Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue.

A/N: Thanks for the positive response to the last chapter. I know it was depressing and stuff, but I'm glad you're still reading this. This chapter has everyone dealing with Troy's death.

Sorry this took so long, but I meant to post it Friday but my friend and I went to see Lifehouse at Six Flags and this really hot guy Phil Bensen opened and we were like going crazy 'cuz we saw him open for Teddy Geiger and he is amazing and we met him after and it was crazy…and now I'm babbling. Ok, sorry :D

NOTE: Jason and Chad are a little OOC in this chapter, but I needed somebody to have a violent reaction to Troy's death, so they became the victims.

Enjoy!

Gabriella paused outside the door to Troy's room, resting her hand on the frame. She was there to say her last goodbye before they took Troy's body away, and she was struggling to keep herself together. She had spent the last two hours sobbing on and off into Ryan's shoulder as the reality of Troy's death slowly hit her. Everyone was still sitting in the waiting room, attempting to console each other.

"Mrs. Bolton?" Gabriella whispered, looking in on Troy's mother. Kellie was still sitting by the bed, holding her son's hand as she gently stroked his hair in silent grief. Jack had fled the room an hour before, unable to look at Troy's lifeless body any longer. As Gabriella stood in the door, Kellie didn't even look up. It was as if she hadn't heard.

"Mrs. Bolton? It's Gabriella," she said quietly, taking a step toward the bed. Kellie finally looked up, but she couldn't seem to focus on anything. Gabriella crossed the room and sat across from Kellie, reaching across Troy's body to place a hand over hers. Kellie swallowed heavily, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks as she looked at Gabriella.

"I can't believe he's gone," she whispered hollowly, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. The fabric was already wet and wrinkled, a testament to the amount of tears that had already fallen from her eyes. "My baby's gone."

Gabriella felt her own tears prick her eyes again as she drew her hand back and took Troy's other. "It should have been me," Gabriella thought aloud, her voice filled with pain and sorrow. "Troy took the bullet to protect me, it should be me there."

Kellie looked at her, surprised. "Gabriella, Troy knew what he was doing," she said through her tears. "As much as it hurts, he knew. Please don't blame yourself."

"How can I not?" Gabriella asked, looking at Kellie as tears streamed down her face. "Why do I feel so guilty?"

Kellie shook her head slightly, to tell Gabriella she didn't have an answer. Gabriella sighed and brought Troy's hand to her lips.

"I wish I could go back in time," she whispered, looking away from Kellie as the older woman settled back into her original position. "I wish I could change everything."

"So do I," Kellie whispered in reply, not bothering to wipe away the fresh tears that spilled from her eyes.

Gabriella left the room an hour later, allowing Kellie a little more time with Troy before his body was taken to the morgue. As she got closer to the waiting room, the sound of restrained laughter reached her ears. Confused, she quickened her steps until she were standing in the doorway of the waiting room.

"Remember the time we put pink dye in his shampoo?" Jason was saying, smiling at the memory he was reliving. Chad and Zeke nodded, smiling as well. Sharpay and Ryan looked confused for a moment, before Jason elaborated. "You know, that time in ninth grade when he walked around for a week with neon pink hair?"

"That was you?" Sharpay asked, laughing quietly. Despite the smiles, not one of them was dry-eyed, and tears still fell intermittently from Sharpay's eyes. But it appeared that, rather than dwell on the negativity, they had decided to remember Troy in life.

"What about that time last year, when we locked him in a closet with Haylie Roberts? Man, I've never seen anyone turn so red before," Chad said, shaking his head.

"I can't believe he's gone," Zeke said quietly, the smile on his face dying. "I mean, all of this stuff we're remembering, it's never gonna happen again."

The group of friends sobered quickly, the reality of the situation coming back to them. Chad looked at the floor for several seconds, before looking at his watch. As he did, he caught sight of Gabriella walking over.

"Hey," he said quietly, standing up and walking over to hug Gabriella. "How are you holding up?"

"Not so great," she replied, wiping fresh tears from her eyes. The others walked over and surrounded Gabriella support, Sharpay and Ryan closest to her as only they understood what she was truly feeling. Gabriella sighed lightly and sat in one of the chairs, putting her head in her hands. Ryan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and sat next to her as Sharpay took her other side, the three of them sharing their grief quietly.

"This is so unreal," Jason said quietly, shaking his head slightly. "I can't believe he's gone."

Gabriella let out a choked sob at those words, and Chad glared at Jason as Ryan rubbed Gabriella's shoulders.

"Way to go, Cross," he said bitterly, angrily staring down his friend. "Why don't you say it a little louder next time?"

"Well, I'm sorry," Jason spat, staring back. "I sorry I decided to say what the rest of us were thinking."

"Guys, come on. We're all upset, you guys need to take some time to cool off," Zeke said, stepping between the two and attempting to calm them down. Chad glared at Jason across Zeke's outstretched arm, threatening him with his gaze.

"You never did have any common sense," he said, stepping toward Jason again and ignoring Zeke.

"And you never had the balls to say what was on you mind," Jason shot back, stepping toward Chad. In the backs of their minds, they both knew that neither of them was speaking the truth, but they both felt overwhelmed by emotion.

