"Troy?"

"Speaking."

"Hi Troy. Um… It's Gabriella. Montez."

-----------------

Troy was sat in his car, waiting for the rain to die down. He had five minutes before he was due to meet her outside Chucky Cheese, and he wasn't keen on getting wet. He decided to stay in his car, warm and dry, until he saw her arrive.

He was a little nervous, if he was honest. He couldn't believe Gabriella had called him out of the blue. They had been East High's hot couple for a year and a half, but when they went their separate ways to college, they grew apart and eventually broke up. Six years later, he was still single, sure he'd had relationships, but nothing serious. It had taken him a long time to get over her, and on the one hand, he was dreading seeing her again, because it might undo all his hard work. But at the same time… he jumped at the chance.

He came back to reality, and looked at the clock in his car. She was five minutes late. The rain had worsened, and the wind had picked up too. Maybe she wasn't coming. Surely he wasn't worth all that trouble…

He saw a shape out the corner of his eye, moving almost as fast as the wind. As he focussed on it, he realised it was Gabriella. She was carrying an umbrella over her head, unfortunately in vain as the wind had blown it completely out of any recognisable shape. She ran under the shelter of the doors to Chucky Cheese, and looked left and right. She sighed a noticeably large sigh, and threw herself against the wall in exhaustion, or maybe annoyance. Troy started his engine and drove round to the front of the building, opening the passenger door.

"Get in!" Troy called to her. She sighed, smiled, and obeyed.

"Where did this weather come from?!" Gabriella said, wide eyed.

"Besides being wet and annoyed… how are you?!"

Gabriella smiled at Troy and wrinkled her nose. She leaned into Troy and threw her arms round him.

"I've been great. How have you been?!"

"Okay."

"Just okay?" Gabriella looked surprised.

"Well, you know. I enjoy my work, teaching kids basketball is fun but it's a far cry from NBA."

"I guess. But, c'mon surely… wife, girlfriend, kids….?"

"Nope, nope, and just Chad. No kids apart from him."

Gabriella laughed.

"Still in touch with Chad, then?"

"We actually live together."

"Oh!" Gabriella said, as if in revelation.

"No, not like that, Gab." Troy laughed.

"No girlfriend though - now, that I'm surprised at."

Troy knew she was digging for information, but he didn't want to provide. Well, he did. But he wasn't prepared to. He did want to shout out to her that the reason he was single was because he never truly got over her, and that the butterflies in his stomach were running a riot just from sitting next to her. But he couldn't quite bring himself to.

"Guess I've just not met the right girl."

"Maybe you have." Gabriella mused. "Maybe you just… let her go."

Troy frowned, and looked at her. She was staring longingly into his eyes. Uh oh, he thought. He didn't wanna go down this road again… all the work he'd done to get over her…

But of course, sense and logic didn't even get a look in. Before he could bring his head around what he thought was about to happen, it had already happened. His lips were pressed against hers, his hand stroking her face. It felt so strange to him - to be kissing this face again. He could taste and smell her, things that were merely distant memories up until now. His eyes rolled back and his eyelids came down. His breath caught in his throat as Gabriella's soft, slightly cold hand touched bare skin on his hip, and made it's way up his shirt.

He finally brought himself round to pulling away from her lips. Both of them took a deep breath and opened their eyes. Troy smiled to himself - he was looking into those eyes once again - he could barely even believe it.

"Gabi…"

Gabriella stayed silent. Troy tried to gauge her emotions from her expression - no luck, she looked a little flushed, but had a rather blank expression.

"I can't do this." Troy carried on.

"Why?" Gabriella whispered.

"Gabi… it took me SO long to get over you. I really can't go through that again…"

"So, what? You think I'm gonna do this and run off?"

"Well…"

"Troy, for six years I've tried to forget about you. I moved to Florida to try and forget you. I couldn't! I couldn't do it! You know what made me come back? I was listening to the radio and they played Start of Something New. Oh, in case you have forgotten, that's the song we sang, the first night we met. Remember?"

"Of course I remember."

"I wouldn't have been so forward today, but Troy, I felt like you were on the same page! I still felt that connection we always shared. I thought you felt it too but I guess I was wrong."

"Gabi, hey." Troy took Gabriella's hand and rubbed her arm. He nuzzled his face into her neck and gently kissed it.

