Crap. Another word in her 'List of Names for Perverted Losers' dictionary, but it wasn't a name to call a perverted loser. It was a word that you would say out loud, to signal that you did something terribly wrong and Gabriella Montez was stupid enough to do it. When the bell rang at exactly 3pm, Gabriella walked out of the building and met up with Troy Bolton at his car. "What do you want Bolton?" she asked. "Nothing; just to talk to you." He put his hands in his pockets. "I can't be late you know. My dad's going to kill me if I don't get home on time." Gabriella took out her cell phone and sighed. "So, please hurry and tell me what you need to ask me." Gabriella pleaded. She lied about the dad going to kill her part, but it was true that her dad would 'hit' her if she didn't get home on time. "I was kind of hoping if you wanted to go out with me. I mean, not that you would say yes, coz you wouldn't and—"Gabriella smiled. "I love to." "Does this Friday sound good?" Troy asked. "Friday at what time?" she asked him before walking to her car. "Does 7pm sound good?" "Yeah; that sounds good." She walked away and headed towards her car.

Gabriella finally arrived home and her dad was waiting for her. "What took you so damn long Gabriella?" her dad asked her. "Dad, I had to talk to Kelsi." She lied and immediately her phone rang and it was Sharpay. "Hey Shar…" Gabriella smiled. "Yea; did Kels give you the music that I asked her to give you?" She paused as she glanced at her dad nervously. "Great; yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!" Gabriella hung up. "See; I did talk to Kelsi dad and I didn't mean to come home late. Mom said that school clubs or friend dates would work out fine." "Don't talk about your mother in this house." He slapped her. "DAD I'M 18 AND I KNOW WHAT CHILD ABUSE IS!!!!" she screamed at him and headed up stairs. She slammed her door and locked it. She dialed Taylor's number and packed all of her clothes in a back. But Taylor never answered. She groaned and called Sharpay's phone number, well Ryan's. He didn't answer. After packing her clothes, she unlocked her door and headed downstairs. "Where are you going?" her father asked her.

"I want you to go dad. I'm 18 and I'm old enough to live here alone. I don't care where you go, but I want to stay away from this house until you leave me alone." Gabriella grabbed her keys and headed out the door. She slammed the door behind her, started her car, and drove to the nearest house. The Bolton's house. She regretted going here, but she didn't know where else to go. She stopped her car and placed her shoes inside the trunk. Instead, she took out her flip flops and walked up to the front door with her gym bag that her mother had given her, in case she wanted to run away. Her mother had reminded her, "Gabriella, if your dad gets angry and beats you, I want you to have this bag and run away. I need you to stay at my friend Lucille's house and nowhere else." Gabriella touched her left cheek, which stung and rang the door bell. Someone opened the door. "Gabriella?" Troy asked her. Gabriella was crying and hugged him. "Please let me stay here. My dad will never find out. Please Troy…" she pulled back from the hug.

Troy smiled and let Gabriella enter his house. His house looked familiar to Gabriella's, but it felt a lot like home. He locked the door and led Gabriella towards his room upstairs. They sat down on his bed to talk before his mom called him for dinner. "You can always come here if something bad happens like that." Troy said after Gabriella told him her story. Gabriella smiled and said, "My mom told me that this was the only house I could go to and nowhere else. She said that I was going to be safe here away from my dad if he ever hurt me like that." "Do you want to come down for dinner? Chad's coming over with his family." Troy stood up and Gabriella took off her flip flops as she followed Troy downstairs to see his dad, Jack opening the door for the Danforth's. Troy and Chad greeted each other with a 'manly hug' and Gabriella just stood there looking at the ground. She remembered the time when she ran away, the day her mother had passed away. She ran away from her dad, her house, and stayed with the Bolton's. Gabriella was fifteen years old when she last stayed her.

