SECRETS

The hallways buzzed with news the next day at school. Gabi had told Tay, who'd told the entire science club, which got around to the drama club, which got around to the Wildcats, and then pretty soon everyone knew. They were seriously dating now.

Gabi and Troy went up to his rooftop garden at lunch break to get away from everyone's inquiries and evil stares. Sharpay had screamed for a good ten seconds in the school auditorium, so shrilly that even Mrs. Darbus was forced to tell her pet pupil to keep it down.

"Are you okay?" Troy asked Gabi as they swung up, braced against the rail posts of the staircase, and sat on the benches that overlooked the East High grounds and vicinity.

"I guess so," she said breathlessly. They had raced up as soon as the bell rang, both pining after an escape. They hadn't even discussed it… it was just sort of an unwritten agreement.

"Next," he said, panting, "We should get a Webcam and post videos of us together on the internet. Then, not only will the entire tenth grade know, so will the rest of the world, our parents, and my grandmother, who will knock my head off and then ship it to Peru to be made into a freaky voodoo sculpture!" he grinned.

Gabi had to laugh; he could always make her feel better with a well-timed joke. And it was very good timing.

The spider plants were swinging in the breeze; she walked over to one and gently pressed on the soil. Water came spurting up in puddles. "The science club's not doing a very good job of watering these."
"Meaning you?" Troy joined her, standing directly behind her. They were so close he could've blown the pieces of lint on the back of her neck off if he'd wanted to.

"Actually, I don't take care of the plants," Gabi said defiantly, whirling around meaning to sass him, but finding him so close that she stumbled back in surprise. Stupid Gabi, klutz… scolding herself silently, she caught her balance and brushed it off with a teasing smile. "And the Wildcats aren't doing such a good job, I hear."

"From whom?" he cocked his hip and did his best at striking an offended, girly pose.

"Oh, I have my sources," she said airily, rolling her eyes and faking a brush-off.

He grabbed her and picked her up, spinning her around. Her giggles were probably loud enough to be heard in the cafeteria. The babbling that could be heard mutely from below ceased. Her eyes widened as he set her down gently. They exchanged curious looks. "Can they hear us?" Troy whispered.

She shrugged and crept down the steps, peering over the edge of the landing to see about all of East High staring up in wonderment, curiously questioning each other where the noise was coming from.

"We aren't very good at the whole "DL" thing," Gabi whisper-giggled.

Troy chuckled but tried to keep his voice down. "We're going to have to be late to class. We have to wait till everyone clears out the cafeteria, or else they'll know it was us."
Gabi groaned. "Are you serious? Dang, if I'm late to science again, my butt's going to get kicked!"

"Excuse me? Is that proper language for a young lady?" he tousled her hair affectionately, like an older brother.

He looked really cute, standing in the sunlight, his Crest White Strip-teeth glinting. She felt herself blushing and tried to look away, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He looked amazing, in his Henley and jeans and…

"Hey, Bolton!" Chad Danforth was bolting up the steps, looking thoroughly shocked. Gabi backed up and then instinctively hid behind a large and ornate flowerpot before Chad could see her.

Troy whipped around, trying to look cool and collected, like he'd been alone the entire time. Smoothing back his hair suavely, he looked at Chad, cocking an eyebrow. Gabi stifled a laugh. He looked ridiculous now; he was such a bad liar.

"Is it true you kissed the Montez girl last night at Fairfield Park?" Chad said, cutting to the chase. "I mean, Tay and I haven't even kissed!"

"You should get around to it. It's… fun." Troy looked confused again, apparently wondering why he'd felt so compelled to say that. Gabi rolled her eyes. He was as endearing and cute as a puppy, but he was also just as clueless.

Chad punched him in the arm. "Don't be smart-alecky, captain. Just because you've kissed a girl doesn't make you experienced. Jason's snitched about a thousand chicks.

