At long last, an update to something! It's a long story and I'll try my best to explain everything as shortly as possible in the a/n at the bottom. I know you guys have been waiting a while for this, so I'm not gonna keep you waiting up here. Just read and enjoy! And yes, reviews and such are enjoyed. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical.

Chapter Twelve: Before Game/Callbacks/Decathlon Day

"So that takes care of the Decathlon competition, but what about the game?" Troy asked.

Troy had just proposed to their group of friends that morning about getting into the musical. After finding out from the show's composer Kelsi Neilson that Sharpay had changed the date of the callbacks to conflict with the championship game and Scholastic Decathlon, everyone was really mad. Things had been going well the past couple of days; not only were the jocks and nerds balancing their friends' rehearsal schedules with their meetings, but little by little the school was finding out about Troy and Gabriella going through with the callbacks. Suddenly word got out to Sharpay and she was trying to change everything back to the way it was. Surely if she could make it so Troy and Gabriella couldn't go to the callbacks then she and Ryan would get the leads and the status quo would fall back into place. Now the jocks and nerds were working together to formulate a strategy against the ice princess. Troy, Gabriella, Chad and Taylor were at Gabriella's house working through every step of their plan.

So far they had the Decathlon competition figured out. Chad remembered the new program Taylor had installed on her computer – if she could connect to something via WiFi within a few feet she could then manipulate it. The girls deducted that during the chemistry portion of the competition they could cause a chemical reaction harmless enough to not do any damage yet dangerous enough to evacuate the room; thus allowing Gabriella to make a break for the auditorium. Needless to say Troy was shocked that Chad was the one who sort of came up with the idea. Taylor, on the other hand, liked showing off her boyfriend in more than one way.

"What do we have to do to get everyone out of the gym?" Gabriella inquired.

"We don't need to get everyone outta the gym. Just Troy," Chad stated.

"But if everyone watching he game sees me make a break for it, they're gonna get suspicious," Troy pointed out.

Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "We're going to have to get the gym evacuated, same as with the Decathlon competition."

"Maybe set off the fire alarm?" Chad asked.

"No good. That'll just get the whole school out," Gabriella shook her head. "We just need to get Troy to the auditorium."

"Maybe if we made everyone think something was wrong with the gym, that would get everyone out of there," Taylor suggested.

"Would messing with the lights do any good?" Troy wondered.

Gabriella shook her head. "Not dangerous enough. We need to take it a step further."

"How?" Troy asked.

"We could mess with the scoreboard," she replied. "The game can't continue if everyone thinks something's going on with the scoreboard."

"And while everyone's trying to figure out what's going on, Troy can make a break for the auditorium!" Chad grinned.

Gabriella turned to Taylor. "Think you can hack into the school's computer system to do it?"

"I'll need a couple of hours beforehand to make sure I can get passed the security system. But I'll have it figured out in time," Taylor nodded.

"What time is this gonna go down?" Chad asked.

"Everything starts at 3:30. We should make it happen as fast as possible," Gabriella answered. "Maybe after we answer the first question we can start setting everything up."

"When's that?" Troy wondered.

Gabriella and Taylor thought for a minute. They glanced at each other, both estimating roughly five minutes into the competition. "Think 3:35 is too early?" Gabriella asked.

Taylor shook her head. "There's no such thing as too soon in a time like this. Ryan and Sharpay are probably going to have their callback audition as soon as possible. We'll have to work quickly to get you guys there right after they go on."

"It's not gonna be very far into the game. Is it enough time to make it look convincing, like we're playing for real?" Chad asked.

"We're gonna have to make it work, man," Troy said. "I'll tell Zeke and Jason the plan tomorrow but we can't tell anyone else on the team."

"And I'll tell Kelsi when I meet her for rehearsals during free period," Gabriella said. "Should we let anyone in the Decathlon know?"

Taylor shook her head. "Too risky. Someone might blow our cover. This has to be kept on the down-low."

"So it sounds like we're all set then," Troy said. He playfully smirked at Chad and Taylor. "Isn't it so much better to use your powers for good instead of evil now?"

Chad groaned. "Dude, we said we were sorry. Like fifty times."

"Twenty-two," Gabriella corrected.

"Whatever," Chad responded. "But it wasn't even all us. It was pretty much Zeke's plan. We just did all the work."

"Still you guys made a pretty good team," he replied. "No wonder you two got together."

"Yeah, how did that happen anyway?" Gabriella wondered.

"We got locked in a building," Taylor answered somewhat sheepishly.

"No way," Troy laughed. "How'd you manage to pull that off?"

