Chapter 9: We're From Two Different Worlds

At lunch, there was Taylor eating her lunch at her regular lunch table while Chad was talking to his basketball friends at his regular lunch table. They see Troy walking into the cafeteria with his lunch in his hand and Gabriella with her lunch tray filled with delicious food at the other side. Troy sees Gabriella and smiles at her. She smiles back. He sees her walking toward her lunch table so he went the same way. Chad sees this with a weird look on his face. Taylor was kind of surprised. Gabriella sits down with her lunch tray. Troy goes to sit next to her, but was stopped by Chad.

"Where are you going?" Chad asked.

"To eat lunch with Gabi," Troy said, pulling away from Chad's hand.

"Hi," said Troy, looking at Gabriella's eyes so she could see he was looking at her.

"Hey," Gabriella said happily. She blushed looking at Troy. Taylor sees this whole thing.

"Is that nachos?"

"Yeah."

"Can I have some?" People start to look towards them.

"Sure." Ignoring the others looking at them, Gabriella takes a small bite of her nacho and feeds it to Troy. He smiles after munching a couple bites. Chad's eyes were wide open and Taylor was choking on her tuna fish sandwich.

"Sorry," Taylor said, grabbing Gabriella's arm, "we have to talk. Do you mind, Troy?"

"No," Troy said, just about when Chad was pulling his arm out of the lunch table.

"Dude, what is your problem?" Chad asked.

"I'm hanging out with my girlfriend," Troy replied.

"Since when is she your girlfriend?"

"Since yesterday."

"Why?"

Troy looks around, then looks back at Chad. "Remember when I told you I met my first love when I was five years old at my friend's birthday party? Gabriella was that girl."

"So you just fall in love with her when you don't really know her that much?"

"That's why we're really close now. We've spent so much time together just talking about each one of us and she seems really nice. She can be a little bitchy but she only does that when it's necessary."

"But this could ruin your reputation. She's a science nerd. You're a basketball jock. A science nerd and a basketball jock don't date, nor do they even talk to each other."

"This isn't some type of movie where a basketball jock has to go out with a cheerleader. This is real life, Chad. And I've never felt happier. Before I even knew she was my first love, I already liked her."

"Whatever, just know that if your reputation is flushed, don't come crawling to me." Chad walked away, leaving Troy behind.

During the time Chad pulled Troy out of the cafeteria

"Gabriella, what are you doing with Troy?" Taylor asked.

Gabriella smiled. "I'm in love."

"What?"

"You know that little girl that Troy met when he was five years old? That was me. I didn't know it was me until I found out it was him I met ten years ago."

"But he's a basketball jock. We're not supposed to be in contact with them."

"What makes them so different than us? We're both humans."

"Yeah, but we live in different worlds. Tons of girls follow around them while we have to do their homework."

"But Troy doesn't seem to act like one."

"He's getting you to fall in his trap. All those guys think about is how to get girls into bed."

Gabriella looks disappointed. "Really?"

"Yes, I'm not telling you this because you guys don't go together, but you need to know the facts. They don't like us for who we are. They only like us for what we look like. As long as we have a nice ass, they'll be interested in you."

"I have a nice ass?"

"I don't know, but if Troy Bolton likes you, then yes."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

Taylor pushes Gabriella into the cafeteria doors. "I want you to go tell lunkhead basketball man that he can go get some ass somewhere else and leave you alone."

Gabriella sadly walks over to Troy at his lunch table. "Hey!" said Troy, not noticing Gabriella's face.

"Troy, we can't see each other anymore."

Troy's face looks concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just think that we should just stick to what we have."

"I don't understand. I thought we could make this work."

"I guess we can't. Troy, we both live in different worlds. You're a basketball jock and I'm a science nerd. Everybody knows that people like us can't be together."

"You're dumping me because of what other people think about us?"

"No, I'm dumping you because I know you deserve much better than me. I can't give you what cheerleaders can give you." Chad's face turns happier, but still feels sorry for his best friend.

"Then what can they give me?"

"They can give you popularity, beauty, and maybe a little ass. Troy Bolton, I'm not those kind of girls who can just be with you so you can touch me wherever you want."

"I don't like you cause of that. I— " Gabriella interrupts him.

"I don't want to talk about it. We're through and nothing's gonna change my mind."

Gabriella runs out of the cafeteria. Troy looks like he was about to blow off his mind. Taylor's face looks like she was starting to feel sorry for Gabriella and Troy. Chad thinks he did the right thing, but then his conscience tells him that he did the wrong thing.

