I actually quite like this oneshot! It was requested by JennCorinthos and I hope you like it!
Gabriella Montez watched out the window, her mouth set in a firm line as the landscape rushed by. Soft, classical music was playing on the stereo and the driver hummed to the rhythm. She still wasn't sure how she felt about all this. After two years of the fame and glory, the lights and glitter, the butlers and chauffeurs, she was going back to where it had all started. Back to East High, the town school in the middle of no-where. Back to a place which had been her home for a number of her younger years.
But things were not the same as they had been then. When she had been there before, she was just simple Gabriella Montez. Now, she was going back as Brie-Ella, internationally-known popstar, on the front of every teenaged magazines, starring in one movie, and releasing three albums and many singles. She didn't know how her mother had convinced her to do this.
One thing Gabriella was glad about, was no-one at East High knew she was coming. At least her publicists had allowed her to break the news to her old friends. Especially Troy Bolton. She and Troy had been best-friends since they were younger, and he was the one who had always encouraged her to follow her dreams to become a singer. But once it all happened, it had happened so fast. She had tried to spend time with him, tried to ring him as often as possible, but things just kept coming up. She had flown out to Albuquerque several times to see him, but by the time she went somewhere with him, everyone was trailing after them, wanting her autograph, wanting a photo. They had just drifted apart…And now she was back.
Gabriella sighed and rubbed her cheek, not sure how she felt about it. Yes, she wanted to see her friends. No, she didn't want to be amongst all of the students of East High who had once treated her as their equal because she knew they wouldn't now. Sighing again, she looked out the window and was shocked to see that they were only two blocks away from East High. She had just had a haircut so it was now just brushing her chin, and it had been freshly high-lighted, so if she worse sunglasses for as long as she could, she would at least be able to get into the building without being recognized…Maybe.
The car pulled to a halt.
"Will you be okay from here, Ms Montez?" Henry Bishop asked politely. Gabriella took a deep breath and nodded. She took her time getting out of the car and straightened out her skirt. She got her bag from the car and began to walk up the stairs to the school. Her short skirt, smooth tanned legs and Prada handbag received some attention, but more just the interested kind, not the celebrity-fan kind. She made it through the front gates and into the school without being recognized and then into form class. However, once the bell rang and the rest of the student body poured in, she was asked to the remove the sunglasses. She removed them, keeping her eyes trained on her desk.
Suddenly, someone bumped into her desk and he muttered a quick,
"Sorry." She glanced up and her eyes connected with Troy Bolton's. Her breath caught in her throat as he stared down at her, his eyes instantly registering recognition. His mouth dropped as he stared at her, his brain searching for something to say. Gabriella finally opened her mouth to say something when the teacher yelled,
"Bolton. Move it!" Troy took one final glance at her and then moved past to his seat. Because of the attention drawn to them from the teacher, several people turned and around and looked in her direction. Gabriella tried to shield her face inconspicuously but whispers spread throughout the class. Gabriella bit her lip and tried to ignore them. She turned around once during the class, to look back at Troy. He was staring straight ahead. She looked at him for a good minute, but never once did he glance in her direction.
By second period it had spread throughout the school and numerous people were approaching her and asking for autographs. It was a nightmare. The teachers, who had once treated her as a star pupil, were avoiding her gaze, seeming not to know what to say. Taylor McKessie was in one of her classes. Her once best-friend looked over in her direction a couple of times, and at the end of the period, came over to her, a trying smile plastered on her face.
"Hey, um, Brie-ella?" She asked uncertainly.
"Tay, just call me Gabi. I'm still me," Gabriella said. Taylor nodded uncertainly. They walked into the cafeteria together, but got separated from the throngs of students which flocked around Gabriella. Taylor sighed and went over to where she usually sat. She began eating her food when a shadow fell over her. She looked up and Troy stood there. They hadn't really talked since Gabriella left. Gabriella seemed to be the flue that held the two groups together, and when she left, everything seemed to disintegrate between the groups. Taylor smiled slightly and nodded at Troy.
"Did you know she was coming back?" Troy asked softly. Taylor shook her head. "You talked to her?" Taylor nodded. "She sound the same?" Taylor thought for a moment.
"I don't know…Things are really different for her now," Taylor said. As if to prove her point, more people rushed past, all calling Gabriella's name. Troy sighed and then walked away, pushing past people and going out the back door. Taylor watched him and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Gabriella and Troy had been so close, and then along with her instant fame, their friendship seemed to dissolve. She wondered if they would ever be able to get it back again.
After school, Gabriella managed to get away from the followers and catch up with Troy. He gave her a half-smile and then turned away and kept walking. Gabriella sighed and walked after him.
"You want something?" He finally asked, turning around. His voice was…Indifferent. It was cold, but it wasn't welcoming either. Gabriella bit her lower lip, trying to think of words to say. "Look, Gabriella, or Brie-Ella or whatever, I actually gotta go, okay? I'm baby-sitting my sister." Gabriella's eyes widened.
