Mistakes

Hey guys, thanks for all of your reviews on the last chapter, anyway here's chapter 2, I hope you like it and please review and tell me what you think!

Chapter 2

Two weeks later, Troy and Lilly-Ella had settled happily into their new home in Albuquerque, Troy almost immediately regretting it as his parents seemed to be around constantly, much to his disgust, and Lilly-Ella's amusement, watching her Dad act and be treated as though he were a small child, but the two oldest Bolton's had moved away to Australia three days ago, so Troy and his daughter were starting to adjust to it just being the two of them again, Lilly-Ella had even come with Troy to meet the reason that the two of them had moved back to Albuquerque in the first place, the University of Albuquerque Redhawks.

After a serious knee injury in the final game of the last season, Troy was now unable to play basketball, but had been offered a job as head coach for the Redhawks, as long as he moved back to the area.

Troy had jumped at it, before realising the final condition, but after many talks with Lilly-Ella, whose decision he respected and listened to fully, after all, it was affecting her life as well as his, the two of them had decided that it was best, so they had packed up their bags and left the comfort of L.A. for the terror and uncertainty of Albuquerque, and Troy could only pray that his ex-girlfriend and ex-friends had all moved far away from the area, after leaving for L.A., he had decided not to contact any of the gang, as he knew that Gabriella would need friends to help her through this, even if she didn't tell them that she and Troy had a child together, or if she made Troy Bolton look like the bad guy.

But two weeks after arriving back in Albuquerque, it was finally time for Troy to meet the team, taking his daughter with him, and he was surprised to find that many of the team were completely in awe of him, not even knowing that he was Parker Smith, but knowing him as Troy Bolton, the one who led the East High Wildcats to back to back championships, of which the team had never even reached the semi-finals since Troy, still known as the Golden Boy to many at East High, had left.

Lilly-Ella found the startled expression on her Dad's face highly entertaining, until her interest was peaked, when she heard two of the players, Joe Danforth and David Cross, talking about how they had apparently known her Dad when they were younger and he was in high school, and how they wanted to know why he left Gabriella, his high school sweetheart. Lilly-Ella did some quick maths in her head, and figured out that her Dad's high school sweetheart must have been her own mother, not actually knowing much about her, as she knew that it upset her Dad to talk about her Mother, and that he was still deeply in love with her, even a fool could have seen that.

Although Lilly-Ella also noticed that when Troy was introduced to these two players, both new twenty year old juniors for the following year, he paled considerably, and the two of them actually looked fairly shocked to see him as well, especially when he introduced a very curious Lilly-Ella to the two of them.

"Troy," Joe and David hissed at the same time, visibly glaring at Troy as he evidently winced at the boys' tone, and Lilly-Ella opened her mouth to speak in her father's defence, especially noticing that everyone else had now left the room, leaving her in the middle of the glaring match, but she was instantly stopped when she heard Troy's voice suddenly jump into the mix.

"Joe, David, the last time I saw you two, you were running around trying to figure out if the bogeyman was real or not," Troy smirked coolly back at the two who immediately grew red, only growing redder still when Lilly-Ella started to giggle quietly.

"What are you doing back here Troy?" Joe demanded harshly, taking charge as the once four year old who had looked up to Troy and begged for his help with basketball skills was now the twenty year old who stood on the same level as Troy and had heard nothing but bad things about the guy since he had left out of the blue.

"Aah I'll take it as you guys have been speaking to Gabriella," Troy muttered, still calm as anything, which started to irritate the two young men, and only served to confuse his daughter even more over who this Gabriella character was. Turning to Lilly-Ella, Troy smiled briefly at her, but she instantly knew that it was fake and raised her eyebrow slightly, "Lilly-Ella can you please go and wait in the car for me, princess?"

"But Daddy-!" Lilly-Ella started to whine, her eyes wide at the thought of leaving her dad alone with these men who she didn't know, yet still looked ready to kill her best friend for some unknown reason.

