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

A/N: Okay, so a lot of you are intrigued by Troy's character in this and I have to say that it's quite interesting to read that you're all reviews about how Troy's can be slightly confusing. Just to let you all know; Troy will probably be very confusing for a little while. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Dangerous Fascination

CHAPTER 4

BULLIED

Gabriella walked into the Science Laboratory and was instantly at home. It felt so nice to be in a place where she could fully relax and not have to worry about the outside world and anyone in the outside world. It was the one place she felt completely comfortable in, the one place she truly felt like she didn't have to worry about other people. She just had a feeling that the one person, who she was trying to escape from, knew exactly where to find her and that made her edgy because she didn't want him to find her. It had only been a few hours since he had showed her exactly why Taylor had told her to stay away from him and Gabriella still felt shaken by what she had witnessed. She had never seen anybody who could be so dangerous and so in control at the same time. In fact, she had never seen anybody who could go from amused, to dangerous, to disinterested as fast as he could and did. She'd never thought anybody could have that amount of control on their emotions and he did. She'd known from only looking at him when Smith had torn down the hallway that the entire time he'd been in perfect control and she'd known then as well, just by looking at him that the control wasn't a façade that hid turbulent emotion, or a weakness in character. The control was there because it seemed to be part of his personality and, Gabriella had a fair idea about this, the control was something that he knew how to use to his own advantage.

"Are you going to move or am I going to have to get pliers?" Gabriella jumped at the sound of Taylor McKessie's voice and spun around to see her friend examining her with the same cynical expression she examined everyone with. Only this time Gabriella was able to see the warmth in the expression and smiled at her.

"Sorry," she said and moved into the room, placing her books on a desk, Gabriella turned to Taylor who was looking at her strangely.

"You know Gabriella; I've only known you for, what? Four, five days? But I can already tell when something's up with you and, my friend, the way you were just standing there, chewing your lip, epitomized something's up. So spill." Gabriella blinked a little at Taylor's businesslike tone and then sighed, already knowing that Taylor would only ask about it until she'd told her. Looking away from her for a moment, Gabriella took a deep breath not exactly sure how to tell her friend about what had transpired during their lunch period.

"Tay, who are Smith, Lions and Hall?" She asked and Taylor frowned, knowing the names and wondering exactly where this was going.

"James Smith, Tim Lions and Sam Hall. They're all footballers; Smith's the captain for memory." She replied and Gabriella sat down, now understanding why they were so big. Looking at Taylor again, she gave her a small smile.

"They cornered me today at Lunch, I was getting a book from my locker and they just surrounded me." She said and Taylor's face was immediately taken over by worry. Moving closer to her friend, Taylor looked at her sympathetically.

"What did they do?" She asked softly and Gabriella looked at her, confused.

"What? Nothing, they couldn't do anything. Troy showed up before they could even get started," Gabriella said and Taylor stared at her friend in disbelief as Gabriella hurried on before Taylor could interrupt her. "Yes Troy, Taylor, he just appeared while I was surrounded. I don't think I've seen anyone who had that amount of control." Gabriella said and Taylor kept herself from snorting.

"Not control, Gabriella, danger." She corrected and Gabriella shook her head.

"Taylor, just trust me on this okay? Whatever he was doing there and how he knew what was going on is beyond me. But," Gabriella shivered slightly as she remembered the smirk on his face when he'd had Smith pinned to the lockers. "Taylor, even when he was facing all three of them he never lost control of what he was doing. I know you said he was dangerous and I'm well aware of how dangerous he is now, but Taylor no one is allowed to have that amount of control when it's three on one and he did. Taylor, he stopped them doing anything and was in perfect control the whole time. Watching him, he went from amused, to dangerous, to disinterested in a matter of minutes." Gabriella said and this time Taylor really did snort.

"Gabriella, that's not control. That's just Troy. That boy has three emotions and you saw all three of them when he was playing knight-in-shining-armour and saving you from the football dunderheads." Taylor said with a definite bite to her tone and Gabriella sighed.

"Taylor, what do you actually know about Troy Bolton?" She asked curiously, wanting to know if Taylor could tell her something about Troy that she hadn't already figured out herself.

"Besides the fact that he's an arrogant jerk who rules this school and anyone who gets in his way comes out looking like they've just been to hell and back? Nothing and I don't intend to find out anything either. The so called 'mystery' of Troy Bolton is better left alone." Those words sparked Gabriella's curiosity. Looking at Taylor with raised eyebrows, Gabriella wondered if she should ask her friend to elaborate.

"What do you mean by the 'mystery' of Troy Bolton?" She asked and Taylor shrugged.

"Well, nobody actually knows Troy, apart from Danforth and he's the resident idiot," Taylor said with a dismissive wave of her hand and Gabriella smiled.

"Chad Danforth? Isn't he the guy that you poured milk all over?" Gabriella, recalling the comment she'd made when she was pointing out people to know, and Taylor grinned.

"Uh-huh. He was asking for it, anyway," Taylor looked at Gabriella imploringly and Gabriella stared back. "Gabriella, can I trust you to not get involved with Troy Bolton? He's not a nice guy, he'll hurt you and he won't care because he will have gotten what he wanted. I'm telling you this because it sounds like Troy's taken an interest in you and that worries me. Because once Troy takes an interest in someone, he doesn't stop till he's gotten what he wanted. I don't want you to get caught in his web; can you promise me that you won't get involved with him?" Taylor asked and, although Gabriella found it strange that Taylor was doing this, nodded her head.

"Of course Taylor." She nodded and Taylor's face broken into a smile of relief, before she glanced at the clock.

