Gabriella "Gabby" Wark is the daughter of a major international clothing mogul, a spoiled misanthrope and the main antagonist of the second half of Series 9. Gabriella is a very manipulative 17-year-old student. However, she returns in Series 10 after turning over a new leaf and wants to start afresh.
Series 9
When she was 10, her sister Florence died after being hit by a car as she and Gabriella stepped off of a bus. Florence's death led to Gabriella becoming jealous of close sisters Dynasty Barry and Kacey Barry, who heavily dislike her, especially Dynasty.
When Gabriella first arrives, her father tells her to take her lipstick off, which she does by promptly kissing Connor Mulgrew, to the fury of his wife Imogen. Later in the episode, when PE teacher Hector Reid leaves the engine running on his pickup truck, Gabriella jumps into it and tries to drive out of school, but Hector manages to stop her. Gabriella becomes inappropriately obsessed with Hector after this, and in the same episode she flashes her breasts at him. Her parents are called in, and when they learn everything Gabriella has done on her first day, her father slaps her across the face in front of headteacher Christine Mulgrew. What happened to Florence is revealed, and Gabriella feels her parents blame them for Florence's death. At the end of the episode, Gabriella keys Nikki Boston's car after hearing Hector talking about fancying Nikki.
Throughout the second half of Series 9, Gabriella continues to stalk and harass Hector.
In Series 9 Episode 15, during the school resilience camp trip, Gabriella rows out into the middle of a lake on a boat and then throws the oars away to deliberately strand herself, before trying to call Hector to come get her, but he has switched off his phone as to not be disturbed while flirting with Nikki Boston. Hector later gets into trouble for this after rescuing Gabriella.
Gabriella continues to stalk Hector until she finds out about Hector and Nikki's affair, and is the one who tells Nikki's fiancée Vix Spark.
Gabriella is disliked around school for being nasty, stuck up and very argumentative. She puts up with Rhiannon Salt, however the two do not become close friends after Rhiannon starts to see what she is really like. She briefly dates Barry Barry to mess with Dynasty after they all went out drinking in a bar.
Gabriella views herself as being more superior compared to the rest of the pupils at the school. Throughout her time she is continuously bragging about her 'Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award' to both the staff and pupils. She is good at climbing, which leads her into challenging Kacey Barry to a race up the climbing wall in the school grounds that Simon Lowsley had brought in to thank the pupils for their hard work during his 'resilience' scheme. Gabriella initially challenges Kacey after stealing Lenny Brown's ball, which both he and Kacey had been playing with. They climb up the wall without any safety equipment. Due to Gabriella's self-confidence and skill, she gets higher than Kacey on the climbing wall, and Gabriella spitefully stamps on Kacey's hand causing Kacey to fall to the ground badly injured. A bone in Kacey's wrist is fractured, which means her wrist needs to be in plaster for 12 weeks, jeopardising Kacey's boxing career as well as ruining her opportunity to participate in the Commonwealth Games, as she will need physio and there is no guarantee it will be the same again.
This causes a huge uproar between Gabriella and Nikki Boston, who already dislikes her as it was Gabriella who ruined her relationship with Vix Spark. Gabriella then begins screaming and pretending to be attacked, and as Nikki grabs her to try to stop her, acting headteacher Simon Lowsley walks in; from his perspective it appears as if Nikki attacked her. Simon takes Gabriella to his office and attempts to send Nikki home, who refuses as she believes that if she goes home Gabriella has won and her teaching career will be over. When Simon returns to the office, Gabriella is bleeding from the nose and her mother is taking photographs of her to use as evidence against Nikki. Simon then realises that Nikki is telling the truth as Gabriella wasn't bleeding after Nikki 'attacked' her in the pastoral care room. Gabriella had convinced herself and her mother that it was true. Kacey's mother Carol Barry overhears Mrs Wark asking Simon "How much to make all of this go away?" and demands £10,000 to stop her from going to the police, plus more for a settlement for Kacey, before slapping Mrs Wark after she asks if Kacey threw herself off of the climbing wall on purpose.
Later that day, Simon gathers Christine Mulgrew, Mrs Wark, Carol, Kacey, Gabriella and Nikki into the pastoral care room to sort everything out. Christine takes Gabriella on a walk and explains that 'people who tell as many lies as we do, end up believing them ourselves'. It is here that Gabriella realises the damage her actions can cause: Nikki losing her job, Kacey potentially losing her boxing career and a feud between the Warks and Barrys. Upon Christine and Gabriella's return to the gathering in the pastoral care room, Gabriella apologises to everyone for her actions and explains how she was jealous of Kacey's and Dynasty Barry's close relationship which reminded her of her relationship with her late sister Florence. Christine arranges for Gabriella and her mum to talk in private to try to save their relationship, when all is revealed that she feels her parents still blame her for the death of her sister, even though Gabriella already forgave herself long ago.
Series 10
Gabriella returns in Series 10 Episode 4 wanting to make amends for the harm she's done. She apologises to Kacey, but most of the pupils are still bitter. Lisa Brown and Shaznay Montrose are especially angry and attack Gabriella in the school bathroom, putting her head down the toilet. Sue Lowsley catches them and asks Gabriella if she wants to report them, but she refuses. Gabriella plans a party at her house that night, along with Darren Hughes and Rhiannon. Lisa and Shaznay discover that she is planning a party and decide to crash it. Lisa sends topless pics of herself to Hector Reid, pretending that Gabriella sent them of herself. At her house they discover her younger sister Florence's room, which had been left untouched since her death. Lisa and Shaznay trash the room. Gabriella, horrified and distressed as she sees Kacey holding her sister's doll, accidentally hits her head on a table and falls into the pool unconscious. Kacey rescues her and Sue and Hector turn up to help. Hector confronts Gabriella about the topless photo, but when she insists she didn't send it, he realises it was Lisa. Sue apologises to Gabriella for not stopping the bullying properly earlier, and tells Shaznay and Lisa that this time she will be reporting them.
