Chapter Twenty One. The High School Musical Chapter. Really.
–In Which There is a New Girl, and She Charms Everybody. Except Chuckie.

I think I owe you some more story. I know, you just want it to be over already so you can find out what happens after, but hold your horses, cuz I'm not finished yet. Don't mind me, I'm just rambling. And don't just skip this chapter and think "I saw the movie, I know what happens, Troy, I'm not stupid." Because, no, you don't.

"Did we really fly all this way just to play more basketball?" my mom asked.

"Yeah," me and my dad said.

"It's the last night of vacation. The party, remember?" my mom said, twirling around to show off her outfit.

"Right, the party. The party. New Years Eve," my dad said. He is so clueless sometimes.

"Troy, they have a kids party downstairs in the Freestyle club," my mom said.

"Kids party?" I asked. There was nothing lamer than hanging with a bunch of kids. And my cell phone had been going off like crazy for the last two days, so I had finally just shut it off.

"Young adults. Now go, shower up," my mom said. I was actually impressed she knew the term shower up, but, whatever.

"Come on, one more," I protested. "Last one."

"Real quick," Dad said. I stole the ball from him and shot it.

"There we go. That's the way to end it," I said. After showering and promising to look after Dylan, I headed down to the "kids party". After immediately ditching Dylan to hang with some guys I'd met snowboarding, I got called up onstage to sing. Now, I don't sing.

"Troy, that's bullshit," you say, "because I've heard you sing, and I know you sing, and I know you sing for no good reason like an idiot while running purposelessly around a golf course. I've seen you do it." Yeah, well. I didn't sing. Reluctantly, mostly to save myself from public humiliation, I sang the song. I don't really like that song, I've decided. Anyway, Troy…Gabriella…you know the story. I won't bore you. And for some strange reason, that I knew wasn't strange at all, singing was the most fun I had on vacation. Because, really, who wants to take a vacation to play basketball, when that's all they do at home anyway?

The next morning we had to leave first thing, which sucked, because it meant going home, where evil was awaiting. And by evil, I mean ridiculous teenage drama. Hate it. The plane ride back, which isn't that long, by the way, I colored a large gob of white sticky tack with a purple marker to make purple sticky tack for no other reason than I could.

"Okay…it snowed," I said. "That is awesome."

"Oh, my God, it snowed!" Dylan shouted triumphantly, running out of my line of vision stage right to jump into a big pile of snow just outside the airport. "Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!"

"Come on, Dylan, we have to go home," I called. A big gob of snow hit me right in the ear. "Stupid." I picked up the nearest snow chunk and lobbed it at Dylan. By the time Mom and Dad had all the…everything…put in the car to drive home, Dylan and I were both covered in snow.

"Now look," my mom said. "You're gonna get the car all wet." Me and Dylan immediately stripped off our jackets and threw them in the trunk before hopping into the backseat.

"It never snow," I said. "It should snow more often. It's awesome."

"Chuckie says it's one of the signs of the apocalypse," Dylan said. Little did we know that a few more of the signs were gonna get hit before long. For instance, singing basketball teams, and me dating Gabriella, and Chad actually talking to Taylor.

Ridiculous Teenage Drama was waiting on its front lawn for the second I got home. And by that, I mean, Chuckie, Sarah, and Chad were playing in the snow on their lawn. I went as quickly as I could into the house, mostly to escape said Ridiculous Teenage Drama but also to change my pants, because they were wet from the snow.

"Troy," Chuckie said, barging into my room.

"Do you mind?" I asked.

"I've seen worse," he said, grinning. "Why don't you answer your phone?"

"Uh…no bars in the mountains," I lied, pulling dry pants on.

"Bullshit, cuz Chad said he talked to you every day," Chuckie said. Busted.

"I didn't want to talk to you," I said. "I was mad at you."

"For what?" he asked.

"For dumping me so suddenly," I said. "And for good."

