Returned
Hiya guys, sorry for the wait, but thanks so much for the reviews. Anyway as I kept you waiting, here's chapter 4, please enjoy and tell me what you thought of it!
Chapter 4
Once they had gotten over the excitement of seeing each other again, the girls decided to spend the time in the ice cream parlour catching up and moved away from the guys who started talking about basketball, which just made the girls laugh, after five years away from each other, with so much catching up to do they decided to talk about basketball? Personally, the girls all thought that they were crazy.
Vixie and Ashley kept switching between the tables, depending on who was giving them the most attention, and they lapped all of it up, loving every minute of it as their parents and aunts and uncles watched on lovingly.
They soon discovered that if they were with the girls, they got cooed over and hugged and kissed constantly, as well as actually being talked to, whereas with the guys, they got fed. Every time they went over with an empty ice cream pot, one of the guys would automatically get up and get them a new one. Needless to say, the girls loved this and used this to their full advantage as their sugar rush gathered momentum with each mouthful of the sweet cookie dough and the adults just laughed at them, even when they started a small ice cream fight with Chad and Ryan, which ended up with the whole group being kicked out of the parlour, something that the gang had experienced quite a lot in their high school years.
After being kicked out of the ice cream parlour, the gang decided to head back to Troy and Gabriella's old house as the girls were in desperate need of a clean up and the house still needed a lot of sorting out.
The guys decided that they would handle all of the heavy stuff, putting together the likes of beds and tables as they went along, room by room. The girls on the other hand moved into a room once the guys were finished in it and added all of the final touches, such as photos and cushions.
Vixie and Ashley however were sat in the front room, the only fully complete room, playing with their dolls, with the occasional visit from one of the adults, to play with them for a few minutes or just to see if they needed anything and were ok.
Once the sort out was finished, the gang were collapsed on the couches in the front room, trying to decide on what to do next, when suddenly Vixie came running into the room, and stopped in front of her parents, grinning wildly at them.
"What is it Vix?" Gabriella asked, eyeing her daughter up and down with a smile.
"Pool!" Vixie yelled excitedly tossing her swimsuit at Gabriella, before trying to pull her up.
"Well it is something to do I suppose," Gabriella smiled as she turned back to the others, who were all grinning.
"We'll go home and get our stuff and be back here in twenty minutes?" Ryan said as the rest all nodded, before running for the door, arguing over who was going to get out first as they all got stuck in the doorway. Vixie on the other hand had a much better idea and crawled between their legs, before standing and looking up at them giggling.
Exactly twenty minutes later, Gabriella was lying on a sun bed, reading her latest book, while Troy was in the pool with the girls, taking it in turns to catch them as they came flying down the slide.
Chad, seeing peace and quiet, suddenly came running and cannon balled into the pool, laughing at the looks of shock of the Bolton's faces, before they all creased into laughter again.
Ryan decided a more subtle approach and dove into the pool discreetly, coming up beside Troy and making him jump, as Kelsi and Taylor walked over to join Gabriella on the sun beds and Ashley and Vixie ran after them, drying of quickly in the hot afternoon Albuquerque sun.
A wicked smile suddenly spread across Troy's features as he looked over to his wife, who was currently lounging on a sun bed talking to Taylor and Kelsi.
He slowly crept out of the pool, putting his finger to his lips to silence the giggling girls that were sat at the end of their mother's sun bed. The girls, seeing Troy's actions immediately put their hands over their mouths, in a hopeless attempt to stifle their giggles.
Gradually, Troy moved so that he was standing over Gabriella, blocking out her sun. He also leant over, so that he was dripping all over her dry form.
Suddenly she lifted off her glasses and glared at him.
"Trooooyyyyyy!!!" she whined, causing the others to laugh and Troy to smirk, "you're getting me all wet and you're blocking out my sun!"
Troy just laughed, "Well then let's see what we can do about that then." Without warning, Troy scooped Gabriella up and threw her over his shoulder, as she screamed at him to put her down and the rest of the gang tried to control their hysterics.
"Troy put me down now!" she yelled, thrashing about, struggling to get free.
Troy just laughed, "Not happening Ella, so you may as well stop trying." He finished grinning smugly.
Gabriella sighed and stopped struggling, "at least the views good from here."
The rest of the gang started to laugh harder as a cheeky grin spread over Troy's face and the girls scrunched up their faces, trying to work out what was so funny that their mom just said.
"Well for that comment Mrs. Bolton, I may just have to never let you down," Troy grinned, keeping a tight hold on Gabriella's legs as she started to wriggle again.
"Troooooooyyyyyyyy!!!" she whined again, causing a fresh peel of laughter to erupt from the gang and the girls.
Troy turned to his daughters, who were bent over with laughter and started to advance towards them, a plan forming in his mind.
