New story!! It took me a while to come up with a title but I finally came up with one. Enjoy it and I promise to finish my other stories don't worry, although I think I might just cut destination love off 'cos I'm not really feeling it that much.
Taylor looked up from her meal and smiled at the young girl running towards her.
"Mama, here's your mail." The little girl smiled innocently and Taylor gave in. She hoisted her up onto her lap and took the mail from her.
"Thank you, baby" she said, kissing the girls soft cheek which was mainly covered by her curly, chestnut (im stuck on colours for brown) locks. She definitely was gonna grow up to be a heart breaker.
She looked through the mail and sighed heavily. Nothing but bills. Bill. Bill. Letter from Sharpay. Letter from East High. Bill. WAIT! East High? Why would they be sending Taylor a letter if she graduated 4 years back? She immediately ripped the letter open and read it.
"Miss Mckessie, blah blah blah, invited to the class of 2009 reunion!" Taylor smiled and carried on reading the letter. "Other attendees include:" Taylor read the other attendees and thought about all the times they each had together.
"Ryan Evans." Taylor's grin grew wider as she remembered the boy who helped her discover the amount of talent she had just in time for the winter musical.
'"RYAN!!" called a blonde who was obviously becoming impatient. Ryan dragged himself towards her and sighed.
"What now, Sharpay?" He said with a clipboard in hand and an ear mic in tact.
"Where's Taylor? She was meant to arrive here a couple of hours ago for the dress rehearsal but she's still not here!" Ryan's eyes grew bigger as Sharpay talked. His musical was not going to crash and burn. Not for anyone. He handed Kelsi the clipboard and ran to the one place he knew he could try to find Taylor: Science lab.
He stopped when he saw Taylor singing to herself while sitting on a stool. He approached her slowly and sat down next to her. Feeling his presence, she decided to speak.
"I'm not gonna do it. As much as you guys have encouraged me to- I can't."
"Why not Taylor?"
"I'm not Gabriella, Ryan. I can't sing like her, can't act like her, so why try?"
"Taylor, we don't need you to be Gabriella- or Minnie. We need you to be (I don't know the play they were doing so I'm making this up) Taylor, or better yet – Evangeline." Taylor looked up at Ryan and smiled.
"Lemme guess. Shar is angry at me." She said, tightening the scarf round her so it covered her bare shoulders.
"Of course. She's complaining because good parts were wasted and you would be throwing it away if you didn't show up. But now you can shut her up." He said standing up and extending his arm. Taylor shook her head rapidly.
"I'm still not doing it, Ry. As I said before, I can't sing or act."
"Taylor. If you couldn't do any of those things then you wouldn't have been chosen to get the second lead role. Taylor I know for a fact that you can sing."
"And my acting."
"We'll work on that…" he said playfully, but it got a smile out of Taylor. Ryan repeated his action from before and Taylor placed her hand in his.
"Now let's go get 'em Evangeline." Taylor smiled and he pulled her into a hug.
"Thank you, Ry."
"No problem." He said before they ran towards the theatre to get ready for the show.'
She smiled at the memory and took another bite out of her meal.
"Mommy, who's that?" Her daughter asked, pointing to a name on the sheet.
"That is Kelsi Evans- wow they got married!"
"Who got married?" Her daughter asked, adjusting herself so that she could easily fall asleep in that position. Unfortunately for her, Taylor noticed and wrapped her arms around her baby.
"Ari (short for Aries), come on let's go sleep." Ari squirmed in her mother's grip but soon gave up sleeping and shutting her eyes. Taylor tucked her in and kissed her soft head.
"You look more and more like your father everyday." She muttered before closing the door and heading back downstairs. She took her meal to the TV and laid it on the coffee table. She switched the TV on and grabbed the letter again.
"Kelsi Evans." She remembered the time where both her and Kelsi were having problems and only had each other.
'Kelsi was knocking at one of her closest friends door, hoping for an answer. Suddenly the door burst open and Taylor stood there. Tear stained cheeks and tissues in her hand. Kelsi allowed herself in and the 2 immediately enveloped each other in a hug. They pulled back and laughed at themselves.
"Look at us." Cried Kelsi. "We're crying because all of our friends ditched us to go to the same holiday and now were crying when we could be enjoying ourselves." Taylor wiped her eyes and smiled aswell. Kelsi was right. Sitting around and moping wasn't going to help.
"Come on, let's go to the park. Or go to the beach. Something! Anything that takes our minds off of them and their backstabbing selves." Kelsi giggled and brought up her plastic bag.
"I was thinking more along the lines of movie, popcorn, ice cream and…"
"SLEEPOVER!!" They squealed in unison and jumped up and down like little kids instead of the 15-year olds they were meant to be.
"Come on, let's go upstairs and we can start with 'John Tucker Must Die.' (Don't own) Love that film!!" Taylor said before rushing upstairs'
She laughed at herself but continued reading. "Jason Cross." Grinning wider because of the stupid boy, she remembered that day when he found out he was going to graduate.
