Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while. I had a hard time figuring out how another chapter of my other story should go, but that shouldn't be an excuse. You are allowed to hate me if you do.

About this chapter: Chad hurts Taylor, emotionally, telling her that he didn't want anything to do with her when in fact that was the farest thing from the truth. Plus, officially find out how Taylor recieves her punishments.

Quickie recap!
Chad watched as she wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. But he couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for all of this. He didn't mean to burst out like that and he didn't mean to hurt Taylor...why? He would never know, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Chad, what have you gotten yourself into?"

CHAPTER EIGHT

Chad wondered into the library, hoping to find Taylor in there. No luck. He didn't know where else to look. He took a seat by the window, letting out a sigh and burying his head in his hands. He looked up in time to see Gabriella by the reception desk, checking out a large book, something that looked like he couldn't even pick up nonetheless read it. Getting up, he rushed over to her, hoping to find a solution to the dilemma he was currently in.

"Gabriella!"

Ms. Fallstaff hushed Chad as Gabriella turned around, holding the book close to her chest.

"Chad? What are you doing in here?" Gabriella cocked her head in confusion.

"Don't ask. I've just gotta talk to you...now. And not in here." Chad pushed Gabriella gently out of the library into the hallway. "Not here either. I don't want people to see." Taking her hand, he guided her outside to the metal bleachers by the football field.

"Chad!" Gabriella pulled her hand away, "What are you doing taking me to a place like this? I already have a boyfriend you know. He's your best friend, Troy!"

"This isn't about that, Gabriella. And I know that you're Troy's girlfriend. Why would I be interested in you?"

"I don't know. And if it isn't for that, then why did you drag me out here?"

"I need help."

"That really narrows things down." Gabriella leaned on the metal fence next to her.

"Okay, listen. You saw how Taylor left Health class early today, right?" Gabriella nodded. "Well, that was my fault," Chad stated, looking down at his feet.

Gabriella slapped his arm. "What?! What did you do to my best friend?"

"Oww...who knew that you could hit pretty hard?" Chad rubbed his arm. "What I did is not the problem... the problem is how do I apologize to her."

"Developing a soft side for my friend, are you now?" Gabriella smirked.

"No...it's just that I feel guilty for making her cry."

"You made her cry too?!" Gabriella punched his arm this time. "How could you?"

"Stop hitting me! It hurts!" Chad rubbed his arm again, wondering how Gabriella learned to punch.

"Well, you hurt my friend. Now you are getting payment."

"Just stop and listen to me for a bit. The only reason I told Taylor off was because I was tired of how my life has changed. I wanted things to return to normal...before this whole project. I thought that if I got rid of the kid, my life would return to normal."

Gabriella punched him again.

"Owww...what did I do this time?"

"You told Taylor off for a stupid reason...plus it was getting fun." Gabriella giggled to herself.

"Okay, I think I'm getting the picture." Chad rubbed his upper arm. "Just help me gain her friendship back...and stop punching me. It really hurts."

"Alright. I'll help you win Taylor back...whether or not you deserve it. And for the second one..." she punched him once more, "Now I'll stop. I just had to get the last one out of my system."

Chad stepped away from her for just to make sure that she wouldn't. "Where did you learn to punch like that?"

"Troy."

"Why did you want to learn to punch?"

"Actually, Troy wanted me to be able to defend myself, just in case someone decided to push up on me...which included his best friend."

"Okay, so is the punching out of your system?"

"I did say it was, didn't I?"

Chad took another step away from her for precaution. Gabriella laughed and walked over to Chad, pushing him out from underneath the bleachers.

"Okay, here's what you do..."

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Taylor rushed home, balancing all her books and school supplies in her hands. She wanted to get home as soon as she could. She didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment, it's not like she could. Gabriella was too busy with Troy and right now, her mom was at work.

Taylor dumped everything on the porch and dug in her pocket for her house key. Pulling it out, she inserted it into the keyhole and pushed it door open. She picked up her stuff and walked into the house.

"So Tay how was your day?"

Taylor looked into the office to find that her dad was on the computer. He obviously got home early from work today at that Tech. Lab. She took a deep breath before saying anything, trying to push away the recent events of the day that she didn't want to relive.

"Nothing much. Just school work. You know the usual."

