Title: Wildcats in Tights

Summary: It’s New Year’s Eve and the Wildcats have been roped in to performing for a charity talent show at Lava Springs. Meanwhile, all Troy wants is some alone time with Gabi on the one-year anniversary of their first meeting…

Rating: T

Pairings: Troyella, with background Chaylor, Zekepay and Jelsi

Disclaimer: High School Musical and all of its characters belong to Disney. I’m just borrowing them for a while.

A/N: This is a sequel to my Christmas fanfic ‘The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’. It isn’t exactly necessary to have read it, but there are a few things I refer back to. Thanks to all those who have reviewed any of my previous stories, your kind words spur me to write more (hint, hint)

Dedication: This story as a whole is dedicated to the ZA’s and our offshoot groups the HRA’s and the GTYAHSM’s. I would never have had the courage to write anything if it wasn’t for them.

Troy squinted his bright blue eyes and closely examined the mark on the pale cream wall beside him. After determining that it did indeed resemble a microphone, he let out a sigh and went back to absent-mindedly tapping his fingers on the laminate table-top to the rhythm of an unknown song. It was two days after Christmas and he was waiting in a booth at the local diner for the rest of his friends and girlfriend to arrive.

Gabriella.

Troy didn’t even try and contain the goofy grin which spread across his face as he thought about his petite brunette girlfriend. He hadn’t seen her since the Christmas Eve party at Sharpay and Ryan’s mansion but the memory of the gorgeous smile and sweet kisses she had given him in gratitude for the ring he bought for her were sustaining him through this three-day Gabriella drought.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since we first met. If anyone had told me this time last year that I would be head-over-heels for a cute, giggly, angel-voiced freaky math girl who inspires me to be more than just the playmaker, I would’ve thought that they’d gotten into Chad’s stash of pink jelly shots.

As Troy started to mentally plan out a romantic New Year’s anniversary celebration for the two of them, involving a candlelight dinner, DVD’s and a good vantage point to watch the annual fireworks display (secluded as well, in case they wanted to make their own ‘fireworks’), a gust of frosty air and the jingling of the door bell signalled the arrival of said girlfriend and six of their friends.

“You’re lying!”

“I am not, I’m telling you, I’m related to Elgin Baylor.”

“The Elgin Baylor, the Lakers’ star player back in the late fifties to early sixties who is one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history?!”

“He can’t be telling the truth, he would have bragged about it before now.”

“It is true, my dad received a book about our family history for Christmas and he’s like a great uncle twice removed or something like that.”

Chad, Zeke and Jason’s raised voices echoed across the tiled floor as they sat down opposite Troy, Chad gesticulating wildly as he tried to refute Zeke’s claim. Trailing behind them, Taylor, Kelsi and Martha nodded hello, wearing expressions of amusement mixed with a hint of annoyance.

Gabriella, who’d come in last, slid into the booth beside Troy, placing a warm kiss against his cheek in greeting.

“Hey there Wildcat,” she whispered into his ear.

“Hey there Miss Claus,” he replied, causing Gabriella to giggle softly as she remembered how she’d acquired that particular nickname.

“It’s not Christmas any more, you can’t call me that.”

“Hmmm, you’re right I’ll have to come up with a new one,” Troy said thoughtfully nuzzling his nose against her ear, before pulling back and gazing into her eyes. Leaning forward, his lips grazed gently against hers before…

“Hey, what did I say about the PDA people?!” Chad exclaimed, forgetting about his argument with Zeke in the face of what he described as a sickly-sweet display of affection.

Letting out a groan of annoyance as the moment was shattered, Troy pulled away and contemplated letting Chad have an earful about his perpetual bad timing before settling on a glare which was matched by Taylor, who whacked her boyfriend across the back of the head.

“And what did I say about ruining the moment?”

Chad opened his mouth to reply but was cut off when Sharpay came bursting through the doors, Ryan following calmly behind her. Sinking into the spot next to Zeke, Sharpay sighed dramatically and rested her head on his shoulder, an upset expression on her face. Glancing at Ryan, who just shook his head as if to say ‘I’m not getting involved’, Kelsi took a deep breath and took the plunge.

“Ok, what’s wrong Sharpay?”

