OH MY GOD I"M STILL ALIVE AND I'M SOOOOOOOO SORRY ABOUT ABANDONING THIS STORY. I won't bother giving you excuses...they involve large amounts of procrastination, getting hit by a car, and my laptop dying multiple times. Long stories. You don't want to know. I'll shut up and let you read this and pray that I still get reviews on this.

Gabriella allowed herself to be led into the hospital, barely realizing where she was going. She was beyond caring. Why? was the only thing she could think of. The single word reverberated around in her head, filling every part of her thoughts, until she couldn't stand it anymore.

"No!" she suddenly said out loud. Her friends stopped and looked at her, as did a passing nurse. She let out a long breath. She didn't care about the attention she had drawn to herself. She could only think of how the chorus of questions had stopped.

"Gabriella, are you okay?" Sharpay asked worriedly, turning to face her friend. "What's wrong?"

Gabriella shook her head. "It's just…so awful." she said quietly.

Sharpay looked at her sympathetically. "I know." she replied, hugging her friend. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, Gabriella."

Gabriella shook her head. "It's not your fault, Sharpay. Come on. Let's go see if we can get in to see Troy or Kelsi."

Putting on the mask was easy. Holding it up is the hard part, Gabriella thought. But how long can I do this for?

The group presently made their way to the waiting room, sitting down and staring ahead blankly, each lost in their own thoughts. Gabriella felt someone's eyes on her and glanced around uneasily. It can't be Zeke. she told herself over and over, trying to convince herself.

Gabriella cast a glance around at her friends. Jason was staring fixedly at the doors leading to the ER. Sharpay had her gaze fixed blankly on the television in the corner. Gabriella looked to where Chad was sitting, on her other side, and met his eyes.

He didn't say anything, but didn't have to. His expression said it all: pain, sadness, and knowing something he wished he could forget. If only he could. If only they all could.

A nurse approaching the small group pulled them all out of the worlds of thoughts and horrors they had let themselves fall into. "Who are you waiting to see?" she asked.

"Troy Bolton and Kelsi Neilsen." Chad answered for all of them. "Are they all right?"

"Troy is still in the ICU. You can see Kelsi." The nurse replied. "I'll show you to her room."

The nurse led them to a small, whitewashed hospital room, where Kelsi lay alone, hooked up to a several machines and IVs. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow.

"She's sleeping right now." the nurse said. "I don't know when she'll wake up. It might not be for a while." She turned and left the group to be with Kelsi.

Jason was the first to break away from the tight cluster around the door and approach Kelsi's bed. He sat down and took her hand.

"Kelsi…" he whispered. "Kelsi, please, wake up."

The rest of the group slowly moved to gather behind him, all staring at their friend. Kelsi suddenly turned her head. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Jason…guys…" she muttered. "What happened? Where are we?"

"We're in the hospital." said Sharpay in a low, soothing voice, sitting down next to Jason. "It's going to be okay, Kelsi."

"What about Zeke?" Kelsi said worriedly.

"He's dead." Sharpay's voice tightened.

"Oh…Sharpay, I'm sorry…" Kelsi was clearly at a loss for what to say.

"It doesn't matter. The bastard deserved it." Sharpay said flatly.

"Kelsi, are you feeling all right?" Jason asked anxiously.

Kelsi gave a small shrug and grimaced. "My arm hurts." she said, looking down at her bandaged limb. "I think I'm okay, though." She gave a slight smile and looked back to Chad and Gabriella.

As soon as Kelsi's eyes landed on her, Gabriella turned away. she had to get away. Before she knew what she was doing, she turned and started running, out of the room, down the hall, stopping only when she was outside and nearly fell into the memorial fountain in front of the building. She sat down on the rim and stared down into the water, her tears falling and disappearing in the rippling water.

She managed to stop crying at the sound of footsteps behind her. "Gabriella." said Chad.

He sounded so different. Everything was different now.

She turned around, waiting for him to mention what had happened, what she had done, waiting to hear how he was going to tell everyone.

"Are you all right?"

It wasn't what she had been expecting at all, and caught her off guard.

"Yeah." she replied after a minute. "I just can't help but feel like it's all my fault."

Chad looked out over the parking lot, where the sun was staring to rise. "It's not." he said flatly. "We couldn't leave you. It's his fault for putting us all through this."

Gabriella shrugged. "It's just...it's hard." she said. "I don't want to accept it."

"None of us do, Gabriella, but we're going to have to live with what happened. We can't change it." He shook his head. "Do you want to go back inside?"

"Yeah, in a minute." she said. "I just want to be alone for a bit."

Chad nodded and retreated back into the building, leaving her. As soon as he had gone, Gabriella stood up and walked over to the car the group had driven there, spinning the keys she had taken from Chad's pocket around her finger listlessly. She drove home and climbed in through an open window, going straight to her room and curling up under the covers, not bothering to take off her clothes or turn on any of the lights in her house. She fell asleep almost instantly.

Gabriella woke up hours later, very suddenly, with none of the drowsiness she usually felt when waking up. She groped around on her bedside table for the lamp and brushed her fingers against something cold and metal. She wrapped her fingers around it and, squinting in the dim light, could just make out the shape of a gun.

So it's almost done...almost...i promise I'll have the end posted really soon. Promise. But you have to review.