Okay this is one of my favorite quotes and it's used in here and it was my inspiration for the story so I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

What is love? That's was the big question, what is it really? I sat in my room with my notebook in front of me with an open page ready to be written on but I had nothing to write.

Our English teacher has given us an essay but every person had a different question and this was mine. But I honestly didn't have an answer for it.

It's a feeling, but what is that feeling? I put my pencil down and got up from my chair walking away from the paper and the question. I still have two weeks to finish it, two weeks to figure out what love is.

I woke up the next morning and looked around my room, nothing had changed but my notebook was still sitting there. And I left it there. I wasn't going to touch it until I found my answer.

"Gabi! Come down for breakfast!" I grabbed my bag and left my room turning off the light and forgetting about the paper. Breakfast was simple and fast and then Taylor picked me up seeing as my car was in the shop.

"Morning Gabs," Tay said. "How's everything?"

"It's good, I was trying to work on my essay last night and I can't come up with a good answer. What is love? It's a feeling but what is that feeling?"

"You got a hard question Gabs, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Speaking of love, what about you and Troy?"

"What about me and Troy? It's just me and Troy, nothing special." I looked at her and shrugged.

"Come on Gabs, anyone that knows you two can tell that that's a lie," she said. I turned in my seat and looked at her. "Don't look at me like that, it's true and you know it."

"Don't even start Tay, yeah I had a little crush on him but I'm over it now." She looked like she was about to say something else but I stopped her. "Don't!"

"Fine, but we will talk more about this later."

"Whatever." I got our of the car and walked with her towards the school then taking separate ways to different lockers. I was going to Troy's and she was going to Chad's, her boyfriend of five months.

"Morning El," Troy said looking at me.

"Morning, how has your day been?"

"You mean the hour that I've been up? Pretty good, what about you?"

"Eh, Taylor started talking about 'us' again in the car," I said making air quotes around the word us. "When will they get that we are just friends!"

"I got lucky, my dad drove me this morning so I didn't get it from Chad."

"Ugh, you are lucky. Come on let's get to class, I don't want to get Darbus angry. I'm already leaving in the middle of her class."

"What! You're leaving me?" I nodded and grabbed Troy's arm pulling him with me. I looked at my phone, the bell was about to ring and Troy was not coming easily. "Why are you leaving?"

"I have an appointment," I said. "Now come on!"

"Fine, leave me there all by myself." I dropped Troy's arm and walked beside him letting him grumble peacefully. He would get over it.

We sat in our seats just before the bell rang and of course just before Darbus walked in. Sadly, not all of us were on time, Jason came running in with his books and folders, with papers flying everywhere like two minutes late. He got detention.

A little before class ended I was called down to the office, I didn't know why, usually if you had an appointment then you just told your teacher before hand and then left. This was completely different.

I gathered my things and walked out of the classroom answering my friend's questioning looks with a confused look of my own.

"Ah Ms. Montez, down the hall and the second door to the right." I nodded at the secretary. The only other time I had ever been in here was to get my schedule the first day, I had no idea where I was going.

It was the vice principal's office, my mom was there along with my counselor and the actual principal. What is going on?

"Gabi," my mom said slowly.

"Who's going to tell me what's going on here?" I sat down in the only empty chair left next to my mom.

"Well, turns out that you can graduate after this semester." I looked around the room, they weren't kidding. I was only in the second semester of my junior year. I could graduate.

"It's completely up to you," Mr. Matusi said. "You can start college early or stay here."

"Wow." That was the only word that seemed to come out. After a couple of minutes I could finally form more words, "but I mean how?"

"Well it turns out that since you transferred schools so many times there was a little mix up in the number of credits that you had, luckily your counselor caught it and told us. You would be the first one to graduate a whole year early."

"How about this, I think about it and let you know later. I have an appointment to get to," I said standing up. Everyone else stayed sitting and watched me slowly back out of the room.

"Gabi," My mom said. "we'll talk about this later." I just nodded and then turned around and walked out of the room as fast as I could without it being considered running.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, went to the appointment, peed in a cup(for some weird reason. Can't remember. Wasn't listening.) and then went back to school. All my friends asked why they wanted me but I just kind of brushed them off.

"Hey Brie," Troy said walking into my room. I was just sitting on my bed, my mom and I had already talked about what I should do and we decided. I was going to graduate early, now the only problem is telling my friends. Ever since we all became friends we had been looking forward to our senior year together and now it was just going to be them.

"Hey Troy, I have something to tell you," I said looking at him. I pushed aside my homework which I wasn't actually concentrating on and sat up.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well it depends on how you take it. When I was in the office this morning they told me that I could graduate after this semester and that I could go to college early. And I've decided to do just that." I stopped and looked at him. His face seemed frozen. "Troy?"

