Disclaimer: I don't own HSM or Kid Rock.
It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long
Caught somewhere between a boy and man
She was seventeen and she was far from in between
It was summertime in northern Michigan
Gabriella slid her ray-bans over the crown of her head and glanced around the unfamiliar street, wondering where exactly she was. Of course she knew relatively where she was, uptown Minneapolis, but everything seemed so unfamiliar.
It started with her daily coffee run. She'd asked the concierge where the closest Starbuck's was, only to get the response, "Oh no, you don't want Starbucks. There's a Caribou right down the street."
Her eyebrow's scrunched in confusion, a Caribou? Wasn't that an animal? What did it have to do with coffee? She really needed to catch up on the Minnesota lingo.
"Caribou Coffee? You've never heard of it?" The concierge repeated after he saw her confused expression.
She shook her head, "No, I haven't."
"Well, it's your lucky day," He smiled up at her, as if she were the Queen of England, "On the other side of the street, three buildings down to the left."
"Okay then," She turned around a little confused. Why couldn't he just tell her where a Starbuck's was? Certainly they had to have Starbuck's here, right?
Walking out of the hotel, she hung a left and crossed the street where he'd told her to. It was easy to find, a large deer looking animal in an odd shaped quadrilateral that she took to be this so called 'caribou.'
After ordering her animal themed coffee, she retraced her steps back to the hotel to check out of her room on time. Grabbing her wheeled suitcase, she returned back to the elevator where a middle aged man already was on his way down. He smiled at her, asking, "On your way to the airport?"
"No," She responded a little shocked, since arriving yesterday she'd already had more conversations with strangers in elevators than she'd had in her seventeen years of life, "I just arrived actually."
"Where you headed?" She shook her head, a little irritated with his questioning.
"Not sure exactly," She replied, trying to remain as polite as possible, "North."
"Ah," The man nodded, as if he knew exactly where she was headed, "Cabin on the lake?"
"That's what it sounds like," She confirmed, hoping the elevator would move a little faster.
"Well have fun," He gestured for her to exit first as he held his hand in front of the doors, "I wish I could trade places with ya."
She almost mumbled under her mouth, "I would."
It took Gabriella a while to find a taxi, actually that was an understatement. The thought even crossed her mind, that if she hadn't taken a taxi from the airport yesterday, maybe they didn't have taxis. Finally, she went into ask the concierge if there was a way to call for a taxi or something. It would be there in ten minutes.
When she arrived at her grandparent's house, she pressed the code into the lockbox, they didn't have garage door openers, and walked in through the front door. After locking the door again, she ventured through the house. From the outside it looked like nothing special, a one level compact house, but inside where fabulous dark wood floors and granite countertops. Her parent's had mentioned her grandfather was a CEO, but of what she wasn't sure. Her hands trailed over the stainless steel appliances before she found the keys to the car she would be driving 'up north.' She grabbed them, along with the note with directions to her grandparent's cabin. Apparently they were in New York for some business meetings and would meet her up there later tomorrow.
Next, Gabriella entered the garage. Glancing at the cars, she smirked. The three car garage held a Mercedes, a BMW, and a Ford F-150 pickup truck. At least the cars were familiar. Looking at the key, her mouth dropped in shock. They left her the key to the pickup. She was barely five foot two inches tall, how the hell was she even supposed to get in this monster? Much less drive it.
Once again, she let out a deep exasperated sigh. She'd been doing that a lot lately, and slid into her spot as the driver. Taking a deep breath, she began to back out the driveway, careful to adjust to firmness of the break and gas pedals.
By the time she arrived to her grandparent's prized 'cabin' Gabriella was ready to rip her hair our. It was the first day of June and the road construction was in full swing. In a trip that was supposed to take three hours, she'd managed to do it in five. It didn't end when she got out of the more populous area of the state, it continued up the high ways.
After changing into fresh clothes, a asymmetrical tank top and jean shorts to feel more comfortable with the humidity, Gabriella picked up the car keys once again and made her way toward the closest grocery store. Even that was fifteen minutes away. She pushed her cart up and down the aisles, noting the lack of vegetarian supplement food and the plentiful amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Her shopping trip came to an end at the bread aisle. Or where the bread aisle was supposed to be.
