DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical, the songs, the lyrics, the characters etc. It I did, I would drop out of uni and instead be out rolling in my cash, and in the process of producing many M rated sequels starring a scantily clothed Zac Efron. Nor do I own Buffy the Vampire Slayer from where I have sourced my opening quote.

RANDOM AUTHOR'S NOTE - I purchased myself a belated Christmas present – a huge poster sized version of Zac's Rolling Stone cover... drool... I seriously contemplated calling in sick for work after buying it, I just wanted to lie in bed and gaze at it on my wall adoringly. I got out a measuring tape and put it at Zac's height. It's pretty close to being life sized, so I thought it would be interesting to see how high on my tippy toes I would have to be to kiss him. I only just make it so Zac, when I'm in the US in March and fate intervenes and ensures I meet you, you're going to have to lean down a bit, all right? (I am seriously deluded, aren't I?)

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HERE WITH YOU

Chapter 10 – The Awkward Silence Thing

Buffy: Do the talking thing.

Willow: Well, what if the talking thing becomes the awkward-silence thing?

- Excerpt from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Season 2 'Surprise'

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Previously…

Troy pressed the green call button, dialling her number. It was now or never.

---

Gabriella sniffling as she chopped up tomatoes for the salad she was preparing. She had tried to comfort herself thinking about the positive elements of this drawn out flirtation with Troy. But she'd wound up back in the place where she wanted to curl up in the foetal position and cry, she was so frustrated with the situation. So now she was in the process of dividing fractions in her brain, in an attempt to force her brain to not contemplate depressing notions.

Gabriella's cell phone rang. She expected it to be her mom calling, checking up on her, and was curious as to why she would be calling her cell rather than the landline. Gabriella was surprised to see Troy's picture – he'd just left her house ten minutes earlier, and he didn't normally call until after dinner.

"Hey," she said, her surprise evident to him.

"I know I normally call later and you're probably busy."

"It's all good, I'm just making dinner. I can talk."

"Right… okay…"

Troy took a deep breath. 'Here goes,' he thought.

"Uh… well I was wondering… you see…" Troy cleared his throat. "Would you maybe… if you're not busy… I was wondering if you uh… would be interested in doing something on Saturday night." Troy paused.

Gabriella froze, not responding.

"Like go out. Somewhere. With me," Troy added unnecessarily, trying to fill the silence which was making him feel rather vulnerable.

'Smooth Bolton,' Troy thought, groaning inwardly.

Gabriella was gaping. Literally. Her mouth had dropped open. She went to speak but the only sound her dry mouth was willing to emit was a slight hacking sound. She swallowed and cleared her throat.

"You're… you're asking me out?"

"Well I… yeah. What do you think?" Troy held his breath, waiting for her response.

"Like a date?" she questioned, still in disbelief.

Despite every pep talk attempt of Taylor's, Gabriella really had convinced herself that it wasn't going to happen. Five minutes earlier, she'd been in tears because she was so frustrated with her supposedly unrequited feelings. So she was struggling to comprehend what she was hearing.

"Yes. A date."

"With you?"

"No I was asking on behalf of Justin Timberlake," Troy said sarcastically, clearing becoming impatient. "Of course with me and the fact that you haven't answered yet is making me feel rather insecure so if you're going to reject me then…"

"Of course I'll go out with you!" Gabriella exclaimed, cutting him off. She took a breath, composing herself, and added more casually, "That sounds great… fantastic…"

In their separate houses, the grins which were on the faces of Troy and Gabriella were akin. In a similar fashion, Troy tried to suppress his elation with a front of casualness.

"Awesome. Cool. Well uh… we'll talk about the details at school I guess. And I'll let you get back to making dinner and stuff."

"Okay great. Well I uh… I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye."

Gabriella hung up and shrieked.

"Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God!"

She opened her phone again and dialled Taylor's number. Taylor picked up and said "Hel…" before Gabriella blurted out, "Troy asked me out, Troy asked me out!!!!!"

"Finally," Taylor replied, rolling her eyes.

---

Troy flopped down on his bed. "Holy fuck," he said out loud, to no one in particular.

Troy send Chad a text message - 'I did it. I asked her out. And she said yes.'

Chad's reply was very direct, very simplistic – very accurate.

'Finally.'

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Gabriella woke up the next morning, feeling strangely nervous. There were now two whole school days until her date with Troy – two whole days of pressure and waiting. She wasn't sure what to say to him. If they should talk about the date and what they might do, or pretend that nothing had happened. She couldn't help but worry about whether he might change his mind and think that maybe they shouldn't be going out.

Gabriella decided on a course of action.

Avoidance.

She slipped into homeroom just as the bell rang. All she had to do then was smile at Troy and acknowledge he was there. As soon as homeroom was over, she went over to Taylor and hurried her out the door.

"What the hell… what's with the rush?" Taylor asked.

"I'll explain, just let's go okay?"

Meanwhile, Troy was still in his seat, gathering his stuff, watching as Gabriella rushed from the room hardly giving him a sideways glance.

