Chapter 10-

Walking into the small dinner right away it was clear to Elizabeth that mainly teenagers hung out there and the owners were big on East High spirit. She was greeted with banners and signs wishing the teams good luck with their seasons and past ones hung on the wall. She followed Ryan to a back room while Troy and Gabriella were behind them. Gabriella having a feeling before they pulled out of the drive way that they were going to meet the gang so she ran back to her room to grab the gifts for them. Ryan pushed the swinging door open only to have six people jump up from their chairs and yell "Welcome home!" She turned to see her cousin smile and set her gifs down and run over to the three girls. "Oh my god, I missed you guys so much!" Gabriella says hugging a tall blonde. "We missed you too Gabs." the shortest girl of the group dressed in gray and white plaid shorts and a matching gray t-shirt with a pink, blue and purple beautify taking up the side of the front, said. Her green eyes and light brown hair caught Elizabeth's attention. "Seriously chicky, I'm so glad you're home." the blonde clad in a short light jean mini skirt and a white t shirt with "Luck has nothing to do to with it" written in bold blue letters and "when you're HOT!" written in pink letters. Elizabeth was pretty sure that she was Sharpay, given the information that Gabriella had told her and Sharpay's self confidence level.

"You guys are great seriously. You have no idea how much I..." Gabriella said as a guys with floppy dark brown hair dressed in dark blue plaid shorts and a matching dark blue t-shirt from American Eagle snuck up behind her and wrapped her arms tightly around her waist and lifted her off of the ground. "Oh god! Jason!!" Gabriella squealed as he spun her around.

"Wow Troy and here we thought you were the only one that made Gabbie squeal." a African American girl dressed in tight jeans and a brown t-shirt with "Beauty" written in baby blue "with" printed in half baby blue and half baby pink and "Brains" written in baby pink, said smirking at Troy from her spot by the table.

"Shut up Taylor." Troy said as tossed his arm over Lizzy's shoulder and led her over to the group.

"They won't bite, I promise." he whispered in her ear.

"Thanks for the warning." Elizabeth said smiling at him. Sure she had technically just met the boy, but they had talked a couple of times on the phone and she enjoyed teasing him. He seemed harmless and met a lot to her cousin so she was gonna make a point to get along with him. Even though she still thought Gabriella scared herself for the boy.

"You must be Elizabeth." the boy in khaki shorts and a hunter green A & F CC t-shirt with a white t-shirt on under it and a crazy afro said holding out his hand. "I'm Chad." he said as she shook his hand.

"Lizzy." she said smiling at him before another African American guy dressed in light blues jeans and a long sleeve American Eagle shirt.

"Zeke." he introduced himself with a friendly smile. Elizabeth returned the smile.

"Okay Lizzy this is Jason." Gabrilla said pointing to the boy that had picked her up. "Taylor," she moved onto the African American girl. "Kelsi." Gabriella said as the girl clad in shorts waved at her. "And the one and only Sharpay." she said wrapping an arm around the blonde.

"But of course." Sharpay said. "Oh she's fabulous Gabs." Sharpay said walking over to Lizzy and held her at arms length.

"Don't scare her off Shar." Ryan said wrapping an arm around Lizzy, pulling her closer to his side when Troy moved over to Gabriella.

"Shut up Ryan. I'm just stating the truth." Sharpay said to her brother.

"Um... thanks." Lizzy said unsure of herself.

"So Gabster you had lots of bags when you walked in..." Chad trailed off as he smiled at Gabriella.

"Chad Danforth she just got back can't she have five minutes without you being...well you?" Kelsi asked.

"She's had twenty." Chad said glaring at Kelsi before turning back to Gabriella who had been moved to Troy's lap when he sat down in a chair. "So where's my presents Gabster?" he asked smiling at her.

"I need my bags." she said and laughed with Troy, Ryan, and the four girls as Zeke, Chad, and Jason pretty much fell over each other to get the bags.

"Geez you would think the were little kids on their birthdays." Taylor laughed as she sat down next to Kelsi. A waitress came in with a tray full of seasoned fries, cheese fries, cheese sticks, mini hamburgers, and other finger foods along with ten glasses and a pitcher of Mt. Dew and cheery coke. "Thank you." She said to the waitress then turned to Lizzy. "Hope you like greasy finger foods"

"Yeah it's cool." Lizzy said pouring Troy, Gabriella and herself a glass of cherry coke.

"Good because we eat them way to much for our own good." Kelsi said reaching for a cheese stick. Lizzy just giggled which turned into laughter with everyone else when the three boys finally stopped shoving each other and brought the bags over to Gabriella.

