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

A/N: Here is the next chapter of 'Dangerous Fascination'. Forgive me if I don't update this and 'Cat and Mouse' as often as I should but I do have priorities other than writing. Such as assessments, hockey training, hockey games and helping around the house. It sucks, but that keeps me from my computer more often than not. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Dangerous Fascination

CHAPTER 3

DANGEROUS

She was confident. That was something he hadn't expected out of her. The shyness and insecurity he'd expected. But the confidence, that had made their conversation all the more interesting. Confidence was, Troy thought, something that some of the students at the school lacked. Especially when speaking to someone they were either afraid of or didn't know too well. She wasn't afraid of him, she just didn't know him and her type never had any confidence when speaking to someone they didn't know. Or that's what he'd thought until their conversation. But her words had that underlying confidence that he hadn't been confronted with in quiet a while and the fact that the new girl had been the one that had shown it was almost interesting. He's always taken a passing interest in new students, whether male or female. The reason was always the same; he wanted to know exactly where they were going to fit into the school and how much trouble they were going to cause him. But that passing interest would only last around two days and he would have them assessed and have a good idea of their character. It had been nearly four and he was no closer to assessing Gabriella Montez's personality or being able to place her in the category that he had wanted to in the first place and he was beginning to get annoyed. And he didn't like being annoyed.

"Yo Troy!" He ignored the yell as he opened his locker. Throwing his bag into the locker, his eyes flicked when someone banged into the locker next to his, breathing heavily.

"Dude, what is up with you? You look…annoyed and I mean you actually look annoyed." Chad asked breathlessly and his friend's eyes flicked towards him as he turned his phone off and threw it carelessly into the locker.

"What do you know about Gabriella Montez?" Troy asked, ignoring a group of cheerleaders who waved at both him and Chad and watching as his friends face screwed up in concentration and received the confirmation he needed that Gabriella Montez had not been noticed by many people.

"Who's Gabriella Montez? Not that really smart chick that's started hanging out with McKessie?" Chad asked and Troy's eyes flickered with amusement at his friends words. Of course she'd take refuge with the smart group; it made sense especially with all the AP classes he knew she took.

"Maybe," Troy replied and Chad examined his friend. They'd been friends since kindergarten and Chad was possibly the only person in the school that knew exactly who Troy Bolton was and why he was the way he was. Chad was the only person in the entire school who wasn't afraid of Troy or his moods and didn't care what his friend did because he always knew what was going on behind the cool amusement in Troy's eyes.

"Maybe what?" A new voice spoke up and Troy's eyes flicked over to Zeke as he shut his locker door. He didn't bother to reply because he knew Chad would jump at the chance to tell Zeke he'd asked about a girl.

"Troy wants to know about Gabriella Montez." Chad replied and Zeke raised his eyebrows at his blue-eyed friend who didn't move and didn't bother to take his eyes of the crowd of students that were walking down the hallway.

"Gabriella Montez? She's the new girl," Zeke paused for a moment as he tried to remember her and then grinned. "The new, hot girl. That girl could get away wearing anything." He said and Troy's eyes flicked to him before returning to the person walking down the hallways.

"If she could get away with wearing anything, inform me why her skirt's never above her knees and every shirt she's worn she's worn something over it." Troy said, nodding towards her and both Chad and Zeke turned their attention to the girl walking towards them. Troy kept his eyes on her as she drew closer and knew that she was aware he was standing there. As she drew closer, her eyes flicked towards him and met his. Troy didn't react as he held her gaze, something in her eyes flickered as she bit her lip and tore her eyes away from his and Troy had a feeling that something was fear. He almost smirked as his eyes followed her up the hallway until she was swallowed by students and then he turned his attention back to his friends.

"So, that's Gabriella Montez, if she didn't hang around McKessie there's a possibility I'd go for her," Chad commented and Troy's eyes flicked towards him.

"That's only because you've been after Taylor McKessie since sophomore year when she poured milk all over you and are still trying to figure out how she didn't fold under your 'charm'." Troy said dryly and Zeke snorted as Chad glared at Troy, the memory of milk dripping from his hair still vivid and painfully embarrassing.

"Shut up Troy." Chad growled and Troy shrugged as the bell rang. All three of them looked at each other and Troy rolled his eyes.

"Who wants to face Darbus first?" He asked and Zeke shrugged.

"Who cares? She'd just going to go after you." He pointed out and Troy grinned at the words.

"She does make a habit of that doesn't she?" He commented as they began to walk to homeroom.

"That's because she hates you dude. She's hated you since you arrived in homeroom on the first day," Chad said as they approached the door. Troy walked into the room casually and the chatter of the students stopped as Miss Darbus turned to face them.

"Boys, please take a seat." She sighed when she saw them.

"What's that? No detention threat?" Troy asked and watched as she rolled her eyes. Zeke and Chad quietly moved to their seats as Troy looked at their teacher who had chosen to not reply to his question. Smirking, he slid into his seat and tuned out as soon she started reading the notices. Glancing around the room, his eyes made contact with a brunette sitting a few seats away from him. She glanced up and their eyes met briefly, before she turned her attention away from him and towards Miss Darbus, Troy's smirk widened. Maybe he should try and speak to her again.

HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM

Gabriella carefully shut her locker door as students rushed past her, all in a hurry to get to the cafeteria for lunch and all chattering madly about their classes and how they had been going so far. Sighing, she watched as two girls walked past her giggling, it made her wonder where Taylor was. The two girls had become fast friends as soon as Taylor had been assigned her Lab partner and Gabriella still wasn't sure how they had become so close over such a shot period of time. Realizing she wasn't hungry, Gabriella reopened her locker and pulled out the novel that she had begun reading the night before as soon as she'd re-shut her locker door, the book was yanked out of her hands and she looked up to find herself surrounded by three boys. Feeling her stomach turn, Gabriella swallowed slightly and waited for them to speak.

"Hmmm, you're the new girl right?" One of them asked and she nodded, wrapping her arms around herself as he tossed her book from side to side.

"Wait I heard something about you, what was it? Oh yeah, you're the new brainiac." Another said and Gabriella's arms tensed slightly at his words.

"Can I have my book back?" She asked softly and one of them snorted. Gabriella's breathing quickened in fright when she felt one close in on her. 'Not here, please God not again' She begged silently as she backed up against her locker.

"Aww, look, I think she's afraid of us. Are we scaring you geek?" The one holding her book took a step towards her and Gabriella bit her lip as tears filled her eyes. She felt one brush against her side and tried to make herself as small as possible.

"Smith, Lions, Hall, aren't you all a bit to dumb to try this again?" A cool voice asked and all three of them tensed at the voice. "Are you going to answer me?" The voice took on an edge when it got no reply and Gabriella let out a shaky breath when they stepped away from her.

Troy glared coolly at the three boys who turned to look at him; he could just see Gabriella leaning against the lockers, shaking slightly. Turning his attention back to the three, Troy focused on the middle one and watched as he dropped the book he was holding.

"Bolton, didn't know you were into defending geeks." He spat and Troy didn't move at the menace in his voice. Instead, Troy smirked at him and ignored the way one of them cracked his knuckles.

"Smith, don't you remember what happened last time?" Troy replied his features hard, his eyes like ice as he stared at the burly boy in front of him.

"No I don't, its three against one Bolton, you'll lose," Smith shot at him and Troy let out a dangerous laugh that had Gabriella cringing. She'd never heard a laugh like that before, standing up straighter she caught sight of Troy and managed to stop herself from gasping out loud. He looked so casual, so careless, the only thing that gave him away was his eyes she'd never seen eyes so cold and she'd never seen someone set there jaw in such a dangerous way.

"No, I won't. You'll lose." Troy said softly, the look in his eye confirming his words. Gabriella slid back against the locker, wondering what was currently terrifying her more, Troy or the fact that she was still surrounded by three boys who towered above her.

"As if," Smith snorted and than let out a strangled sort of noise when Troy, in two swift movements had him pinned to the lockers next to Gabriella. She let out a strangled scream and backed away from him, her face white, and her eyes wide. The two boys who had been standing either side of her tore down the hallway as Troy smirked at the boy he had pinned to the lockers. His smirk was more dangerous than any other expression he could have had.

"One on one Smith," Troy spoke softly and Smith squirmed. "If I catch you doing something like this again, you won't be able to walk out of this school again. Am I clear?" Troy continued and he barely managed to nod. Troy dropped him to the floor and watched with disdain as he scrambled off the floor and down the hallway.

"Y-you…w-why did you do that?" She asked her voice barely above a whisper and lost her voice immediately after when he turned back to her and his expression was one of mild disinterest.

"Do what?" Troy asked and watched as she bent down to retrieve her book, apparently struggling with her reply to his question.

"Don't worry about it, shouldn't you be at lunch?" Gabriella asked and Troy shrugged as he watched her lock away what had just happened.

"Not hungry. Did I scare you Gabriella?" He asked. Her eyes snapped to his at the nonchalant question and Troy controlled the smirk he knew was coming when he met her eyes.

"Yes you did. But you already knew that," She replied and Troy's eyebrows lifted in surprise at her words. So she did remember their conversation a few days ago.

Gabriella saw his eyebrows lift and bit her lip. God, she already felt off-balance. She didn't like the way he could read her and she really didn't like the way he hadn't answered her question before.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Tell me Gabriella, has Taylor told you anything about me?" The question was so casual that she jolted and took in a quick breath. How could he have possibly known that Taylor had mentioned him? The look in his eyes told her he knew the answer before it left her mouth.

"Yes. Are you always so dangerous Troy?" She replied and the smirk he'd controlled spread at his name flowing out of her lips.

"I'm not sure. I guess that's something you're going to have to find out for yourself. I'll see you around Gabriella." He walked away with those words; no closer to figuring her out and feeling like there might be something more to the brunette standing motionless and dumbfounded as he walked away from her.

Gabriella stared at his retreating figure. Shaking her head, she looked down at her book and tried to figure out what had just happened. Turning her attention back to Troy's retreating figure, Gabriella had a feeling that he knew exactly how dangerous he was whether it was against an enemy or a girl cornered in a hallway.

A/N: So this story's sort of an experiment for me. It's very hard to write Troy one way and Gabriella a different way when my brains telling me to keep them evenly matched. I'm not entirely used to writing Troy as a very dominant, very dangerous character and Gabriella simply as herself. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed!