I know it's not Haunting Memories (trying, I promise...) but I think this can count as a temporary placeholder. It's funny, it's decent, and it's part one of a quick three-shot. More Chad stupidity, Troyella love, and gang recklessness haha my favorite FF genre...

Chapter 1 – The Plan

"This makes no sense to me."

"Wow. Shocker…"

"I'm serious. You, of all people, grounded for two whole weeks."

Gabriella sighed on the line and Chad could almost hear her roll her eyes. "I'm not a nun, Chad; I get in trouble, too."

Chad shook off the shock from hearing about the saint's recent incarceration alongside his own. He twirled a wild curl around his finger and replied "Well it's news to me."

"Not to me," a third voice crooned from the third line. "Gabby gave up her adorable nun image the day she met me, isn't that right, sweetie?"

Now it was Chad's turn to look to the ceiling in annoyance. He let the strand go. "Way to be overly cocky, Troy."

"Babe, stop making me sound like a whore. We haven't even slept together yet."

Chad grimaced. "Thanks for that, really, because I was obviously curious and about to ask you freaks."

"Butt out, Chad."

"Why? You two called me, remember?"

"You're not a whore, honey, nowhere near it."

"Thank you."

"So…"

"So…"

"So…"

"What color panties you got on?"

"Troy!"

"Dude!"

"What? Can't a man ask a harmless question to his girlfriend of six months?"

"Not while your best friend's on the line listening, you jackass!"

"No one said you had to stay in this three-way, Danforth."

"You purposely made that perverted! God is watching!"

"Than why isn't he watching over your grades, or are you forgetting that you're grounded, too?"

"Nonbeliever!"

"Failure!"

"CHILDREN!"

Chad sat up in his bed and bit his tongue to keep from retaliating to Troy's insult about his dropping grades. But how could he talk? Troy was grounded for missing his curfew by two and a half hours because he was out with Gabriella, who never showed up to babysit her little cousin. So now she was grounded and broke. What a wonderful summer birthday present.

Chad sighed and flopped back on his huge throw pillow. "Sorry, Gabs, but you know how I get when I can't see Taylor or any of the gang outside of school."

He could almost hear Troy nod. "Yeah, we're taking risks by finding our phones. My ass is on the line just by being out of my room."

"Me, too," Gabriella nearly whispered, "if my mom's boss calls, I'm screwed. I couldn't find my cell, so I'm stuck with the land line."

"Didn't you say that she was leaving in a few minutes, anyway?"

"Yes, Troy, she's going to a promo dinner. She wanted to bring me, but—oh, crap, hold on!"

Troy and Chad waited in sharp suspense as they heard Gabriella shove the phone under her pillow and throw her head on top of it. Maria Montez wasn't one to condone or overlook her daughter's occasional tricks, especially when she was in trouble. The boys heard the low thumping of Maria's heels on Gabby's carpet and her muffled voice apologizing for "waking her up". She must have been in a rush to not remember that she was the only one to take a shower that night or that Gabby's clothes weren't in her laundry basket. Instead, she just informed her on where she was going again and when she would be back: 10:00. They could've sworn they heard her ask Gabriella to look for the house phone as well…

The door closed. A few seconds crawled by before Gabriella retrieved the phone. "Sorry, guys, she just left. I'm in the clear until ten."

Chad nodded. "Me, too. It's my grandma's birthday and my parents left about an hour ago."

"What?" Troy confusingly added in, "You're not going with them? Isn't that a little messed up?"

Chad rolled his eyes and explained the story. "My Grammy might as well have a restraining order on me for what happened last time. I won't go into full detail, but can you guys just promise me something?"

"Sure?"

"Okay?"

He frowned sullenly before replying. "Never, never, ever, carry Mentos and root beer in the same pocket as your grandma's birthday card. Especially when it's holding the $2,000 check that's paying her back for helping you out with the new basement."

"Wow, you would, Chad," Gabriella made a tsk sound over the phone while Troy was nearly bent over in hysterics.

Chad glared at his best friend without having the patience to remember that he couldn't see him. "Shut up, Bolton, I hope you get caught and grounded for an extra year."

