S O M E D A Y

PART ONE: Once Upon A Time

SUMMARY: Relationships and friendships both flourish and falter amidst the pressures of senior year and life in general. A hopefully original take of senior year at East High. All characters; TxG CxT. M for coarse language, sexual references/depictions

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be responsible for the creation of this brilliant set of characters. I just play with them. And make them act out my kinky fantasies.

Chapter 37

"So just from this yelp across the room she like freaks out and jumped a mile. Then she drops the ball, and what happens? Somehow it went down the lane, crawling along, but of course it's centred perfectly. And she gets a strike!" Troy exclaimed. He jumped up to perch on the rim of the 'E' pillar fountain.

"I planned it that way. It's a technique," Gabriella insisted, poking her tongue out at Troy.

Jason laughed. "The Montez swing?"

"That's catchy," Kelsi said brightly.

"I still won the game though," Troy pointed out cockily.

"What did you guys get up to after your ice cream?" Gabriella asked.

"Just went to the cinema," Jason said.

"Jason kept whispering analysis of camera technique to me," Kelsi said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! You said that was…" Jason trailed off, and gestured over toward the drop off zone. "Is that Taylor?"

"Yup," Gabriella confirmed, watching as her friend stepped out of her sisters' car.

"Hi Taylor," Kelsi called out cheerfully. "How was your weekend?"

"Isn't Danforth coming today?" Jason asked, aware that since Chad had gotten his car, he had driven Taylor to school each day.

Taylor shrugged, looking somewhat uncomfortable. She continued walking, only slowing down her gait to converse with them briefly. "I don't know. I have to go meet Dean about the yearbook so I'll see you all in homeroom."

"Are you gonna let me work on the committee?" Troy called out. "Coz if you're not, I have to work on a back up plan."

Taylor glanced back as she walked away. "Umm yeah probably. I'll let you know for sure."

Gabriella squeezed Troy on the shoulder. "See you in homeroom," she said, and rushed after Taylor.

"Are you really meeting with Dean?" Gabriella enquired, as she caught up to her friend and walked along side her.

Taylor shook her head. "No."

"What happened?"

Taylor took a breath. "I broke up with Chad on Saturday," she revealed quietly.

Gabriella's mouth dropped open, gaping at her friend. "WHAT?!" Her voice had risen in octaves, to the point that everyone in the surrounding area was watching the girls in curiosity. Gabriella winced, realising that her reaction had been a bit more vocal than intended. "Sorry. I mean, what?"

Taylor nodded. "Yeah…. You heard me the first time."

"Are you okay?" Gabriella asked, rubbing Taylor's arm comfortingly. She'd known that the relationship hadn't been going well, and she'd known that Taylor hadn't been completely happy. However Gabriella hadn't realised that it had gotten to this point.

Taylor's head was held up high. She smiled at someone and waved as they passed in the main entrance into the building. "Well I said that I broke up with him so…"

"That doesn't mean that you're okay with it," Gabriella replied knowingly.

Taylor and Gabriella's eyes met. Taylor knew that of all people, Gabriella understood. It had been Gabriella who had broken up with Troy during summer vacation. It had been Gabriella who had gone home and cried; who had loafed about in her room wearing her pyjamas; who had spent hours standing on her balcony in some ill conceived hope that time could spin back and the sweet boy who had appeared on her balcony and sang and made everything better would reappear. Gabriella knew all about being the instigating party in a break up and nevertheless feeling like crap about the entire situation.

"It was the right thing to do," Taylor said decisively. "It wasn't working. And if we kept trying to make it work, it was just going to explode in our faces. Better it is ended amicably now than waiting for it to completely implode."

"Wow. I um… I understand. I really do. I just… I wasn't expecting it. I really didn't realise you were feeling that extreme about it," Gabriella said, totally surprised.

"I guess Chad didn't tell Troy since you guys had no idea about it," Taylor mused.

"Was Chad okay?"

The girls reached Taylor's locker, which she opened and began to root through, searching for a book to add to her wheelie-bag.

"He seemed fine to me. A little too quick to agree to it, he didn't really try to argue about it at all. I guess that just validates that it was indeed the right thing to do. If it was worth fighting for, wouldn't we have fought for it?"