She and Troy used to be friends, but that was before she became friends with Sharpay and Taylor. "She gets to sleep here and I can't?" Chad asked. "It's a long story and I can't tell you." Troy wasn't known for keeping his secrets, but Gabriella knew the side that she wanted to see. Troy being her best friend again… "Just tell him Troy…" Gabriella looked at Troy with tear stained cheeks. Troy told Chad the story and the two vowed to never tell anyone. "Kids, dinner's ready!" Lucille walked out of the kitchen, where the adults were talking. Gabriella looked at Mrs. Bolton; she started crying even more. "What's up with the crying?" Chad asked and Troy hit him, lightly though. Troy walked up to Gabriella and grabbed her hand. "Let's go eat." He said as he brought her into the kitchen. Chad sat down next to Gabriella. She stared at her food and it was quiet for only a moment until Troy's parents started talking. Lucille knew the reason why Gabriella was at their house. "Gabs, you have to eat." Troy whispered into her ear.

She took a bite out of the macaroni on her plate. Her favorite food whenever she was at the Bolton's house. But she wasn't hungry, but it was polite to eat. The last time she heard her nickname 'Gabs' from Troy was the first day of school when she became friends with him. Gabriella waited while Troy finished his plate and followed him upstairs. Chad followed them shortly after finishing his food and thanking Mrs. Bolton for the great dinner. The three met in Troy's room and they started talking. "So this is the only house that you'd go to when you runaway?" Chad asked as Gabriella nodded. "Does she—"Gabriella tensed up and Troy said, "She talks, but not to you."

That Friday, Gabriella arrived at school and parked her car near Troy's car. They both entered the school together as their friends watched from the bus stop and the parking lot. Gabriella felt safer around Troy, but she still thought he was an asshole. Troy and Gabriella both walked to their lockers, which were about 5ft away from each other. Gabriella took out her History book and Troy did the same thing. "You have 5th period with Troy?" Taylor asked. "He switched classes." Gabriella said and headed down the hallway into Ms Darbus' classroom. She sat down in her seat and Troy sat down in his seat, at the same time the bell did. Gabriella was wearing a light blue shirt, dark blue jeans, black high heels, and a Luis Vuitton white purse. This time, Troy didn't glance at Gabriella because he was focusing on one thing. The date with Gabriella at 7pm.

At 3pm afterschool, Sharpay and Taylor were over at Gabriella's house. "I'm so glad your dad decided to leave." Sharpay sat down on Gabriella's bed. "Yea; I'm glad too." Gabriella agreed, smiling as she logged onto her laptop and logged onto MySpace. She sat down on the bed beside Sharpay and Taylor sat down beside Gabriella. "Oooh…I wanna see if Tay, Kels, Martha, and I are still your top four friends." Sharpay took the laptop from Gabriella and clicked 'friends' on the top. "WHAT!?!?!" Sharpay was very shocked as Taylor went around and sat beside Sharpay. "How is Troy Bolton your top friend? I mean the first one?" Sharpay asked. Gabriella blushed and went blank. She blushed because of embarrassment. "I-I don't know…" she lied. "Tell the truth Gabriella." Taylor said. "Okay, during my freshman year, Troy and I became best friends. His mom and my mom were friends." "Is that the full truth?" Sharpay asked as Gabriella nodded.

"And is there anything else we should know about you two?" Taylor asked with curiosity. "He asked me on a date and he's picking me up tonight at 7pm." Both girls went silent and Gabriella took her laptop from Sharpay. She sat at her computer desk and sighed. She started typing her report for English. Her assignment was to write a report about 'Child Abuse' and happily, Gabriella knew so much about that. Around six-thirty, Gabriella got dressed for her date. She wasn't sure if she'd go formal and innocent or formal and sexy. I'd rather go with innocent. She thought as she pulled out herself a sleek black halter top dress and matching high-heels. She decided to go with the half-up-half-down hair-do, did her make-up, and checked to see if her cell phone was on vibrate, just in case her friends called. At exactly 7pm, the doorbell rang and she went to answer it. "You look beautiful this evening Ms. Montez." Troy smiled as Gabriella smiled back. "You haven't changed much…" Gabriella locked the door as Troy led her up to his car.

"A new car?" she asked him. "Yeah; my parents gave it to me for my eighteenth birthday. They wanted me to invite you, but I told them that it was just me and the guys. And when I asked you the day before my party, you said no because you had plans." Troy opened the door for her, like a gentleman would, and closed it right after she got in. Once he finally got in, started the car, and headed down the street to a restaurant. "My mom died three weeks after my eighteenth birthday. She told me to invite you, but I said to her that I couldn't because Sharpay wouldn't agree with it. I never celebrated my eighteenth birthday and I was thinking about inviting you, but…" Gabriella trailed off. "But what…?" Troy wondered as he stopped at a red light. "I thought your friends would ask you, 'Why would you want to go to a girl's birthday party?' I never actually got what I wanted. Not that I wanted a new dad, but my dad's strict. He grew up in Mexico and my mom grew up in America."

