Gabriella and Troy were greeted right away as they walked through the big brown door to enter the sea of teenage kids all clustered together in groups throughout Jake's house as the music blasted through the speakers, the smell of alcohol could be picked up right away once you stepped foot in the huge, used to be clean house.

"Heys,' and "What's up," were heard throughout various kids as some guys even came up to Troy and did their guy handshake as Troy still kept one arm securely around Gabriella's waist.

Gabriella looked left and right briefly as she took in Jake's house that was more of a mini mansion, not that her house was any smaller, if that it was probably bigger even though it was just her mother and her. Gabriella smiled as she saw a picture of her and Jake hanging on the wall in the entry way, it was their freshman year and that was the day that Jake taught her how to throw a football. Gabriella hadn't been in his house for close to a year now seeing as she was always busy, but tonight seemed like a perfect night to just let loose.

It was now Friday and quite a few things happened over the week. But what Gabriella was even more curious about was that her mom was on a one night business trip, why didn't Anna just come out and tell her that she was spending the night at Eric's? Gabriella had no idea why since she could see through her mother's lies, but Gabriella was okay with that seeing as she was getting something out of their relationship too, she got to be a normal kid once in a while even though Ann assured her that things would go back to normal soon.

Gabriella felt Troy pull her closer as he was done greeting people and started leading them down the big spacious hallway as kids were up against the walls grinding and making out with each other. Gabriella could tell that the party was in full swing, after all it was already 9 o'clock and Jake was the starting quarterback, why wouldn't people show up?

Gabriella smiled up at Troy as her hand was resting on his hand that was wrapped around her waist and resting on her flat stomach as just her thin light blue and pink low cut tank top was separating Troy's hand from making skin contact. Gabriella looked straight ahead of herself now as Troy and her emerged into the kitchen that was just as crazy as the living room and hallway with kids all over the place talking, dancing, drinking. Gabriella listened for the beat of the song and found that it sort of resembled one of her warm up songs as she thought back to Monday.

Gabriella was wide awake as she let the music flow through her body as she was just messing around with some of the routines she knew. Her mother and her were busy racking their minds for some inspiration to come to them for what routine Gabriella should do, or at least that is what Anna thought Gabriella was doing at the time as Gabriella moved around the studio, in fact what was going through her daughters head was anything but that.

Gabriella got over the shock of realization that her mother was dating some guy now. Sure it had been about 12 years since her father left them, 12 years since Anna had kissed a guy outside their family, and 12 years since Anna had for once in Gabriella's life stopped thinking all about dance and business and let her mind wonder.

Gabriella was somewhat happy that her mother had found something else to occupy her mind with instead of spending all of her time thinking of ways to get Gabriella out of school to practice dancing. But even though Gabriella was happy for her mother because after all she did notice a change in her mother in the two days that she saw her after her business trip, and as long as Anna was happy and the cat was away the mice will play kicked in, Gabriella still felt kind of weird. She had never had to deal with her mom dating before, and now there was Eric.

Eric seemed like a nice guy last night, but that was just one night in front of all his employees, but Gabriella shrugged it off. As long as Anna was happy and Gabriella got out of dance practices in the evenings, maybe she could start having a normal teenagers life? Gabriella smiled at this, but still felt an uneasiness in the pit of her stomach, but that probably was just for protectiveness of her mother.

"So…Eric seemed nice last night." Gabriella said casually as she still moved her body to the music as Anna looked up from the bench she was sitting on as her eyes skimmed over the top of the clipboard she had her face glued too.

"Yeah, he seemed to really like you too. To be honest, I thought he would kind of get freaked out that I had a teenage daughter." Anna laughed lightly as she looked back down at her clip board.

Gabriella sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror while silently counting to the beat in her head. She knew Eric didn't have any kids, and he had already gone through a divorce three years ago, but that hardly meant anything to Gabriella yet as long as Anna was happy.

