Chapter 5

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with Troy in basketball practice and Gabriella in Decathlon preparation every chance that they had between classes and every other moment (before school, after school, and during part of their lunch break) they spent rehearsing with Kelsi Neilson for their callback.

It amazed Taylor and Chad how much happier everyone was with the new arrangement and how much smoother the school day seemed to run for everyone in the process.

On Thursday morning Taylor and Gabriella met the basketball team out front of the school.

"Ready for the callback?" Gabriella asked Troy.

Troy looked around at their friends, "with everyone there to support us, definitely."

"Oh we'll be there, right Tay?" Chad asked.

Taylor smiled, "absolutely, wouldn't miss it for anything."

They were all smiling and laughing as they entered the school. Then Troy spotted the worried look on Kelsi's face as they entered the lobby and walked over to her.

Troy and Gabriella immediately looked at the callback sheet which Kelsi was intently staring daggers at.

"Callbacks the same time as the game?" Troy asked in shock.

"And the Scholastic Decathlon," Gabriella added in shock.

"Why would they do that?" Taylor questioned in confusion.

"I smell a rat named Darbus," Chad said in annoyance.

"Actually I think it's two rats, neither of them named Darbus," Kelsi spoke up quietly.

"Do you know something about this…. small person?" Chad asked.

Kelsi stepped closer to Gabriella and Troy before she spoke, "Ms Darbus might think that she's protecting the show but Ryan and Sharpay are pretty much only concerned with protecting themselves."

"Do you know what I'm gonna do to those two show dogs," Chad stated angrily.

"Nothing," Troy said quickly earning unsure looks from his and Gabriella's friends, "we're not gonna do anything to them. Except sing. Maybe. Alright now this is only going to happen if we all work together. Now who's in?"

Troy put his hand out in front of him, Gabriella put hers on top, followed by Kelsi, Chad, Taylor, Jason, and Zeke.

"You know I'm in," Chad said as he put his hand in the centre and took hold of Taylor's hand.

They had ten minutes until they had to be in homeroom, just enough time to think up a plan for the next day.

"Well I could use a program that I have on my laptop, it sends codes to other electronic devices and sends them into a meltdown. It would give you guys enough time to get out of the gym and to the auditorium," Taylor suggested.

They had spent the last eight minutes trying to come up with a plan and this was the best they had.

"That's perfect Tay but how will you get out of the Scholastic Decathlon?" Chad asked.

"I'll come up with something. There'll be five questions before we need to leave and I don't have to be apart of any of them so I'll have time to come up with a plan," Taylor smiled.

The bell rang for homeroom and they all headed there with smiles on their faces knowing that they were going to make this work.

Thursday night saw Taylor working out a plan to get the Scholastic Decathlon postponed for at least ten minutes, Zeke baking a cake at the request of Chad and Troy for Taylor and Gabriella, and Gabriella coming up with a long complicated equation to surprise the boys.

Friday morning came and although they had a plan Taylor, Chad, Gabriella, Troy, Zeke, Kelsi, and Jason were still worried that their plan might fall apart.

Chad and Troy met their teammates in the locker room, Troy had the plan for the team to wear letters that spelled out 'GO DRAMA CLUB!' to show their true support for the drama club and to show that Troy and Gabriella weren't messing around, they truly did want to be in the musical.

At the same time Taylor and Gabriella were writing up the equation, that Gabriella had come up with the previous night, on the moving whiteboard that was in the room. On the other side they put together a piece of artwork that represented the boys.

The warning bell rang and Taylor and Gabriella took their seats, the basketball team entered the room shortly after.

Chad quickly covered Taylor's eyes with his hands as Troy did the same for Gabriella.

Taylor and Gabriella grabbed each other's hands, the only thing that they could count on without seeing a thing was that they were both momentarily blind.

Zeke then walked in and placed his baked cake on the table in front of them.

Chad and Troy exchanged a grin before removing their hands from the girl's eyes.

Taylor and Gabriella gasped in amazement at the cake that had a giant 'pi' symbol on it.

"Oh my goodness," Taylor and Gabriella said at the same time to show their true amazement.

"What?" Taylor asked as she and Gabriella looked at the guys.

Jason pointed to Zeke so they knew he was the reason for the masterpiece in front of them.

"Thank you," Taylor and Gabriella smiled at Zeke as they stood up.

"We have something for you too," Taylor smiled, looking at Zeke but talking to the team.

"Yeah come look," Gabriella smiled.

The two girls led the guys over to the whiteboard.

"Ta da," Taylor and Gabriella grinned.

Chad and Troy exchanged an uncertain look. Zeke looked at Troy like he was crazy and Jason just stared at the equation, clearly trying to work out the equation.

