A/N: HSMandChelseaFCfan is quite busy. So, you're stuck with me over the Christmas vacation. Nearly Christmas EEP lol. What time is it? Christmas Time. It's our vacation! Don't own HSM. I know a lot of you might not like this chapter but...you know I can be mean ;) lol

Chapter 11 – Change

As Troy reminisced his first official week in Albuquerque, there had been drama, drama and, well, more drama. He and Gabriella had grown practically inseparable and had, without Maria or Aidan knowing, started sharing Gabriella's bed in order to continue their conversations well into the night. Aidan had returned from Chicago a few days before and everything was actually starting to settle down. He knew how Gabriella was still feeling the aftermath of Chris' bastard-like behaviour but did everything in his power to restore her beautiful smile – one that the guys were now claiming she only used around him.

By now, he had gotten to know each member of the gang, resulting in him having more friendships than he'd bargained for when he originally moved to New Mexico. While he counted on Chad for basketball, he went to Zeke for advice – and cake. He laughed when Jason became confused and Ryan was simply a good friend to hang out with. He had formed a strong friendship with Sharpay – although, that could've been because he had feared her slightly; and had developed a soft spot for Kelsi. He turned to Taylor for help with school and went to Martha to simply have some fun.

And then there was Gabriella-

Troy realised that the sophomore girl in front of him was looking up at him with hopeful eyes. He held his lunch tray on his left forearm and placed his right hand on the girl's shoulder, leading her to a corner of the cafeteria. "Listen, Katy, I appreciate that you like me enough to want to go out with me, but at the moment, I'm just not dating. I kind of just need my friends."

Katy sighed and folded her arms. "Why don't you just ask her out?"

"Who?" Troy asked, gripping his lunch tray with both hands.

She rolled her eyes and glanced over at the table to their left where Gabriella and Kelsi were talking and giggling. Gabriella waved slightly at him before turning back to their conversation. The rest of the gang had yet to arrive and it was clear the two girls were taking advantage of it. Katy turned back to Troy and raised her eyebrows. "Troy, I do like you. A lot. But, do all us girls a favour and ask her out. Not only are guys falling all over her but, she's nearly a senior. Do you know what that means?"

"College." Troy muttered.

Katy nodded. "Troy, the reason I asked you out is because I knew you'd take me to a quiet part of the cafeteria and I wanted to ask you to stop torturing all us girls and just ask her out."

"Katy, I don't think I can do that right now. I'll see you later." He sighed and then made his way over to the table to see that Chad and Jason had now arrived. "Hey, guys." He took a seat next to Gabriella and kissed her cheek as he always did when he greeted her.

She giggled one last time at Kelsi before turning to face Troy. "Is that the tenth girl that's asked you out today?"

Troy nodded; still slightly shocked that Katy had suggested he should ask Gabriella out. "Yeah. It's crazy."

"It's kind of weird." She muttered, pushing her chilli fries around her tray thoughtfully.

"What's weird?" Troy asked, slipping his arm easily around her waist which provided the kind of comfort they both knew – though never admitted – no one else could.

"All the girls in the school, even ones with boyfriends, give me jealous looks. And I know why." She whispered softly. She lifted her eyes to look across at him to find him piercing a French fry with his fork.

"Do you want me to change back?" He asked quietly. The rest of the table fell into silence and turned to face the couple intently. They were oblivious to the attention they were receiving from their friends and Troy's grip tightened subtly.

Gabriella was silent for a minute before she glanced up and saw all of her friends start talking again. She sighed loudly and stood up, grabbing Troy's hand. "Come on."

He got to his feet, knowing where she was taking him. He followed dutifully and when he stepped onto the rooftop garden, he released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "I'll change if you want me to."

Gabriella released his hand and walked over to the wooden bench, taking a seat and gripping the edge with a white-knuckled force. "No. I just find it weird, Troy." She lifted her head and met his eyes. "I keep thinking we're six years old. And I find it hard to realise that the little boy who asked me to marry him with a hula hoop is surrounded by girls…and I'm not one of them."