"Okay. You all have to wait to open them at the same time. That being said here is Taylor's." Gabriella said handing her purple and white gift bag with matching gift tissue. "Ryan." she said handing him a lime green and black gift bag with the same color gift tissue. "Kels." she said leaning of the table to had the bight gift bag with musical notes to her favorite composer. "Jason" she said smiling at him and giving him the first of four gift bags decked out in Knicks. "Zeke" giving away the second. "Chad." she said and giggled when he lit up like a little kid on Christmas. "Shar." she said handing the blonde the sparkly pink bag that reminded her of a Victoria's secret bag minus the logo and a ton of sparkles. She stood up from Troy's lap and set the biggest of the four Knicks bags in her place. "But I thought..." he trailed off as she just smiled at him and shook her head no, indicating that the presents that her found back at the house weren't his only gifts. Gabriella sat on Lizzy knees as her seven friends looked at her. "You all can open them now." she said before reaching for a seasoned fry. She smiled as the each opened their bags and took the paper out. Chad was the first to jump up and hug her after he saw his gifts.

"You're great Gabster. Thanks so much." he said as he shook his Stephon Marbury bobble head and Jason did the same with his Zach Randolph and Zeke copied their actions with his own Jamal Crawford. The three boys hugged her before placing their gifts back in the bags.

"Dude these m-n-ms have our numbers on them." Jason said looking at his.

"Aw Ella I needed a new note book. Thanks so much and it's Wickied. You're so sweet." Kelsi said smiling over at her. Everyone took turns thanking her except Troy who had been quite the whole time that everyone was all right. Everyone turned to him expecting him to be thanking her by now.

"Are you fucking serious?" Chad asked astonished at the pile in Troy's lap and the jersey in his hands. "Dude..." Jason trailed off with his own wide eyes. "Please tell me I got the right player." Gabriella said looking at him. Troy lowered the Nate Robinson jersery and laid it on top of the shorts, t-shirt, and hoodie, and smiled at her. Seeing his smile she sighed to herself and stood from Lizzy's knees and moved to his side. "You like them?" she asked eyeing the clothing in his lap as well as the basketball and m-n-ms.

He quickly picked up the clothing, pulled her down to his lap and laid them over her lap and kissed her. "I love everything. Thank you." he said against his lips.

Everyone quickly packed everything back in their bags after thanking Gabriella again. Hours later Elizabeth smiled to herself as she looked around. SHe learned very quickly who was with who as well as who each person's role was in the group. Chad and Taylor where the two that you would never normally even think of going out, yet they some how made their relationship work, as far as she could tell. They were also the loyal sidekicks of Troy and Gabriella. She had found out that Chad had been bestfriends with Troy since preschool. Taylor was the first person to welcome Gabriella to East High, well first person after Troy. Both had also stuck with Gabriella when Troy went tempoarly insane the past summer. As far as she could tell Chad had really came to cosider Gabriella a close friend, not just his best friend's girl. Sharpay and Zeke were ardorably cute in their own way, you could tell that he tried to make her happy and be a better person for her every second of every day, but she was competely happy with him just they way he was. Sharpay was crealy the drama queen that loved to be the center of attention. While Zeke was happy being in the background when with his friends, but loved to be known for his cooking and baking. She had learned this past week that it wasn't untill this school year that Sharpay and Gabriella could really stand to be in the same room on their own free will. Whilelist Zeke had quickly welcomed Gabriella into his life after the champion game the year before. He also was the one that Gabriella had spent most of her time with the past summer, besides Ryan. It was actually Ryan and Zeke who had snuck away from Lava Springs on the day of the talent show and came to her house to convince her to sing with Troy. Zeke was the one that Gabriella had asked over a few days after she quit and asked him to give Troy his stuff back. Gabriella had told Elizabth that he refused and was the only who had enough guts to tell Gabriella that she really needed to think about what she was doing. Kelsi and Jason were the shy couple of the group but you could tell by the looks that they gave each other. Jason the goofy dope of the group that they all loved. Kelsi the quiet one who was conestly writing new songs. And finally her cousin and Troy. Elizabeth couldn't help but to grin at them. No one could tell that they haven't even been together for a year yet when looking at them. The constant smiles, hand squeezes, and soft wishpers from Troy followed by a giggle from Gabriella, gave off the vibe that they had been together for awhile now. THe fact that her cousin had found someone that made her competly happy, rested Elizabeth's mind. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and smiled as Troy pulled Gabriella away from her chair where she had been talking to the girls and onto his lap, for the...she had lost count how many times he had done it now. He slipped his left hand under Gabriella's t-shirt and she could make out his fingers tracing the tattoo under the shirt, while his right hand rested itself on her thigh. He smiled at Gabriella as she leaned and kissed him noticing his smile grow she could only guess that he was enjoying her cousin's tounge ring.

"I told you that they would be a thousand times worse when they saw each other." Ryan said standing next to each other.

She smiled turning to him. "Nah, it's good to see Gabs so happy after everything she's been though she needs to be happy. Plus this way I'm not totally scared that I'm gonna walk in on phone sex like I was when she would disappear when he called and Aunt Cole sent me to go get her when we were back home." she said with a small laugh.

"No now you may walk in on something worse." Ryan said laughing with her.

"Shut up Ryan." she laughed then looked into his gorgeous baby blue eyes. She had to admit although Gabriella said Troy had the best eyes, Elizabeth thought Ryan's blew his out of the water.

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