I fail at updating quickly. Sigh. But aw, I didn't get that many reviews last chapter. :( Maybe this one I can get more? There's your cue to review. Psssst.

Gabriella could feel her heart wildly racing in her body as the blood accelerated through her veins. She was on the borderline of tense, but more so rather in an intense panic mode. If he caught her, she'd be dead. There were no questions about it. Dead would be what she would become, and she'd die in utter shame and embarrassment.

The text message from Allie was sent to her a mere five minutes ago, and her conscience wouldn't allow herself to type back an answer, in fear of dying by Allie, after being killed by her intimidating brother. What more could she do than just be a still form under this bed, and wait desperately for Troy to ext the room and grant her unknowing permission to escape.

"That shit cray….that shit cray…"

Gabriella's ears perked up hastily, straining her neck to somehow get a better angle for the music to flow in the waves towards her, the music that didn't sound like it had come from a radio. It was all too alive, too there to be the famous singer in the rap song. No, it was almost heavenly in comparison to the many voices she had heard in her life time. It was soft, tantalizing, the melody low, but nowhere near as disturbing to listen to.

And, she came to realization that the pure voice belonged to a hard, cold body, known as Troy Bolton.

He was singing along to the rap music, but made it sufferable.

"Ball so hard mothafuckas want to fi—"

Gabriella didn't intend to, but as he sang to the verse of the music, she let out a heart filled giggle in response to the lyrics that flowed passed his lips. It wasn't at the appropriate time, and she knew that after the music suddenly died down and she remembered where she was, and why she was trying to keep quiet. But…it was hard to suppress in the moment. He was human. He wasn't the emotionless statue he led on to be.

His feet abruptly starting carrying themselves over to the bed in slow, agonizing strides - Gabriella helplessly watched, for it was far too late to liberate herself from the situation. She was going to get caught, and the consequences would probably be worse than death.

Now, she just hoped he would kill her instead of making her languish in humiliation.

"Troy!"

Her heart, it was beating again, and her head wasn't uncontrollably spinning with the lack of oxygen entering. She had never been more grateful for someone in her entire life, than she did when Allie called her brother into the other room. It's like she knew, that Gabriella was trapped underneath the surprisingly fresh smelling bed. Yes, the smell was intoxicating – the whole room smelled alive, unlike Troy's dead personality. Bewildering? Very much so.

As soon as she heard a door creek open, she shimmied herself away from the bed, bringing herself to a standing position almost immediately. It wasn't like the movies; she wasn't going to continue searching through the room, inspecting what he had left behind, be quiet as a mouse. She was going to run the hell out of there and get herself to the bathroom, the safe secluded area where the anxiety of being found wouldn't be a conflict.

And so, she managed to finally get to the bathroom, lock the door, and press her entire back against the wood in a heap. Her head had craned upward, giving her a perfect view of the skylight, emitting bright rays into the dark room. She was breathing heavily as she just stared, reminiscing on the prior memories of what had just occurred. Why was she so stupid to look around in someone's room? Troy Bolton, at that? If there was one thing she was sure about, she was never going to let her brave instincts take control, ever again.

She had no idea how long she had been in the bathroom, a good 10 minutes or so, until she settled on walking back to Allie's room. Troy's door was bolted shut, and the music was still loudly echoing throughout the house. Hopefully, she was clear – hopefully, she was safe.

"Did you get lost or something?" Was the first thing that was said by the amused brunette, who was resting on her neat bed with her elbow propped up and her palm covering her cheek. Her eyes were dancing with mirth, causing a delayed reaction from Gabriella.

"I…I had some things to take care of." Gabriella muttered stupidly as she walked forward. The door closed with a quiet bang, bringing the stumped culprit out of her trance.

"That took 30 minutes?" Allie questioned curiously, noticeably making it evident how her belief was not in Gabriella's measly lie. "Is everything ok?"

Gabriella only nodded, her mocha eyes trailing subtly away from the girl's threatening gaze.

"Are you sure?" She pressed as she swiftly sat up straight, pushing aside the notebook with letters scattered on the entire page. Gabriella figured she must have gotten a lot done in her absence, and it wasn't doubted with her clever brain.

"Positive." Gabriella carefully sauntered over to the desk, plucking her bag by the handles after she had shoved her notebook back into the depths. The last thing she needed was a guilty expression on her face as she worked with Allie on a project due in two weeks. "Listen, something came up at home—"

Allie quickly cut her off before she could even begin the next word. "Do you need a ride?" Her cerulean eyes swirled with patent worry as her body flew off the bed, staggering directly in front of Gabriella. She was a bit taken back by the forwardness, so instinctively took a step back.