Searching around for someone to help her, she spotted a few teenagers by the check out lanes. Grunting, she pushed her cart toward them, "Excuse me, where's the bread?"
One boy with long-ish hair was sitting on a stool behind his cash register, feet propped up and his face hidden behind a Sports Illustrated magazine. The female in the next lane wearing a matching polo answered for her, "No bread."
"What do you mean no bread?" Her confusion continued, what was it with this state? A third boy in a polo at the end of a lane was restocking paper bags.
The first boy with the magazine lowered it, revealing his face and nametag, Troy. "She means that we don't carry bread until tourist season starts, next week. We never sell enough the rest of the year because everyone buys it at the bakery," He pointed across the street.
"I guess I'm ready to check out then," Gabriella began removing items from her cart, setting them down on the electric moving belt for this Troy guy to start ringing up.
"The bread's much better from Sally," He offered, trying to be friendly. Instead of sending the items down the second belt, he began to bag them himself, "Jase! Can you get me a trolly?"
Gabriella watched as the third boy she saw brought down some strange cart and left it next to Troy. He began stacking her bags on it.
"Where ya from?" Troy asked while pressing a few numbers into the cash register when he reached her fruit.
Gabriella raised her eyebrow and straightened up, "How do you know I'm not from here?"
Hey chuckled and grinned, "Trust me, I know everyone in the area. You're either a tourist from the cities, although that seems unlikely because the schools don't let out for at least one more week, or somewhere else."
"Why aren't you in school then?" She asked.
"Senior," He said as if that explained everything, "We don't have to take finals. But that doesn't answer my question."
She couldn't seem to believe this guy, "Fine, I'm not from here. I'm from L.A."
"Looks like it," Troy nodded his head and glanced at his own pale skin, "Welcome to Minnesota. You here for the summer?"
"Yep," She nodded, not sure where she'd rather be, here or L.A.
"Are you by any chance Greta's granddaughter?" Her eyes widened at the name of her grandmother, "Cash or charge?"
"Um, cash," She shook her head, the humidity must be driving her insane, "And yes, I am." Gabriella handed him the cash and he didn't seem to respond any further, "How exactly do you know her?"
Troy handed her, her change, and grabbed the handles of the trolley, "Didn't I saw I know everyone?"
"Well yes but," Gabriella responded and was cut off again.
"I wasn't lying," Troy smirked as he followed her out to her car, err, truck, "I know everyone."
"Okay," She said in an unsure tone, "God it's hot."
Troy laughed when they reached the truck, "Weren't expecting it? It's not a dry heat either."
"No," She agreed, "It's not."
Gabriella watched as he loaded the groceries in the bed of the truck, "Listen, if Friday comes around and we haven't run into each other again ask your grandma for my number. You can come out with us, I know there's not exactly a lot to do around here."
"Okay," She seemed a little wary of his invitation, "I've never had anyone bring my groceries out to my car for me before, do I tip you?"
Troy laughed at the suggestion, "Nope, it's complimentary. Have a good day though, Gabriella right?"
Gabriella nodded her head, who was this boy?
"I'll see you later Gabriella," He turned his trolley around and went back to his cash register inside.
"That was weird," She shook her head. Yes, it definitely was the heat.
The next day she woke to with a startle, "Gabriella! Are you here sweetheart?"
She dragged her feet across the carpeted bedroom she'd been designated. In all honesty, it wasn't that bad of a room. It had it's own bathroom (not that all the bedrooms didn't), walk in closet, king sized bed, and a flat screen television. The best part was it was the only room on the third floor, actually it was composed of the third floor. It was directly above the master suite, meaning it was the same size, and had a little balcony outside the door looking down onto the main floor.
Opening the door, she waved over the edge of the log railing, "Up here."
"Oh come down here," Gabriella thought the grandmother she had never meet was about to jump up and down with excitement, "Look at you."
The second she finished descending the steps, she was pulled into a tight grasp. Her grandmother gave her body the once over, scanning her, but Gabriella wasn't sure for what. "Uh, such a woman. It's a shame your father kept you from me for seventeen years."
