A/N- Some of you said the last chapter was kind of confusing and I didn't think so.... I just suxed. So I re-did it (parts of it). Still not my best but it's ok I think. Oh and just to make this easier-

Characters:
Chad and Troy grew up together in Albuquerque. They met Gabriella after she moved to town her freshman year of high school. Then Gabriella moved away and when she went to college, her roomie was Taylor. After college, Taylor met Chad (thanks to Troy) and they got married and had Jamie- the five year old. Then they moved back to Albuquerque. Troy became a "date doctor" and is trying to set-up Ryan Evans with Gabriella which brings us to the present. Hope that helps! Any other questions- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask me.

Sweet Tooth

Gabriella shifted in her seat and gazed at her hand which was intertwined with his. It was nice and not at all uncomfortable; everything was at it should be. She help but think that something was missing though. A spark perhaps? Ryan was a nice guy, definitely the type she could see herself spending the rest of her life with, but there was no chemistry. Ryan didn't make her blood rush, heart skip, stomach twist, or mind hazy. She could think of kissing him, marrying him, and having a family with him, but never being attracted to him. It was like eating a cupcake without frosting or sprinkles, still good but not the same as one with the the extra sugar.

"So..." Ryan started, "what's your favorite food?"

"My favorite food?" Gabriella giggled. "Really?"

"It's just that I want to get know you better. Give any answer that would help with that and all be happy to listen."

Gabriella sat quietly for a moment letting that soak in. Finally she answered, "My favorite ice cream is... THAT"S THE HOUSE!!"

"Is that one of those new flavors that Ben and Jerry's hire people to come up with?" Ryan asked confusedly.

"No I mean THAT WAS MY FRIEND'S HOUSE. Back there!" Gabriella said.

"OH!!" Ryan quickly turned the wheel and the car spun 180 degrees. Gabriella glanced over at him surprised. "I took a stunt driver course in preparation of maneuverability test for my driver's liscense," he explained matter of factly as he pulled into the driveway. "Hold on one second," he said as got out of the car and ran around the front. He reached the passenger side door and motioned for her to exit. "A lady should never have to open her own door," he said in an exaggerated chivalrous tone.

"Why thank you!" Gabriella giggled. "That's very kind of you sir. Shall we join them?" she said copying his over- formality.

"We shall," he siad taking her offered arm and walking to the door.

Meanwhile with Troy

"Number 14, Troy Bolton, stares down his opponent. Ooh look how he's intimidating him with his skills,"

"I'm not intimidated," the five year old argued.

"Hey midget, don't interrupt my broadcast," he said seriously.

"Hey giant, get your head outta the clouds. You're goin dooowwwn," Jamie challenged.

"Oh really?" Troy said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, really."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Oh yeah?"

"I said yeah like twenty times already." Jamie huffed

"Oh yeah?" Troy asked with a serious voice again. They stared at each other for and moment before doubling over laughing. Troy laid back on the court and Lil J sat down beside him.

"Uncle Troy?" he asked after a minute.

"Sup J?"

"I'm hungry."

"Me too," he said. "You think the food's done yet?"

"Probably," Jamie shrugged.

"YES!" he said rolling into and sitting position.

"But mom said we can't eat til her friend and her date get here."

Troy groaned and fell back. J laughed and grabbed the nearby ball. "Wanna shoot some hoops?"

Troy sat back up quickly, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Hey J, you like cookies?"

For once, the little boy dropped the ball before whispering, "I'm listening."

Back with Ryan and Gabriella

Ryan pushed the button and a bell echoed through the house. "Honey can you get that?" a voice inside yelled.

"Aww, why?" a male voice whined

"NOW!" the female demanded.

"Uh, sorry you're shh breaking up shh... you still there? I- n't -ear oo...Hello?"

"Chad you idiot." the women said as she got closer. "That only works if we're on the phone."

The door swung open and Gabriella squealed. "Taylor!"

"Gabriella!"

"Gabriella?" the man coming down the steps said.

"Chad?" Gabriella said shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"You know each other?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah we went to school together," Gabriella answered.

Taylor's face lit up. "Oh, so you know Tr-"

"-ainer Burks." Chad finished. "Course she knows him sweety," he laughed nervously.

