So, um, there really isn't any excuse as to why I haven't updated in ages, except to say that I am always writing a millions stories (fanfiction and original) and all of them are forced to take the backseat at some time or another.

Okay, before I start, I just want to answer a few questions. If you are wondering who asked them well, most likely a few people did in reviews or PMs (either that, or someone made a vague statement that I felt I needed to clarify)… Also, I don't mean to insult anyone by the questions – no one was actually rude with their questions, nor did I read them as rude statements. I'm just… blunt-ifying them here.

Did they not use a condom? Is Gabriella pregnant?

Gabriella actually says that they almost forgot to use one – they did in fact use a condom. Pregnancy isn't the plot for this story, so I feel safe saying that GABRIELLA ISN'T PREGNANT.

Where is angry Troy? I want fighting and rivalry!

It's coming, no worries…

When is Troyella going to be out in the open?

That would be telling, but I can safely say that this chapter is the beginning of the interesting stuff when it comes to everyone finding out.

Who is going to find out about Troyella first?

Well… I personally think it's pretty obvious, but then again I am the writer so who knows, I could be more vague than I think I am.

URG, I don't like Sharpay! Will she be in it less?

No. Haha, sorry, I don't mean to be frank, but I like Sharpay. Hence the reason I made her Troy's closest friend. Shar's staying until the end, at least as of right now. Maybe you'll like her better once she knows about Troyella, I don't know.

REMINDER: Since no one has really read this in ages, I want to remind everyone that Gabriella has Troy under the name of Chris in her cell phone, which is also the name of a gay friend of hers from outside of school. It's like her cover for him, so that she doesn't need to delete all of his texts from her phone.

Also, this is dedicated to hollybaggins for nominating me at the HSM Awards, which was a pretty awesome thing for her to do. So, yeah, I pretty much love her right now.

Cell Phones and Revelations Pt. 1

Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in, winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye
And roped me in

So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated, I am

Vindicated
I am selfish, I am wrong
I am right, I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along.

- Vindicated, Dashboard Confessional

Almost 2 Weeks Later

"Troy, honey, time to get up."

Troy groaned, rolling over and pulling his covers over his head. He could vaguely hear his mother sigh before she said, "You have ten minutes before I come back – your father needs to leave in a half hour."

He waited until his mother had left the room before grudgingly pushing back his covers and getting up. Troy's first instinct was to glance at his clock, which read 6:20 AM. It was way too early, but then again that was always what Troy thought on the first day of school.

Yes it was the first day of school. To say that Troy wasn't happy would be an understatement, although not for the reasons one might think. Sure, the school part of it wasn't fantastic, but he could deal. His problem was that the time he could spend with Gabriella would dramatically decrease.

Trudging to the bathroom, Troy took a quick shower before getting out and going back to his room in his towel. The first thing he did was call Gabriella's cell phone. She picked up on the second ring, asking breathlessly into it, "Hello?"

"Busy?" Troy asked casually, grabbing a pair of boxers out of his drawer and putting them on. He then grabbed a pair of dark wash jeans off of the floor and pulled them on.

Gabriella's voice was more relaxed as she replied, "No, I just couldn't find my phone. I'm leaving for school in, like, twenty minutes, though, and I still don't have any idea what I'm going to wear. Plus, my hair still isn't brushed, and Arcadia keeps on texting me with stupid questions about what she should wear and what we should bring to each class, like it even matters on the first day."

"I liked that shirt you wore yesterday," Troy suggested as he grabbed an Abercrombie and Fitch tee shirt out of his closet. He pulled the phone away from his ear for a second to put it on.

As soon as the phone returned to his ear, he could hear Gabriella say in a clearly frustrated tone, "It's in the washer."

"The green spaghetti strap shirt?" Troy suggested. He loved that shirt, because it showed off her collarbone and the upper part of her back perfectly. And it was just low cut enough to tease him, without being too un-Gabriella-like. Then he remembered that he wouldn't be seeing Gabriella during the day, but hundreds of West High guys would. "Never mind," he told her quickly, "that's not a good choice."

