Troy was in front of the mirror, putting on his cologne. He wanted to make sure that he looked "good" when Gabriella would stop by later that evening.

FLASHBACK

"Hello?" answered Troy.

"Hey Troy, it's Gabriella. I got your phone number from Taylor, is that okay?" asked Gabriella.

Troy perked up, "More than okay! So, what's up?"

"Listen, are you doing anything tonight?" she asked him.

"Except for playing basketball with Chad I'm all free." he replied.

"That's great! Look, I'm going to stop by tonight."

"Why? I thought you had plans with William." said Troy.

"It's Walter," Gabriella corrected. "And that's exactly why I'm stopping by. I don't have time to explain, so I'll tell you when I get to your house. Bye!" she quickly hung up.

"Hmm," Troy mumbled as he hung up the phone. "I wonder what that's all about."

END FLASHBACK

Troy made his way to his closet and looked at his shirts. "Let's see, blue striped, green striped, brown striped, black striped…no." he told himself as he was scanning his tops. He walked over to his dresser and opened the second drawer. "Blue flannel, yellow flannel, white flannel, black flannel…no." He wiped imaginary sweat off of his forehead and decided to wear a plain, blue polo shirt. About fifteen minutes later, while Troy was combing the tip of his freshly-wetted hair, the doorbell rang. He looked through the hole's door to see Gabriella in stunning formal wear.

"Hey Gabriella, you look beautiful." commented Troy, opening the door.

"Thank you, Troy! Now, I don't mean to be forward—"

"No, no! Forward is good!" cried Troy.

"Really? Well, I'm going to be really forward…I need you to babysit Alexis tonight. I'm going out with Walter and our babysitter cancelled. Could you do it?"

"Huh?" asked Troy, snapping out of his daze. "You want me to babysit your daughter?"

Gabriella blushed, "Why not? I mean, I think she should get to know you since I live here now. And who better to babysit her than her fath—" Gabriella quickly stopped herself when she realized what she was saying. "—Her mother's close friend?"

"O-Okay…" Troy replied slowly. "Sure, I'll babysit her. But just to warn you, I'm not very good with kids."

Gabriella scoffed, "Oh, that's okay! She's real easy, just feed her and put her to bed, it's as simple as that! Thank you so much, I'll be back at midnight!" She waved and took off.

"Uh, hi Alexis!" Troy greeted nervously.

Alexis looked up at him with her big blue eyes and she immediately started screaming. "Who are you? Where's my mommy? I want my mommy!"

"Shh, it's going to be fine! Mommy's going out with Daddy!"

"Water?" Alexis couldn't say "Walter" quite right, so it sounded like "Water." She shook her head, "Water no Daddy!"

Troy could barely make out her words, "Walter's not your daddy?" Alexis nodded. "Then who is?"

"I don't know!" she giggled. She pulled out an inflatable microphone and started singing in gibberish. The doorbell rang and Troy went to answer it.

"Hey guys!" he greeted, letting Chad and Taylor into his apartment. "I'm babysitting Alexis right now if you don't mind."

"Oh, not at all! I'm dying to spend more time with Gabriella's little angel. She's all Gabriella talks about." Taylor informed.

"I be singer when grow up." explained Alexis as she continued singing.

"Wow, she's just like Gabriella with her singing. Except Gabriella doesn't have a two year old accent." Taylor chuckled. Alexis got up onto the coffee table as if it were a stage.

"I famous and you at my concert!" she squealed as she continued her ballad of bubbles and bath toys.

"Yet she is also so different from Gabriella, she's not afraid to sing in front of people." Taylor put her finger to her chin.

As Alexis was dancing on the coffee table, she spotted one of Troy's basketballs in the corner of the room. "Ooh, a backy ball!" she sniggered, running over to the ball. She picked it up and ran over to Troy. "You have hoop?"

"Aw, she calls a basketball a 'backy ball.'" Chad chuckled.

