THE SOMEDAY TRILOGY: THIS MOMENT

Chapter 52

Epilogue.

Ryan stood on the doorstep to the Montez household, bouncing from one foot to the other, waiting for someone to answer the door. He heard a laugh from inside, then footsteps; and a moment later the door swung open and he was met with the presence of a bright and beaming Gabriella.

"Hey!" she said with a broad smile, gesturing for him to come straight in. "You still have your key, don't you?"

Ryan nodded. "Yeah... I don't know, it felt weird just coming in though."

"I think you'll always be welcome to just come in."

He ducked his head, smiling slightly. It was a comforting feeling. It had only been a short period that he'd spent living with Gabriella and her mother, but it had been a period where he'd felt so unequivocally and unconditionally welcomed into their home. His instinct at first had been to just enter; it had only been on second thought that he'd decided to ring the bell.

"Anyway... I brought photos!" he said, holding up a package of photographs he'd just picked up from the mall.

"Photos from?"

"Last Thursday night," he explained. "Oh, and from New York. But, it's the photos from last Thursday that I'm here to show you."

"Oh! That's right, you got them developed for your collage you're making."

He nodded and then handed her a CD. "I burnt them onto here for you as well. And I'll upload them to Facebook tonight and tag everyone of course. I should've done it earlier but I just haven't had time."

Ryan wasn't exaggerating – it had been a busy week for him. Two days after he and Sharpay's birthday party he'd been in New York City for his Juilliard audition; after coming back the drama club had been involved in a series of meetings discussing plans for the rest of the year, the student council was organising a food drive to assist with devastated areas of the country who had faced hurricanes, and teachers were back cracking the whip, wanting to make the final months of the year count.

Gabriella led Ryan into the living room, where he encountered girls' afternoon already in full swing, with Kelsi, Taylor and Martha hanging out.

"Ah, and our girls afternoon can begin now that Ryan is here," Kelsi said teasingly.

Ryan made a face at her, but grinned nonetheless. "And I come with photos."

Gabriella waved the package that she'd taken from Ryan excitedly. "Let's look!"

Ryan headed into the kitchen to retrieve a glass of soda. He returned with a diet Sprite to find the girls gathered around flicking through the hard copies– a rare activity in the world of digital cameras and clicking through photographs on a computer screen.

"Ryan, these are gorgeous," Kelsi gushed, glancing up at him.

"Shows that having a fancy camera really does help people to become a photographer," he said wryly.

"Jason took a few of them, a lot actually," Martha observed. "That helps."

The girls had divided the pile into four stacks, being careful not to get them out of order but at least this allowed them to each look through a pile and then pass it to the next one. Kelsi bit her bottom lip as she passed her stack she'd completed to Gabriella – knowing it would incite emotion from her, whether it be good or bad in nature was uncertain. Gabriella looked curiously at Kelsi, seeing that look of expectation on her face, but the composer didn't say anything and so Gabriella turned to the photographs in her lap.

She paused upon seeing a photo of herself and Troy. It had actually been Kelsi who had seized the camera at that point in time, there were a series of photos of Gabriella and Troy in a row – a couple of candid shots without their awareness that a camera was pointed at them, the next one of shyness with Gabriella's head buried into Troy's chest, followed by a few posed photographs.

"I got them all printed in case either of you wanted some," Ryan explained to Gabriella quietly, seeing what she was looking at.

"We look really happy in this one," she observed. "You know what we'd been talking about?"

"What?" he asked carefully.

"Troy had been researching online and looking up youth hostels with private rooms in San Francisco and we were talking about trying to spend some weekends together."

"Well... that makes sense you'd look happy talking about that," Martha said cautiously.

"Hmm. Yes. We look happy." Gabriella's emphasis was upon the word look. She waved the photograph at Ryan. "Can I keep this?"

"Of course, I just said you could."

She snatched the photo up and murmured to the others a quick, "Excuse me," before hurrying out of the lounge room and heading for the kitchen. She placed the photograph down, and with her weight resting on her hands placed on the edge of the bench, she leaned over, staring at the image.

"Gabriella," Taylor's quiet voice said from the doorway to the kitchen. Gabriella glanced up to see both Ryan and Taylor standing there looking at her with a look of worry across both of their faces.

"I'm fine. Just um... getting a drink." She abruptly stood upright and turned to the cupboard to retrieve a glass.

"You already have a drink."

"That's soda. I feel like water. I'm a bit parched."

"You know if you wanna talk about this... you can. We get that it's hard, and that you can't talk to him about it properly, but you can always talk to us," Ryan said gently.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," Gabriella said dumbly.

"I told you that as long as I thought you were happy then I'd keep my mouth shut but… I'm not exactly believing that at the moment," he said quietly.

"What's not believable?" she asked, with a narrowing of the eyes.

