Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own the High School Musical franchise.

Chapter One: Welcome to East High, Little Lady

Gabriella Montez pushed open the front door of East High School, ducking her head under a flying football. Sighing, she straightened and recomposed her face. She hated new schools. She hated starting over. She hated making new friends. And she really hated that she was doing it senior year. Life sucks, she thought. Looking around briefly, she noted a map posted on a corner wall. Stopping next to it, she glanced at the sign that was supposed to give directions. "Seriously?" She muttered. Forcing the scowl off her face, Gabriella looked around for someone who seemed approachable to point the way to the front office.

Troy Bolton studied the brunette staring at the very confusing map he knew was posted on the wall. She was the new girl at East High he'd heard about. At the very least she was a looker. Her long dark hair curled around her shoulder blades. She didn't appear to be wearing too much make up. And her body looked perfect in a fitted black scoop neck shirt, a high waisted knitted orange, red and black skirt and black heeled boots that reached her knees. Glancing at his watch, he counted to ten before turning around to catch the basketball that came whizzing towards his head every morning. Like clockwork.

"Dude, how do you never miss?" Chad Danforth's, his best friend, afro came into view before he actually did. Troy shrugged, his bright blue eyes giving away no emotions. "Whatever, one day you won't and I'll laugh. Now give me Lucille back." He held out his hands expectantly.

"Does Taylor ever get jealous of the special treatment Lucille gets?" Troy and Chad both spun around to face Zeke Baylor and his girlfriend, Sharpay Evans, who were walking towards them.

"She understands." Chad gave Lucille, his basketball, an affectionate pat. "Now, why does Sharpay have cookies and I don't?" Chad looked to Zeke, who baked the most delicious delicacies, for an answer.

"Because I laid on top of him naked last night and sucked his dick this morning." Sharpay retorted, licking her fingers for an added effect. Her brown eyes sparkled as she hoped Chad would take the bait.

"Because that is such a difficult task to perform." All eyes turned to Troy at his response. Just as Sharpay was about to respond, he pushed himself off the set of lockers he was leaning against and walked across the bustling hallway.

"Where is he going?" Sharpay stomped her foot, frustrated she couldn't have the last word. Chad and Zeke just shrugged in response.

Gabriella was just about to ask a blonde boy dressed in pink stripes with a matching fedora when she felt someone's eyes on her. Turning slightly, she noted a tall, broad brunette male walking towards her. Unsure if he was actually approaching her, she turned once more to the map.

"That map hasn't been updated and is nearly impossible to read." Gabriella held herself very still, trying not to show her surprise as two very well-defined arms trapped her agains the wall.

"Well I've never been very good with maps anyhow." She slowly turned and leaned against the wall, putting as much space between her and the mystery boy as possible.

"Well then it's a good thing I came over when I did." He kept his face in a cool, amused smirk. It was almost unsettling how confident he appeared.

"I suppose it's my lucky day to have such a generous knight in shining armor." Gabriella breathed, the sarcasm evident in both her voice and face.

Troy leaned back just enough to let her run if she wanted. He was impressed, she hadn't flinched or jumped. In fact, she seemed generally unaffected by his close proximity, with the exception of slight aggravation.

Holding in a tired sigh, Gabriella looked up at Troy, "Okay kid, how about you show me where the Front Office is so I can get my schedule. You might as well make yourself useful if you're going to bother me."

Troy took an involuntary step back. Kid? He thought to himself. "Alright, this way then little lady." He hid his smirk, just knowing she wouldn't like that nickname.

"Lead the way kid." She gestured ahead of her, attempting to mask her disdain for the boy in front of her. Although she had to admit, he was not too bad to look at from behind. His white t-shirt clung to him in all the right places, showing off his defined arms and broad chest, they met with dark wash jeans that hung on his hips just low enough to see the waistband of his Calvin Klein boxers.

Troy nodded and turned, expecting the exotic beauty to follow him. And Gabriella did just that. She followed the blue-eyed boy, watching curiously as people parted like the Red Sea for him. She did her best to ignore the whispers about who she was and why she was following Roy? Troy? She couldn't seem to catch his name. Not that it really mattered.

They took a few winding turns, but ended up at the Front Office fairly quickly. "Have a good day little lady." Troy dipped slightly in a bow.

"Thanks kid." She didn't even give him a second glance as she opened the door to the Front Office.

Troy sauntered into Mrs. Darbus's homeroom seemingly without a care in the world. "Mr. Bolton, so nice of you to join us." He smirked and shrugged.

"I was helping a lost soul find the Front Office." The class as a whole snickered, believing Troy was making up excuses.

Choosing to ignore Troy and the class, Mrs. Darbus motioned for him to sit, "Now where were we? Ah yes! The mounting evils of cell phones!"