Once the light turned green, Troy made a left turn. "What did you want for your birthday? Besides the things you already have…" Troy parked his car in front of a familiar restaurant. Gabriella stared at the name of the restaurant and then she looked at him. "Before you say anything, yes; this is the same restaurant that I have taken you to before. But that was…" "Three years ago and no one knows about that. Sharpay or Taylor haven't found out yet." Gabriella smiled and got out of the car at the same time Troy did. Troy locked the car and brought her to the door. He opened the door for her and Gabriella entered, "Thank you." "You're welcome." He smiled as he followed her into the restaurant. "Is that my uncle Benny?" Gabriella whispered to Troy. He nodded and she ran to her uncle. "Uncle Benny!" she hugged him. "Gabriella!" Her uncle hugged her back. After the hug, "You have grown so big. How are you?" Benny asked with a glimmer in his eyes. "I'm great."

"I'm so sorry about your mother." Benny knew what happened to his sister, Marie. "I'm pulling through Uncle Ben, but my dad's been too rough on me lately and I told him to leave. I told him to go back to Mexico and to never come back." Gabriella said proudly. "That's good. Are you staying by yourself at your mother's house then?" Benny asked. Gabriella nodded. Immediately, Gabriella's cousin entered the room, "Alec!" she hugged him too. Gabriella and Alec were the same age. They pulled back from the hug. "You look different today Brie." Alec complimented. "Shut up…" Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Oh, I want you to meet someone, a friend of mine." Gabriella pulled Alec up to Troy. "Troy, I want you to meet my cousin Alec. Alec, this is my friend Troy." Alec and Troy shook hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Alec smiled. "You too." Troy smiled back. "Can I get you guys a table? The food's free if you want Brie." Alec offered Troy and Gabriella. "That'd be great Alec, but…" "I know, away from the door." Alec said in his Mexican accent.

Once Troy and Gabriella were seated, "Your mom's side of the family is very welcoming." Troy said as Gabriella giggled. "My mom's side has been that way for many generations." "You're very welcoming too, but when you're at school, you avoid people sometimes." Troy said. "Yeah; it's just Sharpay wants me to stay away from you and your friends and—"Gabriella looked up from her menu and saw someone familiar. She hid behind her menu before Troy could turn and see who Gabriella saw. "What is it?" Troy whispered. "Sharpay's here with Zeke." Gabriella told him in the same tone. Troy was about to turn around, "Don't look! They'll see us and especially, Zeke will see you with me." "Aren't you…" "Yeah; I know. The hottest girl in school aka the school s-l-u-t…" Gabriella said and saw Alec walking towards them. "Alec, you see those two people over there." She motioned towards Sharpay and Zeke. "Yeah…wait, is that Sharpay Evans?" Alec asked looking. "Yes, could you please escort them to a table far away from ours?" Gabriella asked.

Alec nodded and walked up to Sharpay. Gabriella put her menu on the table and moved her chair near Troy's. "Can you act like my boyfriend for five minutes?" she asked Troy. "I'm already acting like your best friend and you want me to act like your boyfriend?" he looked at her as she looked up at him. "Sure…" Gabriella smiled. Perfect. Suddenly her phone buzzed and she saw a text message.

I see you… who are you with? Shar

Gabriella sighed and text back.

I saw you earlier. Why are you with Zeke Baylor?

He asked me okay and I said yes. Did you know this Mexican waiter dude is offering us free stuff?

Yup; he's my cousin Alec on my mom's side. He always does that with the customers, even if his dad doesn't allow it. He never listens, but he's a good companion.

Tell me who you're with. You already know Zeke…

You might freak out, but please don't… promise me you won't freak out. Promise?

Yes, I promise.

I'm with… Troy Bolton.

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!" I heard Sharpay from across the room and I sank even lower in my seat. Crap… I thought. She's definitely going to kill me.