"Hi, Lupe," my mother tells her as she walks in with my dad trailing behind, "how are things?"

Lupe smiled at her as she cleaned off the counters, "Good. Gabriella had friend over and did project and I just made enchiladas."

My dad took off his jacket and threw it over his arms, "Enchiladas? My favorite. You're the best, Lupe," he comes over to the table I'm sitting at going over some of the syllabuses for class and gives me a kiss on the head.

"Hey, dad."

"What are you doing?" he asks, looking down at the papers, "where's Josh?"

"I think he went over to Mark's and they were going to grab some food or something, I'm not quite sure."

He went over to the kitchen and about five minutes later, him and my mom came and joined me at the table with a plate of enchiladas for each and a glass of wine. I already had some so I was just going to sit here and watch them eat. Not literally.

My dad dug right into his food while my mom took her sweet time, as usual. Unlike most teenagers, I actually enjoy spending time with my family.

"So how's school so far?" my dad asks me.

"Eh," I shrug, "school's school. I already can't wait to get out of there and head to Rhode Island."

"Brown," he smiles, "my alma mater, which I'm sure you're going to love as well. We need to take a trip down there soon, I want to show you all around and introduce you to some of my favorite professors."

My mom coughs and we both look her way, "Or we can head over to Yale and introduce you to some of my favorite professors."

Ahh torn between two schools. Not really, Brown has always been my dream school. Ever since I was ten. My dad took me there and I fell IN LOVE with in and hearing all the stories from there made me want to go even more. My mom went to Yale so she's trying to push that on me, but my mind's already set on Brown, but maybe she can have better luck with my brother since he hasn't really decided where he wants to go yet.

"Elizabeth, please," my dad says, "don't interrupt us."

My mom laughs and roll her eyes as my dad turns back to me, "Seriously. I know I've been saying, but I have the itch to go sometime soon."

I wanna go, too. "No, yeah, whenever you want. Any weekend you can."

He takes out his phone and looks at his calendar, "Hmm let's see. We have that brunch. Your mom and I actually have to go to Paris for a few days soon and check on things over there and have dinner with a potential business partner. We have your grandma's birthday, that charity dinner in Boston. Hmm let's just plan for like in a month? Is that okay?"

"Sure," I shrug, "I don't think I have anything going on in about a month." Yeah, I don't think I do.

"Perfect," my dad puts his phone down and goes right back into eating his enchiladas.

"So you and mom are going to Paris?" I put my papers away in my folder and push it off to the side, "for how long? And thanks for the invite, by the way, I've been wanting to go back."

My mom put her glass of wine down and shook her head, "you're in school, you can't miss already. We're leaving on a Thursday and coming back Monday."

"Yeah," my dad agrees with her, "we're just gonna head over there, check on the hotel, how things are going, and have dinner with Charles Davenport who is interested in doing business with me. He owns a couple of restaurants in Paris, so we'll see."

"He's in the restaurant business?" I'm confused. "but you're in the hotel business. That doesn't even make sense."

My dad chuckles as he takes a bite of his food, "Gabriella, I'm a businessman, and yes owning hotels is my primary business, but he's talking about bringing his restaurant to New York and he needs a co-owner, someone to manage it when he can't be in town so yeah, it's all the same."

I mean, if he says so. Who am I to tell him? He's the one who has s made millions doing what he does. "No, yeah, yeah, you're right. I was just confused."

They continued eating and I saw back and just watched while they laughed over some thing that happened today while they were out.

And I couldn't help, but just smile.

I didn't have the typical New York parents. Nope. I had the best parents. And this isn't to offend people in New York, but typically, if you're living here in the Upper East Side specifically, chances are your parents are rich and successful. And rich and successful means they're out at dinners and functions every single night. They're out closing deals, getting chummy with people who could get them one step further in life. All that jazz.

But my dad and mom? No. They're into that, but to a certain extent.

Four nights a week, they're home and having dinner with us. No if, and or but's about it. Occasionally, they can't get out of things and that's totally fine, it's understandable, but for the most part, they try to be home. Not because they feel like they have to, but because they want to.

And Lupe? Well, she gets every single weekend off. My brother and I grew up here but my parents didn't and so they don't want us to be total brats.

They had a normal childhood and their parents worked hard for everything they had and they're doing the same but on a much larger scale, but they're still parents any kid would typically have whether we live here or the worst part in town.

I never take anything for granted, it might seem that way sometimes because you can't help but get caught up, but nope. I'm very thankful and grateful for every single thing I have.

"I'm gonna go take a shower and then probably go to bed," I get up.

"Okay, sweetie," my mom tells me as she reaches for her wine, "oh! I gave Martin the day off tomorrow since he has to take his daughter to the doctors."

"That's fine," I smile at her. See what I mean? Most people in New York don't have time for that. They'd tell them to take them when they're off the clock. Not my gem of a mom. "I'll take a taxi. Or I'll have Savannah pick me up or something."

She smiled at me and so did my dad and then I was off to take a shower.

"Goodnight, Lupe," I tell her as she's putting on her coat. It's 7 o'clock. She stayed a little later than usual today, but it was time for her to go home now.

"Night Gabriella," she tells me, "I will see you tomorrow."

I went to my bathroom, turned on the shower, blasted some music and then thirty minutes later, I was snuggled in bed with a good book. But all I really wanted to do was text Troy and talk to him. And it was so crazy. I've only known him for a few days.

