Hey guys! Well, this story is nearly overrr. Thank god, it was supposed to be a one shot, then it was a two shot, and now it's planned to be a five shot. Then again, I never stick to the plans. Next chapter should be coming up soon, but again, I never stick to the plans do I? It'll probably end up being up in about 6 months :) Hopefully it'll be worth the wait. As will this one. Incase you've forgotten, here's a recap.

Recap: There's Gabriella, and she's a bit of a geek, and then Troy is popular and everything, yet their best friends. Troy get's a girlfriend called Stefanie, and she's really intimidating and she's coming between Troy and Gabriella and Troy's ditching Gabriella all the time to hang out with Stefanie. So here we go.

Please review! :)

He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar,

The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star,

He's the song in the car I keep singing,

Don't know why I do.

Gabriella grinned as Troy walked towards her and she closed her locker.

"Good morning," she greeted him, handing him a handful of her books to carry.

"Morning sunshine," he replied. "How are we on this fine morning?"

"I'm gurdd," she grinned. "How about you?"

"I'm fantastically amazing."

"Why? Have fun last night?"

"A lot of fun." he grinned, making Gabriella roll her eyes.

"I don't want to know. But you're really gonna have to make last night up to me. Ditcher."

"I thought you said it was cool."

"You still have to make it up to me."

"How about tonight?"

"And you definately wont go this time?"

"You offered!"

"I didn't mean it!"

"What?"

"It's just something you say to be polite. Like when you ask the person you really don't like if they want a Rolo, and you don't really want them to take up the offer, but they do."

"Well you shouldn't have offered it in the first place."

"Whatever, just make your best promise not to go."

"Alright." he nodded, before the bell rang, just as they walked into homeroom.

---

"Are you ready to go?" he asked as they walked out of their last class together.

"Almost, just let me put these books in my locker." Gabriella smiled.

"I'll wait by your car."

"See you in a minute," she said, walking away to go to the hallway where her locker was.

She walked casually, her heels clicking on the floor as she clutched her books to her chest. She whipped her phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and checking the time, texting her mom to inform her that she was going out tonight, when she unexpectedly walked in to someone. She looked up to apologize, and she felt her heart pang in nervousness as she saw it was Stefanie... not exactly looking happy. She cleared her throat and made brief eye contact with her for a second.

"Um," she said. "I'm sorry."

"So you should be." she said bitterly, making Gabriella cringe.

"Well, I better get going." she said, stepping aside to walk past her.

"Don't think so," she said, grabbing her arm and whipping her back around. Her eyes widened in fear. "What do you think you're doing hanging around with my boyfriend?"

"Um.."

"If I catch you even looking at him again, I swear, I'll scratch your fucking eyes out. Got it?" she snapped angrily, making Gabriella gulp. She couldn't believe what was happening. "Can you speak?"

She cleared her throat. "Y..yes."

"Then answer me." she said, gritting her teeth. "You stay away from him from now on. You know, I really don't know who you think you are. You're a geek, and you have no chance with him. So stop trying to copy me, and go back to your geeky, bookworm, ugly self. You don't fit in, and you never will. You might as well not make yourself look even more pathetic by trying to."

"Right." Gabriella squeaked.

"Get out of my way." she said, pushing the numb Gabriella into the locker and walking away.

She stood aimlessly in the corridor, getting her breath back since she was too scared to move beforehand. She didn't dare to move at all before she was certain that she was out of eyesight and earshot. She turned around, this time looking around instead of surveying her phone. She went to her locker and shoved her books in lazily, stopping a minute to put her head down and just think for a moment. What was she going to do now? Troy was waiting for her outside by her car. Stefanie was less than a mile away. She didn't want to get her eyes clawed out. She liked having eyes. Her stomach was churning so much with fear that she felt physically sick. Was she going to risk her physical health and school happiness just for an evening out with Troy? She sighed and closed her locker, walking down the hallway cautiously. She walked out of the front entrance and saw Troy leaning on her car door. She sighed and walked over to him.

"Hey Gabs, you ready to go?" he asked. She hesitated before replying and cleared her throat, looking around before replying.

"Actually..." she paused. "I don't think I can go."

"What?"

"I don't think I can go."

"Why not?"

"I don't think I can."

"Well obviously. What's came up?"

"My mom wants me home. She needs to talk to me."

"Your mom's at work tonight."

"She's not." she said, her eyes darting to her right.

"Your lying. You look to the right, well, my left when you lie. Do you not want to go out with me?"

"No, no, of course I do."

"Then why don't you want to go out."

"I think I left my straighteners on."

"Your hair is curly today. Gabriella, at least try and think up a good lie if you're going to lie to me."