"I thought you might say that," Gabriella told him amusedly, giggling slightly. "Besides, it hardly goes with anything I own – you're not very good at this fashion stuff, which sucks because neither am I."

"Well, at least I'm trying. Most guys would hang up," Troy pointed out.

"True." Troy could practically hear Gabriella biting her lip, deep in thought about what she would wear.

Trying again, he said, "Why don't you just wear sweatpants and a t-shirt, or whatever? Who cares what people think?"

"I don't really," Gabriella said, which Troy kind of doubted. It was true in a way that Gabriella was a rather independent person who didn't care what other people thought; she just wasn't as much of this type of person as Troy was. "But I don't really love the thought of getting a detention for breaking the dress code."

"Okay, okay," Troy sighed, and Gabriella could picture him holding his hands up in surrender. He paused before adding, "My last idea is just jeans with some t-shirt. If you don't like that idea, then I give up."

"That could work…"

They were both silent for a moment as Gabriella contemplated her wardrobe. She hadn't ever gotten around to back-to-school shopping. Finally she decided, "I'll wear my purple tee shirt with those new jeans I got."

"Okay," Troy said, having no idea what shirt she was talking about. "So, what time are you getting home from school?"

"Um, I think I have a short Scholastic Decathlon meeting – just a fifteen-minute sort of thing, since we don't need any new members. After that Taylor's coming over to do homework. I could come over your house after that, if you wanted."

"No," Troy sighed, turning away from his closet and shoving some shoes on his feet. "My dad will be home. Could I come over your house?"

"I don't know, can you be quiet?" Gabriella teased.

Troy blushed, remembering a day the week before when Gabriella's mom had almost caught them in a rather risqué position. "I think I can handle it. Call me when Taylor leaves, okay?"

"Okay. I love you, Superstar."

"I love you, too."

Troy reluctantly hung up, stuffing his phone into his pocket. He stood there silently for a moment before he heard his mom calling him. Sighing, he made his way downstairs.

His mom was at the stove, frying what seemed to be French toast. Troy frowned – his mother never cooked him breakfast, because she knew that he usually ate at school since he got there so early. That was definitely one of the cons of having a father as a teacher.

"Excited for school?" Lucy asked, turning towards her son with a smile that was far too large on her face.

"Not really," Troy muttered tiredly, yawning as he took a seat on one of the barstools in his kitchen. He jumped as he felt his pocket vibrate. He considered ignoring it, but decided that it could be Gabi or Shar, neither of whom he wanted to ignore.

The caller ID said it was Chad, but Troy picked it up anyways. "Yeah?" he asked into the phone.

"Hey," Chad's voice sounded different for some reason. A bit more awkward, and maybe a bit nervous? Troy frowned. "When are you leaving for school?"

Troy checked his watch and answered with a groan, "Um, about ten minutes. Why?"

"I'll come pick you up – you can have more time to sleep, or whatever. It's on my way, anyways. And I want to talk to you about something."

"Okay," Troy said slowly, his voice rather cautious. "What time, then?"

"Twenty, twenty-five minutes, maybe?"

"Sounds good, I guess." Troy hesitated before asking, "What do you want to talk about?"

There was a beat of silence before Chad said with an air of finality, "If I told you, we'd be having the entire conversation over the phone."

Troy frowned. This should be interesting.

------

"Gabs, you ready?"

Gabriella ran a hand through her hair once more before nodding and replying, "Yeah, I'm good."

"Great," Vincent said in a rather lackluster voice. He grabbed his backpack and keys before turning to his sister and added half-heartedly, "Oh, by the way, we're driving Spencer today."

"What?" Gabriella asked, alarmed. "Why?"

Vincent gave her a strange look before saying, "His car is at the shop. What's the problem?"