Gabriella makes brief appearances throughout the rest of the first half of Series 10. She last appears in Series 10 Episode 10 and finishes school.
Personality
Gabriella is a highly intelligent, cold, dangerous and anti-social girl. Due to growing up in a privileged lifestyle, she is conceited, spoiled, exceedingly boastful and very arrogant, seeing everyone else to be beneath her. Gabriella is quite cunning and manipulative, able to talk her way out of almost any situation. She displays extreme sociopathic traits, such as a capacity for violence, anti-social behaviour and a complete disregard for other people's feelings. Gabriella has exceptional degrees of loneliness: she doesn't get on very well with anyone, she avoids polite conversation with others, she treats people cruelly because that's how she's been treated herself, and she does her very best to outrank those older than her.
She clearly loved her sister a great deal because she tries her very best to live up to her parents' expectations and try to forget the event. The problem is that her parents never let her forget it and constantly blame her for the incident. She points out that she forgave herself a long time ago, but the event, combined with the fact that her parents blame her, embittered her to the point of self-disgust and aggression. She is an extremist, and goes so far as to completely strip down to the waist in front of Mr Reid to try to get his romantic interests, and then coldly attempt to blackmail him into going out with her. She often behaves vitriolically towards others she doesn't like, or considers beneath her.
Because of her privileged lifestyle and her enhanced education, she is extremely clever: she has impeccable marks in her exams and classes, and she knows how to get herself out of a lot of situations. She is in perfect physical condition and excels in PE. She is quite agile and calculating, able to outpace Kacey Barry during their race, whilst Kacey had the advantage of being younger and more competitive. Gabriella is also physically strong and this enables her to physically outmanoeuvre others.
She wears a pearl necklace in her first episode, a present from her father, that she lends to Rhiannon for being her only friend.
Trivia
- Gabriella is lactose intolerant, as mentioned in Series 9 Episode 12 when she asked Carol Barry about the nutritional information of the school food, only to be rudely denied the information.
- Gabriella leaves Waterloo Road in Series 9, however she comes back in Series 10 acting as a completely new person, but isn't forgiven by many. This is evident when Lisa and Shaznay put her head down the toilet.
Quotes
- "There. Off." (first line)
- "Well, dear, I suggest you teach me something I don't already know, then." (To Audrey McFall in Series 9 Episode 11, replayed as one of the quotes from past and present characters heard at the end of Series 10 Episode 20)
- Gabriella: "Oh, I love your ring, miss."
- Sue: "Oh, um...thank you."
- Gabriella: "It's amazing what you can get in pound shops these days."
- Hector: "Cover yourself up."
- Gabriella: "Why, don't you like what you see?"
- "You wouldn't understand. You people never do." to Christine Mulgrew (Series 9 Episode 11)
- "Every friendship comes to an end, Rhi-Rhi. Some sooner than others." to Rhiannon Salt.
- "Now, out of interest, do they give grants to people like you? Only it would be such a shame if people from a lower socioeconomic scale were discouraged from higher education. Then again, you could always go work in a canteen with your mum."
- Gabriella: "You don't even know me."
- Barry: "I wanna know you."
- Gabriella: "Nobody else does."
- "Hi, it's Gabriella, I'm in the middle of a lake, in a boat. Um, I'm quite far out and I don't know how to get back, could you come and help me please?"
- "Well done, Miss Marple. A temporary flash of imagination, so out of character. It'll be such a shame when you don't get into the police. I'm thinking...too much of a stretch for someone so limited. It might be less painful if you just cut to the chase. You could come and be a cleaner for us, we've got a nice big house, so you'll have plenty to do. We both know it's where you're going to end up. Oh, and, they can think what they want, but as no-one else was there, my story stands. Ciao."
- "It's true, they spent the night together. I saw the text she sent him."
- Gabriella: "A petty act of vandalism, but somehow deeply satisfying."
- Barry: "Ugh. I love the way you talk."
- "How do you propose to look after me, when you can barely use a knife and fork? Look, this was nice while it lasted, but I'm the heiress to a multinational clothing company, you're the son of a dinner lady and an armed robber. Not a very good armed robber, at that. I'm way out of your league."
- "A test, how tedious!"
- Gabriella: "Well I heard for a while you were a boy."
- Dynasty: "I heard for a while that you're an idiot. Oh wait there - you still are!"
- "Get rid of one Barry, and another one crawls from under her rock."
- "Well if your boyfriend likes certificates so much, maybe they'll give him one for learning how to pee on his own. That's right everyone, Kevin pees in a bag now, I can smell it from here!"
- "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your relationship is so flimsy, that a 17-year-old schoolgirl could destroy it. That's what this is about, isn't it?"
- "I'm tired of this, Mum. Doing things to get you to notice me, Dad too. I want us to be normal. What happened to Florence, happened seven years ago. Can today be a new start please? Florence is dead. I'm alive. And I need my mum and my dad."
- "Feels strange to be back, but...I really want to show people I've changed, sir."
- "To resolve things. Make up for some of the hurt I've caused, if I can. I know it might take a long time, but I'm not a quitter. Making friends would be great, but I know I deserve everything I get, so...gonna have to grit my teeth and bear it."
- "This stuff's really good. It'll cover the swelling. I could put it on for you, if you'd like?" (final line)