100 Days

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Chapter 2: Successful Acquaintances

After school, Leila and Troy went to their respective cliques and activities before meeting each other after school. Leila hypothesized that if she met Troy at school and they rode the public bus together to their houses, the whole meeting would most likely be awkward. So, being a person of comfort, she opted that they both should just meet at her house at around six o'clock.

"Are your parents home?" Troy asked, as he ventured into her house.

She gave him a look that said 'Are you kidding?' But, the expression left her face just as soon as it had come, as if she had just realized who was speaking to her. She shrugged off the nervous tension and offered him a light smile, "Um, no, they aren't… They're on a business trip in L.A."

It's only a quarter lie, she thought to herself. She knew that today, after work, her parents commuted over to L.A., but she knew that they would overspend their stay for pleasure rather than business. She gathered that they would spend a week working, and probably a week or two more to blow off steam and forget about her. Leila sighed. At times she wished her parents hadn't skipped all the chapters in the 'How to Raise Your Child' guideline. When I have my kid, I am definitely not leaving them alone.

"Which means, you have a free house. Having the traditional party?" he inquired, following her as they entered her large garage.

"Huh? How did you know?" She gave him a questioning stare, wondering how he knew about all the parties Shay had thrown at her house. Of course he knows, you idiot. One, he's Troy Bolton, and two, he kind of lives next door.

Before she could retract her question, he began to explain himself. "C'mon, you live next door. It's not like you have a sound proof wall around your house…In plus, I've been to a couple of them, but I never seem to see you."

"Well, I never host those things. I'm usually in the corner, mixing the drinks and wondering how the hell I'm going to clean up the house after," she replied, taking off a silly blanket she had shielded the car with when the towing truck had deposited her, Troy, and the cars at her house. "Shay always plans the parties. You know Shay Parks, right?"

"Yeah. She's in my Chemistry…." He nodded his head, and proceeded to think about something Shay had said in class the previous week, "Is it true you got hit by a truck on the freeway?"

Leila chuckled, shaking her head, "Let's just say, Shay likes to over-exaggerate things." She began to examine the damage of car, cringing every time her eyes discovered another scratch.

"What really happened then? That is, if you don't mind me asking…"

"Not at all. It's really stupid though. We were leaving the mall when we noticed there was an ice cream truck passing by. Well, I'm an idiot, of course…or, just extremely obsessed with ice cream, and I dropped our shopping bags and chased it as if I was some drunk. It just so happened that I got nicked on the ass by the truck…and my top came off at the same time. It was a thin shirt, and it got caught on a weird nail on the truck, so when I fell on my ass after being hit, the shirt just ripped off. Pretty embarrassing." She explained, and then narrowed her down on him, where he was crouching beside his car on the other side. "You can stop laughing to yourself right now. I can hear you."

"Yeah, I better stop, or else you might spaz on me like this morning." He didn't mean to say it, but somehow, she didn't seem to mind.

She put her hand on her hip, towel in hand, with an amused smile, "You deserved it. No one touches my baby." She patted her car affectionately.

He grinned at the sight, and then paid attention to his car. "You know, I got scared when you started yelling at me. I never saw that side of you before."

A small moment of silence passed before she responded. She stood up, and leaned against her car, "For people who've been neighbors for life, we sure know nothing about each other."

He stood up from his position as well, and returned the eye contact, "Maybe…for the next 100 days, we can change that."

"Maybe…"

.xxx.

The next days were similar to what had transpired on the first day. Troy and Leila were now making an effort to get to know one another, and awkward silences were becoming less frequent and less awkward. Today was officially Day 15 out of the 100 day agreement, and instead of complaining about the usual bonehead teachers and over-righteous senior, Kingston Allegro, the topic of conversation for the day was:

"Okay, favorite color?"

"Easy. Turquoise," she replied. "You?"

"Red."

"Wow, that's a shocker," she replied, referring to his red tracksuit. "Okay, Bolton, I think we're passed the basics. It's time to dig deep. Give me an embarrassing moment."

They were currently in Troy's mini basketball court, taking a break from cleaning her impossibly dirty attic. He was shooting hoops, and she was sitting on a fold-up chair, lemonade in hand.

"Basketball camp. The summer before ninth year. Billy Chambers challenged me on the court for a little one on one," he explained, dribbling the ball as if he was facing Bill Chambers himself at that very moment.

"And you, the almighty Troy Bolton, couldn't say no," she chirped in dramatically.

Instead of a glare, Troy bestowed her with one of his arrogant smirks and a nod of approval, "Of course. So, we were going at it for a while, until it was last point. I dribbled to the left" dribble "and I dribbled to the right" dribble "and then I was gonna make a sweet lay-up, buy I tripped, fell right on my face, my ass in the air while my shorts were to my knees. Plain and simple, everyone got a good view of my Spiderman underwear…"

Leila laughed, "Oh man, no way!"

