Alright, guys, I'm really sorry for this time's belatedness, but I was busy. Now my holidays have finally started and I couldn't be happier, because there are six week of doing nothing else but things I love to do… and that includes writing for FFN, so I hope that I'll have time to write a few things and post them. I promise you'll get the last chapter of FBH as soon as possible (I have already started writing it, yeah me) and maybe then some *wink*

I'd like to thank all of you who have reviewed the last two chapters and I'm sorry that I haven't answered them already, but something came up and I promise to do it as soon as I have this chapter up. Not much to say here besides that I'm really glad to be back…

SPECIAL NOTE to Nicole and Kessy: Sorry, guys, but you know why I haven't been able to write. This chapter, however, means that I'm back and I'll write to you again… but there's one thing I have to say: Life's cruel and that's why my E-mail account has decided to terminated itself. All of my mails are gone and so I'll have to answer whatever has been stuck in my mind. But don't worry: the report about Berlin is still coming up :)

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my best friend Kristina. She's enjoying her holidays in Italy at the moment and she'll be gone for three whole weeks… she liked this chapter the last time round, so I thought it would be fitting.

Disclaimer:

This is a derivate piece of fiction featuring characters copyrighted and trademarked by Disney Enterprises Inc. It is based upon High School Musical, copyright 2006 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved; and High School Musical 2, copyright 2007 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved and High School Musical 3, copyright 2008 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved. The author is not connected with nor is this work authorised by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., or any other motion picture studios. This work is solely intended for posting on Fanfiction, for the benefit and enjoyment of its intended audience. No commercial or financial benefit accrues or is intended to accrue to the author as a result of said posting. Any unauthorised copying or redistribution of this work might subject the party responsible for such unauthorized copying or redistribution to legal action by the owners of the aforementioned copyrights and trademarks.

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Recap of the last chapter:

Gabriella didn't even need to turn around and look at him. She already knew that there would be a suggestive grin playing around his mouth. She shuddered. She would prefer to kiss a giant squid before she would kiss Brandon. Not turning around, she automatically raised her hand and showed him what she thought about his suggestion. She could hear him snigger by her reaction.

Gabriella groaned audible. This was going to be a long school year. And she wasn't looking forward to it.

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Chapter 3 – What goes around…

Within the next three days, life went on as it was supposed to be. Time ran by, as the students tried to keep up with the noticeably growing pile of homework and projects, assigned in the hope the students would work even harder than they did anyways.

Moaning and grumbling could be heard at the end of every class as the teachers added long essays or complicated equations to their already big – too big for some – pile. But that didn't exactly stop the teachers from giving homework that were much too much and – on top of that – due next week.

Nevertheless, the seniors didn't want to put their social life on hiatus. After all, this was the year they had yearned for, ever since they had seen a senior for the first time in their lives – so to say since pre-school. And they really didn't intend on letting school overwhelm their personal life.

That was probably the reason why you could only find Gabriella Montez in the library if you went there on Thursday morning during free period. Not that you would spend your free time studying while being a senior, but there still was a small chance, don't you think?

Anyways, the calmness in the library didn't last for very long. Ten minutes after Gabriella had made her way there, the door was slammed open and two red-faced girls stormed in. The librarian raised her head, not very pleased by the shameless disturbance. But before she could say one single sentence, the girls had already begun to talk to Gabriella – simultaneous and not very clear to understand.

Gabriella, being held from studying, just shook her head. They would never learn that they'd have to repeat all of the said if they spoke to the same time. After all, it were Sharpay and Taylor, girls with brains, but not the best when it came to telling something important.

As the two girls made no attempt to stop speaking any time soon, Gabriella saw herself obligated to interrupt them. "Girls!", she said. "Take a breath! And then please repeat what you've tried to say for the last, ", she looked at her watch, "five minutes."

They both stopped in mid-sentence and groaned simultaneous. Slowly it got scary. Gabriella cocked an eyebrow and watched them carefully. What the hell were they thinking just to storm into the library and disrupting her from studying? She had the frightening thought that it was something crazy like just them could come up with.

It was nothing anywhere near that. After taking a deep breath, Sharpay started talking while Taylor was still trying to catch her breath. "Where the hell are you?", Sharpay screeched, just to look around carefully the next moment to see if the librarian, Ms. Donovan, was anywhere in sight. To her luck, she wasn't to be seen; otherwise it would have gotten her in detention. Screaming in the library – a severe crime if you asked Ms. Donovan.

