She had only known her mother for sixteen years. Sixteen years, and hardly that as her earliest memory wasn't until she was around four years old and she could easily walk and talk. She felt like the world was against her as she walked the empty halls of east high. She felt let down as the one person who had promised her that she would always be around, might not be around for that much longer.

A tear slid down Gabriella's cheek as she blocked out all the memories the doctors burned into her mind. They were going to do operation in two days, and yet Gabriella still couldn't think about it without crying.

Gabriella knew one thing however. She knew that she needed her best friend seeing as he had no idea what was going on, and he deserved to know. He was almost just as much apart of Anna Montez's life as Gabriella was.

She pushed open the gym door with as much strength as she had left. Her body was weak as she was running on water, and vendee machine food from the hospital for three days straight. She hadn't been in school for the whole week and she knew Jason was getting worried as there was no doubt that he stopped over at her house, but no one was there to answer the door.

The basketball team was practicing on the last day before Christmas break, but her dad wasn't there seeing as he was back at the hospital with her mom who was still getting terrible headaches and confusion.

She let her blurry eyes adjust to the light as various sounds were emitting from the gym. Sounds coming from basketballs, whistles, and rowdy yelling boys who were already pumped up from winning a game the night before, and they were just hours away from permanent Christmas break, or at least as permanent as you could get for two weeks long.

"Jason?" She walked further into the gym as he was with a group of boys from the JV team. Although he was the only sophomore to make the varsity team, he still stayed in contact with the JV team since they shared the gym for the last half an hour of the JV practice, and the first half an hour of the varsity practice.

He looked up with a look of surprise shock. His dark brown eyes bored into hers as she blinked back her tiredness. The doctor's words repeating in her mind--We have to operate as soon as possible. It's bigger than what we thought and hoped.

"Hey, I tried calling? Where have you been Gabi? Where's your dad?" Jason stepped away from Zeke and some other tall player who Gabriella didn't recognize.

"Hey." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Um…can we talk?" Usually the two of them masked that they need to talk by casually bringing up that they should do a movie night, but Gabriella couldn't wait until night time and after his practice. She knew she wouldn't last if she didn't tell someone.

"Now?" Jason asked as he looked around and saw that the assistant coach was calling kids over. It was obvious that Coach Williams knew what was going on since he seemed a little off himself, and was always checking his phone lately. Jason had a feeling that he was waiting for a call from Coach Montez, but nothing ever came.

"Yeah. I just…" She looked at her best friend. The same best friend who she'd been through everything with so far. "It's bad Jase. I'm not gonna lie. It's bad and there's nothing we can do."

"Wait, what are you talking about Gabi? What's going on?" He asked while trying to maintain in control. "I don't understand."

"It's my mom Jase. She has a brain tumor, and it's bad."

"Gabi--"

"I'm scared Jase. I'm really, REALLY, scared." Her voice cracked as she fell into his arms. His shirt was getting wet, but he didn't care as he rubbed her back, and she cried silently into his chest.

He had his own tears coat his eyes, but he couldn't let them fall. Not if Gabriella was falling apart at the time, he just couldn't let himself do it then too. It wasn't fair. "It's gonna be okay Gabi." He croaked out. Only one of them could let go at a time. "I promise you that it's gonna be okay."


"Thanks for breakfast mom. It was really good." Gabriella said as she cleared her plate.

Her mother looked up from papers with a confused face on. "What did you say dear?"

She scrunched up her eyes as she looked her mother over. She still looked tired, and she was rubbing her forehead, but other than that, her mom was doing pretty normal. "Just that breakfast was good. Thanks."

Anna smiled. "Anytime dear, but you better get going if you're gonna pick Jason up today."

"Okay." Gabriella headed for the door, but when she reached the archway of exiting the kitchen, she turned back and looked at her mom. "Hey mom?"

"hmm?" Anna was distracted.

"Are you doing okay? Like…it's been almost three months, so another MRI has to be done, doesn't it?"

Anna looked her daughter square in the eye. "Everything's fine. I feel fine."

Gabriella nodded. "Okay. I love you." She preceded out of the room without waiting to hear what her mom's response was.

Anna mumbled to herself, "I'm fine. I'm gonna be fine."


