Masked Feeling

Chapter 2: Meet the Parents

As the sun rose and the birds chirped, Gabriella woke up. Sounds fairytale type huh? Well, it's because Gabriella is dreaming.

"Good morning to you too, Wildcat." Gabriella greeted Troy with a warm kiss. "You know, I love you so much!"

"I love you too Brie, with every inch of my heart. You are the only one for me." Troy was about to kiss her when—

BLANG! THUD!

Gabriella fell from the bed. Reality hit her, badly. That's gotta hurt! She rubbed her eyes and sat down from her fall. Why does reality have to ruin everything? I mean, even in my dreams? Come on! Gabriella thought. She was snapped out of her thoughts when Troy opened the door with a worried face.

"What happened? I heard a loud 'thud' downstairs." Troy said as he closed the door.

"Realization just knocked me down." Gabriella muffled.

"What?"

"It's was nothing, I just fell from the bed." Gabriella said as she got up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am. Don't worry, I'm fine." Gabriella looked at Troy, who was wearing an apron. "Umm… you may go back to cooking or whatever you were doing wearing that apron."

Troy just chuckled and kissed Gabriella on the forehead before leaving. She sighed and went in the bathroom when—

"AHH!!! TROY BOLTON!!" Gabriella screamed from the room.

As Troy was cooking, Gabriella marched downstairs like she was big foot. Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

"Troy! How the hell did I get into your clothes?"

"Obviously, I changed your clothes because you were too tired."

"How could you Bolton! You are so dead Troy! You know I'm still a freaking virgin! And aren't you ashamed of yourself? Taking advantage of me!" Gabriella screamed.

"That's not the only thing I've seen in a girl, Gabs. So don't react. And I'm not that desperate to have you, you know. I know we're just friends, right? And plus, you're my fiancée… well, pretend only but still." Troy's practice last night finally came out, adding few explanations. "Chill, nothing happened. We just slept in the same room."

Gabriella gave up and sighed. "Well, you have a point." Yeah, just friends, just what I wanted to hear. She thought to herself sarcastically and groaned. "This whole wedding pretend thing is making me go crazy! I can't wait till this gets finished." The opposite is what I really want! Gabriella thought differently as she said those words.

"Disappointed much?" Troy said as he kissed my cheek.

"Not really. No!" She said in a 'DUH' tone.

"Don't worry. Nothing will get destroyed or let's just say no one will get hurt."

I am getting hurt Troy! All this pretend thing hurts, in a way that I can't have you. Gabriella thought. "Well, someone gets crazy in this thing… me!"

Troy chuckled. "Yup. I got that." He hugged Gabriella and just buried his head in her hair. Smells like strawberry, my fave. Troy thought. "Anyway, we'll be shopping for something to wear later." Troy released from the hug and smiled at Gabriella. "So you better get ready, 'cause we're going in about an hour."

"Why did you just tell me this now?" Gabriella asked. "You know I take a little long in the bathroom."

"It's called training, Brie. You need to save your time you know." Troy said as he walked up stairs, then he suddenly looked back at Gabriella. "And water." He smiled and walked again.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" She shouted after him.

"I already ate. My stomach couldn't wait for you, love!" He responded from his room.

I just love how he called me 'love'. She thought. "I'm your fiancée, you should wait for me, sweetheart!"

"Haha!" He said as he popped his messy hair and bare muscled chest out the door. "Blackmailing me! Nice one! But I'll try to do that next time, baby!" With that troy gave Gabriella a cheeky grin and took a shower.

As Troy went in, Gabriella melted and sighed dreamily. He is just so handsome and just so….. Muscular! She thought to herself.

After waiting for several minutes, Gabriella was done and ready to go. Troy was sitting on the couch waiting for her.

"I'm done and ready to go!" Gabriella said as she emerged from Troy's room.

"Finally! You know you are 30 minutes late." Troy said as Gabriella went down the stairs.

"It's not like there's a time bomb and we need to evacuate."

"Funny, Montez." Gabriella just laughed at this.

After an hour of searching clothes in the mall, Gabriella finally saw the one she wanted. And Troy was there standing and all tired.

"Have you finally found what you want?" Troy asked as he landed on the chair with a tired sigh.

"YES! This is the one!" Gabriella squealed.

