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.

ATTENTION NEW READERS

If you haven't read the first 28 chapters of this story, I have recently added an outline of the events to date in my profile. Hopefully this will be a useful tool for anyone who is thinking "shit man I don't have time right now to go back and read 28 chapters!" So yeah... go check it out and then come back and read this chapter so everything might make a bit more sense!

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Chapter 29 – Murphy's Law

In the theatre, it is generally considered a good thing to have a bad dress rehearsal. If the old wives tale is indeed a reflection of reality, then Twinkle Towne was set to be a spectacular show because the very first full run through was a complete and utter disaster. Friday afternoon was the first time that Miss Darbus took away the scripts, it was the first time that she brought in the full band, it was the first time that costumes (well, parts of costumes that were ready) were put in the dressing rooms.

The very first scene of dialogue was the first section that Gabriella and Troy had began rehearsing straight away after being cast in the roles.

"My sister and I are very much so looking forward to the ball tomorrow night," Gabriella said, in character as Minnie.

There was silence.

"Your line," Gabriella whispered to Troy.

"Oh! Um…"

Patrick, one of the backstage hands, was clutching onto a script in the wings. He was to prompt the actors when they needed prompting. Miss Darbus had made it clear that she expected Patrick to be doing very little that afternoon.

"My brother…" Patrick prompted.

"My brother… my brother and I…"

"Are looking forward…" Patrick supplied.

"Are looking forward to your company. It should be a… a nice…"

"Wonderful," Patrick corrected.

"Wonderful," Troy echoed. "A wonderful… ball."

"A wonderful evening," Patrick said.

"BOLTON!" Miss Darbus shouted from the audience. "You have had this script for over a month. Why is it that Miss Montez has managed to absorb something from the page whereas you have failed to do so?"

"I'm sorry! Normally I know a lot more than this… I'm just…. I'm tired I guess," Troy said, trying to defend himself.

"Patrick, get Bolton a script. We're going to be here all night if you're like this the whole way through. Today is the last time I want to see you with a script, Mr Bolton. Got it?"

Troy nodded meekly. "Yes ma'am."

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Gabriella was fine with her dialogue. She was fine with the songs. She was not fine with the dancing. From the very first dance of the show, with nearly the whole cast in the ballroom; it became clear that Gabriella was struggling with the choreography. If she wasn't a beat behind, she was a beat ahead. If she wasn't crashing into someone, she was staring intently at the person beside her, imitating their moves. Troy, surprisingly, had taken to the dancing rather well. Although Gabriella could justify that given that he required good footwork and coordination for basketball.

"Miss Montez! We choreographed this dance a whole month ago. You should NOT need to be looking at Mr Bolton to remember whether to step to the right or to the left!" Miss Darbus exclaimed in exasperation.

Gabriella hung her head, she was mortified at being reprimanded so publicly.

"Sorry," she said awkwardly. "I uh… I don't know what's wrong with me today. Sorry."

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It wasn't only Troy and Gabriella though. The band for some reason was not grasping several of the songs very well. Remembering dance choreography seemed to be a problem for quite a few of them – possibly exacerbated by Sharpay's continual interference with the choreographer. Gabriella was nearly knocked out by a piece of falling scenery as a result of the incompetence of the backstage hands – fortunately Troy yanked her out of the way just in time.

During the fifteen minute break, Troy and Gabriella huddled themselves into one of the dressing rooms.

"Oh my Lord this is excruciatingly painful," Gabriella groaned. "This is terrible. We are terrible. WHY are we doing this? Why did we ever audition?"

"We didn't. We were just singing and Miss Darbus heard. Damn Miss Darbus for hanging around after the audition," Troy whined.

A knock came at the door.

"What?!" Gabriella said irritably.

The door opened, and Ryan poked his head in. "Uh, can I come in?"

"I guess," Troy said.

"I just wanted to let you guys know that you shouldn't worry about today going so badly. This is why we have this rehearsal today. The whole point of it is to go through everything roughly so we know exactly where all the problems are. Everything is MEANT to go wrong today, you want everything that could go wrong to go wrong, so that you can prepare for it and deal with it."

They both looked at Ryan sceptically.

"Thanks for trying but I still feel like shit," Troy said. "There's a difference between things going wrong and me not knowing my lines."

"Yeah but now that you realise how behind you are, you can prepare accordingly."

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Troy and Gabriella stood on the doorstep to the Montez household, arms enclosed around the other, entangled in a soft, probing lip lock.

"You know it's going to be fine, right?" Troy murmured, gently caressing the side of her face. "I think Ryan was right."