"Yeah, um…are you seeing him today?" Gabriella tried to bring up nonchalantly again as she tried to pry information out of Anna. In all truth, Gabriella was kind of hoping that she would say yes so that Gabriella could stay for gym class today. Most kids hated it, but Gabriella was kind of looking forward to it, she kind of felt like she was like another normal kid again instead of feeling like some older mature person who had appointments already set up for them.

Anna looked up at her daughter suspiciously. "Are you okay Gabs?" Anna shut off the music as Gabriella stopped abruptly.

Gabriella turned around to look at her mom. "Yeah, I was just wondering…" Gabriella trailed off as she headed over to her duffel bag and picked it up, getting ready to go take a shower.

"Well, I was going to tell you later, but…I was going to stay later at the office today, so we're going to have to just practice less this after noon, let's say from 6-8?" Anna suggested as Gabriella knew that it wasn't a question so much as a soft command.

Gabriella nodded as she bit the inside of her lip from breaking out into a giant smile. "Yeah, it'll give me time to do my homework." Gabriella said before she walked into the bathroom. Even though her mom was now dating someone and she had less dance time, Gabriella didn't seem to mind. She knew that Julliard was an iffy topic with her seeing as she really felt like she didn't have the heart to do it. It wasn't that Gabriella hated dancing when in reality she loves it, but she loves it for the fun of it, not to compete and pursue it for a living. She really didn't know what she wanted to happen in the future, except she did know that dancing competitively was not apart of it.

"You want anything to drink?" Troy whispered in Gabriella's ear seeing as that was the only way that she would hear him over the music without Troy yelling out to her.

Gabriella nodded as she felt Troy's hand leave her body. "Yeah, just a beer is fine." Gabriella said as Troy nodded.

"Coming right up." Troy came back a moment later with two red cups in his hand. He handed one to Gabriella as he kept one for himself which he took a little sip from. He finally did it, he finally asked Gabriella Montez out on a date! Given the fact that they were at a party where they couldn't have that much privacy, but that was the only type of date Troy was used to, he never really was one for dating seeing as most girls he could rarely have a conversation with without him getting bored.

Troy watched as Gabriella took a longer sip than him before getting a satisfied smirk on her face unlike the other girls Troy had been with who would usually make the disgusting after taste face since they usually were the ones that would drink the little fruity alcohol drinks, but Troy found that Gabriella wasn't like those types of girls, he should've known that from the beginning.

"Thanks." Gabriella said as Troy could barely hear her over the shouting, cheering, and music in the background.

Troy looked around as he took a step closer to Gabriella as he put his half finished beer on the kitchen counter to his side. Troy rolled his eyes as he saw that Chad and Taylor were there already making out as Chad had Taylor pinned up against the wall.

"So…" Troy said thinking back to how he seemed to be starting a lot of conversations with Gabriella like that.

Troy was at his locker as he kept looking down the hallway knowing that Gabriella usually walked past his locker to get to her own as hers was right around the corner. "Dude, you okay?" Zeke asked as Troy sighed and dropped his backpack into the bottom of his locker that was already messy after three and a half weeks of school.

"Yeah." Troy said even though deep down Troy knew that he wasn't exactly telling the truth. In reality Troy was nervous. They had kissed last night and by the time Troy freed himself from a boring conversation he had with his mom's business partner about colleges Gabriella had already gone.

"God, did you see her?" Troy heard Zeke ask as he tapped Troy's locker door to get his attention. Troy looked at Zeke curiously as Zeke rolled his eyes at him. "Sharpay man? Did you see what she is wearing today?"

Troy looked past Zeke for a second to see Sharpay and her blonde hair wearing white pants with a pink sparkly blouse. Troy just wanted to shrug, but he didn't want to offend Zeke.

"Um…if that's what suits your style." Troy said as he closed his locker knowing that his eyes were set for one right now, and she definitely wasn't blonde.