"Are you sure? Because we've been through 20 stores in this mall, and when you find a nice dress, you say 'This is the one'" Troy imitated Gabriella. "But every time, you fit it, you say it's not the one; and you told me that you needed some of the clothes we've seen just incase it doesn't do, so I bought you those clothes. And now this one… can this please be 'THE' one." Troy said as he already found his clothes to wear about 40 minutes ago.

"Shut up, Troy. And I'm sure that this is the one!"

Troy went outside and looked at what boutique it was, and came back in. "Gabriella, don't you recognize this store?" This made Gabriella turn to him. "This was the first store we went in!"

"Oh… that's okay, at least I found what I want right?" Gabriella said as she was fitting her dress in the dressing room.

"But what are you going t o do with all this clothes?" Troy asked, holding up the paper bags he had in his hands.

"Well, I'm gonna store them, just in case I might need them." Gabriella said plainly.

"You know Brie, you never shopped like this. I was sometimes with you when you go shopping. What's up?" Troy asked curiously.

"Well, I want to look nice and sort of perfect. I mean, I am meeting your parents." Gabriella said as she went out with her casual clothes and didn't show Troy the dress.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. They're not like the perfect ones also. And no one is perfect, Brie. So, just chill; we'll be okay." Troy said as he hugged Gabriella and kissed her on her forehead.

After paying, the twosome ate at McDonald's and went home to finish the unfinished business. They still needed to fix the whole house! They got home after 15 minutes, and it was now 1:20 pm and he's parents are gonna arrive at 6 o'clock pm. They needed to hurry and he needed to arrange a car to get his parents. This is gonna be a long day.

Gabriella and Troy had called reinforcements to help them clean the house. There were their closest friends, Chad and Taylor Danforth; Troy hired maids to clean the house up; and lastly, Troy's long time butler, Alfred. They had finished redecorating and cleaning the house at 5 pm, which leaves Troy and Gabriella 1 hour to prepare.

At the Airport

Jack and Lucille Bolton had just got off the airplane and were now looking for their bags when Troy called and told them that he had set up a limo for them when they arrive at his house.

As they got out, there were two men in black suits who approached them and led them to a black limousine with a template that says 'BOLTON'.

At the Bolton Residence

Gabriella was now staring at the full length mirror inside Troy's room, examining, observing, eyeing, gawking, testing, and concluding that—

"Gabriella! Hurry up! Come on, you're not gonna hide there forever!" and that shout that just came out of Troy Bolton's mouth shook Gabriella off of her… umm… whatever she was doing.

"But Troy… what if they won't like me? And plus, this is a pretend thing, you know well how bad I lie!" Gabriella shouted from the room.

"Gabriella! Brie, nothing bad is gonna happen. I got your back, sweet." Troy replied slowly as he saw Gabriella walk down the stairs. To him, she was like all shinny and glittery like there was a whole set, lights and make-up crew who just made her face beautiful, but no… it was all Gabriella, the face only had a soft make-up, and there were no set and lights. It was all Gabriella Montez. It was all her.

"Troy? Troy? Troy." He didn't reply, he just looked at her like he just saw a ghost or an angel. "Troy!" Finally, he snapped out of his thoughts.

"So what are you gonna do about it, huh!" Troy shouted at Gabriella out f the blue.

"Troy? Are you okay?" Troy closed his eyes and blinked a couple of times and nodded. "What was that all about? Were you day dreaming? Dreaming?"

"No! I was just… you know… playing a situation in my head where I stand up to a cop and just shout at him and stuff." Troy covered up.

"Really, huh?" Troy nodded, but the real deal was that Troy was day dreaming of himself saving Gabriella from his parents because they were trying to hurt her.

"Yeah, really." Troy smiled as they waited at the formal dinning area for Troy's parents to arrive.

DINGDONGDING DONG

Alfred went to the door and opened it to reveal Jack and Lucille Bolton with the whole men in black suit.

He raised his eyebrow and opened the door widely for them, gesturing them to enter. "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Bolton..." Alfred paused and looked at the bodyguards. "And the dashing well-suited men in the corner, I am Alfred." They all went in.

"Men in black, please follow Therese into the back lounge." They nodded as Alfred pointed out the maid to follow, and they were gone.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bolton—"

Lucille interrupted. "Alfred, you can just call us Jack and Lucille, you know."

"How lovely, please follow me to the formal dinning room Mr. and Mrs. Bolton." Alfred led them to where the lovely 'couple' was waiting.

