A/N: Hm. Enjoying this fanfic. A lot. xD I hope you guys are, too… that is, if you're reading it. Don't decide to hate Cara yet, though. Cara's not meant to be bad. (Revised 8.22.2007.)

"Isn't it?" Cara beamed. She leaned closer to Gabriella and spoke in a low tone. "Some of my other friends thought I was stuck-up." She leaned back again, grinning innocently. "I'm so glad I have a friend like you, Gabriella…who's not like that. Not hiding stuff from me."

Heh… how lucky. "S-same here." Gabriella faked a smile. Cara didn't notice her friend's lack of enthusiasm as she skipped down the aisle and wove her way through the seats.

"I'd like to audition, Mrs. Darbus!"

It was all Gabriella could do to keep from screaming. She had grown to like Cara, but it was just too much, seeing Cara act just like her. She knew it wasn't on purpose, since they'd only spent less than one day together. She shook her head and sat down in one of the back rows, and almost jumped when she found Troy sitting right next to her. "Should've known you'd be here."

"Surprised you're not signing up last-minute again," Troy teased, his blue eyes dancing mischievously.

"But look who is," she muttered, trying to lessen the bitterness she knew her voice held.

Troy followed Gabriella's gaze to Cara, who was onstage, acting out a scene from a script that had obviously been given to her in the past minute. Gabriella thought that she saw worry and anxiousness register on the Evans twins' faces. "There's no way we're getting the leads again," she murmured softly, sinking down into the theatre chair.

Almost to her disappointment, Troy didn't sink down with her. "She's good."

A pang of jealousy and pain overcame Gabriella, and she felt like throwing up. "Very." Glancing quickly at Troy to see if he was going to ask her what was wrong, she sighed. He didn't. I am so stupid.

Gabriella gave up on "fishing for sympathy," which was something she rarely did... to think of it, just then was the first time she'd ever done it. She turned her attention back to Cara, who was now through a crying scene. Mrs. Darbus told her she was done and her tears immediately went away, and her makeup was hardly smeared. It was as if she had never cried at all. Then she danced… and then she sang. Gabriella knew she would have nightmares about Cara's voice forever—not because it was bad, it was beautiful—too beautiful. More than once she squinted to see if Cara was wearing anything… anything that made her voice sound prettier than it was. She didn't find anything.

"She's really good."

Gabriella couldn't take it anymore. "What's that supposed to mean?" Her eyebrows furrowed, and she crossed her arms across her chest. How could he? He had never, ever said that about anyone else—except for her. Never. And yet he just had.

Troy turned to her, an eyebrow raised casually. "That...she's really good?"

Gabriella hated herself for sounding so...jealous. She really didn't want to sound that way... but she didn't know how else to say it. Shut up, Gabi... she wrinkled her nose and sank lower into the seat for sounding so... possessive. You're so demented. She does sound good... if you can think it, why can't he say it?

Troy looked at her, and uttered the words she'd been longing to hear--at that moment, anyway. "Something wrong?" he whispered.

"Nothing," she muttered, not caring about the bitterness that seemed prominent in her voice. "I'm fine. Go watch Cara sing."

Troy smiled, stupidly and cluelessly as a guy would, and turned back to Cara, resting his chin on his fist, leaning his elbow on the armrest between himself and Gabriella.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cara rushed up to Gabriella, who had waited for her just outside of the theatre doors. "Mrs. Darbus said I'm good!" She clapped her hands quickly and excitedly, true enthusiasm showing in her glowing, brown, almond-shaped eyes. "Oooh... I saw you sitting next to Troy... did he think I was good?"

"Eh..." Gabriella didn't want to lie--but she obviously didn't want to tell the truth, either... but why... she didn't know. "I have to go do some...homework." She took a deep breath and started to walk away.