"That was weird," Zeke commented. "No cute flirting today huh?"

"Nah. Maybe coz I asked her out," Troy said casually.

Zeke looked up at the ceiling. "Praise the Lord, finally!"

"You asked her out?" Jason asked. "And now she's being weird and ignoring you?"

"She was probably just in a rush to be somewhere," Troy said, not very convincingly.

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When Troy arrived at science class, the seniors in the room before them were still inside, just finishing up the lesson. Gabriella was standing just outside the door, waiting to go in. He came up behind her and touched her arm slightly. She looked around in shock, holding her hand to her chest. She hadn't heard him coming, and was taken by surprise.

"Troy… hey… hi… how are you?" Gabriella stammered.

"I'm good. Excellent. And how are you?"

"Good… fine… good… and you?" Troy looked at her strangely. Gabriella realised what she had said and laughed nervously. "We did you, didn't we?"

The seniors were just beginning to file out of the room, and Gabriella slipped in and quickly opened her textbook. She started to answer some random exercise questions on a page, just so that Troy would leave her alone. He sat silently in his place next to her and waited patiently for the lesson to begin.

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The next two days were painful. A painful series of stammered conversations and excuses to leave. Gabriella had had the fortune of Friday night's decathlon as a mechanism to excuse why she wasn't around – meeting with the team at lunch Thursday and Friday, as well as after school and before school. However Friday's drama class came around, where it was going to be physically impossible to avoid Troy any longer. Especially due to Miss Darbus's relatively consistent routine with half the time for classroom theory, half the time to prepare for the musical.

To be frank, Troy was annoyed with her. He finally worked up the courage to ask her out, and she responds by ignoring him? Was he imagining it when she said yes to his proposition? He'd seen her talking perfectly comfortably with Taylor and other people, so he knew that it was about him. She could not make that fact more obvious.

He stopped trying to communicate with her, as far as Troy was concerned it was up to her. When Miss Darbus permitted the pair to go into the empty room next door to rehearse, Troy decided then and there he wasn't going to say a word. They filed out of their regular classroom in silence. Troy sat on the teachers desk at the front. Gabriella sat down behind a desk in the front row. For almost five minutes they just sat in complete silence, reading their scripts as though they were fascinating items that neither had laid eyes upon.

Under regular circumstances, you can mask when something like this happens, hope that no one heard, that people were talking. But in the deathly silence of the classroom that afternoon, there was no masking of the sound whatsoever.

Troy farted.

Gabriella exploded in giggles. She began to laugh so hard that she couldn't stop. Her cheeks hurt and her stomach hurt but there was no stopping the laughter. Soon Troy was laughing just at the sight of Gabriella laughing. She would finally begin to calm down, but then look at him and would be laughing all over again. She had tears streaming down her cheeks, that was the point that the uncontrollable laughter had reached.

Finally, they both calmed down, and despite his earlier resolution Troy relented and spoke.

"This is ridiculous," he declared. "We spend all this time together and now that we're going to go on a date, suddenly you have nothing to say to me?"

Gabriella couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. "I know, I know. I've just been… nervous. I kept thinking maybe you would change your mind and say you didn't want to go out any more. Stupid I know…"

"You didn't need to avoid me though," Troy commented with a smile.

"Me avoid you? When did I avoid you?" Gabriella asked, trying to deny it.

"Umm let's see shall we… when you came into homeroom at the last minute both yesterday and today, for one. In science, when you pretended to be paying extra special attention to the point that I didn't want to pass you a note even though I know that you are so above our class that you don't need to pay attention. And I know the decathlon is tonight so you guys have been meeting, but you didn't even come buy lunch from the cafeteria today or yesterday."

Gabriella was guilty and they both knew it.

"I wasn't avoiding you because I didn't want to see you. The whole time I was avoiding you I was really wishing I was talking to you," Gabriella confessed.

"Me too," Troy said earnestly. "I just uh… yeah… maybe we can just forget all the stupidity and start all over with the whole date thing. So Gabriella, what are you doing on Saturday night?"

"Oh I have plans. Sorry," she responded with a giggle.

"Play along, would you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well Troy, at the moment I have no plans of such. Why do you ask?"

"How would you like to go out on a date with the captain of the varsity basketball team?"

"Hmm… I've seen him around. He's all right," Gabriella commented casually.

"Just all right?" Troy asked. It was all a little game but he couldn't help but feel a little insecure. "I can tell you that he thinks that you are beautiful."

Gabriella blushed. "Well in that case, you can tell him that I think he is amazingly gorgeous and that I would love to go out with him."

They both laughed and fell silent for a second.

"We probably should rehearse for at least a bit," Gabriella said regretfully. "Miss Darbus will come in and do her check soon."

"That she will. She's a crazy old loon but at least she'd predictable."

And soon they became immersed into the world of Minnie and Arnold

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Troy walked Gabriella to the science block where she was meeting the rest of the decathlon team. The meet was at Albuquerque Girls College and they were carpooling with one of their parents and their supervisor, the mathematics head of department, Mr. Davis.

