Its not so much in the words that you don't say
It's when you act in the distant, cold way
It's more in your eyes how you look at me
Like you no longer care for what I see
Paper Cut--Vanessa Hudgens

Ryan has to wonder if Kelsi sees Jason for who he truly is. If she sees him coming out of French class surrounded by girls? Of course he's not touching them or even smiling at them, but he is nodding his head and hugging them quickly good-bye.

He has to wonder if Kelsi is already too drawn into his roommate? Even after only agreeing to go out on a date with him just a couple of days before?

Does she see him when he does a double take on girls who walk by their first story floor window? Does she hear him when it's just the guys and when they talk about girls at the school? Does she care?

Of course she never hears or sees these kinds of things. That's what makes Ryan even more upset. She's already fallen for this traitor, and it makes him sick with worry.

He can tell. He can tell that she's fallen with the way that she stirs her coffee in the morning. So delicate. He can tell just by the way she smiles at Jason. Like she's the most luckiest girl in the world. He can tell as Emma and him were leaving the library Monday night and he heard the librarian ask Kelsi and Jason to leave because they were laughing too much.

It makes him wonder if the whole time they were in a relationship together, was she really into Jason at the time then too?

Taylor's walking to Earth Science as she told Gabriella along with Kelsi that she will meet them on the stoop of the building.

Someone touches her shoulder, and she knows exactly who it is as he caresses her shoulder through her long sleeve shirt.

"Hey. Where were you this morning? You weren't at breakfast." Zeke says with concern laced within his voice.

Taylor shrugs out of his grasp. This is what she was avoiding. She doesn't want to talk to him after seeing him with Sharpay. She's just waiting it out until he finally manages to tell her that he was with her. It wouldn't be so bad if he would've just told her right away. And from what Gabriella told her, this was more than a first time gathering between them as Chad and her have seen Zeke and Sharpay together too.

"I wasn't hungry," Taylor only half lies as she still ate, but only because Gabriella couldn't be in the same room as Troy and Sharpay, so she brought food for both herself and Taylor back to the girls' lobby.

"You could've called. I would've come to your room. So what's up?"

He asks it so nonchalantly that Taylor can't help but narrow her eyes. Something inside of her just snaps. "What's up!" She repeats. "That's all you have to ask?!" Zeke looks more alarmed now as he doesn't get a chance to respond to that. "Two days ago you thought we weren't spending enough time together. So I decided to come visit you during your free period in the cooking room…"

Zeke's face drops as he knows he's been caught. "She was just asking something." He says quickly.

"Really? To me it sounded like she was giving you her life long story."

Zeke sighs, "Come on Tay." He puts his hand on the small of her back to try to bring her into his side a little, but Taylor pushes off of him and continues to walk across the quad. "You know I'm not into her. You know I love you!"

"Then why didn't you tell me? I would've been fine if you told me you were spending time with the Ice Princess, but instead something must've been up if you didn't tell me."

"She's really not that bad. I don't really know why people call her the Ice Princess anymore."

Taylor's eyes widen in shock that he can even be defending her right now. But she has to remember that he wasn't at their school in freshman year to see Sharpay change drastically in one week, but then again he's known her for two years and has had no problem of disliking her now.

"Zeke?! Do you hear yourself?! She is the same girl who manipulates people into getting what she wants! She's the same girl who thinks she's better than everyone else! She's the same girl in freshman year who cornered a naïve Troy Bolton into becoming her boyfriend and offering him things no one else would've given at the time!"

After Taylor's little rant the air is tense between them, and Taylor finally realizes that they're in front of the building and like they planned, Gabriella and Kelsi are waiting for her on the steps.

Taylor gives Zeke one last glance before heading inside with her two friends.

"And that's it," Gabriella concludes with a dark bitter tone. One that only her closest friends have ever heard before. Not that she uses it with them, just in general on that one specific day that is the worst day of her life. Oh yeah, they heard her use it, scream it, and cry it until she wore herself out.

The day of her father's, brother's, and sister's funeral.

That's her worst day of her life. The day that she had to face her fears even more than before, and accept that that day was going to be the last day that she ever gets to see them again. Whether they talk to her, or they just laid there in their coffin, she was never going to see them again in person, and it scared her.

"And that's it…?" The counselor lets her repeating words linger as if Gabriella isn't tell her the truth, and she's trying to understand.

