A/N: Hello, hello, hello! It's been a while, I know. But I've been a bit busy. I've found myself a temporary job as a kitchen assistant which loosely translates to washer-upper/cleaner/hot-chocolate-drinker/breakfast-eater. BUT I GET PAID FOR IT!

I'm going on holiday in a few weeks to a place called Hay-on-Wye that has THIRTY BOOK SHOPS! Can you say Heaven? And I'm going to have three more guinea pigs. Don't call me crazy.

Anyway, I've been watching a sit com called 'Miranda' which is hilarious so I might write a oneshot for that.

Anyway, on with the show, my friends! :)

Chapter Four

Troy tapped his pencil on his notebook as he twisted in his seat to glare at the door of the auditorium. After all of her infuriating lectures about him not taking school seriously and kissing Katherine more than he did homework, she does this.

He glanced around at all of the students dressed in various costumes and themes. Chad was sporting a rather fetching outfit consisting of some sort of tunic and tights. Troy, of course, was wearing a West High Knights t-shirt and letterman jacket. He felt like he was going to burst into flames for wearing it on campus.

Gabriella had been a pain in the neck since her first day. What was he thinking when he thought being partnered with her would be a good idea? The closest she'd come to complimenting him was using his idea for the Montague's and the Capulet's. He knew he hadn't acted much better towards her but he hadn't jeopardised their grade.

And here he was, surrounded by his classmates in their costumes, waiting for Ms Darbus to arrive, and no sign of Gabriella whatsoever. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes to go.

He leaned forward in his seat and tapped Sharpay on her shoulder. "Shar, do you know where Gabriella is?"

She turned around and frowned, glancing at the other students. "No, I don't. I haven't seen her since yesterday. Have you tried her cell?"

"Every five minutes since I woke up."

"We need to work on your stalking skills," she mumbled. "Maybe she's sick."

He ran his hand through his hair and thought about. It was conceivable. She'd just moved across the country, she was at a new school and meeting new people. It was bound to leave anyone worn down. It was plausible. But in the mere week Gabriella had been at East High, Troy had learned a lot about her. Most prominently, she was stubborn. Specifically with school, meaning she wouldn't sacrifice a grade for anything. She'd told him that when she was a freshman, she'd given an oral presentation, even though she'd had laryngitis at the time. Where a normal student would kill for a chance to miss school, Gabriella fought to be there.

The idea of her being sick suddenly seemed unrealistic.

He shook his head. "I don't think she's one to let a sickness bug keep her from school."

Zeke twisted in his seat. "Maybe she's intimidated by the drama king."

Troy hit his friend on the shoulder. "This isn't a time for jokes. You know that drama is the only thing besides basketball that I'm good at. I did it to get into a good college."

"Ow," Zeke complained. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to make you feel better. Anyway, who knew we would live to see the day when the Wildcat superstar would be stood up."

"This isn't a date, moron," Troy exclaimed.

Zeke shrugged. "Still counts."

The chatter of students died down to mumbles as Ms Darbus climbed the steps up to the stage and stood in the centre, facing her class. "Welcome to the wonders of the theatre. We have two hours for you to perform your projects to the entire class."

Troy shuffled in his seat and turned around to look at the door again.

"Mr Bolton, as you are the star of the drama club and seem so anxious to perform, would you like to go first?" Ms Darbus asked as she left the stage and headed towards the table a few rows from the front. She usually used it to watch auditions for plays and shows. But today, she was grading projects.

"But Ms Darbus-" he began.

"You have two minutes to prepare yourselves," Ms Darbus exclaimed.

Troy sighed as he gripped his folder and made his way to the stage. He stood where Ms Darbus had stood and opened his folder. "For mine and Gabriella's project, we were assigned Act I, Scene v, which is Romeo and Juliet's first kiss. Of course, our focus was Romeo and Juliet's interaction. We decided to target this specifically to our classmates by centring the feud on the conflict between the Wildcats and the Knights while using contemporary musical elements."

"Fascinating, Mr Bolton. But do you plan on starting your performance any time soon?" Ms Darbus asked.

