Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 7: Basketball and the New Designer Top
"This is Carey Knight, she's a social service agent." Lucy introduced Mrs. Knight formally to Julie and Jim Green.
"This is absurd, it must somehow be against the law!" Julie raged.
"On the contrary, my dear," Mrs. Knight began in her distinguished tone, "it's completely legal, in fact, this is often how social service agents find out their information." She smiled as she saw Gabby watching in fascination at the scene playing out in the back of the store. "Excuse me for one moment. I have some teens I need to meet." With that Mrs. Knight waltzed into the store. When she entered she was met by a very confused Gabriella.
"You're a social service agent Mrs. Knight?" Gabby asked
Mrs. Knight nodded, "Can I meet your friends Gabriella?" She asked politely. Gabby nodded slightly embarrassed that she hadn't immediately done that.
One by one Gabby introduced each of her friends that Mrs. Knight had actually heard a lot about during their coffee chat. "Troy Bolton" She confirmed, "Yes, I've heard nothing but wonderful things about you." This caused Gabby to blush and Troy to smirk.
"Don't let your ego get the best of you Troy, just because I'm polite enough to say nice things about you." Gabby teased Troy, knowing that he would react.
"Why Miss Montez," Troy feigned hurt, "I'm shocked that you would think me capable of something so horrible."
Gabby laughed and said, "You're way too cocky for your own good Mr. Bolton." She copied his accent. Troy laughed and wrapped his strong, tanned arms around Gabby's waist, pulling her close.
"G-d, I love you so much Ella. Despite your sense of humor." He laughed
"Well, I love you to Troy, but are you sure you don't love me because of my sense of humor?" She questioned him in such a way that he laughed even harder than before, causing Gabby to giggle.
Finally, Mrs. Knight made her way to the back of the store, "We've already set a trial date. It's in two weeks. I suggest you find a very good attorney, because technically you are still breaking child labor laws by forcing her to work. Even though it is a family business, come on, she's a teenager who should have a life. And the way you treat her is absolutely horrific. It's borderline verbal abuse." She scolded Julie.
"We'll be remaining in town for the next two weeks. All of us, the kids have permission to miss school. They want to see Gabby through all of this." Lucy said smiling proudly at how amazingly supportive her son and his friends were of a girl they hadn't even known that long.
For the next two weeks the friends all attended Citrus County High, Gabby's school. Unfortunately that had been part of the deal; they still had to go to school. They also had to keep up with their schoolwork. What they found was that CCH was extremely easy. Troy, Martha and Taylor had the same schedule as Gabby. Sharpay, Kelsi, and Ryan nearly had the same schedule, except where she had A.P. Physics, they had drama. And Jason and Chad had some classes with the rest of the gang, but they weren't in all of the advanced classes.
The days were long and boring, but the gang was so happy that they were together. If they were lucky they would be together at East High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico in a few weeks time!
They spent their afternoons at the store, they all helped sell, which really aggravated Julie: "There are too many people here, you all shouldn't be here because you are not apart of this family! I want you all gone, you do nothing but distract Gabriella, who needs to earn her keep with us!" She raged at them.
"Well, we're staying with her!" Sharpay yelled, just as aggressive as Julie. Gabby simply whimpered in the background and sunk into Troy's arms. She hated this yelling, it reminded her of her dad's yelling, which ultimately resulted in him hitting her.
As she thought about this while Julie continued to fight with all her friends except for Troy, who held her comfortingly, Gabby's breath began to become shorter and shorter. Soon it was becoming harder for her to breath. She began to hyperventilating thinking about her father beating her senseless every night.
Troy began to panic as his girlfriend was hyperventilating. Troy lifted her head so that she was looking him in the eyes. "Ella" he said, trying to grasp her attention, "I want you to look at me in the eyes baby." She began to struggle, unaware that it was Troy.
"Troy" She gasped out, still trying to wriggle out of his grasp, only in search of him. "Troy!" She choked out again, by this time everyone had gone quiet and was watching in a quiet fear for Gabby.