Why can't I stop thinking about him? Ahhhh.

"How are you and Will?"

Savannah looked up from her phone and smiled before putting it down, "Oh, we're good."

Yeah, I can tell by that smile. "Are you bringing him to the brunch on Saturday?" I go over to my closet and pick out a couple of dress, "speaking of, I need your help. I don't know what to wear to that so I'm glad you're here."

She got up from my bed and came over to my closet, "I'm not sure. We're not really official yet and it's invite only so I don't know, will it be weird?"

"Well it's invite only, but he'll go with you and your family's invited so why not?" I tell her, "bring him. It'll be nice."

William is a really nice guy, but he doesn't go to our school so he's not really in with our crowd and his parents aren't involved in the same circle as our parents so I guess it's a little weird for her.

She shrugged, "I'll see. I don't want to move too fast. He hasn't even met my parents so I have to think about it and talk to them."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," I completely understand, "I don't even want to go to this brunch, but it's a family thing. Thank God you and Morgan will be there."

Savannah laughed and pulled out a white Burberry dress, "this, you have to wear this. It's perfect for brunch. And your white Manolo pumps, the pointed toes ones, do an all white thing. That would be SO cute! And so very appropriate."

I think about it for a minute and that's really all I need because it does sound really cute. I grabbed the dress from her and quickly put it on. And then went inside my closet and grabbed the heels she was talking about. "So on a scale of 1-10, how much do you like Will?"

"Maybe like an 8 right now," she chuckled to herself, "I don't know. Maybe a 10. I really am trying not to rush too fast because he's really nice, G."

"He is," I tell her. I've met him a few times at social gatherings and he was always nice.

I walked over to my full length mirror once I had the outfit on to check it out. And Savannah was right. It definitely looks like brunch attire. And I was so happy I was getting my outfit out of the way.

"You look hot," she squeals.

"Thanks," I laugh, looking at her through the mirror, "so, this is it?"

She nods, "that's it. You so pull off white, you know. Gah, you're so lucky," she turns around and grabs her phone from my dresser, "do we know what Morgan's wearing? I know she was stressing about it a few days ago. I haven't talked to her about it since, though."

I shrug, "No, I don't. But I'm sure she'll find something."

This brunch isn't just any brunch that happens all the time in NYC. Nope. It's a brunch for Frank Dillard's foundation and only the crem of la crem go. The most important people in New York. And their families. It's a way to come together as a family and show people what you're made of. My family doesn't go to show off, we go to support the foundation, but it doesn't hurt to you know, have everyone see what a wonderful family we are together.

"So, G," Savannah hops on my bed and grabs the nearest magazine next to her on my nightstand, "what about you? Any guys you got your eye on?"

Oh fuck. I haven't told anyone about my tiny little itty bitty crush on Troy Bolton.

Mainly because it's WAAAY too early to tell if I even do like him. It's been like barely a week, we haven't hung out except for Tuesday to work on our project, but it's now Thursday and we've had minimal contact and so I don't know. It's too soon to tell.

And also, I really don't want to put it out there in case nothing happens. "I'm just worried about getting into Brown."

"Oh please," Savannah rolls her eyes, "you're for sure getting in there, you've had straight A's since you were five and you're in, like, so many clubs. You're a she in and you know it. You're dad's an alumni! An important one!"

Maybe. "You can never be so sure."

Savannah sighed and put down the magazine, "Ryan's moved on. Let's find you a boyfriend, shall we? Or just some guy to have fun with."

Oh no, no, no. Once Savannah thinks about doing that, she actually does it. And I definitely don't want whoever she's going to get me, which will probably be some rich kid from school who has half a brain.

Dammit. I'm going to have to tell her. "Actually, I might be crushing on someone."

"WHO?" her eyes widened, "tell me right now, Gabriella Elizabeth Montez."

"Umm the new guy," I hang my dress up on my mirror, "Troy, Stacy's cousin. He's um, he's in my English class and my partner on a project, so I don't know, we've hung out a little bit."

I definitely left the part out where he brought me home because she'll be mad about that even though he didn't try anything. She's always telling me to never let someone take me home. That there are a lot of disgusting guys here, but whatever. I was drunk. It was a mistake. Whatever.

Her eyes widened a little bit and she cracked a smile, "Troy Bolton? Wow. I mean, he's hot, but I never thought you'd actually like him."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "I know you and I know you're this down to earth chick, but let's be real, it's hard to be here and every single guy you've dated has some kind of status. Ryan? His dad is the freaking mayor. Tyler? His parents only own the most prestigious bar in the city. Whether you like it or not, you're drawn to those types of guys and Troy Bolton is so... normal."

And that's why I like about him. He has this innocence about him and I need that. I need a normal guy. Not these New York guys who think they can do and say whatever they want.

Troy's from Chicago. A simple city. And he's a simple guy. "I mean, he's Stacy Smith's cousin."

Savannah shook her head, "No one cares about Ryan's cousin, Blake," she points out, "I'm just saying, people expect more from you, but if you're into him..."

I am sort of into him. At least I think I can be if I spend more time with him. But who even knows if he's into me. And I don't care about his status, how much money he has, how much money he doesn't have. Honestly. I just want to get to know him better.

"I don't know," I tell her just so we could get off the subject.

But even though we were off it, it doesn't mean I stopped thinking about him.