Gabriella paused. "Don't you think it was worth fighting for? I mean… do you still feel for him, you know, more than as a friend?"

"Yes. But sometimes that's not enough," Taylor said simply. "Besides, it comes at a good time, I really need to be focusing on school, and with you guys picking me to chair the yearbook committee and being on the debate team and college applications – it'll give me more free time. I won't feel as bad about not hanging around during lunch and whatever else."

The warning bell rang, and the girls made their way up the corridor to homeroom.

"Things are going to be all weird now, aren't they?" Gabriella remarked wistfully. "Like… with our group."

"I'll be busy with stuff anyway," Taylor said, somewhat aloofly.

"Have you talked to him since then?"

She shook her head. "No.

They rounded the corner and entered homeroom, scraping in just a minute before the bell. The rest of their crew was already there, minus Chad. It was a peculiar vibe. Jason and Kelsi were talking; and Ryan and Martha were talking. Despite puppy dog eyes from Monica, Zeke was sitting staring intently at a book in front of him. He chose to not turn around and talk to Troy, due to left over animosity there from Friday night. Leaving Troy to stare at Chad's empty seat in front of him.

"Has Danforth texted you?" Troy asked Taylor.

Standing just behind Taylor, Gabriella was making frantic motions indicating that he should not bring up Chad, motions that were lost on Troy.

"No," Taylor replied simply.

Saved by the bell, Taylor and Gabriella quickly scurried to their seats to escape the wrath of Darbus. A wrath which became centralised upon Chad who arrived two minutes after the bell, clearly frazzled, almost tripping over as he fell into the room.

"Danforth!" Ms Darbus snapped.

"I'm sorry Ms Darbus your majesty but I…"

"I don't care. I do not accept tardiness in my classroom, something which I am certain you would have ingrained into your brain over the years. I'll see you after school for detention."

"But Ms Darbus I…"

"Don't push my patience Danforth. Sit down!"

Chad exhaled and stalked up the back to collapse into his seat. His eye line was focused straight forward, not daring to look in the slightest to his left at where Taylor was seated. Between Chad's evident ignorance of Taylor and Gabriella's crazy hand motions earlier, Troy was now looking backwards and forwards between Chad and Taylor questioningly. Sitting behind the two, Troy was accustomed to Chad attempting to distract Taylor; and Taylor sitting upright and giving the appearance that she was listening, but really throwing sideways flirtatious glances at Chad. Gabriella was quick to clarify the situation for Troy, she scribbled a quick note to toss onto his desk and outline the development – or rather, the undevelopment. Troy's mouth fell open slightly, as he glanced at Gabriella in disbelief. Gabriella nodded wistfully.

Chad's plan was to jump up the moment that the bell signalled the end of homeroom and make a run for it, however Taylor was quick to grab at his arm.

"Hey," she said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Hi," Chad returned, cautiously.

"How are you?"

"Fine. And you?"

"I'm good."

The curt, forced exchange was followed by awkward silence.

"So uh… better get to class. I'll uh… see you later," Chad finally said, and made his escape from the classroom.

Meanwhile just outside, Gabriella, Troy and Ryan were all waiting; Ryan having his next class with Chad; and Gabriella and Troy with Taylor.

"Taylor broke up with Chad," Gabriella informed Ryan quietly.

"Yeah I know," he said.

"You knew?" Troy asked incredulously.

"Chad and I were chatting online last night, comparing notes for our chemistry homework. He mentioned it."

And now the moment of awkward silence was between Troy and Ryan; with Troy staring at Ryan with a sudden resurgence of envious contempt. However the moment was broken by Chad exiting the classroom, stalking straight past them. Ryan scurried after Chad, leaving Troy and Gabriella to meet Taylor who was just now stepping out of the classroom.

"So let me guess. In the time between when I told Gabriella and now, she's managed to tell you and get you all riled up at me," Taylor remarked.

"The 'tell me' part yeah, but the riled up?" Troy said questioningly.

"Come on Troy, this is why people within friendship groups dating is a bad idea. Because now, your loyalty lies with Chad and I'm the girl who just dumped him and so that makes me evil, right?"

