Troy wondered the halls for a moment looking at the lockers as he searched for his own. He quickly looked at the piece of paper and then up and down the hall one more time, "Right then," he said to himself looking at red locker in front of him. "Locker 14."

"Please open the locker," said a voice.

Confused Troy looked around again before looking back at his locker. "My locker talks?" Troy arched his brow. Quickly he put his back pack on the floor and then grabbed the combination lock. "Hold on," he moved the combination according to the paper given to him and got it on the first try. When the lock popped off Troy opened the locker to see a light brown pale face looking back at him.

"Thanks man," the boy stepped out into the hall and Troy looked back at the locker.

"So does a guy come with everyone's locker or is mine just special?" he inspected the door, "They should really make a safety latch, you know like a car trunk."

"People really don't think about getting stuck in a locker until they're jammed in one." The guy said looking back at his prison, "Edward Montez," The boy held out his hand. "Friends call me Eddie,"

"Same friends who put you in my locker?" Troy said taking the boys hand.

"No that was Aaron, the football team's quarterback." Eddie leaned against a locker besides Troy.

"Troy Bolton," Troy said lifting his bag up and putting his sweater inside the locker.

"No nickname?" Eddie said catching his breath and turning his head to watch Troy.

Troy shook his head, "What year are you?"

"Freshmen," Eddie said "You,"

"Senior,"

"Oh, well then, I'll get going. You don't want to get caught talking to me," Eddie backed up a step and Troy arched his brow.

Troy gave Eddie an odd look as he put the last of the things in his locker. "I'm not really not the type to care," Troy let out a breath as looked back at his locker and nodded in approval before closing it. "Do people put you in here often? I mean, I can leave, like a game boy in there or something for you?"

Eddie laughed as he turned back around and took a step forward, "No, it's one of those whatever locker is open type things." Eddie waved an arm and shrugged. "I've learned to keep a snack bar in my back pocket."

"Nice, hey you think you can help me out, I'm new and I have no idea where any of these classes are." Troy said holding up a slip of paper.

"Of course," he took the slip and read down the list. "Awesome we have art class together and lunch."

"Great I've got me a friend and it isn't even 2nd period yet." Troy placed an arm around him and they both started to walk.

Eddie shrugged his shoulder "I guess,"

"Hey what's up with all the white and red?" Troy asked picking at Eddie's brown shirt. "And why are you in brown?"

"Homecoming game is this weekend, it's spirit week and my school spirit is about the size of a penny."

Troy nodded, "What's tomorrow?"

"Pajama day," Eddie shrugged.

"Sounds like a slumber party." Troy brought his arm down and held on to the strap of his back pack.

Gabriella looked up from Taylor's scribble of numbers to see Eddie standing at the door way talking to someone in a black shirt.

"Hey, Who is Eddie talking to?" Taylor looked up from their experiment.

"I don't know but I think it might be the new guy,"

"New guy?" Gabriella bit her lip as she leaned over to try to see him.

"Yeah I was in office yesterday filling out the memo for the decathlon and I overheard a lady come in about her son starting school today," Taylor shrugged, "Odd that he's with your brother though," she looked back down at their science project, "Great work on the explanation,"

Gabriella looked back down at the experiment, "Thanks,"

The guy came into the classroom and Mr. Riley stood up. "Ah you must be, Mr. Bolton," he said holding out his hand.

"Yes sir, sorry to keep you waiting, I couldn't find the room." he said looking back into hall and giving Eddie a thumbs up.

"Well I think it's safe to assume you'll have that problem all day," Mr. Riley laughed and handed Troy a work sheet. "The class is working on their science project but you can take this little test for me and I can see exactly where you are on our lesson plan, if you don't know the answer don't worry this won't count against you at all."

"Good to know, just don't take it personal if I don't know any of it, science was never my calling."

Mr. Riley smiled and nodded, "Class this is our new student Troy Bolton, please make him welcome and if you see him wondering the hall, do not send him off in the wrong direction," he said with a smile.

"Nice." Troy said nodding at Mr. Riley.

The rest of the room looked up and Gabriella could sense a judgment being made. His blue eyes were friendly and made her think about ice cubes, while his body structure was athlete written, the black shirt was a bit disturbing to see, she wondered if he was a gothic or an emo kind of guy. Taylor snapped her finger to get her attention. "Aaron, remember him?"

"I wasn't checking him out, I was just making a quick note of his appearance."

"He's a dude in a black shirt not much to figure out there." Taylor glanced up and both girls were quiet as he sat down at their table beside Gabriella.

"Taylor," Taylor held her hand out and Troy took it.

"Troy," he said and placed his back pack on the ground. He placed the work sheet on the desk and then took out a pen from his back pocket.

Gabriella arched her brow as she looked back at Taylor, was she suddenly invisible or something. Gabriella held out her hand. "Gabriella,"

"Cool," he said giving her a passing glance and tapped her open hand with his pen. "I don't know about you girls but science is so not my thing," he said looking in Taylor's direction then down at the worksheet.

What the hell? Gabriella put her hand back down and looked at Taylor who just shrugged her shoulders and went back to writing. Gabriella stared at the back of his head as he hunched over the worksheet and begun to read the assignment. Gabriella looked back at her work and tried to focus on the on the chart for the experiment.

When the bell rang Gabriella gathered her things and Troy got up and walked towards the front of the room to turn in his paper. When he came back he grabbed his back pack and took a slip of paper out of his pocket. "Where is room 218?" he asked looking back at her.

Gabriella notice his eyes directly on hers he didn't look down, didn't check her out or look away. His blue eyes stared right at her brown ones and Gabriella suddenly wasn't all too sure about her appearance.

"It's down the hall to the left right before a water fountain," she said picking up her side bag. "My next class is there too."

"Thanks," Troy kept walking and Gabriella stood there in annoyance, not that she needed the attention or was interested but the simple fact that he complete and obviously ignored her was pushing her buttons. As she got to the door of the classroom she felt a rough hand yank hers to the side and she smashed into Aaron.

"Hey babe,"

Gabriella frowned. "Hey, I was just heading to my next class."

"Why don't you skip it and we can go somewhere a bit more private?" Aaron said with a small smile.

"You know I'm not going to skip," Gabriella crossed her arms.

"I know, just figured I'd pretend for a little while," he said placing a kiss on her cheek. "Walk you to class?"

"That would be lovely," she said linking her arm in his.

"Anything for my love," he said leading her into the traffic of the hallway. Aaron was taller than her by about a half a foot. She loved that the height difference meant she could wear heals, she liked walking by his side in the halls when people would stop and watch them, she'd hear whispers and swoons. He'd wave at his friends and she'd smile at hers, it was like they were on display and sometimes it bugged her but for some reason she liked the attention today.

When Gabriella got to the classroom she let go of Aaron and stood on her tip toe to place a kiss on his cheek. "See you at lunch,"

"Lunch," he said walking away and catching a football from a friend, the hall rattled with spirit and Gabriella stood in the doorway. He was a superstar, no question about that, his confidence was admiring his strength in the struggle very heart warming. She'd been at every game cheering him on from the sidelines she seen every injury and she made him soup the week he got sick. Gabriella smiled warmly as she turned to sit at her seat only to pause when she saw Troy sitting in her seat.

"That's my seat?"

"I'm sorry, is there a seating chart?"

Gabriella bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders, "No, but I always sit there."

"Well it doesn't look like it today," he said looking back down at his notebook and flipping a page open.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and let out breath as she took the seat behind him. Troy Bolton was as about annoying as a run in her stockings. Leaning back in her chair she mental ran him over with her jeep. Twice.