The Replacements

"Doctor? How serious is it?" Gabriella enquired nervously. She had been waiting for news on Sharpay what seemed like hours. Troy was nowhere in sight. As soon as they had arrived Troy had excused himself to make a phone call and hadn't been seen since.

The blonde doctor smiled at Gabriella. "Well, your friend had a bad fall…"

Gabriella didn't like his tone, "Doctor you don't have sugar coat anything. I can take it."

The Doctor smiled at the girl, her maturity was surprising for someone her age. He took a deep breath and continued in his calm tone. "Well, her ankle's severely dislocated; she'll need surgery to get it back into place." His explanation was met with a confused tone.

"Doctor, if you don't my asking. We've been here for…" She checked her watch. "An hour and a half. Why is the first I'm hearing about this, surely it would have been best to do the surgery as soon as possible." The Doctor smirked, nothing got past this kid.

"Well, we've been doing x-rays and such. We think of surgery as a last resort we wanted to make sure they was any way the ankle could be splinted, which-

"Which there isn't." Gabriella finished. The Doctor nodded.

"She's gone in now. You can wait if you'd like, I know it's getting late."

Gabriella shrugged and sat herself in a chair in the waiting room, "I'll wait, I have nowhere else to go." The Doctor excused himself and went to talk to a nurse.

Troy walked into the hospital, wondering if Gabriella was ok, he had called Miss Darbus, but his phone call had lasted all of two minutes and he had been gone over an hour, Troy was praying Gabriella wouldn't press him for an explanation as he knew she wouldn't like it. While he was wondering this he saw Gabriella sat in the waiting room, her head in her hands, she looked so still she could be asleep. He saw an open textbook on the table in front of her and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. He walked over to her, hating to disturb her. He gently touched her shoulder and he felt like he had been electrocuted and by Gabriella's sudden awakening she must have felt it too. "Troy!! You made me jump!" Gabriella had her hand on her chest and was breathing sharply.

"That scary am I?" Troy smiled; he picked up a sports magazine and sat down in a chair next to Gabriella. He began to read, but kept feeling like someone was watching him. Eventually he closed his magazine and saw Gabriella staring at him, her eyebrows raised and an expecting look on her face, her fingers tapping on the armrest of her chair. Troy smirked, knowing ignoring her would bug her so much, so he merely winked at her and continued reading his magazine.

"Aren't you even going to ask??" Gabriella eventually snapped, staring angrily at the magazine hiding the basketball player. Troy took a deep breath, closed the magazine slowly, rested it on the table, laced his fingers and said in a perfectly calm and innocent voice. "Ask what?"

"About Sharpay!" Gabriella yelled incredulously, "you know, the girl whose ankle YOU broke?? The reason we're here!"

Troy shrugged, only noting how cute she looked when her nose was scrunched up in annoyance. "Well, she's fine isn't she? Sprained ankle or something…"

"Actually, no. She's in surgery right now, popping her ankle back into place." Troy smug face, changed instantly and her immediately felt guilty for his callous comments.

"Oh." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. Gabriella looked away sharply, she felt funny when he saw him do that, he's too good looking for his own good, Gabriella thought bitterly, no wonder he's so full of it. "When can we see her?"

"After the surgery." Gabriella replied sharply. She picked up the textbook and began to read.

"So I guess we're not talking anymore?" Troy asked.

"No, Troy. We're not talking anymore." Gabriella replied completely absorbed in her book.

"Thank God." Troy sighed, resting his head on the back of his chair. "You exhaust me, Montez, you really do." The pair sat in silence until the arrival of their melodramatic teacher Miss Darbus. When she entered a room, everyone knew it. Today was no different. She waltzed in throwing her scarf around her neck and immediately scanned the room for Troy and Gabriella. "Oh my goodness." She wailed, running over to the teenagers who naturally looked alarmed. "My star, how is she?" Troy and Gabriella shared a look and Gabriella stood up and put a comforting arm on Miss Darbus' shoulder.