Troy closed the folder and looked back towards the door one final time. He nodded in defeat and went backstage to put a CD into the sound system. After he pushed a few buttons, a clear beat thudded throughout the auditorium. He wandered back to centre stage and tugged on his blue West High shirt.

He couldn't believe it. He almost wanted to cry. It was the one thing he was good at besides basketball, the one class he wasn't just scraping by. He was actually excelling in drama, he was one of the top of the class. And Gabriella said how bad she was at drama and she was the one jeopardising their grade.

He'd never been afraid of a grade before. But he was terrified of this one.

"Mr Bolton, do you plan on beginning? Where is Miss Montez?"

Clenching his hands into fists, Troy closed his eyes and let Shakespeare's words flow from his mouth. The extra rehearsals he and Gabriella had taken paid off when the words came out in an almost-flawless beat. He was no Kanye West but he was pretty proud of himself. Of course, the thought did occur to him that maybe he would've been better if Gabriella had actually shown up.

If I profane with my unworthiest hand

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Troy looked beyond his classmates to the door at the back of the auditorium, feeling a lump form in the back of his throat. He was actually going to cry. He could feel it. It was humiliating enough to be standing on stage, performing a pair project without his partner. And now he was going to cry in front of his entire drama class.

"To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss," he repeated.

Ms Darbus was clearly becoming impatient and who could blame her? Her star pupil was becoming a train wreck right before her very eyes.

"To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss," he repeated once again in a pathetic mumble. He closed his eyes, imagining that he was any place than East High's auditorium.

"That's enough, Mr Bolton," Ms Darbus said sternly. "If Miss Montez is not prepared to participate, I will have to fail you."

"Good pilgrim," a voice blurted in a breathless gasp.

Troy turned around in time for Gabriella to burst from stage left and crash into his chest, causing him to stumble backwards. As Gabriella gained her balance and caught her breath, he flashed her a quick glare. He quickly went back into character and replaced the glare with a look of love.

Gabriella sent him a clear apologetic look as she opened her mouth and began to rap.

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Although he was furious, he couldn't help but love how much effort she had put into her costume. He reluctantly admitted how beautiful she was in her red tank top with the Wildcat logo emblazoned on the front and his white letterman jacket hanging from her shoulders. He was even more shocked to see that she had abandoned her usual jeans and leather boots and opted for a white skirt and some high heels. She looked, in a word, hot.

He replied just as they had rehearsed, pushing his anger aside. They could do it. They could salvage their grade and get the A the project deserved. Or at least a B.

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"

"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer," she responded in perfect time with the beat.

It was getting closer to the kiss and Troy felt his stomach churn as he always did whenever he kissed onstage. They hadn't rehearsed the kiss, of course, feeling it would be awkward enough without rehearsing it. He wanted to look at Ms Darbus to gage her reaction but refrained, instead focussing entirely on Gabriella.

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Gabriella flipped her long hair over her shoulder as she rapped her reply, "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."

Here it was. After this line, they would kiss and it had to be convincing. He just hoped she was a good kisser and could pretend to be in love with him. "Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take."

He swallowed hard as he held her hands and looked in her eyes. He knew they were looking for longer than they'd rehearsed but he didn't care. He had to calm his nerves. But, a moment later, he pressed his lips to hers.

He expected to instantly pull back, to bow at his classmates and move on to the next project. Instead, he stayed like that: eyes closed, holding her hands, moving his lips against hers. He had never felt so peaceful. He almost forgot why they were kissing in the first place.

He let go of her hands and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer, feeling her arms wind around his neck. He was vaguely aware of the auditorium getting quieter and he struggled to understand why. After a moment, he realised the backing track they'd been using to rap against had been stopped.

The silence was then replaced by wolf whistles by his classmates and he pushed Gabriella away, realising how long they'd been kissing and how much he had enjoyed it. He tried to avert his gaze away from Gabriella but caught the look of confusion and hurt that flashed through her eyes.

"What passion," Ms Darbus exclaimed. "For a moment, I thought Miss Montez was actually late and how inventive you made that scene. I award you an A."

Without acknowledging their grade, the pair hurried from the stage to head back towards their seats. As Gabriella sat down, Troy made sure to leave two empty seats between them.

