Chapter 4

The sound of teenagers chattering seemed to echo inside her head as Gabriella walked down the hall towards her locker. Out of the entire campus that was one thing that she could remember. Her locker. She had a long way to go.

Gabriella's mood plunged downward at the sight she saw before her eyes. Taylor McKessie was standing in front of her locker looking unnaturally chipper for it to be so early in the morning. Gabriella had tried to get to school earlier than normal so that she could avoid this, and have time to find her homeroom by herself. Meh!

"Morning sunshine!" Taylor greeted " I thought that I should lead you around one more time today, and then tomorrow I can stay with you while you try it yourself so you don't get lost!"

Gabriella groaned inside her head. This girl is going to give me a headache.

"Sounds great"

Taylor guided Gabriella to homeroom chattering uncontrollably. By the time she got to homeroom Gabriella could feel a slight throbbing in her temples. Her second day back at school was not starting well. As usual, people didn't stare as much today, but they still stared. And it was still annoying.

Gabriella immediately laid her head down on the cool desk, hoping that it would help soothe the pain in her head. Ariela had kept her up all night so it had taken every ounce of strength in her body to get up that morning. Right now her brain felt like it was the consistency of mush and her body was aching in complaint. Also, thanks to Taylor's nonstop chattering she had a massive headache as well. Yay.

"You know that desk is probably the most unsanitary thing you could lay your head on right now. I mean I'm just saying." a boys voice said from somewhere above her head

"Go away" she groaned. She could feel the vibrations from his voice echo in her head.

"Hey, I'm just trying to save you from some deadly disease" Gabriella risked a peek up. Troy Bolton was standing beside her desk smiling down at her.

Gabriella had the sudden urge to punch him in the face.

"I don't care just leave me alone. " she groaned and put her head in her hands.

"I just wanted to introduce myself officially. I'm Troy Bolton."

"Yeah I know we sit next to each other in Chemistry."

"Oh yeah. Well, apparently you want to sleep so..." with those last words he turned around and pulled out a book from his backpack.
Wow that easy . Gabriella thought putting her head back down. The announcements started causing everyone to quiet down. The thumping in her head was getting stronger ,and something told her that it wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

After the bell rang Gabriella, Taylor, and Enid started to walk to Math together. While the other two talked Gabi ignored them and tried to get her brain to start functioning. She started with listing things she needed to do in her head. Pick up Ariela, start researching at the library for Medical Professions, unpack...

All of a sudden Troy popped up next to her ...never think "Wow that was easy" again

"Hey again" he greeted

"Go away again." Gabriella countered extremely annoyed.

"Oh, so I see you still need some sleep." He pointed out ,trying to keep up with her speed walking. For some reason Taylor and Enid had magically disappeared when Troy showed up. Gabriella wanted to find them before she resorted to punching this guy. She really didn't feel like spending a day in I.S.S. because some freakishly nice dude wouldn't leave her alone.

"Yeah just a little." Gabriella answered sarcastically while she tried to get away. She started thinking about how to get to Math. Without Taylor there to guide her the hallways seemed to multiply in number. Was it this hallway or the next?

Troy signaled down the hallway as if reading her mind "It's this one."

"Huh?"

"Math, it's down this hall. We're in the same class remember?" he explained to her carefully as if she were a child.

"Right. Yeah." she answered. She had to get her brain working or today was going to be a total disaster. It wouldn't have to get much worse though from the looks of it. Shaking her head, Gabriella hurriedly walked to the room she recognized as her class. Thankfully her seat and Troy's were far enough apart that he couldn't bug her.

Gabriella had already been taught the lesson that they were learning so she tried to activate her brain by working all of the examples before the class. While the teacher taught the lesson and answered questions Gabriella went ahead and did the homework. Ahh, nothing like some good math problems to wake you up...not.

The fact that her brain was working properly only meant that it could recognize the fact that her head was pounding even more than before. She tried to block out the pain and doodled on a scratch piece of paper with her pointer finger supporting her head. When the teacher finished everyone started to converse among themselves. Gabriella looked up from her doodling to see Troy walking towards her with a big smile on his face. Gabi let her hand fall to the desk with a huff. Did he not get it? She didn't want to talk to him!

Since the person who sat in front of her had gotten up to talk to some of her friends Troy sat in her spot.

