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

A/N: Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter! I liked it and I'm sorry that most of you thought that Sharpay was going to be nice, but someone has to be the antagonist! I

Out Of My Element

CHAPTER 7

SOMETHING CHANGED

Gabriella blew out a frustrated breath as she stared at the algebra problem. She couldn't concentrate. Throwing down her pencil, she leaned back in her chair and pushed her hair behind her ears. She knew why she couldn't concentrate, ever since she'd arrived at school this morning everything had been off. First off Taylor seemed to have a split personality; second Sharpay was being nice to her, even though she and Troy had sort of auditioned for the school musical, which was Sharpay's territory. Thirdly, everyone at the school now seemed to hate her which confused her no end and finally she hadn't seen her boyfriend since homeroom when she was with both him and Sharpay. The last one wasn't that important, she was used to seeing Troy very rarely now, the championship and his father had made sure that they almost never saw each other during school time, although Gabriella knew that if she wanted to see him, he would either be in the gym or at his locker. Sighing, she looked around the room to see all her classmates scribbling away on their tests, her eyes rested on Taylor and Gabriella still had no idea what she had done wrong. So she and Troy had sang? It wasn't like they had meant for Miss Darbus to hear them. Actually getting a callback wasn't exactly what she'd planned. But Taylor wasn't going to believe her and the rate it was going; no-one in the school was going to believe her.

"Miss Montez is there a problem?" Mrs Richards asked and Gabriella snapped back to reality.

"No Mrs Richards." She replied leaning over her test again and making an attempt at pushing the subject from her mind.

When the bell rang, Gabriella was one of the first out the door. She needed comfort and at the moment the only place she felt she was going to find it was in the arms of her boyfriend. Walking quickly Gabriella sighed in relief when she saw Troy was standing at his locker, the door open, talking to one of the cheerleaders. At least she could see the cheerleader talking; she couldn't see Troy doing any talking. As quietly as she could, Gabriella placed her books in his locker, and wrapped her arms around him. Almost immediately Troy half-turned and pulled her around to his front. Gabriella tightened her grip on his waist and buried her face in his chest.

"It was nice talking to you Amy." Gabriella heard Troy dismiss the cheerleader in a terse voice and tried not to smile as she heard the cheerleader stutter a few times before presuming she'd stalked off.

"Okay, she's gone, now are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Troy whispered in her ear after a few moments. Gabriella took a moment to respond; instead she wondered how he could know her so well. How could he possibly know something was wrong? What would happen if she just wanted a hug? Would he still ask the same question?

"Hey, Alice, come out of wonderland and talk to me." Troy said softly and Gabriella reluctantly removed her face from his chest.

"Can we talk? Somewhere, where people are going to be less inclined to overhear us?" She asked and Troy gave her a strange look but nodded and unwrapped his arms from her petite frame. Gabriella refused to let go of his waist however and Troy looked down at her in surprise, she was never this clingy and, although he was surprised, he enjoyed it and was going to take full advantage of it. When Gabriella needed him, she never made it this obvious.

"Gabriella," he said and she groaned and let one arm fall from his waist. Troy laughed, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and shut his locker door. Leading her towards their destination, Troy found it difficult to ignore the hard stares and snide remarks that followed them. He shook his head and wondered how the students at their school could have a complete change in attitude.

"Uh, Troy? Where are we going?" Gabriella's voice broke through his thoughts and he looked down at her and felt an indescribable feeling to kiss. Troy glanced around and had to fight the feeling when he saw Miss Darbus standing a few feet away.

"You'll see when we get there." he replied as they stopped by a door and he leaned over and opened it.

"Tr-oy!" she complained and he grinned, as his arm slipped from her shoulders and his hand found her own.

"Montez relax. I know where I'm going." Troy grinned and Gabriella stuck her tongue out at him and the feeling that he'd fought down a few seconds ago resurfaced and this time Troy had no inclination of pushing it away. Swiftly he yanked her closer to him and closed his lips over her exposed tongue. Gabriella was immobile for a second before falling into the kiss.

