Name: Gabriella Montez
Age: 16
Dating: If her brothers have their way, not until she's 35.
Status: Single, smart, and annoyed.
Ambition: To get her brothers out of her personal life and never give Troy Bolton the satisfaction of always getting what he wants.
Life in a Glass House
Chapter 1: So what is your thing?
Gabriella slammed the door as she barged into the house. She ignored every voice that threw a comment at her and marched up the stairs, only to stop at her bedroom door. "If anyone else feels the need to involve themselves in my social life, I'll be in my room for the rest of eternity!" her scream rang through the house. Gabriella's door crashed into its frame and she perched herself on top of her bed. Barely a minute later had a light knock come at her door. "Whoever it is, go away." She said stubbornly.
"It's Mom." Her mother said through the door.
Gabriella grabbed a pillow and held it close to her. "You can come in." she muttered.
Her mom quietly let herself in and sat at the foot of her daughter's bed. "What happened sweetie?"
"What do you think happened? They happened!" Gabriella exclaimed.
Her mom lightly smiled. "Honey I'm going to need a little more information."
Gabriella let out a heavy sigh. "I was at The Den with this guy Zach from school and we were just talking and all of sudden Cole, Luke, and Kevin happen." She hugged her pillow tighter.
Gabriella's mom rubbed her daughter's leg to comforter her. "I'm sorry, but that's just the price you have to pay when you have brothers."
"But every time a guy seems remotely interested in me they come and mess it up! It's like the take turns and keep track of how soon they can make a guy go away."
"Oh, now it's not that bad."
Gabriella's eyes perked up. "Oh really? Let's look at the past six guys that have asked me out; none of which have ever talked to me again." She told her mother. "There was Cody who was turned away by Trevor and Jason; then there was Jacob who was turned away by Scott and Ian; then Joel and Adam were threatened by Dad; and last we have Garret and Zach who were both scared away by Cole, Luke, and Kevin."
Her mom opened her mouth to console her daughter but was abruptly cut off by a loud crash followed by a stream of yelling and blame. "Honey, can we finish this conversation later?"
Gabriella swung her arm to show her mom out the door. She watched her mom scurry out the door and heard her footsteps travel down the stairs.
"What did ya'll break this time?" she heard her mother yell. "And what did I tell you boys about playing ball in the house?"
Gabriella couldn't help but smile as she heard her mom hand out punishments to her brothers. This was one of the times that she enjoyed being the only girl. Her happy thoughts were soon interrupted by the phone's ring.
"I got it!" she yelled to the rest of the house, doubting anyone heard her. "Hello?"
"Why hello there." Answered back.
"Hey Chad. How's life as an only child?" Gabriella asked as she pouted on her bed.
She heard Chad laugh. "I saw what happened at The Den…"
"And you still wonder why I gripe about my brothers so much."
"Look I know you hate it when your brothers interfere, but I get where they're are coming from. They are just trying to look out for you."
Gabriella snorted a laugh at his statement. "You sound like my mom."
"Well your mom does have a little somethin, somethin, going on…"
"Eww! Chad, that's my mom your talking about!" she heard him laugh on the other line. "And don't you have a girlfriend, a.k.a. my best friend."
"Ah, yes. The lovely Taylor; and the reason I'm calling. Our six month anniversary is in a few days and…"
"You have no idea what to get her." Gabriella finished for her friend. "One of these days you're going to have to pick out a present for her by yourself."
"Please don't let that day be today because I am totally lost. I mean I know what she likes but I can't seem to buy the right thing. It's like a curse I have. I just suck at buying presents. Remember what I got you for your last birthday? I got you one of those 20 Questions games. For your sixteenth birthday. I mean who does that?"
"Shhh!" Gabriella ordered as she slowly walked out her room and tip toed across the hall. "Did you hear that?"
"Me rambling on about how I buy lame presents?"
"No." Gabriella reached a door splattered with exploded paintballs and stickers of sports. She ripped open the door to find two young boys sitting in the middle of the room with a phone held between their heads. "Ian! Jason! This is a private conversation!" she yelled at her youngest brothers.
"Doesn't sound so private to me!" the blonde haired Ian yelled back at her.
"Well it is." She spat out. "And aren't you two supposed to be grounded or sent off to military school by now?"
"Mom only grounded Cole and Luke because they were supposed to be watching us." Ian announced happily.
"So we can listen to your phone conversations all we want!" Jason added.
Gabriella screeched and lunged at her brothers, but they dodged her grip and ran out of the room. She fell on the floor and stared at the empty, smelly room in defeat.
"Gabriella? Gabster? My Gabi Girl?" she heard sing through the receiver.
Gabriella hastily held the phone back up to her ear. "I'll meet you at the food court in twenty minutes." She told him before clicking the phone off.
She marched herself downstairs, determined to get out of the house without another yelling match with one of her brothers. "Mom, can I go the mall?" her question drew the attention of everyone in the kitchen.
"With who?" her father questioned sternly.
"Of course sweetie." Her mom told her. "Scott, drive your sister to the mall."
"If Scott gets to go I'm going!" Kevin announced to his family.
"No." Gabriella said quickly. "I'll just take the bus." As she excited the kitchen and made her way to the front door she heard complaints coming from most of her brothers and her father. Again, they managed to put a smile on her face.
--------------------
"Gabi you are my lifesaver!" Chad exclaimed as they left yet another store. "This gift is perfect!"
