At long last an update to this story! I know it's been a while, but senior year in college is no cakewalk. 15 credits with an internship, majoring in art and minoring in English... If anyone ever tells you majoring in art is easy, it's not. No major is ever easy! That being said I'm officially a graduate now, I've got job hunting to do and so until I can secure a full time job I will...or at least should be...updating more than I have been in the past semester. Once again, I do not own High School Musical or its characters and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Four: During What I've Been Looking For

"Where did he go?" Chad asked himself. He had been wandering the halls of East High for nearly ten minutes during free period and had seen no sight of Troy. Last he saw him was after homeroom and Troy said he was catching up on homework. Chad had a hard time believing him but he was starting to doubt himself now; Troy ran off in such a hurry that for all Chad knew, Troy could be doing homework. It still sounded unlikely, though. Chad shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Troy? Yo Hoops, where are you?" he called again. Not looking where he was going, Chad bumped into someone. The two of them as well as any books and papers she was carrying splattered to the ground. Chad sat on his knees, "Sorry bout that, I wasn't looking where I was…." That was when he looked up, only to see that the person he had bumped into was Taylor. They stared at each other wide eyed for a moment and of course, as there were other students in the hallway, people were waiting to see what kind of argument would enlist from this. "I…I mean…watch where you're going, McKessie. Geez, could you be any clumsier? No wonder you can't get a boyfriend!"

Taylor scoffed and began gathering her books, "Excuse me Lunkhead, but you bumped into me first. I'm surprised you can actually survive an inning of basketball with those feet."

"That's baseball, nerd," Chad rolled his eyes. "Not much of a nerd after all are you?"

"Well you're not much of a basketball player either are you? Not if you're always second best to Troy," Taylor retorted.

"Take that back!" Chad sneered.

"Or else what?" she argued.

"Alright, alright, that's enough!" Ms. Darbus declared as she entered the hallway dramatically. The group of students immediately scattered, leaving only Chad and Taylor with the drama teacher. "What is going on in here?"

"She started it! She wasn't looking where she was going-"

"It's not my fault this Lunkhead can't go without tripping over his two left feet-"

"She doesn't know what she's talking about-"

"He thinks he owns the hallway just because of his status-"

"At least my status means more. Nerds are nothing-"

"Nothing more than a bunch of lunkheads parading around like they own the school-"

"Enough!" Ms. Darbus yelled. "Both of you, my classroom, now. Consider yourselves lucky you're not being given detention this afternoon. And you will report once again to my classroom for lunch detention. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Ms. Darbus," the two answered sullenly.

Ms. Darbus pointed in the direction of the classroom and Chad and Taylor made their way there with their heads hung down. They entered the classroom down the hall. Taylor took a seat at her desk and Chad peeked out the door to make sure no one was behind them. He closed the door behind him and then sat at his desk in front of Taylor's. He turned to her and smirked playfully.

"An inning of basketball? Clever."

Taylor smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "It's a gift. You were a bit contradictory with your nerd comments. First I'm a nerd and then I'm not much of a nerd?"

"Hey I had to think of something fast. You were coming up with such great comebacks," he replied. He then raised an eyebrow, "Do you really think I'm second best to Troy?"

"Not in a million years," Taylor shook her head. She slid her hand over his, "At the very least he's second best to you."

"Wow, at least? So for all I know he could be in tenth place behind me?" Chad asked hopefully.

Taylor giggled, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. By the way, where is Troy?"

Chad shrugged. "Beats me. He said he was skipping on basketball practice to catch up on homework but I lost him. Now I'm stuck missing practice, too."

"Because of me?" Taylor asked.

"No! Well…kinda," Chad admitted. He held her hand, "But sometimes I'd much rather spend my time with you than at basketball practice."

"Wow, sometimes?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

Chad chuckled, "Don't get sarcastic with me. I'm just saying I like playing basketball and I like having guy time. Besides Troy's acting all weird for some reason. Why would I hang around my best friend who I've known forever that's not acting like himself when I could be with my awesome girlfriend?"

Taylor shushed him. "Easy with the g word, you want people to get suspicious?"

"So I take it you're cool with not wanting people to know?"

"I've pretty much accepted the fact that we have no choice but to keep this secret."

"Are you ok with that?"

"Not really. But I have to be. However long we're together for, we have to keep it up as long as we're here. I know how much your boys mean to you."

Chad sighed. "It's not just about me. You know that. Yeah, the whole school finding out about us would pretty much kill me here forever. And the guys would never let me hear the end of it. But what about your friends? They all think we're a bunch of lunkheads don't they? They'll tear your head off just for checking one of us out. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as with me or maybe it'd be worse, I don't know. But I'm not stupid enough to risk it for the both of us."

Taylor shook her head. She hated it when Chad talked that way. As sweet as it may have sounded, it didn't stop the guilt. It hurt her inside because she did want people to know about them. Sure it was fun sneaking around sometimes but at least if people knew about them then perhaps hey could be more accepting of a change in the status quo. They wouldn't have to pretend to hate each other and everyone could see how much they cared for and loved each other. Chad was so accepting of her feelings against their secrecy and he's gone so far as to almost tell his friends about them in the past. Ultimately, however, it was too big a risk. Taylor knew that. She knew that anything Chad said or did about them was for them and that was why she felt so guilty about wanting to go against him. She got out of her seat and walked over to the windows. She folded her arms across her chest and stared outside.