"I'm just… I'm not used to…"

"To feeling like you can't do something?" Troy supplied gently.

Gabriella nodded. "Stupid, huh?"

"No, not at all."

"Let's not talk about it," Gabriella declared. "It was terrible, I can accept that, and let's move on."

"Except it's going to be plaguing you all weekend long, isn't it?"

"Maybe," she admitted.

"I wish I didn't have to go home yet."

"Aren't you excited about meeting the other guys?" Gabriella asked.

"I am. But I'd rather be here with you," Troy confessed. He glanced at his watch. "Some of the billets are probably already there."

"That's great, so I reveal my biggest secret to you last night and then we have a shit day at rehearsal and you're going to leave me here all vulnerable and depressed?" Gabriella joked.

Troy looked stricken.

"I'm kidding," Gabriella said quickly.

"Are you okay though? After… after last night?" Troy asked tentatively.

She nodded. "I thought I'd be weird but… I kind of… I feel relieved, you know?"

"Like a weight is off your shoulders?"

"Kinda."

"My mom always says that a problem shared is a problem halved," Troy said, rolling his eyes. "Kinda dumb but, kinda true. I want you to feel like you can keep sharing with me."

Gabriella smiled sadly, nodding appreciatively. Troy's text message tone sounded, he cursed at the inappropriate timing of it all. He fished his cell out of his pocket and sighed. "It's dad. He says they're waiting for me."

"Go on then," Gabriella prompted. "I know you're excited about meeting them. You don't need to pretend otherwise for my sake. Have your manly basketball weekend and enjoy every moment of it."

"I'll miss you," Troy said earnestly.

"You better."

Troy jogged halfway home. Gabriella was right – he was excited about the weekend. With the stress of musical preparation, he hadn't really had the chance to contemplate his selection a lot. But now that he was minutes away from meeting his team mates, Troy was feeling on top of the world. He was looking forward to the experience in itself, to being pushed and challenged, being surrounded by the best high school players in the state. And he was also looking forward to meeting some like minded guys who had big aspirations to take their basketball to another level.

As he headed up his front driveway, Troy sensed that something was different. As far as he knew, there were just four of the guys from the team staying with them. However there was music audible from within the house, the sounds of chatters which sounded like a small party was kicking off inside. Troy entered his house, heading in the direction of the backyard where the noise was coming from, passing his dad in the kitchen.

"Dad?" Troy asked questioningly.

"Troy! Finally, he arrives!" Jack said, pleased to see his son. He went over to the sliding door that opened out into the backyard. "Mark? Troy's here."

"What's going on?" Troy asked, still confused.

"The guys are all here, we're having a bit of a barbeque," Jack explained.

A tall, dark haired middle aged man came through the patio doors, heading straight for Troy. He had a broad smile, and held his hand out. "Great to finally meet you. I'm Coach Lang."

"Oh! Hey!" Troy said enthusiastically, taking the man's hand and shaking it firmly. "Thank you so much again for this opportunity."

"You're more than welcome. I know we don't start training until tomorrow but your father called me and offered to host a bit of a get together tonight, give you boys the chance to meet each other and get to know everyone. Everyone is out the back."

"Oh, okay then," Troy said, clearly surprised at this revelation that the whole team was there, and understanding what all the noise was about. "Great."

Trailing behind Coach Lang was a younger sandy haired man.

"To begin with, this is Coach Kirkpatrick, he is my assistant coach," Coach Lang said.

"Hey there, great to meet you," Troy said, shaking his hand.

"Likewise. I saw the video of your championship game – you showed some awesome moves."

"Thanks," Troy said graciously.

"So let's go out and I'll introduce you to everyone."

Troy followed Coach Lang out into his backyard area. Some of the guys were sitting around on fold out chairs; another group of them had formed around the basketball hoop shooting some free throws.

"Boys, this is Troy Bolton. He's the captain of the East High Wildcats here in Albuquerque," Coach Lang said, indicating to Troy.

He then went around and introduced Troy to his eleven new team mates. Each and every one of them was a team captain. From the southern part of New Mexico there was Matthew O'Grady from Las Cruces High School in Las Cruces, as well as Elijah Knowles from Magdalena High School in Magdalena. From the east, there was Lee Holmes from Goddard High School in Roswell; as well as Vincent Daughtry from Fort Summer High School in Fort Summer. All of these four boys were staying in the Bolton household; with the spare room comprising of two single beds as well as a fold out couch and an air mattress in Jack's study downstairs.

