Disclaimer: I don't own HSM or any HSM characters.

Chapter 1

18 year-old Gabriella Montez walked up to the two story house that she would be living in... for now. She never considered any house she moved into home sweet home. She considered them as temporary living arrangements.

Looking up at the sunny blue Albuquerque sky she sighed. 'At least the weathers nice.' she thought.

Then turning her attention to the house 'And the house looks nice.' Looking up again she noticed that the sky had turned gray and the sun was no longer shining but hiding behind a cloud.

Gabriella sighed for the millionth time that day and went over to her mom to help her take the boxes out of the moving van.

Ever since her mother, Marianna Montez and her father Jonathan Rivera divorced four years ago, Gabriella's life has been turned upside down and since then she has had no control over her life. She wanted her mom to be happy so she just followed her mother's rules and did whatever Marianna wanted. Whatever she did, she did for her mom.

Gabriella came to the conclusion that if her mother was happy she would be happy as well, but that theory never proved to be true. She was still miserable where ever they went.

"Hey, so what do you want me to do?" Gabriella asked once she reached her mom. Marianna looked up once she heard her daughter's voice and gave her a small smile.

"Well, I guess you can pick a room in the house and start unpacking your stuff if you want." she replied.

"Yeah… okay." She could tell her mom was tired and just wanted to unpack as quickly as possible. Gabriella always had the feeling that her mom never got over the divorce.

To Gabriella it seemed that her parent's marriage was perfect but when in truth it was actually falling apart.

When she found out that she would be moving because of her mom's company she wouldn't talk to her mom for weeks and even hated her and her father at one point. But after a long time she got over it, or she thought she did.

Gabriella decided that it was better to move on than hang on to something she knew, she would never be able to have again. In every city Gabriella moved to she always managed to make at least one friend, but didn't bother to really get to know them because she knew she would just end up leaving and moving.

She realized this after the fifth time her mom and her moved, she hated the pain of having to say goodbye to people that she grew to care about. From then on she decided to keep her distance from people she would meet to prevent herself from feeling that pain again.

After the tenth city Gabriella gave up trying to make her life the same as it was before her parents divorce. There was no point in trying to get her old life back, her life right now was already bad and she seriously doubted it could get any worse.

Now here she was four years later and still doing the same thing: keeping her distance away from people so she didn't have to face anymore pain, constantly moving to a different city adding to the growing list of cities she has moved too over the past years and of course doing what she did best; keeping her mouth shut.

Gabriella sighed and shook her head trying to forget the painful memories. She grabbed one of the boxes with her name on it and made her way to the front door.

Looking at the sky once more, the sun was now fully gone replaced with even darker gray clouds.

Gabriella looked around the room she chose, it was big but not too big. For the next few hours, she spent cleaning, unpacking and arranging her room just the way she liked it and before she knew it, it was starting to get dark and the day was ending. She suddenly felt very hungry and went downstairs to see what her mother was preparing for dinner.

"Hungry?" her mom asked.

"Very."

"Well, dinner is almost finished so I don't need any help with that… instead can you set up the dining table?" she asked nicely.

"No problem," Gabriella replied, getting out of her seat to one of the cupboards.

"Finish packing yet?" her mom asked, going back to her cooking, trying to start a conversation.

"Almost, but I still have to unpack most of my clothes."

"Your going to be up all night unpacking ALL those clothes you have," she said laughing just thinking about the amount of clothes her teenage daughter had.

"True." Gabriella said, laughing along with her mom. Looking away Gabriella smiled, even though she hated her mom for always being so busy at work the small moments that would happen between her and her mom was what made everything they've been through worth it sometimes. When Gabriella finished setting the table, they both sat down for dinner and continued to carry a pleasant conversation while they ate.

"There's nothing else to do but unpack, I already called the phone and electricity company and everything is set up," her mother said.

Gabriella nodded at what she said and continued eating, there was a slight pause and both said nothing for a while. Gabriella knew it was time for her to ask the question that she hated the most about moving.

"So… what school am I going to?" she asked. Before her mother could answer, the phone rang and she stood up to get it.

"Hello?" she asked, there was a pause before she continued talking. Gabriella saw her mothers tense face and knew who the caller was.

"I'm fine thank you and how are you? That's good… Yes, we just got here today…. We're fine so far… oh sure of course you can talk to her…. nice talking to you too, bye." her mother replied politely. "It's for you." her mom said.

She handed the phone to Gabriella, she already knew who it was because of the tone in her mother's voice which she would use whenever she spoke to this certain someone on the phone. The look on her face also gave it away. It was her father.

Gabriella hated the way her mom would talk to him, it was like they never knew each other. They talked to each other like complete strangers, almost if their marriage had never happened.

"Hey, dad!" she said trying to sound happy "Gabby! How's my girl?" he replied, not noticing how forced her greeting was.

"Same old, same old, you?"

"Never been better."

There was a slight pause.

Even though she barely got to see her dad, he would call her once a week to talk and catch up. She appreciated the gesture but it still wasn't the same and he knew it too.

It hurt Gabriella even more when he would talk about his new family, she wasn't mad at him for moving on, but she still couldn't help but feel jealous of his new and better life. She wished her and her mom could experience the same happiness he had.

"So… any boys chasing after my baby girl yet?" he asked joking. "Nope… not yet anyways." she replied, joking along with him.

"There better not be any… or else, I don't want to have to beat down your boyfriend and Katie's boyfriend," he said laughing, still going on with the joke.

Gabriella stopped smiling once she heard Katie's name, Katie was her dad's other "daughter", his step-daughter actually.

The way he would talk about her made it sound like Katie was his real daughter and Gabriella was his step-daughter instead. It hurt her even more when he would talk about how much of a great kid she was, how talented she was and what good morals she had. She was jealous but she hated to admit it.

"Hello? Gabby? Gabriella? You still there? Hello?" She had become silent for a while but managed to find her voice.

"Uhmm, yeah I'm still here," she replied. "For a second I thought you hung up on me," he said laughing.

"Yeah, I just spaced out for a second… " she trailed off.

She sighed once the phone call was over; Gabriella wondered why he even bothered to call her when there was nothing new to tell him. All she wanted to do was go to bed and sleep before she had to go to school the next day.

Gabriella got up from the coach she was sitting on and found her mom in the kitchen sitting at the head of the dining table with a bunch of papers laying on top of the table. She made her way over to the table and sat down across from her.

"So… what school am I going to?" she asked for the second time. Her mom looked up from the sheet of paper she was reading.

"East High."