Hey Everyone! Thanks so much for all of the reviews and favoriting... I'm sorry I didn't post this chapter sooner, I've been caught up in writing my new story for FanFiction, so didn't think of this story right away this weekend. Enjoy!

Protecting Miss Montez

Chapter eight

Teaching

It was all part of the birthday tradition at the White House. Gabriella would eat cake and ice cream, steal a handful of candy from the piñata, and then she'd work out the next day as if her life depended on working off the calories she had consumed the day before. It wasn't like she was obsessed with being skinny or eating the right things, it just became routine and being fit wouldn't hurt her anyways. She tied her hair into a ponytail, plucking a purple ribbon from her desk that had fallen off a shopping bag after the first visit from Sharpay and she tied it around her ponytail, giving her gym attire a more girly look.

Opening her bedroom door, she smirked, seeing Troy in a pair of tennis shoes and a comfortable looking t-shirt and shorts. He sent her an unappreciative look and her smile only widened, guessing that he worked out on his own time, not in front of people and in a gym designed for the President.

"Nice outfit." Gabriella giggled, smoothing out her own shirt that was form fitting against her toned stomach.

"Touché." Troy said with a sigh, following her as she made her way to the gym, already have had a granola bar in her room for breakfast.

***

Gabriella was in the zone. She was ready. She was sweaty. She was currently being annoyed by Troy and a few other security members who thought it was funny to knock each other down as they boxed on the foam flooring in front of her as she ran on the treadmill, trying to pay attention to the movie that was playing on the TV.

Troy was currently laughing as Charles held the hanging punching bag still for him, but he couldn't hit it any longer as Ned and Henry, two members of the security, both African American men swung at each other humorously in the middle of the ring.

He didn't know why he was laughing so hard, but their sarcastic comments and easy going attitudes had him holding his stomach, feeling as if he had just done sets of crunches. When he breathed out calmly after the two men had called it quits he noticed Gabriella watching them with raised eyebrows, clearly not amused.

"Miss Montez!" Charles said before Troy could, walking away from behind the bunching bag while he took off his gloves. "You should join us. Maybe it'd do you some good to learn some self defense."

"I'll pass. Remember, I can take anyone down with my purse." She said with a nod, wiping her forehead clean of the sweat.

"You don't carry a purse." Troy said to her, causing her to silently glare at him for shooting down her excuse. "Come on, it'll be fun. Unless you're too scared."

Charles, Ned, and Henry all hollered behind him, laughing as Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him as he approached her. She turned down the speed of the treadmill, slowing to a walk as she shook her head.

"I'm not scared." Gabriella told him.

"Then you'll let me teach you self defense." He smiled, pressing the power button on the treadmill, stopping her walk. She jumped down, wobbling slightly as she stood next to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "My legs just feel like jello. No worries."

The sound of the snickering bystanders greeted Gabriella as she stepped onto the mat. She looked over at Ned and Henry impatiently as they laughed at her. Charles tossed her his gloves, all of them watching as she put them on.

"You know, I don't appreciate being bullied into this." Gabriella announced to the four men, glancing as a few more security members walked in on their break, hoping to get a quick workout in.

"Next time someone tries bullying you into something, you can use what I'm about to teach you to teach them a lesson, but because you pulled the purse excuse, you didn't know how to get out of this." Troy said with a smirk, looking at her playfully.

"You do know that I can just walk out of here and you'd have to follow me and let this go, right?" Gabriella replied, smirking back at him as Ned and Henry laughed at him, rather than at her.

"Yeah, but what's the fun in that?" Troy asked her, securing his own boxing gloves tightly as they started.

Gabriella definitely wasn't into learning self defense and the guys knew that as she whacked at the punching bag in boredom, talking in a monotone as she made sarcastic comments about being the President's daughter. They were becoming quickly annoyed at her lack of sportsmanship as they continued, and the security members that had walked in when they first started were now gathered around the mat, watching as Charles suggested they change it up a little bit.

"Why don't you put Gabriella in different situations, Troy, so she's not just staring at the punching bag." Charles suggested, crossing his arms over his chest as Gabriella gladly walked away from the bag.

"Yes, please." Gabriella said with a sigh.

"Teach her how to do a head lock!" Henry exclaimed excitedly. "It comes in handy."

"Alright, Henry, since it's your idea, why don't I demonstrate on you." Troy laughed, pulling Henry over after he shook his head no. "The first thing you do in this situation, obviously, is to pull your arm around his neck like this." Troy gently demonstrated this, telling Gabriella to make sure she holds her hand with her free one so the person can't get away. "Once they're like this they're basically useless because they can only move their body and they're head is stuck like this."

