DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters.

A/N: Okay, so I'm going to be doing another story in addition to this one. Its actually going to be a continuation of my one-shot, 'Who Would've Thought?' except I'm changing the name to 'Cat and Mouse' and the beginning of it is the one-shot 'Who Would've Thought?', so that should be up in a little while along with the second chapter. I know Troy's meant to be a bad boy in that one, but I'm going to make him different from this one, e.g. he'll have less control of his emotions, a little cockier and possibly have problems with his father. Which the Troy in this doesn't have. Look out for it!

Dangerous Fascination

CHAPTER 2

UNNERVED

The day hadn't gone well. The day wasn't ever going to go well though, Gabriella thought as she stared out the window of her AP Chemistry class. None of her first days every did and today had to be up there as one of the worst, including the time she spent an entire day in the wrong classes and ultimately the day in the wrong grade. It had all gone downhill as soon as she'd arrived at her new homeroom and interrupted an argument, which she had learned later on was a daily occurrence, between her homeroom teacher and one of the boys in her grade. An interruption she'd regretted when the boy had turned around and examined her, she'd known it was an examination because of the cool calculation in his eyes as they'd swept over her and she knew that he hadn't thought much of her as she'd lowered her head and tried to move past him and that's when her entire day had gone downhill. Just by his small, deliberate movement. She didn't even know who he was and yet he had managed to destroy any chance she had of getting through her first day at East High and her ultimate plan of getting through her senior year without any outrageous amounts of attention, which in Gabriella's case meant getting through the entire year without any attention. This had been blown out of the water when she'd fallen in front of her homeroom class and had spent the rest of the day being pointed at by numerous people. Which at one point had nearly reduced her to tears, being pointed and giggled at on her first day wasn't something she liked or was used to.

Hearing the bell ring, Gabriella jumped and snapped out of her recollection of the day. Sighing, she began to close her books and stack them in order of size as the rest of her Chemistry class filed out the door and joined the thundering students heading for the front doors of East High. They all seemed to be so eager to leave the constricting halls of the school whereas right now, leaving the school was the last thing that she wanted to do. It wasn't that she didn't want to go home; she just didn't want to go home to an empty house or a bright, happy mother. Sighing, Gabriella picked up her books, smiled politely at her teacher who was scribbling something in her book and slipped out the door and into the now creepily ghostlike hallway. Looking around in disbelief, Gabriella couldn't believe that the students of East High could clear out of school that quickly. It was, almost, like they were heading out for summer break again and nothing could stop them. Shaking her head, Gabriella clutched her books to her chest and began to walk towards the area she knew was vaguely near her locker. As she walked, Gabriella found herself relaxing. She wasn't sure why, but she knew that the overall atmosphere of the school was wonderfully warm and welcoming and although the students in her homeroom had laughed, some of the others had been nice and the teachers had been a great help. It was, all in all, a school that she wouldn't mind spending her final year of high school at. A school that had, possibly, no real bad points.

Reaching her locker with a softly exhaled breath upon having found it, Gabriella pulled it open and carefully selected the books she would need for that night. Already knowing that most of her homework would be completed in the few hours she had before her mother got home from her work. As she placed them into her bag, Gabriella had to admit that the deserted hallway of East High was slightly creepy, and with that thought in mind, she quickly stuffed her phone and into her bag and held her car keys tightly in her hand as she began to navigate her way through East High's hallways to the front doors and ultimately the car park.

"Great." Gabriella found herself muttering as she realized she'd gotten herself lost in the school, after school, so the odds of running into someone and them being able to help her were extremely unlikely. Sighing, she tightened her grip on the strap of her bag and kept walking. Hoping that she might come across something that seemed slightly familiar to her if she kept going.

As she walked, Gabriella wondered what time her mother would get home and then sighed again. She never knew when her mother was getting home and she never knew if she was coming home. At all their old homes, Gabriella had spent a considerable amount of time alone, her mother working as hard as she could to provide a wonderful life for both her daughter and herself and while Gabriella appreciated what her mother was trying to do, the life she was making, she always craved extra company. The fact that they moved around a lot caused Gabriella to never have a pet and she had always dearly wanted a puppy. Turning a corner, Gabriella jumped a mile and stifled a scream when a loud bang echoed from the building next to her.

Standing with her hand over her heart, her pulse beating a mile a minute, Gabriella looked at the building next to her curiously. Glancing at it, she made an educated guess that it was the gym and wondered what on earth could have caused a noise like that from the building. Especially since the school seemed completely and utterly deserted. Licking her slightly dry lips, Gabriella tentatively approached the doors that lead into the gym and leaned her weight on them. The door swung open silently and Gabriella slipped inside and let the door go, looking around the gym curiously in search of the noise.

"The noise was the basketball hitting the wooden bleachers." A dry voice commented, causing her to jump again and bite back another scream. Spinning around, Gabriella found herself face to face with the boy that had knocked her over that morning.

"Oh. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt anything." Gabriella said quietly, avoiding looking him in the eye. Troy raised his eyebrows as she studied the ground, this was a new one. Girls either threw themselves at him, something he had begun to find increasingly annoying, or avoided him like the plague. There usually wasn't any in between, so having one standing in front of him and avoiding looking at him was quite interesting.

