AN: Stace here, again, again. A little more of a serious chapter this time, but still filled of the fluff that everyone seems to be enjoying! Chapter 22 AND 23 are underway right now (aren't we clever writing two chapters at once) so hopefully we'll be updating a little earlier these last few days of the story. Enjoy this chapter, and don't forget your lovely reviews :)

All I Want

Troy woke the morning after their second date to the sound of his cell phone ringing. Silently cursing whoever was calling him he rumbled on his bedside table for the offending object.

"Hello?" He asked sleepily, hearing a soft giggle on the other end.

"Don't tell me you were still asleep!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"It's still the middle of the night, Ella," Troy groaned, burying himself back under his covers.

"Troy, it's almost lunchtime," Gabriella giggled and Troy flipped over to look at his alarm clock, seeing that she was indeed right.

"Wow," Troy said simply. "You mean I've been asleep and you've been awake and all alone for these past few hours?"

"Something like that," Gabriella replied, twisting one of her curls around her finger.

"Come over?" Troy asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Aren't you getting sick of me yet?" Gabriella asked, half serious, she didn't want to spend so much time with Troy that he grew tired of being around her before their relationship really took off.

"Never. Not if I live to be three hundred years old," Troy announced, causing Gabriella to burst into giggles again. "I have to shower, but come over in twenty minutes?"

"Sure, Chad has gone out with Taylor again, so I had nothing planned anyway," Gabriella teased. "See you soon."

"Bye Ella," Troy said softly, unable to help the smile the settled on his face.

Gabriella ended the call, getting up from the kitchen table where she had just been reading the newspaper and putting her coffee mug in the dishwasher before heading upstairs to brush her teeth and get ready to go over to Troy's.

Just as she was brushing her curls Gabriella's cell phone started to ring and she snatched her phone up, answering it without looking at the caller id.

"I'm not late, Troy," she teased, expecting Troy to be on the other line, complaining that he was bored of waiting for her.

"Troy? Gabriella it's Mom," Gabriella felt her heart sink at the sound of her Mom's voice when she had just used her new boyfriend's name in her poor excuse for a greeting.

"Hey Mom," Gabriella said as she sat down on her bed.

"How are you doing? Who is this Troy?" Maria asked curiously.

"I'm doing great, the Danforth's are lovely to me, I feel right at home here," Gabriella answered, purposely avoiding her Mom's second question.

"That's great to hear, Gabi, and Troy?" Her Mom insisted.

"Troy is… well Mom, don't freak, please," Gabriella begged.

"You're still with Patrick aren't you?" Gabriella knew how much Maria loved Patrick, he was like a son to her.

"Not exactly…" Gabriella trailed off.

"Not exactly? How can you not exactly be with your boyfriend?" Maria exclaimed.

"Mom, I got here, and Chad's best friend Troy is home for Christmas as well, and he's lovely and he treats me really well, and well, I'm not with Patrick anymore," Gabriella started, rambling as she tried to make her Mom understand that her decision hadn't been rash.

"You're with Troy instead?" Maria interrupted. "Gabriella, are you telling me that you're throwing away a perfect relationship with Patrick, for a fling?"

"Mom! Troy is not a fling, and my relationship with Patrick was far from perfect," Gabriella reasoned, looking at her watch and realizing she was ten minutes late meeting Troy.

"You never told me this before, Gabriella. I thought you loved Patrick," Maria asked in shock, not believing that her normally logically thinking daughter would throw away something that was so good for her.

"I did Mom, but when I met Troy I realised that what I had with Patrick was barely more than a great friendship, he never made me feel how Troy does," Gabriella explained, knowing she wasn't going to convince her Mom.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Gabriella," Maria lectured unhappily.

"I do, Mom. But I have to go, Troy's expecting me, and I don't want to worry him, I'll call you tonight?" Gabriella said, trying to cut the conversation short.

"I think this is a bad idea, Gabriella. You're going to go back to school, and this Troy is going to break your heart, I just know it," Maria predicted, not hearing the soft sob that escaped Gabriella.

"Bye, Mom," Gabriella said quietly, ending the call before she hurried out of her room, down the stairs, through the front door and across to Troy's house, ringing the doorbell before waiting impatiently, the tears flowing freely now.

"You're late," Troy started with a teasing tone that instantly turned serious when he noticed that Gabriella was crying. "Ella, what's wrong baby?"

