AN: Lala, so I just came home from a dance, it was really boring. My feet hurt. Blahhh.

The ChronicWHATcles of Narnia! I love that song. It's from SNL, by the way.

So anyway, 4 days till my birthday! (although must of you will read this on the 13th, which will then mean 3 days)

Title: Time Will Tell
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: Gabriella is raped in senior year and falls pregnant. Without telling her friends about it, she and her mom move to Florida. Six years later, she sees an old friend... and it all goes downhill from there.
Genre: Romance/Tragedy
Chapter: Chapter 3

"And so class, your homework for tonight is..." Gabriella sighed miserably as she reeled off the assignment for the fifth time that day. She hadn't been sleeping all that well since her encounter with Troy, and, for some reason, her students took notice.

"Miss Montez?" one of Gabriella's favorite students raised her hand hesitantly into the air. "Um, is something wrong?"

"What?" asked Gabriella, surprised. When she was in school, she never would have thought to ask a teacher something like that. "No, I'm fine."

The class tittered but no one said anything. A minute later the bell rang, and the class filed out slowly, talking and laughing now that the day was over. Once they left, Gabriella sat down at her desk and shuffled through the reports the class had just turned in, knowing she needed to grade them but not really wanting to.

There was a knock on her classroom door and the principal, Mr. Richards, strolled in. He was a big guy, very muscular with a bushy gray mustache. At first sight he looked more like a wrestler than a principal.

"Miss Montez," he said in greeting as he walked up to her desk.

"Hello, Mr. Richards," Gabriella stood up to shake his hand. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good," he said, studying her intently. "But how are you?"

The way he put emphasis on the 'you' was suspicious to Gabriella. "Um, I'm great. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just come to my attention that you don't seem to be acting like yourself lately,"

"Oh? From who?"

"A couple of staff members," said Mr. Richards vaguely. "And a couple of students even came in, too."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows in surprise. She never knew anyone who'd gone to the administration when they thought a teacher was acting weird. Either she was naïve as a student or things have really changed.

"Well, I'm doing good," said Gabriella. "Really. It's just been hard to sleep lately."

"Alright," said Mr. Richards, not convinced. "Well, if you need a couple days off, don't be afraid to take them."

"Oh, I don't need any time off," she assured him. "I promise. But thank you."

"Alright," repeated Mr. Richards. "Well, I'll let you get back to grading. Pleasure talking to you, Miss Montez." He waved as he retreated.

"Pleasure was all mine, Mr. Richards," replied Gabriella as he left. She sighed deeply, sat down, grabbed a red pen and started to grade.

It took her two hours to finish grading all of her classes reports. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was 5:30. Gabriella was too tired to put them in her online grade book, so she locked the papers in her drawers, grabbed her purse and left the room, locking the door behind her.

She picked up Eva at Zack's house and then proceeded back to her small house. They went into the kitchen, where Gabriella realized that she hadn't gotten the mail yet.

"Oh, shoot," She glanced at Eva, who was eating an apple and reading the comics in the newspaper. "Honey, I need to walk down and get the mail. Would you mind staying here for a couple minutes?"

"Sure, mom," answered Eva, chewing on her apple and continuing to stare at the paper.

Gabriella left the house (after locking the door behind her, of course), and, almost as soon as the door closed, the phone rang.

Eva bounded over into the living room and said, "Helloo-oo?" in a singsong voice.

"Um, hello?" said a voice on the other line.

"Hello, who may I ask is calling?"

"Is that you, Eva? Hi, it's Troy. You met me the other day. I'm your mom's friend?"

"Oh, hi," said Eva, waiting patiently.

There was a small pause. "Um... do you think I could talk to your mom for a minute?"

"I don't think she wants to talk to you," said Eva knowledgeably.

"Oh, well, I kinda expected that," muttered Troy. "Just, please, can I talk to her? Please?"

"Are you going to say sorry?"

"Well, no, I have nothing to be sorry for-,"

"Then I don't want you to talk to her," Eva told him. "You made her cry."

"I'm sorry, but-,"

"Mommy keeps having bad dreams," she informed him. "She wakes me up sometimes. I can hear her crying."

Troy was silent.

"Mommy said that you wouldn't listen to her. That doesn't sound like a good friend. My friend Zack would listen to me."

"It's kinda complicated-,"

"Did Mommy tell you about my daddy?"

"What? No. Your mommy said she doesn't know who he is."

"Did Mommy tell you that my daddy made her play the game with him?"

Pause. "What game?"

"The game," whispered Eva dramatically. When Troy was still silent, Eva clicked her tongue impatiently and said, "The game that makes babies. Duh!"

"Oh." There was another short pause. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Eva sighed, as if Troy were being dense. "Do you know what game makes babies?"

"Um, yes, I'm familiar with it..."

"Well, my mommy said that my daddy made her play it, and that she didn't want to."

Yet another silence. "Really?" he finally whispered.

"Really," said Eva triumphantly. "She said that you didn't believe her."

"Eva, I really, really need to talk to your mom-,"

"No, I don't think so," said Eva, and she hung up. The instant the put the phone down Gabriella entered the house again, flipping through the mail.

"Oh, were you on phone, sweetie?" asked Gabriella distractedly, walking into the kitchen. Eva followed her and resumed eating her apple at the table. "Who was it? Zack? Abuelita?"

"No, it was your friend, Troy,"

Gabriella looked up at her and stopped looking through the mail. "Uh, Troy? What'd he say?"

"He wanted to talk to you, but I wouldn't let him,"

"How come? You could've had him stay on the line 'till I got back."

