Author's Note: Two weeks since my last update! Not too shabby by my standards, if I do say so myself. Which I do :D I hope I can keep it up at this pace. I really doubt I can do it much quicker than that so you guys will just have to put up with it :D But I will never make you wait FIVE MONTHS ever again!

So here's the next chapter :D Don't forget to review. I ADORE feedback


East High Story

Chapter 8

Her eyes read the same line over and over again, her face gradually getting paler and paler. How could anyone…

I know your secret

Gabriella nervously rubbed the side of her cell phone with her thumb as she contemplated all the possibilities. Could this be a prank? Maybe, someone's just messing around. Everyone has secrets and maybe someone is just messing around and trying to freak her out and they actually know nothing of her relationship with Troy whatsoever.

But what if it wasn't a prank?

What if someone had seen her with Troy? Maybe at lunchtimes in the Geography classroom. Someone had seen them on their first date in the diner but Gabriella had managed to remove Troy from that picture. She groaned. She had promised herself she'd be more careful…

What would happen if…when…

Gabriella placed her hand on her forehead and was not all surprised to feel warmth underneath her fingertips as her nerves rose rapidly. Her eyes were already red from crying at Titanic and it took all her strength to not burst into tears again, for what would accord to Taylor and Kelsi, no reason at all.

"You know, what is the point of trying to clean yourself up if we're gonna watch another soppy movie." Taylor came back into the living room, finishing off one of Kelsi's plaits in her hair. "What do you wanna watch next – Sleepless in Seattle or Moulin Rouge?"

Gabriella looked up from the phone for the first time in the last few minutes and looked blankly at Taylor. "Um… actually I'm not feeling well"

"Oh," Taylor said, rather disappointed. "Do you want me to call you a cab?"

"No it's okay, I'll just call Derek" Gabriella shakily scrolled through her contacts, pressed the button and put the phone to her ear.

Kelsi reappeared munching on a bag of chocolate covered popcorn. "Hey, what's up?"

"Gabriella's not feeling well so she's calling her chauffer to pick her up." Taylor filled in, while placing both hands on her hips, studying Gabriella with a concerned expression.

"She is so lucky, I wish I had a chauffer." Kelsi stated, while popping another piece of popcorn in her mouth, missing the point of what was going on.

Taylor turned round to look weirdly at her friend when she saw what was in her hand. "Hey, who said you could have those?"

"Well they were just sitting there, calling out to me "Eat me Kelsi! Eat me Kelsi!" I couldn't say no…"

"Right, he's coming over. Sorry I had to cut your evening short" Gabriella apologised while hanging up the phone.

"No its okay. If you don't feel well, you don't feel well. I'm just glad you still came." Taylor smiled reassuringly.

"Me too." Kelsi mumbled through a stuffed mouth."

Gabriella smiled as her heart warmed slightly. "Thanks you guys. That really means a lot" And it did. Gabriella had never really had proper friends before. This new school was the start of a LOT of new things…

"Yeah, well we had fun. And me and Kels still have an evening of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to look forward to, right Kels? Kels, if you start choking on that popcorn, I SWEAR to God…"


Derek finally brought Gabriella back to her mansion. Gabriella assumed it was technically correct to call it her mansion at the moment in time, considering neither of her parents had stepped foot in it since she first arrived 3 weeks ago. "On business" they said. Not that Gabriella minded.

Gabriella politely said hello to Joseph and one of the maids who she learned was called Bianca and shuffled into room closing the door. She leaned against the door, her back sliding down it until she was sitting on the floor, her legs up and her chest. Her heart was pounding. She still hadn't gotten over the shock of that text.

She had to tell Troy.

She picked up her phone again; her hands still shaky and called "Troy Boston". As it rung, Gabriella prayed that he would pick up, still slightly weepy.

"Hey, Troy here, leave a message after the beep and I'll call back. Unless you leave a really boring message and I fall asleep halfway through…"

Gabriella cursed silently as she heard Troy's voicemail greeting. When she heard the beep, she decided she would talk. "Hey… Troy, it's me. Just… give a call when you get this message, okay? Bye"

She hung up and put her head against the door, looking up at the ceiling. She sighed. How did she get herself into this mess?

She stood up, tossed her phone on her bed and headed towards her ensuite. She looked at herself in the mirror and grimaced. Her once straightened hair had become a little tousled since she nervously played with it in the car. Her cheeks were pink and her mascara had run. She grabbed her cleansing wipes and started to rub her make-up off, not blinking at all as she stared at herself in the mirror. She rubbed her cheek in a circular motion for what felt like a decade as she thought about her predicament. Then it dawned on her.

She looked at the once-clean wipe. It was covered in mixed splodges of foundation and blush, with the odd spot of black mascara. She looked up at her face and saw the majority of her make-up had vanished but she didn't really look any better.

