Troy was on Varsity reserved his freshman year on the basketball team. He was in the starting line up his sophomore year. He had won the championships that year and he was expected to do that again this year as their captain. He wasn't scared, he wasn't backing down, he wasn't chicken when it came to that kind of stuff. He was excited and a little nervous, kind of what he was feeling right now standing outside Gabriella's dad's huge house.

It would be a lie if Troy said he was a little intimidated since the only other time Troy had saw Carlos Arias was at Gabriella's dance competition as he was in a heated argument with Anna Montez. And now looking at his perfectly groomed green lawn that was half the size of a standard football field and that was just in the front as Troy was sure that there was more lawn in the back, it all lead up to the big White colonial house. It had huge columns outlining the wrap around porch that had a worn in looking bench that was connected to rusty looking chains to make it swing gently.

It had two balconies which Troy though meant it must have at least three stories to the house. It had a balcony off to the side also which had Troy thinking of Gabriella's room at her mother's house and how for the first time a week ago he climbed. Troy looked down at Gabriella as she smiled at him. She didn't look surprised, but he thought she had never been here before?

"So…are you ready?" Gabriella asked as Troy scratched the back of his neck. Now he was well off money wise, but this…was big! Whatever Mr. Arias did he wanted to do too, as long as it didn't run into basketball.

"So he just moved in here?" Troy made small talk with Gabriella as they were walking up the long ways to the double front doors with their hands connected.

"No, this uh…we used to live here up until I was five and we owned a couple of houses to rent out, and this was one of them." Gabriella said. "And then when my dad started traveling for business and my parents got a divorce, my dad still kept this house just in case." Gabriella explained as they made it to the porch.

"So…" Troy said trying to delay the process. He was nervous, as much as Gabriella had explained to him that her dad was like a giant kid himself, and wasn't that intimidating, it sure seemed like Gabriella lied to him. Come on, her dad was a high power business man that probably had more money than some athletes, and you don't most likely make it to the top by being nice to people.

"Don't worry Wildcat, he's gonna love you." Gabriella smiled as her index fingers found Troy's two front belt loops and pulled him closer by the belt loops. "I promise." Gabriella said against Troy's lips.

"Yeah, he's gonna love you." Gabriella and Troy both pulled back at the sound of Gabriella's dad's amused voice. Gabriella and Troy share a look as both of their faces turned a slight red and Gabriella turned towards her dad.

"Hey, dad." Gabriella greeted.

"Hey honey, and I presume this is Troy, or in this case Wildcat?" Her dad more of questioned as Gabriella's face turned even more red. "Do I even want to know how he got that nickname?"

"Oh my God." Gabriella's eyes were wide as she looked down at the ground, maybe this wasn't such a good idea having Troy and her dad meet. It was sure to be an embarrassing afternoon for her.

Troy stiffened a chuckle as he turned to look at Carlos. "I'm Carlos." Gabriella saw Troy and her father exchange handshakes as her face was somewhat going back to it's regular color.

"I'm Troy." Troy said as they let go and he felt somewhat at ease after spending a minute with Carlos, he seemed okay so far even though he seemed to be embarrassing Gabriella, but Troy didn't care because he found that Gabriella was cute when she blushed.

"Why don't you two come on in. Unless you want to stay out here and continue what you were doing before I came to introduce myself." Carlos said with a smile as Gabriella felt Troy wrap his arm around her waist and Gabriella buried her head into his chest.

"We'll come inside." Gabriella muttered as Carlos motioned with his hands that they could go first.

"So how did Jake do with the scout?" Carlos asked as they were now all seated out on the wooden deck in the backyard that was connected to screen doors in the kitchen.

Gabriella smiled, "You remembered?"

Carlos let out a good hearty chuckle. "I remember more than you give me credit for."

Gabriella rolled her eyes as Troy watched the two interact and if you were new to this conversation you wouldn't be able to tell that Gabriella's dad walked away from his family all those years ago, wait…did he walk away? Troy felt his forehead crease as he tried to remember if Gabriella ever explained the situation to him, but found that he didn't have anything in his memory.

Troy snapped his head up as he heard glasses being put down on the glass table that had one of those curtains on it to block the sun from hitting you directly. He smiled, silently thanking the older looking woman as she silently and quickly walked away leaving three large glasses of lemonade for them.

