Prologue: Ally Catraz

"Gabi, how about this one?" Taylor said as she pulled a Tinkerbell costume from the racks. Gabriella looked up from her new Teen Vogue magazine to see what Taylor had picked this time. Tonight was Sharpay's costume party and Taylor wanted to be perfect. Sharpay was the most popular girl in school. Although she can be an ice queen to everyone, she had been really nice to Gabriella and the others girls after what happened at Lava Springs last week. Sharpay had given up her goal into getting Troy's heart and instead actually aiming for someone who liked her for who she is: Zeke Baylor. They have been going strong since the Lava Springs incident but nothing serious at the time.

Troy Bolton, however, is playing hard-to-get with Gabriella. After their little innocent kiss after their talent show, Troy didn't really seem to pay close attention to her anymore. Gabriella wanted to have something with Troy again since she left after finding out about Sharpay's plan to get Troy. Now that Gabriella came back to work and Troy finally realizing his mistake into worrying about college when he has more than a year to figure it out, she wanted to spend time with Troy without all the stress around them. Gabriella came back last week to become a lifeguard but when she came back, Mr. Fulton had already replaced her with a new young blonde male so Mr. Fulton gave her an assistant job with Taylor to organize the activities at Lava Springs. Taylor was excited to work with Gabriella side by side. As for Gabriella, she was happy when she heard her lifeguard job was over but sad that she is working on activities when she clearly knew the kitchen needed help, especially when Troy is now working in the kitchen than working as a golf teacher.

"Tinkerbell is too common. Find something that nobody wears anymore." Taylor sighed as she put the costume back on the rack and looked for something else to wear. Sharpay's party is in ten hours and she had found nothing to wear. Gabriella already bought her costume: it was a sexy Ally Catraz Adult costume, a puke yellow tight jacket with a matching puke yellow mini skirt with black pumps that went past her kneecaps. She also had a blackboard with it to write your name on it and a pair of handcuffs to cuff on one of your wrists. She was sure to use the costume to seduce Troy. Maybe now he'll actually get in the head and find out what he's been missing all his life.

"How about this one?" Taylor asked as she pulled a playboy nurse costume. It was like a regular nurse outfit only it looks tighter, the button of the shirt is only buttoned in the middle so it can reveal the top of the breasts, and the mini skirt would be illegal to wear in a real hospital.

"I like that one." Taylor smiled as she looked for her size in the back and brought it to the counter. Gabriella followed behind her without taking her eyes off the magazine. She walked behind Taylor, looking at which direction Taylor is going at the corner of her eye when she felt her foot step on something. The object was slippery, causing her to fall forward. Gabriella waved her arms and legs around to balanced her when she felt an arm slipping around her waist. It helped her balanced her fall and she opened her eyes to see those sky blue eyes that hadn't appeared in her sight since 'Everyday'.

"Sorry," Gabriella said as she pushed herself out of the person's arms.

"It's fine."

"Gabi, I already paid for the costume. We need to get to my house and—oh hello Troy." Troy nodded at Taylor.

"You guys going to Sharpay's costume party?" he asked. Taylor nodded.

"I just got mine. Do you know if Chad's going?"

"Yeah, he said he might go early." He looked at Gabriella. "How about you?"

"She has this adorable costume, but you'll have to find out what it is," Taylor answered for her.

"Are you going to the party?" Gabriella asked Troy.

"That's why I'm here. I wonder if they have any costumes left."

"We'll leave you to your shopping." Taylor grabbed Gabriella's wrist and pulled her out of the store.

"Thank you so much for covering for me."

"You owe me. Now we need to get ready; I want to get there as early as Chad will."

Gabriella and Taylor entered the gates of Lava Springs. The whole parking lot was full of limos and luxurious cars. Teenagers of all different races stepped out of their cars and were greeted by Sharpay's parents.

"Hello Taylor. Hello Gabriella," Mrs. Evans greeted to the girls.

"Hi Mrs. Evans," Taylor and Gabriella said in unison.

"Sharpay and Ryan are inside. You can go on in." Gabriella and Taylor smiled at Sharpay's parents before going in.

All the East High Lava Springs staff was already there. Taylor went ahead to find Chad leaving Gabriella by herself. She decided to look for Sharpay but it was hard since the place was crowded. Luckily she found the closest thing to Sharpay.

"Hey Ryan," Gabriella yelled over the music. Ryan turned around and enveloped Gabriella into a hug. Gabriella and Ryan have developed a close friendship ever since Ryan followed the 'Breaking Free' process and broke away from Sharpay's selfish ways. Because of Ryan, Sharpay got to think about her own selfish ways and finally solving it by changing to a better person. Ryan had a small crush on Gabriella but he knew that Gabriella was in love with Troy, so he helped her with getting him back. Now he has a girlfriend, Martha Cox, who he loved very much and developed an even bigger crush on.

"Have you seen Sharpay?" Ryan asked over the loudness. He was wearing a navy green camouflage tank top and navy green cargo pants.

"No. I was just about to ask you that." Ryan cheekily smiled and looked around. Out of nowhere, Kelsi popped out of the ground lowering under someone's arm to get out of the crowd. Her hand was intertwined with her boyfriend, Jason Cross. They started going out after the summer staff party the day after the talent show. Kelsi loved Jason's oblivious intelligence of being total empty-minded and trying to be smart at some points.

