Welcome To My Life, a high school musical fanfic

A/N: This is my first fanfic. I hope you like it! Criticism is welcomed. Please review.

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of the characters related to it.

Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming

Gabriella Montez came across as a happy, innocent, carefree girl. But that wasn't the real her. Sure, people thought she was different, but they never knew how screwed up her life actually was. But one boy knew the real her. One boy dared to go deeper into her life. And because of that, he was special to her.

Before Gabriella Montez had come into his life, Troy Bolton had been East High's resident playboy. He was infamous for having one-night stands with most of the girl population of the school. With his good looks and charm, he could make his way into anyone's heart. To put it simply, he ruled the school. But that was before she had arrived. She had changed him into a better person and because of that he was thankful.

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

Gabriella Montez sat motionless on her blood stained bed. Her dark curls that had once cascaded down her back carelessly, were now matted and lifeless. Her dark chocolate eyes were bloodshot and puffy, from crying. Her outfit of a black tank top and jeans were torn in a few places. Dry blood was evident on her hands. And that red hand print was still clearly visible on her left cheek.

She needed him now. But she couldn't tell him. He wouldn't look at her the same way.

He was the only one who knew the real her and the horrors of what she went through every day of her life.

When he first met her, she had been sitting on a park bench staring off into the distance. Her eyes had a glazed about them and she had a distant and blank look to her, as a single tear was rolling down her cheek. As he walked past her, he had been automatically drawn to her.

Flashback

"Are you ok?" He asked, concerned for the beautiful girl that was sitting in front of him.

"I'm fine." She said, giving him a watery smile.

"No you're not. Everyone knows that when someone says they're fine, they're definitely not. It's like the universal rule" He replied with a caring tone as he sat down next to her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He continued, "My mum always said that a problem shared is a problem halved."

"No." She replied with no emotion.

They sat there in quiet for a couple of minutes, before he broke the silence.

"My name's Troy, by the way. Troy Bolton." He said softly.

"Mine's Gabriella Montez."

They continued to sit there for a few minutes before he began to speak.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me what's wrong?"

"No. You don't know any fucking thing about me. What makes you think you can come barging into my life and start telling me what's wrong with it. You don't know what it's like to be like me. Just fuck off."She said curtly, before standing up abruptly and storming off.

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

That had been the first time they had met. He wanted more from her, even after she had spoken to him like that. She had been the first girl to ever speak to him in that way and that had left him wondering.

When he had gotten home after that encounter, he had gone straight to his room. His new neighbours had moved into the house next door earlier that week, but he hadn't paid much attention to who they were. Troy Bolton was living in his own world and as the new neighbour's weren't part of it, they didn't matter to him.

Flashback

As he sat at his desk that night he glanced up to and out of his window. What he saw shocked him. The girl from earlier on in the night was lying on her bed, curled up with a book. She looked content and tranquil. But the peace was broken when an older man flung open her door and pulled her up by her long, brown beautiful hair. By his stance, Troy could tell that he was drunk. The man yelled something at Gabriella and before she could answer him, he slapped he face and threw her to the ground. He stumbled out of the room and out of sight.

As she stood up, she was visibly sobbing. Her shoulders shook as she opened the door to her balcony and leaned against the rail and closed her eyes.

Not knowing what had possessed him, he opened his window and climbed out onto the tree that stood in between their two houses. He manoeuvred his way through the tree so that he could reach her balcony.

She was pulled out of her daze when he jumped down onto her balcony. Fear swept over her body as she turned round to see who was there. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw it was Troy.

" What are you doing here? You gave me a shock. I thought you were..." She said before trailing off.

"Your dad?" He said knowingly, with raised eyebrows.

"N-no. I thought you were someone else." She said quickly, while glancing away.

"I know you're lying Brie." He said quietly.

"Brie?" She asked looking at him curiously.

"Yeah. Gabriella is too long to say, and Brie sounds...sophisticated." He said with a smile playing at his lips.

"I like it. But how do you know I'm lying?" She said with a questionable look on her face.

"I saw what happened just before. It turns out we're neighbours." He said while pointing over to his room.

"I saw everything." He said quietly

"Oh." She said as her eyes widened.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" He said.

"What's there to talk about? My dad hits me." She said softly.

"You better go before he sees you here." She said while pushing him in the direction of the tree.

"He won't see me. He's passed out on the floor of your kitchen." He said matter-of-factly.

They talked into the night, sharing their deepest secrets with each other, even though they had just met. And that was the night when Troy Bolton fell in love with Gabriella Montez.

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you're bleeding

Without him, her life would have been more of a mess than it already was. But that didn't mean she didn't have problems, because boy she did. She was constantly excluded from groups at school. She

was always the last to be picked for teams in gym. She was looked down on in the corridors. People thought she was some kind of freak. A nerd. A geek. And that alone made her life a living hell.

Flashback

Troy and Gabriella were engaged in a heated make out session on Troy's bed. Gabriella's dad thought that she was attending a scholastic decathlon meeting, when really she was hanging around at Troy's house. Troy grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. He immediately dropped them when he saw he wince in pain.

"Brie, did I hurt you?" He asked, concerned.

"No, I'm fine. You must be imagining things." She said with a fake smile, but he saw straight passed it. However, he didn't push the matter any further.

She leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips and in a matter of minutes, they were back to where they were just before. As Troy began to slowly lift her left wrist above her head, he heard her gasp. He looked into her eyes and saw them clouded with pain. He took her left wrist and held it in his hands. Gabriella attempted to pull away from him, but he kept his grip strong. He began to pull up her sleeve and what he saw shocked him. There was a large red gash across her wrist. It looked tender and fresh. All up her forearm were the remanents of old cuts. Most of them were faded, but some looked to be only a week old. He slowly looked into her deep chocolate eyes which were filled with fear and hurt.

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

"Why, Brie?" He asked in a barely audible whisper.

"It's not what it looks like Troy." She said hastily while quickly snatching her wrist away from him and tugging her sleeve down.

"I know that that's what I think it is. You've been cutting yourself, haven't you? Why couldn't you have come to me, instead of taking the pain out on yourself?" He asked a little louder, with a sad look on his face.

"Look Troy. I only do this when the pain is too much to handle. Just, don't mention it to anyone, ok? I didn't mean to drag you into this. I didn't want you to become involved like this." She said quietly.

After a long period of silence, Gabriella began to speak.

"Look Troy, I gotta go." She said softly while walking out the door, leaving Troy speechless. As he saw her walking down the driveway, he softly mumbled. "I love you, Brie".

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark

To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

Later that night, as Gabriella was doing her homework, she heard the front door slam. Once she heard loud footsteps thudding up the stairs, fear starting pulsing through her veins.

"Not tonight." She thought to herself. "Any night but tonight"

Her bedroom door was thrown open, revealing a very a drunk Carlos Montez.

"Come here you little bitch" he slurred to her. Gabriella stood up to face him, but kept her head down. When she made no sign of movement, Carlos stumbled forward towards her and slapped her harshly on the cheek. Her hand automatically went up and clutched her cheek. Pain was evident in her eyes, but she kept her mouth shut. He grabbed her by her shoulders and threw her back onto her bed. She began to protest but quickly became silent when he withdrew a small butterfly knife from the pocket of his jeans.

"Shut the fuck up you slut or I'll slit your throat." He said with a malicious look burning in his eyes. Gabriella went a deathly pale as fear swept over her face. He placed the butterfly knife on her bedside table as her began to speak again.

"You know you deserve this. You're the reason why they died. If it wasn't for you, they'd still be alive. And now because of that, you're going to pay." He said without a hint of guilt in his eyes. He began to unzip her jeans and pull them down. She realized that if she didn't act fast, she was going to lose the one thing she had control over. She had already lost so much in her life – her mother, her brother and now, she was going to lose the one thing she had control over. Her virginity.

No one ever lied straight to your face
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I'm happy but I'm not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
You never had to work it was always there
You don't know what it's like, what it's like

She hated him so much. All her pain was caused by him. He was the reason why she cut. He was the reason why she lived in fear. He was the reason why she felt this way about life. She couldn't live with him anymore. She had made her decision. She quickly grabbed the butterfly knife from the side table and held onto it for dear life. He looked up to her, and fear was evident in his eyes.

"Looks like the tables have turned." She stated, her voice dripping with venom.

And with that, she plunged the knife into his chest.

And that was how Carlos Montez died.

As she sat on her bed, she began to shake uncontrollably. Her father lay motionless on the floor. She had killed her father. Her own blood.

She instantly knew what she had to do. As she walked over to her desk, her whole body felt numb. Nothing she had ever felt compared to this moment. It was almost as if this nothingness was the closest thing to normality that she would ever feel. She quickly scribbled a note down and scrunched it up in her left hand. She slowly walked back to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. She was now shaking uncontrollably. Maybe it was from the pain or the guilt. Or maybe she was just scared shitless.

The murder weapon was still gripped tightly in her hands. She just couldn't let go of it. She couldn't live with herself for doing this to him. And with that, she dug the same knife that had killed her father, into herself. As the pain became too much, she collapsed back onto her bed. She lay there, just letting everything go. Her life and most importantly, Troy.

It was late at night when Troy discovered Gabriella and her father. He had been making one of his late night trips into Gabriella's room, thinking that her father was passed out somewhere in the house. As he slid her balcony doors open, the image that he saw broke his heart. It was the image of the girl he loved sprawled across her bed, motionless. She was drenched in her own blood with a knife tightly gripped in her hand. Tears started pouring down his cheeks. On the floor lay her father, also drenched in his own blood. His heart was pounding as he slowly approached the bed. What had she done to deserve this? As he took Gabriella's hand, a piece of paper dropped out of her cold and lifeless hand.

When the paramedics came rushing into her house, he was immediately dragged away from her limp and lifeless body. He protested. He screamed. He cried. Nobody knew what kind of emotional pain he was in. He was being torn away from the girl he loved. He broke free from the woman that was holding him back and rushed back over to the bed. He held her for dear life. He couldn't let go, otherwise she would be gone forever. He was quickly pulled away again and taken into another room.

As he watched her body being removed in that black bag, his heart was shattered even more. She really was gone, and nothing was going to bring her back. Not even all the love in the world. He began to shake with pain. The girl he loved was dead. He was never going to see her again. He was never going to hold her and hear her voice. He was never going to be able to touch her again.

He then realised that she had been way over her head. She was too troubled to be saved. Even though he brought love into her life, nothing could have saved her from this horrific fate. All he did was prolong it.

He clutched onto that note for dear life. Just by reading it, he felt the closure that he needed.

I didn't want to leave you Troy, but I had to.