Title: Because of a Love Letter

Disclaimer: I do not own the High School Musical trilogy or any of its characters and no profit is being made. It all belongs to the Disney co-operation and Peter Barsocchini. This is just a work of fan-fiction.

Summary: What happens when one of your deepest secrets is out? Gabriella Montez, a shy teenager, is in for a wild ride when all her love letters are mailed to her crushes. Will she be able handle the situation or will it spiral out of her hands?

Author's note: Hey, to whoever is reading this. I'm super excited to finally publish the first chapter of my "FIRST OFFICIAL" fan fiction. I can't wait for people to read it. It took me a lot of time to type the first chapter. Nerves, I guess. But, anyway, just a heads up, this High School Musical fan fiction is based on the famous trilogy, To All The Boys I've Loved Before. Of course, the main characters, Lara Jean and Peter, will be replaced with Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton, respectively. I'm going to try my best not to make the fan fiction resemble exactly like the books. Because, obviously, it's my own story. I already have some part of the story mapped out in my head. So, we'll see where the writing takes us. A side note- if you have read the first chapter and feel like there's room for improvement, feel free to let me know. You can review in the review box down below or, on the official lavenderrulez Instagram account.

Chapter 1: MISSING

She paced around her bedroom, raking her fingers through her hair and tangling it even more. She wanted to scratch her skin, till it became red and raw. She could not understand how this had happened. Her mind was on the verge of exploding. How? Why? When? Questions swirled in her head, but she wasn't able to come up anything. She stood near the door and looked around her room. The lavender comforter lay rumpled on bed, the desk was covered with books, papers, stationery and other knick-knacks. The floor was covered with clothes she'd pulled out of her closet.

She sighed. Her mother would not be impressed when she saw the condition of her sixteen-year-old daughter's bedroom. At 11 o'clock in the night nonetheless. She could already picture her mother standing by the door, whilst crossing her arms and frowning at the clutter in the room.

She thought of Isabella, her twelve-year-old sister, who'd gone to bed by 10. She closed the door, careful not to wake her sister. Precarious enough with what had happened, she couldn't bear to get into another argument with Isabella.

She blew out a breath. This was not the time to think about her fight with her sister. What she needed to figure out was, how to get out the hot water she'd put herself in. She glanced at her desk, her phone lying among the disarray of books and papers. Picking it up, she scrolled through the contacts list, trying to find the one person's number who she knew would pick up the phone no matter what time of the day or, what time of the night, it was. She called the number, bringing the phone close to her ear. She knew it was too late to call, she'd probably have to face listening to her friend complain about how she'd lost sleep the next day. But, she's my best friend, she has to pick up, she amended to herself.

The receiver picked on the third ring, sounding groggy and sleepy. "Ello...? Who's this?"

"Hey Tay, it's Gabi." Gabriella's voice quivered.

"Gabi? Why are you calling?" The voice managed to sound both concerned and annoyed, yet sluggish. Gabriella ran a hand over her face and looked up at the ceiling.

"Taylor, it's an emergency. I really, really, need your help." Her frantic voice was enough to shake Taylor awake. Enough to forget about her lack of sleep and worry about what had happened to friend. Gabriella could hear Taylor shuffling around in her room.

"Hey, hey, Gabi, just calm down. What happened? Did you get hurt?" Taylor spoke calmly over the phone. Gabriella took a deep breath, scared to tell Taylor what had happened. Taylor waited impatiently, wondering when her friend would start talking.

"Hey! What's taking so long?"

"Taylor, they are gone." Gabriella said in one breath.

"Wait, what? Who are 'they' and what do you mean 'they are gone'?"

"The letters Tay! The letters are gone!" Gabriella said frantically.

Had Gabriella called her in the middle of the night to tell her some letters were missing? "What letters are you talking about?" Taylor's confusion was evident in her voice.

Gabriella nearly screeched into the phone. "Ugh... Taylor! The ones that I wrote to my... crushes. Remember?" Gabriella whispered into the phone, a small part of her conscience reminded her that her sister was asleep.

Now, Taylor's voice gave way to irritation. "Wait, did you really call me at midnight to tell me about your missing letters?"

