"So, this is our last day of school before the weekend," Troy commented the next morning as he got into his truck along with Gabriella so that they could go to school.

"Yeah. Though I'm not that happy because it means that school's ending very soon and I'll have to leave your house after that happens," Gabriella told Troy.

"I'll come to visit you every weekend until I move down there for college. That would be good, right? I could come Friday evenings and leave Sunday afternoons."

"Would you be going on a plane?"

"Yeah. I don't think my car would be strong enough to drive that long distance every weekend. And anyway, if I take a plane, we'll have more time together than we would if I drove."

Gabriella smiled. "That sounds great. And can I call you every day you're not with me? I've never been away from you for longer than twenty-four hours. I at least have to talk to you daily, even if I can't see you."

"Oh, of course you can call me. I wanna talk to you every day, too. I'm really gonna miss you not being around."

"Do you wanna go somewhere tonight?" Troy wondered after school was over and both him and Gabriella were back at his house.

"Sure," Gabriella answered.

"Where do you wanna go?"

"It's up to you."

"Well, I was thinking that we could go out to dinner tonight and then either go somewhere else or, if you would be too tired after that, we could come back here, get ready for bed early, then cuddle under the covers on my bed and watch a movie."

"Even if I'm not tired, could we still come back here after dinner? Cuddling is sounding really nice to me right now."

"Yeah, we can." Troy then leaned over and gave Gabriella, who was right next to him, a kiss on the cheek.

Gabriella blushed slightly.

Troy smiled. In his opinion, he thought it was adorable when Gabriella blushed.

"Where are we going for dinner tonight?"

"I was thinking we could try that one restaurant near school."

"Do you think it would be alright if I just kept this dress on?" Gabriella questioned, referring to the blue-green dress she was wearing at the moment.

Troy nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"I didn't know if it would look too dressy for a casual restaurant or not."

That evening, Troy and Gabriella were eating dinner on their date.

"Did I tell you yet that you look beautiful?" Troy said to his girlfriend.

"Not today, but other days," came Gabriella's reply.

Troy smiled and reached across the table so that he could take Gabriella's hand in his own. Beginning to stroke it with his fingers, he commented, "Your skin is so soft."

"Thanks," Gabriella responded. "And now I think we should finish eating because I'm really anxious to cuddle up with you. Not that I'm having no fun here or anything, but I'm just tired."

"I understand. And I'll concentrate on eating now. Maybe we can get some dessert to take home with us and eat either during the movie we're gonna watch or tomorrow after lunch or dinner."

"That sounds good."

Troy and Gabriella climbed under the covers of Troy's bed and snuggled up to each other. Troy had just put a movie in the DVD player that was in his room.

"I wonder why we didn't think of doing this before you started staying at my house," Troy spoke.

"We didn't think of doing what?"

"Cuddling."

"We've cuddled before, Troy."

Troy thought for a minute. "Yeah, I guess we did," he decided. "But it didn't happen nearly enough."

Gabriella looked at Troy for a minute, then kissed his cheek.

Troy returned Gabriella's kiss by placing one on her cheek, then her lips. "Kisses are another thing we don't give that much," he commented.

Gabriella kissed Troy back. "I know. But believe me, your kisses are amazing."

"So are yours. You were the first girl I ever kissed, and I never wanna kiss any others."

"Same with me."

"You know, we're not even watching the movie."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

At that moment, the sound of pouring rain was heard.

"It just started pouring out," Troy announced after quickly glancing out his window. "The weather was fine a second ago. This is why I hate spring sometimes."

"Maybe it'll stop soon," Gabriella suggested.

"Hopefully."

As Troy finished speaking, a loud clap of thunder was heard. After that, the electricity went out.

Gabriella pressed closer against Troy. "I hate when the power goes out."

"Me, too," Troy agreed. "But I know what we should do. Just stay here until it comes back on. I don't think it would be very safe to try to walk around when everything's dark."

"I don't, either."

"So, do you wanna talk about something?"

"Like what?"

Troy shrugged. "I don't know. We could talk about anything, really."

"Can I tell you secrets about myself?"

"Of course, if you wanna."

"Alright. Well, first of all, I used to have glasses when I was in elementary and middle school."

