Disclaimer I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.
A/N: As always thank you for the wonderful reviews! If you haven't already heard the new HSM3 song, 'Can I Have This Dance' – the duet between Troy and Gabriella, listen to it NOW! Open a new window and listen to it, then of course come back to reading this, but seriously it's a beautiful song! I can't stop listening to it! Enjoy…
Last Time…
"For you" he said. Gabriella fingered the delicate flower in her hands before deciding she wanted it in her hair. Breaking off most of the stem, she began to try and put it near her ear. Seeing that she was having difficulty, Troy took the flower from her fingers,
"Allow me" he whispered. Troy moved closer to Gabriella and tucked the flower just above Gabriella's ear in her thick, dark curls. Satisfied that the flower was placed correctly Troy let his hand brush a strand of hair that had fallen, covering part of her face, out of the way. Looking up at him, Gabriella smiled softly. Troy gazed down at her as he slowly started to move his face closer to hers.
Just as Troy's face was inches away from Gabriella's the bell rang loudly. Gabriella removed her gaze from Troy's, looking down at the tiled floor. She stood up, grabbing her books and turned to Troy,
"I have to run, I'll see you during lunch, but thank you." She said. Troy nodded as he watched Gabriella descend the stairs.
Stupid Bell.
Chapter Five – Just Stop
Troy walked through the empty hallways of East High, slowly. He knew he was going to be late, so in his mind there was no point in trying to get to class any sooner. He knew that Señora Milano would demand a reason for his tardiness and it would have to be all in Spanish, but right now he didn't really care about figuring out how to explain it her. Right now he had bigger things to figure out.
He had fallen for Gabriella, he'd fallen very hard for her, and there was no denying it. Troy had managed to learn a little bit more about Gabriella as they played the short game and yet it had left so many questions unanswered and perhaps caused new questions to arise. Looking back on the experience he wished he could have asked her a million questions. He wanted to know everything about her, he needed to. He felt like he had to help her, help her understand that she was good enough that she was important.
Troy opened the door to his Spanish classroom, expecting to hear his Spanish teacher ranting on in Spanish; however, once he got inside the room, English filled his ears. Looking around the room, he noticed students had pushed the desks together and were chatting in small groups. Confused, Troy looked to the teacher's desk and noticed an old lady sitting at it reading the newspaper, paying absolutely no attention to the class.
"Troy" Sharpay's voice hissed sharply from the center of the room. Troy turned to look at her and Sharpay quickly motioned her head for him to come. Troy walked over and sat in the empty seat next to Sharpay, who was talking with Kelsi.
"You're 20 minutes late to class, had Señora Milano been here you'd have been dead meat." Kelsi reminded him.
"Where have you been?" Sharpay demanded.
"I just needed a little time to think" Troy said.
"Oh so you decide to do that during Spanish class instead of during your free period." Sharpay muttered sarcastically.
"I was busy during free period" Troy retorted.
"Well do enlighten us Troy Bolton where you were, because Chad and Jason couldn't find you" Sharpay muttered.
"I was with Gabriella" Troy said simply.
"Was she ok?" Kelsi asked quickly, concern being the prominent tone.
"Yeah" Troy said slowly. "Why?" He asked skeptically.
Kelsi shook her head quickly, "No reason"
Troy looked to both girls searching for some answer. Even Sharpay's best acting skills couldn't fool him, they both looked suspicious. Something was up.
"What are you not telling me?" he asked.
"Nothing" Kelsi said quickly. Troy looked at her skeptically.
"Oh let's just tell him" Sharpay said excitedly.
"No!" Kelsi exclaimed. "We agreed that it's not our place to tell him" she muttered through gritted teeth.
"Tell me what?"
"Tell you that Gabriella is an amazing singer!" Sharpay burst out.
"Sharpay!" Kelsi screeched, her jaw dropping.
"What?" Sharpay asked innocently. "The world should know that she can sing. We need her in our musicals. And besides I didn't tell him the really secret part" Sharpay reminded her.
Kelsi rolled her eyes and let out a loud, frustrated sigh.
"Kelsi." Troy said seriously. "What is going on?"
"Troy, it's not really our place to tell you" Kelsi reasoned.
"I know there is something going on with Gabriella and it's killing me that I can't figure it out." Troy confessed. "Don't you guys see it as well?"
Kelsi and Sharpay looked at each other contemplating the situation. Now that they really sat and thought about it Gabriella was very reserved and never seemed to have time to hang out after school or on the weekends. But why did her mother leaving her have any effect on Gabriella's social life.
Kelsi sighed, praying that this was the right decision,
"Her mom left her" she said softly.
"What?" Troy asked in disbelief.
"This morning Taylor, Sharpay and I heard her singing in the music room. She was singing about her mother leaving her, about the pain it had caused her. After she finished she broke down in sobs." Kelsi explained.
"Shit" Troy muttered.
Kelsi and Sharpay looked at Troy questioningly.
"Today during free period, we each got to ask each other three questions and I asked her what her greatest regret was and she said not being good enough. When I tried to say something she changed the subject." Troy explained.
"That's so heart breaking" Sharpay whispered.
"And I feel like there is something else we're missing" Troy said.
