Gabriella's heart race immediately sped up. The first thing she though of was Troy. Just Troy. And the second thing was deciding whether to go or not. It was 2 hours away. Would she bring Scott? Are partners allowed? Maybe you should read the invite idiot Gabriella thought to herself. She glanced at her watch one more time and decided to take it to work with her and ponder upon it then.

As Gabriella was driving, all she could think of was that darn reunion. Everything would be better if she had never found that letter! Scott probably forgot to give it to her, too bad she found it then.

-

-

"A reunion hey" Troy said to himself. His first thought was Gabriella. He had a feeling she wouldn't go. Their goodbye was such an awful one. He though she hated everyone so much she would never want to see them again!

"What's that sexy?" a bubbly girl holding a cup a soup asked Troy. Troy smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

"5 year reunion for East High" Troy said, turning the card over.

"That's cool. Can I come?" she asked.

"Geez you sure are one to invite yourself places aren't you Marianna?" Troy said jokingly to his girlfriend of one year.

"Sorry baby" Marianna said laughing.

"It does say Partners welcome though" Troy said pointing to the line near the bottom.

"Do you want me to come?" Marianna asked.

"Of course. You count as my partner don't you?" Troy said kissing her on the lips.

"I do" she replied, kissing him back.

-

-

It seemed as though Troy had a good relationship with a girl called Marianna Rose and Gabriella had a not so good relationship with Scott West. No matter how good or bad they were going, they were both missing each other.

I wonder if Gabriella will go… Troy thought to himself.

"It'll be interesting to see what everyone's been up to" Marianna said. Troy stayed silent as he thought of Gabriella and what she has been doing. He hadn't spoken to her for 5 long years. He would kill to see her again. "Won't it?"

"Pardon? Oh, yeah it will" he said smiling.

"When is it again?"

"It's in 2 weeks today actually" Troy replied.

"Well that's exciting! I get to see what your class mates are like, or were like" Marianna said excitedly. Even though it was Troy's reunion. Marianna seemed more eager than he did. Troy stayed in touch with all his friends from high school, all except Gabriella. He had tried to contact her a couple of times, but he couldn't get onto her, he had no idea where she was.

-

-

The end of the day

"How come you didn't tell me about the mail Scott?" Gabriella asked her lazy boyfriend when she got home.

"I'm sorry honey, I forgot" he said, snaking his arms around her waist from behind. Gabriella smiled slightly and patted his hands.

"It's okay"

"Was there anything important?" He asked.

"Just a letter about my high school 5 year reunion" she replied. Scott immediately took the letter out of her hands without asking and read through it.

"That sounds pretty awesome. Hey look" he said, pointing to the bottom line, "partners welcome" he said smiling. Gabriella swore in her mind, she was hoping he wouldn't see that. She just wanted to go by herself. The invitation said games, dancing, karaoke if you wish and other small like 'fun' activities for all of you. "I'll be by your side" he said smiling. That was something else that pissed Gabriella off about Scott, he didn't ask if she would like to do something, he just assumed she did, or he invited himself places or changed movies if he wanted to. He never really asked Gabriella what she wanted.

"Yep. Thanks" she said smiling half heartedly again. "It's in 2 weeks today, is that good for you?" Gabriella asked politely, god who am I kidding? Of course it's good for him! What else would he be doing…

"Yeah that's good for me" he replied, going to make out with her. Gabriella kissed him back, trying to convince herself she loved kissing Scott. Deep down, she knew it wasn't working.

1 week later

The days were creeping up faster to the reunion and Gabriella was getting more and more nervous. It was mainly about Troy. He might not even go. Troy might be dead. He may be on the other side of the world. He could be busy she thought, trying to calm herself down by thinking of reasons why Troy may not even go.

"Hun what's been wrong with you for the past week?" Gabriella's work/best friend Trudy asked.

"My high school reunion is coming up" Gabriella said solemnly. Trudy winced slightly.

"Serious? Are you going to go?" she asked.

"Well I don't have a choice. Scott has basically planned the whole trip" Gabriella said putting her head in her hand.

"God that dickwad makes you do everything" Trudy said angrily. Trudy hated Scott and Gabriella had gotten so used to her insults she brushed them off and sometimes even laughed at them slightly. "Dude if you don't want to go then don't go!"

"Well I think I should anyway. Be the bigger man you know?"

