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

A/N: Okay, so I've wanted to write this story for ages and I was going to start it and then school started and I got caught up in that, and then right after that 'Harry Potter' came out and I just had to read it. So now, I've finally gotten around to starting it! I'm not entirely sure how longs its going to be, I haven't set myself a limit like I did with 'Convincing You To Fall' I'm seriously going to just let myself go when I'm writing it. Hopefully, you'll all enjoy it! Quick summary, Troy's East High's ruling bad boy, he's smart, gorgeous, controlled and undeniably dangerous. Not one to be interested in anything going on around him unless it threatens him or his friends, Troy finds himself fascinated with the new girl Gabriella, someone who is smart, shy, beautiful, innocent and safe and as fascinated with him as he is with her. Their dangerous fascination with each other is a game that'll end with either with the destruction of two hearts or a change they never knew they could achieve.

Dangerous Fascination

CHAPTER 1

CATEGORIES

Troy Bolton stood, leaning against the lockers near the doorway to East High. His blue eyes flicking over every student that filed through the doors, lingering on the ones that he had a feeling were going to be some trouble during the year, the ones that would freak if confronted, the overly confident ones and the one that wouldn't be any trouble. It was so easy categorizing every student walking through the doors; they'd all slipped into their little categories when they'd arrived for their freshman year and seeing as he knew nearly all of them, none of them were going to be out of place. Although, he knew it was superficial Troy had to admit, knowing which person belonged in which category helped when trying to remember someone's name and to Troy, knowing someone's name when they were positive he'd never even heard of them before, was, possibly, one of his favorite ways to start a conversation.

"Dude! Did you see that girl?" Troy barely reacted to the loud, obnoxious voice of his best friend Chad Danforth. Chad glanced at Troy, saw the slight inclination of his head and knew that Troy had heard him and had also seen the girl.

"To easy Chad." Troy replied carelessly, his eyes flicking from the crowd to the bushy haired African-American whose eyes where still following the blonde girls head as she walked up the hall, apparently deep in conversation with the girl beside her, not realizing that Troy knew that her eyes were flicking back to himself and Chad as she walked.

"Aww, dude, you say that every girl that walks through that door." Chad groaned and Troy rolled his eyes at his friend, amusement with Chad the only thing that was evident in his eyes as he returned to the assessing of the students.

"That's because every girl that walks through that door is willing to throw themselves at you, as long as you say the right thing." Troy replied and Chad looked at him, a grin erupting on his face as he watched his friend.

"And you always know just what to say to them, right?" He asked and Troy's eyes flicked to Chad's, the grin on his face cocky as he looked at him.

"Of course." Troy replied and Chad shook his head at him as they were approached by two other boys. Both had their eyes flicking over girls as they walked by and commenting on them as they came to a stop by the two.

"Hey guys." Zeke said, the tall dark-skinned boy, high fiving Chad and receiving a nod from Troy, who had seemed to tire from the students filing through the doorway and had turned his attention to his friends.

"How was your summer guys?" Jason asked, the short dark-haired boy's eyes flicking around to see his friends reaction to his question. Chad's face light up, Zeke's seemed slightly less excited and Troy's expression didn't change at all.

"Excellent. Parties, girls and no parents for most of it. What more could you want?" Chad replied to it enthusiastically and Troy rolled his eyes.

"No hangovers, actually knowing the girls name when you wake up the next morning and making sure you don't get caught drinking by your parents?" He asked coolly, referring to Chad's string of hangovers, freak outs waking up next to a girl he didn't know and consistent groundings through out the holidays. Chad glared at his friend and Troy returned the glare with a cool look. Chad looking away first as Zeke decided to intervene.

"Pretty good. Hawaii was awesome, the parties back here were great and Sharpay was interesting enough." Zeke replied. Avoiding looking at Troy, whose eyebrows had risen as his friend had spoken.

"Never thought the words Sharpay and interesting would be used in the same sentence." Troy commented casually, the sting of his words carefully masked by Zeke who shrugged and folded his arms. Knowing that Troy's reaction was exactly what he had expected.

"Mine were tame; being locked away at a ranch for three months is not something I'm going to repeat. Although," Jason said with a grin. "My cousin's friends were pretty nice." He added and Troy didn't say anything. Silence descended on the four as the students around them continued to laugh and chatter.

"What about you Troy?" Chad asked, already having a pretty good idea what his friend had gotten up to.

"Besides making sure you didn't kill half the people at every party we went to?" Troy asked and Chad shrugged, knowing he had probably deserved that seeing as Troy always seemed to pick up his mess when he was smashed.

"Yeah." He replied and Troy was the one that shrugged. Ignoring the people that had joined them as he studied his friend. Chad shifted uncomfortably as Troy's eyes watched him coolly and then felt relieved when Troy seemed to want to answer.

"They were boring as hell." Was his reply as the bell signaling homeroom rang, Troy pushed off the locker he had been leaning against and picked up his backpack. Swinging it over his shoulder, Troy shoved his hands into his pockets and began his walk to homeroom, the other three slightly in front of him as they walked, all recounting their holidays, or in Chad's case, what they could remember of their holidays.

