So here we are, what was probably the hardest chapter to write. Not because of the plot or anything. I already had that figured out. It was just hard to figure out how to write a chapter called "My Clone Sleeps Alone". You should all listen to the song. It's weird.

The soft moonlight barely lit the hills just outside of the Lava Springs country club. The pale blue glow gave everything a dream like feeling, and the figure standing infront of Troy made it seem like the entire world had just dissappeared. To him it felt like the pair were the only thing around for miles, even the clubs main building seemed to vanish from his sight. He had everything just the way he wanted it. The love of his life was there, waiting for him, but as he took a step closer she turned away.

"Gabriella?" he asked, taking another step forwards. She too took a step, a step away from him. Troy took yet another step, and once again she moved away. Unwilling to play games with the girl he had fought so hard for Troy lunged forwards and grabbed her arm, spinning her to look him in the eye. But her eyes were closed, she refused to look at him.

"I'm already in love," she stated. She said it like it was nothing, like she was telling him that her favourite colour was red. Her eyes were still closed as she brushed past him and began to walk down the hill. "I can't love you too," she said while walking down the hill, "It's against the rules."

Confusion set in as Troy raced towards her, but she seemed to be keeping her distance despite her slow pace. He didn't care if she was married, or if she loved what's-his-name. The rules could be damned, he needed her. But every time he got close she was suddenly out of his reach. He paused for a moment when he saw another person approaching.

Troy could feel his heart break as he watched the shadowy figure lean down to kiss his Gabriella. He was about to turn and leave when he saw the figure pull her in even closer. Even though he saw her reach up and run her fingers through his shaggy brown hair, even though he knew she was happy, he couldn't let it happen. His blood was boiling, he had to stop what he was watching.

Troy ran down the hill as fast as he could, this time the distance didn't seem that far. When he reached the couple he forced them apart, knocking Gabriella to the ground in the process. He didn't even notice her sitting on the ground, all of his attention was on whoever was kissing his girl. Whomever it was had turned away from him, hiding his face.

"Hey!" Troy yelled at the man, "look at me!"

"You need to control him," Troy heard Gabriella say as she stood up, "I've got mine under control. It's all because you tried to let him have a life."

"You're right," the man said. He turned to look at Gabriella, and it was then that Troy got to see the face of the man that was kissing his love. Troy's eyes went wide when he saw his own face looking back at him. Troy stood and stared as the man that looked just like him took Gabriella by the hand and led her away. Troy's double glanced back at him and shook his head, "from now on my clone sleeps alone,"

Troy woke up with a gasp. It had been the same dream for the past two weeks. He sighed and laid his head back down. It was the dream that had led him to his current location. After three days of waking up on Chad and Taylor's couch Troy had decided that he needed to find Gabriella. The first step seemed somewhat obvious to him - find someone that could get him in touch with her. Which was how he ended up in LA, knocking on the door of a very nice house tucked away in the hollywood hills.

The short woman who answered the door was clearly very surprised to see him, but quickly wrapped him in a tight hug before grabbing his hand and leading him into the house. Troy spent the next hour explaining, in detail, to Kelsi what had happened to him. He told her how he had been upset with Sharpay for awhile, how he had nearly cheated on her (which earned him a slap on the arm from Kelsi), how he decided that he still loved Gabriella, and how he left his wife in a note and left his best friend behind in Albuquerque as he tried to find his high school sweetheart.

It took Kelsi awhile to digest all the information, but after a few minutes of tense silence she agreed to help him. But, she would only help him on one condition. That condition wasn't revealed to him, however, as Jason happened to arrive home at that moment. Troy had made Kelsi promise not to tell Jason. Jason and Zeke had always been very close, so even though Jason and Troy remained friends after he started dating Sharpay the relationship had become somewhat strained.

One could never tell that the relationship had ever had a problem, though. As soon as Jason saw his old basketball captain he rushed over and gave him a hug. Not one of those one-armed manly hugs, no this was a I've-missed-you-more-than-life hugs. It took two hours for Troy to tell Jason everything that he could. He didn't mention that he was looking for Gabriella, just that he had seperated from Sharpay and needed to get away from New Mexico. Jason's eyes let Troy know that he knew he was hiding something, but Jason didn't press it.

And so Troy ended up living in the guest room at Jason and Kelsi's. Despite all the pressure that he was putting on Kelsi she refused to bring Gabriella over until she had things just the way she wanted. Troy was unsure what the tiny songwriter was up to, but she seemed to spend long hours on the phone everyday trying to work something out.

This morning was the day that things finally started to progress for Troy. When he made his way from the guest room to the kitchen he found Kelsi sipping her coffee and reading the paper.

"Morning, Kels. Jason leave for work already?" He asked as he poured himself a glass.

"Yup," she said without looking away from the paper, "He decided he needed to reshoot a scene. He said it wasn't 'enough', whatever that means. You win the Sundance film festival one time and suddenly you start to doubt everything you do..." she trailed off as she took another sip of her coffee.

"In high school if you had told me one day Jason Cross would be making films about a pastor that's addicted to herion I would've laughed in your face. But here we are," Troy replied with a smile.

"Yeah, here we are. Four years since graduation and things are so different. Jay is artistic, Gabby isn't afraid to sing infront of millions, Zeke is the basketball superstar," Kelsi finally looked up from her paper, "and you're the one that's going to explain everything that's happened to your life to him."

"To who?" Troy asked, confused.

"Zeke, you idiot," Kelsi shook her head and went to look back at the paper, but it was snatched away from her.

"Why am I talking to Zeke?" Troy asked as he threw the paper behind him, "I tried talking to him four years ago and he wouldn't listen. I tried talking to when I saw him at your wedding, and he wouldn't even look at me! I tried to invite him to my wedding and I didn't even get a reply! He doesn't want to listen to me!"

"He might not want to. But he'll be here in about an hour. You may want to prepare something to say." Kelsi stood up from the table and placed her coffee cup in the sink. She gave Troy a little smile as she picked up the paper from the floor and threw it in the trash. "And after you talk to Zeke I'll give Gabs a call. I can't promise she'll come, but I'll call." With that Kelsi walked out of the kitchen.

Troy sat in silence for a few minutes, thoughts racing through his head. At one point in time Zeke was one of his best friends, but they hadn't talked in years. Troy wasn't even sure what to say. Should he tell him that he left Sharpay? How would Zeke react to finding out that the Troy didn't love her, and that Troy had thrown away their friendship for nothing? What could they possibly talk about?

"You had better be worth this Gabriella," Troy thought out loud. But somehow he knew she would be.