"So she's actually rooming with you?"

In the cafeteria around her, students navigated the maze of long wooden tables as they found their friends seated at their usual spots. Girls whined about homework and boys cooly chatted about what time they were hitting the fitness center after class. The mixed scents of all the freshly prepared foods sitting on their buffet-style serving tables radiated around the large. From the front of the building, one wouldn't suspect it was wide enough to fit all of the students and the kitchen staff, but it's depth once inside revealed its true size. The kitchen was actually upstairs, a small elevator in the back allowing the chefs to move the food downstairs and bring dirty plates upstairs. Tall windows allowed sunlight to stream in from either side of the building and the arched doors at the front were typically propped open when the weather was nice.

Gabriella looked up from her spot at head of the long table to the other end. "No, actually, she dumped her hand-me-down luggage in my room for kicks. My episode of Punk'd should air sometime in December."

"Just surprised they didn't put her in a single," Taylor McKessie replied in her soft, calm voice as she stared back at Gabriella. Smartest girl in their grade or not, Gabriella would not be outranked. Gabriella let out a breath and set down the fork in her hand. "Guess I'm just lucky."

"You could have done worse." Kelsi's voice chimed in, her untouched lunch on a tray in front of her while her fingers were busily at work on her phone's keyboard. "From what I gathered in Lit she seems nice. And, according to Darbus, she reads a great Beatrice."

"Who the-?"

"Much Ado About Nothing. Romance? Shakespeare?"

"Yes, I know the play, Kelsi," the brunette snapped. Her friend rolled her green eyes. "Who'd Troy read as?"

Kelsi looked up from her phone and stared at Gabriella. Gabriella stared back. Whatever her cat-like green eyes were trying to tell her, Gabriella was at a loss. "Who, Kelsi?"

"Chill, Montez." Gabriella's eyes shifted over to Ryan Everett's- their green color almost an exact match to his girlfriend's. "Just because you think you're in charge doesn't mean she has to answer to you."

"It was a simple question, lap dog."

"Fuck you, Queen Bee." He tilted his head, "Wait, sorry. I meant to say bitch."

"How original, Ryan. Did your daddy write that for you?"

Kelsi set her phone on the table and gave Gabriella a look. Taylor shook her head and looked down at whatever book she was currently reading. That was a low blow. Gabriella was very aware of it. Ryan's family was from California, where his father worked as a screenplay writer. His last job had been writing for the Family Guy/ American Dad/ Cleveland Show genre. The job had been short lived, however. His boss had said he wasn't talented enough to work in the comedy department. Ouch.

"Gabriella." Kelsi's voice was stern. The brunette glanced over to her for a moment. She watched as Kelsi put a hand on her boyfriend's thigh. Ryan, who was still glaring at Gabriella, softened at the touch. He turned his head just enough to look at his girlfriend, who mouthed a "Sorry" before leaning towards him and kissing him lightly.

"Mm. The air smells like bitch." A voice said before a tray was dropped onto the table directly across from Gabriella. Her head turn brought her to a third pair of green eyes- two much darker than Ryan and Kelsi's. Jason Cross sat down opposite Gabriella at the far end of the table. He also had brown hair similar to Troy's, except he had it styled into a perfectly and purposely messy fohawk. He was the operator of Eastwood- not the only one, but certainly the best in their grade level. He may even be better than most seniors. He had tried to swoon her freshman year, but an opposing force had gotten in the way. A curly haired boy named Nolan Clark. Still, Gabriella couldn't help but wonder every once in a while what it would be like to make out with him. Though she would never admit that. Her desire to be with Troy was so much greater. "You know I hate missing Gabriella snap at people for no reason at all. Fill me in."

"It was nothing, Jason." Kelsi lifted her hand from Ryan's leg and went back to texting. Ryan turned his focus to his freshly prepared sandwich. Gabriella felt a hand pat her shoulder twice. The way the warmth of the touch seeped right through her wool cardigan and warmed her skin meant it was only person. She smiled.

"Hey, Bolton."

"Nice sweater." He said, sitting down in the chair across from Kelsi.

It better be. I picked it out with you in mind. "This old thing?"

Troy smirked and leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table as he twirled open the cap of his water bottle. Gabriella looked into each color eye for at least three seconds when he looked over to her and swore she saw a smile in his eyes before raising the bottle to his lips. She did her best to keep her eyes from saying, date me already!

Eager, much?

