Disclaimer: I do not own the High School Musical franchise
Chapter Fourteen: Rush
Into your head, into your mind, out of your soul, race through your veins
You can't escape, you can't escape, into your life, into your dreams
Out of the dark, sunlight again, you can't explain, you can't explain
Can you feel it, can you feel it, rushing through your hair
Rushing through your head can you feel it, can you feel it
Don't let nobody tell you your life is over be every color that you are
Into the rush now you don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
- "Rush" Aly & AJ
Gabriella pulled the wagon down the hallway and unlocked the door, "Troy? I'm back!" She called out.
Troy looked up from his place at the kitchen table, "Great, Al is down. Let me help you with those." He took the handle to the wagon that Gabriella used to bring up the groceries from her and pulled it into the kitchen.
"Thanks Troy." She hung her keys and sweater on the hook by the door and stuck her glasses in their proper place before dropping her purse to the floor. "The store was packed today. Oh, but I saved $27.49."
Troy chuckled as he placed the bags on the kitchen counter before wheeling the wagon into the small laundry room. "Congrats. And it's kind of sad you're that excited about your couponing."
Turning, Gabriella stuck out her tongue and began to unpack the groceries, "So I've been meaning to bring this up, but didn't know how, about my grandmother's funeral."
"Brie, I'm going with you. You are not flying by yourself to Miami with a baby." Troy crossed his arms and leaned against the countertop.
"I could always take Mrs. Hernandez."
"You said Mr. Hernandez was sick again."
"Yeah the flu came back to him. That makes me worried. I might need to look into a nanny agency. I forget how old the Hernandezes are sometimes." Gabriella sighed.
"I've already cleared it with my parents. They're fine with it. Well my dad is. My mom will be after she meets you tomorrow to look through the furniture." Troy assured her.
Gabriella shook her head as she separated the sandwich meat that she was going to use to fix their lunch, "I don't know Troy. I think she kind of hates me."
"She doesn't understand why you and Allie are so great and why I want to spend all my time with you." Troy rested a hand on her back, "Just breathe." He paused, "I could go with you?"
Gabriella shook her head, "No I need to do this without you. And you need to go to school. You have a basketball meeting tomorrow. You're going, end of discussion."
"I could miss,"
"No, Troy shush. You're going. You're already going to be out for my grandmother's funeral. You're going to school Monday through Thursday. End of discussion. Do not make me repeat myself."
Troy rolled his eyes, "You already sound like a mom."
"That's good, I need to get used to it." Gabriella sighed as she pulled two plates out of the cabinet.
"I can make the sandwiches. What's the plan for dinner?"
Rolling her eyes Gabriella replied, "Lasagna, cause I can freeze it. And we haven't even eaten lunch yet and you're already thinking about dinner? Food is always on your mind isn't it?" She teased him.
HSMHSMHSM
Troy glanced down at his watch. 12:34 pm. He glanced around the cafeteria and then down at his full plate. Gabriella would just be meeting his mother at the warehouse. He should be there to make sure they get along. To make sure his mother understands. Of course Gabriella would make a good impression. She was Gabriella. She was incredible.
"Troy dude, are you gonna eat that?" Chad pointed to the sandwich in the lunch Gabriella had made him. He'd insisted on coming over in the morning to make sure she was okay with meeting his mother. Really she was checking on him though.
"Chad that's his lunch." Sharpay rolled her eyes, "He needs to eat it."
Troy looked at the food that had been so thoughtfully put together for him and pushed the entire bag towards Chad, "Go for it."
Emma frowned at her brother, "Are you still not feeling great Troy?"
"Why do you care?" He muttered.
"Um because I'm your sister and it's kind of my job. Seriously? What has gotten into you lately?" Emma pushed.
"I'm just nervous, let it drop Emma." Emma's eyes narrowed at her twin brother. Whenever either of them used that tone there was something more there, something being hidden. She glanced sideways at Sharpay, who of course knew exactly what she was thinking. It was time to start scheming.