Taylor held her hands up defensively. "Hey, I was just in the bathroom. And it's a little hard to get out of there when you can't open the door."

"My plan was a little more devious," Chad laughed, causing Taylor to playfully hit his arm. "I was at the store with Jason and he kind of ended up daring me to spend the night there. I dared him to do it, too, but he just laughed and said he wasn't stupid. So I went through with it alone."

"So then what happened?" Gabriella asked.

Chad and Taylor smiled at the memory. Even though it was three years ago, sometimes to them it felt like it was just yesterday.

Chad had just sneaked out of one of the garbage cans and began wandering about the store. He didn't see what the big deal was; the only difference was that it was dark. He could totally survive the night in there. He walked down a few aisles, picking up a basketball and dribbling it along the way, until he heard a banging sound of some sort. He stopped and listened; some sort of muffled voice followed the banging. He followed the sound to the girls' bathroom. He raised an eyebrow, thinking that the voice sounded familiar. All he knew was, he'd better not be getting in trouble for sticking around. He reached for the knob and turned it, causing Taylor to fall out and onto the floor. Chad immediately flinched and jerked back.

"McKessie? The hell are you doing in here?" he questioned.

Taylor glared up at him before rising to her feet. "And to think I was just about to thank you for letting me out of there. I don't think so now."

"Yeah well if I knew it was you in there I would've left you locked in!" he retorted.

Taylor shook her head and started walking away. "You know what, I don't have time for this. I have a ton of homework to do, so out of the way. I'm getting out of here."

Chad scoffed. "Hate to break it to you, nerd, but you're stuck here."

She stopped walking and turned to him, quirking an eyebrow. "What?"

"You heard me. We're stuck here," he replied. He shook his head adding, "When I took that dare to spend the night in here, having you here was not what I had in mind."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Sorry I had to come and cramp your style."

"Just stay outta my way and we'll be good," he answered.

She folded her arms. "Then you stay out of my way and we'll be just fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

Chad shook his head, causing his massive curls to swing in his face. "Do you have to repeat everything I say?"

Taylor smirked. "Does it bug you?"

"No," Chad lied rolling his eyes.

"No," she repeated with a cocky grin.

"I get it."

"I get it."

"Stop that."

"Stop that."

"You're such a nerd."

"You're such a nerd."

"I am not a nerd!" Chad snapped. He paused and thought for a second. Oh wait…she was repeating what he said. He called her a nerd so she called him a nerd. Dang, he walked right into that one. He stood up straight and glared at her. "Alright McKessie, fine. You win one round. But this night is far from over."

She placed her hands on her hips. "Bring it on."

That was when the plotting began. They may have gone their separate directions for the time being, but every chance they got, one of them found a way to annoy the other. For a couple of thirteen or fourteen year olds stuck somewhere with nothing to do except annoy the one person who irked them the most, it was pretty childish. When Taylor went to look at the folders and notebooks, Chad was right around the corner chugging spitballs in her direction. When Chad went to go take one of the bicycles for a joy ride around the store, Taylor set up an obstacle course for him. And when Taylor looked through some books, Chad had an arsenal of baseballs, golf balls and tennis balls thrown at her, knocking every book she picked up right out of her hands. The back-and-forth went on for a couple of hours at most, but it was safe to say that the two of them agreed it was a good way to pass the time. But it was only a matter of time before one of them found something to complain about.

"I'm hungry," Chad moaned leaning up against one of the walls.

Taylor walked past him with a granola bar in her hand. "Sucks for you," she grinned before taking a bite out of it.

Chad looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you get that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Grocery section, where else?" she responded as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Awesome, I'm getting some dinner," Chad said jumping to his feet.

"Good luck getting any without money," Taylor said.

He rolled his eyes and turned to her. "And why would I need to worry about paying?"

"If you don't leave money you might as well be stealing," she told him.

"I'll show you stealing," Chad muttered. He searched through his pockets for some loose change, but had no luck. He groaned, which caused Taylor to smirk. Chad noticed that and shook his head. "I know what you're thinking," he told her. "Nice try McKessie but I'm not letting you get to me. I can last without food till tomorrow."

"You sure about that?" she questioned when Chad's stomach growled. As much as she enjoyed watching Chad torture himself with the thought of food and knowing he couldn't have any, she kind of hated it. It wasn't that she was worried about Chad or anything; they were enemies so she was far from caring about him. But this kind of torture just wasn't the same. Somehow, just somehow, she liked it better when she was annoying Chad. Seeing something else bother him and knowing she wasn't the cause of it just wasn't the same. Besides it probably wouldn't be fair for her to eat right in front of his face. Sighing, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a couple of dollars. She walked over to him and placed the money in his hand.

