Thank you to anyone who has read or reviewed. This is way more nerve wracking than I thought it would be. I'm kinda just trying to decide where to go with this story. I don't want to give everything away at once, or too early, but I don't want to drag it on either and bore everyone. I also just want to inform that there may be waits between the chapters. I'm gonna have loads of college work coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to update once a week anyway, maybe more. Okay, I'll stop now. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Two: Are You Happy?

He walked into the classroom to find her sitting in the same seat as when they had first spoken a week earlier. Her dark curls were pulled back into a bun today and she had her nose buried in a book. She didn't notice Troy approach the table, or if she did she chose to ignore him. He didn't attempt any conversation this time, in fact, he had decided that except for when they were doing the project he was going to pretend this girl didn't exist. This girl, who without even realising it, had caught his attention, something every female in the school had been trying to do for the past three years. The difference between them and her was that she had no interest in being one of Troy's girls, she had made that quite clear during their first encounter. This strange pull she had on Troy made his dislike of her even more immense. Everytime he saw her he grew more curious about her, be it when she was sitting reading a book, or walking down the corridor trying to make herself as small as possible or the rare times he saw her laughing. She was addictive. There was no other way he could describe her.

Gabriella sat with her nose in the book she was reading. She saw him when he reached the classroom door. She saw him hesitate when he looked over at his desk and saw her sitting there. She could have sworn she saw his chest heave in a deep sigh. She kept her eyes trained on her book giving no indication that she saw him. She felt him sit down beside her. Felt his quick glance in her direction. Still she kept her eyes on her book. She had read the same line at least five times at this stage. He coughed lightly and she jumped a little. Every muscle in her body was rigid. This was ridiculous. Why was she acting this way? She didn't even like this guy. He was a jerk. Why was she so afraid to do something, say something wrong in front of him? It wasn't like she wanted to be in this close of a proximity to him. She had no choice. He coughed again and she wondered if that was her cue to speak. Deciding it would be best to get it over with she closed her book and placed it in her bag.

'Troy…' she began. His head snapped around to face her. The intensity of his blue eyes never failed to affect her. 'Oh? Are you going to talk to me today?' he asked raising an eyebrow which disappeared high into his hair. 'I just think we need to be civil to each other…you know…we'll have to spend a lot of time together on this project.' 'I have no problem being civil to you Gabriella, you're the one who has the problem with me.' He retorted. Gabriella gritted her teeth. She really disliked him. 'Right.' She scoffed. 'Whatever you say Troy.' She crossed her arms and turned away from him staring out the window.

'Gabriella…' he began in a much softer tone but he was interrupted by their teacher who had finally decided to commence class. 'Anyone who hasn't yet assembled into the groups from last week do so now, I'll be handing out proposals for the projects today.' He shouted over the shuffling of papers and creaking of chairs in the classroom.

Troy looked over at Gabriella who was also looking at him. She was right. If they were to get to know each other's personality and behaviours and write a report on it they would have to be civil to each other. 'So I guess we're stuck with each other' he said with a slight laugh. The corners of her mouth turned upwards in a faint smile. 'I guess.' She replied. 'We should probably get started on it soon.' 'Well I'm free today after school' said Troy. 'We could do it for an hour or so.' Gabriella nodded. 'Sounds good.' They lapsed into silence before she said. 'It doesn't mean I like you Bolton. I still hate you.' 'Feelings mutual' replied Troy. He laughed to himself. He felt…warm inside. Like a fire being lit in a dark cave. He almost didn't recognise it, it had been so long since he felt it. He smiled to himself. It felt nice.

'What do you mean you're waiting for Troy? Not Troy Bolton?'

It was the end of the day and Gabriella had just declined Taylor's offer of a life home much to the indignation of her new friend. 'It's not like that. Trust me. We were paired together for some stupid project. You hardly think I'd hang out with him voluntarily?' 'I should hope not' laughed Taylor.

Since starting at the school a week ago Gabriella and Taylor had become firm friends. While Gabriella's initial intention was to just get through the year without allowing herself to get close to anyone she had found that all changing when she met Taylor. The two were exactly alike and Gabriella couldn't deny she enjoyed spending time with her. They had fun together and the fact that it had stopped Gabriella's mom from bugging her about making friends was just an added bonus.

'Well be careful. And I shall see you in the morning.' 'See you tomorrow Taylor' said Gabriella as she sat down on the edge of the fountain to wait for Troy. He emerged from the school a short while later surrounded by a group of lads. They were laughing loudly and clapping each other on the back, Troy in the centre of them, like the ringleader. Gabriella rolled her eyes, completely irritated by their behaviour.

