Chapter One

Gabriella swiveled her chair left to right, flipping through her latest fantasy novel that she had borrowed from her family's store. It was a slow day at the Wildcat newspaper office, but it was still the beginning of the school year. Classes had been in progress for three weeks now and, normally, activity with the newspaper didn't make progress until after homecoming.

Just as she was getting to the part where the female lead wielded her sword toward the villainous king, the desktop in front of her dinged. A new chat window appeared on the screen:

Taylorslunkhead has requested advice.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. Chad. He was on the basketball team and was also her best friend's boyfriend of nearly five months. They were friends, but not as close as she had been with…him. She shook her head before her mind could wander.

Gabriella typed into the open chat window:

Admin: This is Lisa, here for all of your problems. Ask away.

Taylorslunkhead: Can you change the menu from tuna to pizza tomorrow? Or maybe tacos?

Again, she rolled her eyes and let out a little laugh. Nobody knew that Gabriella Montez, the smartest girl in school and probably the only human being that actually read more books in one week, was the one who ran the Wildcat advice column. The entire newspaper was digital, kind of like a blog. There were sports, a section for theater, the lunch menu for the week, a gossip page and other sections that had actually been suggested by the student body. In Gabriella's sophomore year, the newspaper was actually a physical newspaper until the school decided to go digital. It was a better idea, actually. Everyone was always on their phones, so it was easier access to the latest.

Gabriella had suggested the advice column to the editor, Tyler. She came up with the idea of it being an anonymous chat. If someone needed advice or help, they could create a temporary username for the question and Gabriella would receive a chat window. It was always one at a time. Once one window was closed, the next person in line would be next. So on, so on, and so on. Since the beginning of junior year, Gabriella ran the column without anyone finding out it was her. It was easier to remain anonymous, otherwise everyone would be running up to her with questions and the advice column would be for nothing.

Admin: Unfortunately, I have no control over the lunch menu. I'd recommend packing your lunch with your favorites. Although, the tuna isn't that bad.

Chad left the chat and she shook her head with a smile. Another chat window popped up:

dontcrossthecross has requested advice.

Admin: This is Lisa, here for all of your problems. Ask away.

dontcrossthecross: What do you think about pulling the fire alarm to get out of Mr. Turner's pop quiz?

Gabriella didn't even bother to respond seriously. She just sent a thumbs down emoji and the person left the chat immediately, probably knowing it was a lost cause. Another window appeared:

worldwidehandsome has requested advice.

Admin: This is Lisa, here for all of your problems. Ask away.

She cringed at the small message:

worldwidehandsome: Wanna go out?

She typed out that she was a dude and the window immediately disappeared. She waited for another window to appear, but it was silent. She sighed heavily and got out of her chair, preparing to gather her things together and head out for the day. She closed the page and shut down the desktop. She packed her backpack and swung the straps over her shoulders. She turned off the lights, shut the door behind her and used her key to lock the door.

Gabriella was always the last one to leave the newspaper office every afternoon at around 4:30PM. After school, she would go to her family's bookstore to start her shift. She always offered to work every day after school, but her parents always insisted that school comes first and only made her work three days out of the week. She made straight A's and always had her homework down before the day even ended, thanks to her having free period after all of her classes and right before newspaper.

Gabriella pushed open the door and walked out into the student parking lot. There were a few cars left over from students that had other after school activities. Her car was the only one that wasn't expensive. It was a silver 2003 Honda, completely used as a sixteenth birthday present. It drove well and there had been no serious problems, but everyone else had their flashy cars with a sunroof and Bluetooth radio.

Well, all except her and another person.

The sound of a loud truck was unmistakable. She stopped walking and looked over as it passed her at a considerable distance, but there was no mistaking the driver. His hair was the same in its messy and shaggy brown state, touching his eyebrows. His face was no longer boyish as she had remembered, but more like a man. Instead of the smile that was still annoyingly burned into her memory, he looked at her with no emotion, but his blue eyes held another story.