When the bell rang Zeke followed Sharpay and Emma out of the cafeteria. Collaring both of them, he pulled them to the side, "Shut it down." He ordered.
"What are you talking about?" Sharpay asked.
"You two are getting ready to start scheming. Shut. It. Down."
"Since when do you boss me around?" Sharpay crossed her arms.
"Since you promised me you wouldn't scheme anymore." He crossed his own.
"When did you grow a backbone Baylor?" Emma asked with an arched eyebrow.
"I've always had one." He answered tersely, "Now Sharpay?"
"It's down." She relented. She tapped her cheek for a kiss, which he gave her before sauntering off for a free period work out.
"We are not shutting it down." Emma protested.
"Of course not!" Sharpay rolled her eyes, "Just let him think he's won. We have to keep this from Nicole then."
"Not a problem. She's too much of a blabbermouth anyways." Emma waved off the idea. "Where was she during lunch anyhow?"
"Stuck in the science lab. She didn't finish yesterday and had to hang out there today. Her teacher got McKessie to help her though." Sharpay explained.
"Well at least McKessie will finish it for her. So we need to start planning. We so can't do that during their workout, but if we miss it Zeke may figure something out." Emma tapped her foot lightly.
"Don't worry, he's smart, but not that smart, we can do it while they practice." She opened up her locker and pulled out a pink legal pad and pink pen, "Let's go before he starts to wonder why we're not there."
"And if Nicole shows up?"
"We let her gush about Troy." Sharpay rolled her eyes.
"You know that is actually starting to get kind of old." Emma thought aloud. "I always wanted them together, but he acts like he wants to literally throttle her now and she's just obsessing way too much."
"I think we should start going through the cheerleaders and see if we can find him a suitable prom date. Maybe she could go with Ryan instead." Sharpay shrugged, "Or Chad. They're both available."
"She's too loud for Ryan." Emma shook her head, "But totally slutty enough for Chad."
"So we'll try to hook her up with Chad then." Sharpay agreed. "We'll see if she takes the bait, he's not Troy." Sharpay pointed out. Emma just rolled her eyes and opened the gym doors just as Coach Bolton started the practice.
HSMHSMHSM
Gabriella leaned down to pick up the toy Allie dropped as she waited in front of the warehouse that held the furniture she wanted to get rid of, the clothes to be donated, and her parents' possessions she couldn't part with, but had no room for. "There you go sweet girl." She cooed as she placed the stuffed bunny her mother had knitted back in Allie's grasp.
"Gabriella Montez?"
Gabriella looked up at the sound of her name and footsteps as Mrs. Bolton, who Troy resembled greatly, approached. "Yes, it's nice to finally meet you Mrs. Bolton." Gabriella stood up and held out her hand.
"You as well, I've been dying to meet the young lady my son has been spending so much time with."
Gabriella blushed and looked at her tennis shoes, "Yes well Troy's been a blessing to both Allie and me." She motioned to her younger sister in the stroller. "This is Allie."
Lucille knelt down so she was eye level with the baby, "Well hi there little girl. Oh aren't you just so pretty." She cooed. Standing up she faced Gabriella, "So this is the storage unit?"
Gabriella nodded, "Thanks for agreeing to this." She commented as she stepped forward and unlocked the bolt before leaning down and dragging the garage door up, "I had no idea what to do with all of this stuff. I just didn't have room in our new apartment."
"Of course dear, Troy tells me that you're all settled in?"
"Yes ma'am, we're all in now. All I can do is hope the house sells quickly enough. Who knows though, the market is a bit tough." She paused and led the way in, "So all of the furniture goes." She motioned around the space, "And these bags and boxes. They're all clothes and shoes. They were my parents'." She took a deep breath, "Just let me know what you want to take or how I can help."
Lucille Bolton gave her a sympathetic smile, "Of course. What we'll do is wait until you're back from your grandmother's and then I'll have Troy and Jack and his friends here with a van and we'll take it all down to the shelter the book club volunteers at."
