Here's the next chapter for you guys, enjoy!

A Cry For Help

Getting up in the morning for any teenager was hard, especially if you've got a fully day of school ahead of you. But when you wake up to the smiling face of your daughter, starting your day at some horribly early hour, suddenly doesn't seem too bad.

"Daddy wake now." Jasmine said, as Troy opened his eyes,

"Yeah sweetie Daddy awake now." Troy answered, as he reached over Jasmine to turn off his alarm.

"Rosie wake." Jasmine stated, holding her bear up for Troy to see.

"That's good then 'cause you two need to go to nursery again today, is that okay?" Troy asked, as he lay on his side and watched Jasmine absentmindedly play with Rosie's fur.

"Daddy stay?"

"No I'm sorry sweetie Daddy can't stay he needs to go to school, but I'll stay for a little when I drop you off and then tonight we can play together because I haven't got to work, how does that sound?"

Jasmine shrugged. "You mean you don't want to play with Daddy tonight? Fine, I'll just play with Rosie and you can play in your room by yourself."

"No, Daddy play with Rosie and Jasmine."

"Oh, so you want to play with us now, do you?"

Jasmine nodded. "That wasn't a proper answer; do you want to play with us?" Troy asked, as he tickled Jasmine's tummy making her squirm.

"Y-Yes." Jasmine managed to answer, as she tried to wriggle away from Troy's fingers.

"Okay." Troy said, as he stopped his tickling. "So, now that Daddy's going to play with you tonight, will you and Rosie go and have a good time at nursery for me?"

"Okay."

"That's my girl. Now how about we go get you dressed?"

Jasmine nodded, and slid of Troy's bed and turned to watch his movement.

He stayed still for a moment, knowing she was waiting for him to pounce, then he made his move. He jumped out of bed making a roaring sound like a lion, causing Jasmine to shriek with laughter as she ran out of his bedroom and into her own, trying to get away from the big 'lion'.

Troy knew one thing for sure, he didn't find it hard to get moving in the morning when Jasmine was around.

TGTGTGTG

He really hadn't expected her to settle in so quickly, but she had. She still held onto him tightly as they walked in, and she still wanted him to stay with her, but as soon as Julie brought out Rosie for her to play with she was as happy as anything and ran off to the soft corner to play.

Troy had stayed for a while and talked with Julie about how he and Jasmine were settling in so well at home and how he'd made such a great group of friends at school, he just hoped that Jasmine would soon do the same.

Troy smiled to himself one more time before turning off his truck's engine, grabbing his bag and heading into school to start his day.

He was early, after Jasmine had settled in so well he'd left, so she didn't realise he was still there and get upset again.

As he walked across the almost empty court yard, at the front of the school, he noticed Gabriella was here as well, sat under a tree, talking on her phone, crying.

She hadn't noticed him yet, so quietly made his way over and couldn't help but stop a short way away and listen to her conversation.

"Yes Mum I know that, you were the ones arguing when I got up, well what do you want me to do, sit there and listen, well then I'll just go hungry won't I, oh come on, it's not like you two care, yeah you do that, just swan off to work 'til who knows what hour tonight, and pretend that nothing has happened, it's what you always do, bye." He watched as she finished the call and swiped at the tears that had been falling from her eyes, he was about to approach her when a few more words slipped from her mouth.

"I love you too Mum." And with that the tears started falling all over again, but this time she seemed to give into them, as she pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees as her body shook with tears.

He wasn't sure what to do, he had only known her a day, but he couldn't just sit round and watch her cry, so he just decided to go for it and offer her a shoulder to cry on.

"Gabriella?" He asked, as he stepped closer to the crying brunette.

"Go away."

"I would, but you're crying and I can't walk away knowing you're crying. Is it okay if I sit down?"

Gabriella lifted her head from her knees and nodded, allowing Troy to come and take a seat on her right.

"D-did you hear my conversation?" Gabriella asked, as she tried to wipe away more tears, but with no avail, they just kept on falling.

Troy nodded silently. "I'm sorry, I wasn't being intentionally nosey, but I saw you sitting here, and then I realised you were on the phone and I was going to leave, but then you were crying and I couldn't leave you after that, your conversation didn't seem too great."

"It wasn't, my Mum and I argue sometimes, it's no big deal, I just wish she'd realise how much other things do mean to me though, I just hate it when..." She trailed off, what was she doing, she only met Troy yesterday and now, here she was about to pour her life story out to him, 'not happening,' she told herself, as she pulled herself out of her day dream and realised Troy was still there.

