A/N: Okay! Hello! Hi! How's everybody doing? I'm fine thanks. Sorry, again that I took so long! I have so many things going on for me but not to worry, spring break is almost up and I can concentrate on my writing. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews! THIRTEEN! That is insanely insane (if that makes sense). Thanks!
Zac's my boyfriend: Yes, Leslie is pure evil!
xXxHSMLUVRxXx: I hope she doesn't die too! AHHH!
ILuvLucasGrabeel: Yes, I always end my chapters in nifty cliffhangers. Booyah.
Vanessa Turner: Haha, I like how you expressed your feelings with just one word. Thanks.
megan: I'm sorry, there's not going to be a trampoline on the ground. :( You'll just have to see what happens next.
highsmusicalrox: Ssshhh! Keep that to yourself!
Ryella.4.Ever: But if Leslie dies, we won't have a story now won't we?
thunderyoshi: Leslie scares everbody. And thanks!
lol925: It's cool. And yes, I know I'm kind. I've been told that. (lol)
Tigerlily Brown: She's not poor. She has plenty of money. lol
TheFabMax: I think that's my goal in life. To just torture you with suspense. Haha, sorry, it's my thing to end chapters in cliffhangers. You can't change my thing.
Queen Desvel: Well don't break your tailbone! And if you do, I am not responsible for it and you cannot sue me.
XxBloodyGazexX: Um... I really don't know what that means, but thanks for reviewing!
Okay, anyway, here's the next chapter. Nothing much going on though. It's kind of like just a filler chapter. But I made it longer for you people! More drama and suspense!
This Is War
Chapter 26: Sweet Memories
Before Gabriella was pushed, she saw Ryan from the corner of her eye for a split-second. She heard him scream her name. She heard him object to what Leslie is doing, but did that stop her? Of course not. Leslie has no heart.
As Gabriella was falling from the roof, everything around her felt like it was moving in slow motion as if time was being slowed down. Her life was flashing before her very eyes. She didn't scream or anything, she just let herself fall, accepting her fate, anticipating what's going to happen next.
Her memories flooded her mind. It was like her brain was rewinding her life in front of her eyes and playing it all over again in a matter of seconds.
It was the afternoon a week after the day of the triple-win. Troy and Gabriella had gotten the lead parts of the winter musical, Gabriella had won the Scholastic Decathlon, and Troy had won the championship game. Sure, the day sounded pretty awesome if you ask any other ordinary East High student. But to seventeen-year-old Ryan Evans, it was very disappointing. He had lost his musical part to an amateur jock. He has nothing against Troy, it's just he's been doing it longer and has more experience and to have lost to an amateur was pretty embarrassing.
He had also lost the girl of his dreams. Gabriella Montez. Yes, everybody thought she was the new freaky-math-girl. Until last week, of course. But Ryan never thought of her as 'freaky'. He'd always thought of her as beautiful since the day she first walked through the doors of East High three weeks ago. Cliché much?
But Ryan never dared tell anybody about his 'little crush'. At least, not yet. He hasn't even told Sharpay. For, if Sharpay found out, heaven forbid, she would bite his head off. Or so he thought.
Ryan was strolling through the park, his hands deep in his pockets. He was trying to clear his mind of all thought. Trying to forget about what happened a week before. But alas, he couldn't.
Suddenly, he felt something, or rather, someone jump on his back. He was taken by surprise, and almost fell over backwards but fortunately regained his balance and stayed upright. The felon covered his eyes and whispered in his ear, "Guess who?" while wrapping his or her legs around Ryan's waist. Ryan tried to shake the person off, but was unsuccessful.
"Um… Okay! I give up! You can get off my back now!" Ryan shouted. The person obeyed and showed herself to Ryan. It was none other than Gabriella Montez.
"Hey Gabby."
"Hey Ryan." A week ago, before they left the school, Ryan and Sharpay hung out with the rest of the gang and they both agreed to have a truce between Troy Bolton and the rest, agreeing to become friends. Sure, Ryan was Gabriella's friend now, but he wanted to be more than that. So much more.
"Aren't you supposed to be with Sharpay?" She asked.
"Aren't you supposed to be with Troy?" Ryan countered.
"Right." Gabriella blushed. "He's practicing b-ball with Chad and his dad. West High asked for a rematch tomorrow."
"Oh." Ryan said. "Sharpay went out on a date with Zeke."
"Sharpay? With Zeke? What happened?"