"Glad to know you think I'm that naïve and narrow minded," Troy remarked. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask if you were okay."

"I'm fine," Taylor said shortly. "Come on, let's get to physics."

At East High, news tended to spread quickly. Especially news which had anything to do with someone prolific, socially. A break up between a member of the Varsity basketball team and his girlfriend was practically worthy of a memo being handed to each and every student. The cattier members of the cheer squad were ecstatic having not only Zeke but also now Chad back at their disposal; fawning around both of the boys with offers of 'study sessions' and social engagements. Neither of them was particularly reciprocal, however were more than willing to smile and be interested enough to continue to pique their interest.

Taylor was having people stare at her with sudden looks of sympathy. The same girls from the cheer squad that she saw flirting with Chad in the hallway would approach her and ask, 'how ARE you?' in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Lunch period came, and Taylor emerged from the cafeteria linewith her tray of food. She hadn't really thought through the process, just going along like it was just any other day of the week. When she scanned across the cafeteria seating area, Taylor bit her lip, suddenly occurring to her what the predicament was. Their usual table was currently inhabited by Zeke, Chad and Jason. A musical rehearsal was being held, with Kelsi, Troy, Ryan and Gabriella currently not present. Taylor had no idea where Martha was. Taylor was staring over at their table, and quickly did an about face heading in the opposite direction. She spotted Jerome and the rest of her debate team, who waved upon seeing her heading their way.

Chad glanced up, seeing the very end of Taylor's hesitation and her snap decision to head in the opposite direction.

"Chad? So what do you think?" Zeke said, interrupting Chad's thought process.

Chad glanced back at Zeke. "Yeah man sounds good."

"Nina, I really think that you and I could be great together!" Ryan declared. "You just seemed so into me but now…"

"I WAS into you Nate, I truly was!" Gabriella responded sympathetically. "But… things have changed. I've changed."

"You're still the same Nina to me."

"But I'm not, you just don't see the real me."

Across the room from Ryan and Gabriella; Sharpay and Troy were also rehearsing a scene.

"I think the ball is going to be wonderful Mike. Just think, you, me, the music, some dancing…"

Troy stared blankly back at Sharpay.

"Some dancing…" she prompted again, through gritted teeth.

"Uh… can I get a prompt?"

"Troy!" Sharpay snapped. "This is ridiculous. Rehearsals aren't here to provide time to memorise lines, they provide time to run through scenes! We have been going over this scene for a month now. A whole month."

"I know, I know," Troy said apologetically. He winced, not particularly fond of being at the receiving end of the wrath of Sharpay. "And it's not like I'm not trying here! Ask Gabriella, we spent lots of time over the weekend running lines."

"I don't care! You're wasting our time. Ms. Darbus isn't going to be happy when she comes to meet us after lunch during free period."

"That I also know. Look, I promise that…"

"Not good enough,' Sharpay interrupted him.

"What's going on?" Gabriella asked, she and Ryan coming over to attempt to mediate the dramatics.

"No really I…" Troy began to insist.

"You made all these excuses last year!" Sharpay exclaimed. "And like a week before the show, you still didn't know your lines!"

"Shar you're being a little unreason…" Ryan began to say; however Sharpay held her hand up to her brother silencing him.

"I'm not letting him fuck up my final fall production."

"You're not letting me? What are you planning to do, memorise the lines for me and practice ventriloquism?" Troy demanded.

Sharpay put a hand on her hip, staring at Troy witheringly. "No. I am going to teach you how to memorise your lines."

"What do you mean how to memorise?" Troy repeated. "You just… memorise."

Sharpay exhaled. "Troy. If I wanted to learn how to play basketball…"

"God help us all,' Troy muttered.

She looked at him sharply. "If I wanted to learn how to play basketball, would you me to just go out and start playing? To just pick up the ball and toss it around randomly?"

"No but Sharpay, some people are saying that there is a difference between basketball and musical theatre," Troy pointed out in a condescending tone.

"Troy, I am president of the drama club and I have been studying the performing arts since I was three years old. I am standing here telling you that I know legitimate techniques that will help you. Are you going to listen to me and let me help you; or are you going to be an egotistical dickhead?"

