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Troy: Hey! You writing another chapter about me and Brie?
Me: Yes, Troy… You should be used to the fame by now. You have half the girls in the world swooning over you
Troy: Yeah, sure. It's not all it's cracked up to be. A lot of speculations about what my life is like.
Me: Maybe you should tell them
Troy: I'm not a particularly good story teller.
Me: Well, I don't own High School musical…

Dear Diary

Today was the worst day in my life. I can barely begin to describe it to you. Mom is dead… Alex is paralysed from the waist down… I am scarred for life. Where do I go from here? How do I continue living with all this pain building in me? I wish it would all just end… Sometimes a knife or the bottle of pills on my dresser looks really tempting. But I can't do this to Alex. I can't leave him alone…

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Troy woke with start, sweat covering his body as he tensed with anxiety before relaxing slowly. The summer heat was smothering him even with his balcony windows as open as they could go. With a growl of annoyance he pushed himself out of his bed and crossed his room till he stood outside on his balcony. He breathed in deeply and tried to cool down, but there wasn't even the slightest hint of a breeze.

"Only one thing to do," he muttered to himself, "An icy shower."

Carefully he gathered his clean towel that he had gotten earlier from his mom and headed down the hall. He tiptoed really carefully past his parents and rooms and just as he was about to go past Gabriella's he froze. Muffled screams reached him through the door and without a moment's hesitation he dropped his towel and opened her door. Quickly he moved to her side.

Her whole body was tensed, her face pressed into the pillows, and she was clearly in the grips of a terrible nightmare. Tentatively Troy stretched out a hand and shook her shoulder trying to wake her. With a strangled sob she jerked awake, chocolate brown eyes wide open and terrified. With a stifled shriek she moved away from Troy, her pulse hammering in her throat.

"Hey, hey, easy," Troy murmured gently to her, "Are you ok?"

She looked around wildly, as if she was afraid that whatever demons had taunted her in her dreams would follow her into reality. Her frame shook with the shock and fright and Troy looked at her concerned.

"C'mon," he coached her holding out his hand, "Let's go downstairs and I'll make you some hot chocolate."

Very hesitantly she lightly gripped his fingers and he carefully led her of from her bed and down the stairs. As soon as he could reach the light switch he flicked it on, lighting up the entire kitchen, chasing away the darkness. Gently he released her hand and deftly set to work, gathering all the ingredients he needed.

"I make a different hot chocolate than most people are used to," he said conversationally, ignoring how quiet she was and avoiding talking about her dreams, "I hope you don't mind it. It will be pretty sweet so it might give you a bit of a jolt…" He added generous spoonfuls of cocoa to the pan of boiling water that he had put over the stove, "That will make it taste like chocolate. I hate these … what do you call it? You know the already mixed up powders that you just add to water and milk. They don't even come close to tasting as good. Except maybe for Milo but Milo it's nicer to eat the powder than to actually drink the drink… But maybe it's just me. I dunno. Chad says I'm weird in that regard…" Deftly Troy poured the chocolate mix into two coffee mugs and went and to fetch the sugar and milk, talking all the way, hoping to calm her down, "Chad's my best friend. We've known each other since we were in diapers. My mom was walking with me one day in my pram and Mrs D, Chad's mom was walking the same time. They met one another and started to talk about babies, and baby powder and all those wonderfully interesting stuff. They said we took one look at each other and became friends. I think it was more spending so much time together that made us friends, you know?"

Carefully he handed her a cup and gestured for her to move back up the stairs. He flipped of the light and closely followed her up the stairs. Softly they entered her room and he grinned as he switched on the light. Carefully he closed the door, and then turned to the bed. Gently he set his cup down on the dresser on one side of the double bed that she had. He settled in comfortable and grinned at her cheekily.

"Anyways, Chad's a big old sweetheart. You'll like him as soon as you meet him. The jocks in East High will probably be different from those you are used to. We aren't stuck up prigs… Ok well, it depends. Sometimes, I suppose we can be a bit mean, but I mean compared to most jocks we are calm enough. East High has a large student body. Lots of clubs and stuff you could join."

Gabriella drew closer, fascination written all over her face until she was sitting cross legged in front of him, listening intently and sipping her chocolate. The first sip brought a grimace to her face.

Troy smirked, "I told you I liked it sweet. You'll be so buzzed after this; I might have to play a few games of basketball with you to get the edge of that sugar buzz. Speaking of basketball, East High is basketball cuhrazy! We have football players and all but they aren't as popular. For some reason East High prefers basketball. Personally, I think it is a much more exciting game anyways. What was I talking about before I got distracted? Oh right… clubs…"

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I had never met anyone as talkative as Troy. I mean, most people are shy around people they barely met. He was carrying on a comfortable monologue as if it didn't matter that much that I wasn't saying a word. I was fascinated by what he was saying and he seemed quite happy to chatter on.

"There's the Drama Club, skaters, baking, decathlon team, who am I missing? Study groups, ice skaters, dancers, gosh… I don't know. It's hard enough to remember all my school work without trying to work out how many clubs and social events there are. There is probably one party at least a week. Ice Queen enjoys putting on these extravagant parties. Her parents are ridiculously rich, but they are like never at home…"

I winced at the resemblance to what my situation had been. Troy must have noticed because he quietened down for a few seconds before smoothly resuming his monologue, "Anyways, she likes to put on these large parties. But once you have attended about three, you get oh I don't know. They are always the same. She's the big star attraction and we are supposed to worship at her feet… It gets a bit hard to be nice to her…"

"Maybe, there is a reason why she wants attention…" I said so quietly I wasn't sure he heard me. He didn't even look surprised that I finally he talked… he just kept quiet, an encouraging smile on his handsome face, "With her parents away so much, she must be getting desperate for attention. After a while any will do. You wish your mom would stay at home. Not be gone for so long," I started bitterly not even realising that I was talking about my own mom.