"I thought you knew. Well, she likes him now and they've been going out since like three days ago. Something about his cookies makes her melt." Ryan said and Gabriella giggled. They had started to walk through the park together. Ryan was at loss for words.
"So…" Ryan started.
"So…" Gabriella mocked.
"You and Troy seem to have a lot of 'chemistry' together. And I don't mean just chemicals." Ryan said. Gabriella giggled at his corny joke. Typical Ryan. She thought. Ryan loved making her laugh.
"Maybe."
"Maybe? Gabs, I see the way you look at him. Admit it, you like him. Gabby and Troy sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Ryan teased.
"Whatever. Love, marriage, baby, doubt it." Gabriella said, obviously exasperated.
"You know, it's not good to deny."
"I know. It's just…" Gabriella said. "Forget it, you'll probably think it's stupid anyway."
"No, tell me! Please? Or do I have to call Sharpay over and tell her to make you tell me?" Ryan threatened, taking his phone out of his pocket, putting his finger on the number 1 button. "I've got her on speed dial."
"No, okay, you win! I'll tell you, just don't tell Sharpay." Gabriella said. Ryan put his phone away and Gabriella sighed of relief. "Okay, I like Troy and all but there's something stopping me from telling him how I really feel."
"What's stopping you? He's a free man, you're single, you're infatuated by him, he's infatuated with you, I really don't see the problem."
"It's not that, it's just… I'm having mixed emotions right now. I mean, I want to tell him but then I don't want to tell him."
"Well, what's holding you up? It's not like you have your eye set for someone other than Troy, right?" Ryan asked. He stopped walking, making Gabriella stop in her tracks. Ryan looked her in the eye. Gabriella could see the hurt in his eyes and Ryan could see the confusion in hers. "Right?" He echoed.
"Right." She said, sounding only half sure. She knows one thing for sure though. She wasn't going to let herself fall in love with someone other than Troy. Not here, not now, and especially not with Ryan Evans. At least, she's trying not to.
"So what exactly is the problem?" Ryan asked as they started walking again. Gabriella sighed and shook her head. "I don't know anymore." She said. Then, she looked at her watch and realized the time.
"Oh my, gosh, Ryan, I'm sorry, I have to go. I promised my mom I'd be home before seven. I'll see you soon." Gabriella said while turning in the direction of her house.
"Gabs, wait! Let me walk you home." Ryan offered.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, your house is on the way to mine so it all works out. I insist." Ryan said, turning in the direction Gabriella's walking.
The walk was almost silent. The two would exchange side-glances and half smiles, and maybe sometimes they would have small talk. They were both blushing through the whole ordeal.
When they reached Gabriella's house, Gabriella offered Ryan to come inside and have dinner with them, but Ryan declined.
"You sure? It's really no trouble at all."
"Nah, it's cool. I promised my mom that we'd talk. She complains that we don't talk enough. I guess I'll just see you around."
"Yeah. Thanks for walking me home."
"My pleasure." Ryan said and gave her a heartwarming smile. Gabriella smiled back. She turned to walk inside her house and Ryan started walking home. But before he could even take more than five steps, he felt a pair of lips brush his cheek. He turns around and sees Gabriella blushing like crazy. He blushed too.
"Um… thanks again. Erm… I guess… uh… I'll see you tomorrow. Or something." Gabriella stuttered.
"Um… yeah, or something." Ryan said.
"I'll just… yeah." Gabriella stuttered once more, waving to Ryan and pointing to her house. She than ran all the way back, opened the door and slammed it behind her. She smiled to herself. "Or something."
Ryan turned back around and started walking home, his hand flying up to his cheek to the spot where Gabriella had pecked, his eyes shining brightly.
"Or something."
Gabriella was almost halfway to the ground. She sees Ryan looking over the edge of the rooftop. A tear formed in her eye and falls. She tries to blink them away, but every time she blinks, Ryan's image seems to become blurrier and blurrier until it disappeared and was replaced by one of her memories.
Nineteen-year-old Gabriella had just arrived in her new dorm room in Yale. She put her bags by the side of the bottom bunk, and stretched out as much as possible on her small bunk bed.
Suddenly, the door of her dorm room opened, making Gabriella immediately sit up, hitting her head on the railing in the process.
"Ow!" Gabriella yelped in pain.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I scare you?" An African-American girl said as she stumbled in the room with her luggage with her.
"A little bit." Gabriella said as she rubbed her forehead.
"Sorry about that. Lataysha Cunningham. Looks like I'm going to be your roommate." The girl named Lataysha said, dropping her bags while extending her hand for Gabriella to shake. Gabriella reached out and shook it.