"So uh… I'll come by at 6:30 tomorrow night?" Troy asked.

"Sure, sounds good. May I ask where we are going?"

"You can ask but I won't tell. It's a surprise."

Gabriella groaned. "You're evil Troy Bolton. You know I like control."

"You'll like my surprise. Well, at least I hope so."

"Can you give me a hint so I dress appropriately?'

"Whatever you wear, you will look fabulous Gabriella I am sure."

He thought for a moment, and remembered a time when the guys had been out with a bunch of the cheerleaders. They'd all worn little skirts and heels and spent half the day whinging that they were cold and their feet were sore. So on afterthought, he decided to give her a little guidance.

"You don't need to dress up lots. We might be outside and it's been pretty chilly at night so keep that in mind. Oh, and wear comfy shoes – no hiking boots required, but if you wear six inch heels you might find you'll regret it," Troy advised.

"Troy, do you really think that I would own a pair of six inch heels?" Gabriella asked. "Do you know me but at all?"

"My mom owns about eighty five pairs of shoes so I wouldn't put it past you."

"So… until tomorrow night," Gabriella said.

Troy nodded. "Uh… just so you know… I'm really looking forward to it. Our date. I think… I think it is going to be really really good. Despite the last few days of weirdness."

"Me too."

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek gently. "Good luck tonight. Text me and let me know how you go – I'm not going to call because we might just sit in silence. So I'll see you tomorrow."

She giggled and opened the door behind her. "See you Troy."

Gabriella stood just outside the room, watching as he walked away.

"Oh and by the way... amazingly gorgeous was an understatement… try amazingly, incredibly, fantastically gorgeous and hot and sexy…" she said softly to herself.

"Who? Me?" a voice said from behind her.

Gabriella turned around and blushed.

"Taylor! Don't sneak up on me!"

"How was rehearsal?" Taylor asked.

"Good. Really good. We talked… it's all good."

Taylor knew that Gabriella had been avoiding Troy since he asked her out.

"See I told you that you were being stupid," Taylor said knowingly.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. Come on. No time for chit chat – we have a decathlon to win!"

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Troy's parents were relatively easy going. They were the type of parents who, as long as Troy remained upfront about where he was going and what he was doing, they were okay with it. They knew that they had raised a good kid who they could trust. Nevertheless, when Troy was planning out his evening with Gabriella, he knew that it was all depending on a major concession on his dad's part which he wasn't sure if even his liberal parents would allow. The Bolton family would sit down together for dinner most nights of the week. Troy knew that this was the optimum time to bring up his request.

"So uh… I'm not going to be home for dinner tomorrow night," Troy said casually.

"Oh?" Jack asked. "Are you going over to Chad's?"

"No, not to Chad's. Uh, actually, on the topic of tomorrow night, I wanted to ask a favour dad."

Troy was being very polite. Jack and Lucille knew their son well enough to know when he wanted something that they might not want to give.

"Go on," Jack said warily.

"Well uh… I've had my driver's license for a while now and you know that I am a very responsible driver. So I was wondering whether I might be allowed to borrow your car tomorrow night?" Troy asked, praying that he would agree.

"If it's to go out hooning with Chad and the guys then absolutely not," Lucille answered on Jack's behalf.

"Mom, I think you know me well enough to realise that I don't go 'hooning' with Chad and the guys," Troy said, feeling slightly exasperated.

"That would be because none of you have cars. If you did then I'm sure it might be a different situation," she responded.

"Besides, I already said, I'm not going over to Chad's," Troy countered.

"Troy, where are you going and why do you want my car?" Jack asked.

"Umm… because I need to be able to drive around downtown. The public transport in this town really isn't safe at night."

"And for what reason would you need to be cruising around downtown on a Saturday night?"

Troy sighed. "Because Gabriella and I are going out on a date."

"You asked her!" Jack said, sounding somewhat proud.

"Yeah."

"And she said yes?"

"Well, I just asked to borrow your car didn't I?"

Jack held his hand up. "Yes Troy you may borrow my car on Saturday night."

Troy blinked. "Really?"

"Really."

"You're not messing with me?"

"Do you want me to change my mind?" Jack asked.

"No!" Troy said very quickly. "No please don't. Thank you. Thanks."

And the plan was falling into place.

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Troy was working on his geography project when his text message tone sounded. He picked up his phone, grinning seeing who the recipient was.

"We kicked ass. See you tomorrow night. Love, Gabriella."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE – Eternal thanks to those of you who have been reviewing, you know who you are. More than ever, I need you to put pressure on me to write write write people. I just mapped out the rest of this story, and then the subsequent set of stories which follow up on this one that my brain is telling me that it wants to write. I go overseas at the beginning of March. To put it politely – I've got a shitload of writing to get done if I want to do it all before I leave. We're talking multiple posts each day. Completely unrealistic but a girl can dream, can't she?