The party had been set up like any normal party Gabriella had been to. And being best friends with the next soon-to-be Captain of the Wildcats basketball team, had it's perks as she was invited to all of the parties. It also helped that she was one of the most popular girls in school, and although that was true, sometimes she wished that wasn't.

It was like she was expected to tell everyone where she was at all times. She was expected to share her thoughts and feelings about certain topics, but yet still have her opinion fit into the status quo. She's supposed to support the basketball and football team even though sometimes she wished she could be doing other things than watching the sport events; and by other things, sometimes she even found herself finding the excuse I need to wash my hair being something other to do instead of watching sports.

But when she enters a house party with the so called superstar that everyone goes to watch play basketball, and who just happened to be named their Homecoming Prince; people are bound to ask where she was and why she wasn't in the gym when they announced her name for Homecoming Princess. It was a classic thing, something you only see in the movies as one of the people miss the crowing, but Gabriella didn't care how cliché it sounded because she shouldn't have to tell people where she was. Even if where she was, was with the Prince's half brother/enemy.

"I think I'm gonna crash here tonight Gabi. Zeke said we're more than welcomed to have one of the couple of guest bedrooms upstairs." Jason was buys getting together a cup of beer for him and Gabriella. She waited patiently by the counter as her fingers drummed an absent tune out onto the granite countertop. "Or if you don't want to then you can drive my car home, and I'll just jog over to your house tomorrow to pick it up?"

Gabriella made a quick option as he handed her a red cup. "And share a bed with you after you probably will have slept with some girl? No thank you. I think I'll head home tonight, or…early morning I guess."

Jason shrugged with a lazy smile. "Suit yourself." He dug through his pockets for his keys that he should probably just make a second copy too. "So I didn't get to ask you this, you were so quiet in the car, but…where were you when they crowned us? No one spotted you in the gym."

Gabriella knew his tone. She knew his tone all to well, and if he was just asking her where she was, then that meant that later on throughout the night, various other people will start asking too. Gabriella's eyes glanced around the kitchen as more people were filtering through the doors. Music was playing, and various different smells could be smelled from the basement as the door was open; that was where most of the kids were.

She stopped searching through the different peoples' faces and nearly dropped her cup in surprise as she saw two piercing blue eyes looking at her. She didn't know what to do then as they pretty much had an ended conversation back at the school where Gabriella left feeling very embarrassed with how she overreacted a little.

She didn't know what he was doing, but then she saw him nod his head a little, and at first she thought that he was nodding at her. But it didn't match up as Gabriella looked around Troy and saw that Chad and Emma, who was on the cheerleading squad also were talking to Troy about something, and even though his eyes were on them, she was certain that he was nodding to their story.

That just made her more mad at herself as she was willing to wave or nod at him just because she thought that he was doing that first? They had just had a big fight before in the evening, but yet she was still willing to make sure he knew that she knew that his presence was in the room? It wasn't right.

"Gabi?" Jason asked with concern as he followed her eye sight, and grinded his teeth as he saw that she was looking at Troy. "Was he bothering you before? Some people say that they saw you with him earlier tonight."

"Oh um…" With what Jason said she was jolted back into reality. "no," she lied this time with ease. "I had business to take care of before." In a way business could mean something else, or someone else: Troy Bolton.

"Business?" Jason asked with a kinked eye brow.

Gabriella nodded her head while taking a sip of her beer. "Yup. But it's done. Over with." It wasn't a lie. Because as far as Gabriella knew, she was done with Troy Bolton. No more trying to be nice to him.


"Dude, are you even listening?" Chad asked exasperated as he just informed his best friend news about the up and coming game taking place on Friday.

Troy really hadn't been listening, but he nodded his head as he refocused his eyes on Chad who had his arm around Emma, a very petite blonde haired girl who was practically clinging onto Chad's shirt.

"Yeah man. I'm listening." Troy's eyes traveled over the room again as more people entered, and walked through the open door down into the basement. His eyes landed on Gabriella again as he could see out of the corner of his eye Emma whisper something to Chad before giving him a wink and heading off into the basement also.

Chad followed his friend's eye sight and saw that he was watching Gabriella again. "She's gonna think you're a stalker or something."

Troy let his eyes roam over her for a moment longer before he turned to Chad. She had changed out of her costume and into a skirt that was considered too short for their school clothes, and just a simple tight cotton T that brought out her glowing skin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He played it off casually as he drew the drink up to his mouth and took a slow sip.

"Oh? So now you're in the denial stage?" Chad mocked teasingly.

