Before you guys read this chapter, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your amazing support. And right now, seeing your reviews and reading what you guys have to say means so much to me. I've been having a really hard time lately with stuff going on with my life. And this story and this site is how I've been able to cope with a lot of it. Writing is something I love doing and I just want to thank you guys for letting me do that. You are amazing. Thank you again for being amazing. I couldn't do it without you guys. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter! Read and review cause it means so much to me! Love you guys.


"The risk that might break you,
Is the one that would save
A life you don't live is still lost,
So stand on the edge with me;
Hold back your fear and see
Nothing is real 'til it's gone.

Hold on before it's too late,
We'll run till we leave this behind.
Don't fall just be who you are;
It's all that we need in our lives."

- Goo Goo Doll; Before It's Too Late


Taking in a deep breath, the blue eyed basketball player took a step into the white walls of his high school. The red and white seemed to blend so great together but today, he just wanted to be home. Home. His bed. His comfy bed.

His weekend seemed to drag on and all his thoughts seemed to roll back to one smiling brunette with the amazing talent of playing piano. He tried to live his life by shooting hoops but it just brought him back to the time he had taught the bookworm to shoot a basket. He tried to finish his homework from that Friday and all he seemed to think about was sitting in his room with the Hispanic teenager, their lips connected in a sweet kiss. Even when he ate his mind went back to Gabriella Montez.

Shaking his the brunette from his thoughts, he smiled at the group of athletes walking towards him. The white teeth of the basketball player showcased as he nodded towards his fellow basketball players. The nod, Gabriella would always call it, seemingly mocking him and his slight acknowledgment towards his friends. He was a great actor, he concluded to himself. He was perfect at acting like everything was dandy and sweet but he knew it wasn't. Troy knew he wasn't himself. He knew he hadn't been himself in so long.

Covering his mouth as he yawned, his blue eyes shot to a very particular brunette. The brunette he hadn't stopped thinking about. The brunette who looked beautiful. Her tan skin covered by a lace floral dress. The color was mint. She looked breath-taking, so beautiful. So amazing looking. Her long brown hair in a curly mess. The ringlets of her hair falling over her shoulders in the simplest way that made his toes curl with delight. She was so delicate like a rose in a field of daisies. She was the best apple on the tree. She was the most and best.

Gabriella felt the eyes on her. She could feel his blue orbs burning a hole into her body. She could see his chest heaving up and down but he didn't dare look him in the eyes. That was the last thing she needed. His eye contact was like signing your soul over. Once you did it, there was no turning back. Her fingers gripped the leather strap of her purse as she shut her locker door with a sigh. She needed the strength now. Her mother's strength. Taking a step she headed in the direction or her home room. Her heart rate increasing as the blue eye followed her body. She could feel his eyes. They never left her curvy figure. All she wanted to do was run to his arms. But she wouldn't.

'Don't look at him, don't look at him, Gabriella.' She kept reminding herself. She wanted to look at him. She wanted to do more than just look at him. She wanted to kiss him. And touch him. And love him. She wanted to tell him about her acceptance to the college that was so close to his. She had told him about Stanford when she got in the previous year, but what he didn't know was Julliard was her first choice. A choice that had always been number one. A dream really, a dream that was now able to happen.

This was the part of the day Gabriella had been dreading. Would Troy try to talk to her? Would he even try and make eye contact with her? What would he do? Her heart was racing. Her hands were sweaty and her head was starting to hurt from all the stress. He kept his distance and let his eyes do the talking. They were desperate for her.


His shaggy hair shook as he entered his dad's office.

The white walls of the locker room seemed to remind Troy of some sort of Disney movie. The walls painted perfectly with school spirit. A red paw prints painted perfectly as if a wildcat did the artwork. It was annoying him. He could hear his breathing as he made his way down the main hallway of the room he spent hours in. His dirty converse squeaking against the clean floors. The locker room was empty, something he expected since his dad didn't have a class.

"Dad?" He asked rounding the corner to his dad's office. Jack Bolton stationed at his desk. A bologna sandwich on wheat. His blue eyes darted to the bag of salted pretzels to his right and a bottle of purified water. His mother, Lucille, must not have had time to pack his lunch that morning because she wouldn't have packed such a terrible lunch, Troy actually laughed to himself as he watched his father down the bite of his sandwich. Swallowing before eyeing his on curiously.

"Troy, shouldn't you be in class?" Troy was almost a splitting image of his father. Bright blue eyes. Chiseled jaw. Sandy brown hair that was blonde as a child. A smile that seemed to light a room. And a heart of gold.

A small silence washed over the father and son as Troy took small steps towards his father. He didn't understand why he was so scared or what was the problem. At this point, Troy wasn't the school's basketball captain. He wasn't the most popular boy at East High. He was just Jack Bolton's son. Cautiously, he took a seat in a car that across from his father's desk. His blue eyes intensifying in such a way that caused Jack's eyes to do the same. "I actually wanted to talk to you, if that's okay?"

"Do I wanna know?" He winced, trying to ease whatever Troy was harboring. A small grin spreading across the face of the coach as he noticed his son relax a little in the chair. At first, Troy didn't respond. He just looked at his dad for a moment, taking in his features. The blue eyes. The receding hairline. The larger arms. The wrinkles. Features that he figured he would soon inherit. Shrugging, the captain took a deep breath again, running a hand through his boyish hair. "You didn't kill anyone, did you?"

Letting out a real laugh, Troy grinned at his dad. He shook his head, clasping his hands in his lap before settling back into the uncomfortable chair. "When did you know you were in love with mom?"

