A/N: Thankyou so much to all the reviewers! They make me so happy. So I wrote another chapter, even though I should be doing school work. There is a bit more Troyella in this one, so I hope people like it. Also Gabriella says, or thinks, 'oh my god' a lot, that is because that is what I say all the time, sorry.

Wednesday morning Gabriella woke up early. She got ready for school, carefully testing the strength of each button on her other shirt and putting the safety pin in her pocket, just in case. She left the house a lot earlier then she usually did.

"Gabi? Are you leaving already?" Her aunt asked her as they passed on the stairs.

"Yep, can't be late today, I have health first. Bye." Gabriella walked out the front door and her aunt stared confusedly after her.

"I didn't even think she liked health."

When Gabriella arrived at school almost nobody was their yet, out of her friends only Kelsi was at her locker as she had gone to an orchestra practice that morning.

"Hey Gab, why are you here already?" Kelsi was surprised.

"Why does everyone find it so unusual? Can't I just be running early sometimes?"

"You always get here ten minutes before the bell. I don't think I've ever seen you be late or early."

"Oh well, I can change can't I?"

"I hope you don't change too much. I like you being predictable." Predictable!? I don't think that's a good thing. That's like saying I'm boring! Am I boring?

"Gabi?"

"Huh, what?" Gabriella snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh right. Since we have nothing to do for a while can you help me braid my hair? You know I'm hopeless at that."

"Yeah, sure."

So before any of their other friends arrived, Gabriella's hair was carefully braided, and, by the end of it she and Kelsi were barely speaking to each other. Gabriella had made Kelsi redo it four times until it had no bumps in it, so even the always helpful Kelsi was losing her patience.

"It looks fine! So did the last one. I am NOT doing it again!" Kelsi half yelled as Gabriella carefully felt her hair.

"Whoa, easy tiger." said Sharpay, as her and Martha joined them. "What's going on?"

"I have to get to class!" Gabriella quickly walked off.

"The bell hasn't even gone yet." Martha commented.

"She's just trying to get away from me, ignore it." Kelsi said.

Meanwhile Gabriella had collected her books and walked to the health classroom. She had been planning on waiting outside until the bell went but as she approached she saw the door was open partly and Mr Bolton was sitting at the desk. I can go in and talk to him! Wait, he won't want to talk to one of his students. I should leave. Or… I could just stand here watching him. Look how smooth his skin is… and his hands, the hands that held me in my dream, I wonder if –

"Miss Montez?" Gabriella jumped as the man she had been watching so closely looked up and saw her. "Come in. Do you have a question?"

"Oh no, I was just waiting for class to start." I just sounded like such a nerd! "I mean, I didn't have anything else to do so I figured, umm…" This isn't helping.

"Well I'm glad you're here early, would you mind helping me set up?" Mr Bolton smiled at Gabriella and she nodded quickly, putting her books on one of the front desks and moving forwards.

"Could you put one of these on each desk?" He handed her a stack of stapled paper booklets which had 'Sex – fun pastime or death wish?' written on the cover. Gabriella blushed as she saw it. Mr Bolton seemed to be watching her reaction.

"I didn't make up the title, I promise." He said and Gabriella laughed a little. She started placing a booklet on each desk, being careful to put the top one, which had 'Senior Health' handwritten in the corner, on her desk. She was up to the back row when it happened.

"So Miss Montez, did you sew the button back on?" Gabriella stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. He was staring at her with a straight face but the side off his mouth was twitching into a smile. Gabriella, expecting to feel humiliated, realised for the first time that it had been quite funny. She smiled back at him.

"This is a different shirt. I can't find a button to sew on the other one. Maybe I'll just have to wear it undone; do you think the school would have a problem with that?" What did I just say? Of course the school would have a problem with it. And why does he just keep staring at me? I can't look away.

"I know I wouldn't." Mr Bolton said softly. My heart just stopped beating, I swear. He seemed to realise what he said and quickly looked around. "I'm sorry Miss Montez, I really shouldn't talk like that, being your teacher."

"I don't mind." Oh my god! If I didn't know better I'd think we were having a moment, even though we are on opposite sides of the room. Once again Mr Bolton's eyes had found Gabriella's, there was something unreadable in them and as he opened his mouth to speak Gabriella could feel herself holding her breathe.

But then the bell rang loudly, causing Gabriella to jump again. Within seconds it seemed that all the girls in the class were suddenly there, the boys walking more slowly in. Gabriella threw the last few booklets on the back desks and hurried to secure her seat in the front row. Daisy was now talking to Mr Bolton about some soccer game that had been in the newspapers. She was twirling her hair and smiling stupidly. She can't seriously be flirting with the teacher, how sad is that? She doesn't even know that he likes basketball way more then soccer! What a little slut. Wait, wasn't I going to try and like her? Gabriella watched as Daisy giggled at something Mr Bolton had said, and he smiled widely at her. Screw that!

"Mr Bolton, don't we need to start the class?" Gabriella loudly interrupted. He looked around at her for a millisecond.

"Yes, of course. Please take a seat Miss Halliday." Daisy glared at Gabriella before looking around and seeing that the only spare seat was the one next to her. Plastering a smile over her face she sat down.

