Hey people I am back! I hope you are patiently waiting for my next story because here it is! There was a 50% vote for LOVe and 50% for Talk to Terri so I decided to post them in the order I wrote them. Hopefully the 50% of you who would rather read LOVe will come back soon when it's up :)

I just wanted to apologise for an error in the last chapter of Brother To Brother, I posted it in a hurry and I believe there were comments in there from my Beta reader! Oops :/ I hope it didn't put you off too much.

For those of you that asked, I had a lovely time away I just need another week to recover now!

Thank you so much for your continued support I really REALLY appreciate it!

I have a feeling I have stories to catch up that I've been reading, if you are one of these people please PM me!

Chapter 1

"Gabriella! You're going to miss the bus!" Jenna Montez called up the stairs to her perennially late daughter.

"Okay mom, coming!" Sixteen year old Gabriella called down and quickly logged off her IM account; a frown twisting her lips as she thundered down the stairs. "I told you not to call me that," she added of her mother's use of her full name as opposed to her favored shortened version.

"You study too much;" Jenna accused gently and handed her daughter some toast which Gabriella took and smiled wryly.

If only she knew, she mused. But if her mom thought she was studying then who was she to argue?

"I know, mom. I want to do well."

Jenna nodded but as she watched her almost-grown daughter push her 50's style specs up her nose and flip her back-combed-on-the-crown hair over her shoulder, she silently worried her child didn't actually have much of a life because of all the studying she did in her room.

"Have fun today!" She called as her petite offspring ran down the path with a haphazard wave; her beloved red Mary Quant shoes looking rather battered as she went.

"I love you," Jenna sighed as she gently shut the door.

/

Gabriella rarely got a seat on the bus. By the time the school-run vehicle made it's way into the inner city where the school was situated, it was always nearly full and seeing as her mother had decided to move to the roughest part of town; she had to make do with the constant rows of stares as she made her way to the back and inwardly begged someone to move their bag or lend her a seat.

Sometimes they did; or if she was feeling cocky she would perch on the very edge of a seat and pray not to be picked on, but mostly she just leaned on the side of a seat and went inside her head where her thoughts were always active.

Today was no different. When they finally reached the school gates, she trundled down the steps of the bus and jumped off, scurrying to class with complete focus on her destination, determined not to be stopped.

If she was really quick, she would have time to pop into the library, log onto her IM account and check for any messages that may have been sent while she was travelling to school.

It was an addiction, really. She treated her IM account like a lifeline but the irony was; she meant it to be a lifeline for others.

She had started her online advice page about two months ago and was receiving regular traffic. Some were hoaxers, some were beyond her help and then there was 'BlueEyes'.

They'd logged on to the site, clicked on the IM box that flashed up to offer instant advice and then they'd vanished.

Gabriella had never had anyone do that before and it worried her that someone out there needed help but she wasn't able to give it. And she didn't want to push. She didn't want to rush them but she panicked secretly that she might not get to them in time and maybe, just maybe they really needed her.

"Gabi, wait up!"

Gabi clucked her tongue in annoyance and sighed out with an eye-roll as her best friend and fellow geek, Ryan Evans ran over. Today he was wearing pale blue shorts with a white stripe shirt and a baby blue peak hat and she tilted her head.

"Uh, you look nice," she ventured and he smiled.

"Thank you. I love your hair…"

Gabi nodded. She loved everything from the 50's- the clothes, the hair, the glamour. She kind of failed at the glamour but she wouldn't be seen dead in trainers or jeans.

"I backcombed it," she explained, then chewed her lower lip. "Look, I have to get some research from the library for the Science test later so-"

Ryan smirked. "As if you need it!" he laughed as he butted in.

"Well, it's very important-"

"It's okay," he shrugged lightly, cutting her off again. "I know how you roll."

"How I roll?" Gabi made a pained face. "Please don't ever say that again…"

"I just saw Kelsey; I'll see you in class…" Ryan dashed off and she was free to finish her objective although when she checked her Marilyn Monroe watch, she blasted Ryan for slowing her down.

