A/N: Once again, sorry about the wait, just busy you know? Anyway, I like this chapter so I hope you do too. Thanks for the feedback!! By the way, Gabi and Troy are such ggod friend that that fight really wouldn't bother them much, in my story they have had much worse.


Gabriella woke the next day, feeling tired and fuzzy. She looked around and saw her clock. Just past ten in the morning, she stifled a yawn and stumbled downstairs. She past Chloe's closed door and tried to think something vaguely mean, the best she could do at this time was 'stupid girl', a sad attempt.

Gabriella walked into the kitchen and saw a note from her mum about having come home last night to a mess that needs to be cleaned, and having now gone out shopping. She walked to the pantry and pulled out the first cereal she found, opened the fridge and got milk, she mixed these in a bowl to create breakfast. After this Gabriella took a bite, but something wasn't right.

"You might want to use this." A voice said, looking up she saw Troy standing about a metre away, holding a spoon, looking down she saw herself holding a milky fork. Gabriella looked back to Troy, he was already dressed and showered, looking fresh and ready for the day.

"Damn you." She muttered, snatching the spoon.

"It's alright Gabi, everyone learns their utensils at different times. As long as you remember the sharp one, or 'knife', should not be put in your mouth, you'll be fine." Troy said, trying not to smile. She glared at him for a moment.

"I meant damn you for looking so together at such an early time."

"Actually, all the clocks in here are about forty minutes late. Some drunken person's idea of a joke, it's kind of funny." Troy had been walking around the kitchen, and Gabriella only realised he was making coffee when he set the mug down in front of her.

"Are you just here to be clever? Coz I'm not awake enough to think of something to say back."

"Nah, I'm bored, need something to do today."

"You don't have any ideas?" Gabriella was now losing her sleepiness, amazing what coffee could do. Troy shook his head.

Just then the home phone rang, neither Troy or Gabriella made to answer it, that was the machine's job. After a minute or so the automatic message sounded and after a beep a frenzied voice seemed to fill the room.

"Oh my God, Gab, you'll never believe it. He ditched me! What a bastard. Brothers are supposed to be there when none of your friends are. Ry was all 'hang out with me this weekend Shar' so I said yes, even though I had other options, and then this morning he tells me he has other plans. Who the hell is Martha, anyhow? Un-freaking-believable! How could he do that? Now I have no plans, none! Me! If anyone finds out I did nothing on Saturday I will never be able to hold my head up again. So what I'm thinking is, get over here, I called the others and Taylor came up with the most awesome idea, a pool day. It's way too hot for proper clothes, so grab Troy and get over here, if you're not here in an hour I will murder you.

Ok, I'm outtie, bye babe."

The message cut out, and Gabriella looked at Troy.

"Feel like swimming?" she asked. Troy smiled.

"Sounds good, I'll go get ready then come pick you up." He made to leave, but stopped and turned back. "Shouldn't you bring Chloe?"

"It's Sharpay's house, I can't just bring along random people." Gabriella said, avoiding his eyes. Before Troy could reply the phone rang and the message flicked on faster then before.

"I totally forgot something I was going to say! Ok, so… hey if all you guys can show up on such late notice then you didn't have any plans for today. How sad are you? Why are we best friends…" There was a pause. "Oh, right, I was going to say, you can bring your cousin, that little girl, I can't remember her name but you know who I mean, she's living with you."

The message stopped suddenly. Hopefully Sharpay had hung up, because if the machine had cut her off she would be angry at it for a week. Gabriella glanced at Troy, who was looking at her pointedly.

"Fine," Gabriella sighed, "I'll wake Chloe and we'll see you soon."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Half an hour later they were piling into Troy's truck. Both girls were very quiet and Troy wondered if they had even spoken about the previous night. He smiled at Chloe who returned it slightly. Well, that was something.

By the time they reached Sharpay's mansion, the awkwardness was very apparent, Troy had tried and failed to start conversations and was very glad they were about to be with other people. They pulled up to the front of the mansion, behind cars they recognised as Taylor's and Jason's. They quickly got out and walked to the front door. Chloe made to ring the doorbell but Gabriella sent her a scathing look and opened the door, leading the way straight in.

After passing through a few rooms they came to the back one, where huge glass doors opened onto where the huge outdoor, in ground, heated pool was. It was surrounded by deck chairs, a barbeque and a bar.

All the others were already there, the girls in bikinis and the guys in board shorts. Kelsi and Jason were swimming, or rather, making out, in the pool. Chad and Zeke were doing something with the barbeque, but nothing seemed to be cooking. Sharpay and Taylor were talking at the bar, drinks in hand. Sharpay turned and saw them.

"You're here! Yay." She squealed, jumping over to them.

"You're drinking already, didn't get drunk enough last night?" Troy asked, putting out a hand to stop Sharpay from toppling over.

"Not nearly enough, I can still remember most of your party Troy," she said. "Anyway, ya'll should strip and come join us."

Troy looked around and saw Chloe looking terrified. Gabriella had also noticed, and rolled her eyes.

"She means get in your swimmers." She explained, taking off layers to reveal her bikini and walking over to the others.

Troy followed, removing all unnecessary clothes. Chloe hesitantly pulled off her top and shorts to be left in her plain one-piece swimming costume. There was a scream.

