A/N: Well, this is my new story. It's a little dark. I'm kind of nervous about this one. But…we'll see…

Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters.

Get Lost In Me

"Troysie." Sharpay cooked as she linked arms with the basketball captain.

"Sharpay, how many times have I told you? Don't call me that." Troy gave her a stern look.

The gorgeous blonde giggled as her high-hilled steps matched the pace of Troy, her arm still linked in his flirtatiously. "You guys are still coming to my co-ed sleepover aren't you?"

Troy flashed her his sexy crooked grin. "Wouldn't miss it." He assured her as he joined the rest of his best friends at their usual table in the cafeteria.

"Hey man, you stoked for that Friday?" Chad exclaimed eagerly as he sat down next to his best friend.

"Yeah, girls in sexy pajamas will be the high light of my night." Jason grinned cockily.

"You guys are horrible." Troy laughed. "But it wouldn't be a bad sight to see.

The boys continued to stride into the cafeteria. Why was it that the world stopped spinning when Troy Bolton walked into a room? No one really knew why, or understood why. Probably because of his friendly personality, along with his shockingly good looks. No one really understood it, but the guys would look on him with envy and girls would stare at him with longing. Although, Troy never really seemed to notice any of it.

"Gabriella, you need to relax a little bit." Taylor told the tired looking brunette. "Is everything okay?" Kelsi who was also with them, looked at her with questioning eyes.

Gabriella's small body stiffened at the question. "Well, thank God tomorrow's Friday." She said in a shaky voice. "Look, I'll meet you in later okay? I really need to head to lunch."

"But –

Gabriella cut her off before Taylor could protest. "I'm starving; I don't think I'll be able to make it for the rest of the day if I don't eat." She gave them an assuring smile and turned and walked away.

Kelsi and Taylor watched her go with unconvinced expression on their faces.

"She's been so…I don't know…different lately." Kelsi noticed. "She seems…really upset."

"Well, you know Gabi; she's a very reserved person." Taylor explained as the two girls began to walk to class. "She likes to keep her personal life private and we all have to respect that."

"I know, but I hate seeing her like this." Kelsi sighed. "Could it be her dad?"

It was Taylor's turn to sigh. "I've tried and tried to get her to tell me more about his problems, but she just doesn't like to talk about it. It's always been a touchy subject for her." They entered Ms. Lemon's classroom and took two empty seats next to each other, continuing their conversation.

"Well, she has lunch next, so I'm sure she'll feel better after she gets some food in her." Kelsi suggested thoughtfully.

Gabriella couldn't help but feel rather surprised with the reflection staring back at her. Her eyes looked red and swollen. Her naturally curly hair was straightened and pinned half up. She wore her gray blazer and long, but flowing skirt. Her outfit and straightened hair made her look professional. But the girl who was staring back at her in the mirror was filled with sorrow and anguish that she had been desperately trying to hide. She looked very un- Gabriella….with a pale sickly face. She glanced at the mirror that was hanging on the bathroom door. She knew she had lost a lot of weight in the past week, but it was always harder to eat when she was upset.

Gabriella took a deep breath and splashed cool water on her face. She tried to make school her number one thought in her mind, instead of her dying father. She knew he only had days left and she hadn't told any of her friends about the condition he was in, which was dying from lung cancer. They all knew that something was wrong, but they didn't know he was actually…dying. Gabriella blamed it all on the tobacco.

Exiting the bathroom, she found herself in the cafeteria, sitting between Martha and Sharpay, listening to the laughter and happiness of her friends. Sharpay was toying with Troy's hair, giggling at everything he said. Troy, being the most popular person in school, usually led the conversation, like he leads everything. Even though they were all a close group of friends, Gabriella didn't have a lot of courage to talk to Troy often, and he was too important to bother to make time for her, so the two didn't talk to each other much. She found him extremely intimidating although Troy was never ever mean to her. But other than that, the entire group made her feel like part of the family when she moved there last year, and that's what she loved about all of them.

"Gab, you look sick." Chad's suddenly serious tone snapped her out of her storm of thoughts. "You feeling okay?"

Gabriella shrugged. "Well, I've been up almost ever night because my AP classes are killing me." That wasn't entirely a lie. That was the truth. She just didn't add the part when she was up comforting her little sister who had been crying every night, wishing her daddy would get better.

"Well, get a tone of sleep tonight, because we're staying up all night at my sleepover tomorrow." Sharpay grinned.

