Are you touched by my previous chapter? And OMG, I just found out that the story, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes is OVER! I'm not even letting it penetrate, because that is SO heart-breaking!

Disclaimer- I own nothing associated to High School Musical, except the DVD that's under my pillow

"You told him? Taylor, that's great!" Gabriella gushed. But I wasn't really tuned into her excitement. I pressed my nose against the glass that Chad had once been throwing pebbles against and shuttled through that day's events.

"You know what was really amazing though?" I turned to Gabriella. "He just held me. And he listened." (Wahoo, HiddenCries77!)

"Then what's the hold up? Ask him out already!" Gabriella turned away from her homework and waited for my response. What did she know anyway? Gabriella is so used to playing the 'Maybe another time' game with Troy, that those words could easily flow from her mouth with no effect.

"You have got to be kidding." I rolled my eyes. "Now? Gabriella, my father has been hunting us down, just to mess things up. And now that he found us, there's no way I'm bringing Chad into this." I shook my head. He was too good for a crisis like this. "At least not now."

"You're the one who said that he wants to help." Gabriella offered. "And there's no way you could look me in the eye and say that Chad Danforth isn't madly in love with you."

I narrowed my eyes and looked straight into hers. "Chad Danforth is not..." but the words fell from my mouth. I laughed. "Okay, maybe you're right."

"So... are you sure you're okay?" Chad was breathing down my neck... again. Throughout the entire day, I caught him sheltered behind empty corridors watching me silently, assuming that I was going to go jump off of the roof of the school. I may have been depressed, but I wasn't suicidal. But it was better to have Chad worrying about me then slipping some of his newfound information to his friends.

"Yes, Chad, I'm fine." I had the urge to reach out and squeeze Chad around the neck, but settled on my backpack strap instead. I suddenly felt so embarrased that I had told Chad, because he wasn't treating me the same. If I had told him to beat it prior to the secrets, he would have been gone. But now...

"Do you need anything? Because I'm happy to get it for you." He offered. It was awfully sweet, but awfully annoying at the same time. I stayed silent, continuing down the hallway. "Taylor... the exit is that way." he said, pointing in the opposite direction.

I swung open a brown wooden door, and he almost followed me in! "Chad! I'm going to the bathroom. Trust me, I don't need any help in here." I rolled my eyes and shook my head before slamming the door shut in his face.

"I take it school was a little better. Considering the grin plastered on your face." Gabriella smiled behind the wheel of her Saturn. She turned into my old neighborhood so I could gather the rest of my belongings and be out of that house until the authorities were finished.

I nodded. Things were defnitely taking a turn for the better.

But I spoke too soon.

"Oh, mygod!" Gabriella exclaimed as her car came to a stop in front of my home. Familiar blue and red flashing lights reflected off of the broken door. A single strip of caution tape ran over the entry way and officers had to jump over it to enter the house, and to abandon it. "What's going on?" she asked, slamming her car door behind her.

"Ms. McKessie!" The same police officer from the night a few of Latrelle's friends had broke in chased me down as I approached the caution tape. "Where were you quarter after one..." he started. I extended a hand to his face.

"I just got here, and you're already interrogating me?" I hitched up my knee-lenght skirt and stepped over the caution tape, and into my worst nightmare. We had been ransacked. Tables and dressers were turned over, opened food containers had been emptied onto the carpeted and tiled areas. As I stepped into the kitchen, a single butcher's knife was left on the stained stovetop. "Holy shit..." I muttered.

"Taylor!" Gabriella shouted from my room. As I raced across the living room, I saw that our television was gone. The cushions to our couch had been torn to shreds of fabric and cotton. I leaped over the shards of broken glass littering the maroon carpet and into my room.

And I instantly regretted it.

My room was empty. There was absolutely nothing left. My three prized possesions: the book, Little Women, the four-foot tall Scholastic Decathalon championshipstrophy, and the one and only picture I possessed of Chad were gone. And that broke my heart the most. My gasp echoed off of the empty walls.

Another gasp came from behind me. I turned to see my mother with her face in her hands. "My house..." she wailed. Only three years before, my mother had told me that we had to work hard to keep our house. Now disaster had plagued on us, and we hadn't even done anything to deserve it. I suddenly didn't feel sad anymore. I was furious. Whoever had done this had done it because... they just could. They didn't even know the lives they were destroying.

"Taylor, I am so sorry." Gabriella gently placed a hand on my shoulder. I immediately shook it off. I really didn't need pity. She said she was sorry... but it wasn't like she really meant it. I was tired of people being sorry. It was time for people to think before they acted.

Where was my mother going to stay? Would I have to start my wardrobe all over again? Oh, God, what was Chad going to think? How much was this going to all cost? Would we be able to afford it? And one last question gnawed and gnawed at me...

Who would do this?

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