Chapter 26
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.
"Come on I'll show you to the dorm" Gabriella said.
Troy picked up the esky "Mom sent you some stuff" he said gesturing to it.
"I'll call her and thank her at lunchtime" Gabriella answered smiling.
They walked towards her dorm "Are you girls coming or did you want to grab a coffee before class and I'll meet you there?" Gabriella asked.
"I need coffee" Casey said almost apologetically, "otherwise I'm going to fall asleep in Thompson's lecture for sure. Do you want me to get you one Gabriella?"
"No thanks. I'll get Troy settled. None of you mind Troy staying in the dorm while we're in class do you?" she asked anxiously.
"I don't mind. If you say we can trust him that's good enough for me" Alia said supportively.
"Yeah me too" Casey agreed.
"I certainly don't mind sharing a dorm with a hottie like that" Sophia flirted.
"You're wasting your time there. He's not interested Soph" Alia said noticing that Troy had barely taken his eyes off Gabriella.
"Yeah, this one's a keeper Gabriella" Sophia said, he hasn't paid the slightest attention to my flirting. She turned to Troy and said "I don't mean it you know. I wouldn't want to cause you and Gabriella problems."
Troy smiled at her for the first time "Yeah Gabriella told me you couldn't help yourself" he teased.
"Hey" Sophia said angrily.
"What else has Gabriella told you?" Alia asked.
Troy shrugged "She tells me all sorts of things about her days. She wouldn't have told me anything you told her in confidence though" he reassured them.
"How long are you staying?" Gabriella asked.
"Until Sunday morning if that's okay with you. I promised Mom and Dad I'd be home before eleven o'clock Sunday night so I'll need to leave pretty early so I have time to stop for a while and sleep if I need to" Troy replied.
"Did you drive all night?" Gabriella asked.
"I left straight after school and I got about three hours sleep" Troy said tiredly.
"You slept in your car?" Alia asked surprised.
"The bench seat in my truck's pretty comfortable" Troy commented.
"You drove your truck?" Gabriella asked astonished.
"Yeah it's running really well. Dad gave it a tune-up last week" Troy said smiling proudly.
Gabriella shook her head smiling and hoped his beloved truck didn't break down on him on the way home.
They entered the dorm lounge and Troy looked around curiously surprised by the clutter. This room didn't seem to fit with Gabriella at all and he wondered if this was also a reason Gabriella spent so much time in her bedroom studying. They walked through into the bedroom and Troy laughed at the difference "Wow you weren't joking when you called it a closet" he said covering up the real reason he'd laughed not wanting to cause problems between the girls.
Gabriella laughed too "It looks even smaller with you here" she said turning back the bed. Troy stripped off his clothes and lay down and Gabriella covered him up kissing his forehead.
"I'll make you a sandwich in case you get hungry. Don't eat any of the junk food unless you plan to replace it because none of it is mine" she warned him.
"There should be some cookies in the esky Mom sent" Troy said sleepily.
"And you didn't eat them all on the way?" Gabriella asked teasingly.
"I'm not Dad" Troy protested. "Mom gave me some separately. Whatever's in the esky is for you. I didn't even look until this morning when I replaced the ice."
"I love you Troy" Gabriella said overcome by the fact he'd driven fifteen hours to visit her. "I can't believe Jack and Lucille would let you skip two days of school to visit me."
Troy looked sheepish "They wouldn't" he agreed. "I organised meetings with my coaches for tomorrow so they had to let me come and I've got make up assignments from all my teachers."
"When exactly did you organise this?" Gabriella asked suspiciously.
"The morning after I found out you were coming to do the honours program" he admitted.
"So you knew when I left on Sunday that you were coming to visit me this weekend?" Gabriella questioned.
"Yeah I wanted it to be a surprise" Troy confirmed. "You're not mad are you?" he asked anxiously.
"Of course not it was a wonderful surprise" Gabriella said beaming at him.
"I won't get in your way. I know you'll have lots of work to do tonight and over the weekend. I brought work of my own to do too so you won't feel guilty" Troy promised.
