A/N: I never know what to say in these. I plan on making this a pretty short story. I don't know how many chapters yet either. And yes I know it's cliché but like I said earlier, I love cliché stories. So enjoy!

Summary: They were enemies as children then she moved away. Now she's back years later and they're both different; how will they turn out? TxG

Antique Love

by wackystrings123

Chapter 1

Troy Bolton's first impression of Gabriella Montez wasn't exactly pleasant.

The first time he had ever laid eyes on her was on his first day of kindergarten, and from then on he strongly despised her. The dispassion towards her began during the first week of August, after a pretty irksome morning for Troy. He had been shyly making his way to his table when she had stuck her leg out and made him trip, which of course led the entire class to erupt in harsh giggles. Troy's first reaction was to turn around and hit her, but he couldn't; he could faintly hear his mothers' words, "never ever, under any circumstances, hit a girl". So he had no choice but to swallow his tears and walk the rest of the way to his seat.

And as if that had not been bad enough, during lunch, she had waltzed up to him, grabbed his chocolate milk and skipped away with it, giggling annoyingly. Again, Troy had had no choice but to keep his tears in and pretend as if she had not bothered him. But of course, his resolution towards the problem had not lasted long. The same afternoon, during nap time Gabriella had snatched his blanket away from him and he retaliated. With her holding one end of the navy blue blanket and him the other, they began a childish game of tug-of-war, both determined to not back down. This did not last long; eventually the teacher decided to intervene.

Things did not get any better after kindergarten, in fact, they only worsened. They had evolved from tripping and stealing from each other to hitting, throwing food and other objects at one another. None of the teachers as well as parents could understand why the two despised each other so much, but they all hoped that it would eventually come to an end. The "hate" intensified during their first few years of elementary school, resulting in shoving and extraordinarily creative, yet foul, names.

Then, towards the end of elementary school, Gabriella moved away. Upon hearing this, Troy had felt nothing but utter relief. He believed that with Gabriella gone, he would finally be able to be at peace, or so he thought. Not more than a week after she had left, Troy was completely clueless as to what to do with himself. He wasted four whole weeks of his summer vacation, moping about in his room, bored and in complete denial of missing Gabriella.

Eventually, about a year after she had left, Troy discovered girls and basketball.

He spent nearly every single hour in a day wrapped up in one of these, mainly basketball. And soon enough he had forgotten about Gabriella and moved on. He had realized that not all females were like her; in fact they were antithetical to her. They were gentle and knew exactly what to do to entertain and please him without him getting furious or feeling an irrepressible need to dunk ice cold milk over their heads.

His life had been pretty smooth after that. He went on to being the captain of his schools' varsity basketball team in his sophomore year—becoming the first sophomore in the school's history to hold such a title—he wooed ninety-nine percent of the schools', as well as many other schools, female population through his sophomore and junior years, never being with one for more than five months.

His longest lasting relationship was his first real one, which lasted a little over six months. Her name was Andrea Garza. He had met Andrea in his freshman year and was immediately enamored by her exotic features. He could barely even remember much about her, but could still recollect the basics, like how her dark caramel waves had always been held up in a ponytail, how her dark skin complexion shone in the light and how her hazel eyes would sparkle every time she spoke. He could remember how his friends and family had this odd belief that the only reason he liked Andrea was because she was an exact replica of Gabriella. He refused to believe this, but after a short period of time he started seeing the resemblances; they looked the same, they liked similar things, they behaved the same. The only difference between Andrea and Gabriella was the feistiness that the latter possessed. Whilst Gabriella would do absolutely anything to make Troy suffer, Andrea on the contrary would do a lot of things to make him smile, and maybe that, he wondered, was why he broke up with her in the first place.

His second girlfriend, after Andrea—he could not remember her name—was a redhead who annoyed Troy to madness when she constantly spoke about herself and "life back on the farm". They did not last long at all.

Then his second longest relationship after Andrea was an exchange student from Malawi. She unlike the nameless redhead and Andrea had captivated his attention not by her chocolate-y skin complexion, her large onyx orbs or her ebony afro, that would have given his best friends' own a run for its money, but her feistiness and determination to try new things. He found himself falling in love with her adventurous side and stories about what it was like back in her home country. Though he had difficulty remembering her last name, he could still remember her first…Shafia. He found himself uttering her name more than necessary, infatuated by its exoticness.

