Disclaimer: I do not own HSM

A/N: This is the same chapter 14, but I just changed the name. I thought that this song better suited it. Other than that, it's the same chapter. I'm in the process of working on chapter 15. Please be patient with me. I'm having a hard time finding the inspiration for it. Thanks.

Chapter 14: Beautiful Soul

I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

The incident with Ashley eventually subsided, and everything returned back to normal. In fact, they got a little bit busier. Troy and Chad continued with their sports, and Gabriella, Taylor, and Martha still did the decathlon. And Kelsi was busy helping out with the Spring Musicale. The SAT's were also coming up in a few weeks.

Ms. Darbus was at the front of her classroom making the announcements. "And finally, I am happy to announce that auditions for our Spring Musicale are coming up. So start practicing and for additional information, please see me."

Sharpay clapped her hands, and Ryan smiled. This was their chance to redeem themselves. The winter musicale had been such a tragedy in Sharpay's life. This was going to be her time to shine.

The bell rang, and the class quickly filed out to go to their classes for the rest of the day.

Kelsi caught up with Troy and Gabriella. "Hey, so are you guys going to have a repeat success? Or what?"

Troy and Gabriella looked at each other and turned back to Kelsi. Gabriella started off. "Kels, I don't think that we're going to do the Spring Musicale this year."

"Aww…why not?" She asked.

"Look. We talked about it. As much as we love performing, there's just too many things to do right now." Troy explained to her.

"We're not saying that we'll never do it again, we're just going to take a break from it."

What Troy and Gabriella left out were some minor details. Sure, they were both extremely busy and had barely enough time to see each other. Between homework and extra curricular activities, they only saw each other at school, and it was getting frustrating not being able to spend time with each other. Maybe next time.

"Well, I can understand that. I'll see you two later then."

However, when Sharpay and Ryan asked what the musical was going to be, Sharpay was extremely disappointed when the lead role was for a boy. Despite her amazing acting abilities, there was no way Ms. Darbus was going to place her as the lead for the musical. Ryan was going to be the star for once. This year was not turning out as Sharpay would've liked it too. First Troy and Gabriella, now her own brother? "Unfair" didn't even cover the way Sharpay felt. This wasn't how she wanted to finish the school year.

The next day, Ms. Darbus's homeroom was just starting but the phone rang. "Darbus. Mm hm. Mm hm. Right away." She hung up the phone before turning to the class. "Ms. Montez, Principal Matsui would like to see you in his office."

Some of the goof balls "Oooo"d. Troy and Chad both sent them a threatening look. Gabriella timidly picked up her bag and set off for the principle's office.

She was only a little nervous about what the Principal might want with her. Since she had only broken one of the rules, the cell phone rule back in January, she wasn't all that worried of getting into that much trouble. And since Troy and she rarely showed that much public affection at school, there wasn't really much to think about as the secretary admitted her into the principal's office.

Gabriella opened the door and saw a very impatient Sharpay and a very patient Matsui. Gabriella took her seat next to Sharpay and waited for Principal Matsui to speak.

"Ah, Miss Montez, thank you for joining us. I'm sorry I had to steal you away from your interesting homeroom; I needed to speak with both of you.

"Miss Evans has already been informed of what you are both here for. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have expressed there concern that their daughter do well on her upcoming SAT's. They requested a tutor. I am to decide which student is most capable of this job, and I believe that that student is you Miss Montez."

"I already told you that I don't need a tutor." Sharpay stated.

Principal Matsui ignored her and continued. "Mr. and Mrs. Evans request that you meet at least three times a week. Which days those will be, you may decide. Would you mind doing this, Gabriella? I know that you have your own SAT's to prepare for."

Gabriella was a little wary of accepting the job. She and Sharpay hadn't been the best of friends since Gabriella had been at East High. It also didn't help that Sharpay had a thing for Troy.

But she decided that it wouldn't be that big of a deal. How bad could it be?

"I don't mind." Gabriella finally said.

Sharpay rolled her eyes.

"Excellent. Thanks you, Miss Montez. I shall inform Mr. and Mrs. Evans that Miss Evans now has a tutor. Thank you, Ladies. That will be all. The bell for first period should ring in a minute. You may go."

Gabriella and Sharpay walked out of the office.

"Um…so do you want to meet during free period to decide what days?" Gabriella asked her.

"Whatever." Sharpay replied. It was obvious that she was not thrilled about this unfortunate turn in her life.

Sharpay continued down the hall as Gabriella stopped in front of Ms. Darbus's room. The bell rang, and the students started to file out of the classrooms.

Troy finally came out. "Hey, so what happened? Are you in trouble?" He asked concerned.

"No. Nothing to worry about. Why would you need to ask that anyways? The only times I've been in trouble were when you called my phone and got me in detention the first day."

Troy laughed at the memory. Gabriella continued. "Oh, there was that time we were late to Ms. Darbus's Communication class, and you got me into detention again. And those were all in January so it seemed like a stupid thing to get in trouble for.