"Miss Darbus, she's in surgery. Her ankle's dislocated. I don't think she'll be able to perform in your musical." Gabriella said sympathetically, a thought suddenly came to her and she looked behind Miss Darbus. "Um, where's Ryan? Surely he should be here."

"He's rehearsing, we open in three weeks, and we need all the practice we can get. Besides when Troy called me up, he said it wasn't anything serious." Miss Darbus explained, eyeing up the reddening basketball player. "But obviously that isn't the case is it, Mr Bolton?" When Troy didn't reply she huffed. "Anyway I must go and see her." She wiped away a non existent tear and ran off.

"Nothing serious?? You don't call surgery serious??" Gabriella rounded on Troy.

"Well, I didn't want them worrying." Troy shrugged.

"Like you obviously aren't." Gabriella snapped. "Besides where were you? I've been here an hour by myself."

Troy groaned, he knew this question was coming, he stood up. "You want the truth?"

Gabriella stood and faced him.

"Always."

Troy looked down, finding his shoes suddenly very interesting. "Okay, I was playing basketball."

Gabriella couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So let me get this straight. You put a classmate in hospital, and then while she's in surgery you go off and play basketball!" She said the last word as if it was a disease.

"Okay, when you say it like that it sounds bad." Troy, Gabriella noted, at least had the decency to look guilty. But Gabriella wasn't going to let this go, or let herself go because she had a feeling if she did, she'd end up falling for the arrogant yet attractive basketball player standing in front of her. She threw her hands up in despair.

"Let's go and see Sharpay. She should be out of surgery." Gabriella stormed off, Troy had no choice but to follow her.

In Sharpay's room:

"The doctor says I have to stay off my ankle for at least a month." Sharpay said huskily, the pain medication she was on was a life saver to everyone's ears, she was too lazy too speak loudly.

Miss Darbus was pacing the room clearly heart broken that her main star would be unable to shine for another month.

"Ryan won't be doing the musical either, Miss Darbus." Sharpay frowned, this caused Miss Darbus to stop in her tracks.

"Why not?" Miss Darbus practically shrieked.

"Because he just won't be able to perform without me there, it won't be the same. We're a team." Gabriella snorted at Sharpay's comment, she knew if the tables had been switched and Ryan was the one with the broken ankle, Sharpay wouldn't waste a minute finding a replacement.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find two replacements to play Arnold and Minnie…" Miss Darbus said, rubbing her forehead.

"I think they should do it." Sharpay said pointing her finger at Troy and Gabriella. "After all Miss Darbus it is their fault you've lost your stars." Sharpay reasoned a mischievous grin covering her face. Sharpay would kill to see them both perform together, she could get a lot of money on bets of how long it would for one of them to kill the other. Besides laughter is the best medicine, and seeing Troy and Gabriella in a musical, she was sure, would certainly be laughable.

Miss Darbus eyed up the teenagers in front of him, a scholastic decathlon team member and a basketball player, they were worlds apart and yet there was a spark between them, they certainly had chemistry whether they would admit it or not, "but can you sing?" she thought out loud.

Troy was about to reply, 'not a note in tune', but Gabriella clapped her hand over his mouth. "Oh, yeah Miss Darbus. Troy is a fantastic singer, in fact he's so good I don't think he should say a word so he can save his beautiful voice for the stage." Gabriella smirked, she had one up on Troy Bolton but shrieked when he licked her hand which she dropped from his mouth not a second later.

"Well, okay then," Miss Darbus smiled, she looked less suicidal now, "Troy will be our Arnold-

"And won't he do a good job?" Gabriella asked in a sing song voice, patting Troy on the back. She was over the moon, Troy Bolton in a musical, the ultimate pay back.

"And Gabriella, you'll be our Minnie-

"And Gabriella will," Gabriella repeated in the same voice, "wait- WHAT?"

Hope you guys liked it, next chapter will obviously deal with their first rehearsal...what will happen? Time will tell, and so will reviewing! Anyway thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed already it's been such a compliment. :D