"But I had to. You don't understand," he said. "You're too much for me, and I'm not enough for you. And I mean that not the way I'd usually mean it, because this is a serious conversation."

"No, I do understand," I said. "It was sudden is all."

"So are you talking to me again?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess," I said. "Best Friends Forever."

"Now that's gay," he remarked laughing.

"No, 'besties' would be pretty gay," I said.

"Yeah it would," he said. "Really gay."

"As are we," I said, laughing.

"Does this call for a handshake or a…hug or something?" he asked.

"Nah, I think we're good," I said. "Plus there's also a can of worms in here somewhere."

"Tell me about it," he said. "Well, I left Chad and Sarah alone, should probably get back to them before something bad happens."

"Yep," I said. "I have some snow pants around here somewhere."

"Probably under the large stack of worm cans," Chuckie suggested. We both laughed and I fished a pair of brand new snow pants (bought specifically for the Colorado trip) out and we went outside to play in the snow like we were six and not sixteen. Hey, it never snows.

By the next afternoon, and I'm not even kidding you, every single flake of snow was gone. Really. All gone. And we could walk around without jackets again. It was insane.

"Well, that was fun," Chad said, rolling his eyes. "Now I'm bored again."

"Yeah, me too," I said.

"Me three," Sarah said.

"And I'm last," Chuckie said. "But still bored."

"Hey, I'm bored too!" Dylan interjected.

"Uh-huh," I said. "Proposals for stuff to do?" The phone rang. "Please be something to do." It was Becca for Dylan. He went over to her house. "He's evil."

"He's not so bad," Chuckie said. "Remember Florida?"

"Is it possible to forget?" I returned. "We met Alice in Wonderland." Chad laughed, as if I was saying that was the high point of our trip. Dylan had been especially excited to meet her.

"Well, this seems boring enough," Sarah said. "I'm going home." She stood up, stretched and left.

"Um…aren't you going after her?" I asked.

"Uh…why would I?" Chad asked.

"Uh…because that's what you always do," I said. "You know, for, like, the last three years."

"Insane awkwardness alert," Chuckie said. "I'm going that way." He went out of my field of vision to the left.

"She broke up with you?" I asked. Chad nodded. "That's terrible. When?"

"Right after school ended. Couple weeks ago," Chad said.

"Why?" I asked. Chad shrugged.

"Do people really need reasons these days?" he asked. "We're friends evidently still…whatever."

"That's really sad," I said. "You were together for, like, ever."

"Can we not talk about it?" Chad asked. "Tell me to go to the mall and pick up chicks, or that it's a good thing that I'm single."

"Uh…no one tells you to tone your flab when you're single," I threw out randomly. He stared at me.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said. "There's a…never mind."

"You think I have flab?" Chad asked, suddenly very concerned and examining his stomach.

"No!" I said. "It's part of a song."

"You're…weird today," Chad said.

"I'm weird every day if you hadn't noticed," I said. "And more frequently as of recent."

"See that right there. That was weird. Why do you do that?" Chad asked.

"What? Talk like a normal person?" I asked.

"Talk like a textbook," he said. "Using phrases like 'more frequently as of recent'?"

"I'm in AP English?" I guessed. I really didn't understand what was so weird about it. Fortunately, he dropped it, and we were free to go about our lives.

A few days later, a Monday, if I remember correctly, it was back to school. Fun, fun. Not.

"Hey guys, Happy New Year!" I announced, getting off the bus.

"Hell yeah! It's gonna be a happy Wildcat new year! Because in two weeks, we're going to the Championships with you leading us to infinity and beyond!!" Chad said. "And what team?"

"Wildcats!!"

"No, but really, we're gonna slaughter West. Given how we took down South," Zeke said.

"Yeah, they suck without Justin and Josh," Chuckie said. "I mean, really, really, terrible." We walked into the school. Sharpay flounced past us, as she usually did.

