A/N: Sorry It took so long to update again but my Internet went down so I couldn't get on to post it. Thanks once again for the fantastic comments. Here's chapter 10
Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical.
Chapter 10(Sunday)
Today they had a free day and could do whatever they pleased. During the night, Troy had moved his sleeping bag closer to Gabriella so when she woke up she came quite literally face to face with Troy. They exchanged a hug with each other before getting up. All the gang woke up about 8.30am, as there was no basketball practise for the boys either. They had all got up and dressed and were now outside at one of the picnic benches.
"So what are we doing today?" Chad asked.
"I have no idea." Taylor said. They went back to figuring out what to do.
"How about we just take a walk around?" Jason suggested.
"Nah there is nowhere to go really." Sharpay answered.
Troy suddenly shot up from his slouched position in his chair.
"Chad, Zeke, Jason can I talk to you over there for a minute. We'll be back in a bit." Troy said as the boys followed leaving the girls confused.
Over with the boys
"What you got man?" Chad asked as they walked away from the girls.
"I was thinking maybe we could take a walk up to that cliff we walked past yesterday and have a picnic up there and just hang out. I know it's not the greatest idea and it was about 2 hours walk but what else can we do?" Troy told them.
"I think it's a great idea. We need to go ask Darbus if we can though." Zeke said.
"Don't go to Darbus she'll say no. We need to go to coach and ask him to tell her." Chad said thinking how much Ms Darbus hated them.
"We have a plan." Troy simply stated as they got back to their table.
"So," Gabriella asked slowly, "what's this brilliant plan you four males have come up with?"
"Well," Troy started, "if we told you, it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?" he finished, wriggling his eyebrows at Gabriella as she sighed dramatically shaking her head at his actions.
"So, if you won't tell us, how will you know that we'll be able to go with you?" Sharpay threw back at them.
"Well unless you have any better ideas, you'll come with us." Zeke replied. Sharpay just sarcastically smiled at him.
"Don't we have to get permission from Ms Darbus to leave the campsite?" Taylor asked.
"Fear not," Chad said, as though he were a chivalrous knight, "we've cleared everything with coach Bolton and he told us he would sort it out with Ms Darbus."
"I'm not sure." Kelsi spoke up for the first time but it was evident that she was upset about something.
"Come on Kelsi, it will be fun. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." Jason told her as he crouched down in front of her.
"Ok." She agreed as all the other girls nodded.
"So do us girls need to do anything? I mean, you haven't even told us what to wear, and lord knows, we need our time to look simply stunning for this surprise." Sharpay said as the boys rolled their eyes. The boys then shared a tiny look of amusement, before Troy spoke.
"Its casual of course. It can't really be anything else out here Sharpay just be ready by 11am. And when I say eleven, I mean ELEVEN. Get that Sharpay?' he said, looking right at her. The girls knew exactly what he was talking about. " The boys and I will take care of everything else." He finished before they walked off leaving the girls behind.
At 11am all the girls were ready and were waiting outside their cabin for the boys. All the girls were looking respectable in striped t-shirts and baggy jeans. As the boys approached them the girls were in for a surprise.
"When we get about 10 minutes from where we are going we will have to blindfold you girls because we want it to be a surprise." Troy told them as the girls started to protest. Despite the protests from the girls about how their make-up and hair would be ruined, they agreed that the boys could blindfold them. As Zeke finished checking they had got everything, Jason told the girls to be prepared, because they were in for a quite a long trip.
Gabriella's P.O.V
For the first time in months, I once again had no control over where I was going, and what would happen once we got there. This time rather than complaining about where we would end up my adrenaline was pumping, as I began to think about the many places they could be taking us to and what could actually occur once we got there. I couldn't wait.
End P.O.V
For most of the walk it was very quiet as they were to busy concentrating on where they were going. All the girls were walking together behind the boys who had several bags with them still trying to figure out what they were doing.
"I can't believe how far they are making us walk and for what? This better be good because otherwise Chad is dead." Taylor said. Kelsi just welled up at what Taylor.
"Why just Chad?" Gabriella asked.
"Just cause." Taylor said not being able to think of a good enough reason.
"Ok girls it's time to be blindfolded. Don't worry we will each guide you to stop you from tripping." Troy said as each boy went to blindfold a girl.
They started walking again with the girls gripping on tightly to the boys. When they got there, the boys took the blindfolds off and let each girl speechless at the view in front of them. They all sat down and began eating. After awhile Chad had had enough of the way the girls were behaving noticing Kelsi was the worst. All the girls had been very quiet and acting strangely as they ate.