Troy tightly grabbed Gabby and again tilted her head so that she could look him in the eyes. "Ella, baby it's me. It's Troy, you're okay, I need you to look at me in the eyes." Surprisingly enough, she registered that it was Troy and looked at him in the eyes. Her breath was becoming more and more sparse. Troy was beginning to panic even more so. "Ella, I want you to breathe." With that Troy began taking deep breaths trying to encourage Gabby to do the same. To his luck, Gabby began to take some deep breaths, all the while looking at Troy in the eyes. "That's it baby girl, just keep breathing. It's going to be okay sweetie. He's not going to hurt you ever again. No one is. I'm here, we're all here with you." Finally, Gabby's breathing became normal as she collapsed into Troy's arms sobbing hysterically. She couldn't stop the tears and the shaking. Troy just held her tight, rubbing soothing circles on her back until her crying subsided into sniffles, which soon subsided into silence, as Troy still held her.
The entire time the gang simply watched. Troy was able to get her to quiet down, which was a true feat.. Especially when someone was hyperventilating that badly. Sharpay ran over and engulfed Gabby and Troy in a hug. Gabby slowly pulled out of Troy's grasp and moved into Sharpay's arms, letting her rock her. "Boo, it's all good now. We're all here for you. How about you stay in Kelsi's room and mine tonight. A slumber party. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Gabby had to laugh at Pay's giddiness. She was always so cheerful, that's why Gabby loved her though.
"Yea, Pay, that does sound like fun. That is if it's okay with you Aunt Julie." She turned to face her, very angry aunt.
To everyone's surprise Julie mumbled, "Fine." And stomped out of the room. The gang cheered, happy that they had won their case for the night.
"We can leave Gill at grandma's for the night, I really don't want to leave her alone at home." Gabby sighed, looking at her precious dog.
"Walter really misses Gilligan. I think they became extremely close the short time they were together." Troy said, also looking at the sleek black dog. Gabby nodded her agreement and went to get her keys so she could grab clothes from home before heading out to the hotel with her friends.
After Troy and Gabby dropped Gill off at her grandma's house they met everyone at the hotel. "Let's go get a really yummy dinner!" Chad suggested.
"I'm glad that you think about things other than food now." Gabby replied sarcastically.
"That hurts Hot Stuff, it really hurts." Chad replied dramatically as he clutched his heart. Causing all of his friends to double over laughing.
"You really should save the drama for Shar and Ry." Taylor said as she patted Chad on the Afro. She was the only one aloud to touch it, and it was just because they were dating. Everyone laughed and agreed that Shar and Ry should be the only overly dramatic people in the family!
As they left the hotel Gabby couldn't help how happy she felt. She just knew that in two weeks she'd be packing her bags to move permanently to Albuquerque with her new family. She also knew that she'd be getting a better education and would be attending UCLA in the fall of next year. Her life would finally come together.
When they arrived at the Ruby Tuesday's, which was new in town, they went in to find it very dead on this Friday night. When they sat down they ordered and began to be the loud obnoxious teenagers that everyone in Inverness hated, but everyone in any other city would find normal. Chad and Jason had a mini food fight, which was promptly stopped by Ryan when a little bit of some sauce got on his favorite blue hat.
"You really should take that off baby." Martha lightly scolded, "It's not very polite because we're inside." Ryan nodded reluctantly and removed his hat. This was one of the few times Gabby had seen Ryan without a hat, and she realized she liked him better with one on. His personality was really magnified with the hat on, and she liked that about him.
The friends at and had a good time. Finally it was time to order dessert. When it came Chad and Troy began to argue over which was a better NBA team, the Lakers or the Knicks.
"Chad, the Lakers will beat the Knicks this year, hands down."
"No way Troy," Chad yelled, loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear, "The Knicks will kick their butts. No questions asked."
"Guys," Gabby warned, "You're getting really loud…" Suddenly a piece of ice cream flew across the table. Troy ducked out of the way and it hit Sharpay square in the chest.
Sharpay let out an ear-shattering scream. "Chadwick Scott Danforth. You are so dead. How dare you throw ice cream at me and my NEW DESIGNER top. You will pay for this, and I don't mean in money, I mean in PAIN!" She yelled.
The manager of the Ruby Tuesday's came out to see what the commotion was about. We he found out that Chad had thrown food at another customer he swiftly demanded the bill be paid and that the friends leave the restaurant. As they got in the cars they laughed at the manager's face and how mad all the old people were. One thing was true, tonight's sleepover was going to be fun, but it was going to be a long night. They were going to be exhausted tomorrow, at least it would be Saturday.
AN: Read and Review
Mollie XOXO
