On Sunday morning a week later, Gabriella quickly changed into a pair of sweats and a tank top before throwing on Troy's sweatshirt that had been washed late last week and worn again by him the day before so Gabriella could have a clean sweatshirt to wear that still smelled like him. When she had opened her eyes that morning, after such a rough night's sleep, Gabriella decided that she needed to clean to help clear her mind as well as to try to get her life organized again. After going to the bathroom and tying her hair up, Gabriella got down to work, turning up the stereo so she could hear the latest music blasting through the speakers as she picked up her clothes and books that had managed to land all around her room. Once that was done, Gabriella turned her attention to dusting, getting from the hall closet a few microfiber cloths, feeling that much better for being productive and distracting her mind for a bit before her mom popped her head in to see how she was doing.

"Wow, your room, it's finally looking like your room again," kidded Mary, smiling at her daughter who seemed to be in good spirits again after having a rough time sleeping last night.

Mary rushed into her daughter's bedroom as soon as she heard Gabriella's screams from the study a few rooms down where Mary had been working on a report for work. After Mary turned on the lights, she saw Gabriella sitting up in the middle of her bed and rushed over immediately. "Sweetie, what is it?"

Gabriella accepted her mother's embrace, blinking her eyes against the sudden light that flooded the room with the flip of the light switch, feeling the salty tracks of tears down her cheeks continue to lengthen and flow. "Mom…it…was terrible…Tristan…shot…saw it all…" got out Gabriella between the tiny sobs that were filling her chest again.

"You saw Tristan shoot himself? Sweetheart, is that what you are telling me? It was just a dream though Gabriella, just a dream," soothed Mary, feeling Gabriella shake her head that was now resting on her shoulder. "What do you mean no?"

"No…it was me… I…pulled the…trigger. It was real, I swear it…at least it feels that way," answered Gabriella, taking in deep gulps of air and forcing it through her lungs. "I don't know which nightmare was worse, this or when I saw him again from afar only to see the gunshot wound open and bleed, something preventing me from getting to him."

Mary pulled back a little and stared back at her daughter's grief filled face. "Gabriella, you said it yourself though. These are just nightmares albeit tonight was a new one. Have you talked to Dr. Johnson about all this?"

Sighing a little, Gabriella nodded her head. "He said it's natural, it's my mind's way of trying to find closure in how everything happened. I just, I thought it would all go away in time but maybe they never will, because as much as I know the hard facts of what happened, I still don't understand what really caused Tristan to pull the trigger, what I could have done to help."

"Maybe that's it, understanding that you couldn't have done anything and are guilty of nothing," answered Mary, shifting her arms so her hands were now resting on Gabriella's upper arms, rubbing them up and down in an attempt to soothe her daughter. "Tonight's nightmare seems to be speaking directly to that, to the guilt you still feel. That would be my uneducated analysis anyway."

"It was just so real Mom, I could feel the coldness of the trigger with my fingers. Listening to Tristan tell me face to face that he loved me as I pulled it, God that was so horrible," whispered Gabriella, reliving the nightmare. "I just wish that I could turn back time, make everything better for everyone but especially him."

Mary brushed back some strands of dark wavy hair back behind Gabriella's ear. "But you can't sweetheart. I know that your level of guilt has been sky high since Tristan's suicide but you need to seriously take it easier on yourself. The weight of the world should never be on your shoulders alone when you have so many to share it with you. I think in time you'll keep getting better as you have been and eventually, as much as you will adore the memory of Tristan for the rest of your life, you will find the solace you so need."

After talking some more about the different implications and Gabriella's feelings on everything, Mary was satisfied when Gabriella eventually fell back asleep an hour and a half later. She gently kissed her teenage daughter's forehead before leaving Gabriella's bedroom, switching off the lights in the process, feeling like she was tucking in the very same daughter when she was four and had terrible nightmares about monsters and the darkness swallowing her. 'If only the nightmares she was having now were so easy to dispel and help her get through. I can only pray that you continue to see the light in all this Gabriella and find the closure your mind is desperately seeking someday soon.'