Troy extracted himself from the group and made his way over to Gabriella amidst a chorus of jeers and catcalls from his friends. Gabriella threw them a look of disgust. They were pathetic. 'Is it necessary for your friends to behave like cavemen?' she asked as Troy reached her. 'Hello to you too' said Troy sarcastically. Gabriella chose not to answer him just as he chose to ignore her question. 'Let's just get this over with.' She snapped. 'Let's. My truck's over here.' 'What?' Gabriella stopped in her tracks. 'I thought we were gonna stay at the school and do it.' 'Well you thought wrong.' Troy continued walking towards the carpark. Gabriella ran after him. 'How do I know you're not doing this so you can purposely crash your truck and kill me?' she challenged. Troy let out a laugh. 'I may hate you Montez, but I love my truck. Be grateful I'm even letting you sit in it.'

When they reached the truck Gabriella didn't even know if she wanted to get in it. 'Ever heard of a carwash?' she asked. 'Just shut up and get in.' said Troy, clearly not amused. 'I thought we could go to my house?' he said as he started the truck. 'And then I'll drop you home after?' 'Sure, whatever' said Gabriella looking out the window.

She tried to control her breathing as Troy sped along the streets of the Alequerque suburbs. This situation was all too familiar to her. What was she doing here? With him? She was letting herself fall back into the same trap as before and she kept completely powerless as to how to stop it.

About ten minutes later they pulled up the driveway to what Gabriella assumed was Troy's house. It was big, as far as houses around here go. It was surrounded by gardens and had a basketball court off to the side.

'So this is where you live' she enquired climbing down from the white battered up truck. 'Yeah, I told you I was taking you to my house, didn't I?' Gabriella cocked her eyebrow noticing the change in his mood from when they reached his house. A sullen look had descended upon his face and he kept balling up his fists over and over. Gabriella sensed this was something deeper than his dislike of her. She followed him into the house, which given the lack of any other cars outside and the silence except for their footsteps, she assumed was empty. Troy led the way into the kitchen dumping his bag on the kitchen counter, Gabriella following suit.

'Can I get you anything to eat or drink?' he asked pulling open the fridge and retrieving a bottle of water for himself. 'No, I'm good thanks' she replied pulling the papers they would need out of her bag. 'Let's just get started, shall we?'

Troy nodded as he sat down opposite her. 'So what exactly do we have to do?' he asked taking a gulp of water. 'Um, basically it's just about noticing different personality and behavioural traits in one another and to see how they relate back to the theories. It really just enquires us to get to know each other. Which is why…' Gabriella searched for a sheet among the pile she had pulled from her bag. 'I made us this' She handed him a sheet and kept one for herself. Troy looked at the sheet to find a list of about twenty questions down the page. For some reason, the effort she had put into this made him smile inside. Not that he would ever admit that to her. 'Your organizational skills impress me, Montez.' She smiled coyly at him, bowing her head so he wouldn't notice the slight blush that came to her cheeks at the compliment. 'I was thinking we could just discuss these questions and write them down or something…I dunno…what do you think?' 'I think it sounds great' said Troy flashing her an actual genuine smile.

'Oh my god, you can't be serious?' 'Of course I'm serious, Charmander was by far the best Pokemon. And when he evolved into Charizard? Such a badass!' 'Well Bulbasaur was always my favourite. He was so cute.' Said Gabriella. 'Oh of course you'd go for the one that's the cutest. You're such a girl' retorted Troy rolling his eyes.

Four hours had passed since Gabriella had arrived at Troy's house. As alien as it seemed, she was actually enjoying herself. A lot. If you told her this morning that she would have spent four hours with Troy Bolton without once having an urge to kill him she would have said you were crazy. He surprised her. He was different than in school. Around his friends he had an aura of cockiness about him. He knew he was popular. He knew girls were watching him wishing they could have him. He knew guys were watching him wishing they could be him. But when he was alone with Gabriella, that aura, the 'I'm Troy Bolton' vibe fell away and he was himself. Just Troy. Her opinion of him still remained. He was still an obnoxious jock, he was still a social elite, he was still the complete opposite of anything Gabriella wanted to be associated with. But she couldn't help the feeling of dislike in her stomach fade away in these past few hours. It had been a long time since she had laughed this much, since she had felt this comfortable around someone, she had almost forgotten what it was like to have her stomach ache from laughter. The simple truth was that Troy Bolton made her happy.