"So Troy…" Carlos started out as Troy realized he must have missed the rest of the conversation about Jake who he really hadn't talked to since the day Gabriella and him got into their first fight, he should really do something with him. "Gabriella here tells me that you're the varsity captain of the basketball team?"

Troy nodded as he felt Gabriella's hand squeeze his knee gently as he briefly looked over at her and saw a gentle smile planted on her face. "Yeah, we just had try outs this week and I guess I'm their Captain." Troy said modestly, he didn't want to come off as a stuck up jock in front of Gabriella's father.

Before Gabriella's dad could say anything else the maid came out and was carrying the phone. "Sir, your business is on the other line. They say it's an emergency."

Carlos took the phone and the maid walked away again. "I wonder to myself every time they do this, when's it gonna get through their big fat heads that when I'm at home I don't want to be disturbed?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she had an amusing smile on her face. Troy smiled back at Gabriella, things seemed to be going okay with her dad. Gabriella was right, he was easy to talk to, and they had only been there for an hour, but considering half that time spent Carlos showed them around his house.

They had 15 bedrooms, five on each floor, two living rooms, a family room, even though Troy didn't know the difference, a dining room, a kitchen, seven bathrooms, an indoor pool with hot tub, a basement that had a fully stocked bar, dance floor, and to top it off a half court basketball court that Carlos said has never been used. Troy found that this house was awesome and he wondered how much Gabriella still wasn't telling him, not that he didn't mind.

"I'll just be one minute." Carlos said as he stood up and Troy noticed he had a frustrated face on.

Troy heard Gabriella sigh as he shifted his weight to look at her fully. "So…?" Gabriella poked at and Troy didn't quiet get what she was trying to get at.

"So?…" Troy copied as Gabriella raised her eye brow.

"So, what do you think?" Gabriella asked.

"Don't you think you should be asking your dad this instead? I thought he was the one analyzing me instead of the other way around?" Troy said with playfulness in his voice as Gabriella dropped her smile and stared at him.

"Troy, just tell me what you think. It's really not that hard." Gabriella said in a matter of fact way.

Troy was getting amusement out of this. He liked how much Gabriella took into consideration of how he was feeling, no other girl really took him home to meet their parents, or in this case, parent.

Gabriella seemed a little irritated as she dramatically sighed. "Just tell me, and if you feel uncomfortable at all we can leave." Gabriella urged.

Troy shook his head with a smile on his face as he concentrated on the drink in front of him, loving how he could get Gabriella so worked up to see that cute little glare she could put on. Of course he also loved the smile that she wore when she was happy, so that gave him a bigger freedom of either answering her right away or delaying and answering later.

"I think…I'm happy I met him." Troy said as Gabriella sighed and he heard her chair being pushed against the deck as she stood up.

"Wildcat…" Gabriella said in her low sexy voice. Troy felt Gabriella sit on the arm of his chair as she wrapped her arms around his neck making him look up at her as she smirked at him. "Tell me what you really think." Gabriella purred into his ear as she gave his ear a little flick.

Troy shut his eyes for a second knowing Gabriella had won this one, "I think…" In one swift movement he brought his arms around her and pulled her off of the arm of the chair and into his lap. "He's a really cool guy." Troy kissed her cheek before going for her ear. "Just like his daughter said he was, and I had nothing to worry about…just like his daughter said to me." Troy pulled back from Gabriella's ear and saw her smiling widely at him, showing her teeth, but yet she didn't have an innocent look in her eyes.

"Have I ever told you that you know exactly what to say?" Gabriella asked as their foreheads leaned against each other.

As they heard Gabriella's father's voice once more Gabriella hopped off of Troy as they both turned their heads and saw that her father was still inside the screen door, but his head was turned and Troy assumed he was talking to the maid.

"Hey guys, sorry about that." Carlos said as he walked over to the two again with a face that told Troy that he was annoyed with his work. "So I'm gonna have to cut this short. It seems my employees don't know how to manage on their own anymore. I'm so sorry Gabriella, but you guys can stay for as long as you like and I left money on the counter for pizza or whatever the hell you eat nowadays." Carlos said kissing Gabriella on top of her head as she had one arm around his waist in a half hug. "You're not mad, are you?"

