A/N: SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! Don't hate us! But the beach sounded way better in the past few days! :P Thanx for reviewing! Xoxo

Disclaimer: We don't own anything…even though we wish we wud!

Chapter 8

Previously:

"Ma'am, I have the direct orders to take you to the Bolton residence."

There are many things in life that Gabriella wanted to have. A family was one of them. Money too, but family was even higher on the list, if that was even possible. But since meeting the Boltons, her list was quickly re ordered and family fell underneath an award for the 'Worst writer ever in the entire universe'.

To say it went good was a complete lie. Gabriella wanted to make a good first impression on the family, even though it was a fake marriage. They didn't know that so Gabriella had to act very in love with Troy. How would she manage that? She didn't know, maybe she could dust off the acting skills that got her back home from England (remember chapter 1?).

When the driver announced that she was to go to meet the parents of her future husband, Gabriella felt like screaming her head off or jumping off a cliff. Dramatic? Yes. But she wasn't prepared to meet anyone's parents, let alone Troy's! If Troy was anything like them, it would be like stepping into the Devil's den itself.

Her assumption had turned out to be right. When Gabriella arrived at the Bolton mansion, she was greeted by one of the maids that worked in the house. She was taken to the living room where she saw two women sitting and drinking tea. One was slightly older, with glasses and grey hair. Troy's grandma she assumed. And the other woman was a middle aged, brown haired lady that had a certain aura of authority around her. Both women looked up when Gabriella stepped into the room and immediately gave her a look over.

The older woman had a smile on her face, but the younger one had a slightly disapproving look. This made Gabriella's self esteem lower down a bit. She was wearing skinny jeans, a baby doll tank top and black pumps. It was decent but when she saw how the two women were dressed, she felt very underdressed for the occasion. Both women were wearing women suits and looked like they were meeting the president itself, not their future daughter in law.

The younger woman stood up and came over to Gabriella who was still standing shyly at the door.

"You must be Gabriella Montez. It's very nice to meet you. I am Lucille Bolton, Troy's mother." She said in a business like tone and led Gabriella to one of the sofas. Immediately, on of the maids came in and served her a cup of tea. Very posh. Troy's grandmother looked kindly at Gabriella and introduced herself as Elizabeth Bolton, mother of Jack Bolton, grandmother to Troy Bolton and a possible great grandmother to Gabriella's future kids. At that, Gabriella almost chocked on her tea. Kids? It was way too soon to talk about kids.

After the necessary small talk and introductions, it went down to the purpose of Gabriella coming here and the questions began.

"How did you two meet? What are your plans for the future? How many kids are you planning to have? Can you cook? Where does your family come from?" asked Lucille. There were so many questions that even the FBI would have to look up to the woman and learn from her interrogations. Gabriella politely answered every single one but her acting skills did come in handy at certain points.

"So where did you grow up Gabriella?" Elizabeth asked after listening to Gabriella's answers for a while.

"Albuquerque, New Mexico ma'am." She answered, still not daring to call them by their first names even after Elizabeth offered her to do so. Lucille, however, didn't.

"Really? We come from there too, originally, before Jack, my husband, got a job here." Said Lucille. "What high school did you go to?"

"West High School." Gabriella answered. Finally an answer she could give truthfully. Upon hearing this, Lucille clicked her tongue disapprovingly and turned around to look at Elizabeth who was staring at Gabriella fascinated.

There was an awkward silence which was followed by a loud bang of the front doors. All three women turned towards the sound with wide eyes. Troy came storming in with fury and as he spotted Gabriella sitting there, his eyes grew darker shade of blue.

"Troy! What a pleasant surprise honey! Come and sit with us, we were just talking to Gabriella about her life and such." Lucille exclaimed in a too sweet tone. Troy didn't even acknowledge his mother and without a word took Gabriella's hand and dragged her out of the room. Gabriella didn't even have time to react to this. She barely reached for her purse before she was already at the front door.