"We're thinking about going to homecoming together, what about you?" Zeke asked as he too closed his locker and leaned against it. Troy raised his eye brows at Zeke as he completely forgot about homecoming. "You know, the dance that's in exactly a month?" Zeke reminded him as he rolled his eyes at Troy.

Troy then all of a sudden remembered Darbus telling their homeroom that their was a dance coming up and tickets would begin going on sale in two weeks. Troy drowned out whatever Zeke was saying as he thought about the previous two homecoming dances he went too. He ended up going freshman year with this girl named Sheila who moved last year and then his sophomore year he went with some cheerleader named Carla who he stopped seeing after the dance.

"Don't tell me you forgot." Zeke said. "You do have a girl in mind, don't you?" Zeke urged as Troy's heart nearly leapt out of his chest as a certain brunette walked down the hallway with Taylor.

"Yeah…I have someone in mind." Troy said distantly as their eyes connected and Troy patted Zeke on the back. "I'll meet you later." Troy started to quicken his pace so he came into stride with Taylor and Gabriella. "Hey, Gabriella, can I talk to you?"

Taylor raised her eyes brows as Taylor looked at Gabriella with a confused face and then she looked at Troy sharply. "Hello to you too Troy."

"Um…yeah Tay." Troy said as he looked at Gabriella who was biting her lip to keep herself from laughing. "Can we talk…alone?" Troy asked as his eyes scanned over to Taylor, and then back to Gabriella's chocolate orbs.

Gabriella looked at Taylor and Taylor nodded. "Yeah, and you said that you'd never ditch me for a boy." Taylor joked. "See you guys in homeroom." With that Gabriella and Troy watched Tay fall out of sink with their footsteps as they turned the corner.

"So…" Troy trailed off once they reached her locker and neither one of them hadn't said anything. "Um…about last night…" Troy started but was interrupted when a blonde haired classmate who just happened to be the captain of their football team walked over.

"Hey Gabs, Bolton." Jake nodded as Troy nodded back and Gabriella smiled at Jake. "You two going to the party on Friday?" Jake asked casually as he was oblivious to the conversation Troy was trying to strike up.

"Was thinking about it." Troy said as he leaned against Taylor's locker as Gabriella was busy putting her stuff in her own and Jake was on her other side at his locker.

"Cool, what about you Gabs?"

Gabriella sighed as she shut her locker. "I might. I haven't been to one in a long time, could be fun." Gabriella said with a shrug.

"Of course it will, it's my party." Jake said cockily as he shut his own locker. "See you two later. Bye Gabs." Jake said as he gave her a hug and walked off.

Gabriella and Troy were both silent as Jake walked away. "So…you guys seem close." Troy said as Gabriella started walking again and Troy had no other choice but to follow.

Gabriella shrugged, "Yeah, we live nearby and he was the first one I met when we moved in."

"That's cool." Troy said as he looked behind his shoulder briefly and saw that Jake was busy making out with the captain of the cheerleading squad, there was no way that Jake and Gabriella were together, was there?

"Yeah…so what were you saying before?" Gabriella asked as they reached their homeroom class, but neither one of them entered, instead they just stood by the door as some students passed them to set their things inside.

"Oh yeah…" Troy's nerves were getting the better of him. How could after four years of dating girls, Gabriella just come in and wipe his slate clean? Then he thought back to Jake, his party would be a good first date, not exactly the quietest but Troy had a feeling that Gabriella wasn't one for fancy restaurants like the stuck up girls he dated in the past, and the party would be a good way to loosen up with their friends. "Do you want to go to the party on Friday with me?" Troy asked.

Gabriella looked into Troy's eyes as Troy gave her a sheepish smile that held hope in it as her back was against the wall and Troy seemed to be somehow getting closer although Gabriella was to fixated on his eyes to even notice how close they actually were. "I think I could schedule you in." Gabriella joked.

"So I'll pick you up at 9?" Troy asked and then realized that Gabriella just told him that the two were neighbors. "And we can walk over to his house." Troy added as he leaned in more so that Gabriella could feel his icy breath softly blowing against her own lips.

