Troy knew that Chad wasn't due home until at least one o' clock so he still had a few hours to kill. He returned to his room and taking ten minutes to search for a clean shirt to wear decided it was about time to do some laundry. He'd been meaning to do it for weeks but somehow always got distracted.

Just as he had finished loading the machine with clothes his cell rang again. A picture of Gabriella was flashing on the screen when he answered.

"Hey Gabby"

"Hey, what are you doin today?" she asked "Do you wanna come over to mine?"

"Err. . . I'm actually doing some laundry now and I was going to go visit Chad later, you could come if you wanted to" he responded

"Oh, Chads back today? I completely forgot. It's okay though I'll just hang out with Taylor instead and give you two a chance to catch up. Tell Chad I said hi though"

"Will do, I might even call over to yours after"

"Okay then, Ill see ya later or tomorrow or whatever . . . bye Troy"

Gabriella hung up and Troy got back to doing laundry. When he had finally finished he returned to the kitchen for a snack and grabbed his keys, Chad wasn't due home for at least fifteen minutes but it wouldn't hurt to be early.

"I'm going out" he yelled up the stairs

A muffled response came from top floor "Don't be late you have school tomorrow" obviously his mother had decided to go back to bed.

It took Troy almost twenty minutes to get to Chads house because his truck broke down halfway there and he had to walk. When he finally arrived he rang the doorbell and waited for an answer. He didn't wait long.

The door flew open and Chads mother was standing there "Oh it's just you Troy come in" she ushered him into the house and towards the kitchen "Chads not here yet he's due back any minute now though, do you want a snack?"

"No thanks Mrs Danforth"

"Something to drink maybe, a growing boy needs his energy"

"Really I'm fine"

Troy hated being alone with peoples parents, it was just weird. They always tried to start conversations and he never knew what to say. It was especially awkward with Chads parents because he wasn't sure how much they knew about their sons relationship with Ryan so Troy just stuck to one word answers and avoided eye contact. Mrs Danforth soon got the hint. They sat in an awkward silence for ten minutes before they heard a car pull into the driveway then they made their way to the door.

There was a hot pink convertible in the driveway when Troy arrived at the door and Chad was climbing out of the back seat. Ryan went to help Chad get his things from the trunk as Sharpay got out of the drivers seat and walked towards Troy.

"Hi Troy, how was your summer." She asked as she dragged him into a hug

"Great, she still wants to go out with me, will she ever just give up"

Over Sharpays shoulder Troy saw Ryan kissing Chad goodbye and Chad grinning widely.

He felt Chads lips on his own again, their tongues meeting and remembered again enjoying it in the dream

"Why wont this stupid dream just leave me alone" he thought as he felt his jeans tightening "Oh no , please God no" but it was too late, Sharpay was still hugging him tightly and there was no way she could mistake what had just happened. After what felt like an eternity but what couldn't have been more than three seconds as Ryan and Chad were still grinning and gazing into each others eyes Sharpay released him.

"See you tomorrow Troy" She said and winked at him before strutting back to the car

"RYAN, get in. We need to hurry home if we want to co-ordinate our outfits for tomorrow, I was thinking of wearing cerulean but I need to know what you have that goes with that"

Ryan said a quick goodbye to Chad and gave him a peck on the cheek before waving to Troy and jumping into the passenger seat. The car was moving before he managed to close the door. Chad waved at them then looked at where the car had been and grinned widely

"She's finally gone, I'm FREE"

Troy was confused "What?"

Chad turned to face him "I love spending time with Ry and all that stuff but I am suffering from a serious Sharpay overdose and I couldn't even complain about it because Ryan gets all angry when I do"

Chad tossed Troy a bag "Hey man, help me carry this stuff to my room, I need a shower then we can catch up"

They walked up to Chads room, which was perfectly clean as usual, without talking "I'll be like ten minutes max, just wait here" Chad said as he left the room. Troy sat on the bed and thought about anything but his dreams, he tried thinking of Gabriella but that just turned into kissing Gabriella which his mind twisted into kissing Chad which in turn became kissing Chad in the shower.

"No, won't think about that, Ill think about . . . basketball"

"Practice tomorrow should be good; maybe we'll win the championship again this year. Remember last year how happy we all were afterwards; the guys were practically dancing round the locker-room. The locker-room, the showers in the locker-room are always so cold maybe they'll fix them this year. God Chads taking forever in that shower"

He was right back to Chad, and showers and kissing. He glanced over at the clock; he'd only been sitting here for a minute. He lay back on the bed and began to think again, this time about how the last school year had gone. So much had happened in such a short time, it seemed like everything had changed.

There was the month or so when Sharpay had managed to break him and Gabby up, Taylor and Chads mysterious break-up which was made a lot less mysterious after Chad came out to them, Troy still couldn't believe his best friend had thought he had to keep being gay a secret for two whole months before Taylor convinced him to tell everyone. Jason and Kelsi's break-up quickly followed by Jason asking Martha to go out with him and Zeke doing the same with Kelsi. That drama had almost torn the team apart, Zeke and Jason wouldn't talk to each other for weeks. Of course he and Gabriella had gotten back together when they found out that the break-up was one of Sharpays little schemes.