"I know." Gabriella agreed. "That's why I picked it out." She smiled up at Chad.
He looked down at her. "Oh that one boy will be very very lucky."
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "If my brothers have their way, there won't be a lucky boy."
Chad laughed and opened his mouth to say something back to Gabriella.
"Chad!" both spun around to see who hollered at him. "Don't you have a girlfriend whose well, not her?"
Gabriella watched the boy approach them. She recognized him from school. A basketball player; on the team with Chad and Luke. He strode over to them wearing an East High, color coordinated track suit.
"Hey Troy." Chad slapped hands with the other boy. "You met Gabriella?"
Gabriella locked eyes with him. She saw his eyes travel up and down her frame. She shifted uncomfortably, but tried not to let it faze her.
"No." he said smirking. "I'm Troy." He stuck out his hand,
She politely shook his hand. "Gabriella." She knew his kind. She lived with seven of his kind. And she was too smart to be fooled into love by those blue eyes like the rest of the girls in school. Oh no, she had seen too many heartbreaks given out by her very own flesh and blood to become one of the many.
She stood next to Chad and listened to them drone on about basketball practices, games, and they're chances of making it to state this year. A conversation she had heard repeated day in and day out.
"Hey Chad, I got to get home for dinner." Gabriella said, daring to interrupt their conversation.
Chad glanced at the three watches that were fastened on his wrist. "Oh geez! Me too. I can't miss meatloaf night." He exclaimed. "Troy I'll see you at school tomorrow." He nodded towards his friend before turning his attention to the girl next to him. "I'll talk to you later, Gabs."
Chad made a quick dash through the shopping center to his car leaving Gabriella alone with Troy. Not having any desire to talk to the basketball player, she turned around making her way towards the door.
"Hey Gabriella, wait up!" she heard footsteps running towards her.
Bracing herself, she turned around to meet Troy. "Yeah?"
"How are you getting home?" he questioned.
"The bus." She told him simply.
Troy glanced past Gabriella. "Looks like you just missed it."
Gabriella spun around just in time to see her bus leave. "Then I guess I'm walking." She told him before continuing her walk outside.
Troy ran after her and grabbed her arm. "Let me drive you home."
"Thanks, but no thanks."
But Troy kept a grip on her arm. "Come on. It's just a ride."
Gabriella looked at him. His face was soft, his eyes were pure, but she knew that he was anything but a good boy.
"Fine." She agreed, causing a smile to spread across Troy's face.
Five minutes later they were in his car with Gabriella pointing the directions to her house.
"So if you're friends with Chad you must know Taylor." He said, trying to start a conversation.
"She's my best friend." Gabriella told him.
Troy's hand rested on the gear shift, just inches away from Gabriella's leg. "So are you a nerd like her?"
Gabriella shook her head, straining herself from saying anything that could possibly come back to bite her.
"Sorry. I guess that the East High stereotyping really isn't your thing."
"Aren't you smart."
"So what is your thing?" he asked.
"Look, I have enough brothers to know what you're trying to do." Gabriella told him. "And it's not going to work."
"Really?" Troy pondered with a smirk. "How many brothers do you have?"
"Seven." She told him shortly.
"Any go to East High?"
"Three." She said. "And you probably know Luke. He's on the team with you."
Troy laughed. "Yeah, I know him. But I didn't know that he had a sister, or six brothers."
"You learn something new everyday, don't you?"
"So how old are all of them?" Troy asked, ignoring Gabriella's comment.
Gabriella took a deep breath. "Trevor is 21, Scott is 19, Cole and Luke are 17, Kevin is 14, Ian is 11, and Jason is 10."
"And how old are you?"
Gabriella turned to face him. "16."
Troy smiled. "A junior. Like me."
"And look at that, it's my house." Gabriella said, crawling out of the car.
"Hey Gabriella!" Troy called after her. She turned to face him again. "I'll see you later." He said with a wink and drove off.
Gabriella watched his car drive away in amazement. "As if I haven't had enough guy problems for one day."
She walked through her front door to be bombarded with questions.
"Who was that?" Scott questioned.
"Good evening to you too." She smirked at the sea of boys surrounding her,
"Answer the question Gabriella."
"Stop budding into my life Scott." She said, pressing past her brothers.
"You weren't out with Chad were you?" he accused following her into the kitchen. "You went out on a date."
"Look!" she spun around. "Just because you guys don't trust any guy that gets within a 3 mile radius of me doesn't me that you have the right to interrogate me after I hang out with a friend."
Her brothers stared at their sister. "So you were out with Chad?" Cole asked.
"Yeah." Her brothers all nodded in improvement and took their seats at the table. "And why do you guys let me hang out with Chad anyway?"
"He's dating Taylor." Luke said as he shoved in a roll.
"And he wouldn't do anything to mess that up." Cole added.
Gabriella rolled her eyes and too her seat at the table. She watched her family attack the food on the table and pile it onto their plates. Part of her wanted to tell her brothers that it was Troy Bolton who drive her home and watch them interrogate him and scare him away. But the other part, the part that won out, wanted to see how far she could take this. How long could Troy Bolton be associated with her before anything could happen?
Well, there is my new story! I know it has a lot of information in it, but I hope you guys all enjoyed this first chapter. Please, please, please review it. I want to know if I should continue with it or just cut my losses.
And for those of you reading Crash Into You, I will still be updating that regularly.
And for those of you who haven't read Crash Into You, you should :) I really love writing that story.