Okay, I know pretty much no one has read this yet, and I doubt many people probably ever will, but I had this chapter planned out already and just had to write it. Then i remembered that I'm going away for 3 days and won't be able to post so I thought I'd put this up for anypne who has already read. I know there are a heap of spelling mistakes, as there are in all of my fanfics, but hey, I'm human and if I check over my stories more than once i end up deleting them cause they annoy me, I'm not even sure why, I guess it's cos i can think of 100 things that people can critisise about them and 1 that they can compliment... please prove me worng! R&R!!

Disclaimer: Like I said, if i owned this i would've met Zac Efron and made up a couple name for us cause he would've fallen in love with me (only if he and vanessa are broken up)... still can't think of a good couple name though... how about Zac Rox... see that's his first name and my last name (for all you know)... hmm, still the age difference to consider... but if i was 5 and could write stuff as good as this (just work with me here, I live in my own little world of compliments that people never gave me), then by the time i was about... 10, I'd have made a time machine and I'd make both of us 16 cos 16 is a cool age... actually I'd make him 18 cos that's how old he was when he did HSM1, i think... maybe 17, never really knew...

The moment the bell went Gabriella grabbed her books and sped out of the classroom, finally the hour of torture commonly known as mandatory maths was over. She hurried down the hallway, pausing to tap Troy on the shoulder as she passed him at his locker, he turned and watched her continue down the hallway, glancing back at him with a cheeky smile as she turned the corner. He smiled back and found himself staring at the corner long after she'd disappeared around it. Weird; how could she be so smart and yet so naïve to how he felt about her? He sighed and turned back his locker, resisting jumping back as a fake tanned-face with dyed blonde hair appeared right in front of him.

"Hi Troy!" The random girl said excitedly, not moving away from his face. Troy murmured a hello back and stook two steps back, adding another when he recognised the girl.

"Sadie, hi." He repeated, watching as she began blushing under her layers of makeup at the mention of her name.

"You already said that Troy!" she slapped him lightly and her hand stayed on his arm for a little longer than necessary before he pushed it off. Troy closed his locker, almost catching her hair in it and silently blaming himself for missing, then turned away from Sadie and started towards the cafeteria, as much as it annoyed him that he couldn't sit near Gabriella, at least the only girls near him were the cheerleaders, most of whom already knew he wasn't interested.

"So Troy," Sadie began again, drawing out his name as she said it while following him down the crowded corridor. "Are you going to take me out tonight?" Troy shook his head quickly and she pouted. "But Troy! You promised!" He shrugged and sped up as he pushed through the middle of a crowd hoping to shake her off, she just dodged between the people and came out the other side looking a bit flushed but still pouting in what she apparently thought was a cute way.

"Yeah but I'm busy, just like every other time you ask." He answered uncomfortably, he had in fact -at some point quite a while ago- promised to take her out somewhere, but at the time she'd been an annoying girl with no friends. Now she was an annoying girl with friends… or friend-like figures.

"You're always busy!" She complained and Troy couldn't help nodding in agreement. "What are you busy doing?" Troy rolled his eyes and tried speeding up again, but Sadie was like a flea clinging onto him.

"After school I have basketball, then I have an assignment and tonight my family's going out for dinner."

"Family, schamily." Sadie shrugged, apparently thinking that her comment had made her point.

"I'm part of my family, Sadie, I have to go out dinner with them." Troy said slowly, hoping that she would understand.

"Where're you going?" She asked, suddenly. "I have an idea-"

"You want to meet me there? Yeah right…" he saw her face. "I just mean… my parents wouldn't let me, I'm not allowed to have a girlfriend right now, it'll be too much of a… distraction." He paused before saying the last word, having just caught sight of Gabriella heading down a different hallway. "Look, Sadie, I've gotta run. Basketball, gym, training…" he trailed off and turned quickly down the hallway Gabriella had just disappeared into, faintly hearing Sadie's calls of "bye, Troy! I'll see you soon!" He rolled his eyes and sped up, glancing into classrooms on both sides for Gabriella.

