DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters.

A/N: Okay here is the next chapter! I told you I'd update soon! Well this is soon for me anyway! Enjoy!

Chemicals React

CHAPTER 2

YOU'RE JOKING

Gabriella slammed her locker shut. She was in such a bad mood that not even Taylor had tried to reason with her. And she'd thought that she was going to have a good day! What a joke. Gabriella knew that she was scowling; she was scowling because she knew exactly why she was in a bad mood. If she ever saw Troy Bolton again she was going to throttle him. That was the only reason she was in a bad mood, the stupid idiot. He'd just had to argue with her, hadn't he? Deep down Gabriella knew that the argument was actually her fault, but there was no way that her pride was going to let her admit it. So she'd settled on blaming Troy, it was easier and it gave her a reason to dislike him more than she already did.

"Gabriella! Hey Gabi, wait up" she heard Taylor's voice as she began to walk away from her locker. She stopped and turned to her.

"Your still in a bad mood" Taylor commented upon seeing her friends expression, Gabriella shrugged not really wanting to discuss it, Taylor rolled her eyes as they began to walk again.

She knew why Gabriella was in a bad mood, she sometimes wished her friend didn't have so much pride. It wasn't that she was self-absorbed, far from it, Gabriella was probably the most giving person that Taylor had ever met, but she was also stubborn and refused to give up when she needed to give up. It was a trait that Taylor admired but also got quite sick of. Because Gabriella could go on about things for days and days, which meant Taylor would hear about exactly the same thing for days and days, which left her exhausted because she kept on giving the same answer for days and days.

"Hey, you remember that big English project we're doing? On authors?" Taylor asked Gabriella after a moment; she saw Gabriella nod slightly and continued "Well I found out this morning we're getting paired up with someone in our year, I think it's a ploy to get us to mix more" she said and Gabriella nearly laughed.

"That'll work really well, no-one in our year gets on with anyone outside their own group" Gabriella said her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Yeah that's what I thought, except what if we all end up getting along?" Taylor asked Gabriella hesitantly, unsure whether Gabriella's mood had changed slightly.

"Yeah, sure, we'll all end up getting along when pigs fly" Gabriella snorted and Taylor relaxed slightly, she hadn't blown up that meant her mood was changing.

They reached their classroom and Gabriella looked down and groaned. She'd brought the wrong book, sighing she turned around and headed back to her locker.

"Tell Mrs Alexander that I've gone to get the right book" Gabriella called over her shoulder to Taylor who nodded and entered the classroom.

Gabriella walked slowly, her mind wandering as her footsteps echoed in the nearly empty hallway. Who was she going to be partnered with? In the past when teachers did this they usually put her with Taylor, because they knew that together they would give them a perfect assignment, which was something teachers adored. But Taylor's words had gotten her thinking that maybe she wouldn't be paired with her at all. If they wanted to break it up, Gabriella was almost certain that she wouldn't be paired with anyone she knew. Well anyone from the Chem club anyway. She opened her locker and frowned as she tried to remember who was in her English class, unfortunately for her most of her classes contained nearly all of the basketball team. Gabriella fished around her locker for a minute before she found her English book; she shut the locker as her mind went over everyone she knew in her class. Chad, Jason, Zeke, Ryan, Sharpay, Taylor, Kelsi, Glen, Robert, Talia, Sian, Daniel, Louise, Alexis and Alex, they were all the people in her class. Gabriella frowned as she realized that she had missed someone. Who had she missed? Gabriella went over the names in her mind again and had no idea who she had missed. She was sure that it was a he, but she had no idea who it was. She was certain that she had met him before, but she just couldn't remember who it was. It was beginning to annoy her as she reached her classroom and opened the door. Gabriella wasn't exactly sure what happened next all she knew was that when she had regained some control of what was happening. She discovered was being held by the waist by none other than Troy Bolton and that her arms had ended up around his neck. She heard the class explode with noise and winced.

"Um" she said wanting to say something smart but failing completely.

"Can't think of anything to say to me?" Troy asked her his eyes sparkling.

"How come I'm facing you and not the class?" Gabriella replied as she realized that ten seconds before she had been facing the class and now she was facing Troy.

"I ran into you and you spun around and than you began to fall, I caught you and now here we are" Troy explained standing up straight and pulling her up with him.

"Thank you, question how could you not see me? I was standing right in the doorway" Gabriella said letting go of his neck as his arms slid from her waist.

"I did see you I was just running late, I couldn't exactly slow down in time" he informed her and Gabriella eyed him.

"Are you serious? You were coming from the opposite direction to me, I was clearly in your view" she snapped at him and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Yes I am serious, no you weren't in my view because there is a corner back there and I'm pretty sure that, unless you have x-ray vision, you can't see around it or through it" he shot back, what was with this girl? She seemed to attack him for everything he did.

"Okay so I wasn't in your view, you have ears don't you? The hallway is empty and I'm wearing heels, they echo, couldn't you have heard them?" Gabriella snapped back and Troy went red, he had heard her. Gabriella folded her arms and a triumphant look settled on her face.

"Okay, so I heard you. So what? I didn't know where you were going did I?" Troy asked heatedly and Gabriella shrugged.

"But you just said that you saw me, wouldn't you have put two and two together and figured the footsteps had belonged to me?" she asked.

"That still wouldn't have changed the fact that I couldn't have slowed down in time" Troy said, she'd won the last argument he wasn't about to let her win this one.

Gabriella opened her mouth to reply and the teacher, who had been watching the two in mounting amusement decided it was time to intervene. After all she had a lesson to teach and although she could tell that he class was spellbound by the Troy and Gabriella and their heated argument, there was an assignment to explain.

"Well, Troy, Gabriella, I'm glad that you two seem to get along so well. I'm sure that your project will be very unique" Mrs Alexander said and nearly laughed as she watched their mouths drop open and their faces go pale.

Gabriella couldn't believe it, out of all people she had to be paired with Troy Bolton. King of East High, she suddenly realized that he had been the person she couldn't remember and groaned inwardly at the irony of it. How was she meant to do this?

Troy raised his eyebrows in shock, how was he meant to work with her? She was impossible, she argued with him even if he did something right. He didn't even know her name and he was now meant to present a complete assignment on some author? There was no way that that was going to happen.

"Mrs Alexander-" he started.

"Mrs A-" Gabriella started at exactly the same time.

"Yes?" she raised her eyebrows at them and waited.

"You can't put us together, you saw us just than we can't hold a normal conversation" Troy spoke up first and Mrs Alexander felt her lips tilt upwards slightly.

"That's an interesting use of words considering you didn't know I existed until this morning" Gabriella said forgetting she was meant to say something to Mrs Alexander.

"Gabriella Montez, smartest girl in our year, I knew you existed before this morning" Troy shot at her and Gabriella narrowed her eyes at him.

"I cannot work with him, there is no way we'd get it done" Gabriella cried out and they both waited silently for Mrs Alexander to respond.

"I can see you two will present the best project out of this class" Mrs Alexander responded smiling and Gabriella and Troy both groaned.

"You have got to be kidding me" Troy muttered as they made their way to the joint desk they had to share.

"You're joking" Gabriella muttered darkly and knew that there was nothing at all to joke about. She was stuck with him and everyone knew it too. Gabriella sighed as they sat down and we're presented with the sheet with all the information on it.

"Who's Jane Austen?" Troy asked his eyes scanning the sheet. He looked over in shock as he heard Gabriella's head hit the table. Maybe there wasn't anything to joke about.

A/N: Done! I hope you liked it, cause I had tons of fun writing it! I'll update soon!