Co-Written with cj10824

Chapter 25

Troy stopped outside of the doorway, a basketball under one arm as he leaned against the door frame, silently watching the girl inside who was not remotely aware of his presence. Her eyes darted back and forth across the page before jotting down a few notes in her notebook. Troy smiled at her focused look, watching as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and placed the end of her pen in her mouth.

"Big test coming up?"

Troy smiled as Gabriella gasped in shock, not suspecting him there, before her eyes connected with his and a small grin took over her features.

"Just getting ready for finals," Gabriella told him, setting her pen down as she spun around in her seat to face Troy, who had now stepped further into the room, leaning up against the counter across from her desk.

"Finals, already? Those are still a couple of weeks away."

"Yeah, well I like to get started early."

"And there's the difference between you and me," Troy teased with a smile. "I bet you were a straight A student all throughout elementary, junior high, and high school, huh?"

"No, I got a B once."

"Once," Troy teased, loving the blush that was making its way onto her cheeks.

"Yes, once," Gabriella repeated, grinning as well. "It was in cooking class in high school. It's not my fault Mrs. Jackson bumped into me and ended up with a chocolate cake plastered to her face," Gabriella finished explaining, her story causing Troy to erupt in fits of laughter.

"Shut up," Gabriella reprimanded, standing up and walking over to Troy, smacking him on his shoulder. "It's not that funny."

"Oh, it is though," Troy managed to gasp out through his laughter, laughing more as Gabriella shoved him. "Sorry, I'll stop," Troy continued to laugh, holding his hands up in surrender.

"You don't sound like you're stopping," Gabriella teased back, failing as she tried to hide her playful smile.

"I am, I swear," Troy cleared his throat, hiding his laughter. "You know, with your academic record, it looks like I'm pretty lucky to end up in your group for class. Although, that's not the only reason I'm lucky to be in your group," Troy charmed, his hand gently gripping her waist as he whispered the last part in her ear.

"And the old player Troy is back," Gabriella joked, pushing him away.

"You know you love it Angel," Troy winked at her, enjoying their playful banter.

"What are you doing in here anyways? Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for practice?"

Troy stepped back to the counter, hoisting himself up on it to sit down, his legs dangling off the edge, as Gabriella sat on the desk across from him. "I am ready for practice. And since it doesn't start for a bit, I figured I'd come save my friend from her boring job."

Gabriella smiled at his mention of them being friends. She knew that he wanted more than that, but she was happy that he was embracing their friendship and not pushing her to the side because she didn't want more.

"My job is not that boring. I do get my homework done."

"Puh-lease Gabriella," Troy rolled his eyes, hopping down from the counter and reaching behind her on the desk while grabbing her book. "Please tell me how," Troy paused and held up the book in front of her, "Business Principles and Management is not boring. This is the definition of boring. Who reads the textbooks anyways?"

"People who want to get A's," Gabriella quipped back, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Whatever," Troy laughed, placing the book down and picking up the basketball that had been laying forgotten on the ground. "Come on."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him. "Where am I going?"

"We are going to go play ball."

"Why would I go play basketball with you?"

"Because," Troy began, placing the ball under one arm while placing his hands on her shoulders and guiding her towards the door, "you are dying to do something not so boring."

"But Troy, I have to be in the office in case someone calls."

Troy chuckled, pushing her out of the office before closing the door behind them. "Nice try Gabriella, but we both know that is a weak excuse. When's the last time you got a call in here?"

Troy watched as she got a pensive look on her face, racking her brain to come up with an answer. "And that proves my point," Troy laughed as she'd yet to come up with an answer. "Let's go."

Leading her out to the basketball court, Troy walked to the top of the key with her close behind, before turning around and tossing her the ball.

"So when do you get off work?"

"A half-hour," Gabriella responded, facing the hoop and taking her shot.

"Nice," Troy praised her as the ball sailed through. "Nice form too…looks like you remember what I taught you, huh?" Troy smirked, earning an amused roll of the eyes from Gabriella.

"Ah yes, I remember that day…that was the day you made an inappropriate comment and I chucked the ball at your gut," Gabriella grinned slyly, the two comfortable chatting about the time early on when Gabriella was always dodging Troy.

"Yeah, you did," Troy chuckled, dribbling the ball a couple of times before taking a shot. "That hurt too by the way. A few inches lower and you could have done some real damage Montez."