Gabriella fidgets uncomfortably under the woman's gaze while sitting on a nice plush black sofa in the middle of the counselor's therapy room. The school has two counselors. The main one that every student sees at least once while attending Davidson Academy was the one who Gabriella's mother first requested, but when Anna Montez found out that that Doctor was a male who was around Mr. Johnson's age she requested not even a minute later that Gabriella see the female counselor.

"You never open the door to your brother's room?" Miss. Patrick questions in a sorrowful tone which Gabriella is trying to make herself hate.

Hate because it's suppose to come natural. If someone's prying into your thoughts and feelings, and you know that they can analyze anything that you say or do; whether it be blowing a bubble with your gum that you're chewing, or looking out the window, they can analyze it.

"In my dreams? No. In real life? Yes."

But what if you don't want to be analyzed? Although you really don't have a choice since it's the one condition you promised your mother that you would do to go back to school, and start to move on with your life.

Gabriella's suppose to hate this woman for doing something Gabriella doesn't want done, but yet Gabriella's sitting on the sofa with no complaints verbally, and she's cooperating. Maybe deep down Gabriella doesn't mind this woman because Gabriella's not normal. Because deep down normal teenagers don't want to be cooped up in a stuffy room for an hour when everyone else they know are outside enjoying the weather. They don't want to be sharing their feelings, dreams, and deep dark secrets. Gabriella's not normal, and people tend to dislike not-normal girls.

"Gabriella? Gabriella, honey? Are you with me?" Miss. Patrick although she's insisted within the last three weeks of starting school that Gabriella call her by her first name: Mary.

"…yeah," Gabriella says slowly; coming out of her train of thought that revolved around Mary Patrick, the thirty-five year old counselor that works at her school, and although she's been working there ever since Gabriella started Davidson Academy her freshmen year, this is the first year Gabriella has ever talked to her. And now she's gonna be seeing her every Wednesday afternoon for the whole school year. "Sorry. must have been sidetracked."

She smiles warmly at Gabriella and Gabriella just imagines ripping off her smile and screaming at her to act like this isn't the fifties anymore. It's okay for her to frown and to tell Gabriella just how messed up her dreams are, but she knows that Miss. Patrick can't do that because that's not her job.

"It's okay. Why don't you tell me what were thinking about? Anything interesting?" She smiles as her green eyes of the redhead sparkle. She isn't a deep redhead, not some blood type red either, but more of like a pale orange with some blonde. Kind of like the cheese in macaroni before you mix it with the noodles.

Gabriella picks at the cushions of the couch that she's sitting on. She looks so small with her leaning against the backing of the couch that it looks like she is about to be gobbled up in it.

"Um…okay," Gabriella says slowly while avoiding eye contact. What can it hurt if Gabriella asks her for the truth or tells it? She can't come off as being any weirder to Miss. Patrick. "Why don't you hate me?"

Gabriella looks up and for once in her life she sees Miss. Patrick looking speechless; kind of like how Sharpay looked the previous day before breakfast.

Gabriella all of a sudden feels very self conscious of her question. Was she too blunt? Is Miss. Patrick thinking she's delusional? Is she going to be sent home because her mom's gonna find out about this question? Will she think she's too depressed? Because she's not. If anything Gabriella's farther away from that than before school started. She has a routine now. She has friends that expect her to be there. And it's not like Chad wasn't enough of a friend over the summer. She just feels like it's all coming together again.

"Why would you ask that Gabriella? Of course I could never hate you."

Gabriella bites her bottom lip and looks down at the coffee table in between them holding a fruit basket. "It's just…I'm not normal, am I? I mean, normal girls would never be here, no offense. Normal girls wouldn't have dreams of flashbacks back to when the school's math teacher broke into her dad's house and killed half her family. Normal girls wouldn't be scared of their shadow half the time. Normal girls don't wear masks masking their true feelings. And normal girls don't turn down hot basketball captains who are willing to throw away their three year relationship to the devil herself! What the hell am I doing? I'm not normal!"

Gabriella is panting after her little rant that Miss. Patrick let her go on and on about. She fidgets on the couch again and looks into the older woman's eyes. She shrugs her small shoulders and in a meek voice says, "Sorry."

"Believe it or not Gabriella, girls feel like that a lot."

Gabriella's face went blank of emotion and in a deadpanned voice spoke, "They have murderous dreams?"

Miss Patrick sighs. "It's a phase. You're a strong girl. You'll get through it." She smiles confidently. "Now, on to the little thing that you mentioned of this basketball player. You want to go into further details?"

Before Gabriella can answer, a little timer goes off. She smiles happily as if saved by the bell. "See you next week Miss. Patrick."