After a second of re-composition, Troy sighed and wiped the dampness from his eyes. "Oh, no, never. My parents just left for dinner. It's date night, remember?"

Chad just sat there blinking at the wall covered with posters of his favorite basketball players and bands. Kobe stood with the ball in his hand and seemed to be shaking his head at the three of them, like he was saying "And you call yourselves smart?"

"Troy?"

"Huh?"

"What the hell are we doing sitting here on our asses like Sharpay after she's finished shopping?"

"Don't think I won't tell her that you said that."

"Oh, please, Gabs. Like I'm scared of that stick."

"Okay, you're funeral."

"What do you suppose we do, then, sneak out?" Troy quarried, getting up from his basement couch and strolling over to the window, checking the driveway to make sure that his father's Honda was absent. He smiled when he saw it turn around the corner.

Chad scoffed. "Why do you say that like it's a question? Aren't you two supposed to be the smart ones?"

"Is that your way of calling me stupid?"

"Depends on if you do it or not."

"Are you insane?" Gabriella screeched, sitting up in her bed with a start, "I hope to God you set aside some cash for our caskets after our parents slit our throats."

Chad sucked his teeth and played a solitude game of catch with his basketball pillow. "Come on, Gabby, give me one good reason why this isn't a good idea."

"Do you even hear yourself?"

"Yes, I hear all three of you perfectly fine, as a matter of fact." He grinned when Troy barked humorously. At least someone might be on board, he thought to himself.

"This isn't funny, Chad, I'm not sneaking out only to get caught and locked up in my room until college."

Chad let his head fall against his headboard and groaned. "What'll it take to convince you?"

The silence on the other end was enough to let the two boys know that she was grinning evilly. "One good reason." She quoted, making Chad grind his teeth at the irony.

"Damn…"

Troy shrugged and popped an Oreo in his mouth from the kitchen cabinet. "Because I'll be there, duh."

"Thank you, man." Chad carelessly tossed an arm in the air in relief.

Gabriella ignored him. She giggled sarcastically once before replying. "Yeah, I'll just go hunt my man."

Chad's eyebrows furrowed when he realized that they probably forgot he was there by now. But the next words that came out of Troy's mouth not only confirmed that he was right, but gave him a very dangerous, genius idea.

"Ooh, a sexy manhunt."

The couple carried on their flirty conversation without a word to Chad as his hands grabbed last week's trig homework and a pencil. He flipped it over and his brain went to work, telling his hands what to scribble down in all but three minutes. The entire paper was filled when he brought it in front of his eyes and grinned like a madman. It was perfect.

"Chad, you there, dude?"

Silence.

"Chad?"

"You think his parents came back?" Gabriella asked him.

"I don't know. Chad, last chance, should I text you?"

Chad didn't snap out of his thoughtful daze, but Troy's hidden threat to hang up on him got through to his brain just fine. He looked around his room at all of the amazing possibilities that could make his plan come to life and make tonight an unforgettable one. He would make sure of that.

"Show up at the park with black hoodies in twenty minutes."

"What?" The couple would've exchanged confused, worried gazes if they were standing right next to each other.

"Chad, what are you talking ab-"

Click.

They sat in silence for a few seconds trying to think over their friend's sudden insanity the best they could. What was he up to this time? And what did their clothes have to do with anything?

"Well, then."

"What should we do?" Gabriella asked her boyfriend, eyeing the clothes that just came out of the dryer. A midnight sweatshirt lay on top of the heap, like it was taunting her to the dark side. Was she really one to ever say no when there was intense mystery involved?

"I guess we should check our closets and look for our sneakers. Your balcony in five?"

"This is a really bad idea, Troy."

"So was going to dinner the night your little cousin came to visit, but we did it, didn't we? See you in a few, sweetie." Click.

"Tell me why we're here again?"

