AN: Here is the second chapter and the third will be out with in the next day or so.

Chapter 2

Troy had woken up late, couldn't find his favorite shirt, his locker was jammed (from him kicking it so many times), he had detention for being late to class, and it wasn't even the end of homeroom yet. Through his dismal morning he had failed to notice the new girl in his class. Not that he had ever paid attention to girls, they were annoying, giggly creatures that were a waste of oxygen to him.

He continued to not notice her until he ran into her on his rage to his next class. "Watch it!" He growled. Even though he had ran into her, she was still at fault here to him

"You ran into me actually," She said and everyone in the hallway turned to look at her.

"Stay out of my way," he said roughly before brushing passed her.

"Ok, so watch out for guy with big blue eyes," she said to herself.

"That's Troy Bolton, basically thinks he runs the school," An African-American girl by her said, the girl stuck out a hand to her, "Taylor McKessie."

"Gabriella Montez," She shook the girl's hand, "Is he always that callous?"

"Yes, and that wasn't the worse of his tirades," Taylor said.

"Can you point me in the direction of room 268?" Gabriella asked.

"I'm going there myself, Mrs. Harper's chemistry class. She's really nice, everyone likes her," Taylor said as they started to walk down the halls.

"So what is up with Troy Bolton?" Gabriella couldn't help but ask.

"His dad's a teacher here and is the coach of the boy's varsity basketball team, which Troy is the captain and star of. He is basically a really big jerk but no one will tell him because he'd rip them to pieces and then burn the remains."

"So then why do the people treat him like a king, just something I noticed it"

"People take basketball very serious here at East High, I personally don't know why, but they do."

"Well, hopefully that will be the last time I see him again," Gabriella said as they reached a door that said 268 on a plaque next to it.

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Troy banged down into his seat that day at lunch. No one said a word. His mood was obviously really bad that day and no one was ready to take him on, not even Chad. "Who's the new girl?" He asked.

"Gabriella Montez, just moved here from South Carolina, really smart, our year," Jason reported.

"She ran into me in the hallway and blamed it on me," Troy lied; though none of them knew that.

"Did you do anything?" Chad asked cautiously.

"I was late to class," Troy said, "And she's a girl. If she were a guy, I wouldn't have thought twice about it and she'd be lying in the hospital right now."

The guys looked at him and sucked in a deep breath. Troy would never touch a girl, but now sounded like he wanted to. They knew they would have to watch him now to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid. Troy got up and walked away, going up to his secret spot. He skipped his next class wanting to cool himself off some. He had someone talk back to him and he didn't know how to react to it. He had wanted this day to come, but it wasn't from whom he expected it. He always thought it would be Chad or a basketball guy, not the new girl.

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Later that week in the gym, the girls had finished their dance unit, making the boys more the happy to get off of volleyball. Troy ended up sending four more boys to the nurse's office in the short time span.

The wall had retracted and everyone knew what was next. Troy was excited for this next unit: basketball. The only draw back to it was the co-ed part. He had to work with the girls. Girls couldn't play ball, like before, they were a waste of oxygen.

Troy sat on the bleachers already dressed out, waiting for everyone else to change. That is when he saw her. The girl from the hallway was walking out of the girl's locker room. Great, he thought. He had hoped to never see her again. Coach Bolton and the girl's coach – Coach Fris - called everyone to attention. For the first day they would just be working on ball handling and passing and such, no scrimmaging.

Troy rolled his eyes at this. He was able to do things with a ball you had to see to believe. Coach Bolton brought out a cage of balls and told them to pair up and grab a ball. Troy grabbed Chad by the collar and went to grab a ball.

They started out just dribbling the ball, which was a difficulty for some people on its own. Troy was just glad that there were no freshmen in the class or else he would have lost it. He almost did with some idiot hit their ball off their foot and it knocked Troy's ball, messing him up. Chad grabbed the ball and dragged Troy to a different part of the gym. They eventually got to other things like between the legs, crossovers, behind the back, spins and the dreaded left hand.

Coach Bolton always had Troy demonstrate. And it was during these demonstrations that Gabriella could notice his beauty with such a simple ball. She could see the gracefulness in his movement. The ball seemed to complete him. It all seemed so natural. Now for a brief moment in time, she could see why people respected him, but only when he was silent and had a ball in hand.

They got with their partners and did different types of passes before they had to change before the period ended. And even after they had changed, Troy was messing around with Chad with a spare ball. They were basically just showing off, but it still had that beauty to it. And it was during this that Gabriella heard him laugh. It was a full laugh; it really filled the big gym. And you couldn't see the jerk for a moment. It added to the beauty that had initially drew Gabriella in, it was enchanting.

The bell rang and Gabriella left the gym. Troy and Chad put up the ball and left the gym too. Troy was finally in a good mood. The school hadn't seen him this way for a very long time. Troy was smiling, giving random members of his team a high five. He threw his head back in a rumbling, bubbling laugh. Yes this was a different Troy Bolton.

Each hallway he walked down was in awe of this handsome, laughing Troy Bolton. Some of them were scared of a calm before a storm and scampered off quickly. Others watched him as he conversed easily with Chad. And others still, were willing to welcome him warmly into their lives.

This was a black and white contrast to the Troy Bolton the next day. No one knew what happened to him as he stomped down the hallways pushing everyone out of his way. He had to becoming down of a basketball high. He dug lower and lower after each one. He bumped into so many people he couldn't yell at them all.

"I believe that is the second time you have bumped into me and I have yet to have an apology for either account," someone finally pulled him from his daze. It had to be that girl from before, Gabriella, Jason had called her.

"Maybe you ought to watch it then," Troy said, angrily, "Third time I won't hesitate to go for blood."

"I have yet to do any wrong yet, unlike you."

"That is where you have reality wrong, I don't do anything wrong, get use to it."

"Maybe you need to pull yourself out of your fairy-tale and get to the real world."

"I am in the real world!" Troy shouted at her. He was mad, everyone had cleared out except for Gabriella. No one wanted to face Troy in his rage, not even his friends dare that.

"Then why do you walk around here like a king, when you are really just a jerk?"

Troy stared at her a long and hard moment as she did the same. No one had ever told him that. "If you was to come out of East High alive, you better find your place, fast, and out of my way," Troy hissed and he walked away.

He skipped his next class to go up to his secret place. That girl got under his skin. And it bugged him. Who did she think she was? But then again, this is what he wanted. He wanted someone to tell him that didn't he? He never say the day coming so maybe he didn't really want it to happen.

Maybe he didn't like her because she had gotten to him. She had found away under his skin. She had made a good hard hit to the wall he had to protect his heart. Maybe the wall was crumbling at her. He needed to repair it, and fast, but how?

Ok, so maybe he should go impulsively. What did he want to do? He wanted to punch someone. He wanted to fight. The physical hurt from that would then in turn heal the emotional, internal ones that no one saw. Don't ask how it makes sense, it did to him and that was all that mattered. He had a way to fix himself and that is what he direly needed.

He went back down after the period ended and went looking for a fight. The first guy that he bumped into he started to throw punches. The guy on the other end came out worse than Troy. While Troy came away relatively unscathed both on the outside and inside.

He had a detention for fighting, but it was fine price to pay for what he had repaired. His guarded heart was now even more protected that before and he felt good about it.

AN: Ok that is chapter two and I still love reviews and I am stopping for the night since it is past midnight and I am tired. I may work on the next chapter tomorrow morning and then the story will go on. So once again, please leave me a review, I love hearing from my readers.