Gabriella stood outside the Bolton house; she knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

She tapped her foot and looked at the plastic "Welcome" mat in front of the threshold. She heard footsteps walking to the door. Within a few seconds it gets opened.

"Oh, Gabi! It's so great to see you!" greeted a middle aged woman.

"Hi good to see you too! Is Troy in? He said he needed help with his homework," she explained.

"Yes, he just got back from basketball practice a little while ago, so you can go on up."

"Thanks !" she chirped and started walking towards the stairs.

"Not a problem dear, and Gabriella I've told you many times; call me Lucile."

"Okay Mrs. Bol- I mean Lucile," she answered before walking up the stairs.

She walked down the hallway and walked to the familiar door. It was painted blue and pink.

She laughed inwardly when she saw it. It had been three years ago. Troy decided to repaint his room and decided to recruit the help of Gabriella. She helped and did what she was told while painting the room, but when it came to the door she had other plans. She decided it needed a feminine touch, and so she painted part of it pink. When Troy saw it he wanted to paint over it but after much begging from Gabriella, the pink remained and he painted the other half blue.

"Troy," she knocked on the door.

"Troy!" she could hear music in his room. That boy was going to go deaf one day!

"TROY!" she pounded on the door with her fist.

"What's all the racket?!" called Lucile from the bottom of the stairs.

"SORRY LUCILE IT'S JUST THAT-"she stopped screaming and walked down the stairs to where Lucile was.

She cleared her throat and began. "Sorry Lucile it's just that Troy has his music on and can't hear me knocking on the door and I kind of don't want to go in without permission."

laughed at Gabriella. "Oh honey, just barge in, you guys used to take showers together when you were little kids. It doesn't get any closer than that!"

Gabi blushed at her comment and walked back to Troy's room. She knocked once more and when no one answered she opened the door.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" she gasped.

It was Troy, her best friend, clad in nothing but a towel. A towel which was barley wrapped around his waist. His left hand bunched up some of the material above his left hip, holding it in a tight grasp preventing the towel from falling. His head tilted up in her direction, looking at her with a shocked expression and a slight blush upon his cheeks. His hair was still dripping wet from his shower, little beads of water falling to the ground.

"Um….I'm going to wait outside." She exclaimed loudly in a panicked voice.

Troy was staring at the ground. "Um, uh…yeah…wait...NO! Ju-just wait in here while I get dressed in the bathroom,"

"Um, uh, okay!" she nodded her head and sat on the bed as she watched him walk to the bathroom.

It was the first time she noticed how tone he was. Just the memory of him standing there with the towel barley covering him, his stomach lean and flat and his chest so defined, almost carved out of stone; make her flustered.

The way his muscles rippled as he swung his arms back and forth while walking towards the bathroom. It's not like they've never gone to the beach together or anything it's just that she never really noticed how fine he was until now. Damn……

He walked back into the room minutes later, this time fully clothed. The only reminder of the previous incident was his still wet hair. He then proceeded in shaking his head vigorously to dry it off a little.

She jumped back a little as the water splashed her in the eye. He looked at her and mumbled a quick apology before looking at his feet.

"So..?" he asked rocking back and forth between his heels and the balls of his feet. He looked nervous.

She just stared at him, her eyes wandering up and down his body wondering how in the hell all of that stayed hidden under his clothes. He blushed lightly when he saw her eyes scanning over him and she blushed as well when she noticed she was caught.

"Look, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have just barged in like that, it's just that I told your mom you couldn't hear me knocking and she gave me the whole 'we took showers together when we were little' speech and just sent me to go in and I didn't know you were taking a shower and you were practically naked, oh I'm really sorry I'm-"

"Gabriella, chill out. You're rambling again. Just take a deep breath. It's all my fault, actually, I shouldn't have had my music on so loud and I should have locked the door. And I should have told my mom to stop giving us the 'showering naked as babies' speech a long time ago!"

They looked at each other not knowing what else to say.

"That was awkward. How about we forget this ever happened?" she asked.

"Deal," he nodded. They decided they better get started with the homework.

As they headed down the stairs to the kitchen he asked," So did you like what you saw?"

"I thought you said we were going to forget that ever happened." She answered.

"Yeah but I saw you looking, both times." He responded smugly.

She sighed knowing she would have to answer otherwise he would never forget and would never stop asking. "It wasn't bad. It was okay."

She continued walking down the stairs. He grabbed her wrist. "Just okay?"

"Yeah, I mean I've seen better. Ever heard of Channing Tatum?" she stuck out her tongue at him and they walked into the kitchen.

"Do you kids want a snack or something?" called Lucile from the stove, she was cooking dinner. They shook their heads, "No thanks Lucile," replied Gabriella as they sat down.

"Okay darling, dinner will be ready in about an hour then."

"Lucile?" he asked Gabriella wondering why she was calling his mom by her first name.

"Yes Troy, I told her to call me that," she answered while wiping her hands on her apron.

"Why?"

"What would you rather have her call me? Mom?"

They looked at her wide eyed. "Oh please, I know you two are going to get married some day. Just wait," she said. "Then you're going to have kids and I'm going to be a grandmother," she was nearly in tears when she added "No sex before marriage!"

They looked at each other and were both thinking the same thing: Awkward.

They began their English homework. They were reading the book "To kill a mocking bird," it was a classic. They had to write a journal entry in the point of view of one of the characters. Gabriella chose "Scout" Finch and Troy chose "Jem" Finch.

After they finished their homework Lucile came back ushering them to the dining room where the table was set and was seated.

"Hi ," she greeted and sat down next to Troy.

"Hello, but call me Jack, dear."

Troy groaned. "Oh, dad not you too!"

"Well if she wants she can call me dad," he answered his son. Troy banged his head on the table.

