Chapter 11: Moving on

Special thanks to everyone who has continued to review, followed and favourited this story. Special thanks to Ale X. Sha for being the reason I finished this chapter as fast as I could.

"Ok everyone make sure you have everything from your room, the academy will not be funding a return trip because someone forgot their phone—yes I am looking at you Lucas!" Troy shouted over the din of voices and wheels on concrete as the young musicians packed up and loaded the coach that would take them to the airport. Lost in the hubbub of paperwork and finalizing their return, Troy barely had time to breathe, let alone try to track a certain brunette he hadn't seen since their trip to the beach.

"Kelsi need some help there?" Troy offered kindly as the auburn clarinetist struggled to heave her suit case into the loading compartment.

"Um I'm fine, thank you…Professor." Kelsi stuttered slightly and out of breath. Troy nodded, citing the awkwardness in her voice but he brushed it off; everyone was busy trying to get their things in order to return home, and he didn't expect his students to be morning people at 5AM.

"Professor! Professor I need to go back upstairs I-I can't find my phone!"

Troy groaned,

"Lucas I warned you!"

Kelsi squeezed her way past her fellow students and met up with Gabriella, who was at the back with her suitcase by her side, hands full with loose sheets of paper and music scores she was hopelessly trying to arrange standing up.

"I have no idea how you do it," Kelsi let out a breath. Gabriella looked up, caution in her brown eyes,

"Do what?"

"Just… being so close with…him." Kelsi emphasized. Gabriella's heart raced,

"I…I'm sorry." Gabriella whispered, "I didn't mean to just…spill everything and now it's making it hard on you."

"No! No, no I didn't mean it that way I just…Gabby I'm sorry I should have watched what I said."Kelsi said guiltily, "I didn't mean that I just…god Gabby how do you even breathe around him?"

Gabriella let out a small smile. She wished she could answer the question…but even she didn't know.

Flashback

"Gabriella…where did you go?" Kelsi whispered. The auburn musician gauged her friend's reaction; she knew Gabriella was not sleeping, she could feel the tension in her shoulder. Five minutes passed in dark silence, and Kelsi let out a slow breath,

"I won't force you to tell me anything…I know we just met…and I know we're not close and you don't owe me anything or any explanation…I just…I'm not the most sociable person. I didn't have many friends growing up…and I still don't. Being in the orchestra put me in a group of people that didn't care about how I looked, or what I said and just cared about the notes I played and whether or not I was in tune or not. It made me feel like I was a part of something and then I met you and just, we got along so well, and it was so new to me, and I wanted to be so careful and…" Kelsi took a breath, "I'm sorry I'm rambling…I just wanted you to know that you are a friend to me, a close friend and if there's anything you want to talk about…or to say, or to…I don't know vent…you can trust me…I hope you know that."

Kelsi had just stood up from the edge of the bed when she heard Gabriella's laboured breathing. Turning around, Gabriella started to move, and when her face came to view streaked with a line of wetness, Kelsi took less than a second to go back to where she was. She was expecting some sort of dark secret, but not tears.

"Kels…" Gabriella's voice came out in a soft raspy whisper, "I think I made a mistake…I don't know what I'm doing or what to do…"

Kelsi could only hold her friend as she spilled everything that had weighed down on her for the past couple days.

Gabriella expected her friend to judge. But she needed a friend to hold her.

And that was exactly what Kelsi did.

End of Flashback

Sometimes Gabriella regretted spilling everything to the auburn haired musician. She really didn't know Kelsi well, and now Kelsi had everything she needed to know to threaten her, or blackmail her if a chance ever presented itself. Hell, Kelsi could probably kick both her and Troy out of the academy for good. But something about Kelsi made Gabriella want to trust her. Her new friend was warm, welcoming, and offered a sense of comfort that Gabriella, sadly, was not used to during many of her years as a young teenager, and then a young adult. Gabriella just couldn't help but trust her, and trust was something Gabriella struggled to believe in.

Along with what happened during their trip, Gabriella confided in the auburn hair woman the struggles she had with her family, and without asking, Kelsi had offered her house to Gabriella for as long as she needed. Gabriella initially protested, but Kelsi brushed it aside.

