Chapter 4:

Troy was woken to the dull thumping from downstairs, indicating that everyone was up, except him. Stretching he reached for his phone and placed it back on the nightstand. A warm breeze drifted in from the open window and the smell of buttercups and fresh grass made him smile. Today was his birthday he was seventeen. It was already turning out to be a good day as he sprung from his bed and padded towards the window.

The sun shone well overhead of the house casting part of the garden in it's towering shade, but on the other side where the small brook meandered through the clump of tress it still beamed it's heat, and sitting on the bottom of one of those trees he could make out the outline of Gabriella.

He didn't have to be up close to know Gabriella was sitting reading as she always did when she was looking for peace and quiet. When at school she would escape to the Library to spend hours in amongst the dusty books, loosing herself in yet another fascinating insight to the historical workings of such a fine old institute. It didn't bother him that she did this, it was after all Gabriella – and wherever books where, Gabriella was sure to follow.

He smiled at that thought as he stood looking at her, she was wearing another dress again and he could see her legs tucked under it as she turned yet another page. A subtle something that told him she was not just his friend anymore, but also a very attractive one.

So wrapped up in protecting everyone. Gabriella was just as stubborn as Chad when it came for them to go with him. She had argued he needed their friendship and strength, who was he to shout her down. Truth be told he hoped they would continue on with the journey, It would give him a chance to think of his feelings and what they meant, now that Chad was out of the picture.

"Troy, Troy, you awake…? Your Dad wants us all together for a meeting!"

Steeling one last glance at Gabriella as Taylor approached her across the garden, he smiled and proceeded to get dressed on Chad's persistent shouting for him to hurry up.

The East High Wildcats, coached by Jack Bolton. The team has been falling apart lately and some of the team members were deciding on leaving the team.

Jack Bolton looked exhausted having to decide the meeting in the early hours when all the ciaos had broken out. Many team players were missing. A war was raging and everyone was against each other. It was his idea that the team should find a summer job that could fund their basket ball team.

Gabriella paced around the garden until she found a suitable place to vent out her frustration and pain.

"Why are you doing this?"

Tears that for days, months, weeks had threatened to break the surface, now weakened by sleepless nights took their toll and they rolled down her cheeks unabashed and unchecked.She gasped holding her hand to her mouth as she thought her words out loud. Everyone cared about him; he was the basket ball star 'The Play Maker' and yet she could only see beyond the labels they used for him, to the young man so lost and alone. In her dreams she would go to him and plead that he would run away, far away from all of this and not come back. To be safe, to be protected.

But his answer would always be the same,

'I can't Gabriella, my place is here to …'

And so her dreams would chase each other around, ending the same way they began.

"Everyone is wondering where you went off too?"

She jumped at the sound of his voice quickly wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"O-Oh Troy, um I-I just needed time alone to think."

He was standing beside the fallen tree she was sitting on, his hands in his pockets watching her closely,

"You usually don't think when you're crying Gabriella?"

His voice was unusually quiet as he spoke. Before girls tears would have thrown him into a panic as to what was the nature of the leaking. Years had passed now since his first encounter with an overflowing Becky and he had got more or less used to this being something a girl did.

"I-I…it's nothing really. U-um I'll just go and get ready to leave then…"

She got up to go towards the house, only to have Troy grab her arm as she tried to step passed him. His hand was gentle on her bare arm the slightest of pressure and her resolve weakened again.

"You've never been good at lying to me Gabriella…"

Biting her lip she forced her eyes to meet his as he held her there. Swallowing the lump that was lodged in her throat as she saw curiosity mixed with something else in their blue depths.

"I may be the w-worlds worst liar ever Troy! But at least I'm not the one whose throwing away friendship just for some stupid college scholarship to a school you don't even want to attend!"

Troy felt her pain laced with anger directed at him seeping through to his bones, and counteracted without flinching,

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"That no matter what you're determined to carry on this 'I need to please everyone who don't count'!"

Fresh tears came forward and rolled down her cheeks and this time she didn't stop to wipe them away as she continued,

Troy pulled her into his arms and muffled the sound of her cries into his chest, as he rubbed her back absently. Closing his own he allowed her anguish to wash over him.

"You're not on your own T-Troy, why must you be the one who has to go c-charging into the night to save us all?"

Troy had lifted her face from his now sodden tee shirt to look pleadingly into his eyes,

He smiled faintly as he wiped the tears away with the pads of his thumbs,

"I'll never be on my own, not when I have a friend like you,"

He could feel it in his chest, the same emotion he had experienced before upon seeing her when he arrived. That same stirring of blood rushing to his head and echoing in his ears as he looked at her. Could feel the coolness of her skin next to the heat of his fingers.

"Troy, Gabriella are we going or what?"

Chad called from the back door looking at both of them curiously as they sprung apart as if hit by lightening, and now stood staring at each other.

"We're just coming!"

Troy called over his shoulder in the general direction Chad was, but didn't make an attempt to move. Gabriella rubbed her hands up her arms that were lined with goose bumps,

"I suppose we should go?"

Her voice had taken on a huskiness he had never heard before, as her brows drew together in a bow. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up in awareness as he simply nodded. She moved once again to go past him and he reached for her arm again. They stood looking at each other as seconds past them by, before Troy reluctantly let her go.