Sharpay, Ryan, Taylor, Zeke, and Jason stood in a cluster of confusion and impatience in the middle of the development park near Chad's house. Sharpay knew her question was on everyone's minds, especially Gabriella's. Her hand grasped Troy's so hard they both turned a sickly white. Her eyes darted around in the darkness for any sign of her mother (or maybe a hallucination of her, since she was clearly about to drive herself to the point of a brain hemorrhage…)

Troy shrugged and stroked Gabby's hair while holding her close to his chest. "I wish I could tell you guys, but we have to wait until Chad gets here," He eyed everyone's hoodies, blinking at Sharpay and the other guys. "Weren't you all supposed to wear black like us?" He motioned to Gabriella, Taylor, and himself.

Ryan slowly shook his head. "Chad told us to wear white. I was thinking that same thing about you three."

Zeke crossed his arms and looked around again. "What the hell is going on, then?"

Ryan pondered the thought for a second before deciding on something. "Could we be color-coordinated for teams or something? Did one of you guys say something before he started acting weird?"

Troy shrugged. "I don't think so; we were talking about sneaking out and then we were joking around about…"

Gabriella removed her head from Troy's chest for the first time that night to look up at him knowingly, worriedly. She cocked an eyebrow as the obviousness of the situation tapped them on the shoulder and laughed menacingly at them.

"Oh, sweet Jesus, here we go."

The gang in front of them, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on through the little silent conversation that they were having. Sharpay's eyes slit curiously. "You were joking around about—"

"ULTIMATE MANHUNT!"

Everyone jumped when Chad's booming tone made itself known behind them. Troy and Sharpay groaned when they found him beaming, carrying a bulging book bag on his back with a lacrosse stick and plastic basketball bat in both hands. Does that sound even remotely safe or sane to you?

"Chad, what the hell is wrong with you?" Sharpay spat.

He flashed his pearly whites and shrugged, "I'm trying to create a story that we'll laugh about years from now in front of our parents who won't be able to do shit about it."

Taylor gave a huge grin. "Ah, the usual," She wrapped her arms around Chad and buried her face in his shoulder, gripping his afro tightly. "I've missed you."

"Same here. You ready to have the most fun you'll have for years to come?"

"Always."

Gabriella mocked a glare at him. "It better be worth getting my throat slit."

Chad rolled his eyes and threw the bag down on the ground along with the larger objects in his hands. "How many times do I have to tell you, sis: we'll be home in plenty of time to make it look like we never left and our parents won't ever find out about it."

"Until years from now when we're laughing about it." Troy added with a chuckle.

"Yes, of course."

Jason pushed his way through the hoard of teenagers and bright, confused, and somewhat excited teenagers and asked "I know I shouldn't be surprised that you have a baseball bat and lacrosse stick with you, but why is a whole other story. What do they have to do with Manhunt?"

Chad held up a finger to him, insinuating that he was just about to get to that, and bent down to reach in the front pocket of his bag. He revealed his folded trig homework and cleared his throat.

"These various weapons that you witness before you—"

"Weapons?"Most of the group exclaimed, some jumping back in shock and some leaning closer for him to confirm that they'd heard him right.

"Since when are there weapons in Manhunt?" Troy spoke for his speechless friends.

Gabriella just simply stared at him with a bit of anger in her hazel gaze. "I'm not killing anyone tonight, Chad. That's—"

"If you say 'that's our parents' job', I'm taking you by the hair and dragging you into a hole where you'll spend the next week soiling yourself," Chad boldly cut her off, looking at the shadowed grass beneath his large feet. He was obviously so fed up with Gabriella's worries about getting caught that he forgot Troy was standing right next to her, his cerulean eyes widening and zeroing in on his best friend.

"Excuse me," he glowered, "if anything's getting dragged into a hole, it's my foot up your ass the very next time you get snippy with my girlfriend. Don't forget who bailed you out of that fight with the Harley rider last summer, pal. I can quite easily take his place."

"I don't doubt that for a second. I can see you having that pot-belly, homeless thing going for you."

"You wanna go?" Gabriella was long since forgotten by the two boys who seemed to be quickly filling up with testosterone and egotistical immaturity. Again. Troy sort of roughly pushed her behind him and got into his much-abused fighting stance: crouching forward with his fists curled and teeth bearing.

