AN: Thank you to all of those who reviewed, I love it! Anyways, here is the next chapter, it is not all I want it to be, but I kinda wanted it this way only I wanted it to be better than it is. Oh well, you can't always get what you want.

Chapter 7

Monday when they came back to school after that weekend Troy became almost tyrant like. He was even more moody now which added to his oppressive nature. He was mean and rude and no longer cared about anything. He sent multiple boys to the nurse's office during a scrimmage in gym before his dad sent him to the locker room to cool off and get control of himself. And he had lost most of his self control and control over his life. He yelled at people in the hallways, his friends had to stick close to keep him from coming to blows with a number of people.

His friends didn't like this Troy, and neither did anyone else. But everyone else could keep out of his way. His friends had stick by him to be his friend and to keep him from doing something stupid. They started to hate it and were aggravated by their friend, but they never let it on. They never said a word to him. They were silent suffers.

Troy and Gabriella's silent mornings in the library were so tension filled, they were often cut short as neither of them could stand it. After Troy finished his second part of the project. He typed it up and emailed it to her, and then stopped coming to the library in the morning. He gave her no warning of it, he just stopped one morning. Even some of the teachers started to notice a change in him. But none of it ever reached his dad and they kept quiet. No one ever called him out on his sudden change or moodiness or behavior. Everyone was too afraid of him.

Gabriella did exactly what she said she'd do. She stayed out of Troy's way and fit into the mold of the status quo of East High. The only contact she had with him was when working on their history project, but it was almost finished. And when it was finished, she would be almost completely out of his life. She stood on the sidelines and watched. She was the only one, besides Troy himself, who knew anything about the reasons behind his change. She heard many rumors about what happened and most of them made her laugh. Some told of alien abduction or a more evil twin. She had bumped into him once in the hallway. She issued a quick apology and disappeared into the crowd before Troy could say a word.

The one and only unaffected part of Troy's life was his home life. His parents knew nothing. Ellie was oblivious. None of them knew of the fear the students of East High had of Troy Bolton. If his parents did see a difference they attributed it to being a teenager and then promptly forgot about it.

Troy saw the fear in people's eyes and was disgusted by it, even his friends and teammates were afraid. And yet, his game never wavered, but did grow in intensity and aggressiveness. He played a little too rough sometimes, but the team never lost a game. He kept looking at his teammates waiting. Waiting for one of them to either pluck up the courage to talk to him or to break down and yell at him. But nothing ever happened. They all stayed stone silent.

Troy eventually stopped eating with them and opted for his rooftop hideaway. Gabriella stayed away from the rooftop so she wouldn't ever see him there. Troy started to push his players harder at practice, take them on longer runs each Saturday. He saw some of the younger players starting to break now. Even some of his seniors started to break. All of them were having trouble meeting Troy's demands; some were just better at hiding it than others.

"Ok, dude are you on something, how are you not wiped out?" Chad asked after one particularly tough Friday practice. Some of the boys looked at him, not able to believe he asked that.

"No I am not on something, only an idiot would do something like that. I just can do it," Troy said wondering what would follow, "And just because I don't look or act tired, doesn't mean I'm not. I just know how to hide it."

"If you are that good of an actor, try out for the musical and knock Sharpay off her pedestal," Chad said.

"It's called mental toughness, the whole mind over matter junk," Troy said fiercely.

"I just think you mental," Some guy muttered under his breath, but the whole gym heard him.

"Nice to know you guys think so highly of me," Troy said angrily. "Cause you know, I don't really care if the rest of the school thinks I am mental, but you are my guys, your are my team, and I thought you are my friends, I wish you would have a little higher image of me."

"We do, we hold you in the highest respect, you are our captain, but sometimes you are just a little out there it seems like," Chad said, "like maybe you don't have all your marbles."

"Well it is nice to know you guys think that I am insane," Troy said loudly at them, "At least I know what I want and I know what I am doing, where as you guys run around the court like you have your heads up you asses half the time. I swear it is like you have never played a game in you life before," Troy knew this was a bit of an exaggeration, but he had thought it more than once in the past few weeks.

"Well if you weren't over demanding, maybe we could do it. We are trying so hard to please you, but nothing will ever please you. You are like a bottomless pit of needs that can't be fulfilled. Nothing is ever good enough for you, it is like you are blind to all the effort we are putting into this team," Zeke spoke up.

"And you are so moody anyways, if we actually do almost live up to what you want, we can't tell so we think we are doing horrible and it is a vicious cycle that has wound us up here. We have all the respect in the world for you, but you don't act like you appreciate it and you are going to start losing it," Jason said.

"And stop acting like a jerk so much. Everyone is so scared of you at school. It is like they expect you to murder them if they do something wrong or they step in your way. You can split the crowd better than Sharpay. You are even more icy cold than her," Another teammate said, "Maybe even some of us are scared of you too." Troy was looking around the gym, just daring each of them to talk next.

"You just really need to loosen up some dude. You are so uptight, if one little thing goes wrong, you are ready to explode," Another guy said, "If you really want to make it out in the world, you are going to have to loosen up. Not every thing is going to be perfect. You got to allow some breathing room, some margin for error."

"Just stopping acting like a jerk so much and try just being a kid. I mean, we are still in high school. We don't have to worry about bills and taxes or insurance or all those things our parents take care of. We just have to learn and do a little bit of work. Try just being a kid again Troy. Play for fun and the love of the game. Eat a ton of ice cream and try not to get a brain freeze. Play a practical joke and have one played on you and just laugh. Have a water balloon fight or play a video game at the arcade. Dig up an old movie you haven't watched in five years. We are seventeen or younger guys, and that is all we should have to be," One senior said. Henry was one of the few Troy had a lot of respect for. Henry was good with words and conveying thoughts.

