A/N: YAYYY! Email alerts are working again!! FINALLY!! Hahaha. Well here's chapter four. Enjoy and enjoy some more!!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything except for Mark.

Chapter Four: Tonight I Want to Cry

I can't believe this, who does this guy think he is? Brad Pitt?

At the dinner table that night, her mother had the room lit with heavy scented candles; it almost looked like they were in a restaurant in Paris. The man was tall and tanned skinned. He had huge blue eyes and he looked very attractive, almost like a movie star or an Abercrombie and Fitch hunk but older of course. But as good as his looks, Gabriella could see right through him, and she didn't like him. To her, he was like a self-centered jerk that was crazy to be dating her mom and worse. She never even knew they were dating until that phone call yesterday at the mall.

"I've been everywhere, I've been to Arizona, New Zealand, London, China, Everywhere." The man chuckled. "It's almost like I'm famous." He laughed again. Clara just started at him in disbelief.

"Hmm…you sound like you're pretty into yourself, Mr. Jackson." Gabriella replied with a little edge in her voice.

Her mother gave her a hard look, knowing that Gabriella already doesn't like him.

"Oh please, call me Mark." Mark said before chucking more food into his mouth. "So Gabriella, what are your hobbies, who do you hang out with? Have a boyfriend? A pretty high school young lady like you MUST have a boyfriend."

All these questions…doesn't he know when to stop talking?

Gabriella gave him a snide smile.

"Well there's this one boy Troy Bolton." Ana gave her daughter a grin and Clara giggled. "He's the sweetest young man and he comes over quite a bit on the weekends."

"Mom." Gabriella hissed.

"He also seems to really like her and-"

"Mom, PLEASE!" Gabriella said through gritted teeth.

Mark chuckled. "That's alright Ana. I'm sure if I was her age, I wouldn't want to spill all the dirty little secrets either." They all laughed as if the joke was funny.

Lord, Help me.

"Well I wonder what dirty little secrets you and mom have right now. Since you two had been dating for SO long now."

Mark blushed. "Well actually, we've been dating a few weeks after you moved here. But I'm sure you already knew that."

"Nope." Gabriella's cold and angry eyes turned to her mother. "No. I didn't. I never even heard a thing."

All this time, they were dating, and she never told me? My own mother lied to me!

"So Clara, what do you like to do?" Mark said after a long awkward silence.

"I like ballet and gymnastics." Clara replied, she was now picking at her potatoes. She always picks at her food when she sensed something intense or bad was going to happen.

"Yes, she's a very talented little ballerina." Mom smiled.

"And what grade are you?" Mark asked.

"Third." Clara responded staring down at her plate.

"Wow. You're practically a lady." Mark said.

Clara looked up and giggled.

"I used to do gymnastics when I was your age actually."

Clara's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Wow, I bet you were a pretty looking site in those leotards." Gabriella mumbled. Clara laughed at her comment. It was rather a bold thing for her to say out loud. She usually just kept her thoughts to herself.

"Gabi." Mom hissed. She turned to Mark. "I am so sorry about this. She's not usually like this at all." She turned her now hard expression back to Gabriella. "I don't know what has gotten into her."

All Mark did was stare at her, as if he was trying to let the insult sink in a little. He chuckled. "Oh Ana, Don't worry about it. I know she didn't mean it."

Gabriella glared at him. "What if I did?" She snapped.

Mark didn't say anything; he just looked down at his plate. "I know how you feel about me, Gabriella." He said softly. But his eyes lit up and he smiled. "I know you're dad's gone but-"He was cut off.

Gabriella stood up forcefully, causing her chair to fall backwards. "You don't know a THING about how I feel. Oh and FYI, how I feel is none of your business. My dad is coming back here to live with us someday! He and mom will get over their stupid little fight and come back here and you'll be history! So I'm just going to pretend that this night had never happened. And you'll NEVER replace my dad. EVER!"

Clara started crying at the scene.

"GABRIELLA MARIE MONTEZ! APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW!" Her mother her voice as high as heaven. She was clearly angry.

"Why would I apologize?! He's not worth it." Gabriella shoved the chair backwards and ran up to her room.

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"Gabriella open the door." Mom said sternly as she knocked on the locked door in front of her.

Gabriella thrust the door open. "Why aren't you downstairs with Mark?" She snapped.