"Hey, don't talk like that, man," Troy said very seriously, his face losing its playful glint and becoming somber. Gabi was touched. She was the one who had told Troy she hated it when boys talked nonchalantly about "hooking up" with girls. It was tacky, cocky, and above all sexist.

Chad looked surprised. "What's wrong?"

"Girls have feelings, you know. And… they don't talk about us like we're possessions." Exactly, word for word, what Gabi had said to him… she mini-swooned behind the flowerpot. He was so sweet, even though he didn't know what was going on. At least he cared enough to enforce her beliefs. That was really nice, something nobody had ever really done for her before.

"OK, sorry," Chad said sassily in his best female voice. "Let's go down. Have you eaten lunch yet?"

"I – no, but-"

"C'mon! The Wildcat Captain can't go starving!" Chad gripped his arm tightly and dragged him down the steps. While Chad's back was turned, Troy shot an apologetic look in Gabi's direction. She rustled the plant a little to tell him she'd received his message.

It was better this way, actually. She didn't have to be late to science because she just had to wait a couple seconds and then go down. Nobody would notice Chad and Troy entering the cafeteria together, and they certainly wouldn't notice Gabriella Montez entering alone.

Troy let Chad drag him around the school, first to the unofficial Wildcat lunch table and then to class. He didn't catch up with Gabi until after school. He didn't want to jeopardize his friendship with Chad by ditching him, which he knew wouldn't go over especially after he'd chewed him out about talking about girls the wrong way. When he saw Gabi emerge from the doors a few minutes after he had, he ran to join her. She grinned when she saw him. He swept down to kiss the top of her head, shivering as he did so. He'd pulled it off nicely; like it was something he did every– BAM. Gabi burst out laughing hysterically as he ran headfirst into a streetlight mid-thought. He'd been focusing on her face, rejuvenated by the burst of chilly fresh air, and had run right into the freaking pole. Ruby red and hot to the touch, he got up and bowed comically. "Just call me Troy Klutz Bolton."

"Will do," she said, fumbling in her book bag for a calculator or something. "Hey, my mom's not going to be around for a while, so I'm just going to sit on a bench and polish off the geometry HW, want to come?"

"I'm hitching a ride with Chad," Troy said, hating himself for turning down the opportunity to spend time with her. "I'm so sorry, Gab. I can cancel it if you'd like…"

"Nah, it's fine," she said, waving a hand, clearly undisturbed. She didn't care. She had so many other things to do besides worry about measly little him, unimportant to her…

He stopped himself in the middle of that depressing revelation.

"Won't you be lonely?" he asked, trying to get her to be needy.

"No, Tay will be with me anyhow. Go on ahead," she said, not even removing her gaze from the book bag but managing to smoothly steer herself around the same streetlight that had been Troy's downfall.

"Sorry, Gabi," he said truthfully.

"No harm," she said, looking alarmed at how apologetic he was. "Forget it, Troy. It's not a big deal!" she pecked his cheek. His entire face burned anew, a burning that felt much better than his humiliation at having been run over by a thin rod of iron with a bulb attached to the top.

"So, come over to my house around eight?" he followed her to the bench, sitting down casually next to her as she cracked open the stack of textbooks she'd set down on her other side.

She gave him the "Gabi look", which usually meant he'd said something stupid. "You know it's a school night, Troy. How can I go over to your house on a Monday night?"

He whined. "Can't Taylor do your homework?"

She smacked him, not playfully, but with as much strength as she could muster (which, fortunately, wasn't much). "I am so not passing off homework. Maybe that's what all those people loaded with extracurricular activities do, but that's not like me. You know it. Now shut up and let me concentrate."

It was a cold day, and pretty soon Gabi was snuggling up against him for extra warmth. It took him several minutes to work up the courage to put his arm around her, but she didn't even seem to notice when he did, she was so consumed with her algebraic whatsits.

"I wonder where Tay is," she said after a couple of minutes beneath Troy's arm. She was really warm now; curled up perfectly against the hollow of his side. "She said she'd meet me."