"The ice princess has returned from the North Pole," Zeke said.

"Shut up, you know you like it," Jared said to him.

"She probably spent the holidays the way she usually does," Chad said.

"How's that?" Jason asked.

"Shopping for mirrors," Chad said. He told this joke every year, as a result of her accidentally letting it slip that she'd been mirror shopping during the holidays during sixth grade, and every year, it provoked Taylor McKessie (whose last name I shall cease to use, because we all know who I'm talking about) to say "Behold the zoo animals heralding the new year. How tribal" and this year was no exception. We all headed to homeroom. And I know you're wondering about the pink jelly. Well, it's both an inside joke that you wouldn't get, because you had to be there, and a very well kept secret.

"Hi Troy," Sharpay said.

"Hey," I began to say. I was going to ask her about her vacation to Tahiti that she'd been planning (turns out she didn't go), but an unfamiliar-yet-familiar head of brown hair caught my attention and I lost my train of thought. Completely just…derailed. Gone. Which ended with me getting a quarter of our homeroom detention Darbus-style. Which was so not my fault. After class, I waited for her in the hall ((Explicit Warning: Gabriella's first line in this entire story is next.))

"I can't–" "–believe it." "Well me–" "–neither. But how?" Oh, God, I'm finishing her sentences. This cannot be good.

"My mom's company transferred her here to Albuquerque. I can't believe you live here. I looked for you at the lodge on New Year's Day," she said.

"We had to leave first thing," I whispered.

"Uh, why are you whispering?" she asked. I coughed and looked around.

"Uh, my friends know about the snowboarding, but I haven't exactly told them about the…singing thing." I said.

"Too much for them to handle?" she asked, giggling.

"Nah, it was cool," I said. "But, you know, my friends…it's not what I do." I. Don't. Sing. I am Troy Bolton and I do not sing. That's what I was establishing. Troy Bolton does not sing. And Chad Danforth does not dance. Until he met his match. But I digress, as that's a different chapter. "So anyway, Welcome to East High. And now that you've met Ms. Darbus, I bet you can't wait to sign up for that." I pointed at the sign up sheet for the Winter Musicale.

"I don't think I'll be signing up for anything for a while. I just wanna get to know the school. But if you sign up, I might consider coming to the show."

"Yeah, that's completely impossible," I said.

"What's impossible, Troy?" Sharpay asked. Watching the movie, she looks a lot more like a jungle cat than I ever remember her being. Maybe Chad is right, but I digress again. "I wouldn't think impossible is even in your vocabulary." Then she spotted Gabriella. Uh-oh. "Oh, so nice of you to show our new classmate around. Were you gonna sign up too? My brother and I have starred in all the school's productions and we really welcome newcomers. There are a lot of supporting roles in the show, I'm sure we can find something for you." Marking her territory.

"No, I was just looking at all the bulletin boards. Lots going on at this school. Wow. Nice penmanship," Gabriella said. She sent me a smile and walked off. I watched her go wondering what it was about her that couldn't make me stop staring.

"So, Troy, I missed you during vacation," Sharpay said. Yeah, it was the first one we've spent apart for years. "What'd you do?"

"Oh, you know, basketball, snowboarding, more basketball," I said.

"So, when's the big game?"

"Two weeks."

"You are so dedicated. Just like me. I hope you'll come and watch me in the musical. Promise?" I nodded. "Toodles."

"Toodles," I said.

"So…who's in the hot brunette?" Chad asked me as we "hit the gym" as he called it.

"Uh, her name's Gabriella. She transferred here," I said. "So about that school musical. Is it true you get extra credit just for auditioning?"

"Dude who cares?"

"It's always good to have extra credit. You know, for…college." Wow, Troy, find a lamer way of saying "because the pretty brunette girl wants me to and I want to impress her". Seriously. I am such a dumbass.

"Do you think LeBron James or Shaquille O'Neil auditioned for their school musical?"

"Maybe."