"Troy_"

"Gabriella." he copied her. "Seriously, you've been asking me to go out all week and now we finally can you don't want to."

"I do want to,"

"Then stop making pathetic excuses up and get in the car with me."

"I can't."

"Why not? Come on, Gabriella. Why are you lying? Is something going on."

Oh yeah, your girlfriend just threatened to claw my eyes out if she see's me with you again.

"No." she said.

"Gabs," he said. "Tell me."

"There's nothing to tell."

"Right, well," he said, dropping the car keys he had into her hands. "Guess I'm walking home."

"Troy," she said, following him. "Troy, come on. Please."

"I can't believe you aren't telling me something. You've always told me everything. You told me first when you found your cat in the road after it had been run over that time. You told me when John got mad and hit you. Not your mom. You've always came to me first, and I don't see why you can't now. I know every little thing about you."

She kept quiet, not knowing what to say.

"Are you sick?" he asked a little more considerately and scaredly.

"What? No, no, of course not." she denied.

"Gabs, if you are_"

"Troy, I'm not. Really, I'm fine. I'm good. Let's just go."

"Gabby," he said "You'll tell me if something's wrong wont you?"

"Troy," she paused before getting in the car to look him in the eye. "Like you said, I've always told you every single thing that's been on my mind since I was two. Honestly, just because we had a little bit of a disagreement yesterday, doesn't mean anythings changed. I'll definately tell you if something is wrong. I just felt a little tired and lazy, that's all." she said, before hinting cheekily. "Maybe a Starbucks would perk me up."

"A small one."

"Venti."

"Which is venti?"

"Oh it's totally the smallest one there." she lied as they got in the car and buckled their seatbelts. "It's tiny."

"You can have one bigger than that."

"No, I think I'll just get a Venti. I'll be fine with one of those." she smirked.

"Alright," he said, pulling out and heading towards the small Starbucks that was cosily set on the corner.

"Venti caramel creme frappucino please," Gabriella ordered, Troy waiting for her at the door. She took the lid off it and sprinkled chocolate dust over the whipped cream,

"If that's tiny then what's the big one like?" he asked her as they walked out to get back into the car.

"It's huge."

"We'll share one sometime."

"We should." she nodded, knowing he'd forget about it in three seconds with his colinder memory. "Where we going now?"

"Want to go bowling?" he asked, getting in the car and buckling his seatbelt.

"Sounds fun." she replied, slurping up more of her drink.

They pulled out of their parking space and drove around the parking lot to find the exit. Gabriella felt a little uncomfortable. What if Stefanie or her slaves saw her?

"So anyway, how's your mom? Not been to your house in a while."

"She's alright. Not that I'd know." she added on.

"Sorry," he said akwardly, knowing she was kind of like an orphan with the lack of time she shared with her mom. He knew she was kind of jealous that he got to spend all this time with his parents. He felt bad complaining about them being clingy and about having his dad with him at school too. She loved the attention she got from his parents when she went over to his house. His mother would fuss about her hair and her clothes and insist on talking with her about girly stuff. She couldn't have a daughter, or any more kids at all. She used to braid Gabriella's hair all the time when she was little, and she would go over to their house when her mom was on a business trip.

"It's alright." she said. "You know, I've not seen her since Monday."

"Really?" he said.

"Really." she said glumly.

"Well, cheer up. How about you come to my house after we're done bowling and you can lather in my mom's attention."

"Alright." she smiled.

"Shall we go for something to eat now, and then go bowling after?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "KFC." she demanded politely.

"I feel like potatoes."

"You don't even like potatoes."

"I just feel like them." he said.

"You can have them in your KFC fries."

"That'll work." he said, pulling into the parking lot. They got out and went into the fast food resteraunt and went straight up to the counter since no one else was in there apart from a family sat in the corner.

Gabriella recited their order perfectly, not a word out of place. She had a lot of practice, since they always used to come here and every single time they'd order the exact same thing. She looked to Troy for praise, who nodded and winked at her.

---

Gabriella giggled as Troy continued making fun of the guy who ordered four bags worth of food and went and sat in his car and ate them all shamelessly.

"I mean, that's shocking." he said. "You can't possibly digest that."

"Alright, alright." she said, stopping laughing, throwing a little piece of popcorn chicken at him. They had ordered three boxes of it since their main meals since they decided to go bowling at seven and just hang out there for a while. "We'd better get going."

"Yeah, we better." he agreed, getting up from his seat and throwing his food packaging in the bin. They got in the car and drove to the bowling alley.

"Come on," he said, opening her door and pulling her out of the car.

"I'm coming," she said cautiously looking around.

"Well come faster."