"Plans change," he shrugged. "Maybe Chad waylaid her into his car or something to go on a drive-around of Albuquerque."

Another "Gabi look", and then – "Taylor never forgets or breaks her appointments. That's why I love her so much."

"The same can't be said for Chad," Troy said, "But I love him anyway."

Gabi cooed. "Aw, the little basketball star loves his bestest friend? That's so cute!"

Troy hit her really gently, afraid of hurting her. "You know what I mean, you stupid little genius."

She put a hand on his chest and pushed against him, using him as a brace and stretching up to whisper in his ear. "I can come over to your house at six, if you want."

He looked down at her and grinned.

She was still stretching up, so their faces were touching again, and Troy realized with a jolt of electrifying fear that they were in the perfect position to kiss… again.

Apparently Gabi had noticed too, because she was searching wildly for something to say; her lips were twitching and her eyes were roving his face.

He was getting cross-eyed, staring at her at such a small distance. Finally, he lunged forward, throwing self preservation to the winds.

The second kiss was much better, albeit shorter. They weren't as nervous, but it only lasted a couple of seconds. Perhaps it would've lasted longer, except for the interruption that came in the form of a squeaky gasp – "Gabi?"

It was Taylor, looking completely bewildered, clutching onto her wheeling backpack with one hand and holding down her skirt against the wind with the other. "So you actually did kiss him!" Taylor exclaimed. "I thought you were joking for a while! Chad and I haven't even kissed yet!"

Gabi grinned secretively at Troy. "You should get around to it," she said in a fairly good imitation of his voice. "It's fun."

Taylor shot her an evil look. "Don't go shooting your suave voice at me, young lady. I want to hear all the details." She cast Troy a look that pretty much said "Get out of here now, bub".

He ruffled Gabi's hair like he had on the rooftop garden. He felt her shiver a little at his touch; he did, too, realizing how much he liked the scent of her hair. It was really, really nice…
"Six, Gabi," he said, trying to wink. It was one of the pickup moves he'd never really gotten around to learning. Coach Bolton was a master of winking and arching his eyebrows and doing all the debonair things that made him look like a player, but Troy had always been stuck being the geeky son of the playboy coach.

She laughed at his meager attempt. "Don't stress yourself, buddy boy." She kicked the back of his leg, urging him to move on. He grinned, pleased at her playfulness, and kicked back. Taylor sat down in his spot and kicked him – really, really hard, enough to make him scamper away, waving at Gabi the entire time. The honking of Coach Bolton's horn became audible all over the grounds of East High School.

Taylor and Gabi gossiped the entire time on the bench; she barely even got any homework done. Which was why, when she punctually showed up at Troy's door, she lugged with her all of her books and texts.

Mrs. Bolton came to the door, wielding a hoard of shopping bags like she'd just gotten in from the grocery market. "Gabriella," she said warmly, and then, in a much less hospitable tone, yelled up the stairs, "TROY! GABRIELLA IS HERE!"

In a few seconds, the sound of a door flying open and then slamming shut came, followed by the pounding of feet down stairs. Troy showed up, panting, just as Gabi closed the door behind her and took off her shoes.

Troy was a mess. He was wearing an overly large basketball jersey and a backwards Chicago Sox cap. Or, White Sox – or something. Gabi had never really understood all the baseball teams. Or was that football?

Besides the jersey and cap, he was wearing a pair of too-tight bright orange corduroy pants, and a whole set of ornate jewelry, some fake purple bead necklaces and a china choker.

"What are you wearing?" she asked uncertainly, checking her watch. "I came exactly at six. Didn't you have time to stop your alien and terrifying regular proceedings and make yourself into a normal boy?"

"Not boy, man," Troy said in a voice that was much deeper than his own. He slicked back his hair like someone trying to pick up a girl in an old movie.

"Not working for me, sweetie," she said, shaking her head as she whipped the cap off his head. Eyeing the jewelry, she said in a voice that suggested being nauseous, "I can leave, you know."

