A High School Musical FanFic.

Not Yourself.

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own HSM. If I did, Troy would be mine. And I wouldn't like Chad, 'cause he ruined the kiss. (Even if his hair is awesome.)

Chapter 2: What's Going On?

Gabriella Montez was left in her own home by her mom. Her mother left her, and she had no idea why. Gabi felt it was her fault. Therefore, she took it out on herself. She felt she wasn't good enough to live.

Gabriella used to be happy and cheerful all of the time, but lately, she was dark and depressing. Her boyfriend, Troy Bolton, her best friends, Taylor McKessie, Chad Danforth, Zeke Baylor, and Kelsi Neilson, started to notice that she wasn't herself.

It was true: Gabi had gone completely Emo. She cut her wrists, she was drenched in black, and wore heavy eyeliner. She slowly progressed to this stage.

But secretly, she wished she hadn't become what she was. She wanted to go back to her normal self, but she couldn't.

Troy noticed Gabi was less and less talkative and hardly ever looked at him any more. He was starting to worry terribly. It scared him that Gabi was going through this. He tried to understand what it was like for Gabi not to have her mother or any of her family.

They had abandoned her. And she didn't know why. She was scared her mother would never come back.

---

Gabriella walked to the front door, and got the mail. She stood in the shadows and watched two people ride their bikes down the street. One of them waved at Gabi, and she barely smiled.

The two boys rode their bikes into Gabi's drive way and got off. She recognized one of the two, Ryan Evans. "Hey, Gabriella." He smiled lightly at Gabi. "How 'ya holding up?" He questioned her.

Ryan understood what Gabi was going through. Not in the same exact way, but enough to know how she felt.

"I'm…okay," she said, in a tone that was completely unconvincing.

"Gabi, I'd like you to meet Rose. She just transferred to East High from London, England," Ryan said, sounding quite impressed.

"Hi, Rose," Gabi responded.

"Hullo, Gabriella," Rose said, her accent a mixture of British and Irish. "How are you? It's a pleasure to meet. Ryan talks about you quite a bit. He says you and a boy named Troy beat him and his sister for the parts in the winter musical. Is that true?" She asked curiously.

Gabi smiled lightly and nodded. "Yep. We sure did."

"You know, Sharpay is still trying to figure out how," Ryan said with a little laugh.

"I think I might know why," Gabi said, then glanced around, "we, Troy and I, are AWESOME." She nodded, then smiled.