From the last part…
Gabriella's face dropped. "No." There was panic in her voice. "You promised."
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Mrs. Montez grabbed her daughter's hand and squeezed it. "I'm not breaking my promise. You are here until you graduate. But because of that, I will have to travel more. Will you be okay staying by yourself or do you want to have someone stay with you?"
Gabriella felt a tremendous amount of relief flood over her. "I'll be fine. I can always ask Taylor or Kelsi to spend the night if I need to."
Her mother stood, put her dishes in the sink and then kissed her daughter on top of her head. "I've got to go. My flight leaves at 2:30 so I'll be leaving from the office. I've left the number to the hotel on the message board and deposited money into your account to cover any emergency that might arise along with enough for food. I should be back by Friday. A company car is picking me up so you can take the van to work if you want. If you need anything, call Mrs. Bolton. I've given her all my information and emergency contact information just in case."
Standing up, Gabriella hugged her mother. "I love you, Mom."
"I love you too. Now have a great day at work. I'll call you when I get settled tonight and please remember our agreement."
The seventeen year old blushed. "Mom, I am no where near ready for that."
Her mother shrugged. "I know you say that now, but after the kiss I witnessed the other night…"
"Mom!" She interrupted her mother's sentence. "I promise, before Troy and I take that step, I'll come to you. But like I said, I'm not ready for that."
Mrs. Montez nodded and hugged her daughter. "I trust you." She kissed her forehead. "I've got to get to work. I love you, Gabi."
"I love you too, Mommy."
Gabriella watched her mother leave. She took a deep breath and sighed. She and her mother's agreement had been made after the Winter Musical. Troy was Gabriella's first serious boyfriend. She'd dated a couple of guys at a few of the other schools she'd been to, but nothing serious, not for very long and definitely no one like Troy Bolton.
The agreement was that when she decided she was ready to have sex, she and her mother would have a long discussion and if Gabriella was truly ready to go to that next level of intimacy, her mother would take her to the gynecologist and Gabriella would go on birth control.
That embarrassment in itself was enough for her to wait.
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At work that day, Troy was enjoying himself on the golf course. He was teaching a group of middle school boys how to read the greens and getting to play golf as they went along.
"You've got to take into account that the ground isn't flat." He squatted down and motioned for the boy who'd missed the putt to join him. "See, there's a slight elevation to the pin. You have to take that into consideration when you line up your putt."
Troy placed his ball where the boy's ball had been. Lined up the shot and putted the white ball into the hole.
"Wow!" The boy said. "You're good."
"I wasn't always. When I first started playing, I spent more time in the trees and the bunkers than I did on the fairways or the greens. What helped me was practice and learning how to read the greens. I'm still not the best player, but I enjoy the game a lot better now that I understand it."
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The lesson ended a little after 1:00 and Troy headed back to the clubhouse to change his clothes before he headed to the kitchen for lunch.
When Gabriella entered the kitchen at 1:30, Troy had a picnic basket packed.
"What's this?" She asked him.
His smile made her melt. "I thought we could have a picnic by the playground. Don't worry, I've cleared it with Fulton."
Gabriella entwined her fingers with his. "Lead the way."
Troy led her through the kitchen's back door and out to his golf court. He followed the path out to the playground. They set up their picnic on one of the small tables and begin to eat and discuss how work had gone so far that day.
"I'm just glad that everything has settled down from yesterday. All the attention was kind of embarrassing. When I came downstairs this morning, my mom was reading about it on the front page."
"Yeah, but you've been in the paper before because of your academic achievements. This can't be that much different."
She shrugged. "When I get an academic award it's completely different. I work really hard to achieve that. This was just being in the right place at the right time."
"Gabriella, there were other lifeguards at the pool, one right next to the kid. You were in the middle of a conversation with our boss and dove in from the other side and saved that little boy. What you did is far more important than any academic award. You're a bonafide heroine." He stroked his thumb over her cheek. "And I am very proud to say that you're my girlfriend."
Her eyes misted with tears. "Oh Troy…"
He kissed her sweetly and leaned his forehead against hers. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath inhaling her scent. She smelled like summer; chlorine, sunscreen and outdoors.
They stayed like that for a few more minutes until Troy's stomach growled loudly.
"Sorry about that." He grinned.
Gabriella smiled and bit her bottom lip. "We should finish up. I've gotta be back on duty in twenty minutes."
"What are your plans for tonight?" He asked.
"Taylor's spending the night."
"Maybe she and Chad can go out with us. We can grab something to eat. Maybe go to a movie?"
"Sounds good. I'll talk to Taylor when I see her."
They finished their lunch and headed back to the club. Troy dropped her off at the pool and then headed to the clubhouse. This was definitely how he'd envisioned his summer with his girl.
