"Didn't you have plans with Gabriella right about now

"Didn't you have plans with Gabriella right about now?" Sharpay asked, getting closer to him.

"How did you know about that?" Troy asked.

"Ryan told me," Sharpay said, getting even closer. Note to self, Troy thought, Get Ryan the next time you see him. He wanted to run away from Sharpay. Looking at his watch, he remembered that Gabriella was supposed to come around this time. The last thing he wanted was for Gabriella to see him getting close to Sharpay, and, by the looks of what she was trying to do, kissing her. When he backed up, however, he felt a solid wall behind him. "I know you must be awfully sad that you had to cancel with Gabriella," Sharpay continued. "But if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here for you, Troy."

"Thanks, Sharpay," Troy said, feeling a bead of sweat running down his face. He gulped. "I'll remember that." Sharpay being this close to his body was somehow uncomfortable, but somehow it felt right. He could feel a lump in his throat. He could barely swallow. Or breathe.

"Troy, you've always been a good boy, haven't you?" Sharpay was getting even closer, putting him in a trance by staring straight into his eyes

.

"Uh, I guess," Troy choked out.

"Wouldn't you like to do something bad for once, something you know that is so wrong, it feels right?"

"I…uh…I…um…" Troy stammered. I'm totally falling into her trap. But I can't help it, it's like I have to. How does she do that? Troy thought as Sharpay moved closer so that their lips were about an inch away. I want to kiss her so badly, but it would be wrong. I can't betray Gabby like that. And yet…No! I can't do it! I'm not gonna cheat on Gabby. But I want to kiss her so bad! C'mon, Troy! Get a grip! Resist, resist! You have to!

"Come on, Troy, you know you want to do it," Sharpay said, as if she could read his mind.

He leaned in closer to kiss her, about to do it, but changed his mind in the process, moving his lips closer to her ear. He whispered, "Oh, I know I do, too. But the thing is, kissing you would mean cheating on Gabriella, and I'm not that kind of person." Troy managed to say. Half of him meant it, but half of him didn't. He had to go with the first half. He could not do that to a girl. Pushing Sharpay away, he saw her bottom lip tremble as she looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. She is so good at that! How did she know that puppy-dog eyes just win me over? Troy thought as he started to feel sorry for her. He wanted to give her a hug, but would that give her the idea that he liked her? He liked her anyway, and she knew it. I wouldn't matter. But if Gabriella walked in on them, then she would think the worst. He gave her a very quick hug anyway, whispering in her ear, "Maybe when I don't have a relationship with anyone else. I promise." That made her stop pouting instantly, but Troy was starting to think that he had given her an idea. And the wrong one.

What Troy didn't know was that Gabriella had come in to the country club right when Sharpay had started flirting with him. She had seen the whole thing. She wasn't sure that Troy had really liked her until then. She had gone home the happiest person in the world after she heard what Troy had to say. She couldn't believe that he had stood up to her like that. As soon as she got home, she called Kelsi. Kelsi had become one of her best friends ever since the school musical. Gabriella usually called her for help, but she had to know this.

"Hello?" Kelsi's voice sounded from the phone.

"Hey. You will not believe this!"

"What happened?" Kelsi asked. She seemed interested.

"OK, you know how Troy asked me what I was doing today at one."

"Yeah."

"Well, yesterday, he called me and said that he would have to reschedule with me because his dad wanted him to apply for a job at Lava Springs."

"Isn't that place owned by Sharpay and Ryan's parents?"

"Yeah," Gabriella said. "Anyway, my mom said that she wanted to go around the same time. So I was all excited and told him it would be cool if we met each other there."

"Naturally," Kelsi said.

"Yeah, so I got there a little earlier that I had told him, hoping he would be there by then. Well, he was there, but guess who else was there flirting with him?"

"Sharpay?" Kelsi said, taking a wild guess.

"Yeah. It made me really mad, so I waited to see what he would do. I was watching them for about 20 minutes, when it looked like Sharpay was trying to kiss Troy. That made me really upset, but, you know, I still wanted to know what he was gonna do. Then Sharpay said, 'You know you want to," and then here's the best part of all. Troy said, 'Oh, I know I do too, but kissing you would mean cheating on Gabriella, and I'm not that kind of person.' Oh my gosh! How sweet is that? I never really knew how much he liked me until then!"