"Taylor, it's not yet midnight. And yes, I called you this late to tell you about the letters." Gabriella said, annoyed. Why the hell wasn't Taylor catching on?

"Don't get technical with me. Gabi... Just... You know what? Go to sleep -"

Gabriella interrupted her, "Tay, how on earth can I fall asleep? I just told you! The letters are lost. They. Are. Lost."

"Geez... I know Gabi. You have, after all, been ranting about it for the past ten minutes." Taylor said sarcastically.

Gabriella narrowed her eyes, at no one in particular. "Don't patronize me, Tay."

"No, Gabi. I'm saying that, you're not gonna achieve anything but staying awake all night. Go to sleep, and let's worry about this tomorrow. I'll come over to your house after school and we'll figure out where the letters are." Taylor replied.

"But Tay-"

"No buts. Seriously, Gabriella, just go to sleep. Everything's gonna be fine."

"Uhh... fine Tay. But, you gotta come to my house tomorrow." Gabriella said, defeated.

"Okay, good. Now, go to sleep and don't call me until I see you at school."

Gabriella smiled hearing her response. "Yeah. Okay. Good night, Taylor. Bye."

"Sweet dreams Gabi." Taylor disconnected the call.

Gabriella sighed, placing the phone back on her desk. Looking around her room, Gabriella shook her head. "I'll clean this later." She said to herself.

Gabriella walked to her bed, and picked up the lavender tin. The letters were kept in this box. These were the letters that she had written to every boy she had had a crush on. Not that there were many. There were just four. Four different boys she had had feelings for. She dropped the tin on the floor and pushed all the clutter from her bed to the floor. "Ah...!" Gabriella jumped backwards on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. Gabriella worried about the letters. What if they got into the wrong hands? What if the school found out that she wrote letters to four different boys? What if her ex-crushes read those letters? It was enough to make her want to jump off the roof of her house. Gabriella turned her head to the right and saw the sign that was nailed above her desk. It said 'Hope' in beautiful, white cursive, that was a sharp contrast against the jade-coloured walls. All I can do is hope, she thought.

Unable to fall asleep, Gabriella thought back to that morning, the first day of Junior Year, wondering where everything went wrong.

Earlier that day:

Beep! Beep! Gabriella woke up, the alarm beeping on her bedside table. It was 6:30. Groaning, she sat upright and stretched her arms above her head to get rid of the sleepiness. Gabriella got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. After shower, she walked to her closet to pick an outfit for the day. Going through all her options she opted to wear black jeans, a dark blue t-shirt and a white denim jacket. Satisfied with her appearance, she made her way downstairs to the kitchen. On the way, she pulled her hair into a ponytail. When she entered the kitchen, Gabriella could smell the pancakes frying and saw Maria Montez standing before the stove.

"Hey, mom." Gabriella greeted. Maria turned around and smiled at her oldest daughter. She was dressed in her usual business suit. Maria motioned Gabriella to take pancakes. Gabriella stacked two pancakes and poured maple syrup on it.

Maria asked, "So, excited for the first day of Junior Year?"

"If you call extra homework load and tons of assignments exciting, then, yeah." Gabriella joked, as she ate a forkful of pancakes.

Maria laughed. "You don't have to worry about school. You have always been excellent in academics."

Gabriella took another bite of her pancakes just as Maria asked, "So, what's the deal with you and Izzy?"

"Oh, we got into a bit of an argument yesterday, when I didn't take her to her friend's place, like I promised. She has been ignoring me since." Gabriella said, swallowing the forkful of pancakes.

"Well, did you try to talk to her?" Maria questioned, as she switched off the stove and came to sit at the kitchen island where Gabriella was seated. She stacked a couple of pancakes on top of each other.

Gabriella sighed, "Yes mom. I have been repeatedly asking for her forgiveness. She's not budging."

Before any of them could say further, footsteps sounded through the kitchen. Isabella walked in, wearing a yellow knee-length dress, her brown hair flowing down her back. She looked just like her mother with her brown, curly hair, light brown eyes and olive skin. Gabriella, on the other hand, had dark brown eyes and black, curly hair.