"The only thing that I would be worried about was our PDA but since we don't really show a lot of that, I don't really think that I'll get into trouble there." She thought for a moment.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Wow." She said. "I never realized…how much of a bad influence you are on me." She teased.

"What?" He feigned a hurt expression on his face and brought his hand to his heart.

"Well, think about it, the only times I've ever been in trouble were when it involved you. If I ever get in any more detentions, I swear, they're only going to be with you."

"True." Troy nodded. "But…if I had to decide between getting detention alone and getting detention with you, I'd always pick the second one."

"Charmer." She smiled.

He chuckled. "Well, I believe it or not, I was a pretty good kid before you got here. I only got into detention at least twice every semester."

She giggled her adorable giggle that always made Troy's day. He continued. "I think that you're the one affecting me here." He accused.

"Well, let's face it, Wildcat, I think we both affect each other."

"Yet again you are correct. I never would've thought about acting had it not been for you."

"The feeling is mutual, Wildcat."

"So, anyways, what was the reason for your visit to Matsui's office? We kind of got on a rabbit trail there."

"Well, he wanted to know if I could tutor Sharpay for SAT's."

"Oh, well, that's not too bad as long as she doesn't influence your innocent streak."

"And that would be bad because?"

"Well, she's a blonde, shallow, Drama queen. I'm kind of attracted to the smart, sensible, gorgeous girl standing in front of me."

"You really are a charmer."

He leaned down to kiss her, but she laughed and stopped him. "Nu uh. I don't need to be called to the Principal's office for PDA."

"Well, seeing that the halls are deserted, I don't really think it matters."

Gabriella for the first time took her eyes off of Troy's and noticed, indeed, that no one was in the halls. The bell rang, and Gabriella laughed.

"I suppose not. But right now, I'd better get to class before I really do get detention for something reasonable. Like being late. I'll see you later, Wildcat."

"Wait. Hey, one quick one before we put this PDA away?" He pleaded.

She happily sighed and kissed him quickly before walking to her class.

It just so happened that Troy and Gabriella weren't so lucky in avoiding getting detentions for being late to class. Ironically, their punishment was to help Darbus with cleaning up the dressing room.

"Troy, if this goes on my permanent record, you don't even want to know what I'm going to do to you." Gabriella threatened while rearranging the things by the mirror.

"What are you going to do? Refuse to kiss me? Idle threat."

He slowly sneaked behind her while he spoke. He was almost touching her. She was looking down so she didn't see him. She turned around to make a witty comeback but met his blue eyes and forgot all about threatening him.

He smirked knowing that he had made her speechless.

"You were saying, Brie?" He brought his hand up to her cheek and stroked it.

"Um…I…" She tried to make coherent sentences but he was making it so difficult.

The door opened quite suddenly and Gabriella jumped back.

"Ms. Montez, Mr. Bolton. You are free to go." Ms. Darbus informed them.

"All right, so the derivative of x to the n is d/dx xn n x(n-1)." Sharpay stated.

"That is correct." Gabriella said. "You're getting better at this."

Sharpay smiled and put her pencil down. "Finally! Our last problem of the day! Time to go shopping!"

Gabriella sighed and started putting the books into her bag.

Sharpay stared at her for a moment and sighed. "All right. Thank you for helping me out…In fact, I'm willing to offer you my advice."

"Oh no that's really not necessary."

"No, no I insist." Sharpay said. "Let's see. What advice can I pull out?" Her face lit up when she thought of just the advice to offer. "I know. You're with Troy right?"

Gabriella thought that that was a stupid question to ask, but she nodded.

"Hm. Yeah...great abs." She said a little dreamily, not bothering that Gabriella was there. "All right. How about some boy advice then? All right. You've been together for what one week?"

"Three months." Gabriella replied.

"Right. Well, let me guess. Holding hands and one kiss per time you meet right? You've probably never made out with him before right? Three months and no making out? Wow. You guys are so cute. My advice. Make out with him soon. You've been together three months. Why wait?"

Gabriella stared at her for one moment.

"I'll take your silence as a thank you. You're welcome. Well, I'm off. The mall is calling to me. Toodles."

Troy listened to the metal door open and heard footsteps running up the stairs. He stood up from the bench and looked at Gabriella.

She was still the same beautiful Gabriella, but she looked different somehow. Her eyes were a darker brown than usual as she drank in his presence.

She took a few steps toward him with that look in her eyes that excited him yet terrified him at the exact same time. It was a look that he had never witnessed before. In the back of his mind, he wondered if she had ever seen them that dark herself, or if anybody else had seen them for that matter. What was it?

"Gabriella, are you—"

He was cut short when her lips crashed on to his. He sat down before she knocked him over from the force with which she was kissing him. She sat down with him so as not to break the kiss.

Something wasn't right. She was being really forward with him and taking the lead here. Not that he didn't enjoy some of it…all right, most of it, but still…

The way she was kissing him, it felt like no kiss ever given between them. It felt like she was daring him to respond to her forwardness. He could really feel it. The way her lips were on his, it was demanding his cooperation, asking him to go along with it.