"Nothing," Gabriella replied, her voice slightly higher than normal. She grabbed her messenger bag and headed out the door before Vincent could ask any other questions. Gabriella usually didn't have a problem with Spencer whatsoever. Heck, he used to be her favorite guy out of all of her brother's friends. But lately he had been acting really strange around her, and it made Gabriella feel awkward.

"Hey, so," Vincent started as he caught up to her, "the team's meeting up after school for a quick meeting about when we want to have work-outs and stuff to keep in shape, so is it okay if we meet at the car, say, a half hour after school ends?"

"Yeah, that works – I have a Scholastic Decathlon meeting." Gabriella paused. "Why do you have a meeting so early? I mean, basketball doesn't start until the end of November."

"Yeah, but still, we need to keep in shape. Usually the returning team just works out together a few days a week to make sure no one's getting lazy. Then when November comes around we start try-outs and real conditioning," Vincent explained as they got into the car.

"That's insane," Gabriella said as she shook her head. Would Troy be doing that, too?

Vincent shrugged. "We have to be ready if we're going to beat Bolton and Danforth." He tensed as he backed the car out of the driveway, as if even thinking of the East High players made him angry.

"Okay," Gabriella replied a bit meekly. She took out her iPod, but only put one of the buds in her ear, leaving the other one free to listen to Vincent's sure-to-come rant. She was kind of curious, she had to admit.

"Bolton won't know what's hit him," Vincent continued, a bite to his voice. "We're going to kick his ass; I don't care how we do it. I want to get that arrogant, disdainful look off of his face. He's such a fucking coward, letting Danforth fight all of his battles while he gets the credit."

Gabriella took a deep breath and put the other ear bud in. She didn't want to listen after all.

------

Chad just watched as his best friend opened his passenger door and got in, slamming it behind him. Troy had his backpack, Chad noted, but not a bag with basketball stuff – his dad had probably brought it and put it in his locker for him.

Ah, the pros of having a father as a teacher.

They sat in silence, neither really knowing what to say to the other. At least, that was how Chad felt. He hesitated before finally saying, "Don't take this the wrong way, okay?"

Troy's lips formed a wan smile as he said dryly, "Well, that's not a very promising way to start out."

Chad frowned subconsciously. That was it – one of the many signs that Troy Bolton had changed. He talked more, smiled more. He joked around, even if it was sarcasm, it was still an improvement. And he seemed, well, happy. Chad had never really thought of Troy as happy before. Content, yes. Successful, yes. Proud, yes. But actually, truly happy? No, not really. Well, except for now. Yes, Troy had definitely changed, but was it for the better? Chad wanted to find out.

"I'm not really sure how to say this," Chad admitted as he put his car into reverse and backed out of Troy's driveway. He didn't continue until he was one the road, heading towards East High. Then he spoke again. "Look, I'm your best friend. In this weird, sort of messed-up way, we're together, in that best friend sort of way, and we have been since we were, what, five? I know you're close with Sharpay, too, but I like to think that you tell me more than you tell the average person." He smiled wryly. "Maybe you tell Sharpay more than you tell me, but I think that I'm second on the list."

"You're the same," Troy told him slowly. "You and Sharpay – you're even, to me."

"Right," Chad continued, rather business-like now. "The problem is, you don't really share much in general. So I may know more than everyone else, but I really don't know much at all."

Troy was silent, because he was right.

Taking Troy's lack of response as an agreement, Chad explained, "That doesn't mean I'm stupid though. I may not get good grades, but I do notice some things. And I noticed that you changed over the summer."

Troy opened his mouth to disagree, although he knew it was true, but Chad overran him. "We hardly ever hung out, and when we did it was like you were just waiting for it to be over because you had someplace better to be. You started to talk more, and joke around a bit more. I decided to just not comment before, but now I need to know. Because, you see, you really seem… happy now. And I know you weren't before." He groaned. "God, this sounds gay, but I just want to make sure that you are, actually, happy, you know?"

