Troy rushed down the stairs; swiping his sandy brown hair out of his eyes so he could see. He jumped down the last two and made his way into the stainless steel kitchen.

"One of these days you're gonna trip and fall down those last two steps." His mothers voice rang out in a singing tone; her teasing going noticed by her only son.

Troy glanced at his mother as he took only an apple from the bowl and sat up on the counter. His mother was too busy furiously typing on her computer to notice that her son was doing something she constantly told him not to do.

Troy rolled his eyes as he looked at the various papers scattered every which way on their table that his mother was sitting at. He could tell that she stayed up all night as she had bags under her eyes, her sandy blonde hair was put up into a very messy bun, she's wearing her home clothes that she had on the night before when she changed from coming home from the office she managed, and she had several coffee mugs in front of herself.

"Up all night again?" Troy asked casually as this was a common conversation they would have. It would always go the same way too.

"It seems no one at the office can do anything the right way, but I guess that's what you get when you expand your branch." She muttered before smiling smugly and looking up for the first time.

Their relationship was fairly open. It almost had to be since it was only the two of them for as long as Troy was born. His mother worked long and hard as she started college a year later compared to everyone else in her class; Troy really only remembered growing up with his grandparents who moved east once his mother, Lucille, got a sturdy job managing some high powered business that paid the bills. She slowly made her way up to the top, and now has to drive nearly two hours just to get to work, but she wouldn't dare ask Troy to move since he only had about eight months of school left.

She saw him sitting on the counter, and didn't say anything; instead deciding to subtly change the subject.

"So I heard through the grapevine that basketball try-outs start today."

Troy exhaled nosily while jumping off of the counter top. "That's nice. You thinking of trying out?" He teased while throwing away the bare apple core. He quickly picked up his car keys that were sitting on the table near his mother's fourth cup of coffee, and his backpack that was laying next to the backdoor that lead out to their backyard that consisted of an outside basketball court.

Lucille sighed while watching her son with a sad look on her face. "Just because Jason is playing, doesn't mean you can't. You're both talented players."

"I'm not playing because of him." Troy accidentally snapped, but his mom let it slide.

"I just don't want you to not play because of my mistake."

Troy sighed while also grabbing his basketball; deciding quickly that he had enough time to shoot some hoops before going to school. "I made it through three basketball seasons of not playing; I think I can make it through this one. I'm gonna go shoot around a bit before school. I'll see you at dinner, or are you going back to the office?" It was on rare occasions that they ate dinner together; it only happened once or twice a week.

"We'll order in tonight. Seven on the dot."

Troy smiled before saying his quick goodbye and rushing outside.

Gabriella yawned while stepping into the kitchen. She walked over to the table where the night previous, her best friend and her were doing homework at. "Don't forget your pom poms. They're in the trunk of your father's car." Her mother, Anna Montez said while she was busily making pancakes over by the oven.

Her dad crinkled the newspaper before finishing the last of his coffee so he could head out to work, which was surprisingly where Gabriella went to school. He was the varsity boys coach as he played basketball at East High when he went there, but before that he went on to be one of many coaches for a NBA team, but when her mother became pregnant, and there was too much traveling involved, he retired from that job early and her parents moved back to their home town to settle down.

"You better take them out now sweetie. I have to go soon for a staff meeting." Her father, Carlos said with a smile and pecked his wife on the cheek.

"Will do. I just have to find the papers Jason left behind here." Gabriella searched through the various papers everyone brought through their house; mostly her mom's things as she had various binders and papers from selling houses.

Her mom made a 'tsk sound. "That boy is always leaving things here. It's a shame, he's usually always responsible." Gabriella wanted to snort at that, but decides against it as most of the time he was, it's just when it came to partying that he wasn't exactly the brightest in.

"That boy," her dad used emphasis, "practically lives here. We should just give him his own room." Carlos joked good heartedly as they all knew about Jason's home life through talk throughout their town.

Gabriella practically jogged out of the back sliding door and down the patio steps leading to their driveway where her dad's sports car is, along with her mother's car, and her own jeep wrangler.