She looked away, as did he. He kept driving until she could no longer hear the sound of his hunk of metal. She took a breath as she reached her car and unlocked it. Her heart was racing as she sat inside and clutched the wheel. She needed to return to reality. There was no use in revisiting the past, especially when it wasn't welcome anymore.

Troy Bolton.

They were best friends for years, since before puberty. They did everything together: adventures in his tree house with the pirate wheel, movie nights, late night walks to the gas station near her house. She wasn't immune to the fact that, when puberty started to hit at the end of middle school, she felt something more for him. He grew quite a bit over the summer before they started high school. He had invisible braces and fixed the gap in his teeth, even though there was nothing wrong with it to her. His face cleared up; he changed his style. She changed a bit, too. She became a woman and grew breasts, which was only one of the things that made her feel different around Troy. She started using makeup and made herself look…pretty. It was for him because she was too afraid to say it to his face that she had feelings for him. She guessed she always had feelings for Troy, even before puberty. He was her best friend and she always felt comfortable around him. Maybe that's why she never told him. She didn't want to ruin the friendship.

He did that by himself, though.

She would never forgive him or forget the night their friendship went up in flames. Literally. It was a few weeks before their first year of high school would end. They had plans for the summer and, despite her desire to keep their friendship the same, she was getting up the nerve to tell him her feelings over the summer.

It was the middle of the night when her parents got the call at home. They lived a few blocks from their bookstore and got a call from the old lady who lived across from the store, letting them know there was a fire. They all put their jackets and shoes on and rushed out on foot to the store. The front window that had displayed their store name, Fantastical Books & More, was shattered, almost as if someone had thrown a rock through it. The fire inside the store wasn't big, but it wasn't stopping either. Quite a few books were catching on fire, along with the front desk.

Gabriella had been staring in horror as her parents stepped aside for the approaching firemen. How would they ever be able to repair the store? It was their livelihood, but it was all the income they had and it was already having minor trouble financially. This would ruin them.

There was glass all over the ground. She noticed something missing on the front desk as the firemen aimed their hose toward it. The cash register was gone. Not only was there a fire, but they had been robbed. God only knows how much. She sunk down to the ground as she began to cry. The fire was almost out, thanks to the firemen, but it was still devastating.

Movement caught her attention and she looked up toward the light at the corner of the store. There was no mistaking who it was. Troy was looking up at the building and panting like he was out of breath. She noticed the black marks on his white shirt and he was holding his left hand gingerly, as if he had been burned.

Burned.

No, Troy wouldn't possibly cause this. He had no reason to. But he had been acting strange around her lately. He was starting to avoid plans and making up excuses, even avoiding the bookstore when he used to hang around all the time.

She was aware that high school could change people, but what if it had changed Troy for the worst? Their days together started to dwindle, but she didn't think much of it. Until now, seeing him acting and looking like he was the culprit of her parents' dream crumbling.

Their eyes met. His kept darting over every inch of her body, but he never came toward her. The Troy she knew would check on her family, make sure they were all okay. But he just stood there until he finally ran away in the other direction like a coward.

She glared at his retreating form and the space she held for Troy in her heart instantly turned to ice. That had been the end of the friendship. She refused to answer his calls and blocked his number, his email and avoided him like the plague in the halls.

Nothing had changed and it was their last year of high school. Gabriella wouldn't deny it as she drove to the parking garage next to the street the bookstore was on. She thought about him sometimes and wondered if he would ever come clean. No charges were filed and the culprit remained a mystery. She never told her parents about seeing him that day, but she was willing to set things straight if he came clean to her face.

She parked her car on the bottom level of the garage and locked it securely before making the short trek to the bookstore. Near the bookstore were other small shops; an antique store that was a hoarder's dream, a bakery, a coffee shop with live music every weekend. Some buildings were still for sale and others had small apartments upstairs. It was a fairly quiet street, one of the few historic streets in downtown Albuquerque.