"Well if you had quicker reflexes Bolton, that wouldn't have hit you at all," Gabriella teased back as she grabbed the rebound.

Troy dropped his jaw playfully, his eyes on Gabriella as she smirked while making another shot. "See? Isn't this so much more fun than just sitting in there doing homework? I mean, now you have basketball and good company."

"Good company? You?"

Troy rolled his eyes at her teasing, walking over to her after grabbing the ball, nudging her shoulder playfully with his. "Shut up Montez."

Gabriella smiled back at him, nudging him back before watching as he took another shot. She still wasn't completely ready for more with Troy, but she couldn't help but listen to the small voice in her head that was telling her that the Troy she was attracted to all along was still there, and maybe one day the two could move forward into a relationship.

After getting back to her new place once she finished work, Gabriella quickly showered and got dressed before driving to meet Sharpay and Taylor for dinner. As the three sat down, they easily jumped right into their first conversation since coming back from break.

"Sorry I'm a little late," Gabriella apologized as she sat down at the table. "I was a little sweaty from playing basketball so I had to take a shower first."

"You were playing basketball? With who?" Sharpay questioned curiously.

Gabriella groaned to herself, having a feeling she was going to get teased. "Troy," she said softly, her head dropping so she wouldn't see their reactions.

"Troy, huh?" Sharpay asked, raising her eyebrows at Gabriella. "Speaking of Troy, you have some information to share. Don't think we weren't going to talk about the closeness I saw between the two of you at the game last week. What was that all about?"

Gabriella blushed a little, embarrassed at all the attention being on her and Troy. "I was just helping him out."

"Who was the girl talking to you two?" Taylor asked, joining in.

"That was his ex, Monica."

Sharpay choked on her drink at Gabriella's words, taking a few moments to catch her breath. "You kissed him? In front of his ex?"

"You saw that?"

"Of course I did, I see all Gabriella," Sharpay joked before turning serious. "Now spill. I never thought of you as the type to mark your territory like that."

Gabriella blushed even more. "I wasn't marking my territory."

"Sure you weren't," Sharpay said with a playful roll of her eyes.

"I wasn't! I was just helping him out. He looked uncomfortable, and I knew he didn't want to talk to her, so I thought as a friend, I'd help him show her that he'd moved on."

"They have a bad break-up?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah, from what I hear, things were really bad. I don't want to go into it really, but I knew Troy didn't want her around. I just helped him get that extra strength he needed to show her he'd moved on from her to help him also find the closure he needed."

"And show her that she can't have him because he's taken," Sharpay added with a wink towards Gabriella.

"Are you okay after all of that?" Taylor jumped in, saving Gabriella from having to respond to Sharpay's last comment.

"Yeah, I explained to him why I did it, and that I was just helping him as a friend. He knows what I was doing, and he thanked me for helping him out."

"He's okay with just being friends?"

"He seems to be. I mean, he has his moments where his playful, flirty self comes out," Gabriella smiled a bit, thinking back to their banter earlier in the day. "But he seems to be okay with where things are right now."

Sharpay smiled up at Gabriella, noticing her content tone of voice. "We're happy for you Gabi. You were really down after everything, which is understandable. From what we hear though, Troy was too. This is good for both of you, just getting back to being friends."

"Thanks," Gabriella smiled genuinely at both of them.

Taylor smiled back, but noticed Gabriella's slight discomfort with the subject at hand. "So Gabs, how's the new place?"

"It's awesome. Actually, much better than living on Greek Row ever was. The only thing I miss is living with you guys."

"Well you'd better," Sharpay playfully warned her, taking a second to glance up from her menu.

Taylor shook her head at Sharpay before turning back to Gabriella. "No problems living with Martha?"

"None at all. She's been great so far. You and Chad should come over and meet her and check the place out," Gabriella told Taylor as the two joined Sharpay in looking over their menus.

"Sharpay's already been over?"

"Are you kidding me? She was there the first night she got back from Albuquerque. I think her squeal when she saw Zeke scared Martha a bit."

"Shut up, I did not squeal that loudly," Sharpay jumped in defensively.

"My ears beg to differ," Gabriella shot back, earning a glare from Sharpay. "So how are things with you? How are things in the house now that I'm gone?"