"Mark's left, and it looks like he won't be coming back." Mom snapped.

"Good, that's what I wanted."

"What on earth has gotten into you?" Mom asked her in disbelief. "You were extremely rude to Mark, you upset your sister and because of you this night was a disaster!" She said almost on the verge of tears.

Gabriella couldn't hold the emotion in any longer. She burst out crying. "Mom?! Do you even care about what we think?! You lied to us! You hid this from your own daughter's for the last three..four…whatever MONTHS!" It was hard for her to talk and cry at the same time. "And how DARE you talk about Troy with him?! I don't even know him; do you always talk about my personal life with him? I barely even talk about it with YOU!"

"Gabriella, I'm sorry I was just…"

"Lying. You were lying to me. I can't believe you did that! Who the hell would do that to their own DAUGHTER?!" Gabriella couldn't believe she just swore.

"DON'T YOU DARE USE THAT LANGUAGE IN THIS HOUSE!" Mom yelled. "You better get your act together because I'm sure you lost Mark's respect." She snapped.

Gabriella couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Well, this never would've happened if you hadn't have lied in the first place." Gabriella mumbled wiping her eyes. Then she met her mother's eyes with a cold glare.

"What have you done with my Gabriella?" Mom said in a broken voice, tears running down her face. This was not the same, sweet gentle daughter she once knew.

Gabriella felt more tears running down her face. "Go away mom, I don't talk to liars." She slammed the door in her mother's face and she could hear her mother sobbing. She could also hear her mother walk away, and shut the door of her own room.

Gabriella fell on her bed and cried and cried and cried. She was pouring all of her emotion out of her. Her tears soaking her pillow, her hair was messed up and tangled. She felt horrible, she felt so mean.

What is my problem?! I've never been like this EVER. I'm so mean and my mother hates me. I'm not mean...I'm awful.

Suddenly, Gabriella's cell phone rang, she picked it up and looked at the caller ID, and it was Troy. Bad Timing.

She took a deep breath. "Hello?" She said in a broken tone.

"Um..is this Gabriella?" Troy asked hesitantly.

"Yeah," Gabriella paused to clear her throat. "It's me."

"Wow, you sounded different. You have a cold or something?" Troy asked.

Gabriella could feel her angry and hurt feelings leave her for a moment, because it felt so good to hear her friend's voice. She giggled softly. "No."

"How was your family thing that you had to do?" Troy asked her.

"Um… it was fun. We actually went out to dinner." Gabriella felt even more guilty. She too, was also lying through her teeth. "My dad also called tonight, telling us that we'll see him this weekend."

"I'm glad that you and your family are so close." Troy said. "Your dad sounds like a really cool guy."

Gabriella swallowed. "He…he is." What am I going to do?

"Troy…um I have to go…" Gabriella said quickly, hating to let him go but its better than telling him more lies. "I'll talk to you maybe tomorrow."

"Alright, later." Troy said simply and hung up.

Gabriella flopped back on her bed and cried and cried some more. After all the emotion and tears were yanked right out of her, she felt empty. She felt like there was nothing left.

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Gabriella woke up at 12 the next day. She felt groggy and exhausted. It seemed like she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep for the past feel days. She was the only one home that bright and warm Sunday. Normally they would go to church, but her mother was working an extra day that day and Clara was over at a friend's.

Gabriella sat up in bed and wiped her eyes, she realized that she had slept in her clothes last night. Suddenly the doorbell rang.

Gabriella thrust the covers off of her and she flew down the stairs.

"Taylor?" Gabriella said after opening the door and letting her in.

"Oh Gabriella you ARE home." Taylor said in relief. She then giggled. "When was the last time you missed church?"

"Well we really haven't been going for a while anyway." Gabriella explained.

"You look so tired." Taylor noticed. "Are you okay?" She asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine…I'm just-"Gabriella stopped. "I don't know."

"Did you have a rough night or something?" Taylor asked, sitting on the couch. "Wow, I never realized how nice your house really was." She said randomly. "So anyway…did you have a rough night last night?"

Gabriella buried her face in her hands, she felt like she was going to cry all over again. "No. Nothing happened."

Just that my mother brought a strange date over and that I was rude to him and I made Clara cry and that my mother and I fought so bad last night I'll probably never speak to her again and that she'll never forgive me and I miss my dad more than anything and I wish he was here so I could just tell him everything. But other than that, nothing happened.

