AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed for me. Hope you were able to deal with the wait. Here is the next chapter; it is pretty much the second half of the previous chapter.

Chapter 6

Troy laid around the house bored until his teammates showed up for Saturday conditioning. They stretched in his front yard. "Ok, boys, you know the drill by now. As long as you stay with me and not stop or slow down too much, and you'll have water waiting for you when we get back here," Troy pumped up his team for another minute before taking off down the sidewalk. He stepped into a good pace as he reached the end of his block. He continued on down a few more blocks before turning and heading down a main street. He turned again and went past the school. There were a few cars there, probably a little league basketball game or practice for some other sport. He continued down the street until he came to the library and he turned and headed down a side road. Unless you had been down this road before, you would never guess that it came not too far from Troy's house. It turned and coiled and was a really twisty street. It came out about five blocks from Troy's house. He went away from his house a block before turning towards and finally coming back up a block to the street where his house lay. He jogged down a few houses before collapsing in his front yard. None of his teammates were too far behind him. They all sprawled out on his front yard and driveway. Players started to peel off shirts and shoes in efforts to cool down. After a minute of regaining his breath, Troy went up to his house and grabbed the spare key and unlocked the front door. He went to the kitchen and grabbed ten water bottles out of the refrigerator and took them out to his teammates. Each bottle was empty with in ten minutes. Slowly the players started to drift away back home. Troy collected all the bottles and put them by the sink to be washed.

He peeled off his shirt, drenched in sweat, and threw it in the laundry room. He needed a cold shower. He kicked off his shoes in his room and peeled off his socks and left them there too. He slipped on the bathroom tile from his sweaty feet and caught himself before his head clashed with the floor. The tile felt cool beneath his hands he laid down on the bathroom floor, soaking in the coldness of the bathroom tile. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He heard the air conditioning kick on and cold air burst through the vents, feeling good on his skin. He stayed there on the floor for a while moving every so often to find a cool piece of tile. He was in a slight doze when he heard the doorbell ring. He figured it was one of his teammates either forgetting something or a neighbor wanting to talk to his parents. His neighbors were kinda creepy dropping by every once in a while to just chat and to bring a casserole or cake. And none of his neighbors could cook either so he tried to stay away from anything they brought over. The doorbell rang once more pulling him out of his thoughts. He got up lazily and made little effort to get to the door. He opened the door and saw just about the last person he expected to see there. Gabriella, she looked at him, blushed and then her eyes hit the roof's overhang. The hot air hit Troy's skin and he remembered his lack of clothing. "Come in, hold on just a sec," He retreated to the upstairs and grabbed a shirt. She would have to deal with his smell since he had yet to take a shower. Hopefully it would speed up what ever she was doing here. But he had to have some form of kindness as he went into the bathroom and grabbed his deodorant. Not that it would do much good, he applied some nonetheless. He walked downstairs and she was awkwardly sitting on his couch. "What are you doing back here?" He tried not to sound rude or aggressive.

"Your project, it was unfinished. When I was typing, it just came to an end in the middle of sentence on the word 'they' and I didn't know if you gave me the wrong part, or if you are missing a page, even thought it stops in the middle of the back of the page," Gabriella said quite quickly, still mildly embarrassed. She handed him the papers and he looked at them. They ended just like she said in the middle of the page on the word 'they'.

"Huh, I know I finished it," Troy said, "Come one," He motioned for her to follow him up to his room. He saw her make a funny face at the smell of his room, not that he really blamed her. Troy fished though his history folder again. He pulled out the other half of his project and handed it to her so she could see that it too was unfinished. A light bulb clicked on in his head as he remembered what had happened. He pulled out his math folder and looked through it before finding the right piece of paper. He handed it to her as he said; "I got an idea in math and started writing and ended up finishing it. It never made it's way to my history stuff. First sentence should be about the same as the last one on the other piece of paper."

"Ok, thanks," Gabriella compared the two, "here, you can finish this one," she handed him back the other part of his project that was still unfinished.

"I plan on it," Troy nodded.

"Maybe you could type it up and email it to me," Gabriella wasn't sure if she was pushing her luck just yet.