Troy creased his brow into something which resembled the Grand Canyon and he leaned back against the railing, keeping his eyes locked on Gabriella. "I'm serious." He whispered. "I'll change if you want me to."

"And I'm serious. Troy, when I agreed to be close to you; that was one of the riskiest choices I've ever made. And it wasn't easy. But, so you can look like that, I've got to go through girls slagging me off and giving me death glares while you wander down the hall living heaven on Earth." She exclaimed with watery eyes. She released a shaky breath and finished in a quieter voice. "Don't you see it?"

Troy swallowed noticeably and sucked in a deep breath, clutching the railing behind him even tighter. "See what?"

"The change. Troy, at home and when we're with the gang and when we're alone, I still see this six year old boy who cried with me the day before you left for L.A. And when you first became…" She gestured to his body with her hand before letting it drop again, "this, you were still him. But, when we're in school, you're not."

"What are you saying?" Troy mumbled, dropping his gaze to the floor.

Gabriella got to her feet and slowly walked towards him. "If I have to tell you, it's not even worth it. You know it's funny, I thought you were different from every guy that came into my life." She paused momentarily to swallow a very large lump in her throat. "Are you ashamed?"

"Of you?" Troy gasped. "No. Of course not. Why would I be?"

"You tell me." Gabriella said sternly.

"Hold on, if what you just said is true, why have we gotten closer?" Troy asked, taking a step towards her.

Gabriella folded her arms and shrugged. "Like I said, I keep seeing a six year old Troy who, not only asked but, promised to marry me. You don't remember, do you?" She asked quietly.

* * *

Gabriella had finally calmed down after lunch and walked out of the main building towards the parking lot. "Hey, Troy!" She hollered to the shaggy haired teenage boy, leaning against the hood of his car.

He turned to face her and shrugged slightly. "Hey Brie."

She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. "Troy, listen, I just wanted to say that I didn't mean-"

"Hey, Troy." A voice giggled.

"Kirsten?" Gabriella asked, forcing her voice not to convey how hurt she felt.

Troy sighed and shrugged again. "Kirsten and I are hanging out today. Is that okay?"

Gabriella nodded slightly and shifted her bag on her shoulder. "Yeah. It's totally cool. I still have to fix my car. I've been busy." She said quietly. "I'll see you later." She forced out before turning around and running out of the parking lot and to the sidewalk.

Kirsten Rover. Almost in the same league as Scarlet Addison but what made Kirsten so much worse was how she hurt Ryan and Sharpay. It was known throughout the entire school how much the gang loathed her and how it was reciprocated. Except Troy. No one had informed him of that fact and after her outburst at lunchtime, she doubted she would be the one to tell him.

The truth was that she had been getting closer and closer to Troy purely because she tried to deny the fact that Troy had changed. She had figured that the closer she got, Troy would change back. Yeah right.

She slowed down once she reached the comfort of her driveway and she let her bag drop so she was carrying it in her hand. "Hey, Don!" She called over to Devon who was happily riding in circles on his bike.

"Gavvy!" He yelled as he braked and climbed off – allowing it to fall to the ground with a clunk. He un-clicked his helmet from his head and threw it to the ground beside his bike before running towards his older sister and hugging her legs. "Where's Troy?"

Gabriella bent down and picked him up, resting him on her hip as she approached the garage. "Uh, Troy's… I don't even know. I know he's hanging out with Kirsten." She opened up the garage door and smiled sadly at her broken truck staring back at her. "Do you want to help me fix Lulu?" She threw her bag to the side and placed Devon on the hood as she took her jacket off and hung it on a hook.

"Yeah. I do. I miss her." He whined.

"Well, that's what you get for getting paid minimum wage." She muttered.

He laughed and held his arms up for her. "When's Troy coming back?"

"I don't know, Don." She sighed, trying so very hard to keep her patience. She set him on the ground and turned to her truck, opening the hood and propping it open. She and Devon coughed in unison at the amount of smoke which greeted them and Gabriella waved it all outside until she had a good view of the engine – and she had the ability to breathe again.

