Okay, I finally got hit by an idea! I was playing solitaire and it was like BOOM! I literally fell off the computer chair. So I wrote the first chapter. R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from HSM. Or Arthur the Aardvark. Or Minnie Mouse.

Homecoming War

Chapter One

Homecoming Nominees

Gabriella Montez sat in her homeroom class.

She looked at the clock, 8:15. Announcements would start any second now.

She glanced over at her crush, Troy Bolton, and was surprised to see him staring at her.

Right as she looked at him he jerked his head to the left and he started to talk to his friend, Zeke, as if they had been speaking the whole time.

Gabriella was about to start a conversation with her best friend, Taylor, when the annnouncements started to blare over the loud speaker.

"Hello students of East High!" The principal's voice was heard throughout the entire school and there was immediate silence. "Today is Monday, Febuary 23. Last Friday was our school's production of the musical "Twinkletowne" written and composed by our own Kelsi Neilson. I hope you all went to see it, it was filled with romance, drama, comedy, and some really good singing. You can thank the leads, Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez for that. Today at lunch there will be…"

Gabriella felt her cheeks turn red. She looked at Troy, whose face was a deep crimson.

"…and some vegetables on the side. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Now we announce your nominees for Homecoming King and Queen. Nominees for King: Troy Bolton, Zeke Baylor, and…Ryan Evans?I mean, yes, Ryan Evans. Nominees for Queen: Sharpay Evans, Rachel Deloski, who most of you know as Sharpette #2, and Gabriella Montez. More information on that is in the main office. That concludes our morning announcements, have a great day."

Gabriella's eyes went wide as she digested the information.

Homecoming Queen.

She laughed, that was one of the last things she wanted to run for. She was more interested in student-body president or treasurer. But not Homecoming Queen.

Even if she would get to be sitting next to Troy for hours, it would be on a float and she'd have to be smiling and waving her hand the whole time.

That job was more cut out for Sharpay or a Sharpette. Even though if a Sharpette ever beat Sharpay they wouldn't be a Sharpette for much longer, they'd get kicked out. Which meant that Rachel whatever would drop out of the competition by lunch.

The bell rang, and Gabriella ran out of the classroom. She walked down a flight of stairs. Her homeroom was on the second floor of the school but for some strange reason her locker was on the first floor.

"Hey Minnie Mouse."

"Hey Arnold the Aardvark. What are you doing around here? Isn't you're next class on the third floor?"

Troy and Gabriella called each other by their character's names for Twinkletowne sometimes, except that they'd modified them both into the names of kid's show characters. (A/N I know its really Arthur the Aardvark, just go along with Arnold, I couldn't think of any other famous kid's show Arnolds.)

"Oh, no, its down here. I was just walking by and decided to say hi. So, you nervous about running for Queen?"

Gabiella sighed and grabbed her History textbook. "I dunno, I think that job was made more for Sharpay or something. I might drop out, I know Sharpette #2 is going to."

Troy shook his head. "And how are you so sure that the Sharpette is gonna quit."

"Attention students, before you cast your ballots there is an announcement. Rachel Deloski is no longer running for Homecoming Queen."

Gabriella gave Troy a knowing look. "I had an hunch. And by first period too, that's a new record."

Troy laughed. Gabriella felt her heart flip, she loved it when Troy laughed.

She put her bag in her locker. "I gotta go," she held up her textbook, "History."

Troy just nodded and watched her walk away. He turned around. Now he had to go all the way up to the third floor to get to his class.

Gabriella struggled to keep her eyes open. Her teacher was lecturing the class about Ancient Greece and her hand was, without thinking, recording every word he said.

She sighed and thought of Troy. She wondered what class he had right now. What was he learning?

She looked down at her notes and wondered how she had gotten that talent. The ability to take notes absent-mindedly. It was rather handy though. She could daydream while some part of her brain was listening to what the teacher was saying and writing it down.

She wondered what it would be classified as. "Mild Superpower" she guessed. Her thoughts lingered back to Troy.

She pictured his somewhat light, somewhat dark brown hair.

She could see his handsome features and his toned muscles.

She had spent a lot of time memorizing his face. His lips, his ears, his cheekbones, his nose.Then came his eyes. Or the deep blue pools where his eyes should have been.

That was the one thing she couldn't see in her mind. His eyes. There were too blue and vivid, you had to see them in front of you just to even imagine them.

She wondered if he was thinking about her too. She shook her head, he would never be thinking about her.

Troy Bolton sat in his English class. There was a video on about English Literature.

Had Shakespeare had any girlfriends in High School? Had he even gone to High School? Troy pondered for a few minutes.

His thoughts kept wandering off until they reached the one subject he loved to think about. Gabriella.

He remembered back to that day he had aced the callbacks, won the Championship game, and Gabriella had won the Scholoastic Decathalon.

He remembered how he had almost kissed Gabriella that day. Their faces had only been an inch apart.

If only he had kissed her. Then everything would have been different. Then they would have been going out. Then he could really kiss her instead of just imagining it.

But no. Life wasn't perfect. Chad just had to of jumped in and given him the game ball at that exact second. Chad needed to pay for what he did.

Without even thinking, Troy flung his pencil at Chad's head.

"Ow!"

"Mr. Danforth, is everything alright?" The teacher asked politely.

Chad looked down and saw Troy's pencil and, being the good friend that he was, didn't rat him out. "Oh, no. I just…um…hit my toe on the edge of the desk."

"Okay, well make sure you are more careful next time." The teacher replied before going back to her work.

After class Chad confronted Troy. "Dude, why'd you throw your pencil at me?"

Troy thought for a second. "Well…I saw you dozing of and the teach was totally giving you the evil eye. So I threw my pencil at you to wake you up and get you out of trouble."

Chad smiled. "Oh, thanks man. I can't afford another detention"

Okay, so it wasn't an action packed chapter or anything but its like the introduction. So it gets better the next chapter.

I'm going camping for Labor Day weekend, so I probably won't be able to update until I get back. Plus school has started, but I'll still try to update every day. Please review. Please no mean reviews. If you really hated it and would like to tell me just write a review saying "Purple Socks." then I'll know what you're talking about. But if you loved it write as long of a review as you like!

The next chapter is called "We Put The 'Date' in Candidate".