Chad looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "What's this for?"

"I know I'm going to regret this later," she sighed, "but I'm not going to let you starve. So stop complaining and go get yourself some food. Don't say I never did anything nice for you." With that, she headed in the opposite direction of the store, leaving Chad to sort of stare in her direction.

"Great," he mumbled heading towards the snacks, "now I owe her one."

A short time later Chad was wandering around the hardware section. It was one of the only places he could think of to avoid Taylor. Yet somehow there she was, looking through the loose screwdrivers. Rolling his eyes, he headed over to her.

"Just can't stay away from me, can you?" he smirked.

Taylor scoffed. "Please Danforth, I didn't come here thinking I would find you."

"You expect to pick some other guy up in here?" he joked.

She picked up one of the screwdrivers and turned to him. "Look lunkhead maybe you don't want to get out of here, but I do. So I'm doing something about it."

"Gonna pick the lock to the front door with that puny thing?" he asked.

She pointed at one of the cameras on the wall. When Chad raised an eyebrow from confusion – which she should have known to expect – she explained. "Haven't you wondered why no one came here looking for us or why there aren't any security guards? Usually at night these stores always have someone sitting at the cameras watching video footage of the store. They should have seen us wandering around by now."

"They probably just fell asleep. Chillax," he shrugged his shoulders.

Taylor folded her arms. "Well on the off chance someone's not asleep, I'm going with the theory that some, or maybe all, of the cameras here are busted. So I'm going to fix that one and stay over here until someone gets the message."

"It's practically on the ceiling. How do you expect to get up there?" he asked.

Taylor led him to the back wall where there was a ladder leaning up against it. "All I have to do is move this close enough to the camera, climb up, open the camera and rewire the circuitry. If it really is busted I'll climb down and move to another one."

"C'mon, that's like tight security tech stuff up there. Do you really think you can figure it out?" Chad replied.

"If I can hack into the school's computer system and change the lunch from Tuna Trail Mix Tuesday to Turkey and Tater Tots Tuesday, I can rework a security cam," Taylor said.

Chad stared at her wide-eyed. "That was you? I thought it was the hot new lunch lady that did that. Man, that's off the hook!"

Taylor smirked. "Impressed much?"

Chad quickly cleared his throat and tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. "No…" he lied. "I just…didn't think you had the guts to break school rules."

"Yeah well…" she paused briefly trying to think of an excuse. "I got sick of tuna every Tuesday."

"Why can't you just bring lunch?" he shrugged his shoulders.

"Tell that to my big sister," she rolled her eyes.

"Then tell your mom and dad to. What's the big deal?" Chad asked.

"Why don't you just drop it? It's none of your business!" she snapped to him.

Chad took a step back and paused for a moment. "You know what, forget I even asked. Go do your techy thingy and leave me outta it!" he snapped. He pointed to the ladder and added, "And if you fall off that thing don't expect me to come to your rescue!" He turned around and started storming away.

Taylor groaned and mentally scolded herself. "Wait," she said causing Chad to stop. She didn't know why she cared or why she felt bad about yelling at him. They weren't friends. They didn't like each other. Yet somehow she still felt guilty. Taylor let out a sigh before somewhat reluctantly saying, "I'm sorry."

Chad turned around to her. "What was up with the snapping? I mean, you've snapped at me in school before. But we weren't exactly fighting now."

"I was just apologizing. It doesn't mean I have to tell you my life story," Taylor responded. She turned to the ladder and moved it a little closer to the camera.

"I was just asking. Didn't realize it was such a sore spot," Chad replied.

"Well it is, so drop it," she said. She got on the ladder and proceeded to climb. She stopped when she saw Chad on the other side, looking at her through the steps. "What?"

"Just…this thing…it kinda looked unsteady," Chad lied.

Taylor rolled her eyes and started climbing again.

"Wait," Chad sighed.

She moved down a couple of steps and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"If you wanna talk...you know…I'm kinda here," he said.

"Like you can really go anywhere," she stated.

"Like there's anyone else you could talk to," he smirked.

"You're so…"

"Charming?"

"I was going to say irritating."

"I know. Irritatingly charming."

"What does your girlfriend think of that?"

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Really?"

Chad let out a chuckle. "Don't get your hopes up."

"Why would I?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"Oh you know. Just cause you got a cute guy standing inches away from your face," he shrugged his shoulders.

Taylor smirked playfully. "If I didn't know better, Danforth, I'd say you were trying to hit on me."

Chad smirked right back at her but didn't answer. "So you ready to tell me what got under your skin now? You know, besides me."

