A/N: Okay, you guys are so totally going to hate me but I don't like how 'Beautiful disaster' is going. So...that's stopped. Sorry. You know me, if I don't get into it or don't like it...I stop it. It just wasn't writing like 'Out of this world did' :(...anyway...Take a look at the poll in my profile please. Actually...I think there are two...do 'em both. Don't own HSM
Chapter 1 – The new boss
Gabriella brushed the constant tapping on her arm off as she blew her whistle, pointing to a sandy blonde guy messing around with another guy with black hair. "Don't do that." She said in a stern voice before turning around to face whoever it was. "Tay!" She squealed, jumping off of her chair and embraced her best friend before pulling back in realisation. "Oh, I'm sorry. How is my future god-daughter?" She asked.
"You know if you keep going on about it, I could give that title to Sharpay." Taylor joked, rubbing her enlarged stomach.
"Pfft! Sharpay and children? She can't look after a goldfish!" Gabriella scoffed.
"She's our best friend." Taylor pointed out.
"She still can't look out for a fish. She still owes me a replacement for Fluffy." She whined, folding her arms in a cute pout.
Taylor laughed. "Who names a goldfish Fluffy?" Taylor asked.
"Me." Gabriella grinned.
"Anyway, your god-daughter has been doing summersaults all day." Taylor groaned.
"Why are you groaning?" A voice asked in a mock serious tone.
"Chad!" Gabriella squealed, flinging her arms around the man's neck.
Chad chuckled and patted his friend's back. "Hey, Brie."
She pulled back and breathed out. "What are you guys doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until next week."
"And if we want to come home early?" He grinned. "Hey, we promised you last year we're spending Christmas with you, Zeke and Sharpay. Hopefully she'll like my gift this year." He muttered.
"You got her gardening tools." Gabriella exclaimed.
He shrugged. "Hey, and they were good quality. Have you seen our garden now?" He grinned.
Taylor hit his chest, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, Ella, when's your lunch?"
"In about ten minutes, actually. But, everyone's going to the ballroom to meet the new boss. I don't know why Shar sold this place." Gabriella whined.
"She never came here." Chad mumbled.
Taylor elbowed him and hugged her friend. "Well, call us when you get home and we'll go round, okay?"
Gabriella nodded and waved her friends off. She glanced at her watch and sighed, handing her whistle to the lifeguard taking over from her. She smiled in acknowledgement and then slipped her flip flops on her feet and her white jacket over her red bathing suit and shorts before jogging off to the kitchen. She ran up to an African-American man in a chef's hat and hugged him from behind. "Zeke." She squealed.
He chuckled, placing the last of the mixture into a backing tray and smoothing it out. "Hey, sister from another mister."
She giggled and released him, leaning on the counter. "Chad and Tay are back?"
"Yeah?" Zeke asked, placing the try into the oven on a low heat. "How's the baby?"
"Really annoying Tay, apparently." She laughed.
"And Justin?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
"They didn't say." She shrugged. "I think he was in the play area. I mean, he knows this place like the back of his hand."
Zeke nodded, taking the chef's hat from his head. "Yeah. I know. Anyway, we'd better go and meet this new boss. The other half of the staff has already met him."
Gabriella nodded and yawned slightly. "I guess." They started wandering the corridors towards the ballroom.
"You tired?" Zeke asked.
"Hmmm…" She muttered, resting her head on his shoulder.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "You want to go home?"
She shook her head. "I need the money. How stupid is that? I'm a qualified doctor and I'm working as a lifeguard at a country club!" She exclaimed. "And with Christmas coming up…"
"Hey, Shar and I will help. You know we will. And we won't take no for an answer." He said sternly as they entered the ballroom and sat down on two chairs among the other employees. "Brie, you're going through a rough patch. Your life isn't perfect and there's nothing you can do about it. So, let us help."
"I might not have a choice." She sighed.