Gabriella was a little taken aback from her, "Yeah."
"Well, dear, I'll let you go get ready or shower or whatever you need to do to get ready for the day," Greta said, "Now, have you ate yet?"
"No," Gabriella tried to rub the sleep from her eyes and keep up.
"Okay, do you like eggs?" Greta rambled a bit, "I know your father said you were a vegetarian but he never said anything vegan."
"Umm." She bit her lip, it'd been a while since she'd eaten eggs, "No, eggs are fine."
"How do you like them? Scrambled? Sunny side up?"
"Scrambled please," She turned to head up the stairs, adding something, "Do you make yours with cheese?"
"Doesn't everybody?" Greta smiled, "I'm glad that crazy ass son of mine picked up something from me."
Later that day, she was lazing around after spending her day outside laying by the lake. Her grandmother kept a fairly large stack of gossip magazines and while she worked in the garden, Gabriella spent her time catching up on the latest with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Now however, her grandparent's were busy in the kitchen making some grand dinner. She was used to making herself Mac and Cheese, certainly the handmade pizzas they were making would be a treat.
"So tell me, why do we need three pizza's for three people," She asked, bending her elbows on the counter top.
Her grandmother kneaded the dough on the countertop, covered only by flour, "Our good friends are going to come over with their grandson." And right on queue, someone knocked on the glass door. "Can you answer that sweetie? That's probably them."
Gabriella's feet slid easily over the wood floors, lighter than at their actual home. She was greeted by a familiar face, "I brought popsicles." She watched as the boy from the grocery store, Troy, held up a box of popsicles, "Gran and Gramps will be here soon, I came straight from work."
"Oh Troy, sweetie, thanks for bringing popsicles. You know how crazy I get when we run out," Her grandmother greeted, whipping her hands on her apron.
"No problem," Troy opened the fridge and stuck the popsicles in the side.
"Have you meet Gabriella yet?" She asked him before turning to Gabriella, "He's all over the place."
"I know," She nodded her head and glanced down at her ratty running shorts and too small tanktop that covered her sports bra, she wasn't exactly expecting company.
"I believe we meet at the grocery store yesterday," Troy explained, "She looks awfully funny driving that pickup truck."
Greta laughed, "I'll bet. Do you think you and Gabriella can work on getting the garlic bread ready?"
"Of course," This was really when Gabriella started thinking he was a suckup. She watched as he grabbed a bowl, half a stick of butter, and parmesan cheese, "Can you grab the garlic salt from that drawer and the tin foil from the one next to it?"
Gabriella saw him staring at her, "Okay. I, uh, don't really know how to do this."
"It's easy," Troy grabbed a long knife and the long French bread, "After all I am making it. You can't screw it up. Put the butter in the bowl and melt it in the microwave." Gabriella did as he said.
She watched as he dumped in a decent amount of parmesan cheese, not the kind that comes in a green container, real shredded parmesan. He stirred it with a spoon and flipped over all the pieces so that he could spread it on top, "Come here." Gabriella silently stood next to him, "You can do it."
He followed her hand with the garlic salt, sprinkling it on in a way that wasn't overwhelming. Then he pulled out a long sheet of tinfoil, she helped him line the pieces up on it so that it looked like a long chopped up version of the loaf they had before.
"See easy?" Troy watched as her curls bounced when she nodded her head. They went to wash the butter grease off her hands.
"Ah, Troy boy," Gabriella jumped at the loud, deep voice of a man at the opening of the front door, "How was work?"
Troy shook his head, "It was fine, like always gramps."
"Hank, Mary, this is Gabriella," Greta gestured toward her, "Gabriella, these are our best friends since we were in high school back when we lived in North Dakota, Hank and Mary."
"Nice to meet you," She stuck her hand out to the female first, who seemed more relaxed, but instead received a hug.
"You have no idea," Mary replied, holding onto Gabriella's shoulder. Once again she received the once over, "Greta, you told me she was beautiful but you didn't tell me she was drop dead gorgeous!"
