A/N: New Story!! I got bored, so I thought that I might as well do something! lol. R & R & Enjoyy... x

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and OCs (i.e. Lori.)

I'm walking through the doors of East High for the first time ever on September 1st 2006.

I'm a sophomore, aged fourteen, I moved to Albuquerque to start a new beginning. I hope I get what I need, it's gonna be tough, but I'll try to stay in control of my own life, this time.

"Excuse me, where's the main office?" I asked a normal looking person, she smiled, "Hey, you look new…" I smiled; at least the people here were talking to me… friendlily "Yeah, I just moved here from DC." She smiled, "I could tell by your accent, my cousin lives there…"

"Cool…ummm…could you tell me where the main office is…?"

She smiled, "Sure, I'll take you there If you want; the bell's not gonna ring for another good half hour, I could show you around if you want…?" I smiled, a genuine smile, "That would be amazing! Are you sure?" She nodded, still smiling. "My name's Lori Bolton, by the way, short for Lorraine; and you are…?"

"I'm Gabi…Gabriella Montez"

We walked down a crowded hallway, all sorts of people, Goths, Geeks, Skaters, Populars, Drama club members and a lot more, all far from each other in their own worlds.

I had never grasped the concept of cliques…the point of blending in with everyone exactly the same as you, being the same as everyone around you who you know and like, not having a bit of variety in life.

Apparently, Lori was thinking the same thing, "You know, Gabi; I always wonder why cliques exist…" I smiled, grateful that someone had a similar mind to my own…

"I always thought the same thing; we all need a bit of diversity in life; cliques are stopping that, don't you think?" I looked at her, she nodded, and said "Yeah…I hope you're in my homeroom, this girl moved to Burbank during summer and we have one free spot in our homeroom; she used to have a locker next to mine, and our timetables were literally the same! The weird thing is that I was never good friends with her…" I smiled, "That happens with people, it could be instinct or karma or something…"

She nodded, "Here we are, the main office."

I smiled, "Thanks, you're probably getting late or something, you should go, don't bother waiting for me, I'll find my way!" She shook her head, "No way! I wanna see what homeroom you're in then we're gonna go to your locker and then I'll take you to your homeroom, then I'll go, depending on whether you're in a different homeroom to me or what…!"

I rolled my eyes, smiling, "Okay…"

"Yes, girls? Do you want anything?"

Lori smiled at the receptionist, who recognised her instantly, "Lorraine! How has your summer been I haven't seen you in the past few days of school…? And who's your new friend?"

I smiled, "I'm Gabriella Montez, I jut got here from DC…I'd like to get my timetable, homeroom and locker code, please…?"

She smiled, "You seem expert in this!"

I smiled, "Considering the fact that I was in three different high schools in my freshman year, all in the same state…yeah."

Lori and the receptionist raised their eyebrows, clearly impressed!

"I'm Miss. Walters, I've been here since the last millennium and know everything about here, so if you get stuck or lost, just come here and I'll show you the way, okay?" I nodded; it wasn't as bad as I thought that it'd be!

"You need your file, right?" Miss. Walters asked, I nodded, and she smiled and shifted through the filing cabinet till she got to 'M'

"Montez, Montez…" she whispered to herself.

"Here it is!" she finally found it and pulled it out of the cabinet.

"Okay…your homeroom teacher is Miss. Darbus, Room 25; locker 90."

I nodded, glancing at Lori; she had the widest smile on her face…

"Gabi! You're in the same homeroom as me!" I grinned, "That's good to know!"

Miss. Walters smiled, "Yeah and both your timetables look extremely similar…there's one difference, instead of having remedial Calculus, like Lori; Gabi has Advanced Calculus. And that's the only difference in your timetables, same lunch and everything!"

Lori grinned wider, if possible, "That means that you have exactly the same timetable as my brother!"

"You have a twin?" I asked, that would be so cool!

She shook her head, "No! He's my older brother; he was born 11 months before me. My birthday is August 3rd and his birthday is September 14th."

I smiled, "He's 3 months older than me. Exactly."

She grinned, "You're birthday's December 14th!" I nodded.

"That is so cool! You're seven months older than me!"

I grinned, "I know!"

"Girls…you have 25 minutes before homeroom, knowing Miss. Darbus, I'd say 20. You should go settle in or something, okay?"

We both nodded as we set off to Room 25, a mission for me; but I realised that it wasn't too bad, because Lori told me that lockers 85 to 95 were outside Room 25, the ten lucky people in that homeroom had their lockers close to homeroom, but the twenty others in the homeroom had them elsewhere in the school.