"So, who hasn't seen the new girl yet?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes. Were they really going to start talking about her again? She saw two more people sit down at the table across from Taylor and her boyfriend Chad.

"New girl?" Martha questioned, setting a pre-packaged bowl of cheerios and a little carton of 2% milk on the table. She pulled out the chair next to Zeke and settled into it.

"Yeah. Blonde. Tan. Beautiful." Jason clarified, taking a bite out of his chicken sandwich.

"Gabriella's new roommate." Martha added.

"Hot when she speaks French." Ryan finished. Kelsi used the back of her hand to smack him in the chest as he went in for a bite of his Italian sub. He shot her a grin.

Troy smirked. "Sharpay?"

Gabriella stabbed her fork into a piece of lettuce a little harder than necessary.

"That's Sharpay." Jason asked, obviously remembering the name. He nodded and processed something in his head. He raised his Vitamin Water into the air as he leaned back in his chair. "To my next conquest."

Out of the corner of her brown eyes, Gabriella saw the muscle in Troy's arm tense at his statement.

/

Conquest. Troy gripped his water bottle a little bit tighter. Normally he was used to Jason being a sleeze-bag when it came to talking about the girls on campus. It was part of his image. But that term was reserved for every other girl at Eastwood. Not this girl. Not Sharpay. There was something different about her. She wouldn't be one of the girls looking to fall into the Jason Cross Sex Circle of Shame.

Or would she?

"And speak of the devil..."

Troy looked over at Jason, and then followed his eyes to the other side of the cafeteria. There she was. Still in that striped sweater that he liked more every time he saw it. In Lit he had noticed it brought out small flecks of green in her brown eyes. They were basically invisible unless the sun hit her eyes in just the right way. He suddenly wished he could be close enough to see them right now. He watched as she and the three girls she had been with in class made their way to a half empty table and set their stuff down. Luckily enough, Sharpay sat down in a seat in which Troy could easily her. In the least stalker-esque way.

"You really aren't going to subject that poor girl to a vigorous round of Charisma with Cross are you?" Kelsi wrinkled her nose.

Troy turned his attention back to the table. Jason was nodding with his eyebrows raised- silently sounding his, "Fuck yeah, I am."

"How you get any girl into your bedroom is beyond me."

"It's not always in my bedroom."

"How classy."

"Sorry I like to keep things interesting. God, Neilson. I feel bad for Ryan. Confined the bedroom all the time? Give the man a break. Be like Tiara and Troy were."

Say wha?

Troy felt his eyes grow wide as he looked down to Jason's end of the table. He choked on a gulp of water. "Dude- what the hell?"

"You guys had sex?" Troy turned to see Gabriella staring at him incredulously. She leaned back in her seat and folded her arms. "Way to share, Tiara."

Troy turned back to Jason, placing his bottle back on the table before anything else happened. "How the hell did you find out?"

"Saw it with my own eyes. I'm surprised no one else did."

"When did this happen?" Kelsi asked. Her phone was closed on the table. Troy could tell she was interested.

"Last… what was it, May? Yeah, last May. When we had that party by the lake for Tiara's birthday. I was walking back to the dorm and I saw them- Jesus, Troy, I didn't realize you had the ability to turn that red. You're one shade away from a firetruck."

Troy pinched the bridge of his nose while shaking his head. "Not that this conversation isn't terribly fascinating, but do you think we could do a topic change?"

"Okay," Kelsi fan her fingers through her hair once. "Let's talk about how Tiara disappeared the day after you guys had sex."

Jason laughed. Troy narrowed his eyes at him. He loved the boy, he really did. But right now Troy was tempted to take his plate and hit him with it. "Dude, you must've sucked."

Kelsi leaned her elbows against the table "Shut up, Jason. It's bad enough we're talking about Tiara in front of him, let's leave his faulty sex skills out of it."

"I doubt he's bad at sex." Gabriella threw in, her arms still folded.

"Why else would she have left?"

"Hello?" Troy shouted just loud enough for the entire table to stop and look at him. "Can we stop talking about Troy Bolton like Troy Bolton is not here?"

Martha scooped up some cheerios and held the spoon next to her mouth, ready to be chewed. "Only if Troy Bolton stops using third person." Troy smirked and leaned back in his chair, trying to command his face to return to its normal pigment.

"So Jason, Sharpay? " Kelsi suggested. Troy shot her a thank-you glance and she smiled before picking up her phone once more. He silently wished the conversation wasn't about to be brought back to Jason's conquering plan.