"No, it's fine! Just come on up to my room, I have an old friend I want you to meet," Troy said, grinning.

At that precise moment, a voice started yelling from upstairs – "TROY! WHO'S AT THE DOOR?"
Troy winced at Gabi's confused expression. "Ok, before you ask any questions, I don't have a clock in my room – my regular's broken – so I lost track of time, and…"

Chad Danforth – the Chad Danforth – came racing out onto the landing, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Gabriella. He was wearing clothes twice as hideous as Troy's – purple Juicy Couture sweatpants and a Victoria's Secret sweater, unzipped to show a bare chest on which he'd Sharpie-written TAYLOR MCKESSIE IS MY GAL. He had braided his afro with pink strings and tied it together with pink and purple beads. He looked like a four-year-old little girl in a sixteen-year-old boy's body. He was also wearing a large amount of gold necklaces and chains, all with crosses or obscenities attached at the end in gold letters. "Whoa," he said, skidding to a halt. "You didn't tell me she was coming!"

Gabi, deciding to have some fun, said, "Taylor's coming in too, she's just getting all her things out of the car."

At this proclamation, Chad didn't waste a single second in tearing his braids out ripping the jacket off, furiously rubbing at the Sharpie tattoo.

"Relax," Gabriella laughed with Troy. "I was joking!"
Chad stopped abruptly, looking perfectly ridiculous – half his braids were out, and he was standing bare-chested with black ink smudged all over his body.

"Man that was not funny!" Chad exclaimed at Troy. "Dang, I ripped out like all of my hair."
Troy shrugged noncommittally, his entire body shaking with suppressed laughter. When he spoke, his voice was full of involuntary snorts and guffaws. "That's a sweet tattoo, Chad. You ought to keep it."
Chad lunged down the stairs in a couple of wide-strewn steps and started smacking Troy out. Troy responded in kind; they tussled until Gabi reminded them of her presence by clearing her throat.

"Were you guys playing dress up?" she demanded as they backed away from each other.

"No," they said in unison.

"Then why are you in drag and all that… stuff?"

They looked at each other, clearly searching for an answer.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "You WERE playing dress up, Troy Bolton. Don't you lie to me!"

Troy crossed his feet and looked down like some hyperactive schoolboy. "Sowwy, Mith Dawbuth," he said with a badly mocked lisp.

She smacked his wrist in the role of the schoolteacher. Chad burst out laughing.

"You are whipped, Bolton," he said as Troy started blushing fervently.

"Shut up, Chad." Gabi aimed a well-directed kick at Chad's shin. He howled in pain.

"Of all girls, you pick the master of mortal combat!" he hopped up the stairs.

Gabi looked at Troy a little uncertainly. "So…"

To Chad, it was still unbelievable. After the winter musical and all the stuff Gabi and Troy had done to stay together, it was pretty obvious that they really liked each other. But he was starting to think it had a whole lot more than liking.

He blushed whenever he talked to her, he fidgeted in her presence, he hadn't even retorted when he was accused of being whipped. It was Troy Bolton, and he was completely and totally not acting like himself.

She was a pretty girl. She was a really pretty girl, and she was really smart, but she didn't seem worth as much as Troy had given for her. And since meeting her, Troy's life was all about Gabi. Not to mention that while Chad and Troy discussed summer jobs, a wide range of things were ruled out because Troy just absolutely had to be with Gabi, no matter what. The numerous times Chad had attempted to suggest the possibility of separation, he'd gotten shot down before he could utter more than two words. It was always the same thing – "I can't lose her again." And then, Chad – "You won't lose her just by being away from her for a couple of months!" which was always coupled with, "Yes, I will, because she'll meet someone else."

Troy's paranoia worried Chad, but more than that, the possibility of Troy becoming a total drama geek and forgetting about basketball. Troy was destined for great things, and Chad would hate to watch him dwindled into another Ryan Evans.