Isabella sat at the kitchen island and took a pancake. "Good morning, mom." She greeted while pointedly ignoring Gabriella.

"Izzy, come on, I said I'm sorry. I should have remembered to take you to your friend's place, but I had to get ready for school. I extremely sorry. I-" Gabriella pleaded.

Isabella cut off Gabriella, "Fine. I'll forgive you only if you braid my hair and drop me to school."

Gabriella grinned and looked at her mother, who was smiling as well. They were making progress. Gabriella tossed her finished plate in the dishwasher. "Thanks."

After Isabella finished her breakfast, Gabriella braided her hair into two braids. As the two sisters got up from the kitchen island, Maria said, "Guys, it's 7:45. You should probably leave for school now."

"We probably should have left early since Gabriella is driving." Isabella snickered. It was a known fact, Gabriella didn't have the best coordination.

Gabriella glared at her sister and turned to answer her mom. "Yeah, whatever. Come on Izzy, take your bag. We'll leave now."

"I wonder how you managed to pass the driving test."

Gabriella walked to the living room and picked up her bag from the couch. Walking to the front door, she stopped to put on her white sneakers and stood there waiting for Isabella. "Izzy, hurry!"

"Coming, coming." Isabella ran to the front door, not before stopping to kiss her mother's cheek bye.

They got into the car and Gabriella drove them to school. They both remained quiet as she drove. Gabriella dropped her sister at East High middle school and drove towards the high school building. She parked the car and entered the school building.

It was after homeroom. Gabriella and Taylor were walking to their first period.

"Sucks that we only have four classes together this year." Taylor commented as she read the new schedule they got during homeroom.

Gabriella smiled. "But hey, we've still got lunch and free period together."

As they rounded the corner to go left, Gabriella bumped into someone. "Ahh! I'm so sorry."

Her books fell to the ground on impact and as she got down to take the books, the other person also got down to help her. Getting up, Gabriella saw that the person was none other than Troy Bolton and Chad Danforth. Troy Bolton was one of the boys to whom she had written her letters and Chad Danforth was Troy's best friend. Troy was also her first kiss. The kiss was in seventh grade during a game of 'Spin the Bottle' at a friend's birthday party.

As Gabriella stared at him, she thought about how much he had changed since seventh grade. She noted that it was mostly physical change rather than personality. He was still the same outgoing guy that everybody loved. He was funny, smart and charming as he had been in seventh grade. Physically, no one could tell that seventh grade Troy Bolton and the present Troy Bolton were related. He had evolved from the skinny and lanky adolescent to a guy that all the girls swooned over. He no longer had freckles and a skinny body, instead, he had tanned muscular arms, broad shoulders and a well-built chest that he developed from playing basketball. His sandy, blond hair flopped on his head and fell into his bright, blue eyes. He was dressed in blue jeans and a black sweatshirt. Looking at him, Gabriella had to admit, he was handsome.

Gabriella was brought out by her thoughts when she saw a hand shaking in front of her face and Taylor pinching her arm. Gabriella looked at Troy, who stared back at her curiously. She blushed, realizing that she had been staring at Troy Bolton for quite some time.

"Hey, you alright?" Troy asked.

Gabriella stammered, "Uh... Yeah... Sorry for... uh... running into you." Gabriella looked at Chad, who looked amused. He was dressed in one of his slogan t-shirts, cargo shorts, and tennis shoes.

By the corner of her eye, Gabriella saw Taylor trying to suppress her smile at the sight in front of her.

"It's fine." Troy said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's not like I was looking at who was ahead of me."

All four became quiet, not knowing what else to say. Suddenly, a loud squeal was heard behind Troy. "Troy!"

"Your blondie's here, man." Chad said, groaning.

"Sharpay Evans." Taylor muttered under her breath.

Sharpay Evans. The school's resident Drama Queen and girlfriend of Troy Bolton. Gabriella knew Sharpay quiet well for once upon a time, they were close friends. Gabriella, Taylor and Sharpay. They were friends till they turned twelve. Gabriella didn;t realize when but soon, she and Sharpay grew apart until it was just Gabriella and Taylor. To this day, Gabriella wasn't sure what had caused them to grow apart.