"It's uh an equation," Troy said not knowing what else he would be able to say.

Gabriella and Taylor grinned deciding to put the guys out of their misery and Gabriella flipped the board over to reveal the artwork.

They all laughed and Taylor and Gabriella threw plush basketball's at the boys while they were looking at the artwork.

The guys tried to catch them but failed miserably as the girls continued to throw the basketballs at them.

Chad and Troy pushed past them with Zeke and Jason following.

Chad went over to Sharpay and Ryan to get them to follow him to the doorway, "wait here," Chad told them. Ms Darbus had arrived at the same time and stood with the twins to watch. Chad then got into his place and the team slowly revealed the letters on their shirts.

"From our team to yours," Chad said.

The team spoke their letters as they revealed them on their shirts.

"Well seems we Wildcats are in for an interesting afternoon," Ms Darbus said before walking into the homeroom room.

Everyone took their seats before the team walked back in.

"That was amazing," Taylor smiled.

"So sweet," Gabriella agreed, "Chad couldn't take his eyes off of you."

Taylor blushed a little, "really?"

"You like him," Gabriella accused.

Then the team entered the room and Taylor gave Gabriella a look that clearly said 'don't you dare say another word.'

The afternoon came pretty quickly for those who wished it would wait, the twins were the only ones looking forward to it still thinking that Troy and Gabriella wouldn't make it to the audition in time.

Taylor knew that her plan would work but she was also terrified that something might go wrong so she wasn't looking forward to the afternoon.

Gabriella was worrying about the questions that she knew may be asked during the Decathlon so she wasn't looking forward to the afternoon.

Chad and Troy on the other hand were looking forward to the afternoon, all they had to do was play their favourite game, they had nothing else to worry about, Taylor was taking care of everything else.

At 3:30 the Decathlon, Championship game, and the auditions began.

Taylor prepared the encryption codes for stalling the game and getting the Decathlon stalled as Gabriella answered the questions.

Taylor looked at the clock, "alright Wildcats, time for an orderly exit from the gym," and pressed the 'send code' button on her laptop screen.

Once the code was sent Taylor prepared the code for their own exit and Gabriella answered the next question.

After the question was answered Taylor sent the code for their own exit.

Taylor, Gabriella, Chad, and Troy along with the rest of the school headed to the auditorium to watch Gabriella and Troy perform their audition.

Taylor and her team sat two rows down and to the right of Chad and his team.

Taylor watched as Gabriella hesitated, she knew that her friend was nervous about being in front of a large group of people. She just hoped that Gabriella would be able to go through with it.

Then they started to sing and Taylor knew that Gabriella and Troy were meant for one another, their voices linked in perfect harmony.

As they reached the climax of the song the entire auditorium stood and clapped along to their song. It was a perfect moment.

Chad couldn't help but look over at Taylor throughout their song, he knew exactly what he was going to do after they won the Championship.

The audition was over and they all had to go back to their previous 'jobs'.

The Decathlon was over and Taylor and Gabriella were grinning from ear to ear they had won. The girls hurried to the gym wanting to know if the guys had won.

Gabriella ran over to Troy and Taylor looked around for Chad.

Without warning Chad caught Taylor around her waist and spun her into his arms, Taylor placed her hands on him to steady herself.

"So you're going with me to the after party right?" Chad asked.

Taylor smiled, "you mean like a date?"

"Well must be your lucky day," Chad grinned in response.

Taylor's eyes widened in excitement as she quickly ran over to Gabriella to tell her.

"Chad just asked me out," Taylor told her best friend.

Taylor and Gabriella squealed in excitement.

Taylor left Gabriella in order to tell her other teammates.

*After 'We're All In This Together'*

The after party was being held at Troy's house.

Taylor and Gabriella were standing outside the house.

"This is it, this marks my first date with Chad," Taylor said nervously, "why am I so nervous though? It's not like it's a real date. It's a party. There are heaps of people here."

Gabriella smiled, "it's still your first date Tay. Of course you're going to be nervous."

Taylor smiled softly, "you're right. Let's go."

Gabriella smiled and took Taylor's arm, "this is our first party right?"

Taylor nodded, "yep. Who would have thought that the school nerds would be going out with the hotshot jocks."

Gabriella grinned, "nerds are coming up in the world Tay."

Taylor laughed as they walked through the open front door of the house to the backyard where the party was.

Chad and Troy spotted them coming and their smiles widened.

Chad took hold of Taylor's hand and led her over to the swingset.

"You look beautiful tonight," Chad said as they sat on the swings.

"Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself," Taylor smiled.

And that was the start of everything.