"Look Mom, I'm heading into the office right now, can I call you back later? Yes, I will. Ok, yes, yes, love you too. Bye"

Gabriella Montez pushed end on her iPhone as she pushed opened the elevator. Her mom had called to see how her date went last night, but she didn't want to get into it because it had gone horribly and she needed more than 5 minutes to tell her everything bad that happened. And she didn't have time for that. She had to run up to her office for a meeting with her boss. Sure, she was the head of the agency, but everybody has a boss.

"Hey Cat, can you cancel my hair appointment for tomorrow please?" she told her secretary as she made her way into the room, "Completely forgot I have to show a house."

"Of course. Do you want me to reschedule now or wait?"

Gabriella picked up her mail from her desk and piled it on top of her folders, "No, let's wait. I have to see what Zaragoza wants first. I'll let you know after. Thanks so much Cat!"

"What are friends for? Drinks later still?"

Gabriella smiled. Everyone in the office were friends of hers, no matter their position or what they did in the agency. "Yes!"

Turning the lights on her office, Gabriella sighed. She had one of the worst weekends ever and work was the last place she wanted to be right now. She threw the folders onto her desk, went over to her mini fridge and took out an iced coffee. She popped the cap off, and chugged half of it. Today was going to be a long day, she could just feel it. She put her head into her hands and rubbed her forehead. She suddenly head a knock on her door, "come in"

"Gabriella, good morning!"

"Morning. I thought we were meeting at 9:30?" she told her boss, Jose Zaragoza, who was now standing in front of her with a man she had never seen before.

"We are, but I just wanted to introduce you to someone first" Jose turned to Troy and put his hand on his shoulder, "This is Troy Bolton, it's his first day at this office, he's been working in our New York office for the past few years, but now he's here"

"Hey, nice to meet you" Gabriella extended her hand out to the most gorgeous guy she thinks she has ever seen, "Welcome to LA!"

Troy extended his hand out as well and captured it in a tender handshake, "Thank you, but I was born and raised here. But, it's nice to meet you as well. As long as you don't mind handling the applications, I think we'll be fine"

Gabriella tuned out his chuckling and was thoroughly confused, "What?"

Maybe he shouldn't have said that, Troy thought, "No, I mean…"

Jose cut in, though, before Troy could explain himself. "Gabriella, um, I meant to tell you last week, but things got hectic around here and you were closing a deal so I didn't want to put more on your plate, but Troy here… he's your new partner."

She stared blankly at both of them for what seemed to be a good chuck of time, but in reality it was only about 10 seconds before she had an outburst, and yelled, "Partner?!"

"Look, I know it's not ideal for you, but I think you two together is genius for the agency, and your commission will increase tremendously if you two really bring both of your strong points together. Trust me"

Gabriella didn't want to disrespect her boss, but partner? She had been doing just fine on her own for the last couple of years. Heck, she's sold enough houses to cover her mortgage and pay taxes for the next 5 years. She was rich and successful; she didn't need help or someone getting in her way. She thought for a minute about how she could word exactly what she wanted to tell her boss so it wouldn't come out wrong.

"With all due respect, Mr. Zaragoza, I think I've proven I don't need a partner. Plus most partnerships don't work in the Real Estate world"

Jose felt a little bad about this, but he was sure the both of them working together would benefit not only the agency, but them as well. "Please just trust me on this. I'm sorry, but Troy's your new partner and that's that. I'll let you two get acquainted; see you in 10 minutes sharp. Don't be late," he said as he made his way out of her office, shutting the door behind him to let them get to know each other. He hoped it worked out.

Troy stood there, a little awkwardly, not really wanting to say anything first, but he knew he was going to have to.

"This isn't ideal for me either, just so we're on the same page, but he made some good points to me on the phone last week so why don't we just make the best of it?"

"Look, I'm sure you're a great agent and everything, but I only know how to manage this career by myself. I sold 10 houses last year. TEN. Do you how good that is in LA? I don't deal with change very well," she told him as she made her way back to her desk and sat down on her chair. Dramatically.

Troy was a little annoyed. Of course he would prefer to work by himself, but if it'll make him more money for the future, he's not going to complain or question it.

"And I sold 12, if you want to get technical. I guess Zaragoza thought you could learn a couple of things from me. I heard about your last house"

Gabriella looked at him with annoyance. How dare he walk into HER office and say he could make her better. If anything, she was going to make herself better.

"People in New York are always looking for places to live in. And condos aren't necessarily houses so I'm not impressed. And if I didn't mark it down, NO one was going to buy it!"

Troy laughed, "Look, you were selling yourself so I decided to sell myself. I'm one of the best in the country and if you don't want to believe that then don't. I think I might be too good to work with you actually"

"You don't know anything about me so if you're going to insult me, get the fuck out"

"Geez, feisty, aren't you," Troy snapped back, "Fine, I'll get out. But we're stuck in this partnership so you're going to have to come around eventually"

"Get out, Troy. And shut the door" she told him before chugging the rest of her iced coffee.

Yep. She was right. Today was going to be a long day. And it was only 9:25.