"Wow, that is really sweet. Not many guys would pass up the chance to kiss Sharpay. And I though that Troy would be the last person to resist, you know, since he likes her and all."

"What?!" Gabriella asked, appalled.

"Uh, nothing. I was just talking to myself."

"No you weren't! You said that Troy liked Sharpay! Is that true?"

"Gabriella, I've never told a lie in my life, and today won't be the day that I'm gonna break that promise. Troy did tell me that he liked Sharpay a few days ago, but think about it. If he meant what he said back at the country club, he likes you a lot more than he likes Sharpay. Be sensible."

"Yeah, I guess I was getting mad for no reason. I knew what he had to say, and obviously he meant it, but still, he likes her. And that could change a whole relationship."

"True, but maybe you should wait and see what happens with him in the next few days, because he still doesn't know that you saw him."

"No doubt that he'll call me sometime, so I'll see what he says."

"Good idea, Gabby. See, you didn't really need my help."

"No, but I wanted to tell you what Troy said."

"And I'm glad that you did. That was really sweet of him. And now you know that he's not the kind of person that cheats on people."

"Yeah. Thanks, thanks a lot. But right now, I've got some unfinished business to do."

"What's that?"

"I'm gonna go give Miss Evans a piece of my mind." Gabriella declared, a triumphant smile slowly creeping across her face. Even though she was smiling, Kelsi could very clearly hear the hatred in her voice.

"You know, I don't think that's a very good…" Kelsi started, knowing what might happen to her friend, but she heard the click and the dial tone of someone hanging up a phone and knew that her advice would be pointless.

As Gabriella reached Sharpay's house at 9:00 the next morning, she thought about what she was actually going to do. She knew she couldn't just walk in her house and start yelling at her, she'd kick Gabriella out. But that is really the only thing that she could do. She got out of her car and walked up to the door. Sharpay's house is huge! Who could afford all of this?! Gabriella though as she stared in amazement at the Evans's house.

It wasn't really a house, more of a mansion, but Gabriella could tell that the house didn't have everything. The front was pretty normal, except for the wall-sized windows surrounding the door. Looking inside one of the windows, Gabriella saw a living room that would be a surprise if a king walked in. Four long, tan, couches lined the wall, sitting neatly atop a cream and tan colored carpet encircling the living room and each one of them had a different engraving sewed into the fabric: the one farthest away from Gabriella was a couch that had "Ryan Evans" printed on it in green lettering. The couch next to it had "Sharpay Evans" printed in hot pink on it. The next two couches had only the last names visible because someone had walked in front of them, walking toward the door. Gabriella shook her head to wake herself up from this dream, but realized that it was all real. Suddenly, a blond-haired figure unlocked and opened the door, letting a rush of warm air, smell of fresh air, and the sounds of nature into the house from outside.

"Gabriella?" Ryan said in amazement. "What are you doing here?" He was in his pajamas, green plaid pants with a shirt on that said, "Don't be jealous just because I'm smarter than you." Suiting, Gabriella thought, smiling and shaking her head. "What?" Ryan asked.

"Just reading your shirt," Gabriella said.

"Yeah, well, it was hard to find. Do you want to come inside?"

"Sure," Gabriella said, taking a step inside the mansion in front of her. "I'm sure that shirt was hard to find,"

"No really, it was. Took me forever to get to a place that had one."

"Really?" Gabriella said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, I found time to read a whole Harry Potter book while we were in the car!"

"Oh really?" Gabriella said with a small grin on her face. "Which one?"

"Prisoner of Azkaban." Ryan said with a triumphant smile.

"Wow. I can't even read that fast." Gabriella admitted.

"OK, when you can do something better than Gabriella Montez, you know you're good." he said, smiling.

"Not necessarily," Gabriella said, moving closer to him

Gabriella smiled, but couldn't dare to look into the eyes of the smiling boy in front of her. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing. Am I flirting with Ryan Evans? I can't be! But I am. I never thought that this day would come. She decided to go with everything she believed: that she was flirting with Ryan, that she liked him, and all that other stuff. She met Ryan's gaze for only a minute, but that minute was enough. She got butterflies in her stomach, and she only partly knew why. She just thought that the butterflies were a coincidence. Well, at least she hoped they were. I don't like Ryan! I can't like him like that. And I don't…do I? Gabriella said to herself, even though she knew the truth. Even though she denied it, she knew that she couldn't avoid it. She wasn't sure if it was true or not, but she knew that she needed to find out.

