A/N: This is my new story and it's totally dedicated to xLeeRandomx she has been so awesome. This is for her.

Title: Now You're My Whole World

Summary: I am a single mother. But, my baby's father is not dead and he did not leave the scene. We simply can't be together. The only person who knows he is the father is...him. I lied to family but if I don't, my family will just collapse. What if I lost my virginity to my sister's boyfriend? What if we conceived a child? What if, during those nine months of pregnancy, I fell hopelessly in love with him?

Rating: T (will M-rated topics)

Couple: Troy/Gabriella

It was one of those mornings: the sun was shining, the birds were singing and Maria's had all of the regular customers in for their breakfast. A true sign for a good day. I'd worked there since I was fourteen and the theory hadn't failed me yet. If one of these things weren't present, the day wouldn't be good. I just knew it. So far, I hadn't dropped any plates, I wasn't cranky, no matter how tired I was, and I was getting a fair amount of tips. Like I said: a good day.

My life wasn't something that many people approved of. But, I wouldn't change it for anything. My life changed roughly a year ago. It was my own fault and my father, Greg, had been disappointed in me. My sister, Natalia, who is five years my senior, gloated about how she hadn't ruined the Montez name. However, Greg, along with my future brother-in-law, Troy, and Troy's friends, I pulled through it and they were all proud that I'd done so.

At eighteen years old, many people in Albuquerque knew my entire life story. Right from the beginning when my mother gave her life to save mine, to the present when I had dropped out of school and went in weekly to pick up work from the teachers. I worked full time in Greg's cafe, a complete and utter contrast after my ambition to go to Stanford and study prelaw. Well, I was still going to Stanford, it just wasn't going to be how I envisioned my college career.

I pegged a new order up for the chef, Zeke, and smiled at him. He was one of my best friends but we're only friends because of Troy and Natalia. But, we don't mind. It means neither of us get bored whilst on our lunch breaks.

Maria's was opened when I was one year old. Greg opened it up in Maria's honour. It was a fifties style diner with pictures of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and a retro style juke box. The whole place was themed with music and basketball. Whoever thought that music and basketball shouldn't go together had never stepped foot in Maria's and hadn't met Troy Bolton.

"Hey, Gabi," Zeke said softly.

I smiled at him. "Hey, Zeke." I surveyed the diner and leaned against the counter by the hatch. "How's Shar doing?" I asked, referring to his girlfriend.

The African-American chuckled. "She's fine and before you ask, so is the boutique."

I laughed softly. "It seems ages since it was just us two. But, oh well. We'll see each other soon."

"If you don't, she'll be coming around here to see her future godchild," Zeke warned, pointing his spatula at me.

I giggled. "We need to all get together at some point. But, I doubt it'll be before the wedding. Then, I'm at Stanford...I can't wait to get out of here."

"What about Greg?" Zeke asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. We don't really talk about it, to be honest. I know we should but with Mom and Tyler and Natalia...I sometimes wonder if he sees me or Mom."

Zeke smiled sympathetically. "We know it's hard on you. And if you ever need someone to talk to or if things get too much at Stanford, any one of us are willing to go up there and help. You know that."

"Not everyone," I muttered. "Natalia practically has my suitcase packed already!"

Zeke looked behind me and smiled warmly. "Maybe, but the first person on a flight to help you has just walked through the door."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop talking like that," I protested. "He's going to be my brother-in-law!"

He shrugged. "Who said it's Troy?" He smirked as I felt blood rush to my cheeks and look down on the counter. "Still, it hasn't stopped either of you before."

Although I knew he was referring to our feelings (not that Troy felt anything more than brotherly love towards me) but I couldn't help the feelings which stirred within my stomach at the thought of last year. Zeke didn't know about last year. No one did. That meant that when I was feeling particularly emotionally unstable, I had to lie as to why. Come to think of it, I lied every day, regardless!