Hank grumbled before she could greet him and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator while Mary carried on, grabbing a whine opener and popping the bottle of white whine open.
Troy sent Gabriella a look across the table as their grandparent's laughed hysterically. "Oh gosh, do you remember Greta worked in the attendance office and would always write us excuse notes to get out of class?"
"Don't even talk about that," Gabriella tried not to laugh as Greta smacked herself on the forehead, "Uh, we used to sneak off and do marijuana and smoke cigarettes. I don't think I even went to school half the days my last year."
Troy raised his eyebrow and withheld a snide comment. Greta seemed to sense that what she said may not have been the best of comments, "Troy, do you and Gabriella want to go grab some popsicles for all of us? I know you know what everyone wants but I'm not sure about Gabriella."
Gabriella followed Troy inside, getting a moment alone with him. After crossing into the house from the deck she whisper yelled at him, "Why didn't you tell me our grandparents are best friends?"
Troy shrugged his shoulder, trying to decipher what color popsicles each was through the wrappers, "Can you help me find a banana one?"
"I thought you were a creep," She continued, helping him as well as grabbing a grape popsicle for herself, "Who the hell likes banana flavored popsicles?"
"I do," Troy said defensively, "And you didn't seem in the best of moods at the grocery store."
"Yeah, well, what do you expect? I got shipped to the middle of nowhere from L.A. for the summer," She responded, getting a little defensive herself.
"Look, I'm trying to be nice, okay?" Troy held up his hands, "I don't know what I did to piss you off but can you drop it?"
"Fine," She agreed, handing him his banana popsicle and not saying another word before going back out to the deck. Troy shook his head with a smirk, he knew a lot more how she felt than she thought he did.
For another time, Gabriella sat laying on the dock, working on her tan while watching boats and jet skiis speed across the lake. There were few of them, as suspected on a Friday afternoon when school was still in session. Not many of them came close to her but the few that did where moving exceptionally slow or pontoons.
"Hey! Gabriella!" Her head popped up at the mention of her name. Her grandmother was out paddle boarding with Mary and her grandfather was playing golf. Even stranger, this name came from a boat. She offered a little wave, seeing Troy at the wheel of a boat filled with other people, "You wanna come out with us?"
Gabriella gave him a strange look as he prepared the boat to land at the edge of her dock, "Why?"
"Damn," A boy sitting in the front of the boat responded, "What's your name feisty?"
"It's Friday, in northern Minnesota," Troy ignored the boy, who she could now tell was shirtless and gave her a glare, "What else are you going to do?"
Her jaw clenched slightly, why was he persisting on being so nice to her? Gabriella sighed, "Fine, I'll come."
"Good. You got a towel out here?" He glanced around the dock and at her various things littering the area around here, "You're going to need one."
"Yeah," She nodded, "In my bag." Troy held his hand out for her to take as she climbed into the boat. Glancing around, she noticed all the people in it. There were girls in bikini's, one laying on cushions in the back, two in the 'U' shaped seats in the rear of the boat, one in the passenger seat next to Troy, and one in the front. There was Troy, who was sitting at the steering wheel eating sun flower seeds, the boy she recognized from the grocery store was in the front, and there was one other boy sitting with the bikini girls in the back.
Troy pointed his finger at certain people, introducing them. The only two she actually caught onto were Jason, the boy from the grocery store, and Daisy, the female sitting next to Troy who was resting her feet on his thigh. She sat down next to the other girls in the back, where the last open spot was, "Everyone, this is Gabriella, be nice she's new to town."
She felt a little out of place, in her bandeau style bikini top with a long dangly belly button piercing. The only other one that seemed to have one was Daisy. The girls with their feet up on the table groaned, "It's not like we were going to purposely be mean."
"Shut up," Troy responded, spitting out his fifth sunflower seed shell since she'd gotten on the boat. He was sucking on them like his life depended on it.
"Tootsie pop?" A redhead next to her offered, they all seemed to dive in for one except Troy.
"I'll pass," Gabriella offered a weak smile. Well this is awkward, she thought. She was on a boat with a guy that she didn't particularly like with a bunch of strangers.
