Chapter Eleven:

"Troy, just tell me already." Gabriella had been completely anxious for their date. When they first stepped into his truck Troy had Gabriella place a blindfold over her eyes to keep their date more of a mystery than romance for the time being.

"Ok we're here." Gabriella pulled off the blindfold to have her eyes reveal they were in front of Lava Springs Country Club.

"Troy, what's going on?" she asked turning to her boyfriend when he helped her out of the truck. He wrapped his arm around her waist, they walked into the dining room where their former boss of their previous working experience at lava springs Mr. Fulton who was standing nearby to greet them.

"Well hello again Mr. Bolton and Miss Montez, you both look very lovely this evening." They were seated at a table towards the center of the room. Once they placed their orders for dinner Troy decided it was probably time to explain himself.

"I hope you don't mind we came here." Troy said, feeling completely anxious but extremely nervous at the same time with what he wanted to say to his girlfriend.

"Let's just say I didn't expect this." Gabriella explained.

Their previous summer was spent at lava springs, that is when their relationship was truly tested and almost pushed to its breaking point. When Gabriella had quit Troy had come to realize just how important she had become to him.

They finished dinner Troy decided seconds later it was now or never. The two walked out toward the golf course that was lit beautifully for this night.

"Gabriella, the reason I thought we should come here was when I thought I lost you last summer it made me realize how important you are to me. i don't ever want to lose you..." his voice felt as if he was losing breathe.

"Troy Bolton, you will never lose me as long as I can help it." Gabirella placed her hand on his cheek.

"I love you." Troy felt as if this huge weight had been lifted from his body. Gabriella leaned up and kissed him before speaking back what he hoped she would say.

"I love you too, with all my heart." Nothing could possibly ruin their night.

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Ms. Montez was driving home, for some reason she felt as if something could be wrong. Maybe she was worrying for nothing but she just didn't feel confortable leaving Mia at home when Brandon could be anywhere.

Meanwhile, Mia was actually having a good time hanging out with Kelsi. They were sitting around watching movies and just having some girl time. After finishing a movie Kelsi was walking back from the kitchen when she noticed a strange figure was in the backyard. A wave of panic overtook Kelsi's instincts but, she decided to remain calm just in case the situation wasn't anything more than a friend of there's neither girl could recognize.

"Hey Mia." Kelsi called her over to the window, when they reached over to check if the window was locked the figure started to come closer to the window. Mia grabbed her cell phone and pulled Kelsi to the living room.

"Kelsi,stay inside." Mia whispered to her friend before heading out of the door, facing her fear head on. She couldn't let him excape again to hurt someone else.

"Why, what's going on?" Mia closed the door and walked outside.

"Brandon, I know you're out here." suddenly an arm was wrapped around her neck so tightly she could barely breathe. Mia tried to break away from Brandon's grasp but he was too strong, fighting back was becoming too difficult.

"I am so sick and tired of you spreading all these lies about me." Brandon sounded like the killer from a horror film you could watch with your boyfriend late on a summer night. Mia felt a sharp blade against her back, meaning he had a knife that could easily penetrate her skin. She felt as if she was taking her last breathe for life, Kelsi was screaming not to far away but one of Brandon's so called friends was holding her down.

"Hey!" Mia could barely hear the voice of her savior from behind her head, the blade was thrown from Brnadon's hand due to the impact of Chad Danforth's fist to his face, she could finally breathe again when Brandon was thrown halfway across the lawn. Taylor and Martha helped Mia and Kelsi up.

"Thanks what are you guys doing here?" Mia asked turning to see that Zeke and Jason were holding down Brandon and his little companion to keep them from running away.

"Kelsi gave us a call, so we came over asap. Who is this guy?" Chad asked pointing at Brandon who was bleeding from his nose with his face planted toward the ground due to Zeke holding him down.

"Well it's kind of a long story." Mia ansered, they heard the sirens pull up about five seconds later. Mia pulled her phone out of her pocket to stop the recording she thought if maybe she got Brandon to say anything on tape that it would be enough to put him away or at least get him away from the people she cared for so know one would get hurt by him anymore.

"I called the cops after I called Chad." Kelsi said as the group made their way to the front of the house. Zeke pulled Brandon up this feet, Jason did the same with the other guy.

They talked to the cops for about fifteen minutes, Troy's truck came around the corner not long after. Troy and Gabriella ran over to their friends. After explaining the situation to everyone the police were about to leave when one cop came up to the detective who was questioning Mia and aksed the cop where was Brnadon, apparantly they just put his friend in the back of a squad car and as if by magic Brandon was nowhere in sight.

"Where's the kid?" The Detective turned to the police car and looked to the back seat where only Brandon's accompliss was in plain sight.

"Damn it, go find him." at the sound of these words realizing that the nightmare was still continuing Mia practically collapsed to the ground, Jason caught her and sat her on the curve of the street. The Detective walked back over to her with a n unpleasant look on his face but he was trying to remain calm.

"Look the only thing I can think of telling you right now is go out for a while in case this jerk is stupid enough to come back." They all decided to go out for a few hours just to kill some time,

"Anybody have any clue where we are going?" Zeke asked sitting next to Martha in the back seat of Troy's vehicle. They drove around Albequrque for about Twenty minutes before they wound up in the East High parking lot. The gang walked into the gym and sat in the bleachers. After a minute or two of silence Mia finally spoke.

"I should probably apologize." Mia said

"For what?" Taylor asked looking toward her new friend as to why she was talking like this. Why would she think this way.