Glancing around at the students scurrying to homeroom, Troy had to smirk. He'd never been inclined to hurry to something as pointless as homeroom. He still didn't get why he had to spend twenty minutes of his school day sitting in a room, with an over-dramatic drama teacher, listening to notices and waiting for the bell to ring. Glancing around again, Troy realized that they were going to be incredibly late to homeroom and shrugged. He'd never really cared much, besides; Darbus couldn't hand out a detention straight away. She had to give warnings. Troy was well aware of how the detentions worked at East High and knew for a fact that he could be late to homeroom twice and not get a detention, the third warning was the last. Hitching his bag higher on his shoulder, Troy followed the three into their homeroom and listened, leaning against the doorframe as Miss Darbus swooped down on them.

"It better not happen again you three!" She screeched and Troy chuckled, loud enough to be heard and as soon as Miss Darbus saw him, her face turned an interesting shade of red that only ever appeared when Troy was in the room.

"Darbus, telling them that was absolutely pointless." Troy said and watched as an identical grin flitted across, Chad, Jason and Zeke's faces. The three moved to sit down in their allocated seats, all at opposite sides of the room as Troy coolly watched his homeroom teacher.

"Welcome back Mr Bolton. I suppose your going to tell me that your father held you up in the gym?" Miss Darbus asked through gritted teeth.

"No. Don't you know that basketball season doesn't start until later this term?" Troy asked, raising his eyebrows at his teacher and watching as she tried to relax.

"I do not keep track of your basketball Mr Bolton." She snapped at him and Troy smirked at her, he could tell just how close to the edge she was and wondered if one or two comments would push her over it.

"I know. It's a shame though, everyone knows how much you love basketball, don't they Darbus?" Troy asked, folding his arms and watching his teacher in amusement. Surprised that it was the first day back and he already had her close to the edge. Last year it had taken around two weeks for him to push Miss Darbus this close to breaking point. He continued to watch her, his eyes cool and his expression hard as she managed to calm herself down.

"Mr Bolton, I would appreciate it if you would take your seat and I could begin the class." Kathleen Darbus drew herself up to her full height as she looked at the amused, defiant eighteen year old boy leaning against the doorframe of her classroom. Troy Bolton was, possibly, every teacher's worst nightmare, she thought. The boy was arrogant, unreasonable and one of the smartest boys in the year. The combination was one of those things that left most teachers speechless, especially when they learned that the boy sitting up the back of the room, watching you with those surprising blue eyes, already had you assessed and knew exactly what to say to put you back in your place. Even now, after nearly four years of teaching the boy, he was still the one student she didn't have figured out.

"Begin the class? Darbus, you do realize that this 'class' as you just put it, is completely pointless?" Troy asked, shifting slightly as the blonde woman rolled her eyes and moved to her uncaring tactic. Troy smirked at her and waited for the cool, unperturbed tone of her voice. Before she could speak, a softer voice came from just behind Troy and Miss Darbus closed her mouth.

"Um, Miss Darbus?" New girl, Troy thought immediately as he turned and his eyes flicked over the owner of the voice. Dark curls fell down her back, reaching just past her shoulders, her ebony eyes seemed worried as they flicked back and forth between the tall ball leaning against the doorway and the short, large woman standing a meter in front of him. She was short; Troy noted, almost a head shorter than he was. His eye flicked over her once more, took note of the conservative length skirt, blazer and white singlet shirt underneath and wasn't surprised when she bit her lip and the worry in her eyes changed to nerves.

"Yes. Are you Gabriella?" Troy continued to study the girl as she nodded and Miss Darbus seemed to sigh in relief.

"Yes. Is this my homeroom?" She asked softly and Miss Darbus nodded.

"Of course, come in and take a seat. Bolton, seat." Troy glanced over at his teacher as her voice went from kind and caring, to hard and demanding. Gabriella too seemed to be a little bit shocked at the sudden change of tone and then hugged her books tighter to her chest, taking a deep breath before she made an attempt at sidling past Troy, who was blocking half the doorway. Troy felt her brush against him and instead of moving, knowing that she wouldn't fit all the way through, he turned his body slightly, and she tripped. Her books dropped to the floor and she bit back a cry as she landed on the floor. Immediately the class burst into laughter as she pushed herself up off the floor and into a sitting position. Troy looked at her for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should laugh with the class. Bending down to her level, Troy picked up one of her books and glanced at it, she was smart. That would explain the dress code; Troy thought with a smirk and then looked at her.

"AP Chemistry. Interesting." He commented dryly, as her eyes snapped to his. Troy looked back at her and then she sighed, reaching over she took the book off him and placed it on top of the ones she had stacked.

"Not really. It's just Chemistry." She said quietly, swallowing softly as she stood up and he stood with her. Troy looked at her for a moment, shooting the class a look telling them to be quiet.

"Just Chemistry?" He inquired and Gabriella shrugged, avoiding looking him in the eye and instead concentrating on something just behind his shoulder.

"Just Chemistry." She repeated and before he could say anything more, she'd walked to the spare seat at the back of the class. Her head down, ignoring the smirks of students as she settled herself into her seat. Troy looked at her with raised eyebrows; he'd expected something more than 'just Chemistry'. In two strides he was in his seat, smirking at his friends when they all sent him knowing grins and glancing back at the new girl once more, wondering which category she was going to fit into.

A/N: I'm not sure how good an introduction was for Troy's character, I suppose I'll get more in depth later in the story and I'll definitely have to explain Gabriella's character a little more. In fact, I'm not sure that was great. Oh well, hopefully it'll become better!