"I room with a guy, I could use another girl," Kelsi smiled impishly.

"Kelsi, you know I can't share rent right now…" Gabriella admitted. She had struggled hard to pay her tuition on her own, and pay for this trip on her own so that her parents could not hold anything on her. She wasn't sure how she was going to pay for school and rooming. Kelsi had brushed her off again, and mentioned that money wasn't an issue. Based off of what little Kelsi was willing to divulge, Gabriella got the idea that the young woman was well off on her own, not even including her family background.

So now, as Gabriella boarded the plane that took her and her classmates back to America, she had a place to stay, a friend by her side, a secret to guard, and a scattered life she desperately needed to put back together.

By the time Gabriella turned her phone back on once they had arrived at the airport, she had missed calls and messages left, right and centre – all from her parents, starting from the day she left to just 5 minutes ago before her plane had landed. Gabriella swallowed the temptation to call them back, and quickly turned her phone off once more, stuffing the tiny device back into her jeans as she and Kelsi waited for their luggage to arrive.

She felt like she was a little girl who got in trouble, and was trying to avoid punishment. She felt like she was being immature, running away from her problems.

"But they're not your problem…its theirs." her mind told her. Besides, she had walked out with the determination that she was going to run her own life, and she'll be damned if she walked back right after her trip.

The academy had arranged for coach buses to take the students back to the school, where rides would have been arranged by parents. Gabriella and Kelsi scrambled into the quick filling bus, and found a spot near the back where they took the hour long drive back to their school, and one step closer to Kelsi's rented apartment and Gabriella's new—albeit temporary—home.

It felt like Gabriella had just got onto the bus, and closed her eyes when the bus lurched to a stop in front of the prestigious academy, and students were groggily dragging themselves off the bus. Troy stood at the entrance of the school, greeting parents, and getting students settled and ready. As Gabriella waited for her luggage to be unloaded with Kelsi, her eyes drifted to the professor she had gotten familiar in more intimate ways than one.

Troy stood with his back straight, and his tie loose and jacket slightly crumpled. There wasn't a hint of jet lag in his eyes, nor were there any evidence of a long trip packed with performances, rehearsals and…many other unplanned events. He looked every bit the professor parents and students could imagine: cool, calm, collected and arms filled with paper, and face full of smiles as he recounted the performance and the students' amazing performance to present parents.

And yet somehow that image made Gabriella's stomach flips in an uncomfortable way, as if that very image was there to haunt her and remind her of what they did on that trip. Much like the way Troy's office felt like a different world after their first kiss, being back at home felt like an entirely different universe for Gabriella. All of a sudden, Gabriella could see, with such clarity, the professor in him, and she never felt so much like a student under his charge like she did now.

That thought made her want to run to the closest washroom, and lose whatever she managed eat on the airplane home. She felt a sick tingling under her skin as she watched him be a professor to all the parents waiting there, and the students who wanted to go home.

"He is a professor" her mind said

"He's more than that to you…he's a lover." a softer, huskier whisper countered.

"Gabby?" Kelsi's voice penetrated her thought and Gabriella startled to attention. It was then she realized that she had spent the last couple minutes staring at Troy, and both Kelsi and the professor in mention noticed. Kelsi had a worried look on her, whereas Troy's ocean blue eyes pierced her in a way that made her heart race, and her stomach flop.

"Let's go Kels," Gabriella said quietly. Kelsi looked inquiringly, but asked no more questions (Gabriella was extremely thankful for that), and the girls grabbed their bags and headed to where a few cabs were waiting.

Gabriella wanted desperately to turn around, and see how Troy looked. She wondered what he was thinking. Was he having the same type of reality check that she was? Was he also realizing that now that they were home, back in their educational surrounding, their barriers and their titles meant more, and held more than it ever did before?

She should have turned around, because if she did, she would have seen the blunt and hard determination in his eyes as he watched her walk away without even saying a word. If she could feel what he felt, she would feel how desperately hard he was trying to push each other back onto the right track, to forget the temporary derailment they both experienced while they were away.

