Chapter 25
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.
Troy as usual was up well before dawn. He cleaned up as best he could using the cold water of the truck stop facilities and bought himself a light breakfast. He was back on the road heading to Stanford by half past four. He thought about not letting his parents know that he was awake and driving so early but he'd promised so he texted his Dad knowing he'd be the first awake.
"Good morning will be in Mojave 5.45"
He smiled when he didn't receive a reply and turned onto the highway.
Just over an hour later he pulled into a service station and filled up with Gas and brought a second breakfast. He text his father "In Mojave, stopped for breakfast and to replace the ice in the esky." He didn't receive a text or call back so assumed his father had chosen not to run that morning after his late night waiting up for Troy to call. Troy felt a little guilty that he'd deprived his parents of sleep and made them worry about him. He finished eating and text "on road expect Bakersfield 6.35."
The traffic was still light and he made good time pulling into Bakersfield just before six thirty. This time when he text his father Jack called back.
"Hey Dad"
"Hey Son. You had a pretty early morning, did you get enough sleep?" Jack asked concerned.
"Yeah I feel great" Troy said exaggerating how good he felt.
"Troy" Jack said interrogatingly.
"Seriously Dad I slept well enough. I'm wide awake and I should be there mid morning" Troy replied calmly.
"How are you going to meet Gabriella, she'll be in class?" Jack asked.
"She gave me her schedule and a map of where her classes are. If I can get there in time to meet her as she comes out for break at 11. She has to walk almost past her dorm so hopefully she'll let me in. If I don't get there in time I'll nap in the truck and meet her at lunch" Troy said.
"Okay Troy drive carefully it will be peak hour traffic soon. When should I expect to hear from you next?" Jack asked.
"I'll ring on the hour I don't know how much the traffic will hold me up I hope to be at the turn off at Los Banos by nine o'clock" Troy replied.
"I'll hear from you in an hour. I won't ring back. Set up the text now so you only have to push send so you don't have to try and get to the side of the road and then back into the flow of traffic."
"Thanks Dad. Talk to you later" Troy said smiling.
"Bye Troy" Jack said disconnecting the call.
Troy found that he was still making good time but that driving in the increasing traffic was much more tiring than driving on empty roads and he couldn't find a radio channel that held his interest. He sent the prearranged text on time and at 8.30 stopped for a coke and called his mom.
"Good morning Troy" she said.
"Hi Mom morning" Troy said cheerfully.
"Where are you?"
"Still on the I5 about half an hour until the turnoff to the 152" Troy explained. "I'm making good time I should be in Stanford about a quarter to eleven in time to meet Gabriella."
"Are you feeling okay?" Lucille asked hearing tiredness in his voice.
"I slept okay" Troy hedged.
"Troy you haven't slept well since Gabriella left and you're expecting me to believe you slept well cramped up in the front of your truck?" Lucille asked incredulously.
"You're right Mom but I did sleep and I'm okay for the moment" Troy said firmly.
"Troy, Gabriella will still be there at lunchtime if you don't make it before eleven. Please don't push yourself too hard. Stop and nap if you need to" Lucille lectured.
"I will Mama and I'll call to let you know if I stop. Otherwise I'll contact you in an hour" Troy said.
"Okay Troy I'll be waiting for your text" Lucille said. "Take care."
"Bye Mom" Troy replied.
Troy edged back into the traffic feeling refreshed after getting out of the car and walking around while he talked with his mother. Traffic was heavy at first and Troy was frustrated at the lack of progress but it got lighter again and he reached the turnoff on schedule. He sent a pre-prepared text to his Mom and turned onto the 152 heading for San Jose and Stanford.
It was 11.40 when he reached Stanford and he text his Mom and Dad both to let them know he's arrived. Consulting the map he'd downloaded and the schedule Gabriella had given him he jogged towards the building Gabriella would be coming out of.
He found a good vantage spot in the shade and leaned on a wall to wait.
-o0o-
Gabriella and her new classmates walked out of the building after their early morning classes. It was 11 o'clock and they had the next half hour free. They headed towards the courtyard enjoying the warm sunshine.
"OMG he's so hot" Sophia exclaimed about a boy off on their right out of Gabriella's sight.
The others just all rolled their eyes at their new friend; in the week since they'd met Sophia had made dozens of similar comments.
"No I'm serious this has got to be the hottest guy I've seen yet, you have to at least look" Sophia begged them.
"Married woman here Soph" Gabriella reminded her friend smiling.
"You can still look" Alia argued. She believed that Gabriella had been pushed into an arranged marriage to have got married so young and she didn't like the fact that her new friend would miss out on such a large part of the normal college experience.
"Yeah Sophia's right he's totally gorgeous" Casey added staring at the guy.
Gabriella glanced over to appease her friends, and then stopped in shock as she recognised the man her friends were admiring. She stood there astonished as she tuned out her friends conversation.
"It wouldn't matter if you were free. This guy's way out of our league" Casey said to her though Gabriella didn't hear.
