Damn, I meant to get this out 2 days ago to celebrate the new Jonas album (Which I bought :)) but I couldn't find time to finish it :(

Troy and Gabriella walked hand in hand down the street, taking in the darkness and smells of the beautiful Albuquerque night. Gabriella looked up at the stars and sighed, loving how they sparkled and glittered against the smooth, blackened sky.

"Have you seen anything anymore breathtaking?" She whispered with a grin.

Troy nodded "Yeah I have," Gabriella gave him a questioning look before Troy added "I'm staring it in the eye."

Gabriella smiled and gave Troy's hand a light squeeze. Troy, not being able to hold it in anymore, pulled her towards him by her wrist and wrapped his arm around her back, holding the back of her head in his hand.

"I love you so much." He whispered into her hair, rocking her back and forth slowly and inhaling the aroma of her strawberry-scented hair.

"I don't know where I'd be if you weren't with me right now..." Gabriella sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sure you'd be fine without me." Troy shrugged, separating from her body, but still grasping her hand tightly.

Gabriella shook her head and replied "Troy, if it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead. You know I'm not the best swimmer, but when I'm in full out panic, there's no doubt in my mind that I would've drowned."

"But Brandon's the one who jumped in to save you." Troy reminded her.

Gabriella added "But knowing him, he was probably really depressed because I got kidnapped. You probably talked him into looking for me. Am I right?"

Troy just rolled his eyes and leaned in, catching her lips in a loving kiss. "Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. What do I get if I tell you?"

"I don't know," Gabriella flirted, grinning seductively and walking towards him slowly "How does some heated making out sound to you?"

"Music to my ears..." Troy gave up the non-existent battle between him and his girlfriend and, pushing her up against a tree, crashed his lips into hers.

"You taste so much better than him." Gabriella told him between kisses.

"Just call me your remedy." Troy shrugged flirtatiously.

These actions continued for the next 10 minutes and, after the series of moaning and feeling each other up, they found themselves cutting themselves off from each other in fear of wanting to go further. They were now just walking down the street again, hand in hand.

"Troy?" Gabriella spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"What's your goal for senior year?"

"What's yours?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes, but replied anyway. "Uhh...making the honor roll."

Troy's eyebrows knitted together "Okay, something that you've never done before."

Gabriella giggled "Fine," She thought it over for a few moments before her face lit up. "I wanna ride a mechanical bull."

Troy stopped dead in his tracks. "You wanna what?!"

"What?" she shrugged "Don't lie to me and say you don't want to either."

He shook his head and smiled "Okay fine. When I was 11, me and Brandon were walking around the mall and they were having some celebration for some old person. Anyway, we were walking around and suddenly heard a scream, a thump, and then cheering. We followed the noise and found a girl on the floor on top of a mat laughing her ass off. We looked around and right behind her there was this big, black mechanical bull and later we found out that it was the guy's granddaughter convincing her grandpa to get on."

"Did he?" Gabriella asked, totally into the story.

"Yeah. He fell off and broke his hip but was laughing anyway."

The two laughed at the final comment and Gabriella said "Oh yeah. That was the day Brandon came home all dizzy with that cowboy hat on his head. I remember that. Why didn't you get on?"

"Because I saw how far Brandon flew in the first 10 seconds of riding the thing." Troy shuddered, remember the yell erupting from Brandon's mouth when he was flung off the machine and landed on the floor 10 feet away.

"I bet that hurt." Gabriella shook her head slowly.

"Probably. It gave him a bruise on his shoulder the size of an orange." Troy shrugged, just about to walk past a hill when he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Gabriella asked.

Troy grinned "Have you ever been up that hill?"

Gabriella followed his gaze and shook her head "No."

Troy gave a toothy smile and said "Well you won't be able to say that anymore. Come on." He grabbed her by the hand and started running up the hill, Gabriella barely staying on her feet.

"Troy, where are we going?" she giggled.

"You'll see." He simply answered, his eyes bright with enthusiasm and excitement as he heard his girlfriend giggle and protest behind him.

They finally came to a halt at the top of the hill, Gabriella stumbling behind him and trying to catch her lost balance. She finally grabbed his arm to stabilize herself and demanded "Okay Troy, where are we?"

"Look." Troy whispered, pointing at the view in front of them and smiling again. Gabriella looked out and gasped. She hadn't seen anything so beautiful in her entire life. It was a view of the city, the lights reflecting off of each other and complimenting the pretty colors, especially the lake right beneath their feet. The buildings' reflections decorated the flowing water as did the lights. The stars in the dark sky topped it off and brought tears to Gabriella's eyes.

