Troy stroked the chestnut, cascading curls lovingly and smiled at Gabriella. Gabriella smiled back and then laughed as Chad, Taylor, Kelsei, Jason, Sharpay and Ryan all ran up to them, panting heavily.

"Man you guys, I thought you teo were going to wait for us?" Jason gasped. Gabriella laughed again.

"We were but Troy got to impatient and left you guys hanging." She replied, nudging her boyfriend in the ribs. Troy glared playfully at her and rubbed his side.

"Whatever happened to 'we're all in this together'?" Ryan inquired, letting his sister lean on him. Troy smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry guys." He said, rubbing the back of his neck "I guess I got carried away."

"Well as long as we're pointing things out, Troy, because of you I have to get my manicure done all over again." Sharpay complained, "Do you know how much money that's going to cost?" Troy said nothing but when Gabriella caught his eye he sighed.

"Sorry Sharpay." He said obidiently, looking at Gabriella for her approval. She nodded and then grinned wickedly at him.

"C'mon lovebirds, let's get a move on." Chad broke in, disrupting their staring contest. Troy smiled and took Gabriella's hand before following his best friend down the path. The gang fell silent for a few minutes as they took in the beautiful scenary around them before they all jumped when Sharpay shrieked.

"EWW! THERE'S A BEE ON ME, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!" Ryan rushed to her rescue and swatted the insect away from his hysterical sister's head. Sharpay groaned and blushed a bright red when she realized what an idiot she had made of herself in front of her friends. "Why are we even going on this stupid nature walk anyway? Why can't we go to the mall?"

"I thought we agreed that a nature walk would be fun?" Taylor piped up from beside Kelsei.

"Yeah." Kelsei agreed.

"Besides I'm not scared of everything that moves." Taylor teased and then everyone stifled a laugh as Taylor screamed and ran into Chad's arms as Sharpay's bee buzzed around her head. "Chad." She whimpered. Chad smiled at his wife and then swatted the bug away.

"Oh yeah, real brave Taylor." Sharpay retorted her face still red. Taylor glared at her until Sharpay looked away and continued to stalk down the path, Ryan following her quickly. The others looked at each other and then continued down after Ryan and Sharpay.

"So how does it feel to be out of the hospital?" Chad asked Troy. Troy grinned at him.

"The best." He replied. He dropped behind others for a second and then came hurrying back with a flower, which he handed to Gabriella. She smiled and tucked it into her hair.

"You're to sweet." She whispered in thanks, so that only he could hear. Troy smiled and slipped his arm around her waist again.

"You're worth it." He replied, kissing her cheek when the others weren't looking. She smiled and then jumped as Taylor appeared beside her.

"Come on girlie, I wanna talk to you for a second." She said, yanking her away from Troy. Gabriella smiled apologetically at Troy and followed her best friend to where Sharpay and Kelsei were walking.

"So has he asked you yet?" Sharpay squealed, grabbing her friend's hand.

"No." Gabriella admitted.

"Well from the looks of it, he will pretty soon." Taylor said, with a jerk of her head in Troy's direction. Gabriella snuck a look at him and giggled when he winked at her. "See?" Taylor said, her voice triumphant. Gabriella sighed.

"Maybe, but I don't want to rush it. We're taking it slow." She said, defending Troy. Taylor smiled and nodded.

"Do you want him to ask you?" Kelsei asked, her tone a little bit accusive. Gabriella beamed and blushed a little.

"More than anything." She sqealed quietly. The three of the grinned at each other and then hurried to catch up with the others.

"What were you girls talking about?" Jason asked them. The three girls exchanged looks and giggled.

"Nothing." They chorused.

"Which is girl talk for ' We're not telling you'" Ryan finalized. The girls giggled again and then continued down the path into the woods. Troy returned to her side and stayed by her for the remainder of the walk. After Sharpay had complained for the fourth time they decided to go out for ice-cream instead, but Sharpay was buying. After ice cream everyone when their separate ways and Gabriella and Troy went home to the apartment.

"Hey mom!" Gabriella cried as they stepped through the door.

"Hi you two." Maria said, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Did you two have fun with the others?" Gabriella nodded and hugged the older woman.

"A lot. But tonight we're having a mother-daughter movie night, just the two of us." Gabriella informed her mother. Maria looked at Troy and then back to Gabriella.
"But what about Troy? We wouldn't want to exclude him." She asked.

"Oh I'm going over to Chad's to watch the game with him." Troy said before Gabriella could answer. Maria nodded and smiled.

"Alright, count me in." she told her daughter.

Later that night the two women sat on the couch with a pile of DVDs before them. On the table sat two bowls of chips and popcorn along with a box of tissues, seeing that they were watching dramas.

"So which one should we watch first?" Gabriella asked her mother.

"Hmmm…what about 'Smile'? I heard that was supposed to be a good movie." Maria suggested. Gabriella smiled and popped the DVD into the machine.

"Sounds good." She answered as the movie began to play. Three movies and two boxes of tissues later Troy came home from Chads house to discover the two women crying on the couch. Thinking something had happened he rushed over and kneeled before them.

"Brie, Maria, what happened?" he asked, his voice full of worry. Gabriella looked up from where she lay, slumped on a cushion and stared at him. Then she looked at her mother and the two of them began to laugh. Now it was Troys turn to stare and he did, only causing them to laugh harder. Between fits of laughter Gabriella choked out that they had just watched three dramas and all of them had be moving. Relieved that nothing had happened he rolled his eyes and got up, leaving the girls to clutch their stomachs from laughing so hard. "Girls." He muttered and went to the bedroom to read.