Gabriella made it to the bookstore and stared at it for a moment. After the fire, she and her family were sure that it was a lost cause. However, the town was more generous than they had ever thought. A fundraiser was held with all the other shops and all the proceeds went to rebuilding the store. The broken remnants of the building were repaired in record time. Books were replaced. The window was replaced, too, with an upgraded painting of the store name. Nobody knew who had painted the store name, though. The window was bare one day and, the next day, the store name was designed with a pale blue on the inside of the letters and a dark blue on the outside. The letters were in a calligraphy style, but more modern and legible. A floral border was painted around the name, too. Her parents decided to keep it and even tried to track down who had painted it, but no such luck.

She opened the front door with a jingle and was greeted by the full time cashier, Gwendolyn. She was an interesting character, a couple of years older than Gabriella. She changed her hair color almost every other week and wore exciting outfits; tulle skirts with high tops, fishnet stockings underneath ripped shorts, band t-shirts with plaid skirts. It was a mix of the classic Hot Topic goth style with a feminine touch. It wasn't a cliché. It was just Gwendolyn.

"Hey, Gabriella! Perfect timing. I've got to get out of here and to the lake. The sky is supposed to be perfect tonight with the sun and I'm dying to capture it," she rambled, quickly leaving the front desk and to the time clock, swiping her card to clock out.

Gabriella smiled at her and swiped her own card to clock in for the evening. "It's cool. The newspaper wasn't too busy today."

"Cafeteria questions from Chad again?"

Gwendolyn and her parents were the only ones who knew that she ran the advice column. She was in college and her parents were too busy with the store, so they would never blab to East High that she was behind answering everyone's problems. It was nice to be able to vent to them about some questions, though.

"Of course. Hopefully there will be better questions tomorrow. Since school has started, I've gotten through ten books already with all my free time." Gabriella placed her bag underneath the desk and sat down on the stool.

"I envy you for always finishing your homework during school. I've never known of a high school senior having so much free time." She smirked as she slipped her cross-body over her chest. "You really should hit up some parties since it is your last year."

"No thanks. I know enough from your experiences what those parties are like. Drinking, swapping spit, drugs. The whole nine yards that exist outside of teen movies," she rolled her eyes.

Gwendolyn shrugged. "If you say so, but I do think it's better to have some experience before you start college. Where are you going again?"

"I'd like to go somewhere in California, but I may just stay here and help with the bookstore. Go to the community college or something," she said nonchalantly.

To be honest, Gabriella had always dreamed of going to Stanford to study pre-law. She didn't necessarily want to become a lawyer. She was the oddball, wanting to teach law at a university. She loved teaching others, thanks to her many years of tutoring people at East High. It was a rush for her when people understood the information she was sharing. Though Stanford was still on her mind, she had thought it would be better to stick around the bookstore to help her parents. Ever since the fire, she was overprotective of it all and was worried something else would happen. Call it a superstition.

Gwendolyn didn't push the subject. Gabriella always brushed it off when they talked about the future, especially since the fire. She hadn't been on staff when the fire happened. She got hired a few months after the rebuild had been finished. She understood Gabriella's conflict, though. Gabriella's parents were the best. They had been running the bookstore before Gabriella was born, nearly 20 years. About as long as their marriage. She was kind of jealous sometimes of how perfect Gabriella's family was. It wasn't something you saw every day.

"Well, I'm headed out. Your mom said there were a few boxes in the back. I think it's the stock for the young adult fiction? There might be some new releases in there for you," she winked before she left the store.

Gabriella grinned at the anticipation. This was the best thing about working at the store, minus being around her family. She handled the stock most of the time and always took the opportunity to borrow some of the new releases. On occasion, they would receive advanced copies of upcoming releases and Gabriella took full advantage. She hoped there was something in the box this time. It had been a few months since they got any advanced copies.

"Gabi?"

She smiled at her mom as she came around one of the shelves, carrying a small box of bookmarks to hang up. Her mom was beautiful with dark brown hair curling down her shoulders and permanent laugh lines from years of smiling. She always had a warm personality and found the bright side to every situation.

