Okay here we go, finally! I'm so sorry for the wait.
Chapter 36: Fresh Air
"I'm so tired." Gabriella sighed and leaned into Troy while they walked to their room. It was practically the middle of the night. Since Zeke had arrived, they had all been talking for hours, hearing about practically everything he did on his trip. Gabby had loved it, but now she was feeling just how late it was.
"Me too. Taylor agreed with her friend. Her and Chad were walking a few steps in front of the two.
"I'd carry you but I'm too tired." Chad told Taylor apologetically, trying to rub the tiredness from his eyes.
Taylor gave a little laugh. "Hey good idea." She said. Suddenly she stopped and let him walk ahead a little bit, before jumping onto his back. Since Chad was so tired and hadn't expected her on him at all, the two of them both ended up falling to the floor.
Troy and Gabriella stopped and watch while, instead of either Taylor or Chad getting upset about being tangled up on the floor, they both just started laughing hysterically. They were too tired to care anymore.
"Think we should help them?" Gabby asked Troy quietly, watching her friends try to help each other up.
Troy laughed and shook his head. "I'm scared to." He admitted.
"You guys okay?" Gabriella laughed as she stood over her two friends.
Taylor pulled herself off of Chad and held out a hand for her boyfriend. "Yeah, I'm good." She laughed. "I landed on Chad." She shrugged.
"Yeah, and I landed on the floor." Chad groaned as he got up. "The hard tile floor." He added.
"Aw poor baby." Troy teased.
Chad glared at him. "I'm too tired, and now sore, to get you for that." He said. "Remind me in the morning."
"Uh…sure." Troy smiled when he saw Gabriella laughing and shaking her head. "What's so funny?" He laughed a little when she leaned on the wall for support, bending forward a bit and holding her stomach. She couldn't even answer his question.
"Clearly you've never seen Gabriella when she gets overtired." Taylor rolled her eyes.
"What?" both guys looked confused.
Taylor shrugged. "She starts laughing for no apparent reason, and at even the slightest thing." She informed them. Then she grabbed Chad's arm and started leading him away. "Good luck." She told Troy.
Meanwhile, Gabriella was calming down a bit and stood up. "Sorry." She took a deep breath, trying to hold it back, which was clearly difficult. "Nothing is even funny."
"Gabriella Montez, I learn something new about you everyday." Troy shook his head, a smile on his face.
Gabby took another deep breath to stop laughing all together. She looked at him for a moment before tiredly stepping forward. "Let's just go to bed."
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The next morning, Troy walked into the big bedroom, tossing a water bottle onto the couch on the far side and glancing over at the bed. Gabriella was still sleeping, her hair sprawled out on the pillow under her head. He smiled at how cute she looked when she was sleeping. But when he had returned to the house a few minutes ago, he had seen that almost everyone was up. So it was time to wake Gabriella up.
He went over to the side of the bed she was on, and leaned over, giving her a soft kiss. After a short moment Gabby's eyes fluttered open. "Good morning." He smiled to her.
Gabriella smiled and was about to pull him in for more when she noticed his state. "Ew gross, you're all sweaty." She wrinkled her nose and tried to squirm away.
"Yeah well that's what happens when I go for a run in the heat." Troy just laughed and stayed directly above her, not letting her get away. When she finally gave up, he leaned down, getting closer.
"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat from the door.
Troy looked over his shoulder and saw Sharpay, Kelsi, Ryan, Jason and Taylor standing in the open doorway. "Hey." Was all he could think of to say to them.
"Way to leave the door wide open dude." Jason laughed lightly and shook his head. Taylor rolled her eyes and the other three simply looked amused.
Meanwhile, Gabriella had begun to laugh hysterically. "Troy get off me." She smirked when he looked back down at her.
"I need to shower anyways." He shrugged, letting her push him away.
"Yeah, you really do." Gabby told him. When he was on his way to the bathroom, she looked at her friends. "Do you guys mind?" she asked. She wanted to get out of bed but didn't feel like all of them watching while she walked around the room in her short shorts and too small tank top.
"Oh, sorry." Sharpay laughed. "But meet us out here." She told her.
"Why?" Gabby asked, twirling a bit of her messy hair around her finger.
"We want to show you something." Taylor smiled.
Gabriella didn't bother asking. "Okay." She sighed. "I'll be there in a minute." She told them. She watched the five of them shuffle away. Taylor was the last to leave, closing the doors for Gabriella.
She shook her head, and slipped out of bed, hearing the water from the shower starting to run from behind the closed door of the bathroom. She quickly changed out of her pajamas, brushed her hair, put on her usual tiny bit of makeup, and checked her phone, quickly typing away at it before putting it back away. Then she went out to see what was going on.
She walked along the huge hall and saw where the group was gathered. Taylor gestured for her to come over, but put a finger over her mouth, telling her to keep quiet. "What is it?" she whispered when she got to them.
"Follow us." Taylor whispered back.
Wordlessly, Gabriella followed them, wondering what could possibly be so interesting. They stopped at the doorway to the living room and peeked in. Gabriella could clearly see Zeke, sitting silently in the middle of the sunny room, his eyes closed.
"What is he doing?" she whispered.
Sharpay shrugged. "We think he's meditating." She told her. "Remember, he told us about it last night?" she asked. Gabriella nodded is response.
They stood there for a while, though Gabriella didn't see the point since Zeke was simply sitting there. After a few minutes, she felt a pair of arms snake around her waist. "This better?" Troy whispered in her ear.
Gabby leaned into him and breathed in the smell she had gotten used to. It was like fresh air to her, with a mix of apples, coffee and pine trees. "Mm…yeah. Much better." She whispered back, turning to face him.