Gabriella shook her head, "Are you kidding my, I got to spend some time with my dad, I am furious right now." Gabriella said sarcastically as she smiled at her dad who rolled his eyes.

"And that's my sarcastic daughter I know." Carlos held his hand out to Troy as Troy stood up and shook his head. "So there's swim suits in the guests rooms and the basement has pool and air hockey, you guys can stay for as long as you like. It was great meeting you Troy. Good luck in basketball." Carlos waved back to the two again as he rushed to his car and Gabriella sighed once more.

"That was…" Troy started.

"Unexpected." Gabriella filled in with a smile. Troy nodded not really knowing how to put it.

"Um…yeah. So do you want to head out or stay here, or we could catch a movie?" Troy suggested.

"You want to stay here? I'm sure we can find something to do." Gabriella said as she looked back at the house, as if she had x-ray vision and could see inside the rooms at what they could do.

Troy shrugged, he personally didn't care what they did as long as they spent their time together and then he thought of something. "Hey, you want to call Jake? We haven't really seen him lately."

Gabriella turned on her heal with one eye brow kinked and biting her lower lip in the corner of her mouth. Troy smiled innocently at her, like a little six year old boy. He knew that this was getting him brownie points of thinking of her best friend, but that wasn't why he was doing it. He was merely suggesting it because it made Gabriella happy. "And then maybe Tay would like to come too, I know you two haven't seen each other lately."

Gabriella walked over to Troy and draped both of her arms around his neck. "That's a really good idea Wildcat." Gabriella pecked him on the lips and started walking away from him.

Troy just stood there, "You don't even give me time to react!" Troy called back as he saw Gabriella's smooth shoulders go up and down in a shrug.

"If I did then we would have a whole other problem on our hands." Troy heard Gabriella's amused voice call back to him as he smirked and followed her inside.

"So where was Shar?" Tay asked as she was busy concentrating on Haley's finger nails with the used to be black brush that was now covered in a deep red nail paint.

Gabriella flipped through her magazine as they could hear the three guys bouncing the basketball on the court in the room over. "She's at Zeke's parents restaurant testing some of the new foods they want to put on the menus." Gabriella said as she looked up from her magazine briefly.

"What restaurant is Zeke's family's?" Haley asked nonchalantly as she looked at her own magazine and Taylor screwed the cap on the nail polish back on.

"Done." Taylor said proudly as Haley put the magazine aside and examined Taylor's work.

"This looks great Tay. Thanks." Haley exclaimed as Taylor smiled modestly.

"They own that one restaurant downtown that is more for teenagers to hang out in, The Red Stone." Gabriella said with a sigh. "I should really update my dad's magazine collection."

"You know Gabriella…" Haley said with a tone that told Gabriella that she wanted something and she was probably going to say no to. "Our schools dancing team isn't half bad."

Gabriella and Taylor shared a look, obviously Haley didn't know that the dance captain approached Gabriella last year and asked her to join. "Um…" Gabriella said trying to hide a smile. "I don't do poms."

"I know. Believe me, everyone on the squad has had to hear Brittany complain about how you turned her down, but that doesn't mean that you can't help us?" Haley more like asked with a pleading look that Gabriella almost wanted to say yes to.

"Help you?" Gabriella asked not quiet understanding what they would need help with. They do have a coach and captain.

"Well…" Haley drew out the word, "Our Coach…Mrs. Brown is due for her baby in a couple of months so she can't get us through the whole season which is no big deal because we have Brittany to work on the dances, but…" Haley paused. "She's our best dancer and failing two of her classes."

"So?" Gabriella asked.

"So…the principal said that it would almost be impossible to make up by the end of the season and she's off the squad. So, we know we can pull off dancing, but not the making of the routine part." Haley said in one breath as she looked pleadingly at Gabriella.

Taylor looked from Haley to Gabriella with an amused smirk on her face. Gabriella was one of the best dancers around locally, but she knew that she would be stretching it thin.

"I don't--"

"Please." Haley begged. "Plus you get to cheer on your boyfriend and some of your friends." Haley countered as Gabriella sighed.

"So you met this guy?" Jake asked as he was leaning against the wall near the door that was surrounded by this thick glass around the basketball court.

Troy sighed as he jumped up to shoot the ball and came down in perfect form as the ball went in with nothing but net. "Yeah, and he seemed really cool." Troy paused as he turned around to look at the blonde who looked unconvinced as they let Chad do his own thing with the basketball. "He seemed…unfatherly?" Troy more like questioned.

