Chapter 3

Troy and Gabriella became good friends quickly. They had both realized that they liked each other as more than just a friend, but, neither of them had told the other this. The rest of the basketball team did not like Gabriella much. They thought of Gabriella as a distraction to Troy from basketball. The dark girl in Gabriella's first homeroom class – whose name was Taylor McKessie – did not like Gabriella either, because Gabriella was a smart girl and was far better than Taylor in her studies. Sharpay and Ryan Evans did not like Gabriella either, because, Ms. Darbus had started to like Gabriella. She was quite annoying actually. She was always trying to persuade Gabriella to participate in the musicals, but, Gabriella did not want to do that – yet – so she spent most of her time avoiding Ms. Darbus at school.

A few weeks later, Gabriella and Troy were hanging out at the park together. They were just walking together silently. They did not say much to each other. The silence between them was not an uncomfortable silence. They were happy to have each other's company. Gabriella loved the way that they could just be together, without talking to each other and still not feel uncomfortable. It showed them what good friends that they had become.

"TROY!" a voice yelled from behind the two friends.

Troy and Gabriella spun around and saw Chad running towards them. His bushy hair was flying in the wind and it looked far bushier than usual.

"What's up, man?" Troy asked, as Chad came to a stop near them.

"Can I talk to you, alone?" Chad asked.

"Umm…okay," Troy shrugged. He turned to Gabriella. "Be right back."

"Sure," Gabriella nodded.

"Not if I can help it," Chad muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" Troy asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Chad said, exasperatedly. It annoyed him a lot that Troy had such sharp ears. "Come on."

Troy let Chad pull him away from Gabriella. Chad thought that they were out of earshot, but, Gabriella could still hear them. She pretended not to, though.

"What's the matter, Chad?" Troy asked.

"She's what the matter is," Chad said, gesturing towards Gabriella.

"What are you talking about?" Troy asked.

"You missed practice two days in a row," Chad said.

"I did?" Troy looked surprised. "I'm really sorry, Chad."

"Look, Troy, you have got to stay away from her," Chad said.

"Why?" Troy asked, bewildered.

"Because, she's getting in your way," Chad yelled. Troy did not say anything. "She's getting in the way of basketball. She's getting in the way of us winning the state wide championship. It's very important that we win. It's important to Coach. It's important to me. It's important to the rest of the team. And, it's important to you. You have to win this game, Troy. All the people from all those great basketball schools will be there. You have got to impress them. And, you won't be able to do that if you are walking around the park with some freaky girl. A freaky Math girl."

Troy did not say a word. He stared at Chad, knowing that what he had said was right, but, not the part about Gabriella being a freak. Troy did not say anything to defend Gabriella, although he wanted to.

When Gabriella realized that Troy was not going to say anything in her defence, she felt tears form in her eyes. She had really thought that Troy was the guy that she could trust anything with. She thought that he was the guy that she could depend on. She could see a future with Troy, but, now the future was ruined. Sure, they had not even started dating, but, it made sense. She had thought of Troy as the guy that would have made her feel okay; the guy that would make her feel alright when everything was wrong, but, she had been mistaken. Troy was obviously not the guy that she thought e was. Troy turned and their eyes met. She turned on her heels and ran.

Troy glanced at Gabriella and saw her staring at him. She had a hurt look on her face. Than, she turned around and ran.

"Gabriella?" Troy called after her. "Where are you going?" Was it possible that Gabriella had hurt what Chad had said about Gabriella? He turned to Chad, furious.

"What is the matter with you?" Troy asked, pushing Chad away.

"What the hell?" Chad asked as he stumbled onto the grass.

"Never, ever, say that or anything about Gabriella," Troy snarled at Chad. "If you do, you won't be alive the next day, because, I will kill you."

"Dude, calm down," Chad said.

"CALM DOWN?" Troy yelled. "You accept me to calm down when you have pushed my best friend away."

"I thought I was your best friend," Chad said, a look of hurt flashing across his face.

"Chad, you are my best friend," Troy said, softening up a bit. "But, a guy can have more than just one best friend. But, that doesn't mean that you can say things like that about Gabriella."

"I'm sorry, Troy, but, we need our Captain," Chad said.

"I don't think you'll get him unless he gets Gabriella," Troy said, coldly.

Then, he ran in the direction that Gabriella had gone. After a few minutes of searching, Troy gave up and sat on one of the benches. He saw that another person was sitting on it and his heart gave a leap when he realized who it was.

"Gabriella, why'd you run away like that?" Troy asked, moving closer to Gabriella.

Gabriella jumped when she heard Troy's voice. She looked up and Troy saw her tear strained face. His heart broke when he saw her like that.

"Stay away from me, Troy," Gabriella whispered. "And, I'll stay away from you. Your friends will be happier that way."

"Gabriella," Troy said. "I don't care about what my friends think. I care about you."

"Yeah, right," Gabriella scoffed. "I saw that when you didn't say a word to defend me when Chad called me a freak."

"I did defend you," Troy protested. "Besides, I thought that you didn't care about what people thought of you."

"Well, maybe I do care," Gabriella said. "But, I care about you more, Troy. And, it hurt a lot when Chad called me a freak. It hurt even more when the guy I thought that I could lean on didn't say a word to defend me."

"But, Gabriella," Troy began, but Gabriella stopped him.

"Save it, Troy," she whispered, as fresh tears streamed down her face. "Save it, and leave me alone."

Gabriella stood up and walked away. Open-mouthed, Troy stared after her in surprise.