'"YESS!!!" Jason screamed, running around and hugging random people. Taylor and the rest of the gang watched, amused. Kelsi laughed and giggled when he picked her up and Sharpay gave him a hug back.
"You did it, man." Ryan said patting his back, Jason over reacted though and gave him a bear hug. Taylor ran over to him and enveloped him in a hug that seemed to last hours.
"I'm so proud of you Jason! I guess those late night study sessions paid off after all!" Taylor stated proudly. Jason didn't seem to pull her down until his own girlfriend approached them.
"I graduated baby!" He screamed before pulling her into a long hug.'
That day shall be remembered. She looked down at the list and smiled.
"Gabriella Danforth. Everyone's gotten married." She thought back to the day that Gabriella made that phone call.
'A groggy Taylor turned on her side, trying her hardest to ignore the ringing of her cell phone. Finally giving in, she picked it up and put it to her ear.
"Hello?" She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face… as if that would help her get up. A loud squeal was let out on the other side of the phone and Taylor nearly fell out of bed.
"TAYLOR ANN MCKESSIE! YOU ARE GOING TO KICK YOURSELF FOR NOT AGREEING TO COME AND SEE ME!"
"Why? Something happen?" Taylor said in a sarcastic tone.
"Something very awesome, that I know is gonna make you happy."
"Chad FINALLY cut his hair!" Gabriella laughed and continued.
"No. But it involved Chad. He…"
"Proposed. Yeah, I know." Taylor said dully. Gabriella was at a loss for words. She expected something more like 'Omigosh! Gabi! We have to talk dress, shoes and colours!'
"What? How do you know?" Gabriella asked disappointment in her voice.
"When you turn out to be best friends with your ex, it has its privileges." She confessed, still in a tired tone. "Gabi, can you call me back in like, I don't know, 24 hours. Or if you want to be a really good friend, 72." Gabriella laughed again.
"I'll call you in an hour, Tay." Taylor slowly nodded her head but immediately got out of bed when she heard Ari's cries. "You better go take care of your baby, Tay."
"Are you judging my parental skills?" Taylor asked, slipping on her slippers and creeping to her daughters' room.
"I'm just saying, look after my niece and tell her Aunty Gabi says hi."
"And uncle Chad." She heard from the distance.
"And uncle Chad." Gabriella repeated. Taylor nodded and picked up her daughter.
"I'll talk to you later, Tay."
"Bye Gabs. Love you."
"Love you too."
"I actually meant Chad but okay." Taylor joked. She heard Gabriella gasp and she immediately fell into fits of laughter.
"How would you feel if I said that to…?" Gabriella realised her mistake and quickly shut up. "Bye Tay." She quickly hung up the phone and left Taylor to cater to her daughter.'
The last Taylor heard of him was that he had broken his leg so he had to sit out for the rest of his season but after that… nothing. It was mostly by choice because when other friends went to visit him or they accidentally bumped into him, he always asked about her and told them to tell her that he wanted to meet up so that they could talk or something. He just wanted to see her. Taylor brushed off that thought and skipped to the next name: Chad Danforth. Their break up was pretty bad but they remained close friends afterwards.
'Taylor was pacing the room, unsure of what exactly her boyfriend of a year was saying. "So what you're saying is that there's someone else?" Taylor asked softly, trying not to raise her voice though she was angry.
"Taylor, I know that even you can see it. We've become distant. We're getting closer to other people and we're not…"
"NO! YOU'VE become distant! YOU'RE getting closer to other people. I've stuck by you in everything Chad Danforth. How can you just throw a year worth away like that? How? Because I know I can't!" Chad stood up and pulled her towards him and Taylor didn't fight because she was weak and confused.
"Taylor. I love you and I always will. But I'm not in love with you. Not anymore. Not like I used to." Taylor sniffed and pushed him away but he just pulled her back into the same position.
"So were over?" Chad nodded softly.
"I'm sorry." Taylor tightened her grip around him just to make the moment last longer.
"1 whole year. Wow!" Taylor stated, thinking back to all they'd been through.
"Taylor don't make me feel worse than I already do."
"Sorry. It's just… a year Chad. We made it to a year. I'm gonna be honest I didn't think we'd even make it to 6 months." Chad lifted his head off of hers and looked down at her.
"What do you mean?" She looked up at him but then looked around her living room.
"I mean, you're a jock and I'm a geek…"
"Hey! How many times have I told you not to use that word to describe yourself?" Even if they weren't together, he still cared. Taylor dropped what she was going to say and slid her head back down to its old position and Chad did the same.
"I'll miss you." Taylor whispered, trying hard not to cry.
"I'll miss you too."'