They were fast approaching East High, and Troy didn't say anything until the school was in view. It was then that he said finally, "I have changed, haven't I?"

"Yeah," Chad said awkwardly, seeming surprised that Troy was being so calm. "You have."

Chad steered the car into an empty parking space near the back door in one of the special seniors-only parking spots.

Troy smiled slightly and replied, "I hadn't realized that it had been so obvious."

Chad shifted uncomfortably. "It was, kind of," he confessed. Then he asked, "You know what did it, though?"

"Yeah."

"And you're not going to tell me what it was?"

"I will, someday," Troy promised.

Chad grinned slightly and said, "I can deal with that." He was silent for a moment before shaking his head and admitting, "I just wanted to make sure you weren't in trouble, you know?" He laughed a bit sheepishly. "I don't even know what I was worried about. Drugs, maybe, or depression? I guess that doesn't even make sense, if I thought you looked happy."

Troy shook his head. "You were right before – I, I'm happy now." He chuckled softly before adding, "I didn't realize what I was missing out on before, but now? I don't know, but I can't imagine it getting any better than this."

Chad gave him a long look before agreeing, "Yeah, man, you've fucking changed alright." He faked disappointment and complained, "I was all ready to be the savior, too. Come flying in like superman or whatever and save the day by making you, I don't know, better and shit."

"You'll have to try again the next time I seem screwed up."

Chad laughed and they both headed towards school for the start of another year.

------

Gabriella never thought she'd be happy to arrive at school, but she was awaiting the event eagerly as she sat awkwardly in the front seat next to Vincent, with Spencer in the back. She had offered to take the backseat, since Spencer was so tall and it was probably uncomfortable for him, but he had steadfastly refused in the sort of way that caused an awkward silence.

"So, do you guys have a plan about how you're going to work out until November?" Gabriella asked, trying to pick up on the conversation she had been having with Vincent before.

She realized she failed at the silence that followed her words. Finally, Spencer cleared his throat and said awkwardly, "Er, not really. The team will probably just try and get some gym time or go to the weight room, I'm thinking."

Vincent glanced in the rearview mirror at Spencer, and then sideways at Gabriella before finally asking them, "What the hell is up with you two?" He frowned, turning suspicious. "Have you hooked up or something and don't want to tell me because you're afraid I'll freak out?"

"No!" they both exclaimed almost in unison, both answering a bit too quickly. Gabriella glanced back only to see Spencer blushing furiously, and she felt her stomach drop. He was acting like she was taken, or something. Did he know? No, he couldn't. There was no way.

Nevertheless, Gabriella couldn't help but get out of the car before it had even fully stopped, hurrying away to escape the awkwardness that was Spencer Gates as soon as she could.

Inside school, everyone was bustling around. Gabriella was always slightly intimidated and nervous on the first day of a new school year no matter how successfully she hid it, and the feeling didn't fade even though now she was an upperclassman.

Glancing down at the papers in her hand that detailed her class schedule and her locker information, Gabriella quickly made her way down the hallways to her locker. They were in alphabetical order by grade, which meant she was near Taylor and reasonably near Arcadia.

"Hey!" Arcadia squealed, bouncing up to Gabriella with four other girls behind her. She was in a dress, of all things, which made Gabriella subconsciously wrap her arms around her stomach.

"Hey," Gabriella forced a smile onto her face. The girls behind Arcadia didn't look very enthusiastic – two of them were texting, and they all looked prettier than her.

"Hey, Gabs," Gretchen offered in a chipper voice, waving. Gabriella waved back, thankful that at least one person there knew her.

"Oh, right, you know Nicole, Lia, Gretchen, and Bridget, don't you?" Arcadia said, not bother to point out which girl was which as she looped her arm through Gabriella's and they started walking towards their lockers. "We were just catching up."

"Yeah," Gabriella said, although she only knew Gretchen and Nicole. "Spencer's probably looking for you, Vincent gave him a ride this morning."

"Yeah, I'll have to look for him. What homeroom are you in?"

