Disclaimer I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.

A/N: Thank you so much for all the review!! I know a lot of you are anxious to know what's going to happen. Enjoy…

Last Time…

You've hurt me, Gabriella Montez

And know you're going to pay

So you better watch your back.

Gabriella's heart stopped. She couldn't breathe. Who sent her this frightening note? Her hand immediately reached for her phone. She opened it up and started dialing Troy's number until she remembered the nurse's words.

No she couldn't put him under stress. She put down her phone and climbed straight into bed.

This was probably just a joke – right?

Chapter Twenty Four

It Was Hard

Gabriella was sitting in the classroom alone. The class had gone to library for their special and then after that they were going directly to lunch, so Gabriella had two free periods. She took a deep shaky breath. She'd been afraid all day about the note. She had no idea who could have written it. What scared her even more was that it had been placed in her bedroom. The person had been inside her house, her room and the thought of that terrified her.

She wasn't sure what to do. If she told Troy he'd get worried which would make him stressed, which might hurt him in the long run. If she told the police, Troy would find out. If she told her friends they might tell the police or Troy. She felt alone and trapped.

She didn't want to go back to the pain she'd felt for so many years. Her life was finally falling back into place and now this was ruining it.

Gabriella put her head in her hands and let out another sigh. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Gabriella bolted straight up in her chair, scared out of her mind that it might be the stalker.

"Who is it?" she asked timidly.

"It's us!" three familiar voices chimed. Gabriella let out a breath of relief as the door opened and Taylor, Kelsi and Sharpay walked through.

"Hey guys" Gabriella greeted "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"We just wanted to see our best friend. Is that a crime?" Sharpay answered.

Gabriella laughed "Of course not, I'm glad you're here"

"Good, because we brought Chinese!" Kelsi said enthusiastically.

Gabriella grinned; this was something the four girls used to do during high school. Every Tuesday they'd get together at one of their houses to gossip, study and eat Chinese food.

"Well we better get started because we only have an hour and a half for you guys to tell me about your weddings, I want to hear every detail" Gabriella exclaimed.

An hour later the women had finished discussing each of their weddings and each had promised to show Gabriella the pictures and video.

As the three other women discussed their own children Gabriella became lost in her own thoughts.

What would have happened if her baby had lived? What would her child have looked like? Her heart began to ache for the child. Why did it have to be her baby? Why her? How did she end up with such a hurtful man?

During her senior year Gabriella had thought a lot about the future. Every time she thought about it Troy was always the main component. She knew she wanted to spend her life with him; she wanted to be the mother of his children. At first it scared her to think she was already thinking so far ahead in the future, but she quickly realized she was so lucky, she'd found what most people spent a lifetime searching for – true love.

Gabriella's thoughts turned to Troy and the wonderful memories she had with him. Then almost as soon as they had changed to thinking about him she began to think about what he said yesterday about the gang stopping their birthday tradition. For the first time she wondered what else had they stopped.

"Gabriella are you alright? You've been awfully quiet for the past few minutes." Taylor asked.

"Yeah I'm fine I was just thinking" Gabriella answered.

"About…"

"Um…nothing really" she answered softly. "I want to hear some more stories" Gabriella said trying to change the subject.

"Gabs, I think we've talked enough about us. There's something on your mind. What is it?" Kelsi said.

Gabriella let out a sigh knowing she wasn't going to win this battle.

"It's just, the day I was released from the hospital Officer Heidi said something about seeing the hatred between Troy and Brian. Except both he and Mr. Bolton wouldn't tell me anything about and I haven't found the right time to ask anyone else. Then there's the whole thing about you guys stopping the birthday thing. I just…I don't know, I just want to know what happened after I vanished" Gabriella said.

The three other women sat staring at Gabriella for a few seconds. They had no idea where to begin. Taylor was the first to speak,

"Gabriella, you've got to understand, it was hard on all of us. Everyone took it differently. We didn't know if you were even alive. Almost everyone in the school had their own theory on what happened to you"

"It was hard because they said a lot of hurtful things. Some people thought you'd left because you were pregnant with someone else's baby. Others thought Troy had killed you. Some thought he'd raped you and then you had runaway in fear. Several said you just ran away. Then there were a few who thought you'd been kidnapped." Sharpay explained.

Gabriella blinked back tears, "Why did people do that?"