The girl in question looked up and the expression on her face darkened further. The Wildcats braced themselves, Martha quickly shoving her ipod earphones into her ears and Gabi burying her head into Troy’s chest.

“What’s wrong? Everything’s wrong! I broke a nail, Boi ruined my favourite pair of Manolo Blahnik’s, Daddy refused to get me a second convertible for Christmas and one of the acts for our New Year’s Eve Charity Talent Show has pulled out because of ‘family illness’! How selfish is that! They’re ruining MY talent show because they weren’t smart enough to get their kids immunised against chicken pox!”

Sharpay’s voice had gotten progressively louder and shriller throughout her rant until everyone in the diner had clapped their hands over their ears and the glasses on the front counter were vibrating ominously. Seeing Sharpay open her mouth to continue, Gabriella took a chance and jumped in tentatively with,

“Well, we can’t help with the first things, but couldn’t we fill in for the talent show? It’s to raise money for the children’s ward at Albuquerque General right? And there will actually be children there from the hospital to watch?”

Sharpay froze for a second before a brilliant smile crossed her features and she clapped her hands in delight.

“Yes, we’re performing for some of the children, those well enough to have a night out of the hospital! Gabi, you’re a genius, that would be perfect! I’m already doing a solo for the main act but you and Troy could sing that song, you know, the one Kelsi wrote that I…”

“Stole?” Ryan interrupted dryly. Shooting her brother a look, she continued,

“Borrowed, and the rest of you could sing back up and dance and…”

Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi and Martha all had excited looks on their faces as Sharpay went on but the smiles fell slightly when Chad interrupted,

“Woah, time out!” he shouted, “Since when are we included in this?” Troy nodded his head in agreement, so vigorously that he missed the fallen smile turn into a calculating look on his girlfriend’s face. Zeke just shrugged, knowing that he’d do whatever Sharpay wanted and Jason wasn’t even really paying attention, instead he was fascinated by the flecks of colour in the laminate table-top.

Taylor smirked in reply, the glint in her eyes enough to make Chad nervous before she elbowed him sharply in the ribs,

“You’re going to do it Danforth and that’s final!”

“All right, all right, I’ll do it, no need to get violent woman!” he exclaimed exasperatedly. Taylor smiled in smug satisfaction as Martha started to bop in her seat, already choreographing some new moves she could use.

“You’re not going to have to do it Chad, because I’m not.”

Silence engulfed the table, even Ryan who had been humming softly almost the entire time they’d been in the diner fell silent. All eyes turned to Troy, whose initial confidence was fading in the face of the girls’ glares. Turning to his girlfriend, he felt the need to quickly expand on his last statement.

“It’s just, it’s the first anniversary of when we met Gabi! Don’t you want to spend it alone, just the two of us?”

Troy’s pleading voice trailed off into nothingness. Gabriella was giving him the cutest puppy dog eyes and pout that he had ever seen. Her brown eyes seemed huge and sparkling with unshed tears and promises while her lips looked so inviting that it took all his willpower not to lean forward and kiss her.

Why does she have to look at me like that? I can never say no when she does that.

Gabriella scooted closer, Troy’s breath quickening as she leant forward and whispered seductively (or at least, it was to his mind),

“Please Wildcat? I know New Year’s is special to us but it’s for the children. And we can still have fun and be together while doing it, please?”

In the face of such a plea combined with the proximity of his girlfriend’s face to his and the puppy dog eyes, Troy caved. Kissing his plans of a romantic evening goodbye, he let out a sigh.

“Fine, we’ll do the show.”

Chad, Zeke and Ryan just shook their heads at Troy’s capitulation, while Jason was still trying to count the flecks in the tabletop.

Gabriella grinned in triumph and hugged him tightly before turning to discuss the particulars with the rest of the girls, their excitement making them dissolve into what Chad had dubbed ‘girl latin’, that indecipherable jibberish girls exchanged when discussing any topic to do with boys, clothes, make-up etc. As he caught snatches of words such as costumes, lighting and for some bizarre reason, Robin Hood, his head hit the table with a thunk, a dark thought crossing his mind:

Whoever decided that girls should come with an inbuilt mechanism to make guys do their every bidding should be imprisoned. Or shot. Or hanged.