A/N: Not the best chapter and I'm sorry. I'm still getting into the story. The next chapter will be better, I promise. Don't own HSM
Chapter 1 – Boy troubles
"Well, this is it." Gabriella exclaimed, walking into her room with Troy trailing behind.
"Wow." Troy gasped in amazement at her large bedroom. "Your room is…"
"In some sort of order?" Gabriella tried, walking over to the couch and taking the cushions off.
"What are you doing?" Troy demanded. "Trying to make it even more uncomfortable?"
"No. Hold on a second." She mumbled as she reached down between the back rest and the seat. "Aha!" She finally pulled it out to reveal a pull-out bed. "It's not as un-comfy as it looks. Trust me. When all of my friends have sleepovers, me, Taylor and Sharpay all sleep on the couch and Kelsi and Martha have the bed. The guys just…sleep on the floor." She laughed slightly.
"Your Dad lets guys in your room?" Troy asked slowly as he placed his suitcase on the sofa.
Gabriella went to her closet and pulled out some pillows and blankets. "Only some guys. You're obviously one of them. The guys he lets in are my best friends in the world. There's Chad, he taught me basketball, and Zeke, he taught me how to cook, Ryan taught me how to sing and play the piano, and Jason… Jason is just a really great friend." She explained, placing the pillows and blankets on the sofa.
Troy nodded as he started unzipping his suitcase. "Where can I put my clothes?"
Gabriella pointed to her closet. "There's room on the right hand side. Don't mess up my closet. I will know if you do. It's in a precise order. So… Don't touch it."
Troy nodded again "Right."
Gabriella went over to her desk and picked up some books before walking over to her book shelves. She started sorting her books out in alphabetical order. "By the way, don't go in the top drawer of the chest of drawers or the bottom drawer in the bathroom."
Troy looked up from hanging some jeans on a coat hanger. "I don't want to know."
Gabriella shrugged as she sat down on her bed. "Why do you think I told you not to go in there?"
Gabriella's balcony door opened and she turned around, grinning as she leapt up into the young man's arms. "Gabby, you need to go and talk to Zeke."
Gabriella pulled back and frowned. "Zeke? I need to go to Sharpay's once Troy's done here. And then I've got a date. Although, it won't really be a date since I've got take Troy there too."
"Troy?"
"That would be me." Troy raised his hand as he walked between them, going back over to his suitcase and grabbing a denim jacket.
"Hi. I'm Chad." Chad introduced himself before turning to Gabriella. "Does he know East High is going to skin him alive?" He whispered.
She shook her head. "Do you want to be the one to tell him that?"
* * *
Gabriella jumped off her skateboard and let it roll onto the lawn as she ran up the garden path. "Troy, hurry up!"
Troy did the same thing with his own skateboard and ran after Gabriella. "I'm coming. Aren't you worried about the skateboards?"
"Have you seen the security around here? It'll be fine. Trust me." Gabriella explained, pushing the front door open.
"I don't know why we couldn't have just driven here!" Troy defended, following her and shutting the door behind him. He gasped at the size of the house. It was practically a mansion! This girl must be rich.
"Well, my truck is broken at the moment and have you seen the amount of traffic lights in this small town?" She exclaimed. She continued when she noticed Troy's facial expression. "Sharpay's parents are really rich. They grew up on Broadway." Gabriella explained, making her way up the stairs. She entered a room which had a pink door and a gold star on it with her name painted on in a fancy font. "Sharpay, Honey, are you okay?" She rushed over to her friend who was sat on the floor, surrounded by three other girls, and was hugging a pillow and sobbing into tissues.
Sharpay sniffed and started to cry harder as Gabriella hugged her. "Zeke… Was flirting… With another girl."
Gabriella frowned and looked at the other three girls. "Why was Zeke flirting?"
A beautiful African-American girl stared quizzically at Troy who had sat down on Sharpay's bed and brought out a Nintendo DS. She turned her attention back to Gabriella and shrugged. "I've tried telling her that Zeke wouldn't flirt but she won't listen."
"Tay's right." Gabriella said softly. "Zeke wouldn't ever flirt with another girl. Remember those five years he spent being oblivious you flirting and then he asked you out?"
Sharpay giggled slightly but then cried harder. "He was the best boyfriend I could've asked for."
Gabriella sighed. "Shar, you and Zeke break up at least once a fortnight and in two hours you guys get back together again."
A young brunette girl with glasses rolled her eyes slightly. "We all know that Shar's just a drama queen, aren't you? By the way, who's he?" She asked, pointing at Troy who was too wrapped up in his game to notice anything.