"Hello" he greeted turning around to face her

"What do you want?" she asked bluntly

"I just wanted to talk." he replied confused to why she refused to have a civil conversation with him.

"Well I don't, so just go back to your seat over there and talk to whatever other friends you have."

"Are you ever going to talk to me?" he asked

"Nope, and I don't even see why you're talking to me now. You weren't too interested yesterday, what's so different today?"

"Nothing's different with you today. I was just in a bad mood yesterday, that's all. And I told you, I try to introduce myself to all of the new students that I see." He answered earnestly

"Yeah, you didn't tell me that."

"Really? I could have sworn I did. Well I do. So..."

The sound of the bell ringing pierced through Gabriella's head. She had never been so happy to feel pain before in her life.

"Yeah, well as lovely as it's been talking to you, I have to go to Medical Professions now." Gabriella said, already on her way out the door

Giggle ,giggle ,giggle. Yeah go giggle yourself off a cliff somewhere so I don't have to hear you anymore Gabriella thought as Sharpay and her minions giggled while looking straight at her again! If they were going to talk about her they could at least do it discreetly.

Gabriella sighed in relief when the classroom door opened and Taylors head popped in. "Come on Gabriella."

Thank God. Gabriella did pretty well finding her way to Medical Professions and got to Chemistry just as easily.

"See, the school isn't that big once you get used to it." Taylor reassured her at the door of Mrs. Hall's classroom. Gabriella practically winced in pain at the sight of the table she would have to share with Troy. She was not looking forward to sitting next to him all period long. Sitting down, she got her books out of her bookbag.

Someone cleared their throat next to her. She looked up to see a creepy teenager who looked to be about her age standing next to her table. He was handsome in a dark bad boy kind of way. He had a certain mischievous glint in his eyes. The overall look was attractive to most girls and ,you could tell by the way he carried himself, he knew it. Gabriella wasn't feeling it.

"Hi, I don't think we've been formerly introduced yet. I'm Jake." he said squatting own next to her table. Oh God, not another one!

Gabriella chuckled darkly, shaking her head. "Ok look John, I don't .."

" My name's Jake."

"Whatever. I don't know why everyone is deciding to talk to me today, but whatever the reason is, I don't like it. So can you just strut right back on over to your seat and leave me alone? Thank you and bye bye."

A part of Gabriella knew that he totally did not deserve what she just did, but all of these nice people were really getting on her nerves. I mean it's one thing on the first day of school, but on the second? Come on. If someone ignores you for a full day and then wanted to become your best friend you would be annoyed too.

"Umm, what?" Jake shook his head as if he were getting water out of his ears. His face made it pretty clear that he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Apparently he had never been turned down by a girl. Aww how sad. Cue the fake tears.

Jake started to talk again when someone interrupted him from behind Gabriella. "She said she didn't want to talk to you. Get over it and sit back down." Troy said dropping his bookbag on the floor. There was no way you could miss the authority in his voice. Jake went back to his desk with his tail between his legs.

Troy pulled his chair out with his foot and sat down then turned to Gabi and opened his mouth to speak.

"Uh uh." she interrupted before he could start. At his puzzled face she continued "Just because you saved me from a horrible fate doesn't mean you can talk. My head still hurts like a beast and I cannot take any more of you strangely friendly people trying to talk to me. So just listen to that ipod that I know you have with you and leave me alone." Gabriella instructed him before laying her head down on the desk. It seemed like she was doing that a lot today. Her head practically felt like it was going to explode. The rest of the class was just a blur. She could faintly remember some kids getting in trouble for writing notes, and there being a ten minute speech on respect, but she could honestly care less.

"What the mess..." Gabriella said in a sing-song voice when she and Taylor walked into the gym for P.E.. There was a big row tennis nets dividing the gym into half, with buckets of tennis rackets and balls strewn across the floor. Coach Bolton and a student were just finishing setting up a net on the far end of the gym. When he saw that most of the students were in the gym Coach Bolton walked closer to them and started giving them instructions.

"Ok everyone. Now I want you to dress out and get into pairs. Today we are practicing tennis so when you get out go ahead and grab a racket and ball. I'll give you more instructions when your all ready."

Everyone hurried and went to their locker room to get ready while Taylor and Gabriella lagged behind.

"Um , Gabriella look I would have brought this up earlier, but you didn't seem to really care at the moment and now I just really need to get this out of my system."