Troy just shrugged his broad shoulders. He wasn't denying anything. It wasn't lust that was drawing him in. He was just curious. Curious about why and how she could get so worked up over just a few comments he said to her. He had never had some girl yell at him like that before. Of course he did have his past couple of girlfriends yell at him when they broke up, but he had never had an almost stranger yell at him like that.

"I'm just curious." Troy murmured.

Chad nearly choked on his air. "Curious? You're CURIOUS?" Chad chuckled as he couldn't hold in his laughter at how absurd his friend sounded.

"Yeah. Just curious."


Jason felt eyes on himself as he was busy talking with Zeke and Sharpay with Gabriella by his side. He turned his head and froze up instantly. There were no eyes on him. Instead Troy Bolton had eyes on his best friend.

Jason took a sip of his drink as he tried to hide the anger bubbling up inside of himself at just knowing that Troy Bolton was looking at Gabriella like that. His eyes were skimming her body, and he would like to believe that Troy was thinking of her like a piece of meat, something Jason would do to any other girl also. Because thinking like that gave him an even greater motive. A better, stronger motive to protect his best friend.

Jason let a smirk cross over his face as he crinkled his empty cup and tossed it lazily down onto the counter.

"Come on Zeke. Let's welcome the newcomer." Jason strode across the room; followed by a surprised Zeke who was unexpected of the turn of events.

--

"What is HE doing?" Troy spat out to Chad as he saw that Jason was coming closer with his three groupies behind him.

"Would you chill a little?" Chad mumbled. "You guys act like you don't even know each other."

"That's because we don't."

Jason smiled sickly sweet at him with Gabriella at his right hand side with her own cup of alcohol.

"Bolton? You up for a game of two on two?"

Troy looked at him warily. "What's in it for you?" He had a darker tone shine through than anyone was used too.

Jason was stunned for a moment as he heard the low primitive growl escape through his half-brothers lips. But he quickly recovered as not one of the guys noticed one of their classmates walk by carrying a tray with several filled cups of stronger alcohol than beer on it. Gabriella did however as she took one with a gracious smile, while no one else saw or cared at the time.

"Just a good, clean game of seeing who's better." Jason answered with a glitter in his eye.

Troy knew he shouldn't do it. He didn't need to play a basketball game against Jason to say that he was better. But that didn't stop him as nothing mattered at that moment other than proving to others that he was just as good.

"Game on."

Jason smirked as he accepted the challenge. "Awesome! Zeke and me against you and whoever your little heart desires." Jason patted him on the shoulder like they were good friends; mocking him in a way that only the two of them understood. "We'll meet you out back when you're ready."

Troy snarled, "Let's go Chad."

Troy pushed Jason's hand off of his shoulder and started walking through the kitchen as various other classmates all stopped what they were doing and stared at them. Troy wasn't expecting a thing. He didn't even know Zeke had a basketball court in his backyard. But when Jason proposed this, how could he refuse? Especially not when half of their class was going to be watching.

"I'm right behind you." Chad answered without even questioning what he and Zeke were getting into.

"You coming Gabi?" Jason called out as Gabriella dropped her empty cup on the ground already; slightly feeling better about her mom's health and the situation Troy and Jason were in. And it was all because of drinking two glasses of illegal alcohol on an empty stomach.

"Don't I always?" She slurred out with a smile before grabbing one more quick glass of passing alcohol and following Jason outside.


Gossip was spreading like wildfire. The kids who were sober enough to remember Saturday night at Zeke's were anticipating what was to come. While kids who didn't even go to the party seemed to be already filled in about what happened at the basketball game.

Gabriella walked into school by herself as usually Jason was with her and they drove to school together, but that day she had a feeling Jason wasn't going to be in the brightest moods as she just offered to drive herself. She heard kids whispering as she could assume that they were talking about the game, but she didn't quite remember that much about it as she had one too many drinks to adjust her memory, and instead of driving home that night, she stayed in the guest room with Jason on the other half of the bed.

She had a slight headache still, but that would be nothing compared to Troy and Jason who went at it at each other on the court. Gabriella remembered at least ten minutes into playing, Zeke and Chad both quit as it wasn't them who were fighting. But Jason and Troy kept at it; calling their own fouls as they went, but of course neither one would call them or else it would make them seem weak in the guys mind.

Everyone would suspect that Jason would be the first to play dirty; to 'accidentally' jam an elbow into Troy's jaw or gut, but in fact it was Troy who fucked up first. As it was Jason who liked to drive to the basket for a slam dunk or lay up, Troy liked to stand back by the perimeter of the three point line. Jason used that for his knowledge and played very well defense as Troy made the first move, and nearly tore off Jason's shoulder while ramming into and through him. After that it was man verse man, and whoever played tough won. Shoulders were jammed, lips were bleeding, and elbows were blocking; all the while points were adding up, and the first one who made it to the designated set score of 15 was Troy.