"Who's Trainer Burks?" Gabriella asked.

"Oh Gabriella, you're such a kidder. Hey Tay can you help me with that thing at the uh place with the uh stuff?" Chad questioned, flustered. "Now!?!"

"Actually, can someone show me where the facilities are located? I uh, gotta go," Ryan admitted sheepishly.

"Who just said that? Aw crap you're that Ryan guy aren't you?" Chad winced as he finally noticed the source of the question.

"How do you know that?" Taylor asked.

"Oh... I just... You know I really think that we should talk about something else like... isn't this great weather we've been having? I mean, sure, it's freakishly hot but you know, some countries get snow in July. I for one, am extremely happy that New Mexico is not one of those... well it's actually a state but if you think about it, aren't states just like mini countries?"

"Oh you're totally hiding something, and I'm going to find out what it is. As for you Ryan, the bathroom is right down that hallway," Taylor answered pointing down a hallway. "It's the first door on the right. Now then, what's going on Chad?"

"What are you hiding?" Gabriella pressured

"I'm not hiding anything," he said backing away as both Taylor and Gabriella stepped closer.

"Yes you are, you always stutter when you're nervous," Taylor said.

"I'm n-not st-sttutter-ring," he argued meekly.

"And you're only nervous when you're lying. Or when you have to give a speech," Gabriella countered.

"I'm n-not lying."

"CHAD!" they warned.

"I... Who wants to eat?" He said rushing into the kitchen, the women right behind him.

"Now wait right there, I..." Taylor stopped and looked down. "Jamie, what are you doing on the floor? And Chad don't even think about... Where did he go?" Taylor asked.

"He ran when you looked down," Gabriella filled in.

"Oh! Well then... I'll deal with that later. Now J, wutcha doin?" Taylor said softly but firmly.

He guiltily looked up and replied with, "Nuffing."

"Are those cookies in your mouth? Before dinner?" she scolded.

"NooOoo," he said as he tried to keep the crumbs from pouring out of his mouth.

"And who gave you cookies?" she said looking around the room. "The person trying to sneak around the counter and out other door perhaps?" Taylor raised her voice accusingly.

The figure, knowing he'd been caught, froze. "Who me?" he asked, still on his hands and knees.

"You see anyone else trying to slink around the counter and out the door?"

He looked around and slowly stood with his hands in the air. "Alright you got me. Now there's only one thing to do. Initiate evasive maneuver negative nine six one two," he shouted as he scrambled away.

Jamie turned and spit the cookies at the unsuspecting women and clamored out the door and down the patio. "JAMIE!!!!" Taylor screamed rushing after the little boy. "When I catch you, I swear to God I'll... JAMIE!!!!"

Gabriella laughed and brushed the crumbs off her skirt. Today had not been what she'd expected. It'd been.... fun. The kids had really enjoyed the workshop and besides the food fight and the incident with the free rolls of duct tape, it had all gone really smoothly. No matter what challenges appeared, from assistants getting glued together to kids getting stuck in string mazes, Ryan had always kept a smile on his face, and one hers. He was patient and kind and nurturing. He was exactly the kind of guy she'd been looking for to replace...

She shook off the thought. Why did she keep thinking like that? She didn't need to replace Troy. She could never replace him, even if she wanted to. Some part of her would always remember him and belong only to Troy. Just the thought of him sent her blood rushing and the memories flood back. All those feelings came back as though they'd never been buried away. Ryan couldn't do that. And yet if she ever decided to give up on the thought of getting back with Troy.... She scolded herself and shook away the thought.

Ryan Evans was just a pawn, someone she could use to get to Troy. She couldn't let herself get too attached to Ryan Evans. He was nice and all, but not the guy for her. She had a plan and it was time to put it into action. She looked around the room and finally noticed that she was alone. "Taylor? Ryan? Chad? Anybody?" Where were they? She grabbed her bag and walked out onto the patio.

Meanwhile with Chad

The steps' creaking seemed to echo throughout the entire house. They were like tiny alarms screaming "Hey, look at me! I'm trying to not get noticed! Look over here!" Stupid steps. Did they want to be the scene of a violent murder when Taylor found him? But Taylor killing him was an everyday hazard so it wasn't at the top of his list of things to prevent. What was at the top was warning Troy about Gabriella and Ryan.

