This is my first fanfic everyone and so please don't be too harsh. However, I would love constructive critcism and directional advice. Thaks for being a good audience and review to let me know if I should continue!
Disclaimer: I do not own high school musical, just one copy of the DVD and several songs on my ipod!
A young girl sat in a swing on her front porch twirling her dark brown hair around her fingers as she watched a friendly car pull into a drive way. Gabriella Montez jumped up and ran down the driveway to wrap her arms around her boyfriend.
"Hey Troy!" Standing on her toes, she kissed the tall, sandy brown haired boy lightly on the lips and laced her fingers within his.
"Are you ready to go," he asked, leading her towards the passenger side of the car.
"Just one second, I have something for you." Gabriella led troy to the front steps where she had been sitting and pulled a box out from under the swing.
"What's this," he looked at the gift bashfully.
"Just a going away present, nothing special" Gabriella sat down and waited for her boyfriend to unwrap the present.
"Gabby- I've got your gift in the car. I was going to give it to you at dinner."
"Troy, go ahead and open it. It's not a big deal." Gabriella pushed the present into his lap.
"Alright, if you say so." Troy pulled the ribbon off of the brown box, opened the lid and pulled the tissue paper aside, almost as if he were opening something delicate and priceless. Inside the box was a brown album, with TB and GM engraved into the leather on the front cover.
"Open it," Gabriella urged, excited to see Troy's reaction to what's inside. As he opened the cover, he realized it was a scrapbook of the last two years he spent with Gabriella. Beginning with the winter show, throughout summers together, other productions and everything in between. The album was filled with pictures, ticket stubs, brochures and announcements, all memories of the time they spent together. Speechless, Troy leaned over and delicately kissed Gabriella on the lips.
"I love it." Touching his forehead to hers, he looked into her deep eyes and said "thank you," loud enough just for her to hear.
"We can go to dinner now," Gabriella said, breaking the moment between the two. Troy grabbed her hand and they began walking down the steps heading towards his car. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the moving van sitting in front of the house.
"When do they leave?" Troy asked, referring to the movers.
"Later on tonight. They'll be gone before we get home." The moving van was for Gabriella's college things. Throughout her senior year, she was determined to go to school with Troy and her other friends, until she was offered a scholarship to go to school at Duke. Since her mother couldn't really afford for Gabriella to go anywhere else, it was off to North Carolina. Troy, Chad and Taylor were each going to the University of California where the boys would play basketball and Taylor would cheer on her favorite lunk-heads. Originally, Taylor promised to follow Gabriella wherever she decided to go, but when Chad got down on one knee and begged for Taylor to come with him; she couldn't say no.
Both Gabriella and Troy were dreading this night all summer, when they would have to say goodbye. The tension was starting to erupt though when they saw the moving van. She was really moving away and they wouldn't see each other again until Thanksgiving. Troy's phone rang suddenly, bringing them both out of their thoughts.
"Hello… yeah mom, what's wrong?" Troy's voice turned shaky and scared as he responded to his mother on the phone.
"What… when… is he okay?" The worry in the tone of his voice was now worrying Gabriella, and she reached over to put a hand on his shoulder. "Ok, I'll be right there." Troy closed his phone and looked over to his beautiful girlfriend. He didn't realize that he was about to say goodbye to her. They were supposed to have a romantic evening out and wake up tomorrow and say goodbye. Not right now and not like this.
"What's wrong Troy?" Gabriella's voice was tense and Troy didn't want to upset her.
"My dad had a heart attack," Troy's voice quivered. He told himself not to cry in front of her. This wasn't the place.
"Oh my gosh," tears slowly began to stream down her face as worry overcome the looming idea of tomorrow.
"I have to cancel dinner. I have to meet my mom at the hospital." Troy covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the tears from his eyes. At that time, he didn't realize that he wasn't crying about his dad but about her.
"I'm sorry," he said, looking at her. He didn't mean to upset her, not tonight. "Can I come and see you tomorrow?" Thinking about seeing her always made things better.
"Troy, my flights at six." Gabriella looked down into her lap. "There won't be any time." She climbed out of the passenger seat. She'd been sitting there for fifteen minutes and hadn't put her seatbelt on or anything. Time seemed to have stopped.
"That's ok, I'll get up early and come over and see you." Tears were now really falling down his face as he thought about not being able to tell her goodbye tomorrow. He really hated his dad right now as he thought about all the times Mr. Bolton had tried to keep them apart.
"At 4:30?" she smiled seeing how much he cared about seeing her. "Troy we need to do this now." Walking over to the steps of her house and sitting down, she watched as he pulled a small box out of his back pocket. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as if time were trying to antagonize them.
"I can't say goodbye to you like this." When he sat down, she laid her head on his shoulder and held his hand. At that moment she prayed that time would stop and they could stay like this forever.
"Troy you're dad needs you. " Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tried to be selfless and knew that her being upset would only make this more difficult for Troy.
"I'll call you tomorrow when my plane lands." They stood up, still holding hands and slowly walked over to the driver's side of his car.
"Gabby, please. Stay one more day." Deep down, Troy knew it wasn't possible and that he really didn't want to tell her goodbye. He pulled the box out of his pocket and placed it in her hand. I wanted to see her expression when she opened it.
"Tell you're dad that I hope he's okay. " Wrapping her arms around his neck, she sobbed "I'll call you when I land." This was it, this was goodbye and it was worse than she imagined. As they pulled apart, they looked into each other's tear stained eyes. Troy's sparkle started to diminish and Gabriella's sea of mystery and beauty wasn't there anymore.
"It's the start of something new," Gabriella sang quietly into his ear as tears streamed down her face. "It feels so right, to be here with you."
He sobbed before kissed her cheek and turning around to climb into his car.
"I'll see you at Thanksgiving!" Waving goodbye she watched as Troy Bolton drove out of her life. Little did she know this would be the last time she saw him for a long time.
"I love you," she said, long after he had driven down the street to where his car could barely be seen. There right in front of her, Troy Bolton left Gabriella's life just as quickly as he entered.