"I don't know I guess it was just something to talk about. We tried to ignore it for the longest time, especially Troy. But I think it bothered him a lot he just didn't let on. Eventually I think it became too much for him. Especially after the police gave up. That was hard for him. He yelled, a lot. He couldn't understand how the police could give up looking for someone, wasn't that their job to find the missing." Kelsi continued.

"And Brian didn't make it any better. I think that's what Officer Heidi was talking about. I don't think I've ever seen Troy so angry. If Chad hadn't been there to whisper, she wouldn't want this, Brian wouldn't have made it out alive." Taylor explained.

"It got better after high school right?" Gabriella asked tearfully. Sharpay, Taylor and Kelsi exchanged looks.

"Yes it got better, but there were certain days when it didn't." Kelsi began softly.

"Your anniversary, your birthday, Valentine's day, and the anniversary of your disappearance were the big ones. Those were the days when he'd barely say a word, and you could hardly get a smile out of him. We tried to make sure at least one of us was around him on those days for support." Taylor said.

"On other days like Christmas, his birthday or Thanksgiving you could tell he yearned to have you next to him. And then a lot of the time we'd just see him go into a daze wishing you were there." Sharpay said.

"As the years wore on his parents tried to get him to move on and you know…try to find someone else. But he refused of course. He never even looked at another woman." Kelsi explained.

"It was hard Gabriella. We are all so thankful that you're back. We're so happy to see Troy genuinely happy again." Taylor finished.

"I'm sorry I caused you guys so much pain" Gabriella said softly.

"Gabriella, don't you ever say you're sorry for what happened, it's not your fault at all. We are so glad to have you back. So, so glad" Kelsi assured her.

"I love you guys" Gabriella said outstretching her arms towards her best friends.

"We love you too Gabs" The girls chimed encircling Gabriella in a tight group hug.

"Sadly I think we should get going, your class is going to be back soon and we need to get back to our children." Sharpay said. Gabriella nodded.

"Ok, I'll come by the hospital later today, will you guys be there?" Gabriella asked.

"Probably, if not us then the guys will be there or maybe a mix of girls and guys or maybe all of us. Either way some of us will be there" Taylor said.

"Good to hear. See you later" Gabriella said as she watched her friends leave the room.

She glanced up at the clock – 12:22, she had 8 minutes until the class arrived back. Perfect – that was just enough time to nip out of the classroom and get a cup of tea.

Humming, Gabriella walked back into the classroom holding her tea in one hand. For some reason she found tea calming. Coffee made her hyper and she's never stop talking but tea was soothing.

She walked over to the desk and sat down. Her heart stopped when she saw what was on her desk.

Hasn't Miss Montez been a good girl,

Not telling anyone about these notes.

I think it's better that way

Because sometimes the key to hurting someone

Is through the ones they love.

Gabriella's hands began shaking, god who was doing this to her. She couldn't breathe. She had been gone for no more than 2 minutes and in the space of that time this person had come into the classroom.

The last line haunted her the most. She had just gotten back her loved ones, she didn't want to lose them again.

"Please no" She whispered.

"No what?" a voice came from the door. Gabriella's head snapped up,

"Julia, hi." Gabriella greeted nervously.

"Are you alright?" Julia asked.

"I'm fine, perfectly fine, do you want to help me pass these out?" Gabriella asked changing the subject.

"Sure" Julia replied happily. "I hope she's ok, for real" Julia thought as Gabriella handed her papers to pass out.

Gabriella entered the hospital. She was jittery; she had been all day since she'd gotten the note. She was always checking behind her scared out of her mind that someone was going to pop out to hurt her.

She took a deep breath; no one could hurt her in a hospital, right?

Gabriella got into the elevator and went up to Troy's floor. As she exited the elevator she put a bright smile on her face trying to cover her anxiety.

She knocked lightly on Troy's door, when no reply came she just figured he was asleep. She opened his door and entered the room quietly. For the second time that day Gabriella's heart stopped. The bed was empty and made. Where was Troy?

"Troy?" Gabriella asked breathlessly. "Troy?" she asked again louder. "Troy!" she cried desperately. Hearing Gabriella's cries Lisa (A/N: A nurse, for those of you who forgot) rushed into Troy's room.

"Gabriella honey-" Lisa began softly.

"Where is he?" Gabriella asked fretfully.

"You should sit down Gabriella" Lisa said softly.

A/N: Cliffy! Sorry to do this but the drama is coming back and trust me when I tell you it's going to be more than ever! Thanks so much for all the reviews, keep them coming!!!