Okay. Thanks for the reviews, as always they were great. For those who were hoping for more Gabriella, well, this is for you!

Chapter 4 – Just Like Kindergarten

"Gabriella!"

Gabriella wiped tears from her eyes and turned around to see Topher running toward her. "What's wrong," he asked as he approached.

"Nothing," she told him, grabbing the necessary books from her locker. She shut the door and turned around with a smile on her face. "Did you forget where homeroom is already?"

"Gabriella," he said, grasping her hand in his. "Is it about Troy? Ryan told me he was your boyfriend-"

"He wasn't," Gabriella cut him off. "Everyone just thought we were together."

"Oh," Topher said looking down at his feet. "But, you were thinking about him right..."

"Guilty. What did you need," she asked, trying to change the subject. "Did you forget where homeroom is?"

"Guilty," Topher said as he looked up at her. "Do you want to show me?"

She pretended that she really had to think about whether she wanted to or not before smiling. "I suppose so. But, you have to promise me something."

"What?"

"Meet me here after school," she said pointing to her locker. "I want to get to know you."

Topher blushed and smiled. "Sure."

The walk to Ms. Darbus' classroom was silent. Gabriella was deep in thought even as they walked through the door. Was she taking advantage of the fact that Topher looked like Troy? She shook the thought from her head and a girl sitting in front of her turned around in her chair. The African American girl sighed sympathetically at the look on her best friend's face. "Gabriella," she said.

"What Taylor?"

"Nothing," Taylor said reluctantly turning to face the front. She hadn't planned on Gabriella acknowledging her and didn't know what to say.

Across the room, Ryan was scribbling notes furiously on a piece of paper in his notebook. It was all about Topher. His appearance, his personality, how he did various things. The personality is what stumped him. His was so different from Troy's. Topher hated attention, where as to Troy attention was second nature. Topher was shy, Troy was outgoing. Topher hated sports, Troy loved them. Troy despised writing, but that was Topher's favorite thing to do it seemed.

Ryan tapped his foot on the ground. That didn't make sense to him. Everything else Troy did, Topher did. For example; when Troy wrote, he always capitalized his Rs, whether they needed to or not – it had always annoyed Ryan – and so did Topher. They looked almost identical, the only difference was their eyes. Troy's being bright blue while Topher's were a vibrant shade of green. A shade Ryan had never known existed.

Ryan had hit a point where he was stuck. Maybe Topher was really Topher, not Troy. Maybe his mind was playing a cruel trick on him. He needed more information. He needed help. And even if Topher was Topher, it would help Ryan sleep better at night, knowing Topher wasn't someone he wasn't.

But no matter how much evidence there was that pointed to Topher being Topher, Ryan refused to believe that Troy was dead.

"So," Gabriella said after she had led Topher to a tree near the front of the school. "Where are you from?"

"Well, originally, I'm from Alabama, but I just moved from California, Los Angeles."

"Really," she said sounding excited. "I lived in San Diego. Did you like it?"

"Yeah," Topher said. "It was great. I lived there for about nine months, that's about the longest I've ever lived somewhere."

"I know what you mean," Gabriella said. "My mom got transferred like twenty times before we came here to Albuquerque." She looked up into the sky and laid down on the grass. Topher watched her spread her arms out and sigh. "It's awful isn't it?"

Topher plopped down next to her and grinned. "Yeah." He fought back the urge to touch her cheek, which seemed so perfect, just like the rest of her. Topher had never felt that way about a girl before.

Except one.

"So," Gabriella said rolling over to face him. "Did you have a girlfriend or any friends back in California?"

"A few good friends, but I stayed away from girlfriends. They just made it-"

"That much harder to move when the time came," Gabriella finished for him. "I've never had someone understand before," she said when he looked surprised she had finished his sentence. "Most kids here have lived here or around here their entire life. At least at East High, I don't know about the other high schools."

"So, what was your childhood like? Mine was awful! Always moving, growing up I had very little friends," she said.

Topher avoided her gaze. "I can't remember. Last year, I tried to run away and I flipped over. Lost my memory."

"That's horrible. Can you remember anything?"

"Bits and pieces. But I can remember one thing," he confessed. "It's of me and my dad. He was teaching me how to play basketball. 'Shoot it up Buddy' he'd say. Mom said he died a few days after that. I've always associated that with being why I hate sports. She never told me how he died though. I've just always called my step dad my dad."

"My parents separated when I was really little. We haven't heard from him since. You're lucky you have that memory."

"But you probably have home videos. Mom left ours at one of our old houses once and never tried to get them back."

"So you have no idea what he looks like," Gabriella said.

Topher shook his head. "I know. It's a little blurry, but I still remember. He's got dark hair and light skin...actually, he looks kind of like one of my teachers here," Topher told her.

"Which one?"

"I can't remember his name," Topher said, looking through his mind for a name. "It's a class I have with Ryan. I don't know...I'll tell you tomorrow."

Gabriella nodded. "Do you remember anything else?"

"What's with you and my childhood," Topher asked, chuckling a bit. "It's not that interesting."

"But it is," Gabriella said. "If you ever need to talk to someone, like if you start to get your memory back, you can come to me. I'll be willing to listen."

Topher's smile faded. "There is...one more thing." Gabriella gave him a look that clearly said 'go on.' "I keep having this dream. It's about this girl and she's singing a song with a guy, but she's nervous and the guy said something about kindergarten."

Gabriella gasped. "Just like kindergarten," Troy said looking at her before signaling to Kelsi to start playing. The intro music to 'Breaking Free' flowed through Gabriella.

"Just like kindergarten," she whispered.

"That's it," Topher yelled. "How did you know?"

"I've got to go," she said before running away, leaving Topher slightly confused. Her breathing became rapid as she ran across the grass. Suddenly she slammed into a familiar figure.

"Chad he remembers kindergarten!"

Oh ho ho! So...what do you think of that? Just like kindergarten...hmm, how would he know about that?

Tell me what you think!

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