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CHAPTER 3

"You're going to have to start at the basics." Gabi instructed unnecessarily as she stood before Troy, their practice space open to them both.

"Are you okay?" He asked again and she closed her eyes, sighing.

"Did you not ask me that three times already?" she shot back.

"And did you not change the subject three times?" He back handed.

"I don't see what possible relevance it could hold on us practising." She argued.

He had thought her cheerleading outfit was the most revealing thing he had seen her in until today. Short, soft, athletic style cheer shorts just about covered her bottom. A matching grey, soft, t-back vest clung to her boobs and skimmed her shorts waistband, affording him with a glimpse of heaven every time she lifted her hands to her head. Which was often, because her messy bun kept escaping.

"Because if you're not okay, I need to know why and then I can go and kick some ass until you are okay." He offered.

She giggled.

"You sound like my boyfriend or something." She accused.

"Tell me Chad didn't hurt you, please." He begged.

She dropped her gaze and he knew she was hiding something.

"What did he do?" He demanded, his voice dropping to a serious tone.

Her eyes lifted to his and the deep chocolate brown drowned him.

"He just said some stuff…" She discarded.

"What stuff?" He pushed.

She shrugged. "That Aidan said…" She stopped, flushing. "Troy, this is really embarrassing, please don't make me repeat it." She begged.

"Tell me." He demanded again, facing her, not knowing whether to touch her or not. He guessed not, until she invited him to.

"Aidan said I like a man to be…well endowed." She rolled her eyes, avoiding eye contact. "And Chad said he could fulfil that requirement for me…" She finished, blushing hard.

Troy frowned, firstly annoyed at Aidan for ever coming out with that and secondly at Chad for using it again.

"I'm sorry." He said, surprising her.

Gabi daren't believe for one second that Troy Bolton was any different to the animals she was used to dealing with, but his words comforted her.

"I don't know why, it's not like it's you who said it." She argued.

She launched into a handstand, flipping cartwheels across the space before them.

"Because I'm friends with him and he's a total prick and I'm sorry you had to hear that." He explained, following her, hands in pockets.

She took his hands out and shook his arms gently.

"Relax, Troyby." She encouraged. "Just think about the competition."

"I can't relax when I know there's at least two assholes out there trying to persuade you to sleep with them." He countered.

"And why is that Troy? Because you want to be the third?" She challenged.

He squinted. "I want you to help with my routine, nothing more." He said, knowing he was half-lying because her small, curvy form was just begging for his hands.

"You don't want my ass?" She checked, turning, poking her backside out to accentuate her question.

"N..No." He stammered.

"You're sure about that?" She questioned, touching the ground as her knees bent and then she slowly wound her way back up, grinding her rounded backside into his groin where he scrunched his hands to stop him touching.

"What do you want me to say?" He husked as she flicked a look over her shoulder at him.

"Just admit you're like every other boy, Troyby." She shrugged.

She took his hands from his sides and teased his fingers open.

"Fine, I'm like every other boy." He gave in to her demand.

She placed his nervous hands on her hips as her back touched his chest and he noticed the stark difference in their shapes.

Where she was small and curved, he was tall and squared. She was soft and enticing, he was hard and unweilding.

It felt like her skin was burning him as he let his hands down on her and he tried to peel them away but she applied firm pressure until he curled his fingers around her hip bones.

If her rounded backside hadn't been in direct contact with his groin, he might actually have half a chance of concentrating, but the fleshy mound of her ass was distracting him.

"I'm glad we got that out of the way." She agreed lightly, and then sighed as she moved and felt his hardness rub her.

"Troy…" She led.

"Mmm?" He answered, innocently.

"You're going to have to stop having a hard-on every time you touch me if you want this to work." She pointed out and he felt his cheeks flame.

"I can't help it…" He threw back at her as she twisted and his hands slid into the small of her back.

She cocked her head. "You can't control your body?" She questioned.

"I just told you, I'm like every other boy." He defended.

"How are we going to do this?" She asked, exasperated before they'd even begun.

"Sleep together?" He joked and her wide brown eyes told him he wasn't funny.

"Just touch me." She said and he giggled nervously.

"I don't think that will help…" He offered gently.

"It will. It's just the …novelty factor" She lifted a brow. "Once you've touched me and you know it's just a body, just a curvy body, then you'll get over it. I won't turn you on anymore." She said confidently.

"Gabi…" He began, about to tell her that it didn't matter how many times he touched her 'curvy body', that he would still find her attractive.

"Shut up and do it, Bolton." She instructed and he sighed. This was going to be like agony and heaven all at the same time.

He peeked down at her, placing his hands back on her hips, watching her as she tapped her toe impatiently, pressing her lips together.

"I can't do it." He stated.

"Oh for god's sake, Troy. Most boys would not have any problem on feeling me up…" She huffed, grabbing his hands off her hips and placing them on her ass.

"No, no way…" He said, pulling his hands straight back off and twisting away.

"What's wrong?" She demanded. "That's what you wanted isn't it? My ass? Isn't that what all you boys want? Isn't that all that boys want?" She ranted.

