A few days passed since the terrible day of the tornado. My mom and I had been staying shut in our hotel room, trying to figure out what we were going to do. The only times we left were when we were going out to eat. However, neither of us thought of anything we could do or anywhere we could go to live.

Knock, knock.

At the sound of knocking on our door, my mom arose from her seat on her bed to go answer it. There, in the hall, stood a tall, bearded man holding a sheet of paper. "Mrs. Montez," he began, "I understand you're on the list of tornado victims."

I saw my mother nod her head.

"Well, there's a program going on where people offer to take in victims of disasters like tornados, hurricanes, and fires and allow them to stay at their homes until they can find somewhere to live," the man explained. "Would you be interested in participating in the program?"

"Alright," my mom agreed.

"Well then, you'll be staying in Albuquerque with the Boltons. I'll call them up and tell them you'll be flying into their state this evening. Well, if that's okay with you, that is."

"It's fine."

"Great. Well, a flight leaves from the local airport at two o' clock this afternoon."

"Okay. Thanks," my mom said.

...

We stepped off our plane, which had just landed in the Albuquerque airport. I was relieved that my home state, which now brought me so many bad memories, was behind me, though I was very nervous about living in a new place. I've never been real outgoing, and being a stranger was sort of nerve-wracking to me.

After getting our luggage, my mom and I came across a couple sitting on one of the airport benches along with a teenage boy appearing to be about my own age.

"Hi, are you Maria and Gabriella Montez?" asked the woman.

My mom and I both replied with a 'yes.'

"Welcome to Albuquerque, then! I'm Lucille Bolton, and this is my husband, Jack, and my son, Troy. He's sixteen and a junior in high school."

"Oh, Gabriella's the same age!" My mother pointed out.

"Oh, really? That's great! Troy can show her around the high school here-East High. Maybe they'll even be able to have some classes together!" Lucille spoke.

I set my eyes on Troy and, as I did, I suddenly realized that whoever claimed there was no such thing as love at first sight was completely mistaken. Everything about Troy-his messy brown hair, his clear sky blue eyes-everything was just wonderful.

"Um...hi?" Troy greeted, making his greeting sound more like a question as he caught me staring at him with a huge smile on my face.

I blushed and quickly turned away. The last thing I wanted was for Troy to think I had been trying to flirt with him.

"Well, are you all ready to get going back to our house?" Jack wanted to know.

I watched as everyone nodded. I joined in. The sooner we got out of here, the better. That way I wouldn't need to be tempted to look at Troy. However, in the car, I ended up sitting next to him in the backseat, so the pressure was back on. Thankfully, though, Troy was doing something on his cell phone. I guessed he was texting someone, but I wasn't positive. When we arrived at the Bolton house, he made no move to put his phone away.

"Troy," Lucille started, "Why don't you help Gabriella take her luggage up to your room? You did clean it up, did you?" she added hopefully.

"It's decent," Troy mumbled, speaking for the first time since my mom and I had gotten to Albuquerque.

"Troy, off the phone," Jack ordered. "Go help Gabriella."

"I gotta go. Sharpay wants me to meet her at the movies. See you all later," Troy responded, ignoring his father and heading for the front door.

I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealously rush through my body. Sharpay was probably some beautiful girl who was lucky enough to be Troy's girlfriend.

"No, Troy, you'll stay and help make our guests welcome," Lucille ordered.

With a groan, Troy turned around and grabbed both of my suitcases from my hands. "Come on, Isabella, let's get these up to my room so that I can go out with my girlfriend."

"It's Gabriella," I timidly corrected before going into a silent fit of fierce jealously. So this Sharpay girl is Troy's girlfriend!

"Whatever," Troy grunted, starting to head upstairs. He led me into his room, where he fairly threw my things down on the bed. "Here's my room. Make yourself comfortable. Bye." With that, he was gone.

I sighed and began to unpack. I placed my clothes in one of the empty dresser drawers and piled my make-up upon the top of the dresser. My shoes I slid underneath the bed. After everything was out of my suitcases, I headed downstairs to see what my mom was up to. I didn't see her anywhere, but I saw Troy immediately. He was sitting on the living room sofa, sulking.

"Oh, it's just you," he mumbled in a slightly rude voice. "The girl who's taking my room and my life," he breathed underneath his breath. However, I could still make out his words.

"I'm sorry," I dared to apologize.

"Well, you should be," Troy responded harshly. "I could be having fun with my girlfriend, I could still have my bedroom, and why can't I have those things? Because of you, the poor little tornado victim who has no life."

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered.

"Yeah, I know. But it won't mean anything until you leave this house and let me have some well-deserved peace."

"I'm really, truly sorry. If I could have prevented the tornado, I would of, but I couldn't help it."

"Go back to my room and stop bugging me with your rants about being some poor girl who's looking for sympathy. Because I can assure you that you will get no sympathy from Troy Bolton."

Tears stung my eyes as I hurried back upstairs and into Troy's room, shutting the door behind me and flinging myself onto his bed. My love was ruined. There was no hope for it. Troy would never like me.

...