Now that the godforsaken project was over, he needed to stay away from her.

After the final project had been performed and the class had been dismissed, Troy sauntered from his seat, being the first one to leave the auditorium. Gabriella hurried after him, trying to keep up but finding it nearly impossible in the heels she'd borrowed from her brother's girlfriend.

"Troy," she called, pushing through the throng of students that emerged from various classrooms. "Troy! For God's sake, slow down."

He abruptly turned around glared down at her as she skidded to a stop. "Leave me alone," he mumbled.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be late but I overslept because I was up all night-"

He held his hand up, cutting her off. "Honestly? I don't care. What I do care about is my drama grade because it is the one thing in my life that I'm remotely good at besides basketball and you jeopardised that. I told you all of this when we were first partnered together."

"I know and I am sorry. And thank you for starting the project. If you'd have told Ms Darbus I wasn't there, I just know I would've flunked the whole semester of drama so thank you. You saved my butt. I'm actually impressed by your enthusiasm for something other than basketball," she praised, smiling up at him.

"I'm thrilled you're impressed," he muttered in a bored tone. "But the good news is that we'll never have to do anything together ever again. See ya."

Without another word, Troy turned around and walked away.

Gabriella sighed and headed to her locker, shrugging off Troy's ever-so-comfy letterman jacket. As she hung Troy's jacket up in her locker and swapped her books around, Taylor approached and leaned against the locker next to Gabriella's.

"Hey Gabby," she said in greeting.

"I've told you: it's Gabriella, damn it!" Gabriella snapped. She instantly saw the look of hurt that flashed through Taylor's eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry. Bad day."

"Why? You got an A on your drama project."

"Oh, I don't know. I overslept because I stayed up until four in the morning making paper leaves for a dance, so I was late and now Troy won't talk to me," Gabriella explained.

Taylor paused for a moment. "Thanks for your help, by the way."

Gabriella shrugged. "It's okay. I have to go anyway. I have sleep to catch up on and grades to maintain."

All morning, Gabriella had got answers wrong, been chastised by teachers for not paying attention, and had even been caught dozing once or twice. It was awful. The only good thing about the day was that her drama project had been salvaged thanks to Troy. So Gabriella counted her blessings when the bell rang for lunch.

After she had paid for her lunch, she paused in her tracks, looking over to the table that Troy and his friends occupied. She couldn't see Troy but Sharpay, Zeke, Chad and Ryan were already there. Could she sit there, knowing Troy was still so angry at her? And who could blame him?

Of course, following the pattern of her day so far, her thoughts were interrupted by a bizarre cold, wet feeling on her chest. When she focussed on the matter at hand, she realised that Katherine, Troy's girlfriend no less, had pushed Gabriella's lunch of questionable Friday surprise into her chest. She couldn't help feeling angry that her first ever display of school spirit was now stained with a questionable sauce.

She dropped the tray and plate to the floor and tried to scrape as much food from her shirt as possible. "What the hell?"

"You kissed my boyfriend," Katherine yelled, causing silence to fall throughout the entire cafeteria.

Gabriella shrugged. "It was a drama project."

"You still kissed him," Katherine hissed.

"So you'd rather your boyfriend fail than him kiss another girl?" Gabriella exclaimed, throwing a handful of Friday surprise onto Katherine's cheerleading uniform.

"This is designer," Katherine yelled.

"It's a cheerleader uniform," Gabriella explained slowly.

"That I had designed by-"

"Katherine? Gabriella? What's going on?" Troy asked slowly as he approached, carrying his usual brown paper bag and carton of milk.

"She threw my lunch at me," Gabriella exclaimed.

"She kissed you," Katherine yelled.

"For a project," Gabriella retorted just as loudly.

Katherine paused, evidently realising she had no other argument, so she repeated herself, "She kissed you."

"You do know that I want to pursue a career in the theatre, right? I will be kissing other girls. Not because I love them but because I'm working with them," Troy explained.

"You can't!"

"You're going to forbid me from going into the theatre because I'll kiss other girls? Oh, we're so over," Troy said with a sarcastic laugh.

Katherine's face fell. "What?"