"This year there'd better be a lot less drama or Ms. Darbus is just gonna end up making us do a play about it or something lame like that"

"Jeez Troy I leave the room for ten minutes and you go asleep, life without me must be pretty boring"

Troy opened his eyes "Yeah well life with you isn't all that interesting either, anyway I wasn't asleep I was just thinking"

"Okay whatever you say, feel like a game of one-on-one, I've only been playing against Ryan and he's not very good"

Troy picked up the ball that was lying beside the bed and tossed it to his friend

"You're on!"

Chads Mom yelled at them as they ran through the kitchen and almost knocked her over in their rush to get outside.

"Sorry Mom" Chad yelled over his shoulder as he left the room

They played one-on-one for almost an hour before Troy began to overheat

"Jeans are not good for basketball" he panted as he peeled of his shirt

"Good idea" said Chad as he saw what Troy was doing and he removed his top too.

Troy couldn't help but look at his friend as he pulled the t-shirt over his head, Chad had really beefed up in the past few years, Troy could remember when there had been a lot less muscle on his friends frame only a year or two ago.

"No wonder Ryan likes him"

They played on for a few more minutes before Troy noticed something new about Chad, there were two small metal beads sticking out of his left nipple. He'd gotten it pierced over the summer

"Dude, when'd that happen" Troy asked pointing towards his friend's chest

"Oh, eh . . . I lost a bet with Ryan when we were away so I had to get it done. It hurt like fuck, D'you think I should keep it in"

"Yeah, it's . . ."

"Hot? Sexy? Cool, yeah that's it cool"

"It's cool"

"Thanks"

They played a little more before Troy pulled his shirt back on to go. He had to go home and shower if he was going to visit Gabby later.

"I'll see you tomorrow Chad, remember we have practice after school"

"How could I forget, your dad left me about fifty voicemails to make sure I'd be back from the trip on time"

"Well you better be there then, you don't want to disappoint the almighty Coach Bolton" Troy did his impression of his father while Chad looked on and laughed

"I like it when Chad laughs, he looks so damn happy, I just look goofy when I laugh"

It took Troy a long time to walk back to his truck and when he finally reached it it wouldn't start.

"I really need to get this thing fixed up" he said to himself as he continued his walk home. It was dark by the time he arrived so he had a quick shower, cold again as he couldn't stop picturing himself in Chads shower earlier that day.

"It's just a stupid dream, it probably just meant I missed him or I was excited he was coming back, why can't I just forget about it?"

He knew that forcing himself not to think about it was probably making it worse but he couldn't think of anything else to do.

Troy got his dad to give him a lift to Gabriella's house since the truck was on the fritz. He didn't bother ringing the doorbell, he never did anymore he just climbed the tree outside his girlfriends window and knocked.

Troy opened the window and the smell of Gabby's perfume wafted out at him, vanilla and something else that he could never place, before he saw her. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and she was reading a Math book

"Hey, I was beginning to think you weren't coming"

Troy smiled and moved towards her

"I'd never do that, I just had to have a shower. How was Taylor's?"

"It was fun; we started planning for the yearbook committee"

"God help me I'm dating a nerd, school hasn't even started and your already reading ahead and planning and whatnot"

He planted a kiss on the back of her neck as she giggled at him; Troy liked it when she giggled.

It took only a few minutes for Troy to persuade her to put the books away and engage in more entertaining activities and soon they were both sitting on her bed kissing. Troy was concentrating as hard as he could on Gabriella but thoughts of Chad slipped through his mental blockade and distracted him.

"Damn it" Troy broke away from Gabby and pulled back a few inches, watching her eyes as she examined his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Its nothing, what makes you think something's wrong?"

"I'm the one that usually does the pulling away Troy. If you had it your way we'd only stop to eat and play basketball"

"It's nothing really; I just can't stop picturing myself making out with Chad"

"Its nothing really, I'm just a bit tired"

"Well then you'd better go get some sleep for tomorrow"

Gabriella kissed him on the cheek before he climbed back out the window and shuffled down the tree.

"I love you Wildcat" she whispered after him before closing the window

Troy ran home. He wasn't tired at all when he went to bed.

A/N Okay sorry about how jumbled some parts are, there was just so much I wanted to put into this chapter and I tried to cram it all in there but still keep as much of it making sense as possible e.g. the stuff that happened last year, I needed to explain a little on the backstory somehow so I thought Id pop it in there, anyway , just to clarify Ive added a year between the second movie and senior year for all the extra stuff to take place in, it might have been there already but I dont know jack about the American school sytem.

Review it please I'm still new to this so any advice is very welcome. Im not sure how long the next bit will take, I only have vague plans in my head about what should happen. Suggestions anyone?