"Not like that…not without…not without you wanting it, too." He finished, sighing.

This was such a bad idea. Whatever had popped into his head the day he decided to approach Gabriella Montez for help, needed to be re-examined carefully. She was just too much to handle.

Gabi let his words trickle down her body until she felt a warmth spread over her skin. Perhaps she was being a little too presumptuous that his attraction to her physically could be easily remedied.

"Then I don't know what else to do, Troy. Because you sure as hell can't skate with a monster like that in your pants." She quipped, arching her brow toward his groin where he stood back from her now, leaning on the dusty iron of the shed.

"Wear something less sexy?" He suggested, knowing it was pointless because even if she wore a tent, he'd still find her amazingly gorgeous.

She began to giggle at him then, coming over and taking both his hands.

"Look, you'll get used to me, right? It's just the whole image that I put across that makes you want me more. Once you know me, you'll get over it. Believe me, when I start sweating, sex will be the last thing on your mind." She added.

He somehow doubted it, but as she pulled him up, he had to put some belief in what she was saying otherwise he really would be in trouble.

---

"Hey, you up for Pac Man at the Arcades later, hoops?" Chad asked Troy as they came out of class.

"Ah, I can't man. My mom's gone Robocop over my chores and I haven't done them all week." He lied, smiling at his friend as Chad nodded.

"Cannot avoid parental intervention any longer huh?" Chad teased.

"Nah, man." He chuckled.

"Look, you know that Gabriella from West High?" Chad asked and Troy stiffened.

"Yeah…" Troy agreed.

"She's a tough cookie to crack. She kicked me right in the balls, you know." Chad frowned and Troy felt like laughing out loud. Then he felt an ice cold flash run through him at the thought of why Gabi needed to kick Chad in the balls.

"Well, I did tell you, dude." Troy cocked his head to the side, smiling at the cheerleaders as they giggled down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"I think you should try." Chad suggested and Troy laughed.

"Yeah, that's funny."

"I mean it, dude. You're good looking in a pretty boy kinda way. I bet she would fall for you." Chad was on a roll now, his mind kicking up ideas as his face animated with them.

"Why would you want her to?" Troy asked, confused.

"The ultimate kick in the teeth for Aidan and his gang. East High basketball captain seduces West High Cheerleader." Chad explained.

"That's ridiculous." Troy discarded.

"No, think about it…" Chad enthused.

"Dude, I'm not gonna do it…" Troy rejected.

"Imagine, everyone already thinks she's a lesbian or frigid or something. If they find out she's putting out to their biggest rival's captain, that'd be the biggest blow to them, like, ever." Chad grinned.

Troy didn't like his way of thinking. He didn't like that he was being targeted as a potential trap for Gabi. And he definitely didn't like the idea that Gabi would be unknowing to this plan.

"You're talking like it's a given that she'll even look at me. Let's face it; I'm no different to any other guy that's tried." He argued, hoping that would end the silly idea Chad was growing.

"But you are. You're Troy Bolton. You could charm birds from trees, dude. I bet you could charm the knickers off Gabriella Montez." He challenged.

Troy lifted his eyes heavenward. That's exactly what he'd been afraid of. Here he was, fighting to prove himself to Gabi for entirely different reasons and his best mate was telling him to get her into bed as part of some on-going battle between their basketball teams.

"I'm surprised you even want me to try." Troy goaded in return.

"Seriously dude, this could be the final win for the Wildcats." Chad stated, leaving Troy alone in the middle of the corridor buzzing with people. All of whom knew his name but none of them really knew him.

It might be a win for the Wildcats, but what about Gabi? He was fighting so hard to protect her from exactly what Chad was asking him to do.

Could he possibly kill two birds with one stone? Could he pretend to be dating Gabi while fulfilling his skating comp quota and protect her at the same time?

---

Troy sped through the park on his inline skates, lifting his feet neatly at an obstacle, skidding along the back of a park bench.

He smiled as his natural balance and muscle control allowed him to bend and arch his body to show off an array of stunts as Gabi stood watching, speechless.

They'd finally finished their first dance lesson in the shed that night and Troy had come on heaps in just the space of a few hours but now they had to combine his dance training, with her skate stunt training. For their routine to be the best they had to have elements of both.

He skidded to a halt before her, scooping his arms around her to swing her around and she grabbed his forearms, squealing.

"Don't touch me, Bolton!" She reminded him as he let her down and span round her, feet pointed outward. She pushed at his chest to stop his dizzying pattern.

He stopped, his blue eyes softening as he considered her.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked worriedly.

"Nothing, I just told you not to do that." She complained.

He chuckled. "I just picked you up, Gabi. It's not like I was gonna do anything…" He smiled bemusedly.

"Well…sometimes people do…" She argued irrationally.

Something in the way she said it made him squint his eyes and look at her.

"What in the fuck did he do?" He asked straight away, his tone turning icy.

"Nothing." Gabi lied and skated away; grabbing a tree to spin round and heading back past him. He began to skate to catch her up, reaching her and grabbing for her finger tips.