This and a bunch of other things prevented Chad from sleeping the night Gabi had caught him and Troy playing Drag Queen Dress-up, a game which they played when they were totally bored and feeling like acting like total idiots.

He was also thinking about Taylor. They had discussed it a while, about how they were worried that their best friends were so taken with each other it was like nothing else mattered. They were lucky nothing serious had happened yet – Troy wasn't playing badly, Gabi's grades hadn't slipped at all – but both were convinced that pretty soon the symptoms were going to show.

Finally, completely certain that he had no chance of resting that night, Chad flicked on the lights. The clock on his nightstand read 3:14 AM.

Groaning a little, he blindly rummaged around in his drawers and found what he was looking for – the East High School yearbook, 06-07. It had come out a couple of days ago, but he'd already gotten all the signatures he needed or wanted. He hated cramming the yearbook full of empty words from people he hardly even knew.

The front page was full of his favorite people: Zeke, Troy, Jason, Kelsi, Taylor, and Sharpay and Ryan, only because Sharpay had forced her signature onto the front page. He grinned looking at their messages –

Thanks for everything this year – you really came through for me. –T.B.

I liked getting to know you this year, Chad; you're a great guy and an amazing player. –Kelsi

Thanks for forgiving me for being a baker. You're cool, Chad. –Zeke

Oh my god, Chad, you're such an awesome guy! (GIGGLES!) I hope you come back next year, I really like you and Troy. Tell Troy I give him much love! S.E.

See you next year. R.E.

All the people he loved so dearly (except for the Evans siblings). Troy hadn't known what to say, so he'd copied a little bit of what Gabi had written in his yearbook. Gabi hadn't signed because Chad really hadn't talked to her, even though he was dating her best friend, and she was dating his.

He was pretty sure Sharpay had only signed as part of some ludicrous way to get Troy. Ryan had just signed because Sharpay told him to, and Ryan was pretty much his sister's poodle.

He heard the lights click on in the hallway and slowly crept out of bed, opening his door a little crack to see what was going on.

It was his older sister, Harriet. She was hugging a couple bottles of soda and a bag of pita chips to her chest as she tried to silently make her way back to her bedroom.

Harriet was visiting from college. She was nineteen and fairly nice to Chad when she wanted to be. When she didn't, Chad wished he could throw her all the way across the state back into Albuquerque U.

"Hey. Psst, Harry!" Chad hissed at her out of the crack in his door.

She looked around, startled, and almost dropped her bag of chips.

"Oh," she breathed, looking relieved. "It's just you, buggy. What's up?"

He shrugged, trying to look undisturbed. "Can't sleep's up. What're you doing with Snack World in your hands?"

She tried to hit him, but in doing so let go of a soda bottle and just barely managed to save it from falling on the floor and making a ruckus. Sighing a little and rolling her eyes, she replied, "Because I'm a girl, and girls get cravings. Nothing you athletes would understand. You eat three meals a day, during which you stuff your face with everything in sight, and then you sleep – and SNORE – without a second thought to food."

Chad rolled his eyes back, the visions of tossing her through a wind at the university coming back to him. "I need some help, Harry," he said.

"Don't call me that," she shot back, but followed him into his room anyway.

They sat on his bed; Harriet dumped the contents of her arms onto the bed. "Help yourself, I got way too much," she said, cracking open the chips and munching noisily on one.

"Hey, quiet, I don't want to wake up Mom and Dad," Chad whispered. "Ok, you know Troy?"

"Cute sophomore - your best buddy?"

"Yeah, him," Chad said, ignoring the "Cute" quip. "I'm worried for him."

Gulping down half a bottle of soda, she eyed him suspiciously. "Why? He's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"He's, like in love with Gabi," Chad said, cracking his knuckles anxiously. "He always talks about her, he can't stop thinking about her, he even told me he's going crazy over her. Does that sound normal to you?"

"It sounds sweet," Harriet said stoutly. "Nothing wrong with being in love, you should know that. Don't you love Taylor?"