"Okay, um, you never, um……" Gabriella trailed off and gazed up at him, her dark eyes dazed and slightly confused. He never, ever kissed her like that, definitely not out of the blue like the way he just did.

"What was that Montez?" Troy grinned down at her cockily and Gabriella gave him a half-hearted glare before leaning up to kiss him again. Troy let her get as close to his lips as she could before pulling away. Gabriella opened her eyes but only saw the back of his head as he pulled her up the stairs.

"Troy? Repeating a question that I know you hate, but where are we going?" Gabriella asked and he glanced behind him as they reached the top of the stairs.

Gabriella eyes widened and Troy let go of her hand to let her explore the place as he settled onto the bench. He had to laugh at the look on her face when she came back to him, her eyes childlike and sparkling. Troy patted the space next to him, indicating for her to sit down. Instead Gabriella slid into his lap, wrapping an arm around his neck and finding one of his hands and entwining their fingers. Troy wrapped his spare arm around her waist and breathed in her scent.

"Do you like it?" he asked softly and Gabriella nodded resting her head on his shoulder and unknowingly replicated her boyfriends move of breathing in his scent, she smiled as the mix of Lynx deodorant and his cologne mingled together and filled her nostrils.

"I love it." she replied softly and Troy smiled and kissed her forehead. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Troy decided to speak.

"Alright, as much as I love it when you cling to me, but can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked and Gabriella shifted so she could look at him.

"Okay, first off my best friend seems to have a split personality, secondly Sharpay was being nice to me, thirdly everyone at school seems to hate me and finally I, God this sounds weird, I don't like not seeing you nearly every day." She admitted the last part quietly and Troy felt a shadow of a smile play on his lips as she admitted the last part. Gabriella was never one to admit things like that.

"Alright Gabi, listen to me, Taylor doesn't have a split personality, Chad seems to have the same problem as she does and what that problem is, I've got absolutely no idea. Secondly Sharpay being nice, don't worry about that, she might have a fever and was completely delirious," Troy stopped when he saw the look on her face, he raised his eyebrows at her and Gabriella just shook her head. "Thirdly, nobody hates you……they're just, I dunno, being teenagers. I'm not very good at this am I?" Troy asked scrunching up his face; Gabriella giggled and shook her head.

"No you're not." She replied quietly and Troy sighed helplessly.

"Okay, how about this? I don't not like seeing you nearly every day; I hate not seeing you every day." Troy said softly and Gabriella smiled at him.

"See that you're good at." She said softly and Troy sighed and kissed her lovingly. Pulling back Troy was silent for a moment.

"Gabs, we need to talk about these callbacks." He said reluctant to break the mood, Gabriella's head snapped up and she stared at him.

"You don't want to do them?" she asked softly and Troy sighed and thought before he spoke.

"I do. Gabriella, I know what you felt when we were singing, it was written all over your face when the music stopped. I felt it too. But, I mean, Gabs, I've got the championship and you've got the Decathlon and don't you dare say you're not doing it. You should and you know it," Troy warned when Gabriella opened her mouth to protest. "And I don't want to screw up the championship and the decathlon just so we can see if we're good at singing." Troy said quietly and Gabriella sat frozen for a moment, unsure how to respond to him.

"Troy……I get what you're saying. But, but it felt real, so much more real then anything we've ever done before. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose whatever side of our relationship the music uncovered. I know that its weird saying that seeing it's only been a day. But something changed Troy. Something changed." Gabriella was restless as she spoke fiddling with the hair on the nape of his neck and then tracing his jaw line gently.

"You want to do it?" Troy asked softly and Gabriella nodded. Troy looked at her and knew that he wanted to do the callbacks as much as she did. Suddenly a smile crept across his face and Gabriella looked at him curiously.

"What?" she asked and Troy leaned forward and kissed her gently.

"You're right Gabriella. Something changed." He agreed and Gabriella's eyes widened before she threw the restless hand around his neck and their lips crashed together. Something definitely had changed; a week ago Troy would have never agreed to do something as out there as callbacks for the school musical.

A/N: Okay, that chapter is done! I have to be blunt with you guys this stories going to be longer then 'Chemicals React'! Anyway, I'll make an attempt at updating soon.