"Um, no, it's alright." Gabriella widened her eyes and held her bag tighter to her. "I'll see you tomorrow in school?" Without an answer, she was already jogging her way out of the room, down the lengthy steps, and into the overly large opening of the living room and dining room.

But, somehow, she didn't reach her destination of the front door, for she collided with a stone like colossus figure. She was at the point of rushing out, and the impact had sent her tumbling backwards onto the warm, carpeted floor. Her breath was knocked out of her throat as the weight landed on top of her, squishing her like a bug.

And then she made the mistake to open her eyes wearily.

Looking down upon her, were two mesmerizing cobalt orbs, hard as a rock, and beaming off as much confusion as her face. They were staring smack on at her tawny eyes. She could feel the weight slightly lift off of her, but it was still constraining enough to make her realize that the burden hadn't left. In fact, the atmosphere seemed to suddenly become tense, in accordance to her body.

A silent gulp sounded in her throat as her incisors latched onto her plump bottom lip, trying to avoid any further noises from cascading. He made no notion to stand up, to say anything – to do anything. He just looked down at her, seemingly getting lost in her glistening eyes.

"Troy…" She muttered, finding herself suddenly uncomfortable under his intense gaze. His eyes were now of hunger, anger, all mixed with an unknown emotion which she couldn't quite decipher. It wasn't common to see someone this engaged.

Troy's jaw promptly locked after his tongue darted out to lick his perfectly defined lips, to which Gabriella immediately watched with lustful eyes.

Then, he opened his mouth, and started leaning down, eliciting a loud gasp from Gabriella. He didn't look as if he was going to kiss her, which greatly baffled her to no extent, but she didn't get the chance to find out what he was going to do. Since, as soon as his breath aired onto her cheeks, there was squeal; it was foreign, and it hadn't been from Gabriella.

"Troy!

At the mention of his name, his head shot up, his face hard and colder than it usually was on a daily basis. And Gabriella swore she heard a growl come from the back of his throat, but she could have been imagining things.

"What the hell are you doing?" Allie pestered, running shockingly fast down the stairs until she was met face to face with that of Troy Bolton's. He was pulled up by the forearm, and the strength was undeniably more than a skinny girl like her should have. "Gabi, did he push you down?" She let go of Troy, only to aid to Gabriella's help and lift her up from the floor. "Are you ok?"

She should have expected all the questions to come at her, but for the life of her, she couldn't bring herself to state a coherent answer. Her mind was reeling back to the previous encounter with Troy, and how ravenous he looked when he stared down at her. Now though, he was back to his cocky self, and there weren't any emotions spewing. He was back to being…inhumane.

"She's just a clumsy idiot." Troy commented smugly, a dry grin outlining his once pursed lips."Try to remember how to walk next time, Montez."

He was instantly walking back to his room after the statement passed, and along the way stole one more nimble glance at Gabriella, silently saying something she didn't apprehend. She did notice the way he pushed Allie out of his way with her shoulder, and how she didn't even move an inch from the spot.

"Gabi?" Allie whispered, and all Gabriella could do was let her mouth hang open in apparent shock.

"I…." She furrowed her brows, disorientated. "I have to go."

This time, she didn't make the mistake of jogging.

Now, she ran.

Home. She was finally home. Able to bask in the peace, the quietness, the lenient house.

Her father called an hour ago, explaining how he was coerced into staying at work, but in a rather playful tone, enough to make her worry die down just a bit. She wasn't going to deny it – she missed her father and the time they spent together, like back in New York. It was enjoyable, and they were now drifting.

This town just brought her the worst of luck.

Gabriella recently got off the phone with Sharpay, after only 20 minutes of conversation until she was demanded to eat dinner, or the food would instead be fed to the dog. That got quite the reaction out of her best friend, and it only concluded in a large argument between her mother, father, and two younger siblings.

It made her envy the family though. She had siblings, something Gabriella endlessly wished for. She had parents, who were there each day to actually be able to bicker with each other.

But most of all…she wished for her mother.

Gabriella wasn't told much about her mother.

She only knew the simple details. How she died while giving birth to her, how she had been so enthused to have a daughter to call her own. To have a family with the man whom she loved so dearly.

