Gabriella sighs as she walks up to the Bolton household. Troy had been jumpy all day, which she knew was from the tryouts, but it still concerned her. Just like she promised, she was going to help him tonight with his English paper, but she was still extremely nervous. Bridget's words were going through her head like wild bees and it got to the point where it was all she was thinking about. She presses the doorbell and turns around and sighs. She could do this. It wasn't like Troy was asking her to have sex with him. She just couldn't stop thinking about what Bridget said in the locker room. The door behind her suddenly opens and she turns around to see Troy standing there with wet hair and basketball shorts and a t-shirt on. "Hey." He says and opens the door wider for Gabriella to walk in. She couldn't help but smell the scent of his cologne as she walks past him. God she loved that smell. "I just got out of the shower." He says and Gabriella smiles.

"So I see." She says and feels Troy's hands rest on her hips. She wraps her arms around his neck and feels his lips connect with hers. A smile forms on her lips as she kisses him and then breaks away. She looks up into his bright blue eyes. "So… where do you want to work?" She asks and secretly prays that he says the kitchen or the living room.

"My parents are having a couple over tonight for dinner. So we can go up to my room." He says and Gabriella closes her eyes. But she opens them back up again and sees Troy looking at her curiously. "Something wrong?"

Gabriella puts on the best smile she could muster on and shakes her head. "Nope. Everything's great." She lies and Troy nods and takes her hand to lead her up the steps. They walk into Troy's bedroom and Gabriella hears Troy shut the door behind her. She looks around at the basketball headboard and giggles a little. Troy sits down on his bed and Gabriella finds a chair to sit down on, keeping her distance away from him. "So how were tryouts today?" She asks him since she didn't go. He shrugs and looks at her.

"Alright. Day two is always harder though. Plus, I'm sore." He says and moves his arm around and Gabriella laughs a little.

"So superstar can't handle being a little sore?" She asks and he picks up one of his basketball pillows and throws it at her. She laughs as she catches it and throws it back. This was going better than she thought. Why the hell did she listen to what Bridget said anyways? "Ok, let's get to work." She says and pulls out her bag. Troy hands her the paper and she reads it for awhile while Troy works on other homework. After finishing reading, she makes a couple notes in the margins and then looks up at him. He looks up also.

"So, is it hopeless?" He asks and Gabriella laughs and shakes her head.

"No, it's really good. I just changed a bit… see you should switch this sentence around with this one." She says talking out loud and writing and Troy smirks at her. "What?"

"You can't show me how to do it if I can't see the paper." He says and Gabriella remembers that she was sitting in his chair while he was on his bed.

"Oh… well… um… here." She holds out his paper to him and Troy rolls his eyes he stands up and walks over to her. She feels his arms wrap around her waist and lift her up over his shoulder. "TROY! PUT ME DOWN!" She yells and then feels herself fall back down onto the bed giggling.

"Ok… ok you win!" He says and Gabriella sits up. Troy sits down next to her and she gets the shivers as his arm brushes up against hers. She shows him what she changed and he agrees that it sounds so much better. She looks it over again about a half an hour later and then looks up to find Troy staring at her.

"What?" She asks and he shrugs.

"Nothing. You're just cute when you think hard." He says and Gabriella rolls her eyes. "I'm tired of homework." He says and grabs his paper and throws it on the floor. He inches closer to her and grabs the back of her head, bringing her forward to him. Their lips connect and Gabriella closes her eyes. It was soft at first, then he lets go. Suddenly forgetting her fear from earlier, Gabriella leans in again and kisses him again. They continue to pull away and then go back in for a while. She feels Troy's hands pull her small body to him and before she knew it, Gabriella had her arms around Troy's neck.

Troy holds a kiss longer and licks her bottom lip and Gabriella opens hers up to let Troy's roam in her mouth. Even though she was scared before, she knew him kissing her felt right. She suddenly feels Troy place his hands on either side of her and begin to back her up toward the pillows on his bed. She lifts her legs up and centers herself. Troy leans forward, their lips still connected, and Gabriella feels her head hit the mattress. She suddenly tenses up. This was the first actual heavy make out session that they had. What if he didn't think she was good enough? Negative thoughts spin around in her head as he kisses her more, and then Gabriella pulls apart to take a breath. "Troy…"

Gabriella felt Troy take that moment and begin to kiss her jaw line. He makes his way down to her neck and begins to nibble down there. "Gabi." He moans and Gabriella smiles. His lips make their way back up to hers and he kisses her passionately again. He breaks apart and pants for a second. She leans up and kisses him again. His hands move down to her hips and rest there for a moment. She runs her fingers down his back, tracing his muscles and he shudders. They kiss for a moment longer, before Troy pulls away once again and breathes. "Shit Gabi."