"It's gorgeous up here. I can't believe I've never seen it." Gabriella shook her head and blinked back the water in her eyes. She looked down near the lake and, near the bridge, something caught her eye. "What's that?"

"Hey, that's Brandon's shirt," Troy looked down at the black and white Hollister shirt sprawled across the grass. "He'll probably want that back tomorrow."

Gabriella giggled quietly and just vaguely remembered him telling her to hold onto the bridge, but she let go. "I can't believe he risked his life to save me." She shook her head in disbelief.

"I can," Troy told her, rubbing her arm and letting her fall into his arms. "Gabby, he's your brother and he loves you. He'll do anything to protect you just like me and the rest of the gang. We all love you."

Gabriella smiled "Yeah, I can tell. Sharpay had the hugest tear stains on her face when I woke up in the living room. Was everyone really making that big a deal out of it?"

Troy nodded "Your dad was furious. You should've seen the look on his face when Brandon explained what happened. He even started to walk out the door to go back home and get his gun, but Brandon stopped him and you woke up."

Gabriella said "Typical dad." They stood there looking out at the scenery in front of them for a few more minutes before Gabriella suggested "Can we sit against the tree?"

Troy nodded again "I was just about to say that. My legs are getting tired." The two walked the short journey over to the tree on the other side of the hill and, sitting down, rested their bodies against the rough, but comfortable bark. Sitting in between his legs, Gabriella settled herself in Troy's waiting arms and closed her eyes with a sigh.

"You okay?" Troy asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin in her hair.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah, but I meant from the attack. Did he hurt you too badly?"

Gabriella smiled at his genuine concern and replied sweetly "I'm sore, but you're like my painkiller. I can't feel my body when I'm with you."

"I love you..." Troy whispered, finding himself leaning in ever so slowly, his eyes closing.

"I love you too." Gabriella silenced them both with a kiss on his lips, placing her hand on his cheek and sinking further into his arms.

After separating, they decided to stay in that comfortable position for the next half an hour, just staring up at the stars and telling each other what they thought the groups looked like, reminiscing in the past elementary school years, and more pointless games that they made up off the top of their heads.

"Okay," Troy said when it was his turn in the random game. "I say...beach."

"Easy," Gabriella shrugged, having to think up a story of something that happened in her life relating to the word. "When we were 5, me and Brandon built a sandcastle together and after 3 and a half hours of hard work, we get my mom to take a picture and just as she's about to click, some fat guy waddles over, trips, and falls into it. Brandon screams, cries angry tears, throws sand at the dude, and beats him up."

Troy threw his head back as a long laugh escape his throat. "I remember him coming back and pouting the whole time. He said 'Santa's cousin killed our sandcastle.'."

"You believed him, didn't you?" Gabriella raised an eyebrow.

Troy's eyes quickly shifted from left to right as he replied "No..."

Gabriella rolled her eyes "Uh huh. That's exactly why you and him planned to convince Santa to yell at him at the next family reunion."

"Then it was lunch time and my mom gave us ice cream for desert." Troy goofily smiled with a dreamy look in his eyes. He then snapped back to reality and stuttered "I-I mean, that is SO not what happened!"

"How was the ice cream?" Gabriella asked, biting back the laugh begging to be released.

Troy spaced out again "Homemade and it was AWESOME!!"

Gabriella just giggled at his short attention span and laid her head onto his chest. "Thanks Troy."

"For what?" he asked, stroking her hair.

"For helping me recover from today. You really are my knight in shining armor."

Troy kissed her forehead and told her "Only for you baby. Only for you..."

--

Troy felt Gabriella fall limp on his body 10 minutes later. He looked down and smiled when he found her curled up and sleeping peacefully with a small smile on her face. Not wanting to wake her but knowing that he needed to get her home in 20 minutes, he slowly and gently shifted her so that he could pick her up bridal style. He secured her head on his shoulder and, with one final kiss on her cheek, started off to the Montez house.

He arrived 15 minutes later, his arms numb and tired from carrying the slightly heavy load and, knowing that Brandon left the door open for him, stepped through it and shut it behind him. He was about to carry her to her room when he remembered Brandon saying "If she falls asleep, bring her to my room. I don't want her to fall asleep alone." He shrugged and followed his best friend's orders, agreeing with him. Brick couldn't be trusted especially after Gabriella pissed him off.

