This isn't chapter story, it's just a series of oneshots, I've started them because sometimes I have no ideas for my series stories but want to keep myself writing, it probably won't be updated much, anyway, here's the first one.

The character of Roxie is based on my friend Kerry, through writing the speech for her i was thinking, "What would Kerry say?" and trust me, most of it, she would say, even though she is a lot older than Roxie (although you wouldn't know it if it was based on mentality.), she'd probably agree with that.


Where life truly lies

Troy Bolton walked into his family home to nothing but the sound of the blaring TV; he looked towards it, noticing the cartoon his seven-year-old-daughter must have fallen asleep watching.

He smiled at the sight and went and sat by her, watching her sleep.

"Back again?" He heard a familiar voice ask him from behind.

"Just got here," He answered, turning to an almost exact copy of his wife.

"How long for this time?" His eldest daughter asked, he knew that his near common absences affected the twelve-year-old almost as much as they affected her mother, he hated being away from them, but that's what being a national star included.

"Few weeks at least," He tried telling her, knowing he had longer than that, but not wanting to discuss it with a child.

Lauren glared back, he knew that in her opinion, she'd seen nothing but him coming and going in her twelve short years.

"Does mom know you're back?" The girl asked, rudely pushing her sister's feet onto the floor and sitting down.

Troy watched as his younger daughter stirred in her sleep, but didn't feel that he had the right to discipline her sister, Lauren probably wouldn't listen anyway.

"She knows that I'm coming back today, yeah," He replied.

"That's not what I asked," The girl pointed out, "Perhaps I should be clearer, your not used to being around us after all, Does mom know you're here now?"

"Not exactly," He admitted, "Where is she?"

"Asleep," Lauren stated, "I've heard being a single parent is tiring, she sleeps whenever Roxie and Jake sleep."

"Lauren, your mother is not a single parent," He sternly told his daughter, trying to avoid showing her that her words got to him.

"She might as well be," The girl shot back, "You're never here to be a parent."

He turned his stare off of the twelve-year-olds face as his younger daughter once again stirred and woke up.

"DADDY!" The young girl squealed, jumping up and running over to him, she climbed onto his lap and started talking a mile a minute, "We went to the park yesterday, and mommy got us some ice cream, and Lori fell off the swing and she cried, and Uncle Zeke gave us cookies, and they were chocolate, and Lori threw hers at me, so I threw half of mine at her and ate the rest, and she says it's because I'm a pig, and then I started going oink, and Uncle Chad said you were a pig, so I asked if you go oink and he said sometimes, and it was funny, and Auntie Taylor hit him, and that was more funny."

Troy listened intently to his daughter's speech, a smile forming on his face, Roxie had always been a chatterbox, the kid just couldn't be quiet, she even talked in her sleep, although that was normally just incoherent mumbling, he had once had an understandable conversation with her while she was in a deep slumber.

"Really?" He asked, emphasising his interest to encourage her to continue.

"Then Uncle Chad and Lori started playing basketball with Uncle Zeke and Auntie Taylor and Mommy started talking about you," The child continued, unaware that her mother probably didn't want her father to know about that particular conversation that had occurred between her and her best friend, " Auntie Taylor said that mommy should talk to you, but that's silly because mommy talks to you everyday on the phone."

Troy faked a smile for the sake of his younger daughter, he could feel Lauren's eyes burning into him, she'd never let him call her Lori like everyone else did, and now she knew that Taylor had said something about his common absences, she would probably make it even harder for him to bond with her.

"How about…" He began as he glanced at his watch, "we make mommy some dinner?"

"Yeah," Roxie exclaimed, "Mommy eats."

"It's 5, she'll be asleep till Jake wakes up at 6, so you have just over an hour," Lauren decided to put in, making Troy feel uncomfortable, his daughter knew his son's sleeping habits better than he did.

Roxie jumped up yet again and dragged him into the kitchen, "We cook daddy," she told him as she took a packet of chocolate biscuits off of the side that had obviously been left out.

"Rox, we're not having chocolate biscuits for dinner," He stated, smiling at his child's cheeky attempt.

"But Mommy likes chocolate biscuits," Roxie continued trying in the hope that she'd find a working excuse.

Troy took the biscuits off of her and put them higher up so she couldn't reach, "We don't have chocolate biscuits for dinner, we have pasta."

"Lori likes pasta," Roxie told him, "Lori says that pasta is yum."

"Hey, why don't you go ask Lori if she wants to help make the pasta?" Troy suggested, wanting to get them both involved.

He watched Roxie smile and run out of the room, moments later she retuned, dragging her sister with her.

"Dad, Roxie can't cook, you can't be serious in letting her help," Lauren complained when she was pulled in the room.