"Nice to meet you Lataysha. I'm Gabriella Montez." Gabriella said.
Lataysha smiled and let go of Gabriella's hand. She looked around and saw her bags beside her bunk.
"So I see you're not settled in yet either. And you beat me to the bottom bunk. Oh well, I don't mind."
"Oh, did you want the bottom bunk? I'm sorry, I can-"
"Oh, you can have the bottom. Now why don't we just unpack first and get a smoothie or something afterwards?" Lataysha asked earnestly. Gabriella nodded her head and they started unpacking, having small talk while doing so.
Almost an hour later, Gabriella and Lataysha finish unpacking. They had grabbed their purses and keys and were headed out to get a smoothie, but before they could do so, Gabriella had just remembered something.
"Oh, wait! Hold on for a sec!" Gabriella said. She dropped her purse and her keys on her bunk and rushed to her luggage. Lataysha did the same and looked at what Gabriella was doing. Gabriella took a picture frame out of her luggage and put it on the dresser right in front of the mirror.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. This picture is just really important to me." Gabriella told Lataysha.
"No problem." Lataysha smiled. "So, uh, who's that?" She said while wiggling her eyebrows.
"This is Ryan Evans and I during one of the winter musicals in my old high school."
"He looks cute."
"Yeah, he sure is. Sweetest guy you can ever meet too." Gabriella said, looking at the picture longingly.
"So is he like your sweetie? Your boyfriend?" Lataysha asked curiously, making Gabriella blush.
"Ryan's my boyfr- I mean," Gabriella sighed. "I mean, ex-boyfriend." Gabriella corrected.
"Aw what happened? I thought you two would still be together. You two look really cute together in that picture. Kissing and stuff."
"Thanks." Gabriella blushed again. "But Ryan and I decided that it would be better if we broke it off because we heard that long-distance relationships don't really work out between couples."
"Which college is he going to?"
"UCLA."
"Harsh. All the way across the country. Is Ryan the ladies' man? You know, if a girl flirts with him, does he flirt back?"
"Who? Ryan? Nah. He's more of the shy type."
"How do you know that he doesn't flirt back when you're not around?"
"If you had any idea how long it too him to ask me out, then you won't even ask that." Gabriella chuckled. "Besides, his sister keeps an eye on him for me."
"He has a sister?"
"Twin, actually."
"Cool." Lataysha said. Gabriella sat on her bunk bed and stared at the picture for a while.
"You miss him don't you?"
"You have no idea how much." Gabriella said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Now that he's not your anymore, would you replace him with anybody else? Meaning, would you start dating again?" Lataysha asked.
"Doubt it. I doubt if he will either. He's just… I love him. He can never be replaced. He was… perfect. He was my everything."
"So if you guys love each other that much, then why did you let each other go? It's clear to me that you guys seem really loyal. Why'd you let him go?" Lataysha said, making Gabriella think.
Gabriella opened her eyes once again and saw Ryan shouting her name some more and reaching his hand over the edge as if trying to catch her. But it was no use. He couldn't save her. Even though she was far away, she could see tears forming in his eyes, threatening to fall at any moment. She wanted to fly up and wipe them away, and whisper in his ear that she's going to be all right. Even if she knew she wasn't going to be.
"Gabriella Montez, will you marry me?" Gabriella heard Ryan say. She was speechless; she didn't know that this day was going to come. The day that she would be Ryan's girl forever.
She still hasn't given her answer, making Ryan, and everybody else around him very anxious. Gabriella finally murmured something.
"What did she say?" Sharpay asked rather loudly. Everybody looked at her. "Sorry." She apologized and gave a cheesy smile.
"Gabby, could you repeat what you said, please?" Ryan politely asked Gabriella.
Gabriella bent down and kissed him on the lips. She then whispered in his ear, "I said 'yes'."
Gabriella's heart was beating very rapidly. She had dreamed of this day to come since she saw Ryan's hips shaking. She always thought that it would stay a dream forever and never ever come true. Whoever said dreams don't come true was absolutely wrong. Dreams do come true, if you want them enough.
She felt Ryan's arms around her and she thought that she would faint right then and there. Fortunately, it didn't happen because then she wouldn't have felt Ryan's lips against hers.
Gabriella blinked once more and the joyous memory went away. She wanted to remember that day forever. The day she made the best possible decision of her life. If only she could turn back time, she wouldn't have cancelled the engagement and she and Ryan would still be engaged, the girls would be safe, and she wouldn't be falling from East High's rooftop. Everybody would be happy. She just had to be unforgiving. So she had to pay the consequences.