"Mrs. Clearwater, you?"

"Mr. Beverly, unfortunately."

"I'm in Mrs. Clearwater's, too, Gabriella," Gretchen said, walking up so that she was on Gabriella's other side. "We can walk there together."

"That's cool."

"What are you doing after school?" Arcadia interjected. "Gretchen and I were going to go out and do whatever. Spencer's in, too."

Gabriella felt unbelievably overwhelmed. She was the type of person that didn't like a full schedule – she preferred doing nothing and staying at home all day. And here she was already with a full day. So she didn't actually fell very sorry when she said, "Wish I could, but I already have plans."

Besides, she didn't exactly relish the idea of having another encounter with Spencer.

"Oh, that sucks. Tomorrow we can do something," Gretchen offered.

"Right," Gabriella said, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Hey, Cade."

Everyone turned around to see Spencer sauntering up, not missing a beat as he wrapped an arm around Arcadia. Next to him, Vincent strolled up, and neither him nor Gabriella missed the way Nicole, Gretchen, and Lia perked up slightly. It wasn't their fault, really, Gabriella told herself. If he wasn't her brother, Gabriella was sure she'd probably be interested, too.

"Hey, Gabs, what was with the running off on us?" Vincent asked.

Gabriella tried to play cool, shrugging and teasing, "Didn't really want to be accosted by the girls that were sure to flock to you as soon as you entered the doors."

"Ooh, SAT word," Gretchen exclaimed playfully, giving Gabriella a small nudge.

"Yeah, well," Vincent interjected, "Mom called me – we're all going out to dinner tonight for a "Montez dinner"."

Gabriella winced at the air quotes he made, but all of the other girls seemed to find it hilarious. "Do we have to?"

"What do you think?" Vincent retorted, making a face. "Anyways, I got to run so what about you text me after your Scholastic whatever meeting is done and we can go home?"

"Sure," Gabriella agreed, and then quickly added, "This is my locker, I'll see you later!" She quickly waved to everyone and escaped the claustrophobia-inducing pack of "friends".

Gabriella was thankful to get away.

------

Troy Bolton was very lucky that he had Sharpay Evans as a friend.

At least, that was how Sharpay saw it. What other friend would talk to Principal Matsui to make sure that Troy's locker was right next to hers (an extremely prime spot, seeing as it was close in proximity not only to his homeroom, but also to the cafeteria and gym). And speaking of homeroom, Sharpay was certainly the only friend of his that bothered to ensure that he was in homeroom with all of his closest friends, despite the fact he was a junior. There were always a few homerooms each year that had students in different years, and Ms. Darbus's was one of them, which was why that was the homeroom Troy, Chad, Zeke, Jason, Ryan, Sharpay, Raleigh, and Kelsi always had. Sharpay had even brought Troy an extra shirt, in case it didn't match her purple ensemble.

It didn't, she noted as soon as he walked in. Of course Troy would choose to wear a tee shirt, of all things, on the first day of school. Troy, she decided, really needed more lessons on fashion. That was why the first thing she said to him that morning was, "You look absolutely hideous. Don't you care about what you look like?"

"I knew you'd bring me something," Troy said, flashing a quick smile in her direction as he proceeded to take a slip of paper out of his pocket with his locker combination on it and start to twirl the dial on the lock. Sharpay gave him a strange look. He'd been doing that lately – giving her these small smiles. Almost immediately after, he'd become more closed off than ever, almost as if the displays of emotion had been accidents. Sharpay didn't quite know what to make of it.

She grabbed a deep purple and gray wide striped Ralph Lauren polo from out of her large Gucci bad and held it out for him to see, saying, "Just change into now – there's hardly anyone around." She glanced at her locker, where she had already placed her after-school bag, equipped with a change of clothes in case there would be drama after school. She doubted it, since it was the first day of school, but there was no harm in being careful.