Gabriella sat on the side of the bed and kissed him passionately then said "I have to go before you tempt me too much to skip class and join you. Get some sleep and I'll see you just after four."
"I love you Gabriella" Troy said closing his eyes and smiling.
Gabriella efficiently unpacked the esky marvelling at the sheer amount of meals Lucille had sent. She probably wouldn't have to cook at all the rest of the time there unless she shared it with her friends. She made Troy a couple of chicken salad sandwiches and covered them with clingwrap leaving them with a bottle of water on the desk beside the bed. She smiled to see that Troy was already asleep and left for class.
Gabriella gave Lucille a quick call as she walked across the campus to class.
"Hi Gabriella" Lucille answered cheerfully.
"Hi Lucille, thank you for all the food. I really was doing aright with cooking for myself you know" Gabriella said.
"I know you can look after yourself Gabriella but you spend so much time studying I just wanted to make things a little easier for you. Now you're welcome to share with your flatmates but Troy knows I didn't send it for him. He wanted to come and look after you not to expect you to look after him" Lucille said.
Gabriella laughed "Did you really think he needed to be told to look after me?" she asked disbelievingly.
"No but I know how he can eat" Lucille replied.
"I can't believe that you let Troy drive his truck all this way" Gabriella said changing the subject.
"I felt terrible about it but there was just no way I could lend him my car this week" Lucille admitted apologetically. "And Jack thought Troy needs to realise that his truck is not reliable enough to use next year at college."
"And yet he must have spent a lot of time tuning it up. Troy said it's running better than it ever has" Gabriella commented.
Lucille sighed "Yes I think he was hoping Troy would at least get close enough to be able to catch the bus the rest of the way. And then catch the bus home again. Now I have to worry about him driving that far again" she said tiredly. Gabriella realised that Troy was not the only one that had been up most of the night because of this visit.
"I've got to go Luce class is about to start. Get some rest you sound tired" Gabriella told her as she walked into the classroom.
"Bye Hon talk to you soon" Lucille said smiling at her daughter-in-law's concern.
"Bye Lucille" Gabriella said.
There was no time to talk in class (and her friends knew that the conscientious Gabriella would refuse to) so other than curious looks Gabriella was left in peace until lunchtime.
"Are you going back to the dorms for lunch?" Alia asked.
"No Troy drove most of the night. I'll wake him up when we finish for the day" Gabriella explained.
"If I had a hottie like that waiting for me I wouldn't be out eating lunch with friends" Sophia said smirking.
"Believe me I'd love to go and curl up with Troy but if I did that I wouldn't be able to drag myself back out of bed for class this afternoon" Gabriella said not even blushing. "I'm so tired. I'd fall asleep the minute I lay down."
"That's all you'd do? Sleep?" Casey asked incredulously.
"Yeah Troy's exhausted I wouldn't want to wake him up" Gabriella replied.
"So he really drove all that way just to see you?" Alia asked.
"Drove all night too? Must have been pretty keen" Casey added.
"Why'd he come?" Sophia asked.
"He's meeting with his coach tomorrow" Gabriella said.
"So it's just a coincidence he's here now and it's convenient that you're here so he has a place to stay" Alia said suspiciously.
"No he didn't really need to meet with the coach in person at all until the week before classes start next year. He organised it so his parents would allow him to miss school to visit me without making too much fuss and it wouldn't affect his grades. He came because he wanted to surprise me. He knew that leaving him to come here was incredibly difficult for me" Gabriella defended her husband's motives.
"So does this mean you're not going to come out for pizza with everyone tonight?" Sophia asked.
Gabriella shrugged "I'll talk to Troy see what he feels like"
"He's a boy No boy in the history of America has turned down pizza without very good reason" Casey declared.
"No boy ever chooses pizza over sex either" Alia retorted.
"I think he'll want to come and meet my new friends" Gabriella said thoughtfully.
"Meet or vet?" Sophia asked.
"I've had friends Troy didn't really like before and he's been okay with it" Gabriella replied.