"Well, after all the nightmares and restless sleep, I knew I had to do something to keep me going today," answered Gabriella, alerting Mary to the fact that Gabriella hadn't slept as well as she had hoped.

"You had more nightmares?" asked Mary, knowing it was a bit redundant based on what Gabriella said but felt compelled to ask.

Nibbling her lower lip a little, Gabriella paused in her dusting to look back at her mom, allowing Mary to see the dark circles under Gabriella's eyes. "I did and none of them got any better. Some of them were the same, the bleeding wound and once more with the gun being in my hand, but I also had some others. The last one was watching Tristan die but at the hand of another who I couldn't see. I don't know what it meant and thought at that point it was just me going crazy."

"Maybe it's your mind trying to tell you something else about the guilt, that it was just a higher being's decision to take Tristan early," remarked Mary, watching Gabriella try to process this.

"Maybe," agreed Gabriella, truly lost as to what else it could be. "Anyway, I just thought it was time to really clean and everything, put this energy to good use. I think maybe I should vacuum and dry mop now since most of the dusting is done."

"Sounds like a plan. Do you need help?" offered Mary, unsure of how she could help Gabriella on an emotional level at that given moment.

Gabriella shook her head. "No, I should be fine. Besides, part of my chores right?"

Mary laughed, nodding her agreement. "I guess they are."

As Gabriella dragged the vacuum and dry mop back to her room from the hall closet, her mind began to replay that last nightmare, wondering what exactly it meant. After that dream, Gabriella had given up on sleep until a dreamless sleep gratefully embraced her mind, giving it a much needed reprieve but Gabriella still recalled it with perfect clarity, seeing the bullet soar through the air in slow motion from a different direction and making impact just after Tristan told her he loved her again.

Back in her room, Gabriella bent over to put a new cloth on the base of the dry mop, setting it back down on the hardwood floor, starting her cleaning near her balcony windows. A familiar upbeat dance song came on the radio a little while later, giving Gabriella something to listen and groove to at the same time as mopping, making her spirits lighter again. As she danced through the song, moving the dry mop now around her bed, Gabriella began swaying her hips and pumping her left arm in and out to the beat, getting lost in the music. She was so into it though that she accidentally bumped into her nightstand a little hard with her right hip, shaking it so much that something tumbled and broke as it landed on the hardwood floor, the sound of glass breaking scaring Gabriella as she had been facing the other direction.

When she whirled around at the noise, Gabriella's breath got caught in her throat as she saw the picture frame now lying face down on the floor, broken glass around it. Gabriella dropped the dry mop and quickly approached the fallen object, carefully kneeling down next to it before she picked it up with shaking hands, tears welling up in her eyes as she saw her picture with Tristan. As she blinked back the tears, Gabriella got up and took the picture frame with her to the trash can, shaking out the excess glass still contained before looking at it again. She noticed a slight rip in the corner of the picture and silently swore, hating that the treasured photograph was now torn albeit with a small tear.

Feeling the need to hold the photograph for some reason, Gabriella turned the frame over and undid the back panel, slipping the photo out of the frame with the cardboard backing behind it. When Gabriella gripped the picture of her and Tristan in her hands though after putting the cardboard aside, her fingers felt a difference in the backing and she curiously turned it over, a gasp escaping her lips as she looked down at a blurry picture of herself with Troy, their own arms around each other. 'What?'

After studying the picture closer, Gabriella recognized the blurry and enlarged photo as a moment captured the night Troy asked Gabriella to be his girlfriend in the bowling alley when they were out with the rest of their friends. "But why does Tristan have it in this frame let alone have it period?" she wondered aloud, gently pulling the picture of her and Troy off the back of the one of her and Tristan which were held together by a single piece of tape. Once separated, Gabriella stood up and placed the picture of her and Tristan back on the nightstand before she sat on her bed, looking down at the puzzle in a form of a picture. A small smile tugged on her lips as she relived the memory of Troy asking her out but she soon put it aside, wondering again how Tristan came about having this picture and who would have sent it to him.

