Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical...unfortunately.
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Usually, when Gabriella walked through the school doors in the morning, she was the image of confidence. Her walk, like many things about her, was focused and steady, and she would only hesitate on the way to her locker to stop and chat with her friends.
But the day after she had talked to Taylor on the phone, she kept looking from left to right, as if expecting someone to throw something at her. Her eyes were narrowed and her hands, usually by her sides, were raised higher in a defensive gesture. The first person to notice this, of course, was Troy.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked her, walking towards her to give her a hug.
She hugged him briefly, then pulled back. Troy noticed that she looked embarrassed. Embarrassed? No way. I really need to know what's going on. She seemed fine yesterday, and school hasn't even started yet!
"It's nothing," she muttered, looking down. "Just...nothing."
"I hope you know me better than that," Troy laughed. "You're not going to shake me off that easily."
Gabriella knew that she and Troy told each other everything, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him that their friends were trying to get them together. So she lied, even though she hated to do it.
"I made a really stupid mistake on my homework yesterday, and I only just managed to correct it. One mistake like that could be the difference between a pass and a fail."
Troy knew that this wasn't really what was wrong, but he decided to leave it alone for the time being.
"You were probably just tired. It can happen to anyone...and it certainly happens to you least of all." He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it."
Unfortunately, just as he said this, the rest of the gang came through the doors. Gabriella stiffened. Troy, sensing her distress, put an arm around her and drew her close to him. He could tell that whatever it was that was wrong had to do with their friends, somehow.
"Why don't we go up to the rooftop garden at lunch?" he whispered in her ear. She shivered. "I have something funny to tell you."
She smiled at him gratefully and nodded. It would be a good opportunity for her to calm down...and for her to spend some alone time with Troy.
"Hey guys," Kelsi said quietly. She sensed Gabriella's anger and smiled at her, trying to ease the tension. "Did you all finish that plan for the big English essay?"
"I hate English," Sharpay declared, putting her hands on her hips. "Once I finish school, I swear, I am going to go live in a cave somewhere far away and never speak English again."
"Shar," Ryan said, trying to hide a smile. "Think about what you just said."
You could almost see the gears turning in Sharpay's mind.
"All right!" she yelled, loud enough for the whole hall to hear – once again. "I take it back! They don't have shopping malls in caves, I forgot!"
"Sharpay Evans!" Mrs. Darbus's voice called from the end of the hall. "I appreciate your effort to bring drama into the everyday lives of your fellow students, but I'm afraid that I am going to have to give you detention after school today! No yelling in the halls!"
"Sorry, Mrs. Darbus," Sharpay muttered. Then she turned to the others. "Shoot, you guys won't be with me this time! Detention's not going to be half as entertaining as it usually is..."
Gabriella quickly cut in. "But Sharpay, you wouldn't really want everyone else to get detention just for it to be more entertaining for you, would you?" She didn't want the gang to have enough time alone to make more plans for her and Troy.
Sharpay looked offended. "Of course not! I was just stating a fact."
Troy frowned at Gabriella, and she realized that she hadn't been very tactful.
"Sorry, Shar," she said quietly. "I just have a lot on my mind." She looked at Sharpay pointedly, and Troy noticed.
"That's okay...ummmm...let's go to class," Sharpay said quickly, trying to change the subject before Troy found out the reason behind Gabriella's irritation.
--
"So what was the funny thing that you wanted to tell me?"
Gabriella was sitting beside Troy on the bench in the rooftop garden. This was the spot that they always went to when either of them got slightly tired of the rest of the gang's antics, or when they just wanted to spend some alone time together.
Troy smiled and turned so that he was directly facing her. "Oh. Well, I think that Chad and the rest of the guys are trying to prove a point to me."
Gabriella giggled. "And what makes you think that?"
Troy suddenly realized that it was probably not a good idea for him to tell Gabriella that his friends were trying to get him to ask her out, but he was already in too deep.
"Well..." Troy paused. "After basketball practice yesterday, I was in the locker room...and I noticed my bag on the bench. And I realized that I had left it in the room when I went to meet you guys at the doors."
Gabriella smiled, but it seemed strained to Troy. "Yeah?"
"So I opened it..." Troy hesitated, but there was no turning back now. "And there was this...tape recorder inside it. And it had a conversation that I had had with the guys earlier that day recorded on it. I'm guessing it was Chad who did the recording."
It took all that Gabriella had to ask the next question. "What was the conversation about?"
"It was about –" RING!
Troy rolled his eyes at Gabriella. "I should probably answer this." He pretended to be annoyed, but both were silently thanking whoever it was who had called for their excellent timing.
"Hello?...Chad..." He turned back to Gabriella and winked. Gabriella smiled and mouthed "I should have known."
Troy stood up and started walking. "This had better be important...Yeah...Shut up." He paused. "No, it's just...you always make some sort of comment when I tell you that...Really?...Is this Chad I'm talking to?...Yeah, but...All right. See you in a minute." He hung up with a slight frown on his face and turned back to Gabriella, who was waiting patiently.
"What did he say?" Gabriella asked as Troy sat down beside her again.
"Oh, he just wanted us to go down there and meet them since lunch is almost over," Troy said in a preoccupied tone which Gabriella picked up on.
"What's wrong, Troy?"
He smiled at her. "Oh, nothing's wrong...it's just that Chad's been bugging me about something for a while – nothing important – and he's suddenly decided that he supports my decision, whatever it is," Troy said, all the while thinking: Nothing important. Yeah, right. Only that I'm in love with you and I'm afraid to tell you in case you don't feel the same way.
Gabriella sensed that he didn't want to talk about what the issue was, so she didn't say anything more. Silently, they stood up and walked down the stairs to join their friends.
--
Over the next few days, Gabriella treated everyone but Troy warily, in case they were hatching another plan. But she was surprised when, at the end of the week, Sharpay came up to her and told her that from now on, they were going to have a laissez-faire attitude towards her relationship with Troy.
"We figure that if you and Troy are meant to be, you'll admit your feelings to each other yourselves, eventually. And as your friends, we shouldn't be pressuring you to do something you don't want to do," Sharpay explained to a very surprised Gabriella. "But my advice is, if you want it, go for it," she hinted.
So when they all went back to school after the weekend, Gabriella was once again completely relaxed among her friends. Troy was relieved that whatever had seemed to be stressing her was now gone.
But this was not to last, as that Wednesday found a certain seven people having a discussion in the library.
"Okay, Kelsi," Sharpay said to her friend. "Your week and a half is up. Troy and Gabriella are still only friends...and the situation gets more and more desperate by the day. Who thinks we should start up the plans again?"
Everyone raised their hands, even Kelsi, sensing that she was going to be outvoted anyway.
"So, Taylor, Chad, Kelsi and I have already tried to get those two together," Sharpay continued. "It's up to one of you three to save the day." She eyed Zeke, Jason and Ryan. "Who's it going to be?"
"I think I have an idea," said Zeke, never to refuse one of his girlfriend's demands. "Here's the plan..."
A/N: Ahahaha, cliffy!! I would like to dedicate this chapter to...Splitster7, for reviewing my story! More reviews from everyone are greatly appreciated! I'm going to try and update daily. Sound good?