Okay, so I reposted the last two chapters after I went through and found I'd missed a few errors... I hope I got everything, but if not, please let me know!
Hope you enjoy !

The science lab was cold. It always had been. The air conditioning was always on the fritz, over exaggerating the coolness of fall, creating an arctic circle in the winter, halting the warming air in the spring, and creating a fall effect in the summer. The students of East High had grown accustomed to it and found their own little ways to fight it—lab code appropriate shirts and jackets stashed in their lockers—but that didn't make the bite go away. Kind of like how you can try to ignore that a friend is ignoring you, but that doesn't make the hurt go away.

Whenever she was upset for any reason, and going home early wasn't an option, Gabriella liked to sneak to either the old, unused music classroom up on the second floor—the one she and Kelsi and Troy had used for Twinkle Town audition practices—or she would make her way to the science lab, where, when the teacher allowed her to stay, as he did often, she would scurry around making little concoctions to keep herself busy. Today was no difference, other than that she'd forgotten the jacket, and so she was starting to feel two different kinds of bite.

Clunk, the science lab door connected with one of the numerous small islands around the room, a flaw in the design that they didn't place the door just a few more feet to the left during the building. The clack, clack, clack sound of heels filled the room, and Gabriella sighed irritably; of course, right when she stopped looking, her target found her. "What, Sharpay?" She didn't turn around.

The clacking stopped. An indignant huff sounded behind her. "Yeah, hello to you too, Gab. Gawd, I thought you were looking for me?"

Gabriella spun around to face Sharpay, who was standing just a foot or so away. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. How could Sharpay live with herself, always trying to make it like she was the victim? "Yeah, Sharpay, I was. And you avoided me. So why are you here? Shouldn't you be having your lackey spit-shine your heels?"

She didn't even see her hand fly back, but Gabriella sure did feel Sharpay's hand connect with the side of her cheek. The blow had redirected her line of sight, but she heard the fury in Sharpay's voice. "Don't you ever talk about Ryan like that; now when I'm around, not ever. You hardly even know him; you have no right to criticize him at all. You don't know him, you don't know what he's been through, so back the hell off. Now if you retract your fucking claws, so will I. I came here to talk, and I've been told you want to hear it."

In a way, Gabriella felt like an abused puppy, cowering in front of her master; almost like she was confused as to why she'd been punished, even when she knew she deserved it. Sharpay's words were passionate, and there was no doubt in her mind that they were true. It made her feel guilty that she'd gone so low as to attack Ryan, who she definitely liked more than she like Sharpay, and who'd never done anything to deserve her criticism.

But then Gabriella pulled herself together, because even while she liked Sharpay, and even while she knew she'd gone a step to far without any acceptable reason, she could find the other girl to be a dictator, and Gabriella was not going to bow down against her will. She straightened up and looked Sharpay directly in the eye. "Deal. So talk."

The first words out of Sharpay's mouth were, "You were right about Ryan and Troy." The feeling of superiority and happiness brought upon by those seven words warmed her chilly body, but the feeling was gone just as quickly as it had come when Sharpay dived into the rest of the story—how Mr. Bolton showed up while Sharpay was having alone time with Zeke; how she'd unintentionally helped Mr. Bolton walk in on the two boys having their own alone time; how Ryan had spilled everything to Sharpay about how he and Troy got together; then how Troy had broken Ryan's heart, and how Sharpay suspected it was against his will.

Gabriella took everything in like a sponge. It was like another slap in the face. Part of her was upset that Troy really was gay, part was awing over the image of how cute a couple she thought—knew—Troy and Ryan would make—well, made—and the rest of her, and very big rest of her, was shocked, confused, and furious that Mr. Bolton would do such a thing to the two of them, from the beating to the break up. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized Mr. Bolton had never even really liked her, and the less surprised at him she became. "So you think Mr. Bolton made Troy break up with Ry?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Well, duh." She had her arms crossed, and was nibbling lightly at her thumbnail; Gabriella suspected the drama queen was simply nervous that she might be caught in such a loser populated place. Gabriella would have retorted, but Sharpay was quick with her mouth. "The thing is, I think we both know Troy well enough that there was a large amount of persuasion from Bolton Senior's part to get his son to dump my brother."

It took a few moments for Gabriella to realize what Sharpay was hinting at. She gasped. Abuse? As in, fists and heavy, blunt objects, abuse? Would Mr. Bolton actually go so far…? "You really think—?"

Sharpay shrugged sadly. "There's only one way to find out."

Gym class—Chad's favorite. It was the one class he excelled in, and enjoyed doing so, and one of the only times where it was really okay to show off. He loved everything about the concept of playing every game and not for the first time showing that he only lost if it benefited him more than winning; that would be, never.

But today, he had a mission, and he had a feeling if worse came to worse, he wouldn't be hanging around for too much of class. The overall picture was still pretty fuzzy to him because Sharpay and Gabby had been very selective with the details, but at the moment, Chad couldn't bring himself to care; what he did know was that, for whatever the reason may be, the girls believed Troy might be in trouble, and when it came to protecting his best friend, he knew details could be collected later. What shocked him was they suspected it was because of Coach Bolton; the man was tough, but abuse? Chad guessed it must be an unreleased detail.

Honestly, there were two reasons Chad was really buying into the whole thing—(a) Taylor supported Gabs 110 and (b) the only time Chad had seen Troy since his return from his mysterious Houdini disappearing act, was in second period, the only class besides gym and homeroom they had together. Troy and Chad were almost always together when they were in the halls; and when they weren't, Chad was with Taylor, while Troy was with Ryan.

Click.

Chad stopped, and the hamster in his head started turning the wheels. Troy and Chad seemed to always seemed to mirror one another, so if Ryan was Troy's equivalent to Taylor, the beta when the two weren't together—at least on school grounds—then could that mean Troy and Ryan were—?

"Troy!" Chad quickly dismissed the slightly scary, more than slightly sensible, idea from his head when the East High Playmaker came within his line of vision, heading towards the locker rooms, in the midst of the crowd of his peers heading across the gym. He called out his best mate's name and did a half jog around his classmates to catch up with the school star.

Troy didn't stop, but he looked back over his shoulder for a moment. He made eye contact with Chad, and then promptly turned his head back and continued walking. Chad, confused, picked up his pace and caught Troy just before he entered into the boys' locker rooms.

"Dude, what's up? Where've you been all day?" Chad tried to sound casual, but the look in Troy's eyes when they'd made eye contact was sort of scary; anxious, nervous, upset. Those weren't emotions Chad was very used to seeing from his best friend. And the way it seemed Troy had just tried to ignore him was sort of paining within itself.

His face scrunched up in what Chad figured out only moments later to be anger when Troy hissed out, "I really wish people would stop asking me that. Just leave me alone."

As Troy pushed his way past, it took Chad a moment to recover. What the fuck had just happened? Troy actually said that? Yes, he firmly decided. Something's definitely wrong with him. Chad spun around and jogged through the locker room, back up to Troy. "Dude, wha—"

"I said just leave me alone!" Troy bellowed, his body trembled, and for a second Chad was reminded of a child being forced to give something up, something it really wanted. Troy looked so strained; Chad knew the words were being forced. But even so, people were staring, so Chad just nodded, backed up, and walked out; it was time to collect the details.