For the next few days, every time Gabriella and Troy bumps into each other, Gabriella just walks the other ways. Gabriella doesn't really pay attention in classes and the scholastic decathlon meetings. Taylor starts to regret what she done. Troy misses every shot he makes and comes in practice late everyday. Chad starts to regret what he's done, too. Coach Bolton asks what's wrong to Troy and he just nudges it away. When Coach Bolton also asks Chad, he just said he doesn't know and walks away.

One day, Chad finally made a move to go talk to Taylor and plan something for them to make up. Chad didn't care if it was going to ruin Troy's or his reputation, as long as he gets his old best friend back.

At the next scholastic decathlon meeting, Gabriella was writing an equation when Taylor went up to Gabriella and wrote another equation on the other side of the board. No one was there yet since the meeting started in a half an hour later.

"Do you miss Troy?" Taylor asked from out of the blue.

"Of course not. You saw me dump him at the cafeteria the other day," Gabriella lied.

"Admit it, you miss Troy and you still like him."

"There's nothing to admit. I don't like him and that's it."

"Then explain why you still have chocolate chip cookies in your backpack."

"Those are for times when I'm hungry."

"Yeah right. You told me whenever you ate chocolate chip cookies, it meant you miss someone."

"Fine, I admit, I miss my dad."

"No you don't. You like Troy. Admit it before I take away your chocolate chip cookies."

"Noo…." Gabriella whined, "Troy gave those to me."

"So you do miss him."

"Fine, I miss him. But we are different people."

"No, you are different people on the outside, but you guys think the same way on the inside. That's why you like him. Why do you like him anyways?"

"It's the way he makes me feel when I'm around him. I feel secure and protected when he's there to hold me in his arms. I like his baby blue eyes, it's the first thing I noticed when I saw him ten years ago. I like his smile, he makes me smile back at him without even trying. He's nice, funny, sweet, and romantic. You should of saw what he did just to tell me he was my first love. And he makes me feel like a princess when I kiss him. It's just like a fairytale. But all fairytales don't have a happy ending and it includes mine." Gabriella looks down.

Taylor smiles at her. She knew now was the time to reveal her plan. "You can come out guys."

Gabriella looks up. "Guys?" She turns around and sees the whole basketball team leaning at the doorway. She blushes, now knowing how Troy knows how she feels about him.

"Did you hear that man? She totally likes you." They all slapped his back, telling him he's the luckiest guy in the world, just to get a girl to tell him she likes him.

Troy walks up to Gabriella, grabbing her hands and kissing it. The basketball team makes smooching noises and saying awwws to them. Gabriella smiles when she saw that Troy Bolton smile. He turned around to tell them to go away, even though he knew that they were gonna be quiet and listen.

"So did you meant what you said just then?" Troy asked.

"Maybe," Gabriella playfully said.

"Oh, then I better leave." Troy turned around and let go of Gabriella's hands when Gabriella hugged him from the back.

Troy turns back around. "I'm guessing it's a yes." He lifted her chin. "What if I told you I liked you too? Not because of you look like on the outside, but who you are on the inside."

"I'd say I'll be really happy."

"Would you say yes if I officially asked you to be my girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I would say yes." Troy smiled and leaned in. Gabriella closed the gap between them and placed her lips onto his, leading to a deep and passionate kiss. The whole basketball team started yelling and make smooching noises. The rest of the scholastic decathlon team were whistling and saying awws to them.

Taylor smiled at the newest East High couple and hugged Chad for thanks. Chad was glad he got his old best friend back. He was proud of himself and now that Troy has Gabriella, there was going to be a lot more smooching in the future, but was happy that he won't ever see the depressed Troy again.

The guys had to rush back to their basketball practice before Coach Bolton yells at them. Troy gave Gabriella one last kiss before he leaves. Gabriella cheerfully skips to her seat, just in time for the scholastic decathlon meeting to start. She munches on a chocolate chip cookies, knowing that it was safe to eat it even though she wasn't hungry.

This time, Gabriella couldn't pay attention because she just got her first boyfriend. May 18, 2007.

A/N: Hope you like this chapter. I thought I could give some drama to Troy and Gabriella before I bring out the real drama into the next chapter or two. I made the date that they made it official May 18 because that's my ex-boyfriend's birthday. So I thought I'd give it that day so I can remind myself that he'll always be in my heart. Not loving him like before, but he was a big part in my life. I know it's kinda corny, but he was my first love, so yeah. DON'T MAKE FUN OF. LOL. Please R&R. Make me happy and I'll give the next chapter a happy ending. :D