Stranger was the first Fanfiction I've ever written and so by my standards it isn't very good. Because of that I'm writing it over and this already sounds ten times better than the old first chapter. I hope anyone who reads this story thinks it's good too.

Summary: Gabriella Montez had a perfect life: a mother who worked hard for her, a boyfriend who loved her and friends who cherished her. But when her boyfriend's jealousy causes him to do something unforgivable, will she be able to love again or will she surrender to a total Stranger? Based on the song Stranger by Hilary Duff. Rated T.

Chapter 1: Perfect

"Hey Ryan." Gabriella Montez's happy voice made Ryan's heart turn in his chest. It was a beautiful melody, more gorgeous than anything Mozart had dreamed of composing. If Ryan was the night sky then Gabriella was the brilliant, shining star. He loved her beyond reason, enough to kill her if she ever cheated on him.

"Hey Brie." He dipped his head down to kiss her lips and felt satisfied as she sighed and unconsciously wrapped her tanned arms around his neck while his arms encircled her petite waist. There was nothing about her that he didn't want, no small quirk he didn't love. She was his everything, the only reason there was for him to live. He was obsessed by her, addicted to her. No one else could have her. She was his and his alone. As they pulled away from each other she let out a tiny giggle and Ryan smiled down at her, making her feel wanted and loved. He craved her, she could tell from the hunger in his eyes.

"We should get to class. Mrs. D is...Mrs. D." She placed her tiny hand in his medium sized one and they sauntered swiftly toward homeroom. Gabriella pulled to a stop as she saw her best friend and ex boyfriend Troy Bolton. Troy's dirty blonde hair was shaggy and fell into his cerulean eyes which made him look ruggedly handsome. She was glad they could still be friends after what had happened the previous summer but she still felt a twinge whenever she looked at him. It wasn't easy to get over love like what they'd had.

"Hi Troy." He turned to them and Ryan noted the sadness in his blue eyes as his gaze dropped to their joined hands then climbed back up to their beaming faces. The fact that Troy still loved Gabriella didn't cause Ryan that much worry because the boy kept it to himself and didn't try to be anything but Gabby's friend. As long as things stayed the way they were, he and Troy could be cool.

"Hey Ella. Hey Ry. I'm just gonna finish getting books out of my locker and see you guys in homeroom, okay?" Gabriella nodded and she too noticed the sadness in Troy's eyes. She had a fleeting thought that he possibly still loved her but that didn't matter to her anymore. Ryan was her world. He was ten times more caring than Troy had ever been and unlike her former boyfriend, Ryan would never hurt her. He'd die before he did. She waved at Troy as she and Ryan walked away and then leaned into her boyfriend, grateful for his love.

As Troy watched them walk away ten kinds of jealousy assailed him at once. If only he hadn't been such a power hungry jerk at Lava Springs, his Ella would be leaning on his arm and would have kissed him that morning. He would never forget how good her lips felt on his or how secure he'd felt when she was in his arms. He wanted her back but more than that he wanted her to be happy and as far as he could see, Ryan made her happy so out of selfless love, he would let her go...

"Troy! Troy!" the blonde's head snapped up as he returned to East High's gym. His head had been lost in the exact colour of Gabriella's brown eyes. At first glance they could appear black but a closer look revealed them to be dark chocolate. When the sun shone in them they were a beautiful golden brown with chocolate flecks in them. That was the colour he loved the most. Chad's booming voice had brought him back to the one on one they were playing.

"I'm sorry, dude. I was just thinking about...something." Chad knew without a doubt that the something he was thinking about was a someone and the someone was Gabriella. It was sad to see just how much he mourned his loss of her and the chivalrous bastard wouldn't even fight to get her back. He had some misplaced belief that she was happy with Ryan when anyone with half a brain knew that Gabriella had been much happier with him.

"Seriously Troy, this constant obsessing over a girl who dumped you is pathetic and it's killing me to watch." His captain sighed and sat on the reserve bench, putting his head in his hands. It was true, he was pathetic but he couldn't help it. Every time he closed his eyes all he saw was long, curly, chocolate hair, equally chocolate eyes, naturally tanned skin, full lips and endless curves. Why did the girl have to be so...

"...perfect. My life is so perfect." Three blocks away, Gabriella sat on her bed in her room while Taylor held up two outfits. One was a pale blue strapless dress that came up to her thighs. It had a black belt for the waist and Taylor had matching blue heels. The outfit was killer. The other one was okay, a black miniskirt and a purple tube top with knee length black boots but the first one was to die for and she could totally see Taylor wearing it.

"Which one?" it wasn't hard to choose. Because of where Taylor and Chad were going-a pricey restaurant-the blue dress was the only choice. She pointed at it and Taylor beamed. She'd loved that dress from the moment she set eyes on it and was finally getting a chance to show it off. "Do you think it will look good on me?"

"Taylor, you could wear a prison uniform and it would look good on you." It wasn't an exaggerated compliment. Taylor was one of those people who looked good in everything. Tay smiled happily at her friend and quickly changed into the slinky blue dress, which made her look way to sexy to be seventeen.

"You were right, as usual." She spun around in front of the full length, intricately designed mirror and admired the way the length; or lack of, the dress showed off her long, slim legs to perfection. It also rocked her beautiful chocolate complexion. Gabby smiled. Of course she was right.

'It's awesome to be me.'

Back at East High Troy was laying all his problems on Chad, who was constantly checking his three watches. He was three minutes, two- no three seconds late to pick up Taylor and he still had to go home and change. He loved his bro, but his girl was going to be pissed off and bitching if he didn't get there within the next three minutes.

