Ever since her Freshman year, Gabriella Montez had been picked on, pushed around, yelled at and even hit; in other words her life was a living hell, no other simpler way to put it.
Eyes shut tightly, dark brown curls falling in front of her face, head pressed against the locker behind her and her arms wrapped firmly around her knees, she let the salty acidic tears fall down her flushed face. The bell had rung minutes ago but she made to motion to get up from where she sat with her textbooks scattered across the clean white floors of the empty hallway.
She felt broken and empty as she recalled the way the vicious blonde had punched her several times before pushing her to the ground and walking away with her boyfriend.
Life was unfair for Gabriella; she had never lived a day, since her first day of high school, where she felt no emotional or mental pain. She could quite vividly remember the way the senior jocks and the cheerleaders had taunted her, throwing her books to the floor and breaking her glasses before ramming her into the lockers and left, cackling maniacally.
"Ms. Montez?" her head shot up and found the principal staring down at her concern written across his face, "are you alright?" she frantically wiped at her tears.
"I'm fine." She lied and before the principal could ask further she gathered her things and ran to the bathroom. After drying her tears and making sure she hadn't looked like she had been crying at all she reluctantly made her way to her homeroom. She tried to make herself little as possible as she walked into the chaotic class, frowning at the fact that their usually eccentric drama teacher was missing. She shrugged it off and weaved her way through students to the back of the class, in the very corner where it had been her permanent seat since her first day of High School. Now three years later and just a few months left of her Junior year nothing had changed; she still got bullied every single second of the day by the entire student body, the only time people spoke to her was to ask a question about school work or poke fun of her.
Slumping in her seat she fumbled through her bag for one of the few things that brought her happiness: Her Journal.
That bitch Sierra and her f**ked up boyfriend of the day, the one and only Troy Bolton, were making out in front of my locker, seriously, MY locker! I bet you they did it on purpose. Of course telling them to move was the perfect way to start my day; a fresh batch of bruises…YAY ME!
But on the upside I swear Troy Bolton smiled at me, with pity! Ha! Joke of the day…Troy Bolton, smiling at me in what world? But I wish he would. His eyes are so blue. They remind me of the water, a deep sea blue that I wish I could drown in. His soft hair just begs for me to run my fingers through them…
"What's this geek?" a perfectly manicured hand landed on top of her book snatching it from her grasp and bringing it up to look at it. She watched in horror as Sierra's lapis lazuli eyes flitted across the blotted pages. Her bright glossy red lips stretched into a scowl, "You fucking bitch!" she screamed attracting the attention of the entire room. She dropped the book on the ground and lunged at the brunette, her eyes leaking with hate. Her fingernails, in other words claws, scratched across the arms Gabriella had held up to protect her face. As expected, the class jeered and cheered the blonde on shouting taunts and insults as she scratched and tore at the weaker girls' already blemished skin.
"Hey! Sierra! Stop." Troy Bolton cut through the crowd surrounding the two girls and hauled the furious blonde off of Gabriella and pulled her away. Just as he was about to turn back to the broken girl hunched over in her seat a guy with a basketball in his hand yelled out,
"Check this out, our little 'angel' has a crush on our superstar!"
Another basket ball player took the book out of his hands, "'his eyes are so blue. They remind me of the water, a deep sea blue that I wish I could drown in…" the guy trailed off in a high pitched voice and fluttered his lashes.
"Guys, guys. Quit it!" Troy's harsh voice filled the room cutting through the taunts like a knife.
"Man, quit being so modest!" the guy with the basketball laughed. He ignored him and looked to the petite girl cowering in her seat with tears running freely down her face.
Before anymore could be said she ran out of the class.
After the bell rang, indicating the end of homeroom, Troy managed to make a hasty exit from his "group" in search of Gabriella. He guessed that the girls' bathroom would be a huge no, so he was left with the library. With her small journal tucked securely in his back pocket, he walked down various isles, peeking through the bookshelves and tables until he found her at the very end of the library.