Taylor held in a sigh and rolled her eyes. She thought for a minute and then looked at him. She paused a little longer and then let out the sigh. "The real reason I changed the lunch menu was because of my parents. They're always out at work or away for business and I wanted to do something to get their attention."

Chad raised an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders. "Why can't you just do your usual nerd thing?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Like they pay attention to that. If my grades and academic awards didn't get their attention, I thought doing something bad would."

"Like changing lunch for one day?" he inquired.

"I thought someone would go looking for answers. And when they found out it was me I would get in trouble for hacking into the school computer system. But that didn't happen and once again my parents paid no attention to me," Taylor explained.

Chad scrunched his nose. Suddenly it made sense why Taylor picked fights with him. He always said something to her and she would fight back as a way of acting out. He knew she was feisty and opinionated but he never would have guessed it was to get attention from her parents. Or, really anyone. She wasn't even that bad. Well, maybe not really. "That's harsh," he said, unsure of what else to say.

"Yeah," she nodded simply. "Well, now you know."

Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Aren't you glad you talked to someone now?"

Taylor smiled slightly, but quickly covered it up. It actually did feel good to get that off her chest. But she didn't think that Chad of all people would end up being the person she talked to. And she certainly didn't want Chad knowing that. If it started to look like she was going easy on him, he could misinterpret that as something else. And she wasn't about to let that happen. Was she? No, not a chance. "You'd better get out of here. If I fix the camera, you don't want to be in its sight. You've got a bet to win."

"Yeah. Guess I do," Chad nodded, disappointment almost in his voice. "Hey, careful up there. Looks like a dirty job."

"Someone's gotta do it," she pointed out.

Chad nodded. "See you in school then." He stepped away from the ladder and started walking away again.

Taylor reached for the next step, then stopped her arm in midair and put it down. She glanced in the direction Chad was heading. She hated to admit it – she really did – but he was pretty sweet for listening and actually pretending to care. "Hey Chad?"

At the sound of her voice, Chad turned around to glance at her.

"Thanks. For listening," Taylor said.

"No problem," he nodded. He saw her start to climb, but she didn't get very far before he got her attention. "Hey McKes…Taylor. For the record, your folks don't know what they're missing. Their loss."

Taylor felt her face going a little red, but she tried her best to hide it. "You're being awfully friendly."

"Hey, I owed you one," he shrugged his shoulders. He scratched the back of his head. "You know…if you really wanted to get your parents' attention, you could just stay here all night."

She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Without them knowing?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Imagine how pissed they'll be when they didn't find you sooner."

"Wait a minute," she smirked playfully, "how do I know you just don't want to get lonely in here?"

He shrugged his shoulders and looked away, putting his hands in his pockets. "I won't get lonely," he mumbled.

Taylor giggled.

Chad smiled. "Knew I'd get something outta you. So, what do you say? Gonna stick around a while?" He stepped a little closer and held out his hand to her.

Taylor looked up at the camera, then at Chad. She let a smile grow on her face and then took his hand. He helped her off the ladder and she dropped the screwdriver.

"So where should we start?" he wondered.

"Let's start with this," she decided and then pecked his cheek. "That was for…well…listening to me."

Chad felt himself freeze and his face burn up. He wasn't sure what he expected less, the kiss or the feelings that came from it. Not that Chad hadn't gotten a kiss before…well, he sort of did. But he never felt anything like from that one. It felt…nice. And he certainly didn't expect to like a kiss from Taylor.

Taylor took a step back and blushed a little. What did she just do? "So...uh…let's get going." She started walking away, but quickly felt Chad grab onto her arm. The next thing she knew, she was spun around to facing him and his lips were on hers. It was brief, but it was…well, nice.

Chad stepped back a little when he pulled away. He looked away, kind of embarrassed at what he just did. He didn't even know what came over him. "Sorry," he apologized.

There was a brief awkward silence. Then Taylor smiled at him.

"Don't be."

"Aw, that's so sweet," Gabriella smiled when they finished the story.

"So did you win the bet?" Troy wondered.

Chad chuckled. "Really? That's what you're worried about?"

"Hey man, just curious," he laughed.

"Well…" Chad's voice started out really peppy, then it lowered. "Not exactly. We got caught at midnight."

"Ouch," Troy scrunched his nose.

"So what happened?" Gabriella wondered.

"I had to miss out on basketball practice for a week. And do extra chores around the house. And be home by six," Chad answered.

"I was grounded for two weeks," Taylor added. "But the looks on my parents' faces when they finally found us was totally worth it. Not like much has changed since then, but at least once in a while I don't have to pack my own lunch or take five dollars off the counter."

"Really? That's what meant more? Parent-made lunches once in a while?" Chad teased.

