Caro 9623, here it is lol.

Whirlergirl- you should be proud. I don't think I copied yours but this idea just popped into my head and your story totally inspired the darker edge of it.

I am sooo unbelievably chuffed at the comments. Keep them coming I read them all even if I don't mention names.

Karen *cough* I don's see you ;)

CHAPTER 8

"I'm secretly seeing Troy." Gabi announced to Taylor the next morning at her house, hoping her friend would offer some insight as to why she was at Chad's house.

"Well I'm not seeing Chad if that's what you think, but I was at his house after the fight. I found him in the street and I couldn't just leave him there." She explained and Gabi sighed with a nod, linking arms with her best friend.

"Will you keep my secret?" Gabi asked.

"You know I will. When did it all start?" Taylor wondered.

"A while ago. But Aidan caught me leaving his house last night so it might not be secret much longer." Gabi sighed.

On entering West High, it was obvious it wasn't a secret at all; in fact, it was plastered all over the walls in crude photocopied pictures depicting Gabi giving Troy oral sex.

"Oh god." She sighed, wondering if this was what it was like for Troy since he and Chad had their fight.

--

"Hope you and that frigid bitch are happy together." Chad's slicing words shot into Troy's ear as he entered East High, still wearing his Wildcat jersey, still maintaining his popularity after falling out with his best mate. It was Chad who had been forced to leave the basketball team after they had taken a vote and the majority wanted Troy to stay.

He couldn't deny he missed his team-mate, but he knew the fight was worth having. Gabi would at least be safe from him now.

He thought about the skating competition and how in only a few weeks, all this struggle would finally be worth it, all their hard work would come to pay off.

They had their first full run through tonight at the park, after dark, when no-one else could watch them and try to poison them against each other.

"Hey, you took out Aidan?" Jason asked as Troy sauntered into the hall.

"Who told you that?" Troy demanded.

"It's all over West High. They got these posters up, too." Jason said and handed Troy the vivid re-enactment of oral sex.

"Oh, shit!" He swore.

"Dude, you did it, you seduced Gabriella Montez." Jason beamed.

"I didn't fucking seduce her!" He protested harshly, screwing up the poster and wondering what school had been like for Gabi with these pictures up everywhere.

"Dude, she sucked you off…" Jason pointed to the screwed up paper.

Troy closed his eyes and counted to three.

"She didn't fucking suck me off, okay Jason? She's my girlfriend. There, I said it." He sighed, throwing his arms out in surrender.

"She's your girlfriend and she didn't suck you off?" He asked confused.

Troy groaned and covered his head with his arms. He had a feeling that his friends were going to take it a lot better than Gabi's about their relationship.

--

"Ready to roll, Wildcat?" Gabi asked as she skated clean past Troy and proceeded to perform a round of stunts to impress him.

"How was school?" He asked knowingly and Gabi knew it was that tone. The one that wouldn't go away until she answered, no matter how much she tried to avoid it.

"Sexy much?" She asked him, taking in his carpenter shorts and white vest.

Her hands went to his chest and she smiled into his face.

He smiled back, one hand cupping her back, the other brushing her cheek.

"I saw the poster…" He said and she turned, skating away playfully.

"Don't tell me, you want me to go down on you!" She called across the tennis court.

He skated after her, catching her from behind with ease and pulling her into his body where he span them, then let her slowly down.

"Not right now." He grinned against her ear, letting her turn to look at him.

"Well, why not right now?" She asked back, her hands going to his shorts.

"Oh no…" He smiled, pulling them away but she had such small hands, they kept escaping his grip.

"I'm good, don't ya know?" She asked, kneeling before him.

"Gabi, get up…" He chuckled, looking around to make sure no-one was watching.

"No, I would hate not to live up to expectations." She teased and he sighed, finally deciding to crouch down with her.

"Our promise, remember?" He looked her in the eye.

"Who says I don't want to?" She asked back.

"What about me? What if I don't want you to?" He asked.

"What boy wouldn't?" She asked accurately.

"I wouldn't. Unless you were totally comfortable." He added.

She shrugged. "I am."

"Okay. Let me rephrase that. I wouldn't want to, unless we were in love." He said instead.