The next morning, I woke up around nine o' clock, which was fine; I wasn't starting at East High for a little while yet. My mom still had to fill out papers and stuff in order for me to start attending, so for the time, I could just relax and try to recover from the tornado.

After using the bathroom to take a hot shower, I went back into Troy's room and dressed in a fitted sky blue t-shirt, medium wash boot cut jeans, and white ballet flats. I blew my wet hair dry and tied it back into a neat low ponytail while leaving my bangs, which were swept over to the side, out of the hair tie. After that, I applied just the tiniest bit of neutral eye shadow to my eyelids and clear gloss to my lips.

When I was finished all that, I walked over to a photo of Troy that was hanging on the wall and stared dreamily at it. He had the most handsome eyes I had ever seen. I couldn't believe that he was as disgruntled as he was. Sighing, I left the room and headed downstairs, where I found my mom sitting at the dining room table with Lucille.

"Good morning, Gabriella," Lucille greeted me.

"Good morning, Gabby," my mom echoed.

"Would you like some breakfast?" Lucille offered. "If you look around in the kitchen, you'll find some cereal and fruit. Take whatever you like."

"Okay. Thank you," I responded as I headed into the kitchen. After selecting a banana and a small bowl of Froot Loops, I returned to the dining room and took a seat beside my mother.

"Gabriella, Lucille and I were just discussing you going to East High," my mom began. "She's having Jack bring home some papers for me to fill out-since he's the basketball coach there, he's at the school right now-so that I can sign you up. Hopefully, you'll be able to start school on Monday."

"That's great." I forced a smile. School was like murder to me. Sure, I loved learning, but at my old school, I had no friends, and ninety-nine percent of the students were mean to me.

"I think you're really going to like East High," Lucille told me.

"I-I'm sure I will," I stammered, peeling my banana.

"The first day, Troy can show you around."

"That'll be nice." Even though I spoke those words, I knew deep down inside that I would most definitely not be getting a school tour from Troy. He loathed me.

"Have you gotten a chance to get to know Troy yet?" my mom questioned.

I shook my head.

"Well he did kind of rudely run out last night," Lucille commented. "I'll have to have him hang out with you later today. If you're gonna be living with us, you and Troy might as well get on friendly terms."

"I'd love that," I mumbled dreamily, not realizing I was speaking aloud.

"What, Gabby?" my mother asked.

"Nothing," I quickly replied while rapidly shaking my head.

...

I was just opening up a book to read when a firm knock sounded at my-or rather Troy's-door. "Come in," I acknowledged.

The doorknob turned and the door slowly opened, revealing Troy.

"Um...hi," I greeted with a timid blush.

"Hi," Troy muttered. "My mom said that I have to show you around the neighborhood and get to know you, so put on your shoes and let's get this over with. We're not going to linger at any places, we're not going to talk more than we have to. We're gonna make this quick and painless."

"Oh, okay," I responded, a little put back at Troy's strict orders as I closed my book and slipped my feet into my shoes.

"Nerd," I heard Troy mumble under his breath as he took in the fact that I had been reading. Louder, he said, "Let's go. Go outside and get into my car. The old beat-up truck parked along the sidewalk."

I listened to Troy, being sure to move speedily enough as he was right at my heels. Once in the car, an awkward silence swept over us. I dared not venture to speak because I didn't want to aggravate Troy more than he was already aggravated.

"This is the park," Troy mumbled as we passed a park, "And this is the movie theater, and this is the bowling alley..."

We went on in that manner until we arrived back at the Bolton house. Once there, Troy turned on the TV while I went back upstairs to continue reading. However, I was soon interrupted again by Troy, who informed me that his parents told him he had to hang out with me.

"Okay," I began. "So..." I was tongue-tied.

"Well, I'm Troy, I'm a junior in high school, and basketball is my passion. I'm the captain of my school team, the Wildcats, my usual position is center, and I have a hot cheerleader girlfriend. No wait-head cheerleader girlfriend. Her name is Sharpay Evans and we're the two most envied people at East High. We're the most popular, the best-looking, and the best couple. Everybody loves us."

I didn't know what to say. If I returned that information with a skimpy little, 'I'm Gabriella, I'm a high school junior, and I love to read,' surely I would get teased.

"Well, if you don't have anything to say, then..." Troy trailed off, taking his cell phone from his pocket and beginning to answer a text. Probably from Sharpay.

I still kept silent.

"Alright. Well, let's be done hanging out. I'll see you at dinner. Wait no-Sharpay wants me to take her out to dinner. I'll see you sometime." With that, Troy hurried out of the room.

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Things had been so awkward between Troy and I, and I was grateful that moment was now in the past. As much as I liked him, I knew he would never like me back. Besides, I had to learn to get over him: he was a jerk. And I knew better than to get together with jerks. But I just couldn't ignore the one feeling I felt that made things seem a little brighter. I felt that somewhere, deep down in his hard heart, Troy was good. He had to be. Everyone has at least some good inside of them. Whether they use it or not, it's there. Though for some reason, I felt that Troy was going to use his good side. Maybe not for a while, but eventually. I would just have to be patient and wait for it to emerge.