The brunette walked into school Thursday morning with a smile on her face. She was usually greeted with Sharpay or Taylor coming to her side and telling her some latest gossip, or if they weren't available, she usually was with Jason since they had been driving to school together, and with Jason's car in the shop recently they for sure had been driving together, but when she went to his house that morning, his mother had said that he already left with some guy who had really big hair.

She looked around as she made her way to her locker, and nearly jumped in surprise when Zeke fell into step with her. "Scared yah, huh?" He teased lightly.

Gabriella glared playfully. "Sometimes I don't even know what Shar sees in you." She teased back as Zeke glared too.

"Speaking of said girlfriend; she told me to tell you that there's a cheer meeting during lunch. Something to do with the game tomorrow and some special surprise with paint." When Zeke finished talking his tone ended with confusion.

Gabriella sighed, "Well that's Shar for yah. Always coming up with whacky new things."


Troy walked into school with a subtle face on. He was used to his routine. A routine that had been working for him for three years now, and then all of a sudden, just because of making the basketball team, things HAD to change. It was the way high school life worked, and Troy didn't understand why though. Why did they HAVE to change?

Before making the team, he drove his car to school--or took the bus before turning 16-- he got there an average of fifteen minutes before the bell would ring for homeroom. He had time to gather his book bag from the backseat of his car, walk up to the school in no rush, and take his time getting to his locker. He wouldn't normally see Chad since he was always with some other basketball player that Troy before had no intention of wanting to get to know, but then when he would reach his locker, then and only then would Chad be there waiting.

Even though Chad was on the team, he still was best friends with Troy; whether or not he was a jock also. That's what was so great between them; they each had their own friends and lives, but yet could still maintain being best friends. But sooner or later their friends would have to eventually make their ways into the other ones lives. It was just a known thing that they didn't speak of. It just happened to be Chad's basketball friends making their way into Troy's group of friends first.

But now as the present happened, Troy could basically forget about his normal routine as a new one was in the making. He still arrived fifteen minutes before the bell, but the normal couple of basketball players who Chad talked with before meeting him at his locker who stood out by their school's fountain, looked away from their tight circle of cheerleaders, and girlfriends and spotted Troy making his way to the front of the school.

"Bolton!" Jake, the teammate who Troy went out to pizza with called out with his arm slung around his girlfriend who was ironically a cheerleader. "Come here!"

This wasn't the first time that this happened as it happened the previous day also, and on Tuesday; the day after gathering for dinner with some of the them.

There was just no way that Troy could avoid them as it seemed to him that he always had a teammate in one of his classes, or he would see them around school in the hallways and they always would slap him on the back, or do the intricate guy handshake.

So Troy walked over with a smile on his face. It was getting less awkward than before. On Tuesday he had no idea what to say or do. That is until Kyle put out his hand for the very said guy handshake and greeted him by starting to talk about basketball. Jake soon would join in, then Dane, then more guys by the minute.

The cheerleaders had looked him over that day as there was no sign of Sharpay, Gabriella, or Taylor, but there were still quite a lot more cheer girls than what he normally sees. There was Jake's girlfriend, Sadie, Dane's girlfriend, Becca, Kyle's girlfriend, Maddie, and then at least one or two other girls. They were almost worst compared to guys as Troy could tell that they were watching him closer than normal.

"What's up Johnson?" Troy greeted Jake as they slapped hands.

"Just getting ready for the speech due today. Who knew five minutes could be so long? I timed myself at home, and I only clocked at like…three minutes."

Troy chuckled along with Jake as a couple of more girls from the cheer squad showed up, along with other guys who all played some type of sport. Troy normally would've been overwhelmed. He would've been at his locker by now with Chad, but now he was in front of the fountain, with kids who weren't that bad to be around anymore.

"So Troy, are you pumped for the game yet?" Another cheerleader, Allyson asked with a flirtatious giggle.

Troy looked at her warily, "I don't really think it's hit me yet."

"Hey girls!" A chipper voice was heard from behind, and Troy turned his body some to see Gabriella standing more towards the cheerleading girls. A couple of the guys wolf whistled, but she ignored them.