The only other thing Gabriella remembered somewhat clear was Jason nearly breaking Troy's jaw as his elbow collided with Troy's jaw on defense, and Troy spitting out blood before he shot the ball and it went in. Although Troy started off dirty playing, Jason ended it as it was a now known fact that no matter if they are half-brothers, they will never act like it. Or at least that's what Gabriella's opinion is; along with everyone else in the school.

When she walked into school with the still slight headache the last thing she expected was to see her dad. She had already seen him twenty minutes prior when he left for work, and she was left home with her mom for that time. She noticed silently that her mother took two Advils for another headache, but Gabriella kept quiet as she liked to pretend that was normal, even though she knew it wasn't. At least it wasn't normal for her mom to take it anyways, and to ALSO stay home for having a 'cold'.

"Gabriella?" Gabriella's head snapped to the side as she abandoned her locker that she was currently opening and looked at her dad who was just in a simple shorts and a t-shirt for teaching gym. "Can I see you for a second?"

Gabriella's heart raced as she thought that maybe he wanted to talk to her about her mother. Maybe he'd been noticing things too.

Gabriella followed him silently to the locker room. She followed into the guys' locker room without question as she knew she was being lead to her father's office which just happened to be in the middle of the locker room and off to the side as he had windows to look out into the locker room, but his shades were always down so no one could disturb him.

"Yeah dad?" She asked once she took a seat across from him with the desk in the middle.

He shuffled some papers around on his desk as Gabriella waited on the edge of her seat. "I know this might be difficult for you and all, but I have a favor to ask of you."

He sounded so serious. Gabriella gave him a weird look as this wasn't the approach she was anticipating. "Yeah?" She said slowly as he finally found the manila folder he was looking for.

"And I know that this might put you in a tough situation, but I am going to be getting desperate soon if this problem doesn't get fixed, and we're not even halfway through the season yet." Gabriella hung onto every single word as she now thought he was talking about basketball. "And well, you're good at math." It wasn't a question. "And instead of going through teachers and the students down at the tutoring center, I thought why not ask you first?"

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling. Just spit it out, and I'll think about whatever you're trying to tell me." Gabriella said.

Carlos smiled at his daughter. "There's a player on the team that's gonna need some tutoring in math."

He didn't explain any further as Gabriella in the back of her mind had a hunch about who and what he was getting at, but Gabriella knew that her father would never ask that; especially after given Jason's and Troy's history.

"You want me to tutor him?" Gabriella asked.

"Of course it's not that bad…yet. He really is a smart kid, and it'll be even easier since you have math class with him. Ella, what do you say?" Carlos asked with a plead to his voice. "Would you tutor him?"

Gabriella looked at her father hesitantly. She knew that her father had strict rules for the team. His rules made it specifically clear that in order to participate in games you couldn't have anything lower than a C in a class. There was no way around it.

"Who are we talking about Dad?" Gabriella tentatively asked.

Carlos bit his lip. "Troy Bolton."

There was a silence as Gabriella mulled this over. In one aspect, Jason would kill her. He would absolutely hate her for at least a little time as when he would find out, he would throw a fit and not talk to her for God only knows how long. If she said yes then she was possibly going against all the Best Friend rules there are. But in another aspect, she was helping out her dad. Her dad who already had been through enough worrying in his life to say no to.

Gabriella bit her lip as her dad's brown eyes that mirrored her own looked at her. "He's really not that far behind. Just a couple of times a week after cheer and basketball practice is all that would do the trick, and you can stop whenever you want, or if there is some type of problem. Please Ella?"

"Is Jase ever found out dad…" Gabriella trailed off not evening wanting to think about the consequences.

"Sometimes that boy needs a good kick in the rear." Carlos muttered as he did love Jason like his own son, but he knew all too well of his reputation.

Gabriella narrowed her eyes, taking defense of her friend. "I don't think insulting the best friend of your daughter and the person who you need help from right now is a good way to get me to do what you want."

Carlos sighed as he sent her another pleading look while deciding if he should pull out his last resort point. When he saw the stubborn look in Gabriella's eye appear, he knew that he would have to. "It would look good on college applications. You wanted to make it out East, and I'm not saying you won't, but…trust me on this. It'll look good."

"You're not just saying it because you NEED my help?" Gabriella challenged.

"Would I say something like that?"