Something in the back of her mind was nagging her to keep looking at it, that the answer was there, had to be, and she soon found it when she flipped the picture over to see what looked like a website with a name and possibly a password. Perplexed now, Gabriella got up and walked over to her computer, opening a new browser and putting in the website address that was written in Tristan's handwriting which read www.143ella.com.

A shiver ran down Gabriella's spine as she was immediately taken to a website with a purple background, just the shade that was Gabriella's favorite, with only a picture of Tristan and Gabriella together in their first semester of junior year, Gabriella smiling at the camera with Tristan's face turned sideways as he gazed at Gabriella with a look that could only be described as lovingly, adoringly. Gabriella swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat down, pushing herself to keep going, finally seeing the login box right under the picture. With shaky fingers, Gabriella nervously typed in the username and what she thought was the password into the text boxes before she clicked the submit button.

It took a few moments, which seemed like agonizing hours to Gabriella as she waited for the new page to load, more than curious and almost scared to find out what was posted, but the page finally appeared, displaying an array of links grouped together. The first set was under an airplane icon, the next column was under a dollar sign icon, and the last column of links was under a phone icon.

Even more confused now, Gabriella clicked on the first link under the plane to see an image appear of a scanned copy of a ticket from LAX to Albuquerque International with Tristan's name on it. Furrowing her eyebrows together in confusion, Gabriella went back to the main screen and clicked on the second link in the same column only to see another ticket from LAX to Albuquerque. This image though had a date underlined, one Gabriella recognized as taking place after she ended the romantic part of their relationship. 'Wait, when did he come out? Why didn't I see him?'

After staring at the image for a few moments longer, Gabriella went back to the main screen and clicked on a link under the dollar sign icon, feeling nauseous as she saw two scanned images, one of the front of a check and one of the unsigned back. What caught Gabriella's attention though were the names in the upper left hand corner of the check:

Vance Evans
Sharpay Evans

"Why in the world did the Evans family, more specifically Sharpay, write Tristan a check for $5,000?" asked Gabriella aloud, seeing Sharpay's famous signature on the check.

She felt an even more sick feeling fill her body as she went back to the homepage and clicked on the second and then third links, both having additional checks in the same amount written to Tristan by Sharpay. 'But why?'

Gabriella's mind was whirling with so many possibilities as to what this all meant when she pushed on and clicked on the first link under the phone icon, seeing the same image she had seen printed out with the website information on it. "Oh my God, please tell me this really isn't what I think it is," she prayed, starting to see where all the puzzle pieces fit together to make one large picture.

After going through some more links of pictures clearly taken by a camera phone without her knowledge, each one depicting Gabriella happily in the arms of Troy or kissing him or just laughing, Gabriella felt a new emotion fill her body, one that she hadn't felt in quite some time, anger. By the time that Gabriella got to the last link, guilt seemed to be a fond favorite memory compared to the sizzling anger now running through her blood, aimed at a manipulator who had gone too far this time. That anger though ceased as Gabriella had to force her mind to clear while listening to the audio clip that was now playing.

"Tristan, I think I overestimated you given the fact that I just saw your supposed love of your life walking down the hall with my basketball captain. I paid for that first class ticket to get you here this weekend to break them up, not allow them to get even closer. Do you not care about Gabriella? Do you not care that she is slipping further and further away from you each day you aren't here to help me? Maybe she's right, maybe you truly are weak. That's why she couldn't choose you when she had a real guy in Troy here. You are too weak Tristan, you can't even fight for the girl you supposedly love. The only thing I think you have excelled in is fucking up whatever you had with the smartie brunette by cheating. Honestly Tristan, I'm realizing now that picking you as my accomplice was the dumbest thing I've done in a while. Of course you wouldn't be man enough to play dirty for the hand of this girl. Either you don't care enough about her or you really are stupid. Either way, I'm done playing with you. This game is now my own and I plan on playing by my own rules unless I see a change in the current situation with Troy and Gabriella being the super cute couple here. I give you one week grace Tristan and if nothing happens, it's on your head if anything happens to Montez."