Gabriella sighed. "That's Troy. Remember I told you guys about a guy coming and staying with my family because his parents died?"
A curvy brunette girl nodded in realisation. "Oh yeah, I remember now." She frowned at his clothes. "Why is he dressed like that?"
"He's from L.A., Martha." Gabriella explained just as her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and smiled slightly. She flipped her phone up and giggled. "Hey, Chris. What's up?"
"Hey, um, are we still on for dinner tonight?" He asked.
Gabriella sighed and stood up, walking over to Sharpay's balcony and stepping out into the warm Albuquerque air. "Chris, I'm sorry but I won't be able to go."
"Why?" Chris asked quietly.
"Remember I told you about that guy who I used to be best friends with? And how he's staying with my family now?" She asked carefully.
"What about him?"
"My dad said that if I went out with you, he'd have to come. Don't say anything. I'm not happy about it, myself." She mumbled. "And, besides, Sharpay's mad at Zeke so I'm here, so is Troy and I'm not in the best mood right now." She explained.
"Oh, Baby. Do you want me to call round tonight?" Chris asked softly.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Troy's still settling in and you know how my dad is." She sighed. "I'll meet tomorrow in starbucks for breakfast? How does that sound?"
"I like the sound of that." He said softly. "It's a date. But, I've got to baby sit Don in the afternoon." She said apologetically.
"That's okay." Chris said softly. "I'll see you for breakfast."
"Bye Chris." She giggled. She walked back into the room to see Sharpay on her phone, Kelsi, Taylor and Martha were talking and Troy was…gone. "Where's Troy?"
Martha, Taylor and Kelsi looked to the bed and saw that Troy had, indeed, vanished. "We don't know. We didn't know he'd left." Kelsi said timidly.
"What?" Gabriella yelled, running out of the room. Just as she was about to leave the house, she heard a familiar voice. She followed it and walked into the large kitchen to find Troy talking to Ryan, Sharpay's twin brother. "So, this is where you got off to, Bolton?"
Troy looked up from the sandwich he was making and shrugged. "I was hungry and then Ryan came in."
Ryan nodded, licking his finger which had some ketchup on it. "Yeah. We were talking about you, actually."
"Me?" Gabriella asked in disbelief.
Troy smiled genuinely at her. "Sure. Why are you so surprised?"
Gabriella walked over to him and pinched a slice of ham off of his plate. "Because…what could you find about me that's worth talking about?"
Ryan rolled his eyes as he grabbed the packet of ham and placed a slice on the lettuce. "Gabby, we're guys. What we talk about is between us."
Gabriella poked her tongue out at him and rolled her eyes. "I don't want to know what guys talk about. Even though half of my best friends are guys."
"And your boyfriend." Ryan reminded her.
"I know I have a boyfriend. I was talking to him five minutes ago on the phone." Gabriella explained.
Troy placed a final slice of bread on the sandwich and picked it up, ready to take a bite. "You have a boyfriend?"
Gabriella nodded. "Sure. Is it so hard to believe?"
"No, I didn't mean it like that but… The way you're acting with Ryan and Chad…I assumed…" He trailed off.
"That I'm single?" She tried, earning a nod from Troy. "They're like my brothers. Aren't you, Yan?" She asked, taking his cap off his head and placing it on hers.
"You know, you could call me Ryan, like everyone else in the world." Ryan pointed out.
"Yes, but, I need a special nickname." She protested with a grin on her face. "The point is, I mess around with them because they're like my brothers."
"Which means I can do this." Ryan grabbed a canister of whipped cream and squirted it on her head.
Gabriella screamed with surprise. "Ryan!"
Troy laughed and took a bite of his sandwich. "Good one, Dude."
"What about you, Mr Hollywood?" Gabriella asked, slowly reaching for some maple syrup.
"Gabriella…think about what you're going to do." Troy spoke slowly.
Gabriella grabbed the syrup and poured it all over Troy, laughing as she threw the empty can onto the counter. "That's for coming into my life. We better go home and take a shower." Her eyes widened as she realised what she said. "I mean, separately. I'll go after Troy. Bye Ryan." She quickly left the kitchen, running out of the house.
Troy turned to Ryan. "Is she always like this?"
Ryan nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much. But, watch out for her boyfriend, Chris. We tried talking some sense into her but she won't listen."
"What do you mean?" Troy asked worriedly, taking his cap off his head and running a hand through his hair.
"You'll know when it happens. Oh, and can you tell Gabby to give me my hat back on Monday?" Ryan asked.