Gabriella giggled and patted him on the back. "Alright, alright." In walked Lucile with a platter of food.

"Troy stop doing that you're killing off the few brain cells you have left," she said jokingly. He glared at his mom while Gabriella laughed.

"Oh you think that's funny don't you?" she nodded her head and laughed harder.

He started tickling her, she squirmed out of her seat and onto the floor, and Troy went tumbling after her. He continued to tickle her as she tried to fight back.

"Okay okay! It's not funny!" She exclaimed when she couldn't take the tickling anymore.

He stopped and they were both breathing hard. They looked at their position and blushed. He was straddling her waist and her hands were gripping his arms. Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing. Their hair was a mess, Gabriella's was out of its normal, neat ponytail and Troy's was just a mess.

"Troy you can get off now." She said. He looked down and saw he was still on top of her. He mumbled a "Sorry" and quickly got up. Awkward.

She fixed her hair and adjusted her shirt while Troy attempted to flatten his hair. Both his parents looked at each other and laughed a little.

"Why, if I didn't see you guys tickling each other on the floor I would've though you guys had just finished a hot make out session, or something." said Jack.

"Why? Why do you guys like torturing me?" he asked them. They just smiled and told them to sit down and eat before the food got cold.

They ate dinner in silence except for the occasional small talk between the adults. Once dinner was over they picked up their plates and brought them to the kitchen to be washed.

Troy and Gabriella decided they would watch the movie "Boys and Girls", the classic story where boy meets girl, they become friends, they hate each other, they sleep together, and fall in love.

Troy was lying on the couch, while Gabriella was on the other side, her legs on his stomach. They had watched about an hour of the movie when the sex scene came up. Gabriella looked at the screen and then at Troy. He caught her looking and said "Do you not want to watch this?"

"Um, I don't care whatever you want to do,"

"Alright, we'll watch it but if you want to stop at anytime just tell me, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." She took her legs of his lap and instead put a pillow on his lap and her head on it.

He rested his arm which was previously on her knee on her shoulder. He ran his fingers through her hair, winding a stray curl around his index finger. They continued watching the part; they got through most of it before Gabriella told him to change the channel until that part was over.

"Good call, it was getting a little awkward since they are best friends who are sleeping together and you're my best friend so…Yeah."

She nodded "Yeah, it was kind of awkward," she agreed.

Then there was an awkward silence. They didn't know what to talk about. Gabriella glanced around the room and then at Troy. He smiled when he saw her looking at him. She smiled back and continued looking around the room.

"Oh the movie, maybe that part is over," he reminded her.

"Oh yeah," she changed the channel back. The couple was still going at it.

"Never mind," he said and chuckled a little. She smiled.

Now it was his turn to look around the room aimlessly.

A few minutes later they turned it back on and continued watching the movie. Once they finished the movie she looked at the clock. It was 9:00 pm. Time to go home.

"Hey Troy let me go to the bathroom before you take me home," she said to him as he was standing by the door, car keys in his hands. He nodded.

She went to the bathroom and did her business. She looked in the mirror, reapplied her lip gloss, fixed her hair and walked out.

"Okay I'm ready," she said and walked towards him.

"You might want to put your sweatshirt on it's a little chilly outside." She nodded and did as she was told.

DRIVING IN THE CAR.

"It's really hot in here," She complained, the heat was on high.

"I can turn it down if you want," he offered.

"No, no. If you're cold I'll just take my sweat shirt off," She started taking her sweat shirt off. The T-shirt she had under her sweat shirt started riding up and started exposing some of her bra.

Troy was at a stop light and looked over at Gabi.

"Oh god." He mumbled.

"What?" came her muffled voice.

"Oh, um …uh, well your bra is kind of um…sh-showing." He stuttered.

"Oh, um…sorry" she answered and attempted to pull her t-shirt down while trying to get her sweat shirt off at the same time.

" Here, I got it." He stated. He tried to pull her shirt down and his hands brushed over her bra and his fingertips slipped underneath her bra slightly touching her breasts. He blushed bright red.

"Sorry," he croaked, his voice cracking slightly. He took the wheel in his hands and began driving once again.

She finally managed to take her sweat shirt off, wisps of hair adorning her face.

She blushed at what had happened. "I'm sorry" he repeated.

"It's okay; you were only trying to help." She assured him.

"Yeah," he felt numb almost, and it was getting kind of hard to breath.

After a few more minutes of driving they finally arrived at Gabriella's house.

"Okay see you in school tomorrow," she bid her goodbyes and opened the door.

"What are you doing?" she asked perplexed as he opened his door as well.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm walking you home." He offered her his elbow and they linked arms.

"Why? Afraid someone's going to kidnap me?"

"No, I'm afraid some teenage boy is going to kidnap you."

"And why would that be?" she asked curiously.

"Because you're so damn hot, you can't have a pretty girl such as yourself walking home this late at night," he said.

She blushed and went along with his flirting. "It's only 10 feet and it's only 9 at night."

"But really have you looked at yourself?" he asked the rhetorical question.

She blushed even more. "Oh how generous, the East High god giving me two compliments in one night, Wow, I'm so lucky!" she teased.

"Yeah well there's more where that came from," he said as they walked onto her porch.

"What do you mean?"

He bent down and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. It was soft and loving, but meaningful.

He broke the kiss quickly "I'm sorry," he whispered. He licked his lips.

"That was awkward wasn't it?" he asked looking into her eyes.

She nodded, "Yeah kind of,"

"Really?"

She smiled. "Nope!"

She laced her arms behind his neck and stood on her toes and gave him a kiss. She played with the hairs at the nape of his neck, as he wrapped his arms around her waist holding her up while they continued to kiss.