"Are they my only two options?"

"Yes! And if you know what's good for you then you'll pick the right one. I'm sick of your whining, 'oh no, I'm Troy Bolton, my life is so stressful, I'm the big varsity basketball star and my loving girlfriend is forcing me to take difficult classes, boo hoo!'" Sharpay's voice became high and whiny as she imitated Troy.

"Do I sound like that?" Troy asked, glancing toward Ryan and Gabriella.

"Troy!" Sharpay snapped.

Troy exhaled noisily. "Fine. Help me. Go on. Do your magic."

"It's not that simple. We're going to work on a few different techniques. The first one is that over the next two days, you need to record all of your scenes in the show. You need to record it with the opposite actors, and when you are speaking – using the script since you are so hopeless – you need to have the microphone switched off, leaving a blank in the recording. This will give you a proper tool for rehearsing when you don't have the other people present."

Troy nodded. "Right. That makes sense."

"Secondly. You need to stop focusing on what line comes next. Acting isn't only about memorizing lines. You need to understand what the scene is about, and how your character is feeling. You shouldn't need a script, worst comes to worst on show night, you should be able to improvise the entire thing, just in response to what we say. In this scene, for example. What's it about? Tell me what happens."

"It's about… it's about Esmeralda flirting with Mike and Mike being all awkward about being honest that he'd rather go to the ball with Nina."

"And so if Esmeralda was talking about how much fun it would be to dance together, what might Mike say?"

"He might… he might say he'll have to save her a dance. Thinking just the one… or… or that he will make excuses on the night to get out of it."

"That's pretty much the line," Ryan jumped in.

"It is?"

"You instinctively knew that, you're familiar with the script obviously, and you instinctively knew then how Mike would behave. Shar is right, you spend too much time trying to work out exactly, perfectly how the next line is meant to come out," Ryan said.

Troy smiled brightly. "Fantastic. Problem solved. Good tips guys. So…"

"There's more," Sharpay snapped.

"Oh," Troy said meekly.

"From now on, every time you practice a scene, you need to be going through the full motions of blocking. Making every last movement, walking across the stage if you're meant to be walking across the stage. Even if it's just you and whoever else is in the scene standing there, you need to be miming it. You're a physical person, you're going to work better if you can associate actions with lines. You might know that after Gabriella picks up the picture frame, she starts speaking about her grandparents. And you know that after she speaks about her grandparents, you're meant to walk toward the door. And you know that after you walk toward the door, she calls out to you and you turn around. It's a flowing pattern, okay?"

In theory, Sharpay's ideas so far made sense to Troy. He could understand that in theory, it should be useful to utilise such techniques. However he was doubting whether in practice if they would be of any use to him. Nevertheless, Troy simply nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay. Practicing in full."

"And I have one last one which works really well for some people, my speech and drama coach taught this one to me. It's kind of like a visualisation exercise, you're training your brain to learn the lines. You have to practice your part while you are doing something perfectly mundane and natural. So, for me it's while I brush my hair. Gabriella might do it while she's… you know…. Doing math. You become so familiar with the lines that they are almost, conversational in nature."

"So like, while I'm shooting hoops?" Troy suggested. He wasn't even able to mask his doubt at this suggested method.

"Exactly," Ryan said, nodding in agreement. "It's an awesome technique."

Gabriella's lips were curved into a fascinated smile as she watched Sharpay in action. Her own style of performance may be melodramatic, but there was no doubt that Sharpay knew what she was talking about; that her double digits of school productions – plus a few through theatre class independent of school – had taught her more than a few things about the art of performance.

"What are you smiling at?" Sharpay asked her in an accusing tone. "Do you not believe that these are legitimate techniques?"

The smile wiped from Gabriella's face. "Actually Sharpay I do believe that they are."

Sharpay bristled. "Whatever."

Ryan and Troy glanced at one another, sensing the tension and feeling the need to diffuse it.

"So how about we get our hands on a tape recorder so we can start recording some of these scenes, huh," Ryan said cheerfully. "We will have Kelsi with us in about…" he glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes, once lunch ends and she finishes with the band. I'm sure she can help out with that."