After his relationship with Shafia ended when she left for Malawi, the rest of his relationships had been a blur.

They simmered down to casual-no-strings-attached hookups, with girls he never bothered to know their names. He had planned to live the rest of his life this way; a bachelor.

Then she came along and ruined his plan.

One of the things Troy Bolton despised doing most on a Saturday was working at his mothers' antique store.

He was seventeen, for gods' sake, most teenagers his age were hanging out or partying, whilst he was stuck in a room that smelled like his Grandmas house, all day, with nothing but his mobile phone to entertain him.

On this particular Saturday he had more than a small hand-held device to keep him company; he had a tall model worthy blonde wrapped up in his arms. The said blonde had entered the store with her mother and whilst the older woman was looking around, Troy pounced and within seconds had led the blonde to the very back of the store where they proceeded to entertain one another in ways that would have given Troy's mother a heart attack.

"Gabby?"

No response.

"I know that you're mad at me for making you leave your friends behind…and Ethan, but I promise you that you will love it here."

Again, nothing…

"I sorry sweetie, but this is home." The finality in the older woman's tone was heavy and desperate.

"No," a small voice croaked, "no…this isn't home."

"This is where you grew up, baby."

"But I was happier in New York than here."

"And how do you know that?"

"I just do."

This was not Gabriella Montez, far from it. But she believed that she had every right to behave this way and even worse. Over the past three days, since their departure from New York, Gabriella had hardly spoken any words or shown any signs of communication to her mother let alone acknowledge her existence. She knew how much this was hurting the older woman but her desire to make her feel just how much pain she herself was feeling was greater than the undeniable guilt seeping through her bones. She knew this was beyond selfish but at that moment she could not care less what her mother thought; the only think that had been crossing her mind all week was she deserves this she took me away from them.

"This is as hard for me as it is for you." And with those stern yet emotional words, Maria Montez stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut with such force that the entire vehicle rocked.

Inside the car, Gabriella carefully pondered these words. As the full blow of her mother's words hit her she felt the stinging tears leak out of the corners of her eyes…had she gone too far?

"Obviously I didn't."

Gabriella found herself muttering this to herself as she walked down several stocked aisles, trying to rid herself of her boredom; no such luck.

After over a ten minutes, Gabriella was about ready to rip all her hair out and fall to her knew and beg her mom to take her back home, to New York. This place, this city was just way too quiet for her! She could not understand what had happened to the constant blaring of sirens, the loud music coming from nearby bars, the loud honking of impatient drivers, the screams, the squeals, everything. Albuquerque was just too fucking quiet!

Then she heard it.

The distinctive sound of muffled moans. Someone was in trouble! Her eyes bulged as the thought crossed her mind. She contemplated running back to her mother and informing her of her suspicions or running forward to aid the injured person. She stood still for a while, staring at an old china teapot as she tried to arrange her thoughts in an organized manner. Then she heard it again, louder and more burdened but it sounded odd. Confused, she began walking forward closer to the sound. She peeked around the corner and backtracked at what she saw.

A couple, intertwined tightly together was huddled in a corner, oblivious to the world around them. Their lips fused tightly, clothes and hair ruffled and matted. As Gabriella peered closer, she noticed they were her age. The guy had his back to her and had caged a pretty tall blonde from what she could see against the wall, and currently had his hand buried under her skirt. Shocked by their actions, Gabriella took a reflexive step back and hit a shelf.

"Shit!" she swore as she noticed the sound had caused the couple to pause their actions. Fuck!

Frozen and unable to move, fearing that if she moved the glass object, trapped between her body and the wooden shelf, would topple to the ground. Before she knew it, two pairs of eyes were fixed harshly on her; one pair of light blue and the other a deep sea blue that sparked familiarity in her. As her embarrassed and apologetic eyes landed on the deep blue ones, she felt as if all the air had been knocked out of her lungs and she felt would have collapsed had it not been for her tight grasp of the shelf behind her. She knew those eyes, but where from?