"Don't argue with me Lila get out of here now," Troy cut her off with a sharp, clipped tone and a serious look that had Lilly-Ella nodding slightly and heading straight for the door.

"I love you Daddy," she smiled slightly at him, as she turned around, one hand on the door ready to flit out of it when Troy returned her smile.

"I love you too, princess, but go on, I'll join you soon, I promise," Troy pulled a face at her and Lilly-Ella giggled slightly before skipping through the door, heading off to the car while Troy turned back towards Joe and David, his face becoming a concrete mask once more.

"So you cheated on Gabriella and had a kid with some whore, and then you just left her?" David sneered, glaring at Troy as Troy's eyebrows raised in surprise, struggling to stop himself from laughing as even Joe looked at David in shock, before rolling his eyes and hitting him over the back of the head.

"Don't be such an idiot David, you're too much like Jason for your own good," Troy laughed, and even Joe had to smile slightly, fighting back the laughter as he watched his older brother's ex-best friend struggle to regain his composure, "Guys, that is Gabriella's daughter, just look at her for G-d's sake, she's her living, breathing duplicate, except for her eyes."

The two younger guys nodded slightly, before their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute, you kidnapped yours' and Gabby's child, that's it, I'm phoning the police right now!" Joe yelled, whipping out his cell phone as Troy started to laugh once more and this time David hit Joe over the back of the head.

"Calm down Joe, I didn't kidnap her, personally I would have preferred to keep my entire family together, but Gabriella had other plans," Troy muttered bitterly, and the two young men looked back at him, questions filling their eyes as Troy sighed, "The day that Lilly-Ella was born, Gabriella decided that she wanted nothing to do with her or me, so she threatened me to put our little girl up for adoption, if I didn't take her and leave that very moment, so that's exactly what I did. We hadn't told any of the gang that she was pregnant just in case something went wrong, so none of them knew, and when I left, I figured that Gabriella would need them, so I took off for L.A. a tiny baby in tow," Troy smiled fleetingly at them, tiredness etched around his eyes.

"Oh man, Troy, we're so sorry man, I mean we never knew, only that you and Gabriella weren't together anymore and that she was constantly crying," Joe muttered, grabbing Troy into a guy hug, before releasing him and showing the sincerity in his eyes, before David did the same thing.

"Yeah, well raising a little girl on my own hasn't exactly been a picnic over the last sixteen years, and I've lost track of the amount of times that I've actually threatened Gabriella in my head," Troy sighed, running his hands over his face as one memory stood out vividly and he recounted it to the younger men, who listened with growing horror covering their faces.

Flashback

Troy sighed as he finished piling dishes into the dishwasher, the now twenty four year old wondering what he would get Lilly-Ella for her upcoming sixth birthday the following week, already knowing that one surprise was that they were moving to a much bigger house right outside of L.A. that had a huge garden which she could play in, a swimming pool, play set and high security with big fences surrounding the property included, so Troy would always know that his young daughter was safe and that there was no way that she would be hit by a car accidentally or possibly worse, and it was all thanks to his recent captaincy over the L.A. Lakers, although only he, Lilly-Ella and a few select friends and family members knew that it was Troy Bolton and not Parker Smith who had just earned the captaincy after playing for the team since he was only nineteen years old, as well as single handedly raising his young daughter.

"Daddy!" A small voice bellowed and Troy grinned as he turned around to see Lilly-Ella come bounding into the room, her waist length curly hair tied up into a low ponytail, her knee length long denim shorts pushed higher up than they should have been with a baby blue t-shirt on which screamed 'My Daddy loves me' in bright pink writing, surrounded by basketballs and ice cream cones, her blue eyes shining with mischief as she barrelled into Troy's legs and he instantly started to laugh, picking her up and placing a kiss to her forehead before positioning her on the breakfast bar and leaning a hand either side of the five year old as she started to giggle.