"He looks like a jock he's not going to be interested in any of us" Alia commented. "And I doubt I'd be interested in him for very long either if he actually tried to speak to us" she added derogatively.
"I wish he'd take off the cool shades so we could see the rest of his face" Sophia complained.
"You'd only be disappointed there's no way his face could be as gorgeous as his body" Alia told her.
"Are you okay?" Casey asked Gabriella, realising that she'd stopped walking or responding to them.
"Troy! Over here" she called, still not sure she believed her eyes. This definitely explained why he had called her last night instead of Skyping. 'Working on a last minute assignment with Chad indeed' she thought.
The extremely hot guy in aviator shades looked over, then smiled and headed in their direction taking off his glasses and hooking them in the pocket of his backpack.
"I was wrong he's better looking without the glasses" Alia admitted quietly.
"And that smile is to die for" Casey agreed.
"You know him? Please, please introduce me." Sophia begged quietly.
"I don't know if I should" Gabriella said looking at her now overexcited friend.
"Why not? You're married. You can't want him for yourself." Sophia said making Gabriella laugh internally.
"Shh, act cool he'll hear you and think we're cheerleaders or something" Casey hissed at Sophia.
Troy reached them and wrapped his arms around Gabriella. She reached up and pulled his face down in to her kiss.
"You're so crazy Wildcat! What on earth are you doing here?"she babbled still shocked. "Oh I've missed you so much" she exclaimed continuing to pepper his face with small kisses.
"I've missed you too" he replied kissing her more deeply before asking reluctantly. "Do you have class to get to? I promised Maria and Mom that I wouldn't let you skip any classes just because I was here."
Gabriella kissed him again before she answered. "No not until half past eleven. Do you want me to show you over to the dorms so you can sleep? Or do you need to eat first?" she replied seeing how tired he looked and knowing he'd probably been driving all night.
Troy smiled and nodded "Sleep sounds wonderful, I think I'm actually too tired to eat anything" he admitted.
"That's got to be a first" Gabriella said forcing a laugh to hide her concern. "I have an hour off at one and then finish for the day at four. Do you want me to wake you for lunch?" she asked.
"No wake me when you get off at four and we can go for a cheeseburger or something then" Troy suggested.
"Okay then it's this way" she said moving away from his hug and taking his hand to lead him across the campus.
The other girls had watched this enthusiastic greeting with shock. Gabriella clearly was in a relationship with this hot young jock, but who was he?
They had all automatically dismissed the thought that he could be her husband. He looked like a player, too good looking, clearly very athletic and moved with confidence and innate grace even in an unfamiliar environment. Sophia had told she'd seen Gabriella talking to her husband on Skype and that he looked older than them with dark hair and glasses. Gabriella had described Troy as thoughtful, gentle and romantic, a future drama major who loved to sing and perform. As a result they had mistakenly pictured him as being a bit of a geek. Also believing Gabriella's marriage had been arranged they had assumed that her husband would be a distant relative or long term family friend from the same ethnic background as the Montez family. This gorgeous, incredibly hot, blond all American man was not in any way what any of them expected her husband to be like.
Surely Gabriela wouldn't be cheating on her husband. They hadn't known her long enough to be positive but she didn't seem the type of girl to cheat, even if she didn't love her husband.
Gabriella finally noticed the disapproving stares her friends were giving them and frowned wondering why they seemed unhappy with her.
She turned to face them and asked "What's wrong?"
"Were you planning to introduce us? I know you said it was a bad idea, but I had thought you were just joking. I think you should..." Sophia trailed off uncertainly not wanting to upset her new friend but also not able to support the idea of Gabriella having an affair.
"It would be very bad manners to ignore us to make out with him and then not even introduce us to him. Don't you agree?" Alia turned to ask the others who nodded in agreement.
Gabriella laughed, "Okay" she turned to Troy "These clowns are my new friends" she said knowing that he would recognise them from their profiles on the webpage about the honours program. The blonde is Sophia, the manners police here is Alia, and Casey is the redhead who hasn't spoken." She paused while Troy greeted the girls.
"Pleased to meet you?" he said putting his hand out. None of them reacted still looking at Gabriella waiting for her to finish the introduction.
"Girls this is my husband Troy Bolton" Gabriella said frowning as she noticed their lack of welcome for Troy.
They stared at Gabriella in surprise for a minute before realising they were rudely ignoring Troy.
"Pleased to meet you too?" flirted Sophia, she knew she had no chance with him but flirting with cute guys was second nature.
Alia smiled slightly and shook his hand without saying anything then turned to Gabriella "You didn't tell us he was coming" she demanded.
"You didn't tell us he was so hot" added Sophia.
"I didn't know he was coming" Gabriella answered Alia while rolling her eyes at Sophia.
"Albuquerque is a long way from here, that's one hell of a surprise visit." Casey said softly
Gabriella smiled "Yeah" she agreed dreamily.
A/N: Thankyou to Pumpkinking5, Wildcats2016, Kiara and Guest for your support.