"Darbus?"

Adjusting her glasses, the large woman whipped around in aggravation, "Look Bolton, first your son interrupts my lecture and now you."

"Look Darbus, I'm not here to talk about your aversion to modern day technology, I found a lost new student." Coach Bolton moved slightly to the left, revealing Gabriella.

"Ah, Miss Montez, we're so happy to have you join us. Please have a seat next to Miss McKessie." She motioned to a dark-skinned girl, "We're discussing the evils of cell phones. Goodbye Coach Bolton." She waved him off, not watching him close the door. "Now we can finally get back to the evils of cell phones."

Troy turned his head slightly, ignoring Mrs. Darbus, to look at the new girl 'Miss Montez,' he held in the smirk that was threatening to erupt on his face. Feeling eyes on her, Gabriella looked up and found herself caught in a very intense blue gaze. She considered her options for a moment, and then gave him a small, sexy smile, knowing it would throw him off a little bit.

At Gabriella's smile, Troy turned around. This girl, whose first name he didn't even know, was proving to be very confusing. First, she was never shocked or openly confused by any of his actions. Then she seemed bored with him, then turns around calls him kid with no second glance, and now he was on the receiving in of easily one of the most seductive smile's he's ever seen. Who is this girl? The ringing of the bell brought Troy out of his thoughts.

"See ya around kid. Gabriella whispered as she passed Troy on her way out of the room.

"Excuse me?" Gabriella turned at the unfamiliar voice. She simply raised an eyebrow at the girl she was placed next to during Homeroom.

"My name is Taylor McKessie, I thought if you need help," Taylor faltered for a moment. For a new girl, Gabriella was insanely confident, "I could show you around." Taylor went for the simplest sentence she could.

Deciding to grace the girl with a brief smile, she flashed one, which Taylor noted still was not overtly friendly, "Of course that would be wonderful Taylor. My name is Gabriella Montez." She held out her hand as she readjusted her face to eliminate all emotion.

"Nice to meet you Gabriella." Taylor looked questioningly at the girl. "Can I see your schedule?" Gabriella nodded, her long ebony curls shaking slightly from side to side, as she handed the girl her schedule. Taylor tried to hide her shock that this new girl standing in front of her was in all AP courses. In fact, they had the same schedule. "Oh, we have all the same courses." Taylor finally stated.

"Tay-Tay?" Both girls looked up, seeing an afro make its way through the crowd. "Hey babe." Chad dropped a kiss on Taylor's cheek.

"Chad this is Gabriella Montez, she's new. Gabriella, this is my boyfriend Chad Danforth." Taylor gestured between the two of them.

"And this is Lucille." Chad held up his basketball. Watching as Gabriella's face remained utterly bored, he commented. "You're the girl Troy ditched us for this morning."

"Oh the kid who showed me the Front Office." Gabriella made the comment so nonchalantly it threw Taylor and Chad. "So Taylor, should we head to AP Government?" It was an order masked as a question.

"Of course. Right." Taylor handed the schedule back to Gabriella and waved to Chad, leaving him standing in the hallway. "So um," Taylor went to break the uncomfortable silence that formed between them as they waled, "Mr. Phillips is pretty cool. The course isn't too hard for an AP." It was very disconcerting to Taylor that Gabriella only nodded in response and her face never changed. She is too much like Troy. And one of him is enough, Taylor thought.

Taylor sighed as she opened the classroom door, and held it open until Gabriella entered. Nodding a curt thanks to Taylor, Gabriella walked up to the front of the room to introduce herself to Mr. Phillips. Let the games begin, Gabriella thought as the school day officially began.

"So you met Gabriella?" Chad asked, as he tossed his folder and Calculus book on the empty desk next to Troy in the back of the classroom.

"Gabriella?" Troy asked without any recognition of the name. Chad watched him carefully, surprised that Troy had to fight off a smile when he realized who Gabriella was, "You mean 'Miss Montez.'"

"Yes, Miss Montez." There was a hint of sarcasm in Chad's voice as he waited expectantly for Troy's explanation.

Troy shrugged, "She was lost. I helped. Nothing more." Chad went to object that it wasn't nothing, but the cold, hard look Troy sent him shut him up. Chad quietly kicked himself for opening up the cold Troy no one liked to deal with.

By the time lunch rolled around, Chad was cringing knowing Taylor, Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi and Zeke were not going to be happy with him. Even Jason was unhappy. And that meant Troy had really shut down because Jason was unobservant. And Chad only made it worse when he tried to apologize. Apparently Gabriella Montez really got under Troy's skin. And he'd only spoken to her for a few minutes.