Gabriella was confused. It was obvious where she was, wasn't it? Otherwise they wouldn't be standing right in front of her, would they now? But Sharpay had already corrected her sentence. "I mean, why the hell are you in here?" Uhh, okay, that was obvious as well in Gabriella's opinion. Studying, what else was there to do in a library?

Kissing, a little voice inside her head reminded her. She blushed. Where the hell had that come from? The last time she had done that had been over two years ago. With Troy. Hastily she shook her head to eliminate that thought. There was no way she'd be thinking about that time. Although she had enjoyed his lips on hers…

No! Gabriella, snap out of it!, her brain was slowly taking over anything else again, much to Gabriella's relief. Troy hadn't got anything to do in her head anymore, not after all he had done. And after all he had not done.

"Gabriella?" She snapped out of her thoughts and was welcomed with Sharpay's red face. "Could it be that you're not even listening?" Uh oh, if there was one thing her best friend really couldn't stand it was if someone didn't listen to her.

Gabriella grinned discomfited and asked: "Could you – just maybe – repeat what you've said? Again?" After all, it had already been the second time. So she wasn't surprised at all when Sharpay looked as if she was near a heart-attack. And as red as she was at the moment Gabriella had the horrifying image of the blonde's piercing screams in her head.

Obviously she wasn't the only one, seeing as Taylor laid her hand on Sharpay's shoulder and tried to calm her down. "Everything's alright, no need to get upset, Shar!" She turned to Gabriella: "She asked why you aren't in the gym, because we have try-outs?"

Gabriella's eyes went big. Shit! She had totally forgotten them! And what did it look like if the captain didn't come to try-outs? At an intense rate she had closed her books, grabbed them and was already sprinting to the door, while shouting over her shoulder: "Come on, we have somewhere to be!"

Sharpay and Taylor looked at each other, eyebrows cocked and head shaking. Trust Gabriella to get in panic-mood just because she was fifteen minutes late. Shrugging they turned around and followed the brunette. Or, to stay true, wanted to follow her until they saw a very troubled Gabriella standing in front of Ms. Donovan.

Exchanging worried looks, the slowly approached them, only to hear Gabriella trying desperately to get out of the detention she had just gotten. "But, Ms. Donovan, please! I just… I'm just late for dancing try-outs and I might have forgotten to be quiet, but couldn't you please make one exception?" The librarian stayed hard.

"There is no way I'm letting you off this time. If I remember correctly I already let you off last year. And that was just because you were…" She broke up, clearly embarrassed. But she didn't need to end that sentence; Gabriella already knew what she was talking about. That had been in the first week after her break-up. To her biggest surprise, not just half of the population had taken to her side after that incident; most of the teachers had done, too.

Of course not as conspicuous as the students, but still. They had overseen her missing homework, been nice to her if she hadn't paid attention and in some cases like Ms. Donovan's had let her off detention.

Not wanting to let the previous events overcome her again, Gabriella just brushed it off and straightened herself. "It's alright, Miss, I'll just be there." And with that she vanished trough the doors, not wanting to delay try-outs any longer. Taylor smiled at Ms. Donovan as she dragged Sharpay with her, hurrying after Gabriella.

*

Five minutes later, Gabriella made her appearance in the gym, having changed into her dancing outfit. Of course she wouldn't actually need it; she wasn't the one to dance today. Becky was one of the girls to try out and as Gabriella saw her she smiled at her, seeing the blonde smiling back. But not even her grin could overact her nervousness, as Gabriella could see clearly.

She nearly laughed out loud. As she had had to dance for the position of captain, she had been nervous as hell. And she knew exactly how the girls waiting for their chance to join the squad were feeling. As she overlooked the girls, she ascertained that Becky wasn't the only Freshman trying out. With her were a whole bunch of girls, giggling and chatting, waiting for Gabriella to arrive.

When they finally saw her, the entire gym went silent. The only sound heard was the slamming of the gym door. As all heads were directed to it, they saw Taylor and Sharpay grinning abashed. Gabriella rolled her eyes. Of course closing the door regularly was out of the question for a drama queen like Sharpay.

Slowly the two girls ventured over and positioned themselves next to Gabriella. Not having to try out, they both had agreed to keep an eye on the dancing girls to be able to help Gabriella decide. With a hem, the dancing captain got the attention that had been withdrawn back and now all students were looking at her, their eyes full of anticipation.

"Hey girls!", Gabriella began, playing with the hem of her shirt. Speaking in front of many people wasn't her thing and it would never be. "I'm really sorry I've come that late, but I had to do something very important." Taylor and Sharpay sniggered. "You could say that or you could just say: Sorry, I've completely forgotten."