Gabriella swallowed the comment that she still didn't care about anything Taylor had to say.

"Ok, well what's on your mind?" Gabriella asked with false concern while she opened her gym locker and started to dress out. Somehow she ended up with a locker right next to Taylor's. Apparently there was no way Gabriella could ever get away from her.

"Well it's about yesterday." Taylor answered

"What are you talki...oh." Gabriella said as it dawned on her what she was talking about. The awkward conversation from yesterday. Great.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It was really none of my business and Chad, well he's just Chad if you know what I mean."

"Haha yea, well it's fine. Really, don't worry about it." she assured Taylor while she closed her locker, "Now come on, let's go hit some people in the head with tennis balls."

Gabriella walked into Parenting ready to just relax. After a whole day of people trying to talk to her, get to know her, whatever rubbish excuse they used she just wanted to sit back, and enjoy a class of nothingness.

That is, until she saw Troy sitting at her table with his feet propped up on her desk.

"What are you doing here?" Gabriella complained. This guy was seriously trying too hard

"This is my class. What are you doing here?" he asked smiling, already knowing the answer.

Gabriella groaned and sat down in her chair next to him .

"It's my class too." she answered miserably. Troy laughed at the look on her face.

"You know what? I'm not going to bug you this period."

"Really?" Gabriella asked hopefully

"Yes really. You look like you could use a break from the constant onslaught of questions. And besides, I have a feeling we're going to see each other very soon."

When Gabriella got home she put Ariela on a blanket on the living room floor. After she made sure the baby was situated she immediately changed into some comfy clothes to start on the living room. It needed a lot of work. She had to put books on bookshelves, put down rugs, take out all of those little things that you have no idea where the heck they came from, ect.. By the time Gabi came back down the stairs Ariela had just discovered that she could move freely with no obstacles. She was having ton of fun just laying there kicking her legs around her.

"Are you having fun baby girl?" Gabriella cooed at her daughter. Hearing her mother's voice Ariela lifted up her head just enough to look at her mom for a second, squealed , then laid her head down again. Looking around at all of the work to be done, Gabriella started cleaning.

After working for a while Gabriella heard the doorbell ring throughout the house. With a sigh, she got up to answer the door.

"This had better be important" Gabriella muttered while she walked to the door. She opened the door to see Troy standing there with a tray of cookies. Suddenly she felt very self-conscious in her old sweats and messy ponytail.

"How'd you get here?" she asked closing the door a little.

"Well hello to you too. I live a couple streets down." he answered

"No you don't." she said quickly with wide eyes. This made Troy laugh quietly and step closer.

" Yeah I do. My mom heard that there was a new family in the neighborhood and she wanted you to feel welcome, hence the cookies."

Hence, wow. Big sounding word.

"Okay well ,thanks for the cookies. See you at school." Gabi said quickly, trying to get the tray and close the door as fast as possible.

"Wait, aren't you going to invite me in?" he asked confused, as if she wasn't doing what most people would do.

Let's see. Stranger pops up with cookies. Option 1: You accept them and invite them in with the possibility that they could be a mass murderer. Bzzzt no. Option 2: Accept cookies and say goodbye and hopefully see them nevermore? Ding ding ding we have a winner!!!

"Um no, I'm sort of still unpacking and the house is a mess." she said "Oh I don't care, I could help!" he insisted

"Well my mom would kill me if I let someone she doesn't know in." she explained. Why couldn't he just leave?

"Oh ok. I guess I'll see you later then" he said looking truly disappointed as he turned to leave.

"Yeah see ya." she said. She felt a pang of regret as she watched him walk away.

"Hey Troy!" she called out when he was halfway down the walkway to her house.

"Yes" he answered hopefully, turning around to face her. Suddenly she forgot what she was going to say, so instead she just said "Um thanks for the cookies." She closed the front door shut, pushing a terribly familiar feeling down deep inside her. Biting her lip, she leaned against the door. This can't be happening again.

Gabriella woke up the next morning regretting all the events that had happened leading to the present. For such a smart girl she really didn't have much common sense at times. After last year's events you would think that she would know better than to start letting a stranger in again, but here she was again, repeating history. Yesterday had been way too close. She didn't know why, but her feelings for Troy were starting to mirror the way that she had felt about Ariela's father when they first met. All that those feelings had given her was heartbreak, and there was no way she was going to let that happen again.