AN: Hey, this is my first HSM fic. Oh, well, not really, I posted a one-shot a few weeks ago. And to anyone who wants to continue it, I'm not. Sorry!

Well, I've already completed writing this story. There's 11 chapters, and they're all pretty long. This chapter is BY FAR the shortest, by at least three pages..

That's all the freebies you get, so now read and then review! Constructive criticism is welcomed. I don't mind whether or not you like my story, but if you don't like it, please state reasons why.

Title: Where She Belongs
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: Ms. Montez's company transferred her back to San Diego, California. Troy and Gabriella lost touch after the move, but what will happen when they meet up again in college?
Genre: Romance/Drama
Chapter: Chapter 1

Gabriella sighed and ran a hand absentmindedly through her naturally curly hair. She licked her dry lips and stared out of her dorm window, just... thinking.

It was a Friday night in March, and, of course, Gabriella had nowhere to go. Her roommate, ironically one of the most sought-after girls in the school, was out, probably with one of her many boyfriends. But Gabriella didn't mind; she liked being alone.

She was a sophomore at Stanford University, her dream school, on an academic scholarship. She'd always worked towards getting an academic scholarship, except for that brief time in high school... No! She wouldn't think about that now.

She'd always wanted to go to Stanford, ever since she'd visited the school as a little girl. It was her mom's alma mater, as well as her maternal grandfather's, so she'd always made it her mission to go there too. She'd questioned for a while about whether she should really go there, after she and her mother moved to New Mexico, but when they'd moved back to San Diego, she'd felt better.

Of course, that didn't mean she was happy her mother's company had broken their promise and transferred them back to San Diego, where she'd been stationed right before they moved to Albuquerque. When she'd found out, she had cried, yelled, and cried some more, but she couldn't escape the truth, so, in October of her junior year, she'd moved away.

It wasn't like the move was all bad. In her old school in San Diego, she'd managed to have a small group of friends like her – straight A's, studious, no real life apart from studying – that she could go back to, but it just wasn't the same.

Right after she and her mother moved to New Mexico over Christmas Break, her mother had treated them to ski vacation in Colorado. While at a teens party for New Years Eve, she'd been chosen to sing a karaoke duet with a boy she didn't know. However, they'd sang great together and formed an instant friendship, exchanging phone numbers before the night was over.

Then she started her new school in Albuquerque a week later and, surprise, surprise, that was where the boy, Troy Bolton, lived and went to school. They had so much chemistry, it was insane – but it'd taken them a couple weeks to get together.

The school didn't want them together; nor did they want them to sing in the school musical together, since Troy was a popular jock and Gabriella was a nerd. But they'd sang anyway, had won the lead roles, and unofficially started dating.

After only 8 months of dating, however, Gabriella'd had to move away, and she and Troy unofficially broken up a couple weeks later. It was too hard to keep up such a long-distance relationship.

They hadn't spoken in a long, long time. They'd stayed in touch as friends for their junior year, but then Troy had gone to a two month basketball camp that summer and Gabriella had only received a couple text messages since, telling her that Taylor, Gabriella's best girl friend at East High, and her boyfriend, Chad, had been voted Homecoming King and Queen in their senior year, and that Zeke, one of Troy's basketball friends, had proposed to Sharpay, their self-absorbed-turned-friendly friend, on New Years Eve of their senior year, even though they were still in high school.

Gabriella's heart sank. She figured Sharpay and Zeke were probably married now, since they'd become engaged over two years earlier, and it hurt her that she hadn't been invited. But what could she expect? She hadn't seen them in three and a half years.

Gabriella absently reached for her cell phone, the same one she'd had for four years, and flipped through to Troy's number, where his picture was still saved. He'd taken it of himself when they'd first met. She smiled slightly. She wondered how much he'd changed.

Her computer Briiing!ed with the sound of an instant message being received. She sat down at her computer and jiggled the mouse so the screen came back up. It was an instant message from her boyfriend, Jeremiah, who always went out to bars on Friday nights with his friends. He'd never invited Gabriella along, which was just as well, since she probably wouldn't go with him anyway. She was a little confused at why he wasn't out. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was only eleven.

"Hey there!" he'd said.

She typed back, "Hey yourself. Why aren't you out?"

He immediately typed back, "We just decided to take a night off."

Gabriella typed, "Oh, well, that's nice."

"Yeah. So, we're still going to the game tomorrow, Gabi?"

Gabriella winced at the nickname he'd christened her ever since they'd first met. She constantly told him not to call her that. He would say okay, but then he'd do it again. They'd actually gotten into a couple fights about it.

Troy wouldn't have called me that if I didn't want him to, Gabriella caught herself thinking, and quickly shook her head.

She didn't really want to go to the game. It was some basketball game for the March Insane tournament... thing, Stanford vs. UCLA. She'd much rather type up her term paper for the semester and then stay in her room.

"Please? You promised, Gabi!" Jeremiah typed.

"Don't call me that," She messaged him back. And then, "Well, I guess I'll go."

"Great!" Jeremiah instantly messaged her. "I'll pick you up at around ten. It's a really long drive and the game starts at 7. We need to make sure we get there early."

"Okay, see you then."

"Bye. I love you."

Gabriella tensed up. Jeremiah had been saying, "I love you" to her for three of the six months they'd been dating, and she'd yet to say it back. Whenever he said, or typed, it to her, she would always have a mini-panic attack. She never liked lying, so she'd compromised with, "Me too" or "Same here". After that, she'd always walk away, hang up, or sign off her conversation with him before he could attack her for it.

Jeremiah wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, but surely he'd noticed something by now?

"Yeah, me too!" Gabriella responded before signing off.

I loved Troy before we even started going out, she thought. I never had a problem saying it to him.

Gabriella didn't even try to stop herself from thinking about him. It wouldn't work, and would just make her more mad at herself.

She yawned widely and changed into a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She turned off her computer, climbed into bed, switched off the light, and continued to think about the time in her life when she'd first fallen in and out of love.

But, at the same time, she wasn't so sure she had even fallen out of love.