However, the girls saw his shadow hovering over them and Ashley grabbed hold of her sister's hand, pulling her up as the two of them ran away from Troy and around the large garden, still giggling.
Troy laughed, giving them a few minutes head start, before taking off after them, Gabriella screaming louder than ever and now hitting the small of his back, to add to the affect.
Once he caught up with them, Troy easily scooped Ashley and Vixie up in his one spare arm and started to jog towards the pool.
"Troy don't you dare!" Gabriella screamed, wriggling again as Troy just laughed.
"Daddy no!" Ashley screeched as Troy kept progressing towards the pool.
Troy just grinned as he started to run full pelt and dove into the pool, his three girls screaming as he did so.
The gang were watching, shocked that Troy would risk something like that with his two daughters being so young. But Ashley was the first one to surface and started to tread water, grinning as her mom joined her on the surface, spitting out water and brushing her hair out of her eyes as she did so.
"That was so cool!" Ashley yelled, still grinning and treading water as she started to swim towards the steps as her dad and sister surfaced.
Gabriella glared at Troy, "Git." She said, but laughed as he drew her towards him and she wrapped her legs around his waist, giving him a quick peck on the lips, before swimming off after Ashley.
Troy chuckled, as her turned around to make sure that his younger daughter was ok.
Vixie grinned at him as she tread water, before swimming over to him and wrapping her small arms around his neck.
"Daddy," she giggled as Troy started to swim, taking a deep breath before Troy dived down under the water and laughing when he came back up near the steps, placing her on the side as she ran to Gabriella, to get her towel.
Troy smiled and climbed out of the pool, walking towards the sun bed that his family were currently occupying and taking his towel off Gabriella, before pulling Vixie onto his knee and smiling at her as she started to trace his mouth with her index finger, Gabriella did the same with Ashley, before leaning into Troy, all four Bolton's huddled in towels.
"What?" Gabriella asked, concerned as the whole gang stared at the family in shock.
"Nothing, nothing," Taylor started, but continued when Troy and Gabriella both rose their eyebrows, "it's just that the girls aren't even five yet and they can already swim better than a lot of adults."
Troy and Gabriella laughed. "The girls have been swimming before they could walk, one of the perks of being a baby in L.A., having the ocean right there," Troy explained to the gang, smiling as they nodded.
"So you were in L.A. then?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah we were, but can we talk about this later," Gabriella broke off as she saw Vixie yawn, "it's time that the girls went to bed I think somehow," she smiled as both girls started arguing with her. "No girls, bed now, but I promise that you can see everyone else in the morning, ok?" Gabriella asked, grinning as the gang also nodded along with her plan.
"Fine," Ashley huffed, "one thing though."
"What is it?" Troy asked cautiously, not liking where this was going.
"No bath," Vixie stated simply, crossing her arms and staring down both her parents.
Gabriella laughed, "fine then missy miss," she said, resting her forehead on Vixie's, causing her to giggle. Gabriella then scooped up Vixie from Troy's lap and took hold of Ashley's hand, leading them back towards the house as she smiled at the gang.
Everyone else took the opportunity to put their clothes back on over their swimsuits, before heading back to the house, Troy sprinting up the stairs to say goodnight to his girls, the rest of the gang following at a slower pace.
When they reached the girls room, they had to smile at what they saw, the family were all sat around, Ashley on Troy's knee, leaning into his chest, and Vixie the same on Gabriella as the adults leant against the wall, sat next to each other, their arms wrapped around their children, as they softly sang Everyday to them.
Vixie gave a soft snuffle and Gabriella smiled at her daughter, before picking her up and lying her in one of the beds. "Night baby girl," she whispered, kissing her on top of the head as Vixie reached her hand up to touch her mom's face, Gabriella smiled and moved to Ashley's side of the room as Troy moved over to Vixie.
Pretty soon, both parents had said goodnight to their children, kissing the infants softly as they did so. Moving towards the door, where their friends were still standing, Troy and Gabriella turned back toward their daughter.
"Night night Daddy," Ashley whispered as she rolled onto her side and clutched her blanket close to her, softly rubbing it between her fingers.
"Night Momma," Vixie murmured, rolling towards the wall and clutching her stuffed eeyore toy close to her, shutting her eyes.
"Night girls," both parents said at the same time as Gabriella switched of the light and Troy gently closed the door, ushering their friends back down the stairs.
Sat around the kitchen table, the adults all sipped on coffee, no one daring to talk as they all had to many questions.
"So…" Kelsi decided to be brave and start, "I don't want to seem mean or anything but how can you guys afford all of this stuff and this house? Cause from what Troy was saying earlier, you would never have been able to afford this, I mean you said that you were in a ting one bedroomed flat and now you guys are living in a six bedroomed house, complete with swimming pool and basketball court, did you rob a bank or something?"
