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Chapter 2: Weird and Strange

"I don't know why they find it thrilling to pick on me." Gabriella was complaining to her friends.

"Look Brie, they do it because they can." Taylor said, comfortingly putting a hand on her arm.

"Yeah, well I don't react to it. I don't give them any emotions to feed off of, that's usually what bullies find thrilling." Gabriella mumbled walking out A.P. Chemistry with her friends, ready for lunch.

"Who was bullying you?" Gabriella whipped around to be face to face with Troy Bolton.

"What?" she stuttered

"Someone was bothering you. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you say that. Who was it?" he asked, there was genuine concern in his eyes and voice.

"No one, it doesn't matter." She mumbled, trying to catch up with her friends who had left her with Troy.

Troy grabbed her arm gently, "No it does matter. I don't like bullying and if it was my friends then I want to know, and if it wasn't then I still want to know. Come on Gabriella, just tell me." He pleaded with her.

"You, the Troy Bolton," there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "know my name?" she asked

"You seem surprised, we have most of the same classes. I mean we take different languages and we have different A.P. math's, but other than that, we have the same schedule. How could I not notice you?" it was a rhetorical question.

"I don't know, maybe the way the rest of the school doesn't." she thought she got out of the conversation.

"Not so fast." He grabbed her by the waist before she could walk away.

"Fine, it was your posse, happy now?" she asked, walking away. She stormed into the cafeteria with her lunch, "You left me with him." She hissed at her friends

"Oh come on Gabs, it's not like it was that bad. He wanted to help." Kelsi scolded her

"And you couldn't have waited?" she asked

"Sorry." They mumbled, Gabriella groaned when Troy walked into the cafeteria, this was only going to increase the bullying and she knew it.

Troy stormed up to his table and threw his lunch down. "Sit down Troysie." Helen cooed, patting the seat next to her.

"Back off." He bellowed. The table fell silent. "Let's have a little discussion." They all knew what was coming. "About bullying." They sighed, the lecture. "A little birdy told me that you were bullying some people this morning." By now the entire cafeteria was watching and listening intently.

"And who would this 'little birdy' be?" Sharpay asked, standing and matching his tone. She was the only one that wasn't afraid to completely cross him.

"That is irrelevant. What IS relevant is who you people are torturing." Troy yelled

Inwardly Gabriella flinched, but outwardly she showed no emotion. She should've known better, someone was going to figure this out.

"Look Troy," Chad said, "if we did it was because they deserved it."

"No one deserves to be picked on, and I heard that this person never does anything to any of you. So what's the excuse now?" Troy asked, glancing at every person at the table.

"Look baby," Helen wrapped her arms around his waist, "everyone else is below us anyhow, so why does it matter?"

Troy threw her arms off of him, "When will you people learn? NO ONE IN THIS SCHOOL IS ABOVE OR BELOW ANYONE ELSE! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE'RE ALL REALLY EQUAL!" he yelled

"Well in the real world," Chad started

"No in the real world these cliques don't exist. So that is a really bad answer." He picked up his lunch and turned around, "Leave people alone, no one deserves to be picked on." Troy said storming out of the cafeteria. His friends sat there silently. The cafeteria went back to it's usual chatter.

Gabriella sighed as she shut her locker for the final time that day. She walked into the chemistry lab and the practice for the decathlon. She smiled, a real smile, thinking about Troy. As much as she didn't want him to, it felt good to have someone beat up the people that made her hate life, even if it wasn't for her, but just something he naturally did. He was a good guy from what she could see. But she refused to let herself get wrapped up in thinking about him. It wasn't worth it.

Troy shut his locker and made his way to the guys locker room to get ready for basketball tryouts. He was really excited, this was one of his favorite days of the school year. The only thing bringing him down this year was that his friends were bullying Gabriella Montez. There was always something about her. Maybe it had something with her quiet and sad nature. She didn't seem to enjoy life. He sighed and shook his head, he wasn't going wrap his mind around a girl, he never liked to distract himself with something he could be guaranteed would work out.

Gabriella walked into her room. It was 5 and they were meeting at Claire's house at 6:30. "Well I'll just be late." She smiled as she changed and put on running shoes. She grabbed her keys and iPhone, putting on some upbeat music, ready to run for an hour or so.

Troy walked in his house at 5:15. He'd had a huge fight with Chad in the locker room. "I need to run, it clears my head." He grabbed his discarded keys and iPhone, putting music on as he left his house again to go for the second run in a day.

Running down towards the beach, Gabriella could feel all the pressures coming off of her shoulders. Once she reached the beach she stopped, just to breathe and take in the view. She smiled, it really was beautiful here. She walked out to the boardwalk, "screw the sleepover" she thought, taking off her shoes and walking to the water's edge.

Troy ran until her got to the beach, a figure in the distance had caught his eye. He followed her lead, discarding his running shoes and followed her down to the water. He smiled when he saw it was indeed Gabriella, "Everything go okay after lunch?"

She jumped, surprised to see him, "Troy?" she asked in disbelief "What are you doing here?" she asked

"I went for a run to clear my mind. You?" he smiled at her

"Same, and yeah, no one bothered me. Thank you." She smiled, turning her gaze back to the jumping dolphins.

"They're amazing creatures, aren't they?" Troy commented following her gaze.

"They really are…" she smiled, guys didn't usually talk like that. Suddenly her phone went off. She groaned, it's going to Claire, she checked the caller id, sure enough it was. "Hello?"

"Gabriella Elizabeth Montez, you said you were coming. Where are you?" Claire screamed so clearly that Troy could hear. He chuckled softly.

"Look, I am coming, I'm just going to be late." She lamely said

"Where are you?" it was Taylor.

She groaned, "Does it matter?" there was silence, "I'll be there when I'm there." She ended the call and began rubbing her temples.

"Friends tough?" Troy asked

"They're great they just…" she didn't know how to explain it, she didn't know why she was trying.

"Don't get it. They don't see or understand the real you?" Troy asked, never removing his eyes from the ocean.

"And they don't seem to care or want to." She whispered

"Know what you mean." Troy said with a smile.

Gabriella returned it, "I should go." She said, turning to go to the boardwalk.

"Mind if I run with you?" he asked hopefully. She nodded and they ran back, splitting off about a block away from their houses.

"That was weird." Gabriella thought, entering her house.

"That was different." Troy thought, tossing his keys on the kitchen counter.

AN: Chapter 2! Yay! Review!

Mollie XOXO