Ryan held a piece of sandwich in his hand as he looked down at the other end of the table. Some shredded lettuce fell out and he did a double-take as if it had affected the weight of the sub in his hand. "I really think she's smart enough to steer clear of you."

"She is smart enough to steer clear of him." Troy closed his eyes as he addressed the table. Trying to block painful memories of Tiara from his mind seemed much easier when Sharpay's name was mentioned. He still couldn't figure out what it was about her. He was torn between her spicy-but-sweet disposition and her seeming lack of interest in him. Because in the entire time she had been in the cafeteria he'd snuck at least eleven glances at her table, and she'd looked over, what, zero?

Seven, actually. But he didn't know that.

Troy hadn't even realized that he'd been smiling until he opened his eyes and saw Gabriella staring at him. "What?"

"You don't actually like her, do you?"

"Like who? Sharpay?" He looked over at her table again. She went from nodding slowly, listening to whoever was in front of her, and then she started laughing. There was the smile again. The smile he'd seen in French. The smile he'd seen in Lit when she was reading Beatrice's lines and he was reading as Benedick. He'd actually enjoyed class. Their lines throughout the entire scene were basically about their two characters confessing to their friends how they will never get married.

But don't they fall in love in the end?

Troy grinned. "She seems… cool."

"Cool?" Gabriella said the word like someone would say garbage. "She's not Hale. She's a transfer. She's not one of us."

"And that's a bad thing?" Gabriella pursed her lips. Troy shook his head. "She's your roommate now. You're going to have to learn to live with her eventually."

Live with: yes. Like, respect, or get along with: no.

Troy felt her staring into his grayer eye as he spoke. "Just give her a chance."

The sound of a wooden chair scraping against the tile floor brought both of their attentions to Jason's end of the table, where he was now standing up and running a cool hand over the side of his fohawk. Troy shook his head slowly. Did he think he was in Grease? What a tool. "Ladies and gentlemen- wish me some unnecessary luck."

Troy held back his grimace. "Enjoy rejection."

/

"It's Sharpay, right?"

Sharpay had looked over at Troy Bolton's table at least seven times since she'd walked in. The urge was still strong but she figured it wouldn't look so good if one of them saw her drooling in envy. She tried her hardest to keep her focus on what Emma was telling Jackie, Lea, and a few of their dorm friends, but when she heard a male's voice say her name she looked up so fast she nearly got whiplash.

This boy wasn't Troy. He had his hair color, but this guy's hair was lazily messed up into a fohawk. And as gorgeous as his dark green eyes and flawless skin were, she'd much rather be looking at Troy's. "Do I know you?"

Stupid question. She didn't know anybody.

"Not quite." Fohawk boy smiled and Sharpay couldn't help but smile back. His was immaculate. "I'm Jason Cross. I hear you have Modern Euro next block..." Sharpay nodded like an idiot. "Well, I'd like to know if I could escort you. I figure because you're new, you probably don't know the way around campus yet. I know it's pretty small, but allow me to be your official tour guide."

Sharpay blinked and looked over at Jackie- who was nodding vigorously- and then across the room to Troy, who was sitting with her roommate and Martha and Ryan and the other popular people. God, she wished she could be over there. There was an empty chair right in between Martha and Troy. It was calling out her name. A few of the people at the table seemed to be watching Jason speak to her. And for a split second she saw Troy look directly at her. But it was so fast that Sharpay wasn't sure if it was real or not. She looked back up at this Jason character. From what her eyes could gather, he was a Grade A specimen of man- from his eyes to his blue plaid shirt rolled up to his elbows to his grey hi-tops. All over perfect. And yet she still wished it was Troy.

"A tour guide would be great."

Jason grinned again and nodded. "Perfect. Meet me outside, then. There's a small bench outside. Make a left once you go down the stairs."

"Okay." Sharpay nodded and stared at him as he turned and walked away. Her eyes reflexively flashed over to Troy again. He was looking at Jason as he walked around the table to take his seat. The two exchanged some words and then Troy turned his head back over towards Sharpay.

Her breath caught. Wow, that boy did torturously wonderful things with just a look. Sharpay counted the seconds they kept eye contact in her head. Four… Five… Six… Troy's famous smirk appeared on his lips. She gazed at him for two more seconds before he shook his head, still smirking, and turned back to his table. Sharpay leaned back and sunk into her chair.

What was that about?