Gabriella watched as Sharpay strutted over to them. Her platinum blond hair swishing from side to side as she walked in her knee-high pink boots. She was dressed in a pink mini-skirt, and a white t-shirt with pink embellishments. Sharpay was one of the most popular girls at school besides the cheerleading squad. She was known for her icy temper and dramatics. She was also the co-president of the drama club along with her twin brother Ryan.

Sharpay walked to them, wrapping her hand around Troy's arm. "Hey, baby." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Troy winced as he felt her over glossed lips touch his cheek. Gabriella and Taylor giggled as they saw Chad standing behind the couple, pretending to gag.

Sharpay turned to the two girls, hearing them giggle. "What the hell do you think you're giggling at?" She asked, placing her free hand on her hip.

Taylor sarcastically said, "Well, hello there, Plastic Barbie." Gabriella hid a smile, hearing Taylor. When it came to talking back at someone, Taylor was one of them who never backed down. Especially talking back at Sharpay.

"Ugh! What the hell are you even doing here?" Sharpay said, annoyed.

Taylor smirked, shaking her head. "I should have known you were a doll with no brains. If you were a human with common sense like the rest of us, you would know that we are in the hallway of a school building." Gabriella saw Sharpay getting furious. Chad was grinning behind her and Troy had a small smile on his face. Gabriella also felt herself smile, as Taylor continued with her speech. "You know, it's a place where everybody goes to get knowledge."

"What the hell is your problem?" Sharpay scowled.

"Why would I have one?"

Sharpay gritted her teeth. "Well, you always seem to have one when you're talking to me!"

"Now that you've mentioned, your perfume's really strong. In fact, it's disgusting. Might wanna get away from Troy before he faints."

Sharpay's jaw dropped and Chad burst out laughing.

"You are unbelievable!" Sharpay said, raising her hands in the air.

Gabriella tried to muffle her giggles, tugging on Taylor's arm to pull her away before Sharpay did something dramatic. Before Sharpay could say something, a smothered chuckle was heard. They all turned to look at Troy, failing miserably in muffling his laughter.

"Troy Bolton! You're supposed to be standing up for me."

"Sharpay you gotta admit, that was pretty funny." Troy said, his words smothered by his chuckles. He high-fived Chad and they laughed together. Sharpay let out high pitch squeal, stomping her foot.

Taylor groaned, covering her ears with her hands. "God! Do you really need to scream so much? I'm pretty sure the whole neighbourhood heard you."

"Someone really needs to teach you a lesson."

Gabriella froze. She knew if she didn't get Taylor out of there quickly, Sharpay would be sure to throw a tantrum or something much worse. "Tay, come on. We gotta go."

Gabriella grabbed Taylor's arm and dragged her through the hallway. She glanced back to see Sharpay punching Troy's arm and glaring at Troy and Chad. Chad was busy laughing at Troy. Troy looked back and gave Gabriella a small smile before running behind Sharpay who had taken off.

Seeing him smile, Gabriella averted her gaze to her friend. "You know, you really shouldn't goad her so much. You know what she can get like when she's angry." She beseeched.

"Gabs, you and I both know what a self-centered tart Sharpay is. And, living off of her parents' money doesn't help. Someone's gotta teach that girl a lesson."

Gabriella giggled, realizing Taylor was serious.

"Gabriella seriously, she needs a couple of spankings to get her in line and get rid of her bimbo-like attitude."

"You wanna spank her? Really?"

They stared at each other for a minute and laughed out loud at the absurd image of Taylor spanking Sharpay.

Taylor laughingly said, "Well, she does act like a baby all the time. Why not treat her like one?"

"Let's just go to class, Tay."

Gabriella impatiently tapped on the steering wheel, waiting for her sister to arrive from school. When is this girl gonna come? She checked her watch to see that five minutes had passed and her sister had not yet arrived.

"Hey Gabi." Isabella said breathlessly, as she got into the car.

"What took you so long?"

"Nothing. Just had to pick up some books from the locker."