As Troy came up to Brandon's bedroom door, he heard screaming coming from the TV and confusion passed through him. Not that horror movies scared Brandon but he just wasn't one to watch them.

Troy twisted the knob and pushed the door open, revealing just what he had predicted. There was a black eyed, pale skinned kid on the screen screaming "Your God is no match for me!" Yup. He was definitely possessed.

The brunette walked over to Brandon's bed and grabbed hold of his shoulder, shaking it and loudly whispering "Brandon. Brandon, wake up."

Brandon moaned and flipped from his back onto his side, mumbling something Troy thought was "Leave me alone. I'm in dancing heaven."

Troy rolled his eyes and tried again "Izzy just called and she's supposed to be landing in 10 minutes."

Brandon's eyes snapped open and he sat up abruptly, saying "Why didn't she call me?"

He looked over at Troy and, not seeing Gabriella from the darkness, said "Troy? What are you doing here?"

"Gotcha." Troy grinned smugly, stroking Gabriella's hair. Brandon glared at him and growled "This better be good. I just dreamt that me and the team won the state championship and just as Izzy was about to kiss me, you show up."

Troy rolled his eyes once again and said "Oh, take your dance talk somewhere else. Here." He laid Gabriella down on the bed beside Brandon and saw the mood in the black haired teen's eyes switch automatically. He smiled and after moving some of the bangs out of his twin sister's face, he pulled her onto his lap and said "Thanks man. I just wanna make sure she's safe."

Troy shrugged and nodded "Yeah me too. Wise choice." He looked at the TV screen and saw the boy fall to the floor, sweat cascading off of his face. He opened his eyes and whimpered "Is it gone?" His older sister and the sister's boyfriend hugged him and cried "Yeah David. You're fine, he's gone."

Troy blinked with a disgusted look on his face, said "What the hell is this? I thought you didn't like horror movies."

Brandon smiled "I don't, but this show is just really addicting. I just came across it a half an hour ago and fell asleep when they were talking to the priest about the exorcism."

"What's it called?"

"A Haunting," Brandon answered, watching as the screen changed to a few weeks later and the boy was playing soccer with his family happily "It's a show where people find out that they're in a haunted house and some of them get possessed and try to get help. Seriously, it's creepy as hell but very, very entertaining."

"Sounds..." Troy searched his mind for something to say "interesting." Brandon just rolled his eyes and smiled at him, turning his attention to the next episode of the show.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Troy waved and started for the door, but stopped and turned around when Brandon called "You can sleep over if you want."

Troy thought it over for a maximum of two seconds before shrugging "Ehh, why not?" He walked over to Brandon's bed and jumped in, landing beside Gabriella who was still sleeping. "Thanks."

"No problem," Brandon shrugged "Me and Gabby just came ran to your house uninvited last night, so I guess we're even."

Troy reminded him "Dude, that was an emergency. We always run to each other if we have nightmares and second, we always go to each other's house uninvited. Hell, we drive each other's cars if we feel like it."

Brandon laughed "Yeah, when my mom asks where my car is I just say 'Troy's got it'. She still doesn't know why we do that."

"Friends use each other's stuff," Troy shrugged, a smile building on his face "It's just natural."

They laughed for a while more before Troy spoke up again. "Dude?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember that fight we had last year in Gabriella's room? I think you were doing laundry or something and I snuck up her balcony to apologize about the picture."

Brandon's forehead creased, showing that he was thinking hard due to the fact that they had had a lot of fights last year. He finally nodded "Oh yeah, I remember. We were fighting about how I babied her and stuff. Thanks for pointing that out by the way."

"No problem."

Brandon asked "Why'd you bring it up?"

Troy sighed and confessed "I was complaining about you babying her and not letting her have her own freedom and other crap that I regret saying. Then I think I went too far..."

"By saying what?" Brandon asked, remembering the fight but not the details.

"By saying that you were acting just like your dad when he was drinking. How she just got over him and needed a brother, not another dad to boss her around and control her life."

Brandon nodded with a soft look in his eyes "I remember that. You were right about that. I went a little overboard and became overprotective."

Troy shook his head "No, I wasn't right. I was just being selfish and wanted to win another fight. You were just doing your job and being her brother. You looked out for her and protected her the best you could, especially from me when she wouldn't talk to me. You've done good with her Brandon. You should be proud of yourself."