"Let me try, I'm sure I'll be needing this." Gabriella said sarcastically.

"Uh-huh, I'm no idiot." Henry said with a shake of his head. "You can practice with Troy."

Charles chuckled, along with the other members watching with him because they all knew that once Gabriella was annoyed or bored, she was stronger than she looked and none of them were willing to see just what she could do. Troy shrugged, walking over to Gabriella, bending down slightly so that she could practice what she saw on him.

"You know, I'm not really into this." Gabriella said before she casually put her arm around his neck as if she was just strolling around the park, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"We can tell." Charles laughed, seeing her harshly pull Troy into a head lock after his comment. Troy grunted, causing them all to chuckle with him.

Troy rolled his eyes at his coworkers as his arm rested behind him and as Gabriella loosened her grip just barely, but just as she tightened her grip again after another comment from Charles, Troy's eyebrows raised suspiciously as he saw the tiniest bump in about the same place as her belly button was. He was barely aware of the fact that his face was pressed up against her side. All he could comprehend at that moment was that Gabriella had a belly button ring and then as Gabriella became distracted, he wrapped his arm around her back, grabbing her legs and she screeched as her arms tightened around his neck, shocked that he had suddenly pulled her into this bridal style position.

"Ha! You can never loosen your arms!" Ned said to her, shaking his head at her inexperience with defending herself. "This will always happen."

"The person attacking me will suddenly pick me up as if he's carrying me on my wedding day?" Gabriella questioned, hearing the guys chuckling again, along with Troy as he set her down. "Alright, one more thing and I'm done."

"How about…" Charles started, grinning. "You punch Troy."

"Thanks Charles." Troy said sarcastically.

"I'm up for that." Gabriella smirked, taking the boxing gloves off of the floor that she had set down earlier and putting them back on, tightening them as she turned to a skeptical looking Troy. "Oh, come on, it's not like I'm actually going to hurt you."

"You'd be surprised." Troy said to her with a smirk, telling her to take her best shot after and Gabriella sighed, swinging at him, but she gasped when he caught her glove in his hand.

"You can't just punch me right on. If you curve the motion of your arm, then I'm less likely to see it coming and there will be more impact." Troy told her.

"Remind me again why I even agreed to do this." Gabriella asked him seriously.

"Because deep down inside you know you'll need to protect yourself and if you learn now, you won't be afraid to be alone."

"What makes you think I'm afraid to be alone?"

"Just punch me." Troy said, but he said it right as she was winding up and as her hand collided with the side of his face, he fell to the ground, everyone watching gasped, and Gabriella panicked.

"Oh. My. God!" Gabriella panicked, feeling her face becoming hot and her breathing quicken as she bent over him, seeing no movement. "I am so sorry! I didn't think I would hurt you! You were totally right about the curve thing! I'm so sorry!"

Just as she was finishing her last sorry and as the security members dispersed around the gym quickly, Troy's leg whipped her legs from under her, causing her to fall forward, her arm draping over his chest as she tried catching her balance.

She groaned as her hip started to hurt and as she opened her eyes from their tight close, she saw Troy looking at her. The laughing of the men around her grew quieter as they disappeared out of the gym.

"Rule number one: never underestimate your attacker." He said.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to demonstrate." Gabriella groaned, rolling over on her back, feeling his arm under her neck. "That really hurt."

"I'm just teaching you a lesson. Maybe if you would have been more interested I would have gone easy on you." He smiled, slowly taking his arm from underneath her head as he rolled over, his arms on either side of her as he started to get up.

Gabriella was holding her breath as Troy held himself up above her as if he was doing a push up and got stuck on the up part of the movement. He looked down into her eyes, seeing her looking up at him innocently and as he smirked, lowering himself down so that his face was close to her ear, he whispered softly to her.

"Nice belly button ring." And with that, the breath that Gabriella was holding in escaped, brushing up against his neck and she shoved him away from her, standing up quickly as he did while laughing.

"What are you talking about?" She asked him, clearly shocked that she was busted.

"I saw it through your shirt when you put me in a head lock." Troy told her, walking over to the treadmill she was using earlier to take the towel off of it, wiping his sweaty face clean.

When he turned around, he chuckled when he saw her looking down at her tight spandex work out shirt that she was wearing, cursing when she saw that in fact you could see the belly button ring hidden underneath it. She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Don't tell my dad." She pleaded.

"I won't." Troy told her, seeing her relieved expression follow after. "I'm just curious about how you managed to get it done."

"Well, Drew's not as innocent as he looks." She replied simply.

