Later that day, I found that I had gym with everyone second hour. I had third hour Chemistry with Taylor. I had fourth hour English with Troy and Chad. I had fifth hour Home Economics with Sharpay, her twin Ryan, and their other friend Kelsi, who I recognized from Acting. Then I had lunch with everyone again. Sixth hour was History with Zeke, Jason, and Troy. Seventh hour was Trigonometry with Taylor. And lastly, I had Miss Darbus again for homeroom with everyone… again.

Now, I was on my way to detention. I sat in the very back desk in the corner. I was the first one in there. Taylor followed. She sat right in front of me. Troy came in a little after her and he sat right across from me. Sharpay sat next to Taylor, diagonal from me. Chad sat in the third row, right across from Troy. Zeke sat in front of him, across from Sharpay. Jason sat right in front of Zeke.

The person watching over us came in. He was an old man with a white beard and white hair and a cane. He introduced himself as Mr. Ember. We all laughed as he hobbled over to his desk in the corner of the room. "I wonder if he's deaf," Troy whispered, leaning over to me. I giggled. Troy stretched his legs across the aisle and put them on my desk. Mr. Ember didn't even move. So Troy moved his desk closer so that our desks were touching. Then everyone got the hint and pushed their desks closer to each others. Still, he didn't move.

I ripped the corner off a piece of paper out of my notebook and crumpled it up. I took a rubber band out of my bag and placed the piece of paper on one end, holding both ends. Troy, realizing what I was going to do, laughed and said, "Ooh, baby, that's bad ass!" Everyone broke out into loud laughter. And still, Mr. Ember didn't move. I flung the paper to the front of the room and it hit the Smart Board, with a loud noise and bounced off and hit Mr. Ember in the head. He didn't even stir.

"Wait, is he breathing?" Chad joked.

We all laughed once again. Taylor moved over toward Chad's desk and sat on his desk. Sharpay began singing Lollipop by Framing Hanley very loudly and I joined in. We stood on our desks and began dancing. Troy began laughing so hard that he almost fell out of his desk. Zeke began clapping to the rhythm of our song. "And she licks me like a lollipop… Like a lollipop!" We sang together.

Mr. Ember finally moved, checking his watch. Me and Sharpay jumped off our desks. We began dancing in the aisle, seeing if he would notice us. We head-banged and grinded in midair. He finally looked up and we froze on spot. "Time to go," he said as he stood up and wobbled toward the door on his cane. He opened the door and left. We all looked around at each other's faces and burst out laughing. Even though he'd caught us in the act, he hadn't even said anything to us about it.

"Wanna go get pizza?" Jason asked randomly.

"YES!" We all agreed.

We walked to the pizza place as slow as possible because we were having so much fun and we wanted as much time as possible to be together. Then I realized I hadn't told my mom that we were going to get pizza. I pulled out my phone and kind of slowed down form the group. I punched in my mom's number. "Hello?"

"Mom, do you mind if I go get some pizza with some friends?" I asked.

"What friends?" She asked.

"A few girls from school," I lied. I knew she would tell Carlos and he would get worked up that their were three girls alone with four guys. I rolled her eyes at the thought.

"Okay," My mom replied.

"Bye, mom," I said as I flipped the phone shut.

"Hey, you okay?" Troy asked as he jogged over to me.

I smiled at him. "Sure thing."

"Cool," He grinned. "Hey, we're going to the fair tomorrow. Wanna com with?"

"Sounds fun," I nodded.

"So you in?" He asked, hope lighting up his face.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

"Awesome!" He exclaimed.

We caught up with the rest of the gang and walked the rest of the way to the pizza place. It was only a few blocks away. When we entered, it looked pretty cozy. The lighting was dim, it was nice and cool. We found a booth near the back and I squeezed in first. Troy sat next to me and Jason next to him. Taylor and Sharpay squished into the booth across from us. Chad sat next to Taylor. Zeke pulled up a chair on the end of the table. "What can I get for ya?" The waitress asked as she came up to us. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and battered her long eyelashes. She kept throwing side-glances at Troy.

We ordered two large cheese pizza's and two large pepperoni's and a supreme. She turned around and walked away with an extra sway of her hips. "Dude!" Jason yelled, punching Troy on the shoulder. "She was totally into you!"

"Nah," Troy shook his head.

"Don't you want her number?" Chad asked, looking at him in awe. "You do realize who that is? Tayla Martin from school? The head cheerleader?"

"Yeah, I know who she is," Troy said.

"Any guy would kill to go out with her!" Zeke added.

"Not me," Troy shrugged.

"And I would hope not you either," Taylor said through gritted teeth, elbowing Chad in the side. Oh, I forgot to mention they're going out.

"She's totally fake!" Sharpay exclaimed. "She's had plastic surgery twice, a nose job, a boob job, and she fake tans!"

"I agree," I muttered. "She's a Barbie look-alike."

"Well, Troy, get a move on or all of the good girls will be gone," Jason said.

"Ooh, I see!" Taylor shrieked.

"Tay, shh!" Sharpay hushed her.

"Well, don't you see? Troy likes someone."

"Oh, oh, who is she? Who is she? Tell me!" Chad asked, his face lighting up like a little kid on Christmas.

"I don't like anyone!" Troy said, in a high voice with a small smirk on his face.

"Lies!" Jason yelled.

"He's lying! Look at his face!" Zeke laughed.

I stayed quiet. I didn't want to know who he liked. I honestly didn't. I didn't even know why I didn't want to. This knot in my stomach was telling me I didn't want to know. I shook my head and muttered something quietly to myself. "Don't you wanna know who he likes, Gabby?" Sharpay asked.

I shrugged. I wasn't going to tell them I didn't. Then they would think I liked him. But did I like him? I let the thoughts run through my head. It seemed impossible to like someone after you'd only known them for about nine or ten hours. I shook my head. Was I jealous? There was no way. I'd only known the guy for hours! Not days, not months, not years! I couldn't like him. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't. At all.

The waitress came back to save me from this circumstance. She placed the three pizza's on the table. She smiled and gave a wink at Troy, before turning away with the sway of her hips overdramatic once again. I rolled my eyes for the third time. We all dug into the pizza and ate like pigs. The door opened and the bell chimed. I looked up. Carlos was standing there. He scanned the room for me. I sank down into the booth. "Shit. Hide me!" I hissed toward Troy.

"Why?" He asked, looking around confused.

"Just do it!" I replied.

He leaned over me. I slid underneath the booth and crawled to the next booth back. I climbed up into the other booth and Troy leaned over the back of his booth. He gave me a weird look. "What the hell?"

"I'll call you tonight and explain," I told him a whisper. "What's your number?" I pulled a pen out of my bag and he took it fro me. I extended my hand and he wrote down his number on my hand. "Call you later." I whispered as I stood up. I walked toward Carlos.

"Oh, there you are! I was looking for you. Where are your girlfriends?" He asked, looking around.

"Oh, they went to the bathroom, but I sent them a text so we can go now." I said as he nodded and turned out of the pizza place. I sent a last apologetic look at the gang who looked really confused. I followed Carlos out of the parlor.

"What's that on your hand?" He asked me as he started his truck's engine.

"Oh, my friend Taylor's number." I lied with a smile.

"Oh, that's great. So did you make lots of friends?"

"Yeah, the kids at East High are very… welcoming." I laughed.

It wasn't like I wanted to lie to him. I really didn't. But I just couldn't sit there and tell him I was with two other girls and four other boys. He would totally flip. He didn't like the idea of me hanging out with boys anywhere. No, he couldn't stop me, but I didn't want him worrying his little head about it.