Gabriella stands up and gathers her bag while rushing to the door; anything to get out of talking about Troy and how Miss. Patrick would encourage her to take a chance on him. Gabriella can almost picture Miss. Patrick say, I know you're ready. This Troy Bolton sounds like a nice young man. Do you want to tell me what else you're afraid of that has something to do with him? But Gabriella doesn't.

"Bye," Gabriella mumbles while exiting the room and away from the one person who knows everything that runs through her mind for an hour every Wednesday.

She's avoiding him, and it's killing him.

How can she go about her regular day, and act like he never told her that he loves her?

Granted, it might be freaking her out, but it's also affecting him too. It's not everyday Troy Bolton goes around and tells people that he has been in love with them for three years now. He's never felt so vulnerable in his life, and just knowing Gabriella is avoiding him is killing him.

Yes. Killing him sounds like the most appropriate term since he can't do anything without thinking about her, and going into a longing stare, and then breaking out of that so called stare to grumble about how she's just acting like nothing has happened.

"Dude, what the hell is up with you?" Chad's voice is heard as Troy looks up from the sketch pad in front of him as he's leaning against the tree trunk near the water fountain in the quad.

Troy shrugs while closing the sketchpad quickly; in hopes that Chad doesn't see who he's drawing, even though Chad does, but doesn't say anything as the smile is swept off his face.

"Where's Gabi?"

Troy narrows his eyes in an unknown feeling. "Why would I know? I'm not always with her. We're not joined at the hip."

Chad puts his hands up in defense. "Whoa. Calm down dude."

Troy scratches the back of his neck nervously. Chad's the only one that Troy has told what went down between Gabriella and him, and he's pretty sure that Gabriella has told Taylor since she made it obvious that she was talking to Gabriella during lunch about him; even though she tried to cover it up.

"Sorry, it's just…I don't even know anymore." Troy groans in exasperation while running a hand through his hair and tossing his sketchpad aside while searching the quad where a certain brunette was sitting with her best friend, but is not anymore.

Chad knows what Troy's doing and he feels it's his duty as a best friend to point out the things that can possible go wrong with this. "You do know that you have a girlfriend right now?"

Troy narrows his eyes. "You do know that Zeke and Tay are dating still?"

The boys stare at each other; neither one looking away.

Troy knows he should've pointed out the flaws in Chad's situation with Taylor a long time ago when Chad kissed her at the party, but he didn't want to burst his friend's bubble. He had too many other things going on at the time, and now it's coming to bite him in the ass because Chad's not a person who holds things back. If he has something on his mind; he speaks first and then thinks about it later.

"We're both fucked, aren't we?" Chad questions as a smile tugs at that corner of his lips.

Troy feels his own smile enter his face. "Yeah, but what did we expect when we act like complete idiots?"

"Touché."

In the three years of being in the drama club and having meetings every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. she has never had someone waiting outside for her to walk her back to her room. Sure, she might run into a soccer teammate or Taylor on her way to the building, but she's never had someone intentionally wait on the steps for a half an hour since they didn't know when the meeting got out in the chilly breeze, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts because that's all they had with them when they showered after coming straight from basketball practice.

Kelsi is one of the first ones to emerge from the room, leading into the hallway that leads to the outside cold air; along with most of the other upper classman. She sees out of the corner of her eye Ryan next to her with only Emma in between them.

"Hey Kels." Emma's bubbly voice is heard as she's seemingly oblivious to the tension Ryan feels for Kelsi at the time.

Kelsi looks over at Ryan to see if he's affected that she's just been included into whatever conversation Emma and him were holding. His distant face doesn't change.

"Hey Em. What's up?"

"So Ryan and I were talking and he says romantic movies are so overrated, and horror movies aren't given enough credit. What do you think?"

"I um…" Kelsi thinks back to when her and Ryan would always watch horror movies, how their hands would reach for the pop corn at the same time, and then they would always end up holding hands in the bowl. Sure it was messy, but that was the best part.

Her eyes look at Ryan, but he refuses to glance at her. "Um…I'm really into mystery and action films, so I don't really think my opinion would be the best for this."

The three finally reach the doors after walking down the long hallway and Ryan and Kelsi nearly stop dead in their tracks as they see Jason standing with his shoulder leaning against the buildings archway.

"H--hey," Kelsi stammers with confusion. "What are you doing here?" She then realizes how harsh that kind of sounded and offers him a small smile as she knows that Ryan is probably tensing up as they speak.

Jason smiles brightly at her. "Just wondering if you wanted an escort?"