"Hey Gabi," Kelsi said. She was wearing a black and white striped tight t-shirt with black mini shorts. On each of her butt cheeks were planted soccer balls as pockets. Jason was wearing a matching outfit with Kelsi only except that his khaki pants were black.

"I like your costume," Gabriella complimented.

"You too. You look like you're from Alcatraz."

"That's the point."

"Do you know where Taylor is?"

"She went to find Chad." Kelsi nodded as she pulled Jason past Gabriella to find Taylor.

"So you're supposed to be from Alcatraz?" Ryan asked. Gabriella nodded. Throughout the journey the Wildcats had gone through from the day she got to East High to last week when Gabriella and Troy shared their first non-interrupted kiss, Gabriella got her wish. She wanted someplace to fit, to have friends who like her for who she is, and a crush that'll love her for her deepest feelings. Taylor had been the best friend Gabriella wanted from her dreams; the girl who would listen to every problem she had, the only female who will ever know who she's in love with or had a crush, the only person who will know her darkest secret. Troy was the best thing that has ever happened to her in her sixteen-and-a-half years; he was caring, thoughtful, and admitted his mistakes. No one could ever replace Troy in her heart… unless there was someone else who's more perfect than him. Chad was the besterest brother-from-another-mother she could have; many thought just because he was her crush's best friend, he actually got the position of being Gabriella's bodyguard. That's not true; Chad does this for who he is and because he loves her like a little sister, nothing more. Ryan was the sweetest; Gabriella and mostly everyone else knew that Ryan had a crush on Gabriella, but Gabriella took it aside and talked to him like a friend. It's not like you can't be friends with a guy who likes you. Gabriella liked to be fair and simple, so if people didn't like her being friends with Ryan, that was their fault. People shouldn't judge for unreasonable reasons.

"Where's Martha?" Gabriella asked. Ever since Martha started hanging out with the gang, she seemed like part of the gang herself. She only started liking Ryan after finding out he escaped under Sharpay's shadow. Martha, Taylor, and Kelsi had a lot in common with each other so they became good friends. Martha and Gabriella were close, but not close enough. With the guys, Martha was only close to Ryan; she didn't dare to get close to the basketball guys because like Taylor, she though they were lunkhead basketball men. But that doesn't mean she weren't friends with them.

"She went to get a drink. Don't worry, there are actually bodyguards watching in the food table. My parents don't want alcohol in the party." Gabriella laughed at Ryan's joke.

"I'm going to find Taylor." Ryan nodded and let her go. Gabriella went through the crowd and found Taylor, but when she was going toward her, she was pulled out of a crowd and into a room. The room was dark and Gabriella was scared. She closed her eyes and it was no different; the room was the same color as her closing her eyes.

"Don't be scared." The voice reminded her of the party at the ski lodge, the winter musical auditions, the sound from the webcam when Taylor was convincing her to quit the callbacks, the owner of the hands that intertwined with her hands from the time they sang 'You Are the Music in Me' with Kelsi, the singer of 'Everyday' from the talent show, and the guy who never gave her heart back.

"I'm not." Her eyes were still closed, but she could see that the lights flicked on. She fluttered her eyes open and saw Troy in a Pirates of the Caribbean costume. It looked like she was wearing Jack Sparrow's costume or Will Turner's.

"Is that supposed to be your costume?" Gabriella managed to giggle out.

"Don't laugh. It was the only decent costume left after I saw you today." Her smile faded. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, looking away from his eyes. She felt his hand touching her chin and lifting it up to face his face. His cerulean blue eyes were boring into her coffee brown eyes, begging for entrance to her brain to find out what she was thinking. She refused to open the doors; she's done that once and it lead her to heartbroken mode.

"You're lying. I could tell." She bit her lip. She always does that when she's keeping herself from saying things she'll regret. "You could tell me. I won't laugh."

"That's not the problem." She clasped her mouth shut with her hand. Troy laughed and grabbed her wrist that was closing her mouth away from him. He pulled her hand down to her side and slid down from her wrist to her hand to lace their hands together.

"You know that jail costume is making you really sexy right now." Gabriella smiled; it was always Troy who could make her blush. He couldn't last a second without making Gabriella laugh, smile, or blush.

"Thank you," she quietly mumbled. Troy grinned and kissed her cheek. Her eyes automatically closed feeling the warm lips touch her skin. She opened her eyes to see Troy pull back. "Why did you stop?" He grinned again and this time kissed her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Fortunately there was a bed behind Gabriella so Troy laid her down. His lips trailed down to her jaw line and then her neck. Gabriella moaned so dearly. He slowly reached for her zipper of her jacket-shirt and zipped it down. Good thing the jacket-shirt has a built-in bra.

And good thing they didn't see the flash coming from the opened door.

A/N IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY: This isn't a one-shot. I just wanted to see if you guys liked it or not. If I don't see at least twenty reviews (this is an exception for my ranting of stories just for reviews), then I'll delete this and not continue. It's supposed to be about Gabriella making a mistake and trying to overcome it when a picture of her and Troy spread throughout East High from that night. If you don't like it, please don't review. If you do, just say 'love it' or something to let me know you like it.

I was looking on other people's profiles and I saw some of them made banners of their stories and/or trailers. If you're a fan of mine and you can actually make banners and/or videos, you can start showing off your appreciation by making me a banner of any of my stories or a trailer of any of my stories. You can send me the url of the video/banner and I'll post it on my profile. I know you guys love my stories and I just want to see if I can see more of the love. Thank you!