"That's going to be so awesome, your hot tub better be running." Martha grinned before taking a large bite into her pizza.

"Well, duh!" Sharpay twisted her perfect blonde locks around her fingers.

"God, I hate chemistry." Troy groaned. "I love how I'm sacrificing the only eating time of the day to study for this stupid test."

"Dude, just copy off of Gabriella, she's the AP Chemistry queen." Chad suggested.

Troy gave Gabriella a smile. "Nah, I understand that she has too much going on."

Gabriella returned the smile and went back to eat her untouched apple in her hands. The bell rang, indicating that lunch was over. The bell rang, indicating that lunch was over. It didn't take long for Gabriella to be called to the office, with her uncle waiting to be there to take her to the hospital, having her miss the rest of the day of school.

There's not a day in the week that everyone loved more than Friday. Troy shoved his bag into his locker and groaned at the thought that it was only morning.

"Just a few more hours…" Chad sighed in relief.

"Troy chuckled. "Yeah, well let's make getting through the day our #1 priority." The two boys began walking down the hallway, heading to their classroom.

"I hear you man." Chad grinned. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracts. "Wow, Gabriella looks like she hasn't slept in a hundred years. I guess AP classes are really hard on people."

The exhausted looking brunette slowly shuffled down the hall. Not only did she look tired but she looked…depressed. She looked like she was wearing a mask. Her long dark hair was freshly straightened and she had a long sleeved maroon sweater with black dress pants and small heels. Even having an extremely difficult and sleepless night, she still managed to look polished.

Hiding her emotions and staying strong was one of the things Gabriella was good at. She didn't cry last night, only let a few tears fall. She couldn't. She knew she had to be strong for her mother and sister. So she forced herself not to cry, even though her insides were twisting with incredible amounts of torture.

Coming to school was another brave thing to do, when tragedy happens, most kids don't bother to come to school. But she needed to be away from it all. Besides, it was Friday; she could survive one more day.

The guidance counselor and principal told her it was okay to cry and to just let go. But she didn't care; she was actually annoyed with the constant checking with her teachers. She didn't want the entire school to know about her personal life.

Although this had been the longest day of school in her entire life, she managed to hand in three essays and conquer two tests. When the final bell rang, she could've sworn she could hear the entire school cheer with celebration. Relieved that she no longer had homework for the weekend, she quickly stuffed everything in her locker and rushed home.

Clara was sleeping soundly on the couch in the living room, curled up in a fleece blanket, clutching Ronald, her stuffed dog. Gabriella silently kissed her sister's forehead and quietly crept to her room to pack for Sharpay's.

"Gabriella." Her mother's soothing voice came from the door. "Getting ready for tonight?" Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from crying and she was wearing her bathrobe and slippers with a mug of tea in her hand.

Gabriella slowly nodded. "Yeah, it should be fun and…I'm so sorry for going like this….I promised Sharpay I'd be there and…" She was silenced by Maria wrapping her arms around her daughter into a soothing hug.

"It's for the best for you to get out. But come home if you need to."

Maybe going to Sharpay's wasn't the best idea. Gabriella could feel more unbearable emotion than she ever had and she wasn't sure how she was going to handle it tonight.

She and Kelsi were changing into their bathing suits in Sharpay's large bedroom. Going in the hot tube sounded relaxing, and it was. The warm water helped soothe her emotions and sleepless body as she closed her eyes and dipped her head back. Her hair was no longer straight at this body, her curls bounced right back. Taylor and Martha soon joined the two, while Sharpay had all the boys to herself upstairs.

The night continued to drag on. Having it be almost midnight Gabriella was holding out pretty well. She participated in the dance party they had earlier, laughing with the other girls, almost forgetting about the happenings at home.

Troy noticed that Gabriella was looking better than she had been all week. He watched her dance and spin around with the others, even with Sharpay grinding against his groin. Gabriella and Ryan were swing dancing to a specific country song by Brooks and Dunn, but Troy couldn't help but notice the sadness in her eyes that was still there.

After their evening jam session, the group circled around on the living room floor and began to play an extremely intense round of spoons.

"This is good guys." Chad spoke unexpectedly. Everyone looked at him with questioning eyes. "I mean, finally being able to hang out with your friends. We don't get to do this often." Everyone nodded in agreement. But the good feeling was over as soon as everyone dove into the middle for a spoon.

"Jason, you always lose. I forgot this was never your game." Troy accused.

"I can't help the fact that I'm slow." Jason said as everyone got their cards ready for round 2.

