DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'High School Musical' or any related characters.

A/N: Okay, so I thought that it was high time I started a new story. There won't be much, if any, drama in this story. Now, onto the story, I'm going to give you a brief outline of the actual story, it's an AU story because I like AU (I seem to say that a lot). Okay, storyline Troy's eighteen and senior and Gabriella's sixteen and a sophomore (I hope I got that right). They've known each other for years and are best friends. They both have a thing for each other, but Gabriella's never thought his feelings were anything more then brotherly, because Troy guards them so well and Troy's never thought Gabriella had any feelings for him because he's always refused to see them, protecting her from him and his reputation at East High. The story starts just before the end of the school year, so Troy's graduating from high school and going onto college and Gabriella's moving into junior year, so Prom and graduation will be involved. Now, I hope I got all the facts right, especially matching the ages to the year groups and the terms; I'm Australian so if they're wrong someone please tell me!

Convincing You To Fall

CHAPTER 1

HATE TO SEE YOU CRY

"Brieeeeeee. You can't stay up there forever!" An eleven-year old Troy Bolton whined. Nine-year old Gabriella Montez glared down at the blue eyed, brown haired boy, who was watching her with pleading eyes. She folded her arms and wobbled slightly on the tree branch she'd been sitting on for the past hour.

"Watch me Troy." She yelled down at him and then unfolded her arms and grabbed onto the tree branch as she wobbled more violently then last time. Troy pouted as the brunette continued to glare down at him. Troy was silent for a moment as he stared up at the girl who was still stubbornly clinging to the tree branch she'd latched onto, his mind working furiously as he tried to figure out how to get her out of the tree. Suddenly a sly grin erupted on his face and Gabriella's glare softened into a curious stare as she recognized the smile.

"You know Brie; you're quite high up, what happens if you fall?" Troy asked innocently, his ten year old brain going into overdrive as he tried to think of how to get her down from the tree. Gabriella's eyes widened as she thought about what he was saying. Looking down, she suddenly realized how high up she was and her grip on the branch tightened. "Because, you know it's a really long way to the ground and it would really hurt if you fell and hit the ground." Troy continued slyly and Gabriella's lip began to tremble as his words sank in and she realized that climbing up the tree because Troy had 'accidentally' eaten her share of the ice-cream wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done.

"T-T-Troy, you have to a-a-apologize first." The tremble in her voice obvious as Troy continued to look up at her.

"But I didn't eat your ice-cream! Dad did." Troy exclaimed and Gabriella's eyes flicked from him to the ground and back again as a few tears dripped down her cheeks. She suddenly decided that she didn't care who ate her ice-cream as long as she got down without falling.

"T-T-Troy, h-how do I get down?" Gabriella asked, the fright in her voice obvious as she looked at him, more tears falling down her cheeks as she clung to the branch tighter. Troy gulped; he'd expected her to believe him but he hadn't expected her to cry. Mainly because he'd completely forgotten that she was terrified of heights.

"Brie don't cry. Don't cry." Gabriella let out a sob as he spoke. Troy looked around in panic as she sobbed; he'd never been very good when she cried.

"T-T-Troy I w-w-want to get down!" Gabriella sobbed, the tears falling more freely now as panic registered in her brown eyes. Troy did the only thing he could think of, hauling himself up onto the first branch he could reach. Troy climbed up the tree towards the girl who was nearly at the top of the tree. Reaching the branch she was on, Troy crawled onto it and touched her shoulder.

"Brie, let go of the branch." He said softly, Gabriella didn't need to be told twice, she let go of the branch and latched onto the boy next to her. Troy made a face at the fact that she was clinging to him like a leech but let it go seeing as he was the one that made her cry.

"C-c-can we get down now?" Gabriella asked after a moment, hiccoughing slightly as she let Troy go.

"Yep. Follow me and you'll be fine." Troy said and Gabriella nodded, sending him a watery smile as he began to lower himself back down the tree. She watched him and took a deep breath as she followed him down.

"Gabriella!" Sixteen-year old Gabriella Montez's eyes snapped open as she heard her mothers incessant knocking on the door. Groaning she rubbed her eyes and lifted her head from where she'd buried it in her pillow and looked at the time. Six-thirty pm. She'd slept for nearly two hours and hadn't done any of her homework.

"Mom! I was sleeping!" Gabriella groaned and her mother opened the door and waltzed into her room, staring at her half-asleep daughter and grinning.