Troy examined it for a moment, debating with himself. Sure, it was purple, but it was a dark purple, and the gray made it better. All in all, a shirt that Troy had no objection with. Shrugging, he glanced around to make sure there were no teachers before pulling his current shirt over his head and tossing it into his now-open locker.

Sharpay smirked slightly at three girls across the hall. They were openly staring at Troy's bare chest. He was, she reflected, rather good-looking, but she found it kind of weird to think of Troy that way. He had never been that guy to her. He was like a brother in some ways. Deciding not to comment, she handed him the shirt she had chosen out as she said, "God, you're so lucky you have me. I just, like, totally saved the day. Especially since it's the first day of school."

"You're like a superhero," Troy said wryly.

"You bet your ass I am," Sharpay said, smirking. "Where's Chad?"

"In the bathroom – we just got here. He drove me this morning," Troy explained, shutting his locker shut. He had nothing to put away, after all.

Sharpay nodded, shutting her locker as well. "Now what classes do you have?"

Troy wordlessly handed over his schedule to her, and Sharpay compared it to hers with a critical eye, her face businesslike and set. Immediately she announced, "This is wrong – I called at least a week ago and had your homeroom changed to Ms. Darbus, not Mrs. Coleridge."

"Maybe you're slipping," Troy suggested, his voice mock-serious. Sharpay lifted her head to give him a withering look before suggesting, "Maybe they forgot to switch it."

"Or maybe this Mrs. Coleridge person said no way in hell," Troy pointed out. "Who is she? I've never heard of her before." That wasn't technically a lie, he reasoned with himself, but he did have a fair idea of who the teacher was. How many Coleridges could be out there, anyways?

"Me neither, must be new," Sharpay responded thoughtfully. "I heard there was a Mr. Cole-something coming. Maybe it was a woman and I just forgot. Or maybe there are two of them." She shrugged. "I don't know. We'll figure it out, though. Now let me see about everything else. We have to at least have French together."

After a few moment of silence, Sharpay handed Troy back his schedule and said, "Well, we have homeroom and lunch together, obviously. Besides that all we have is English and French. Free, too, but I'll be in the theater then. You should do theater instead of gym, that way we'd have one more class together."

Troy shook head and told her flatly, "No, my dad would kill me. Besides, gym is an easy A."

"Well, what are you doing during free, then?" Sharpay wrinkled her nose. "More basketball?"

Sharpay was obsessed with theater and acting and singing – she was one of those girls. The thing was, she was actually good. Troy suspected she could actually get somewhere in life. Already, Julliard and Berklee and all of those places were knocking on her door. It humbled Troy, to be with Sharpay, because really what was basketball compared to everything Sharpay did?

Troy shrugged and said, "Yeah, I'll probably be lifting weights or whatever Chad's up to doing."

"Did someone say my name?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes and turned to face Chad Danforth, whose shirt was almost as hideous as Troy's had been. Rolling her eyes, she retorted, "Yeah, we were commiserating about how ugly that thing on your head is."

Chad gave her the finger and turned his attention to Troy, asking, "Hey, dude, I forgot to ask you earlier, but weights during free?"

"Sure," Troy said, exchanging a look with Sharpay, who was smirking. "Let's get to homeroom."

"Sounds good," Chad said as they started walking. "Man, it's fucking insane how Shar always gets you a locker right next to hers."

"I know, I'm pretty damn amazing," Sharpay agreed, smirking.

"And yours is right down the hall, near Zeke's," Troy added. "That's not bad at all."

"It's alphabetical order," Sharpay explained. "Zeke and Chad being close to each other was a fluke – and they really aren't actually close, because they're across the hall from one another. Yours, though," she said, giving Troy a meaningful look, "I traded with Ryan's."

"Why would Ryan agree to that?" Chad asked, furrowing his brow in befuddlement.

"He agreed back when he was with Raleigh."

"And you made him go through with it?" Chad winced in sympathy for Ryan. "That's tough even for you."

"Whatever, let's just go to homeroom."

