AN: Thanks for the reviews! And I write like crazy on my trip, so I decided I must update.

Disclaimer: I don't own HSM. (Wish I did because then I would be rich : P Just kidding, kind of)

Chapter 6: Relax Relapse

Gabriella couldn't focus on her mind on anything all day. She sat at her usual lunch table picking at her food. How could Troy work at her school? How could she like someone that worked at her school? No. She didn't like Troy, she couldn't.

"Gabriella? Gabriella? Gabriella!" Taylor shook her arm. "What's going on? You've been zoned out all day."

"It's nothing." Gabriella lied. She kept her eyes on her salad.

"It's not nothing. You can tell trust me. What's up?" Taylor persisted.

Gabriella took a deep breath and looked up at her friend, "You know that guy I told you about? The construction worker that looked really familiar?" Taylor shook her head. "Well, I found out why he looked so familiar. He's the assistant basketball coach."

Taylor looked less surprised than Gabriella thought she would, "Coach Bolton's son?"

"Yeah. I mean, I knew he was older than me, but I just-"

Taylor cut her off, "never expected him to work here?"

Gabriella shook her head, "Yeah…" she turned her attention back to her food. She knew that she shouldn't be too upset that Troy works at her school, but she couldn't help it. How could she be having feelings for someone four years older than her? Gabriella tried to eat her daily salad, but she couldn't concentrate on anything other than Troy.

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"She's 17, so what? She's still nice to talk to and she's a cool person. A little scatter brained sometimes, but she seems smart. And I don't know her that well anyways, so why should it matter. I've known her for a week; one measly week. So things shouldn't change between us? Do we even have a norm? Did I just say norm? God, I must be loosing my mind." Troy looked around the empty locker room. He was completely alone. "And I'm talking to an empty locker room. I must be going insane." Troy sighed and took a seat on the one of the benches. He tried to keep him mind off of Gabriella, but he was interrupted by the end of school bell. "Just what I need; hearing my team talk about their girlfriends… who go to this school with Gabriella…" He sighed and tried to shake him mind of her once again as he heard the team barge through the door.

"Hey CT!" Troy turned around and greeted the team. CT was a nickname they had given him last year. It stood for Coach Troy. Troy decided, the second they gave him his new nickname, that it was 10 times better than any of his older ones: Captain, Superstar, Hoops Dude, the list goes on and on.

"Hey guys." He smiled.

"Where you been lately?" Another guy asked him. Troy suddenly realized that the team didn't know about his connection with Gabriella. Did the guys even know Gabriella? How could they not know her, she was so beautiful and kind…

"I've got another job. It pays more and it has some other… benefits that I like." Troy mentally slapped himself. He needed to stop thinking about Gabriella.

"CT, you can't be leaving us! It's just not right." A different teammate said. The guy was Brad, a senior and the captain. "Even though it was a little weird when you went from my teammate to my coach in, like, two years, it wouldn't be the same if you left midseason."

"We're still in preseason. And I'm not going anywhere. Not yet at least."

The team moaned and groaned for Troy to stay until they had to get ready. Then they went back to their usual locker room talk: girls. Troy decided that he'd rather not listen to them and retired to his dad's office. He sat alone in his dad's office, urging himself not to listen to them or give them any advice from his high school days. Troy forced himself to think about his two courses that he was practically failing: Calculus and Chemistry. His new job was taking a toll on his classes as well as his assistant coaching job.

"And did you see how fine Gabriella was looking today?" Troy's head snapped up. He had never heard his team talk about Gabriella, or he never noticed until now. He felt himself walk towards the cracked door and listen to their conversation.

"Who's Gabriella?"

"You know her; the really smart chick with the long brown hair?"

"The dancer?"

"Yeah! That's her."

"She's all that and a bag of chips!"

"Wait, wait, wait, she's a dancer?"

"Yeah she's James's partner. How lucky is he? He gets to hold her as close as humanly possible for, like, 3 hours a day."