"Dude, the music in those shows isn't hiphop or rock. Or anything essential to culture. It's, like, show music. It's all costumes and makeup and dude. It's frightening."

"I know, I just thought it'd be a good laugh," I said. He gave me a look like "Chuckie thinks it'd be a good laugh. You're insane". "Sharpay's kind of cute too," I added.

"Yeah, so's a mountain lion. But you don't pet it," he said. I cut him off with ordering the team around and singing a song before he could interrogate me about thinking Sharpay's "cute".

"And what team?" "Wildcats!!" "Get'cha Head in the Game!" "Yeah!"

"Troy met a hot brunette," Chad announced at lunch.

"I did not," I said. "Drop it." Each of us had our respective cheerleaders attached to us. With crazy glue. Chuckie and Ruby, Me and Sapphire, Chad and Sarah, Jason and Erica, Zeke and Tina. Hold it, you say, Zeke and Rachel. No. Not Zeke and Rachel. Okay, this story is worth explaining.

Okay, after Zeke and Kelsi broke it off freshman year, Zeke and Rachel got back together. But. When Sharpay was driven out of cheerleading by Rachel and her psycho cheerbots, I wasn't the only one annoyed. Zeke talked to Rachel. The talk turned into a shouting match, which turned into a bellowing match, which turned into Zeke storming out of the gym in a very bad mood. And Rachel hasn't spoken to him or any of the rest of us since. Breakups are so much fun. Not.

"Okay, look at it like this. No offense girls," Chad said. "Girls are evil and they are ruining our lives. Example. Girls equals time times money. Now, time equals money. So, girls equals money squared. And money is the root of all evil. So girls equals the root of all evil squared, so girls equals evil. Got that?" Sarah and I burst out laughing, shortly followed by the rest of everyone around us.

"That's some high end algebra man," I said. "Come up with that all on your own?"

"No, I found it on the internet and memorized it," Chad said. "But it was worth all the work. We are six single guys." The five of us looked at Chad, who looked at us. "I can count right? There are six of us."

"Yes, Chad, go on," I said. "We're all so interested in the next couple of sentences to leave your mouth."

"Why can't we find good women around here?" Chad asked.

"Because you just proved, via old proverbs and some really complicated math, that they were evil and ruining our lives," Chuckie said. "And I don't about you, but they're not ruining my life."

"They're not ruining my life either," I said.

"Nah, I'm good," Zeke said. Jason had fallen asleep.

"How does he do that?" Erica asked. She and Tina had just about as many brain cells combined as Jason himself had. And I'm not stereotyping blonde cheerleaders here. Or cheerleaders in general. They just weren't that smart.

"It's a form of ancient art," I said. "But go on, Chad, I'm very interested in this."

"And since women are evil and ruining our lives, we should just…not," Chad said.

"Not?" Zeke asked.

"Yeah, not," Chad said. "Date. Women. At all."

"Okay," Chuckie agreed immediately. "I think I can be on board with that." Chad, Zeke and I started laughing. "No, really."

"We know," I said. "I suppose I could be on board with that."

"Zeke?" Chad asked.

"Uh…I've been single the longest," he said. "I think."

"Then it's a pact," Chad said. It was the weirdest pact we'd ever made. "So, what's with the hot brunette?"

"She's just a friend," I said. "Even before the pact. I'm more a blonde type of guy."

"Thanks, Troy," Sapphire said.

"Hey, I'm just saying," I said.

"Yeah, I'm more a blonde type of guy too," Zeke said.

"I like the brunettes," Chad said.

"We know," Zeke and I said.

"Chucks?" I asked.

"Uh…I like the brunets," he said. "A little blondish maybe. But real blonds definitely aren't my type. Well…maybe. If they had blue eyes…dazzlingly blue, you know?"

"Zac Efron much?" Sarah said. We all laughed again.

"The word you're looking for is…anyway…" Ruby said. I suppressed a smirk. It took a lot of self constraint, but I did it.

