I'm lame. I know. I've been working on the school play and I've been at school from like six in the morning to about seven at night and It's only going to get worse until next week. Then I'm done and I can like... you know actually work on stuff I like.

eh whatevs. Anyway mucho thanks to my reviewers I love you all. I love my readers too, and I'd love to get feedback from ya'll.

Talking with Stacey really helped. Okay not really, but it did a little bit, sorta. Really all it managed to do was show me that there was no way I could get over this Troy thing. If I was a different person I might take it as a challenge, but I'm me and it takes more than 'you got sucked into the vortex that is Blue eyed, crooked smiled Troy Bolton' to motivate me. Usually it takes threats, bribe and enough chocolate to choke a goat... but I digress.

After school Axe dropped me off and I stopped to look at the Bolton's place. Somehow they got out of there before we did and there were three cars in their driveway. In Troy's truckbed sat Jason, Kelsi and Zeke, Sharpie, Ryan, Taylor and Gabriella sat in Sharpay's convertible and Troy and Curly sat on the hood of Curly's car. I started towards the front door when I heard my name. I turned to find Taylor waving me over, I shook my head and turned back to my house.

"Demi!" I turned again to find Taylor, Gabriella and Kelsi waving me over. I sighed and walked over, avoiding looking at Sharpie and Troy.

"Yes?" I asked, crossing my hands over my chest.

"I know I've asked you a million times, but I'm going to ask you again. Please-"

"No." I shook my head. "No, no, no, no and again no."

"Why not." Gabriella asked. I looked at her, she looked... almost like she didn't hate me. Granted she still didn't know I had kissed her boyfriend.

"Like I told Taylor ealier, I hate Math, I hate science and I hate doing anything that requires actually work." I glared at Taylor.

"It's not that much work." Gabriella shook her head. I sighed, running my hand through my hair.

"I just don't want to do it."

"You should do some sort of an extra curricular, look good to colleges and everything." Kelsi said.

"I'm not going to college. Can I go now?" I asked, exasperated. I finally snuck a glance Troy and he was staring at me. I quickly looked away back at Taylor.

"Hey Demi we're all going ice skating this weekend, you want to go? Celebrate having the best preformance in class?" My head jerked around to Troy and my neck cracked painfully. The others froze looking at him too, like he just broke a rule or something.

"Troy I don't think we have enough room." Zeke looked down at the truckbed.

"Sure we do, I can squeeze her in with me and Gabi." Troy nodded. Because that wouldn't be awkward right? I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off by Sharpie.

"We don't want her there." she glared, first at Troy then at me.

"Sharpay!" Troy cried, like he was shocked that she didn't like me. I looked down at my converse then up at Troy.

"No it's fine, Sharpie's just saying what they're all thinking. Anyway, I don't want to go, I'm not good at skating... or dealing with quiet, awkward moments. I'm going to go now." I turned and started for the house.

"Hey Demi," I turned again, to see Curly standing. "It's not what all of us are thinking. Oh and," He paused to grin at me, "nice monkey." He pointed to the window on the side of the house where I had taped up a sock monkey, staring down at the world with a sign saying 'beware of monkey'. I'm pretty sure I blushed and went inside.

"Dem-sum, I need your help." Leon came running down the stairs and grabbed my arm, yanking me upstairs before I even had the chance to say anything. He also managed to keep me busy the rest of the night so I didn't have to think about Troy's friends and how much they disliked me, save for Curly.

The next day I decided, I don't care what Stacey says, the only thing that made sense was to avoid Troy as best I could. Obviously there was no getting around Drama, we were still working together on the project, but we were pretty much finished. We had costumes, blocking, and everything. It was probably going to be the best, but it helped that it was just the two of us as opposed to three to six people like other groups. As soon as Axe got to the school I jumped out of the car and hurried in so I wouldn't risk seeing Troy in the parking lot. went straight to homeroom to find under my 'do you' a 'Not sure'. That confused me, did someone random write it, or did Gabriella, or even Troy.

I was thinking about that when a bag dropped on the desk, and my hand.

"Ow!" I yipped, yanking my hand out from under it. I looked up at Stacey with a frown. "What the crap?" I asked. She ripped the bag open and handed me a big lollipop.

"My mom went on a candy binge, then this morning realized she just spent an entire paycheck on candy she doesn't like." She shrugged, handing me a box of Mike n' Ikes, a bag of Jelly Bellys, four honey sticks and a bag of sticks of Rock Candy.

"I think you broke my hand." I muttered.

"Oh don't be a baby." Stacey tossed me a jawbreaker the size of my fist.

"Dang, your mom doesn't play around when she buys candy does she?" I dropped the jawbreaker and other things in my messenger bag.

"Nope." Stacey shook her head. "Adios Madds." She went to sit down as Mrs. Jeffers came in.

Avoiding Troy was actually pretty easy. I didn't go to lunch, I faked cramps and got out of gym, the only time I had to see him was drama. I managed to not talk to him more than I had to. As soon as the bell rang I got out of there and froze. Gabriella was at my locker, I walked over and cleared my throat.

"Umm... that's my..."

"I know." Gabriella interrupted me.

"O-okay... could you move?" As soon as she stepped to the side I opened my locker and grabbed my calc book, Gabriella was still standing there. "If you're here to get me to join the team it's still a no."

"I'm not here about that." Gabriella shook her head.

"Umm... okay, then what do you want?" I closed my locker and looked at her.

"Do you know what's wrong with Troy?" I nearly choked on air.

"What do you mean?"

"He's been avoiding me all day." Gabriella crossed her arms. "I know you two are friends... or something... do you have any idea what it might be?"

"I really don't-"

"Demi!" I cut off in the middle of my sentence to turn and see Troy running over. He stopped when he saw Gabriella. "Oh, Umm... Hey Gabi." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Hey Troy." We all just stood there looking at each other awkwardly. "So what's up with you?" Gabriella asked Troy.

"Nothing." Troy shook his head.

"Troy I'm not stupid, something up with you." I looked back and forth between the two.

"Maybe I should go..." No one looked at me as I hefted my bag over my shoulder and started to walk off.

"Nothing's up Gabi, I just need to,"

"No Troy, just tell me what's wrong you've been acting,"

"I kissed Demi." I froze, turning back to them. Gabriella looked at him, then me, then him again.

"Troy, we need to talk." She said, grabbing his arm and leading him off.