Sorry for the long wait! School's back in session, tons of homework. Hope you like it.

Calum led Mack to the elementary school. When they arrived, he walked over to a bush and pulled out a basketball. "How did you know that was there?" Mack asked as he dribbled around.

"This?" He held up the basketball, "my brother always leaves one in that bush. You didn't know that, I thought Troy would have known..."

"I guess I never thought about it."

"You want to play? One on one," Calum said changing the subject. He passed her the ball, "ladies first."

"Well, aren't you just the gentleman today. First you ignore your friends and then you run away, how sweet," she said sarcastically. She passed the ball back, "I can't."

"What do you mean? You got Miss Junior Basketball in the newspaper. You are the best player on any 8th grade team in your league. Don't you say 'I can't!'"

"I'm wearing jeans! And the only reason I got that award was because Troy's my brother! I played three games this season."

"But that wasn't because you were bad! That collision in the second game busted your knee! You couldn't play even if you wanted too! And, you deserved Miss Junior Basketball. You made up for all your missed games in the last one." Calum pulled his shirt off, showing Mack nice abs. "So, lets play."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."

After playing for a few hours, they fell on the ground panting like dogs. It was getting dark out but, neither of them seemed to notice. Both were grinning from ear to ear.

"That was fun," Calum said between breaths.

"Yeah. But now I'm all sweaty."

"Sweaty, but beautiful," Calum said, loud enough so only he could hear it.

"What?" Mack said sitting up.

"Nothing."

Mack smiled, making Calum blush and look away. "Do you remember where we left off at my house, when Jason so rudely interrupted us?" Calum turned slowly to face her, a smile on his face but his eyebrows raised.

"Actually," he said sitting up, "I believe we were..." He pushed Mack back on the ground playfully. He leaned in putting his forehead on hers. "Right here." Before long the night sky was hanging above them and it had started to rain but they didn't notice. The couple was in the middle of a heavy make out session. Mack had flipped Calum over, and ran her hand over his abdomen. She had been wanting to do that ever since he had taken his shirt off before they played basketball.

"Mack?"

Mack jumped off Calum looked into the faces of Bailey and Keisha. "I thought something was going one between you two. But I guess more than I expected," Keisha said. Keisha's eyes had narrowed, but not as much as Bailey's had.

"Mack! What are you doing kissing him? Are you drunk or something? Your parents are worried sick, its raining, and this is the guy who threw tapioca pudding at us after Keisha's dog got hit by the car! This is the guy who called you so many insults, pushed you around, and did anything possible to make your life miserable!"

"It's not what it looks like Bailey," Calum tried. "We were playing basketball."

"I didn't think that was called basketball," Keisha said, her eyes still narrow.

"No." She looked to Calum, "we've kept this secret long enough." Mack turned to face the girls. "Calum's my boyfriend."

Bailey and Keisha's mouths dropped. "Mack, walk in a straight line," Bailey said obviously outraged.

"Guys! You know me, you know I wouldn't do something stupid like that. He's not like that anymore."

Bailey's eyes were still slits, but Keisha had stopped. "You should go home though, your dad sounded worried when he called me and that was over an hour ago," she said in a sincere voice. "Bailey lets go."

Both of the girls turned and walked away. Calum put on his soggy shirt and the two walked hand in hand toward Mack's house.

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

Troy opened the door to hear his father yelling at his sister. "...We had no idea where you were! You could have at least come home to tell us!" Troy shut the door and walked through the kitchen into the living room where his mother was scolding Mack. He strode over to the stairs, not looking where he was going and collided with his father who was guarding the stairs. "Where have you been Troy?"

"In my room?"

"Wrong answer."

"See ya!" Mack got up out of the seat she was in and ran over to the stairs. She climbed them two at a time, hoping that her parents would forget to punish her now that Troy came home.

Coach Bolton pointed to the chair Mack had just occupied. Troy walked over to it and sat down, aware that he was going to get yelled at.

"Oh Troy, you're soaking wet!" Elaine said grabbing the blanket off the couch and throwing it to him. Troy dried himself off before looking at his father. "Dad..."

"Troy, you deliberately disobeyed me!"

"But Dad-"

"Don't you 'but Dad' me! I don't care where you were. We told you that if you wanted to even go you had to stay in bed."

"Troy, your father's right. I don't want you going-"

"Mom!"

"Troy," Elaine said. "I think this is what's best for you. I don't think Kathy Danforth or Mrs. Baylor would let Chad or Zeke run away-"

"But I didn't run away! I just went to see Gabriella! I wanted to show her I was fine."

Jack sighed. "Troy you've changed and it's because of basketball and the musical. You need to take a breather."

"Your father told me about what you did to Mack."

"And I won't have anymore of that attitude under this roof, got it." Jack walked over and stood on his knees so he was level with Troy. "You weren't going to play much anyway."

"What, were you only going to put me in if we were behind?" Troy sneered.

Jack stood up. "With this new attitude, you're this," he held his thumb and forefinger apart about an inch, "close to being kicked off the regular team. I don't care if you are the best player." Troy looked down at his feet. "You change the attitude before next season, because it will be kind of hard to explain to your friends why you aren't playing."

"You wouldn't kick me off, I need to get a scholarship."

"That's why you have good grades. I'm going to go make sure Mack has her alarm set, we need to leave early."

Elaine looked into Troy's face, in his eyes she saw sadness and regret. She walked over to Jack and touched his arm. "Do you think what we're doing is right?"

"It's the only way we can change his attitude."

I would like to thank Mufasa in the Lion King for the line: "you deliberately disobeyed me." I love that line and thought Coach Bolton was in a Mufasa type mood. Hey, hope you like it! Review! Next Chapter should be up soon, I'm working on it right now.