"That's great," he said. "Where are you going to go?" I smiled at him but I could tell that he wasn't happy.

"Yeah, I'm not really sure. I was thinking Stanford or U of A, but I'm really not sure." He nodded and moved so he was sitting next to me. "I'm gonna miss you guys."

"We're all going to miss you too," he said quietly. "I better get going. I have homework to do at home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Troy," I said trying to stop him.

"I'll see you later." He walked out before I could say anything else. I just royally screwed up my relationship with him. I grabbed my homework again trying to distract myself.

That whole distracting myself thing didn't work. I was up most of the night thinking about everything.

"Gabi!" I flinched at the sound of Sharpay's voice, she had found out.

"Yes Sharpay?"

"Why didn't you tell us that you were going to college early!" I turned around and looked at her.

"Because I wasn't even sure until last night. I know that we were looking forward to our senior year together but I can't let this pass me by," I said.

"Gabi if that's what you want to do then I'm happy for you. We all want you to be happy. And I'm so proud of you!" She stopped and gave me a hug. "Now the only problem is Troy."

"Wait what?"

"Come on Gabs, Troy loves you, everyone can see it," she said wrapping her arm over my shoulders.

"Shar stop being over dramatic, he oesn't love me. He's my best friend."

"You say that now but once you're off in college you'll be missing him like crazy and then you'll realize that you love him too." I stopped and looked at her smiling at her dramatics.

"So if I'm not going to 'realize' until I get to college why are you telling me this now?"

"So you don't have to wait. You two should spend as much time together as possible." I took a deep breath, Troy was my best friend, but maybe she was on to something.

"Come on Shar, let's go." I shrugged off her arm and walked ahead leaving her behind. Maybe I did like Troy, we had been friends for ages. He was hot and nice, and sweet and everything else that you could ask for. Maybe.

"Hey Troy!" I said sitting down next to him.

"Hey," He said. Something was different, he didn't seem like Troy, and I couldn't really figure out why.

During free period I found Troy and pulled him up with my to the rooftop. It was lucky he didn't have basketball practice or else I would have never gotten him away to talk.

"What's up," he asked.

"What's wrong," I asked in return.

"Nothing."

"Come on Troy, I know you better than that. I know when something is wrong and something is definitely wrong. Please?" I sat down next to him and tried to catch his eyes.

"It's nothing."

"I know you're lying to me but I won't push it. Instead I'll tell you what Sharpay said to me this morning, it was really funny."

"What?"

"Well she started out by saying that we were meant to be together and I would go off to college and then realize that I loved you."

"Wow," Troy said uninterested.

"Come on Troy, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Go on with your story," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, well after she told me I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and it just seemed insane I mean you're my best friend." I paused. "And then I thought about it some more. And I figured something out. I think she's right." I turned my head around so he couldn't see my face. But then I heard his neck crack so I turned back around.

"Ow!"

"Oh, Troy are you okay?" He shook his head slightly. "Turn, let me rub it. I'm sorry!"

"Wasn't you're fault," He said. I lifted my hands and placed them on his shoulders and close to his neck. "That feels good."

I stopped and leaned my head down so my cheek was resting on his back. "I love you Troy." I stood up quickly and walked down the stairs glad that I didn't have another class with him.

I was sitting at my desk again with my notebook right in front of me trying to start my essay, and then it hit me. Love, it's just a word. It's not anything special, it's a word.

But it's only a word until you give it definition.

Love is just a word until you find someone to give it definition.

I was going to write more but then I heard my balcony door open. There was only one person that would come up here in that way. And that person was Troy.

"Hi," I heard him whisper.

"Hi."

"What are you doing?"

"Working on the English essay," I said quietly.

"I love you." I stayed still and didn't move or look up. "Brie?" I still didn't move. "Brie please."

Closing my eyes I let a small smile spread across my face. I finally stood up and looked at him. He was standing there in my room dressed in a pair of worn out jeans, a t shirt and his basketball shoes telling me he loved me.

It only took me a second before I jumped into his arms and kissed him for the first time and definitely not the last. We would deal with the long distance thing later, but now, that wasn't important. We loved each other.

Two weeks later I sat in my English class with my Essay in front of me ready to turn in.

"Hey, I never got to see your essay," Troy said sitting behind me.

"Good, it's personal. Meant for the teacher's eyes only." I grabbed my essay and held it up to my chest.

"Come on Brie, please. I'm your boyfriend I'm personal!" I laughed, what he was saying made no sense at all.

And then he gave me that look, the one look that every guy and girl had that could make you do anything. "Fine." I handed him the blue folder and watched as he read the first line out loud.

"Love is just a word until you find someone to give it definition." He stopped and then read the rest in his head. And then came the final line. I turned around in my seat and listened as he read it out loud too.

"Love is Troy Bolton."

Hope you liked it! Review please!

Amanda!!