Returned

Hey guys, thanks for all of your reviews and I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter, school has been a nightmare lately and I'm overloaded with work. Anyway, here's chapter 7 and hopefully chapter 8 should be up either tomorrow or some time over the next dew days.

Chapter 7

"Tyler Beckford," Sharpay replied smugly, folding her arms as a small smile crossed her lips.

Those two small, simple words created a mixture of reactions from the rest of the gang. The girls all gaped in shock, as if they had just figured out the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Ryan's face darkened and he started to mutter and curse under his breath. Zeke just stared at Sharpay in astonishment. Chad and Jason both looked suddenly infuriated, seeming as though they were about to hit the next thing that came within 300 yards of them. Troy's eyes darkened by several shades as a low growl emanated from him and his hands clenched into fists.

"Tyler Beckford," Zeke finally hissed out, "that son of a bitch."

All of the rest of the guys nodded in agreement, each remembering their final championship game, in their senior year. Again, the game was against the West High Knights, and after losing the year previous, they were out for revenge.

The game had started as good as any, but when it got to half time and the Knights were losing, it became personal. After half time, Beckford, who was their captain of the West High Knights basketball team for their junior and senior year, led a full on assault by the Knights.

Most of this though was directed at Troy, Beckford's arch nemesis, and the Knights took any opportunity to play dirty and to trip him up.

Eventually, Beckford was sent off, for tripping up Troy, and nearly causing him to break an ankle.

This foul earned the Wildcats a free throw, which naturally Troy took and they ended up winning the game, something that the Knights had never forgiven Beckford for, he was kicked of the team and out casted immediately after the game, as for the rest of the Knights, many of them were now very good friends with a lot of the ex-Wildcat team.

"Tyler Beckford," Chad hissed this time, "It all fits."

Sharpay nodded and looked at Gabriella, who still had a stunned look on her face. "But why would he want to hurt my baby girls?" she whispered, her eyes refilling with tears as she searched her friends faces for answers.

"Because he believes that I ruined his life," a rough voice filled in, as everyone turned to look at Troy, who was sitting with his hands covering his face, his elbows resting on his knees.

Gabriella quickly got up from her position on the couch and moved so that she was sat directly in front of Troy, taking his hands into hers and looking him dead in the eyes, her eyes blazing with so many unanswered questions, searching his cobalt ones, looking to see if they held the answers.

He gave her a weak smile and pulled her onto his knee, burying his head in her hair and taking a deep breath, the rest of the gang watching him, just as confused as Gabriella was.

"I'm so sorry Ella, this is all my fault, if it wasn't for me, our girls would still be here with you right now, happy and healthy," he sighed as his eyes found a picture of the girls from Vixie's second birthday party, Ashley dressed up as Snow White and Vixie dressed up as Cinderella, both grinning happily, with cake smeared all over their dresses, their hair and their faces.

Hearing Troy's confession, Gabriella pulled away from him and met his gaze once again. "Don't you ever dare say something like that Troy Bolton," she hissed, in a tone that the gang had never heard her use, her eyes darkening, "if it wasn't for you, those two little girls wouldn't be in this world at all. You're the best father that I know and they love you to death, you're the best thing that could have possibly happened to them and to me, so don't you ever dare say that this was your fault," by the end of her marathon speech, Gabriella had tears forming in her eyes again and Troy looked at her in shock, before pulling her in for another tight embrace.

Taylor suddenly cleared her throat, causing everyone to look at her, "What do you mean that he thinks you ruined his life Troy?"

Troy sighed and untangled himself from Gabriella, as he started to pace around the room. "You guys all know that after the championships he was kicked of the team, right?" he questioned, looking at the gang for answers and only continuing when they all nodded their heads. "Well after that, he started to practice non-stop, hoping to get back on the team again, his girlfriend left him because he wasn't quote unquote cool enough for her, his friends all ditched him because he wasn't on the team anymore and because he was practicing so much, his grades started to slip loads, and because of that, his parents refused to let him play basketball anymore, in the end I think he actually dropped out because he plain and simply couldn't be bothered anymore," Troy finished, taking a deep breath as he looked at the rest of his friends, whose foreheads were all furrowed in concentration.

"But what does that have to do with you? Why does he think that you caused all of that Troy, I mean it was clearly his fault," Jason stated, looking back to his friend.

Troy sighed again and resumed his pacing, "Because he believes that if I hadn't told the ref that he tripped me up during the game, that he would have led the Knights to victory that night and become their hero. He also believes that if I hadn't been playing for the Wildcats originally, that they would have won in junior year as well, so he basically blames me for playing basketball and beating him."

Kelsi still looked confused, "But if he failed high school, how come he's working for the police?"

Troy smiled weakly again, "That's what I was wondering for a while Kels, until I remembered that his uncle was the latest in a long line of the family to join the police force, so he has some huge connections with them."

The gang all sat there for another little while, each contemplating the new information that they had figured out and trying to figure out where Beckford may be hiding now.

Suddenly, everyone jumped out of their skin as the phone started to ring.

"Troy," Gabriella whispered, her face full of fear.

"Yeah," he whispered back equally as quietly as he just stared at the phone.

Gabriella gulped, "Everyone that has that number is sat here in this room with us now. All of our L.A. friends only have our cell phone numbers."

The gang all gaped at the phone in disbelief, as it continued to ring…

Okay guys, there's chapter 7, please review and tell me what you think and like I said, hopefully chapter 8 will be up soon.