A/N High School Musical Settings and Characters all belong to Kenny Ortega and Disney. Any original characters and this story are copyright © 2011-2018 to Hopelessromanticgurl, all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

A/N Camp Rock Settings and Characters all belong to Matthew Diamond and the Disney. Any original characters and this story are copyright © 2011-2018 to Hopelessromanticgurl, all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Monday morning at school Troy was waiting for Gabriella by her locker. They had spoken over the weekend and Gabriella said things were good but never went into details. She sounded happy but Troy was still worried it was an act.

Gabriella came running down the hall with a huge smile on her face. She grabbed his hand as she ran past and started pulling him along with her. He laughed and ran with her. "Where are we going?"

"I have to show you something." she said.

"What is it?"

"Wait and see, come on!"

She continued to run until they arrived in the music room. She grabbed one of the guitars and held it the way Steve showed her and put her fingers in all the right places. Then softly started to strum. Troy smiled as he watched her play.

When she finished she smiled widely and spoke a mile a minute. "Steve taught me to play. I even let him touch my fingers to show me where to put them. I was scared but he was really gentle and promised he would stop if I asked him to. He was really silly and making jokes and then he got syrup on his face and made Mitchie and I laugh. He tickling Mitchie and I got scared but then he told me about a family rule that stop means stop no matter what and you have to stop as soon as the person says it and…and…"

Troy laughed. "Brie, take a breath."

She stopped and giggled.

"I'm glad you had such a good weekend with Steve. I'm glad he made you comfortable and feel safe."

Gabriella nodded. "I still don't want him to touch me or tickle me the way he does with Mitchie and I still don't want to be alone with him."

"That's ok. A few weeks ago you wouldn't have been able to be in the same room with him and now you're letting him touch your fingers to help teach you. That's huge."

Gabriella nodded. "It was fun…."

"I sense a but coming." Troy said.

"But…I really missed you."

Troy smiled. "I really missed you too." They shared a hug and kissed passionately. "I'm also very proud of you." Troy told her.

"I'm proud of me too." Gabriella smiled.

She was trusting Steve. Things could only get better from here.

After school Gabriella was sitting at the counter with Mitchie doing homework. Steve was next to Gabriella helping her with her homework.

There was a knock at the door. Connie stopped cooking to answer it.

It was Shelly again.

"Please come in." Connie said. "Everyone is in the kitchen."

"I'm going to have a quick look around first. Just ignore me." Shelly said. She started walking through the house. Connie went back to cooking.

Shelly walked into the kitchen and noticed Gabriella and Steve sitting together. Gabriella had musical book in front of her.

"Now this note here is called a treble clef." Steve said.

Gabriella giggled. "It looks like a pretzel."

"I guess it does, huh?" Steve laughed with her.

Shelly smiled. There was a big difference between what she had seen the first time she showed up. "Wow! This is amazing."

"Yeah. Gabriella has finally gained Steve's trust. She finally told us what it was that was causing her to fear him and the second we figured it out we worked hard to change it." Connie said walking over to her.

"Now that you mention it your husband does look different."

"He cut his hair and shaved his beard."

"He looks less like a cave man now."

"So uh…are you all finished?" Connie asked not likening her 'cave man' comment.

"Not yet. I need to have a word with Gabriella."

"OH. Of course. Gabriella, Honey, you have a visitor." Connie said walking over to her.

Gabriella looked up giggling. When she saw Shelly the color detained from her body. She let out a soft whimper. "No. Go away, please. I'm finally happy."

"Honey, all she wants to do is talk to you. She isn't taking you away." Connie said.

"Ok. Let's talk."

"Privately." Shelly said.

"It's ok, we can finish our lesson after dinner." Steve said.

"Promise?" Gabriella asked. "I don't want to lose our time."

Steve smiled. "I promise. I won't let us ruin our time. Go talk to Shelly."

Gabriella nodded and went to leave with Shelly and turned back to face Steve. "Stay close."

"Always."

Gabriella turned back around and followed Shelly into the other room.

They both sat down on the couch.

"Well, based off what I've seen I can see things have changed since we last spoke. You and Steve are close now?"

"Closer. I still don't like him touching me but I can be in the same room as him without freaking out."

"That's wonderful. What caused this change?"

"I finally told them what made me so scared of him and he changed it."

"Would it have anything to do with his hair cut and shaved beard."

"Yes. He did that for me."

"What else has happen?"

"They gave me space and let me be in control over a lot of things and they never pushed me into doing something I wasn't comfortable with."

"What does that mean?"

"Well I really wasn't settling in here well. I was having a hard time adjusting and my par…COnnie and Steve allowed me to stay with Troy, my boyfriend for a few weeks until I was comfortable to come back. Then they…"

"Wait, back up. Your parents allowed to live with your boyfriend for a few weeks?" Shelly asked.

"Yeah. "

"They allowed you to sleep under the same roof and in the same room as your boyfriend who you are dating?"

"Yeah but…"

"Hmmm…" Shelly wrote something down on her pad.

"No!" Gabriella cried. She ran out of the room.

She ran right back into the kitchen and into Connie's arms. She cried and clung tightly to her shirt. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! No! I'm so sorry!"

"Honey, what's wrong. Hey, calm down. What's going on?" Connie asked rubbing her back.

Shelly walked in.

"What did you say to her?" Steve asked with a small growl.

"Nothing. But she told me quite an interesting story about you allowing her to live with her boyfriend for a few weeks."

"It's not a story. We did."

"You did?"'

"Yes. Gabriella needed some time to get her thoughts together and get comfortable enough to share her fears with us and being with her boyfriend helped her do that. So we allowed her to stay. We were in contact with the boys parents the entire time. She slept in the spare bedroom and the bedroom doors were always opened. They showered and dressed in different bathrooms."

"Maybe that's what you were told, but how can you be it is all true?"

"We trust our daughter and his family and our daughters boyfriend."

"Maybe so but do you really believe it was wise to allow her to have that much control over the situation. If she wasn't settling in the right away you could have punished her instead of rewarding her with time with her boyfriend."

"You are here to make sure Gabriella is safe, well taken care of, and happy. You are not here to tell us how to raise our children." Connie said. "We dealt with Gabriella the way we felt best. It did end up working out for the best because that time with her boyfriend gave her the confidence to come tell us what's been making her so scared of Steve. We do not regret it and we would do it again." Connie said.

"Hmm, well…I will be back again. This is your last chance to get it right. Otherwise I will be taking Gabriella with me."

"NO!" Gabriella screamed.

Shelly left and Gabriella cried. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to get you in trouble! I'll never say that again. I'm sorry!"

"Oh Honey, no, this is not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. We're not mad at you. Everything will be ok." Connie said rubbing her back.

She looked to Steve with worry. They knew they did nothing wrong but if Shelly found one more thing wrong she was going to take Gabriella away from them…for good.

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