Taking a deep breath, Chad followed Troy into the cafeteria silently. He avoided their lunch table as long as possible, going through each line slowly, taking his time. By the time he reached the table, everyone was sitting in silence, staring at Troy. And Gabriella was trying to look uninterested at the lack of interaction. The only evidence of her curiosity was in the quick looks she was throw in Troy's direction.

"Hey guys." Chad waved as he juggled Lucille and his tray in one hand.

"Great job Chad." Sharpay spat, making no attempt to hide her anger.

"Let him go Sharpay." Troy turned his head towards Sharpay.

"He speaks." Sharpay threw her hands over her heart in mock shock.

"Why does anyone even care if he speaks or not?" All eyes now turned to Gabriella, who took a loud bite out of a piece of celery as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Troy has a tendency to," Kelsi paused, and Gabriella realized this was the first time she'd heard the mousy brunette's soft voice, "drag everyone down with his mood." she finished carefully.

Gabriella gave another shrug, "Again I ask, who cares?" She eyed Troy, wondering if he'd take the bait.

He didn't.

"He's a high maintenance pain in the ass. That's why." Sharpay retorted, kicking Troy under the table with her shimmery pink stiletto. He didn't verbally respond, instead he turned the full force of his ice blue eyes on her.

Gabriella watched entranced. This boy seemed to control the entire group with his mood. Even Sharpay, quite possibly the loudest, most opinionated, most obnoxious person she'd ever met, squirmed and caved under his calculating stare. She had to admit, it was intimidating. Gabriella had to contain a small smile, Troy's look, though scary, was nothing compared to the one's Gabriella could muster up. Mama always says, 'If looks could kill' when she talks about me. Deciding not to delve any further into the issue of Troy and his moods today, Gabriella chose just to shrug yet again, as if she wasn't curious and didn't strangely care about whatever had set off Troy's temper.

Troy watched her discreetly throughout lunch. She didn't seem phased by the lack of conversation. Or that everyone was treading carefully since Chad pissed him off earlier, thinking this new, very unimportant girl was more than a potential easy fuck. She did question his control though, and that concerned him. Even after she stopped asking questions, she wasn't convinced. But she didn't seem to care. And that upset him, no it didn't upset him. It made him curious. She made him curious. She wasn't quietly challenging him because she was new and confused and didn't know what she was doing. It was because she quietly gaining control. His control.

Gabriella and Taylor walked in their now typical uncomfortable silence at the end of the day from the chemistry lab to the locker room for their last class, Gym. "Tay! Gabriella!" Both girls turned to see Sharpay, struggling to run in her heels, dragging Kelsi behind her. "Are y'all headed to P.E.?" She asked, disdain for the class dripping off the words.

Gabriella chose not to respond. Where else would we be going? We're standing in front of the Girl's Locker Room.

Taylor nodded sullenly, "Ready to begin basketball." She muttered.

Gabriella's ears perked up, "That's the unit we're on?"

Taylor, Sharpay and Kelsi nodded in unison as they walked into the buzzing locker room, "And the boys love it. Way too much." Sharpay groaned as she sat dejectedly on a bench. "And Paulo just did my hair this morning. And last time we played basketball, I broke a nail." She whined. "I WANT TO BE IN THEATER!" She screamed in the locker room. No one else seemed effected by the scream though.

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she walked towards her assigned locker, "Well I think this will be fun." She spun the dial and opened the door. Shoving her gym bag inside. She didn't notice the look Sharpay, Kelsi and Taylor passed. A look of disbelief. Gabriella obviously hadn't picked up on who Troy, Zeke, Jason and Chad were.

When the girls made their way into the gym, the boys were already throwing a basketball around, with a three-on-two game going. Troy and Zeke versus Chad, Jason and Ryan. And Gabriella noticed how athletic they were.

A whistle blowing interrupted the game, "Okay boys, take a seat." Coach Bolton walked into the room pushing a whiteboard on rollers in front of him. "Everyone on the bleachers. We're going to spend the first half of the period going over the rules of basketball, then we'll get a casual game going to see how everyone does."

The boys gathered on the bench below the girls and leaned back. Gabriella did her best to pay attention, even though she had a phenomenal understanding of the sport. Halfway through the lesson, she found herself watching Troy. His face was impassive. Like he was as bored as she was. She fought to keep the curiosity off her face as she studied him. No one had ever made her this curious before. The whistle blowing again brought her out of her thoughts about Troy Bolton.

"Okay, let's start with a warm up. Two laps around the gym," Coach Bolton instructed. "Take it easy guys." Even to Gabriella, it was clear he was talking to Chad, Troy, Ryan, Zeke and Jason, who were clearly excited to start playing. Falling in with the group, Gabriella found herself running with the boys in the class, well the boys who were clearly athletes. Coach Bolton watched the new student, who looked very much like a scared, lost, little girl this morning. During the lesson, she reminded Coach Bolton of his son, she looked uninterested. And now she was lapping his cross country star, Zeke.