"How was your shift, by the way?" He asked, squeezing her shoulders.
"Oh God, don't even go there." She muttered. "There was this guy there and he wouldn't stop breaking the rules. I think he just knew he was pissing me off. I sent him out of the pool twice before I gave and then kept telling him off."
Zeke chuckled. "How old?"
She shrugged. "Maybe a couple of years older than me." She whispered.
"Looks?" He asked.
She sighed. "What is this? Twenty questions?"
He rolled his eyes. "You can't keep hiding from every guy that comes into your life." He whispered.
"Not every guy!" She defended.
"Dad, Chad and I don't count." He said softly.
"Hey, settle down people!" A voice exclaimed.
Everyone became quiet and turned their heads to the doorway. Gabriella cringed when she saw a tall, muscular guy with dirty blonde hair, sharp defined facial features, sparkling sapphire eyes, strong muscles and a towel in his hands which he was using to dry his hair. He was dripping wet and just in a pair of red and white swimming trunks. He wandered into the room and stood on the small stage in front of his employees.
"Shit." Gabriella whispered, slouching further into the chair.
"You okay, Brie?" Zeke whispered, squeezing her shoulders.
She looked up fearfully at him. "That's the guy who was pissing me off." She whispered.
Zeke's eyes widened. "Our new boss?"
"I didn't know he was our new boss." She whispered.
"Hey, I'm Troy Bolton. Nice to meet you all. I know it's your lunch break so I'll make this quick. I'm Troy Bolton. I've just bought this country club from Sharpay Baylor who is married to…" He scanned the crowd before his eyes landed on Zeke who had raised his hand. Troy smiled before nodding. "Zeke Baylor. Head chef, correct?"
Zeke nodded. "Yes, sir."
Troy turned around and grabbed a clipboard from the piano stool and dropped his towel to the floor. He turned back to his staff and scanned the page in front of him. "And according to Mrs Baylor, your sister is…" His voice trailed off when he saw Gabriella. "Gabriella Montez." He said in a stern voice, making her wince.
"That's me. The one and only." She whispered, slowly raising her hand.
Troy sighed and kept his gaze on her. "Everyone, enjoy the rest of your lunch." He saw Gabriella move to leave and he continued in a loud voice. "Not you, Miss Montez."
Gabriella sighed and looked at Zeke pitifully. "What do I do?" She whispered.
Zeke shrugged. "Just don't let him get to you, I guess." He kissed her forehead. "I'll be in the gym if you need me." He whispered before leaving the gym with the rest of the employees.
Gabriella bit her lips and hooked her thumbs into the tops of her pockets of her shorts. She turned around and sighed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Bolton."
Troy set the clipboard on the piano and turned to her, folding his arms. "I suppose it is."
Gabriella rushed forward and hopped onto the stage. "Listen, Mr Bolton, I didn't know you were my boss. I was just doing my job!"
"Then why were you talking to Chad and Taylor Danforth?" He asked sternly.
"Okay, I guess you know them because of Chad's job as a basketball superstar. But, I haven't seen them in months. And Sharpay always let me talk to them when they come here." She said desperately.
"Look at me and tell me what you see." He said quietly.
Gabriella looked him up and down, noticing how well toned his body was. "A shirtless guy who has just come out of the pool?" She tried.
"Am I blonde?"
"No."
"Am I a woman?"
"No." She whispered, feeling herself shrink back from the power of his gaze, exactly how a mouse would when confronted with a cat.
"Am I Sharpay Baylor?" He asked, stepping forward.
She shook her head. "Well, no, but I-"
"In that case, no talking to friends when on shift." He said sternly.
"Figures." She muttered with a sigh, rubbing her forehead. "All I can do is apologise." She whispered. She looked into his eyes for a moment before realising he wasn't going to say anything. She jumped off the stage and started walking out of the ballroom, shaking her head slightly.
"Miss Montez." Troy called desperately.