She smiled over her shoulder as he caught them and her ebony hair flew behind her, her subdued outfit of sweat pants and t-shirt fulfilling his wish for her to wear something 'less sexy'.

In another smooth movement, he twisted so that he was skating backward, in front of her now.

"What happened?" He asked again and she knew they wouldn't be able to continue practise until she had told him.

"Oh, shit." She gasped and turned him quickly, using her breaks to skid them to a halt, forcing them to the floor with the sudden stop, Troy falling clumsily forwards and Gabi tumbling beneath him.

He saw he had been rescued from tumbling backwards down some steps. Gabi cradled in his arms, looked into his face with an amused grin.

"You sure like living on the edge, don't you, Troyby?" She asked him with her annoying nickname for him.

"Why do you call me that?" He wondered out loud, breathing hard, feeling her small body fit beneath his perfectly and only naturally letting his mind wander.

"It's cute seeing you scowl." She shrugged. "Let up, heavy man." She requested.

"Not until you tell me." He persevered.

She sighed, her fingers by the sides of her head, beginning to curl into the dark coils that lay beneath her now, loose and wild.

Her face was like a beautiful picture, her eyes framed with dark lashes, lengthened by mascara and outlined with eye pencil.

"Aidan just grabbed me again is all. He picked me up and rubbed me against him…like…like I was some kind of… plaything that he could just help himself to." She said disgustedly.

"I'm gonna kill him." Troy promised quietly and Gabi found his threat amusing.

"Troy, hello?" She called teasingly. "Last time I checked, you're not my boyfriend. I don't need you to fight my battles." She added.

His body was pressing into hers in a way she could not ignore. It wasn't even like she wanted to, her body just of it's own accord rose up, allowing the inside of her thigh to graze his, her clitoris gaining a warm, exquisite pleasure from the contact with his thigh. Her moan was uncensored, accompanied by her eyes fluttering shut, her hands grasping his upper arms that bulged with heavy muscle, caging her in, protecting her.

"You are the most beautiful girl I ever saw, Gabriella Montez." He husked, stunned by her self-pleasure against his body. If there was ever a time he wished he could vacate before self-destruction then this was it. Because if they got caught in this position, his life would surely be over. And yet he couldn't move until she expelled him.

"But I can look after myself." She repeated, her brown eyes connecting with his and hypnotising him.

"I don't want any other guys touching you like that." He stated boldly, still trapping her with his weight where she gently rubbed him again, her small smile of satisfaction hardening him beneath his jeans.

"You don't hear me getting all possessive." She breathed back, obviously turned on herself and only making him want her more.

"No, but if you did I can promise you we wouldn't be lying in the park while doing this." He replied seriously.

"I don't want other girls rubbing up on you like this, Troy." She tested gently, tracing his brow with one finger, pushing his fringe back as she did so.

Another arch from her hips into his, effectively making love to his thigh through their clothing.

His hand swifted between them, supporting her lower back on her rise, holding her to his hardened groin.

"Only if you want it, too…" He whispered, nuzzling her ear, reminding her of his promise on touching her.

She was playing with fire and she was surely going to get burned. It was like a red beacon flashing in her mind and she knew the danger but she just couldn't help herself. When it came to Troy Bolton, she just couldn't resist the physical pleasure his hands brought.

"I only want it with you, Troy. That's the problem…" She frowned, startled at his throaty growl.

He met her eyes, the dark night haloed by the street lamp nearby. Framing her face with a very gentle hand, he leaned down to reach her lips and began to kiss her, ever so-softly. She sank her hands into his hair, pressing her mouth harder against his, her skin tingling and buzzing at the contact with his hard, muscled body that weighted her to the ground.

Just as she was about to give into the temptation to flick her tongue against his, he pulled back, his hair messy and his eyes searching hers.

His finger traced a curl down the side of her face then he sprang up to his feet, holding out his hand to her to help her up.

"If he touches you again, I want to know about it." He begged.

"Why, so you can go play macho man with your little army?" She asked, pulling away. "That doesn't impress me, Troy." She assured him.

He followed her as she skated off.

"Then I won't. I'll just listen and let you talk it out." He promised hastily.

She rolled her eyes.

"You won't be able to stop yourself." She accused.

"I will. For you, I would." He promised.

"Let's just stick to the plan, Troy. Your plan was to get a winning routine. My plan is not to get involved with any boys until the summer. It's not that hard." She announced, knowing it actually was quite hard now that she was getting to know him.

"It is when I know some guy is touching you up and I can't be there to help." He said honestly.

"Troy!" She objected, spinning. "It's not your problem. You need to remember that. You have your world, I have mine."

"And I can't be concerned when some prick is groping your ass?" He asked emphatically.

"You're only concerned because you want me all for yourself. I don't belong to anyone, Troy." She reminded him, skating away.

"I never said you had to!" He argued after her retreating figure. "I just wanted to protect you." He murmured to himself, knowing she was no longer listening and it didn't matter anyway.