Gabriella grumbled, "Yeah, you would."

Carlos smiled to himself, "Maybe it's just because you're my daughter and I'm the one who controls your phone and car bills."

Gabriella face dropped as she knew that he was just joking, but he had an underlining seriousness to him as she knew that she must be his last option as she knew that their school didn't have the best tutors, and if Troy did get even more unlucky, then it could take weeks for him to pull his grade up.

"Please Ella?"

Gabriella shut her eyes painfully. "If Jason ever found out…I don't even want to think about that." She warned.

"Is that a yes?"

"…yes."


"Good practice Bolton."

Troy just looked up as some of his new team members said their departings in the locker room before leaving on that Monday afternoon. He knew that they were all talking about his and Jason's match on Saturday night, and for once Troy felt extremely proud. Even though he had to stoop to Jason's level and play dirty, he still won. He didn't consider that it was him who initiated the playing level.

"Bolton, Danforth!? We're going out for pizza tonight. You two in?"

"Hell yeah!" Chad's answer came first as three of the other seniors looked at Troy expectantly.

"Can't." Was his simple answer as they accepted it without question and headed off again.

"What's up with that. You beat Cross, and now you're turning down the other guys too?" Chad demanded as he finished lacing up his sneakers.

Troy chuckled, "You make it seem like I'm dating them or something."

The afro boy rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. They like you on their team, and you're the new boy, and you're turning down some bonding time?"

"And once again, you're making it sound like I'm dating them." Troy chuckled.

"Whatever. See you tomorrow morning? Hoops?" Chad asked backing out of the locker room.

"Seven on the dot!" Troy called back.


Plans were made and people were avoided as Gabriella specifically left cheerleading practice early as she took a very, very quick five minute shower and headed out to her car before basketball practice even finished. She moved her car from the back student parking lot to the staff parking lot in the front to avoid being seen and questioned by Jason.

But it was inevitable. It was going to happen some time, but Gabriella chose to just ignore the other little reminding voice in the back of her head that knew Jason and her were going to get into an argument about this little tutoring thing. He was going to find out about her tutoring Troy in some amount of time, but she just chooses to think about it later. She's taking the unhealthy route of avoiding the topic until he puts the puzzle pieces together himself. Maybe she'll be done tutoring him by the time Jason figures it out?

But as Gabriella executed her plan, and entered the school from the front doors, specifically farthest away from the gym, Troy was left outside in the back parking lot near his car; waiting for Gabriella to arrive once again. It was in that time that his eyes connected with Jason's as he was going to his car not even ten spots over.

Both boys glared. Both boys silently snarled. Both boys did the exact same thing as they didn't even know it.

Troy watched as Jason got into his car and peeled out of the parking lot. Practice had been brutal as one of the more less smarter JV players let it slip to Coach Montez that Troy and Jason battled it out at Zeke's house. He found that interesting as he made everyone pair up to his likings and do one on one mini tournaments that day to prove a point--They're teammates and they should start acting like it.

"Hey." Gabriella's voice that was burning it's sound into his head swiveled through his ears as he turned around and came face to face with her. She saw the fury in his eyes, the fierceness as she recognized it in Jason's eyes too whenever they were together and something upset him. Granted, Troy had blue eyes and Jason had a deeper, darker brown, but they held the same fierceness. "So um…where do you want to do this?"

Troy's narrowed eyes blinked at her in confusion for a minute before he realized that she was talking about studying.

"My place or yours?" Gabriella asked slowly as she wasn't oblivious to his confusion.

"The library." It wasn't an option that Gabriella offered, but it was better than going back to his house which was empty until at least eight that night, or her house where her mom or dad would generally be already, and he didn't really feel like dealing with meeting her mom, or seeing her dad who nearly killed them at practice with drills and games.

Gabriella didn't bat an eye lash. She didn't protest as she knew the reasons for her house why it wouldn't be good. Her mom stayed home sick that day as she told them she must be coming down with a cold. Gabriella didn't believe it, but she let it slide because the weather was changing.

"Okay. I'll meet you there." Gabriella didn't notice the small smile that made it's way onto her face, or the awkward wave she gave to him before she walked away.


Author's Note--Not much to say. I have been VERY, VERY busy with all my school things and I just needed to escape into the land of hsm. I know this chapter wasn't exciting, and no matter how much excitement I wanted for this chapter or at least more Troyella, it couldn't happen as unfortunatly you need to read this filler chapter for later references. Review please. You have no idea how much I appreciate the people who take their time to review this story. I didn't think I would get this much positive feedback right away, and it puts a smile on my face whenever I think about it. Thanks.