Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez were best friends and they had always been best friends. Nothing more. Nothing less. And, this was a major problem since they loved each other in a more than just friends manner, but, both of them were just too stubborn to tell each other this.
"Hey, did you hear about that Montez girl Troy always hangs out with?" Troy heard someone ask as he walked down the hallway of East High School and frowned.
"Yeah," another voice said. "She's so lucky. I would do anything to be her right now. I've been dying to go out with Lucas Scott."
The books Troy had been holding crashed to the floor. He stood there frozen to the spot. Gabriella was going out with Lucas Scott. Lucas was the football team's captain.
"Hey, Wildcat," a voice called. "What's wrong?"
Troy shook his head and bent down to gather his books as Gabriella walked over to him.
"Nothing," Troy smiled. "What's up, Brie?"
"Same old same," Gabriella rolled her eyes. "My mom's still worrying about my brother. You know the one who's in the army."
"Right," Troy said. "George."
"Yeah," Gabriella sighed. "I miss him, you know. And, even I worry sometimes. I don't want something to happen to him."
"He'll be fine, Brie," Troy said comfortingly giving her a hug.
"Thanks," Gabriella said. "Anyway, what about you? What's up?"
"Nothing," Troy said. "Except that, I'm thinking of asking Serena Sparks out."
Serena Sparks was a beautiful blonde cheerleader and Troy had no intentions of asking her out. The words flew out of his mouth because he was so mad that Gabriella had decided to go out with Lucas.
"You are?" Gabriella looked surprised and Troy could have sworn that she looked a bit hurt. "Why?"
"Because I want to?" Troy said not really convincingly. "Why do you want to go out with Lucas? What's so special about him?"
"Excuse me?" Gabriella looked confused. "I don't want to go out with Lucas."
"But, I heard some girls say that he asked you out," Troy said.
"He did," Gabriella said. "But, I turned him down."
"Really?" Troy looked happy.
"Yeah," Gabriella said. "And, anyway, there's Serena coming this way."
"Huh?" Troy stared at her.
"Serena!" Gabriella called. "Come here for a second."
"What?" Serena asked. She did not like Gabriella.
"Troy wants to ask you out," Gabriella said.
Before Troy could protest Serena squealed happily and Gabriella walked away and entered the nearest bathroom. Little did Troy know that the girl he loved was crying.
"When shall we go out, Troy?" Serena asked. "How about tonight? Pick me up at seven. I can't believe this! I've wanted to be your girlfriend for a really long time."
"Okay," Troy said not really registering what was happening.
"Great," Serena said. "Bye, Troy."
Troy did not know how it happened, but, Serena had turned to be his steady girlfriend and the problem was that he did not like her a bit. She was so annoying. She had to cling onto his arm whenever they walked and she had made it a point to kiss him whenever Gabriella was around because she always thought that there was something going on between them and she often told Troy this and he said that there was nothing going on between them every time.
When Troy and Serena got together, Gabriella found out that it was getting harder and harder to spend time with Troy because Serena had to be with him during every waking hour of the day. Gabriella missed him a lot and when they got steady, she had stopped eating or going out. She had stopped paying attention to what she wore and she spent most of her time crying in her bedroom and while she was at school, she cried in the bathrooms.
Troy had noticed that Gabriella was becoming more and more distant and he was quite worried about her.
"Troy," Taylor McKessie, Gabriella's best friend called walking over to him.
Troy pulled away from Serena and turned to face Taylor.
"I need to talk to you, Troy, alone," Taylor said.
"He's busy," Serena said.
"Hold it, Serena," Troy said. Then, he took Taylor's hand and led her into an empty classroom. "What is it, Taylor?"
"It's about Gabriella," Taylor said and Troy's eyebrows shot up. "Troy, she has stopped eating and sleeping and she's always crying. She won't even go out unless it's for school. You have to do something. I've tried everything I can, but, nothing's good enough."
"I'll go to her place today after basketball practice and take her out," Troy promised. "I'll take her to the park or something. Somewhere that she'll like and I'm going to find out what's wrong with her."
"I know what's wrong with her," Taylor said. "But, it's not my place to tell you. And, thank you, Troy."
Before Troy could say anything else, Taylor walked away and he went back to Serena.
"I can't go out with you this afternoon, Serena," he said. "Something important has come up."
"More important than me?" Serena asked pouting.
"Yes," Troy said. "This is definitely a hundred times more important than you."
And, then, Troy headed to class leaving a very angry Serena behind.
"Brie, we're going out!" Troy exclaimed walking into Gabriella's room that afternoon.
Gabriella who had been lying face down on the bed sat up in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Taking you out," Troy answered opening her closet. "We're going to the park and we're going to get hot chocolates and we're going to get you to talk about what's bugging you so much."
"Troy," Gabriella began as he rummaged through her closet.
Troy did not answer. He pulled out her black jeans which hugged her legs and her favorite red tank top. Then, he took out her dark blue jeans jacket and her favorite sneakers.