"We should be able to borrow it from the library, I'll go check it out," Gabriella volunteered.

"I'll go with…" Troy began to say.

"No. You can stay rehearse," Ryan suggested. "Keep working on that scene."

Troy was about to protest but he sensed that Ryan had taken off his friendish acquaintance badge and replaced it with his assistant director badge; and so merely nodded agreeably. He waited until Ryan and Gabriella had left the room before turning back to Sharpay.

"What was with the sudden melodramatic bitch attack before?" he remarked. "You could have just asked me if I would like some advice about how I can memorise my lines."

"You just ticked me off is all. Besides, when I have ever been known to calmly make a suggestion?"

Troy smirked. "Good point."

East High School's academically inclined students had nearly always pulled together socially. Even since the slight upheaval of school social standings, the fact remained that certain people simply click better with other people. Taylor might have been spending her general social time with a very different group of people but in senior year, she'd found herself increasingly spending time with a new group of people. The kids from her debate team who she spent her free periods with, and quite a few hours after school in preparation for the upcoming tournament. She clicked with them on the intellectual level but they were also vibrant people. Debaters and public speakers form their own subset within the academically inclined. Not only did they possess intelligence but they also exhibited confidence and had a certain level of wit about them.

So Taylor wound up hanging with her new friends and teammates throughout the lunch period, and then the majority of the team headed to Global Studies class. There was this length of time where for over an hour, Taylor didn't feel the judging eyes of East High upon her. Even Gabriella – who Taylor knew would support her no matter what – had that glint of disappointment in her eye. It wasn't disappointment in Taylor, but rather disappointment that the relationship didn't work out. Anyone within their immediate friendship group who was friends with both Chad and Taylor was ultimately going to feel that way about the break up. And so hanging with friends she had forged independent of their group was exactly the breath of fresh air that Taylor needed.

All Taylor had to do was get from Global Studies to her final period drama class, and hopefully she should be able to avoid any more sympathetic cheerleader remarks. The weirdness with Chad and their other friends she could deal with. The fake sympathetic cheerleader remarks were almost unbearable. It was a short walk, up the corridor, turn right, then the third door on the left. But of course, life couldn't swing things in the right direction. The door to her classroom was in sight when she spotted Kayla walking towards her. Kayla who seemingly, Taylor now had something in common with. They were both ex-girlfriends of Chad's.

"Taylor!" Kayla said sweetly, grabbing Taylor by the arm. "I just wanted to ask how you are."

"I'm good… thank you," Taylor said warily.

"I heard about Chad breaking up with you," Kayla added, her tone indicative of a rather put on concern.

Taylor narrowed her eyes. In that moment, she felt a seething anger. The sympathetic murmurs all day had led her to believe that the circulating rumours had perhaps mixed up some of the facts pertaining to the break up. Such as who had broken up with who. In that moment she couldn't decide whether to be angry at Chad for letting people believe that he had broken up with her; or to be angry with Kayla for actually being so petty and so vindictive that she would actually feign any sort of remorse over the break up.

"I'm fine," she finally said, gritting her teeth.

She could have corrected Kayla but Taylor had enough self pride to not need to clarify such factors.

"Are you sure? Because I know that break ups can be tough and if there is anything that I can do…"

"Well yes, having been dumped by Chad yourself you do have a certain expertise in the area," Taylor commented.

Kayla's eyes widened, her mouth gaped open in complete disbelief that Taylor would actually make such a remark.

"That she does," a voice said from behind Taylor.

Taylor spun around to see Chad, Zeke and Jason, all heading for the same classroom.

"Maybe you can give me some tips on how to get over being dumped Kayla," Chad added in a mockingly suggestive tone.

"Say what?" Kayla asked incredulously.

"Well since I dumped you and now Taylor has dumped me," he elaborated.

Taylor's head snapped to stare at Chad. Kayla meanwhile was in complete shock. A small smile curved onto her face. She cleared her throat and went to walk away, as she passed Taylor muttering, "Well aren't YOU stupid."

Taylor cleared her throat. "You didn't have to tell her that."

"It's the truth though. And I know that the rumour mill is stating other wise, but for the record, I had nothing to do with that."