She opened her dad's trunk on the car, and momentarily froze as she heard a bouncing of a ball next door. It was 6:50 in the morning, and their school didn't start until 7:20. She only knew of one person who would be out playing basketball at that time since they were the only two teenagers in the neighborhood.

She grabbed her pom poms quickly and started heading up the steps to the patio while glancing to her side and seeing Troy Bolton faking right and breaking left before shooting the ball.

A part of her felt like she was betraying Jason in a way as she just watched Troy play. But the other part of her had to admire the way he moved on the court. She knew of Jason's and Troy's history with their dad. She was guilty of one thing however, she had never really talked to him. She had always taken Jason's side on things, and never gave Troy a chance.

"He's good, isn't he?" Her father's quiet voice asked from behind her.

Gabriella jumped in her spot. "Oh my God! You scared me." She looked back at Troy as her breathing regulated pretty quickly. She watched with her father as Troy stepped behind the three point line painted onto his backyard court and sank a shot with nothing but net. "…Yeah. He's really good."

"It's a shame he doesn't play."

"Why is that?" Gabriella asked; her eyes trained on Troy still.

"I love Jason like my own son, but sometimes I think he has an even bigger ego than we like to believe." Carlos stated honestly.

Gabriella turned on her father. "You're blaming Jason?" She knew that her father was right in ways, but he was her best friend. She had to defend him no matter what. Everyone knew that he would do the same thing for her if she ever needed it.

Carlos smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not technically blaming him. I'm just saying that if they weren't brothers then maybe it would be a better situation."

Gabriella smiled as she thought of that. "See you in gym dad."

"Are you staying for try-outs?"

"Sharpay's making us," Gabriella said with half distaste at the idea.

Troy wasn't oblivious to the two people standing on the upper patio. He felt their eyes watching him, and that just drove him further to making his jump shot better.

"You're getting better each day." A deep voice said from behind him.

Troy glanced back at the house next to his and saw that Gabriella had gone inside; leaving her father to come over and talk to him yet again about joining basketball that year.

"You're getting even more persistent each day." Troy flashed a smile as he stopped playing around and went to go talk to Coach Montez near his car. "Hello Coach." No matter who it was, they always called Carlos Montez, Coach.

"Hello Troy. Practicing I see? You know we could really use a player like you on the team. It's still not too late to join if you want. Try-outs start at 3:30 and go for two hours."

Troy could hear the hopefulness in his voice; it sounded exactly like his mom's. There was no doubt that the two talked since their parents were next door neighbors.

"I'm really busy with my classes this year Coach. Trying to keep up is all." Troy wasn't lying as he was struggling in his math that year already, and they were only into early October.

"As long as you maintain a low C in that class, it's all worth it. You can still join, you know?"

Troy sighed.

"And if you don't mind me saying; the girls really like a guy in uniform." Carlos chuckled as he patted Troy on the back and made his way over to his car.

Troy waved once as he spotted a very familiar shape go past his peripheral vision up through the sliding doors to his neighbor's house. He knew of Gabriella as they never really talked. The first time he saw her was at the age of seven when him and his mom moved into their house, and that's when he saw the boy who he despised: Jason Cross. Since then he tried to keep his mind clear of the girl next door who's room and balcony were right across from his own window and balcony.

"Did you print my English paper for me?" His voice carried through the packed hallway. His deep brown eyes that are almost identical to hers, except for the freckles of green in them, bored into her own orbs.

The brunette rolled her eyes annoyingly. This is what she gets for having him over to do homework after school, and him falling asleep too early to remember to print out his own work. "Try this for a greeting. 'Hey Gabi, my best friend in the whole wide world, how are you today?' And I would say, "I'm fine. Here you go Jase.' Then you would say, 'Thank you so much!' See?"

Jason leaned against the dark green lockers with his arms folded coolly in front of him. Various students walked by with flirtatious grins on their faces, but he didn't pay attention as he knew being with Gabriella would end up with her punching him in the arm saying, 'Don't look at them like they're meat!'

Jason rolled his eyes with a small smile. "Hey buddy, how are you today? Thank you."

"You're lucky we grew up together." She grumbled as he took the paper and they set off towards homeroom.