A cleansing wipe wasn't going to make her problem go away. She could rub and rub as hard as she liked but it would never completely disappear. She could hide Troy as much as she could but she was still dating him. And falling deeper and deeper in love with him second by second. She could pretend like it wasn't a problem but it was. No matter how hard she could try, sooner or later someone was going to find out. And someone had.

Her eyes welled and she threw the wipe down on the counter. She sat on the toilet seat, bent over covering her eyes as she started to cry. She let all her covered emotions of the last twenty minutes surge through her tears. She took some toilet roll and tried to wipe her tears.

What was going to happen? What would happen to Troy? Her parents would be livid. Both parents would be livid. Worse than livid. It didn't bear thinking about.

Would she and Troy have to break-up? She didn't want to break up; she had never felt this way about any guy. Troy was special to her; he completely blew any guy out of the water. They had only been dating for two weeks and Gabriella was smitten.

She got the fright of her life when she heard a loud knock. It wasn't a knock on wood, like someone was knocking on her bedroom door. It was a knock on glass, like the glass on her balcony door. And there was only one person who was ever on the other side of her balcony door…

In a panic, Gabriella grabbed more toilet roll and wiped all her tears away. She cast another disgusted look at herself in the mirror and left her ensuite. She saw Troy standing behind the glass in her balcony door and saw him give a small smile. Not the usual big goofy grin whenever he gave a surprise visit. Gabriella's heart lurched but she returned the smile. She opened the door.

"Hey…"

"I saw your bedroom light on so I knew you were in. Someone's stolen my cell phone."

Gabriella's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah I was at the bowling alley and… one minute it was in my coat pocket, the next it was gone." Gabriella turned round to go sit on her bed. She grimaced as everything started to unfortunately piece its way back together.

Troy followed her to the bed and sat next to her. "I looked everywhere and I didn't lose it. Someone's definitely taken it. And I'm afraid that our texts to one another might arouse suspicion..."

"Someone knows."

"What?"

Gabriella leant behind her to where her phone had been tossed and picked it up. "About half an hour ago, I got sent this message." She found the correct one and passed it to Troy. He gasped slightly when he saw it. They sat in silence for about half a minute. Gabriella cursed as she fought back more tears.

"This is all my fault." Troy said finally. "I should have kept an eye on my phone…"

"No, don't blame yourself. We just… should have been more careful." Her voice broke. Damn it, Gabriella thought Here come the water works… Tears started to re-pour down her face. Troy looked up immediately when he heard her sniffles.

"Hey, hey, don't cry." Troy wrapped both his arms around his girlfriend, and she started to cry deeper into his shoulder. Gabriella couldn't stop now. Her worry and panic had taken over but having Troy there, stroking her hair as she sobbed into his coat, he made her feel safer.

"Hey listen," Troy said after a moment or two. "I don't know about you, but… I don't wanna break up. And I don't think we should break up. Because I care about you too much to let you go… just because some stupid idiot freaks us out. And believe me, its gonna take a lot more than that to tear me away from you." Gabriella gigged for a moment and leaned back so she was face to face with Troy. She smiled.

"My family will kill you"

"I don't care." Try smirked. "I'll just run. I'm a pretty fast runner, I'll have you know." Gabriella giggled again at Troy's goofiness, his way of making the whole situation light-hearted,

"Your family will kill me."

"I won't let them."

Gabriella stared at Troy's perfect face, his sincere expression as he studied every messed up inch of her own and smiled. He leaned in and gently kissed her, moving her hair out of her face, with his hand.

Gabriella felt like a cool breeze had just washed over her. She felt relieved. She finally realised that… as long as she had Troy, she could withstand anything.

They both eventually pulled away from each other. Troy smiled.

"I love you."

Gabriella gasped, she felt the same way but for some reason, she never truly believed that Troy felt the that way about her. "I love you too."

His smile got wider. "Cool…"

He leaned in again and gave a short kiss before admitting that he'd better go. They both walked out to the balcony, hand in hand, and Troy started to climb down the tree when he turned back around. "Just one more thing, to check."

"Yes?" Gabriella asks, slightly bewildered.

"Do you trust me?" Troy looked up at Gabriella with one foot on the tree for balance.

"More than anyone" Gabriella smiled, leaning over the banister to kiss Troy, one last time.

To be continued...


A/N: So we still don't know who has the phone? Hmm… I decided to prolong that mystery considering we hadn't actually had any proper one-on-one Troyella-ness for about two chapters (since their first date actually) and I thought it was necessary. Plus, if I just dive straight into the action (see trailer of you haven't the foggiest what I'm talking about) without having the Troyella fluff in between, it just wouldn't be as realistic, romantic or just as GOOD in my opinion. Do you agree? Disagree? Want me to shut up? :D R&R! luv to you all xxx