Brandon, feeling touched by Troy's words, said softly "Thanks bro. You have no idea how much that means to me."

"Hey, what are best friends for?" Troy smiled.

"That's the question everyone with that label should ask you." Brandon joked back, having Troy join him in laughing. After the laughter died down, Brandon looked down at the beautiful brunette in his arms and continued to stroke her hair, pure love flashing in his eyes.

"You know," Troy broke the comfortable silence "You and Izzy will make great parents someday."

Brandon, not totally aware of what he just said, started "Yeah, I-wait, what?!" he finished, his eyes wide.

Troy shrugged innocently "What? You know how to take care of people, you're a great communicator, you can read people just by looking at their eyes, and you love kids."

Brandon shook his head "Nah, you're crazy." He paused for a second, thinking over the thought a bit more. "You really think so?" he finally said, smiling.

Troy nodded enthusiastically "Totally! It just makes sense. And if you take a few mental notes from your mom, that's all you need."

"Yeah, she is a pretty good mom, isn't she?"

"I call her my second mom for a reason."

Brandon grinned "Yeah, but who are you to be talking?"

"Huh?"

Brandon explained "You and Gabriella totally have a future together! I mean, I can see it now," he looked off into space and put a hand on Troy's shoulder "You have been married for a year now; you have 2 kids, a boy and a girl who, by the way, are some pretty hot kids. He has long, curly brown hair with your blue eyes and his own smile that lights up a room immediately. Your daughter has Gabby's black hair, only straight and a little past her shoulders. She has rich chocolate brown eyes like me and Gabby's only a little lighter. Her smile's really cheeky, but still adorable none the less. And finally, you have a house in the suburbs with a little brown dachshund named Frankie."

Troy stared at his best friend blankly, just blinking every now and then. "You my friend," he finally spoke up "have officially gone insane."

Brandon smiled "Ahh, the reason everyone loves me."

"Conceited much?" Troy raised an eyebrow.

Brandon shrugged "Hey, we all are dude. No reason to hide it."

The two just laughed again, then enjoyed the second comfortable silence that they had encountered that night. "Dylan..." Troy whispered, taking his turn in finger combing through Gabriella's hair.

"What was that?" Brandon asked, hearing his friend's voice but not his words.

Troy repeated "That's what I wanna name my son if we have one. Dylan was my grandpa's name."

Brandon smiled "I bet he'll get a lot of ladies with that name."

"Hell yeah! Just like his dad!"

The two shared a quick laugh before Brandon asked "What if you have a girl?"

The brunette shrugged, still stroking Gabriella's hair "Ehh, I'll leave the girl stuff to Gabriella."

Brandon gave an understanding nod. "You know," he suggested "She's been raving over the name Stella lately..."

Troy perked "Perfect! Then it's settled. What about your kids?"

Brandon gave it some thought before answering "Hmm...Adam and Brittany."

"Explain please."

"Well my mom was gonna name me Adam when I was born, but decided on Brandon when my dad said he didn't want me having his middle name."

Troy looked at him in slight awe and said "You never told me that."

"You never asked."

"Why would I?"

Brandon shrugged "I don't know, use your imagination."

"Whatever you say," Troy rolled his eyes, handing Gabriella over to her brother "Anyways, why Brittany?"

Brandon said "I think it was Izzy's grandma's name before she died."

He looked over at Troy, whose eyes were wide and blinking quickly like he just heard something he couldn't believe. "...it was." He finally spoke up.

"Why so surprised that I know?"

Troy explained "No, it's just that...Izzy never talks about our grandma, even to me or her mom. She must trust you a lot if she told you."

Brandon gave a small smile, touched that Isabelle had the heart to tell him how she felt instead of her cousin or own mother. "Wow," he nodded slowly "I guess she does..." It was then that he realized that his love for the blonde had grown immensely at her level of trust for him.

"Anyway," Troy sighed "You wanna go back to school shopping this Saturday?"

Brandon nodded "I'm gonna hit up Aeropostale like there's no freakin' tomorrow."

They continued to talk, laugh, and goof off for hours until they finally said their goodnights and slipped off into sleep, Gabriella resting between them.

--

...The Next Day...

The next day, the gang minus Brandon, Sharpay, and Ryan found themselves talking and splashing around in Lava Springs, Sharpay and Ryan's country club. To get away from the horrific events of the past day, they decided to meet up at the pool and have fun with the last few days of summer.

"Ha!" Chad and Taylor shouted "We won again!"