I turned around and saw that Zeke was right. I was grateful that Sharpay wasn't a part of this conversation. She'd be planning my wedding. Troy Bolton slid into a booth at the back, near the doors to the restrooms, where several books and folders were open. It was the booth where we'd spent many hours talking together, just the two of us. We talked about school, the future and we also talked about which ice cream flavours mixed well.

Troy had always been attractive. I'd known him practically my entire life. His parents lived next door to us even though Troy now lived in an apartment near the park. We hadn't officially met, however, until I was twelve and he and Natalia were both seventeen. That was when they got together. Troy was the first boyfriend she had had that considered me. He was nice and sweet and would hang out with me just as much as he hung out with Natalia.

Still, I watched him grow up. When he started East High, he was tall, lanky and lacked the many muscles that developed with the intense basketball training he endured. His caramel hair had been a bit too long, his face still showed some roundness from childhood and his clothes weren't always that stylish, either. However, his high school years had been generous to him, giving him more defined facial features, more muscles and clothes which fit with his title of basketball captain. The only thing that had stayed the same was his brilliant sapphire eyes that, he had told me when I was fourteen, had been a sign of a true Bolton man for generations. It hadn't failed yet.

I think I was the only one not to see his transformation. Although we hadn't been friends, merely neighbours, I had seen him every day since I was born. Natalia saw the change in their junior year, when they got together. I didn't see it until a year ago when I realised that Troy Bolton wasn't the boy who used to live next door to me. He was now a responsible young man who now worked alongside his father, Jack, coaching East High's wildcat basketball team who he had led to victory in all of his high school years.

I turned back to Zeke, knowing it was a bad idea to think about Troy whilst working. "You have Troy's order?" I asked whilst I poured Troy's regular mug of coffee with cream, not milk, and one teaspoon of sugar.

Zeke winked. "It was ready the second he walked through the door." He placed a plate of two rashers of crisp bacon, scrambled egg, one slice of toast, crusts cut off with melted butter, and a side of hash browns on the counter.

I smiled at him and picked up two forks, one for Troy and one for me, and a knife and then picked up the plate and the mug of coffee. I headed over to Troy's booth and set the food down, sliding in opposite him. "Good morning," I greeted.

A frown creased his forehead as he pushed my textbook away. "AP further math? I could barely grasp regular math!" he exclaimed.

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh, I get it: no 'Good morning, Ella, thank you for knowing my order' or anything. It's nice to know I'm appreciated."

Troy smiled reassuringly and ate a forkful of scrambled egg. "Aw, El, you know you're my best friend."

I sighed and nodded to myself. "Best friend...Yeah. You, too."

He looked up at me. "You alright?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"Lack of sleep?" he asked.

"Heck yeah. It's clear who he takes after," I muttered.

He frowned but then poked his tongue out at me. "You're mean."

"It's not my fault he's got your genes," I protested and pierced a piece of bacon with my fork. I slipped it between my lips and swallowed it.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered absently and sipped his coffee.

I giggled and smiled at him. I glanced at the clock on the opposite wall and sighed. Troy had work in half an hour. His contract with East High was that he just trained the basketball teams: varsity and junior varsity. He also helped train the golf team, too. But, that meant that he didn't have to be there until second period. First period, at East High, was for gym classes. Half an hour.

"How's Natalia?" I asked conversationally.

He shrugged and finished off his breakfast with a last forkful of eggs. "I haven't seen her for a few days."

"The wedding?" I asked.

"The wedding, her work...She could be doing anything," he muttered.

I smiled sympathetically. It was amazing that Natalia and I had the same genes. While I was happy in Albuquerque, living a quiet, small town life, she had been making extravagant plans to move to New York until Troy had stopped her, saying he was happy here. He had a right to be happy here. But, that didn't stop her extravagancy of the wedding plans. Troy had told me numerous times that he wanted a small wedding at the small church downtown with the reception at either his or the bride's parents' house and then honeymoon in Spain or Italy, somewhere in Europe. However, Natalia was making plans to get married in the cathedral in Glenwood, have the reception at a five star hotel and then honeymoon in Hawaii. They could afford it, money wasn't an issue as Troy had studied at the university of Albuquerque on a full basketball scholarship. But, he just didn't work like that.