The five of their friends turned around, looking at the couple angrily. "Sh!" Kelsi said quietly.
Troy gave Gabriella a curious glance and she just shrugged. "What's Zeke doing?" He whispered when he saw his friend. Gabriella was about to open her mouth to reply when the silence was completely broken.
"Hey guys what's up?" Chad said, in his usual, loud, excited voice.
"Chad!" Sharpay groaned.
"What?" He asked, completely confused. Half of his friends were glaring at him.
No one wanted to explain what was going on, since Zeke was now fully aware that they were all there. "Hey guys, anyone hungry?" he asked. "I made banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast." He told them.
Chad smiled. "I knew there was a reason I missed you." He put a friendly arm around Zeke's shoulders. "I'm starving." He said.
"Me too." Troy spoke up, suddenly realizing his hunger.
Gabriella gave him a weird look. "Did your stomach just growl?" she asked, sounding amused.
"Yeah…" Troy admitted.
Gabby seemed to melt. "Aw that's so cute!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms back around him. She stayed like that while they all walked into the kitchen, which was next door.
"Oh please." Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Can you two separate yourselves while we eat breakfast please?" she asked. "I'd like to keep my muffin down."
While Gabriella laughed and pulled away from Troy, Zeke seemed to study the pair. "So I see you two are still going strong." He said happily.
"Yep." Troy replied with a smile, grabbing a muffin from the huge basket full.
"Good." Zeke seemed content.
Kelsi let out a laugh. "Going strong is quite the understatement." She informed Zeke.
"Yeah I would try…inseparable." Ryan suggested.
"Or annoyingly cute." Sharpay added.
"Hoow abopth compfletlee un lubb?" Chad pitched in, his mouth completely full of muffin.
"Uh, what was that?" Jason asked.
Chad chewed and swallowed before repeating himself. "How about completely in love?"
"Thank you Chad!" Taylor exclaimed, nodding along with his suggestion, which was the most correct out of the bunch.
"Um, hello?" Gabriella cut in. "We're right here." She reminded them all. Troy was too busy acting like his best friend and stuffing down a muffin to say anything.
"You know we're right." Taylor told her best friend.
The kitchen was silent while everyone waited for a reply. Gabriella looked to Troy and smiled. "Yeah I know." she replied, before grabbing a muffin of her own.
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After breakfast, the group discovered just how huge Ryan and Sharpay's summer house was. They hadn't seen everything outside when they had arrived, since it had gotten dark quickly. But in the daylight, everything was shown.
The house was perched on a hill, which lead right down to the lake's shore. There was a beautiful stone staircase winding down the hill, starting from the large patio outside the house. Halfway down the hill there was a terrace, with chairs sitting in a semi circle, facing the lake. At the bottom of the stairs, the ground turned into soft sand, part of the small, private beach. There was a dock not too far away, with a few different boats tied up in different places.
Just looking at it made everyone excited. They wanted to do everything. So after putting on their bathing suits and sunscreen, they made their way down, first to the beach.
After relaxing for a while, they played a game of volleyball, which the girls surprisingly won. Then they went swimming, and did whatever they wanted. It was the perfect day.
When the sun went down, they wondered what they could do, until Jason suggested they have a campfire. Everyone agreed with that and they got to work building one, right on the sand, by the dark water. Soon the nine of them were sitting around it, all cozy in blankets and such. After the sun had gone down, the air had gotten cool.
"Look we found some!" Ryan said happily, throwing a pack of marshmallows onto one of the tables. Him and Chad had been sent up to the house to search for some.
"Yeah and some sticks to roast them on." Chad added, leaning a bunch against the same table.
"Perfect." Kelsi told them.
"Come sit guys." Taylor motioned to the large amount of free space on either side of her. She was sitting on a bench they had brought down to the beach.
"This is nice." Ryan sighed happily when he sat down.
"I'm coming." Chad told her, starting to make his way over. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Chad said as he passed where Troy and Gabriella were sitting. He leaned over a little and gave Troy a punch on the arm.
"Hey what was that for?" Troy sat up straight, looking at his friend like he was crazy.
"I said I'd get you back for what you said last night." Chad shrugged, plopping down on the bench.
Troy rolled his eyes, and leaned back again. "I didn't think you were actually being serious." He said.
"Why would you ever think that?" Chad asked. "I'm always serious." He said. The entire group sat in a slightly stunned silence. Then suddenly Taylor burst into laughter. "What?" he asked in surprise.
"Nothing, don't worry about it." Taylor shook her head lightly.
Chad continued to argue with her, wanting to know what it was that she found so funny, while Zeke leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky for a moment. "You have no idea how good it is to see all of you guys again." He said quietly.
Sharpay smiled. "Yeah…this is nice." She looked around the group. It was true, everyone looked completely content. On the bench, Taylor and Ryan were now laughing hysterically at something. Chad looked confused, but started laughing along a moment later after Taylor explained. On one side of them, Kelsi and Jason were both leaning back, looking up at the clear sky and pointing out stars to each other. On the other side, Gabriella sat in a chair, with Troy sitting in front of her on the sand, leaning against her legs. She had her hands on his shoulders, and would lean forward once and a while to whisper something in to his ear. Sometimes Troy would laugh, other times he would smile and whisper something back.
Finally, Sharpay looked over at Zeke, who seemed to just love being back here. She realized in that moment just how much she had missed him while he was gone. So she slipped off of her own chair and went over to sit on his lap, giving him a little kiss and settling in.
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Okay, so I love writing the cute stuff...but there is probably going to be some trouble coming soon. Just to warn you :P
Thanks for the reviews and sorry for taking so long to get this one up. Now that summer is here I'll have more time to update.