"Oh…" Kelsi looks at Ryan who's face is unreadable, and then Emma who looks like she just realized what is going on, and is standing awkwardly in between Kelsi and Ryan.

"Well I'm just gonna go," Emma dismisses herself slowly while backing up slowly and turning the other way instead of going straight and down the steps. "See you guys around."

"You want to come too Ryan?" Kelsi asks meekly.

"I don't want to intrude." He says stiffly. "See you around friend."

Kelsi watches him walk down the steps while slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"Ready Miss Neilson?" Jason asks as if Ryan's tone didn't phase him at all.

Kelsi musters a smile on her face while pushing Ryan to the back of her mind. Forcing herself to believe that when he told her they could remain friends that this is how friends behave nowadays.

"Oh yeah. I'm ready."

"How many times do I have to say sorry?"

Taylor looks away from the Spanish book in front of her and glares at the boy sitting across from her in the library.

She purses her lips before replying coolly, "How many times it'll take to clear your conscience."

Chad sighs and rolls his eyes. "Fine. All clear. Let's get back to work."

"You? Working? Ha!" Taylor says again in a sharper tone meant for enemies.

"Obviously you're still mad," Chad mutters while looking up at her with his dark eyes. "I'm sorry. Maybe you're being a bit too much though because I was only 90 minutes late, and I had good reason. I just came from basketball and I had baseball before that."

Taylor looks down at her notebook for Spanish and sighs. She's with the guy she kissed only a couple of weekends ago while her boyfriend who she just got into a fight with is probably off with his new 'friend' the Ice Princess.

"Sorry," she says meekly. "Just worried about Gabi, that's all." Taylor only half lies as she is worried about Gabriella and what Gabriella told her before about how her therapy went, but that wasn't the only thing that's wrong with Taylor at the moment.

"If you're sure…?"

"Yeah." Taylor nods her head confidently. "I'm sure."

"Well then…how about a study break?" Chad asks while wiggling his eye brows twice.

Taylor rolls her eyes now as she can't help the small smile over take her face. "I'm not that forgiving."

"Can't blame a guy for trying."

"I need to know why." His voice is hoarse and she can point out every flaw in it, but for some reason she just doesn't care.

She whips around and clutches her chest in surprise as it's past curfew and she is just getting in from the library with Sarah who is on the soccern team with her.

"What the hell Troy? What are you doing here?" She whispers considering no one is around since it's a half an hour past curfew, and her bedroom which Sharpay's in is not far away.

He backs up away from the fireplace mantle that holds pictures of the girls who hold an impact on this Academy. Whether it be in the sports section of the school, the academic section of the school, or if the girl just went on to be a famous person, they're on the mantle if they stayed in the dorm when they were seniors or juniors.

"You've been avoiding me." He points out in a normal voice and Gabriella looks around wildly to make sure no one can hear them. "I need to know why."

"Shh!" She hisses as she rushes forward and grabs onto his hand. She pulls him through another hallway where she knows there's a janitors closest.

She shuts the door hastily while pushing in the little lock on the brass door handle. "Are you CRAZY!?" She still hisses in a whisper.

Troy hesitates as the past two days he's seriously contemplated that theory. He has never been more effected by a kiss like this, and in reality it's a scary idea.

"I--I don't know." He admits while scratching the back of his neck.

Gabriella takes a deep breath while she leans against the wall in exhaustion from her day. She shuts her eyes as she can feel Troy's eyes on her.

"You look tired." He comments softly.

"What are you doing Troy? You have a girlfriend who may I remind you: is my roommate."

"That's why I'm here. I need to know why. You're avoiding me and I don't like it. If I could I would take back the kiss if that meant that we could hang out still." He lies although it sounds convincing in Gabriella's mind. "But if you can't face me after that kiss then you must've felt something because then you would have no reason to avoid me."

Gabriella went to speak, but she can't. What he said makes sense, but she can never admit that out loud.

She opens her tired eyes and sees Troy right in front of her. If he takes one more step all he would need to do is lean down and they can reenact their first kiss.

"I know you Brie." He whispers while taking that one dreadful step forward. "You're not just avoiding me for the fun of it."

"Troy I--I don't know what you're talking about." She forces the words out of her mouth.

"Liar." He whispers. "Whenever I look your way you always pull the closest person to you and start talking. It's driving me crazy. I NEED to know why."

Gabriella shuts her eyes. It feels like a now or never kind of time. A feeling that she's never had before. A feeling that rarely feels good.

"Because I don't trust myself."