Chapter 52
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.
The concert didn't appeal to them and neither did any of the movies they hadn't already seen so they ended up hanging around the arcade. They played a round of minigolf and met up with Chad, Jason and Zeke who wanted them to go into the games arcade. They hung out with them for a while until Troy noticed Gabriella was looking bored and made his excuses. "I'll see you guys later" he said.
"See ya Troy. Do you want to play basketball tomorrow?" Zeke asked.
"I'm training with Dad until ten and then I have to go over to Steve's to get something but I could meet you about 10.30 or 11 am for a while" Troy replied.
"Meet at the courts in the park" Chad said not wanting to deal with Coach Bolton on his day off unless Troy needed his help.
"Sounds like a plan" Troy agreed smiling. "I might be a bit late tomorrow afternoon" he added apologetically to Gabriella.
"That's fine Troy we spent time together today, come over whenever you can" Gabriella said smiling.
"Do you want some ice cream?" Troy asked.
Gabriella wasn't hungry but she smiled and shrugged "Sure maybe a small one" she said and was rewarded by Troy's wide smile.
They ordered ice cream and Troy led her to a high backed booth in the corner. He slid in next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Gabriella cuddled into his side and they ate peacefully before walking home stopping to kiss goodnight in the shade of a tree about half a block from Gabriella's house.
-o0o-
Troy was relieved to hand over his last donation for the month the next morning.
"Do you want to take Jakie to the park again?" Steve asked taking the cup and handing over the squirming child he'd been trying to clean up.
"I'd love to, but didn't you get in trouble yesterday?" Troy replied.
"Yes but you're doing us an incredible favour and to be honest I'd rather have the two of you out of the house. It's awkward to know you can hear us"
"I didn't listen. I put my earphones in and turned up my iPod " Troy said horrified.
"Yeah I know it's just awkward"
"Yeah I think that's why Mom never moved me upstairs once I was old enough to carry my own stuff up to put it away" Troy said.
Steve laughed. "I can believe that I'm not looking forward to Jacob being old enough to be awake without me realising it."
Troy rang Chad as he walked towards the park. "Hey talk to me" Chad answered.
"Hey Chad I have to bail on you. I'm taking Jakie to the park" Troy said apologetically.
"What park we could meet you?" Chad asked.
"Nah I still couldn't play" Troy replied. "Jakie's too little to leave."
"Okay man I'll see you at school tomorrow" Chad said.
"Sorry Man" Troy said.
"No problem. How was your dad this morning?" Chad asked.
"Not too bad" Troy said "we did five hours solid. It was good that I had to come over to Steve's or I don't know how long he would have kept going."
"Five hours! You should have called me Bro" Chad said.
"Believe me I would have if I needed to it's best if you don't interrupt too often or Dad'll get suspicious" Troy replied. "I've got to go."
"Later Bro" Chad said cheerfully disconnecting.
Jakie grizzled at the speed Troy was walking as he spoke to Chad on the phone so as soon as the call was finished Troy took off running though his legs already ached from training that morning and the morning before. The park was crowded with a queue for the swing so Troy and Jakie lined up for the slide until Troy's knees decided they didn't want to climb the stairs again. He set Jakie down in the sand but he wanted to run around so Troy chased him for a while before loading him back into the pram and jogging towards the house.
"Fast fast" Jakie demanded.
"You're a slave driver today Jakie" Troy said speeding up a little.
Jakie giggled at Troy's grumbling and kept yelling at him to go faster.
Debra glared at him as he arrived back at the house and Steve quickly got up to drive him home before she could say anything.
"You look a little worse for wear there Troy" Steve commented amused as he watched Troy climb into the SUV. "Did Jakie wear you out?"
"I ran five mile then did four and a half hours of training then ran to the park and carried Jakie up the steps for the slide a dozen times and that's on top of doing most of that yesterday as well" Troy said tiredly.
"Do you want me to have another talk with Jack" Steve offered.
"No point making him mad at you. I don't think it'd help" Troy said. "I just didn't realise how out of shape I got since the season ended."