Chad didn't seem to be doing too much better at trying to stop it. "Oh, I'm already there, baby! Let's dance, pretty boy!"

"Faggot!"

"Cracker!"

"GIRLS!"

Their layered glares didn't let up as Gabriella stepped in between them for the second time that night. Anyone could see that they were joking if they took the time to look beneath the mock anger, that they would never actually cause any real damage to the other. Still, that didn't mean that they couldn't tease their male-dominant hormones every once in a while.

"This is getting so old," Gabriella, however, didn't seem to think it was as funny or normal. Or did she think it had become normal, and that didn't sit well with her? "I'm surprised you two can fully function correctly without having to make a daily call to the asylum!"

Troy took a moment to notice how the moonlight was shining off of his girlfriend's raven curls, emphasizing the passionate gleam in her eyes. Who cares if it was an angry gleam? She cared about him enough to let him know when he was making an immature ass out of himself. He noticed the pale smoothness of her palm facing him versus the perfectly tan shading of her face. She wasn't one to use up most of her time hiding her obvious, natural beauty with makeup that was a classic topic of envious gossip at school.

And, damn, when she rocked that little black bikini at Sharpay's country club in the summer…

"Sorry, Gabs." Chad mumbled, taking his eyes off of Troy for the first time.

"Troy?" she said expectantly.

"Dead men probably hit themselves for dying so early…"

"What?"

"I mean I'm so sorry, it won't ever happen again," Gabriella kept her softening eyes on him while she slowly dropped her arms.

Sharpay huffed, obviously becoming impatient and suspense-ridden. But she wasn't bored. There was never a dull moment with the un-biological brothers around to do the dirty, embarrassing work for them. "The rules, Chad?"

"Ah, back to before I was so rudely interrupted," Chad held his mock glare while Troy returned it with a sarcastic, curt hiss. "Let's get back to it, shall we?"

"Whatever."

Chad ignored her sarcasm and reached back down for his book bag and discarded 'weapons'. Everyone took a tiny step back when he quickly pulled himself upright, the sticks jutting out from his arms at an unnaturally lengthy point. "These rules can get a little complicated, so you guys need to stick with me, okay? Ask questions."

He continued after everyone's consent.

"Alright, we've got two teams, thus the black and white hoodies. Each captain chooses a hideout for their team and retreat there for a few minutes where they get some game play ideas. Everyone on the team pairs up and the captain chooses a small patch of land for a pair to conquer and look out for the enemy team. Once they're done planning, captains are to call each other to let them know that they're ready to disperse. The white team is the first round enemy, so if the black team sees them, they use any mean's necessary to try and capture them. This includes trying to pull their hoods down to reveal their faces using moderate violence to get them down long enough to call their names out. That's where the weapons come in,"

Everyone gulped when he held the lacrosse stick and baseball bat to furthermore his point.

"Does everyone have their phones and are they fully charged?"

Most nodded while Troy and Sharpay dug around in their pockets to make sure. After waiting a few seconds they both nodded and replaced them into their jeans.

"Good. While the white team is leading you back to their hideout, you're allowed to send a distress text to someone from your team to ask for a rescue. You can give clues to hint to them where the hideout is, but once you get there your phone is confiscated and hidden somewhere nearby. If your team member finds you and the hideout, they have to find your phone before you both can get the hell out of there. This goes on for half an hour and if there's no winner, the captains call each other again to declare a homicide war,"

"A what?" Gabriella and Sharpay questioned while the guys allowed large grins of masculine aggression to accelerate on their handsome faces.

"A homicide war. We'll meet back here with our weapons and take each other down by, again, whatever means necessary. The team to get their enemies all down is the winner of that round. Sound good?"

The gang looked around at each other for shared reassurance that this wasn't completely insane. Some shrugged; some lolled their heads from side to side with pursed lips as if outweighing the pros and cons of running around the park like idiots, considering the rules. Eventually everyone nodded, even Gabriella who loosened her grip on Troy's hand and relaxed her fear-ridden frame when she realized that they'd be hiding throughout most of the game.