He knew he wasn't a genius or anything, far from it, but he was pretty sure that having his best friend, running into his ex best friend/ love interest who's set up with his client who doesn't know that the woman he's in love with and the man he hired to make her fall in love with him are in love with each other.... well the whole thing just screamed DRAMA!!!! And all this could be preventable if he could just find Troy and get him out of the house before Ryan or Gabriella saw him.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

Too late! Chad stopped and pressed his ear to the wall and listened to the voices coming from the other side.

"What are you talking about? You're the one that pulled me into this... laundry room." one voice shouted.

The laundry room! Chad scrambled down the remaining stairs and ran towards the tiny room.

"Not here here stupid, here here. In this house! You're supposed to be on a date with Gabriella!" Troy shouted from inside the room.

"I am. This is her friends' house. Which brings me back to- What are you doing here?" Ryan shouted back.

"Oh no, Gabriella is Taylor's friend. You're the ones we were waiting for. I had to steal cookies because of you!" Troy accused.

"What are you talking about?" Ryan asked, taken aback by the directional change of the conversation.

"I'm saying that... AHH Chad what the heck?" Troy yelled.

"Oh don't what the heck me. You're the one who's in the closet with another man. I could make so many jokes right now but I'm not going to because GABRIELLA IS OUT THERE!!! Which you probably already know because Ryan is sitting right next to you. How ya doin Ryan?" Chad said casually.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?"

"Shhh," Troy and Chad whispered. "Do you want them to find us?"

"This is bad. This is going to ruin everything," Troy moaned

"You're going to have to go back into retail," Chad countered.

"Oh don't even SAY that word around me," Troy warned him.

"You mean re..."

"Yes that one. That one," Troy twitched.

"I don't know what you're problem is. I mean, sure, they stuck you to a wall with those stamps you have to lick and left you there all night. But the firefighters got you down the next morning and you only lost a few layers of skin in the process. All in all, it wasn't that bad," Chad said nonchalantly.

"NOT THAT BAD?!? Chad, I can't even go into a Wal-Mart or watch sports where the players spit. It completely ruined baseball for me. BASEBALL!! It's the all-American pastime!"

"HEY!!!!! Somebody want to tell me what's going on?" Ryan shouted.

"Well," Chad started, "Troy and I were just remembering this time when..."

"Not that man," Troy interrupted. "He means why we're all here. And the reason is that.... um... we... I have a plan."

With Taylor and Gabriella

"So you used to live in Albuquerque? Oh I love it here; it doesn't rain. You never told me how you met Chad."

"It's a long story," Gabriella sighed sadly.

"Well, I'm not sure when the guys will be back so... Jamie what did I tell you about running in and out of the house?" Taylor scolded.

"Sorry momma." Jamie apologized.

"Ok then. Now go off and play. Oh and have you seen you're father? I'd like to talk to him."

"His in the closet," J shouted as he ran for the court.

The two women looked at each other and ran inside. Taylor rushed through the kitchen, took and sharp left and threw open the second door on the right of the narrow hallway.

"You... It's empty!" Taylor and Gabriella entered the room only to find hampers of clothes and an empty washer and dryer. They glanced questioningly at each other.

"Do you hear that?" Gabriella asked. They listened and could just make out a sound from across the hall.

Taylor motioned her to follow and crept towards the door. She silently twisted the doorknob and then threw open the door.

"Yes we bought this piece at... Oh hello darling. I was just showing Ryan around the house. He's got an eye for art. He's a keeper this one is Gabriella. So what have you two been up to?" Chad asked casually.

"We were...." Gabriella looked to Taylor.

"Umm... we were just.... Looking for you. We're waiting for you so we can eat. Now where's B..."

"Burgers. Yes we have plenty of burgers. We also have hot dogs and chicken and these weird patties of tofu or some sort of fake meat things if either of you are vegetarians or if you're up for a dare," Chad challenged.

"No way. That was a one time thing," Gabriella argued.

"And you blew chunks for hours afterward," Chad laughed.

"And on that note, let's eat," Taylor smiled.

Everyone grabbed a plate and completely missed the figure scaling down the side of the house.