Troy chuckled and Gabriella giggled, "No we didn't rob a bank Kelly," Gabriella started and Kelsi smiled at Gabriella's nickname for her, having missed it over the years.
"You guys have to understand, at one point, we were really desperate, but we really don't want to go into that right now," Troy continued from where his wife left off, "you see during my second year of online classes, and playing for the school team, to keep up with my scholarship, the L.A. Lakers came knocking."
Chad gasped and Ryan's mouth dropped as they turned to Troy, shocked, "Dude," Chad let out with a whistle as the others all laughed.
"Needless to say, Troy accepted their offer and quit his other two jobs, however we both continued with the online classes, as a back up," Gabriella continued, laughing slightly at the gangs expressions, "he used a false name of course, we still didn't want to risk being caught at that point."
"Dude I told you that there was something freakily familiar about that Zac Efron player," Ryan exclaimed, nudging Chad, who just nodded in shock.
Troy laughed, continuing, "Luckily for me I did really well and made the starting team within a couple of months, and I was still playing for them until about a month ago, when I busted my knee and I really can t play even half as good as what I used to, so I found out about the job going at East High, and after talking to Ella about it, we decided that it was about time that we came back home," he finished, with a small smile.
"Well I for one am really glad that you came back," Taylor smiled, hugging her two long lost friends.
"Me too, Tay, Me too," Gabriella smiled, "Now it's really late and I don't want you guys walking home at this time, so will you stay here? I mean it is thanks to you guys that the house is completely in order after all, if it was just Troy and I, we'd be sleeping on a blow up mattress in the front room," she laughed.
The gang grinned. "If you're sure that we won't be intruding Gabby, then I for one would love to stay," Kelsi said and the others nodded in agreement.
Eventually, they settled down to watch a movie, The Notebook, on Gabriella's insistence that that was the only one that she had unpacked so far, which Troy knew for a fact was a lie, but really didn't feel like arguing with her right now, so he just laughed and put it in the DVD player.
Halfway through the movie, Troy looked down to see Gabriella asleep on his chest and the rest of the gang nearly asleep, so he picked Gabriella bridal style and moved to switch off the movie ordering the rest up to bed.
After changing Gabriella and getting changed himself, Troy looked in on the girls, to see them fast asleep, Ashley holding her blanket lightly over her nose, with her other hand scrunched up in a ball around her comforter. Vixie on the other hand was still facing the wall, one arm still clutched firmly around her eeyore toy, her other thumb stuffed into her mouth. Troy smiled at his daughters, before softly closing the door and padding back up the hallway to his own room.
The next morning, Gabriella smiled at Taylor and Kelsi, the three of them were sat around her kitchen table, reminiscing and telling each other about their lives over the past five years, mainly Taylor and Kelsi filling Gabriella in about what had been happening in Albuquerque though as she wasn't ready to tell them all about her past yet.
Standing up, Gabriella looked back towards the other girls, "I'm just gonna go and see if I can find Ashley and Vixie, I haven't heard a peep from them all morning."
The other two nodded, "bring them back in here, they're so cute and we need to get to know them more," Taylor grinned as Kelsi nodded furiously.
Gabriella laughed, glad that her friends got on with her children, "I'll see what I can do, but I'm not promising anything, those girls have minds of their own and will not do what they don't want to do."
Gabriella left the room grinning as Taylor and Kelsi just laughed.
"They're just like their mother then!" Taylor yelled as she left, causing Gabriella to laugh harder and shake her head.
Walking into their front room, Gabriella rolled her eyes as she saw Troy, Chad and Ryan battling it out on the Xbox.
"Troy have you seen or heard from the girls at all today?" Gabriella questioned, starting to worry, as they weren't with Troy.
"No, I thought you were getting them up today, although now you say it, the house does sound too quiet," Troy said, concerned as he looked over his shoulder at Gabriella.
Gabriella laughed, "I thought you were getting them up, they'll still be in bed, considering that they take after their father when it comes to sleeping habits, I'll go get them now," she finished, still laughing as Troy stuck his tongue out at her and turned back around to his game, the other guys smiling as well as Gabriella headed up the stairs.
"Okay lazybones, it's time to wake up," she smiled as she opened the door to their room. "Ash, Vix, are you two awake?" she called as she walked into the girls' room.
Her happy expression quickly changed to one of pure horror as she took in the site before her. Toys were strewn all over the floor and pictures had been ripped from the walls. But most shockingly, two little beds were empty, the covers thrown off of them and the window was wide open, a rip running through the curtains.
Gabriella let out an ear splitting scream…
Hope you guys liked it, just some family fluff really, before the real drama starts to unfold, so review and tell me what you liked and what you didn't. Thanks for reading.