"So…Troy." Sharpay asked in a sly voice. "How are you and Kylie coming along?" Troy rolled his eyes.

"Who's Kylie?" Ryan wondered as he passed his card to the right.

"The head cheerleader." Zeke explained. "She and Troy hooked up at the after party last weekend."

Gabriella silently scoffed. Figures.

Troy shot Zeke a dark look. "Thank you Zeke."

"Anytime man." Zeke shrugged.

"Kylie and I aren't anything, we're just…"

"Hook up buddies." Sharpay grinned.

Troy cringed at the thought. "No." He simply said. Everyone dove for the middle again, continuing the on going battle to grab the metal spoons.

"Gab." Martha piped up. "We forgot to tell you, on Sunday, the girls and I are going shopping. We know you have church and stuff but we can always go afterwards."

Gabriella froze. Sunday was the day of her father's funeral. "Um," She says in a small voice. "I don't think I'll be able too."

"What? Why? You HAVE to come; it'll make you stop stressing about whatever it is your stressing about." Sharpay told her.

"Gabriella, you're always free on Sunday's. Why wouldn't you be able to come?" Taylor asked curiously.

Gabriella started to feel irritated. Why would she HAVE to go? She didn't have to do anything she didn't want to.

"Because I just can't okay?" Gabriella snapped viciously. "Let it go." She couldn't believe she let her voice rise that high, and to make matters more uncomfortable, everyone became silent and started at her.

"P.M.S." Sharpay retorted rudely under her breath. And with that, the blonde stood up and went to the kitchen to grab some more chips.

Embarrassed, Gabriella muttered an, "excuse me" and stood up to go change, ignoring the fact that everyone was staring at her. Grabbing her bag on the way, Gabriella went upstairs to Sharpay's large bathroom. It was almost at the end of the hallway. After shutting the bathroom door, she slipped out of her bathing suit and damp tank top and sweatpants and changed into a black t-shirt and short purple pajama shorts. She combed her curls and splashed cold water on her face, trying to gain some self control.

She spotted a photograph next to the mirror on the wall. It was little Sharpay and Ryan grinning their toothless grins and hugging their beaming father, whose arms were wrapped around both of them tightly.

This caused an overwhelming sadness take over Gabriella. She felt unstoppable tears reach her eyes and slowly glide down her cheeks. It fully hit her, her father was gone. Never coming back. She suddenly wished he could just appear at that moment, just to wrap his strong arms around her, telling her everything would be okay.

She didn't have the strength to hold this emotion in anymore. She finally gave in. She slowly sank to her knees and finally allowed herself to cry. The emotion she was reeling was so unreal…almost unbearable. Twenty four hours ago, she had lost her father. There was absolutely no way she could heal from this. This had been a three year fight, a fight that her father had lost. She suddenly felt a horrible, burning anger. It was all her dad's fault causing his family to suffer like this in the first place. Why does tobacco have to be so addicting? Sniffling, she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Gabriella?" A deep voice laced with concern asked s the door slowly opened. She looked up and there stood East High's king, with his devastating blue eyes boring into hers. His facial expression was unreadable as he saw the broken girl before him. This can't be happening. This is so embarrassing.

Troy slowly stepped in, gently closed the door behind him and knelt next to the upset girl. He took her fragile face into his hands and made her red, chocolate orbs lock with his. "What's going on?" He whispered.

"Nothing, I'm…I'm fine." Gabriella knew he wouldn't buy it, especially after saying those words a sob broke out of her. She moved away from him, buried her face in her hands, ashamed she was crying in front of this gorgeous figure in front of her.

"Gabriella, look at me." Troy said sternly. He gently pried her hands from her face and held them. "I need you to tell me what's going on."

"I…I can't." Gabriella's voice was a little stronger, but their were still tears cascading down her face. "You're Troy Bolton…why would you ever care about me anyway?"

Troy felt a pang of hurt and guilt in his heart. "Because I'm your friend Gabriella. He told her slowly as he watched her take her hands out of his to wipe her eyes. "And as your friend, I care so much about you…more than you think."

Gabriella sniffled and tried to calm herself, although unsuccessful.

"You can tell me.' Troy reached for her hand again, gently stroking the back of it with his thumb.