"Out of shape? I couldn't do a quarter of the training you did this morning let alone consider everything else" Steve said disbelievingly.
"Yeah but I could have done it easily two months ago" Tory said. "I thought pick up games with the guys and all the dance practice for the show was enough but obviously it wasn't. I'm going to have to start running every day again.
Steve groaned. "You do know that training that hard will lower your s count?" he asked.
"I read that but I was training this hard last time so it shouldn't be too much of a problem if it doesn't work this month I'll ease off for the week before next time" Troy said unconcernedly.
"I would have thought you'd want this done as soon as possible" Steve commented.
"Yeah" Troy agreed enthusiastically/determinedly. "But Dad was in such a mood last weekend I didn't want to complain or refuse.
-o0o-
Troy was stiff after sitting for three hours to study. He groaned as he stood up and offered to walk Kelsi home.
"I don't think you need to be walking anywhere" Kelsi replied.
"Actually a walk would probably help. I overdid the training this weekend" Troy said.
"You could use a massage" Kelsi said looking slyly at Gabriella.
Troy laughed, "That or a couple of hours in the spa" he said but Dad would probably make me take it cold. He says it's better for muscle recovery."
"Cold" Gabriella exclaimed.
"Yeah when we were on training camp before the season he made us all hop in the spa full of ice" Troy said.
Gabriella shuddered.
"I'll come walk with you" she said concerned.
Kelsi and Gabriella watched in silence as Troy limped down the steps.
"You really don't have to walk me home guys. It's still light out" Kelsi protested.
"It's fine Kelsi believe me the walk really will help" Troy said calmly.
The girls could see that Troy was right, he was walking more freely after a block or two but that didn't change Gabriella's determination to look after him. Instead of walking back towards her house she led him to his. "Is your window open?" she asked.
"Yeah" Troy replied.
They went in and Gabriella ordered. "Get your jeans off and put some shorts on so I can massage your legs"
"You don't need to do that. I'm fine Gabriella" Troy protested.
"Don't you want me to massage you?" Gabriella asked.
"I'm sure I would enjoy it immensely and probably enough to embarrass you with my reaction" Troy admitted. "But remedial massage isn't supposed to be enjoyable. It's supposed to be hard enough to hurt and I don't think you could do that without hurting your hands."
"Oh okay. Is there anything else I can do?" Gabriella asked.
"You could kiss it better" Troy suggested.
Gabriella gave him a withering look.
"No I really am fine, I just overdid it a bit. Dad was a bit overenthusiastic about training this weekend and then I took Jakie to the park again and there were heaps of people in the sand and waiting for the swing so we went on the slide until my knees protested and then I ran back to the house" Troy said. "I just need to get Dad to ease off a bit for a few days so I can recover."
Gabriella winced at that. "How are you going to do that?" She asked hesitantly.
"I dunno. I guess I could ask Mom but I don't want to cause more trouble between them" Troy replied glumly.
There was a knock on the door and Jack stuck his head around it. "Hey Troy how're you pulling up? Steve said you were limping a bit when he dropped you home. I didn't think you worked that hard this morning" he said. He stopped surprised to see Gabriella. "Hi Gabriella are you staying for dinner?"
"Is Mom home to cook?" Troy asked cynically.
"Yeah she is. Do you want me to tell her Gabriella's staying?" Jack replied.
"I need to ring my Mom first" Gabriella said looking at Troy.
Troy nodded and Gabriella rang her mother. "Hi Mom can I stay at Troy's for dinner?" She asked.
"Are his parents home?" Maria asked.
"Yeah his Dad invited me?" Gabriella replied.
"Okay then I want you home by 8.30" Maria agreed.
"Thanks Mom" Gabriella said smiling at Troy. "Bye."
"Bye Gabriella?" Maria said smiling ruefully at how excited her daughter sounded.
"I'll let Luce know" Jack said smiling. "Troy we got sidetracked are you okay?"
"I could use a massage. You and Jakie together are a pair of slavedrivers. I was doing okay until I ran to the park and back with his pram and climbed up the slide a dozen times" Troy complained.