The next morning, I had the sudden urge to go the auditorium to check out the auditions. Stealthily. Because I'm Troy Bolton and I cannot be seen in the auditorium without a blonde chick to make out with. Common knowledge. As I was deftly hiding behind a mop, Gabriella came around and busted me by asking the one most simplest question, like, ever, but I couldn't answer it. Might I have added that my train of thought was still…just gone. Finito.

"Why are you hiding behind a mop?" she asked me. I stared at her. "Your friends don't know you're here, do they?"

"Uh…right," I said. So we watched the singers be just terrible on stage. I'm not a singer (okay, I wasn't a singer), but even I could tell they sucked. As Sharpay and Ryan did their song and dance combo, all I could think is Wow. I'd seen them dance about a thousand times before, but they're still amazing every time. I mean it. They're good, I gotta give it to them. And then (and this should have stopped me liking her in the first place, but whatever) Gabriella decided "Hey guess what I want to audition." I was all "WHAT? Are you insane?" Evidently, she is. Who knew? Which resulted in me singing with her again. And I could feel it. I'm sure what "it" was, but it was definitely everywhere in the air, and I could feel it. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, because you obviously know it all.

"Call back? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Sharpay screamed. Everyone could hear her. She had a habit of that. Quite the drama queen. My brain registered one thought: Take cover. When finally I went to lunch, because my hunger ultimately won out over my fear of Sharpay, there was chaos everywhere.

"What's up?" I asked Chad.

"Well, you missed free period workout yesterday to audition for some heinous musical, and suddenly people are…confessing," Chad said. "Yeah, and Zeke. Zeke is baking. Crème Brûlée!"

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh, it's a creamy custard-like filling with a carmelized surface. It's really satisfying," Zeke said.

"Shut up Zeke," Chad said. Zeke gave him a "you don't own me" face and left to sit with some skater dudes. "Look, do you see what's happening here, man? Our team is coming apart because of your singing thing. Even the drama geeks and the brainiacs suddenly think that they can, like, talk to us. The skater dudes are mingling. Suddenly people think that they can do other stuff. Stuff that is not their stuff. They've got you thinking about show tunes, when we've got a playoff game next week.." He stormed off before I could ask him what got him so Sharpay-like all of a sudden. I just ignored it and went to hang with Zeke and the skater dudes. Because they're cool. And about three seconds later, I had an idea. Invite Gabriella up to the science club roof. Because that's cool.

"At my other schools I was the freaky math girl. It's cool coming here and being…anyone I want to be. When I was singing with you, I just felt like…a girl," she said.

"You even look like one too!" I said, reminding myself that she was a girl. A girl. A girl who was not Sharpay. It's a strange emotion, it really is. You should try it someday, I really recommend it.

My dad really needs to learn to be nicer to people who don't play Varsity basketball. Really. Enough said.

"What spell has this elevated-IQ temptress girl cast that suddenly makes you wanna be in a musical?" Chad interrogated me in the library on Thursday.

"Look, I just did it. Who cares?" I asked.

"Who cares? How about your most loyal best friend?" Chad asked. I snorted. "Look, you're a hoops dude, not a musical singer person. Have you ever seen Michael Crawford on a cereal box?"

"Who's Michael Crawford?" I asked absently.

"Exactly my point. He was the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Now my mom has seen that musical 27 times, and put Michael Crawford's picture in our refrigerator. Yeah, not on it, in it. So my point is, if you play basketball, you're gonna end up on a cereal box. If you sing in musicals, you'll end up in my mom's refrigerator," Chad said.

"Why would she put his picture in her refrigerator?" I asked. Better question: Why didn't I know that? Answer: Cuz I, like, never go over to his house. Have I gone to his house once in this entire story? No.