"Jenna, hop in," The girl on the back of the boat who was laying down, slid into the boat and Troy took off at full speed, only to slow down and pull into a boat lift a few houses down, "Be right back, I'm gonna grab screamer."
Everyone else, who had remained quiet earlier, buzzed to life at her. One of the girls next to her crunched down on her tootsie pop, "Where you from?"
"L.A." What was it with these people?
"Damn," A redhead responded, "Only Troy could find someone in Minnesota from L.A."
Daisy rolled her eyes, "You got one of these things honey?" She held up her wrist and pointed to the ponytail on it.
Gabriella shook her head.
"Well you're gonna need one," She flung it like a rubber band at her, "Your hair, especially since it's curly, is going to look like one of those small rat dogs if you leave it down. Good if your entering a dog show, bad if your trying to look hot around Troy."
"God Daisy," Jason lectured, "At least try to be nice."
"I'll be nice when I feel like it," Daisy snapped back and stood up, stretching so that Gabriella could partially see the tattoo hidden by her bikini bottom.
"Ignore them," The redhead rolled her eyes. Awkward.
The next thing Gabriella saw was Troy carrying two red circular tubes reading Screamer on the side. So, it wasn't a person, "Who's going first."
The two boys volunteered along with the redhead and another one of the bikini girls. They threw on lifejackets and jumped off of the back of the boat. Troy waited as they attached the ropes to the back and climbed on the tubes before backing up. Daisy sat on his lap, "Are you going to ride with me Troy."
Troy laughed it off, "Dais, you know I only drive."
"Please," She puckered her lips in a pout.
"C'mon Dais," He replied, something about this was too funny to Troy, "You know the answers no."
She seemed a little dejected as she moved back to the passenger seat. It almost seemed like his comment had a double meaning behind it, "You ever been tubing before Gabriella?"
"No," She shook her head.
"Well you're in for it," Troy smirked at her.
She watched as he stuck more sunflower seeds in his mouth, "You don't?"
"Not anymore," He shrugged as if it didn't matter, "I just drive them. I ski."
"Okay," She mumbled as he pulled out, it was a lot quieter now that there were only four people in the boat. After a few minutes Troy turned to her, "Watch this."
He made a maneuver that seemed like a figure '8' but he circled around an extra time. Like dominoes, everyone on the tubes flew off, "Works every time."
A while later people swapped, Gabriella rejected going, and Troy kept watching. Instead of praying on Troy, Daisy seemed to be more interested in Jason. Troy kept up small talk and then asked Daisy to drive. She accepted and he pulled out skis from a door in the bottom of the boat. They left the tubes at what she assumed to be Troy's house and he hopped in the water. The redhead went to work tying up a tow rope to the back of the boat, throwing it to Troy who grabbed onto it, "I swear to God I'm going to do fucking slolom if it kills me this summer."
"You know you can do it Troy," Daisy yelled out encouragingly, "It's just doing it on your left leg you're not sure about."
Gabriella watched as Troy took a few, painful looking, tumbles in the water before he gave up, "You wanna go?"
"ME?" Gabriella questioned, "I can't, really, I can't."
"Oh just fucking do it," Daisy rolled her eyes at her, "Troy'll teach you. He's the best water skier around, just won't admit it."
"C'mon Gabriella," He encouraged, "If you won't try tubing, you at least have to try water skiing."
"He taught us all how to do it," Someone else spoke up, "Just go."
Gabriella grumbled, deciding she would rather be in the water with someone she knew than in the boat with eight strangers. Stripping her shirt she had put on, she dove in the water and someone tossed her a lifejacket. She slid it on and Troy helped her, or forced, on the skis. Already, she was tipping back and forth and felt like the life jacket was strangling her, "I can't do this."
"You can," Troy grabbed her waist and the boat started dragging them along, "Keep you knee's bent and don't lean forward too much, you'll kill your back."
Admittedly, she felt much better with Troy anchoring her down.
"Keep your tips up," He advised, his lips were close to her ear, "I'm going to drag with you and then when you shout 'ready' I'm going to push your ass up, got it?"
