Chapter Two

A few days later, she was running late to work; she was driving about ten miles over the speed limit and wasn't paying attention. She didn't see a stop sign. As she crossed the intersection, another car did the same. The result: the front end of the other person's car being smashed, the whole right side of her car being smashed in.

Just her luck, her meeting with the head CEO and his guest (aka the meeting that could possibly give her a huge promotion as well as pay-raise) was in fifteen minutes and now she'll probably be spending the next few hours talking to her insurance, the police, the tow guy, the mechanic, and the list went on. She groaned and got out of her car and started to apologize.

"I am so sorry! I didn't see you there! I am so so sor-," she stopped recognizing his face. Well this was an interesting twist: she's going to get to know the guy she slept with, after she slept with him and because of a car accident to top it all off. Well life does always find a way to make it more interesting.

He wasn't paying attention, his landlord just told him in ten days he's going to get kicked out if he doesn't come up with the hundred dollar rent he owes. He didn't see the 4-way stop sign and went straight by it, resulting in him running into another car. Shit how was he going to pay for that?

He got out of his car about to start apologizing when he saw her: the girl from the club. Well isn't that ironic?

"Are you okay?" He asked, wanting to know if he was going to have to pay for some kind of trauma suit against him. Yeah because that's so what he needed: her rich parents suing him for money he doesn't have, so they can afford to bring her somewhere nice to recuperate, yeah as if they didn't have enough money to send her around the world and back, he thought bitterly.

"Yeah," she replied after a moment, "Yeah, I'm alright. Are you?"

"Yeah, my car's probably dead, but I'm alright." He joked trying to lighten the mood. She didn't laugh, or even smile. Well okay kill joy, I thought your type was supposed to be ditzy and fun, he thought to himself.

After three hours of phone calls, questions, more phone calls and waiting, the police finally allowed her to leave. She found out his name: Troy Bolton. She found out his number, his address, his whole life story almost. Well maybe not that much but more than she knew about her other one-night stands.

While waiting for a taxi, he approached her.

"Gabi," he said as if pondering her name, "Such a sexy name, for such a sexy woman."

She couldn't believe it, they just got into a wreck and he's hitting on her.

"It's Gabriella, not Gabi, got it? Good, now buh-bye," she said while rolling her eyes. She got in the taxi and headed off to work, hoping she didn't lose her job over this incident.

Luck was obviously not on her side: she got fired. Fired, she had to repeat again and again in her head. She couldn't believe it. She refused to believe that she got fired.

Apparently when you stand-up your CEO and his co-worker you get let go; even if you got in a major car wreck. What was she supposed to do, tell the police and the insurance company to hold on?

Of all the rotten luck, and considering she always had such great luck this was truly a shock for her.

As she rode home she thought about what this was going to do to her career.

Ruin it, she concluded. She was working for one of the best fashion businesses in the world, and she got fired for missing a meeting. That right there ruins any good recommendations. That was her first and only job. No one in the fashion industry would hire her.

She groaned and rubbed her temples, trying to relieve the throbbing ache in her head. Thankfully, her family was well off and her parents were more than happy to help her out should she need it. That managed to calm her down.

Now all she had to do was tell her parents she pretty much totaled her fifth car in the past year, and she lost her only job. That should go all real well: Mom, Dad, I totaled my car, again. Oh and the only reason I'm calling to tell you this instead of waiting for you to find out from the insurance bill, is I got fired so I need some money.

They'll be thrilled.

Stupid Troy Bolton.

Little did she know she'd being going through many more bad luck surprises, all with the stupid Troy Bolton in her presence.

As he walked to the nearby coffee shop, both to apply for a job there and to get a drink, he couldn't help but think of her. Most of the girls he slept with, he found out the next day they weren't as pretty as he thought they were. He didn't like attachments so if he ever saw them again, he looked away.

She was different. She was beautiful, more than beautiful, she was stunning. He heard from a few of his older married friends, that when they saw the women they married, the world stopped and all they could see was her. Troy, being the playboy he was, always laughed at how corny that sounded. Oddly enough, it didn't seem so corny now.

He watched a tall, lanky brunette with long legs walked by him, whatever he was thinking about was forgotten as he chased her down.