"Umm… I never thought you did," Taylor said nervously.

"Yeah, right," Chad said, with raised eyebrows.

Taylor relented, admitting, "Okay there was a brief moment where I thought maybe you'd let people believe you ended it but… but I do know how this school operates and that they would just assume it went that way."

"Why would they assume that?" Chad countered.

"Come on Chad," Taylor said, clearly exasperated. "I know things have changed but seriously? We'd broken up for less than two days and you already had girls fawning all over you today. Of course people are going to assume that it was the other way around."

"And that bothers you," Chad said.

Taylor shrugged. "It bothers me more that people think it is their business to speculate about our relationship. I really couldn't give a shit what they think about me."

"Well you've certainly never minced your words, have you?"

Taylor gave him a tight smile. "We'd better get into class.'

The final bell of the day was met with a collective sigh of relief by all. Chad was the first to leap out of his chair and make a sprint for the front door. Troy hastily farewelled Gabriella with a soft kiss and a promise to call her later and sprinted after Chad.

"Dude, wait up!" Troy called after Chad.

Chad turned around. "What's happening?"

"Since we're going to the same place and all, thought you might want to head over there together," Troy said casually.

Chad nodded. "Whatever. Let's go, Coach will go ape if we're late today. No doubt he's gonna grill our asses after Friday's match."

Troy nodded. "Yeah probably." He kept in step with Chad as they headed to the gym in relative silence, only speaking a few times when someone greeted them in the hallways. Just before they reached the gym, Troy pulled Chad aside.

"Dude… are you gonna talk about it?" Troy finally asked, shuffling his feet.

"It?" Chad said, feigning obliviousness. Troy gave him a pointed look, and Chad sighed. "So she dumped me. What's to talk about?"

"Are you cool? Seriously? The truth."

"The truth?" Chad said. "The truth is that I'm fine. I'm relieved she did it. Sure it's a bitch now but it wasn't working. And I didn't want to have to be the jackass and end it. And I'm grateful that she did it. So you can take your sympathetic looks elsewhere."

Chad picked up his gym bag and headed into the locker room, leaving Troy to stare after him in bewilderment. Troy scurried after Chad.

"What are you doing Thursday afternoon?"

"You mean before practice?" Chad asked.

"Yeah. During our free periods."

Chad shrugged. "Dunno. That's three days away."

"I was thinking that us guys play some two on two. Get some extra training in."

"We wouldn't want to deprive you of your… Thursday afternoon activity," Chad said, his tone somewhat bitter.

Troy rolled his eyes. "What's that saying? Umm… something about brothers…"

"Bros before hos?" Chad supplied.

"Yeah that one."

"Nice try pulling that one out because I happen to know that Gabriella provides your very reason for living. Which is cool with me." Chad jerked his head toward the locker room. "Come on, now we're really gonna be late."

"So Thursday?" Troy persisted.

Chad sighed. "Yeah all right."

Practice was gruelling. When Chad had mentioned the likelihood of Coach grilling their asses, Troy had known it would indeed transpire. He'd seen his father over the weekend analysing match footage, making pages and pages of notes. The guys finished at 5:30, leaving the gym completely wiped. Also finishing their own practice at the same time was the East High Wildcats cheerleading squad. The teams emerged from the locker rooms at the same time, chatting as they moved through the school grounds to the front entry and student parking lot area.

"Zeke! Wait up!"

Zeke would recognise her voice anywhere. He hesitated, but paused, glancing around to see Monica walking at a quick pace to catch up with him. She had taken an extra few minutes in the locker room and was lagging behind the rest of the group.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "I uh… I didn't know if you would wait."

He shrugged. "Whatever."

"How was training?" she asked, as they walked along lagging behind everyone else.

"Pretty intense. Coach was pretty harsh on me. Guess I deserve it after the way I played on Friday."

"What are you doing now?" Monica asked.

"Going home."

"Do you uh… do you want to hang out?"

"I have to study," Zeke said shortly.

"Oh. Did you want to study together?"

"Monica…" Zeke said warningly.

"As friends!" she added in a hurry.