"I am so sorry!" she said, blushing a deep red as she tried to place the priceless ornament back to it's rightful position without dropping anything else. As she looked back at the couple, ready to apologize again, she noticed the guy was smiling at her, finding her clumsiness and her embarrassment amusing. She marveled at the way his unkempt chestnut hair fell into his dazzling eyes and the way his thin lips curled up into a smile; he was hot. She summed up.

Whereas the boy seemed amused, the girl was not. Her light blue eyes had narrowed into deathly slits as she glared at the girl who had interrupted them.

"Again, I'm sorry…so I'll just be going." She muttered as she began taking rushed steps back unable to breathe until she was fully concealed from their view.

"Who the hell was that?" she heard the blonde girl ask.

"Does it matter?" the boy retorted.

"Gabby!" Gabriella let out a relieved sigh when she heard her mothers' voice, "I was just talking to Lucille about you and Troy when you were kids."

Lucille Bolton looked nothing like her age. Her dark brown locks had barely any grays in them; her slender face was nearly wrinkle free. Her slim and agile body resembled that of a young woman. The only feature that gave away her actual age were her light emerald eyes; the age and wisdom beneath them was intense. Gabriella wondered whether Lucille knew about the "things" people did in her store, though she highly doubted that she was aware.

"Oh my Gosh, Gabriella just look at you!" Lucille gushed pulling Gabriella into a tight hug, "you've grown so much! And you're so beautiful" Lucille pulled back but held Gabriella by the shoulders as she analyzed the newly developed woman before her. "Troy is going to be so surprised when he sees you." She continued excitedly, "he should be in the back I think."

Gabriella smiled then backtracked; Troy was here?

Saddled with boredom and curiosity, Gabriella once again found herself wandering through the numerous shelves of the large store. But not only that, she was curious, only she was mainly curious about Troy. She wanted to know what he was like now; whether he had changed from the annoying boy he had been when they were younger as well as how he looked now. Did he still have the large gap between his two front teeth? Lost deep in her thoughts, she failed to see the body in front of her until she collided into it. She stepped back at the force of the collision and immediately went to apologize.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked in embarrassment. The person turned and Gabriella felt her jaw drop and the intensifying heat smother her face. It was the boy from earlier! The one she had caught at the back with the blonde girl. He seemed to recognize her for he smirked down at her, his bright eyes crinkling at the sides.

"Wow," he said in amusement "we just keep bumping into each other. Must be fate."

Gabriella's blush deepened. He was making fun of her and actually enjoying it. But instead of feeling annoyed and irritated she felt like smiling. "I'm really sorry though."

"Nah it's cool. I shouldn't have been standing in the way."

Gabriella subconsciously tried to peer over his shoulder in search of the mystery blonde but found no one behind the boy's broad shoulders. For some reason she felt relieved and at the same time suspicious. Who was she? A girlfriend perhaps? Was she jealous? The boy, who seemed to have noticed her eyes searching wildly chuckled lightly and leaned forward, close enough for Gabriella to count every spot and blemish on his tanned face.

"I believe a pretty lady like yourself should have a name equally as pretty." He wiggled his eyebrows playfully and Gabriella felt an urge to slap him but all she did was blush even deeper. She bit her lower lip unable to decide whether or not to tell him her name.

"Troy!" both their heads shot up at Lucille's distant call. Gabriella felt her heart thud in her chest at the name. She turned around wildly towards the sound of the voice, hoping to catch a glimpse of Troy. In front of her the boy sighed in aggravation and ran his fingers through his messy hair. "Coming mom!" he yelled.

"Mom?" she whispered in confusion as she tried to put the pieces together. Realization dawned on her. Troy was standing right in front of her and was flirting with her, Gabriella Montez. Did he know who she was? She looked up at Troy with wide eyes waiting for a spark of recognition to cross his eyes but he only winked and bought his lips to her ear.

"I'll catch you later." He whispered making sure his lips brushed her earlobe, sending sharp currents pulsing through her small body and increasing her heart rate, before pulling away, winking once one and then disappearing behind the shelves.

Troy was hot, openly flirted with her, called her pretty and worst of all she was a teensy bit attracted to him.

Oh crap.

A/N: Please express your thoughts, views and feelings about this story in a review J.