"I'm sorry, I only met you yesterday, you don't need to be hearing this."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, just know that if you do wanna talk, I'm here."

"Thanks." Gabriella said, as she wiped her eyes with her cardigan sleeve and put her head back down on her knees.

"Come here." Troy said softly, as he gently wrapped his arms around Gabriella, pulling head from her knees and onto his chest, allowing her to simply cry away all her feelings against him.

They sat like that for a few minutes, Troy simply holding her as she cried, until he began to notice that other students were starting to arrive, and unless Gabriella wanted people asking her questions all day, he knew she needed to clean her self up.

"I think we should maybe start heading inside, the others are starting to arrive and unless you want people asking you questions all day, you should probably go get cleaned up."

Gabriella lifted her head from Troy's chest and looked him in the eye. "Will you come with me?"

"Of course I will, I can't come in the girls toilets with you, but I will wait outside for you, is that okay?"

Gabriella nodded, and moved herself away from Troy allowing him to get up, pulling her with him in the process and then gently placing his hand on the small of her back as he lead her into the school.

TGTGTGTG

The rest of the morning had gone well, the gang had noticed Gabriella was quiet but she just told them she'd had an argument with her Mum again, but Troy looked after her and she was okay now. Little did any of them know, that was all about to change.

Gabriella and Troy had their family living class and then a free period before lunch, and it was the family living class that caused the problem.

Their teacher had given them sheets to fill out on what family meant to them, and although he knew not everyone had every family member that was on the sheet, he still wanted them to fill it out to the best of their ability, putting down all the positive things about that family member if they had one.

Troy had finished his sheet, despite the fact it was only him and Jasmine now, most of the family members on the sheet he had experienced and one point or another, and so was able to pull from that to finish his work.

"You've finished Mr Bolton, that's great work, well done."

Troy looked up at Mr Peterson who was peering over his shoulder. "Thanks sir."

Troy watched as Mr Peterson walked behind him and stopped beside Gabriella's desk, she wasn't doing her work, she was sat wit her pen in her hand, staring blankly at the page in front of her. She'd filled out most of the sheet just not the bit Mr Peterson expected them all to be able to fill out; the Mum and Dad part.

"Miss Montez, care to explain why you appear to have given up on your work?"

"I've finished." Gabriella answered, not once looking up at her teacher.

"No you haven't young lady, I asked everyone to at least fill out the Mum and Dad part, those are the parts you've missed, care to explain?"

"There's nothing to explain sir, I haven't got anything nice to say about my parents, okay?"

"No that's not okay, I've met your parents Gabriella, they're lovely people."

"Yeah, that's what you think; you don't live with them do you?"

"Don't give me that cheek young lady. Now please finish off the sheet."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't." Gabriella said, as tears started to gather in her eyes.

"There's no such word as can't Miss Montez, now please fill out the sheet."

"NO!" That was it. Gabriella gathered her stuff and walked out of the lesson, tears pouring from her eyes; she didn't look back once.

The class sat in silence, Gabriella was the quiet one, the well behaved one, what had possessed her to walk out of a lesson, no matter how bad things got, Gabriella would never do that.

It was five minutes after Gabriella walked out that the bell rang and class was dismissed. Troy was one of the first out of the classroom, he needed to find Gabriela, he wasn't sure where she'd be, this was only his second day after all, but he just knew he needed to find her.

TGTGTGTG

Troy has gone to all he places that he knew at East High, but Gabriella wasn't at any of them, so he decided his best bet was to find the rest of the gang and ask them for help.

He found them in the gym, Chad and Zeke being on the basketball team the rest of the gang would join them in free periods to work, while they practised their game, so he decided that would be the best place to find them.

"GUYS!" Troy shouted; as he entered the gym, causing the boys too immediately stop their one on one game. "Have any of you seen Gabriella?"

"We thought she was with you." Chad said, walking over to Troy and the others at the bleachers.

"She was, but she had an argument with Mr Peterson and then walked out, I've looked in the obvious places, but I can't find her, any ideas?"

"Have you tried the library?" Taylor asked. "She's always in there."

"Yeah I looked in there, there was hardly anyone around." Troy answered.

"Did you go right to the back?" Kelsi asked. "There are some bean bags right at the back, by the big windows, where me and her go sometimes if we need to think or just be alone and quiet for a bit."

"I didn't try there, thanks Kelsi, I'm gonna go look, we'll come find you at lunch, if she's okay with that." Troy said, as he began to walk away.