New Mexico's most heavily populated area was the north western quadrant, henceforth the majority of the team came from that area. Bradin Spencer from Independence High School in Rio Rancho; Jamal Kelley from Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington; Ian Jackson from Santa Fe Preparatory School in Santa Fe, Blake Williams from Captain High School in Santa Fe; Samuel Thacker from Sandia View Academy in Corrales.

Last but not least was William Johnson – captain of the West High Knights.

Troy and the West High captain eyed one another warily. Coach Lang rolled his eyes.

"Now now, you're not rivals here. You're team mates."

"Bolton," Will said stiffly.

"Johnson," Troy returned politely.

Coach Lang then strategically disappeared inside with his assistant coach and Jack and Lucille Bolton. Hence leaving the boys outside alone, to get to know one another without the pressures of adult company.

"So where have you been?" Vincent asked.

"I had a school thing," Troy replied vaguely, not wanting to elaborate.

"He was probably at his musical rehearsal," Will said smugly.

"I was actually," Troy said casually.

"You're in a musical?" Jamal asked incredulously.

Troy shrugged. "Yeah. What's it to you?"

"So you were late to our first team meeting tonight because you were off singing and dancing?" Jackson asked condescendingly.

"I didn't even know that y'all were going to be here tonight," Troy said defensively. "If I'd known then I would have come home sooner."

"A musical. That's a bit… girly… isn't it?" Sam commented, accentuating the sentence with a snicker.

Troy had been questioned for auditioning for the musical by his own friends and team mates, but since then he'd been met with such support that it was rather unnerving suddenly being back in the place where people questioned his actions.

"My girlfriend is in the show," Troy said casually, trying to make it sound like Twinkle Towne was of little importance to me.

"And your girlfriend likes singing dancing sissy fags?" Jackson enquired with a grin.

"Excuse me?" Troy asked incredulously.

"Seriously dude, a MUSICAL? A play, perhaps could be acceptable. But a musical? My mind just goes straight to sissy fags."

"You know what they say about homophobics being the real closet cases," Troy shot back.

An "oooohhhh" came from the boys.

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By 9pm, Troy was sitting in the corner on his own, staying completely out of the conversation. He'd tried to participate, only to have every comment snickered at or turned around by Ian Jackson or one of the guys who had so quickly become his groupies. Luckily, Coach Lang came out to break up the gathering, given they had to be at the East High football oval at 6 in the morning. Ian Jackson, Jamal Kelley and Samuel Thacker left with Will, as they were being billeted at his house. The rest of the boys left with the coaches, as they were staying with Coach Kirkpatrick – who conveniently had a second property in Albuquerque, although he lived in Rio Rancho.

Troy headed straight to his room, leaving it to his father to play the role of host to the boys who were staying at the Bolton household. Half of him wanted to call Gabriella and whinge about the night. The other half wanted to forget the whole thing happened, and remain optimistic that tomorrow would be a brand new day. He went for the latter approach, immersing himself into a school project. He soon realised that he needed something that he had saved on the downstairs computer in his dad's study.

He headed downstairs and approached the study. He could see through the crack under the door that the light was still on, and he could hear quiet talking. He tentatively knocked on the door, a voice calling him in.

"Uh, you mind if I quickly print something? Just working on an assignment for a bit," Troy said awkwardly.

"Go for it, it's your house," Vince said.

The boys were silent as Troy turned on the computer, sinking into the desk chair. He looked around the room, suddenly finding the mouse pad and other items of fascination.

"Uh… Jackson's a bit of a fuckwit," Lee finally said.

Troy looked up sharply.

"I don't think he has a filter between his brain and his mouth," Vince agreed. "He was out of line."

"Didn't see you guys jumping in to defend me," Troy said sourly.

"Didn't want to rock the boat I guess," Lee said.

Troy didn't respond, he just turned back to the computer which had finished booting, quickly locating the file he needed and e-mailing it to himself, as well as printing it so he had a hard copy.

"East High isn't far away. If you're ready by quarter to six, we'll be there on time," Troy said shortly.

"Thanks. Night man," Vince said tentatively.

Troy nodded and turned the computer off and closed the door behind him.

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Saturday's training schedule was gruelling. The boys were expected to be at the football oval at 6 in the morning. They had two hours of fitness training, with sprints and callisthenics. Coach Lang decided to just throw them into a game to get a feeling of how the boys would work together. Which for Troy, proved to be disastrous.