His blue eyes were so clear and she almost laughed at his cuteness. He thought that oral sex was like proper sex and he wanted to be in love to receive it.

Somehow, though it might have previously, the thought didn't put her off. She could have easily used and abused Troy Bolton in her non-boy year and sex would have been a very pleasurable side-effect.

But his control, his respect, his outright need to have her as only his, only made her want him more.

"What if I am in love?" She asked, running her hand into his hair.

He squinted. "Are you?" He asked.

He wanted to hear her say the words, those that matched his thoughts. He wanted her to admit she couldn't bear seeing him with anyone else. She might had given herself up to him physically, but he wanted all of her- emotionally, too.

"Nearly." She shrugged, leaning forward to kiss him, getting up and skating off, leaving him messy haired and stunned once again.

He joined her, starting the music, skating through their routine and lifting her with ease. He could touch her anywhere now without feeling awkward. Their practice off the court seemed to have helped him a little there, he smirked.

He let her slide down his body in the finale, supporting her into a split.

"God, but you're hot when you do that." He murmured, helping her up.

"I'm a dancer. Most guys find that kinda sexy." She mused.

"Kinda sexy? Do most of them find it rips them up till three am thinking about it?" He wondered.

Her look over her shoulder lit him deep inside.

"Three am? Troyby, I think we need to have another sleep-over." She suggested.

"Oh no…" He argued quickly, shaking his head, his eyes animated as he unstrapped his boots and put his sneakers on.

"It'll be fun." She said.

"For you! I can't even sleep thinking about you, let alone being right next to you." He argued.

"But that's the thing…we can…make out." She said the last two words like she was going to the zoo.

"Oh sure, our parents won't know, honest." He rolled his eyes.

"My mom is clueless. You don't know how many boys I had in my room and she didn't not have a clue…." The words died on her lips, realising what she was revealing.

"How many?" He asked, kind of joking..

"It was before I came here." She stated defensively, feeling guilty somehow. Like none of those boys actually meant anything to her. None of them fought for her or made her smile or simply…cared.

And she'd given her most precious gift away without really considering it, only now wishing she had kept it for Troy.

"It's okay, you know." He said gently, as if sensing her thoughts.

"Is it?" She wondered, looking up to him with her big, soulful eyes.

His arms went around her, tightly, reassuring.

"Yeah. You're you, Gabi. I wouldn't have it any other way." He smiled.

"Well aren't you the soppy one?" She teased, breaking from his hug.

She turned and grabbed his hand, reminding him that she did care about him, too. She just sometimes didn't know how to show him.

"So, how was school?" He asked again and she groaned, really thinking she had mastered diversion by using sex as a weapon.

"It was…fun." She lied through gritted teeth.

"Be honest with me." He chided.

"It was pretty bad. Everyone now thinks I give oral sex freely so I had several requests to 'suck off' almost every boy in school." She pretended to gag.

"And there was me, being offered it…" He smiled.

"You're different." She shunted him affectionately.

"I'm sorry to hear that, though" He added. "Any trouble?" He asked.

"Well Aidan had told everyone about us so now everyone is giving me grief for being with a Wildcat." She sighed, gripping his hand tighter unconsciously.

"Oh, you are with me, then?" He asked.

"I guess so. I guess if I have to go through all this then I may as well just date you and get some benefits from being called a Wildcat slag." She shrugged.

"Ouch." He winced.

"Mmm, ouch." She echoed, touching his bruised cheek gently, showing they both had battle scars.

"So, there's something I want to give you." Troy said as they reached her house and she squinted at him.

He reached up round his neck and unclasped his gold chain, the length of which dipped under his vest and carried a gold T that swung along the chain from a little loop.

He went to put it round her neck and hesitated, waiting for her to lift her hair and she did, meeting his gaze, her soft lips parted in shock.

"Your T?" She asked, confused.

"When the going gets tough, I'm there with you. Never forget that, beautiful. I'm with you through it all." He promised and she found a bemused smiled curling her mouth.

"I'm also accepting that I belong to you now…" She ventured, not sure how she felt about this.

His soft smile back surprised her. "Not if you don't want to."

"My squad are never going to let me live this down." She mused.

"You think my team will?" He asked back.

"I think, Troyby, that you underestimate the legend that is Gabriella Montez…"

--