"…And she's got these gorgeous blue eyes, and the cutest laugh…"

Gabriella found herself wishing to rip her hair out. Troy, I know we broke up and we agreed that it was for the better. But that was only a week and a half ago. And this new girl sounds really important to you but that's it! She's only important to you! I don't care, Chad doesn't care, Taylor doesn't care! No one cares! She wanted to yell, though it seemed a little harsh.

That was the thing, Gabriella wanted to scream at Troy. She wanted to yell at him, kick out and flail her arms, walk away from him, but also, a small (very small, she told herself) part of her wanted to kiss him.

So she kept her mouth closed and plastered on a fake smile instead. She seemed to use those a lot around Troy these days, Gabriella noticed. To often really, but without another option what else was there to do?

"She sounds really…nice." 'Nice' seemed so bland and unfeeling to Gabriella that she would have glowered at him had he used it but Troy didn't really seem to care too much. It would be like him not to care though, he didn't exactly have a history of doing what every one expected of him. Not that anyone expected or even wanted him to be pining over Gabriella. Except herself.

"Hey, are you okay?" Troy leaned over the former 'drama' lunch table. Just two months ago the table, while looking like every other table in the large cafeteria, would have been strictly for the 'drama kids'. And every one would have known that.

Now Sharpay, Kelsi and Ryan were the only self proclaimed 'drama' kids left. Unless you counted Troy and Gabriella, who sorted themselves into other groups. Troy, Chad, and Zeke filled the athlete spot while Taylor and Gabriella were the self-appointed 'home-work helpers'. Every once in a while some one else would stop by for the day, sit and chat and return to their table the next day. Things were much more relaxed now, except for Gabriella.

She had yelled at Taylor two days ago, failed to study for a test (and therefore failed the test itself as well), and of course she was obsessing over Troy and his new…girlfriend? She wasn't quite sure if they were a couple yet, but it couldn't be long. Relaxing wasn't the issue right now, over-stressing was. If Gabriella could just find a way render Troy speechless (so he was shut up about this girl he kept mooning over) she would be fine. Probably.

"I asked her to go to the movies with me and she said yes. I'll be picking her up at eight so I'll tell you all about it tomorrow." Troy was saying to the group, he was talking about 'Her' again since Gabriella, being lost in thought, had ignored his question.

"Hey Troy. When do we get to meet this mystery girl? You talk about her all the time and we don't even know her name." Gabriella said lightly, hoping to at least find the name of her competition. No, not competition, she reminded herself. This girl is a potential new friend. Put on another of your fake smiles, they're easy for you to wear now you know, so smile and greet her when you two finally meet.

"Actually, here she comes now. Hey Kirsti! Kirsti over here!" Troy waved an arm lazily beckoning 'Kirsti' over.

Kirsti, Gabriella mused before smiling at the new girl, Kirsti, it's an ugly name.

"This is Gabriella, my…uhhh." Troy trailed off when he introduced the two not wanting to make either one uncomfortable by calling Gabriella his ex-girlfriend.

"Oh, this is your ex-girlfriend! Hi there! Troy's certainly told me enough about you." Kirsti chirped.

"Well, he hasn't stopped talking about you." Gabriella returned, "I think I even know your favorite color now!" It was a good thing she'd had acting lessons for the musical, after all if it was true that actors were really just great liars then Gabriella was the best actress in the world.

"Well, I'll see you around guys!" Kirsti waved to every one and pulled Troy into a hug. Where she stood, Kirsti faced Gabriella straight on so no one else saw it when she stuck her tongue out at her. And with that it was official, all thoughts of friendship were gone.

Gabriella Montez wanted Kirsti's head on a pike.

It's kinda a short chapter, but I like it. So umm…review if you loved it, review if you hated it, or review if you just kinda want to read the next chapter. Or you know, you could just not review at all and then I can go cry in a corner, lol. And I'm sorry if your name is Kirsti and you're offended.