Now inside the library, she buzzed across to the first PC and quickly booted it up, her knee jigging nervously as she willed the thing to go faster already. She rolled her eyes, sighed impatiently and let her fingers flutter across the keys as she quickly logged in, her heart frantically beating at the thought of what might lay in her inbox.

…

Inbox 0

…

Gabi let out a disappointed breath. So BlueEyes hadn't felt brave enough to put their worries into words yet, but she hoped they would soon. Or she might go crazy with the worry of it all.

/

"Hey."

Gabi looked up, all brown eyes under her specs as a tall, jock basketball player looked down and dumped his books on her desk. Her desk. That he had just cluttered.

"Yes?" She clipped, annoyed to be disturbed from her frantic note-scribbling.

"We're lab partners," he told her with a lift of his thick brows and she noticed his eyes then. Blue like the sky, clear and yet troubled…he didn't quite meet her gaze and he didn't even smile.

"We're what?" She repeated.

"Lab partners." He continued, his scruffy-boy hair falling into those piercing eyes. If she wasn't so annoyed she might have got some scissors and cut his damn fringe but she was annoyed and she couldn't hide it.

"Why?"

"Why?" He looked affronted. "I don't know, ask Mr. Miller…"

He proceeded to sit beside her under the wooden table that he had decorated with his seemingly uncared-for books.

"Don't you make notes?" She stared at him in something akin to horror.

He shrugged and leaned forward to fold his arms on the desk. "Not if I can help it."

"Then how do you remember anything?"

"Ah! Miss Montez!" Mr. Miller approached the puzzled Gabriella. "As you are taking Science as an AP class, I thought you might like to teach Mr. Bolton here a thing or two about note-taking. He got an F in his last paper and he could use the help…"

"Excuse me sir, but why me?" Gabriella repeated her question to her teacher.

"Because you're the best in the class…" Mr. Miller explained again.

"Great," Troy derided and Gabriella sliced him a look before facing her teacher again.

"He doesn't even care if he passes or not." She argued.

"I'm sure you can soon bring his way of thinking around…" Mr. Miller smiled.

"Mr. Mill-" Gabi gaped as the man walked away and left her with the lazy sloth that was to be her lab partner for the month.

When she turned to look at him again, he merely half-smiled, half-smirked and she stretched a fake smile back.

"If you screw this up for me, I will hurt you," she promised.

/

"He doesn't even care if we pass or not!" Gabi bemoaned her new lab partner to Ryan and Kelsey at lunch. "He just sat there! Not even sat- sprawled," she adjusted and her friends looked at each other and then back to her.

"You could pass the assignment alone, Gabs," Kelsey ventured carefully, not wanting to set off her friend into another set of hysterics.

"That's not the point!" she screeched. "The principle of the matter is that I have been dumped with some great lump of brainless jock and there is nothing I can do about it for four weeks!"

"Jock?" Ryan questioned. "From the basketball team?"

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Of course from the basketball team you moron! Where did you think he came from-Mars?"

Ryan sucked his lower lip until Gabi collapsed into her folded arms on the table.

"Which player?" He wondered lightly as Gabi let out a frustrated roar into her sleeve.

At this, she looked up. "Troy Bolton. Can you believe it? Of all the brainless, worthless jocks to land up with, it had to be him!"

Little beknown to Gabi, the wild hand gesturing and eye widening performed by her friends was pre-warning that said brainless, worthless jock was standing right behind her as she insulted him in front of her friends.

"Hey." He said in that stupid, couldn't-care-less way he always did. She didn't actually remember him saying a lot else after their little introduction but then again, she might have ignored him, she couldn't quite remember.

She blushed, feeling a little bit mean about her rant when she didn't actually know him. She was after all herself a bit of a misfit and so she shouldn't really make such a fuss about a silly boy who threw balls around.

"Hi." She offered back, waiting for him to confront her about her insults.

"So, we have to do homework together." He said, his hands wrapped around his bag straps as he looked at her through squinted eyes- positioned so because his fringe irritated them.

"Are you going to get your hair cut?" She asked outright, as annoyed as his eyes were at his ridiculously messy fringe.

"Would you do it for me?" He asked right back and she lifted her brows.

"Do what?" She wondered if he meant cut his hair or do the homework.