Gabriella had planned on surprising Ryan on New Year's Day by making him his favorite breakfast dish.
She went over to his house and started preparing his tray. She walked upstairs and opened Ryan's door to see him with none other than Leslie Davis.
"Gabriella! Um…" She heard Leslie say. She saw Ryan wake up slowly and he started gathering up his clothes. "Gabriella…" He started, but Gabriella didn't let him finish. She went over to him, dumped orange juice on his head, shredded the romantic love note she wrote for him and threw it at him, stuffed a pancake in his mouth and one in his boxers. She said something, but she couldn't remember what.
"But Gabby I-" Ryan started, but again, Gabriella didn't let him finish. "Don't you dare call me that name!" She started saying some more things in a very loud voice. She saw Ryan with hurt clear in his eyes.
"Gabby-" She heard him say.
"I said don't call me that name!" She yelled at him. She took off her engagement ring that was on her finger and threw it at Ryan's head. She didn't know if it hit him hard or not, she ran out of the house before anybody could blink.
Gabriella took the cab and went through Central Park. She didn't care if it was still wintertime, or if the air was freezing cold. She needed to clear her head and she knew this was the only place to do it.
She sat on one of the empty benches at the park and started bawling her eyes out. She didn't care that it was morning and there were a lot of people looking at her. She just couldn't imagine Ryan doing something like… that… to her. It's not like Ryan to do it.
Suddenly, her loud sobs were interrupted by a young seven-year-old boy's voice.
"Ms. M?" The boy said. Gabriella looked up and saw one of her students.
"Oh, hi Peter. Happy New Year's." She greeted.
"Happy New Year's to you too, Ms. M. Why are you crying? You don't want to start off the year not being happy."
"It's nothing really, I just have a few problems at home that's all. So what are you doing in Central Park all alone?"
"I'm not alone, my mommy is right there." He said, pointing to one of the benches. Gabriella saw his mom and waved.
"So, can I ask what the problem is?" Peter said, sitting down next to her.
"You can, but don't expect an answer."
"Aww…" Peter said, suddenly, a baseball hit him square in the head.
"OW!" He shouted and started rubbing his temple. He got that baseball that hit him and sat back down. His little five-year-old brother came to him and apologized.
"Sorry Peter, I didn't mean to hit you in the head."
"That's all right. Just be careful next time. And remind me to wear a helmet!" He joked and gave the ball back to his brother.
"How can you just do that?" Gabriella asked, astonishment in her voice.
"Do what?" Peter asked innocently.
"Forgive him just like that?" Gabriella said, snapping her fingers.
"He's my brother and I love him. Besides, you're supposed to give everybody a second chance. Forgive and forget. It's not his fault. It was an accident." Peter explained plainly. Gabriella stared at him blankly.
"Peter!" She heard his mom yell.
"Oh, gotta go. My mommy's calling. Happy New Year Ms. M." Peter said before running back to his mom.
Gabriella knew Peter was right. She knew it was the right thing to do. She knew she should give Ryan a chance to explain. She should give him a second chance to do things the right way. It was so easy to do! The sad thing was, it took a seven-year-old to open her eyes. And she doesn't even know if she can do it.
Gabriella stayed in Central Park for a few more minutes and then went back home. She still hasn't convinced herself to forgive Ryan. 'He should've known better." Gabriella thought.
Little did Gabriella know that this one little mistake would lead to a lot of bigger mistakes.
Gabriella closed her eyes. She saw herself. She was a monster to Ryan even when it wasn't his fault. She shouldn't have blamed him. She should've trusted him the first time around.
Ryan didn't deserve her. He's been nothing but good to her and she treats him badly. Maybe it would be better if he found another girl. He deserves more than just me. Gabriella thought.
Ryan on the other hand, watched as Gabriella fell from the roof. He rushed to the side railing from where she fell and looked down. He yelled her name over and over again, reaching out trying to grab whatever he can. But he was too late. She was doomed.
Suddenly, he saw a figure on the ground. The figure has blonde hair. It was moving towards Gabriella's path. It looked like it was trying to get into the school. The figure suddenly stopped right in Gabriella's way. Ryan saw it taking something off of its foot. He distinguished it as a high-heeled shoe.
"SHARPAY!" He shouted, making the figure look up. All the response he received was a loud scream and a very loud thud.
Ouch! Yeah that's all I have to say... which is not normal for me. Oo
R&R s'il vous plaît! (just practicing my french!)