He stopped when the hallway twisted and suddenly recognised where he was. He smiled to himself and continued down the hallway, slowing down when he reached the soundproof music rooms. He looked up and down the hallway in search of someone who could tell him which room Gabriella was in, but the corridor was empty. He could hear the muffled sounds of people singing from inside the windowless rooms and tried to recognise Gabriella's voice but couldn't. He sat down against a wall and closed his eyes. It wasn't often that he got a moment to himself, there were always people interrupting him, telling him what he did and didn't want, what was good and bad for him, what was right and wrong.

His eyes flicked open at that thought. Was it right for him to get distracted by Gabriella? She wasn't even his best friend, not really, Chad was. He closed eyes again, remembering telling Sadie that his parents didn't want him to have a girlfriend at the moment. What if Sadie had taken that the wrong way? What if she'd thought that he actually saw her as a potential girlfriend?

He took a deep breath and let it out. What Sadie thought wasn't really his problem, in fact if he hadn't taken her on as his problem she would never have talk to him. When he'd first met her, she had been really different. For starters her skin had been pale and her hair had been brown, darkish brown too, definitely not the yellow colour she now paraded around with.

She had been friendless in her new school, and partly due to the fact that Troy had knocked her to the ground on her first day, labelling her as a clumsy dork. The only reason she had friend-like figures now was because he'd helped her make some friends… sort of. Technically she'd made the actual friends herself, it was rumoured that she'd started a 'Troy Bolton Fan Club' and as much as Troy didn't want to believe that she'd used his kindness to her advantage he did have to agree that since she'd come there were a lot more girls eyeing him suggestively in the corridors.

Troy inwardly groaned, deciding that waiting for Gabriella wasn't going to allow him anytime for lunch. He opened his eyes and just sat on the dirty floor for another minute, still appreciating the calm of the scene. His trance-like state was suddenly broken when a bushy-haired boy came marching down the corridor glaring at him.

"Troy! Where have you been?" Troy stood up quickly and faced his best friend.

"I guess we're skipping the niceties," he muttered under his breath then half-smiled up at Chad who was badly suppressing a smile too. "I was ambushed by Sadie." Chad gave him a knowing nod and stopped bothering to suppress his smile.

"Ouch… I feel for you man." He said seriously.

"Thanks Chad," Troy responded, playing along with the joke. "It's not easy when someone's so… what's the word?"

"Ugly?" Troy shook his head.

"No, not ugly, so-"

"Stupid?"

"No, close but not right, so-"

"-much like a lemon on top of a carrot!" Troy laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, that's it man, thanks for your help." Chad grinned at his friend.

"I hope your not talking about me?" Troy turned and saw Taylor standing outside an open door with an accusing expression.

"No, of course not." Chad said, walking over to her. "You're much more like a chocolate bar." Taylor giggled in a very un-Taylor-like way as he kissed her neck in apparent imitation of eating a chocolate. Troy tried to avert his gaze by staring at the open door, but then his eyes fell on the girl who was walking out of it.

Her shoulder length, ebony curls hung loosely behind her ears, clipped in place with a white clip, matching her pink and white singlet top and mini shorts.

"Ew you guys, get a room!" She exclaimed disgustedly, seeing Chad and Taylor, then her eyes flicked to Troy who was still staring at her. "Hey Troy!" she said lightly, her tone instantly changing and began walking towards him, careful not to look at Chad and Taylor.

"Hey Gabi." He was careful not to let his tone reveal anything that he was feeling. "Singing lesson?" He asked when she was closer. She nodded, hoping that he hadn't heard anything. It wasn't that she thought she was bad; she just didn't want Troy to hear her practising. "I couldn't hear you," he murmured, as if reading her mind.

