A/N- Aww! Thx 4 the g8 reviews everyone.

One Step at a Time

It had to be him. It couldn't be anyone but him, could it? One look in his eyes was all she needed to see that it was him. No one else could have blue eyes that inhumanly electric blue. The color of them was glorious enough to draw envy from the brightest, clearest, sparkling skies and oceans.

She'd first seen those eyes the summer before her freshman year. She'd just moved the Albuquerque from San Diego. Her friends and family were eight hundred miles and two states away. It was a long eleven hour drive back, and she didn't expect any of them to take an impromptu road trip to visit her. For once, she was totally alone.

Her mother had been babbling away for the past five hours about how this was going to be "a great experience," for them and "a chance to smart fresh." No one would know them here and they could be anything they wanted to be. On any other day Gabriella might have made a few "suggestions" about how they could reinvent themselves, but not today. As they pulled up to the stop sign, Gabriella's nervous stomach clenched up and Maria's foot pressed onto the accelerator, Gabriella leapt from the car and sprinted across the street.

The wind whipped her hair out behind her as she ran through the grass lawns. People were looking at her funny as she jumped over picket fences and past kids playing in sprinklers. A few of them screamed rude phrases at her but she didn't care. She didn't care that she was running through people's yards. She didn't care that she didn't know where she was going. She didn't care that since she'd left her cell phone in the car, she didn't have a way to contact her mom. She just wanted to run, to feel the wind in her hair, the sun on her back, her feet hitting the ground, her arms pumping, her lungs burning, and her muscles screaming with exhaustion. She wanted her body to hurt so much that she'd be unable to feel the pain in her heart.

"Just run," she told herself. And she kept running until she reached the park. She slowed to a jog and placed her arms behind her head as she tried to catch her breath. She walked over to the tiny, narrow, wood bridge and peered into the water below. She leaned over the edge and wondered how it would feel to drown in the murky stream below her.

But that was a stupid thought. Nothing was worth that. She sighed and walked over to the steps that led off the bridge. She hated taking every step, it was too slow. Instead she jumped of the bridge and landed on the concrete walkway. It'd been a little higher up then she'd thought and she shook the pain out of he ankles and knees. At that moment and couple of kids ran past her and knocked her off balance. She stumbled into the wet grass and before she knew it, she was plunging into the water.

She'd screamed as the ice cold water engulfed her and pulled her to the deepest part. She couldn't touch the ground and the current immediately dragged her to the bottom. Her father had been an avid seaman and although he'd never been around enough to teach her much, he'd definitely taught her not to panic around water. So when she felt her back hit the rocky bottom, she just pushed herself back towards the surface. She was almost there when something tugged her back down. She pulled on her leg but she didn't move. She was stuck.

She floated back down and saw that someone's old fishing rod had ended up at the bottom of the stream and was now jammed around the rocks. Its line was wrapped around every possible object which made impossible to move anything. Not even the raging water could separate the rocks from the line's iron grip. And it's hook? You guessed it- right in Gabriella's pant leg. And like its cohorts, the hook refused to let go of anything it caught.

Gabriella's father used to say that instruments, like fishing rods or boats, should be thought of as an extension of ones-self. And Gabriella concluded that the previous owner of the fishing rod had been a ruthless catcher.

Everything seemed to get darker around her as her lungs began to run out of air. She now had the answer to her question- "What would it be like to drown here?" Her answer? Not fun, not fun at all. She hadn't expected it be fun but she hadn't expected it to hurt this much. The cold water made her feel like thousands of pins where stuck into her skin and her body was demanding oxygen. She knew she was about to die, she was positive. But one thing that was uncertain was the whole death procedure thing. Where was the whole life-flashing-before-her-eyes thing? Where was the bright light? Where were the singing angels? All she saw was darkness. And it was getting heavier, and heavier, and hea...

Then she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She opened her heavy eyes and saw a dark figure in front of her. But she couldn't keep them open. She was so tired. She just wanted to slip away, into the warm, empty darkness. The figure plugged her nose and breathed into her. The darkness dimmed and her thoughts seemed to clear for a moment. She realized she was still underwater and pointed to the hook in her jeans. The person dove towards it and easily pulled out the hook.

