Summary: "Whats that?" her mother asked, pointing to the bruise on Gabriella's wrist. "Nothing," Gabi answered quickly. "I bumped myself when I was getting something out of the closet." Gabriella moved her arm as she spoke so her mother would not stare at the bruise. There was no way she was going to tell her mother what Troy did.

!Read to find out what happens in Someone To Love Me!

Chapter 1:

Gabriella Montez tripped over a stack of magazines in the middle of the living room, bumped her knee against the sharp corner of the coffee table, and dropped a can of cat food on the floor. "Ouch, my leg!" she howled. "This place is a freakin' mess!" Her two cats, Theo and Cleo, scurried beneath the table. Maria, Gabriella's mother, came out of her bedroom carrying a small mirror.

She peered at her reflection as she walked, carefully examining the lipstick she had just put on. "Stop whinin', baby. Just straighten things up before you leave for school. I'm late for work." "I'm not going to school today," Gabriella declared. She waited to see if her mother would get angry and insist that she go. Gabriella was a freshman at East High, and even though it was only October, she had already missed several days of school.

"You better go to school, baby," her mother said, touching up her eye make up. "If you drop out at your age, you'll end up like me, in your thirties waitin' tables at some grease pit for next to nothing. This ain't the kinda life you wanna have, girl. Believe me on that. By the way, if Mario calls, tell him I'm off work at five tonight. Bye, baby." Gabriella heard a thud as her mother closed the front door of their apartment.

Theo, a jet-black cat, crept warily from under the table, followed by Cleo, who was gray and white. Dust and crumbs from under the table stuck delicately to each cat's coat. Gabriella brushed the cat's fur, cleaned up the spilled food, and walked out to the kitchen. Theo and Cleo followed quickly behind her. "Mom doesn't really care if I go to school," Gabriella pouted, grabbing a fresh can of cat food. "All she cares about is Mario and whether or not she's put the right gunk on her face, right, Theo?" The cat blinked and rubbed its furry face against her leg.

Theo and Cleo were Gabriella's best friends. She told them everything. They were there for her whenever she was lonely or needed someone to talk to. It was more than she could say for Mom, Gabriella thought. "I ain't goin' anywhere today, Cleo. I'm stayin' right here and watchin' trashy talk shows all day. I don't care what Mom says," Gabriella said, spooning chunks of cat food into Theo's and Cleo's plastic bowls.

Just then the doorbell rang. "Who is it?" Gabriella cried, walking toward the door. "It's me. Open up," a familiar voice said. Gabi opened the door to find Taylor McKessie another East High freshman, staring at her. "Brie!" Taylor shouted. "Girl, what're you doing in pajamas? It's time to go to school." "I'm not going to school," Gabi said firmly. "Why don't you cut too? We can watch TV, and I got popcorn we can stick in the microwave. And there's pizza in the freezer, too. Today on Paula Poole's show-"

"Brie! Girl, get it together!" Taylor said, stepping into the apartment. "You need to throw on some clothes and come to school. Keep this up, you gonna be so far behind you can't do nothin' but fail." "You don't understand-"Gabi replied, looking down at the worn flip flops on her feet. "I understand all right. I understand you gotta get back on track," Taylor replied. "Remember in middle school, Mr. Schuman said you were such a good artist you could be a famous cartoonist for Disney or something? How you gonna be famous if you don't go to school?"

Gabi shrugged. "I can't hang around school all day, Taylor. I get bored. Who cares anyway? My mom wouldn't mind if I quit school. We all just wasting our time in school anyway. Ain't none of us goin' anywhere." "Brie, you're crazy," Taylor said tugging on Gabi's arm. "My sister, Darcy, she' already planning to go to college, and so is her friend Tiara. I'm gonna do the same thing, and you can do it too. But first you gotta get up, change them clothes and get to school. Now come on!"

Just leave me alone," Gabriella insisted. "Brie, please come to school." "Taylor, cut school with me today,"

Gabriella moaned. "If you don't wanna watch TV, I got some CD's we could play and-" "I'm outta here,"

Taylor snapped. "I'm not gonna sit here and watch you throw your life away!" Taylor stormed towards the

doorway. "When you want to do something with yourself besides sit here watching TV, call me," she said,

walking out the door and slamming it behind her. The loud crash of the door was followed by a heavy

silence.

Gabriella moved to the window and watched Taylor shift her backpack and join the stream of kids

heading for East High. Part of her wanted to join the crowd and head to school, but another pat of her did not

want to move. Unlike Taylor and her classmates, Gabi felt foreign and out of place t school. Her teachers

often said she was "quiet" and "shy" but Gabriella knew she was just different. Turning from the window,

Gabi grabbed the magazines on the living room floor and stacked them neatly on the coffee table. Then she

picked up a pile of dirty clothes she had left sitting in the living room chair for weeks.

"Yuck, these stink!" Gabriella groaned. It had been a while since she had washed her laundry.

Sometimes she just picked an outfit from the dirty clothes pile to wear to school. As long as things were

not too dirty or wrinkled, she would still wear them. It had always been this way. In fact, Gabi did have

a few new clothes that she got for the start of her freshman year. But as weeks passed and her mother

spent less and less time at home, laundry, like school, seemed less important.

Glancing around the cluttered living room, Gabriella focused on the small picture of her

mother that sat next to the TV. Mario, her mother's boyfriend, was also in the picture , his arm resting

on her shoulder like a heavy snake. Only a few moths old, the picture captured her mother's flawless

milk smooth skin and her radiant smile. Mom is beautiful, Gabi thought, and I look nothing like her.

Where her mother was tall, curvy, and attractive, Gabriella was short and skinny. But worse than her

short bridged nose. To Gabriella, it seemed to spread only a small amount of her face, making her feel that

her head was the size of a babies.

Friends of her mother had always been kind, but even they noticed how different Gabriella

was. "Oh, I cant see a resemblance," they would politely begin. "You must take after your father."

Gabriella knew exactly what they were trying to say, but she appreciated their attempt to spare her

feelings. The only person who did not seem concerned with Gabriella's feelings was Mario. "Are you sure

shes your momma?" he had said. "She is what a man would call one hot lady." Since then. Gabi did her

best to ignore Mario, but it was not easy.

Often he said things that made her feel even worse about her looks, but he always did it out of

earshot, calling Cindy "Ugly Mugly" and her flaring his nostrils to taunt her. Whenever Gabriella asked him

to stop, he would laugh in her face. Once, he even flapped his arms in a mock imitation of her long,

awkward limbs. In August, Gabi's mother announced that she and Mario were "serious," and since then she

spent most of her free time with him. In the rare moments Mom was home, all she would talk about was

Mario. Gabi cringed each time she heard his name. It seemed to her that Mario was gradually taking over

her Mom's life. Worse, it seemed as if that's what her mother wanted.

I hope you liked the 1st chapter of Someone To Love Me! If you guys were wondering this isn't like any of the HSM movies its just the typical life of Gabriella Montez Please at least need 5-8 reviews! Much love ~Zanessa4Life (P.S. There back 2together yayyy LOL)