"You know, if you really put your heart into it, I'm sure you could excel in every single one of your classes, and not just drama. I could tutor you if you want." Gabriella admitted. She knew that if he agreed, then she could tutor him. Thus, she would be able to find out for sure if she liked him or not.

"Yeah I know, but drama is really what I'm mainly focused on. Nothing else is really that important to me."

Suddenly, another blonde-haired figure walked behind Ryan. "Who are you talking to?" it asked. It was Sharpay, already perfected and looked like she was ready to go on a date. And it was only 9:15 in the morning.

"Oh, um, just Gabriella," Ryan said, shooting an embarrassed smile at Gabriella. Once again, she saw that smile and got butterflies. Shrugging it off, she decided to talk to Sharpay, first because that was what she had come to do in the first place, and second because she had to get her mind off the boy that was standing in front of her.

"Well, the real reason I came here was to talk to you, Sharpay," Gabriella said, putting her hand on Ryan's chest and pushing past him. Touching him felt weird on her hand, but she didn't want to think anything of it. She didn't want to believe it. Face-to-face with Sharpay, she confronted her. "I saw you in the country club with Troy. I know what you were trying to do. You were trying to get him to like you so he would break up with me just so that you could have a boyfriend. That is so low, even for you." Gabriella looked Sharpay straight in the eyes, glaring at her, getting inches from her face. "I just want you to know that none of your little plans are going to work. Because Troy will always be by my side, no matter what you try to do." She finally backed off.

"Well, we'll see about that," Sharpay said as she looked at Ryan, who had a horrified look in his face, mouth almost touching the delicate hardwood floor of their foyer. "What?" Sharpay asked her brother, wondering why he had such a face.

"I can't believe you!! Flirting with Gabriella's CURRENT boyfriend? That is just mean." Ryan said, astonished. "Yeah I know that it's you," he added as he saw the "so what?" look on Sharpay's face.

"No, it's fine. They didn't kiss, but she was trying to kiss him, and that's bad enough!" Gabriella said. She was starting to get mad now. But then again, she was touched that Ryan, who is only a little nicer than his sister, was standing up for her, when he was usually mean himself. Maybe he's gotten nicer, Gabriella thought. That was probably the reason that I didn't like him in the first place, because he was mean. But now that he's nice, I guess I could give it a shot. My mom had always said, "Change is always good," but it might not have been in this kind of situation. What am I saying?! I can't go out with Ryan! Troy is my boyfriend!! While she was thinking, she realized that she was staring at Ryan, probably with a dreamy look in her eyes after thinking about going out with him. Not wanting to let Sharpay or Ryan, especially Ryan, know what she was thinking, she had to make a quick excuse. "Uh, I was just really tired. I did not get enough sleep this morning." She thought that her excuse might fool them, but even if it didn't work, her business was done at the Evans's house anyhow. But she decided that there was one thing that she needed to know before she left. "So Ryan, what about that tutoring thing?"

"Tutoring?" Sharpay asked, with a look of confusion, but a small smile, on her face as she turned to her brother.

"Yeah," Gabriella said. "I told Ryan that I could tutor him because he could excel in all of his classes, and not just drama."

"Well," Ryan said. "I guess I could give it a shot. It wouldn't hurt."

"Cool, so are we gonna meet at my house or your house?" Gabriella asked.

"I don't care, what would you prefer?" Ryan asked with a one-shoulder shrug.

"I guess we could do my house," Gabriella said. She had a reason for saying this, however. Gabriella's house had only two couches, and they were pretty small. "Of course, your house would probably be better." She didn't want to make it seem too obvious that she liked him, even if she wasn't completely sure herself.

"OK, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow, as a start for next year."

"Cool," Gabriella smiled, giving a mocking look in Sharpay's direction. Still smiling all the way home, she thought about Ryan's last words. "See you tomorrow…"