Chapter 2

"Troy, Miss Montez! Any reason you're late?" Coach Bolton enquired of the two latecomers. Troy and Gabriella had run from homeroom, careful to keep a safe distance from each other though. They were panting from their sprint and noticed everyone else had changed into their PE kit, both were too out of breath to offer a reason, and besides, they wouldn't know what to say anyway "Changing rooms, now." Coach Bolton ordered, jerking his thumb behind him to the girls/boys changing rooms, and be quick about it." Troy and Gabriella walked side by side to their changing rooms, never once looking at each other and then hurrying silently into their respective changing room.

Five minutes later they emerged at the exact same time, to see the rest of their class running laps around the basketball court. Gabriella's hair was now in pigtails and she was in a white t-shirt and red shorts (think HSM2 promos!) she walked over to Troy and was the first to break the ice. "You know, Troy. Maybe you should take up Miss Darbus' offer." She whispered in a voice of mock concern, her eyes twinkling at the reaction she knew her comment would inspire. Troy was trying hard to ignore her as they began to jog round, but ignoring Gabriella Montez had never been one of his strong points. "Oh, yeah? And what offer might that be?" Gabriella looked over at him, her pigtails flapping against her shoulders as she ran. "You know, to take part in the musical." She replied cheekily, loving the fact that Troy honestly had no idea what to say to her. "Might help you relax, stop you being such an ass, although it is only a musical not therapy, maybe you need more help in that area…" She winked at him and ran off ahead, and although Troy was infuriated by her comment, she always knew just how to wind him up, he couldn't help noticing she looked really good in those shorts… he shook the thought off and continued to run.

"Okay, class, gather round!" The kids stopped running and lined up around Coach Bolton, ready for instructions, Sharpay could be heard moaning to anyone who would listen about the nail she had just broken while running round. "Today, we're gonna try and have a game of Volleyball, Jason, Zeke, could go just go and get the net please?" As the two boys ran off, the class automatically started moving into two teams, girls and boys. Coach Bolton laughed, "A battle of the sexes? So be it. Troy you'll be captain of the boys, Gabriella you'll be in charge of the girls." Troy and Gabriella looked at each other, seeing determination in each other's eyes they knew was echoed in their own. This was no longer going to be a friendly volleyball game. "Okay, girls, huddle up." Gabriella shouted as she heard Troy do the same thing. The girls huddled round putting their arms around each other's shoulders and leaning in, they all looked expectedly at Gabriella. "Right," she started, "to be honest, I haven't a clue how to play volleyball and to be honest, I don't really care." A few of the girls laughed. "Our main goal obviously, is to beat the boys, to beat Troy Bolton."

"Aww, but he's so cute." Sharpay and a few of the other girls sighed.

"Well, I don't care that he's hot." Gabriella paused for a second, that wasn't something she had ever said or thought before. Taylor looked at her oddly as well, knowing this was the first nice thing she had ever said nice about any jock, especially Troy Bolton. "Anyway," she continued nervously, taken aback by this sudden revelation on her part, "I just know we have to beat them. It's only right we show them we're just as good."

"Okay, guys. I think we all know how this is gonna turn out, I mean no offence to the girls but they don't even know how to play." Troy smiled at his team, this was going to be an easy win, he may not always know the right thing to say to get one up on Gabriella but at least in sport he knew he could beat her. "Yeah," Chad laughed in agreement, "they're just gonna look stupid."

"I don't know about that." One of Zeke's friends Nick smirked, "Montez is looking really hot in those shorts." The rest of the team looked over and nodded in agreement. Troy couldn't understand it, but it annoyed him to see them all leering at her, maybe it just because he wanted them to concentrate on the game. "Guys, can you please stop checking her out!"

"Jealous, are we Troy?" Zeke smirked.

"No, I just…" He wasn't jealous, was he? Of course he wasn't, this was Gabriella Montez, he couldn't stand her. Sure she may be beautiful, but that's nothing if you're as irritating as she is, Troy reasoned with himself, stop thinking about her! "Let's just play and win, okay?" The boys cheered in agreement, and Chad watched Troy, he had always thought there had been a sexual tension between Troy and Gabriella, even if neither of them would ever admit it. Chad was sure that if they ever stopped arguing they would realise that they weren't actually different, but he was sure that day wouldn't come soon, so he wasn't holding his breath. A whistle told the game was about to begin, they all got into their positions. "Ready, Montez?" Troy yelled.

"Born ready, Bolton." The two gave each other an intense stare, and a chorus of, "oooh" and wolf whistles were heard from both sides.

"Okay," Troy sighed, when he finally pulled his gaze away from Gabriella. "Let's play some ball." He hit the ball over the net.

The battle of the sexes had begun