"What?" Troy asked with wide eyes, wondering what she meant exactly by that.

"He thought a belly button ring would look hot on me." She cringed at the thought of the memory now and she shook her head, regretting it. "His brother was always the rebellious one and he owned a tattoo and piercing shop and did it for me. I snuck out."

"How in the world did you sneak out?" Troy asked her, clearly grossed out that Drew had an influence on the piercing of her most likely tan belly button flesh.

"I walked out the door. It was easier than I thought." Gabriella nodded, surprisingly serious.

"Do you have any tattoos?" Troy asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"What? Are we playing twenty questions now?" She smirked as if she was hiding something. "You opted out of that, remember?"

"You have a tattoo, don't you?"

"No." She said, walking for the door. "And even if I did, you'd never find out."

Troy ran after her as she charged for the door, zipping out of the gym quickly as she laughed, starting this game of tag and as Troy ran after her he couldn't help but smile as the giggles followed her, revealing any hiding spot she thought would keep him from her.

***

"Do you want to go for a walk?" It was later in the evening and both Troy and Gabriella had changed into their usual clothing, but as Gabriella stood in the hallway in a yellow sun dress, her hair pulled back into a half ponytail, she wondered if she over did it. Troy was currently staring at her, as if he had never seen yellow look so good on someone and he swallowed, causing Gabriella to smirk.

"Troy?" She said again, snapping him out of his trance.

"Yup. Yeah." He said quickly, looking into her eyes quickly instead of looking at her high heels.

"Alright, let's go." Gabriella said with a laugh, wondering if going on a walk around her own house was weird, but after all, her house always seemed to have something interesting to look at.

Troy couldn't help but to glance at Gabriella occasionally, catching her looking over at him a few times too as they turned the corner, going towards the other side of the house, smiling at passing employees and visitors. As they were passing the open doors of the ballroom, Gabriella stopped suddenly, causing Troy to almost bump into her, making her laugh when he dodged her quickly.

"Look at the way the sun is hitting the floor." Gabriella said to him, looking into the empty ballroom, one that she had only seen filled with people once and that was when she was passing by, not invited to the party.

"Uh, yeah." Troy said unsurely, not seeing anything too interesting… in the ballroom. "It's shaped as the windows."

"Yeah." Gabriella laughed. "But look how it shimmers like it's falling there."

Troy raised his eyebrows as he tilted his head, trying to see anything but light, but it was useless, he didn't see what she saw. Gabriella walked into the ballroom with Troy following her, a soft song humming against her lips as she stepped into the falling light of the setting sun. Troy watched as the light rested against her skin, highlighting the yellowness of her dress and he looked away quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. Now he saw it.

"You know, I've never been to a ball before." Gabriella said to him after a minute, twirling around as if she was pretending to dance with someone.

"Really? And you have a ballroom and everything." Troy replied, looking out the window where he could see the side of the yard, a colorful garden pressed up against the far fence.

"Yeah, and I don't even know how to dance." Gabriella added, clearly not happy with that fact as she stopped her swirling, looking out the window too.

Troy stuck his hands in his pockets, sighing. He glanced over at Gabriella, hoping and praying that she wouldn't ask the question he knew she was likely to ask. As he glanced away, he saw her look over at him from the corner of his eye. Crap.

"Do you know how to ballroom dance?" She asked him.

He hesitated, slowly scratching the back of his neck.

"Maybe."

"You do, don't you?" Gabriella asked with a laugh.

"Even if I did, you wouldn't know." Troy mocked her from earlier that day and she laughed again, rolling her eyes.

"Will you teach me?"

"No." He replied seriously, shaking his head at her question.

"Please?" She begged. "You taught me how to beat up a guy. You mine as well teach me how to dance with one."

Troy laughed softly, shrugging as he glanced over at her and he walked over next to her, taking his hands out of his pockets with a sigh.

"Promise me that you will not tell my friends I know how to do this." He said seriously.

"I promise." Gabriella smiled, looking over at him.

"Okay, I'll just teach you from here." Troy said, staying next to her. "Basically you move one foot forward and one foot back."

Troy slowly began doing that next to her, moving the way he would be if he was dancing with someone and Gabriella followed him gladly, doing the same thing he was doing next to him. She watched as his shiny black shoes moved against the floor with ease and she glanced up at him, seeing that he was simply looking down at his feet, doing the steps with ease.

"So, how'd you learn to do this?" Gabriella asked as they continued to move in the same motion.

"My mom taught me before my first homecoming dance." Troy answered; putting his hands in his pockets as Gabriella messed up slightly, getting back into rhythm slowly.

"I'm sure your date was impressed." She smiled.