Gabriella silently counted how many of the girls on the squad were out on the Quad, and made a mental note that almost all of them were out there except for two or three. She looked up to make sure she didn't miss any, and spotted Troy's dark blue eyes looking at her.

Her first instinct was to say hi, but she refrained as a lot of people were around them. Everyone wasn't obvious to Jason's hate for Troy, and vise versa, so they never commented on it--unless when by themselves. It just would be a bad idea to show that she was friendly with Troy because by doing that then that would spark everyone's imaginations as to why she was being nice to him. Nobody liked rumors going around about themselves.

She instead smiled quickly before looking back at the girls. "Cheer meeting during first half of lunch. Shar's orders."

A lot of groans were heard, but Gabriella just shrugged.

"Why?" Sadie asked as Jake pulled her into his side even more.

"Who knows? It's a mystery to me even. But anyone who doesn't attend, don't even think about coming to the game then. Sorry."

Troy looked around himself as Sadie was busy pouting to Jake. "She should've been Captain and not Shar. We ALL voted for her during sophomore year!"

"You know what happened then Sadie. There was a lot going on." Jake reasoned.

Troy couldn't help but be nosy. "Who did you guys vote for?"

Jake rolled his eyes as Sadie wasn't looking, and put his pointer finger to the side of his head, and rotated it clockwise as if to silently say that Sadie was crazy about this topic.

Luckily for Troy, Sadie loved to talk about anything, so she wasn't the least bit cautious as to give away information.

"Gabriella." She automatically explained. "In the middle of sophomore year we all voted early for the next years Captain, and since almost all of our squad was gonna be mostly juniors then, and some lower classmen since there was basically no talent in the seniors class," Sadie kept on talking as she didn't care that she offended the used-to-be-class above them, "Gabriella won the vote. She turned it down as she nearly missed almost every practice for like THREE weeks, and then Sharpay took the role and Gabriella finally accepted the Co-Captain position. It was bull shit last year since we couldn't vote for Captain again. Something about since Shar was a junior, and was returning, she automatically got to be Captain since we did really good last year."

Troy tried to follow what she said as she seemed to be really good at talking for long periods of times without taking a breath.

"Do you understand?" Sadie asked. "Because I can explain--"

"No." Jake and Troy said at the same time.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I understand."

"Hey Johnson?! You see where Cross is at?!" Another guy who was big and muscular called out. "This little lady here needs her guy!" He stepped to the side a little as an unamused Gabriella stood.

"Fuck it Lyle. You're no help." She grumbled as Lyle was on the football team who hung out with Jason from time to time, which also meant he hung out with Gabriella from time to time too.

He flashed her a bright smile. "You know I'm teasing." He winked at her.

Gabriella rolled her eyes as a smile did also appear on her face. "Well then I'm off to search for him." She walked over to where Jake was. She had tried calling Jason the previous night after getting dinner with Troy, but he didn't pick up his cell phone.

"He's in the library Gabs. He didn't tell you?" Jake asked.

"It must've slipped my mind." Gabriella made an excuse as it wasn't like Jason to not tell her things. She must've just forgotten as he usually always told her where he was at.

Troy looked Gabriella over as he wasn't obvlivious like Jake and Sadie were to Gabriella's disappointment about Jason's whereabouts.


Jason very deliberately avoided everyone. It wasn't that hard due to the fact that Chad picked him up at an ungodly awful hour of the morning and drove him to school thirty minutes earlier than what he usually arrived at. But in ways Jason was thankful. He didn't have to sit in a car with Gabriella and pretend that everything was okay. Because things weren't.

His dad was home early the previous night, and even after hanging out with Chad a little bit after the library incident, he was still expected to go out to the park down the street and practice. Then him and his dad got into a big fight about basketball scholarships again. And it didn't end well.

He barely made a basket either as his mind kept playing back to Troy and Gabriella together. He had a chance to cool down when he was with Chad, but the moment his dad brought up Troy during playing one-on-one, Jason lost it, and that was when everything went downhill. And instead of saying anything to Gabriella like Jason normally would, he just couldn't. It was easier pretending that everything was okay with them, than instead of getting into a big fight with her and not having her for a friend or comfort pillow. He needed his safety net.