Taylor remembered how angry she was when she found out that it was in fact another girl. Her best friend- Gabriella Montez. She became depressed for over a week and locked herself away. She looked down at the next name and her smile dropped. Troy Bolton. His name made her heart beat faster and she wasn't quite sure why.
She was ready to think about a memory they had when his name boomed through the TV.
"Troy Bolton hasn't been seen since last month and we know that all of you fans are worried. Our sources tell us that the 23 year old star has asked to take a break from basketball but not for good. All we know is that our leading basketball star is not in a good mood."
"Tell me something I don't know." Taylor muttered before switching the television off and heading for her bedroom.
+*+HSMHSMHSM+*+
Taylor woke up and sat comfortably in her bed. She tip toed downstairs and was surprised to see her daughter already up.
"Hey Ari. What are you doing up?" She questioned, reaching for her daughters favourite cereal.
"I couldn't sleep and then the phone rang."
"Ari, did you answer it?" She asked pouring herself and Aries a bowl of the cereal.
"Yes." She answered quietly and slowly.
"Well, who was it?"
"I don't know, he just said that you should call more often if you expect to eat at his restaurant ever again." She smiled gratefully when the bowl was pushed in front of her and she immediately dug in.
"Thank you, Aries." Taylor said in an attempt to make her daughter regain her manners. She stopped eating and looked up at her mother.
"Mommy, you're so polite." And she dug back into her food.
"You eat just like him too." Taylor muttered, before kissing Ari's cheek and telling her to stay put and watch some cartoons. She ran upstairs and took a shower, ready for her and Ari's trip down to Zeke's restaurant 'Z' and to drop her off at day care before she went to visit her mother like she always did on a Saturday.
Once both she and her daughter were ready for the day they left the house.
"Mommy, where are we going first?"
"First were going to go to Uncle Zeke's restaurant and then I'm going to drop you off at Nina's. Then when I pick you up we can go to Grandma's. How does that sound?" Aries liked the idea as she jumped up and down excitedly.
"That's great mommy!" Aries smiled at her mother and Taylor felt her heart warm up. She had her nose, her lips, her laugh but she had his eyes, his smile and his silliness. Taylor walked into the restaurant which wasn't as packed as it was in the night and walked up to the hostess Heather.
"Hey Taylor, hey cutie! Zeke and Sharpay are out back, they were just gonna go to your house to see you but now that you're here. Go ahead…" She smiled gratefully at Heather and carried Aries before walking to the garden out back.
"Why do I need to call you when I can make an entrance?" She stated walking down the stairs towards them. Sharpay was first to run over to her and she opened her arms out wide.
"Gimme my goddaughter!" Sharpay squealed, leaning towards Aries.
"Auntie Sharpay!" She screamed, trying to get to her.
"See she wants me! You don't want to be seen as evil in the child's eyes do you?" Taylor sighed heavily and handed her Aries. Taylor shook her head at her best friend and decided to ask Zeke a question that had been on her mind.
"Zeke, did you get a letter from East High?" Zeke kept his eyes on Sharpay and Aries when he answered.
"Yeah. We, um, got it this morning. Did you?"
"Yup!" Zeke nodded his head and took a deep breath in.
"Troy called me yesterday." Taylor looked down at this stage. What did he want? "He, um, said that he's gonna arrive in New Mexico tomorrow and he needed a place to stay." Taylor shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'And your point is…' "I told him he could stay over here. Until he has to go back." He rushed out, looking towards Sharpay for support. Taylor caught this and smiled warmly.
"Guys, just because I'm not talking to him, don't mean you have to follow." Sharpay walked towards Taylor, Aries still in hand and touched her shoulder.
"I knew you'd understand! That's why I scheduled dinner for all of us!" Taylor's breath caught her and she paused.
"Just you, me, Zeke and… um, Troy?" Sharpay nodded excitedly.
"And little Aries, of course." Aries giggled at the sound of her name. Taylor rubbed her forehead as if she had a massive headache.
"Great!" She said sarcastically before slumping onto the bench underneath her. "So if he's coming, when's Chad and Gabi coming?" Sharpay grabbed Aries hand and began to play with it.
"Next week. Chad has one more game which is on Wednesday so…" Zeke said, still staring at Sharpay's interactions with Aries. Taylor stood up and walked towards Sharpay and her daughter.
"Shar, I was gonna drop her off at the day care but… I think she'd like it better if I left her with aunty Sharpay." Sharpay squealed and lifted Aries up.
"You hear that! You're staying with me today!" Aries let out a childish laugh and Taylor kissed her cheek before saying goodbye and leaving.
"Bye mommy! Love you!"
"I love you too!" Taylor called out. She gave Heather a smile and walked out.
'24 more hours and he will be here. Oh God!' She thought before heading to her mother's house.
Hope yuh enjoyed it. Before I had it as Troy and Taylor meet but… too early so imams build it up. Troy is gonna be introduced in the nxt chappie. R&R!!
TraylorxChaylor
xx