There was a short pause before another clip of Sharpay's voice leaving the same type of message came on, quickly followed by two others right after that, all of the same nature.

Like a sudden bolt of lightning, Gabriella snapped the last piece of the puzzle into place and found herself staring at cold treachery itself, wrapped snugly in the form of Sharpay Evans. 'It wasn't me letting him go that upset Tristan so but what she used to bait him into helping her with her stupid plan,' realized Gabriella, feeling the anger at the blonde resurface quickly. Shaking her head, Gabriella knew she had to do something and that it couldn't wait. She snatched the picture of her and Troy with the website details on the back and quickly left her room, calling out to her mother in a strange voice that she'd be back in a little while but needed a drive before grabbing her mother's car keys. Not waiting for permission, Gabriella left the house and got into her mother's car, knowing exactly where she was going.

By the time she pulled up and parked in the circular driveway of the Evans' mansion, Gabriella was so fueled by her highly contrasting emotions she wondered if she would collapse right there from them. A large part of her was pissed off at the girl inside the mansion, most likely anyway as her stupid bubble gum pink Mustang was in the driveway, for scheming to keep Gabriella away from Troy and using Tristan to do it but a larger part was sad because Tristan was dragged into the whole scheme. True, Tristan may have willingly done things but Gabriella believed in her heart that Tristan would never intentionally hurt her, even if he was desperate to get her back, that much her heart and instincts agreed on.

After she marched up to the entrance, Gabriella harshly knocked on the door, not waiting long for it to be opened by an elderly man. "Can I help you?" he asked politely, staring at the fiery young woman standing on the porch.

"I'm here to see Sharpay," got out Gabriella, trying to be as nice as possible but feeling rather short at the moment.

Before the man could answer, Gabriella spied Sharpay coming down the large staircase yards away dressed in a pink Juicy Couture tracksuit. "Sharpay! How could you!" exclaimed Gabriella, her voice coming out loud with a harsh edge to it.

The man quickly took a step in front of Gabriella, blocking her way. "It's okay Milton, let her in," said Sharpay, coming to stand only a few feet away from Gabriella now. "What type of lunacy brought you here Montez?"

Gabriella let out a harsh laugh before she replied, "Lunacy? Funny you should ask. I just found some interesting things out that had your stupid pink sparkles all over it."

"Sharpay sweetie, don't be rude," scolded Sharpay's mother from further inside the house. "Invite your friend in."

"She's not a friend mother!" called back Sharpay.

"Do as I say sweetie and be a good hostess, even if she's not a friend," demanded Derby Evans. "It's only polite dear."

Sharpay sighed and indicated with a tilt of her head for Milton to step aside, allowing Gabriella to come further into the mansion but not much further than the entryway, relieved when her mother left the immediate vicinity again. "Now what is it that you want Montez? I have important things to do."

"Like how to ruin someone else's life? How to breakup another happy couple?" accused Gabriella, pushing aside any soft emotion she felt and clinging to the hot lava of fury that ran through her veins again. "Because you certainly succeeded in messing up at least one life to my knowledge. Maybe there's more."

Her only answer though was Sharpay smirking, giving her a one over with her light brown eyes. "Oh, did Troy finally break up with you? Poor baby. It was only a matter of time before he realized how truly unsuitable you two are. It's not my fault that he woke up from the nightmare he was living in while dating you."

"SHARPAY, JUST STOP IT!" screamed Gabriella, grabbing the attention of all the hired help within earshot but not even noticing. "I know what you did! How could you?"

Sharpay narrowed her eyes, trying to assess whether Gabriella was talking about the same thing Sharpay was thinking of when Gabriella said those words. "Really Gabriella, I think you've gone completely mental. Whatever it is that you think I did I most certainly did not. I've never been one for games."

