A Chance At Happiness

Chapter Two

"Shit! Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Gabriella felt her legs wobble and her chest rose up and down, up and down rapidly while her heart thumped horribly. She heard a shuffle and assumed that whoever this person was was moving. Before she knew it, from her right, another set of curtains were opened and the moon lit up the rest of the darkened kitchen; including the mystery person that was now bending down to the floor to pick up the water bottle that Gabriella had dropped. When the mystery man stood-up, Gabriella immediately turned her head and blushed. He was tall and quite tanned and...Gabriella gulped...Shirtless.

For someone who wasn't exactly involved with the opposite sex, this was something that Gabriella was not used to. She was seventeen years old and had only had one kiss and wasn't what one would call experienced. Of course, it didn't bother her. Why should it? She was focusing on her studies and already planning her university applications, trying to get as much extra-credit as she possibly could. Boys weren't in the fore-front of her mind. So, you can imagine her cheeks turn pink when she saw his bare upper-half. More importantly, and more to the reason why her face was heating up, he was in such a close proximity to her, she could even feel his body heat radiating off of him.

"I'm sorry. I should probably stop eating in the dark." He pointed his arm towards the kitchen island and, with the moonlight beaming brightly in, Gabriella saw a cereal bowl, a carton of milk and a box of cereal. The person cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. "I have transient insomnia. This is what I do to pass the time and try to get to sleep. I don't just eat in the dark for the sake of it."

"...Oh."

There was a pause. Quite an uncomfortable one at that. Gabriella didn't handle situations like these well -meeting new people that is (at least, not when she was by herself, in the dark with a shirtless, insomniac stranger). If only she the social skills of Taylor or Martha. It was in a time like this that Gabriella even called herself 'Herman the Hermit'. And she often would add, 'brains will only get you so far; no social skills and you'll get no where, Gabriella'. The longer they remained the silent, the more uncomfortable they both became.

"Mind if I ask who you are? Just, I don't usually find strangers in my kitchen." He chuckled.

"I'm Gabriella...Montez. I'm Gabriella Montez."

"Well, Gabriella Montez. It's nice to meet you. I'm Troy Bolton."

"You're Kelsi's brother?"

"The very one. So, you must be one of her friends?" Gabriella nodded and her eyes darted to the floor. He eyed her, looking from her bare feet up to her hair that was pulled into a messy, tangled bun. "I forgot she had friends coming over. You look older than Kels though, you don't look fifteen."

"Oh, I'm not fifteen. I'm seventeen. I know Kelsi, mainly, from Church."

"Oh, you're that Gabriella." Gabriella's brow furrowed and Troy mentally scolded himself for his little tact. "Sorry, I sometimes pick up Kelsi and Martha from Church and Martha, the chatterbox that she is, gives me a blow-by-blow account of what was said by Father Madison. Your name often crops up." He quickly added, "it's all good of course." There was another pause between them but Troy didn't allow it to last long. "So, how come you're down here? At..." He craned his head and squinted his eyes to look at the clock. "Twenty past two in the morning?"

"I couldn't sleep." Gabriella shyly muttered a reply. "I thought some water would help."

"Coming from a professional, I'll tell you that water doesn't help. But this," he walked round the kitchen island to his previous place and picked up the cereal box, "with hot milk works a treat." He shot Gabriella a large, cheesy grin (admittedly, Gabriella had never seen someone with such a lovely smile).

"Hot milk?" Gabriella questioned. She scrunched up her nose showing her disapproval.

"Trust me, it's the best remedy." Troy chuckled at Gabriella's sceptical expression. "Try it."

Gabriella looked at the bowl that Troy pushed forward. He pulled a drawer open and handed Gabriella a clean spoon, nodding for her to go ahead. At first, she was hesitant; she didn't really like milk in the first place and to have it warmed up wasn't very appealing to her. Still, Gabriella dipped the spoon in, bringing the cereal and milk to her mouth. Troy watched, quite intently, as she did so and smiled when Gabriella didn't seem to dislike it. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad and without thinking, she dipped the spoon in again and had another spoonful. Troy's smile widened at this and he walked to the cupboard to take out another bowl, he poured milk into a cup and put it into the microwave to heat it up before shaking more cereal into the new bowl.