Nothing else was told to Gabriella about her, and it was well respected…but she still wanted to know more about her deceased mother and if her personality was like Gabriella's or if, they were completely diverse people. Her father made it clear he didn't want to discuss it. Ever. The topic was always evaded, especially at the mention of the term 'mother'. Gabriella didn't even know her mother's name.

Gabriella sighed solemnly to herself as she stepped out of the shower. She always did her best thinking in there, which made it last for about 30 minutes to an hour of sitting on the floor and allowing the steam to consume her. She was scolded for wasting hot water, but did she ever listen? No.

The off white towel wrapped firmly around her body, tucking just above her chest to keep it pinned together. This house was always cold, it was refreshing at times, but when she just got out of the warm, relaxing shower, it was a pain in her ass.

After dressing into a pair of shorts, though regretting it after as the cold wafted in, and a plain white t-shirt, Gabriella pulled her drying curls into a lazy bun. Tomorrow was Friday, and then she'd have the rest of the weekend to herself – hopefully. She was praying that Allie wouldn't ask to complete the project any of those two days.

Taking a quick glimpse at the clock, she noted the time and briefly wondered when the arrival of her father would come. It was nearing 10, and there wasn't a sign of him; calling, or pulling up into the driveway. There was no reason to wait up for him, when he probably wouldn't come home until midnight. And she was surely going to pass out before then.

Gabriella settled into bed, immediately yawning once she was situated into a comfortable position. Today had been stressful in more ways than one, so the tired energy was all that she could focus on. So, she willingly closed her eyes, acceding to the calm sleep.

There wasn't any sign of Allie in school today; she wasn't on the bus, wasn't in first period, wasn't in lunch…and there weren't any recent texts explaining her absence. It was weird, considering Allie told her that she was rarely ever away from school. This may be an exception, but Gabriella oddly felt like something was off, like something wasn't right.

She didn't have much time to think about it though, because as she was walking down the vacant hall, her arm was forcefully yanked to the side, practically pulling it out of its socket. And then she was met with the darkness of an unknown room, and felt her back crush against the closed door. She winced in pain for only a moment, until she willed herself to focus on something other than the pain.

"What the fu—"

Light was shining onto them from the ceiling, which cut off the words she so intended on screaming out. Instead of screaming anything though, she instantly became mute when she saw Troy only inches away. He was giving her the same look when they both crashed onto the floor, only this time he had that infamous smirk on his lips.

His palms created a loud bang once they pressed against the door, his hands on either side of her head, caging her in from the surroundings. It then registered, that they were in the smelly environment of the janitor's closet.

"What the fuc—" She tried repeating once more, and this time, was almost able to complete the sentence until his palm made another loud sound against the door, like he had hit it.

"You were in my room." Troy stated blatantly, evoking a loud gulp from Gabriella, and her irises expanded. His smirk was still there, but his eyes held something else – pure amusement.

"I have no idea what you're—"

Again, he didn't let her finish, but now it was because his hand clamped over her lips. "You didn't think I would notice a pair of legs under my bed?" He exclaimed. "Or how you giggled?" Gabriella trembled under his hold, fearing for her life, completely. "Or how you sneaked out of my room when I left?"

All these questions were rhetorical, she understood that, but she wanted to be able to explain and defend herself, somehow. Was there really any use? Probably not, though it was nice to try sometimes.

"You also left this…" The hand that was against the door, slowly reached toward his pocket to pull an object out. Once it was grasped in his hand, he dangled it in front of her and reveled in the way her eyes widened further. "Under my bed."

She knew she forgot something. She fucking knew it. When she couldn't find her cell phone to call Sharpay, and instead had to use the house phone, the last thing she thought was that she left the phone in Troy's bedroom. She was too tired to assume anything, or to even think about where it had been.

Troy kept his hand sturdily on her lips as he leaned in, softly brushing his cheek up against hers while he spoke tightly near her ear. It sent sparks down her spine, through her body, and formed noticeable goose bumps on her skin. "If you ever go into my room again, or even look at my fucking door while you're in my house, consider yourself…" But he never finished that sentence, and Gabriella had no idea where his train of thought had gone.

Quickly, all of the sudden, his hand dropped from her mouth and he let out a breath. "Watch yourself Montez." Troy grabbed her hand and clasped the phone into it, for a moment she thought she saw that actual spark that had ignited in class a few weeks ago, but he didn't make it look like he noticed.

He got the last word, and left her dumbfounded in the janitors closet – alone, and wondering how the hell he managed to pull these reactions from her.

She knew, now, that she wasn't scared of him, or angered by his presence like before….

She was fucking attracted to him.

And she was screwed.