She was free! She tried to swim up but her limbs felt like they were made of lead. The figure wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards the surface. She choked, sputtered, and gasped as her lungs filled with oxygen and dispelled the water. She heard the person beside her call to a friend and felt them pull her out and lay her on the grass.

When she opened her eyes again, it was bright, except for the darkened blob in the middle. "Are you alright?" the blob asked.

"Of course she's not alright, she almost died!" another voice said. She blinked and looked around, searching for the other person.

"I didn't ask you. I know you're not alright," he snapped back. The blob's voice sounded irritated, but jokingly sweet at the same time.

"I'm fine," she coughed, trying to ease the tension between the two.

"There's nothing wrong with my head," the voice said in a tone that sounded like a pout.

"Says the guy who refers to his hair as his baby," the blob laughed. Her eyes had just adjusted to the light and she just make out the boy's shaggy brown hair.

"You're just jealous man. Cuz my hair is so F to the A to the B-U-LOoowwws." Gabriella rolled over and laughed into her hands as she watched the boy decked out in red and white sports wear dance around singing before falling over a tree root.

"He always like that?" Gabriella asked as she coughed up the last of the water.

"Pretty much. An average day for him consists of eating everything in sight, basketball, talking about his hair, basketball, making a TOTAL fool of himself, and basketball. Did I mention he plays basketball?"

"Yeah, you mentioned that," Gabriella laughed. She liked this shaggy haired boy and his weird, hair and basketball obsessed friend. They weren't like the guys that he used to hang out with, these guys seemed so nice.

"Just checking," he said cheekily. "You sure you're okay." Gabriella nodded and the boy smiled. "So where you from?"

"How do know I'm new?" she asked. Was it the way she dressed? She pushed herself into a sitting position and stared down at clothes. She was just wearing jeans and a tee, innocent enough.

Troy noticed and laughed. "It's not how you're dressed," he said sweetly. "I've just never seen you around school."

"Isn't it a big school though? You could have missed me," she challenged.

She watched as a grin took over the part of his face she could see. "I don't miss anything," he bragged.

"Really now," she said mocking disbelief.

He grinned more. "Really. I notice everything and everyone."

"He really does!" Chad yelled as he ran after a funny looking duck.

"What are you doing?" Troy shouted.

"This demon-duck stole my money," he responded as he chased the bird down the hill.

"Chad stop!"

"I can't he has my money."

"That's not what I mean. You're about to go in..." SPLASH and with that Chad plunged into the water. But unlike a normal person, he didn't run back out. Instead, he proceeded to swim after the duck with his money. Gave the grumpy old man feeding pigeons a good chuckle though.

Troy shook his head, "Sorry that we're the first people you meet. That can't help with the whole lack of normalcy thing," he said apologetically as he stood up.

"Who said I liked normal?" she shot back.

He smiled his thousand watt smile again and her heart melted. "Touché. By the way I'm Troy Bolton and that's Chad Danforth," he said offering her his hand.

"Gabriella Montez," she replied as she happily took his hand and he effortlessly pulled her up.

He pushed back his hair and looked down at the girl with twinkle in his eyes. "Welcome to the East Side Gabriella Montez."

And that was when she'd first fallen in love with Troy Bolton.

She spent the next three years wondering what it be like to have their lips touch again. To feel his arms wrapped around her for a reason other than to keep her from drowning. Waiting for the day he'd tell her that he felt the same electricity she felt when he looked in her eyes. It'd almost happened once, but after that. Something changed. She'd never known what, but after that night at the football game, he'd never been able to look at her. He'd avoided her like the plague. Chad had tried to comfort her, but he really was Troy's best friend, not hers. And soon she'd been all alone again.

In one weekend, she'd gone from never being alone, to always being alone. The change was so drastic and painful that she'd finally taken her mother up on the idea of her studying aboard. And three weeks after their devastating division, she was jetting off to an art school in Paris.

But now she was back in Albuquerque, and so was he. It couldn't be more perfect. Well, unless of course he felt the same way she did. But she didn't know how he felt because she hadn't seen him since that day at the market when she'd met Ryan.