"I told you."

"You were right; it's good."

"Good? Good is an understatement. It's brilliant. Genius, even."

"I don't think I'd go as far as genius." Gabriella giggled. "But, it's good."

"I'll heat up some more milk...If you want to stay, that is?" Troy offered. "It'd be nice to have some company."

"...Okay."

Troy smiled and nodded his head, confirming with, "okay."

At first, they didn't talk much (neither felt the need to) and Gabriella wasn't sitting with Troy for long as sleep began to overcome her -about an hour, at most. But, in that short amount of time, Gabriella found out quite a bit about Troy. For instance, she now knew how old he was (twenty-years old) and she knew what his favourite colour was (red, although not because of East High colours, but because his first skateboard had been red) and she also knew his occupation was a mechanic but his ambition was truly to be a photographer.

Likewise, Troy knew about Gabriella's life, although it wasn't nearly as interesting as his. He had been around the world on basketball tours with the Wildcats into nationals. He had been Captain of the basketball team and the boxing team. He must have had boxes and boxes of medals and trophies. He was quite the athlete. He was also very intriguing. Gabriella noticed that when he got excited about things, such as photography, his blue eyes lit up. There was a little spark in them and his face brightened up with a smile that was quite contagious.

Gabriella would have continued talking. She wished she could have because his stories were very interesting and she liked talking to him. He seemed to understand that she was shy not strange or rude like Gabriella knew others had misunderstood her to be because of her quiet nature. When there was a silence, he knew when to fill it. When she said something quietly, he made sure he listened out so she wouldn't have to repeat it. For once, someone seemed to accept her for the person she was.

New people were hard to talk to -at least, for Gabriella it was. Troy appeared to understand this, mutually, and took special care not to make things more uncomfortable and awkward. It may have been down to Kelsi's own, timid nature that meant he knew what to do in a situation such as this or, maybe, it was just his personality. Either way, Gabriella didn't mind talking to him and scolded her body for becoming tired.

"I told you hot milk makes you want to sleep." Troy nonchalantly said while he held a smirk on his lips. "You should probably get back. I'm guessing you have Church tomorrow morning?" Gabriella nodded and she rubbed her tired eyes. "I thought so. We don't want you falling asleep in Father Madison's sermon. They might think the Devil has taken you over." He teased.

"Don't..." She yawned. "Don't joke about that."

He held his hands up in defence and apologised but he could see the corners of Gabriella's mouth tug upwards slightly. "I might head up as well." He mentioned as he took the both bowls and placed them in the sink. "I'll make sure you get to the right room." He teased again. "With you being so tired, you might just stumble into my other sister's room by mistake."

"She'd kill me."

"Obviously you've met Heather, too."

"We..." Gabriella yawned, again. "Share classes."

They didn't say anything after that (apart from a "goodnight" outside of Kelsi's door); if they did say anything else then Gabriella didn't remember. She was too tired to function properly. But she could remember how his hands held her shoulders, softly, and guided her out of the kitchen, up the stairs and to Kelsi's bedroom. She could also remember how her cheeks had become furiously hot when she felt his bare chest against her back. His warmth spread into her body. Even half-asleep, Gabriella could blush.

Then, the very last thing she could remember about Troy was his eyes when he left for his own room. Talking to him, she hadn't noticed as much but, in that last moment, Gabriella saw how deeply dazzling they were. They were light blue (and, as clichéd as it sounded, like a Caribbean ocean) but there were specks of midnight blue in them as well. Overall, they were lovely. It was one of his best features. He had many though. As naïve and innocent as Gabriella was, she even blushed at her thoughts of Troy being handsome.

But, when she let out another yawn, Gabriella thought of nothing but her bed and her pillow where her head would lay to sleep.

"Thank you, Father Madison. That was a lovely sermon."

"A pleasure as always, Gabriella."

"Come along, Gabriella."