"You are a pretty hot man"

"Shut up" Gabriella said giggling, "yeah I'm going to go. No more talking dammit I have to finish off this web design stuff" Gabriella said.

"Ok sorry, lunch in 20?"

"Yeah Trude, I'll page you ok?" Gabriella asked.

"Gotcha. See you hun" Trudy said as she walked down the hall to her own cubicle.

"Bye"

Gabriella skimmed over the invitation for the thousandth time and started to feel that nervous/sick feeling once again. She had to go and get it over with.

The day before the reunion

Gabriella and Scott were already in the car on the way to Albuquerque. Since it was a several hour trip, they decided to stay overnight at a motel.

"Here we are babe" Scott said as they pulled in the motel.

"I know" Gabriella said stubbornly.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit short tempered" Scott asked.

"Well Scott, I've told you about my past, everything about high school and what had happened to me. How it pretty much destroyed me. I don't even know if you remember. But if you do, maybe you would have enough brains to realise that maybe I'm a little nervous, scared and on edge right now" Gabriella said glaring at him.

"Sorry I didn't know"

"Didn't know what?" Gabriella snapped.

"How you were feeling" Scott replied.

"Well maybe you could ask me next time something big comes up. And ask me whether or not I want to go or ask me whether it's okay or not for you to come instead of inviting yourself."

"Well-" Scott began, but Gabriella cut him off, she didn't want to get in a fight with him.

"Let's go inside and get a good night's sleep" she said grabbing her bag and getting the key from the front desk.

When they got inside, Gabriella walked in the bathroom and looked at her reflection. For no more than a split second, she could see her old self, looking back at her. Pale, dark running eye makeup, hollow face, no rosy cheeks. Nothing. She looked dead. She hoped she wouldn't be entering it all over again. She changed into her small nighty and slipped into bed without a word. She looked up to see where Scott was, and he was setting himself up on the couch.

"Why are you going to sleep on the couch?" Gabriella asked.

"Don't want to sleep in a bed with someone who gets pissed at me for no reason" He replied. Gabriella could have gotten out and pushed his head into the TV but she was too tired.

"Fine. You jackass" she said and dropped down in the bed, surprisingly getting to sleep rather quickly.

-

-

Gabriella woke up the next morning early, anticipating the reunion. Even though she had an entire day to wait for it since it start at 7pm.

(A/N. So we're going to skip to the reunion!)

Gabriella dressed in a nice little black dress with a cool leather jacket over the top and an over the shoulder bag. She thought she looked quite nice, and secretly, she wanted to look pretty in case Troy and the rest of the gang were there.

"You ready yet?" Scott asked from outside the bathroom. Gabriella rolled her eyes and stuck her rude finger up at the closed door.

"Ready" she said from inside. So Scott went to start the car and put all the bags in the trunk. Gabriella took a deep breath and walked to the car, ready to set off to the 5-year East High Reunion.

"Excited?" Scott asked, trying to break the ice. Scott remembered what Gabriella had said yesterday, and how she was feeling so he bit his cheek. "Sorry…I know" he said apologetically.

"It's okay." Gabriella said patting his hand, trying to get them on a civilized level. But unfortunately, as Gabriella went to rest her hand on her lap, Scott held it. He smiled at her and Gabriella smiled back. Shit. She said in her mind.

Finally, they saw the hall with pretty lights and Gabriella began to feel ill. "Oh god…" she said so she could only hear.

"Well here we are" Scott said parking the car. In front, she saw a black Audi with the numberplate TB-14. Mercy…she thought. If that wasn't Troy Bolton's car, she would pay someone a million dollars. Real smooth Scott. Nice park. She said in her mind. It wasn't his fault though, he didn't know. They walked arm in arm to the front entrance where Mr. Matsui and Ms. Darbus were waiting to greet everyone.

"Miss. Gabriella Montez" Mr. Matsui said politely, "you are looking fantastic and it's absolutely wonderful to see you again" he added.

"Thank you Mr. Matsui, it's great to see all of you again as well" she said sincerely. She was in fact looking forward to seeing the teachers.

"You look beautiful Gabriella" Ms. Darbus said.

"Thanks Ms. Darbus. You're looking awesome too!" Gabriella said. Darbus smiled at the word 'awesome', she still had some of her teenage charm within. "Oh, this is my…b-boyfriend. Scott West" she said, a bit reluctantly. She didn't like the word 'boyfriend'.