"But whatever are we going to do to keep ourselves occupied?" Gabriella whispered selectively as she pushed herself off against the wall so that her pelvis and chest rubbed up against Troy's. "I hear parties can suck sometimes."

Troy put his hands on her waist as kids were starting to stare. Was this really their King flirting with the dance-o-holic queen of their school? Troy leaned down as his lips brushed hers in a tantalizing way. "I think we can think of something."

Just then the bell rang and Gabriella walked past Troy making him drop his hold on her. Troy looked at her confused, weren't they just having a moment? "Talk to you later Troy Boy." Gabriella said as she walked into Darbus' classroom with Troy following behind.

This was the type of dancing Gabriella liked. She had her back to Troy with her arms up and around his neck as his hands were rubbing her flat stomach under her shirt as their bodies grinded together. Gabriella could feel Troy's breath on the back of her neck as Troy would randomly at times press a kiss below her ear, neck, or shoulder blades. Gabriella was absolutely loving this kind of dance and it wasn't because of the music.

Troy and Gabriella could both feel the heat as they were in the mixture of forty horny teenage kids grinding on each other with the lights dimmed, the moon shining through the huge windows, and the alcohol floating through the air.

It was now 11 at night and Troy and Gabriella had been at Jake's house for two hours now. They had only been dancing for about ten minutes though as they were busy talking with Chad and Taylor once that couple got done making out against Jake's kitchen wall, they drank, but not a lot where they were drunk, and they even played a game of pool down in Jake's furnished basement that held all the teenagers who wanted to have a little mellower setting, went down there.

Troy's hand stroked down Gabriella's side to the inside of her thigh and back up again to glide over her stomach. Gabriella knew Troy was teasing her, that's what it seemed like the two were doing all week to each other. They both kept to their words and talked to each other at school instead of just stare as they had the same schedule except when Gabriella had Spanish four and Troy was in Spanish three, but even that was at the same time.

Gabriella felt Troy brush his lips against her shoulder blade again and a memory of her and Troy kissing a week ago at their parents business banquet went through her head. They hadn't kissed since then and it would be an understatement if someone said Gabriella wanted it to happen. It was more like she was dying for it to happen.

Gabriella turned around in Troy's arms so that they were facing each other as they both had smirks on their faces. "You're a good dancer." Troy said. "How long have you been dancing?"

Gabriella shrugged. "Since I could walk, but who's counting?" Gabriella joked as one of her hands trailed down Troy's chest so that it grazed over the hem of his boxers and then his jeans as his jeans were lower, letting you see about an inch of his blue and orange plaid boxers. Gabriella then brought up her hand again and let her fingers graze over his neck.

"You're a tease." Troy breathed out as their foreheads rested against each other. Gabriella looked at Troy as their eyes locked on each other with their bodies swaying as one. "And you like it." Troy pointed out with a smirk.

"Maybe…but you know you like it." Gabriella said using Troy's words against him.

It seemed like all the awkwardness that was there a couple of days ago evaporated once Troy and Gabriella walked into the party with each other and got to know each other a little better, and Troy now knew that Gabriella wasn't like one of the stuck up girls that liked fancy restaurants seeing as she was the one that came right out and said just that. She actually said that she was relieved that Troy chose a party to be their first date.

Troy had to let out a little laugh as he thought back to their elective class they shared together. It was cooking and that day just went horrible. He could still smell the burnt muffins as the smoke came out of the oven making the air turn a dark grayish black.

"Troy, Gabriella. You guys are going to have to be partners since Zeke and Kelsi aren't here." Ms. Bell's voice rang out as Gabriella and Troy stood side by side at her desk with aprons on and their classmates were in the background busy setting up their food stations for the chocolate chip muffins they were supposed to make.

Troy and Gabriella both looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. If this was any other week then it wouldn't have been a problem, but ever since last Friday night and their kiss, and then on Monday when Troy asked Gabriella to the party, things became kind of awkward seeing as both of them didn't know what to say or do around each other. They both never really had an official date before with anyone else seeing as they were too busy for those kinds of things.