Gabriella nodded, "So not this weekend, but next weekend then?"
Lucille nodded her agreement, "Are you back in school yet sweetie?"
"I go back tomorrow, just until Thursday. Then I'll be back full time on Monday."
"And what about your sister?"
Gabriella cleared her throat, "I've done some thinking and I'm going to put her in the church daycare for the mornings. Then Ava Hernandez is going to watch her until I get home from school. I may have to look into a nanny. I don't know. I need to finish going over our finances more thoroughly." She looked down at her little sister. "And I should look into getting a part time job probably."
Lucille Bolton rested a hand on Gabriella's shoulder, "Whatever we can do to help, please let me know."
"Having Troy go to Miami with me is a tremendous help. I'm just not sure how he's going to explain that to his sister."
"Ah the cliques. Don't worry. Jack is going with him. They're going to look at UM while they're down there. That was my one stipulation. I want him to look further than U of A."
Gabriella beamed at the woman in front of her, "That's brilliant. And I'm glad someone's kicking him about school. Lord knows whenever I bring it up he waves the issue off. Honestly that boy needs to focus on school and basketball a little bit more."
"So you're still planning on going to college?"
"My top two are Columbia and NYU." Gabriella shrugged, "I really wanted to get out of New Mexico and go to a big city."
"I'm glad to hear that." Lucille admitted, "I was afraid when Troy got involved with you that you may encourage him to put school on a back burner."
Gabriella nodded and shifted from foot to foot, "I understand, just because I'm a mom now doesn't mean I'm going to forget those goals. If I honestly want to be able to provide for Allie in the future I should have a college degree. I'm just going to have to figure out how to juggle it better."
Lucille smiled, "Well I think it's safe to say that Jack, Troy and I," her grin widened when Gabriella breathed a visible sigh of relief, "will help in any way we can. Including keeping it from Emma for the time being."
"Thank you Mrs. Bolton."
"And please, call me Lucille."
HSMHSMHSM
"Gabriella?" Troy began calling out her name before he even opened the front door of her apartment with his key.
"Kitchen, I thought you had practice today."
"Skipped it to make up a quiz and came straight here." He paused, "Where's Allie?"
Gabriella looked up from the recipe she was reading, "Kelsi is giving her a bath. And I think she said something about Jason and Ryan stopping by quickly." Gabriella shrugged, "So how was school?"
"Boring as all hell." Troy dropped his keys and phone on the kitchen counter and propped himself up next to the book she was reading, "What's for dinner?"
"Well I was going to heat up the lasagna, but I just wanted to try this stew. It's so rainy outside now it seems like a perfect night for stew. What do you think?" She looked up at him and realized very quickly this routine was natural. She could see him coming home to her for a long time. Reaching out tentatively she grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Troy looked down at their hands and idly flipped his over, lacing their fingers together, "Stew sounds great, can I help any?"
"Pull the ingredients I name out of the fridge." She decided as she dropped his hand and picked up her apron, tying it around her waist.
"Aye aye captain!" He saluted her as he opened the fridge door.
A pounding at the door stopped them. "I'll get it." Gabriella whispered, after looking through the peephole and seeing it was Ryan and Jason, she opened it, "Come on in, Troy and I were just starting dinner. Kels is in the bathroom with Allie."
"And here we were being nice and bringing Mexican." Ryan held up two to-go bags.
Gabriella's eyes lit up, "Screw the stew, that sounds delicious."
"Oh I smell something good." Kelsi called out as she and Allie emerged from the guest bathroom.
"Mexican." Troy responded, taking some of the bags from Ryan.
"Sounds yummy. Thanks boys." Kelsi settled onto the floor with Allie, smiling at Ryan and Jason who joined her as Troy and Gabriella began setting things up in the kitchen.
"I'm really glad you're here Troy." Gabriella whispered as she rested a hand on his chest.
Troy looked down at her hand and then up at her, "Me too." He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Maybe, just maybe, Gabriella thought, there is a place for him in my life.
HSMHSMHSM
XOXO
MAS