"Alright, guys, that's enough!" Zeke said loudly, his pleas unheard by either. Chad stepped forward, shoving Jason hard in the chest. Jason shoved back, sending the other teen over the edge. Chad launched himself at Jason, slamming his fist into the side of Jason's head. Jason recovered quickly, responding with a punch of his own aimed at Chad's face.

Gabriella sobbed even louder as the two ended up in a full-blown fight on the ground, landing punches anywhere they could. Sharpay was hiding behind her hands, afraid to watch. Ryan and Zeke had both started forward, Ryan attempting to pry Jason off of Chad and Zeke attempting to pry Chad off of Jason.

"Come on, that's enough," Zeke was shouting, jumping back as Chad's fist swung toward his head before slamming into Jason's stomach. The other teen responded by grabbing Chad's arm and twisting it behind his back. The fight now had the attention of everyone else in the waiting room, including a few doctors and nurses passing by.

"Guys, you need to stop!" Zeke was shouting, grabbing the back of Chad's shirt and finally managing to haul him off Jason. Jason scrambled to his feet, breathing heavily and holding a hand over his freely bleeding nose as Chad threw Zeke's hand off him.

"You guys calm?" Zeke asked, helping Ryan up from the floor where he had landed when Jason had accidentally thrown him backwards.

"We're fine," Chad said, wiping his mouth and smearing blood from his spilt lip across his face.

"Yeah, fine," Jason echoed, using his sleeve to try to stem the bleeding. Gabriella was sobbing hysterically into her hands, avoiding looking at the two. Sharpay was shaking slightly, her face pale as she looked from Chad's bloodied face to Jason's. Chad's face softened as he looked at the two girls.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, looking away ashamedly. Jason turned away, still trying to stop the blood from his nose.

"Me too," he replied, a few tears sliding down his cheeks as he remembered the reason they had begun to fight.

Ryan had moved back to the two girls, wrapping his arm around Gabriella's shoulders as he tried to calm her. He was watching the other three in disbelief, tears of his own stinging his eyes as he realized that this was their way of dealing with Troy's death. Zeke alone appeared to keep his calm, standing in between Chad and Jason as he addressed them.

"I think you two should go get cleaned up, and cool off," he advised, looking suggestively at the sobbing girls. Chad nodded, and he and Jason left. Zeke watched them go before sitting next to Sharpay, holding her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder.

Jason sat on the counter in the men's room, holding a wet towel to his cheek, where a rather large cut was steadily dripping blood. Chad was leaning against the wall opposite, watching his friend quietly.

"Look, man, I never meant for it to get out of hand," Chad said quietly, offering Jason another towel for the cut on his cheek.

"Me either," Jason replied, chucking the old towel in the garbage.

"You know, you're probably gonna need stitches or something," Chad observed, looking guiltily at the ring he wore on his right hand. "I think I tore your cheek up pretty bad."

Jason shrugged, hissing as he placed the fresh towel on the cut.

"It wasn't all your fault, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly"

"What are we doing?" Chad asked suddenly, looking intently at Jason.

"Huh?"

"I mean, why are we acting like this? Troy's dead, and all we can do is pound each other into the ground."

"I shouldn't have said something so tactless," Jason said quietly, looking away from Chad and at the floor.

"I shouldn't have reacted that way. This isn't what he'd want."

"How can we know?" Jason asked, looking up. A shadow crossed Chad's face as he realized what Jason meant. "How will we ever know what Troy wanted? He was eighteen, Chad, the same as the rest of us. What did he do wrong? Why him?"

Chad shook his head.

"Jase, man, I don't think we'll ever have an answer. I don't know if we'll ever be able to put this behind us."

Jason felt tears prick his eyes again as he nodded.

"I just wish-I wish we could go back to the way it was," he said, the hand holding the towel falling to his side. "Back when everything made sense."

Chad nodded in understanding, his own tears clouding his vision.

Ryan sat next to Gabriella, who was sobbing on and off into his shoulder. He continued to hold her until she fell asleep in his arms. Sighing, he gently lay her on the chair, standing up and walking over to Zeke and Sharpay.

"How are you holding up?" he asked his sister, kneeling in front of her and hugging her tightly.

"Not good," she replied truthfully, wiping at her tear-stained cheeks with her already-soaked sleeve. "Jason was right, this is unreal."

Ryan nodded, unable to find the words to comfort his sister. Zeke was doing his best, but it was clear that Sharpay was suffering more than they could imagine.

"I just-I can't believe we watched him lying there, dying," she whispered hoarsely, more tears coming to her eyes. "There was so much blood, I didn't know anyone could loose that much blood."

"Hey," Zeke whispered, hugging her tightly as she began to cry again. "Don't think about that. It's going to be okay, it'll be alright."

Ryan looked over his sister's head and locked eyes with Zeke, the unasked question passing between them.

Would it really be alright? Could they ever return to the way the were?

A/N: That kind of sucked, but I wanted initial reactions out in the open before the next chapter, when everyone else finds out. I know Jason was really OOC (can he be OOC? does he even have a character to be out of?), but I thought that I'd have him and Chad show their grief in a different way.

Reviews greatly appreciated, as always!

Coming in Chapter 7: The funeral arrangements are made, Gabriella struggles to keep herself together, Chad withdraws from the world, and everyone finds out.

NOTE: On Thursday, I will be going to Disney World for ten days on vacation. To compensate, I will try my hardest to post an update a day on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (maybe Thursday). No promises, but I'll try.