A/N- This story was originally published as We Found Love In A Hopeless Place and was meant to be quite long but due to lack of reviews I have converted it to a oneshot. Read and enjoy!
The sun shone over the hills in Albuquerque, symbolizing yet another new day. A sharp ringing is heard from a particular boy's bedroom. The boy raises his head from the pillow, his sandy blonde hair messed up and blinks his blue eyes. This is Troy Bolton. Troy put off the alarm and jumped out of his bed and went straight to the bathroom to get ready for school. Within 15 minutes, he honks outside a white and brown house. A beautiful girl with curly dark hair and warm brown eyes comes running out to meet him. This is Gabriella Montez, Troy's girlfriend of 3 years. Around her neck is a fine silver chain with a T pendant on it with a ruby on it. The T stood for greeted each other with peck on the cheek before driving off to East High. As they pulled into the parking lot, they saw two twins getting out of a pink car bearing the letters SE. They waved to them and Sharpay and Ryan Evans waved back. Sharpay was the school's Drama Queen and Pink Princess and one of Gabriella's best friends. Ryan was the school musical choreographer. The young couple walked up to the front stairs and saw Chad Danforth and his basketball with Taylor Mcessie and her wheeler full of books, standing together and talking. They too were a couple and had dated for almost 3 years now. Troy and Gabriella greeted their best friends. Taylor and Gabriella were Co-Presidents of the Scholastic Decathlon Team and Troy was the Captain with Chad as his Vice-Captain of the Basketball team. Now Sharpay and Ryan again came into view with Kelsi Nielson, Ryan's Girlfriend and school musical composer and Zeke Baylor, Sharpay's boyfriend who played on the basketball ream and loved to bake. They were accompanied by the last couple of their gang, Jason Cross, the basketball player and Martha Cox, a girl from the Decathlon Team who loved to dance. This constituted the Wildcats IT Gang. They all hurried to their homeroom as the bell rang.
Everyone but Troy took their seats in their homeroom. Troy walked up to Ms. Darbus and after asking her something, left the room. Everyone stared confusedly after him. Troy never went out of class. His friends and girlfriend shot each other curious looks. The whole class settled down and waited for the morning announcements to begin. Principal Matsui came on the speaker and performed his regular duty. Just before the end, everyone heard a familiar voice on the speaker. "Um... Good Moning Wildcats. As the class President of the Senior Class, I would like you all to come to the gym after school today. Thank you.", Troy said. The looks of confusion vanished from the faces of Troy's friends. They now looked excited and avoided Gabriella's looks. Gabriella,always the smart one noticed this. She looked at the gangs backpacks. They all looked fuller than usual. "What is going on here?", Gabriella wondered. The gang was certainly acting wierdly. Just then, Troy slipped into the classroom and grinned and winked at all his friends. They all returned this gesture. Troy noticed Gabriella and gave her a smile, which she did not return. Something was up and the gang was keeping secrets from her. As the day continued, Gabriella felt strangely outcast. Taylor,Sharpay,Kelsi and Martha kept running into corners to whisper to each other and stopped when Gabriella came near. All the guys kept flashing smiles at Troy and tried to stifle them as Gabriella approached. Gabriella felt alone as she walked to the gym and sat down in the first bleacher. Troy and the others had mysteriously disappered somewhere. She honestly felt like crying. This was unlike her friends. When she had asked Troy about why he had called the whole school to the gym, he had just told her to wait and see. Now she was here and so was the whole school. A curtain had been hung from the gym ceiling and was enclosing the basket ball court. She wondered what was behind it. Suddenly as if to answer her question, the curtain was pulled away. Inside was a white balcony, a false tree with steps for climbing, a huge window behind the balcony and a grand piano accompanied by a full orchestra. Kelsi was seated at the piano with Ryan on top of it. Chad and Taylor were standing at the other end of the make-shift stage, smiling. Jason and Martha were standing towards the back and Sharpay and Zeke were perched on the lower steps of the tree. But the astounding part was that the girls were all wearing matching pink flowy dressed and the boys were wearing tuxes. Gabriella's jaw dropped. What was all this about? And where was Troy? Before she could utter a word, Kelsi began playing Just Wanna Be With You, a song she had originally written for the Spring Musical. The whole group sang the song from their respective places until the chorus. At the chorus, Troy burst out from a door under the stage in a black tux and while singing, walked over to Gabriella. He took her hand and lead her to the stage, up the stairs and to the balcony, singing all the time. Gabriella was amazed. What was all this about? Why was this big a scene organised? The song ended with Troy twirling Gabriella around and looking deeply into her eyes. Everyone cheered and whooped. As soon as the cheering died down, Kelsi struck up another tune, a familiar one to Gabriella this time. Troy seneraded her with The Start Of Somthing New, the song that had started it all. It was all so sweet. But why? Gabriella couldn't help wondering. Troy now singing the final lines of the song, put his hand in his pocket, pulled out a box, sunk down to one knee and opened it to reveal a beautiful ring of white gold with two heart shaped diamonds on it. "The Start Of Something New...", Troy finished. He looked into Gabriella's tear filled eyes and said, " Gabriella Montez, will you marry me?"
Gabriella felt numb. Shock, numbness and, most importantly,love flowed through her. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" , screeched Gabriella, jumping into Troy's muscular arms. He spun her arond while the people around them cheered, clapped amd whooped, all of them submerged in the love of the young couple. Troy put her down and placed the beautiful ring on Gabriella's left hand ring finger. Gabriella felt tears well up in her eyes. She grabbed Troy and kissed him while the whole school cheered. " Was it worth it? I mean, keeping secrets from you. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life." , Troy asked Gabriella. " This is all I could ask for. Maybe even more! When do we tell our parents? Is your dad here?" , Gabriella asked looking around in search of Coach Bolton. "No. He had to take mom to the dentist and your mother os in her office. I have invited everyone to dinner at my house. I myself will prepare spegghati and meatballs for everyone!" , Troy replied. Chad came up and clapped Troy on the back. All the girls squealed over the ring and hugged Gabriella and then Troy. After that Principal Matsui came on the microphone and congratulated Troy and Gabriella on their engagement and reminded everyone that they had to go home. Each of the Wildcats couple walked to their car and drove away. Upon reaching his house, Troy opened the door of his Audi for Gabriella and led the way to the empty kitchen. They both spent the entire evening preparing dinner and talking about the kind of wedding they wanted. "I want a traditional wedding in a church with a priest and our friends and families with me in a white wedding dress and you in a tuxedo. How does that sound?" , Gabriella asked Troy from her perch on the counter while Troy cooked. "Fine by me. As long as it is you that I am marrying, I don't care it we get married in a mall or a church.", Troy replied playfully kissing Gabriella on the cheek. Just as they finished setting the table, Mr. and Mrs. Bolton entered the house along with Ms. Montez. None of them noticed the ring on Gabriella's finger. They all washed up and sat down to the delicious mouth watering dinner. After finishing, they were all seated in the living room, sipping cups of coffee or tea.
Just them, Troy stood up and said, " We have something important to tell you guys. Gabriella and I are getting married!" The adults remained in shock for a few minutes but then became excited and hugged their children. Gabriella and Troy smiled at each other. They were ready for whatever the future had in store for them.