"Why don't you talk to her?" I suggested one day a couple of months ago.

He laughed sarcastically. "Unless you're talking about flowers or the cake or the cathedral, she doesn't want to know."

"You're not going to New York, right?" I asked, turning to him.

He smiled and rested a hand on my stomach. "And leave you two behind? I couldn't do it."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know how I'd cope without someone to help me out."

"I promise I'm not going anywhere. I can't. Not now," he murmured.

It made me blush just thinking about that conversation. Of course, he wasn't staying in Albuquerque for me. Why would he? I'm five years younger than him and, before last year, I was obsessed with school. I still am, to some extent. The reason he had convinced Natalia to stay in Albuquerque was because of the centre of both of our worlds: Tyler. My life wasn't supposed to turn out this way. But, it did and I wouldn't change it for anything. I knew Troy wouldn't either.

Troy set his empty mug on the table and glanced at the clock. "Do you mind if I see him before I go?"

I slid out of the booth and picked the used plate and mug up. "Of course. Go ahead. I'll be there once I've got rid of these."

Troy nodded and headed towards the back door next to the cash register. It had once been Greg's office. But, within the last year, he had completely transformed it. He was very considerate and now sorted finances and supplies behind the counter by the cash register. He had been so understanding, it almost made me reconsider going to Stanford. I said almost!

I placed the used crockery on the counter by the hatch and one of the kitchen staff began scrubbing it clean. I headed towards the back door that Troy had gone through moments before. I quietly pushed it open and slipped through the tiny gap before shutting it with a gentle click. I took a deep breath and then turned around, being greeted by the gentle light emanating from Tyler's Cars nightlight. He had been sleeping but I couldn't blame Troy for waking Tyler up. As Tyler had been awake with me for three hours during the night, it was no surprise that he had been sleeping now. But, it wasn't so bad. He wasn't cranky if Troy woke him up and he might sleep for longer, too.

Troy was sat in the rocking chair by Tyler's crib and was slowly swaying back and fore, trying to soothe him. He was whispering quietly and holding Tyler's tiny hand between his thumb and forefinger. "And here's your mommy," he murmured as Tyler yawned widely and turned to me.

I smiled reassuringly at him and sat down on the only other chair in the room. It wasn't big and was taken up mostly by the crib but there was some space for Tyler's toys for when he got restless. "Hey, Ty," I whispered.

Tyler turned his blue eyes to Troy and then made some sort of gurgling noise, resulting in bubbles appearing between his lips. Troy immediately let go of his hand and reached into the crib for a bib. "Tyler," he exclaimed quietly. "What would Mommy think?"

"Mommy would think she's right: you do have your father's genes," I mumbled, reaching across to stroke his locks of dirty blonde hair.

"Hey," Troy whined. "I don't dribble. Only basketballs."

"Touché," I muttered and sat back in my chair. "But, your mother told me something very different."

He glared at me. "You're mean."

"You're annoying, but I'm not complaining," I replied. Seriously. I'm not complaining.

Troy turned back to Tyler and stroked his cheek. "It's your fault she's mean to me. You keep her awake." He lifted his head and smiled. "I'll be around tonight."

I frowned. "What about Natalia?"

"She hasn't been at my place in weeks, wanting to make the honeymoon more special or something," he muttered and sighed. "So, if it's okay..."

I shrugged. "I was only going to do what I do every night: homework, Tyler, homework, maybe watch some TV...Not exactly sociable."

"How's Greg?" he asked politely.