"Hi!" Gabriella waved at her from her stool. "How has it been today?"

"Lots of stocking. The truck was pretty full today, but it's a pretty good batch. How was school?" She hung up a few of the holographic bookmarks.

"It was okay. I got my homework done during free period and the newspaper was still slow. Chad asked me to change the menu to pizza or tacos."

"Again?" Her mother laughed. "That boy's stomach is endless. Doesn't he know he can pack a lunch?"

"That's what I suggest every time, but he never does. It's like he has faith that "Lisa" will give in," she said, putting air quotes around her fake name.

"Are we talking about Chad's cafeteria fantasies again?" Her dad popped his body up behind the smaller shelves. He must have been hiding while stocking the travel books. He carried an empty box and walked to his wife, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Maybe I should start packing him leftovers whenever he and Taylor come to dinner."

"Then we wouldn't have leftovers!" Gabriella balked. "Those tamales are mine!"

She was the spitting image of her father, as everyone in town said. She had his eyes and his smile. It was the shine and laughter in his eyes that Gabriella had inherited. He was also the best chef, even if she was biased. Dinners were his specialty in the Montez household: his famous tamales, grilled steaks in the backyard and the perfect baked potatoes.

Gabriella watched her parents for a moment as they talked about Chad and eventually about the rest of the boxes in the back room. His arm was still around her shoulders and he squeezed lightly as he laughed at something she said. He kissed her forehead.

She had always imagined finding a love like theirs. Twenty years was such a long time and, even before getting married, they dated in high school. They were her role models when it came to love and, before everything that had happened, she had wondered if she had found it in Troy. That was before.

"Gabriella, your mom and I will be heading out early so it's your job to close up tonight. Think you can handle it?" asked her dad.

"Dad, I've closed up many times before."

"Yes, but most of the time, the stock has been done. We'll head out about an hour before close, so it should be done before then. If not, you'll have to multitask," he explained carefully.

Gabriella shrugged. Multitasking was no big deal to her. She did it all the time. "It's no problem. You guys can trust me."

Her mother smiled at her and turned to her husband. "We better get started, then."

As the night dragged on, a few customers came in to browse and purchase books. It wasn't terribly busy and, by the time her parents left, the stock was almost done. There wasn't anybody left in the store nearly twenty before closing. Gabriella was on the last young adult box in the back room. So far, no advanced copies and no other books caught her interest. Plus, she was still working on her current book. Did she really need to start another one right now?

A book caught her eye when she heard the jingle of the front door. She picked up the box and headed out to the shelves as she called out a welcome to the customer that walked in. While stocking the last box on the shelf, she came across a novel that had a red ribbon at the top and a smaller block of red on the spine.

"Yes!" she whispered in excitement.

An advanced copy was at the very bottom of the box. She set down the empty box and read the summary. It was a contemporary romance and it appeared that the male love interest was a bad boy. She couldn't resist a bad boy romance. She had never heard of the author before, but she decided she would give them a try.

"Figured you'd be in this section." The voice inexplicably tugged at her heart, bringing back the memories she had tried to keep buried.

She clutched the book and looked up at familiar blue eyes staring into her dark brown ones. It had been a while since she had seen him up close and she wondered what he was doing here at the store. He hadn't been by the store since the night of the fire. Now, here he was. His hands were in his basketball shorts. He was wearing a Wildcat t-shirt and she noticed blots of sweat on his chest. He must have been shooting hoops in his backyard. She remembered that he didn't live too far from the bookstore, let alone her own house. She was bitter that he lived only a few houses down from hers.

"Are you here to buy something?" she asked, clearing her throat and trying to remain professional.

She grabbed the empty box and walked toward the emergency exit. She pushed it open and tossed the empty box near the other ones. When she turned around to go back inside, her body connected with his chest and she gasped. Her hand instinctively touched his body and, for a second, she marveled at the hardness. He had been working out more.