"Uh, yeah, sure, write it at the top," He handed her the paper and a pen.

Gabriella scribbled her email address quickly across the top. "That is a really big help, thank you," she said, "And I guess this is bye again, only without an upset little girl." Gabriella swore she saw a small twitch of a smile grace Troy's face.

"You know, if you want to, you could stay around here for a bit longer," Troy said, unsure of himself. He was both mad and happy at himself. He wasn't sure what exactly came over him, but he continued anyways, "My mom and dad took Ellie to the zoo for an early birthday present. Silence hasn't been known around this household for a very long time. Not since Ellie came along."

Gabriella couldn't believe her ears. Troy Bolton offering for her to hang out at his house. The same Troy Bolton she had shared so many arguments with over the passed few weeks. And yet, she wasn't totally repulsed by the idea either. It was the same Troy Bolton who had showed her how to shoot a free throw. Maybe she was just as insane as he was. She looked at him in the eye and saw his internal battle, "Ok," she said, "One condition."

"That is," Troy said without a clue as to what would follow.

"Teach me how to do a lay-up," Gabriella said.

Troy couldn't help breaking out into a grin now, "I think I can do that. Isn't it the next thing we are doing in gym?"

"I don't want to fail this one either. And since you help my dismal free throws," She drifted off.

"Yeah, ok, come on out back," Troy said. Gabriella set her stuff in the living room and followed him to the back yard. Troy grabbed a basketball from the garage and came back out to the small painted on court.

"Ok, I don't mean to sound rude, but tell me that you can dribble and move at the same time," Troy said.

"I mastered that Wednesday," She said.

"Such an accomplishment," Troy said sarcastically, "Anyways, do you know what I mean by the term jump stop?"

"I am guessing it means to jump to a stop," Gabriella guessed.

"Yeah, basically, just land with both feet hitting the ground at the same time, and about underneath your shoulders, not too much wider. It should look like this," Troy did a little demonstration. He dribbled a few times and then did a jump stop.

"Ok, but you don't do that when you do lay-ups," She pointed out.

"I do sometimes, but what I do without stopping, you don't have to do to pass gym, and it is easier to learn it this way, and everyone, your truly included, learned this way first too."

"Like when you were five."

"Up until I was about ten I did until I figured out on my own how to do it without stopping. And stopping can help during a game. If you have a defender right behind you and you stop and they don't expect it, they will go right on by you, giving you an open and easy shot."

"That was a lot of basketball mumbo jumbo."

"Ok, so skip and forget everything I just said, it is just easier to stop when you are first learning. Start at the three-point line, here, at a 45 degree angle to the basket, dribble down, jump stop at the block and shoot," Troy said as he moved her to the appropriate place on the three-point arc.

"Troy," she got his attention as he was about to start rambling again about what to do.

"Yeah?" He looked at her.

"Where's the block?" she asked innocently.

"That is a good question," He started to walk to it as he said, "I am just use to people knowing. It is right here," He stopped standing on a painted on square. "Just jump stop when you get to me."

"This could end up really bad," Gabriella said.

"I promise there are no cameras to catch you falling on your face or looking like an idiot, I think."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence."

"Just going to sit and talk all day Montez, or are you going to do a lay-up?"

"Just don't laugh."

"No promises."

Gabriella rolled her eyes and dribble the ball down the court at a half run and came up to where Troy was standing and jump stopped, Troy was moving out of her way as she did and then she pathetically and awkwardly shot the ball. "I told you it would be bad," she said.

"Could be more pathetic."

"Thanks," she said sarcastically, "Improve it."

"Make it more fluid, and snap the stop more. And maybe we should just work on the shot itself before adding in the actually running."

"So basically it was all bad."

"You didn't bounce the ball off your foot."

"So the shooting?"

"Yes," Troy moved behind her, "Stand here," He moved her some to the right, "And see the square up on the backboard, you want to hit the top corner that is closest to you," He said quietly into her ear, his breath was hot on her skin, "And remember the grip on the ball from the free throw? You want something that is close to that. You can't get it perfectly like that most of the time, but something similar to it is best," he positioned her hands on the ball under his, "and shoot," He guided her shot, so it was a perfect and went in with and easy swish. "Just remember how that felt."

