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Chapter 2: Who Knew?

March 17, 2008

She sighed as she leaned on the railing; she wished that he could be here with her. Haley looked over and nudged Kyle in the ribs, she motioned towards Gabriella. Kyle looked away from the hot redhead that was flirting silently with him and towards Gabi. Gabi was staring aimlessly over the bow of the ship; she seemed to be in her own world. In reality, Gabi was remembering the summer after 8th grade, just before 9th grade began.

August 13, 2004

Troy and Gabi were sitting on the dock at their favorite park, neither of them were talking. They were just sitting, peacefully. Troy's hand somehow found its way on top of Gabi's.

Jumping slightly, Gabi looked over at him and smiled. He grinned his big cheeky smile back and interlaced their fingers. She slightly squeezed his hand.

Getting serious, Troy looked over to her, "El Bell?" She looked at him, smiling she encouraged him to continue, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

She looked slightly shocked, although her mind silently asked why, after all he was holding her hand, "Of course Superstar."

Troy smiled and nodded, happy with her response. He brought the back of the hand up to his lips and gave it a small kiss, eliciting a giggle from Gabriella. "Always the charmer Bolton." She joked.

"Just for you Montez." Troy poked her stomach, causing her to squeal, "You knew I was going to do that and you still squealed." He shook his head, "Girls."

"What about 'girls'?" Gabi asked with her head cocked slightly to the side, mock anger running over her features.

Troy rolled his eyes, used to her 'feminist' antics by now. "You know what El Bell, why even pretend with me?" he shook his head, "So weird." He muttered.

"Yeah, well this girl who is 'so weird' happens to be your girlfriend, so I'd watch it." She warned.

"And why should I watch it just because you're my girlfriend?" Troy playfully nudged her, waiting for her response.

Gabi stood up and brushed her shorts off, "Because, as your girlfriend I can beat you up whenever I want." At his look she smirked and shoved him off the dock and into the lake. Spinning around, she ran in the opposite direction, making her way across the park before Troy could even get out of the lake and comprehend what had happened.

March 17, 2008

Gabi smiled at the memory, fingering the necklace yet again. Kevin rolled his eyes, "What is up with you and that necklace?" he asked. Gabi didn't seem to hear him though. She continued to look out over the ocean, her eyes mirroring the sorrow that had washed over her body.

"Back off Kevin." Haley advised him, "She doesn't want to talk about it."

"How the hell do you know what she does and doesn't want to talk about?" Taylor asked, slightly annoyed with the moods Gabriella had been having for the last three and half year. "What has caused these mood swings of hers anyways?"

"Yeah they were non-existent until like three and a half years ago." Meghan pointed out.

Kyle rolled his eyes, "It's amazing that you call yourselves her friends when you don't even know what changed her."

"Well just because we don't wait on her hand and foot and make sure she's okay 24/7." Zac piped up.

Haley hit her boyfriend upside the head, "Don't even go there Zachary. You have no idea what happened. None of you do because you weren't there." Haley rolled her eyes. "Friends my ass."

Gabi turned around and looked at them all, "What's going on?"

"Look who decided to join us." Alison glared at her. Gabi rolled her eyes, she had no idea what she'd done, but last year when Alison joined their group, she immediately started an all out war with her and Haley, go figure.

"Fuck off Alison." The group looked at Gabi, even though it was clear that she was not fond of Alison, to say the very least, she would never say anything that crass to her.

Alison's jaw gaped open, "Fashion tip honey," Gabi smirked, "mouth looks better closed." Alison's jaw snapped shut, as if on cue, Gabi slid back in her revere.

September 23, 2004

The entire freshman class sat in the Auditorium of Atlanta Prep. "What's going on guys?" Troy asked as he and Gabi went to sit down between Kyle and Haley.

"Why are we here…." Kevin asked.

"Because…." Gabi dragged out the word before finishing, "We have to be." Everyone laughed as Kevin pouted. "Don't pout it's unbecoming." Gabi nudged leaned around Haley and nudged his shoulder, eliciting a smile. She nodded happily.

Mr. Zimmer, the Headmaster of the school walked to the mic that was placed strategically center stage. "I know you want to know why you're here." The room groaned slightly in response. Shaking his head in slight disgust, Mr. Zimmer continued, "We're here to talk about colleges."

Everyone looked at each other as Mr. Riggs, a college counselor took the stage, "I know you all think you're too young to talk college, but we need to get started now…"

That was about all Gabi could really remember of that lecture. She basically slept on Troy's arm the entire time. He claimed he slept on her head, in fact the whole gang tuned out that meeting.

March 17, 2008

Now here they were, senior year, second semester senior year to be exact. They were all going to college. It was all set. Everyone knew where they were going.

Gabi grinned as she thought about UCLA. She remembered the way Troy used to get excited about a UCLA game. He, his father Jack, and her daddy Greg would watch games while Lucille, her mother, and her would have 'girls day'. They'd get their nails done, or shop, or go out to eat, or a combination of the three.

Gabi let out another sigh, the ship was taking way too long to launch. The launch party started like an hour ago and they were still docked, the only difference was that Dr. Hardy was effectively drunk and wandering around talking to strangers in his British accent and taking pictures of everything, while Mrs. Hardy had his next drink ready.

He always said that he wanted to play basketball at UCLA, so that's where she was going for college, in hopes of him being there. Even at the young age of 14 she knew he was it. There was something special about him. Maybe it was because she could love him as both a best friend and a boyfriend. Who knew?