"And you've never been that good of an actress," bit out Gabriella harshly, almost physically shaking from her anger. "You sent Tristan money to be part of your sick little plan to keep Troy and me apart. You sent him plane tickets! And when that wasn't enough, you started feeding him pictures you snuck of me and Troy together, plaguing him until he followed your game plan. That's what you did, isn't it?"

For a moment Sharpay actually stumbled as to what to say but gathered herself quickly, squarely looking back at Gabriella without a hint of guilt in her demeanor. "I don't know what you are talking about. That smart brain of yours must have over-fried or something from all those dusty library books."

"Damn it Sharpay, will you just admit to something for once in your life? You owe me this much. Did you or did you not scheme to keep me and Troy apart, roping Tristan into all of this, only to have him try to back out?" asked Gabriella, fire in her dark brown eyes.

"No, don't be silly," returned Sharpay, letting out a laugh that sounded false even to her own ears.

"But when he did try, you threatened my safety, my happiness, my life, to get Tristan to cooperate with you. Don't deny it, I know it's the truth, the sick truth!" exclaimed Gabriella, narrowing her eyes at the blonde who dared to shake her head again.

"Girls, what is going on here?" asked Derby, quickly approaching the blonde and brunette who were currently facing off, Vance and Ryan right behind her. "The staff was alarmed and came running to us while we were having brunch, talking about a fight. Whatever is going on, I'm sure you both can resolve this like ladies."

Before Sharpay could reply, Gabriella tore her eyes away from Sharpay to look at Sharpay's mother and said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Evans but I don't think I can do that, not until Sharpay admits to something."

"Whatever does she mean pumpkin?" asked Vance, looking at his daughter who was now breathing a little heavier while looking at the young brunette woman.

"She's delusional Daddy, that's all," replied Sharpay, an irritating smirk back on her lips, her right hand posed on her hip. "Isn't that right Gabriella?"

"Only if I somehow or another made all this up," retorted Gabriella, reaching into the pouch of the sweatshirt and pulling out the picture of her and Troy, noting how quickly Sharpay paled before she somehow regained her composure in the matter of seconds. "Recognize this picture Sharpay?"

Without looking at it again, Sharpay shook her head, looking Gabriella in the eyes. "I haven't a clue what you are talking about."

"Really? Maybe you'd like to see the website that's written on the back of this," offered Gabriella, turning the picture around for Sharpay and her family to see. "It definitely opened my eyes to every rotten thing you have been doing. Do you even understand what you did? What you did to Tristan?"

"Is that what this is about? Look, I'm sorry he's dead Gabriella but that isn't my fault. Some accident or sickness I'm sure," answered Sharpay rather simply.

Gabriella just stared at the other girl, speechless for a few moments in how nonchalantly Sharpay acknowledged and dismissed Tristan's life within the same breath. Ryan was more than overwhelmed with the emotions just then and decided to step in. "Gabriella, how did Tristan die?" he asked with the most gentle voice he could muster.

Her deep brown orbs met his eyes and answered Ryan without words by the amount of pain evident there, blurred a little by the tears that were held in check. "Tristan committed suicide…"

Gabriella barely heard the gasp from Derby and hardly saw the sympathetic looks both Vance and Ryan were giving her. What Gabriella did see though was the shocked expression on Sharpay's face, her color completely gone, her mouth hanging slightly ajar. "You're lying. You just made this whole story up to get sympathy."

"I wish I was lying Sharpay, I really wish I was," answered Gabriella, the edge in her voice receding. "If I was, Tristan wouldn't be lying in a coffin in a cemetery back in L.A. with a single bullet wound that will never truly heal. If I was, Tristan would be here to call you out on your devious ways instead of me because I know Tristan and I know that although maybe he started in on this plan with you that he wouldn't be able to hurt me, he loved me too much. I know I'd never be able to do it to him."

Swallowing a few times, Sharpay shakily gathered her best acting skills together before she said, "Honest Gabriella, I don't know what you are pretending about but I would never scheme to hurt another human being."

There was a loud scoff at this and all heads turned towards Ryan, who only shook his head at his twin. "You would never scheme to hurt someone else? Now come on sis, we all know that's a big fat lie and I have a sinking feeling that you've really crossed the line this time."

