UPDATEEEEE:)

Chapter 7: Rehearsals and Mass Sleepovers.

It had been a few weeks since Gabriella was sick. Things between her and Troy are just as complicated as ever. They are practicing more and more for the musical since it is coming very soon. But they haven't gotten anything but praise from Ms. Darbus or the rest of the cast, who had joined them for practices. The whole thing was really coming together.

Sharpay and Gabriella were sitting in the red theatre seats watching the scene that was currently being rehearsed. Troy and Ryan were the two characters in the scene.

"Hey Gabs, want to go out for coffee after this, I could really use some!" Sharpay leaned over and whispered to her. They had to be very careful about talking during a scene. Ms. Darbus hated it.

Gabriella liked that idea. "Sure, let's drag the guys along." She replied, referring to Ryan, Troy and Kelsi. Going out after practice seemed to be a routine for them. They were always exhausted after a long day.

"Awesome." Sharpay turned back to watching the scene. One of the background people had done something wrong and was being corrected. Troy and ryan were laughing about something.

Gabriella felt her phone vibrate in her bag. She had turned it on silent just in case. Making sure Ms. Darbus was pre-occupied, she slipped it out and read the message.

Hey, about tomorrow.

I'll pick you up at 1:00.

-Ben

She replied with a simple 'sounds good and shut her phone, biting her lip as she put it away. His message made her a little nervous because of what it was about. He'd invited her to come meet his family. They had lunch every once and a while. She had said yes simply because she couldn't say no to that. It was sweet knowing he wanted them to meet her.

"Alright that's enough of that for now." Ms. Darbus said, brining Gabriella back to the present. "Montez, Evans, let's give the boys a break and do your scene."

Gabriella and Sharpay obediently got up, making their way to the stage steps.

Troy met Gabby on his way down. "How'd I do?" he asked with a smile.

Gabriella smiled and gave him thumbs up. "Great." She told him, even though she had been clued out for the past few minutes. "We're going out fro coffee after this." She informed him.

"Sounds good to me." He shrugged and smiled at her. She smiled back.

"We don't have all day people." Gabriella jumped when Ms. Darbus called out. Troy tried not to laugh as she scurried up the stairs and joined Sharpay, who just shook her head.

"Someone distracting you?" she whispered over to Gabby.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She shook her head. When she glanced out at the sea of chairs, she saw Troy and Ryan settling into the front row.

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After another hour of rehearsal, they had gotten through most of the play and were all desperately in need of the coffee that was on their minds. Finally Ms. Darbus told them to have a good weekend, and that she would see them on Monday.

"Did that seem to stretch on for about ten years to anyone else?" Troy complained when the five of them were all sitting in the café with cookies, pastries and coffees.

Kelsi shrugged. "It's worse for you guys I guess. I just have to play piano for hours. God I wish I could get those songs out of my head." She laughed.

Gabriella smiled. "I think it's going to be really good though when we're done."

"Definitely." Sharpay agreed, sipping at her coffee. "Someone's tired." Nodded over to Troy, who was now leaning on his hand with his eyes closed. Gabriella giggled.

He opened his eyes and glared at them both. "Hey at least you don't have basketball and rehearsals." He told them.

"Good point." Gabby shrugged.

"Hey how about we have like a huge movie marathon tomorrow. We can start after breakfast and go all day." Sharpay said excitedly. "Everyone can sleep over, we have enough room right Ryan?"

"Yeah. Tons." He nodded. "And our parents are gone so we can have the house to ourselves.

"Well sounds good but I'm busy tomorrow." Troy informed them "What about if we started in the afternoon?"

"Yeah I don't know if I could go the whole day either. But afternoon sounds good."

"That's fine. I'll invite the rest of the gang too." Sharpay said happily. She was already excited. All of them in one house for the night? Something was definitely going to happen.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The next day, Gabby had woken up and showered. She'd put on a nice sundress and make up. She let her hair dry like she normally did, in it's big, loose curls. Then she'd waited for Ben, and he'd come just on time like he always did. The club where they were going for lunch wasn't far from her house It had only taken a few minutes to get there.

"Hey go ahead, I'm going to park." Ben told Gabriella as he pulled up in front of the country club.

"I can walk with you." She told him with a smile. She thought it was cute though how he had offered.

Ben just looked at her. "In those shoes?" he asked, and watched as she looked down at her navy blue heels.

"Okay you have a point." She rolled her eyes and reached for the door.

"See you in a few minutes." Ben told her, watching her get out of the car and make her way up the stairs.

Gabriella had never been here before in the little time that she had lived in Albuquerque, and was quite impressed as she went through the glass doors at the entrance. She knew a few of her friend's families came here a lot. Troy had told her about it and promised he'd bring her some day. Now he wouldn't have to.

She felt a little rumble in her stomach and realized that she was both nervous and hungry at the same time. She was meeting her boyfriend's family. She couldn't really believe it because this had never happened before.

As she looked around the nice foyer, she felt more and more nervous. A slight breeze came over her when the door opened and she turned to see if it was Ben coming through it. She was shocked to see someone who she hadn't expected at all.

"Gabby?" Apparently he had seen her first.

"Hey Troy. What are you doing here?" she asked her friend.

"I'm having lunch with my parents. We do it every once and a while to stay connected." He nudged his head back towards his parents, who had apparently been sitting on one of the couches, having an intense discussion about something and hadn't noticed their son's friend. "Mom, Dad, I'm here." He called to them and they both snapped their heads towards their son. They came over and greeted him happily. Gabriella stood awkwardly to the side, wondering what was taking Ben so long.

"Gabriella!" she heard Troy's mom's happy voice suddenly. "How are you dear?"

"I'm fine thanks." She responded politely.

"Troy you didn't tell us you were bringing a friend." Diane turned back to her son. "Not that we mind, Gabriella." She added to the girl.

Troy needed to clear this up "Actually mom I didn't bring…"

He was interrupted when door opened again. "Hey guy's, I see you've met my girlfriend." Ben said happily and watched as the four people's faces in front of him turned to shock.