Like I'm going to forget that, Gabriella thought to herself, her hands still tingling from where his had just been covering hers. He retrieved the ball and handed it to her. She tried to focus on making the shot, but he was very distracting just standing there, watching her. After she had made about five in a row Troy added a single dribble, the jump stop and then the shot. Once she got this together he had her go back to the three-point arc and had her do it all together.

This proved to be a gigantic feat for her, as she just couldn't seem to do it. Try after try didn't go in. She started to get frustrated and Troy could see it. "Ok, time for a break, frustration gets you no where expect more frustrated," Troy said.

"But I want to make it," she said.

"You will after a break and you let loose of the tension. Five minutes is all I'm taking about, for a glass of water, come on," He walked into the house and into the kitchen. She hesitated but followed him. He grabbed two glasses and put some ice and then water in them. Though Gabriella was reluctant to follow him, welcomed the drink. Five minutes and two embarrassing baby pictures on the refrigerator later they were back out on the court.

"Think about grace and fluidity in your shot. Think about it being one motion all to together rather that three different ones," Troy said from under the basket as Gabriella went back up to the three-point line.

"I'll try anything," Gabriella muttered. She took a breath and started to dribble down the court, she jump stopped and shot. The ball hit the backboard and went off to the left, still closer than her other shots. She sighed and received the ball from Troy, who was rebounding, and went back up the court again. She looked at the goal and started her lay-up. After she shot she watched the ball bounce off the backboard then off the front of the rim and falling threw the net. "Finally!" she shouted. She looked at Troy and wanted to hug him but remembered that he didn't do that.

And Troy saw this, he sighed, "Go ahead," he said in a soft voice.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said excitedly as she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He caught her and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her waist, "Your welcome," he said.

"You are an awesome teacher," she said.

"I doubt that," he said letting go of her.

"I might actually pass gym because of you," She said backing up a few feet.

"You are the one actually doing the work, I'm just a bystander offering up ideas."

"I'll say ok and pretend you are right if it keeps you like this and not the Troy Bolton you are in school, I don't like him."

"I don't either sometimes," Troy said lying down in the grass behind the basketball court.

"Wait, did you just a say that you don't like who you are at school?" Gabriella asked surprised, looking at him.

"Not all the time," he said then added very quietly to himself so he wasn't even sure if she heard him say, "Or most of the time."

"Then way do you act that way?"

"I don't know, just do."

"You don't have to."

"Didn't we have an argument about this already?"

"Heated discussion."

"And the difference between the school and my house is?"

"Who you are, you are two totally different people between school and your house."

"Two halves of the same person."

"Then flip sides between home and school."

"Well I can't exactly be a jerk to my parents or Ellie."

"You don't have to be a jerk at all."

"Yeah I do."

"Says who?"

"Me."

"Why?"

"Cause I do!"

"That is worse than because I said so."

"Either one works."

"Give me a real reason why, like the ones you use instead of simply saying sorry."

Troy didn't say anything. He sat up and looked at her. He thought about it for a moment. He already knew an answer, the right answer even more, but he wanted a different one. Something else to tell her. And for it to look like he was thinking. He couldn't come up with anything quickly. He sighed and decided on the truth, "Because I am waiting for someone to yell at me, someone to call me out on being a jerk."

"And that is exactly what I did."

"I didn't want you to do it."

"You wanted Chad or a teammate to do it."

"Yeah, not the new girl."

"Then I won't anymore. I'll sit back and fit into the mold and wait for someone else to do it."

"Gabriella," Troy started.

"Good luck and goodbye Troy," Gabriella went in the house and grabbed her stuff and the papers she had been over here for and left. Troy didn't say a word. He laid back and stared at the clouds in the sky and listened to her walk away. So he was back to his dismal life of waiting. Back without a spark or something to distract him from the boring routine that was his life. He watched the clouds blow by for a really long time. When he finally started getting hungry and his stomach started making noises, he got up and went inside and got something to eat.

------------------

AN: And there is the end of the chapter. Some fun and sad times in it. Please leave me a review telling me what you think. I am going to work on the next few days and I hope to get it out by the weekend.