Gabriella threw them a dirty look. That wasn't funny! She once again directed her attention to the students in front of her. "But we'll start now and I hope we'll get to see all of you, otherwise it wouldn't be fair, would it?" She laughed lightly and took a look at her watch. That would be narrow if she wanted to see all of them.

She threw a help-seeking look at Taylor. She would have a solution for the problem, she always had. And so it was. "We could enlarge the whole thing to lunch. First let the ones try out who haven't lunch next period and then go on with the ones that are free next period. It's as easy as that!"

Gabriella nodded relieved. That was good. And it had another benefit, one she couldn't possibly let escape. She wouldn't have lunch and that meant she wouldn't have to see Troy Jerk Bolton. And everything was fine as long as she wouldn't have to see him. With a sigh she let herself fall into the next chair and watched as the first girl came up.

It was just her luck that Taylor had already organized the needed stereo equipment and so there was nothing stopping the auditions anymore. Allowing her body to relax, Gabriella observed the opening routine, her feet slightly tapping to the upbeat music that sounded through the gym.

*

While the try-outs were run, Troy Bolton was walking down one of the corridors of East High, not caring about the girls winking at him and their desperate tries to get his attention. In his opinion, a little more subtleness would be good for them. Not that he'd care.

He looked up as Chad Danforth, his best mate, came up to him. He had been vanished for the first time of the free period, but seeing as it was Chad he probably had searched for something to eat. Which was right, as Troy discovered only seconds later. Stuffing a hamburger in his mouth, Chad walked after him and tried to swallow it.

Troy shook his head. How could someone possibly eat that much and still not gain any visible weight? "Why does your girlfriend still like you?", he asked, incredulous why Taylor actually put up with his best friend. Chad rolled his eyes. It wasn't the first time Troy asked that question and it wouldn't be the last time.

"Just because you have changing girlfriends at a flying rate doesn't mean that a girl can't stay true to their boyfriend, or the other way round.", he answered, having eventually managed to get the burger down his throat. Troy coughed and entered the library, which had been just around the corner.

"I haven't had a girlfriend for God knows how long!", he spat out – whispering, not wanting to get a detention -, trying not to think about the last decent one he had had. "Yeah, who believes that?" Chad enquired, as he threw the basketball he most certainly had snatched away from some younger kid before he had found Troy in the air. "You know very well that Gabriella was your last one."

Troy was shell-shocked. Never before had Chad had the courage to bring that topic up, the only one Troy was sensitive about. Chad seemed to think the exact same think, because he threw Troy an apologetic look. "Sorry! Didn't mean to bring that up, man!"

Troy looked at him unbelieving. He had waited the whole day for Chad to lecture him about Sunday evening and now he had barely stroke that topic and didn't intend on bringing it up? Troy wasn't having any of it. He stopped walking and sighed. Running his fingers through his hair he stared at Chad.

"Just say it!", he demanded, starring square in Chad's eyes. "Say I've gone too far on Sunday, I should have never brought up Sophomore Year, I shouldn't have made her cry." Chad starred back in utter confusion. Had he heard correctly? Was Troy Bolton really blaming himself for what he had done? Chad couldn't believe it.

And he definitely didn't know what to say. So he started out with the first thing coming to his mind. "How do you know she cried?", he spluttered out; next thing he did was cursing himself: He had promised Gabriella to not tell him. But his concern was a waste of his time, for Troy was already answering: "I saw the tear falling down her cheek. Why do you care?"

Chad didn't know the answer to that. He didn't really care; he just hadn't had anything better to say. So he just shrugged and carried on: "Actually, I didn't plan on lecturing you about yesterday, but now you've mentioned it: What the hell was wrong with you? I don't know what happened back in Sophomore Year, but I guess you've done something really stupid. And now you're blaming yourself for both back then and your slip on Sunday. Gosh, Troy, what the heck's up with you?"

Troy kept silent. His mind was racing at an insane speed and for the first time in more than one year, he began to think about Sophomore Year again. He closed his eyes, painfully thinking about what had happened back then. About his mistake, which probably was the biggest mistake he had ever done in his whole life.

But then again, he thought, he wasn't the only one to blame. Might be that he was liable for most of the things, but not for all. But, of course, he thought, Gabriella hadn't been having any of that and just blamed him for all things. But had she let him explain, had she let him apologize? No, she hadn't, she had jumped to conclusions and dropped him like a hot potato. And that certainly wasn't his fault at all.

His blood began to boil once again, as he mulled over the fact that not only Gabriella thought he was the only one blame-worthy. Even Chad had assumed he had done something wrong; the instant East High's golden couple's break-up had been official half of the school population had taken Gabriella's side. Well, at least not all girls – they had been jealous of Gabriella for quite some time and were just happy about Troy being free again – but many of the boys – not astonishing in Troy's opinion, after all Gabriella was hot.