"Okay jeans off and lie down" Jack said seeming to forget that Gabriella was there.
"Dad" Troy protested glancing at Gabriella.
"If she wants to date a basketball player she's going to have to learn this" Jack said hoping to scare her off. He knew ordering Troy to break up with the girl wouldn't get him anywhere and would just lead to more rebellious behaviour.
Thanking the gods that his shirt tails were long enough to cover most of his boxers he muttered an apology to Gabriella and kicked off his shoes and socks before removing his jeans. He pulled his quilt off the bed and debated which muscles hurt the most before he lay on his back on the sheet.
Jack returned with the Dencorub and began massaging Troy's left thigh explaining what he was doing as he went. Gabriella was blushing as she looked at Troy's muscular thighs but when she looked up and noticed the grimace of pain on his face she took his hand and squeezed it in support.
Troy managed to stop his father at one thigh and Jack left them in peace after Troy promised he wouldn't move the leg until Lucille called them for dinner.
"Does it feel better?" Gabriella asked.
"Not yet, the 'Dencorub burns but it will feel better tomorrow because of it" Troy explained.
"Do you want me to do the other leg?" Gabriella asked.
"You can have a go if you want but I probably could do it myself well enough later. It was this one I needed help with" Troy replied. "Just cuddle up and distract me from the burning of the cream."
Gabriella laughed. "You have a one track mind" she complained jokingly lying down beside him.
"Yeah" Troy agreed grinning cheekily before leaning in to kiss her.
Gabriella giggled and returned the kiss enthusiastically. Troy used the excuse that he didn't want to risk getting the dencorub on her clothes to hide his growing excitement.
They kissed and cuddled for nearly an hour until Jack interrupted them as he brought Troy and Gabriella's meals in to them.
"Thanks Dad" Troy said sitting up.
Gabriella blushed and scrambled to get off the bed. Jack gave Troy a knowing look and chuckled at the girl's embarrassment. He handed over the meals and let shutting the door behind him.
"Oh God! What must he think of me?" Gabriella moaned burying her face in her hands.
"Nothing he didn't think before today" Troy said dryly. "You know that with my reputation most people at school would believe that we're having sex Gabriella. You told me that you didn't care." Troy held his breath he'd always known that this could be a problem for Gabriella. It was easy to say you wouldn't care about rumours in theory it was very different to be hit in the face with the fact people believed something about you that wasn't true no matter what you said or how much evidence there was to the contrary. He waited for her to yell at him for destroying her reputation or to decide she didn't want to be his girlfriend anymore.
Gabriella was shocked to silence by Troy's words. She remembered telling him that his friendship was worth it no matter how many silly rumours it caused but she had no idea that his father would believe they were having sex.
"You're right I did say that" she agreed in a small voice.
"You said it didn't matter so long as your real friends knew the truth" Troy said hugging her. "Dad was teasing me. He actually does know we're not having sex, or at least we weren't a month ago. I told him you were special to me."
Gabriella turned to hug Troy back. "Thank you" she whispered.
"Eat dinner and I'll walk you home before your Mom gets upset with me" he said handing her a plate.
Gabriella smiled and began to eat. She finished her meal and snuggled back beside Troy.
Jack came back in just before Troy was about to get up to walk her home and insisted on driving her. Troy protested and was allowed to accompany them but Coach Bolton didn't want his star player walking anywhere unnecessarily.
"Do you think he'll let you go to school tomorrow?" Gabriella whispered.
"He will though he might insist on driving me. Would you like us to pick you up if he does? You'd need to be ready about half an hour earlier than usual."
Gabriella looked at Troy enquiringly and he gave her a small nod of encouragement. "Okay. Can you ring me in the morning if we're getting a ride?"
"Sure. Goodnight Gabriella" Troy said kissing her cheek.
"Good night Troy. See you in the morning" Gabriella replied blushing.
A/N: Thank you to Pumpkinking5, stordec23, Ceciliaa93, Thereadella, lilo, meggsiy1998, brianna4797, cupcakeXmuffins, RosBi3 and Millie79 for your support.