"One of her crazy diet ideas. Look, I don't attempt to understand the female mind, Troy," Chad said. "It's frightening territory. How can you expect the rest of us to be focused on a game if you're off somewhere in leotards singing Twinkle Towne?"

"No one said anything about leotards," I said defensively.

"Not yet, my friend, but just you wait," he said. I sighed. Chad and his dumb ideas. I'd already sworn of chicks for him, what more did he want??

The next day at lunch, the team didn't show up so I looked for them in the locker rooms.

"Spider Bill Netrine, class of '72. He was the MVP in the league championship game," Chad said.

"Sam Nedler, class of '02. Also known as Sammy Slamma Jamma. Captain, MVP of the league championship team," Zeke said.

"The Thunder Clap Hap Hadden, '95. Led the Wildcats to back-to-back city championships. A legend," Jason said.

"Yes, legends, one and all," Chad said. I was confused. "But do you think that any of these Wildcat legends became legends by getting involved in musical auditions just days before the league championships?"

"Get'cha Head in the Game!" the team shouted.

"No. These Wildcat legends became legends because they never took their eye off the prize."

"Get'cha Head in the Game!"

"Now, who was the first sophomore ever to make starting varsity?"

"Troy!"

"So, who voted him our team captain this year?" Chad asked.

"Us!"

"And who is gonna get their sorry butts kicked in Friday's championship game if Troy's worried about an audition?"

"We are."

"Guys, come on." I said, finally getting it. "I mean, there's 12 people on this team, not just me."

"Just 12? Oh, no. I think you're forgetting about one very important 13th member of our squad," Chad said, handing me a picture.

"My dad," I said.

"Yes, Troy. Wildcat basketball champion, class of 1981. Champion, father, and now coach. It's a winning tradition like no other," Chad said.

"Guys, if you don't know that I'll put 110 of my guts into that game, then you don't know me," I said.

"But we just thought…" Chad began, but I cut him off.

"And I'll tell you what I thought. I thought that you're my friends. Win together, lose together, teammates," I said. This was the speech I'd prepared for when they freaked out about my coming out. It was early, but it worked.

"But suddenly, the girl, and the singing," Chad said.

"Man! I'm for the team! I've always been for the team. She's just someone I met," I said. "She's a friend. Alright the singing thing is nothing. Probably just a way to keep my nerves down. I don't know. It means nothing to me. You're my guys and this is our team. Gabriella is not important. I'll forget about her, I'll forget the audition and we'll go out and get that championship. Everyone happy now?" They passed agreeing looks around. "Good." We left the locker rooms. "Cuz I don't mean a word of it," I grumbled all to myself when I got into the hallway. Gabriella was at her locker, and she completely blew me off. I couldn't understand it. It made no sense, because I'm the kind of idiot who doesn't notice when his two best friends stab him in the back in front of his face. It seemed like a good time to take a run, something new I decided to try. I made a mental list of all the weird things in my life.

One. Gabriella sketchily shows up at my school after I meet her for five minutes on vacation.

Two. Chuckie dumps me out of the blue, for good, and for real, and then acts like nothing ever happened.

Three. Chad's new anti-girl pact. Was he going gay on us now? Or bitter about his breakup?

Four. Sharpay acting weird about the callbacks. She had to know that I didn't want to steal her and Ryan's parts.

Five. There was a lot of singing going on as of late.

Six. People are confessing, not that that's a bad thing. But Chad and Sharpay both think I'm behind it, which I'm not.

Seven. I'm feuding with my dad, and Gabriella won't even talk to me, and I don't know why.

Eight. I can't make any baskets.

Nine. I'm too tired from this run to think anymore.

Ten. There might be a slight possibility that the feeling I get around Gabriella might be love. Which sucks. But she's cool.

And so that was the list. It sucked. The weekend sucked. I spent it emo-ly in my room, listening to music as loudly as my parents would allow, being interrupted by Dylan every so often so he could ask me for help on his homework, or to make sure I was okay, or something. Monday came, and it was very awkward to see Gabriella, so I just ran away to the science club garden to organize my thoughts. Unfortunately my team followed me.