She'd spent the next few days trying to track him down, but no one knew Troy Bolton. She finally decided to give-up and leave it to fate and went to take a trip down memory lane; starting with The Mudhouse.

It was a totally cliché name for the coffee house, but it seemed to add to its appeal. The outside of the building was designed to look like a hut or "mudhouse." It'd been painted in a way that you were almost afraid to touch it, worrying that if you did, everything would fall down. But the inside has warm and inviting. There were giant, fluffy sofas situated around the room and fireplace. The tables, chairs, and counters were made of mahogany. The walls were painted a deep vermillion and the floors were covered with a strange textured tile that made it look like you were walking on dirt. Other decorations, curtains, pillows, pictures, appliances, etc.; were a variety of colors that tied each other into the room. The designer had been a genius.

As Gabriella walked through the doors of the cafe, she was overwhelmed with the smell of coffee beans and forgotten memories. She felt out of place as she paid for her coffee and sat at a table by the window. It was she'd never been there before, even though she'd gotten breakfast there everyday with Troy throughout their high school career.

She looked over at the table they used to sit at and saw a man with shaggy brown hair sitting there. Her heart when she saw... "Ryan?"

"Hey Gabriella," he said enthusiastically.

"What's he doing here?" she thought. She was trying to think of a way to get rid of him when she remembered something, Troy and Ryan were friends; at least she thought so. She could use Ryan to get to Troy. "Just be cool," she thought. "Ryan, I was just thinking about you!" she gushed excitedly. "Oops. That's not how I wanted that to sound. I hope he doesn't get the wrong idea."

"Really!" he asked, his eyes glittering.

"I think I gave him the wrong idea!" She scolded herself for forgetting about what they'd taught her in drama about voice control. "Oh, well I just mean that I...there...you...I..." she sighed. There wasn't a nice way to let him down while explaining she liked his friend.

Then a painful thought hit her, why hadn't Troy told Ryan he liked her. Unless he didn't like her. She glanced over at the table and saw him whispering to a tiny brunette in cut-offs. He was laughing and reached over and touched her cheek. She looked away before she had to watch them kiss. She'd been wrong terribly, terribly wrong.

"I was wondering if you were busy this weekend. I'm holding this kids' music/ theatre convention thing this weekend and wondered if you'd want to come."

Gabriella stared at Ryan. He seemed really sweet and all, but she couldn't picture herself dating him. He reminded her of Troy too much. Not that they were alike in any way, it's just that her first memory of Ryan was linked to seeing Troy again. And that was a sore spot right now.

Seeing Troy with another girl was torture. She wanted to walk over there and tear the little girl's hair out. The thought startled her. Was she really jealous of a girl she'd never met? No, she was jealous of her relationship with Troy. She wondered if Troy would feel jealous of her relationship with another guy. No, he probably wouldn't even notice. Unless he saw her with the guy a lot. She smiled mischievously, or he saw the guy a lot and he brought her with him.

She smiled sweetly at Ryan, "I'd love to. But I've got to go to this cookout thing at 4. My college roommate is throwing it for her friends and family. I haven't seen her in years and I just ran into at the school yesterday and promised I'd go. "

"Oh, no problem, the workshop will be done at two," he reassured her.

"Perfect," she clapped. "So I'll meet you at the theatre, and then we'll go to the cookout together," she said putting emphasis on the "together." "See you soon," she said with a wave. "And bring a change of comfortable clothes," she added as she walked out the door. But before she left, she glanced out of the cover of her eye and saw Troy staring at her sadly.

It was working! She felt so dirty about the whole thing. Dating a guy to make his best friend jealous was so un-Gabriella-like. And Ryan was such a nice guy; she didn't want to hurt him. Maybe they could stay friends after all this. He seemed like an understanding guy. He'd have to understand that she was meant to be with Troy. Maybe he'd even help her with the wedding!

But she was getting ahead of herself, she'd always hated steps. But that had been how she'd met Troy. But she figured that this time, she'd have to take things one step at a time. She could do that couldn't she? For Troy, she would do anything.

A/N- Let the drama begin. And whatever you're thinking right now, don't worry... I promise you're wrong; maybe. ;D But press the pretty blue button and send me a review. PLEEEEZZZZZZZ!!