"Mom! Dad!" Troy said as he stood up. "Good evening. Have a seat." Troy gestured his hand for them to seat.

"Mom, Dad, this is Gabriella Montez, My fiancée." Troy said as he introduced her. Gabriella stood up and gave them a hand shake.

As the food arrived, they started a conversation. "So, where did you two met exactly?" Jack asked them.

Troy and Gabriella looked at each other and exactly knew what to say.

Flashback

Troy was at the grocery store buying food for storage and to put in the pantry. He was talking to his maid Therese who was at home telling him what was needed to buy.

"Can you talk slower, Therese? I can't understand a single of what you are saying. You are really eating all of the words." Troy said as he took some broccoli, baby corn, and all sorts of vegetables.

"Sorry Mr. Bolton, I'm just worried because it's your first time doing the grocery. You might mix everything up." Therese said and this made Troy looked at the cart. The soap, shampoo and laundry soap were mixed with the meat, chicken and vegetables. The chips, soap, meat and vegetable were all just stocked on one cart and mixed together.

"Ah… everything is okay, Therese. I'll catch you later. Bye!" He hang-up and just continued pushing the cart as he was thinking, when suddenly, his cart crashed in another person's cart.

"I am very sorry, Miss." Troy apologized as he looked at the lady just looking at his cart… staring at it.

"It's okay. Umm…" she turned her head to Troy and she was knocked out… inside, deep inside. "Gabriella Montez." She reached out her hand.

"Troy Bolton." He shook it and took out his hand sanitizer and cleaned his hands after shaking hands with Gabriella.

"Oh, so you are Troy Bolton." Gabriella noticed from the hand sanitizing thing. Gabriella never liked men who were so over themselves.

"Yeah." He nodded as he got out his handkerchief and wiped his hands.

"I think you are not good at grocery shopping. Just from the look of your cart, this would be your first time going on grocery shopping by yourself. Right?" Troy just nodded in response.

"Please I need help." Troy begged and Gabriella laughed.

"Sure, I will help you but I want to teach you another thing that you will carry for life. Some kind of thing you can do for me." Troy just nodded quietly and Gabriella continued. "I will teach you how to be a human being, Bolton." She said as she took another cart.

Troy just stood there, looking at her as he raised an eyebrow to him and said, "What?"

End of Flashback

"We met at the grocery store." They both answered.

"Well, we started off rough but eventually we got together." Gabriella smiled.

"When was that?" Lucille asked, wanting to know the full details of how they met.

"That was about… 2 years ago." Gabriella looked at Troy as he gave her a reassuring nod.

"Oh… so when did you two started dating?" Jack asked.

"About a year ago." Troy replied with a shrug.

"How about engagement? When did you propose to Gabriella, dear?" Lucille asked Troy.

I proposed to her yesterday. Troy thought and he just smiled. "I proposed to her about 7 months ago at Villas Mimosa." Gabriella's eyes grew wide but this came unnoticed to the Boltons.

"Where is that place? Never heard of it." Jack asked.

"It's at Philippines. I thought of proposing there because since Gabriella's mother and her hometown is Philippines, I thought 'why not propose there' right?" Troy looked at Gabriella.

Troy used the time when they were at the Philippines to make something out of it. Their visit to Philippines was private and lovely. There were not much of the paparazzi and they really don't bother you, unlike TMZ papz. Gabriella just shook her head and smiled.

"We went at Pampanga, which is where Villas Mimosa is located. We just, you know, relaxed and stuff." Troy looked at Gabriella.

"Yeah, and then one night we were just dinning outside and just talking when a band came to us and played our favorite song, At the Beginning. Suddenly Troy was nowhere to be found and there he was coming out of the back of the band, holding a bouquet of red roses; he gave it to me and he kneeled on the left leg and took out the ring, and asked me 'Will you marry me?'" Lucille was in tears and Jack was so proud of his son. Troy was just amazed at how Gabriella came up with everything. When he told her that his got her back, he never would've imagined that it would be in vice versa now.

"My son is just so sweet." Lucille said as she wiped away her tears.

"Yeah, he is." Troy didn't know what to do but just scratch the back of his neck, Gabriella just saved him.

"Thank you so much." Troy whispered as he kissed Gabriella on the lips. And again, Gabriella melted and just wanted more, but she couldn't because it was only pretend. Just a play. A show.