"Okay, well, don't be so late next time. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah let's go." Isabella buckled her seat belt.

Gabriella pulled on the gear lever to reverse the car. She looked up in the rear-view mirror and suddenly slammed the brakes. Troy Bolton was standing behind the car. Gabriella ducked her head in embarrassment and hoped he didn't see her. Troy walked to her door and knocked on the window.

"Running into me again, Montez?" Troy asked, as Gabriella lowered the window. Gabriella blushed, avoiding his gaze. Troy bent down, placing his hand on the roof of the car.

"Umm… I didn't see you there."

"You do know that you're supposed to look at what's behind you before reversing the car, right?"

Gabriella shyly met his gaze and saw that despite the serious look, amusement danced in his dark-blue eyes. She glanced at her sister, who was trying not to laugh at the exchange.

"Uh… I know. Anyways, what are you doing here?" Gabriella asked, trying to divert the conversation.

"Catching a ride with dad."

"Oh right… Your dad is the basketball coach. Of course."

Gabriella mentally gave herself a kick for stating something so obvious. Jack Bolton was the coach of the East High Wildcats basketball team. He also volunteered to teach basketball to middle graders after school.

Troy seemed amused by Gabriella's reaction. "Anyhow, I should get going. See you around, Gabriella."

"Uh… Yeah… See you around."

With a small wave, Troy left. Gabriella breathed out in relief.

"What just happened?" Isabella asked.

"Nothing. Let's go home."

"Izzy! Dinner's ready!"

"Coming!"

Isabella walked into the kitchen and saw Gabriella standing by the stove.

"What's for dinner?"

"Yesterday's leftover chicken and rice." Gabriella turned around and smiled at her sister. Isabella was dressed in her pajamas like her sister.

"Mom's not here?" Isabella asked, as she sat down at the kitchen island.

"No. She had to work late today. I know you wanted to tell mom about today."

Gabriella comfortingly patted her sister on the arm and sat at the table.

As they ate dinner, Gabriella noticed that Isabella was awfully kept her head down and ate dinner. "Hey you okay? You seem a little off."

"Nothing." Gabriella gave her disbelieving look. "Nothing! I promise, nothing happened." Isabella raised her hands in surrender.

"Okay, I'll believe you for now."

Gabriella sighed in resignation. Nothing seemed to make sense. She racked her brains, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Now, I wait. As she waited for sleep to overtake her body, her bedroom door suddenly opened.

"Hey Gabi, why are you still awake?" Maria Montez asked in a hushed tone.

"Hey mom. Did you just get home?"

"Yeah. It was a busy day at work. Now tell me why you haven't fallen asleep yet?" Maria asked, seeing the distressed look on her daughter's face.

"Oh, you know? It's just one of those days."

"Okay. Well, try to sleep soon, okay? You're gonna be tired tomorrow. Also, don't forget to clean up your room." Maria said, looking around the room and turned to go out the door when Gabriella called her.

"Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"There's some leftover chicken and rice from dinner. I've kept them in the refrigerator in case you wanna eat."

"Thanks, sweetie."

"Your welcome, mom. Good night."

"Good night, mi hija." Maria closed the door behind her as she left the room.

There is no point in trying to figure things out now, Gabriella thought. Nothing added up, it didn't make any sense. She sighed and pulled the blanket over her body. Gabriella didn't know how to deal with the missing letters. She hoped nothing would happen when she went to school the next day. Taking Taylor's advice, Gabriella decided to go to sleep, dreaming about the missing letters.

Author's Note: So…! Here's to the first chapter of my new story. I hope you guys liked it. Again, as a reminder, don't forget to review [all reviews appreciated] and like the story. I have to admit it's gonna take me sometime to get used to writing such lengthy chapters. So, bear with me for a while. I might not post every week. I mean, it literally took me two and a half weeks to finish this chapter and post it. I'm still not sure how it turned out. Also, some other info about the story: The rating of the story [as of now] is T. I probably won't be attempting to write any mature scenes yet. I just hope I can succeed in finishing this story. Until next time…

- Xoxo Lavenderrulez