"Oh, okay." She answered quickly; suddenly aware of how awkward their conversation was, especially with the interesting noises coming from Chad and Taylor behind her.

Troy cleared his throat uncertainly and watched as a junior hurried out of her singing lesson, giving him a scared look as she brushed past him.

"I wasn't that small when I was her age I swear." Gabriella felt a giggle escape her mouth, and then blushed when Troy looked at her, questioning the Gabriella-ness of it.

"She's terrified of you, and you're so mean to her." Gabriella explained. "I bet you don't even understand why she's so scared."

"No, not really, but all of them act like that these days, so I'm used to it." Gabriella hit him playfully, pulling her hand away much faster than Sadie had. Troy sent her a fake-glare and hit her on the hip. She hit him on the shoulder, a little harder. He hit her on the arm. She hit him on the cheek. He hit her hand as it moved away from him again. She hit him on the chest, then, when she suddenly realised where her hand was forgot to move it as she stared into his cobalt eyes.

Troy opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. You're friends, he told himself fiercely. Do you want to end up like Taylor and Chad, completely unable to be around when you're together? He mentally hit himself as he felt his body begin tingling where her hand was and at every other place that she'd hit him.

He's your friend, not your crush, Gabriella's conscience told her sternly. Don't you dare do anything, or you'll feel worse. She stood rigid; suddenly worried that he might touch her again and how she'd respond. Her entire body was tingling as she felt his chest rise up and down under her hand, his breaths shallow.

What if she can feel my heart beating? Troy thought suddenly. Then she'll know how nervous I am… he felt his eyes begin watering and realised with a start that he hadn't blinked. He was about to when the amazing depth of her eyes hit him. What he had at first seen as chocolate brown orbs he now saw as pools of immeasurable depth, and all of a sudden he wished he could dive deeper into them.

Gabriella willed herself to blink and break the trance she was stuck in. He probably thinks I'm a weirdo, staring into his eyes like they're… like they're… curtained windows which I only wish I was close enough to open. She felt his heart under her hand, beating as fast as hers was, but for once she didn't register the rate of the heart that her hand was pressed against, whenever her and Josh were in a moment like this she felt herself counting how many beats a minute his heart was beating; but with Troy all she could think of was the fact that his heart was so close to her physically, but so far away in all other senses.

Both couples broke apart when a bell went, ringing shrilly throughout the school. Chad and Taylor separated, both giggling girlishly as they realised that they'd been kissing for half of their break. Troy and Gabriella jumped away from each other, realising how long they'd been standing like that and what people would've thought if anyone had seen them. Troy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and Gabriella bit her lip, silently cursing herself for being so obvious. She muttered an excuse and had disappeared down the corridor before Chad and Taylor had finished giggling. Taylor followed her friend and Chad caught up to Troy, still standing in the middle of the corridor, as utterly confused at what had happened as Gabriella was.

"C'mon man, we'll already have missed all of the good food at the cafeteria, quick before they start serving yesterday's." Troy nodded vaguely and followed Chad back up the hallway. Trying to resist screaming at himself for being so obvious about how he felt about Gabriella.

Yay, my first mention on tension... rhyme! Please review if you liked it... and pretend you liked it for my sake if you didn't... also I sort of wanted tis to be my my big debut into fanfiction.. it was supposed to be a big success because i've planned it to be long... I know I'm on at least a few people's author alert so all of you are expect to review... I probably shouldn't sa this cos I'll jus get disappointed but i have this dream of reaching 100 reviews for this story.

If you think this needs anything that you don't think it'll have tell me and I'll see if i can incorporate it... I will put your name into my immortal text if you review enough... maybe as Troy's girlfriend, Gabriella's boyfriend (if you're a guy, hard to judge considering some of the screen names, like Jg Rox, am I a girl or guy?) or maybe just someone in Troy or Gabriella's family to play safe... but I promise if you're nice enough to me you'll get a mention... so flatter me... please?