A silence settled between the two again as Jack looked at his son curiously. He didn't understand where this was coming from. Though, he didn't question his son's actions. He knew he had a reason for asking such questions. Troy didn't do anything without a real reason. "Well, Troy, do you know how I met your mother?"

Troy nodded. "You guys went to school together, right?"

Jack grinned slightly, nodding as well. "I was a year older than her. It was my senior year. Her junior year. She wasn't in my social group. She was always kind of the… geek," He almost cringed calling the love of his life that. Troy's heart began to beat heavily inside of his chest. This sounded all too familiar. "Anyway, I was studying in the library one day after school, and I heard someone crying. I stopped asking if they were okay," He paused, his blue eyes glossing over almost as if he were watching the scene inside of his head. "It was your mother. She was crying because she said no one would ever ask her to prom." He looked at his son with such intensity it almost made Troy fall backwards in his chair. "So, I asked her. I asked her to my senior prom. I didn't know anything about her other than she was a geek and I was a jock, so to say.

"So, for the next few months leading up to prom, your mother and I started to become friends. I loved the way she smelled. Her smile was so beautiful. She was one of the only girls I knew that had glasses too. She helped me studied for my finals. And one time, she even made me lunch for a whole week when your grandparents were out-of-town," He smiled at his son before looking down at the poorly packed lunch he had thrown together that morning. "She was the shies and smartest girl I'd ever met." He paused again. "And the most beautiful." He trailed off again, his blue eyes wandering off as he thought of his beautiful wife.

"How did you know though dad?" Troy pressed, digging his nails into the armrests of the chair he'd been sitting in. This was almost stressing him out.

"The night of my senior prom, when I went to pick her up at her house. Her father shook my hand so hard, I'll never forget." The grin on his face never leaving as he clenched his fist into a ball before looking at his son. "But when your mother came downstairs in her prom dress, my gosh. That's when I knew. I'd never seen anything so beautiful. I knew I was in love with her in that moment."

This caused Troy to slam against the chair with a thud, pulling Jack from his thoughts of his gorgeous wife. His eyebrows raising carefully at his only child. "What's this all about, son?"

"I'm in love." He was so blunt about it. He had admitted to his father about his feelings. He let the beans spill. Though, his father had noticed things change in his son so long ago.

"Well how did you know when you were in love with this girl?" Now Jack was in Troy's seat, asking the questions. Dying to know the answers, though Jack was smart enough to know how his son already felt. He knew he was in love.

"When I heard her sing," The voice that escaped his mouth barely above a whisper as he thought back to the moment the two shared in the empty room. Just them, the piano and their hearts.

"It's not Sharpay Evans, is it?" Jack basically choked on his words, cracking a grin on his face. This pulling Troy from his thoughts. A real laugh leaving his lips. Sharpay was a whole different type of woman. Not Troy's type. Troy loved her, but as a friend. The drama queen wasn't really anyone's type. She was dramatic. And hectic. And high maintenance. And not Gabriella.

"No dad," He chuckled, letting his hand scratch the back of his neck as he bit his lip. "When I heard her sing to me, this girl," He confirmed, his eyes glossing over like his fathers did moments before. "It was like everything else stopped. There was East High or social cliques. Or colleges. Or our futures, just us."

"Well than, what's the problem?" That was the problem that haunted Troy. The question that kept him up at night. The question that kept him from running the Gabriella's house in the middle of the night.

"I screwed up." He confessed, digging his head into his hands. He sighed deeply, running his hands over his eyes, rubbing them with aggression.

"I'm sure Gabriella will come around," This caused Troy to jolt up and look at his father with such surprise. He knew? He knew about his love for Gabriella.

"How did you know?" His voice just above a whisper. He couldn't believe this.

"I know that look, Troy Alexander," The smile Troy had inherited flashing across his fathers face. "It's the Bolton love look. Your grandfather told me about it when he saw me with your mother. And I saw you with Gabriella. Trust me, I know." He reassured his son.

"But, I royally screwed up, dad. I'm throwing myself a pity party over here. You're invited. Bring lots of dip and salsa. " The sarcasm seeping from his pores. He shook his head, his shaggy hair falling into his intoxicating eyes.

"You're a Bolton, no pity parties. And if you really want to win Gabi back, sing for her. Be romantic. Remind her why you when you fell in love with her. " His fatherly advice was better than Chad's. Chad had suggested buying her the box set of Twilight books. Which caused him to come crawling to his dad.

"Are you sure you're not my guidance counselor? And I don't sing dad," He laughed at his coach almost as if he should just know.

"When you were younger you'd always sing Johnny Cash to me. Or in elementary school I'd put Journey on in the car and I'd have to tell you to shut up because you were distracting me while I was driving," The chuckle that passed the lips of the older Bolton seemed to mimic Troy's.

"I was like… eight." He sighed frustrated, running his hand through his hair again.

"If you love this girl as much as it seems you do, you'll do whatever it takes to get her back. Even if it means singing to her. Or making a complete ass of yourself." He said sternly, his eyes locking with his sons. Troy nodded, the intensity of their eyes never breaking once.

"I already did that," He murmured, falling again into the chair.

"Well than, looks like you'll have to sing to her, son. Before it's too late." Jack smiled at Troy. A real smile that caused Troy to actually feel somewhat better.

"Thanks dad," He was truly thankful for having someone like Jack Bolton as a father, a coach, but also a best friend.

"You're welcome," The blue eyes twinkled at his son as he scribbled down on a yellow piece of paper. "Now get to class before you get in trouble," He pushed the pass to the younger version of himself.