Before Troy could open them, the doors had already opened up revealing Jack Bolton himself. His eyes grew wide when he spotted his son and a girl standing there, about to walk out. Then the gaze slipped down towards their intertwined hands and his eyes grew even bigger at realization. That was the girl his son wanted to marry!

Troy barely nodded at his father, before he continued his way towards his car, with Gabriella right behind him. When Troy finally left the Bolton premises, Gabriella decided to speak up.

"What the hell was that Bolton? How could you just come in there and take me away like that? I didn't even get to say goodbye to them! That was really rude. What are they going to think of me now?" she exclaimed and looked at him expectantly.

"What? You know you didn't want to be there as much as I didn't want you to be there!" Troy defended himself while throwing a quick glance at her and focusing on the road again.

"That's not true! They were very, uhm, pleasant!" Gabriella struggled to keep her point while thinking back about the meeting. At that, Troy just snorted.

"Still, you shouldn't have been that rude to your parents! There are so many people that would love to have a family like yours and you just take it for granted!" she argued back. "You are such a cold jerk!"

Suddenly Troy hit the breaks and the car came to a sudden stop. Not expecting this, Gabriella's body leaned violently forward and then, thanks to the seat belts, slammed back to the seat. At the impact, she yelped out and winced in pain.

"You know what?! If I am such a jerk, then you should walk!" Troy said in a cold voice while unlocking the door.

"Well maybe I should." Gabriella exclaimed angrily.

"Fine!" Troy matched her anger.

"Fine!"

"Sure!"

"Sure!" Gabriella opened the door, stepped out and violently slammed it shut. Troy glared at her before starting the car again and setting off.

"Jerk." She muttered while looking at the car's retreating figure. How could he just leave her on the road like that? Now she had to walk all the way back home! Idiot. He was going to pay for this. Screw him, screw the wedding, screw the money. Her dignity was the most important thing. Even though leaving the money did hurt a bit.

"I am not going to their wedding and that's final!" Jack Bolton exclaimed angrily while slamming his fist on the table. The two women sitting opposite of him looked at each other warily and shrugged their shoulders.

"Honey, it's your only son's wedding. Of course you will have to go. Besides Gabriella is an orphan. She won't have any parents there. It's only fair that at least one side of the family attends fully to support them, don't you think?" Lucille said gently while giving a nod to Elizabeth. Gabriella wasn't an orphan but Jack didn't need to know that.

"Also, there would be no one to walk her down the isle. And the poor girl just begged us to let you walk her. She just cried and insisted that you would do her the honor." Elizabeth chipped in. Again, a complete lie. Jack furrowed his eyebrows and thought about this. The girl did look so sweet and innocent. Besides, she wasn't famous either so that was good. And if she insisted, the who was he to refuse. After all, he always wanted to walk his own daughter down the isle. This was close enough.

"We will see." He responded and left the living room.

Troy was still so angry. How could a girl like that make him so furious all the time? No one had ever done that before. But it was getting late and a helpless woman walking alone so far? With that Troy, once again, hit the breaks and made an U turn.

When he arrived at the spot he dropped Gabriella, she was no where in sight. Troy tried driving around. She couldn't disappear that fast could she? He wasn't gone that long. A sudden worry crept onto Troy and he slowly started regretting his decision to kick her out of his car. If he didn't get so angry, they would be sitting at home eating dinner together. Damn him!

After searching for about an hour, Troy decided to go home and wait for Gabriella there. What if she was at home already? She would have just wasted a huge amount of his life! Stupid woman!

Gabriella slammed the front door shut with so much force, it was a miracle that the door didn't break down. Poor innocent thing, and all because of Troy. She decided to leave the house and get as far away as possible from him.