Gabriella nodded towards her parents, smiled and shook hands with the pastor before she trailed after her parents like always. However, usually, she would immediately get into the Bentley that her father would drive to Church but this time was different as she heard a clear shout of her name. Turning around, she saw Martha waving frantically as if they hadn't seen each other in years. Kelsi appeared to already be in the car but Troy was grinning over the top of the car, his arms resting against it casually. He flashed a toothy smile into her direction which Gabriella returned.

He was clearly picking up Kelsi whilst Martha drove home in her own car. He looked even better than she remembered from last night. In her defence, it had been very dark. But if she thought he was handsome then, he was beyond that now. He was very tanned which had gone rather unnoticed before. His smile was bigger than she had remembered; even more gorgeous than before. Gabriella realised in the daylight how chiselled he was with sculptured cheekbones and jaw. Really, his beauty was rather overwhelming to say the least. Looking at him, clearly in the light, she could see the resemblances to Heather. The olive complexion, the blue eyes and height. Although Troy was substantially much kinder than his younger sister.

"Gabriella." This time, her name was called from the other side of her and her mother was staring at her. She was expected to get into the car. "We have to go. Your Father and I have important business when we get home. I'm afraid you'll have to talk to your friends later." Gabriella nodded her head sadly. Gabriella knew not to cross her Mother. She opened the door but looked over her shoulder to give a small smile and a wave to Martha and Troy. However, she failed to notice the look of confusion that passed Troy's face.

Kelsi was confused. Why would her older brother jump out of the car so sporadically? And to, it appeared, greet Gabriella. Kelsi was certain that she hadn't introduced them and Troy was three years older than Gabriella so it wasn't like they could meet at school. She was very definite that Gabriella had been looking over in their direction and not at Martha. Even if Gabriella wasn't looking at Troy then it didn't explain why her brother was leaning against the car looking in her direction.

"How do you know, Gabby?" Kelsi curiously and immediately asked when Troy re-entered the car.

"Gabby?" His brow furrowed before realisation came upon him. "Oh, you mean, Gabriella."

"Gabriella, then." Kelsi replied while rolling her eyes behind her glasses.

"Well, I met her last night." Troy casually replied; a smile pulled at his lips when he added, "we shared cereal and hot milk." Troy glanced to his younger sister and saw the expression she bore. "You know this is one of my insomnia weeks. Gabriella couldn't sleep either. You should have seen her face when she realised she wasn't alone in the kitchen. I think I scared her half to death."

"Please, Troy, try not to kill my friends with your weird obsession to eat in the dark."

"It's not weird; it's unique."

"If you look in a thesaurus and look for 'unique' then you'll find 'peculiar' and under 'peculiar' you'll find 'weird'. Therefore, unique basically means weird. You're weird." Troy chuckled, ruffling Kelsi's hair (much to her annoyance). Kelsi pushed his hand away. "Get off!" This made Troy laugh a little harder and Kelsi turned to annoying Troy by turning the radio onto a station that was known for playing the latest girly pop songs and slapping his hand away whenever he went to change it.

If Gabriella thought that this Monday would be a usual, uneventful, boring Monday, then she was very much mistaken.

How could it be uneventful when Sharpay Evans was in a bad mood? Unfortunately, Gabriella appeared to be at the end of Sharpay's rath – just after her twin brother, that is. Now, he really had an earful of Sharpay's complaints. But it was Gabriella that received the taunts. Thankfully, the other students were too absorbed in their own conversations to really notice...They were probably used to her fiery outbursts by now; she did it often enough.

"Get out."

"What?"

"Get out of that seat, Montez!" Sharpay demanded with fury blazing in her eyes.

"But...But you don't sit here." Gabriella stammered. "You've never sat here."

"Well, now I do want to sit there. You can sit somewhere else." Sharpay fumed and she was quick to begin shouting. "GET OUT, DAMN IT!" A few students turned to the back of the classroom where Gabriella was still seated. The brunette wasn't entirely sure why she didn't move but it seemed to push Sharpay over the edge a little more. "What the fuck do you think you are doing, Montez? Get out! I want to sit there...Montez." She warned but Gabriella still didn't move straight away and Sharpay took her opportunity to push Gabriella so forcefully that she fell off her chair and onto the floor.