"What's the matter Kelsi? Don't you like the food?" Chad asked noticed she had hardly eaten anything.
"I'm not very hungry that's all." Kelsi replied in an annoyed voice.
"It's got to be more than that." Chad said getting frustrated with her.
"Chad just shut up and leave her alone." Taylor directed.
"Who are you to tell me what to do?"
"Chad calm down." Zeke said placing a hand on his shoulder trying to get Chad to calm down and not start an argument.
"NO! We go to all this effort to try and do something that will please them and then when we get here they act like they couldn't care less and don't appreciate what we've done."
"Chad did you ever think that we might have more important things on our minds." Gabriella shot at him.
"Will you all just shut up!" Kelsi said as she got up and ran off. Jason quickly got up to follow her.
"You want to know what's the matter. I'll tell you its Kelsi's sister Lily's birthday today." Sharpay said before walking off following Jason and Kelsi. Zeke got up and ran after Sharpay.
Flashback (when the girls were getting ready)
"Kels, are you ok?" Gabriella asked noticing a few tears roll down Kelsi's face.
"No, not really." She replied as her voice started to quiver.
"What's wrong?" Taylor asked whilst placing her hand over her shoulder and Sharpay coming over to them.
"Today's Lily's birthday." She told them as she burst into tears. The girls just formed around her hugging her.
"It'll be ok Kels, you'll see." Sharpay whispered in her ear.
"Why don't we do something later to celebrate her birthday? I know when my dad died it helped me." Gabriella queried.
"Yeah I guess that would be nice." Kelsi said as she managed to get her tears under control.
"Good. Now lets finish getting ready otherwise the boys will be complaining." Taylor spoke trying to lighten the mood in the room.
End Flashback
"I didn't know." Chad said.
"That's the problem Chad you always speak before you think and don't care about anyone but yourself." Taylor shouted at him as she ran to catch up with Sharpay leaving Gabriella alone there with Troy and Chad.
"We should probably go find them. My dad will kill us if any of us get lost." Troy said as he started packing everything up.
Kelsi and Jason
"KELSI!" Jason yelled after her as he saw her collapse to the floor. He ran up to her and bent down pulling her into a tight hug. He just sat there and let her cry. After about 5 minutes she managed to regain her composure.
"You ok now?" Jason asked her as he continued to stroke her hair.
"Yeah, thanks. Sorry bout your shirt." She said as she pointed the wet patch on his chest.
"It doesn't matter, it'll dry. Do you want to tell me what that was about? It's ok if you don't."
" It's my sisters birthday today." Jason looked at her unsure of what to say.
"Oh."
"Yeah. It's just hard trying to come to terms that she's gone. We're going to do something later us girls to remember her and celebrate her birthday." Jason looked at her a smiled. "You know it would be cool if you were there as well tonight, so will you come?"
"Of course." They smiled at each other slowly started to lean in. finally Jason closed the remaining space and kissed her. It was a very passionate kiss it was a slow soft kiss. They pulled away slowly both blushing at what had just happened. Jason was the first one to speak.
"We should get back to the others, Troy's probably panicking over what to do if we get lost and having to tell his dad." Jason stood up offering his hand, which she gratefully accepted.
Zeke & Sharpay (this happens as Sharpay has stormed off)
"Sharpay wait up." Zeke shouted as he tried to catch up with her. He caught up with her pretty quickly because she was still wearing her high heels.
"What?" Sharpay angrily said.
"I just came to make sure you're ok." Zeke said afraid of what she might say next.
"Do I look ok? Huh? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere ruining some of my best designer shoes with an arrogant pig (Chad not Zeke) that can't think about anyone other than himself."
"I'm sorry about Chad and what he did. Sometimes he just doesn't think before he speaks. He does care really but he just isn't very good with showing it."
"I'm sorry Zeke, I shouldn't be taking this out on you." Zeke was surprised unsure if it was true that he had actually just heard Sharpay apologize to him.
"It's ok." Sharpay turns towards him and gives him a little smile.
"Hey! You two wait up," they heard someone yell. They turned around to see Taylor heading in their direction. "I thought I would come help you look for Kelsi." She managed to get out as she panted.
"Err… Taylor did you leave Gabi alone with Troy and Chad?" Sharpay questioned.
"Yeah but she'll be fine cause Troy's there."
They carried on walking when they spotted Jason hugging Kelsi on the floor. They stopped just watching the two interact with each other.
Sharpay's P.O.V
I don't think we need to worry too much about Kelsi. She looks pretty comfortable in Jason's arms. I wish someone would care about me that much to want to chase after me no matter what others think. I guess I do have someone like that. Zeke. I think I may have been a bit too hard on him in the past. Am I falling for Zeke? I really don't think deep down he enjoys arguing with us the same with the others except Chad, maybe. I suddenly looked up again and there is Jason and Kelsi about to kiss. I think she's fine now.