"I know. But, in case you have forgotten daughter, we are going out to dinner with the Bolton's and I'm pretty sure you don't want to walk into your father's restaurant wearing your sweats." Samantha Montez said breezily and watched as her daughter's head snap up from the pillow it was buried in to look at her mother in shock. Shaking her head she cleared the haze of sleep from her mind and took in a sharp breath.

"Great. Now I know what I forgot today. How much time do I have before we leave?" Gabriella asked and Samantha laughed.

"About fifteen minutes, but for you we'll make it half an hour." Gabriella glared at her mother and jumped up from her bed and then groaned as her phone went off. Picking it up off her desk she looked at the caller and rolled her eyes.

"Please tell me you have a reason for calling me right now." Gabriella answered the phone and waved her mother out the door as the person who had called her burst into laughter.

"Let me guess, your mom just told you we're going out to dinner right?" Eighteen-year old Troy Bolton's voice floated into her ear as she yanked open the closet doors and began to sift through the masses of clothes that hung on hangers.

"Yep. Let me guess, you got home from basketball and your mom 'suddenly' remembered that we're going out to dinner." Gabriella replied said and Troy flopped back onto his bed and stared up at his ceiling.

"Got it in one. Why do we put up at them?" Troy asked as Gabriella pulled out a knee length skirt and wrinkled her nose.

"Because, they're our parents and we have to." She replied and then made a face at the feathered monstrosity that she'd bought in the seventh grade. Troy groaned and Gabriella could see him burying his face in his pillow.

"Do you have an answer for everything?" He asked, his voice muffled and Gabriella grinned. She knew him too well.

"As long as the questions aren't rhetorical, then yes." Gabriella replied and bit her lip as she pulled out a casual red and white halter dress.

"You're not picking out clothes again are you?" Troy inquired and Gabriella wondered if she should lie and then realized that there was no point. Troy had been seeing through her lies since she was five years old.

"Yep. What are you wearing? Jeans?" She asked and Troy burst into laughter. Gabriella, failing to see the humor, placed the halter dress on her desk chair and continued to go through her closet.

"Brie, when have I ever worn anything else?" Troy asked and Gabriella groaned.

"You're not helping Troy." Gabriella groaned and Troy chuckled at the exasperation in her voice.

"Wear that red and white dress, it looks good on you." Troy said the compliment carelessly and Gabriella laughed, not knowing whether to take the compliment seriously or not. Both were silent for a moment as Gabriella picked up the dress she'd placed on her desk chair and looked at it again.

"Alright, I'll wear the dress. It's full of Wildcat spirit wouldn't you say?" Gabriella inquired as she pulled her hair out of the messy ponytail it was in and began to go through her drawers for fresh underwear. Troy groaned as she spoke.

"Don't remind me, it's bad enough that I can't escape it at school." He said and Gabriella giggled quietly.

"Big man on campus." She murmured and Troy chuckled dryly, Gabriella always managed to sum him, or what people though of him, up with only a few words.

"No need to remind me, Brie." Troy said and Gabriella smiled.

"Sorry. Listen, I've got to go so I'll see you at the restaurant and try and wear something other then jeans." Gabriella said and Troy laughed.

"I'll try but have you seen my closet? I think all that's in there is clothes from when I was ten; the rest is on the floor. " Troy said and Gabriella grinned, she could just see Troy's room.

"Gee, what a surprise. I'm going to go now; I'll talk to you later." Without waiting for an answer Gabriella hung up on him. Standing for a minute longer, she looked at the dress that he'd told her to wear and sighed.

She had no idea if he'd meant that compliment or not, she wanted him to mean it, God how she wanted him to mean it, but knowing Troy as well as she did knew that even if he did mean it, he would never admit it. Troy had always been too well guarded when it came to feelings. Besides, it's not like he has feelings for you and you certainly don't have feelings for him, Gabriella scolded herself and then sighed. Who was she fooling? She'd had feelings for Troy Bolton since he'd nearly punched out one of the boys in her year when she was fourteen because he'd been teasing her. And Gabriella knew that nothing was going to stop the feelings that had been growing in her for the past three years, no matter how much she wanted to something to stop them.

"Gabriella, we have fifteen minutes before we leave. Are you getting ready?" Samantha yelled up the stairs and Gabriella winced and shook the thoughts from her mind as she raced towards the shower. All thoughts of Troy flying out of her mind.

HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM

Troy slid down in his seat further as his dad yelled across the restaurant at whoever had just walked in the door. Closing his eyes, Troy wondered desperately when Gabriella was going to arrive and save him from the torture of listening to his father chat about him and everything that he had done in the past year. Hearing his father begin to talk about the championship against West High, Troy slid down in his seat as far he could go as the person he was talking to exclaimed over the retelling of Troy's winning basket. Feeling his phone go off, Troy pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. Seeing it was a message from Chad, Troy ignored it and slid the phone back into his pocket. Grinning uncomfortably when the person his father was talking to congratulated him for the game winning basket, Troy took his drink and took a long sip from it. Trying to distract himself, Troy turned his thoughts to the girl he was currently hoping would come and rescue him from his fathers over enthusiastic dissecting of his life.

Grinning, Troy could see Gabriella in the dress that he'd told her to wear, he hadn't been lying when he told her she looked good in it, he'd already made an educated guess that she would wear her hair down, the gorgeous array of curls tumbling down over her back and shoulders, and that the only make-up she would wear would be mascara and lip gloss. Troy's grin softened to a smile as he thought about the girl he'd known since he was seven. He remembered very clearly the first time he'd met her, she'd been hiding behind her mother and had said two words to him in the two hours that they'd been in the living room watching television while they're parents had been in the kitchen talking and laughing. He hadn't been all that talkative himself either though, as Gabriella had pointed out the other day and the two had skirted around each other every time they saw each other after that, until he'd somehow ended up throwing food at her and their friendship had been cemented when she'd thrown food back at him and they'd gotten yelled at for getting Bolognese sauce on the white carpet. Lost in thought, Troy didn't hear anyone approach him from behind and jumped when two small hands covered his eyes and he felt a warm breath on his neck.

"Guess who?" Gabriella whispered in his ear and Troy grinned harder and placed his hands over hers. Gabriella tried not to giggle as she felt his hands squeeze hers gently.

"Hmmm, let me think, it's definitely a hard one. Who do I know has tiny hand like these?" Troy said and laughed when Gabriella's hand flew out from underneath his and slapped his chest.

"My hands are not tiny!" She exclaimed and Troy twisted his head slightly to see Gabriella looking at him with enraged eyes. He grinned at her and managed to resist the urge that had sprung up suddenly, to lean in and place his lips gently on hers in greeting.

"Mmmm-hmmm. Sure they're not." He smirked and Gabriella continued to glare at him, trying not to respond to the urge to lean in and kiss her best friend.

"They aren't! You're just big!" Gabriella defended herself and managed to keep glaring at Troy for a moment longer, before both burst into laughter. When they'd both recovered and Gabriella had taken her seat next to Troy, they turned to acknowledge their parents who had been watching them, slightly bemused.

"What?" Troy asked when he saw his parent's faces. Gabriella and Troy both exchanged a look as their parents burst into laughter. Leaning over to Troy, Gabriella came close enough to his ear to whisper something without being heard.

"Are we missing something or what?" She asked and Troy nodded and they turned to stare at their parents some more.

"We're missing something." Troy stated and Gabriella shrugged and reached for the Coca-Cola that sat in front of him. Troy made no objection when she raised the glass to her lips and drank out of it. It was something so natural to them, that neither had raised any objection when either one drank from their drink.

"Oh you two. You're so natural at acting like a couple; it just amazes us sometimes that you're not together." Samantha said and Gabriella choked on her drink as Troy stared at the adults in disbelief.

"You guys are mental." Troy said, patting Gabriella on the back as she recovered from the coughing that had accompanied the choking. Although he wasn't sure that they were as mental as he wanted to believe.

"Mom, can you save the embarrassing stuff till later?" Gabriella asked, covering up her warm cheeks with the coughing fit. Glancing at Troy, Gabriella discovered him frowning slightly and raised her eyebrows at his expression. She could tell he was thinking. His eyes gave it away, they always did. In the eleven years she'd known Troy Bolton, the only thing about him that hadn't changed was his eyes. They'd remained the expressive blue that they'd been when he was seven. Everything else had changed though, Troy had filled out. She could remember when he had been tall, lanky and too skinny. Then he'd joined the basketball team and the training had caused him to fill out, till he was toned and solid. His face had changed too, his jaw line was more definite, his cheekbones more prominent, his mouth firm and serious. His face had lost the boyishness that had set every girls heart a flutter when he was sixteen and had taken on more of an edge, making him seem edgier then he actually was.

