Author's Note: I know a bunch of people read the first chapter, but there was only two reviews. So please, if you read this chapter, review. I don't care what you say, if you thought it was so bad that it almost made your eyes bleed, tell me. If you're confused as to what's going on, ask me. I know I can be confusing. I don't know if this chapter explains what the story is about. What happened in the beginning of the prologue is what the story is about, indirectly anyway.

Chapter 1

Beginning of 11th grade

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Troy has been acting weird lately. Chad thought as Troy walked right on past him in the hall without so much as a glance his way. Chad and the rest of his friends watched as Troy made his way over to a girl's locker.

Troy walked in the school that morning and immediately headed for her locker. He hadn't been able to talk to her all weekend – she was out of town to go to her cousin's wedding in California. He didn't pay any attention that Chad and the rest of his friends were staring at him as he snuck up on her and covered her eyes.

"Guess who?" he asked, lowering his voice.

She smiled and answered, "Danni?"

"Nope,"

"Sam?"

"Guess again."

"Nikki?"

"Come on, now." Troy said, "It's the man you love?"

"Oh," she smiled, "Andrew?" Troy didn't answer. "Jeremy? Jeff? James?"

"Okay," Troy interrupted, "that's officially not funny anymore."

She turned to face him and saw him pouting. "Come on, baby, I'm just playing. You know you're the only one for me." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. He returned the kiss and deepened it. They broke apart and he smiled down at her. "Have you got your schedule change yet?" he asked.

She reached back into her locker and pulled out a piece of paper. "Yessir, it's right here," she said as she handed the folded piece of paper to him. He opened it up and looked it over. "You're in my gym class now." He said.

"Yeah, and your dad's the teacher," she said with a sigh.

"So?" Troy asked.

"So, he scares me," she answered, "I don't think he likes me very much."

"Who cares what he thinks?"

"I don't care, really," she said, "it's just, he always glares at me. He can make my life a living hell if he thinks I'm a bad influence on you."

He took her face in his hands. "I won't let him do anything to you." She smiled and kissed him again just as the bell rang. He took her hand and they headed to class together.

"Well, that was . . ." Chad said while he and his friends were walking to gym class, after having seen Troy's little spectacle.

"Surprising." Taylor finished.

"More like weird." Jason added.

"I didn't know they were dating." Zeke said.

"Don't feel bad, Zeke, none of us did." Chad responded.

"What does he see in her anyway?" Sharpay asked in disgust, "Isn't she a freakin' pothead or something?"

"I don't know about that," Taylor said, "she's in my history class, her name is Joey de la Rosa. She seems like she's smarter than that."

"She's beautiful, and if she makes him happy then he deserves her." Gabriella added quietly.

"You're okay with this?" Sharpay asked shocked.

"Why wouldn't I be? Troy and I never went out or anything." Gabriella answered.

"Because he led you on, made you feel like he liked you just as much you liked him, and he hasn't said more than ten words to you since the musical ended." Ryan said.

"It's not his fault, he didn't know." Gabriella defended Troy.

"It's all her fault! She's the reason he's changed so damn much!" Sharpay practically shrieked.

"Everyone calm down!" Chad demanded, "We've got to get to gym. I'll try to talk to Troy later and see if I can get him to tell me what's been going on with him."

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Jack Bolton didn't know what to think when he saw his son enter the gymnasium. Troy was smiling and holding the hand of a girl that he had never seen before. She was short with an athletic body and medium length chocolate brown hair and amazing emerald-green eyes. She was beautiful, she was tan-skinned and the only make-up she wore was eyeliner and lip gloss. She was wearing a pair of tattered jeans and one of Troy's shirts that Troy swore he couldn't find. Troy kissed her on the cheek before they departed to their separate locker rooms to change for class, just as Jack was about to approach the young couple.

Chad had just walked out of the boys' locker room when Troy walked past him. He was about to turn around to confront Troy, but he was stopped by none other than Coach Bolton.