"You have a sister?" She asked, not believing that she had missed something as big as that. Troy scowled slightly.
"Yeah, she was born last year. So, I'll see you later…" he began to back away.
"Wait!" Gabriella cried. "Can we…Can we please talk? Do you want to come around tonight or we can meet somewhere…" She trailed off. Troy glanced at his watch impatiently.
"Give me your address and I'll come around," he said. She quickly scrawled it and down and handed it to him, trying to keep her joyous smile contained.
"I'll make sure security know!" She yelled happily as he turned and walked off. Finally, something was going right. She could talk everything out with Troy, find out why he was so mad at her, and then hopefully everything with him would be okay again. She still didn't get why he seemed so distant. Yes, things had changed, but she was still Gabriella. She still viewed him as her bestfriend. She'd had a few others, but she soon learnt in the music business that you didn't really have friends, you had allies. Sighing, she rang up her drive and soon, the car pulled up alongside the curb and she climbed in, enjoying the cool air-conditioning compared to the heat outside. As the car pulled away and headed back to her home, she thought about everything that had happened that day. She had talked to Taylor, and hoped that they could be friends again. But everything was so different…Sighing, she blanked everything out, tuning in to what the radio was playing, and tried to forget everything that seemed to be going wrong.
Troy arrived at the address Gabriella had given him. He had been surprised when he realized it was the same house she had been living in before. But when he got there, he realized there were a couple of differences. A sturdy fence had been built around the property and there were two men standing beside intimidating black cars which were parked outside. He was sure there would be more security inside. As he approached, one of the men came over to him, holding up a hand to stop him.
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Troy Bolton," Troy replied, trying not to sound too scared.
"ID," the man said. Troy got his drivers license out of his pocket. The man nodded and led him inside. Once he was inside the house, he was frisked. Troy tried not to seem too indignant, but he was relieved when Gabriella came skipping down the stairs. "Do you want me to accompany you upstairs, Ms Montez?" The man asked. Gabriella laughed and shook her head.
"No, Maurice, we'll be fine," she said. Troy followed her up the stairs to her room. It looked so different! Everything was silver, white or black, no longer bursting with colour as it once had been. There were several photos on a desk, and Troy felt a shiver go through him as he realized that the centre one was of Gabriella and he, a couple of years ago, maybe only a few months before she had been discovered. They were sitting in his tree-hut, and his arm was around her. She was laughing and leaning into him. He sighed as he thought back to how easy everything had been then. He sat down gingerly on her well-made bed and looked over at Gabriella. She was turning off the TV, which seemed to take up almost the whole wall.
"So, what did you want?" Troy asked, trying not to sound awe-struck as he finally looked properly at her and took in how much she had changed. She looked older, and yet there was vulnerability in her eyes. Her hair looked really nice, and her clothes fitted her perfectly. The skirt finished a few inches above her knees and the top clung to every curve. She sighed and sat down on a seat opposite him, looking down at her hands.
"I…" she trailed off. "Uhm…Is everything okay between us?" She asked, looking up at him. As he began to talk, she quickly interrupted. "I know that everything is different, and I know we've barely been in contact these past years, but you're still my best-friend, Troy! And you're always on my mind, running through every thought I have, and before I got to sleep, I always have your face in my head." Troy sighed. He wanted to tell her everything. How he had loved her, not just as a friend, but as so much more! How he had been heart-broken when she had been taken away, and when everytime she rang, she had to go after five minutes. How he just wanted to pick her up and kiss her the few times he had seen her! But he couldn't do that…He couldn't stand the rejection, or the idea that she might disappear from his life all over again.
"You left me," he settled for saying. "I thought we were best-friends, but you left, and it seemed like you never looked back." Gabriella didn't say anything. He stood up and began to walk toward the door.
"Please, Troy, don't go!" She cried. She ran over to him, tears welling in her eyes. "If I could take back these past few years—I would! I would trade anything to just be able to call you up and see you! You weren't just my best-friend, okay?! I wanted to be your girlfriend. I wanted to kiss you and hug you and know that you were nobody else's—" The moment the words past her lips, Troy's mouth crashed down on hers. Tears tumbled down Gabriella's cheeks, as they kissed, almost desperately, wanting to make up for lost time and never let each other go. He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tighter to him than he would have thought possible. He was trying to convince himself that it wasn't a dream, that his Gabriella really was in his arms, that she had really said those things. As they pulled apart, she stared up at him, her eyelashes wet. He brushed away the tears on her cheeks and stared deep into her eyes.
"I love you, Gabriella, I always have," he whispered. Tears began to fall again as the words flowed through her ears and into her heart. "I could barely breathe after you left. Every morning I woke up, I wondered why I was bothering, because you weren't there with me." Gabriella smiled, biting her lower lip and nuzzling her nose against his. He smiled back, his heart feeling so full he thought it might burst.
"I love you too, Troy," she whispered.
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