"Hey, um… We just had another team meeting," Chad said.

"Oh, wonderful," I said, rolling my eyes.

"We had a team meeting about how we haven't been acting like a team," Chad said. "I mean us, not you. Look, about the singing thing…"

"Look, dude, I don't even wanna talk about it," I said.

"We just want you to know that we're gonna be there, okay? Cheering for you," Chad said.

"Yeah, if singing is something you wanna do, we should be boosting you up, not tearing you down," Zeke said.

"Yeah. Win or lose, we're teammates. That's what we're about. Even if you turn out to be the worst singer in the world."

"Which we don't know because we haven't actually heard you sing," Jason said. I stared at him. He heard me sing all the time.

"And you're not gonna hear me sing, guys," I said, ignoring that. "Because Gabriella won't even talk to me and I don't know why."

"We do," Chad said. Zeke gave me some cookies in enough saran wrap to choke an entire ocean full of fishes.

"I baked these fresh today. You'll probably want to try one before we tell you the rest," he said. "And the saran wrap kind of got away from me."

"So…" I said after hearing the story, "you guys are complete douches."

"Pretty much, that's what it boils down to," Chad said. "Yeah."

"Good to know," I said. "Sixteen years, you think I would have figured that out."

"Look," Chad said. "We thought Gabriella and the whole singing thing was ruining our chances of winning the championship. But you're our captain and our best friend." I suddenly realized a missing presence.

"Guys, where's Chuckie?" I asked. They all exchanged uncomfortable looks. "Guys…?"

"I don't know," Chad said. "We couldn't find him."

"Oh, jeez," I said. "Jerk." I knew exactly where he was. Avoiding me. And hating me for my damn butterflies. I mean, I love all of God's creatures, and the metaphors they represent, but the butterflies have to be murdered.

"You know, and for the record, it'd still be the longest standing pact we ever had if you wanted to ask her out," Chad said.

"Changed your opinion on women all of a sudden?" I teased.

"No, he finally worked up the nerve to talk to Taylor McKessie," Zeke said.

"Right," I said. "How is that? Got her hooked on the Chad love?"

"Who calls it that?" Chad asked.

"You do," I said. "All the time with Sarah." Chad looked embarrassed.

"Can we talk about something else?" he asked. The bell rang.

"Saved by the bell," Jason said, grinning.

Of course, I still had problems. Gabriella still wouldn't talk to me, although I knew why. I went over to her house to make up with her, which ended with me singing (really badly, I realize) on her balcony. It was kinda stalkerish, I gotta admit.

"So you're saying you can't go out with me because your basketball team has sworn off women?" Gabriella asked me as we looked over her backyard.

"Pretty much," I said. "That sounds a little gay, doesn't it?"

"Just a little," she said, laughing. "You gonna implement shower orgies next?" I laughed slightly at the thought of Chad and the guys in a shower orgy, but made it off as a sound of preposterousness.

"Preposterous," I said. "Chad would never go for it. Or the rest of us." Gabriella just giggled.

"When do you suppose they'll give up the pact?" she asked.

"Give it until Friday," I said. "Chad's got a major crush on your friend Taylor, so he'll probably ask her out, and when he does, then I can break the pact."

"That's the most ridiculous reason for turning down a girl I ever heard," she said. "And I've heard some ridiculous ones."

"Yeah, well, this is a ridiculous school," I said. "You learned that the hard way."

"I'm sorry I angered your…girlfriend," she said.

"Uh…ex-girlfriend. Seriously ex. Like so long ago it's not even in recall," I said. "And now she's gone…insane, I think. Seriously don't think she'll ever talk to me again."

"It'd be a shame," Gabriella said, sarcastically.

"Yeah," I said "So, I should be getting home."

"It's like nine," Gabriella said.