"I think it's broken." Devon said innocently, shrugging at his sister's persistent glare.

"I can see that." She said through a giggle as she walked around her truck and came back with a tool box, resting it on a wooden ledge to her left. "Right, so… Should I attempt to fix her or just send her to the scrap yard?" Gabriella asked, looking down on her baby brother.

"Gavvy, you've got to attempt to fix her. You want to be a doctor. Besides, this is Lulu. Don't you remember buying her?" Devon asked sweetly.

Gabriella laughed to herself at the memory and nodded. "Yeah. Don, before we start, go to the stereo and let's get some music in here, okay?"

Devon nodded and ran to the other end of the garage to the stereo which was sitting in a wheel barrow they didn't use anymore. He switched it on and then music started playing fairly loudly through the speakers. He ran back to Gabriella and looked up at her as she reached under the hood and pulled out the oil stick. "What's that, Gavvy?"

Gabriella inspected it and glanced down at Devon. "This is an oil stick, Don. It tells me if the car needs any oil or not." She wiped it with a rag before placing it back in the slot.

"When's Troy coming home?" Devon asked after a moment of Gabriella sorting through the tools in the box.

Gabriella felt tears well in her eyes and she turned around to face her brother, kneeling in front of him. "I wish I knew, Don. But I don't. He's gone out with Kirsten and I don't know where they've gone, why they've gone out or when he'll be back."

"Are you mad?" Devon asked quietly, reaching for her hand.

She sat on her haunches and shook her head. "Upset, maybe, but not mad."

"At Troy?" Devon asked quietly.

Gabriella nodded after a moment and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. "Yeah. I am. I don't really know why, even."

* * *

Gabriella jumped, letting the ball soar through the air, bounce from the backboard and drop perfectly through the net. She ran up the basketball net and caught the ball before it bounced. Devon, Aidan and Maria were all inside, watching TV but she had declined and started shooting some hoops instead. Ever since she was six years old, things had happened which made her wonder why she was Gabriella Montez. People claimed their lives were hectic but when your father was out of town half the time and your mother working all day which meant you had to look after your little brother whilst juggling a job and school at the same time. Your other younger brother died and then you find out your dad isn't your dad. And then, the little boy you grew up with enters your life and seems perfect but…

But what?

She dribbled the ball around her yard before shooting again. Why was she thinking so hard about it? It wasn't like she was falling in…

Who was she kidding? But, if there was one thing she understood about her relationship with Troy, it was that she was in love with the guy he was when he came here. When he didn't care what people thought. When she was the only girl who talked to him – apart from the girls from the gang.

She jogged to catch the ball once again and held it between her knees while she took her hair out of its pony tail and ran her hand through it. She was blowing everything out of proportion. She had exams coming up, coursework due and the junior prom. And she was sharing her room with a guy who didn't have any organisational skills whatsoever. She was simply getting stressed.

She scraped her hair back into its previous style and started dribbling the basketball before shooting once again. She had never felt like she was alone before. There had always been someone she could turn to and before this day, it'd been Troy. And before Troy arrived, she had gone to any one of her friends. But now, all she wanted was for-

"She shoots and she scores." Troy hollered in a commentator's voice as he appeared around the side of the house and caught the ball before it hit the ground.

Gabriella dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans and smiled slightly. "Hey."

"Hey." Troy said while he made his own shot and ran to catch it. "A week until the votes for captain."

Gabriella nodded slightly as he walked up to her. "I know. Good luck. I hate to put you down but it'll probably a senior, you know."

He furrowed his brow as he took his place directly in front of her, the basketball resting on his hip. Their breaths were mingling in the small gap between them and their chests brushed against the others' when they breathed in. "What's wrong?"

"How do you know something's wrong?" She whispered, avoiding his eyes.

"Because I'm your best friend." He cried incredulously.

She looked at him from under her lashes. "Where'd you go with Kirsten?"

He shrugged. "The mall. We went shopping and then grabbed a McDonald's."