"Why are you so desperate to make things right? Is it just because you feel guilty?" Zeke asked.

She shook her head. "I do feel guilty but that's not why. I want to fix things because I really really like you and I fucked it up."

Zeke took a deep breath. "Look… it's not that I'm not into you. A huge part of me just wants to forget that any of this disaster ever happened. But I can't forget. So just… .just give me space, okay?"

Monica meekly nodded. "Okay."

She gave him a small smile and peeled off, heading towards her car. When Zeke arrived at the parking lot, Paula, Jason, Chad and Troy were standing around talking. Troy's eyes were narrowed, staring at Zeke uncertainly.

"Were you just talking to her?" Troy asked.

Zeke raised his eyebrows. "Yes. Do you have an issue with that?"

Troy bit his lip, and lied through his teeth for the purpose of keeping the peace. "No. Not at all."

"What you doing this weekend?" Paula asked, deciding to diffuse the tension.

"Nothing specific planned at the moment," Zeke replied.

"Well you have plans now I am having a belated Halloween party on Saturday night," Paula informed him.

"Paula, Halloween was last week. Remember, we were all too busy with our lives to celebrate or even give a shit?" Zeke commented.

"Note, the belated part of the title of my party," Paula said, somewhat condescendingly.

"She wants us to wear costumes," Jason informed Zeke with a shudder.

"Troy could hook us up with something from the drama department," Zeke joked.

Troy rolled his eyes. "Remember the fire? They lost like everything."

"Oh yeah."

"You're all gonna come, right?" Paula asked.

Troy raised his eyebrows. "Paula, have you ever known me to miss out on a party?"

"No, but less than a year ago I would have thought all sorts of things about you that have changed somewhat," she countered.

"Touche. But weren't you listening to me about five minutes ago when you informed us that your parents were going away? Didn't you hear my whoop and holler?"

"In other words, Troy is about to snap his cap coz of his crazy schedule and needs to get totally wasted," Jason smirked.

"Word," Troy agreed.

Chad cleared his throat. "Who are you inviting?"

"Umm… like everyone," Paula said, biting her lip, knowing what he was asking. "Are you okay with that?"

Chad nodded. "That's cool. It's not like we had some big fight or something. She just… said we should stop seeing each other. And I agreed."

"If Paula has invited everyone you'll be too busy running around smashed to worry about her anyway," Zeke pointed out. "It'll be like old times!"

"Yeah, and we don't have a match the next day," Troy pointed out bitterly.

Zeke glared at Troy for a moment, before relenting and rolling his eyes. "That too."

"Did you invite Kelsi?" Jason asked Paula.

"I ran into Kelsi, Ryan and Gabriella before cheer practice, they all seemed keen," she replied.

"Gabriella was keen?" Troy asked curiously.

"Of course she was. I think that girl is the only person I know who does more than you and would have even more of a reason to want to let her hair down. Although she was dubious when I informed her she'd have to wear a costume, but I'm sure Ryan will help her with that."

The group continued to converse for a few minutes before they peeled off to head home. Troy had just put his keys into the lock on the door when he heard Paula calling out his name.

Troy turned around. "Yeah?"

Paula moved back across the parking lot toward Troy's truck.

"I know you're busy and have to get home and stuff but… can we talk about something quickly?"

"Sure. Are you okay? Is anything wrong?" Troy asked, concerned.

"Umm… no. I just wanted to talk about whether everything is cool with us."

Troy raised his eyebrows. "Umm… yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, we had that whole mini argument thing after the weekend when Monica… you know."

"That was like two weeks ago. I'd totally forgotten about that thing with us."

"Do we need to talk about it?" Paula asked.

"What is it with chicks and feeling the need to talk about everything? I got narky at you, you got narky at me. The very next day we were over it. Life goes on. The end."

"Except that we got narky about real life issues which we never talk about but…"

"We don't talk about them because they don't need to be talked about," Troy said firmly. "It's all the past."

"It is in the past, isn't it?" Paula asked, slightly cautiously.

"Yes!" Troy exclaimed, offended at the insinuation that it was anything but in the past. "Gabriella and I have been together for almost nine months. I'm completely totally so hopelessly in love with her. Don't tell any of the guys I said that, either."