"Really dedicating yourself to your schoolwork, right?" He got up and walked over to her, placing a caring hand on her shoulder, "Because committing yourself now leads to success later."

"Yeah dad I know. But right now, I'm feeling a little tired. I'm gonna go take a nap before hitting the books."

Her father's voice rose a little. "Well, you better make sure you study and do schoolwork. Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean that you can slack off. Remember, commitment now leads to success later."

"Yeah dad I know. I'll..." Her eyes met the glare that was in her father's eyes, a glare that she experienced every time that she didn't really feel like doing schoolwork, and she surrendered. "Alright, I'll be up in my room, working on my academics."

"Good idea. I better not catch you turning on the TV or radio. Distractions do not make good grades." He walked away into the kitchen.

"Great, now I'll be even more stressed out than I already was," Taylor mumbled under her breath.

"What did you say Tay? I didn't quite catch it."

"Nothing!" Taylor responded, trudging her way up the stair and into her room. She placed all her books and school supplies on the desk and plopped on the bed. She didn't really feel like doing her school work. What she felt like doing was crying and hiding from the world.

She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and knew that it was her father was coming up to check whether she was working or not. She scrambled off her bed and rushed over to her desk, quickly grabbing a notebook and opening it. She snatched a pencil from the holder just as her father opened the door.

"Tay, you working hard in here?" He stood at the door, leaning on the doorframe.

"Yup!" Taylor put on a fake smile and scribbled some nonsense in her notebook, trying to make it look like she was working. "Working on my math work right now!"

Mr. McKessie walked over to her desk and took the notebook from her hands, flipping through the pages. "Taylor, this isn't a math notebook, this is history. Are you lying to me? Were you slacking off?" He smacked her in the head with the notebook.

"I'm sorry dad, I was just really tired today."

"Why? What could have possibly made you so tired that you are willing to slack off your schoolwork?"

"You wouldn't understand." Taylor looked down, rhythmically tapping the desk with the eraser of her pencil.

Mr. McKessie sat on the bed, facing his daughter. He saw the dejected look in her eyes. It wasn't that he was heartless, he just wanted her to excel in school, have a good career in front of her, and have a good life already laid out. "Are you sure I won't?"

Taylor swung around in her chair and faced her father. "Dad, it's boy problems. You won't understand."

"Boys? What was this talk we had about boys a couple days ago?"

"I know, but this isn't what you think. I'm not interested in this boy...he's not even my friend," Taylor explained.

"Taylor, boys will only distract you. You should be focusing on your work and your grades. Boys are out of the question," her father said sternly. "Now, just get back to work." He kissed her forehead. "I'll be right downstairs if you need me."

"Alright dad I will." Taylor watched her father walk to the door.

"Remember...no boys, only schoolwork. Commitment now leads to..."

"...Success later. Dad I know. I'll get right on it." Taylor swiveled in her chair and returned to her history notebook, erasing the scribble that he had put on it. Mr. McKessie smiled, closing the door behind him as walked out. Taylor opened her textbook and started reading, her mind now set on her schoolwork. She was pushing it with her father today, she didn't want to anger him to the point where he...well, she didn't want to think about.

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"Gabriella, are you sure this will work?" Chad asked. They were still sitting at the school bleachers and the day was growing late. Gabriella and Chad had been bickering on about how to apologize to Taylor. Chad objected to whatever Gabriella said and Gabriella defended herself, retorting that she was Taylor's best friend and she knew her best.

"Well, if you don't want my help Mr. Danforth, I'll be leaving then." Gabriella got up, but was pulled back down my Chad.

"I want your help, it's just that...I've never think that all this would be happening to me. I never had to apologize to anybody before. It's just that theirs this weird feeling coming from inside me."

"It would be caring. You care about Taylor, don't you?"

"I don't think so. I feel sorry that I told her off, that's all. It's not like I'm interested in her."

"Okay, just remember, I didn't say anything." Gabriella pulled out her cell phone from her purse. "Come on, let's go to the park. That's where I'm telling Taylor to meet me."

"Why the park?"

"She loves it there!"

Chad remains quiet the rest of the way there, being pulled along to the park by Gabriella.