Lori turned around and started walking down the hallway, presuming that I was behind her, I followed after a few seconds when I realised that she wasn't there, next to me.

I turned around in a hurry, as I thought that Lori has gone somewhere, when really, she was waiting for me a few metres away.

I bumped into someone in a hurry…bumped into them hard, making them drop all their books on the floor, as well as my whole bag.

"Urgh!" he groaned, as he picked up his stuff, I bent down to help him pick things up and looked up at him as I handed him a book, he was looking at me intensely, some kind of passionate power in his eyes that I couldn't overcome. His dirty blonde hair flopped over his cerulean blue eyes in a cute way; he had a cute smile which gave him a dimple in his right cheek.

I thought I was pretty plain looking, big brown eyes, long, curly brown hair that I'd forgotten to straighten this morning in a rush, a petite build and short, pear shaped and curvy. I smiled back at him, "H-hi…I'm G-Gabriella Montez…"

He blinked twice and then Lori came over grinning and said, "I see that you've met my brother, Troy; Gabs!"

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them again; to see if what I was hearing was true…I looked up at Lori, raising my eyebrows, "Your brother?" I said, nodding in Troy's way. She nodded.

"The one who's timetable is exactly the same as mine, the one who's exactly 3 months older than me…?" She nodded again, smiling, picking up a book for Troy while doing so.

"Thanks, Lori." He smiled at her, before turning back to me; "So…Gabi…you don't mind if I call you Gabi, do you?" I smiled in reply, "Of course not! Carry on…" He cleared his throat, "Yeah…so…where'd you come here from?"

Lori grinned mischievously, "DC, her birthday in December 14th. She lives two streets away from us, and I'm going round her house after school today, instead of Jordan's."

He nodded, "Can I come, if that's okay; Chad's not here." He said the latter to Lori, as I had no idea about who Chad was.

"Okay, it's not like my mom would mind!"

He smiled, "Cool…I gotta go, homeroom is in ten minutes and I haven't caught up with a few people since last semester…what homeroom you got, Gabi?" I smiled, "Same as yours and Lori's…" He grinned, which slowly turned into a smile as he realised, grinning stupidly in front of a girl you think you like is not exactly good…

"Let's go, we'll dump your stuff in your locker and we'll go into homeroom and I'll introduce you to some of my girls…okay?"

And then she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "And just in case if you wanted to know after your little run in just now; he's single, for now…" I smile and mouthed a thanks, "No problem." She whispered, again.

"Did you get Greta Goodman's place?" I looked confused; "Greta Goodman?" Then it clicked that Greta was probably the girl who left in summer… "Yeah, I have, locker 90."

He grinned, "And we also have a seating arrangement, which is based on where our lockers are, so basically, you're in between me and Lori."

I smiled, "Thank God. You're locker's 91, I presume…?"

He nodded, "Yeah, Lori's 89."

As we reached Room 25 and the band of ten lockers just outside it from the numbers 85 to 95 on the top right corner of every locker, a combination fitted into every locker, some of the locker doors customized after only three days of school.

I had gotten the combination off Miss. Walters in the main office and unlocked my locker with my combination, '19908.'

I saw that the locker was immaculately clean, as if it was brand new. I was expecting the odd smelly gym sock left in the corner or a text book left in a top shelf, but there wasn't one.

I put all my new books inside my locker neatly, leaving a lot of room for other things and more books.

"C'mon, Gabi; I'll introduce you to some of my girls, they'll completely love you!" Lori said, excitedly; once we were both done with our lockers and Troy had gone inside homeroom.

I walked inside, with Lori and saw detectable cliques here again, but only three different parts, one was Jocks and cheerleaders, where Troy was, talking with some guys, another was the Drama club who were sucking up to Miss. Darbus and the last were the Braniacs, doing some Physics assignment.

There was an odd group of girls near the back of the room, which is where Lori and I went; there were ten of us, al together. I was introduced warmly to each, "This is Gem…Gemma Tailors, one of our all American girls." Lori said, pointing to a pale skinned, green eyed brunette with a button nose and freckles.

"This is Joe…Joel Sparks. Another all American girl." She pointed to a light skinned, golden headed, brown eyed tall girl who was wearing a tight blouse and jeans, "Your competition." Lori told me, I looked her up and down and said, "Not a match. I've seen worse…" We giggled at our little secret and Lori turned to me again, "I know that she's no competition, Troy's only got eyes for you, and he's staring at you right now! I was just warning you about who would be negative about the whole situation of everyone's lives when you two start dating."