"Nah, she dumped me." Troy admitted. "Apparently nowadays there's no such thing as ballroom dancing at homecoming. It's the furthest from an appropriate dance." He laughed softly, shaking his head.

"Well, if it means anything, I would have been impressed."

Troy looked over at her and smiled, looking back at his feet when she smiled back. President Montez slowed when he saw his daughter and her body guard in the ballroom side by side as they moved to the same steps. They were facing the window and from where he was standing he could see them both smiling as they talked to each other.

Gabriella's light yellow dress moved with her as Troy's suit made them look like they were going on some kind of fancy date and as President Montez sighed, shaking his head, he left them be, smiling softly because finally, someone got around to teaching her the right way to slow dance.

Troy walked in front of Gabriella, chuckling as she quickly stopped, not wanting to mess up now that he was no longer next to her.

"Now, you have to do the opposite of what I'm doing. I'll step forward, and you have to step back with the foot I'm coming towards." Troy said to her.

"That sounds complicated." Gabriella laughed.

"It's not." Troy said as he stepped towards her, watching their feet as she stepped back and then forward when he did. "Then you keep doing that." He said after, still keeping his eyes on their feet as they stood a good distance apart.

Gabriella smiled as she got the hang of the slow dance and she looked up in surprise when she felt Troy put his hand on her waist, taking her hand in his, slowly moving into a partnering dance that had Gabriella light headed. The way he simply picked up where they were and danced with her had goose bumps forming on her arms and they finally looked up at each other after studying their feet.

"Eventually, we start turning." Troy told her, moving slowly around so that she wouldn't mess up. As they took the time to learn how to turn together, Gabriella smiling the entire time, they didn't notice Rosy and Charles stop to watch them.

"Well, look at that." Charles smiled as he watched them, noticing how beautiful the room looked with only them occupying it.

"How long do you think it'll take them to fall in love?" Rosy asked quietly, smiling brightly as she looked at the young couple before her.

"How do you know it'll happen at all?" Charles asked her in surprise. "Troy knows he's not allowed to get involved."

Rosy shrugged, sighing lovingly as she saw Gabriella giggling.

"This is a Beauty and the Beast situation…"

"Troy's not a Beast." Charles chuckled.

"No, but he's off limits and she'll want him. It's as simple as that." Rosy explained, tugging at Charles shirt sleeve as Troy and Gabriella spun slowly together, facing them. Charles hurried away, not wanting to get caught watching them.

"When the song ends," Troy started as he looked into Gabriella's brown eyes, mesmerized shortly by them. "Your date, insert name here," Troy joked, causing Gabriella to smile. "Will either spin you or dip you. It all depends on what kind of dress you're wearing."

"So what would be the appropriate ending to this song?" Gabriella asked with a smirk, knowing there was no song they were dancing to.

"I would spin you, but because you're clumsier than most, I'm thinking a dip would be better." He smiled and before she could comment on his small insult, she was falling backward, feeling Troy's strong arm hold her up as her head tilted back, the view of the ballroom doors the only thing she could see before she closed her eyes peacefully.

Troy dipped her longer than he was supposed to, but as she fit against his arm perfectly and as he stared at her smooth golden skin of her neck, he couldn't help but want to look at her like that for a long time, but he slowly brought her back up, seeing that her eyes were closed as either one of her hands stayed pressed up against his chest while his wrapped around her.

She opened her eyes slowly and was greeted with Troy's blue eyes staring into hers. She could feel Troy's heart beating under her hand and its speed had her knees weakening underneath her. Was he thinking the same thing she was? When he glanced down at her lips she nearly fainted and he sensed that as she became heavier in his arms.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, his breath brushing against her face as their nose's touched just barely.

Gabriella nodded, speechless as one of the hottest guys she'd ever laid eyes on held her in his arms as if he wanted nothing more than to kiss her right in the middle of the empty ballroom in the shimmering sun falling through the windows.

But then.

She sneezed.

"I'm so sorry!" Gabriella said quickly, pulling away from him as he laughed, wiping his face off.

"It's okay." He laughed, seeing her clearly embarrassed in front of him, the moment ruined. He was glad she sneezed on him, otherwise he would have kissed her and everything would have been complicated after that. He had to get his act together. He wasn't supposed to be falling for the President's daughter and he definitely wasn't supposed to be thinking she was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen.

"I think I'm going to go to bed." Gabriella said to him, turning quickly as she nearly ran for the door. He smiled, letting her get a head start to her room and as he looked out the window again, he noticed the smallest rain drops sprinkling the window even as the sun set behind it.

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unknownbyhim22