A/N Okay, so here we are with my new story! I'm going to do my very, very best to update this weekly, but occasionally real life will get in the way of that. I hope this story is original, and enjoyable, so leave me a review telling me what you thought about it. And anyone reading from NZ that might be able to help me out with the details of some of the locations that they're going to visit, PM me or find my details on my profile! I do not mean to offend any fellow Kiwi's with this story, I'm very much a proud Kiwi, I just like to poke fun at myself sometimes :)
This first chapter is for Corii, who has waited patiently for this to be uploaded, and given me help whenever I've needed it (which was alot)!
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical, or any of the characters you recognise. I do not intend any sort of legal infringement with this work of fiction.
"We're going where?" Gabriella Montez asked in disbelief, her dark chocolate eyes widening in surprise.
"New Zealand, dear," Gabriella's Mom, Maria answered, continuing to load the plates from dinner into the dishwasher. "Your father and Jack have decided it would be a good way for our families to get to know each other again since we've moved back here."
Gabriella rolled her eyes, her family had just moved back to Albuquerque, New Mexico from Seattle, Washington and her Dad was thrilled to be back in the same city as his college roommate and childhood best friend, Jack Bolton.
She had overheard her parents talking about spending the summer with the Boltons, but Gabriella had assumed they wouldn't be traveling far, but now it seemed they were going to spend their summer halfway across the world, in a country that would be in winter while they were there.
"Mama, you know that New Zealand will be in winter? Right? That means we skip out on our entire summer," Gabriella complained.
"I realise that, Gabi, but think of the experience of being in such a beautiful country," Maria encouraged.
"Where in New Zealand would we be going to?" Gabriella asked, racking her brains trying to think of any cities she might know in the small country.
"Well, we were planning on renting a motorhome and traveling the country…." Maria trailed off, knowing that Gabriella wouldn't like the idea.
"Mama! You expect me to live in a motorhome for a month? With 10 other people? In a strange country? Missing out on my summer vacation?" Gabriella exclaimed.
"Well, it would be closer to three months, Gabi. And the Bolton's would have their own motorhome, so it would only be our family, but we'd be traveling with Jack, Lucille and their kids," Maria tried to make the trip sound more fun to Gabriella. "It's going to be fun, Gabi."
"Fun? I don't think so, they talk with strange accents in New Zealand! We'll never be able to understand them!"
"They talk English like us, Gabi, stop being ridiculous," Maria scolded. "Now the Bolton's will be coming over tomorrow so we can put the finishing touches on this vacation, I expect you to at least act a little bit enthusiastic."
"How can you expect me to be enthusiastic? I'm meant to be spending my summer with people my own age, not my parents, their friends and a bunch of kids," Gabriella announced angrily.
"You're forgetting Troy, he's your age," Maria rationalized. "And you don't know anyone your own age, Gabriella, we've just moved here and you're not starting at East High until the fall."
Gabriella rolled her eyes yet again before storming out of the room, going up the stairs before passing her Dad as she started to enter her bedroom
"I take it your Mama told you the news, pumpkin?" Joseph asked his daughter who let out a dramatic groan at his statement before slamming her bedroom door shut, causing Joseph to laugh at her antics.
Inside her bedroom Gabriella fell backwards onto her bed, letting out another loud groan as her head hit the pillow. She racked her mind trying to bring up an image of Troy, she was 5 the last time she saw him and she finally remembered what he looked like, a lanky, caramel haired boy with a gap between his front teeth.
Gabriella rolled her eyes at the image. He was probably acne ridden and wearing braces by now, suddenly she wished summer would never come.
Troy had just shrugged his shoulders when his parents announced their plans for the summer, he wasn't going to argue, there was no way he could change his parents plan, he'd just brood silently and pretend to be indifferent about the whole idea.
His best friend Chad however, was already trying to convince Troy he could have a summer romance with the teenage girl Troy was to be traveling with, Gabriella.
"So what's this Gabriella chick like?" Chad asked with wink.
"I don't remember much about her," Troy admitted. "Except that she was this tiny Latino girl with wild curls."
"Wild?" Chad asked with a laugh. "She's just your type then."
"Dude, how do you figure that?" Troy asked.
"Troy Bolton loves a challenge," Chad teased.
"You're a jerk, remember that you're the player here, not me," Troy retorted. "Who knows how Sharpay managed to tame you."
Chad smiled at the mention of his girlfriend, ignoring the truths about his previous way with girls.
"Well maybe this Gabriella chick will finally get you to stop thinking girls have cooties, or whatever your problem is man," Chad slapped Troy on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.
"For the record I'm not going into this with assumptions that I'm going to even find Gabriella attractive, I haven't seen her for 12 years, my memories of her can't even remember anything besides those wild curls." Troy argued.
"Whatever dude, I'm just saying. The two of you are gunna be hanging out at beaches, she'll be all wet and in a bikini, the sun shining down…" Chad started.
"You're a moron, Chad. It'll be winter when we're there. If she's in a bikini in the ocean the only thing I'll be doing is taking her to the hospital so she can get treated for hypothermia," Troy rolled his eyes. "Aren't you meant to be meeting Sharpay?"