"Yeah, my parents have weird letting go issues, but we can talk about them some other time," I said.

The next day we resumed our rehearsals for the callbacks, and on Wednesday morning, the time of the callbacks got changed to the same day and the time as the game and the decathlon. I smelled a seriously fake blonde shrew. Not that I'd ever call her that to her face. She may be evil, and another of my best friends, but she scares me. And she gets really touchy when someone insinuates that her hair color isn't real. So we'll just say it is.

"Actually, I think it's two rats, neither of them named Darbus," Kelsi said. So let's say I forgave her for kissing Ryan. It was, like, one time, and they were drunk. And we'd gotten drunk several times since, and it hadn't happened again.

"Do you know something about this, small person?" Chad asked.

"Ms. Darbus might think that she's protecting the show, but Ryan and Sharpay are pretty much only concerned with protecting themselves," Kelsi said.

"Do you know what I'm gonna do to those two over-moussed show dogs?" Chad asked, angrily.

"Nothing," I said, quickly. They were good people under their competitive nature. And I didn't want to get our asses kicked. Plus we could get kicked off the team for being violent at school. "We're not gonna do anything to them. Except sing, maybe. Alright, now this is only gonna happen if we all work together. Now who's in?" It was a "let's do this yo" moment.

Friday came. Do you know how hard it is to go from playing basketball to running down a hallway somehow managing to change outfits, then sing a song to win a callback that ten days ago you didn't know existed, to go back to playing basketball and slaughtering West? It's not easy. But I'm cool like that.

"Congratulations, Wildcat!" Gabriella exclaimed, sneaking up behind me for an attack hug.

"What about your team?" I asked.

"We won too!" she exclaimed. I moved in to kiss her, screw the pact, my stomach was going insane with the damn insectuous feelings, but Chad ruined it.

"Team voted you the game ball, Captain!" he announced, handing me the ball.

"Yeah, thank you. Thanks a lot," I said. I just wanted to kiss her to see if it was all my body kept telling me it was going to be (FYI: It so was). I walked off to find somewhere to put the ball down, but Gabriella found me.

"Chad just asked Taylor out," she announced, squealing. "Which means…"

"So it does," I said. "Gabriella Elizabeth Montez, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes!" she squealed excitedly, jumping into another hug. Her hair smells like guava. And I'm not even sure what guava smells like. Like Gabriella's hair, I guess. Kelsi was walking by so I stopped her.

"Composer, here's your game ball. You deserve it, playmaker," I told her. She obviously had no idea what to do with it, but Jason came by and helped her shoot it, one of his only skills besides the ability to nap at the most awkward of times.

The afterparty was definitely not all it was cracked up to be. It was moved from Chad's to the Evans' at the last second, and did you know Gabriella doesn't drink? I was almost appalled. Until I remembered that only a few of the cheerleaders ever did, and it wasn't that strange. So we danced instead. Basically what we were going to do was dance. And we did. And not to seem needy, or like I can't not be in a relationship or something, but it's really nice to have someone who cares about you. Which, in retrospect, makes me hate myself, but that's okay. I try not to mind too much.

And you know what? We are all in this together. Even if it is just for the cookies.

A/N: I've been procrastinating this since Thursday, sorry. And that's not the end. Trust me, you'll know when it's the end. And this isn't it. And just so you know, the next chapter is longer than the last one. This one isn't. If I'm writing a little emo-ly, it's because I got a little too invested in Chad and Sarah's relationship, forgetting that they had to break up eventually, and didn't prepare myself for their breakup, and I'm really sad that I had to break them up. I'm also sad to break up Troy and Chuckie, but I really like Troy and Ryan together. It's unfortunate that I already wrote that part.

Anyway, so I don't own anything, like HSM, most of the script of this chapter, or the line from Gossip Girl that I used. So, thanks for reading, and please review! Because the next chapter is good. And I promise to stop procrastinating…eventually. :D

Samantha.