Chapter One – Start Of Something New

With one last smile at her mother, Gabriella stepped out the door and hurried to where Troy was waiting close to his truck. A gentle breeze lifted the hair from her shoulders and she noted the slight chill of the night. Luckily, she'd brought a shrug to throw on over her sundress for just that reason.

Troy broke into a smile and kissed her on the cheek before opening her door. Gabriella climbed in and smiled at her boyfriend as he appeared by his own door and climbed in. It was silent for a bit as he began to drive towards East High. The two of them had a dress rehearsal for a play next week and they were both beginning to feel the butterflies.

"How was your evening?" Troy asked suddenly, as he stopped at a red light.

Gabriella smiled over at him.

"Pretty good, mom and I made supper together so that was nice. And yours?"

"Average – I played basketball and ate half of the kitchen."

Troy smiled as Gabriella laughed.

"Did you start that English homework?" she taunted.

"Um…"

Troy looked sheepishly at Gabriella. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Troy."

They pulled into the parking lot and walked hand-in-hand to the auditorium. A lot of the cast was already there and the two of them slipped backstage to get changed into their costumes and get into place. Once everything and everyone was in place, Ms Darbus called everyone onto stage and they began the rehearsal.

Hours later, Gabriella waved goodbye to her friends and skipped over to the backstage crew to meet Troy. They left together and stopped at a small restaurant to grab ice cream.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! You don't have to pick me up for school tomorrow, my mom is working at nine, so she said that she'd drive me in. I hope that's okay…sorry about that."

Troy shrugged her apology off.

"Gabs, don't apologize! I think it's great! I know that you love spending time with your mother, and I drive you every morning. I'm sure I'll survive just one morning away from you."

Gabriella snorted at his teasing expression and then became serious.

"She works so much…she's working until three this morning and then has to work again at nine. Isn't that horrible?"

Troy nodded sympathetically and rubbed her arm soothingly as she got a worried look in her eye.

"Try not to worry about it too much, Gabi. I know that she works a lot, but she doesn't seem to mind it."

Gabriella nodded.

"She's taking a few weeks off in the summer so that we can take a trip to a few places. That'll be nice."

Troy grinned and offered her his hand.

"It sounds great. Now come on, lets get you home before my curfew."

The drive was spent in a comfortable silence and Troy walked Gabriella to her door, as usual. She unlocked the door and then her brow furrowed as she realized that a flower pot had been tipped over. She righted it and stuck the spare house key back under it, like it was supposed to be.

"Must be a dog sniffing around." Troy offered. Gabriella nodded and sighed, wrapping her shrug tighter around her shoulders.

"Are you sure that it's okay tomorrow morning?" Gabriella asked, the two of them taking a seat on the bench by the front door.

"Brie! She's your mother, of course it's fine. I'll just wait for you at your locker alright?"

"Okay, if you're sure."

Troy nodded and wrapped an arm around her, noticing that she was shivering a bit. She cuddled closer to him with a grateful smile and sighed.

"Do you want to come in for a bit?" She asked.

"Nah, I can't. My mom told me to come straight home to do my homework."

Gabriella laughed and tucked her legs under her on the bench.

"Hey Troy, can I ask you something?"

"Anything." He replied.

"When we first sang together at the snow lodge last year, did you ever think that it would amount to anything? Like…did you think I was interesting?"

"Well, at first I was terrified and didn't notice anything, but when you started singing…I just felt like I was alive for the first time. Honestly? I thought you were beautiful and I still think that."

Gabriella smiled and nodded.

"I remember when you started to get into the song, and I kept backing away from you because you were coming towards me…"

She giggled.

"So much has changed since then."

"Yeah it has…" Troy agreed, stroking her hair absentmindedly.

"Would you do it again if you had the chance to?" She whispered.

Troy caught her gaze and was puzzled by the pleading expression on it. She blushed and pressed her cheek to his chest.

"What's this about, Brie? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it. I was just thinking about it as we were rehearsing tonight."

Troy smiled and kissed her gently, sensing that she was feeling insecure about herself right now. That happened at times and embarrassed her to the point of tears, but it never lasted long. They were interrupted by a ringtone singing from Troy's pocket.

"Sorry." He murmured, answering it with a scowl.

Gabriella just giggled and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know, mom. I was just dropping Gabriella off and we were talking. Yes, mom, just talking. Mom! Seriously…I swear I'll only be a few minutes…yes I know…no I'm not in danger of failing English! Mhmm…bye."

Troy flushed as he hung up his phone. Gabriella smiled sweetly and they stood up again, realizing that it was after eleven and Troy was probably late getting home.

"I'm sorry that I got you in trouble with your mom." She whispered, touching his cheek.

"Na, she just really wants me to get my homework done. She said to say hi. She doesn't mind that we're hanging out, it's just the homework. You know that she loves you, Gabi." Troy assured her, smiling.

"You'd better get a move on, then." She prodded, poking him in the chest.

Troy pouted at her and kissed her a few times before releasing her from his hug. She opened the door and locked it behind her, waving to Troy as he drove off in his truck. Gabriella smiled and settled onto the couch, still tingling from Troy's touch.

I'm so lucky to have him in my life. She thought.

Gabriella was interrupted from her thought by a creak of the floorboard. She glanced up and then froze as a figure emerged from the shadows.

AN: Okay so I'm back with a new fanfic, I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! I know that I left you on a cliffy and I don't usually do that on the first chapter, but I needed to. I know it's been a while since I posted and I'm sorry, but this is one that I needed to plan before I actually started posting, so you can see my dilemma. Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know what you thought of it!