"Maybe we should talk to her" Sharpay suggested.
--
After the final bell rang, Gabriella stood at her locker packing her books into her backpack. She was moving slower than usual, mostly because her mind was in a different place. Troy had managed to distract her from the depression of the day for that one period but the rest of the day she had spent being miserable. As she shut her locker she leaned against it she closed her eyes she took a deep breath. As the memory of her mother leaving played over in her head, she fought back tears.
"Hey" Taylor's voice brought Gabriella out of the memory.
"Hi" Gabriella said breathlessly.
"You ok?" Taylor asked, genuinely concerned.
Gabriella nodded quickly, trying to hide the sadness in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine" she lied.
Taylor and Gabriella began to walk down the hallway together. Soon they were joined by most of the gang. Taylor and Troy walked on either side of Gabriella, with Kelsi and Sharpay closely following. The rest of the boys trailed behind a little, talking amongst themselves.
As the group walked through the front doors Gabriella couldn't help but listen into a conversation Jason and Chad were having,
"I hate my mom, she's always getting on my case" Jason complained.
"I know what you mean, most of the time I think life would be better off without her" Chad said. No, how could he think that? There was nothing good that had come out of her own mother leaving. How dare he think that his life would be better without his mom. Without thinking Gabriella blurted out,
"No!" By the time the word left her mouth, it was too late to stop it. Thankfully neither Jason nor Chad had heard her, unfortunately, Taylor, Troy, Kelsi and Sharpay all had. They all stared that her blankly, searching for an answer.
"I um, I didn't mean that. It, um, just kind of popped out" Gabriella muttered. The four looked at her skeptically.
"I should probably go anyway" Gabriella's nervous babble continued, "I have to…go" she motioned behind her.
"Where are you going?" Taylor asked curiously.
"Home then work" Gabriella said softly.
"I'll walk with you. I have nothing to do this afternoon" Taylor offered. Just as Gabriella opened her mouth to protest most of the gang said they'd walk home with her too. Gabriella panicked. No. This wasn't happening, this couldn't happen.
"No that's ok, I have to run really quickly and it's kinda a long walk. I don't want to subdue you guys to that" Gabriella reasoned nervously.
"If it's really that long of a walk, I could drive you." Troy offered.
Oh shit.
"I um…My mom doesn't let me drive home with people she doesn't know. She's very strict" Gabriella lied. It was the only lie she could come up with that sounded legitimate.
"That's a lie" Sharpay stated, turning to face Gabriella as the group stopped near the fountains. Gabriella chocked on her own breath,
"No, no it's not a lie. Why would I lie?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out but all you do is lie to us!" Sharpay exploded.
"You don't know that" Gabriella said softly.
"Gabriella. We do. We know that your mother left you." Taylor said. Gabriella stared blankly at the group. The three girls all seemed to know and so did Troy. But how?
"Gabriella, that song you sang this morning was so heartbreaking." Kelsi said softly. So that was it, they had heard her singing. Gabriella tried to open her mouth to speak, but she couldn't find the right words to express herself, all that managed to leak out were tears.
"Your mother is the one missing out, not you. I'm sure your father is thankful to have you" Troy said.
"No!" Gabriella cried. They were speculating and assuming things that weren't true. She wasn't sure if she was angry or afraid, but whatever it was she couldn't take it anymore. "You don't know that!"
"But we do Gabriella, you shouldn't have to feel like your greatest regret is you weren't good enough for your family." Sharpay argued. Gabriella stared awestruck at Sharpay, how had she known one of Gabriella's deepest feelings. She had only told Troy, but he must of…
"Troy!" Gabriella exclaimed, hurt radiating in her voice. "I told you that because I didn't think you would tell anyone"
"Brie, I was just trying to help" Troy tried to explain softly.
"Oh by blurting out my deepest feelings" Gabriella said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. "I thought I could trust you" she finished coldly.
"We thought we could trust you! You've been lying to our faces" Troy retorted, angrily.
"Just tell us the truth" he continued, his voice softening considerably.
"You don't understand" Gabriella said weakly.
"We're trying to Brie!" Troy said desperately, throwing his arms up. Gabriella closed her eyes. She cared for these people, she really did, but they were digging too close and she needed to protect Lucas and Lily.
"Just stop. Stop trying to figure me out. Stop pretending you have me figured out!" She cried. After taking a pause her voice was soft and slow but stern, "Just. Stop."
She turned to try and escape the company of everyone, but was stopped when Troy grabbed her wrist. At the suddenly tight contact, she immediately pulled away violently, harsh memories returning.
"Brie" Troy whispered.
"Please" Gabriella begged quietly tears falling down her face. She turned to run off of the East High campus. When Troy tried to run after her Taylor pulled his back,
"Just let her go" She whispered remorsefully. Troy sighed. What was going on with her and how could he take away her pain?
A/N: I realized two things while writing this chapter. I hate homework – ok so I didn't just realize that, but it was certainly a pain in the butt while I was trying to get this out. And secondly I hate writing arguments. I guess it's because I don't like confrontation. But whatever the reason, it was really hard for me to write the argument. Hopefully it was alright. Please review!