"Whoa Troy wait up, why did she argue with Peterson? What did he say to make her walk out? That's not like Gabi at all." Chad said, worried about his friend.

"I'm not really sure to be honest, that's why I want to find her, she was crying again. All I know is that she wouldn't finish filling out the sheet he'd given us, we had to fill in all the positive things about family members, she did it all apart from the Mum and Dad part, he'd told us that was the bit we all had to fill in. They had an argument about why she couldn't fill it in, Gabriella just said she couldn't, when Peterson said there was no such word as can't and told her to fill in the sheet she said no, got up, gathered her stuff and left, no one dared to say anything after that, he let us go as soon as the bell went."

"That doesn't sound good, she had an argument with her Mum as well this morning, she shouldn't be by herself, should we all split up and look for her." Taylor asked.

"I think we should let Troy go." Sharpay answered. "Kelsi's right she's probably in the back of the library, plus Gabi said Troy was looking after her this morning, surely that shows she feels comfortable with him, he was the one there when she walked out, he should be the one to find her."

"She's right Troy, just go find Gabi and we'll see you at lunch." Chad said, as Troy quickly turned on his heel and left the gym heading in the direction of the library.

TGTGTGTG

Gabriella was indeed sat, curled up on one of the big, black, leather bean bags at the back of the library, looking out of the big windows that overlooked the school grounds. She was still crying, every time she stopped thoughts started running through her head again and the tears just simply started to fall. She knew she shouldn't have argued with or walked out on Mr Peterson, but she had, and now she wasn't quite sure how to put it right.

"Gabriella?" Troy's voice pulled her from her daydream and she turned round from staring out of the windows to look at him.

"Hey." She greeted him, trying to wipe away the tears that were falling from her eyes, but it was no use, they just kept falling.

"Oh Gabriella, come here." Troy said with open arms, as he sat down next to her on the bean bag and pulled her into his arms.

Gabriella simply cried and let all of her pent up feelings come out. She'd had enough; everything had just simply become too much for her and although she knew Troy would want to talk to her sooner or later, right now she was more than happy to be cuddled up in his arms, crying.

"I should probably go back and apologies to Peterson, shouldn't I?" Gabriella asked, a good five minutes later when her tears had slowed down.

"Yeah you probably should, but not right now, I'm kinda comfy and I think you should probably talk things through with someone else before you go back in there and talk with him, so wanna talk?"

Gabriella took a deep breath. "You want the simple story or the complicated one?"

"Which ever you feel more comfortable talking about."

Gabriella laughed slightly. "Neither really, but the simple one is shorter so I guess it's that." She replied, as a few more tears slipped from her eyes.

"Hey now, come on, no more tears, your okay, I've got you and I wanna help you, just please stop crying Brie, please."

"Brie?" She asked, as she wiped at some of her falling tears.

"Sorry it just kinda slipped out, I'll call you Gabriella if you prefer, but Brie suits you, it's a pretty nickname, just like you."

"Thanks I like it, and you ain't half bad yourself." They both blushed as the realisation that they were flirting set in. "I should probably tell you what's going on now, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, just take your time, remember I'm here, just go slow."

Gabriella nodded and snuggled closer to Troy as she prepared to talk to him, she wouldn't admit it, but she kinda felt safe being in Troy's arms, it was the safest she'd felt in a long time.

"Things are kinda hard at home right now. Mum and Dad have been arguing a lot. That's what me and Mum were arguing about this morning, they had an argument this morning before school, I asked them to stop but they just told me to leave, I did but I didn't get the chance to bring any lunch or money with me so I can't have any lunch, I skipped breakfast as well, I hate it when they argue it makes me feel sick. She always phones after they argue to apologies, but she always does it just as she's about to go to work, so she's always in a hurry. But do you know what hurts the most? The fact that neither of them tell me they love me anymore. I haven't done anything, but I always seem to get the brunt of everything anyway."

"Brie I'm sorry I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything Troy, you listened and that's what means the most to me right now. Being in your arms is the safest I've felt in a while as well, things just aren't going well right now."

"I can tell that, do you feel safe at home?"

"Yes and no, sometimes their arguing gets out of control, but when that happens I just leave and go for a swim at the leisure centre, or visit Chad and Taylor, he only lives round the corner and she's usually there most of the time as well."

"You like swimming?"

"Yeah, it's s great way to just escape."