Ushering Gabriella inside and into the living room he sat down, letting her crawl into his lap, burying her face into his neck as she sobbed.

Troy bit down on his bottom lip in sadness as he rubbed his hands up and down Gabriella's back in a bid to calm her down.

"Shh, baby," he soothed. "It's okay."

Five minutes later Gabriella was calm enough to talk. Furiously wiping her eyes on the back of her hand Gabriella started to tell Troy what had upset her.

"My Mom called," she started.

"That's good," Troy replied, but Gabriella shook her head.

"Let me talk Troy, please," she begged. "My Mom called, and I thought she was you…"

When Gabriella had got to the story out about her conversation with her Mom, including the end about Troy breaking her heart once they were back at school she was in tears again and Troy had lay down on the couch, Gabriella settled gently atop him, his arms around her waist as her tears dripped down onto his t-shirt.

"Baby, your mom just cares for you. She doesn't know me yet—that I'm a strapping young man who won't hurt her only daughter," Troy said with a grin, smiling as he felt Gabriella's laughter vibrate against his chest. "What?"

Gabriella lifted her face from its place in the crook of his neck, looking up at him with an amused look despite her still tear-stained cheeks. "Strapping?" Gabriella asked giggling.

"Isn't that the word you'd use to describe me?"

"Something like that," Gabriella giggled, snuggling back into his chest before her giggles subsided, suddenly wanting to ask Troy something. "Troy?"

"Hmm?" He asked, rubbing her back gently.

"You think we can really do this? I mean, I want to," she added quickly, not wanting to upset him. "But I just broke up with my boyfriend of four years partly because we couldn't make it work with the distance."

"The distance between USC and Stanford is only a few hours, I'll be able to come and see you at least one weekend a month, I promise you," Troy said sincerely.

"Promise is a big word," Gabriella said nervously, having had many promises to her broken by Patrick."

"I keep my promises, Ella," Troy cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs stroking over her tear stained cheeks. "I promise that I'll visit you often, I'll call you every night. I promise you that one day, we'll own a house with a white picket fence and we'll have the 2.5 kids that every couple dreams about."

"We're going to have a problem there," Gabriella said softly, her red rimmed eyes sparkling as she spoke.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" Troy asked, unable to resist placing a soft kiss on Gabriella's lips.

"Because I want three kids," Gabriella whispered, allowing their lips to meet in a slow but passionate kiss.

"I think we can make that one happen," Troy confirmed as they broke apart. "What about jobs? You're going to be a much loved chemistry teacher?"

Gabriella nodded. "I've dreamed of being a teacher since I was a little girl," she confirmed. "And you'll be a world famous sports reporter?"

"I hope to be, but I think it's a little too early to be confirming our jobs and how many gorgeous kids we'll be having. You haven't had to deal with my annoying habits yet, you might be running for the hills soon."

"Annoying habits?" Gabriella questioned with a smile.

"Yeah, you see, I have this habit, where…" Troy trailed off for a second, before placing a kiss upon her lips. "I. Can't. Stop. Kissing. You."

Each of Troy's words were punctuated with a kiss and Gabriella was giggling against his lips by the last kiss.

"Somehow I don't think that will have me running for the hills," Gabriella giggled, twirling Troy's hair gently in her fingers.

Suddenly another voice was added to the mix. "Troy? Are you down here?"

"Yeah Mom," Troy called out, holding Gabriella's hips in place as she tried to get off from her spot on him.

"Your Dad is bringing pizza for lunch, do you want some? Oh hello Gabriella," Lucille smiled warmly. "Are you staying as well, dear?"

"She is Mom," Troy answered as Gabriella nodded softly, confirming his answer.

"Here, you tell your Dad what the two of you want," Lucille handed the phone to Troy and he placed his order before asking Gabriella what she wanted and relaying it to his Dad.

When he'd hung up the phone and pulled Gabriella back down to him Troy laughed gently.

"What is it?" Gabriella asked softly, feeling her eyes drooping at the feel of Troy playing with her hair.

"My parents are going to love having lunch with you. Mom has talked about nothing other than you since you were over here the other day and she has my Dad all eager to meet you too."

Gabriella's face paled, meeting Troy's parents. Officially.

The thought scared her, but Troy's lips brushing against her forehead distracted her thoughts enough to calm her, the butterflies quickly returning at the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

"Come on," Troy encouraged, moving Gabriella off him and then wrapping an arm around her waist when they were both standing. "Don't be worried."