"Um…okay." Gabriella said as she was the first one to make a move and headed back to her station…well 'their' station. Troy followed closely behind and they both started to wash their hands which took longer than necessary as they both were too afraid to touch each other so when Troy accidentally brushed his hand over Gabriella's to get the soap, Gabriella jumped a little and splattered water all over the counter.

Then about ten minutes into it, Gabriella was busy cleaning some of the used dishes as their was a silence. Troy was busy measuring things and Gabriella looked over at him briefly. She didn't know how she got stuck with this elective, but there were no other classes that she could get into, so here she was…looking at Troy measuring dry ingredients.

Troy looked up feeling someone looking at him and his eyes connected with Gabriella's. Troy smiled as he wasn't really paying attention to what he was adding in the big metal mixing bowl while he stirred the now liquid mixture.

"So you know where Jake lives?" Gabriella asked seeing as everyone else in their groups were talking and if Troy was Kelsi Gabriella probably would've been in fits of laughter right now, but not with Troy.

"Um…yeah." Troy said.

"Good…" Gabriella trailed off again as neither one of them knew what to say. "So are you about done?" Gabriella asked and Troy nodded as it was now Gabriella's turn to put the batter in the muffin tin pan and then in the oven to bake while Troy took over washing the dishes.

"Yeah…all yours." Troy said as Gabriella walked over to where Troy was and when Troy tried to get past her they rubbed up against each other as they both blushed and pushed past each other with their heads down so the other didn't' see the red on their faces.

"So you live close to Jake?" Troy asked as Gabriella nodded.

"Yeah, just two houses down. White house with a long driveway." Gabriella described as she had half the pan to go.

"So is 9 o'clock okay to pick you up or do you have a curfew?" Troy asked casually seeing as this was all new to him, he had never really taken into consideration about other girl's feelings and rules their parents had for them.

"Um… actually my mom's not even going to be home, but I still have 6o'clock dance rehearsal in the morning." Gabriella said with a bit of disappointment in her voice which anyone would have since her mom was going to be gone still, but was going to call her at the studio at 6:10 and if Gabriella didn't answer than Anna knew that Gabriella missed dance practice and although Anna wouldn't be able to know for sure if Gabriella was practicing, that's where the trust came in.

"Oh…that's…" Troy had no idea what to say. "cool." He finished lamely.

Gabriella opened the oven and put it in and as she was setting the time Troy walked past her to put a bowl away and they accidentally rubbed up against each other again and Gabriella didn't notice when her finger accidentally hit an extra zero, causing the oven to count down from three hours instead of thirty minutes.

"Why is the salt out?" Troy's voice broke Gabriella out of her thoughts as she was now leaning against the counter with her elbows propping up her arms and her head resting lazily in them.

"I don't know, you're the one that measured out the dry ingredients…" Then she paused as she looked around at their spotless station. "Where's the sugar Troy?" Gabriella looked at the ingredients he had out from before and saw the chocolate chips, flour, and salt…with no sugar.

Troy looked and opened up the cabinet and spotted the untouched, unopened bag of sugar. "Here." Troy said sheepishly as Gabriella's eyes went wide as she pushed past Troy and turned on their oven light to see their muffins baking.

They should've been done a couple of minutes ago as everyone else was sitting down and eating while they were just doing nothing, even though it didn't bother them seeing as they were some of the oldest kids in the class since it was a basic class that you usually took in your freshman year.

"Shit!" Gabriella exclaimed as she opened the over and black smoke crept up and Gabriella coughed as she inhaled some of it and doubled over as she shut it and shielded herself from the escaped black fog.