Taylor shook her head, thinking about the tension that had grown in the past few days. "Well Nicole's on even more of a rampage since you left."

"Really?"

Sharpay nodded emphatically. "Yeah, a lot of the girls are pissed off at her because they are fed up with how she's been acting lately since being on probation."

"Even though she's not eligible to run for any offices since she's graduating, if she were, she'd never get voted in as president or anything else with the way she's been acting. If there was more time before elections, it's possible we all would have decided to remove her from office for the rest of the year. Like Shar said, people are really getting fed up."

"Wow," Gabriella sighed, taking a sip of her drink. "I thought things were going to be bad for the two of you, but I didn't think everyone else would be having problems with her too."

"People are seeing what a conniving, ugly bitch she really is," Sharpay said, without a second thought, glancing at Taylor and Gabriella with an innocent look while they looked back at her with eyebrows raised. "What? Come on, you know you two were thinking it. I speak my mind, sue me."

Gabriella and Taylor both laughed at their friend, stopping as the waiter came to take their order before the three fell into easy conversation, thankful to be able to hang out together without the drama that surrounded them back at campus.

Later that night, Zeke, Troy, and Gabriella found themselves sitting in the family room of Gabriella and Zeke's new place as they discussed the remainder of their group project.

"Alright Troy, so what's this stellar idea you had?" Gabriella asked, remembering how excited he was earlier when he mentioned it to her.

Troy smiled at her, debating on whether or not he'd flirt a bit and tease her, running with her question, but decided against it as his eyes met Zeke's who was sitting across from him. Things were getting better between the two, but he still didn't want to test it.

"Okay, so my idea," Troy pulled out his notebook, flipping through it before pulling out a piece of paper, holding it to his chest so they didn't see it yet. "Now I kind of already started planning this, but I wanted to run it by you two first before I went any further."

Troy took a deep breath, noting their curious faces before flipping the piece of paper over and setting it face up on the coffee table. He watched as Zeke and Gabriella scooted closer to the table from their places on the couch, the two reading over the paper.

"It's a flier, for a concert."

"At Starlight?" Gabriella asked, noticing the name of the club they had all visited earlier that semester, the same club outside of which Troy and Gabriella had shared their first kiss.

"Yeah," Troy answered softly, his gaze making Gabriella blush lightly as they both recalled that night.

"This says live music?" Zeke asked, breaking the two out of their gaze.

"Yeah, I was thinking we could hire a live band for the first half of the night, then we could have a DJ for the rest of the night. Anyways, we'd rent out Starlight and charge for admission, the profits going to the fraternity for our philanthropy. We put our semester long project to the test, showing how right we have been with our observations and business plan, and also save Zeta Theta Mu from certain campus and National probation for not doing our share for our philanthropy this semester. Killing two birds with one stone!" Troy beamed, feeling rather satisfied with himself.

Gabriella's jaw dropped as she began to tune Troy out as her eyes caught site of a date at the bottom of the flier. "Next Thursday?"

"Well yeah," Troy replied, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "The project is due on our scheduled final day, so if we're going to do it, we need to get it done now."

"That's a little over a week…we can do it. We just need to book the club, get a band, print out a bunch of fliers and spread the word, hire a DJ, and get some extra help for admission and stuff," Zeke spoke up, taking a deep breath when he finished as he realized just how much work they had to do.

"Don't worry about it, I've got most of that covered already."

Gabriella glanced at Troy in disbelief, surprised he'd put so much thought and effort into this already. "Really?"

Troy nodded. "I booked Starlight for us for the evening, I've got my connections there, don't look so shocked Gabriella, and I have this demo flier for us. I'm working on the DJ and band still, but as far as the extra help, since the profits can go to the frat, we can get the brothers to help out that night so it's a legitimate Zeta Theta Mu event."

"Wow, impressive. And here I thought you didn't care about the project at all," Gabriella teased, earning a grin from Troy. "Although, no offense, but can we really count on the brothers of Zeta Theta Mu to really help us pull this off?"

"Yeah, damn Troy," Zeke added, shaking his head in disbelief. "Looks like you've thought this through pretty well. Don't worry about the brothers Gabs. They'll be on their best behavior at least for the first half of the event because they know this philanthropy event is key to the rest of the scholastic year unless we want to end up like a certain sorority…"

"Exactly Zeke! Figured I should contribute at some point," Troy shrugged, earning a giggle from Gabriella which prompted him to send her a smile.