'Hello…earth to Gabriella.' Troy waved his hand in front of Gabriella's face and she quickly snapped out of whatever trance she was in and returned to the present time. 'So what's the next question?' asked Troy his face shining with eagerness. 'Um…actually, I'd better go. My mom will be wondering where I got to.' She fumbled with her notes trying to stuff them all into her bag. Troy looked puzzled at her behaviour. A few minutes ago she had been rolling around his bedroom floor, tears streaming down her face in laughter. Now she looked as though she had seen a ghost. 'Okay…well do you want me to drive you home?' 'No no, it's fine. My house isn't far.' She threw on her coat and flew out the door bounding down the stairs. 'Wait, do you wanna work on it again tomorrow?' 'I'm actually busy after school tomorrow, I have this thing to do.' She said finally looking at him. 'I'll see you tomorrow morning though, we can talk about it.' She flashed him a brief smile before racing out the door. And just like that she was gone leaving nothing but the trace of her perfume behind. And once again Troy felt empty inside.

'Tell me about your new school.'

Gabriella sat on the sofa wringing her hands nervously her eyes looking at everything except the woman in front of her. The nerves never left her, even if she had been doing this on a regular basis for almost five months now.

'Yeah, it's fine, I guess.' She shrugged. What was there to say about it? 'I've settled in well enough. I have a friend, Taylor, and she's nice.'

The woman sitting across from her raised her eyebrows over her thick rimmed glasses. 'Nice?' she enquired. Gabriella sighed. She hated these therapy sessions. She hated having to open up about everything in her mind to some stranger and be evaluated on whether she was crazy or not. She hated talking about her feelings and her emotions. She hated how every session reminded why she was here, why she needed this.

'We get on well. We have the same interests, she's a lot like me. She's easy to talk to, she's fun to be around. I guess it's just nice to have someone who doesn't know what happened, who doesn't think I'm a freakshow and who doesn't just speak to me out of pity or sympathy.'

The therapist nodded. 'When you say she's alot like you, do you mean the old you or the new you?' Gabriella hesitated at the question. To say she had changed since moving to Albequerque would be a huge understatement. She was a new person. It was like there had been this whole other individual inside of her that was only after showing itself now. Her values in life and her views were polar opposites to what they were this time last year. She was different now. What had happened had caused her to grow up, to change her demeanour, to build these walls around herself that nobody could penetrate.

'I know I've changed since coming here, I can feel it myself. I can see the shock on my mother's face when she see's me studying on a Saturday night. I'm shocked myself sometimes. But what happened, what I went through. It was life altering. I couldn't go through that and just be the same person again. I am who I am now. I'm trying to rebuild my life and I think I'm making some sort of headway. I'm not forgetting who I was, the things I've done, the mistakes I've made. I'm just trying to move on.'

The therapist smiled. 'You're doing very well Gabriella' she spoke softly. I just have one more question. Are you happy?'

Strange, when that question left her lips, the first thing Gabriella thought of wasn't her parents, or her new school, or Taylor but the blue eyed, brown haired Troy Bolton.

'I'm getting there.'

'TROY BOLTON.'

Troy whipped his heads around to see him standing on the sidelines a look of outrage on his face. Just the sight of him made Troy's eyes narrowed in hatred and his fists curled into balls. He tried to control his breathing as Chad shot him wary looks from across the court.

'KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!' The voice bellowed before turning round towards the bleachers and shaking his head. 'Fuck off' Troy muttered wiping the sweat off his forehead. He was annoyed. In fact he was more than annoyed, he was furious. He worked just as hard, if not harder than anybody else on this team, yet he was the one who got picked on. Everyday. It was relentless, endless for the whole two hour practice. Not only was it unfair, it was unprofessional to criticise the captain so much in front of the rest of the team. What kind of captain did it make Troy? He couldn't even get through one practice without being yelled at.

He blew the whistle to signal the end of practice. Instead of following his teammates into the changing room Troy walked over to the sidelines. 'What the hell was that?' he demanded. 'You weren't focusing. You never do. You don't know how to commit yourself fully to this team.' 'Don't you dare say that to me, don't you dare.' Troy's veins were pumping with the pure anger running through his whole body. 'I work just as hard as everyone else on this team, harder than some. I haven't missed a practice since I joined. I've scored in every single game I have ever played. So how can you say I don't commit to this team. This team is all that I'm fucking living for at the minute.'

Troy ran his hands through his hair, shocked at his sudden outburst. 'What gives you the right to talk to your coach like that?'

Troy turned to walk away, but not before saying: 'I'm not talking to my coach, I'm talking to my father.'