"Ryan! You're supposed to be on my side! You're my brother, my twin!" scolded Sharpay.

Ryan just shrugged his shoulders, offering his hands up in a surrender like motion. "I can't help it Sharpay. I warned you countless times to stop when I caught those little snippets of conversations where you were badgering someone, when I saw you right after you put some conniving plan in motion. That look of yours is so specific to those moments, an excited yet conniving look that you seem to have perfected over the years."

"What is it exactly that you are accusing our daughter of doing?" asked Vance, looking at Gabriella.

"I think, no I pretty much know now, that Sharpay wanted my boyfriend so badly that she sent tickets to my ex to bring him out here to try to help her break us up, even going so far as sending three checks of five grand each, which Tristan never cashed. There are even pictures that Sharpay sent to him as motivation along with some clips of Sharpay leaving some rather not nice voicemails for Tristan," explained Gabriella, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes against the misery that returned for her in that moment when she thought back to how very vulnerable Tristan was and how hard Sharpay was on him. "Tristan was going through a depression and I think he took them straight to his heart, worsening it."

"If you're trying to make me feel guilty for something I didn't even know," started Sharpay, stopping as soon as she realized her slight admission of guilt here.

Derby turned her face and looked at her daughter, blown away by the apparent fact that Sharpay did in fact do what Gabriella claimed. "Answer me truthfully Sharpay. Did you do all of what Gabriella is saying? Don't try to lie either, I can always read you like a book and it will be that much worse for you if you lie to me now."

Sharpay sighed, knowing the game was up. "Yes Mother, I did. I honestly didn't know though about Tristan and all that! I didn't even know he was dead until two weeks ago when Troy told me and trust me, that devastated me too!"

"Because you cared about him as a human being or because you lost your partner in crime?" asked Gabriella, unable to resist voicing that question.

When it took Sharpay too long to answer, Vance shook his head, highly disappointed in his daughter, echoing the same feelings Derby was having. "I'm sorry Gabriella for my daughter's behavior. I hope you understand that Sharpay was not raised to be this malicious. It seems that you have evidence of this wrong doing. I'm prepared to offer you money for your silence."

Gabriella shook her head immediately, a bit taken aback by Mr. Evans' offer. "I don't want any money Mr. Evans. Just hearing Sharpay admit to it, that's all I wanted. I needed to hear her say it to make sure I wasn't just being paranoid and had put all Tristan's clues together incorrectly."

"You understand young lady that what you have in your possession, the evidence which I'm for certain is there, could really taint this family. I'd be happy to offer you anything you'd like. How about a fully funded college education, even a masters program?" offered Vance again.

"Dad, Gabriella isn't like that," chimed in Ryan, seeing Gabriella becoming increasingly uncomfortable, feeling that his classmate had gone through enough already this morning. "Are you okay Gabriella?"

Gabriella turned her eyes to focus on the kindness that was Ryan and nodded her head slightly, knowing it was a partial truth again. "I will be, thank you Ryan," she said before turning her attention back to Mr. Evans and Mrs. Evans. "I promise that I will not sell these to anyone nor will I spread this around school or around town or anything like that. Honest, I just, I needed to find some type of closure on this mystery and I've found it."

Ryan watched as Gabriella slowly turned on her heels and walked out of their mansion, tiling his head to the side a little as he seemed to notice a little bit of a difference in Gabriella, even by just viewing her retreating back, glad to know that she was going to be okay. He couldn't say the same for his twin who was currently being cross examined by their parents as to what exactly Sharpay did and why. After listening to the heated discussion and seeing Sharpay actually cowering from their parents' questions and demands, Ryan decided it wasn't his place anymore to eavesdrop but was relieved when he saw genuine tears slip from Sharpay's light brown eyes as he recognized her finally understanding how her selfish ways actually adversely affected someone's life, intentional or not. 'I'm sorry that someone had to die for this day to come but at least Sharpay seems to finally have learned this lesson for the last time, at least I hope.'

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