They reached homeroom with two minutes to spare, according to Sharpay's watch. She pushed past Chad and Ryan and strutted in. Troy, feeling his pocket vibrate, hung back. Walking in slowly, he read the text. Sorry I can't hang out tonight after all. I have a family dinner thing. Tomorrow? It was from Gabriella.

Troy fought back a groan. Coach Montez's family dinners were the bane of his existence. Every now and again, the overworked mother would announce that she wanted the entire family (meaning her, Gabriella, and Vincent) to have dinner as a family and learn about what was going on in each others' lives. It was her way of feeling like a successful mother. Troy hated them.

Troy stopped in the doorway and leaned against it in an unintentionally sexy way – at least, that was what he gathered a few moments later when he looked up and three different groups of girls were looking at him – as he sent a text back. Definitely tomorrow. Love you. He shut his phone and walked into the room, sitting on the desk in front of Chad and asking him casually, "Hey, want to do some one-on-one after the team meeting?"

"Yeah, awesome," Chad grinned. "You know we never actually play on the first day of school, it's just getting numbers to figure out how many teams there will be and all that shit."

"Right, which is a waste of our time because everyone knows that so many people play basketball even thirds gets cut," Zeke added.

"I know man," Jason said, shaking his head. Troy glanced up, he hadn't even realized Jason had come in. Jason walked up to Troy and said, "Dude, my seat."

"Whatever man," Troy said, getting up. "I'm headed to my homeroom."

"Uh, what do you call this?" Zeke asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing around the classroom.

"Troy's schedule still has his old homeroom on it – obviously it wasn't changed after my call. He'll be back here tomorrow," Sharpay replied confidently. Troy resisted the urge to gag as she walked over to Zeke with a big smile on her face and sat on his desk, pulling him in by the shirt for a long, drawn-out kiss.

"That, man, is my cue to leave," Troy told Chad, giving him a high five before grabbing his backpack and walking out, unaware of the lull in conversation in the room he was leaving, each of them wondering where he was going.

------

"How many minutes before homeroom actually starts?" Gabriella asked, looking at Taylor with a trace of annoyance. She slid her cell phone across her desk from one hand to another absent-mindedly.

"Ten minutes, but it's good to be punctual."

"Whatever you say, Tay," Gabriella teased, and Taylor laughed. Gabriella got up and continued, "I'm going to the bathroom, be right back."

"Okay, sure, leave me to sit here like a loser," Taylor retorted, but it was said jokingly, too. Gabriella laughed

Taylor waited until her friend had walked out of the room before her gaze landed on Gabriella's cell phone. It was sitting innocently on top of her desk, which made it that more alluring. To look, or not to look?

She held out for maybe ten seconds before reaching for it.

Quickly, Taylor scanned through the newest texts, frowning as she realized all of them were from some guy named Chris. This was particularly interesting because Taylor didn't know any boys named Chris at West High well – and there weren't any on the basketball team, which meant whoever it was probably didn't go to West High. The only guys Gabriella really talked to at school were the ones in her classes, the guys on the Scholastic Decathlon team, and her brother's friends.

Taylor narrowed her eyes, not quite sure what to do now. It was a major invasion of privacy, she knew. But then again, Gabriella was supposed to be her best friend (even though Arcadia had been doing a pretty good job of taking Gabriella all for herself lately), and best friends were supposed to tell each other everything. And Gabriella hadn't been doing that by a long shot.

Well, first things first…

Taylor didn't care how wrong it was – she pulled out her cell phone and copied Chris's number into her phone… just in case, she told herself.

And it was a good thing that she did that first, because a moment later Gabriella walked through the door again, and Taylor put Gabriella's phone back where it belonged just in time.

Maybe she'd text this Chris guy. She hadn't decided yet. But, still, it was a good thing to have.

------

So, the next chapter is probably more than halfway done… and there's major drama, if I remember correctly *evil grin*. Well, maybe not major, exactly – but there's the potential for it, at least.