"I'm a life guard at the leisure centre, you should come say hello next time we're both there, I'll keep an eye out for you as well."

"You working tonight?"

"No I've got tonight off, I'm in tomorrow and Thursday though, then I'm off for the weekend, things to do. You wanna know a secret?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I live by myself, I had a big bust up with my parents and they chucked me out, I've got an apartment that's just over half an hour away from here, it's a lovely apartment block, I'll have to have you round some time, I can be another place for you to escape to."

"Thanks Troy, you've been great."

"Yeah well, I had to ask the others where you'd be I couldn't find you to begin with, but then Kelsi suggested here, even though I'd already been in here, she said this is a place you and here come and sit when you wanna escape."

"Yeah it's good place to come and think. Will you come with me while I speak to Peterson, I don't want him to hate me, he's great teacher and I think he deserves an explanation."

"Sounds like a plan to me, then we'll go meet the other for lunch, they're worried about you, and don't worry, I'm paying." Troy said, as he got up and pulled Gabriella with him.

"Thanks Troy, I don't know what I'd of done without you today."

"It's okay; it couldn't just leave you when I knew you were crying, I'm not that type of person." Troy replied, as he gently laced his arm around Gabriella's shoulders and led her to Mr Peterson's classroom.

Troy had no idea that his second day at East High would be this eventful, but he's glad he was there to help Gabriella. She was clearly crying out for help and it seemed that he was the person to hear those cries.

TGTGTGTG

Jasmine laughed as Troy picked her up and spun her round and round, her giggles filling the apartment as he did.

"Daddy stop, Jasmine and Rosie dizzy now."

Troy slowly brought their spinning to a stop and plopped down on the couch with Jasmine still in his arms.

"Is that better? Or are you and Rosie still dizzy?"

"No, all better now Daddy, thank you."

"That's okay then, have you had a nice time with Daddy and Rosie tonight then?" Troy asked, as he situated Jasmine on his lap more comfortably as their hectic night started to take its toll on her.

After picking Jasmine up from nursery, Troy had taken her to the park to feed the ducks before allowing her to play on the play area and then taking her home to watch telly while he cooked and did his one piece of homework that was due in the next day. After dinner Troy had helped Jasmine put together two jigsaws and had helped her get dressed up in her princess costume. All in all Troy had given his daughter a pretty good night.

Jasmine nodded her head sleepily at Troy's question. "We do it again tomorrow?"

"No not tomorrow sweetie Daddy's gotta work, but I'm off Friday, Saturday and Sunday so we can have lots of fun, what do you think?"

"Zoo?" Jasmine asked.

"Yeah I think we can go to the zoo, but I think you need to go to bed now though, Daddy has worn you out."

"Yeah Jazzy tired." Troy laughed, as he got up with Jasmine in his arms and took her though to her bedroom to get her sorted to bed and into bed.

Tucking Jasmine in only took fifteen minutes because Troy really had worn her out and she wasn't awake enough to play with him as he was getting her ready.

It was twenty minutes after he'd tucked Jasmine in that Troy stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed himself. He'd tucked in Jasmine and had given the apartment a quick tidy up while putting the dishwasher on, before making sure everything was locked and turned off before heading to bed.

He took out his phone and sent Gabriella a quick text.

Hey, how r u? I hope things haven't been too bad for you tonight, I've been thinking about you. T

After speaking to Mr Peterson, who had completely understood why he'd upset Gabriella so much and had said he'd keep it in mind for the future, Troy had taken Gabriella to the canteen and brought her some lunch, before they enjoyed a happy lunch with their friends. The group and Troy had all swapped mobile numbers, and Troy had secretly told Gabriella afterwards that she could contact him anytime when she needed an escape from her parents.

Troy switched off the light and turned on his alarm, as he received a reply from Gabriella.

I'm okay thanks, things have been just as bad as normal but I was in my room watching TV so I shut them out tonight. How was ur night? G

It was good thanks, just watched TV and did homework. Try get some sleep Brie, I'll see you tomorrow. Night Tx

Troy had settled himself in bed as he received one last text.

I'll try, promise. Night Gx

Troy smiled, as he put his phone on chare on his bed side table and rolled over in his double bed to get some sleep, before Jasmine was up early, jumping on him, telling him it was time to get and start the new day.

TGTGTGTG

There it is guys, chapter two, hope you liked it!

Happy Thanks Giving to those of you who celebrate, I'm English so I don't and I know by the time you read this thanks giving will probably by over, but anyway...

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!