"What have you been up to today then my little princess?" Troy grinned, resting his forehead against Lilly-Ella's small one as she started to play with the ties on his Lakers hoody, laughing with amusement as she watched the hood of the jumper get smaller or bigger depending on what she did, before raising her eyes to meet Troy's, the two bright shades of blue clashing together almost immediately.

"Well I went to the park with Sammy and his Mommy, and then she took us out for ice cream and I had chocolate chip with whipped cream and chocolate sauce and a very, very big cherry on top," Lilly-Ella told him excitedly, stressing the size of the cherry so much that Troy had to laugh softly at the little girl's general wonder and excitement at everything around her, but when he noticed that she had looked down and was avoiding eye contact with him, he immediately became worried as he continued to gaze at his baby girl, who was currently running the material of his hoody through her fingers. "Daddy?" Lilly-Ella asked timidly, and without delay, Troy raised his eyes to meet hers, his heart instantly breaking when he saw that her own were shining with unshed tears. "How come everyone else has a Mommy and I don't?" She questioned almost silently, and Troy closed his eyes, having been dreading this question from the day of her birth.

Gently, Troy reached down and picked his daughter up from the breakfast bar, resting her on his hip as he carried her through to their living room, finally sitting himself down on the sofa and pulling Lilly-Ella close to him on his lap as she continued to look at him with big, wide, sad eyes.

"Baby girl, you do have a Mommy, she just…left," Troy breathed out quietly, spending a good few minutes searching for the last word before using it, watching Lilly-Ella's reactions the whole time and wincing slightly as she looked down and started to play with her hands, her shoulders slouching slightly.

"Oh. But Daddy, why did she leave? Was I a bad girl, or was I not pretty or smart enough?" The five year old cried softly, the tears starting to run down her cheeks as she buried her head into her Dad's chest, still playing with the ties of his hoody.

The moment that he had heard those words come tumbling from his little girl's mouth, Troy's blood had started to boil and he had instantly started to curse Gabriella in his mind, although he knew in his heart of hearts that he could never really wish any harm on Gabriella, even after everything, he still loved her, more than anyone in the world except their daughter, who would always hold the special, number one spot in his heart.

Gently Troy took hold of his daughter's chin and rose her face so that her eyes met his once again, "Never ever say something like that again Lila, you are the best behaved, prettiest, smartest little girl that I could have ever wished for, Mommy left because of Mommy, not because of you, or anything you did, so never think that baby girl," Troy murmured firmly, resting his forehead against Lilly-Ella's once more, "Besides, I love you Lilly-Ella, and lots of other people love you too, it's your Mommy who's missing out by not knowing such an amazing girl like you all right?" Troy questioned softly, grinning at Lilly-Ella as she smiled slightly back at him, her tears drying up as he gently brushed the remaining few from her face, "Now how about you and I go and mess up the kitchen again and try and make some cookies?"

The instant that Troy had finished his sentence, Lilly-Ella had leapt up from his lap and had run into the kitchen, starting to take out the ingredients and yelling for Troy to hurry up, as he just laughed and rolled his eyes, slowly following his daughter into the kitchen, knowing that they were both hopeless cooks and would end up buying a bag of cookies after having dinner out, as had become their tradition over the years.

End Flashback

"G-d, we're sorry Troy," Joe breathed out, his eyes fully widened as Troy just nodded slightly, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"Yeah, well, just do me a favour and don't tell the gang or Gabriella that we're back, and please don't treat Gabriella any differently now that you know," Troy murmured, staring straight into the guys' eyes as they nodded slightly, not looking to happy about this promise.

Suddenly, David, the exact duplicate of a younger Jason as Joe was of a younger Chad, was bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly, "Can we meet and get to know Lilly-Ella? Please, Troy, please!" He pleaded, his eyes wide with excitement, a grin covering his features as Joe turned to look at Troy with the same expression covering his features.

Laughing, Troy was reminded once more of the two four year olds that he had once tried to teach basketball to, "Sure guys, come on…"