"You can tell me Gabi. I'm your best friend." Taylor said.

Gabriella forced a soothing smile on her face. "I'm fine Taylor, really." She said quietly.

"Well…okay." Taylor was still questioning what went wrong, but she knew that Gabriella would perk up in a bit. "Well, we're all going to Chad's, you should come! It'll be fun."

"Actually, I was kind of thinking I should stay home today. I don't feel like going out." Gabriella said softly and honestly.

"Something IS wrong! You never turn down an opportunity to hang out with your friends!" Taylor said now full of concern. "What happened last night?"

"Nothing I'm just overtired, it's been a busy weekend."

"Well yeah but last weekend, Friday and Saturday were sleepless and you still made it on Sunday!"

"TAYLOR!" Gabriella didn't know her voice was raised. "Sorry. But I just don't want to okay?"

Taylor sighed. "Gabriella something IS wrong and I'm GOING to find out what it is, so you either can tell me now or later. Well I'm sensing you choose to tell me later, so I'll see you tomorrow. Actually I'll call you when I get home. Oh and thanks for leaving me alone with Troy, Chad, and Zeke today. This will be fun." She rolled her eyes.

Sometimes, Taylor said a little too much all at once, but Gabriella still managed to sink it all in. "Okay, um…have fun." She told her friend in a quiet tone.

Taylor gave her a small wave and left. Gabriella turned and went upstairs, showered, changed into her pajamas and went back to sleep. Maybe she WAS over tired.

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"Guys I'm really worried about Gabriella. Haven't you noticed that she's been acting really different lately?" Taylor said as the TV went on.

"Yeah well girls always have their little mood swings." Zeke explained.

"Yeah and she sounded fine on the phone last night." Troy said his eyes fixed on the TV.

Taylor sighed. "I don't know." She looked down on her pillow. "It's almost like she's hiding something."

"Maybe it's her "secret" crush on Troy." Chad said laughing but quickly stopped when Troy punched him in the arm.

"No…I don't think it's that and how'd you…ugh…whatever. But I seriously don't think it's that." Taylor said. Chad now had turned off the TV and all the guys were all eyes and ears on her. "When I went to her house today, she looked so tired and terrible. Her hair was all messed up and all over the place and her eyes looked red and puffy. She looked gross."

"EW!" Zeke said and everyone looked at him. "I'm just kidding." Zeke laughed.

"That's weird, because for a braniac, Gabriella's hot." Chad said.

"I don't know… I seriously just think she's tired." Troy said. "I think she's fine. She just needs a break."

Taylor sighed. "I don't know…I seriously think she's hiding something."

"I agree with Troy." Chad said. "But maybe she is acting a little weird. Like yesterday at the mall she was acting funny, but I seriously think that Troy's right."

"After today, she'll return back to her amazing self again." Zeke told her.

"Really? Because she almost yelled at me today, and she NEVER yells."

"Probably on the cranky side too." Chad said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it Taylor." Troy said with his tone gentle and soft.

"Yeah, Gabriella seems like the open type, if she's having a problem I think she would tell us." Zeke said also looking through some cook books.

"Yeah we're her friends, she can pretty much tell us…well pretty much anything." Chad said in a matter of fact manner. Troy nodded in agreement.

Taylor, once again, let out a deep sigh. "Okay…"

Troy sat back in his chair and relaxed, he too was hoping that Gabriella was okay. He actually wasn't really sure if she WAS the open type. Would she really tell them if something was wrong? Sometimes, it was hard to understand her and Taylor was right, it WAS rather weird for her not to come tonight. Most of the time, she never really missed out on a time to hang out with her friends.

Taylor was still thinking about her, wondering why she looked like such a mess this morning and why she acted like she was hiding something. But she decided to let it go…for now.

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I've been in my room most of the day, sleeping, or just reading. Avoiding my mother has been surprisingly easy. I hadn't seen her all day. Because I've been in my room... She either is avoiding me too, or just deciding to leave me alone and give me space. But whatever…I don't care. She's the one who hurt me first. They both did. But if I don't care…then why can't I stop crying?

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THERE! Another chapter accomplished. I thought this was very emotional. Hmm. Well I hope you liked it. I know in the movie Gabriella is originally shy, but just letting you know, she's more bolder in this story, but she still is shy and quiet sometimes. Ok I'm done. Review please!