Author's Note: Another chapter! Enjoy and review.

What Is This Feeling?

Chapter 2: My Life Goal

By musiclover94 and Baby-M-xo

"Gabriella?"

"Yeah, Mom?" she responded, still with her nose in a book.

"We're going to go to the park to meet up with the other parents in the building and their kids. I hear they're all your age!" Gina Montez said, grabbing her coat and smiling at her daughter.

Gabriella scowled. "Mom, I don't want to!"

"Why, sweetie?" she said.

"Because…Troy's gonna be there!" she said desperately. Gina smiled a small smile at her.

"What?" Gabriella said accusingly.

"Do you like him, sweetie?" she asked, looking like a middle schooler again. Gabriella wore a look of utter shock and horror.

"Mom! On the contrary, I loathe him," she said, returning to her book.

Gina looked shocked and confused. "Why do you hate him, Gabriella?"

Gabriella took a testy breath and said in a snotty voice, "He had this look about him that made me hate him. I really can't put my finger on why."

Gabriella's mom comprehended this for a moment. "Oh, come on sweetie, give it another chance!"

"And why should I?" Gabriella asked hotly.

"It's…It's a beautiful day outside!" she said quickly, gesturing to the window, though which a bright clear blue sky smiled at them.

Gabriella was torn between staying as far away from Troy as possible and reading her book. She rolled her eyes, but decided to go outside and get some fresh air.

Gabriella turned the corner and immediately saw a sea of green: the park. In a corner, in the shade of a blooming magnolia, she saw three moms and four children a bit to the side of the parents.

"Hello Enchante, Ruth, June, and Julie!" Gina smiled and waved.

"Hi Gina! Come over here," the blonde woman said.

"Gabriella, go and play with the kids!"

Gabriella huffed, but because she didn't want to stand in the middle of the park like an idiot, walked over to the group of kids.

One had her nose in a book. Gabriella smiled. At least someone here was like her.

One has an enormous afro. Gabriella tried to hide her look of horror.

One was wearing a beret and practicing the jazz square. What an oddball, Gabriella thought, well, at least he doesn't have a 'fro.

One girl was wearing so many sparkles she looked like a walking blonde disco ball. She was pouring over a theatre book.

And then, there was Troy. He was spinning a basketball on his finger with a glazed expression on his face, like this was old hat to him. Gabriella filled with the same hatred she had felt when she first regretfully laid eyes on him. She made her way to the girl with her nose in a book.

"Hi, my name's Gabriella Montez," she said, sitting down next to her.

The girl looked up. "Hi Gabriella, my name's Taylor McKessie."

"What are you reading?" she asked, peering over her shoulder.

"My sister's science book. She's in seventh grade." She said matter-of-factly.

"Same with my sister's science books!" she smiled.

"It's simply fascinating, isn't it?" Taylor said breathlessly.

"What is?" she asked.

"How I can be so close to Troy, yet so far away," she said dreamy-eyed.

What new affection she had for Taylor now vanished. She scowled, stood up, and looked around the vicinity of kids. She came to the awful conclusion that she had to go and talk to Troy, as she knew so one else. She grudgingly made her way to Troy, feeling like she was walking the plank.

"Hi Troy," she said sadly, sitting down.

"Hi Gabriella," Troy said and, much to Gabriella's surprise, stopped spinning the basketball and looked at her.

"What's that?" Gabriella asked, gesturing at the basketball. She knew perfectly well what it was, her sister plays basketball, but she didn't want to sit there like an idiot.

Troy looked as if Gabriella had asked him what color the sky was. "It's a basketball. The rules of basketball are…" He engaged in a long-winded drawl about the finer points of basketball. Gabriella drifted in and out of attentiveness, as she had heard this conversation repeated many times by her sister. My new life goal, she thought, is to get rid of this babbling idiot. The gentle breeze and the humidity of the day started to take her over and her eyelids began to droop…

She was in a gloomy windowless room, probably underground. There were people there, all dressed in black, some sniffling, and one person positively bawling. Gabriella looked over, intending to comfort the person, but was shocked to find her mom there, draped in black and howling. A girl, probably twelve or thirteen, was hugging her. The comforter looked famialar…no, it couldn't be Gabriella herself, she was right there, watching all this. She turned to the person next to her, a teary girl who she didn't know by sight, and asked, "What's going on?"

Before the woman could respond, the dream Mrs. Montez wailed, "She can't be dead, she just can't be!"

Gabriella turned to the lady next to her again, starting to get worried. "Who's dead, who?"

"Gabriella," a distant voice said, "wake up, Gabriella…"

The bright sunlight caused Gabriella to squint as she jumped from the tree trunk she was slumped on like it was white-hot. Her mother was standing over her, looking worried.

"Gabriella, it's time to go," she said, extending a hand so Gabriella could stand up.

"O-okay…" Gabriella said distantly. She was still shaken by what she had seen. As she saw her mother, she was reminded horribly of the mother in her dream. She looked down at herself and saw that her T-shirt was stuck to her skin and she was drenched in a cold sweat.

"Mom?" Gabriella asked as they were making their way back to the apartment.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I had this dr…" Gabriella began, but decided against telling her. She had enough on her mind with the move and getting used to a new location. She didn't need the dream Gabriella had had on her shoulders as well. And it was only a dream…right?

Author's Note: Well, I just opened a lot of doors for myself with this story. Updates will come soon and please please please review!