Gabriella took a deep breath, "My dad…has been suffering with lung cancer for about three years." Gabriella shut her eyes in pain. "He smoked tobacco for a long time, which caused it, even when he wasn't well, he still smoked, it was so addicting for him." Her eyes looked up to meet his breathtaking blue ones. "And last night…my father died." She choked. "He's gone. He left me Troy! He left all of us! I hate him! If he didn't fucking smoke, we wouldn't be in this fucking situation! He's so fucking stupid. I fucking hate my dad!" She screamed. "I don't even want to go to his damn funeral on Sunday."

And with that said, Gabriella began to cry again, this time she was going in hysterics. The sobs were becoming uncontrollable. Here she was, venting everything to Troy Bolton on the bathroom floor, at Sharpay's house. But this was the first time she really truly cried in a long time. Last night she managed to battle with a few tears, but this…this was real crying.

Troy immediately enveloped her in his arms, pulling her close and hugging her tightly, while she sobbed into his chest. He tenderly kissed her forehead every few seconds. He didn't say anything; he just held her and let her cry. He soothingly made comfortingly circles on her back and stroked her curls. Troy's heart shattered, Gabriella didn't deserve this pain. This was the first time he had ever seen her cry and God, it was painful to watch.

Gabriella rarely let herself cry in front of anyone. But she snaked her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him. "I miss him so much. He was the best dad anyone could ever ask for." She muffled into his chest.

Troy kissed her forehead again. "I'm coming to the funeral with you." He told her, as her crying began to cease. Gabriella looked up at him with fear in her eyes. "You can do it. Just be strong like you already are." He says encouragingly. "He would've wanted you to be there, he loved you so much. I remember having a conversation with him at my mom's restaurant last year. He told me how incredible you were and how blessed he was to have a daughter like you in his life. After that, I couldn't wait to meet you."

Gabriella weakly smiled at the honesty in his voice. "I was more than blessed to have him in my life." She said in a shaky voice. More tears slowly fell, but Troy made them disappear by gently wiping them away. She leaned against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her petite body once again. Gabriella's breathing slowed and she closed her eyes.

"I'm going to be right there with you." Troy promised. He stroked her curls some more. "It's going to be hard, but I promise you'll be okay. I remember how horrible it felt to lose my grandmother last year. It's going to take tie, but you'll be alright."

Gabriella's heart suddenly felt lighter. Just being with Troy made her feel better.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell anyone. I'm…kind of a reserved person and I wanted to wait until after the funeral. I know people will find out and I'm sure they already have but…"

"You don't have to be sorry for anything."

Gabriella smiled; she began to feel a new respect towards Troy Bolton. She slowly freed herself from his arms to check the time on her cell phone. It was almost two in the morning.

"We should go back downstairs." Gabriella sighed. Troy gave her a worried look.

"Are you sure?"

Gabriella nodded. "I'm just going to go sleep. I'm so tired." She wrapped her arms around him in a friendly hug. "Thank you so much. I honestly feel a little better, because of you."

Troy smiled at this. "Anytime. I'll always be here for you." Gabriella held onto him a little longer and they stood up, brushed themselves off and headed down the stairs. Kelsi and Martha were sleeping on the couches, while Taylor, Sharpay and the rest of the guys were watching a movie.

"There you guys are!!" Sharpay exclaimed. "Gabriella, honey are you okay?" She reached over and hugged her friend. "Your eyes look so red!"

Gabriella took a deep breath. "I'm fine now, but I really need some sleep."

"There's one more couch left. Feel free to take it." Taylor said after hugging her as well, before crawling back to Chad's lap.

Troy handed her a blanket and watched her snuggle into it on the couch before making his way to join his friends in watching a movie.

"Hey man, is Gabriella alright?" Chad greeted him. "You two were gone for a long time."

Troy nodded. "I was just talking to her…"

"About…" Taylor urged him to go on.

"She'll tell you when she's ready, but let's just be glad she's okay." Troy turned his attention toward the screen. "What movie are we watching?"

Gabriella heard Troy's words and smiled to herself. She knew she could trust Troy, and she knew that things will be okay eventually. She would be hurting for a while, but her father wanted her to be happy, and knowing that she had amazing friends who cared about her made her happy. Troy had really helped her tonight, and she knew that that this was going to be the start on a beautiful friendship. Who knew that later they would be so much more? But that's another story.

A/N: Hmmm….I'm actually thinking of writing a sequel to this story. I really hope you guys liked this. I know that there are a lot of weak points, but I did the best I could. I'm trying to become a better writer and I think I did pretty okay on this.

Please review!!!! It would make me really happy. Go easy on me. Haha.