Gabriella nodded her head, she was struggling.
"This is the hardest part," Troy confirmed, "I promise, just hang in there and say ready when you are."
She took a few moments as one ski was dragged under water and she thought it was going to rip her leg out of its' socket as it began to catch the water until Troy nudged it back into place. When she felt as steady as she'd been, she whispered, "I think I'm ready."
A millisecond later, Troy repeated her much louder and Daisy gunned the boat, getting her up easily. Troy grinned as she stayed up for a few seconds, before wobbling and taking a bad tumble in the water. She was still close enough that he could swim over to her, "You okay?"
She coughed out some water, "It went up my nose."
"Those falls are bad," Troy snaked his arm around her waist in comfort and laughed gently.
"I think I'm done," She coughed out.
"Me too," Troy laughed again at her and she splashed some water at his face, giggling.
"It's not funny," In a very unlady like way, she spit some water back in the lake, "Uh, I keep expecting salt water. It's so different."
The boat spun around and picked them up. Once again Troy helped her, this time pushing her ass to help her up the edge to the boat and she sent him a glare. The people on the boat whalloped as she got back in, wrapping herself in a towel. She took a mock bow, "At least I got up."
Gabriella watched as Daisy, a seemingly good boat driver which she didn't expect, turned the other way beginning to drop people off as the sun set. Troy sat next to her, and they huddled together slightly to stay warm, "You did good for a first timer."
She rolled her eyes, "Did you see me fall?"
"It wasn't that bad," He laughed, "Okay maybe it was."
Troy took over after the first house. Daisy went to the front of the boat with Jason. The redhead, who seemed to be fairly nice yet Gabriella still couldn't catch her name, whispered in her ear, "Daisy has a thing with Jason, you really don't have anything to worry about with Troy. He's not interested."
"I'm not," The redhead cut her off with a wink.
"Oh please," She rolled her eyes, "He's not one to touch girls like that. Daisy's been trying to get him to touch her ass for years now." Gabriella watched her jump out of the boat and head into her own house, "See ya around."
Gabriella nodded, "Yeah, see ya."
Sure enough, by the time she hopped off the boat, Daisy's lips were attached to Jason's neck. She was a little confused. At first she assumed she was Troy's girlfriend, but apparently she was Jason's? Someone had to give her the relationship update in this town.
"Troy," Daisy commanded, "Just drop me off at Jason's."
Before she knew it, Gabriella and Troy were the only one's left on the boat. She moved up to the passenger seat, yanking her hair out of her ponytail, "Well that was interesting."
"I'm sorry," Troy apologized, "They usually aren't that standoffish."
"You were right though," Gabriella acknowledged as he inched the boat to a stop in the middle of the lake, "It was better than sitting at home on a Friday night."
"Sorry about Daisy being a bitch too," Troy shook his head, "That girl tries to hard."
"I was so confused," Gabriella whispered.
"Oh God, she hits on me so hard," Troy shook his head, "Four years."
"I thought she was your girlfriend," Gabriella laughed, "Obviously not."
"Oh hell no," Troy shook his head.
"Good," Slipped out before she could catch herself, "I mean, it looks like she and Jason certainly have something going."
"She's so weird," Troy shook his head, "Doesn't like boys or relationships, just sex. Slept with every boy at school."
Gabriella raised her eyebrows.
"It's a small school," Troy assured, "Everyone except foreign Harry and me."
"Really?"
"Yep," Troy nodded, not at all ashamed he hadn't slept with her.
"And she wants you to," Gabriella tried to make sense, "But you don't want to sleep with her."
"Nope," Troy explained, "Let's just say I tend to get attached in those situations."
A/N: Well, here's my new story. It's going to be different from my other stories I think. It'll be shorter with longer chapters and (Hopefully) have a completely different feel from my other stories. I'm thinking ten chapters for this story, tops. I know this chapter was vague, but it'll get more in depth as to why Troy and Gabriella are where they are (Of course with more fluff too).
This is based off of 'All Summer Long' by Kid Rock. It's my fav go to summer song, so you should check it out.
Reviewers, how 'bout we start this story out with a bang?