"I'm basically putting all of you in danger." The tears started to come from Mia's eyes, Gabriella went over to her sister and gave her a hug.

"Mia, you are going to be fine. You're my sister and nothing is going to happen to you." The reassuring words that came from Gabriella were apparantly true from everyone in the room who all nodded in agreement.

"We're all here for you, if you want us to be or not." Chad said breaking the ice for some laughter in the room.

Not long after things returned to normal between the group and the guys found a basketball and decided to shoot hoops while the girls asked Gabriella about her date with Troy.

"So dude how'd it go?" Chad asked before sending the ball through the net.

"I told her I love her." Zeke passed the ball over Chad when Troy let his little comment slip out. His friends turned to him with different looks on their faces.

"Really?" Jason asked turning away from basketball being passed around them to ask his friend.

"Yes." Troy stated proudly, he was glad he did because otherwise he would be kicking himself for not saying what he meant to his girlfriend.

"Well, we think that is pretty cool." Zeke said, Chad placed his arm around his best friends shoulder before they stood around to talk for a moment. They hadn't taken any time in the past few weeks to just hang out in the gym and play how they had when they first became buds. Troy looked up at the wall to see his Jersey was up on the wall hung with the other numbers of alumni wildcats, he suddenly realized his days being a wildcat were numbered.

They decided to call it a night not long after. Troy dropped everyone off and headed home himself, when he walked inside he heard his parents in the living room. His Mom walked out of the room and into the kitchen as Troy sat next to his Dad on the couch.

"So how was your night?" Jack Bolton asked his son.

"Well it started with a pretty awesome date with Gabriella followed by all of us winding up at the gym for the past couple of hours." Troy felt it was best to leave out Brandon.

"Ms. Darbus said something interesting to me earlier today." Jack Bolton said breaking the silence between the father and son.

"What would that be?" Troy figured out what it most likely was but didn't want to bring it up in front of his Dad who tended to have a one track mind on the subject he was thinking of.

"Congratulations on my son being hand picked by Burkley for college week,plus your mom found the letter when she was doing luandry. Why didn't you say something?" Jack asked turning to his son for an answer to this subject of question.

"I don't know, the only person who seems to be happy about it is Gabriella." Troy said thinking about the moment he and his girlfriend had comtemplating the future.

"So that's what this is about." Jack started, Troy was suddenly feeling so frustrated at this moment. He realized most likely his father was not understanding what could possibly be going on in his mind.

"Dad believe it or not I'm more than just a playmaker. I thought you would've realized that by now." Troy emotions were still bottled inside, this was becoming a conversation to repent some anger, he ran his fingers through his hair and turned to face his dad for what he had to say.

"I'm just saying son don't go to U of A just for me, don't go to Burkley just for Gabriella, Do whatever makes you happy. All i can say is make me proud. He placed his hand on his son's shoulder.

"Thanks Dad, but I think I've already made up my mind about this." Troy said as they both walked to the kitchen.

Lucille Bolton was washing up some dishes when Troy sat at the counter next to his father.

"Gabriella is my future." Troy said looking at both of his parents proudly stating this comment to the two of them for the first time. Jack and Lucille stared at one another.

"I told her I love her." Troy didn't know what their reaction would be so he continued..

"I do realize we're both young but this is how I feel." Both of his parents stared at their son for what felt like a lifetime. When Jack left the room to catch up on some paperwork Troy felt as if it would be a good time to talk with his Mom about this Julliard Scholarship situation.

"You know Troy when I was putting up some clothes in your room the other day I found this." She pulled out the booklet Ms. Darbus had given him from Julliard.

"Why didn't you say something, sweetie Julliard is a huge opprotunity." Troy sighed before speaking again. Sometimes it was hard to come to terms with this fact, Troy did feel something when he was on stage, He'd only just realized this but, Basketball had been his entire life since he was a kid.

"I don't think Dad is going to be as happy when he finds out." Troy stated getting off his seat and opening the fridge.

"Promise me you'll think about it?" Lucille asked facing her son.

"I promise." Troy said when walkiing upstairs to his room.

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Ms. Montez pulled into the driveway, she stepped out of the car and noticed Gabriella and Mia were sitting on the front step. She was hoping this bad feeling was just nothing.

"Hey mom." Gabriella said as she tried to fake a smile to her mother.

"Hi girls, ok please tell me I worried for nothing because at least half of the drive home I felt as if something extremely horrible was happening to one of you or both." Ms. Montez stared at her children before one of them answered.

"We have something to explain." Mia said before telling the night's events to her mother. The only good news that came from the evening is that no onw was seriously hurt. About an hour later Gabriella was sitting in her room when her mother came in.

"So how was your date?" she asked sitting down on the bed next to Gabriella.

"Completely wonderful." Gabriella smiled as if she were floating on cloud nine.

"Troy told me he loves me." Her mother smiled before answering back.

"Oh my gosh, you have to tell me everything." She sat up, they both suddenly heard Mia from down the hallway most likely listening.

"Don't start without me." Mia called from her bathroom. Both Ms. Montez and Gabriella let out a laugh, Ms. Montez was happy for her daughter, but still after hearing the events of the evening before hand she was worried for both Mia and Gabriella's safety.

"I can't believe your boyfriend is such a romantic." Mia said to her sister, this moment captured what the two and their mother have had taken away from them as a family for the past couple of years.

They'd been through so much within' the past few weeks, but the news Ms. Montez had in store for her family couldn't be avoided, Hopefully everything could just fall into place.