I wanna saw a quick thank you to xpinkdiamondx, gembryant, itsasimpleILYx3, liv3.in.lov3 and Mony19 for reviewing the first chapter. Your guys' comments have actually made me think about how I want to end the story... we'll see what happens :-D

Chapter 2

Monday morning, Chad got up extra early and took his time showering, shaving and picking out his clothes. Then he went downstairs and entered the kitchen as his mom was pulling the first batch of pancakes off the griddle.

"Morning," he greeted, trying not to sound overly excited.

His mom and Jack looked up at him with surprise and disbelief written on their faces.

"What?" Chad asked as he sat down at the island.

"We're just surprised you're up," Jack smiled into his napkin. "Seeing as you didn't get out of bed before noon everyday this summer -"

"And you've never gotten up before seven for school before," his mom finished and glanced at the clock on the stove. "And it's 6:45."

"Just excited," Chad shrugged. It wasn't a lie. He was excited about going to school, but mostly because he was going to see Gabriella again.

"I remember my senior year," Zoey said as a faraway look crossed her face. "The parties, the boys, prom…"

"Honey, you're burning the pancakes," Jack said, laughing.

"Whoops," Zoey smiled and flipped the pancakes over. "Troy better get down here soon or they'll all be gone."

"I'll go get him," Jack said, pushing back his stool. "Then I gotta head in to work."

Chad stared at his pancakes as his mom and Jack kissed, he was happy they were together, but he wasn't so keen on the public displays of affection, especially in front of him.

As soon as Jack was gone, Zoey leaned on the counter and looked at her son until he looked up at her.

"What?" Chad asked confused as to why his mom was staring at him with a smile on her face.

"Who's the girl?" She asked him.

"Huh?" Chad said, trying to play dumb.

"You know what I'm talking about, Chad," his mom shook her head. "You've always fought me when it comes to going to school, especially on the first day. There's no way that you're just excited because it's your senior year, there has to be another motive."

"I'm just excited that I'm almost done," Chad told her. "Nothing else."

The look she gave him said she wasn't convinced, but thankfully she dropped the subject as Troy came into the kitchen in a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt with his hair sticking out in every direction.

"Morning," he mumbled as he sat down on the stool next to Chad.

"You better hurry up and eat, Troy," Zoey said, placing a plate of steaming pancakes in front of him. "I don't think you want to go to school dressed like that."

"It might do him some good and scare away his groupies," Jack said, coming into the kitchen. "Then maybe he could put his full attention back on basketball."

"Uh huh," Zoey shook her finger at Jack. "Basketball season doesn't start until December and you won't be pressuring these boys, Jack."

Chad smirked into his cup as he took a drink of his orange juice. Jack and his mom had had the same discussion the previous basketball season after Zoey had noticed Jack pushing Troy three times as hard as he pushed the other guys on the team and she told him that he shouldn't push Troy or Chad that hard because it could reflect badly on their love of the game.

"I know," Jack smiled as he grabbed the sack lunch Zoey had prepared for him. "Love you."

"Love you, too," Zoey smiled and gave him another kiss.

"See you boys at school," Jack said before he left the kitchen.

"You want some more pancakes, Chad?" His mom asked.

"Nope, I'm good," Chad replied. "I gotta head out too, anyway."

"Why are you leaving so early?" Troy asked, looking at him.

"Uh," Chad looked over and saw his mom trying to hide a smile behind her look of curiosity. "Just want to get a good parking spot, that's all." He shrugged. "And you know, get my schedule then take advantage of the free donuts and coffee in the office before every one else does."

Troy seemed to accept that answer, but Chad knew his mom wasn't buying it.

"Here's your lunch," Zoey said, holding the paper sack out to him. "Have fun getting a good parking spot."

"Bye mom," Chad shook his head. "See you later, Troy." He went up to his room and grabbed his backpack before he headed out to his car. He drove over to Gabriella's house and threw his car into park before he walked up the path and knocked on the front door.

"Good morning, Chad," Carlos greeted after opening the door. "Come on in. The girls are just finishing up breakfast."

"Thanks," Chad said and followed Carlos to the kitchen table. "Hey."

"Hey Chad," Gabriella smiled. "You want a crepe?"

"No thanks, I just had pancakes," Chad replied, patting his full belly. "It's a first day tradition of my mom's."

"That's what crepes are here," Gabriella said. "We only get them on the first day of school, Christmas and birthdays."

After Marie and Gabriella finished eating, they went upstairs to brush their teeth then grabbed their backpacks. Upon returning downstairs, they said goodbye to their parents then followed Chad out to his car.

"Well here it is," Chad said ten minutes later as he, Gabriella and Marie stood in front of East High.

"It's huge," Gabriella breathed out as she stared at the large building in front of her.

"I'm going to get lost for sure," Marie groaned.

"Not with me, your official tour guide, here to help," Chad smiled at the girls. "And it just so happens that I have connections that will let us get our schedules early, get your lockers and give you the grand tour of the school before the bell rings."

"These connections of your won't get us in trouble with the law will they?" Gabriella asked. "No offense, but you don't seem like the type of guy that would have connections in a school."