"Aww they look so cute together." I squealed.
"Shush we don't want them to know we're here." Taylor whispered to me.
"Ok, ok. Let's leave them be then." I said as we walked back towards where we left Troy, Chad and Gabriella.
End P.O.V
Troy, Chad and Gabriella
The three of them packed all the stuff away.
"Chad, dude, you might want to start being a bit more careful with what you say because I know there will be so much tension between us now." Troy told Chad hoping to knock some sense into him and to keep the peace between the whole gang.
" I know and I will." Chad said in a low-spirited voice.
Troy noticed Gabriella had been awfully quiet so he walked over to her to see if she was alright. As he got closer he noticed she tears running down he face.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Gabriella turned around after being startled.
"Nothing." She said simply.
"Come on I know it's not nothing." Troy tried again knowing something was bothering her.
"It's just with all this stuff with Kelsi's sister I have been thinking about my dad a lot more." Troy gave her a bewildered look. "He died when I was 10."
"Oh. Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, not really. I'll be ok in a minute it's just sometimes I have my moments." She smiled at him as he gave her a hug.
"I think Sharpay, Zeke and Taylor are back." Troy indicated over to where they were walking from. Chad just stayed quiet.
"Where's Kelsi? Is she ok?" Gabriella instantly asked.
"She's fine. Actually I would say more than fine." Sharpay said with a smirk on her face.
"What's going on Shar, I know that look and it means something has happened."
"Let's just say Kelsi and Jason were getting to know one another very, very well." Taylor told them.
"You mean…" Gabriella started but was cut off by Sharpay.
"Jason and Kelsi are together." Sharpay finished for Gabriella. All the girls started to squeal in excitement for their best friend.
"What's going on?" someone asked. They all turned around to see Jason and Kelsi standing behind them. "You know don't you?" Kelsi asked seeing the look on Sharpay's face.
"Yep." Sharpay answered nodding her head. Jason and Kelsi started to blush.
"Don't worry man, its all good." Troy told Jason reassuringly. "Ok we need to start heading back before it gets dark." They all picked up their bags and headed off.
On the way back they had all split into couples; Troy and Gabriella just walking in silence, Jason and Kelsi whispering things to each other, Sharpay on Zeke's back after she complained of her feet hurting again and Taylor and Chad with Taylor completely ignoring Chad.
Chad and Taylor
They had been walking in a very uncomfortable silence. Chad couldn't stand it any longer and decided to try and talk to Taylor.
"Taylor, I'm sorry." Chad thought apologizing would be his safest bet in trying to get her to talk to him.
"What for Chad? Being an idiot and upsetting Kelsi or for just being an idiot?" Taylor quizzed him stopping and turning to face him.
"Both. I didn't try and upset Kelsi on purpose. Please Taylor you have to believe me sometimes I just open my mouth and let the words flow out not caring about what's coming out and I can get frustrated over little things sometimes." Chad basically was begging.
Chad's P.O.V
Did I just basically beg for Taylor's forgiveness? What's happening to me? I need to gain some self – control again. But I just can't stop thinking about Taylor and how I feel whenever she's around. I'm falling for Taylor good and proper. Wow Chad you're falling for someone who isn't a cheerleader. Quite the opposite actually.
End P.O.V
"Chad you really upset Kelsi earlier and she's my friend." Taylor said a little calmer than before.
"I know and I'm going to apologize to her later when she's on her own." Taylor had a small smile forming on her face seeing at how sincere and genuine Chad was being. She had never seen him like this before.
"I'll think about forgiving you if Kelsi does." And with that she took off.
When they got back to Coach Bolton greeted them. They took their backpacks inside while the boys stayed outside playing basketball with Coach Bolton and a few other players on the team.
"So Kelsi I was thinking we could maybe sit around later and you can talk about Lily (her sister) and you can remember all the good times you had together." Gabriella said.
"Yeah, I think I would like that." Kelsi replied.
That evening Chad apologized to Kelsi who forgave him and Taylor wasn't being so hard on him. All of them went to bed early and sat in a circle in their sleeping bags listening to Kelsi and occasionally one of the girls talking about Lily. They all fell asleep about 11pm not sure what to expect the next day.
A/N: that is the longest chapter I have written 9 pages. Hope you liked it. I tried to concentrate a bit more on the other couples more than Troyella in this chapter but there will defiantly be more Troyella in the next chapter. Please Review. Thanks!