Chad paused and rubbed the back of his head. "I should shut up shouldn't I?"

Taylor shook her head.

Chad walked over to Taylor. He placed a hand on her shoulder and thought for a minute. Then he smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "Hey…Darbus isn't here. And we still got a half-hour left of being stuck in here. How bout we have a little fun?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow but didn't turn to him. "I'm listening."

"Everyone else is in class," Chad proposed, "when else are we gonna get to walk around school together? Let's explore a little."

"What about getting caught?" she asked.

"No one's gonna see us," Chad replied.

"I don't mean us getting caught," Taylor said. "I meant Ms. Darbus catching us."

"What do we have to lose? We've already got lunch detention," Chad said. "Besides I can't kiss you if you're in here and I'm not."

Taylor faced him, "Ok now you're just trying to butter me up."

"Maybe…" Chad said innocently, "is it working?"

Taylor thought for a minute before smiling. "Why don't we go exploring and find out?"

The two of them left the drama room and headed down the hall. They walked hand in hand and although there was some laughing, there didn't seem to be anyone around to catch them. There were no teachers to catch them without a hall pass or any students to point fingers and whisper. They still had fifteen minutes left before the end of free period when they walked by the auditorium. They didn't bother to walk inside, not with musical auditions going on. The two of them giggled as they heard some horrible auditions.

"Can you believe these people?" Chad laughed. "We can sing better than them and we're not in their stupid drama club."

"I can't believe how generous Ms. Darbus is being with their feelings," Taylor added. "They're horribly off key."

"Probably won't be too long before the Ice Princess and her brother take over," Chad said. "Let's get outta here."

They took hands and walked away from the auditorium. They ended up sitting across the hall, not too far from the auditorium. Chad leaned back on the wall and Taylor rested her head on his shoulder.

"Ok, so exploring East High during the day wasn't as cool as it sounded in my head," Chad admitted.

"It was a bit lackluster," Taylor confessed, "but at least we were bored together."

"Well thanks for pretty much telling me I'm boring," Chad joked.

"Boring, maybe. But at least you're cute while you're being boring," she responded. She ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his cheek.

"I try," Chad answered less-than-modestly. He paused when soft piano playing was heard through the hall. He glanced at Taylor, "Hear that?"

"I thought no one would dare audition after Sharpay and Ryan," she replied.

"It's nice," he commented. They listened to the piano for another moment. Chad smiled and looked at Taylor and then the next thing he knew he was singing softly with the music.

It's hard to believe

That I couldn't see

You were always there beside me

Taylor smiled and began singing along with him, their voices matching in perfect harmony.

Thought I was alone

With no one to hold

But you were always right beside me

Their voices then joined together. They sang softly; not too loud so anyone nearby would catch them. But they were loud enough that they could hear each other, that they could hear how perfectly they sounded together and not even knowing that Troy and Gabriella were singing the exact same song.

This feeling's like no other

I want you to know

That I never had someone

Who knows me like you do

The way you do

And I never had someone

As good for me as you

No one like you

So lonely before

I finally found

What I've been looking for

Taylor looked at Chad and smiled. "You're right. We do sing better than them."

"Maybe we should try out for the musical," Chad joked.

"Oh your mom would love that," she mused.

"Please, no," Chad groaned. "After all those times she took me to see Wicked and Phantom of the Opera I don't think I could ever go on stage and sing."

"You never know," she replied.

"Not unless I'm singing with you. It makes it more worth while," he said.

Taylor laughed and shook her head. "Please, I am not performance material."

"I think so," he replied. "I'd pay big bucks to see you on stage."

"Excuse me, but you'd be getting in for free!" she argued.

"Aw, I'm so special," Chad chuckled.

Taylor nudged him playfully and smiled. Chad shook his head and slipped his arm around each other. They leaned in closer to each other, ready to kiss, but the bell interrupted them.

"Dang," Chad muttered.

Taylor got off the bench and pulled Chad up. "Come on. Let's get back to the room before we get in trouble."

"At least we'll have lunch together for once," he stated.

"I doubt things will stay that way for long," Taylor replied. "Nothing's going to change around here any time soon."

Four chapters down...and still a while to go. I know, I have to update Princess and the Frog as well. That one might take a little longer considering it involves going back and forth between watching the scene in the movie and typing pretty much at the same time. Luckily this update is complete and for those of you who are aware of my other fanfics, I do still have Classic Disney Meets New Disney and I have added a new musical oneshot there as well. I know it's not much and these update I posted are not incredibly wrong but I hope it satisfies all Chaylor lovers for the time being. If anyone is still out there please let me know what you think...you know, about the chapter, the story, if I should continue writing...anything you want, really. Sometimes it's just nice to know that there's people out there. ^^; As for all other Chaylor writers I look forward to continue reading your fanfics as well. :) For everyone who has already started their summer vacation, please enjoy and may this be the start of a happy season! As for others like myself who have just graduated and are going in the real world...good luck, fellow graduates! Have an awesome wee everyone and I will be back! :3