Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks so much for the positive feedback on my first chapter! Enjoy this one! Always, schoolgirl 101

Chapter 2- Lunkhead Basketball People

Gabriella searched through East High hallways in sight for any of her friends, and on the way, accidentally bumping into someone.

"Sorry..." Gabriella said softly as she looked at whom she bumped into.

"Well, well, well...if it isn't Geeky Gabriella." Chad Danforth said looking Gabriella up and down a smirk visible on his face.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to bump into you Chad..." Gabriella said softly.

"Hmmm...I'm sure you didn't geek. But...I don't really care what you think...you need to get punished some way..." Chad said clearly thinking of a punishment.

Gabriella looked up at Chad in fright. She wanted to run, and began scanning the hallways for the fastest way to get away from Chad.

"Want to run Montez?" Chad said pushing Gabriella into a locker.

Gabriella winced in pain and bit her lip.

"Great! Troy's here. I'm sure he can think of a punishment for you." Chad grinned at the sight of his best friend entering the hallways. "Hey Troy!" Chad grinned.

Troy looked for the voice that called his friend and grinned when he saw Chad. "Hey man what's up?" Troy grinned not realizing Gabriella smashed in the lockers close to him.

"Geeky Gabriella wants some kind of punishment...she bumped into me man...what a klutz." Chad said pointing to Gabriella eyes closed in pain.

Gabriella sighed ready for anything they're going to throw at her. Literally. Her body was pretty fragile, and Gabriella knew some kind of bruise would show up by the end of the day.

"Don't do anything to her Chad." Troy said moving Gabriella aside to get to his locker.

"Wait...why Troy?" Chad asked.

Troy tried to think of some kind of excuse to his actions. "Not much we can do to her on the first day...we want to be subtle to the new geeks coming in this year. They will hide from us for the rest of their lives if they saw us beating geek here up the first day. Let's take a rain check." Troy said throwing his gym bag into his locker.

Chad looked at Gabriella and nodded. "Free to go geek, but better run fast."

Gabriella nodded and sped away quickly.

Truth was, Troy had his first real conversation with Gabriella today. He felt kind of bad, to just, ruin the "moment" if you will. But knowing tomorrow, Troy would be back to his own self. Gabriella better be ready for him.

Gabriella did her best to speed away quickly from Troy and Chad.

"That was weird..." Gabriella said thinking to herself. "I wonder why Troy didn't think of anything to do with me...after all, he's always the one who thinks of the best punishments..."

Gabriella shuddered at the thought. The past two years since her arrival, Gabriella had been constantly bullied by Troy Bolton and his friends.

Punishments could be anything. Her homework was stolen a numerous amount of times, a few projects had to be done to keep lunkhead basketball man's grades up, the group also used her to cheat on school tests, if they had any classes together.

Gabriella even had to deal with the physical pain. Gabriella had been thrown into lockers too many times to count. At least the guys didn't hit her or anything. But Troy did have fellow cheerleaders come over every so often to give Gabriella a taste of her own medicine.

But the emotional abuse had to be the worse. Being called a geek or a nerd, Gabriella hated those names. But what hurt her more than that, was the laughter and smirking grins she got. Those were all caused from Gabriella's pain she received. There were no words to describe that feeling.

That's why Gabriella lived for silence, silence didn't give her any kind of pain, and silence was there when she needed it to be there.

"Hey Gabriella!" a voice shouted from the crowd of people.

"Tay?" Gabriella asked in question of who the voice was.

"Of course silly!" the voice said grabbing Gabriella's hand and spinning her around to face her.

"Tay, I missed you so much this summer!" Gabriella said hugging her friend. "Never go on family vacations over the summer, I was so bored! By the way, you look great."

Taylor looked at her best friend and smiled. "Thanks Gabi. I missed my best friend too. And I look great? Look in the mirror Gabriella, you look great!"

Gabriella smiled softly and looked down at herself. She felt the same as last year, although this year's wardrobe was picked by her friend Sharpay. Gabriella was wearing a brown hug fitting A&F t-shirt with dark jeans. Gabriella had on brown ballet flats, and gold earrings.

"Thanks Tay...did you spot Kels or Shar yet?" Gabriella said voice softer and back to normal.

"No I didn't...I saw you first Gabi...but we could go and look for them-" Taylor said eyes getting wide and staring at Gabriella.

"Are you okay Tay?" Gabriella asked waving her arm in front of Taylor.

Taylor grabbed Gabriella's arm.

"Ow..." Gabriella said flinching.

Taylor immediately drew back. "Gabi...did he hurt you again?" Taylor asked brown eyes filled with concern. "That's a pretty dark bruise."

"No..." Gabriella said softly. "Well not him exactly." Gabriella managed to whisper out.

"Who?" Taylor asked.

"Well..."

"Spill now Gabriella." Taylor said giving Gabriella a look.

"Okay okay. Chad." Gabriella's voice said barely audible.

Taylor looked at Gabriella and frowned. "Stupid jocks. Their just a bunch of lunkhead basketball people."

Gabriella looked at her best friend a soft smile appearing on her face. "I see you haven't changed Tay..."

Taylor looked at her best friend and laughed. "Yeah...I guess not." Taylor giggled.

"Hey! Tay and Gabi!" two voices shrieked out into the distance.

"Shar? Kels?" Taylor and Gabriella squealed and turned around in search of their friends.

Kelsi and Sharpay smiled at their two friends running up to them with open arms.

The four friends shared a large group hug.

Gabriella winced in pain, but tried to quickly cover her frown with a smile so her friends wouldn't see.

Too late for that plan.

"Gabi, are you okay?" Sharpay said pulling back.

"Yeah...I'm pretty sure I saw you wince." Kelsi said in worry that her friend was hurt.

"I'm fine guys, no worries." Gabriella attempted to smile again.

"She'll be okay girls." Taylor said. "Gabi had an encounter with lunkhead basketball man." Taylor said whispering softly.

"God, those jerks. I'm so going to kill them!" Sharpay said clenching her fists together.

"You don't want that beautiful manicure of yours go to waste Sharpay..." Gabriella said thinking of an excuse far from violence.

Sharpay looked at Gabriella and laughed. "Very funny Gabi...but really, do you like it? I got it done yesterday."

The girls looked at Sharpay and laughed.

"Hey...not funny." Sharpay said pretending to sulk.

"You're right." Kelsi said.

"It's hilarious!" Taylor smiled.

"Okay guys...break it up!" Gabriella said looking at her friends. "I got Ms. Darbus for homeroom again, and you guys?"

"Us too." the three girls said in unison.

"Sisters!" Taylor smiled and hugged her friends.

The girls smiled at each other and began to walk in the direction of their homeroom.