"Brie? Brie what are you staring at?" Troy's voice broke through her thoughts and Gabriella started and blinked, suddenly realizing she'd been staring at him way to long, Gabriella blushed and looked away from his inquisitive gaze.

"Nothing, sorry, I zoned out." Gabriella said and Troy shrugged and let it go, she did have a habit of staring at things to long when she was thinking. Reaching over, he pried his drink from her hands and took a sip as their parents began to chat aimlessly about their two children. Gabriella and Troy both watched their parents, Gabriella wincing when she heard them talk about her schooling and Troy sinking back down in his chair when the conversation turned to his basketball. Glancing at Gabriella, who he could tell was uncomfortable with the conversation as he was; Troy decided it was time to get away from their parents.

"Come on, let's go to the playground." He muttered to Gabriella, who nodded and followed him as he weaved his way through the tables full of people and outside to the rustic playground that her father had installed when she was three.

"Do you think they get a kick out of talking about us, in front of us?" Gabriella asked Troy curiously as she took off her ballet flats and walked through the sand and towards the swing set.

"Probably, you know what they're like. Last time they did that they brought up that oh-so-painful memory of you almost drowning me in the pool." Troy replied, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and watching as she settled herself into the swing and let it sway at the gentle movements she made.

"I didn't almost drown you, you just underestimated your strength and to this day you've always blamed me." Gabriella shot back playfully and Troy grinned good naturedly at her.

"I'm still sticking by my version." He said and Gabriella just shrugged and turned her face towards the full moon that had emerged from some cloud. Troy's mouth went dry as he looked at her. She was beautiful, there was no doubt in his mind that she was one of the most beautiful girls at East High. The ebony curls that tumbled down her back caught the moonlight and turned the dark brown curls almost black. His eyes swept over them till they reached her face, from there they swept down over her defined cheekbones, the cute nose and soft mouth. Feeling a desire to kiss her begin to rise, Troy shoved his hands more determinedly into his pockets and shrugged off the desire. Desire or not, Troy had already made the promise to himself that no matter what he felt for Gabriella, desire, love need, whatever it was, he would not become involved with her and allow himself to hurt her the way he'd hurt nearly every other girl he'd dated.

"You're thinking to hard." Gabriella commented suddenly and Troy blinked at her, suddenly realizing that he'd been staring at her for more then a minute.

"What?" He asked and Gabriella shrugged.

"You're thinking too hard, you always get really quiet and serious when you're analyzing something." She replied and Troy stared at her and then chuckled. Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him.

"What?" She asked kicking some sand up at him.

"You're accusing me of thinking too hard when you're the one taking all of those AP classes or whatever they are?" Troy asked and Gabriella shrugged. Seeing his point and letting it go.

"Pretty much. Do you remember when you were eleven and I climbed up the tree in your backyard because you ate my ice-cream?" Gabriella asked randomly and Troy stared at her, thrown by her question.

"Um, not really, oh wait, was this when I had to climb up the tree just to get you down?" Troy asked, wracking his brain for the memory and managing to latch onto a very faint one. He winced slightly as he remembered that he'd made her cry.

"Mmm-hmm, that would be the one. I had a dream about it earlier today." Gabriella said and Troy stared at her.

"Really? Why?" He asked moving closer to her as she continued to sway on the swing. Her eyes were thoughtful as she looked at him.

"I'm not sure. I think it was because I was trying to figure out how many times you'd made me cry in all the time we've known each other. I can count them on one hand you know, and I guess I was thinking about that when I fell asleep this afternoon." Gabriella replied and Troy grinned slightly, as he added yet another reason to his list to keep the promise he'd made.

"I remember it because I remember that I wasn't too happy about it because as soon I was up on that branch with you, you were clinging to me like a leech." Troy grinned and Gabriella shrugged and stood up as she noticed her mother making her way through the restaurant towards the door that led to the play area, slipping on her shoes, she turned to Troy and grinned up at him.

"But you put up with it, because you hate to see me cry." She said cheekily and then headed towards her mother who was opening the door. Troy watched her go and then looked at the moon once more. She was right; he hated to see her cry.

A/N: Sorry if that was boring, but I had to lay down the foundations of their friendship and reasoning behind their thoughts for not acting on their feelings. I know that sixteen and eighteen isn't that bigger age gap, but I made it two years because it's a manageable age gap. Okay and just or you all this story won't be long, I'm going to try and keep the ten chapter maximum I've set myself for this story, which will mean the story may move quickly. But despite all that I hope you guys enjoyed it!