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Gabriella was reapplying her sunscreen when a bottle of water appeared in front of her face.
"So how was your picnic?" Taylor asked.
"Perfect." She snapped the lid of the sunscreen shut and wiped her hands on a towel. "Troy asked if you and Chad want to go out tonight to get something to eat and maybe go see a movie."
"That sounds fun."
Gabriella put her whistle back around her neck and took the water from her best friend. "Thanks. I've gotta get back to the stand."
"Okay, I'll go talk to Chad. See ya later." Taylor waved as she walked out of the locker room.
With water in hand, Gabriella headed out to the lifeguard perch to relieve the lifeguard on duty. As she watched the water, she smiled. Finally, this was the summer she'd always wanted.
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Troy entered the member's locker room after his work day was over. All that was on his mind was changing into his own clothes, finding his girlfriend, kissing her, going home to shower and change and then going on a double date with Gabriella, his best friend and Taylor.
As he put on his Vans, Thomas Fulton stood in front of him and handed him a sealed envelope.
Troy took it. "What's this?"
"I assume it's a tip. Mr. Michael Henderson, the father of one of the boys with whom you were instructing today, asked me to give this to you. He said that you got through to his son with what he's been trying to since his son began showing interest in the game. Have a nice evening."
As Mr. Fulton left the room, Troy opened the envelope. Ten one hundred dollar bills were inside. "Awesome!" He said loudly. He put his other shoe on, folded the envelope and put it in his pocket. He grabbed his bag from his locker and headed out to find his girlfriend.
When he entered the kitchen, he was met by Chad.
"Hey man, did Taylor talk to you? Are we on tonight?"
Chad shook his head. "It sounds great man, but right now I don't have the cash to spare. Every penny I earn this summer is going into my car fund."
"Don't worry about it man. I gotcha covered. I got a fat tip and wanna splurge a little."
"How fat?" Chad asked.
"Enough to cover tonight. Come on man, let's go for it."
Chad nodded his head. "Okay, you're on." He pulled out his phone. "Let me call Taylor. She went to talk to Fulton about tomorrow's activities."
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Gabriella looked at herself in her full length mirror. She was wearing a yellow sundress with matching flip flops. It was the fifth outfit she put on in the last ten minutes.
"What do you think of this one?" She asked Taylor.
"Gabriella, you could wear a potato sack and Troy would think you were gorgeous. You look great. The guys are going to be here any minute."
"I know, I know. My hair, up or down?"
Taylor shook her head. "He likes to play with your hair, right?"
Gabriella nodded.
"Down." They said together.
The girls made their way downstairs just as the doorbell rang.
Gabriella opened the door to find Troy looking extremely hot.
"You look … wow!" He told her.
She blushed. "Thank you."
"Do you think your mom will let us use her van tonight? We can use my truck, but we'll be a little cramped."
"Mom won't mind. I'll go get the keys."
Gabriella walked into the kitchen to retrieve the keys. She hadn't told Troy that her mother was out of town as of yet. Why? She had no idea. He might already know. His mother was her emergency contact after all.
"Here's the keys." She handed them to Troy.
Troy twirled the keys around his finger. "Let's go."
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The foursome ate dinner at a local steak house and then headed to the theater to watch a random teen blockbuster. Gabriella thought the movie was campy but she didn't care. Troy's arm was around her the entire time and she rested her head on his shoulder. It was a perfect date.
When the movie ended, the teens headed back to Gabriella's house. On the drive there, the bottom fell out of the sky and a torrential thunderstorm made it difficult for Troy to maneuver the minivan down the Albuquerque streets.
When they arrived at Gabriella's house, Troy parked the van in the garage. They entered the house through the kitchen door that connected the garage to the house.
"We'd better get going." Troy told Chad.
"Troy you can't go back out into this weather. You could barely see the road." Gabriella pleaded with her boyfriend.
"We'll be fine." He assured her.
It was at that precise moment that Troy's cell rang. "Hey Dad, I'll be home after I drop Chad off. … Are you sure? … I'm sure it will be okay? … Alright, I'll see you later."
"What's up man?" Chad asked.
"Dad doesn't want us on the road. The storm looks like its gonna be here a while and the streets are flooding. He want us to stay put." He looked at Gabriella. "Do you think your mom will let us stay here tonight."
Gabriella's mouth was suddenly dry. "Um…"
"It'll be okay with her, right?"
Gabriella swallowed the lump in her throat. "Troy, my mom not here. She's out of town."
Troy's eyebrow raised. "Out of town?"
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Thank you to all who have reviewed this story or are just reading it. Your response has been amazing. Updates won't be as frequent as this one because I'm a student, but I'll try to update weekly.
Su