"So now we mainly need to figure out a DJ and a band," Zeke commented as he brought their attention back to brainstorming about their project.

Troy nodded, focusing once more. "I've been in contact with a guy at school, who I think is willing to DJ for a minimal cost if I hook him up with some of my other contacts. He said he'd get back to me by tomorrow night."

"And the band?"

"Still working on that. I thought it'd be good to find a band around school, maybe one not too popular, since they'd cost more money to book plus this could really help boost a band's popularity."

Gabriella glanced over at Zeke, the two smiling and silently communicating as they realized they were thinking the same thing.

"What?" Troy asked, seeing the silent conversation.

"You remember Martha?" Gabriella asked, her and Zeke now standing up from their seats, Troy following.

"Yeah, your other roommate I met the other day."

Gabriella nodded. "Okay well, she is actually in a band. And they are about to start practicing for the night in just a few minutes."

"You guys think they'd be up for playing?"

"Wouldn't hurt to ask," Zeke added. "Come on, give them a listen and we can discuss it."

Troy followed Gabriella and Zeke as they walked through the family room and headed down the hall towards the garage, the music Troy had heard faintly from earlier getting louder. Gabriella pushed open the door, ushering the two guys through, waving slightly to Martha who looked up at them, before the three leaned up against the wall in the corner.

After listening to a couple of songs, the three headed back into the family room to talk more about the project and make their decision about the band.

"They sounded pretty awesome! I think that type of sound will work for Starlight, what do you two think?" Troy asked, excited that maybe they'd found a band and things were coming together even more than he had originally thought.

"I think it would work too," Zeke agreed as they sat down. "And we know Martha and the band would probably be stoked to have a gig like that…plus they wouldn't need too much pay in exchange for the exposure as you pointed out."

Gabriella nodded in agreement, voicing her opinion. "Yeah, she was just telling us the other night how they are looking for more gigs. This might work perfectly."

"Awesome! Can you guys ask her?"

"Sure! We'll ask her tonight after her practice is done," Gabriella volunteered, much to Troy's excitement.

"Perfect and I'll work on getting that DJ plus make sure we have enough brothers helping out," Troy told them, while picking up his flier and going to place it in his notebook. "Oh, and if Martha does agree, let me know and I can spice up the flier a bit with their band name and all. We can then print a bunch out this week and post them around school, even get our friends and the brothers to help with word of mouth, yet another part of our business plan. Before you say anything Zeke, I'll make sure the brothers are cool having you at an event even if you aren't supposed to be. This is our project first and if they can't deal, then Zeta Theta Mu gets suspended. Simple as that."

"Thanks Troy, you read my mind. Alright, well I need to get upstairs and finish an assignment before calling Sharpay," Zeke said as he stood up, sending Troy a glare as Troy made a whipping sound.

Troy laughed, raising his hands defensively, unable to fight off his grin as he heard Gabriella's laughter.

"Go call your girlfriend Zeke. I don't want her calling me to yell about you," Gabriella laughed, shoving his shoulder gently.

"Alright, alright, I'm going. Later Troy," Zeke waved, gathering his books and darting up the stairs.

After a few moments of neither saying anything, Troy looked up, his eyes meeting Gabriella's as the two shared a shy smile. "I guess I'd better get going too. Leave you to all that intense finals studying."

"Shut up CP," Gabriella laughed, nudging his shoulder with hers as he gathered his books, walking towards the front door.

As they reached the door, Troy paused, turning to look at Gabriella.

"Thanks for planning all of this out for the project, Troy. You really surprised me with how much you've thought it through."

"Well, just because I've gotten a few B's in my academic career, doesn't mean I don't care about this project," Troy teased. "Besides, I have to hold my own in this project and contribute. Can't have your near perfect record blemished."

"Are you ever going to let that go?" Gabriella sighed jokingly.

"Hmmm," Troy paused, looking pensive as he rubbed his chin before he broke into a smile. "Nope."

"Great," Gabriella giggled, Troy joining in her laughter. "Well I'll let you know what Martha says tomorrow, does that work?"

"Sure," Troy smiled, opening up the door, pausing as he placed one hand on Gabriella's waist while he leaned down to brush his lips softly against her cheek. "Night Angel."

"Night CP."