She turned around looked up questioningly. "With all due respect, Sir, I'm twenty-three. I'm not a child. You can call me Gabriella."
Troy jumped down off of the stage and jogged over to her. "That's another thing: you're twenty-three and you're working as a lifeguard in a country club. What's the deal with that?"
Gabriella was silent before folding her arms, showing defence. "That's none of your business." She whispered.
"As your employer, I'm afraid it is." He exclaimed impatiently.
Had they been in any other situation, Gabriella knew she'd be appreciating his body more than she was at that moment. "Well, I'm afraid that you'll just have to not know. I don't want you to know and that's final. What happens in my life is nothing to do with you. Not in my book, and not in Zeke's." She said confidently before turning around and running out of the ballroom.
Troy sighed, running a hand through his wet hair, dishevelling it even more. "Gabriella Montez." He whispered. What was she hiding? He ran back to the stage and grabbed the clipboard, flipping through the pages before reaching Gabriella's.
"Hey, Troy." A voice said.
Troy glanced up and saw the black haired man with a petite brown-haired woman holding his hand. "Hey, Jase, Kels."
"What's up?" Jason asked as Troy sat on the edge of the stage and they both sat either side of him.
Troy sighed and stared at the picture of Gabriella printed on the sheet of paper. "That's one of the life guards. She's going to be hard work."
"What's wrong with her?" Kelsi asked softly. "She seems pretty nice to me."
"But, she doesn't like me. I can see it in her eyes. First of all, she kicked me out of the pool twice, then yelled at me when I broke the rules. But, you guys know why I kept doing all of that stuff…" His voice trailed off. "She's hiding something." He decided.
"Shar, why did you sell Lava Springs?" Gabriella whimpered into her cell phone.
Sharpay sighed. "I thought we'd been over this?" She asked.
Gabriella nodded but realised her friend couldn't see her. "We have but… I miss it when you owned it." She whispered.
"Brie, I couldn't own it anymore. I never went there, I know Zeke and you work there but…" Her voice trailed off.
Gabriella sighed and ran her free hand through her hair. "I just know that this isn't going to be how it was when you were here."
"That's because – legally – we're sisters." Sharpay explained. "Come on, cheer up."
"Why the…heck should I be cheerful?" She cried. "You know the deal with my life right now."
Sharpay sighed on the other line. "I wish I could help but I'm in New York for another week and a half."
Gabriella nodded, feeling tears well in her eyes. "I know that. I don't mean for this to make you feel guilty but it seems the only one who is always with me is Zeke. Chad and Tay leave once basketball season kicks off and you go all over the country for shows."
"I know, Brie. But, hey, listen, when I come back, I'm not going anywhere for two months and I know Chad and Tay aren't either. So, we can have some girl time shopping. What do you say?" She asked brightly.
Gabriella sighed and finally smiled. "Is that promise?"
"If I was there, I'd totally make it a pinkie promise." Gabriella could almost hear Sharpay's grin in her voice.
"Shar, I'm twenty-three and you're twenty-five. Don't you think we're too old for pinkie promises?" Gabriella asked, lifting her eyes to look at the cloudless Albuquerque sky. The hammock she was lying on swayed in the breeze and she sighed in contentment.
"What's my husband up to?" Sharpay asked, changing the subject.
"The usual." She grinned up at the sky.
"What's your kitchen like?" Sharpay joked.
"If I know my brother as much as I think I do… It probably looks like it's been snowing, I'll have to go shopping tomorrow and most likely, I'll end up kicking his butt in wrestling." She laughed.
Sharpay burst out laughing and sighed. "Well, Honey, I'd better go. I'm sure you do too."
Gabriella yawned into the phone and groaned. "I wish I could stay here forever."
"Hammock?" Sharpay asked knowingly.
"The one and only. Anyway, goodnight, Shar." Gabriella whispered.
"Goodnight, Brie." Sharpay replied.