Gabriella unconsciously walked closer to Jason as he was in the middle of a 'guy handshake', and he instantly puts his arm around her in an only-friendly kind of way. It's not that she didn't like the attention, she wished at sometimes in her life she wasn't being stared at because she was the best friend of the boy who's destined to become their next basketball captain.

Jason sighed as they turned the corner, and they passed a group of giggling girls who blushed when he looked at them. "So how was your date with…what's his name?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes while clicking her tongue annoyingly. "Josh, and…let's just say that was our first and last date."

"What happened this time?" He asked with amusement in his voice.

Gabriella didn't get time to answer as the air tensed up and she stopped in line with Jason. She followed his line of vision and saw that Troy and his best friend who ironically played on the basketball team were in their seats already. It was common for Jason to give Troy glares, but when it was a very important day for basketball, like try-out days, Jason was sometimes unpredictable.

Chad and Troy must have sensed someone's eyes on them as they both turned and stared at the two of them who stood in the doorway. Gabriella looked at Jason now and swore that she heard him grinding his teeth. He walked coolly into the room with her following as the two of them unfortunately got stuck in the front of the room, but Jason didn't go to his seat.

"So Bolton, trying out for the team this year?" His voice was taunting him and Gabriella put on an annoyed face. She didn't like Jason when he did this, but what could she do? She wasn't going to get in the middle of two boys fighting; especially with a messed up history like their own.

Troy gripped the pencil he was holding tighter; as his knuckles turned white. "Who wants to know?" He spat out.

Jason got that crooked smirk he rarely got on his laid back face. "No one. That's who."

Gabriella looked behind herself and saw that Ms. Darbus had just entered the room. She looked down at Chad who looked as much uncomfortable as her. "Jase," she whispered while prodding him a little in the side. "Let's go."

Jason let out an unsatisfied grunt while Troy narrowed his eyes. Jason nor Troy broke eye contact as Gabriella sighed impatiently again. "Let's go Jase. Now."

She finally got through to him with one good poke to his ribs and lead him forward some.

"You didn't have to intervene. I was having fun." Jason whispered a little too harshly to her.

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she knew he got like that whenever Troy was mentioned. "Maybe a little too much fun."

"I wish."

"This morning just proved my point. You HAVE to try out for basketball this year. What do you have to lose?" Chad asked for what seemed like the twentieth time that lunch period. Everyone else at their lunch table was either busy eating, talking, or conversing with other tables as most of the people at their table were on the baseball team with Chad the previous year.

"Maybe I just don't want to play? I mean, I can't play if I'm not good enough." Troy knew that was a lie.

"You beat me every single time we play. What are you on that makes you think you're not good enough?" Chad asked slightly irritated.

"Look," Troy sighed as Chad knew everything about his past. There was no hiding it since they were almost always at each other's houses. "I just want to concentrate on my schoolwork. My mom's kind of been on my case about my math grade."

Chad snorted at hearing this. "Even I'm not that far behind yet."

Troy shrugged, "It's not my favorite subject."

They fell silent as Troy took this opportunity to look around the lunch room. Just two tables over he could hear a soft giggling that stood out throughout all the other noise around him. He turned to see and saw that Gabriella was sitting right next to Jason.

"Maybe it's time you finally put him in his place." Chad said just as the bell went off.

Gabriella tapped her pencil in a bored way as she stared out the window. Jason was on her other side doing only God knew what. Even though he wouldn't say it, she knew that he was nervous. They only had this class until school ended, and then another thirty minutes before try-outs started.

It wasn't until she heard Jason snort ungracefully next to her that she turned her attention away from the window and tuned back to what their math teacher was saying. She shouldn't even be in the trigonometry class, but Jason convinced her the previous year when they were filling out their own schedules that she take it with him. She had already taken all of her math credits, so taking this math class was a step back, but at least it came easy for her.

She glanced around and tuned just in time as she heard Mr. Olsen say, "Maybe you should study a little bit more Mr. Bolton."

She looked to her right and then straight up the aisle again to see Troy sink a little bit lower in his front row seat. She now knew why Jason was laughing.