"I hate her, Troy!" I looked at him with venom in my eyes. He didn't say a thing, no shock showing on his face, just quiet pity and understanding, "Why did she have to move around so often? Why did the stupid movers have to be so late! Why did my mom want to work so hard to give us everything we could want but fail to realise that the thing I wanted most was a mother. Why did my…" I couldn't help it anymore and tears flowed down my cheeks, sobs hitching in my throat, threatening to suffocate me.

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Troy gently pried the cup from her fingers and placed it next to his empty one on the dresser. With a sob she collapsed on the bed and started to cry her heart out. Troy had never felt so helpless in his life before. What was he supposed to do about Gabriella? She was clearly carrying a lot of pain around and he was pretty sure that somehow she needed to vent it, but he barely knew her. Uncertainly he reached out a hand and laid a strong hand on her shoulder, squeezing it sympathetically and lightly rubbing it with his thumb.

"Please go," she whispered tearfully, turning away from him.

Quietly he stood up, and left, closing the door behind him and wincing as her sobs grew slightly louder. With a sigh he collected his towel that was still lying on the floor where he had left it and went back to his room. With a moan he buckled onto his bed and passed out from fatigue.

Troy stirred himself with a groan and slowly pushed himself up. He sighed, rubbing his tired face with a hand before getting up and walking into the hallway with his eyes closed.

"Watch out!" he heard a scream from right in front of him. Troy's eyes snapped open as he slipped on the wet floor on the hallways, crashing into Gabriella and causing her to fall down.

"Hahaha!" Troy laughed so hard his sides started to ache. He grinned at a flustered Gabriella, "Oh dear, are you ok?" he asked her getting to his feet and extending a hand to help her up from the floor.

"Yeah," she muttered, ignoring his hand and marching into her room. Troy tilted his head quizzically and then shrugged his shoulders. He retrieved the bath towel from the bathroom and quickly mopped up the puddle of water on the ground that he had slipped on.

"Whatsup buddy?" Chad greeted his friend just as Troy dumped the wet towel in the bathtub.

"Hey, buddy," Troy grinned at his best friend, "I'm starving so let's go grab some grub and then …"

"Call of Duty!" Chad crowed victoriously. With wild whoops they bounded downstairs to go and fetch some breakfast.

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I hugged my knees to my chest as I sat on the floor, resting my back against the door. Why did Troy have to be so damn cheerful about everything? I mean he tripped on a puddle of water and crashed rather painfully to the ground but all he could do was laugh as if it was the most hilarious thing ever. I clamped my hands over my ears as I heard another guy join Troy and then with loud cheering noises they raced downstairs. Depressed I stood up and walked over to my bed. I fiddled a bit with my phone considering calling Alex, but he was probably already busy with physio. I lounged around, my stomach growling but not wanting to go downstairs and just help myself yet. As I sat up and tried to gather my courage to go ask Troy to help me, I heard a hesitant knock on my door.

I stood up and opened the door a crack. A grinning Troy was standing on the other side, his hands squashed into his jean pockets.

"Hey," he greeted me friendly, "I made some breakfast… I assume you haven't eaten yet?"

I nodded no and opened the door slightly farther.

"Well, Chad is wolfing down the food downstairs so… if you want some, you better come get before I pile in as well," He said stepping backwards to let me out of the room if I wanted to. Hesitantly I slipped out of the room and closed the door behind me, "Cool!" he smiled at me before leading the way downstairs.

"About time you joined me," I heard a loud guy talking for the kitchen. Troy entered and I stopped just outside the door afraid to go in.

"You had better have left enough for me and Gabriella…" Troy teased his friend and then I heard the unmistakable screech of a chair being pulled out.

"Who on earth is Gabriella?" the boy's puzzled voice reached her ears.

"She is right… oh," Troy sighed before standing up and coming towards me, "C'mon Gabriella… Chad doesn't bit, I promise."

"How sure are you of that?" Chad yelled back.

Troy stuck his head into the kitchen, "Not helping, dude!" and then he turned back to me, "C'mon Gabs…"

I flinched at the nickname but nodded and walked into the kitchen.

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Chad stood up quickly as the young raven-haired girl followed his friend into the kitchen.

"Hi!" he smiled at her. She was so nervous, "I'm Chad Danforth, Hoop's best friend," he gestured to Troy, "And you must be Gabriella?"

She nodded shyly, before carefully going to sit at the kitchen table. Chad sat down again and went back to eating as Troy scurried around the kitchen gathering plate and cutlery for her. Quickly he dished her the bacon, eggs and sausage he had made and grabbed a piece of toast.

"Voila!" he exclaimed setting down a full plate in front of her, "Enjoy mademoiselle…" She smiled very slightly and then stared intently at her plate as if it was poisoned, "No poison, I promise," Troy smiled at her sitting down with his own plate heaped, "Maybe needs a bit more salt but that's about it."

She shrugged her shoulders and started to eat, "Thank you," she said so quietly Chad strained to hear her. He and Troy exchanged glances and then dug back into the food.

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