"Isn't your mom a hairdresser?" He asked next, answering her question. He meant the hair.

"How do you know?" She arched right back and frowned.

He shrugged. "I just heard."

"Look don't worry about the project. I'll do it by myself and put your name on it so you get some marks…"

Gabi flashed a quick look at her friends as she turned back to face them and they both looked to her, then Troy as he remained beside her.

"Was there something else?" Gabi asked their visitor.

"Yeah. I want to help. I want to do the project." He replied.

"Why? This is a free pass!" She laughed.

"Because I don't want people thinking I'm a brainless jock anymore," he answered and she felt an ashamed blush warm her cheeks all the way down to her toes.

She swallowed and looked up. "You can come round Thursday after school?"

He nodded. "See you then," he said before he turned away.

"Oh my god, he was stood right there!" Kelsey whispered furiously as Troy left the scene.

"He heard every word, Gabs, what are you going to do?" Ryan added, equally excited.

"Oh jeez, I dunno, kill myself?"

Ryan tilted his head and Kelsey gave her a look.

"Okay I'm sorry!" She held up her hands and stood and scooped her books up. "I'll go and apologise right now…"

"Tell him I said hi!" Kelsey called after her and Gabriella rolled her eyes.

/

Gabriella didn't apologise. She considered helping Troy out on the project was enough of a concession and she wasn't about to go into the lion's den and have her hand bitten off- and going into the circle of basketball players would be doing just that.

The cheerleaders were never far away and Gabriella didn't like to remind herself just how stunted her growth really was; or how unattractive she was compared to their perfection. She just accepted she was always going to be 'second grade' and she was okay with that.

Mostly.

There had been a boy last year who had liked her. Somehow he liked her look and asked her out and they had gone on a few dates and although she liked that he liked her; they just didn't click. She just never felt like kissing him. She hadn't felt like kissing anyone really and for a while she wondered if she were a secret lesbian; but she knew she wasn't. It was just her, there was something missing, something not right and she hadn't worked out what it was, but it was definitely not there and couldn't be denied.

She sighed out as she shouldered her way into English and wondered when she would feel normal. Normal like everyone else in this room.

Did you see Sharpay Evans- Drama Club Captain-starting up websites? Did Taylor McKessie spend every waking hour worrying about people she didn't know? Was Martha Cox addicted to her IM?

She doubted it.

So why did she have to be such a freak?

She didn't have long to contemplate the answer before Ms. Darbus handed out an assignment and her mind was submerged into something else; alleviating her from her worries for a short time at least.

/

"Hey, mom!" Gabriella flew in the door and ran through the kitchen towards her room.

"Gabriella!" Her mother called as she watched in bemusement.

Gabi skidded to a halt and rolled her eyes while her back was to her mother. "Yes?"

"Can you help me with dinner please?" Her parent asked softly and she sighed knowing she wouldn't get to her PC anytime soon.

"Do I have to?" Gabi whined.

Jenna laughed. "Yes you have to! What's the matter with you today?"

Gabi shrugged. "Bad day."

"Why what happened?" Her mom asked as she handed her a colander of carrots to chop.

"Oh Mr. Miller gave us all new lab partners and I got stuck with the most heinous jock basketball player…"

"That bad huh?" Jenna looked down on her child with affection.

"I guess it's not so bad," Gabi ventured, rolling her eyes up to her mother.

"Oh?" Her mother lifted her brows.

"I just called him brainless and he heard…" She sighed.

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say about somebody," her mom admonished gently.

"He's coming over this week to do homework," she added, ignoring her mother's comment about how unkind she had been.

Jenna looked to her small daughter and noticed the vulnerability in her unsaid words.

"I'm looking forward to meeting him," Jenna offered.

"Oh mom, please do not embarrass me…" Gabi rolled her eyes and handed over the carrots she had chopped. "Can I go now?"

Jenna frowned. "What is it you do all night up there? I hope you're not on those internet chat sites talking to paedophiles who pretend to be teenage boys…"

"Mom!" Gabi complained. "Jeez…"

"Okay just for an hour until dinner…"

Gabi sprinted up the stairs, finally released from her punishment to enjoy her real passion- helping others.