Gabriella lays her head back and looks up at him. "What?" She asks and begins to trace the muscles in his arms.

"Nothing just… wow." He says and leans his forehead against hers. "Wow." He whispers again and Gabriella gets scared.

"Was that a good wow or a bad wow?" She asks quietly and Troy's bright blue eyes meet hers.

"Defiantly a good wow." He says and kisses her softly on the lips again. They break apart and Gabriella looks at the alarm clock on one of his nightstands. They had been making out for about twenty minutes. She looks back up again and watches as he moves his arm, but cringes.

"What's wrong?" She asks and sits up a little, even though Troy's body was still on top of hers.

"I told you I'm sore." He says and Gabriella smiles.

"Turn around." She says and Troy raises an eyebrow at her. "Just do it."

Troy follows her orders and Gabriella kneels on the bed and puts her hands under his shirt in the back. She begins to massage his muscles starting with the shoulders and she could hear him sigh in front of her. "Go to the left." He says and Gabriella does. He sighs and Gabriella smiles.

"Feels good?" She asks and Troy moans in responds.

"Yea." He says as she makes her way down to the middle of his back. She could feel a bunch of knots sticking out of his sculpted muscles. "You know, maybe tryouts aren't so bad." He says and Gabriella laughs.

"Why not?" She asks as she pulls her hands out from under Troy's shirt and watches as he turns around.

"I get free massages." He says and kisses her lips gently.

"Don't get used to it." She jokes. "Or I'll have to start charging. I could start my own business!"

Troy shakes his head. "You can't. If you did, then I'd be broke." He jokes and Gabriella rolls her eyes.

"Then I guess it's just special for you." She says as his lips crash onto hers again.

"God, my legs hurt!" Chad complains and sits down on the bleachers. "And my arms, and my back. I'm falling apart!" He exclaims as he takes a sip of water and rests. It was Thursday, two days after Gabriella went over to Troy's. Troy takes a sip of water himself and watches as Jason and Zeke sit down with his best friend.

"Look on the bright side… this is the last day of tryouts." Zeke says and pats Chad on the back. Troy nods and looks up at the clock. It was 4:45. He knew his dad had already made the list of teams that day and he would post it up at 5. Troy also knew who was on which team, since he had helped his dad last night. But his head wasn't there at the moment. It was back two nights ago with Gabriella in his room. She was all he could think about since then and he was hoping it was the same with her. They hadn't talked much since, because he had been busy with basketball and whenever he called, Gabriella was never there. Sure they had got to see each other in school, but it wasn't the same. She was driving him crazy, but that was nothing new.

"Dude, Troy, wake up!" Chad says snapping a finger in front of his face and Troy snaps out of his daydream. "Man, what's with you lately? It's like you're never here."

Troy shrugs and sits down too. "I don't know… just a lot on my mind."

"A lot as in a lot of girlfriend?" Jason asks and Troy's eyes grow wide for a moment.

"No, as in this whole tryout thing." He lies and all of them roll their eyes.

"Dude, we're not stupid." Zeke says and pats Troy on the back.

"How is Gabs?" Chad asks leaning back and smiling. "Tay says she's been bouncing off the walls since you guys had your 'study session'." He uses his fingers as quotes.

"She's fine and we did do homework." He says and all of the guys laugh.

"I'm sure." Jason says and Troy nods.

"We honestly did!" He says throwing his hands up in defense and they all laugh again. He was telling the truth, just stretching it a little.

"I remember one time when Kelsi and I tired to do homework together." Jason says and then shakes his head laughing. "I don't think we got anything done. Besides Troy, Chad said Gabs was bouncing off the walls. She wouldn't bounce off the walls if all you did was homework." He says and Chad laughs.

"If she's anything like her best friend, she might. Taylor actually gets excited when we have projects assigned." He says and laughs again. "Dude, I think I'm in love with a giant brain. But come on Troy, we want details."

Troy rolls his eyes. "There aren't many details to give." He says honestly and shrugs. "Why are you guys drilling me about her helping me with my homework anyways?"

They all look from one to the other. "Because all of us have done 'homework' with our girlfriends. Except maybe Zeke, since Sharpay just hires people to do her homework." Chad says as Zeke nods. "And every guy knows that homework is just an excuse to fool around."

Troy rolls his eyes. "Whatever man. I'm telling you, nothing happened." He says and stands up, looking at the clock once again. There were five minutes left until the list would be posted and even though the seniors all knew they were going to be on varsity, they still stayed behind to see who else made it. Troy looks over to see Kyle walking toward him. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Nothing…" Kyle says nervously and Troy laughs.