"Oh please," Gabriella and Troy rolled their eyes. Troy accused "The only reason you won is because you kicked me in the legs to make me drop Gabriella."

"Yeah whatever dude," Chad turned to the rest of the group and called "Who's up for another round of Chicken?"

"We are!" Kelsi yelled, pulling Jason by the wrist and swimming over to the dark skinned couple. "Next are Gabriella and Brandon." Jason announced.

"Wait, where is Brandon?" Taylor asked, looking around.

"Dance practice until 2:30." Troy answered. A week before the end of school last year, Brandon had walked in on the school's hip hop dancing team practicing in the gym and watched their whole practice, realizing just how much he missed dancing. He had stopped taking lessons when he was 7, but had still danced every chance he got. Michael, who had been captain at the time, invited Brandon to join back up and after a short night of thought, Brandon rejoined the next day. To no one's surprise, the whole team voted him captain a few days later.

10 minutes and 3 games of Chicken later, Brandon came running through the men's changing room in his swimming trunks, calling "Hey guys! What'd I miss?"

"Hey dude," Chad smiled, waving him over to the deep end "Nothing much, just playing Chicken."

"How'd practice go?" Kelsi asked, resting her body against Jason's.

Brandon smiled wide "Great! We've almost perfected our routine for the back to school dance in 2 weeks. We just need to work on our ending and we're set."

"Sounds good," Taylor nodded.

"Hey, weren't Sharpay and Ryan supposed to be here?" Zeke asked the group around the pool.

Jason nodded "Yeah, they're never late for anything."

Suddenly, Ryan came running into the building, his face pale and his eyes wide. His whole body was shaking while he held a hand behind his back.

"Ryan," Brandon concerned "What's wrong?"

Ryan didn't respond. He just pulled his hand out from behind his back and set the object down in Brandon's hand. Brandon looked down at his hand and suddenly his breath hitched in his throat as he found himself staring at a black envelope.

"Not again..."

--

...10 Minutes Earlier...

Sharpay stood in her bathroom, finishing the last of her makeup. Her and Ryan had just come back from visiting their grandmother, which was why they were late.

She turned the light out in the bathroom and, closing the door behind her, skipped down the stairs to the front door. Grabbing her purse, she called up the stairs "Ry, you ready to go?"

No answer.

"Ryan?" Sharpay walked up to the end of the stairs and called again "Hey, you there?" Again, no reply.

Knitting her eyebrows together, she turned around to grab her cell phone, but instead froze on the spot when she found herself less than 6 inches away from a certain 21 year old man.

"Hola Ms. Evans..." Brick grinned, grabbing her by the wrist and covering her mouth after letting her scream bloody murder.

The last thing Sharpay remembered was hearing heavy footsteps race down the stairs after she felt herself being stuffed inside the closet, totally defenseless...

I know, I know. "WHAT'S WITH ALL THE DAMN CLIFFHANGERS?!" Well it wouldn't be a suspensful story if I didn't have cliffhangers, right? Besides, if you've ever written a cliffy for one of your stories, you'd know the good feeling it gives you. And it's really fun to read the reviews of cliffies :)

REVIEW!! Thnx :)

Rachel :)

Mini Contest:

Why did I have Troy name his kids "Dylan and Stella" and Brandon name his "Adam and Brittany"? Clue: Troy's is very obvious, but to figure out Brandon, you have to know who "plays" Brandon and Isabelle...

Sneak at Next Chapter:

- The gang's outraged, especially Ryan

"It's all my fault..." Ryan whispered to no one in particular.

"Ryan, don't blame yourself for-"

"It's my fault!" Ryan exploded, standing up "If I had heard her call the first time, I could've prevented this from happening! Now she's probably hurt and it's my fault!"

- Find out what happened to Sharpay

(Sorry, can't give away too much :))

Trivia:

- The scene where Brandon rejoins the dance team was supposed to be in the last chapter of GFN

- Troy was supposed to join the dance team with Brandon, but I decided not to

- When Brandon says "...And finally, you have a house in the suburbs with a little brown dachshund named Frankie." I put that because I have a little brown dachshund named Frankie :)

- I just came across a show called "A Haunting" a few days ago. Everything Brandon says about it is true. It's extremely creepy but addicting. It comes on the Discovery Channel everyday at 1-3 :) Make sure to check it out in a few hours. The part that was playing on Brandon's TV is from the episode called "Where Demons Dwell"

REVIEW!! Thnx :)

Rachel :)