Her PC booted while she stripped off her school outfit and threw on her lounge clothes and she scooped her hair into a bun while she waited for her home page to load.

Once she was logged onto her page, she quickly scanned for messages and saw she had four, opening her inbox while she held her breath unknowingly and when she scanned the names of each user, she let out her breath in disappointment. BlueEyes wasn't one of them. She had really hoped they might have come back and asked what they really needed to ask, but nothing.

As she dutifully responded to the queries she had received, Gabi noticed her IM flick up in the corner of the screen.

She gasped as she read the words.

: Anyone there?

She quickly recovered and typed back.

TezzyG: Yes, I'm here.

-pause-

: How does this work?

TezzyG: You just tell me as much or as little as you like.

Gabi chewed her lower lip and leaned instinctively closer to the screen as she prayed inwardly for the shy BlueEyes to say more.

: So can we just talk?

TezzyG: Of course. Why don't you start by telling me a bit about yourself?

: That's exactly what I don't want to talk about.

TezzyG: That's ok. Well my name is Terri, I go to high school and I suck at track.

: Terri? Isn't that a weird name for a girl?

Gabi's brows lifted. So she was talking to a guy…interesting. It must have taken a hell of a lot of courage for him to approach her and she hoped to God she didn't fail. Already he didn't want to talk about himself so the counseling process was going to be hard.

TezzyG: Ok, you got me. It's my screen name. I have to protect my identity.

: Internet pervs come here too?

TezzyG: Sometimes.

: You're younger than I thought.

TezzyG: I've seen life. Age is just a number, right?

: What kind of life have you seen?

Gabi swallowed. She wasn't meant to talk about herself, really. She wasn't meant to reveal too many personal details and she didn't want to lie. But BlueEyes wasn't going to open up without a bit of two-way trust so she took a deep breath and kept typing.

TezzyG: My mom moved us from downtown Detroit to Albuquerque two years ago.

: Downtown Detroit? Wow, that's bad-ass.

TezzyG: Well I'm not.

: Did you see any guns?

TezzyG: Once.

: …tell me more?

TezzyG: It's not something I'm proud of.

: You owned the gun? ;)

TezzyG: No, actually it was my father. Right before he left, I saw him with a gun doing something he shouldn't be doing.

: Wow, so your family is as cracked up as mine is.

TezzyG: Your dad left too?

Gabi wondered if the mysterious guy would fall for her loaded question. She tapped her fingers on the keyboard while she waited.

: I think I'd actually prefer it if he did leave.

And there it was.

TezzyG: Why's that?

…

has logged off. Any messages you send will be delivered when they log on.

…

"Damn!" Gabi cursed out loud and threw her laptop to one side with a gentle swing and it landed in the middle of her bed.

"Is everything ok?" Jenna Montez pushed open the partly open door and frowned at her child.

"Oh…just some homework I don't know how to do…" Gabi lied carefully, sucking her lower lip.

"What's the problem?" Jenna asked and came inside the room to sit next to her on the bed. The last thing Gabi needed was parental concern right now but she was grateful her mother cared enough to ask.

"Okay well it maybe isn't homework…" She ventured slowly, looking up.

"Okay, what is it?" Jenna encouraged.

"There's this guy…and I don't know how to talk to him…he doesn't want to talk about his problems but I know he has them…"

"Gabi," Jenna rubbed her back gently and then cupped her arm supportively. "Is this about your new lab partner?"

Gabi darted her a look. Why would she assume a thing like that? Just because she'd called him a jerk?

"No, mom. It's about another guy." Gabi assured.

Jenna lifted her brows humorously. "How many guys are there for me to know about?"

"Ha-ha," Gabi rolled her eyes. "But you still didn't tell me how to talk to him…"

"You have to find your own way, honey." Jenna told her knowingly. "Or you won't be true to yourself."

"Yes mom," Gabi nodded and hugged her briefly.

"Dinner's ready," Jenna told her with a kind smile and Gabi nodded.

"I'll be down in a minute."

"Okay, honey." Jenna pulled the door up as she left and Gabi retrieved her laptop, staring at the words of the conversation that ended so suddenly.

"Maybe next time," she murmured to the unknown soul.