"I'm coming fast enough, thank you." she said in a matter of fact way.

"I don't think we should keep using that word so much." he said.

"Sex addict."

"Come on Gabriella, just because you've never had any."

"Don't make fun of me, Troy." she said to make him guilty. "Just because I'm ugly." she smirked to herself.

"You aren't ugly." he said. "If you were really that ugly I wouldn't walk around with you."

"Charmer! So if I was in a fire, and got half my face burned off and came out looking like that deformed dwarf out of Snow White, you wouldn't be my friend?"

"Probably not."

"Fuck face."

"Half burned face."

"You're so cruel. I hope you feel really guilty if that happened now, if I've jynxed myself forever."

"I will," he said as they walked up to the counter. They talked to one of his friends from the basketball team as he worked there, and got our shoes and went to a lane. "Who's going first?"

"You." Gabriella said tiredly as she sat on the bench.

"Troy," he said as he punched his name in. "Gabrismella." he said.

"Hey! Don't put that!"

"Gabriella." he corrected himself before he would find her hand smacking him across his head.

"Right." she nodded.

"Hey Hoops! Don't finish that!" Chad shouted as he walked over with some more basketball team worshippers. "We're joining you." he declared.

"Wonderful." Troy rolled his eyes, making Gabriella laugh. "What do you think? Are we cool enough?" he asked Gabriella.

"I think we are." Gabriella smiled at Chad. "How's your project?" she smirked.

"Oh it's going very, very well." he replied.

"Aww, so I don't get to come over and help you with it anymore?"

"It's going awfully." he said, making her laugh. "So badly."

"You need some help again?"

"Come by mine tonight after this?" he said.

"Sorry, I'm giving Troy a ride."

"Yeah, drop him off and then come by mine. I believe your house is like, opposite from mine."

"I guess I could." she smiled.

"I mean, I really do need some help with things."

"What things?"

"These things." he said.

"Oh, those things." she laughed. "What are we ever going to do with you?"

"Well I don't know about we, but I know a couple things you could do."

"Oooh, seductive." she grinned.

"Oooh, so fucking damn sexy,"

"Gabriella," Troy cut in. "Your turn."

"Oh dear, I'm not good." she pretended, putting an innocent face on to match.

"I could help you." Chad said.

"That'd be wonderful." she said, walking up to the balls to pick one up.

"I think this one would be best for you." Chad said, picking up a small sized ball.

"Yeah," she said, lacing her small fingers through the holes and carrying it to the spot for her to bowl. He stood behind her, pressing his body firmly to the back of hers. He slid his hand down her arm.

"Pull back," he said, pulling her arm back slowly. "And then push it forward, as hard as you can, and let your fingers slip out of the holes. Try aim to throw it in line with the little arrows. Okay?"

"I think I got it," she said, pulling back and bowling in expertly down their alley, scoring a strike. "Yes!" she squealed.

"Great!" Chad said, surprised at her excellence and experience.

"You're such a great teacher."

"Maybe I could teach you some more stuff tonight."

"We'll see about that." she smiled, before walking away to sit beside Troy as it was Chad's turn.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey you," she said, tapping his shoulder and sitting next to him cosily.

"Getting a bit close to Chad there, aren't you?" he asked.

"Not really," she said.

"Yes really," he corrected her. "Something going on there?"

"Nosy." she said.

"Is there?" he prompted.

"I don't know, maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know yet."

"You'll tell me if there is though, right?"

"Sure I will."

"Good. Don't want you doing things without me knowing."

"Aww,"

"I'm caring."

"You're nosy." she corrected him, smile on her face.

---

"Right, we're going." Troy announced as Gabriella finished her drink.

"What? Man, it's only ten." Chad said.

"I'm tired." Gabriella said.

"So tired you can't stand another half hour?" he said. "Come on."

"Ten minutes." she compromised.

"You'll come around." he said.

"I'm pretty sure I wont." she said. "But anyway_"

"Troy?" they heard from behind them. They turned around, and Gabriella nearly dropped her glass as she gasped.

"Hey babe," he replied to Stefanie, slipping his arm around her tiny waist and pulling her closer. Gabriella stood behind Chad, hoping he wouldn't move.

"Hanging out with the guys?" she asked, rubbing his stomach.

"And a girl." Chad chipped in, earning a punch in the back from Gabriella which made him yelp.

"What girl?" she asked.

She clenched her eyes shut and waited for the tension crack.

"Gabriella," Troy said. Gabriella let out a deep breath.

"Oh really..." Gabriella heard her say as she creeped behind Chad. "Where has she got to?"