"You didn't. You're the new girl." It wasn't a question but a detached statement, which had her eyes snapping to meet his. For a moment Gabriella was startled by the brilliant blue of them, she'd never seen eyes that color before and then she snapped back to her senses.

"Yes and you're the guy that tripped me over this morning during homeroom," That caught Troy's attention. The comment was said nearly as matter-of-factly as he'd said she was the new girl, but much quieter and she looked, and sounded, less than sure of her actions as he looked at her.

"So you remember me? How interesting." Troy said, spinning the basketball on his finger and continuing to examine her. Maybe she didn't belong in the nerd's category after all, maybe there was more to her than met the eye.

"How could I not? You managed to humiliate me in front of everyone." Gabriella said, folding her arms and he smirked as he realized that he'd judged her correctly when he'd come to the conclusion she was shy and at least a little insecure.

"Sure, tell me AP Chemistry, how was your first day at East High?" The question caught her off guard, almost as much as the fact that he'd moved closer to her did. Looking up at him, Gabriella only saw cool detachment and a hint of amusement in his expression and in his eyes. They unnerved her; she'd never met someone who could look like that before.

"Um, it was alright. Why do you want to know?" It was genuine curiosity that had her speaking. She didn't think that he was the type of guy who was very interested in what happened to new students or anyone, for that matter. It was the way he seemed to have schooled himself to remoteness that had her concluding that. Troy's eyes flicked over her and he shrugged.

"Well, I figured I might have set the tone for your day. Just wanted to know how it was." He said with a smirk and Gabriella swallowed as she realized that he had known exactly what he had been doing when he'd knocked her over that morning.

"Shouldn't you know?" Gabriella asked quietly and Troy shrugged, barely moving his shoulders and finding it amusing that she was trying to cover being at least a little intimidated by him.

"Maybe. Are you always this nervous when you're talking to someone?" He replied and Gabriella stepped away from him, feeling suddenly nervous about the fact that she was standing alone with a boy she didn't know and he knew exactly how nervous she was currently feeling.

"How do you know I'm nervous?" She replied, folding her arms tighter across her chest and looking him dead in the eye. Troy's smirk changed to a grin and his eyes flicked over her.

"You just became defensive, you've been avoiding looking me in the eye and your body language suggests you're uncomfortable. The folded arms give it away." He replied in bland amusement and Gabriella stared at him in disbelief as her stomach churned.

"Do you always read people so well?" She inquired and Troy shrugged, starting to grow bored with the conversation now that she hadn't come up with anything interesting after his comment.

"One of my many talents," Was his reply and moved away from her. Gabriella watched as he shot the basketball into the hoop and caught it. He repositioned himself to take another shot when she shook her head.

"Wait, so you read people that well, to what unbalance them? Annoy them? Bully them? You seem to have the right attitude for that." Gabriella said the last part bitterly and Troy froze mid shot and dropped the ball, turning to look at her, his eyes were cold and Gabriella knew she had said the wrong thing as soon as he'd dropped the basketball.

"What? I don't bully people." He snapped at her, struggling to control his temper that she had provoked with only a few words and feeling amazement that she had provoked something that was always, always, under his control.

"Could have fooled me. I mean what you did to me this morning; wouldn't that suggest you like hurting people for no reason?" Gabriella asked struggling to keep her voice steady as his eyes bore down on her, the blue of them close to ice.

"I don't do anything without a reason." Troy shot at her and knew he had her feeling frightened as her eyes dropped to her feet.

"You're talking to me without a reason." Gabriella pointed out quietly and Troy stopped short when he realized she was right. He was talking to her without a reason, generally, when people interrupted his alone time in the gym, they either ran in the opposite direction or he ignored them. He didn't talk to them or even acknowledge them and they definitely didn't hang around to hear what he had to say.

"You go through those doors," Troy gestured with his hand and Gabriella looked at them, confused. "Turn right and you'll be in the car park. I'll talk to you later Gabriella." Gabriella's mouth dropped open when he said her name and she turned to watch him exit the gym, smirking at her reaction to her name being spoken.

Gabriella jumped when the doors he had walked through banged shut and she was left alone in the gym, feeling very much like he had pulled the floor out from underneath her feet. He had actually known her name. Normally it took people forever to call her by the right name, the closest she'd ever come to her name being said on her first day was 'Gabrielle' and that had been today. Still feeling unnerved, Gabriella decided to follow his instructions and quickly walked out of the gym, turning right, she sighed in complete relief when her car came into view. Quickly walking up to it, Gabriella unlocked it and slid in. Throwing her bag on the passenger's seat, she leant her forehead against the steering wheel, still wondering about what had happened only moments before. Closing her eyes, Gabriella strained to remember his name. Baker? No, it couldn't be that, she'd heard it in homeroom, Miss Darby, or whatever her name was, had said it and then called it out as she'd taken the roll. Bolton, Gabriella's eyes shot open as the name flowed through her head. Troy Bolton, his name was Troy Bolton and he had something to do with basketball. Frowning, because she couldn't remember anything else about him, Gabriella started her car and put on her seatbelt. That conversation had unnerved her; really unnerved her and she had no idea why.

A/N: Personally I thought that chapter sucked, I really did. But the first two chapters were really to introduce Troy and Gabriella's personalities and the conversation was just the tip of the iceberg with these two. Oh well, as long as everyone else liked it! I hope you guys are happy!