She dropped her hand as if it was on fire and pushed passed him. "Personal space much?"

Troy didn't say anything, but she knew he was following her. She slammed her book down on the front desk as she stood behind it. She glared at him.

"Are you going to buy something or not?" she asked, irritation laced through her voice.

Troy shrugged, still not saying anything. He seemed to have trouble meeting her eyes now.

She scoffed. "For someone who hasn't been in the store since the fire, you sure are wasting your time. Did you finally come to apologize?"

He furrowed his brows and met her gaze. "Apologize for what?"

"Don't play dumb, Troy. You know what you did."

Troy sighed. "Brie-"

"You don't get to call me that anymore," she told him. She glanced at the clock. It was almost time to close. "I have to lock the door now."

She brushed past him, knocking his shoulder on purpose as she locked the front door and turned the sign to closed. She pushed passed his shoulder again more forcefully. His hand gripped her forearm and turned her to face him, their bodies inches apart.

"Gabriella, please." Troy's voice was trembling and she could see his eyes glistening with emotion.

She glared at him and tugged her arm away. "Don't ever grab me like that, Troy. Don't ever touch me!"

"I want to talk to you, but it's hard. It's not the same," he tried to explain.

Gabriella's brain had no more filter at that moment. "Troy, we were best friends for years and we could always talk to each other. That is, until we got into high school."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You changed, Troy!" she exclaimed in frustration. She could feel the hot tears building and tried to keep them at bay. "I don't know what it was, but you never wanted to be around me and it was like we were turning into strangers! Do you know how much that hurt me?"

She saw the tear fall down his cheek and she'd never admit that it broke her heart all over again. "Brie, that's what I want to explain-"

"You were everything to me, Troy!" The tears couldn't be stopped. She was angry at their current situation happening after years of ignoring him. She was still so heartbroken about their distance. She was confused about why she still had stupid feelings for him after all this time.

"Brie, you're still everything to me." Troy touched her cheek to wipe away her tears.

Gabriella was transported to another time. A time where their friendship had never been destroyed by his betrayal. A time where she had revealed her feelings and they were reciprocated. A time where they were both in love. She started to lean into his touch and closed her eyes with a soft sigh.

"Brie," Troy murmured.

She opened her eyes and saw that he was leaning towards her, their faces inches apart. She could feel his breath and smell his familiar scent. God, how many times had she wanted this?

The lights shut off and she was brought back to reality. She pushed him away as she looked around. The automatic lights had turned off. She was still in the bookstore and this was the present time. This was reality. She looked at Troy and he looked just as frazzled as she did. Her heart was pounding and she wiped her face of her tears.

"Brie, I'm sorry. I-" He reached out for her again.

"No!" Gabriella pushed him back toward the door and unlocked it. She opened the door and pushed him outside. "Don't call me that!"

Troy wouldn't stop coming toward her. He grasped her hand that was holding the door and she looked up at him. Her tears were fresh again and so were his, stronger this time.

"Gabriella, please let me talk. Please?"

He looked desperate. She was almost considering it, but knew it was the wrong choice. She wasn't interested in giving him another chance.

"Troy, you had plenty of chances to talk to me. We go to the same school, we're in almost every class. Hell, we're neighbors!" She shook her head and bit her lip, a choked cry coming out. "I'm done with you, Troy."

She shut the door and locked it, turning away from the door so she didn't have to see his face. She didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes, the blue eyes she was in love with. She couldn't figure out a way to let him go, to rip him out of her heart. Even though that space was covered with ice, it was so easy for him to pick through it and find an opening. Her feelings for him were that strong.

She knew if she kept falling prey to his voice, it would destroy her. He betrayed her and, if she kept falling for him, it would be her betrayal against her family. Even though they didn't know he was there at the fire, it wouldn't feel right.

She peeked a glance over her shoulder. Troy was gone and she was alone again. She took a few deep breaths to calm down and returned to her closing work. Back to reality.