Paula cracked a smile. "Okay. That's good. I just… I had to make sure. You just… you get really riled up everytime someone brings up Alyson so…"

"That doesn't mean I'm not over the whole thing. I don't have some 'complex' like you said."

"I might have been going a bit too far but… you have to admit that you kinda do seem to lack objectivity when it comes to these things. There is always context, always. I'm not saying that the context excuses the persons actions but…"

"I get it Paula, Monica had reasons for cheating on Zeke."

"And Alyson had reasons for cheating on you. Reasons which you are very well aware of. Some would argue that you brought it on yourself."

"I didn't make out with some other girl at a party with all of her friends!"

"No, you just told another girl that you were into her and would dump Alyson for her."

"Which should not have ever gotten back to Ally."

"Oh come on Troy, this is high school. You can't do anything without everyone knowing all about it," Paula pointed out.

Troy leaned back against the door of his truck. "Yeah yeah." Troy exhaled. "When did you get so wise?"

"I've always been this wise, you just choose to ignore my advice half the time," Paula teased.

"Thanks Paula, such a great friend you are," Troy said sarcastically.

"Sometimes being a good friend is telling you things you don't want to hear."

"What, like that I should have listened to Monica's side of the story?"

"From what I hear, Zeke has even heard her out so… you might have to if you want to support your friend."

"You're so awesome. Why on earth are you still single?" Troy chuckled.

"Because I'm the idiot who rejects perfectly lovely guys for undistinguishable reasons."

Paula looked at Troy pointedly for a moment, before tearing her eyes away. "Anyway, I should get…"

"Hey Paula?" Troy ventured, interrupting her.

"Yeah?" Paula asked quietly.

"If I'd dumped Alyson and then asked you out… instead of asking you out and saying I'd break up with her… would your answer have been different?"

Paula shrugged. "I don't like to speculate."

"But… was it no because you weren't into me, or was it no because you didn't like the way I asked you when I was going out with her?"

"Troy, everything about you and I made so much sense. In many ways, take Gabriella out of the picture and it still does. Everyone thought it should happen, you're like this incredibly hot, incredibly lovely guy… who is a little naïve and idealistic at times but, you know, we all have flaws. But there was just something that didn't feel right, something in my gut that said it was wrong. I like to think things happen for a reason. If we'd gone out… I think it might have worked for a while but ultimately, I knew that we weren't going to be compatible in that way. Who knows how different our lives could have been? What if we'd gone out and lasted all the way through Christmas last year? What if you spent your whole time at that New Years Eve party talking to me on the phone?"

"That's a whole lot of speculation for something that never happened," Troy remarked.

"Exactly why I don't like to speculate. I made a decision. Things turned out rather well for you and… yeah I'm still single but it's by choice, a week doesn't go by without someone asking me out. It's all good."

"It's funny how stuff like that changes. Of all the girls I'd been interested in, I think you were the only one I was ever actually interested in. But now… I just can't see myself with anyone other than Gabriella… ever."

Paula smiled as she began to back away towards her car.

"So, you should be thanking me for rejecting you."

Troy grinned. "Thanks for rejecting me, Paula."

"Anytime, Troy, anytime."

Author's Note: I have a confession to make. I sit here as I am writing with this calendar I've written up beside me, It has all of these various things marked. Like, I have Gabriella's 'cycle' marked, basketball games, school dances, all sorts of stuff. And I didn't mark Halloween, even though I had planned that I wanted a Halloween party. I don't know why I didn't but I forgot, and because I come from a country where Halloween is only celebrated - ish for some reason I just totally spaced when I was planning this structurally. And then when I realised, I couldn't bring the party forward a week because I had everything else mapped out. So I decided to just pretend that they were all so busy and that no one was going to have an actual Halloween party on Halloween and reference this earlier and then have Paula find out she could have a party a weekend later. But then I forgot to go back and insert the reference. Ha. So during one of the many blocks of time which I haven't gone into in the past few chapters, they had a conversation about how some of them were trick or treating with little brothers and sisters and that the rest were too busy with stuff to bother with anything. Hopefully, you can forgive me for this continuity error. :-)