He looked at the print on his bed sheets. "I guess. Kind of – I don't know, I just like her, we have fun together! How can I know if I love her or not?"

"Because, you're supposed to know," Harriet answered readily. "I don't know, I've never been in love. Boys have loved me, but I kind of figured it was too early, like you. Now I don't know so much, because I really did like some of those boys, I just got scared and turned away when they got too serious. Maybe Troy's just really lucky to find a girl who's not scared by his passion."

Chad groaned. "Don't get sappy, sis. We're only sophomores. It's not like we can, I don't know, whip a girl on a horse and ride into the sunset."

"I'm not talking like Gone with the Wind love," Harriet said in the smart-alecky voice that Chad hated.

"I'm so not retarded!" Chad barked. "I just… I've never seen him like this. It's like he loves her more than hoops."

"You can't expect him to marry a net and an orange ball, can you? He needs a girl; he needs something more than objects. Don't you, too? Just think of the future."

"Gabi isn't worth it!" Chad said furiously. "I mean, she's such a pretty girl and all, but she's just that, a girl, it's not like she's something extraordinary!"

"You don't really sound scared for Troy," Harriet said in a tone so serious that Chad actually listened for once. "You sound like you're jealous, buggy. You need to figure it out; otherwise you'll end up like me and my ex-best friends. All of them could've been retained but I just didn't want to do it. I don't want you to lose Troy, because you've been together since preschool."

"He's brushing me off for her," Chad said, fighting back the urge to slap Harriet. She was right, but he hated her for saying it to his face. "But I'm not jealous. I think he should rethink, that's all. He's deciding the rest of his life. He's choosing a girl over his career."
"Basketball has a shelf life. Love doesn't." Harriet was getting philosophical, which meant it was time for her to turn in. She knew it, too. "Night, buggy," she said, tousling his hair. "Don't get bed bugs. They come to jeealouus best friends." She emphasized "jealous."

"Shut up. Go away," Chad said, grinning even as he said it. She disappeared into her own room. He heard the hallway lights clicking off and her door opening and closing.

She had said he was jealous.

That ticked him off, but she was right, and he had to acknowledge it. Much as he liked hanging around Tay, with her it was all homework. No more hoops, no more shakes at the Waban Diner, and obviously, Taylor would never check out girls with him. She didn't even check out guys. She didn't wear lip gloss, she didn't giggle… she was as good as a guy and a boring guy at that. When she was in the mood she was great, but she was rarely in the mood. Troy had so much fun with Gabi because she was willing to give a little.

He had nicked a couple of Harriet's sleeping pills a few days ago. He just remembered them as he was thinking about all the things Troy talked about that he and Gabi did together.

Searching his sock drawer for the capsule that he'd hidden them in, he recalled that Gabi was fun with anyone, once you convinced her to be. He'd watched Zeke practically yank her textbooks out of her hands so they could take a spin around the dance floor at the cast party of the musical. And she'd been laughing and looked really pretty and had so much fun. The entire time they were there, Taylor was wrapped up in some book called Withering Heights or something. She paid no mind to the party or that Chad was practically on his knees begging her to dance with him.

She'd been fine while they were plotting and planning together, but after they'd fixed the destruction of Gabi and Troy's relationship, she'd kind of drifted apart. And when he'd asked her out after the game, he was euphoric on winning and hadn't even remembered all the stuff he doubted until a while after…

She wasn't boring. Not all the time, anyway. But he wished that he could find someone like Troy had, who he had so much in common with. And he had the feeling sticking around Tay too long would result in him maturing way too fast. Even Troy, who was with someone who was only half as bad as Taylor, was starting to grow up a little too fast for Chad's liking, but Troy seemed to like it. Chad hated the idea of growing up too soon. Life was too short to take shortcuts, except when it came to homework and all the boring things that slowed it down.