"Pleasure to meet you both" Scott said shaking their hands. What didn't concern Gabriella were Scott's manners. He was always polite, never a arrogant dickhead. Just an idiot. Matsui and Darbus noticed the falter in Gabriella's voice, but they just pretended all was well for the sake of the night.

"Great to meet you Scott, now you two enjoy yourselves alright?" he said happily and agreed to chat to them later on in the night.

"Well so far so good" Scott said.

"You're right" Gabriella replied. Scott was doing pretty good in the night so far, but they had only been there for no more than 5 minutes.

"Don't worry if you don't find anyone to talk to" Scott said. He blew it already. Gabriella shook her head.

"I will find someone to talk to Scott. I'm not an alien you know" Gabriella replied intolerantly. "Don't worry if you don't find anyone to talk to" Gabriella said giving a sickly sweet smile on purpose. Scott didn't know anyone so that comment would have gotten to his brain. They both entered the two giant doors and saw red and white balloons filled with helium sitting on the very high roof. There were red and white streamers on the wall, and it all looked rather beautiful. The lights were dimmed, but not enough so that you couldn't see, and Gabriella smiled at the lovely atmosphere.

"This is incredible" Scott said and Gabriella nodded her head. She looked around and saw lots of familiar faces. Scott spotted the bar and quickly 'accidently' pushed past Gabriella to head over there. Gabriella frowned when she lost her balance and bumped into someone behind her who was just entering the hall.

"Damn. Oh, I'm sorry" Gabriella said, not looking up yet. She fixed the strap on her shoe and stood up to see who it was so she could apologise properly. The first thing she saw were the eyes. Those piercing blue eyes. She stopped breathing for a moment and she felt her hands begin to shake.

Troy looked at the girl about a head shorter than him. He almost didn't recognise her. Her beautiful hair was about 12 centimetres longer, she had gotten darker and she had gotten bangs. Until he saw her deep brown eyes, filled with more life than in high school. They were just sitting below her new fringe. They stared at each other for about 7 seconds until Troy said something.

"Hello Gabriella" he said softly. Before the reunion, Gabriella promised she would stay strong and not get caught up in her emotions. But she felt her eyes glaze over with tears, and one dripped out of her left eye, rolling down her cheek. Troy felt his hands shake and his eyes swelled with tears too. After 5 years, they finally saw each other. It was almost too overwhelming for Gabriella. Troy's hand automatically went to brush the tear sliding down Gabriella's face away. He was desperate to feel her again, even if it was a hair on her head. But the moment was broken when Marianna walked over to Troy.

"The bathrooms here are just as beautiful as the hall!" she said, wrapping her arm around Troy's, in a slightly possessive way. Gabriella's breath caught in her throat as she looked back and forth at the pair. Troy kept his eyes on Gabriella, wishing Marianna hadn't appeared. "Oh who's this?" Marianna asked sweetly. Gabriella was petrified that this girl would be like Eloise. An awful, conceited bitch. But she didn't seem to be. She wasn't over confident or too bubbly and sickly sweet. Gabriella forced a painful smile at her and Troy's mouth stayed slightly open in a way which said 'I don't know what to say…'

"Gabriella this is… umm…m…this is…" Troy stuttered slightly. It was weird introducing his new girlfriend to his ex girlfriend that he had never, ever forgotten about. Marianna stood there slightly embarrassed and nudged Troy's arm, which Gabriella pretended to not notice.

"Troy's girlfriend Marianna" she said, finally finishing Troy's sentence quickly. Gabriella's stomach clenched up and she felt as though her head was bleeding in three places. Troy felt the exact same pain that she did.

"N-nice to meet you Marianna" she said shaking her hand. Gabriella thought her head would pop, and before she cried all over them, she ran past them, desperately trying not to push them over. Troy watched her run and he clenched his teeth together and pressed his hand firmly against his face trying to keep his tears in.

"Is she oka- oh my god Troy what's wrong?" She asked concerned. Marianna stared at Troy, but wasn't looking at him, she was just thinking. Her face became stern. "That was Gabriella Montez wasn't it?" she asked rather harshly. Troy nodded his head, "I thought you said you were over her" Marianna stated. "You're not" she said again. "You still love her don't you?"

"No Marianna n-"

"You do. I'm going to the bar" she said and stormed off.