"See. We've not seen each other for six years. And look at us."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm a man, I'm dense. And anyway, I never thought for one second you'd still be thinking of me after all this time."

"We belong together, Troy."

"I know that now. I'm not letting you go again."

Troy ran his fingers through Gabriella's wet, windswept, tangled hair. He didn't care that his hand got stuck. And similarly, Gabriella didn't care that he was tugging on her hair. When their lips met once again, to say they felt sparks would be an understatement.

----------------

An hour later, Chad came home, similarly windswept and wet. He sighed and threw his keys on the shelf, and took his coat off. He walked into the living room and greeted Troy.

"Hey man."

"Still raining, huh?" Troy laughed. "Dude, you've got a leaf in your hair, for crying out loud."

Chad frowned and started patting his head to find the leaf. He looked up sharply when he heard a familiar female voice laughing hysterically.

"Nice look Chad, you look real pretty."

"Gabriella?!" Chad's jaw dropped to the ground. "What's going on?" He asked, looking from Troy to Gabriella.

"Gabi got in contact, we met up, and one thing led to another and…" Troy trailed off and Gabriella giggled.

"And?" Chad asked, looking a little apprehensive.

"And, well, we remembered what we already knew - which was that we were made for each other and that breaking up was the actual most stupid thing to ever be done in the history of the planet."

"Except Chad putting that leaf in his hair." Gabriella squeaked, still laughing.

"So are you saying SHE is gonna be here often?" Chad glared at Gabriella.

Troy gently shoved Chad, and put his arm around Gabriella.

The doorbell rang, and Chad got up to answer it. As he walked past Troy, he gave him a little nudge and a raise of the eyebrows. Troy cleared his throat.

"Uh, Gabi, one thing I forgot to mention…"

"Yeah?"

"Chad's got a girlfriend…"

"And…"

"Oh my gosh, Gabriella Montez!" A high, squeaky voice automatically made Gabriella clench her eyes shut.

"Sharpay. You… And Chad? Wow."

"I know." Sharpay giggled. "It is wow."

------------

The next morning, Gabriella woke up, and was momentarily confused and slightly panicked. She soon remembered where she was, and a huge smile graced her face.

"Morning baby." A lovely, familiar, comforting voice said from above.

"Hey!" She said, rubbing her eyes. She glanced out the window, wincing slightly from the sun shining in. "Lovely morning."

She suddenly heard a squeal from the next room.

"Ugh, except for that. I completely forgot about her."

"Don't worry, you'll hardly see her."

Half an hour later, the four of them were eating breakfast, when there was a knock at the door. Chad got up to answer it, and returned with Ryan by his side.

"Hey guys. Oh my gosh…" He trailed off. "Gabriella?" He exclaimed, wide eyed.

"Ryan!" Gabriella was shocked and went bright red. She started coughing to conceal it.

"Wha… um… this is a surprise…" Ryan cleared his throat and hoped dearly he wasn't also going bright red.

"Um, yeah, Ry, Troy and Gabriella are back together." Sharpay raised her eyebrows at her brother.

"Such great news." Ryan smiled and nodded. He glanced at Gabriella who was looking up at him, biting her lip.

When breakfast had finished, Gabriella and Ryan finally found themselves alone for a minute or two.

"You've not, um, have you…" Ryan had forgotten how to string a sentence together and was just hoping Gabriella would realise what he was trying to say.

"No." Gabriella sighed. "He doesn't need to know about us, Ryan. It's in the past, it's no big deal…"

"I really think he'd wanna know, though."

"Troy, tell me you haven't told her about our little fling?!" Sharpay whispered harshly.

"Of course I haven't. I told her I'd spent six years getting over her. She doesn't need to know that in attempting to get over her, I got under you."

Sharpay giggled, but immediately stopped when Troy's expression told her it was inappropriate.

"It worked though, didn't it? It stopped you thinking about her?"

"During it? Yes. After it? No." Troy narrowed his eyes and shook his head at Sharpay.

"Oh…"

Troy and Gabriella, independently of each other, both started to realise that this wasn't quite picking up where they'd left off - and that after six years apart, there was a lot to learn about each other. Some things pleasant, some things not so pleasant. All that they knew was that they had to tell the other about their escapades with their chosen Evans twin - but neither was looking forward to such an admission.

"It's a bit twisted, isn't it." Sharpay said to Ryan.

"That it is, sis."