At first, the majority of the guys were treating him like the 'pansy' they saw him as being. They would more or less ignore any direction he tried to provide them, avoid passing him the ball. The role of the point guard was meant to be to direct the rest of the team. The majority of the guys were more or less ignoring his every move. When they did pass the ball to him, they would throw it gently, as though throwing it to a child. Troy was running all over the court, trying to intercept passes just to try and get his hands on the ball to show them that he was capable of playing. The next strategy which Ian Jackson led was one where they were testing Troy. Giving him all of the ball time, three defenders surrounding him at once.

Technically, they weren't violating rules. Coach Lang's general policy of coaching boys was to allow them to be themselves. Hence that he'd left them to their own devices the previous evening. And why he had just thrown them into the game, changing around the players and positions to get a feel of how the boys operated as a team. He pulled both Ian Jackson as well as Jamal Kelley off the court at the same time. Without Jackson leading the charge of "gang up on Bolton", Troy finally began to be able to play like he normally would, gradually earning the respect of a few more of the guys. However Jackson and his little gang of Jamal Kelley and Samuel Thacker persevered with their treatment of Troy.

By the end of the day, Troy was absolutely exhausted. All the boys were, but Troy more so than any of the rest of them. He'd had to work twice as hard to achieve half the amount, thanks to the way he had been treated.

"Okay guys, you've got an hour free. I'm told there's some shops just up the road so if you want to head down there you're welcome to. We've got access to the East High gymnasium facilities as well. Just be back here in an hour and we're going to have some discussion time," Coach Lang announced.

Troy led the other guys into the locker room area.

"Where are these shops, Bolton? God knows I don't want to hang around a school for a whole hour!" Lee asked.

"I'll show you's," Troy said agreeably.

"We should head out tonight, catch a movie or something," Jamal suggested.

Troy winced at the suggestion. He personally was looking forward to going home and collapsing into bed.

"Sounds good," Elijah agreed.

"Coach Kirkpatrick lives on the west side, so since most of us are on that side, we should probably head to the cinema over there," Johnson said.

"How far is that from yours?" Vince asked Troy.

"Uh… my dad will probably lend me his wheels, so I can drive us there," Troy said.

"You don't have your own wheels?" Samuel smirked.

"Uh no, not yet."

"That's right, you're a junior," Jackson said, emphasising the word junior like it was a negative thing. "Probably haven't had your license for that long."

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Troy shuffled through the cinema, a few paces behind the others. The previous session had run late, therefore the cinema was still being cleaned in the change over time. The boys were milling around in the foyer, waiting for the cinema to be opened.

"Troy!" a voice called from behind.

Troy turned around and grinned, seeing Gabriella and Taylor approaching him. After 24 hours of having his manliness questioned, he felt so, so glad to be seeing Gabriella. He engulfed Gabriella in a hug and kissed her fiercely.

"What was that for?" Gabriella asked with a giggle.

"It was hello."

"You didn't say hello to me like that," Taylor remarked.

"And he's not going to," Gabriella shot back.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?" Jackson asked.

His tone was sickeningly sweet, almost condescending. The look that Troy shot him was not lost on Gabriella and Taylor.

"Right… Gabi, Taylor this is the team… team… this is Taylor, and this is my girlfriend Gabriella."

The boys waved and said hellos to the girls, a few of them leering appreciatively.

"Look, they're letting our movie in. You coming Bolton?" Bradin asked.

"I'll catch up in a minute."

Troy turned back to the girls.

"How was training today?" Gabriella asked.

Troy shrugged. "Okay. I'm absolutely rooted now, I wanted to just crash but they wanted to catch a movie. Thought I had to do the right thing as one of the hosts and go with them. Besides, I drove the guys that are staying at mine."

He was glad to see her – but just didn't want to talk about how the weekend was going. Instead Troy felt kind of embarrassed. He didn't want her to know how terrible it had been. All week long, everyone had been going on about how great it was going to be. The truth was that Troy hated it so far, and he felt guilty for hating it.

"Are you okay?" Gabriella asked, sensing that Troy was off.

"Fine," Troy said. "Just tired."

"You sure?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Listen I should get in there."

"Yeah our movie is about to start also."

Troy kissed her softly. "See you Monday."

Taylor and Gabriella watched as Troy trudged away in the direction of the cinema.

"Wouldn't you think that Troy would be in basketball heaven around that lot?" Taylor asked.

"Something is up with him," Gabriella said softly.

"Maybe he was just genuinely tired."

She shook her head. "No. Something more."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I really, really could use some feedback right now. It's kinda... you know when in a TV show, as the back end of the season is drawing to a close, suddenly a whole bunch of plot starts happening? That's where I'm heading. And I have a whole bunch of concerns about the way I'm doing it, probably because I'm so pedantic. Anyway, hence the need for feedback. Pretty please. Love you all:-)