"Okay class, so this term in Health, and possibly next term too, we will be talking about sex. Probably stuff that you have all done before, Sexually Transmitted Infections, how to stay safe, that type of thing. Now I would be an idiot if I said that none of you have experimented with sex yet, of course you have," Was that my imagination or did he just look at me for a second? "I'm not going to tell you not to have sex, just how you can have it as safely as possible. Hopefully you are all mature enough to do this unit?" He looked around as a few people were stifling laughter. "This first lesson is going to be pretty boring, we are just going over what you should already know, open your booklets to page two."

The lesson went much smoother then Gabriella could have hoped for. She could remember almost all of the Sex Ed they had done in previous years and answered a lot more questions then anybody else. Also she had answered without blushing or stumbling over the words. Near the end of the lesson Daisy nudged Gabriella.

"You've answered heaps of questions. Tell me the answer next time, I want him to like me." She whispered. A few minutes later Mr Bolton asked another question.

"Who knows if condoms are effective in stopping STI's?" Gabriella's hand shot up and he turned to look at her for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Condoms should always be worn but can break so other precautions should be taken as well."

"You are quite correct Miss Montez, of course." As he kept talking Daisy nudged Gabriella again, harder this time.

"I asked you to tell me!" She hissed.

"Sorry… I forgot." Gabriella said vaguely.

"Forgot! What do you mean –"

"Shh," Gabriella cut her off, "Mr Bolton is talking." Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have cared about telling other people answers, but this wasn't normal, and she couldn't stand it when he smiled at anyone else. But he does seem to smile at me a bit differently, more affectionately? Who am I kidding, that's wishful thinking.

The bell went for the end of class and with great regret Gabriella slowly gathered up her books, she was trying to take as long as possible however she eventually had no choice but to leave. As she walked out the door his voice sounded behind her, saying her name and she gladly turned back.

"Yes, Mr Bolton?"

"Would I be able to talk to you now, or do you have another class?"

"No, I have a free period now." This was a lie, Gabriella should be going to Physics, but she figured he didn't need to know that.

"Great, in that case I would like to ask you about the class assignment that will be given out soon. You seem to know this material very well." Gabriella felt her heart flutter and tried not to let her excitement show on her face.

"Sure, where can talk?"

"Here is fine, nobody else will be using this room." He wants to be alone with me! Mr Bolton sat on his desk and motioned Gabriella to sit down as well. After a moments hesitation she sat on the desk opposite his, so she was facing him, and placed her books beside her.

"I just wondered if you had any ideas on how to make the assignment more interesting. It is supposed to be a short, individual, oral presentation on an STI of your choice, but I think you've done that before."

"Yeah, we do that almost every year." Gabriella said, suddenly she felt very shy.

"Well do you have any other ideas? Something different? Or a way to develop it further?"

Gabriella was a smart girl and actually she and Taylor often argued with teachers on how to improve things in tests, assignments and orals. She realised that this was an opportunity to tell all of her opinions to someone who actually wanted to hear them and might even be able to use some of them.

So Gabriella started talking, timidly at first but gaining confidence as she talked. It was obvious that she was actually very passionate about improving the schools standards, as nerdy as that might sound. Without really meaning to she moved on from talking about health orals to stating her opinions on other classes and assessment tasks in general. She got very fired up over some issues and actually began giving examples from her experience. Mr Bolton watched her face carefully, smiling as he saw her eyes flash as she talked about what she perceived as unfair circumstances. He made comments every now and then but mostly just let her talk. It was a surprise to both of them when the bell for the end of second period went.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry Mr Bolton, I didn't realise I was talking so much."

"It's fine, I think you have interesting views on things."

"I don't even think I helped you very much, I just got so caught up in what I was saying…"

"There's nothing wrong with being opinionated. But actually, we didn't talk about health very much." He appeared to hesitate over something. "Would you be able to come and talk to me after school, Miss Montez?"

Yes, yes, yes! "Yeah, I can. Oh no wait, I can't." shit. "I have dance this afternoon."

"What kind of dance do you do?" Why does he care?

"I'm in a strange class, our teacher loves everything, and can do all styles of dance. Last time it was Hip Hop, but I think we're doing Bollywood today. We even had a pole dancing lesson once." Mr Bolton laughed.

"I wish I could've seen that!" Gabriella smiled at him as she picked up her things to leave.

"Maybe we can talk again another time Miss Montez?" Gabriella turned back in the doorway.

"If you want to, I'll try to let you talk more next time."

"You're a very smart girl, Miss Montez, and very… beautiful." Oh My F--ing God! Please tell me this isn't a dream! Gabriella returned his smile once more before finally leaving the classroom. She felt amazing, she had just skipped a class for the first time in her life but instead of being weighed down with guilt she felt as if she were floating on air.

A/N: Did you like it? I liked this chapter, but maybe that's just because I can see it all happening, like in my head, if that makes sense. Anyway sorry if you thought Gabriella seemed like a nerd, but she is really, as well as being other things. And sorry if you don't like Troy that much yet, he is a teacher and has to talk in a teacher like way so don't hold it against him please. When they get to know each other better he will be cooler. Please review and tell me your thoughts! xoxox