"Aw. I'm sure you were a cute little girl."

"Not really. Everyone made fun of me. So then I got contacts in high school and I still wear them now. I don't have them in right now, though, because my sight's not that bad. It's a mild problem, but still, at school if I didn't use either glasses or contacts, I wouldn't be able to see the whiteboard right."

"Do you still have a pair of glasses?"

"Yeah. Just in case something happens to my contacts. Though I doubt if I would actually wear the glasses. I'd probably just stick with not being able to see perfectly for a couple weeks."

"I'm sure you would look beautiful with them, though. Just as beautiful as you do without."

Gabriella blushed. "Well, the glasses look super nerdy. Not like Kelsi's look-mine just look really look bad."

"I'm sure they don't. And now it's my turn to tell you a secret."

"What's your secret?"

"I've always wanted to be taller. That is, I did until I decided not to be a professional basketball player."

Gabriella giggled. "You didn't wanna be a giant, did you?"

"I wanted to be six feet and eight inches."

"Wildcat, that's so tall! If you were that height, I wouldn't even be up to your shoulder when we would stand next to one another!"

"I know. Well, I abandoned that wish now, so we don't need to worry about it."

Just then, the lights came back on.

"Oh, look, we have light again," Troy remarked.

"I'm so glad! I thought it was gonna be out for hours!"

That night, around eleven-thirty, a half hour after Troy and Gabriella had fallen asleep, Gabriella's eyes opened and tears began to fall from her eyes. She had just had a bad dream. Snuggling close to Troy for comfort, she buried her face deep into his chest and gripped him tightly, not wanting to let go at all.

"Gabriella?" Troy groaned sleepily as he woke up from his girlfriend's actions.

"T-Troy," Gabriella whimpered.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" Troy asked, getting into a sitting position, then pulling Gabriella onto his lap and hugging her small body close to his.

"I-I h-had a b-bad d-dream. S-Sometimes t-this h-happens t-to me. I-I k-know. I-It's b-babyish."

Troy took his thumb and began wiping his girlfriend's tears off her face. "It's okay," he soothed softly. "And it's not babyish to have bad dreams. It happens to everyone once in a while."

Gabriella, still crying a little bit, laid her cheek on Troy's shoulder. "T-This is e-embarrassing."

"It's alright. Being scared isn't something to be ashamed of. Though still, I promise I won't tell anyone about this. And just to let you know, I'm really enjoying trying to comfort you."

Gabriella managed to smile. "Are you sure you're not annoyed?"

"Let me tell you something. You're sweet, you're adorable, and you're living here-with me-for a couple weeks. It's my job to take care of you and protect you; I like it, too. A lot."

"I don't wanna go back to sleep. I'm scared to."

"I have an idea," Troy began.

"What?"

"I promise I'll hug you as tight as I can and you can hug me back while we try to sleep again. Would that make you feel a little better? If you knew I was right with you?"

Gabriella nodded.

Troy gently moved Gabriella off of his lap, lying her down next to him before lying down himself.

Gabriella got close to Troy, wrapping both her arms around him tightly.

Troy returned Gabriella's hug, then kissed her forehead. "Do you think you're gonna be okay?"

"I think so."

Troy pressed another kiss onto his girlfriend's face. "Okay, well then let's try to get some rest. And if you get scared again and I'm asleep, please wake me up."

"Are you sure? I don't wanna disturb you."

"Tomorrow's Saturday. We can sleep as late as we want. So if you do need to wake me up, I wouldn't be losing any sleep, because I can just sleep in tomorrow."

"Okay. I will."

"Great. Now just one more thing I wanna say to you."

"What?"

"I lo-"

A knock at Troy's door interrupted what he was about to say.

"Who is it?" Troy questioned, annoyed.

"It's me," replied Jack. "You need to stop talking. It's late and your mother and I are trying to sleep. So if you could stop talking, that would be great."

"Okay," Troy acknowledged, rolling his eyes a little. Then, looking at Gabriella, he whispered, "Good night."

"Good night," Gabriella returned.

Just in case you're wondering why I'm updating this before HSM8, it's because I got ideas for this, and my chapter for HSM8 is really long. Also, I'm getting a little stuck with HSM8...but it'll be out ASAP.