A silence hung over the gym; none of the guys knew how to follow that up. Troy finally broke it. "So this is your opinion of me. This low, mean, jerk who can't act his age. Well you guys deserve a thank you for telling me just what you think. It is nice to know just how much you guys despise me. I won't be seeing you tomorrow, have a nice weekend boys," Troy left the gym. Half of him was happy; his boys had finally said something to him. The other half was so caught up in the role, he was mad at them. And he hated it. He hated himself for acting the way he did. He hated his team for waiting this long to talk or rather yell at him. He hated Gabriella because she wasn't there. He knew that Monday he would say something brilliant to his teammates and then his next goal would be to start talking to Gabriella again. He hated to admit it, but he missed the occasional polite conversations they had where he was just a kid. He was just seventeen when talking to her. Like what Henry had said, he was just a kid with Gabriella, no pressure from his dad or the school. Just a guy and a girl in a conversation.

Troy leaned back in the driver's seat of his car and sighed. He had a lot of thinking about to do this weekend. He'd be a hermit up in his room all weekend. His friends had said something to him, just as he wanted. His only problem was how to respond to it. He couldn't just comeback Monday all different. He needed to change. He knew he did. He couldn't go on the way he was now. It was too hard.

He had been like this once before. He had gone moody and out of it once before his life. It had been a little different though. He wasn't mean, just really quite. It was five years ago in seventh grade. Troy closed his eyes to think. He remembered he had been really quiet. He almost never talked, and it actually started to mess with his vocal cords. He remembered his parents noticing and starting to freak out. That was a difference now; his parents knew nothing about it this time. Maybe he'd do that again and just go quiet and keep his head down and not say much. It would probably be an improvement to the student body of East High. Troy sighed and opened his eyes. He drove home. His hermit time began as he locked himself in his room. He did all his homework and just lay out on his bed. One hand rested on his stomach and the other above his head. He had flipped on the radio and just let it play into the night.

Troy wasn't sure what would come Monday morning when he went to school. One thing was for sure though; he'd avoid his friends at all costs until lunch. He would talk to them there. It would be a surprise, as he hadn't eaten in the cafeteria for at least two weeks. He didn't know what he would say yet, but he had all weekend to figure it out.

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When Monday morning came, Troy was nervous as hell, he had thought about everything that weekend. Every scenario that he could think of played across his bedroom walls. He could see it all against the blue walls. He took a deep breath before getting out of his car. He kept his head down as he walked into the school and to his locker. Most people got out of his way and he was ok with it. He bypassed his teammates and opted for getting to homeroom early. When he got there he crossed his arms over the desk and put his head on his arms. He closed his eyes. He wasn't really sleeping, but was a little dazed. He sat there silently and unable to seeing people coming into the room or the people staring at him. And he blocked out the whispers that filled conversations of what was up with Troy Bolton.

Troy stayed quiet through out the class, even passing up an excellent opportunity to butt heads with Darbus. Whispers followed him in the halls between classes of the stony quiet Troy Bolton. It spread like wildfire and the whole school after third period. When lunch was upon them, Troy packed up his stuff slowly from his class and walked at a snails pace down to the cafeteria. The lunchroom was quite loud. He was able to slip in unnoticed even with the door slamming behind him. He walked to the table all his friends were at. They looked at him as he say down, "Hello boys," he nodded. Most of them gave him a shocked greeting. "Stop staring and eat," he told them. It wasn't a viscous command or loud or rude. Just a quiet one that was more of an offering than a demand. The table stayed relatively quiet for the next few minutes.

Troy looked up at his friends as he was finishing his lunch. They were still looking at him with confused looks. "I-" he was ready to talk to them, a little begrudgingly, but ready. He started again in a low voice the boys across the table had to strain a little to hear him, "I thought about what you guys said at the end of practice Friday. And know you had a fair point about some of my behavior over the past several weeks. Not everything was fair to you guys or the school. And as I thought back on some of the things you said and some of the things I am done, I am not happy with my choices. And maybe you guys can give me a second chance, I'd still like to be your captain and friend."

"I'm not sure if it is your second, but you'll always have another chance with me," Chad said.

"Me too," Zeke said. The team soon followed with words along the same as Zeke's.

"It is much appreciated gentlemen," Troy said holding his head up a little higher to look them in the eyes.

"Now we're gentlemen," Jason joked. The table burst into laughter, even Troy shared a few laughs with them.

"So you guys are still with me?" Troy asked towards the end of lunch.

"Yeah, most definitely captain," Chad said.

"Good, cause I don't East High is ready for a not so pissed of me," Troy said, "And I don't want to go at it alone."

"That is the point of the people you call friends," one player said.

Troy loosened up throughout the rest of the day. Although some students were still a bit apprehensive, most were shocked at Troy, but welcomed him quickly. Troy had found a better place now at East High; one filled with a little less fear and a few more smiles. Although he still put on a bit of a show when Joe Robbins came into the picture. Robbins was the soccer captain and had a bad history with Troy starting from Troy's first day as a freshman. Robbins was a senior and hated Troy like all the other captains.

Troy now had his East High life back on track, sort of. Now he had only one thing on his mind: Gabriella Montez. She was needed in his life. He wasn't sure where or how she fit in, but he had a void in him without her. He needed to argue with her in front of the whole student body and then steal a funny, polite conversation with her hidden away in secret. He need her back in his life somehow, he was determined to do it.

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AN: There it is. And now looking back at it, it is much better than what I had written down in my notebook. I like this much better. I hope you like it too and will leave me a review. I don't know when my next update will be, but I am shoot for before next Tuesday just go give me some leeway because I don't know what is going on this weekend. I may do the next chapter tomorrow, I may have to wait and do it in a few day, but it won't be too long until the next update, I promise.