"Good. Listen, I have to go, so I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." With that, Taylor was out of the room. Leaving Gabriella alone with her thoughts. Sighing, she sat down and pulled her books towards her. Her aim to do at least some of her homework, even though they'd only gained permission to be in the Lab so Taylor could take her through some of the more complex experiments that she had to know for the Scholastic Decathlon team.

Staring at the words, Gabriella found them going fuzzy as she thought about what Taylor had said. She didn't know Troy at all and already she was being warned away from him. In all her other schools, Gabriella was pretty sure no-one had warned her off anyone. The jocks she generally steered clear of because they were simply bullies. Bullies, who she remembered quite clearly, liked to torment her. But Troy wasn't a bully; she'd gotten too much of a reaction when she'd called him one for her to not believe him when he saw he wasn't one. But still, if he wasn't a bully, then what, exactly, was he? She'd never known anyone could have such an impact on the students, she'd been at East High for nearly a week and she'd only just realized that Troy had more control over the students than anyone at her old schools. If Taylor knew about him and despised him, it meant that he was revered by the students and if he could scare away three huge footballers the way he had at lunch, then it meant he was feared as well. Feared and respected, an interesting mix. Something that someone might say about a God, almost, Gabriella thought.

"You know, I'm pretty sure the words are on the page and not the desk." His amused voice broke through her thoughts and Gabriella jumped and turned towards him. Not at all surprised that he'd known where she was, but surprised that he'd actually made the effort to come.

"I-I, uh, I know." She said, shaking her head and avoiding his blue eyes. Troy looked at her in amusement, already having a fair idea as to why she was avoiding his gaze.

"McKessie already warned you off me, didn't she?" He asked and Gabriella's eyes snapped to his, shock evident as she stared at him.

"How do you know that?" Gabriella asked and Troy settled himself on the chair next to her and shrugged carelessly.

"Taylor McKessie has every student in this school in three categories. One is the people she needs to know, two is the people she doesn't need to know but does anyway, and three is the people she dislikes with a slightly bitter edge. I'm in that third category and she takes great satisfaction in warning new students off the people in my category." Troy replied and Gabriella stared at him. Trying to wrap her head around what he had just said.

"How do you know that?" Gabriella asked and Troy raised his eyebrows at her.

"Because I do it too. Only, I actually bother to get to know the person and then put them in their category and I have too many categories to tell you about," Troy replied and Gabriella turned her eyes away from him and back down at the textbook in front of her. Silence surrounded them for a moment before Gabriella spoke.

"What category am I in?" She asked quietly and Troy looked at her, a smirk spreading across his face as he looked at her.

"I'd tell you, but that would take the fun out of our conversations," Troy said and Gabriella looked at him again. "You've been bullied before, haven't you?" The question threw her off and Gabriella blinked.

"What?" She asked and Troy shrugged.

"You've been bullied before," he said and watched as a wall went up. How interesting, he thought as he watched her struggle with the comment, knowing that he had hit dead on as she faced him again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gabriella told him and Troy raised his eyebrows. Leaning forward, he came within inches of her face and stared her dead in the eye.

"Yes you do. I watched you today with Smith, Lions and Hall. You looked to used to trying to make yourself as small as possible and the tears in your eyes gave it away." Troy said with a hint of a smirk and Gabriella told herself to move away from him, instead of moving she took in a shaky breath.

"You were watching me the whole time," she whispered and Troy nodded slowly.

"Yes." He said and felt satisfaction course through him when he saw the flash of anger pass through her eyes.

"You jerk. Why didn't you do anything before?" Gabriella snapped and Troy shrugged.

"Because I know how those three work, they'd taunt you for a little bit and then move on." He replied and Gabriella stared at him.

"So why did you interfere?" She asked and Troy pulled away from her, Gabriella saw the thoughtfulness in his eyes and found that the softness of it made his eyes so much lighter. The discovery stunned her and Gabriella shook her head slightly, before looking away from him.

"I'm not one to sit around and watch Smith bully someone else. That boy never learns." The disgust in Troy's voice caused Gabriella to look back at him and she sighed.

"I've had worse," she said softly and Troy looked at her, this conversation wasn't making much sense to him and her confession didn't ease the confusion. "I think the worst would have had to be when I was living in New York. I was like a play toy to them, the teachers caught them one day and the main three, all from the football team, got punished. As soon as they'd served out their punishment, they got it into their heads that the teachers' catching them was an elaborate scheme that I had concocted. I came home the next day with a black eye and two broken ribs. They were expelled and we moved straight after that. Bullies never learn." She wasn't looking at him directly. Instead, Gabriella had found a spot just behind him that deserved her attention and stared at it as she spoke, unable to believe she had told him that.

"That's why you flinched," Troy said as he recalled the way one of them had brushed against her and she had shrunk away from him.

"I guess that answers your comment about me being bullied, doesn't it?" Gabriella asked dryly and Troy shrugged.

"Yes and no," Troy glanced at her and Gabriella looked at him. "I'd better get going, I'll talk to you later Gabriella." He left the room before Gabriella could get a word out, leaving her sitting in the Lab feeling more and more confused about Troy Bolton, his interest in her and the conversations they had. She didn't understand how her being bullied in the past, had anything to do with her now and she couldn't believe that she had told him what had happened in New York without feeling embarrassed or ashamed about what had happened. The only thing she was certain of was the fact that at this school being bullied was the least of her concern.

A/N: Yay, another chapter done! As I said before, I'm going to try and update 'Cat and Mouse' within a day of each other, so hopefully chapter 4 of 'Cat and Mouse' will be up soon! I know that was probably confusing, but it'll tie in with the story. Trust me!