I closed my eyes, thinking about my father. My entire life, Greg had been the most important man in my life. But now there were two others that had to share that title. Okay, so only two people knew that the third one owned the title and those were Zeke and Taylor purely because Zeke had guessed and Taylor was my best friend and I knew she wouldn't tell anybody.

My eyes fluttered open when Tyler let out a little whimper and snuggled into Troy's chest, one of the things I was incredibly envious of. "I think he's had a reality check this past year."

Troy smiled weakly. "I think we all have."

I tugged uneasily at the white apron I wore over my light blue dress. "Do you ever regret it?"

Troy looked me in the eyes, his bright blue orbs almost the only source of light. "And not have this little guy?" He shook his head. "Never. Not once."

I looked intently at my lap. "My dad loves being a grandpa. He says that the only reason it's better than being a father is because when Tyler starts crying, he can hand him back over to me."

Troy chuckled. "Yeah, I've heard grandparents can say that."

"About you?" I asked.

He raised his eyebrows. "How'd you know? My mom?"

I shook my head and looked down at the tiny blue bundle in his arms. "I've told you: he's you."

He smiled weakly and looked down on him. Tyler's head was nestled safely in the crook of Troy's elbow and Troy continued to rock in the chair, proving to get Tyler to yawn. "Do you think?"

I nodded. "I know. I'm surprised no one's asked me about it, to be honest."

He inhaled sharply and focussed his attention on Tyler. "El, about September..."

I immediately tensed and stood up, taking Tyler into my arms. "I think it's time for Tyler to go back to sleep now," I said sternly. I kissed Tyler's forehead and then set him softly in his crib. I tucked the blankets around him and placed the soft bear, the first toy he had ever been given from Greg, next to his head. His blue eyes, the eyes that plagued me in my sleep, stared up at me. I kissed two of my fingers and then pressed them to Tyler's forehead. "Que Suenes con los Angelitos, mi hijo (A/N: Dream with the angels, my son)." I turned to Troy who had risen with the unexpected exclamation. "Don't look at me like that. Go on." I gestured to the door.

Troy sighed and opened the door for me. I stepped through it and headed for the back booth. Troy followed me and we sat opposite each other. I pulled my textbook towards me and focussed on that. When I focussed on math, there weren't any conflicts, choices or emotions. There was one set answer to questions. Although I didn't want my entire life to be that, I would prefer that to the conversation Troy wanted to have. I knew what it would be. He'd been trying to have this conversation with me for a month, ever since I'd received my acceptance letter from Stanford.

"Gabriella," he said sternly.

"Don't you have work?" I muttered.

"Don't you?" he shot back.

I lifted my head and shot him a look of disbelief. "This place is hardly packed like sardines."

Troy lowered his eyes. "Do you...Do you want to leave me here?"

I lifted my head and frowned. "What? No. One of the things that are terrifying me is leaving you here." We held each other's eyes before I turned back to my schoolwork. "You have work," I mumbled lowly.

Troy stood up and sighed. "We need to talk about it at some point." He walked out of the diner, leaving me alone.

I slumped back in my seat, feeling exhaustion from being awake during the night and my emotional response to Troy. In just under two months, he was going to become my brother-in-law. A year ago, that didn't seem too bad. It just meant that a really cool, older guy was going to be around even more. He was just someone I could hang out with that had no expectations of me. All of my life, everyone just expected me to get straight As and fly through school and be the freaky genius girl. When I was with Troy, I just felt like a girl.

But, a year ago, he wasn't just 'some cool guy' anymore. He was completely, absolutely perfect and, after creating the most beautiful baby boy on the planet together, it was sometimes hard to be 'just friends'. He, of course, didn't know and as the wedding was slowly coming over the horizon, he wasn't going to find out, either. How could I possibly tell the guy that's marrying my sister that I'm hopelessly, desperately and irrevocably in love with him?