"Uh.. I don't.. know." Troy said confused, looking around for Gabriella who had mysteriously disappeared. She crawled over to behind an arcade game and eavesdropped.

"Oh well." she said. "I'll just have to see her tommorow." she said, making Gabriella cringe. "What are you doing now?"

"Nothing, I guess." Troy shrugged.

"Well why don't you come back to my house? We can spend some quality time together." she said, winking when she said quality.

"Guess that wouldn't hurt." he grinned.

"Oh, it'll do the opposite of hurt." she giggled. "Let me go tell the others I'm going. Be right back."

Gabriella rose from behind the arcade game, checking the time on her phone and deciding to quickly tell Troy she was going.

"Oh, there you are." he smiled at her. "Listen, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going home with Stef tonight. That okay?" he asked.

No.

"Sure it is," she nodded.

"Great." he said, the blonde snaking her way under his arm and wrapping it around her shoulder.

"Hi," she smiled to Gabriella.

"Hi," she replied akwardly.

"So, you two went out together then?"

"Yep," Troy answered obliviously. "Just some bowling."

"Just some bowling." she nodded. "Well, how about we stay for another round, Troy."

"Sure. Gabriella... do you want to joi_" he was interupted by a sharp jab in the side. "Get going?" he corrected himself.

"Sure. I'll see you tommorow." she said. As if she was going to say yes to that anyway.

"Sure you will." Stefanie grinned. "Bye." she said, leading Troy away to the lane.

"Bye." Gabriella said, knowing they didn't hear. She walked out the exit, to her car that was parked snuggly in the little space, the tyres perfectly parallel to the lines. She got inside the car, feeding the key to the ignition and reversing out the space, driving out the parking lot and onto the main road.

So I drive home alone,

As I turn out the light,

I'll put his picture down,

And maybe get some sleep tonight.

---

Gabriella did some thinking that night. A lot of thinking. This was all wrong. This wasn't how it was meant to be. I mean, here Gabriella was, afraid to even call her best friend just to talk because some girl had threatened her, and Troy was fully oblivious. It was as if he was living in some other world. She should have told him the truth yesterday afternoon. Maybe something would have changed for the better instead of the worse.

But what Gabriella couldn't understand was why exactly she was so afraid of Stefanie. Why was she so petrified when she came up to her in the hallway afterschool yesterday. Why did she feel sick in the stomach? Like she wasn't allowed to breathe or she would have her lungs ripped out? It was weird. It wasn't like she was some kind of immortal being. She was human too.

"Mom, I really don't feel well." she grumbled.

"You have to go to school today, sweetie. I've got work and I can't have the day off to look after you today."

"Mom, I can look after myself. I'll just sleep all day."

"Gabriella, you need to go to school. It's just one day. I'll write you a note to get you out of gym class and let you take it easy today."

Tears glossed over Gabriella's eyes.

"Don't cry," her mom said, sitting beside her.

"Getting out of gym wont help anything."

"Gabs, you'll just need to tough it out for today. I promise, when you get home, I'll get you some of your favourite snacks and dvd's and a blanket and you can just lie down on the couch all night."

"I want to lie down on the couch all day." she said.

"Gabriella, I'm sorry but you can't."

"Can't I go over to the Boltons?"

"Lucille is out today helping Mrs Carter rearrange the library after those thugs came in and trashed it."

Gabriella sighed. She was getting nowhere.

"Come on, Gabs. You'll be fine. Just one day." she nodded. "You can be off tommorow."

I'll probably be in hospital tommorow, she thought.

"Right." Gabriella croaked.

"You need to get going." her mom said, handing her some money and a gym note. She put them in her wallet and put it in her bag, before heading out. She got into her car. Troy seemed to not be kicking the shit out of his so called truck. He must have stayed at Stefanie's last night, he thought.

She backed out of the driveway and onto the road, passing all the perfect houses on her street. She pulled out at the end, going on to the main road. She contemplated just skipping school and going to the mall instead. She shook her head. She didn't have the guts.

She didn't rush to make her way to school. She took all the time she needed, plus an extra twenty minutes to get a coffee from Starbucks on the way to calm her nerves. She got into school late, not really caring that she would get a detention. She had more things to worry about than a stupid detention. She felt uneasy as she walked through the silent corridors. She scolded herself for wearing the clicky heels that she was wearing. She was on edge as she turned corners.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as the bell rang. The doors ripped open and students flooded out into the hallways.

"Hey," Sharpay said as she walked beside her.

"Hi," she replied, giving a smile to the unfamiliar guy who was carrying a pile of books for her.

"Why weren't you in homeroom?" she asked, walking to their first class of the day with her.

"I didn't feel like it."

"Rebellious." she grinned.

"That's me." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.