Upstairs, Troy heard the door perfectly. He was relieved she was home and safe, but decided not to do anything. He didn't want her to know he was actually worried sick about her. She would never let him live that down. However, there was another slamming of doors happening after about 10 minutes. What the heck was that? Troy went to the hallway to check but saw nothing except for Gabriella's room door opened. He decided to peek in, but what he saw was unexpected. The whole room was empty. No more clothes lying everywhere that drove him crazy, no more small bottles occupying the table, basically, only furniture was left in the room. All traces of someone occupying the room were gone. Gabriella had moved out! What the fuck?

Ok, so her decision was a bit rushed. A spur of the moment thing, of course she didn't think of everything. Now she had nowhere to go. She couldn't come back to his house. How the heck would she explain that she packed all her things and left, only to come back later? Embarrassing!

Gabriella decided to head to the only place she knew that would cost her nothing and still be decent. That's why she was currently standing in front of an apartment block. The Danforth's apartment on the 12th floor. When she rand the doorbell, Chad opened the door gaping at her like she was an alien.

"What? Never seen a best friend with luggage before? Let me in!" snapped Gabriella irritated. She was still angry at them for all the shit they pulled her through, but they were the only place she could go to. Gabriella squeezed past Chad through the door, purposefully hitting him in the gut by one of the heavier suitcases.

"Gabi! What are you doing here?" Taylor exclaimed in surprise when Gabriella walked into the living room collapsing on the sofa exhausted.

"What does it look like I am doing? I came here because I left my house." She informed them casually as if it was something that occurred daily.

"Wait, does Troy know about it?" asked Chad warily.

"Nope he doesn't and I would appreciate it to stay that way." Gabriella responded while closing her eyes tiredly.

"But isn't the wedding tomorrow?" Taylor yelped out. She didn't want Gabriella to miss that wedding! Not only, will it be good for her, but Chad and Taylor saw a chance for themselves there as well.

"Yes it is, and I changed my mind. I am not getting married to that ass hole. He doesn't know where I am so he cant do anything about it." said Gabriella. She missed the look that Taylor passed to Chad who silently disappeared to their bedroom.

"But we don't want you here!" Taylor said "There is no space and you have to get married!"

"I am not going to ok? Just leave it! And I am staying here, you owe me this much at least!" Gabriella frowned at Taylor, who just closed her eyes and silently prayed for Chad to be able to fix this mess.

Troy was sitting in the living room, stressing over the wedding that was supposed to go on the following day. How was he supposed to carry through it without the bride? He didn't even know where she was so he could talk to her. Damn it. When Gabriella agreed on marrying him, Troy didn't want to waste any time. The sooner the deed was done with, the better. It would help his rumours disappear. He immediately contacted the wedding planners and put everything in their hands.

The wedding was supposed to be huge. A lot of press and famous people. Gabriella didn't have to do anything, not even the dress picking. Everything was set. The company worked fast and therefore, the wedding preparations were done in mere days.

Suddenly, his phone rang and he was eager to answer it. It might have been her.

"Hello?"

"Hi! This is Chad Danforth. I am Gabriella's best friend." Troy frowned. What would her best friend want from him?

"Why are you calling?" he didn't care if he sounded rude. He was currently under too much stress to remember how to be polite.

"Well, the wedding is tomorrow right? But how can there be a wedding without the bride?" Chad answered, ignoring Troy.

"What are you saying?" Troy suddenly sit up straighter.

"I am saying that I know where the bride is and I might even be able to get her to the wedding. But not without something in return." Chad smirked into the phone.

"How about you bring her to the wedding venue tomorrow, get her prepared and I will write you a check?" Troy suggested. If this was the person that conned Gabriella, he would only want money. What a pathetic excuse for a best friend!

"Done and done! See you tomorrow." Chad replied and hung up without another word.

"Well that's taken care of." Muttered Troy staring at the phone before snapping it shut and making his way to the bedroom to get some sleep. The groom had to look good for tomorrow. Who ever said that only girls needed their beauty sleep?

A/N: Hate it? Like it? REVIEW! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?!?