"Well, because he made you cry and wouldn't listen to you," said Eva sympathetically. "But don't worry Mom, I told him about daddy."

Gabriella's eyes widened in horror. The mail she was holding tumbled to the ground as she stared at her daughter. "W-what?"

"I told Troy about daddy," Eva clarified. "About how he made you play the game and you didn't want to."

Gabriella stared in shock at her daughter. "Eva, I told you not to tell anyone!"

"No!" said Eva, defending herself. "You told me not to tell anyone in my class! Troy isn't in my class!"

"Oh, my God, Eva," moaned Gabriella, sitting down at the table across from her daughter. "Eva, why would you tell him!"

"I wanted him to know why were you sad," cried Eva, starting to tear up. Gabriella never yelled at her.

Gabriella sighed deeply. "Eva, you can't just tell people stuff like that, okay, honey?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Eva, don't yell at me!"

"Fine. I'm going in my room!" Eva hopped off the chair and stormed into her room.

Gabriella sighed again. She was sorry about yelling at Eva, but Eva had to understand that she couldn't just tell people everything she wanted. And she also couldn't apologize to her daughter for disciplining her.

She slowly got up from the chair and went to Eva's room. She knocked softly on the closed door and called, "Eva? What do you want for dinner?"

There was no answer.

"Do you want me to just choose something for you?"

Still no answer.

"Well, fine," snapped Gabriella. "You can go to bed hungry. No dessert!" She stomped into the kitchen, popped a leftover piece of chicken in the oven and let it cook for a couple minutes. Then she took a couple pieces of bread from a fresh loaf and ate her dinner, all while Eva stayed locked up in her room.

When she was done she flopped down onto her couch in the living room and started to watch the news. She didn't get very far, however, as there was a knock on her door.

Switching off the TV, Gabriella went to the door and called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Troy. Can I please come in?"

Gabriella froze. Troy was here? "No," she said.

"Please? I need to talk to you."

"No, you don't."

"Gabriella, I really want to talk to you."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you."

There was no answer.

"Troy?" called Gabriella through the door. Still no response. She opened the door a little and saw that he was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief.

But then she heard a thud from her living room and paused, mid-sigh. She poked her head around the door to the living room and saw Troy standing next to their window, grinning sheepishly.

"I always manage to find a way in," he joked.

Gabriella folded her arms and leaned against the doorway, not cracking a smile. Troy's grin slid slowly off his face. He cleared his throat nervously.

"So, I, uh, was on the phone with Eva a while ago,"

"I heard," she said coldly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, sounding hurt.

Gabriella hesitated. She didn't really know why she didn't tell him. "I guess I just felt ashamed, at first. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I tried to pretend it didn't happen."

Troy was silent. He was staring at her, trying to catch her eye, but Gabriella looked determinedly at his feet. She knew that if she caught his eye, she would spill her guts.

"But then I got pregnant... I just felt as though my world was over," she confessed. "I didn't want you guys to have to deal with it, so I begged my mom to take her position in Florida."

Troy walked closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Gabriella, how did it happen? When? Why?" She looked at the floor. "Gabriella, please, look at me."

She looked up into his eyes and was immediately lost. His eyes, like piercing blue oceans, had complete control over her, and he knew it.

"It was the first day of school... we were at our informational scholastic decathlon meeting, you know, for new members... I went to go to the bathroom..." Gabriella sniffed. "He came in... he was wearing a huge sweatshirt with the hood up, so I never saw who it was... he told me not to scream, because he would kill me... and you..."

She broke down and started sobbing. Just talking about it, six years later, was terribly difficult for her. Troy put his strong, protective arms around her and held her close as she wept into his chest. They stayed like that for a couple minutes before Gabriella pulled away, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered.

"No, no, it's okay," said Troy earnestly. "I'm the one who should be sorry. You know, for not listening to you."

And that's when Gabriella remembered their previous meeting. How much it hurt... she couldn't forgive him this easily.

"Um, maybe you should go," she said quietly, not looking at him and pushing him away slightly.

"What? Why?"

"Because I said so," she said, a little angrily.

Troy took a step back, surprised.

"Do you know how much you hurt me?" asked Gabriella, her voice dangerously low. "You didn't believe me. You wouldn't even hear me out. And now you think I'm going to just let that go, like that? No, it's not that easy."

"Gabriella-,"

"Get out," she said fiercely. "Get out of my house."

"But Gabriella-,"

"Why wouldn't you listen!" cried Gabriella. "Just answer me that. Why didn't you just listen?"

"Because..." Troy stuttered. "Because you hurt me when you left and didn't call me back. I was angry, and upset. So when I saw you again... it was like a miracle. But I was still angry at you, and when you were talking to me... the first thing that came to my mind was, you know, that you had cheated on me... it seemed easier to just hate you then listen to why I shouldn't be mad at you."

He looked pleadingly into her eyes. "Gabriella, I'm sorry. Please. Forgive me."

Gabriella stared back at him. She could tell he was sorry... but it just wasn't enough. She whispered, almost inaudibly, "Please. Just go."

Troy stared back at her for a moment before brushing past her. Gabriella turned and watched him leave, but he didn't look back. He opened the door, stepped outside, and slammed it behind him.

She had tears in her eyes again. They started to stream down her face again. She turned around to see Eva staring at her, a sad expression on her face too.

"Mommy, I'm sorry," she said quietly, running towards Gabriella.

Gabriella held her daughter, her pride and joy, the only reason she had to live, tightly in her arms as the two of them cried together.