And that was what had really upset Troy. And now all his anger came back up again and he barked at Chad: "Exactly, you don't know what happened! And I'm not blaming myself, that's insane!"

Immediately he whished he hadn't shouted it. Ms. Donovan came running around a bookshelf and shot him a glare Mrs. Darbus couldn't get done more frightening. "Detention, Mr. Bolton! It's a pity that today's students have no respect for the silence in a library. That's the second detention I'm giving today! After last period, here in the library, understood, Bolton?"

Troy just nodded; contradiction would only make everything worse. Snorting, Ms. Donovan vanished again behind a bookshelf and he repeated in a low voice: "I'm not blaming myself!" Chad looked unbelieving. Of course, and the reason he had started yelling was…? Chad knew that Troy wasn't as hard as it seemed and he knew that he missed Gabriella; in his very own way he was hurting just as much as she did and both tried to overact it with the hatred they showed towards each other. Some people might think that Chad was a little dump, but no one could fool him, and especially not Troy, his best friend, and Gabriella, the girl he had grown quite fond of once he had gotten to know her.

And in fact Chad was surprised that there hadn't something happened already. In his opinion, neither Troy nor Gabriella were capable of hiding their feelings for each other for very long, but they still had made it until now. And as a result Chad assumed that both weren't ready to change something in that.

So he just shrugged and defended himself: "Okay, okay, I'll shut up. But it's no wonder I don't know anything if both of you can't seem to get your mouths open." Troy raised his head. "She hasn't told you anything?" Well, at least he knew now why Chad hadn't stopped talking to him, too. The only thing he knew was that Troy had hurt his friend, but not how much.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Maybe that isn't the worst thing. After all, I'm still hanging out with you, am I not?" He patted Troy's back and changed the topic, not wanting to hear any more. "But tell me about that chick you're hanging out with at the moment. I believe, it was Amber?"

Troy groaned. He had just managed to ban Amber from his mind. For all he knew, she was in the gym this moment, holding try-outs for the cheerleading squad. Or something like that. He hadn't exactly listened when she had told him this morning. After all, she said a lot of rubbish and he had stopped listening to her on Monday morning as he had noticed it the first time.

"Don't get me started!", he warned Chad. "That girl gets so clingy; I think I'll dump her in one or two days at the latest." Chad smirked. "See, that's why Taylor puts up with me. We don't see too much of each other. I tell you, that's extremely helpful for a relationship."

Troy didn't really believe in that theory. While being a couple, him and Gabriella had been together all the time, but for some weird reason it hadn't bothered him, if anything he had whished to spend even more time with her. And he had been able to actually talk to her, because she wasn't one of those brainless cheerleaders, she was one of the cleverest girls he had ever met. And he really missed speaking to a girl.

*

With his assumption, Amber was in the gym, Troy was half correct. Knowing that Gabriella had put dancing squad try-outs on Thursday, Amber had decided to do cheerleading try-outs on the same day. Wanting nothing more than getting rid of the dancing squad, she had assumed that forestalling of their try-outs would be a good way to show them which was the better squad.

But much to her dismay, she had over read the exact time and so she walked in the gym at lunch time, a bunch of cheerleaders and girls who wanted to try out behind her. To this time, Gabriella was already halfway through and Amber, totally bewildered, had to see that there was nothing she could do to get the gym for herself now.

Not wanting to give up, she walked up to Gabriella and put her hands on her waist. "What are you doing in here? I set cheerleading try-outs for today, so I'm afraid you have to leave the gym!"

Gasping at her cockiness, Gabriella laughed unbelievingly and shook her head. "Amber, who the hell do you think you are? I've set our try-outs for this date and I even went to the principal to ask for permission. Which he gave me, by the way. So I'm afraid you're the one having to leave the gym."

Sharpay and Taylor smirked at Amber, the girl – it was Becky - who had been dancing had stopped her current movement and the entire gym fell silent. Everyone knew that Gabriella couldn't stand Amber and vice versa. This was going to be interesting.

Amber threw her head back and gave a forced giggle. "You don't think that dancing is more important than cheerleading, do you? So I'd say, permission or no permission, you leave, so we can get on with our try-outs. After all, we need some good girls to cheer for our basketball stars. And especially for my new boyfriend Troy!"

Now it was everyone else's turn to gasp. Amber was Troy Bolton's girlfriend? He hadn't had a decent girlfriend since … Gabriella! Although many of the aboard girls weren't sure if Amber was to be called decent.