Gabriella could tell Zeke was less than thrilled when she lapped him, finishing a good ten seconds before him. She shrugged at the thought, she'd always been fast, but she preferred dancing to any school sports. Of course her old school had an incredible arts program. And a much more rigorous academic program. Feeling a presence behind her, Gabriella chose to ignore Zeke. She really didn't want friends. She just wanted to get through senior year.

"You're really fast." Well he's a regular genius. Zeke looked down at her, "You should join the track team." He smiled. He was being friendly. She didn't want friends. She shrugged and walked towards the larger group. She arrived just in time to have a red jersey thrown at her.

"Okay guys," Coach Bolton paused as everyone put on either white or red jerseys, "and ladies," he paused again. "Let's try to get a small game going so I can see where everyone stands. Next time we meet, we'll go over shooting specifics." He blew his whistle, "Huddle up and go over positions. Troy, Chad, Zeke and Jason will lead the way for everyone."

Gabriella turned to face her circle. Jason and Chad had taken control of the group. She listened, quietly for a moment, as they split the team up, essentially telling the girls to stay out of the way. "I could play point guard." She finally decided to speak up.

Chad and jason looked up and laughed, "Yeah you can't go up against Troy." Chad patted her on the shoulder, "Jase can handle it." Gabriella looked at them with disdain, deciding that arguing would mean caring, she shut her mouth.

"Why don't you go up agains Sharpay, just until you get your bearings as to how everyone here plays." Ryan suggested.

Gabriella spun to face him. Now that was just insulting. "The poodle worried about her hair and nails?" She asked. Ryan simply nodded, "Gee thanks for the vote of confidence in my abilities." Stalking to act as guard against Sharpay in the man-to-man play chad and Jason chose for the team. If Troy is this good, Gabriella thought, then we should be playing zone, not man-to-man.

The game didn't start off well. Zeke got the jump ball, not Chad. It didn't take long for Gabriella to decide that Sharpay didn't NEED guarding. She wasn't going to touch the basketball even if it was thrown to her. She also realized that Jason was drowning against Troy and Ryan wasn't much help. Chad and Zeke were so evenly matched, he couldn't spare a second to help. Gabriella's competitive nature overtook her pride at being sent to the corner because she was female. Shifting her position, she all but pushed Ryan out of the way to help Jason against Troy.

Troy had been watching Gabriella out of the corner of her eye. He didn't need his full attention to keep Jason and Ryan off his back. It was a clear mistake on Chad's part to put Gabriella on Sharpay. Gabriella was clearly athletically inclined. He watched, a lazy, amused smile on his face, as Gabriella pushed Ryan to the side to help Chad with Zeke. She wants to take me on, he thought. He gave her a menacing smile, bring it. Deciding to see how good she was, Troy easily pushed past Jason so he could go up against her one-on-one.

Gabriella smiled, it was clear Troy wanted to go up against her, but he had no idea how good she actually was. She could feel the rest of the class peeling off so they could watch the spectacle unfolding. And she was right, he didn't think she'd actually try to go up against him alone, so he was surprised when she snatched the ball out of his hands and shot a beautiful three-pointer in a matter of seconds. Turning to face Jason, Chad and Ryan, she took a small bow.

"Okay little lady," Troy grabbed the ball, "let's go again." Coach Bolton watched as Troy checked the ball to Gabriella. He thought about breaking up the one-on-one, but at the last minute he decided against it.

"Bring your best game kid." She sent him a seductive wink that threw him off as she passed him and shot another basket.

For the next fifteen minutes, Coach Bolton watched, along with the rest of the class, in awe as Gabriella maintained a three point lead on Troy, who was clearly running his ass off to keep it close. Glancing at his watch, he blew the whistle again. "Okay, show's over." Coach Bolton looked down at the girl in front of him and held out his hands for the basketball. "Go get changed. Tomorrow we'll go over shooting." He waved off the entire class towards their locker rooms.

Troy stood outside the Girl's Locker Room waiting for her. She was the first to emerge. And as he pushed himself off the wall, he tried not to notice how effortlessly beautiful she seemed to be. "Little lady." He caught her attention.

She stopped, "What can I do for you kid?" She tapped her heeled black boot impatiently.

"You're quite the athlete." He commented.

"You're observant." She countered.

He snorted a little, "See you tomorrow little lady." And he was gone. She watched him walk off, fascinated. He was confusing. And frustrating. And she still didn't understand his role in this stupid school.

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XOXO

MAS