"Shit, she's gunna kill me if I'm late again, see ya, hoops," Chad quickly scrambled off Troy's bed, waving over his shoulder at his blue eyed best friend as he hurried out of the bedroom, leaving Troy to settle back on his bed and wonder what this trip was going to be like.
Later that night Gabriella had received a phone call from her best friend back in Washington, Taylor who was happily relaying facts about New Zealand to Gabriella.
"Women in New Zealand could vote in 1893, a quarter of a century before women here could vote!" Taylor exclaimed gleefully.
"Tay, that's uh… great," Gabriella finished lamely, not wanting to ruin her friend's buzz.
"I know! And their capital city, Wellington is the most southerly capital city on the planet," Taylor rattled on as Gabriella stretched out on her bed, closing her eyes.
"Wow, really?" Gabriella said with fake enthusiasm, wondering how her best friend could be so unsupportive about Gabriella being dragged across the world for her summer vacation.
"And! In New Zealand it's actually undesirable to tip when you go to a restaurant! Can you believe that Gab?" Taylor cried out.
"Oh wow, that's quite crazy," Gabriella muttered.
"Are you tired?" Taylor asked, noticing her friend's lack of enthusiasm.
"Yeah, I'll talk to you later, I'm going to bed," Gabriella said, ending the call when she heard Taylor say her goodbyes, dropping her phone to her bed and covering her eyes with her arms.
Why does it feel like everyone is excited for this trip but me? Gabriella thought to herself, bitterly.
After Chad had left, Troy had switched on his television, just watching a basketball game that was on, but more thinking about the vacation.
Troy had two younger brothers, twin brothers Logan and Connor who were nine.
The twins were identical, and were always telling Troy that they weren't the twin that he thought they were, even though Troy was far past the point of actually being fooled by them changing their clothes and pretending to be each other. Logan and Connor were always getting into Troy's bedroom and moving things around, hiding other things from him, and "borrowing" even more things.
Troy often had to babysit his brothers, and without fail every time he was caring for the them, Logan and Connor would refuse to listen to him.
Their bad behaviour was only worsened by the fact that Troy's parents thought their youngest sons could do no wrong. Having been born premature, and spending the first few months of their life in hospital, the twins were very spoilt, and were never disciplined when they were misbehaving, leaving their behaviour to have only gotten worse with age.
As if on cue, Logan and Connor tore through Troy's bedroom door, shouting and screaming as they climbed onto Troy's bed and starting jumping up and down.
"Get out!" Troy cried, pointing to the door as he scrambled to a sitting position, trying to shoo his brothers out of his room. "Mom!"
Laughing loudly Logan and Connor streaked back out of the room, followed by the sound of Lucille walking towards Troy's bedroom.
"Troy, please be nice to your brothers," she scolded lightly, ignoring the groan of protest from her oldest son before she turned and shut his bedroom door, leaving Troy to silently dread the thought of living in such a small space with the twins.
"Gabriella, the Boltons will be here soon, can you go and check on Charlie and tell Will to come downstairs please?" Maria asked Gabriella who rolled her eyes and reluctantly got up from her place on the couch.
The mention of her younger sister made Gabriella's bad mood vanish slightly, the 15 month old girl, Charlotte, or Charlie as she was more commonly known as, had the ability to make anyone's bad mood disappear.
As Gabriella got to the top of the stairs she turned left, banging on her eight-year-old brother Will's door.
"Mom wants you downstairs, the Boltons are gunna be here soon," Gabriella called out, not wanting to venture into the preteen's bedroom, knowing that it would be mess as per usual.
"Okay," came the muffled reply from Will and Gabriella considered her job of telling him to come downstairs was complete.
Turning back the way she had come and going to the right of the stairs Gabriella quietly opened the door to her younger sister's bedroom, peeking inside and being greeted by the sight of her sister sitting happily in her bed, a toothy grin on her face.
"Gab!" The baby cried out gleefully.
"You're meant to be asleep, Charlie," Gabriella laughed as she entered the small room, scooping her sister into her arms.
"No," Charlie giggled back and Gabriella laughed alongside her.
"Come on, let's get you downstairs, Mom and Dad are about to ruin our summer, not that you'll care that we're on the other side of the world in a country that has more sheep than people," Gabriella shifted Charlie onto her hip, holding her carefully as she exited the room, hearing a doorbell ringing downstairs, making her sigh again.
"I'll get it!" Came the excited cry from Will. He was excited to be spending his summer with the Bolton's nine-year-old twin boys since all his friends were back in Washington.
Gabriella paused at the top of the stairs, watching as the Bolton's entered her house.
"Gabi, come down," Maria half ordered, hoping her eldest daughter wouldn't make this harder than it needed to be with her typical teenage stubbornness.
Gabriella descended the stairs, paying more attention to Charlie who was squirming in her arms than to where the mass of people were standing at the bottom of the stairs. As a result she walked straight into the side of the owner of the most breathtaking blue eyes Gabriella had seen in her life.