bush with no escape!! With him!!" Gabriella whined. "I don't understand why we can't do it all in a big group, but noooo we have to go out into the wilderness with one person all in separate directions. I mean what is that? WHAT IS THAT?!" Gabriella yelled again. She glared at her mum when she noticed she was trying to cover up her chuckling. "Mum!!"

"It's alright sweetheart, just stick it out ok? 3 weeks will go by quickly before you know it. Maybe if you two are alone you might be nice to one another and simply try and get along, even if it's all superficial. At least it will be civilised."

"I doubt it" Gabriella mumbled nibbling on her bread roll.

. . .

"DAD!" Troy yelled as soon as his father, coach Bolton of the East High Wildcats, walked in the door.

"Whoa Troy, what is it son?" he asked looking concerned.

"Is there any possible way you can talk to Mrs. Milkins and get her to un-pair me with GABRIELL MONTEZ?!?!" He yelled. If Troy were a cartoon, steam would be coming from his ears and nostrils.

"Ah yes, I heard about that. No Troy, you're staying with Gabriella. If you ended up with one of your rowdy mates you would get no work done, and wouldn't learn a thing. Sorry Troy" his dad said ruffling his fingers through his son's hair. Troy's fists clenched and his knuckles went white.

"Ok dad! I'll just go and hang from my fan now!" Troy yelled, storming up the stairs. His dad only smiled knowing full well he wasn't being serious. Troy sat down on his bed with his head in his hands. "Fuck"

…

…

…

"Alright everyone! Are you in your pairs? Alright then, now we've all discussed the directions in the wilderness and I certainly hope you remember, yes I'm looking at you Chad Danforth. Now, pair up and go out and find a spot for you both to pitch up your tent"

"Why aren't we doing this whole boy, boy and girl, girl in the tents thing?" Chad asked.

"You always have something to say or ask don't you Mr. Danforth?" Mrs. Milkins asked, "because we are doing boy, girl on the trip so it evens it all out. But if you feel it inappropriate, you can always sleep outside of the tent while your partner is inside. Does that answer your question?" she said, and Chad rolled his eyes, "ok everyone! GOOD LUCK!! And I shall see you all in 3 weeks! And have FUN!" she said walking off, leaving people mumbling to themselves. Chad slapped hands with Troy and gave him a half hug as he went of with his partner Taylor McKessi. Troy stood there as everyone left in their own directions, waiting for Gabriella to come to him. He looked around and as everyone had cleared he finally spotted her, standing shyly on her own, simply waiting until she could spot Troy and timidly trot over to him. She was wearing dark blue sweat pants, a black singlet and her hair was in a messy, high pony tail, pulled through the slightly too big trucker hat she was wearing. Troy ignored his head saying she looked absolutely adorable and just stormed over to her.

Stick up for yourself Gabriella, stick up for yourself Gabriella. You can do it, you can do it. Have faith in yourself.

"Get in my way, and you will pay. Okay?" Troy asked, completely ignoring the fact that his sentence just sounded like a short poem.

"Okay, we could make things out of clay, and play with hay, and maybe lay by the bay, we just may, what do you say?" Gabriella said strongly, mocking him, for the very first time in her life. And she felt…good. Troy whipped his head around glaring at her.

"What did you say?" Troy said, as if he were about to shoot her in the head.

"N-nothing. Which direction are we going in?" she asked quietly, trying to change the topic.

"I'm calling the shots, follow me" he said, barging off ahead of her, not caring if he left her behind. Gabriella as quick as she could, fixed up her big bag on her shoulders and ran very slowly after Troy walking next to him. Troy didn't like the feeling of having his most hated person next to him. His eyes travelled to her, and then the dark skin of her shoulders, and then the way her hair bounced when she walked and even managed to see a tiny bit of her flat, toned stomach. He found it difficult to tear his eyes away from her but forced his head to look in another direction, bringing his wondering eyes away from her.

After about an hour of walking up hill and through bush, they finally found a place they could set up camp.

"You have the tent geek?" Troy demanded and Gabriella nodded pulling it out of the side pocket in her bag, pulling out the pegs and poles. "Today would be nice" Troy said, so Gabriella sped up the pace a bit and chucked Troy a few poles he could put together and he gracefully caught them which Gabriella found rather impressive.

10 minutes had passed and setting up camp was almost finished, all Gabriella had to do was put a few more pegs in the ground to hold the tent up. She bent down to pick a couple up, and Troy couldn't help but look down her top at her cleavage. Feeling his eyes on her, Gabriella immediately stood up quick enough to catch Troy shamefully looking away from her chest.

"What were you looking at Troy?" Gabriella demanded, feeling insulted that all he could stare at were her boobs.

"N-nothing" he replied rubbing the back of his neck, it was the first time that Gabriella had the upper hand in the conversation.

"You were looking at my boobs weren't you?" Gabriella asked. Troy realised this whole conversation wasn't the way he wanted it to be!

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" he spat. Gabriella just glared at him and threw the remaining pegs at his chest.

"You do the rest!" Gabriella said angrily and went to grab some water from her bag. Troy got onto the work immediately, distracting himself from her amazing body.

"What's the first activity?" Troy said strongly. And once again, Gabriella shrunk back into the size of a mouse.

"We have to walk until we find a signal that one of the guide people have already set up for us. Then we come back and start with the food or whatever you want to do. It will take us about 3 hours" Gabriella said quietly.

"Great, 3 hours, alone, with the biggest geek in the school" he said as he watched Gabriella pull her hat further over her head. "Well are we gonna get going then?" he snapped.

"Yes" Gabriella replied in her mousey voice. They both put on their day packs on and made their way into the mountain, in complete silence.

It had been about 40 minutes and Gabriella couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Troy, we're going to have to communicate if we want to do this right" Gabriella whispered to him, but she immediate stepped back in shock when Troy turned to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Well look, this is why this camp or program crap is going to suck hard! I don't want to talk to you at all because I hate you which results in a fail and a shitty journey!" Troy yelled, pushing her backwards slightly when he released her from his grip. "Just fucking walk would you?" he snapped and Gabriella felt as if she were about to cry. She stood as still as a statue and watched Troy walk away from her. She furrowed her brow and grew angrier by the second. Letting her body take control and not her head, she stomped backwards and hid behind a huge tree so Troy couldn't see her. After about 6 seconds she heard Troy yell out her name.

"Where the hell are you?! Can you hurry the hell up!!" he said angrily, when he didn't hear a response, he brushed it off, thinking she would catch up in a minute, "have it your way then" and he continued walking.

Gabriella sighed when she heard Troy continue up the mountain. She ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction, feeling the tears slide down her cheeks. She wanted to get as far away from Troy as she possibly could.

"Oh god" Gabriella whispered, halting in her tracks, "this is the way right?" she said when she saw a tiny waterfall, just big enough to fill your drink bottle up with. "Oh man…" Gabriella began to panic when she discovered that she did not remember passing it. "Where the hell am I?"