He nodded his head ruefully, "Afraid so."

"Okay, wait, this doesn't make sense. If this was the summer before ninth year then that would make you 14…?"

"Yup."

"That means you, the boy who was apparently too cool for school, was wearing Spidey briefs at fourteen…fill me in here."

Troy laughed at her sudden interest, and proceeded to answer, "Billy wet all my clothes that morning; some kind of initiation thing. So, I was stuck with what the coach offered up… But, c'mon, it's Spiderman. You can't go wrong with that!"

"Yeah, you're right," she replied nervously, twiddling her thumbs.

He stopped dribbling, and eyed her suspiciously, "What's wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"You agreed with me. That doesn't usually happen, unless… hey, are you wearing Spiderman underwear?" he inquired jokingly, as he continued to play with the ball.

"Ha, no!" she laughed it off, and then replied embarrassed, "...Batman."

He turned around swiftly with a smile, "Well, you're certainly full of surprises, Ms. Cortez."

"Likewise, Mr. Bolton."

They continued the break in silence, each of them drifting to their own thoughts. Troy was quite surprised with Leila for the past days. He hadn't expected to find a simple companion in her, seeing as he always carried the notion that she was purposely distant to him. Well, actually, he never expected a lot of things about her. Personally, they hadn't divulged a lot of information about each other, but he discovered a few things about her that caught him of guard. She had a dark sense of humor, she could swear like there was no tomorrow, she was quite lazy, and she had almost failed calculus. Troy had to admit, he had thought her to be a…prude from what his parents had told him about her. He thought she was an uptight, prim and proper girl, who was organized and would not get anything lower than 90 in all her classes. That wasn't the case, although she was most certainly smart.

Leila gazed at Troy, and just shrugged. Sorry to say, she still felt suspicious about the old basketball freak, and she knew he still held feelings of suspicion and uncertainty about her as well. She could tell by the way he would sometimes pause in his answers. No doubt, he was probably thinking of a way to give her an answer that didn't reveal too much about himself. She didn't mind. They only started this ten days ago. She wasn't expecting a whole lot from him. She didn't even expect to be spending this much time with him either.

"So, you never told me…"

"Huh?"

"Your…excruciatingly…mortifying…moment," he replied dramatically, sinking in another basket. "Oh, and the ice cream truck and volleyball incident don't count."

"I gave you two already. That means that the only way to even the playing field is if you tell me one more," she smirked, sipping on her lemonade.

He held onto his ball, shrugging casually, "Call it even?"

"Sure," she smiled. "Well, I'm done with this weather. I think I just got three shades darker…and you, my friend, are looking like Jorge, the foreign exchange student," she chuckled to herself, noting Troy's similar skin color to that of the new Spanish student.

Just as he was walking to her, she dug into her pocket and retrieved a shiny object. Noting that she had his attention, she chucked the object at him and he caught it without effort.

"What's this?"

"What does it look like?" she asked dryly. "It's a key."

"Yeah, but for what?" Troy inquired just a tad perplexed.

She walked up to him, and started to circle him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. It was like she was judging him, and by the smug look on her face, that was her plan. "Well, judging by the past two weeks, I've come to the conclusion that you, hopefully, are not a serial killer…and I've also come to the conclusion that we still have 85 more days left of this agreement. So, I'm giving you the privilege of having a spare key to my house."

He looked down at the key, and then looked back at her. "You seriously trust me with this?"

"Sure…unless you're giving me reason not to."

He shrugged, walking into his house as she followed him, "Well, you don't have to worry. I haven't killed anyone in a while."

"That's comforting," she replied in a deadpan voice. "Well, I'm going to head back to my house and order a pizza. You in?"

"Nah, I gotta study."

"Wow, who would have 'thunk' it? Troy Bolton studying."

"Hey, you learn something new everyday. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow…?"

"Sure," she responded, while walking away and waving goodbye.

Troy stared after her as she left with a small smile on his face. This was what he needed right now. He needed someone who was completely not connected to his world; just a friend, like a kindergarten friend that Gabriella had told him about. Sure, the circumstances that brought them together were quite unusual, but Troy found that the time spent with Leila was stress-free. She wasn't involved in basketball. She wasn't involved with the musical. She was barely in his classes; only one. And, she didn't even hang out with him at school. They were people who both had separate lives, yet were able to just have a good time without any worries.

However, the only thing that irked him at times was when she referred to her parents. It wasn't a big issue, since she and Troy didn't exactly have any heart-to-hearts about their lives. But, it was the only topic he could think of that made the atmosphere a tad uncomfortable when she was speaking. He knew for sure it wasn't like they were abusing her because they weren't even there.

Little did Troy know, that was exactly the problem.

A/N: Hoped you liked the chappie. Review and I shall continue the story!