"Dude, is that even a word?" Chad came up besides Troy as he was holding the basketball.

Jake narrowed his eyes as his forehead creased in suspicion. "What do you mean...unfatherly?"

Troy scratched the back of his neck. He meant nothing bad by it of course, it's just…Carlos didn't seem that strict like other dads he has seen. "Well…uh…it's just he was laid back." Troy finished quickly as Jake raised his eye brows and Troy found that he was almost more protective of Gabriella than her dad was.

"Laid back?" Jake asked himself quietly as Troy saw him put on a questioning look.

"And well…he wasn't so uptight and intimidating as I thought he was going to be. You know how he was when we first saw him back in October." Troy pointed out.

Jake shrugged, "Yeah, but…I would still like to meet him." Jake said in an unnaturally low voice as he stared hard at the ground.

Troy looked over at Chad who just shrugged. "I think he's probably cool, especially if he trusts us teenagers in this awesome house." Chad reasoned.

Jake sighed. "Maybe…" He still sounded unsure, but Troy was fine with it as long as Jake wasn't so worked up that he wanted to punch Carlos for leaving Gabriella, but…Troy was now confused, did Carlos leave Gabriella or did Gabriella and her mom leave him?

"I'm getting hungry, you think the girls are done talking about girl things?" Chad asked as he set the basketball down and started heading up.

"You guys up for pizza?" Troy asked as all three boys started heading up the few stairs that lead up to the girls to catch the last of what Haley was saying.

"Please." Haley begged. "Plus you get to cheer on your boyfriend and some of your friends." Haley countered as Gabriella sighed.

"Hey." Troy greeted as he was the first to reach them. "I heard boyfriend, and cheer on…you must be talking about me." Troy said cockily as he flopped down by Gabriella who rolled her eyes at him as Jake and Chad both walked in also and went by their respected girlfriends.

"Tell her to join the dance team." Haley demanded as the three guys all looked at Gabriella who was glaring at Haley.

"Dance team?" Chad asked as he let out a small laugh. "You mean the girls that dance with poms?"

Haley rolled her eyes. "Where have you been the last two and a half years? They're at your every basketball, football, and even baseball games." Haley sent a pointed glare at Chad who nodded his head in weak understanding as Taylor just stiffened a laugh at how oblivious her boyfriend could be.

"You want to join the team?" Troy asked confused.

Gabriella shook her head, "No." She exclaimed.

"Yes." Haley said at the same time Gabriella spoke. "Tell her to do it Bolton."

"Wait, why would she join it for the basketball team but not football?" Jake asked as he sounded offended.

Gabriella gave him a you-got-to-be-kidding-me look. "Jake!" Gabriella shrieked. "I can't believe you're taking apart of this nonsense."

Jake shrugged as Gabriella felt Troy slip his arm around her waist. "Well…yeah. Come on, if you do that for the basketball team, then what about your best friend?"

"I'm her boyfriend." Troy countered as Jake shrugged.

"So, I've known her longer."

"But I'm dating her."

"But I'm her neighbor."

"But I kiss her."

"But I drive her to school."

"But I sleep--…ow!" Troy exclaimed as Gabriella elbowed him in the chest and everyone looked at the two with amusement.

"You want to continue that sentence?" Gabriella warned as she then turned her attention to everyone. "Does Gabriella get a say in this?"

"Just think about it, all you have to do is put together a routine with a song we pick out, and then come in twice…make that three times out of the five practices we have in a week and teach it to us." Haley recited like she had been practicing it. "And we practice when the basketball team practices so you'll get to see Bolton, and we learn fast."

Gabriella sighed, "I like that basketball part. I get to see you in shorts." Troy whispered in her ear.

Gabriella sighed again, "I have my own dance practices after school." Haley groaned as Gabriella could see how upset she was. She knew that she would have to figure something out when it became January, but she still had a month and a half to worry about that. "But I can do it in the mornings for an hour. And since that's less time than usual, I can do it all five days and not three." Gabriella offered as Haley's face lit up.

"Yes!" Haley squealed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Gabriella smiled. "Just call me coach." She muttered as she felt Troy give her a kiss on the top of her head. Maybe this could be fun?