"Don't worry about it. You've played amazing." Troy says and Kyle shrugs. It reminds Troy of himself on the first post day his freshman year.

Troy sat with Chad and stared straight ahead. He looked between all of the older guys and felt intimated. Sure, his dad was head coach of the varsity team, but Troy knew that only made it harder for him. Chad patted him on the back making Troy look over at his best friend. "You did amazing out there Troy. There's no way they're putting you on freshman." He said and Troy shrugged.

"I missed that three pointer yesterday. And I missed three free throws during that drill." Troy said and began to scratch the back of his neck.

"Dude, you did better than half of the JV guys out there." Chad reassured him. "You'll be fine Troy. Stop worrying about it."

Troy looked up to see a senior standing in front of him. He smiled down at Troy. "Hey Bolton." The guy said and Troy tired to smile, but it didn't come out. "You nervous?"

Troy nodded and looked down at the ground. The senior sat down next to him and patted him on the back. "Don't worry about it Bolton." He said which made Troy look up. "You played amazing out there."

"Thanks Pete." Troy said. Peter was the king of the school at the time, since he was basketball captain. But he was also Troy's favorite guy on the varsity team. "But I don't think so."

"Are you kidding me? You play better than I did my freshman year!" Pete said and Troy knew she didn't mean that to sound cocky. "You're a great player Bolton and you're defiantly going to go places."

Troy looked up at him again. "You think?"

Pete shook his head. "No… I know." He said and Troy looked out to see his father over on the other side of the gym, putting up a list. Troy watched as everyone ran over there, but Troy stayed in his spot with Pete next to him. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to find out that all of his practicing hadn't paid off. "Come on Troy, you gotta look sometime. Let's go." Pete said and stood up. Troy slowly followed and watched as Chad came running back toward him.

"I'm on freshman… you…" He started but Troy shook his head.

"I wanna find out for myself." Troy said and walked over. Pete stopped as Troy continued up to the paper and looked. His name was written twice. Once as the second name on JV and at the bottom of the varsity list. His eyes grew wide as he turned around to look at Pete.

"Wow, varsity reserves. Sweet man, welcome to the team!" Pete said and Troy smiled brightly. That meant that he would practice with both teams. It had been more that Troy expected, but he couldn't be happier. Pete smiled and looked down at the freshman who would take over after he left. It was Troy Bolton's time to shine now, and that's what he would do for the next four years.

"I missed about two lay ups yesterday." Kyle says and looks down at the ground. "And I my defense sucked on the first day. I doubt I'll even make freshman."

Troy shakes his head and pats Kyle on the back, making him look up at the older guy. "Hey, my freshman year, I thought I sucked too. But I made JV and varsity reserves. Trust me, and I wouldn't lie to you, you are a great player. Keep your head up alright?" Troy says. He knew, just like Pete knew, where Kyle was going to be put. Suddenly, he sees his dad walk over to the same spot he did four years ago and put up a single piece of paper. The rest of the basketball team except the seniors sprint over to look, but Kyle stays behind. Troy, knowing exactly how he felt, smiles at Kyle. "You gotta go sooner or later." He says and begins to walk with Kyle at his side over to the list. The path clears as soon as they see their captain coming and he stops while Kyle keeps walking. He could see himself in Kyle as he stood looking up at the list. He turns around with a grin on his face.

"I'm on JV!" He says as he walks over to Troy happily. Troy smiles and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Welcome to the team." Troy says and looks down at the freshman, knowing deep down that his time at East High was almost over. The school wouldn't belong to him anymore. He had to pass it on. And he knew that there was no one better to pass the torch onto than Kyle. Troy knew Kyle would be the next one in line, just like Pete knew Troy would be. Kyle may not be as good as Troy, but his heart was in the right place.

"Thanks Troy." Kyle says and runs over to where the other freshmen were standing. Troy sighs, and tries to think that he still had one more season to shine. It was depressing to him, but he knew it was all apart of getting older.

"Troy!" He hears his named called and sees his best friend in the middle of the court. "You have a visitor."

Troy looks over and sees Gabriella's form walking toward him. He smiles for a moment, remembering what was on his mind a moment ago. He may be getting older, and leaving East High in the past after this year…

"Hey Troy." She says and throws her arms around his neck.

But he knew he was holding his future in his arms.

Author's Note: I know the ending's a little corny, but hey, corny moments make life amazing. Thanks for reading and reviewing! You guys are great!