"And he didn't try to stop you from seeing them?"
"No he made an effort to get to know Ryan himself. He said if I liked him then he must be worth making an effort to be friendly himself. They get along really well now" Gabriella said defensively. "Sophia I know that your Mom had it tough but Troy's not like that. He has supported every decision I've made in the whole time I've known him. Please don't judge him until you get to know him."
Sophia sighed "I'm sorry Gabriella. You're right I will give Troy a chance."
"I will too" Alia said "I'm sorry for being so suspicious."
"I have a question though. Sophia said your husband had dark hair and glasses and looked older?" Casey stated.
"I never told you anything about what Troy looked like Sophia?" Gabriella said surprised looking at her friend questioningly.
"I peeked in to say goodnight that first night and you were talking on Skype. I though you must be talking to your husband since you said your father is Cuban and this looked like an American" Sophia explained.
Gabriella thought for a moment then pulled her phone out and scrolled through the photos "Is this him?" she asked showing Sophia the picture.
"Yeah I think that's him though he didn't look that old the other night" Sophia confirmed.
"That's Troy's Dad Jack. I was Skyping with Troy and he came in to say hello" Gabriella said.
"You two sounded pretty close" Sophia said.
"Yeah we are. We've been living with them since Christmas. Jack's been a great support since they found out about the marriage" Gabriella said smiling. He's more my Dad now than my real father is.
"Since they found out. So your marriage wasn't arranged?" Alia asked surprised.
"Not to Troy" Gabriella said laughing. "My father arranged a marriage between me and one of his business associates. Troy and I were devastated and Troy proposed because he couldn't stand the thought of losing me. I accepted because I love him more than life itself."
"Well I don't understand loving anyone that much to give up a normal high school and college lifestyle but I can see that you do love him. Today is the first time I've seen you look truly happy" Alia admitted. "I would have liked to share a dorm with you next year but I hope we'll still be friends even if we're not in the same course or dorms."
"I hope so too" Gabriella said smiling.
"We'll have to make a regular time to catch up" Alia said practically.
"Yeah and some of the projects we're going to be assigned next week won't be due until next year so we'll have to keep in touch over the summer to work on them" Casey added.
"That will be useful. I've been to so many different schools and each time I moved everyone promised to keep in touch but it never lasted very long" Gabriella said quietly.
The others sat quietly knowing that no promises to make sure this time was different would mean anything to Gabriella.
"Is that why you moved in with Troy's parents instead of going to Mexico with your mother?" Sophia asked.
"I could never leave Troy for six months, it was hard enough to come here for the three weeks" Gabriella said laughing.
"It was certainly too hard for Troy" Casey said smirking.
"How far is it to Albuquerque?" Sophia asked.
"Just over 15 hours of actual driving time" Gabriella said smiling.
"Wow no wonder he was tired" Alia said.
"If he could look that hot when he's exhausted I bet he could have half the campus drooling on a good day" Sophia said teasingly.
"He certainly has the cheerleaders all following his every move at school" Gabriella admitted.
"Oh honey how can you put up with that?" Casey asked sympathetically.
"I try to ignore them. It's not Troy's fault, he never gives them any encouragement" Gabriella said sighing.
"You would have us believe that Troy is a perfect paragon of virtue" Alia said sarcastically.
"Troy is the perfect husband for me" Gabriella said firmly. "And he hasn't done anything that would make you doubt that."
"I have trouble believing that any teenage boy could genuinely be as mature sensible caring loving and romantic as you make Troy sound" Alia retorted.
"He drove all night to visit her. As far as romantic gestures go. That's huge" Sophia said.
"And Gabriella has been happier today than the rest of the week put together" Casey added. "I think you should shut up about Troy and give him a chance."
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you" Alia apologised.
"You're forgiven" Gabriella replied as the bell went and they hurried to class.
A/N: Thank you to Wildcats2016, Pumpkinking5, Broadwaybaby2010, Kiara, XxjoejonasfanxX, Anon, Guest and guest for your support.