Troy led Gabriella into the kitchen, pulling out a chair for her and the settling himself into the chair closest to her, taking her small hand in his before he shot her a smile.

"Troy, couldn't you even get plates ready?" Jack Bolton scolded his son as he entered the kitchen with the pizza boxes in his arms. "Oh hello, you must be Gabriella."

Gabriella blushed and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Bolton."

"It's Jack," he corrected, placing the pizza boxes on the counter. "Troy, plates."

Troy sheepishly got up from the table, getting out plates and glasses for the four of them before returning to the table where Lucille had stolen his seat.

"Mom, I was sitting there," he whined, not wanting to have to sit away from Gabriella.

Lucille looked over at Gabriella before smiling knowingly, getting up to give her son his seat back, giving Jack a I-told-you-so look at the way Troy acted around Gabriella.

"Hawaiian?" Troy offered Gabriella who readily took two pieces and placed them on her plate, smiling back at Troy, both forgetting his parents were there, watching their exchange.

"Thanks," Gabriella replied, blushing lightly as Troy took her hand that was resting next to her plate.

"So Gabriella, Troy tells us you go to Stanford with Chad?" Jack asked, watching Gabriella nod as she had a mouthful of pizza. "And what's your major?"

"Chemistry," Gabriella answered after she swallowed her mouthful. "I want to be a chemistry teacher."

"Dad's a teacher," Troy pointed out. "He teaches gym at my old high school."

"Teaching's a great job, it's very rewarding," Jack commended, deciding not to frighten the girl off with his horror stories from his years of teaching.

"Ella will make a great teacher, she taught me to make cookies the other day," Troy boasted.

"Those were some great cookies," Lucille acknowledge, smiling brightly at Gabriella.

"Thank you, Troy did most of the work though, he's good at following my instructions," Gabriella shot Troy a cheeky smile as she spoke.

"Could you instruct him to put his laundry in the basket, and make his bed, and pick his towel up off the bathroom floor?" Lucille teased and Gabriella and Jack burst out laughing.

"Mom!" Troy scolded, blushing.

"I'll try Lucille," Gabriella giggled, squeezing Troy's hand gently.

"I'm going to take Gabriella up to my room, because I made my bed this morning, and I want to show her I'm not a slob, regardless of what my parents think," Troy announced, standing up and quickly clearing away the plates as Gabriella thanked his parents for lunch.

"You're welcome, dear. We're having a barbeque with the Danforths tonight so we'll see you at dinner," Lucille said as Troy wrapped his arm around Gabriella's shoulder, drawing her into his side as she chatted easily with his parents. "You two are so adorable," Lucille gushed. "Look at my little boy. I never thought he'd look at any girl the way he looks at you Gabriella."

Gabriella blushed, hiding her face in Troy's shoulder and Troy looked up at his mom, also turning slightly red. "Mom," Troy hissed under his breath, his arm tightening around the girl in his arms.

"What sweetie? I think it's adorable. You know," Lucille paused and smiled at Jack, grabbing his hand, "me and your dad were much the same way when we first started dating. I remember the time whe-"

"And I'm going to spare Gabriella from these wonderfully embarrassing stories," Troy interrupted, turning the two of them around and leading her towards his room, grabbing some extra pizza in one hand.

"You two have fun now!" Lucille called out as they rounded the corner.

"I'm so sorry about my mom," Troy apologized as he led Gabriella towards his room.

Gabriella brought her face out of his shoulder, her arm wrapping around his waist as she looked up at him. "Well on the bright side, that wasn't too bad compared to how it may be when you meet my mom."

"Trying to scare me off Ella?" Troy asked amusedly.

"No, but from the way she was talking today, she might," Gabriella admitted, thinking back to her conversation.

Troy stopped them as they walked into his room, setting the pizza on his bed before wrapping both arms around Gabriella's waist. "Ella, I'm not going anywhere," Troy whispered softly before brushing his lips against hers.

"Good to know," Gabriella smiled as they parted, his forehead resting against hers.

"Besides, she can't resist the Bolton charm," Troy winked.

"Who can?" Gabriella giggled, snuggling into his chest.

And Gabriella trusted that he wasn't going anywhere. Despite what her Mom thought, she knew that Troy's feelings were real, and this he'd carry out his promises. It wouldn't be easy being at two different schools, but Gabriella pushed that thought to the back of her mind. They were together now and she was happy to live in the moment.