She was leaning against a bookshelf, legs crossed with a book sitting on her thighs. Troy didn't want to disturb her. She looked so into the book that he hid behind the bookshelf watching her with interest. Every time she would make a movement – to turn the page or push loose strands of her hair behind her ear – he would feel his heart skip several beats, which left him puzzled at this reaction. Minutes later, he watched as she looked at the screen of her phone, gathered the many books surrounding her and returned them to the shelf above her.
"Can I help you Mr. Bolton?" Troy jumped and turned around at the sound of the librarians voice.
"Nah, I'm good Mrs. Falstaff." He said coolly. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Gabriella look their way with a confused and embarrassed expression. The short woman with sharp eyes and white hair glared at him for a second before marching off, yelling "ssh" to a group of freshmen who were laughing at something in a book.
After the woman was out of his eyesight, Troy turned back to where Gabriella was standing, only to find it empty. He sighed in frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. He pulled out the small and tattered book out from his pocket and stared at the brightly decorated cover. He was tempted to open it, to just take a small peek; but by doing that it would make him no different from the rest of the school, would it?
He closed his eyes and returned the book to his back pocket. It was bad enough for her that te whole school was teasing her about liking him, which oddly enough he wasn't disgusted out by the revelation, as most would have expected him to be. In fact he was overwhelmed. After years of secretly observing her and catching her staring at him, how could he not have figured that out?
He sighed. He knew he was going to be late for class but he couldn't care less. He needed to give Gabriella back her journal.
School ending meant freedom and peace for Gabriella. She ached all over and she could barely lift her feet to walk. Reaching her locker she was met with the catlike stare of none other than Sierra.
"Don't think you got off easy, Montez" she hissed in a way that reminded Gabriella of a snake, before sauntering off. Gabriella found this behavior odd; normally Sierra would not have left without inflicting physical pain on Gabriella. But the warning was enough to scare and worry her; she knew she had to leave the school immediately, but how?
She hurried through the school too busy thinking to watch where she was going until she crashed into something or rather someone which caused her t fall back and in doing so injure her ankle. She grabbed the injured ankle and waited impatiently for the person to hit or scream at her, instead they only asked,
"Are you okay?" she looked up and was met with the mesmerizing blue eyes of Troy Bolton. He kneeled in front of her and reached for the ankle she was rubbing. Fire coursed through her at the skin to skin contact and she found herself relaxing slightly beneath his expert fingers that were currently massaging her injured ankle. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," he started in an apologetic tone, "does it still hurt?" he asked running his thumb over her ankle gently whilst watching her intently. Unable to form words on her tongue, Gabriella nodded shyly and looked down to his soothing hands.
"Gabriella, right?" he asked in an attempt to make conversation. She just nodded never raising her eyes to meet his. "Is your ankle okay now?"
Again she nodded even though it still hurt a tiny bit and she was in no hurry for him to stop his actions. He chuckled softly and gently patted her foot before standing.
"I'll see you around, Montez." He smiled humorously ad turned to walk away.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" he stopped at her question and turned to look at her fully. "Why aren't you yelling at me and hitting me like the rest? Aren't you disturbed by the fact that I like you?"
Troy smiled softly and returned to kneeling before her. She flinched as he reached out and buried his fingers in her hair and brought her face close to his. He brushed his lips against hers in the lightest of touches and she gasped eyes wide open and jaw falling to the floor. Her lips still tingled when he pulled back and pressed his forehead against hers. "Because I like you too." He confessed.
"But you barely even know me!" she began to protest but he cut her off by pressing an even firmer kiss to her lips. He ran his moist tongue along her lower lip and she let out a pleasured sigh. Troy pulled away and pushed a small rectangular object into her hands; her journal!
"That's what you think, Ella." a look of horror crossed her face.
"Don't worry, I haven't looked through it." He assured her sincerely and with that he walked away.
As Gabriella flicked through the pages of her journal in search of any damage, a neatly folded paper fell to the ground from within the pages.
She hesitantly picked it up and unfolded it.
Ella,
I want to get to know you better. How about Friday? Can I pick you up? And we can go to the movies or have dinner? My number is…
Troy.
Gabriella felt a smile grace her face as her lips recited the numbers.
This was the start of something new.
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