"How many rounds are we talking here?" Ryan spoke up.

"We're shooting for four," Chad answered, checking his watch, "probably three if we don't get started soon. The three of us need to get home by ten, so we've got two hours." His eyes slid to Gabriella as if saying that's right, I remembered.

"Great. Volunteers for first-round captains?"

Everyone's eyes were on Chad for the black team captain, but the little nagging voice in the back of their heads told them who would be head of the whites. Her voice pierced the air before anyone could predict it.

"Me!" Sharpay threw her arm in the air and bounced on her feet.

"Of course," Ryan rolled his eyes, "anyone object with Chad and Shar being the captains?"

Chad knew the rules and Sharpay was Sharpay. No one was willing to admit to being stupid enough to argue with her, so silence fell over them as the two smiled.

"Perfect. So we're ready?"

"Wait," Chad shoved his bag off of his back and unzipped it before flipping it upside down and spewing its contents on the soft grass. Everyone's eyes widened when they landed on the objects that Chad had conjured up in as little as ten minutes.

"What are we supposed to do with a bumper sticker, Chad?" Sharpay's voice was thick with disbelief and accusation, the words you're stupid as hell shooting like a gun between the lines of her actual words.

"You'd be surprised. Remember my first skateboarding attempt when I crashed because I ran into the loose flag on Troy's patio? I was hanging by my ankles in a tree, hovering above his backyard pond and still couldn't get the damn thing off of my head."

Most of them laughed so hard they ended up in tears on the ground, but left Taylor standing with her face in her hands in shame. This is my other half, she thought to herself, the one I thought I was getting some sense out of…

Troy was the first to somewhat compose himself enough to speak. "My mom's still trying to get the blood off of that flag. She was pissed for months."

"Right. Which is why I'm never skateboarding again."

"Chicken," Gabriella cooed while wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. Her thin mascara created a faint, grey sweep on the outside corners of her gorgeous eyes.

"Bullshit, I'm doing this for all of you! What if you want to borrow one of Taylor's shirts for an oh-so-romantic date with Troy, but you can't because it's drenched in blood from me tripping over someone's dropped tampon or something!"

"Wow, you would trip over a tampon, Chad. Just like you'd trip over your umbilical cord because your mommy didn't clip it off when you were born yesterday!"

Chad was silent for a second, the annoyance melting out of his eyes and ending in his hand, raising his pointing finger up at the grinning teen in front of her. "I've disregarded countless quirks from you tonight, Gabriella, mostly for Troy's sake so that he doesn't shove his fist down my throat so far it pushes his foot out of my ass,"

He was so into his rant that he didn't notice the disgusted scowls from the surrounding crowd. Troy just nodded to himself in agreement.

"But," Chad continued, his voice quivering, "if you ever insult the woman who brought me into this world and turned me into the prepared, respectful fuck I am today, I will not hesitate to make your ignorant, infuriating existence on this world a part of the forgotten past, get it? I will have to end you, and Troy?" He cut himself off when his peripheral vision allowed him to view Troy's darkening eyes and stiffening body prepare to lunge at him, "save it for the game. We only have an hour and forty-five minutes now. Keep an eye on your girl; I might have to pay someone to take her down."

"So help me, God, I hope you do. I'm just waiting for an excuse to hang you with your own intestines…" Troy's fiery rage was easily backed up with Gabriella's matching glower.

"Good. May the smartest asshole win." Chad let his gaze drift to the game-sake enemies, who were quivering in theirs shoes with giggles. Sharpay smirked and grabbed Ryan's elbow, dragging him off into the night with the rest of her team following suit.

"I'm looking forward to it…"

Continue it? I have the entire story planned out and really like it, so I need to know what you guys think :]

REVIEW! Thnx :]

~Rachel :]

P.S: One more thing: does ANYONE love Zac's new Charlie St. Cloud trailer as much as I do? I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THAT EFFING MOVIE!

And if you haven't seen it or even heard about it, YOUTUBE IT RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND! (after you review, of course :D)

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