"Sharpay!" Ryan, her twin brother and the person who supposedly fancied Gabriella, exclaimed. His eyes were wide with shock and sympathy so it wasn't much of a surprise when he pushed passed his sister and helped Gabriella scramble to her feet. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment and her dignity was knocked down a little bit more. "Are you alright?" Ryan asked, compassionately. "Not hurt?"

Gabriella replied with a watery smile and quietly told him, "I'm fine, thank you."

Ryan smiled, rather relieved it appeared. Then, he turned to his sister and ordered, "Sharpay, apologise."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Sharpay, in any other usual circumstances, would have laughed at Ryan's attempt (quite feeble attempt when you compared it to Sharpay's booming voice) to do as he said but, as previously established, this wasn't a usual Monday and Sharpay stared at him so fiercely that if looks could kill, Ryan would have been six-feet under.

"Ryan, don't test me." She growled.

"Then, apologise and you won't hear anything more from me." Ryan countered and there was his own vicious snarl to his voice -maybe Sharpay and Ryan were more alike in personality than Gabriella originally thought. "Sharpay, I'm serious. You can't not apologise...You're behaving like a someone in kindergarten!"

"Ryan!" Sharpay snapped and Gabriella gulped when she noticed Sharpay's clenched fists. "Don't call me a kindergartener! If she had just moved in the first place!" Ryan stared defiantly at his sister, he knew that when she was having a tantrum, she could be the most childish and immature teenager that you could ever meet. "Whatever, Ryan. Stick up for this...Freak! See if I care." She sneered and looked at Gabriella as if she were something horrid that had gotten stuck at the bottom of her Prada heels.

She was about to storm out of the classroom; Gabriella could recognise the way she turned and looked at the door but she realised that skipping History probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do and so, she went to her usual seat at the front of the classroom. People seemed to know that Sharpay didn't want any stares and they immediately returned back to their previous conversations. The blonde could be scary; really scary.

Ryan rolled his eyes when he saw his sister pull out her pink mobile phone and furiously punch the buttons. Undoubtedly, she was texting Heather. Deciding that he didn't want to sit next to his sister for this lesson, he would leave that to some other pour soul, Ryan moved to his side to allow Gabriella to return to her original seat and, then, he sat in the spare seat in front of her. Ryan quickly turned around to look at the brunette who stared back with wide eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay? You weren't just saying it, were you?"

"No I wasn't. I'm fine, really, I'm fine." Gabriella hastily replied. "Thank you."

"No problem. It's the least I could do since she is my sister. I'm sorry about her, she has some temper." Gabriella hugged her body, self-consciously, and nodded with the same, weak smile. "She had no right to do that but, of course, Sharpay won't listen." Ryan's eyes scanned Gabriella's body -which didn't go unnoticed by her- making Gabriella feel even more uncomfortable. "How about I make it up to you? I could take you out after school...Buy you a drink? Or a cake? Girls love cakes, right?"

"Er...I'm sorry. I can't. I'm busy after school...But thank you for the offer."

"Oh." Ryan's smile fell. "Mind if I ask what you're doing?"

"Ballet."

"Oh!" His enthusiasm returned as quickly as it had left him. Perhaps he thought Gabriella was lying so not to go out with him? "Well then, maybe...Maybe some other time?" He suggested and Gabriella hesitantly nodded. "I look forward to it! Would you – could I...Perhaps, have your number?" He had asked with confidence, his voice not wavering at all, but his face said otherwise and there was something rather timid about his question that it was sweet. So sweet did Gabriella feel obliged to give it to him.

"Okay."

"Great!" He smiled; his sparkling teeth almost blinding her. Gabriella recited her number while he typed them into his own mobile. "Well, I'll text you sometime and we'll set something up." Gabriella nodded again. "Look, I've got to apologise again for my sister. She shouldn't have done that to you and I-" But Ryan's speech was cut short when Mr. Banks, the History teacher, walked in and started the lesson.