"You try to dictate what I can do with my life and you throw food at someone? Please."

"All you've done is complain about her all week."

"That doesn't mean I'd throw food at her," Troy exclaimed. "Now if you'll excuse us, I'm going to clean up your mess."

Without another word, Troy strode towards the exit. Gabriella paused, unsure if she was supposed to follow. But then Troy called her and she felt a sense of pride that Troy had chosen her over Katherine. She couldn't help but smirk when she saw two other cheerleaders wiping down Katherine's uniform.

Gabriella hurried after Troy as best she could in her heels towards the boys' locker room. "Wait, what are we doing here?"

He shrugged. "It's empty. I thought you could use a towel and have a different shirt. My dad keeps some spares for tryouts. Unless, of course, you'd rather fall asleep and turn up late to your next class?"

"Fine," she whispered, grateful that he was actually talking to her. She followed him into the locker room and stood awkwardly as he disappeared into the back office. She looked around at the lockers and school spirit banners, recognising the scent of sweat mixed with disinfectant. It had been a while since she'd smelt the signature fragrance of a locker room and she welcomed it. She even missed it.

"I mean, this is just the best day of my life," Troy continued to rant. "I'll skip over the project controversy because it ended well and I think I've covered it sufficiently. But now I've lost my girlfriend."

Feeling her blood pressure rising at the sound of Troy's persistent angry rant, Gabriella blurted, "Like you're disappointed."

Troy threw a towel in her direction. "And what does that mean?"

She began wiping down her shirt and dabbing at the skirt that her brother's girlfriend would definitely have to throw out. "You can't tell me that you seriously had feelings for her? She's a complete bitch."

He left again while ranting, "Well, you wouldn't understand because you're clearly incapable of social interaction, much less know anything about a romantic relationship."

As he came back with a clean t-shirt in hand, Gabriella peeled her stained tank top from her body and screwed it into a ball to dry the residual sauce that clung to her skin.

"Besides, what I feel for- Oh my god, you're shirtless," he exclaimed. He knew he should look away to save her dignity but he couldn't. An inner voice told him that if she was worried about dignity, she wouldn't have taken her shirt off in front of him in the boys' locker room. But the real reason he kept looking was that she was so goddamn beautiful. Her skin was exotically tanned, contrasting with her white bra and skirt. All he could do was stare and stare. And stare.

"Oh, did my shirt turn invisible again? I've been meaning to get that fixed," she said sarcastically, throwing her tank top at him.

Snapping out of his daze, he caught the screwed up material. "Why are you mad at me?"

"Let's see: you've been a pain in my ass since my first day. I apologised for being late but you won't listen to me and now look. This is all your precious girlfriend's fault," she yelled at him.

Troy marched closer and towered over her. "Who I broke up with because she threw food at you."

"Don't do me any favours."

Without saying another word, he gripped her hips and crashed his lips onto hers, causing her to stumble backwards into the row of lockers. She kissed back just as hard, of course, as she wound her fingers into his hair. Their bodies were flush against each other and the heat between them was excruciating. He couldn't help but rub his hands up and down her back, feeling her hot skin beneath his fingertips.

He couldn't breathe. He knew he needed to pull away for breath for one thing, and because he wasn't into her at all. Right? He had no reason to kiss her besides the fact that he enjoyed kissing her.

Still, he kept his mouth pressed against hers. He wanted to know why she wasn't pushing him away, slapping him, and marching straight to the principal's office to report him. But he didn't really care because she was kissing him and it was one of the most wonderful experiences of his life.

He wondered if he should use his tongue or if that was pushing it too far. Thankfully, the choice was taken out of his hands when her tongue met his own in a rush of heat.

After a few more moments, Troy pushed himself away from her and stumbled back, leaving them both breathless. He knew Gabriella was staring at him, probably waiting for him to ask her out, but he couldn't even look her in the eye. Instead, he picked up the shirt he'd fetched from his father's office and awkwardly handed it to her.

"There's the shirt. Sorry, it'll be a bit big. I'm sorry, I've got to be...anyplace else. Bye Gabriella," he mumbled before he rushed out of the locker room, leaving Gabriella shirtless and all alone.