I know it's an overused excuse by a lot of authors on Fanfiction, but I've been super busy with school work and I had to re write everything because my cats broke my brother's laptop charger so I have to use the computer now. I'm super Sorry. I hope the length of this chapter makes up for lost time. :) Enjoy!

Gabriella didn't know why but while she lay in her bed late that night, she couldn't help but think about Troy. She wanted to stop but couldn't. It was like she was addicted, but she doesn't even know who the guy really is. It was new to her, and she didn't know whether to cherish it or fear it.

Troy woke up panting the next morning. He had the same reoccurring nightmare he'd been having for the past 4 years. It didn't happen every night but it happened enough that it sometimes caused a problem with school work.

He was standing there in a crowd of people. He looked around only to see people opening and closing their mouths as if they were chanting. Why couldn't he hear what they were saying?

He shut his eyes in hopes to make his ears work, but when he opened them he was on the floor and a big husky man stood in front of him with what Troy assumed to be his own blood. Troy put his hand to his mouth and noticed he was bleeding. He stood up and the sound of the crowd began to flood his ears. They were screaming "Fight!" over and over again, but Troy didn't want to fight. Troy wanted to sit down, he wanted to sleep, and he wanted his mom.

Suddenly he was sitting in a different room, looking at the floor. When he looked up a strange man he had never seen before was standing in front of him, angrilly.

"You are such a disapointment Troy!" He would say over and over again.

"I'm the disappointment?! You're the one that left!" Troy would rebuttle until his mom appeared in the doorway.

"Troy, he's right. It was a mistake to ever have had you." Troy looked at his mom and expected her to take it back or say "just kidding" but it never happened.

He looked back and forth between the two grown-up figures in front of him unable to say a word. He'd disappointed them both. He had left them both down and now they were standing there looking at him to say something. He began to open his mouth but he was cut off by the man pointing a gun at him. He looked at his mom who stood there smiling at the man and shaking her head in the direction of her son. Then there was always a bang.

Troy looked around the room unable to catch his breath just yet. He walked to the window and opened it up. Taking a deep breath of fresh air he looked back into his new room. He was sweating but at the moment he didn't care. It was only 4:00 in the morning but no matter how hard Troy tried he couldn't fall back asleep; Afraid that if he did, he wouldn't be able to escape the awful dream. What had he done to deserve the abandonment he felt? By both his mom and his dad.

"Troy. Get up." He heard Lauren say from outside his door. He looked at the clok that now read 12:00 PM. He sighed and sat up letting his covers fall to his stomach.

"Ok." Troy reluctantly stood up and stretched then made his way to the bathroom to get into the shower.

Gabriella was scheduled to work today at the Bolton's house, but was reluctant to go. It's not that she didn't love the opportunity that they gave her to make some extra money because she did; she was just so damn tired from thinking last night and she didn't want to have to deal with the cocky guy that they were now housing.

"Gabriella. It's 2 o'clock. Why aren't you out of bed?" Her mom walked into her bedroom uninvited. Gabriella sighed annoyed and sat up in her bed.

"I don't know." she said with as much attitude she could muster.

"Gabriella you have to be at the Bolton's in 30 minutes." Gabriella once again allowed an aggravated sigh escape her lips.

"What's wrong Sweetie?"

"Nothing." Gabriella got out of bed and walked towards her dresser taking out whatever she could find. Annoyed Mrs. Montez walked out of the room and slammed the door making Gabriella sigh for the third time in the past 5 minutes.

"Lizzie! Get downstairs!" Steven screamed from the bottom of the steps. She had been upstairs playing Monopoly with Troy. Lizzie ran downstairs laughing as Troy chased her.

"Alright. Gabriella is around back with your brother. Make sure that you behave and your mom and I will be back in about 5 hours. Have fun." Steven calmly said as he kissed his little girl on the top of the head before she proceeded to run out back.

"How was your first night here?" Steven asked hoping to spark a conversation.

"Yeah." The lie slipped easily from Troy's lips.

"Come on Troy. You can't just come into my house and ignore me! I am still your Father!"

"Yeah some dad! You left! You never came back! You can't just put me on a fucking plane and expect me to act like your perfect Son!" Troy yelled not caring that Lauren had just walked into the room with Gabriella following behind.

"HEY! Watch your language! I did come back! I fought you! I lost! It's done and nothing we do is going to change the past but I'm Trying to make up for my decisions! You're in my house, you are going to show me some respect!"

Troy couldn't believe what he had just heard. His mom never mentioned the custody battle but before he could fully think things through he heard a loud scream in the back yard coming from Lizzie's mouth. The all quickly ran outside forgetting the conversation that had just happened in the middle of the living room. It didn't matter right now. What mattered was Lizzie, only Lizzie.