"Cut the crap Jase." Gabriella whispered from the side of her mouth.

He instantly stopped and glared at her, "Why? Are you defending him?" He whispered back.

"No. But just knock it off. You should be concentrating on try-outs anyways."

Gabriella smiled to herself as she looked back to where Troy was supposedly taking notes that the teacher was putting up, but she was surprised as her brown eyes met his icy blue orbs.

Troy quickly turned around once he realized he got sidetracked in math once again. He furiously slammed the lead to his pencil down onto his notebook paper. He was getting sick of Jason and his little side remarks. Maybe Chad was right? Maybe it was time to take a stand, but what's even more surprising to Troy is that he's not just mad at Jason. He's also mad at Gabriella. There's just something about the fact that a girl feels like she has to stand up for him when he's perfectly capable of doing it himself.

He's really gonna have to study this math if he's gonna be on the basketball team.

"See that kid over there?" Chad whispered as they were just out of ear shot of the so called 'kid' on the bleachers Chad was talking about.

Troy glanced behind himself as he slowly slipped on his basketball shoes. "Yeah?" It came out more of a question.

"He's not gonna last one day of varsity try-outs. I can guarantee you that Coach Montez will move him down to junior varsity. Oh! And see that kid over there?"

Troy followed his friend's line of vision again. "Yeah?"

"He's only good on the right side of the court, so when you're on defense; work his left side."

"Thanks." Troy sighed as all of a sudden he was double thinking his reasoning. Coach Montez didn't know that he was trying out yet, so there was still time that he could back out.

He leaned down to lace up his shoes as another soft melodic giggle was heard. Just then five people walked in. Gabriella and Jason were on one end as an African American girl who Troy recognized to be Taylor McKessie walked in the center, and then a very blonde girl Sharpay, and her basketball boyfriend Zeke walked on Taylor's other side. Troy also knew that Taylor and Sharpay were part of the dance team too; along with Gabriella.

"Let the games begin," Chad muttered under his breath.

"Are they always inseparable?" Troy asked with an unnoticed growl attached. He was still mad at Gabriella that she was always standing up for him without even knowing it.

"Who?"

Troy shrugged it off nonchalantly. "You know…Montez and Cross?"

"Pretty much. It's also because she's Coach's daughter that she sometimes stays for basketball practice when she doesn't have too." Chad explained as both boys watched Taylor and Sharpay walk past them and to the top of the bleachers where no one else was.

Troy smirked as he saw Chad's eyes follow Taylor much more than anyone else they knew, but Troy was brought back to the front of the bleachers as he heard Zeke, and saw just beyond him Jason and Gabriella still talking.

"Hey Danforth. Long time no see, yeah? We have no classes this semester." Zeke Baylor, a tall athletic boy greets while Chad and him do the guy hand shake. Zeke then turns to look at Troy, and he does his best not to go too wide eyed at seeing him there. "Bolton? I didn't know that you were trying out….not that it's wrong or anything, just…surprised is all." Zeke flashed him a smile. Even though he's another one of his half brother's close friends, he isn't that bad of a guy. "What's up?"

They shared a handshake as Troy just shrugged. "Nothing much."

Just then a voice Troy was sick of the first time hearing echoed through the gym.

"What the hell are you doing on my court?" He demanded as Zeke stepped back to let Jason come into view.

Troy finished lacing up his shoes before standing up. "This isn't your court anymore."

The two shared a glare as once again both boys' heart rates sped up at just thinking about the hatred shared between them.

Another crooked smirk appeared on Jason's face. "We'll see about that."

Author's Note--So does Jason need an attitude adjustment or what? lol, you're just gonna have to wait and see. As most of you guys know, I like revealing the past slowly, although this one's not that bad. It's more of justifying the finer details of everything that went on.

So what do you guys think? It felt pretty damn good to be writing a story like this, and although there was quiet a lot of Jason in this chapter also, don't think that he's always gonna be in it, but you should also realize that he is one of the main characters too, or else there just wouldn't be a plot without him. Review please. Tell me what you think. I kind of...REALLY want...the same amount of reviews for this chapter than what I got for the trailer. Can you guys make that possible?