* * *

After a day of fat, grease and coffee, I was carrying Tyler upstairs to give him a bath. I'd had dinner with Greg. The conversation was limited to Tyler, the diner and the wedding. We didn't talk about school or college. We barely talked at all these days, unwilling to admit that our time together was running out. I was the closest thing he had to Maria and now it was like he was losing her all over again. You see, Natalia took after Greg. I took after Maria. And for me? He was the one who woke up in the middle of the night to feed me when I was a baby. He was the one who sang to me, loudly and very out of tune, every night of my childhood. He scared the monsters out of my closet, too. How can I be away from him? I'm a mother myself, so what? I still depend on him.

When I first discovered I was pregnant, I was terrified as any seventeen year old girl should be. In the beginning, only two people stood by me. Two men who I can't see my life without. Greg and Troy. When I was convinced that I couldn't do it, that I wouldn't be a good mother, Greg would hug me and show me pictures of Maria. He would kiss my temple and whisper, "She'll help you" and I knew that it would be okay. When Troy agreed to be a part of our baby's life, not that anyone knew he was the father, I'd call him in the middle of the night, wanting him to hold me or to get me whatever food I'd been craving, and I'd call him when I was having a particularly bad case of morning sickness.

Now, I was going to Stanford, taking my baby with me and leaving my daddy behind. And Troy. No matter whether it's the mother or father, it's always difficult to grow up with one parent and I don't want Tyler to grow up like that. But, what other choices do I have. U of A? Yeah, it's a good school but then I'll never see outside of Albuquerque at all. I mean, I love Albuquerque and everything and I want Tyler to grow up here. But, with all of the comments I received when everyone found out I was pregnant, I want to be somewhere where no one knows me.

I sighed and stroked Tyler's soft hair, holding him protectively to my torso. "Don't worry, little guy. We'll be just fine."

Tyler lifted his head and looked at me. He blew some saliva bubbles and then buried his face back into my shoulder. I'd soon learnt once Tyler was born six weeks ago not to wear any expensive clothes. It didn't bother me. Even before Tyler happened, I'd never been exactly popular or stylish.

I pushed the door to my bedroom open and then gently kicked it shut, not wanting to startle Tyler who had finally calmed down after an afternoon of continuous playing with his toys in the back room of the diner. Although Tyler had the nursery in the room next to mine, I insisted that his crib be put in my room. That way, if I woke up in the middle of the night, I could easily check over him. All of his toys were in the nursery, though.

I felt the heat rise up my neck at the sight of my bedroom. There, sitting on the bedside cabinet by Tyler's crib, was an eruption of colour in a vase. A rainbow of lilies were prancing in all directions, reflecting the light from my bedroom ceiling lamp. I smiled and adjusted Tyler in my arms as I made my way around my bed towards them. I knew who sent them. There was only one person in the world that used my balcony doors more than the front door as an entry to the house.

I balanced Tyler carefully with one arm as I picked up the folded piece of notebook paper placed in front of the vase. Ella was scrawled messily on it and the simple lack of neat penmanship made my heart flutter. I unfolded it and took a deep breath.

Ella,

I'm sorry about earlier. I just can't bear the thought of not seeing Tyler for even a day. I won't stop you going. But, you can't stop me from visiting, either.

I'll be around later on tonight (Nat insisted we have dinner together).

See you later

Your Wildcat

X

I held the note to my face and inhaled deeply. I could smell a hint of Troy's Lynx cologne, the scent that made my knees weaken and a tornado of butterflies suck in every last thought that didn't include Troy. I slowly sat down on my bed and settled Tyler in my lap. I looked into his eyes and kissed his forehead. He was looking up at me in wonder, waiting for me to say something.

"Your daddy..." I trailed off and looked at the note. I turned back to Tyler and smiled. "Your daddy is unbelievable. The greatest man in the world except for you. Now, how about we give you a nice bath so that you're nice and clean for when Daddy comes here? Yeah?" I placed the note by the lilies and then stood up, heading towards the bathroom.

See? It was a good day.