"Well, miss ye-of-little-faith, you're looking at the step-son of the varsity basketball coach, who also happens to have a first period job in the office," Chad grinned. "So if you follow me, we could probably pick up some donuts for our tour."

"I thought you were full," Marie said as she followed her sister and Chad into the school.

"Yeah, ten minutes ago," Chad grinned. He led the two sisters into the office and as promised the three of them got their schedules, the sisters got a locker to share and they left for the tour with donuts in hand.

Chad led them all around the school-to the library, to the gym, to the auditorium, to the cafeteria-and helped them find all of their classes before the warning bell rang. Since they were close to Gabriella's class, she said goodbye then Chad walked Marie to her class before going to the office.

Gabriella had butterflies in her stomach as she walked into her first class-English, she had hoped that she and Chad would have several classes together, but as it turned out they only had two classes together-PE and History.

Sitting down in the first empty seat she could find, Gabriella hugged her backpack as other students filed into the room in groups.

Feeling eyes on her, Gabriella looked up and saw a blonde Caucasian girl and a dark haired African-American girl looking at her.

"You're new aren't you?" The Caucasian girl asked.

"Oh my god, Sharpay, of course she's new," the African American girl rolled her eyes before she held her hand out to Gabriella. "Hi, I'm Taylor McKessie and she's Sharpay Evans."

"Gabriella Montez," Gabriella replied, timidly shaking Taylor's hand. "And yeah, I'm a new student. We just moved here a few weeks ago."

"Well welcome to -" Sharpay stopped and stared at somebody who had just entered the room.

Gabriella turned in her seat and locked eyes with a dreamy, brunette with sapphire eyes. He sent a wink in her direction before turning his attention back to his friends.

"I didn't think it was possible, but Troy Bolton got finer over the summer," Taylor whistled. "I wanna get me some of th-" She stopped when Troy walked over to their desks.

"Taylor, Sharpay," he smiled, giving them a smile that would make any sane girl weak in the knees. Then he turned his attention to Gabriella-or as he knew of her-the new girl. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Troy Bolton."

"Gabriella Montez," she replied, trying to not squeak as she stared up into his beautiful blue eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriella." The name was perfect for a girl of her beauty-beauty, of which, he'd been taken by the second he entered the classroom. Sure, East High had hot girls, but there was something different about Gabriella that made him notice her beauty. Whatever it was, Troy couldn't put his finger on it.

"Alright, class, to your seats, summer is over," their teacher said, just seconds after the bell rang. "I hope you all -"

For the rest of the class period, Gabriella tried to focus on what the teacher was saying but she kept finding herself distracted by Troy. He had convinced the person who had taken the seat in front of her to let him sit there and she could smell his cologne.

After class, Gabriella compared her schedule with Sharpay and Taylor and found herself in class with at least one of them for the rest of the day and as each class began and ended, she found out that she and Troy were also in a lot of classes together.

When it was time for PE, Gabriella walked into the gym with Taylor and smiled brightly when she saw Chad sitting on the bleachers waving to her. She pulled Taylor over to him with her and gave him a hug before sitting down next to him.

"How's your first day going?" Chad asked her.

"Great," Gabriella smiled. "I made some new friends, you know Taylor, right?"

"Of course," Chad nodded. "She's the senior class vice president, I was one of her many supporters."

"Well thank you," Taylor replied. She elbowed Gabriella softly as Troy walked into the gym with some of his friends.

Gabriella sucked in a breath as they headed in her direction, but let the breath out when Troy greeted Chad.

"Gabriella, this is my step-brother and best friend, Troy Bolton," Chad said, introducing the two.

Troy was Chad's step brother? Gabriella looked at Taylor and her new friend just nodded.

"We've already met," Troy smiled. "But -"

A whistle cut Troy off as their PE teacher walked across the gym floor. "Everybody take a seat," he called. "That means you too, Troy."

A lot of their classmates sneakered as Troy sat down between Gabriella and Taylor-much to Taylor's delight and Gabriella's fright.

"Most of you already know this, but I see a few new faces so I'm gonna do my little speech."

Somebody booed.

"Funny, Zeke. Anyway, for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Coach Bolton and I'm the varsity basketball coach. Yes, Troy Bolton is my son –" several girls cheered and Coach Bolton rolled his eyes "- and as of a few weeks ago, Chad Danforth is my son as well."

If Gabriella hadn't been so nervous about being so close to Troy, she might have found it strange that none of the girls cheered for Chad like they did for Troy.

Gabriella didn't hear a word Coach Bolton said about the class since she was so distracted by Troy's closeness. She didn't realize that Coach Bolton had finished until Chad held out his hand to help her up.

Troy Bolton was definitely a distraction that Gabriella didn't need during her final year of high school… but he was definitely a good looking one…

Dun dun dun... but come on... you shouldn't really be surprised... you knew in the summary there was gonna be a love triangle... so let the games begin and let the best wildcat, err guy, win!

p.s. would you guys totally hate me if gabriella ended up with ryan? j/k she'll end up with either troy or chad... and at this point even I don't know who she's gonna end up with...