A/N; Thanks to everyone for reviewing! I'm glad there are people out there who like this story. Updates are weekly now, by the way.

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Disclaimer; Nope. Nothing.

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Troy blinked.

He was in way out of his league.

Burly bikers hollered for service as pimply teenagers rushed around, frantically trying to please the orders of various customers. Grease clung to the air, the smell of French fries and oily plates of burgers wafting over to their table. Troy looked at a gleeful Gabriella. She grinned back at him. He shook his head in disbelief.

He was in a dingy old diner.

Gabriella had nearly laughed at the shocked expression on Troy's face when she had dragged him from in front a fancy French restaurant to a small, bustling diner across the street. It had taken her a full ten minutes to convince him to eat there, and there was no way she was leaving now. Grabbing a fork, she offered it to Troy. He raised his eyebrows.

"Is it clean?" he whispered, inspecting the chopsticks skeptically.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. Stabbing into her chilli cheese fries, she waited until Troy opened his mouth to complain about the place again before shoving it into his mouth. Troy looked appropriately mortified with bits of cheese hanging out of his mouth.

"Chew" she commanded.

Inwardly grumbling, Troy began to chew. Pregnant women are so bossy, he thought grumpily as he bit down on the heavily laden chips. His bright blue eyes widened at the delicious taste. Gabriella looked smug.

"Good isn't it?"

Troy mumbled something about it being 'alright'. Gabriella laughed. Troy couldn't help but smile. Her joy was infectious. They shared a knowing look. Gabriella felt her skin tingle with excitement as she stared into Troy's eyes. Her stomach fluttered. Troy swallowed discreetly. He could hear his heart thumping in his ears. He slowly tilted his head towards Gabriella, and she the same. Their lips were centimetres when the chubby boss behind the counter loudly yelled to them,

"That'll be twenty dollars, you crazy teenagers!"

Troy and Gabriella jolted apart like they had been electrocuted. Gabriella looked away, flushing with embarrassment. Troy coughed violently. Cue awkward silence. Finally, Troy spoke, his voice two octaves higher than it usually was.

"We should finish eating. I'll take you hom-I mean, to Taylor's place" he mumbled, stuffing his mouth with noodles.

Gabriella nodded, before inwardly groaning.

She couldn't wait to be interrogated by Taylor and Sharpay.

--

"Oh. My. God"

"Do you think she's crazy?"

"Maybe it's the hormones. I mean, Gabriella wouldn't do that if she didn't have five extra kilos dragging her down, right?"

"Did you just call our godchild extra baggage?"

"I may have"

"Sharpay!"

"What? I'm just saying, nearly kissing the guy that raped your virginity doesn't exactly counts as sane, you know"

"For the last time, I wasn't raped!"

Gabriella glared at her two best friends as they sprawled across Taylor's four-poster bed. Sometimes she really regretted telling her friends everything. Sharpay grinned sheepishly. Taylor played with her hair. Gabriella groaned, flopping onto her back. Sharpay quirked an eyebrow.

"So, are you saying that you were perfectly willing to get yourself knocked up by Troy Bolton, playboy extraordinaire?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"No, I'm just saying that we both had a little too much to drink and ended up doing something we both regretted. Didn't we go through this last month?" she retorted.

"He wasn't even talking to you last month! Now the playboy's taking responsibility! Major plot development, girl!" Taylor snapped her fingers sassily.

Gabriella groaned. The girl had watched too many TV shows. Sharpay giggled. Then, her hazel eyes twinkled.

"Hey Gabi...when you said he leant in, what did you do?"

Gabriella spluttered on her Coke. She played with the hem of the blanket as Taylor and Sharpay waited, knowing smirks playing on their lips.

"Er… well, I kind of, maybe tilted my head a bit too" she mumbled incoherently, hoping they didn't hear.

Unfortunately for Gabriella, her best friends had superhuman hearing when they wanted to.

"WHAT?! OH MY GOD WHY DID YOU DO THAT? DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHAT HE DID TO YOU? YOU JUST CAN'T GO AROUND KISSING JACKASSES, GABRIELLA MONTEZ!" Sharpay screeched.

Gabriella cringed at her friend's shrill rant. She looked expectantly at Taylor, waiting for another shocked outburst. She looked deep in thought, cocking her head to the side as she stared at Gabriella. Gabriella knitted her brows together.

"What?"

"You really like him, don't you?"

Gabriella spluttered again, coughing violently. Taylor dutifully patted her back, shaking her head. Gabriella looked away in embarrassment. Sharpay stifled a giggle. Gabriella reddened.

"Um..." she stuttered.

Sharpay and Taylor looked at each other. Gabriella was always bad at lying.

"Girl, you got it bad"

--

Chad and Jason blinked, before bursting into raucous laughter. Troy huffed at his friends, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. Sometimes he regretted telling everything to his friends. Chad raised an eyebrow.

"Drama queen much, Bolton?"

Jason snickered, before a lightbulb went off in his head. A knowing smirk spread across his handsome face.

"Dude, you totally like her! As in like-like, not the I-wanna-get-in-your-pants like. Like you actually car-"

"I do not!" Troy almost yelled out, steam coming out of his ears.

Chad chuckled at the nervous expression on his flushed face. The poor boy's finally fallen in love, he thought ruefully. After years of watching Troy play with so many girls' hearts, he was actually kind of glad that a girl had caught Troy off guard for once. Even if it was a nobody like Gabriella Montez.

"Face it, you like her. What's more, she pregnant with your baby! You've got her hooked! Now go get her" he quipped, leaning back on the snug lounge.

Troy rolled his eyes.

"For the last time guys, I don't like Gabriella! I'm just there for the baby. No strings attached"

"No strings attached? You knocked her up! You've attached your strings a long time ago. The strings are like so stringy they're like, heaps of strings stringed together-" Jason ranted

"Enough with the strings! Just tell us the truth, do you like her or not?" Chad interrupted.

Troy bit his lip.

"Define like"

Jason smacked his hand on his forehead. Chad shook his head.

"Dude, you are so into her"

--