The bell rang; signaling the start of homeroom class, but Jason didn't feel like getting up to go to a pointless ten minute class where boring announcements were going to be made. Instead he stayed stationary in his seat to continue doing late homework.

"Hey buddy. I was looking for you everywhere." Gabriella's quiet whisper said as she slid into the seat next to him.

Jason was actually studying as getting there early actually was a good thing because that seemed to motivate him a little bit more, but when Gabriella slid in by him he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate again.

"…Hey." He said stiffly, and it didn't go unnoticed by Gabriella.

"Hey. Is everything okay? We usually don't meet in here." Gabriella looked at him with concern. Whenever it was basketball season, the worst happened.

When he looked her in the eyes, he could see his true fear looking back at him…Troy. He could see Gabriella laughing with Troy in the library. He could see Troy shooting a basketball. He could see himself watching Gabriella and Troy kissing, and it made him shiver disgustingly. But mostly it was fear that he could see reflected in her eyes, and yet he still can't get over the fact that she was lying to him.

"Yeah. Things are fine. Just the usual dad riding my ass about basketball, and now there's Bolton thrown into the mix, and then there's of course colleges. Fun, fun, fun." His voice held no amusement.

Gabriella internally winced at the mention of Troy. A ripple of guilt spread throughout her stomach as whenever the two brothers mentioned the other one, you could hear the hate in their voice.

"I'm sorry. Is there anything I can help you with?" Gabriella laid a hand on top of his that was situated stiffly on top of the cold table.

"Why are YOU sorry?" Jason asked.

"Because you wanted to talk last night, and I was busy. I should've canceled or something, but I'm good--" Gabriella froze. A realization hit her as she remembered the previous day. She told Jason she would meet him after practice, and then she told Troy that she would meet him for studying.

Jason was crossed with Gabriella. There was no denying it, but maybe the fact that it wasn't just because she was going behind his back that got him madder, but it was maybe because she didn't even seem to understand that there might be more to his story. She didn't even consider that he could be mad at her.

"You're good?" He asked slowly.

Gabriella blinked. "I'm free tonight. I told you yesterday that we should do something, and I think a good old move night is in store."

Usually that meant they would end up talking, but Jason didn't feel like talking. Not with someone who could lie to his face so easily. But he couldn't blow her off and make her even more suspicious. This would just have to be one movie night where they would actually watch the movie more than talk.

"So what were you doing last night?" He decided to give her one last chance. They were best friends, but best friends don't just lie to each other.

Gabriella fidgeted in her seat. "I told you. I had business to take care of." She looked up and into his eyes. "Is everything really okay Jase?"

"Like I said before: it's just my dad being dad."


Gabriella went to one of the connecting classrooms that were behind the gym for the cheer meeting. These were the classrooms that were next to the weight lifting room and the gym teachers used these classrooms for teaching the dreaded health classes.

She was the last one as Sharpay was waiting impatiantly in front of everyone else. Taylor smiled at her brightly as Gabriella slowly made her way over to her girl best friend.

Sharpay started talking about how they should show more school spirit, but Gabriella wasn't listening. She was busy trying to think of a way to talk to Troy without it having to be such a big deal, and to tell him how she screwed up and can't go to their tutoring session that day.

Taylor sensed her friend's discomfort, and nudged her. "Hey." She whispered. "Is everything okay?"

Gabriella slowly came out of her daze. "Almost. Just thinking is all."

"Is it about Jason's weird attitude today. In history he hardly even talked or complained along with the rest of the jocks." Taylor voiced with concern laced within her tone.

Gabriella sighed. "I really hope everything's okay with him. I really don't know how much we can both deal with this year. I mean, everyone is gonna be so busy with school stuff this year, and with his dad, its just--" Gabriella paused. "It's just...gonna be a lot."

"So everyone's pulling out a number, and if you have number one, then you pick the basketball player's number you want to paint on your stomach and back. We'll precede in logical order from there. All the way up until twelve." Sharpay instructed as Taylor and Gabriella both raised their eye brows in question as they didn't even know Sharpay was planning something like this.

Sharpay carried around the room a small blue felt bag that contained the numbers, and put it in front of Taylor and Gabriella first to draw. "Oldest to youngest." She announced.