"But, Gabi!" Cara ran up to her, grabbing Gabriella's arm. "I thought you did your homework already... wait, never mind! I have the greatest idea... if you don't mind, that is... could you help me with my trig homework?" She grinned. "I heard you're the school's 'Einsteinette'... unless, of course... you don't like that nickname...?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes and moaned softly. Cara seemed to talk a lot. "I guess..." She'd never been able to turn someone down when it came to homework help before. Because when that person got a poor grade, she felt partially responsible, and mentally beat herself up... something that she had been doing a lot lately.

"Goody!" Cara squealed and clapped her hands again. "So... how did I do?"

Gabriella forced a smile. "Ugh," she rolled her eyes, hoisting her bookbag higher onto her shoulder so that it wouldn't slip off of her arm. Cara unconsciously followed suit.

"Lemme call my mom," Cara said, fishing her pink cell phone out of her--you guessed it--white purse. Soon she flipped it back shut. "It's okay... as long as I get home before dinner."

"Wonderful." This time, Gabriella meant it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So nice to have you with us, Cara," Mrs. Montez said kindly. "Ever since Taylor moved to Michigan, Gabriella's only friend has been Troy..."

Cara smiled, chewing on the eraser of her pencil, seated at Gabriella's desk. Gabriella was at work in front of her laptop, comfortably flopped on her stomach on her bed. Gabriella didn't look at her mother, although she knew that Mrs. Montez was waiting for her to say something in agreement. Instead, she worked on researching for her non-existent research topic. She opened up Google on her Internet browser and typed in random words, like "psychrometer" and "Mao Tse Tung."

After a period of awkward silence, Mrs. Montez finally gave up. "Well. I should leave you girls to your schoolwork." With that, she shut the door behind her. For what seemed like hours silence hung in the air. Cara was busy nibbling away at that eraser, and Gabriella worked on typing gibberish onto a word processor.

"Gabi...what did you get for number twenty-one, problem F?" Cara asked a bit timidly, having sensed the tension between herself and Gabriella.

"Oh. Lemme check." She took out her textbook and checked her answer, showing how she did the problem in her notebook, not wanting to let Cara off that easy. After all, she'd basically... done something. That upset her. How? Gabriella wrinkled her nose in confusion, then shuddered, as if doing that would somehow shake all of her doubts away.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gabriella sighed with relief and pressed her back against the door as it shut... with Cara I'm-so-perfect-I-can-sing-and-dance-and-act-better-than-Gabriella Vergara on the outside. Mrs. Montez gave her daughter a funny look, but didn't say anything and simply finished washing the dishes, and for once Gabriella was thankful for the lack of conversation that night--although she and her mother usually always had some "creative discussions" after dinner, usually while watching a boring documentary or some "chick flick."

"I'm going to bed early, Gabbi," Mrs. Montez said from the top of the stairs. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't," Gabriella promised, and turned out the lights downstairs and followed her mom upstairs. She turned on her computer and opened up her top-secret diary... something she hadn't written in since she was in middle school. Surprisingly, her password, though difficult to recall at first, was figured out--even though Gabriella resorted to hacking into her own computer system.

So... haven't talked to "you" in awhile... whoever "you" are supposed to be. So there's this new girl... her name's Cara Vergara... and she's all exotic and cute and perfect... except for in school, when she actually needs tutoring. And so she decides to go out for drama... and then Troy's all, "She's good. She's really good..." Blah, blah, blah. And so then everyone thinks I'm jealous--I IMed Taylor awhile ago, and she thinks that I like Troy--it's all so messed-up... and now I'm confused as to whether I do or not... Gabriella rambled on and on and on, and most of her entry was about Cara and Troy.

Right after she closed her "diary," a sound from the computer told her that she'd received an instant message. Ironic... it's from Troy. Although they were usually together for the majority of the school day and sometimes even afterwards, receiving an IM or call from him always sent chills up her spine--good chills that made her nervous and excited all at once.

wildcat14: Hey...

dreamergabbi: Hay is for horses.

wildcat14: Well, then, you must be a very pretty horse. lol

Gabriella felt a blush creep slowly onto her cheeks. She quickly clicked on "Preferences" and made her message archive save every message sent and received from the computer.

A/N: Will finish the IM convo in the next chapter! To keep you all interested.