-

-

Gabriella was in a toilet cubicle, looking at her reflection in the mirror on the back of the door. She thought it was weird there was a mirror in a toilet cubicle. Who wants to see themselves on the toilet? But she didn't have the time to care. She got a few baby wipes from her bag and wiped under her eyes, getting rid of the touches of running makeup. She added a little more foundation and waved her hands over her face. She stepped out of the cubicle and bumped into a blonde girl. She still had the knack of running into people, literally.

"Sorry" she said feebly.

"It's oka-"

"Oh my god" Gabriella said accidently out loud.

"Oh my god" the girl also said, then putting her hand over her mouth.

"Sharpay Evans" Gabriella said, with a tiny smile.

"Gabriella Montez" Sharpay said, without a tiny smile which pissed Gabriella off on the spot.

"No blue hair tonight?" she asked, then walking past her. Sharpay stayed standing where she was, glaring ahead of her.

Gabriella ran out of the bathroom and speed walked her way over to Scott. She found him downing a cup of scotch, with about 4 empty glasses sitting on the bench next to him.

"We're leaving" she said to him quickly, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him away. But he didn't budge.

"No, we're staying" he said. Little did Gabriella know, Troy was watching from his seat across the room.

"I would like to go" Gabriella said firmly, trying to help Scott get the hint.

"We're staying" he said, planting a kiss on Gabriella's lips. Troy's heart began to thud in his throat as well. They were both in relationships, and on seeing each other, they both wanted out of them.

"Stop it" she said, quickly pushing him away with her fingertips.

"My keys, my car. And I think I'm over the limit" he said, quickly glancing at the girl who just approached the bar. Gabriella didn't bother turning around.

"Hi Gabriella" she heard a voice from behind. She turned around, and there was Taylor McKessi.

"Oh, hi Taylor" Gabriella replied, feeling shocked.

"You seem surprised" she said smiling.

"I guess you could say that, after all, I haven't seen you in about 5 years" she said.

"I know. I'm sorry I didn't contact you. And I'm sorry for everything Gabriella" Taylor said. Gabriella stared at her for a short while.

"Pardon?" Gabriella asked. I'm sorry for everything? You guys almost made me jump out of a window. Remember?

"I look back and regret everything I had done to you. After graduation I cried my eyes out because my best friend wasn't there by my side to celebrate. We were never really the same without you after you left and got home schooled by your mum"

"I can't be confused anymore Taylor. By the looks of things you have matured and have the heart to say sorry to me, Sharpay is still immature and hates me…and…and yeah. I don't think I can't handle being messed around again" Gabriella said back.

"At least tell me what you do now" Taylor asked with a smile. Gabriella was happy to answer a simple question.

"I'm a graphic designer now an-" suddenly Gabriella got cut off by her phone ringing, "perfect timing, sorry Taylor"

"It's okay" Taylor said, happily standing to wait for Gabriella with her small glass of champagne. Gabriella looked at the caller ID and saw it was Trudy. She remembered she told her to call at this time!

"Hey Trude" Gabriella said, answering her mobile. "Sorry Taylor it's just my best friend" she said purposely to get to her. "I might have to catch up with you a bit later" Gabriella said with a smile and walked outside. As soon as Gabriella stepped out into the open, she burst into tears.

"OH MY GOD GABI PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG!"

"I saw Troy, my boyfriend is d-d-drunk and checking out other g-girls, Sharpay still seems to h-h-hate me and Taylor wants to talk to m-m-me!" she said. Trudy knew all about Gabriella's friends, she had seen pictures and knew their names.

"Did you want to come home?"

"YES! But Scott is drunk and we came here in his car and he won't give me his keys and I don't want to cause a scene!"

"Do you want me to come and get you?"

"Of course not Trudy we're way too far away. Okay look, I can hear someone talking in the microphone I better go back inside"

"Okay hun, love you heaps"

"Love you too Trude, see you" she said and hung up the phone. Gabriella walked back in the hall and stood at the very back to see Mr. Matsui standing at the podium drabbling on about something.

In his mind, Mr. Matsui thought that perhaps Gabriella and Troy were friends by now and were back on a good level, so he went ahead and spoke. "So now it's time for the two popular high school sweethearts to have a dance" he said. As soon as Gabriella heard 'high school sweethearts', she thought she might throw up on the closest person. That was her and Troy!

Troy felt as though his stomach had been ripped out. He was going to be forced to dance with Gabriella. It's not like he desperately wanted to, but he certainly didn't not want to…..

Hope you guys liked it! Tell me what you think

xxx