"Here," he said handing everything to her. "You've got ten minutes to get dressed."
"Troy," Gabriella began again. "I don't want to go out."
"Get dressed," Troy repeated in a tone that always made Gabriella like Troy even more. "And, that's an order, Montez."
Troy walked towards the door.
"Ten minutes," he said before stepping out into the hallway.
Ten minutes later, Troy knocked on Gabriella's door and entered the room. She was combing her straight hair.
"You look beautiful," he smiled. "Not that you don't look beautiful all the time."
"Thanks," Gabriella said, shyly.
"Let's go," Troy said taking her hand and pulling her out of the door.
A few minutes later, they two were walking around the huge lake at the park with cups of hot chocolate in hand. Troy had one hand in his hand pocket and the other was intertwined with Gabriella's hand. Anyone who saw them would think that they were a couple.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" he asked. "Why are you so upset all the time?"
"It's nothing, Troy," Gabriella said looking away.
"Remember when you taught me how to do the waltz the way your dad taught you in junior high?" Troy asked, suddenly.
"Yeah," Gabriella said slowly. "What about that?"
"I forgot," Troy said. "Do you think you could teach me again?"
"Sure," Gabriella smiled.
Troy took her cup of hot chocolate and set it one a bench where an old couple was sitting. They looked at him in surprise. He turned back to Gabriella.
"Take my hand," she whispered holding out her hand and he took it.
Slowly Gabriella stepped towards him and placed her hand on his shoulder. His hand slid around her body to her back and their other hands were joined. Together they started moving. Gabriella counted softly. Everyone was staring at them, but, neither Troy nor Gabriella cared. They were in their own world without any one and especially no Serena.
"Come on, Brie," Troy said. "Talk to me. What's bothering you?"
"Fine," Gabriella said. "I'll tell you."
Troy barely heard her. He was too busy trying to keep his eyes on hers instead of her lips, but, they kept going down to her lips. Gabriella was having the same trouble. Ever so slowly, Troy started to lean in. Their lips were about to meet when…
"I knew it!" a voice behind them shrieked.
They both jumped apart to see Serena staring at them red with anger.
"She's the important thing you were talking about?" she yelled.
"Yes," Troy shrugged as he grabbed the two cups of hot chocolate. The old couple was still staring at them with some more people.
"I always knew that there was something going on between the two of you," Serena said, angrily.
She snatched away Troy's hot chocolate and threw it at Gabriella. Gabriella yelped as the hot drink made contact with her body.
"Brie!" Troy exclaimed dropping the other cup to the ground. "Are you okay?"
"That's my boyfriend!" she yelled.
"Serena," Gabriella said. "Nothing's going –"
"Don't talk to me!" Serena snapped at her.
Serena was about to slap her. Her hand would have definitely met Gabriella's face if Troy had not stopped her.
"What are you doing?" Troy yelled as Gabriella ran away. "You cannot treat Gabriella like that. She's my best friend and she's more important to me than you. And she always will be."
"You sound as if you love her!" Serena said.
"What if I do?" Troy asked.
"I thought you loved me!" Serena said.
"I don't!" Troy yelled. "I don't love you. I've never loved you. Heck! I don't even like you!"
"It has never been me, has it?" Serena yelled. "It's always been her, right?"
"Yes!" Troy replied. "It has always been her. It has always been Gabriella. I love her!"
Serena froze when Troy said the last three words. He turned around to see where Gabriella went, but, there was no sign of her.
"Any idea where she went?" he asked the old couple. "I need to tell her that I love her."
"She went that way," the lady said.
"Thank you," Troy smiled before taking off in the direction that the lady had pointed.
"Good luck, son," the man with the lady called.
Troy raised his hand to show his thanks as he ran.
A few minutes later, Troy found Gabriella sitting on a bench, crying her eyes out. She had taken off her jacket. It had hot chocolate all over it.
"Brie," he said softly sitting down next to her and touching her arm.
Then, he realized that she was freezing. It was a cold day and since she had taken off her jacket she was really cold.
"Brie, you're freezing!" he exclaimed.
"Troy, go away," Gabriella sobbed as Troy pulled off his hooded sweater.
"Why?" Troy asked. "Here, put this on."
Gabriella took the sweater and put it on gratefully. It smelled like Troy. Troy put his arms around her and hugged her so that she would be warmer.
"Thanks," she said, softly.
"You're welcome," he replied.
"Where's Serena?" she asked.
"Who knows?" Troy said. "We broke up."
"Why?" Gabriella asked looking up at him.
"Because there's another girl that I'm in love with," he explained.
"Who?" she asked.
"You," he replied.
"Me?" she asked in surprise.
"Yes, Brie," Troy smiled. "You. It's always been you. I love you."
"I love you, too, Troy," she smiled.
Troy leaned down and kissed her lips gently. Gabriella wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed back.
"I should have done that a long time ago," Troy smiled pulling away when air became essential.
"Yeah, you should have," Gabriella smiled.
Troy chuckled and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear before leaning down for another kiss.