"Fuck. How long did you put it in for?" Troy exclaimed as he grabbed a towel and put it over his mouth as he opened the over again and took the muffins out with an oven mit and quickly shut the over with his foot as the smoke escaped and started to cloud the back of the room where they were at. Kids started to panic as the teacher walked into the room again and hit a button on the wall which caused the sprinklers in the ceilings go off at the eight cooking stations causing Gabriella to squeal and run to the front of the room leaving Troy with the burnt, black, crisp muffins in hand.

Gabriella bit back a moan as Troy kissed her neck and brought his lips up back to her own swollen slightly bruised lips which were starting to dry from the intense kissing they were doing against Jake's hallway that held her picture of her and Jake above their heads.

Troy had Gabriella pinned against the wall as her hands were under his shirt making contact with his six pack and occasionally going higher up and flicking over his two pecs. Troy's hand was on her lower back touching her bare skin under her shirt, pulling her closer to him as she arched her back into him making their chests come into contact while his other hand was leaning against the wall by Gabriella's head.

Gabriella licked Troy's bottom lip as he happily opened his mouth for her and his tongue took dominance as it fought with Gabriella's for control. Gabriella knew that it was getting late, the last time she checked it was already 1 in the morning and she still had that 6 o'clock dance practice and even though she really didn't want to go, she wasn't going to lie to her mother to lose her trust because Gabriella knew that trust was a hard thing to get back, and if her mother ever did find out then practice would be twice as much and hard.

"Time?" Gabriella asked against his lips for the fifth time in their make out session that was lasting for quite a while.

Troy pulled back allowing them to catch their breath, or at least trying too. "Um…" Troy looked down at his watch… "1:30." Troy said as he went back to kissing Gabriella on the neck and then lower yet as he kissed down her shoulder blade and back up to her neck and started sucking on one of her sweet spots he discovered that night.

Gabriella had her lips slightly parted as she was breathing softly and slowly now, trying to control it but a soft sigh squeezed itself out of her mouth as she knew that Troy was going to leave a dark purple mark on her neck. She knew that she probably should get going, but she really wanted to just stay with Troy.

"Nice picture." Troy said as his eyes traveled up and he finally noticed the picture of Gabriella two years ago with Jake. She was laying on the grass with her elbows propping her up and Jake was standing over her with a football in hand.

"Thanks." Gabriella said softly as Troy stood fully up and they locked eyes. Their eyes seemed to say it all as they both knew that their night together seemed to be running down on time. "…I…" Gabriella began.

"I know, I should probably get you home." Troy said with disappointment.

"Yeah. I had fun." Gabriella said as Troy moved from his spot so that Gabriella could get off the wall and start heading for the front door.

"Me too." Troy said as he opened the front door for her. He didn't want the night to end, but he also didn't want it to end with them having sex and then never talking to each other after that, he really wanted something more with her.

"And thanks for walking me home." Gabriella said as they started walking down the side walk and his hand absentmindedly found hers.

"No problem, maybe we can do this again sometime." Troy suggested. "Well I mean not the party, but something else together…maybe quieter with no guys trying to hit on you with me by your side." Troy said referring back to one drunk guy who was too drunk and stupid to realize that Gabriella was there with their schools King, Troy Bolton.

Gabriella laughed slightly. "Yeah…that sound good." Gabriella and Troy made it to her front porch as the only source of light came from her porch light which she left on from before.

Troy tried to rack his brain for a good place to take Gabriella that wasn't too fancy where they both would be uncomfortable, but yet he didn't exactly want to take her to a Burger King around in their town. "How about next Friday we go see that new movie coming out?" Troy suggested.

Gabriella didn't know if her mother would like this, but what her mother didn't know couldn't hurt, could it? Plus if her mom was allowed to have a so called 'distraction' then so was she.

"I'll look forward to it." Gabriella said with her sweet smile that was burning it's way into Troy's mind.

"Good night Gabi." Troy said as he leaned in and they shared a sweet short kiss unlike the make out session the two just had that was filled with hunger, lust, and eagerness.

"Bye Troy Boy." Gabriella said as she opened her door and Troy and her both stood on the separate sides of the door thinking this relationship could possibly work.