"I wouldn't mind to hold her, but not on the dance floor; if you catch my drift."

"Oh, I hear ya man! I wonder if she has a boyfriend."

"Since when do you commit to anyone?"

"Especially an AP girl?"

"But she's an AP girl with a slammin' body who wears tiny outfits as she shakes her ass on a stage."

Troy closed the door. Is this what his team thought of sweet, charming Gabriella? Was she really sweet and charming? Was his impression of her completely wrong? Troy's head started to spin. Fro the first time that day he was glad he didn't have to work at her house.

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Gabriella laid with her head at the foot of her bed. Holding her pillow beneath her chin she looked her head friends, who were scattered about her room. Ashley and Chloe occupied the couch at one end of her room, Brooke had her seat in one of Gabriella's few bean bags, and Mia had spread herself out on the white, carpeted floor using Gabriella's giant stuffed frog as a pillow. Her friends had invited themselves over for an impromptu slumber party to help Gabriella feel better. She hadn't told anyone about Troy or what she thought she was feeling towards him, but her friends had noticed her usually shy persona had taken a deep plunge into a lack of talking or smiling. No one was talking or making eye contact when the boys walked in. First James closely followed by Matt, Tom, Nate, and Chris.

"Gabs, you sure your mom is cool with all of us staying over?" James asked as he threw his bag on the ground and took a seat on the couch. Tom followed and also took a seat on the navy blue coach while Chris grabbed a bean bag and Matt and Nate joined Mia on the floor.

"It will be fine. She'll be in San Diego until Thursday." She mumbled.

The group of friends was quiet once more. The only sound to be heard was the ticking of the clock. Everyone was disturbed by the silence, but only Nate spoke up.

"Is the quietness creeping anyone else out? I mean you girls are usually loud and crazy and wild."

Ashley threw a pillow at him, "We are trying to make Gabi feel better, not through a party."

"Gabs, tell us what is up. You've barely said a word all day." Mia asked in a comforting voice.

"I've just had a lot on my mind today. That's it."

Nate leaned over to Matt, "Do we really need to be here for this?"

Ashley threw another pillow at him. "Nate be quiet!" she ordered and turned her attention back to Gabriella, "Does it have to do with a boy?"

"Okay, now I know we don't have to be here for this." Nate groaned not wanting to hear the girls talk about boys.

"Just go down to the kitchen and get something to eat if you don't want to be here." Brooke snapped at her partner. Nate pushed himself off the ground and left Gabriella's room. The rest of the boys follow. The girls rolled their eyes and turned their attention back to Gabriella.

"Who's the guy?" They all asked interestedly.

Gabriella turned slightly pink, "He's no one."

"Oh come on Gabi, you have to give us more than that! Chloe moaned hungry for gossip. "Did you meet him at school, the studio, the mall, a club?"

"I don't go to clubs." Gabriella pointed out, "But if you guys really want to make me feel better you will just stop talking about it."

"Done!" Ashley declared, "Now let's go see what the boys are up to." The five girls made their way down stairs and into Gabriella's familiar open kitchen and living room. "What are you ordering?" she asked noticing the take out menus scatters across the counter as Tom talked into a phone.

"Well we couldn't decide between pizza, Chinese, hot dogs, or Mexican, so we ordered everything." James explained.

"And we ordered the usual desserts from Cathy's Creations." Chris added. The girls sighed.

"It's going to be another one of those nights isn't it?" Gabriella asked referring to anytime the 10 of them were together for longer than 10 hours. Every time they were the guys ordered massive amounts of different kinds of food that was always eaten even, no matter how much there was. Gabriella looked at her friends, they were nodding. "It'll go set up the X-box."

"Yeah!" the guys and girls cheered. Gabriella smiled. If anything was going to get her mind off Troy it was going to be spending hours with her friends eating fatty foods, playing video games, and watching really bad movies, and then crashing on the closest soft item you could find. She loved her friends.

AN: Well, I hoped you like it! Reviews are love and the mor eI get the faster I update.