She burst into a fit of giggles and covered her mouth with her hand as she turned away and bent over as she laughed hysterically. She straightened up and regulated her breathing while she held her stomach. "Kirsten Rovers ate a Maccy D's? I didn't think she ate at all."

Troy's eyebrows rose to the heavens. "Excuse me?"

She calmed down immensely at Troy's serious voice and she folded her arms, sniffing slightly. "I just didn't think she ate."

"Why?" Troy asked quietly.

"Troy, she's bordering on anorexia." Gabriella exclaimed as she shook her head in dismay.

He licked his lips as he spun the basketball on his finger and his eyes flickered to hers. "So, what's wrong?"

She shrugged slightly and held her gaze with his. "Just thinking."

"About anything interesting?" He inquired as he shot a basket.

She watched as he ran and caught it before chest-passing it to her. She looked down at the ball clutched in her hand and sighed. "Life."

"Yeah?"

She nodded silently, fixing her eyes on the ball in her hands.

"Hey," He started softly as he walked over to her and brushed a stray curl out of her eyes, "why don't we hang out tomorrow? I'll drive you from school and we'll go to a movie. I promise."

Gabriella lifted her eyes moved her head until his hand fell to his side. "Promise is a really big word, Troy."

"Yeah, I know." He shrugged.

"And tomorrow is the girls' day out. Remember you promised you'd hang out with Devon?" Gabriella raised her eyebrows.

"Right. Devon. I'll totally hang out with him." He nodded with a smile on his face.

"You forgot, didn't you?" She whispered.

"No. I just got the days mixed up. It's totally cool."

"So, you've settled in to the small town life?" She asked in a small voice.

He nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of crazy compared to L.A. but it's cool. I mean, it's kind of quiet, and everyone knows everything about everybody else. It's definitely crazy." He chuckled softly under his breath.

"It only takes one crazy thing for someone to change." Gabriella whispered as she threw the basketball carelessly behind her.

"What are you talking about?" Troy asked, looking down at her.

Gabriella bit her lip and finally leaned up to kiss his cheek, pulling back just enough so her breath still tickled his skin. She felt one of his arms wrap tightly around her waist as she closed her eyes. "You've grown up too much, Troy."

"Kids, come on in. It's getting pretty late." Maria's voice yelled, causing the two teenagers to spring apart in time for Maria to emerge from the house. She spotted how Gabriella was twirling some hair around her finger – a sign that she was nervous – and Troy was shuffling his feet – which was unusual considering his attention was always on Gabriella when she was around. "I interrupted something, didn't I?"

Gabriella lifted her head and forced a small smile. "No, Mom, we were just talking."

"Oh. Well, come inside now. It's getting pretty late." Maria said sternly, gesturing behind her with her thumb to the house.

"Mom, we're seventeen. Not seven. We'll be inside in a minute." Gabriella muttered.

"I know. Just come in the house now." Maria mouthed that she'd be inside for Gabriella to talk to before disappearing back into the house.

Gabriella glanced across at Troy. "I guess we should go in… My Mom wants us to…"

Troy grasped her hand tightly, knowing she was unable to meet his strength. "No. We're not finished here."

Gabriella felt her eyes water and she swallowed noticeably. "I said what I had to say." She whimpered as she lifted their interlocked hands and used her free one to bend his fingers back.

"Ow!" He yelped, retracting his hand from its grasp and holding it tightly in his other. "Brie!"

She shook her head slightly. "I already said what I had to say. And don't worry. I'll call Chad or Ryan to hang out with Don. It's totally cool. I bet Kirsten or Scarlet's waiting, huh?"

"Brie, don't be like this." Troy exclaimed. "The reason I changed was because people were verging on bullying you."

"I didn't ask you to. You know me. People can think what they like." She shrugged slightly and folded her arms. "But, if you changed for me, you'll change back for me."

Troy rubbed the back of his neck – which made Gabriella raise her eyebrows, knowing it was a sign that he was nervous. "But, Brie, I-"

Gabriella shook her head as she turned around and slowly walked into the house. "I knew it." She whispered. "It was too good to be true."