Even though the moment they derailed made him feel more alive than he ever did.

"This is the right thing to do." he told himself. "You are her professor. She is your student. Set the right boundaries … don't drag her down more than you already did." And Troy turned around, and put his professor mask back on as another parent came to greet him.

The hardest part of returning to a normal life, was trying to deal with a new life all at the same time. By the time 9:00AM rolled around, Gabriella only had time to grab a granola bar before dashing out the door of her newly shared apartment with Kelsi and the other mysterious male tenant. It took waking up and walking in on Kelsi's shower, then apologizing profusely, and forgetting she had left her suit case full of clothes in the hallway before she managed to make it to her 9:30AM chemistry class.

Talk about a full morning.

Other than her rather embarrassing encounter, Kelsi turned out to be a perfect roommate and a gracious host, offering the spare guest room immediately, and open invitation to use anything and everything available at the apartment. Gabriella promised and swore that the moment she got a job she would share the rent. Kelsi, once again, just brushed her off like she was commenting on the weather.

Gabriella had yet to meet the mysterious male roommate. She was usually in her room when her returned, and he was gone by the time Gabriella woke up. If she didn't know any better she would've thought they shared an apartment with a ghost, but the hint of male cologne, and the odd pizza boxes here and there indicated otherwise.

Intent on getting her life back on track, Gabriella settled on a routine: she would wake up for class, go through the rest of her day, head to the library, maybe a coffee on a particularly trying day, and then return to the apartment where she would either study or start on projects, or do job hunting through the local newspaper and online websites. On mornings where she was free, she found running around campus during the crisp dawn air to be refreshing, and peaceful.

Her music class was the hardest and most trying. She excelled like she never did before, quickly and rapidly becoming one of the best flautists among her peers, and perhaps the most dedicated. All of her energy, every breath, every single one of her pores went into the very notes that came from her instrument and her body, and she caught the attention of not only her peers, but the very professor she was trying so desperately to treat as normal.

Because Gabriella had called him nothing but Professor during the past several weeks since they had returned from her trip. She looked him in the eye with nothing but the intent to keep her pulse in the music, and keep her beat and timing; with no spark of emotion other than that of concentration. She spoke to him in a level, calm and logical voice as a student would who was eager to learn.

She was the perfect student.

And it drove Troy to the brink of absolute insanity.

He was supposed to be the one to push her back on track. He was supposed to be able to look her in the eye, and feel nothing but compassion and pride like a teacher would to see his students excel. And he definitely should be the one who was ok to see her interact with her peers, to see that smile on her face, and rosy flush on her cheeks.

He definitely SHOULD NOT be feeling a jealous green monster biting at the bottom of his gut seeing her interact with the male half of his band.

Troy then decided that if she could go on and act as if nothing happened, then he could damn well do that too.

After weeks of practices, Troy finally sat his musicians down to do a musician's worse nightmare: Theory.

"I don't want to hear groaning or complaints alright? You're all grown adults and know every up has a downside" Troy lectured lightly after he announced that they would not be playing today, but will be focusing the next couple hours to theory lessons. As his students shuffled out papers, notebooks and pens, Troy's eyes swept through the class without so much as a glance to Gabriella—something that the brunette caught, and forced her body to not react to.

Throughout the entire class, Gabriella's raised hands to answer questions remained ignored except when no one else put their hands up. Troy had the tendency to call on her more when she didn't put her hand up and her head was down looking at her notes.

"Miss Montez please pay attention." Troy said shortly, making Gabriella's head look up in slight surprise and embarrassment. She didn't like the class turning to look at her, and she couldn't help but glare coldly at him. Troy cleared his throat and returned to his lesson plan. He was a teacher, and she was his student, and it was his job to make sure she paid attention.

The two hours was the longest two hours of Gabriella's life, and for the first time since her time at the academy, she couldn't help but feel relieved to leave the music room that was suffocating her.

"Professor Bolton was just nasty to you today!" Kelsi breathed once they were in a clear vicinity. Gabriella sighed, her shoulders slumping,

"It's ok. He's a professor he's bound to be strict" Gabriella said with a small smile. Kelsi made a noise as if she wanted to disagree but held it in; her brunette friend looked so tired, her eyes were dull, and there were light dark circles that indicated a lack of sleep, stress or maybe even both.