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Taylor closed her math book, the last of her homework. Her dad had come up several times to check if she was doing it and quite frankly, she was starting to get annoyed. Her father was always on her case about school work ever since school started. She liked that he pushed her, but sometimes he went a little to far. Once when she was in 5th grade, she failed miserably on a math quiz. Her punishment: being hit against the knuckles with a bamboo stick. Where he got the stick from, she would never know, but she learned that he was only doing this to teach her. Soon, she started getting perfects on everything and the punishments ceased, but now, if she makes any little mistake, her father would hit her.

She got up and jumped on her bed again, closing her eyes. Again, her mind drifted back to Chad, well before he decided that she was the fault for why his life was going crazy. Suddenly, her cell phone rang. She pushed herself of the bed and went over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Tay! It's me Gabriella!"

Taylor sat back in her chair, tipping it slightly so it leaned on two of its four legs. "Gabi! What are you doing calling me? Aren't you doing something with Troy?"

"No, actually I wanted to know if you wanted to have a play date with our little kids. Just the two of just."

"I just thought that since you've been spending so much time with Troy recently that you would've rather had a date with him."

"I know that I've been spending a lot of time with Troy, but that's because Darbus wanted us to do something together. I'm sorry that I've kinda been distant. That's why I told Troy today was just going to be a girl's day. No boyfriends allowed."

"You seriously told him that?"

"Yup!" Gabriella answered quickly and plainly. "So are you in or not?"

"Yeah, I'm in."

"Great! Meet me in the park. I'll be waiting!"

"See you in a few!"

They both hung up. Taylor grabbed a baby carrier that her mom had kept for the longest time and placed Corbin in it. She rushed out the door, telling her dad that she was finished with her work and that she was going to be at the park with Gabriella.

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"So? What did she say?!" Chad asked anxiously.

"She's on her way." Gabriella smiled and opened the phone again and dialed a familiar number.

After three rings, the person on the other line picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Troy. Listen, can you meet me in the park in about 10 minutes...?"

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Taylor arrived at the park, the sun low in the sky. It didn't matter to her that it was getting late, it only mattered that she was going to be able to talk to her friend again. She placed Corbin within viewing distance and went over to a swing, pushing it softly.

"Hey Tay! I'm sorry I'm late. Something held me back." Gabriella placed her child next to Taylor's and sat in the swing adjacent to Taylor's.

"That's okay. It's just great that we're finally going to be able to spend time together."

Gabriella looked at her watch. Troy would be arriving any minute and she had to keep talking.

"Hello Gabs...you still here?"

Taylor's voice pulled Gabriella out of her thoughts. "Yeah, I was just thinking about something."

"Same here."

They swung in silence for a little bit. Taylor cast a glance in Gabriella's direction every few seconds, only to see that she was looking off into the distance. Taylor stopped as a figure started moving toward them. "Oh no..." she muttered under her breath. "Gabs, I thought you said that it was just going to be us."

"I did? Something else must have been on my mind when I said that."

"You told me that you told Troy that today was just going to be us. You lied to me, didn't you?"

"Hey girls..." Troy said, rubbing his palms together as he approached them, "Gabi, are you ready to go?"

"Oh yeah! It must've completely slipped my mind about tonight. I must've planned something with Troy that forgot about. I'm sorry Taylor. How about tomorrow?"

"Gabriella, I don't even know you anymore. Just go with Troy."

Gabriella watched her friend walk away gloomily. It was hard to lie to her friend like that, but it was the only way to get her alone with Chad so he could apologize to her. She followed Troy as he escorted her away from the swings and behind a tree.

"Go now! Before she decides to leave!" Gabriella hissed at Chad. He was just standing there, watching.

"But--"

"Go! Now!" Gabriella, with some help from Troy, pushed Chad from behind the tree. Gabriella wanted to stay and watch what happened next, but Troy pulled her away.

"Let's go Gabi. You've done your part of the bargain. It's Chad's turn now."

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Chad, after being shoved out from behind the tree, slowly made his way over to Taylor. He took a deep breath. After battling it out in his mind, he felt that it was a bad idea and turned around.

"Chad?" Taylor asked, looking up, "What are you doing here?"

Will Chad be brave and tell Taylor that he's sorry? Or will the big basketball star chicken out? Find out in the next chapter!

With much love,
Kat