And go along he did. He had no complaints, as long as Gabriella was okay with it. Which it looked like she was.

What was one kiss turned into another and another. After what seemed like an eternity, not that that is a bad thing, they pulled apart. Troy stared wide eyed at Gabriella, and she stared back. What had just happened?

"Troy, I'm…" She trailed off. Her embarrassment caught up with her as she blushed.

He pulled her head up and engaged her in a softer kiss. Instead of her demanding kiss, his was more of a reassuring kiss. She had done nothing wrong, and he was going to tell her that it was all right.

Troy pulled back and looked into her eyes once more. They were still extremely dark.

"It's fine." He told her. He paused for a little while. Finally he asked, "So do you want to talk about how your tutoring with Sharpay went or what just happened?"

"Well…they go hand-in-hand." Gabriella admitted shyly. She recounted her tale with Sharpay.

"She told you that you were silly for not making out with me sooner than today. Have I got that right?" He asked a little disbelievingly.

She nodded. "Basically."

He sighed. "All right. I knew somewhere along the way we were going to talk about something like this."

He took her hands into his and stared into her eyes. They were a little less dark than before. They seemed to be returning to their normal dark brown.

"Gabriella, look. I know that by some standards we are going way, way, way, way slow, but I don't have one problem with that. If I had to live off of one kiss a week, I'd be fine. Although please don't make me wait that long. I beg of you."

She giggled, and he continued. "Look, my point is that I'm not with you just because of the physical stuff. I mean, sure it's a plus that you are extremely gorgeous and that you're a great kisser, but I think, actually, I know there's much more to this relationship than just kissing and holding hands.

"It's much more than that. As much as I enjoy kissing you and holding you, I also enjoy you as a person. I love that I can talk with you about so many things that Chad or Jason or Zeke or the rest of the guys could never in one million years get into their heads.

"You've gotten me to see that there's more to life than just basketball. It's great to be able to get on the court with the guys and play ball. But if I could choose between playing basketball for the rest of my life, and talking to you for one second, I'd choose the second one all the time. Okay?"

Gabriella nodded a little teary eyed at his words. "Okay. Thanks, Troy. You always know the right thing to say to me. How do you do it?"

"It's just one of the things that comes along with knowing you so well. But we're all right now right?"

"Yeah. We're all right, Troy. Thanks."

"It's most definitely not a problem. That's what boyfriends are for."

"Tell that to Sharpay next time you see her. She seems to think that your looks and your abs are the only thing that matter."

"My abs?" He asked.

"Yup. Though I don't think I can blame her. She hasn't really gotten to know you past a 'Hey, Troy!'" She imitated Sharpay's tone.

"This is true. But I still wonder how she got a look at my abs."

"Maybe she was watching you at basketball practice earlier this year."

"That's kind of disturbing." He told her.

"Well, for all we know, she may have just taken a giant poster of a shirtless Zac Efron and put your head on his body."

"Well, see that wouldn't work because I look nothing like him."

"I still think he's pretty hot." She teased.

"Hey!"

"But he doesn't even come close to you." She answered.

"Now who's the charmer?"

"Still you." She said.

"And what have we learned today?" Troy asked in a tone that a teacher would use with a student.

"That making out can be enjoyable." She said cheekily.

"Gabriella! Who would've ever thought that innocent sweet little Gabriella Montez would ever say something like that."

"I told you that you had a bad influence on me. But I think I've learned that Sharpay's advice is really shallow and that I should never ever get advice from her again and that we're going to go at our own pace."

"That's my girl." Troy said smiling, and he hugged her.

Gabriella had tutoring with Sharpay again the next day, and she asked Troy to come with her so that she wouldn't have to face Sharapy alone. If Sharpay ever offered to give advice, Gabriella would've taken it. She was too nice of a person not to. That's what Troy was there for.

Troy and Gabriella sat at one of the library tables waiting for Sharpay's arrival.

"So we're clear on this right?" He asked her. "We're going to go at our own speed and on the speed that people think we should be going. So that means no more listening to Sharpay or any other advice other people give about our relationship. Yeah?"

"Yeah, Troy. I got it. Thanks." She reached out and held his hand.

"I see my advice has worked beautifully." Sharpay commented.

"Look, Sharpay. Gabriella and I would appreciate it if you would keep your advice to yourself. No offence, but we'd like our relationship to stay our relationship. Okay?"

"Troy, don't tell me that you didn't enjoy my advice that I gave Gabriella yesterday."

Troy stayed silent and Sharpay looked smug.

Gabriella spoke up. "Look, Sharpay. Let's just keep these tutoring sessions to tutoring sessions. All right?"

Sharpay looked from Troy to Gabriella and back again before she sighed. "All right, but you're going to miss stuff from your relationship."

"I think we have everything we need." Troy said squeezing Gabriella's hand.