"Yeah, it's in the back. Come with me," Troy held Alexis's hand and they both left to go to the back of the apartment. Troy pulled out a hoop that he had when he was younger and took the ball out of Alexis's tiny hands. "Why don't you use this one?" He gave her a tiny micro bead-stuffed basketball. "Wow, she sings and she loves basketball. I wonder who her father is,"

Taylor chuckled, "That guy is so clueless."

Thirty minutes later, Troy took Alexis to the fridge to see what she wanted to eat. "What do you want, Alexis?" he asked her.

"I no have mushroom because me allergic." she replied.

That's weird, Troy thought. I'm allergic to mushrooms too. "That's okay, I don't have any. I'm allergic too," he informed.

"You just like me! I'm lots like you!" Alexis giggled.

Troy smiled, "Yeah, you are a lot like me."

Later that night, after Chad and Taylor left, Troy sat on the couch reading Sports Illustrated with a sleeping Alexis leaning on him. Troy looked at the clock, Gabriella was an hour late. Troy was about to fall asleep himself when a knock on the door aroused. He carefully got up with Alexis in his arms and answered the door.

"Hi Troy, I'm so sorry I'm late. Walter and I were just so caught up in our date that we didn't realize the time!" Gabriella giggled.

Troy felt like getting in Walter's car and strangling Walter to death. "Oh, that's fine!" he lied. "She wasn't a problem at all." He looked down at sleeping Alexis.

"Oh, she's such an angel. Thank you so much for watching her, I owe you big time." she explained, taking Alexis from his arms.

"Come on, you don't owe me anything."

Gabriella kissed Troy's cheek, "How about that?"

"I think I deserve that," he joked.

The next day, Gabriella and Alexis were at a sports store, looking for shoes. Meanwhile, Troy and Chad were at the other side of the store, browsing for basketball stuff. "Alexis, stay here, honey." Alexis had a tendency to wander away from her mother. "Come on Lex," said Gabriella as she was walking towards the women's shoe department. Alexis was too busy looking at a pair of butterfly sandals to notice Gabriella walking away.

"Mommy, look—" Alexis paused when she couldn't see Gabriella. "Mommy?" Her squeaky call turned into a terrified scream. "Mommy!" Tears started streaming down her angelic face.

"Chad, there is no way you can fit into a women's size 6." said Troy as Chad was struggling to squeeze his foot into a woman's running shoe.

"S-Sure I can," he squeaked. "See, I did it!" Chad's face started scrunching up and became flame red.

"Chad, take it off! You're going to cut off your circulation!" cried a worried Troy. Chad started taking the shoe off when Troy heard a shrill scream. He looked around to see what it was. As his eyes were circling around the room, he felt someone tugging at his pants. He looked down to see Alexis hugging his leg. "Alexis, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Alexis revealed her tearful blue eyes. "I lost my mommy!" As this moment, Troy finally realized that Alexis's eyes were the same exact color as his. The only other person who had that was his father, Coach Jack Bolton.

"Whoa," he murmured.

"I want Mommy!" Alexis cried.

"It's okay, we'll find Mommy, okay?" Troy picked the little girl up and held her in his arms. Alexis nodded and set her head on Troy's shoulder. "Hey Chad, I'm going to go find Gabriella, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Chad was too busy trying to get the shoe off.

Meanwhile, Gabriella was looking at a pair of Keds for Alexis. "Hey Lex do you li—" She started panicking when she noticed that Alexis was gone. "Alexis? Alexis! Where are you?!" Her world was spinning until she collided with Troy. "Troy, have you seen—" Gabriella paused when she saw Alexis in Troy's arms. "Oh, thank God. Thank you so much, Troy." she said, taking Alexis from his arms.

"Oh, it wasn't a problem." he replied.

"Mommy, I love Troy." explained Alexis.

Troy chuckled, "And I love you too, Alexis,"

Gabriella smiled and looked at her daughter, who was smiling at Troy. She took a deep breath, "Troy, Alexis is…"

A/N: Please review! 'Nuff said, now press that lavender button! It's calling you!