But, if Gabriella thought she had gotten away with it, she was mistaken (again!) for Sharpay was glaring daggers at Gabriella throughout lunch. One of the rare occasions that Gabriella and Taylor sat in the cafeteria, Sharpay was in a worse mood with Gabriella than usual. The brunette tried not to look but it was difficult when she could practically feel their eyes burning a hole through her head and by 'their' she was also referring to Heather. Sharpay clearly had been texting Heather earlier and Heather hadn't wanted to miss anything.

"Herman, why are the two princesses staring at you like you've stolen their fake hair extensions?" Taylor nonchalantly questioned before biting into her sandwich. "Because, I'm really getting sick of it and if they're not careful then it'll be more than their hair extensions that I'm ripping off of them."

"Sharpay is in a bad mood." Gabriella simply replied.

"God, she is such a bitch!"

"And has no problem expressing that." Gabriella muttered. "She pushed me."

"What? She pushed you?"

"Off of my chair...That sounds really pathetic. But basically, she wanted to sit in the chair I was sitting in and I didn't move even though she gave me plenty of opportunities to. Then she physically pushed me off the chair. It was like something out of the 'Incredible Hulk'." Taylor laughed. "I know Sharpay's no saint but she's never physically touched me in a way to hurt me. This time was different though...Tay, she, she...She, sort of, scared me."

"That bitch!" Taylor repeated but with more force this time and she shot glares back to Sharpay who looked momentarily stunned at the retaliation before she returned to glaring. "I hate her. And Heather. Who do they think they are? Don't worry, Gabby, you'll be having the last laugh when you're a millionaire and they having to grease themselves up and dance on a pole."

"Taylor!" Gabriella scolded her friend.

"What?" Taylor laughed. "They don't have a brain cell between them, those spoilt princesses."

"Tay, don't stereotype."

"Oh, Herman, stop ruining my fun." Taylor playfully slapped Gabriella's arm before her smile turned into a grumpy frown. "Don't look now but two idiots are making their way over." Gabriella didn't need to ask who they were and her heart thumped that little bit harder, fearfully. "What do you want, Evans?"

"I'm not here to talk to you, McKessie." Sharpay spat. "I'm here to talk to your little friend here." Surprisingly, Sharpay sat down next to Gabriella and pretended to look friendly with a smile on her face, "next time I want you to move, you move. I won't have you humiliating me again because you want to impress my brother." Gabriella shook her head and tried to respond but Sharpay wouldn't have it and her fake smile turned into a clear scowl. "Don't ever do something like you did today, Montez, because what you got today, that is nothing compared to what I could potentially-"

"Big word, Evans, don't hurt yourself."

Sharpay ignored Taylor, "do to you and your silly, pathetic friend."

"Is that all?" Taylor impatiently sighed. "Because every second I look at your plastic face just makes me one step closer to vomiting all over you." Sharpay and Heather simultaneously wrinkled their noses and looked at Taylor with disgust. It wasn't something they were used to hearing. "You're still here? Don't you have some football players to fuck in the janitor's closet? Or have you moved on to teachers to boost up your poor grades?"

"Seriously, McKessie, watch your tongue." Heather spoke up, nastily. "We can do you a lot of damage...I'd think twice before I was throwing about accusations. It may come back round to you." She threatened.

"Oh per-lease!" Taylor exclaimed. "Just bugger off and leave us in peace."

Sharpay stood up from the round, canteen table that Taylor and Gabriella were sitting at. She gave Taylor a sneer and a shooting glare to Gabriella before walking off with Heather safely by her side. The pair were really just as bad as each other. At least she had Taylor to protect her...Gabriella mentally winced; she really was Herman the Hermit, wasn't she?

girlwithbrowneyes:

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night, this is quite a short chapter. I think that I've now introduced all the main characters and next chapter shall see more Troy/Gabriella love! I've basically got the whole of this story planned in my head and the aim (only the aim :P) is that I'll update every week. At the moment, I'm doing exams (killer!) I hope all your exams are going good, or will go good if you haven't had them yet or have gone good if all of them are already finished for you.

Thank you to Bluebell140, SimpleThings, pumpkinking5 and icebaby26

Hugs and Kisses,

Olivia.

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with the Disney/HSM franchise nor do I own any of the recognised characters; only the plot and my imagination.