"Do you know who that girl is that Troy came in here with?" he asked.

"Her name is Joey," Chad responded.

"I don't believe I have anyone by that name in this class," Jack said as he flipped through his class roster, "oh, wait a minute, would that be Josephine de la Rosa?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, that's her." Chad answered.

"It seems that she just got transferred into this class," he said and paused before asking, "Is Troy going out with her?"

"Unless Troy goes around school kissing random girls now, then, yeah, I'd say they're going out," Chad said.

KRMSKRMSKRMSKRMSKRMSKRMSKRMSKRMS

Coach Bolton blew the whistle and ordered Jason and Zeke to lead the class in calisthenics. After fifteen minutes of this, Coach blew the whistle again and the students gathered around him to hear the instructions.

"Alright class, today we will be playing touch football outside. But before we head out, you need to pick teams. Chad, you're the captain of team one, and Troy, you're the captain of team two. Start picking your teams now," Coach instructed, "Chad you go first."

"Jason." Chad called out.

"Joey." Troy called when his turn came around.

"Zeke."

"Ryan."

"Sharpay."

"Nikki."

"Taylor."

"Jeremy."

"Lucas."

"Sam."

"Gabriella."

"Jeff."

"Alright now, captains come over here and we'll have the coin toss." Coach Bolton ordered, "Chad, call it in the air."

"Heads."

Coach Bolton caught the coin in the air and flipped it over on his arm. "It's tails," he looked at Troy, "Do you want to kick-off or return?"

"We'll return," Troy chose.

Troy and Joey had already planned many of the plays that they were going to use during this game. They had played all kinds of sports when he was over at her house and he knew what her signals meant.

Joey caught the kick-off and ran along the left side. Troy was by her side, blocking anyone who tried to get to her. They were too fast for everyone on Chad's team, and before you knew it, the score was 6-0 – seconds later Jeff scored the extra point and the score was now 7-0.

Troy's team began the drive. He looked over at Joey and saw that she was biting her nail. Troy nodded in return and began the play. He faked a pass to the right at Jeremy and headed to the left. When Troy was about to be tackled, he passed it over everyone's head and straight to the middle of the field where it was caught by a speeding Joey – who no one on Chad's team had even tried to block – and she sprinted the remaining 78 yards for the touchdown.

"Coach, I swear Troy and Joey are reading each other's minds." Chad called as Joey did a victory dance in the end zone.

"Now Chad, how could we possibly do that?" Troy asked mockingly.

Joey stifled a giggle as she handed the ball over to Coach Bolton.

After several offensive drives by both teams, the game ended with a score of 42-10, in favor of Troy's team. Coach Bolton told the students to go get changed, but asked Joey to stay for a moment. Chad headed off for the locker room, but stayed out of sight and within earshot to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Have you considered trying out for the powder puff team, Joey?" Coach Bolton asked.

She shook her head.

"You should," he told her, "you have incredible speed and talent for reading the game and knowing what plays to make."

She smiled and answered, "I don't know about that, I just have an incredible talent of reading Troy's signals silently."

"I noticed your signals earlier," he said, "have you two played together before?"

"Oh, yeah, Troy comes over to my house after school all the time and we'll play football or basketball in my backyard after we finish our homework."

"Oh," Coach responded, somewhat dumbfounded from this new information of his son's whereabouts after school. He had always assumed that Troy was over at one of his friend's house – such as Chad, Zeke, or Jason. "Well, you should really consider joining the team, you'd be a great asset," he paused for a moment, "You should go get changed now, sorry to keep you so long."

"No problem, coach," she said, and before she walked off she added, "And I will think about joining the team." She smiled and then turned and started jogging toward the girls' locker room.

Troy goes to her house all the time? Coach and Chad both thought at the same time.

TBC

-Some of you may be mad that Troy and Gabriella are not together. Sorry.