I giggled, "Okay!"

I shook her head, as if to clear it and carried on with her introductions, "Marie Austen, Mostly Hispanic, but the rest is American." she pointed to a Jet black and dead straight haired, blue eyed girl who smiled warmly, revealing pink braces. I smiled back at her with my perfect white teeth; braces had come off at the age on ten, for me!

"Jazz…Jasmine Winterer. She's half British, half American." She pointed to a redheaded short-but-skinny girl, who was wearing way too much mascara.

"That's Kay…Kayleigh Bryans. She a full on British girl. And extremely proud of it, her accent hasn't gone after five years here!" She pointed to a blonde haired, blue eyed girl who had an extremely large nose. "Tay…Taylor McKessie. All American girl; actually…African-American, but she's got nine generations in this state. So…yeah." I smiled at her, "She has a similar timetable to you, but you have advanced Bio, and she has normal." I nodded slowly, as if I needed to know that…

"That's Rachel Gerstein. Came from New Jersey about a year ago…" She pointed to another braced girl with a skinny build and brown eyes, with a mop of golden hair in a messy bun behind her head, "She's like, quarter Spanish and half German and quarter American."

I smiled, "Cool."

"And lastly, it's our eighth Tibetan, three-quarter Australian and rest American…Dana King!" I smiled as a lightly tanned skinned brunette with small hazel eyes smiled at me."

"That's it." Lori said, "Then there's me; Lori, short for Lorraine Bolton, all American." She smiled, and carried on, "What about you?"

I took a deep breath before speaking, "Gabi…short for Gabriella Anne Montez, ethnic origin…pretty long list…"

Kayleigh rolled her eyes and an extremely strong British accent came out from her mouth, "I mean, come on! It can't be that long!"

I smiled, "It is…but okay, here goes; Filipino-Chinese-Latina-Irish-Indian-and-American." I said, all way too fast. They looked stunned, "Oh-Okay…repeat that please, it sounded really long!" Kayleigh said, "I nodded, smiling; "Filipino, Chinese, Latina, Irish, Indian and American."

"Wow." All ten girls said all at once.

"That explains the amazingly incredible look you have!"

That was Jazz.

"Oh My God; doesn't that so totally explain why you are so, so, so much more beautiful than me." That was Joel. I just smiled nervously.

"Oh my bleep God! That one helluva long list! I'm amazed."

That was Marie.

"Help me, I think you're a bit too beautiful to scare me, it's a bit over and I think I'm gonna die." Which was Dana's wild and weird approach to the long list, maybe because my list was way longer than hers…?

"Okay, settle down, people! Homeroom is starting in a half minute!"

Miss. Darbus had just walked into the room, saving me from questions, scattering the whole class, everyone walking to their seats, Troy came up to me and smiled brightly, before pushing our desks together so that we could talk.

The bell rung out in the hallway and in here to signal that homeroom had now started.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you catch up in a minute after I make a few announcements'." She stared at me pointedly.

I got up out of my seat and walked up to the front of the class.

Miss. Darbus had a lot of things plastered on her face…well, only two.

A lot of foundation to cover her wrinkles, which wasn't helping at all; and a fake smile.

She turned me around and the girls all in the back row giggled, leaving poor Troy and some other guy called Jason too.

"Okay class, here's a new face, come a bit late, but still; all the was from DC, here's-"

"GABI MONTEZ!"

The whole of the back row shouted, I smiled and mouthed a thanks.

"Okay, I see you already know; go on back to your seat now, then Gabriella."

I shuffled back to my seat, where the girls were all grinning and Troy just looked annoyed, I giggled at this and started gossiping with the girls as Miss. Darbus announced more messages through the rest of homeroom.

The bell rand for first period and we all shuffled out the room, except Troy and I.

"What do we have?" I asked him, not bothering to look at my timetable, he rolled his eyes, "God, you're so much like Lori, Gabi! She always does that to me!"

I grinned, "Not my fault we're friends. You'll have to put up with me."

"I can do that well..." He whispered to himself, not meant to be heard by me.

"Well have Creative Writing with Mr. Castor in Room 20." He said, glancing at his timetable.

"OK." I smiled and said, "Shall we go, then?" He nodded and we left the room, closing the door behind us.

A/N: hope you liked it!! Review!!Please!! x