"Come on Lauren," He encouraged, "It'll be fun, just like the old times."

"Since when have you ever cooked with us?" Lauren replied, her attitude momentarily reappearing.

"Not times with you," Troy admitted, "Times with your mom."

"Oh, so you mean the Old, Old times," Lauren giggled, that comment also got a laugh out of Roxie, who had somehow managed to get her hands on the chocolate biscuits and was now sitting on the floor eating them.

"Hilarious Lauren, absolutely hilarious," Troy answered sarcastically as he once again took the biscuits off of Roxie, Lauren took them off of him and put them in a cupboard that was out of her sister's reach, "You seriously need to get a checklist of what needs to be out of her reach." The twelve-year-old grinned then decided it was time they started cooking, "So, we're making pasta, right?"


Gabriella looked over at the clock when she woke up, she felt considerably more rested and put this down to getting fifteen minutes extra sleep, but she couldn't help worrying that her son hadn't woken her at his usual time.

"Mommy, you have to come eat," She heard the small voice of Roxie demand.

She smiled at her daughter's voice, but changed her expression when she realised what the child had said, "Please do not tell me Lori has tried to cook again."

"And me and daddy," The child grinned, pulling her mother up, "Mommy, Daddy wouldn't let me have the biscuits for dinner."

She sighed to herself, she had forgotten he was coming back today, and had, in a way, been dreading it, he'd been away for over a month, and she knew Taylor was right, she had to tell him that she couldn't live like this anymore, he couldn't keep coming and going like he was.

"Come on Mommy," Roxie exclaimed and pulled on her arm.

Reluctantly she followed her daughter downstairs and into the dining room, she smiled at the sight when she got there, plates of pasta were on the table, Lori and Troy were talking, obviously about basketball, Jake was sitting quietly in his high chair, something she herself had never managed to achieve.

Troy looked up when he felt her gaze and smiled at her, "Your up," He stated the obvious, but it didn't bother her, she was suddenly happy, this was the family life she had always wanted.

She nodded as Roxie forced her into a seat and sat next to her.

"Langley asked me something interesting today," Troy started conversation, referring to his boss, eager to avoid awkward silences, "He wants me to go and promote basketball in England for a year, thinks they don't play enough over there, thinks I should go immediately."

"When are you leaving?" Gabriella asked almost immediately.

"I'm not," He told her, "I said No, and when I said No he said I should think carefully before saying that, because Yes and No is the difference between employment and unemployment."

"Can he do that?" She asked, secretly pleased that he wasn't going.

"Not anymore, see, I figured I don't need that life, I don't even want that life, the life I want and need is right here, with you guys, so I quit." He explained.

He heard the clanging of metal dropping on plates as both his wife and eldest daughter dropped their knives and forks, he looked from one to the other, both were gaping in amazement, "What?" he asked, pretending he didn't know what the big deal was.

"You gave up your dream?" Gabriella asked after a long pause.

"Nope," He answered truthfully, "I gave up what was keeping me from my dream, this family is my dream, it always has been, I just wish I'd noticed sooner."

"I had a dream that a sponge was trying to eat me," Roxie spoke up, making the three elder members of the family laugh, "But it's ok, because Uncle Chad said sponges don't eat you, crocodiles eat you, and then Auntie Taylor said that crocodiles will eat him if he's not careful." She confidently added, ignoring her family's laughs.

"It's a different kind of dream," Troy explained to the child, "This dream is real."

"Dreams can be real?" She asked in awe.

"Only if you make them real," Gabriella answered for him, still smiling on the outside.

"Does that mean that the sponges will eat me?" The child exclaimed fearfully.

"Not a chance," Troy reassured her, "It'd have to fight me first."

"Dad, do you realise you just said your going to fight a sponge?" Lori asked mockingly curious.

"Daddy will fight a sponge for you too Lori," Roxie decided, proving her naivety.

"I'd fight off sponges for all of you, you know that," Troy continued.

"Oh God," Lori sighed in annoyance, then added cheekily, "Bet the sponge would beat ya."

"Big mistake," Gabriella told her daughter as Troy stood up and walked around the table to her.

"Why?" Lori asked, not noticing her father's movements as she fixed her eyes on her mother, she squealed as Troy started tickling her, while telling her, "your mom hasn't made a mistake like that in a long time, but one day, just like you did, she'll slip up."

"Not a chance," Gabriella giggled.

When Troy finally released his eldest daughter, whom was laughing hysterically by then, he looked around at his family, he couldn't help but feel disappointed over what he had missed, but he was glad he had finally found where life truly lies.


I didn't think it was that good, but then i don't think many of my stories are good but i'm assured by everyone that reads them that they are. So Review.