"Hey, my roommate is home early from work tonight, maybe it's time you meet the ghost of our apartment" Kelsi said in a cheerful voice. Gabriella smiled softly and nodded, it would be nice to know who she was living with, if only to take her mind off everything for a little while.

TMT

Troy knew he was being unfair, but when it came to her, solutions only came in one extremes or the other. He could not (and would not) afford to pick a middle ground, for he knew if he did, he knew exactly which side he would begin to teeter to.

As he walked into his house, he smelled the faint scent of pot roast cooking in the oven, and he walked to the kitchen to see Sharpay doing the finishing touches on some mashed potatoes.

"You're home early," Troy said. Sharpay looked up with a small smile. Things had been less tense once he had come back from New York. Obviously her surprise visit was still on each other's mind, and perhaps some more other things were on Troy's mind than hers. But at the moment it seemed as though they had come to some sort of a neutral agreement that they were neither here, nor there.

Troy knew he was being an asshole but he found a type of solace at the neutral and stagnant state that their marriage was in. Sharpay wasn't complaining, and he sure as hell wasn't going to. The fight in him was gone when it came to his relationship with his wife, all the energy he had in him was directed to ignore a particular brunette student, and it was so draining that he really could not bring anything else to fuel whatever the state of their marriage was.

So he basked in the silence that was between him and Sharpay as they ate their dinner in silence. After all, it had been weeks since they were both at home together, and when dinner was done, they withdrew to their respective studies, where neither came out until the other was asleep.

TMT

Dinner was a…messy affair…that consisted of attempted cooking and eventually Gabriella getting the better of their attempt to make a homemade meal and ordering take out from a nearby sushi restaurant.

"I honestly did not think casserole was that hard to make" Kelsi grumbled as they tried to clean up the remnants of crumble crackers, noodles and spilled milk. Gabriella bit her lip from trying to tell her friend that casserole was easy to make, what wasn't easy was the fact that Kelsi Neilson, despite her accomplishment as a musician and loyalty as a friend had zero patience for everything else.

"It's ok Kels, I'm pretty sure your roommate will be fine with our take out." Gabriella smiled

"He better be. We can just set the sushi in the fridge, he won't be back until later since he works at a store in time square."

Gabriella helped her roommate quickly clean up the disaster in their kitchen, and before they knew it, the clock struck 9. Kelsi excused herself to wash up for dinner, and Gabriella soon heard the sound of jingling keys and the door unlocking.

"Kelsi Neilson did you burn down the kitchen?" a soft but stern voice said from behind the door, "I swear to God if the firemen comes here one more time I am going to tell the truth and tell them you're a pyromaniac." Sandy blond hair appeared from behind the door, and a roughed up but clearly well loved messenger bag showed up as the young man locked his door.

"Kelsi's just in the washroom cleaning up, I'm sorry it was my fault too," Gabriella quickly came out from her spot from the couch. The young man turned around, and Gabriella stopped, her mind making quick work of the oddly familiar face.

"Sorry do we know each other?" Gabriella cocked her head to the side. The young man in front of her stared for a couple seconds, his lips lifting to a soft quirky smile,

"I must've made a crap impression. I guess I wasn't that much of a help finding your classical music,"

Gabriella's eyes widened, and a quick but the truest smile she's had in ages appeared on her face,

"You're from the music store!"

The young man chuckled in amusement,

"Yep that's what people usually call me, the music store guy," he smiled in a friendly manner, "But on rare occasions, I go by Ryan. Ryan Evans."

A/N: I must say I don't think I can apologize enough for the lengthy delay. I really have no excuse other than the fact that life got caught in the way. I'm in the process of trying to rework and get myself back into the storyline as I have left it dry for quite a while, but I will try my best. I really hope you will stick with me and as always reviews are much appreciated, as they actually DO motivate me to keep writing.

This is more a filler than anything, and you all deserve better than that. Again please bear with me as I reorganize where I would like this story to be headed.