He found the medicine. It was harmless OTC pills, which made them seem okay to take, even though the health teacher was always babbling about being careful around drugs, any kind of drugs. He took one with a glass of water sitting on his nightstand and laid back, still thinking about Gabi. She was such a great girl for Troy, maybe for any guy. She was her own person, but she was also willing to give in a little, try new things. Taylor was stuck in a rut of good grades and little else.

He was seized with the insane urge to call Taylor and talk things over, but she'd never forgive him for waking her up so late on a school night. Even though, he thought bitterly, Troy called Gabi plenty of times in the middle of the night and Troy had said those were some of their best conversations ever.

The clock read 3:45. It had already been a half hour.

Harry was right; it was good to be in love. At least, it looked like it could be nice, having something to think about all the time, caring that much about someone. He wanted to be in love too. But he guessed it wasn't something you could force, wasn't something you could make yourself do.

He hadn't talked that much to Gabriella, but she seemed like the easygoing kind of girl someone could fall in love with without even realizing it. Sweet, smart, kind, generous, really, really cute. And she wasn't one of the girls who tried too hard or did too much like Sharpay. She wasn't as conservative as Tay but she wasn't as flashy as anyone else at East High. She was in the middle, which seemed like a good place to be.

He wished he could get to know her better, considered even asking her to have a cup of coffee with him or something. Weren't best friends supposed to know each others girlfriends well? Troy knew Taylor pretty well, but Troy knew everyone pretty well – conversations came easily to him. It took Chad months to work up the courage to talk to anyone.

Asking Gabi to sign his yearbook would be a good ruse, he decided. Just a chance to spark a little chat, if nothing else, though he seriously doubted it wouldn't be enjoyable, seeing as Troy was always talking about how humorous Gabi was, how thoughtful, how…

The sleeping pills were really starting to have an affect on him. He rolled over and closed his eyes, thinking of how pretty Gabi's face looked when she smiled. Fleetingly, under the heavy trance of the pills, he wondered if he was jealous of Gabi or Troy… or both…

Gabi couldn't sleep. Images of Troy and Chad playing dress-up – disturbing but humorous images – kept popping up in her head. Finally, she went downstairs and had a glass of water and a handful of Chex mix. Nothing like a fatty late night snack to get one sleepy.

After a little while of staring at her glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars, she decided to seek revenge towards Troy after all the times he'd woken her up, especially the nights before big tests.

Rather sleepily, she picked up her cell phone and dialed in his number. It took a couple of tries to get it right; she could barely see the keys.

"Hey, you've reached the voicemail box of Troy Bolton. Leave a message or don't, I don't really care. 'Kay, bye," his voice filled her ear. Sighing a little impatiently, she left a few messages and then flipped her phone shut, searching her bedroom for other things to make her feel tired.

Her yearbook was sitting on her dresser, gleaming in the dark because of its white cover.

She got up and padded across the room, sitting on the dresser counter and cracking open the yearbook. The front page was covered in the signatures of the entire Wildcats basketball team, including Troy, whose signature covered up half the page in his cramped, tiny handwriting. Kelsi, Jason, and Martha had also signed it. She grinned at Kelsi's signature; she always seemed so shy and reserved, but she showed her outgoing side in her songs and her signature; big loopy letters that stood out against everyone else's messy, small names.

Jason's message was probably the shortest on the page, they had barely talked. Chad wasn't even on there, which she found strange sometimes. Somehow, she'd never gotten to talking to Chad very much. He was always with Tay when she was with Troy, and the only time she'd ever get to talk to Chad was when she was with Troy.

Zeke had scribbled all over the official autograph section, listing his favorite baking recipes. He'd done this for everyone, which had been accomplished by taking all the yearbooks overnight to get it done.

She thought about Chad. She really should've asked him to sign, but he hadn't asked her and she felt strange just going up to him. Maybe he didn't like her; after all, he was the one who had encouraged Taylor to break her and Troy up before the musical.

She was already starting to feel sleepy. Closing the book and letting it fall quietly to the fluffy carpet, she sank into her bed and had dozed off in seconds.