A/N: Hey, I'm back!!!! Thanks for the reviews!!! I am going to work on this as much as I can now, as I don't think that this story will go on much longer. So, here's the next chapter!!


As soon as the final bell rang at the end of school, Troy ran to Gabriella's locker and pushed a note through its door. Then, with that he powered his way through the end of school crowd, pushed his way through the avalanche at the exit, and ran home as quick as he could. He needed to get something very important and try to explain to Gabriella why he hadn't gone to whatever it was that she wanted to tell him.

Meanwhile, at school, Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi and Sharpay were walking gently through the school, to go to the last stop of the day; Gabriella's locker. But when Gabriella opened her locker up, the sliver of paper made her stop dead in her tracks:


Gabriella,

I can't believe that I chose Anita instead of you, and I am so sorry. I know I have no right to ask you for your forgiveness, but I really need to talk to you.

I really, really like you Gabriella. I think it's a bit too soon to be using the L word yet, but I know that I will say those three important words to you at some point. You are one of the most important things in the world to me, and I couldn't imagine life without you.

So please Gabriella, give me one more chance. I need you by my side. For my whole life there has been emptiness in my heart, but now I know it was because you weren't by my side.

So at the end of school, please come round to my house. I will be waiting hopefully for you.

Yours forever,

Troy

XXX

PS: Sorry about the mushiness, but it's how I truly feel.


Gabriella and the rest of the girls just stood there in silence, mouths agape, until Chad, Ryan, Zeke and Jason came up to them.

"Hey girls," greeted Jason, but frowned when he got no reaction. So he tried again.

"Hey girls." Still no reaction. Starting to panic, he tried again. "Hello? Hellooooo? Nooooooooo!!!! Our girlfriends have gone deaf. Nooooooooooooooooo!!"

However, this shook the girls out of their reverie, and beginning to giggle, gently hit Jason over the head. Then they turned to Gabriella, giving her a nod, and Gabriella went powering off to meet Troy.

At Troy's house, Troy was pacing nervously in the living room, with a very special piece of jewellery in his hand. He heard a knock at the door and got up slowly, on shaking legs, to answer it. Gabriella was standing there. As soon as he opened the door, he looked into her eyes and saw the nervousness there. He guided her in and sat her down.

"Gabriella," he started, "Today I realised something. I knew you before you came to East High. I realised when I heard you talking to Kelsi in the library."

Gabriella was flabbergasted. (A/N: Don't you just love that word? Sorry.) She had no idea what he was talking about, and at this present moment she didn't even that he was eavesdropping. She just wanted the truth. When she voiced her thoughts, however, Troy simply smiled, and pressed something delicate into her hand. When she looked at t, she gasped, not letting her believe what she was holding. But, sure enough, the picture inside the locket confirmed the impossible. Troy Bolton had her locket.

"But how… when… why… huh?"

Troy couldn't help but laugh, as he took her hands and told her the story, from the other side of the lake.


Flashback:

A nine year old Troy was walking be a semi-frozen lake. It had been extremely cold the night before, which must have been why the lake had started to freeze.

He liked walking by the lake because he could get away from the rest of his class. Was he being bullied? No. In fact, because he was an extremely talented basketball player, Troy was one of the most popular in his class.

Looking over the fence, he noticed two girls. One seemed to be bullying the other. Upon closer inspection, he realised that the two girls were in the class below him. He had never spoken to them, so he probably wouldn't recognise them at a public event, or at a school reunion etc, but the next event did catch his eyes, as he saw the girl rip a locket from the dark haired girl's neck.

The next thing he saw shocked him immensely. The locket came sailing over the fence, and landed on the lake. Troy held his breath, expecting it to sink, but, luckily, it had landed on one of the frozen sections of the lake.

So Troy crawled carefully over the lake, and successfully managed to retrieve the locket. However, when he turned around, he saw that both girls were gone.

The next day, Troy came into school again, and tried all day to find her, to return her locket. However, when he couldn't find her, he asked their school secretary if she was ill, but the secretary answered that she had simply moved away.

End Flashback.


Gabriella was in shock. She couldn't believe that her and Troy went to the same school together, she couldn't believe that Troy had kept her locket for eight years, and she couldn't believe that the lake was frozen, and that the locket wasn't ruined after all.

She wrapped her arms around Troy, and a few tears leaked down her face. She was just so grateful, and so overwhelmed.

After a few minutes, Troy pulled back, and took her hands once again, looking straight into her eyes.

"Listen Gabriella," he started nervously, "I know I owe you a proper explanation as to why I missed your event to go with Anita to a concert. Truth is," he sighed nervously. This conversation could go two ways. "Truth is, Anita told me that you bullied her at school about eight years ago. I know that I shouldn't have believed her, because after all, firstly, you are my girlfriend, and secondly, she can't have possibly known you eight years ago. I'm so so so so sorry."

Gabriella was shocked. She had no idea that Anita could stoop so low! She smiled gently and said, "Don't worry about it Troy. Yes, you shouldn't have doubted me, but I know how cruel and twisted Anita can be. However, the truth is that I did know Anita eight years ago. Troy, Anita was the one who tried to throw the necklace into the lake."

Troy's ocean blue eyes clouded over into a fearsome grey. "I am going to go and have a few words with Anita."

However, as soon as Troy stood up, Gabriella took his hand. "Please Troy, don't do that. I want to show you something first. You would have seen this if you had missed the concert, but I don't blame you. Anita is very good at planting doubt in peoples minds."

And with that, they headed towards Gabriella's house.


A/N: Phew!! That was a long chapter. I reckon there should only be one or two more chapters, and I will try and right those as soon as possible. Please review!!

By the way, in case you're wondering, the 'avalanche' that I mentioned near the start of the chapter is what happens every day at my school. Basically, a huge crowd are all trying to get out of the door peacefully, until a small group right at the back yell "PUSH!" and everyone goes hurtling forwards, usually gaining a few bruises along the way!