"Shar, why the hell are we painting numbers on our skin?" Taylor whispered.

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "If you two were listening, then you would've heard that it's just one time for the season's opening game. We need to support our team this year. Last year they won State Champs, and we hardly celebrated big enough."

"We held three parties, two pep rallies, and cheered until we couldn't speak. We did more than enough last year." Taylor reasoned as Sharpay shook the bag in front of her face impatiantly again.

"Pick one, and we'll get this over with as soon as possible. Now!"

Taylor and Gabriella both picked one and opened theirs up as Sharpay continued on.

"One. How ironic." Taylor said. "She probably did that on purpose."

"Twelve. Oh goody. I'm last." Gabriella said unamused.

Soon Sharpay started this whole number picking ordeal, and Taylor had the first pick. She currently was searching for a boyfriend as she had been dating for a while, but she didn't seem to click with anyone; kind of like how Gabriella felt. Why does she need a boyfriend when she has Jason as a best friend?

"Tay, come on. It's not that hard to choose a guy and to wear his number to the game. It's not like it's a tattoo." Sharpay complained as she somehow got the number two in the pick.

"Fine." Tay huffed. "I'll just pick..." her eyes gazed over the list Sharpay handed to every girl after the numbers. "Chad Danforth. I happen to like his number."

After that things went smoothly. Sharpay got Zeke's number, Sadie got Jake's, other girlfriends got their boyfriend's number, or at least their friends' number, and Gabriella was surprised that no one picked Jason yet, but then she realized that most of the girls who had gone had boyfriends.

It was almost Gabriella's turn as they were on number eight, and Emma was up. Emma was originally going to pick Chad's number also, but Taylor beat her to it. So then the next best person came to mind.

"I'll take Jason's number."

Gabriella froze in her seat as she was planning on taking Jason's number, but who was she kidding. She was last, of course she wasn't going to get it.

Quickly the number picking proceded and Gabriella mentally crossed off the players' names on the sheet, until there was one last name left. Gabriella looked up like a lost puppy and Sharpay smirked.

"Looks like Gabs is left with Troy Bolton's number. 14."

"But--Can we trade?!" Gabriella called out in protest.

"Anyone want too?" Sharpay asked as she knew that no one would take Gabriella up on the offer. They all got their first, if not second picks. No one knew Troy that well to pick him right away, even though he was cute and hot. They were still all so superficial that they were scared Troy would do bad in the first game, and if they were wearing his number then things could be bad.

Sharpay locked eyes with Gabriella and smiled sweetly at her. "You're fourteen Montez."

Gabriella sighed. "Tomorrow is gonna suck."

"At least there's gonna be a kick ass party afterwards." Sharpay said chirpily.

Gabriella's mind went blank as she wasn't thinking about how to talk to Troy anymore. All she could think of was how Jason was going to react to her wearing Troy's number. That's all that mattered as she could just picture Jason's eyes going red with anger.

It wasn't going to be a good game.


Troy watched silently from his car as Jason got into Gabriella's passenger side of the car. He had waited for Gabriella to come out of cheerleading practice as usually they were two of the people from the two teams to leave last, but when he didn't see Jason emerge yet either, he knew. He knew that she chose Jason over him as she finally realized her mistake.

He saw her pull her car out as the idea of not even telling him that she wasn't going to be tutoring him that day didn't even cross her mind. Deep down Troy expected this though, as the previous day he decided that it wouldn't take her that long to piece together her slip up, and of course she would choose her best friend over him.

He knew he didn't really matter to her. And vice versa.

But then why did it sting to watch her drive away?


Author's note--So I have been updating this story more than Sweet and Low, and some of you guys have been asking me why that is. Well here's the reason: One) Sweet and Low is a lot more complicated than this story as it's about every character and their own story plot. It takes me a longer time to figure everything out, and to write it as I do have school stuff and sport stuff. Two) For this story, I have scenes already written now. I have them in my notebooks, and really all I need to do is piece them together by little scenes to make the story make sense.

So expect another chaper of Sweet and Low by Sunday, but it's coming together slowly, and it for some reaosn does take me longer to write than compared to this story.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone for the reviews. They're lovely, and I enjoy reading them. They always encourage me to write more.