Gabriella swallowed hard. Girlfriend? She hadn't expected that. Sure, she had seen them kissing in the hallway, but that was normal for Troy. Why the hell should he get himself a girlfriend if half of the female population threw themselves at his feet? And why the hell Amber?

Everyone stood still, watching and waiting for a reaction from Gabriella. The latter, very well aware of that fact, tried to regain herself. Don't show any sign that could mean you're affected by that! Gabriella reminded herself, before she composed herself and threw an icy look at Amber. "I don't care about that or the fact that you're Troy's girlfriend. For all I care, you could be the fiancée of the king of England – uh, I'm sorry they have a queen - and I wouldn't care."

Amber didn't buy that. "Ha! I don't believe a word. You'd do anything to make Troy yours again!" That was the first time anyone besides the two moved. Taylor moved in front of Gabriella and spat: "You can't honestly believe that! Just for the record, she's the one who's broken up with Troy and not the other way round. And I don't even believe that you're his girlfriend. Even though I don't like him for what he's done to Gabriella, I know that he has got a better taste in girls."

Gabriella was shocked. Taylor was the last person she had expected to say something like that. But she didn't complain, on the contrary she confirmed every word that had been said. "She's right!", she said while walking next to Taylor. "I don't want him back and I don't care about him. I hate him if you've failed to see that. But if you really did, you'd be really dumb if you ask me."

Amber snorted. "Try to tell yourself that, I won't listen. I know you still love him, but it's sure as hell that he doesn't even like you anymore. And that's the reason you're trying to act like you hate him!"

Gabriella was speechless and so was everybody else. Nobody had ever even dared to think of that, they all believed Gabriella when she said she couldn't stand him. And now they were bewildered that Amber dared to assume that.

Becky, seeing that Gabriella was unable to answer, stepped in front of Amber. "You're nuts, aren't you? How dare you say something like that to Gabriella? Just because you're jealous because she's so much better than you doesn't mean you can stomp on her whenever you like! And just for the record: Yeah, she does think that dancing is better than cheerleading! We all do, to tell the truth!"

She looked questioningly over Amber's shoulder directly at the girls standing behind her. And she wasn't disappointed. All of them raised their hands and started clapping, no one could disagree with that, otherwise they would have gone to cheerleading try-outs instead trying out for the dancing squad.

Satisfied, Becky looked back at Amber. "So… have you anything to say against that? You don't have any reasons to say cheerleading's better than dancing, you don't have any prove now, do you?" She smirked at the sight of Amber, standing speechless, not knowing what to do.

No one had ever dared to stand up to her like that – no one except Gabriella, that is -, an especially no freshman. Gabriella, though, was moved. She had known the girl for three days now and had grown very fond of her, but this was something she hadn't expected. There she was, standing in front of Amber, defending her, a girl that theoretically was absolutely foreign to her.

Sharpay nearly laughed. "That girl has just made the squad. I haven't seen much of her dancing, but a girl with that temperament can't be bad at that!", she whispered in Gabriella's ear. The brunette smiled. She couldn't agree more with that. "You've made the squad, Becky!", she told the young girl and everyone in the gym squealed. Normally it would have taken ages for them to find out who made it and who didn't, but this was extravagant.

Amber, though, just snorted again. "Making the squad just because defending someone? That's low, Gabriella, really low! Your squad can't be good, if you decide after such criteria."

Becky, having laughed relieved one second beforehand, changed her expression from happy to dangerous. "How dare you criticize her? She's better than you, haven't I already said that?"

Amber glared at her. "Don't you dare opening your mouth in front of me, greenling! You don't even have the right to say something like that!" Becky just fake-smiled. "Afraid that someone says the truth? What are you going to do to prove you're the better one?"

Amber's eyes widened. Nobody had ever had the guts to say something like that. And she wasn't going to let it go by without doing anything. You could nearly see the wheels of her brain working as she racked her head for an idea. Then a smile went over her face.

"Well, let's say… A contest! A contest between cheerleading and dancing. And the prize for winning is … Troy Bolton!"

So, guys, here's the third chapter. Again sorry for the delay and thank you for waiting on me. I hope you liked it and please, please, please review. It means much to me to hear what you think about my stories, if you like them or if you hate them, what I could improve and what you think about my style of writing.

And I wanted to say thanks to zanessa4evr12 for telling me about a mistake I made in one of the chapters. I accidentally said they'd broken up in Junior Year and not in Sophomore Year. I changed it, so now it says the right thing. But thanks for pointing it out, because it helps me get this story straight.

The next chapter will be up next week as promised, so until then

ElectrifyingChemistry

Lena