"I shouldn't still love her and want to be with her every second but I do and it sucks." Troy noticed that Chad glanced down at his wrist and arm for the seventh time in two minutes. "Are you late for something, man?"

"Uh, yeah, I have to go pick up Taylor from Gabby's and I have like three minutes to get there before my phone starts ringing and if I don't answer it I'm beyond dead. I know the brother pact says we have to listen to each other's problems and have this sissy, girly pep talk but I really need to get out of here." Troy practically pushed his bro out the gym door and sighed. He couldn't just take Chad away from his life and lay all his problems on him. He needed to work out his need for Gabriella by himself. If only he could bring himself to tell her that he still loved her and wanted to be with her but that wasn't going to happen.

"I am such a spineless coward." He said and sighed again, his heart heavy. Why had he let that stupid, blonde drama queen let him think that impressing a stupid team of oversized sports freaks was more important than being with the one person he could be himself with? "Dumb idiot."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums you up, Bolton." Oh great, now here was the drama queen's brother, the very man who had the girl he loved. How many times had he imagined stabbing him with his mother's favourite kitchen knife? Somewhere along the lines of a thousand.

"Is something wrong, Ryan?" the guy seemed tense and frustrated, and maybe angry but that could just be his overactive imagination. Was it one thousand or closer to two?

"Yes, actually. You're wrong if you think I'll let you steal Gabriella." Okay so it wasn't imagined anger. His day just kept on getting better. Ryan had heard their conversation. As if that wasn't painfully obvious.

"I'm not going to steal Gabriella, Ryan. As long as she's happy, I'm good." Lies. Carefully practiced, well thought out lies. He was nowhere near good. In fact, he was surprised he hadn't taken up smoking or drinking to try to drown out the little voice in his head going 'You failed her, you jackass. You let her down. She was the only one who knew you and you let her go. Good going. You deserve a Grammy.' Oh fuck him.

"Good. But you're still going to stay very far away from her." Okay, now the controlling bastard was pushing it. If he couldn't be around Gabby then he would definitely take up smoking...or heroin. Wasn't it enough that he had to sit and see them act all lovey-dovey every day? Stupid, masochistic idiot that he was, he could never take his eyes off them and the amount of love shared between them made him sick to his stomach.

"Not happening, hat boy. Gabriella is my best friend and the only way I'm staying away from her is if she asks me to. Have fun trying to order her into that." He pushed himself up off the bench and walked away, not looking back once, even though he felt Ryan's hard stare on his retreating back...

"That damn, lunkhead fool is late. I'm going to geld him if he stands me up." Tay vented as she paced Gabriella's bedroom. This always happened. She spent hours making sure she looked stunning for that ungrateful freak and he came to pick her up late. Of course he usually made up for it but that didn't stop her from being upset.

"Chad wouldn't do that, Taylor. Calm down." Gabby rolled her expressive brown eyes and glanced out the window. Two minutes later Taylor had gone into her first round of swearing when a car horn blew frantically.

"Oh, he knows he's in some deep shit." Taylor gave Gabby a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before grabbing her bag and heading down the stairs to the front door. She passed Ryan on the way in and wondered why he looked like he was about to go off on someone but she forgot all about that as she saw Chad standing with a long stemmed lavender rose in his hands. But the brother wasn't getting off that easy. By the time she was finished with him, he'd be buying her truckloads of roses, not just one lonely stem...

Gabriella jumped as her bedroom door slammed shut. She looked up to see Ryan and instantly smiled until she noticed the storm in his eyes. He was furious about something and that was never a good thing.

"Umm...what-" she began but was interrupted by his lips coming down rough and hard on hers. Ryan was always gentle with her so this came as a shock to her. What was wrong? When he finally pulled back some of the anger had faded but he still looked ready to pound his fist into someone over and over again.

"Stay away from that worthless sack of shit named Troy Bolton." Her eyes widened and she took a step back. Ryan had never once sworn in the year and a half she'd known him and she wasn't sure what this violent Ryan was capable of.

"Why would you want me to stay away from him? Troy and I are nothing but friends. I love you, not him." He stepped forward, trapping her between him and the wall. For some ridiculous reason she felt afraid. Ryan would never hurt her.

"He still loves you. Everyone knows it, and yet you talk to him, and smile at him and call him nicknames, sing with him, play basketball with him, everything you used to do when you were together and you think I'm going to believe that there is nothing between you but friendship. Sure, he was a jerk, but that doesn't erase the year you spent loving him. It can't just die like that. A part of you still loves him and I am telling you to stay away from him." This was so not her Ryan. This was a jealous control freak in the body of the love of her life and she wanted the Ryan she loved back. She was not going to be ordered around.

"No, Ryan. I may have been in love with Troy at one point but that doesn't mean I'm going to cheat on you and your jealousy isn't a good enough reason for me to stay away from one of my best friends." Before either of them knew what he was doing, he'd backhanded her and Gabriella had the salty, metallic taste of blood on her tongue. He hit her again and she went down from the shock of it. He seemed to enjoy it, beating her, robbing her of his love and the love she had for him. The thing that scared her the most was not the fact that no one was home and he could easily kill her, or the fact that he didn't seem like he wanted to stop. What scared her the most was the sick, sadistic pleasure in his eyes as he hit her and as she floated in blissful unconsciousness she had the sickening thought that she'd fallen in love with a complete stranger.

Does it sound okay to you guys? I think it's a good effort but it's my work so other people's opinions are needed. Please review even if you tell me it was the most horrible thing you've ever read in your life I'll still be grateful for the constructive criticism. Come over to the dark side...we have cookies. Lol.

Ash