Taylor smiled and rolled her eyes. "Ok, ok. It was the second best thing to come out of it." She took out her phone when she felt it vibrate. "Speaking of my parents, I should get home to them," she said after reading the screen and putting it away.

"Well at least we came up with a plan for tomorrow," Gabriella said.

"And we found out Chad and Taylor's big secret," Troy teased with a chuckle.

"Hilarious man," Chad rolled his eyes. He turned to Taylor and helped her off Gabriella's bed. "Come on, I'll walk you home." They exchanged hugs with their friends and then left Gabriella's house.

"So how did it feel?" Taylor asked while they walked. "You know, to finally get the whole story out there?"

Chad thought for a minute. "Kinda cheesy," he admitted. "It sounds like something off a kids' show."

"But it is what happened," she reminded him.

"You kidding?" he smiled. "I was there. Not like I could forget something like my first kiss."

"Really?" she asked with a smirk.

"Hey don't go rubbing it in or anything," he said playfully nudging her. "You got lucky."

Normally they would start playfully fighting or teasing each other. But this time, Taylor smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I did."

"Me, too," Chad smiled. They stopped in front of Taylor's house and he turned to her. "So I'll see you in homeroom tomorrow?"

"Of course," she nodded.

"Cool. Night Tay," he said kissing her.

Taylor kissed him back. They pulled away moments later and she glanced towards her house, then at Chad. "Hey…do you want to come in?"

Chad raised an eyebrow. "But aren't your parents home?"

"Yeah…that's kind of the point," she admitted. "Do you think you'd want to meet them? Right now?"

Chad didn't think he even saw Taylor's parents before. So meeting them was kind of a big deal. It freaked him out, he wasn't going to lie. But everyone else had already found out about them. Troy, Gabriella, Jason, Zeke, East High…the only people left to find out were their parents. Would he make a good impression? With how strict they sounded would they think he was good enough for Taylor? Or with how often they were gone would they even care? But if Taylor wanted him to meet them, if she thought it was time…she was right about how nice it would feel to get their relationship out in the open; she was right about everything. So why shouldn't she be right about this? "Yeah. Yeah, definitely," he nodded. He looked at her house, then back at Taylor. "Give me a minute?"

"Ok," she nodded. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then headed to her porch and opened the door.

In the meantime, Chad took out his cell phone and started texting Troy. Hey dude, what do you think about giving the girls something tomorrow?

He anxiously waited for about a minute for Troy to text back. Gabriella and Taylor were going through a lot of trouble to get tomorrow's plan in motion. They were pretty much throwing away their decathlon competition just like Chad and Troy were throwing away their basketball game. He knew it meant a lot to them, especially Taylor. They worked so hard to get to the finals or championship or whatever it was called after so many losses the last few years. And now Taylor was introducing him to his parents, which was a pretty big deal. They deserved something nice for everything they were doing and know how much they meant to Chad and Troy. The second his phone buzzed, Chad opened it to see Troy's message.

What did you have in mind?

First of all, there are actually legit reasons why I haven't updated in a while. Particularly in the last two weeks. A couple weeks ago, my grandma fell and fractured her pelvis so she's been out of the house since then. Shs's doing fine, she's at rehab now. But combine that with my not feeling well in the form of an upset stomach and it's not a good combination. Yeah, my stomach's been way off for two weeks. I thought after a few days I figured out why it hurt, but then nothing really changed. It kept hurting and I literally had no appetite. And for a five foot one person who's already underweight that's not good. Don't get me wrong, I've been eating. Heck, the past two weeks when I haven't been hungry for more than one snack or meal I've forced myself to eat. And it hasn't only affected my writing. It's put off my job hunt and my focus on finishing the second Stay Strong portrait I've been working on. But I'm fine, I'm alive, and survived the snowstorm that was apparently named Nemo. Now that that's out of the way, this night was probably the fourth or fifth time I added to this chapter. It started off slow the first couple of times, the third time I got significant more work done. Last time I started working on the flashback, and tonight I finally finished the whole thing. I planned for a while how the flashback would go and how the chapter would end. I've had a few different ideas, but obviously you see the final result. The whole Chad texting Troy about doing something for the girls - which I'm sure you guys know what that something is in the movie - I added that in last second. But this chapter, I wanted to give you guys an idea of how Chaylor might have started and the little things that they did for each other made them care. :) I'd also like to point out that after finally spotting the continuity issue in how long they were really together for, I have fixed that in the first chapter so now it says straight through that they were together for three years. I hope you guys enjoyed this latest chapter and got your Chaylor fix for a while, cause I know I always need one. ;)