"No way, you can not wear that in my pool. Come on." Before anyone realised what had happened Sharpay was whisking Chloe into the house and out of site.

Troy walked over to the boys, and Gabriella moodily joined Taylor, who handed her a drink.

"Anything going on with you, Tay?" she asked.

"Nup, I'm quite amazed at Kelsi though, she hasn't come up for air in ages, who knew she had it in her?" Gabriella followed Taylor's gaze to their friend in the pool who looked like she was permanently attached to Jason's lips.

"Love does crazy things. You miss doing that with Chad?"

"The kissing? Yeah. But the relationship, not so much. We're better as friends," Taylor shrugged, "me and Chad." Chad looked over from the barbeque.

"You girls talking about me again?" he smiled.

"Yeah, Taylor wants you back." Gabriella yelled to him, knowing he wouldn't take it seriously.

"I dunno Tay," Chad said, pretending to think hard, "I don't think we would be able to regain the heat if we hooked up again."

At this Zeke burst out laughing, and everyone looked at him, confused.

"What?" said Troy.

"Dude, you and Gabs are like professionals at breaking up, and there was never a lack of heat there." Zeke said.

This caused everyone to smile. And Troy and Gabriella made eye contact, it was held for a moment before Troy's eyes snapped away, turning, Gabriella saw why. Sharpay and Chloe had returned, and Chloe was dressed in a very skimpy bikini, looking very self conscious. Her and Sharpay seemed to be talking quietly, suddenly Sharpay raised her voice.

"You look hot, ok? I am not letting you change. Just relax." She pushed Chloe outside. "Hey, guys doesn't she look hot?"

There was a general murmur of agreement, and Chloe blushed. Then there was a pause. Gabriella was thinking, what now? And Troy was trying to think of a way to break the silence.

He smiled when he thought of it. Walking closer to the girls he quite suddenly, grabbed Chloe around the waist and jumped into the pool, with her screaming. They were covered by the water, and shortly resurfaced, gasping for air. And both laughing. Their splash had finally broken up Kelsi and Jason who swam over to join them as Chad and Zeke, also laughing, bombed into the pool, Chad pushing Taylor as he passed.

Gabriella and Sharpay remained on the ground. Sharpay taking it upon her self to mix more drinks.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

An hour later found Gabriella still standing by the bar, watching the others. They had all pulled the deck chairs together into a wonky circle. Somehow Chloe was in the middle, while everyone was laughing and talking around her. Gabriella couldn't hear the conversation, but it seemed to be centring on Chloe, and she didn't understand. The girl was dull, sure she was pretty, but she hardly seemed to say anything, just giggled as the guys made fun of her.

Taylor looked over, noticing that Gabriella had been a while and, when she saw her staring, walked over.

"Gabi, what are you doing? Come and join the conversation." Taylor motioned towards the others, but Gabriella ignored her.

"Why is everyone focusing on Chloe? What's so great about her?"

"Well, she's really nice. And we don't know her, so I guess we have to find out a lot." Taylor spoke as if it was obvious. Gabriella's eyes narrowed as she saw Troy give Chloe a little push, while laughing.

"Troy clearly thinks she is nice too." She said moodily. Taylor looked at her friend for a moment.

"Do you want to get back together with Troy, Gab?" she asked. Gabriella's eyes snapped away from the others and she finally looked at Taylor.

"No!" she said quickly. "I mean, no. We're just friends."

"Good, because you broke up with him." Taylor said, Gabriella opened her mouth in protest, but Taylor stopped her. "I know, I know. You both said it was 'mutual', but I think it was pretty obvious he wouldn't have thought of it for a while if you hadn't."

"I just…" Gabriella tried to find the right words, "I don't like seeing him with other girls." She said softly, however if she expected Taylor to be sympathetic she was wrong, because Taylor suddenly looked very irritated.

"It doesn't work like that. If you're not dating him, you don't have a say in who he talks to. You can't have it both ways. Troy was upset the last time you broke up, even if he pretended not to be. I say good for him if he finds someone else, and you just have to deal with it." After this Taylor turned and walked back to the others. She sat next to Sharpay who looked up and said something, Taylor shrugged and after a moment Sharpay came over to Gabriella.

Gabriella was still standing in shock, trying to take in the full meaning of everything Taylor had said.

"Do you really care that much about Troy being friendly with Chloe?" Sharpay asked. Gabriella was annoyed, no one really understood why she thought this was a big deal, in fact she was not entirely sure herself.

"How would you feel if she was going after your boy?" Gabriella asked, having seen something over Sharpay's shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

Gabriella nodded towards the others and Sharpay turned to see Chloe laughing as she felt Zeke's muscle, he was purposefully flexing his arm and smiling at her. Sharpay's face froze.

Nothing had ever actually happened with her and Zeke, but it was common knowledge that he had been in love with her for ages. Sharpay had never made up her mind whether she wanted to go out with him or not, she always said she was still considering him. However Gabriella could now see that something had snapped inside Sharpay.

"That bitch!" Sharpay burst out. "She is going down."

A huge smile spread over Gabriella's face and now she happily followed her friend back to the others.


A/N: So, what did you think? Wanna know what's going to happen next? Review!