"I wasn't going to interfere, but you're kind of giving us whiplash. You're over the moon one day, coming out of a guidance counsellor meeting looking like you want to throw up, all over each other at Ryan's party the next day," Taylor contributed.

"Oh good, so you're in on this too," Gabriella said with a roll of the eyes. She bit her lower lip, and picked up the photograph of she and Troy which she'd seized and held it up. "Look how happy we are. Of course I'm happy. I've finally made my decision, everything is great. End of story."

"It's been, like, two weeks since you agreed to this," Taylor said quietly. "If you're already having second thoughts now..."

"It's not second thoughts," Gabriella said firmly. "I'm just thinking about it. It's a major decision, one that I didn't think I'd quite make for a while."

"Well maybe..." Ryan began to say, but then trailed off. What he'd been going to say, he decided against sharing, but it was too late, he'd already spoken enough.

"Say it," Gabriella said, stubborn tone of voice switched on. "It's kind of too late to stop being honest now. You've been putting in your two cents the whole time, why stop now?"

"What if you made the wrong choice?" Ryan blurted.

Gabriella gaped at him. "Seriously? You're actually saying that?"

"I remember talking to you when you came back from visiting MIT, and have heard you talking about Stanford. Taylor was there with you, she..."

Taylor shot him a look. "Ryan, shut up."

"But you..."

"But I nothing. This is Gabriella's decision."

Gabriella shook her head, having dawned on her that her two best friends had clearly been in discussions about the topic over the week. "You guys need to get lives if this is exciting conversation when I'm not around."

As she said the words she knew they sounded rude and harsh but she'd launched into complete defensive mode. The truth however, was that she valued their opinions, so much so that they would weigh heavily upon her ultimate decision – a decision that she'd thought she'd made, but if she was honest with herself, she was beginning to question.

"I just think you need to think really, really long and hard about your reasons," Ryan finally said. "I know you asked me to keep my thoughts to myself but… that was because you promised you were content with your decision. I'm not exactly believing that at the moment."

Gabriella was staring back at Ryan with a troubled expression. She was done with thinking, and voiced that much. "I'm… I can't think about this any more," she said, closing her eyes, rubbing her temples. "Thinking is exhausting. There's…. there's a relief that comes with having made a decision, getting on with making plans."

"That's now, sure, but… down the road you don't wanna regret taking the seemingly easy path. Do you?"

Before she could respond, she was interrupted by the ringing of her doorbell. Gabriella frowned, not aware of anyone her mother was expecting.

"I'll get it," she called out, mostly for her mother's benefit.

When Gabriella peered through the peep-hole, her lips broke into a surprised smile to see Troy and Chad standing there. She opened the door without hesitation, revealing their full frame. Both boys were dressed in black pants and wearing a brown button up work shirt, but unbuttoned. Underneath Troy's was a grey wife beater, under Chad's a black t-shirt.

"Hey!" she greeted Troy with a hug and a quick peck on the lips, and then also gave Chad a quick hug.

"Hope it's okay we dropped by. I see you've got others here," Troy said, gesturing to Taylor, Martha and Ryan's cars all outside.

"It's fine," Gabriella said. "Come in!"

She led the guys into the living room where both Taylor and Ryan had returned to; they'd overheard the boys arriving and Taylor was eagerly awaiting Chad's entrance. She greeted him similarly to how Gabriella had greeted Troy.

"Hey!"

"Are we crashing girls' afternoon?" Troy asked, observing some bowls of popcorn, the DVD case of Legally Blonde and some magazines.

"You are, but I suppose we can forgive that," Kelsi commented with a smile. The others also smiled – Ryan's smile was a little tight. Finally he'd been making some sort of progress. It was as though the fates were determined to interrupt, playing their own role in the way things were playing out.

"How was your induction?" Gabriella asked enthusiastically. It had been Troy's induction to his brand new workplace and she knew how excited he'd been about it.

"It was great!" Troy said enthusiastically.

Chad shook his head in disbelief at Troy's description. He remembered his own induction – hours of company policy, safety information and corporate structure of which he'd retained about five percent of the information they'd dispensed that day. Nonetheless it was a day's pay for very little work.

"Dude, was the instructor some hot chick or something? That's the only way that induction could've been great."

"It was a lady, she was like, forty," Troy said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, a MILF?"

"No!" Troy said, looking disgusted, and glancing back at Gabriella warily – her expression was unperturbed.

"When do you start work?" Martha asked.

"I have training on Tuesday night," Troy answered.

"Do you guys want a drink?" Gabriella asked. "We've got Pepsi, or 7Up, or juice?"

"Pepsi thanks," both Troy and Chad answered simultaneously.

Gabriella asked around the room, Martha placing an 'order' for another Pepsi and Taylor and Kelsi for a 7Up.

"I'll help," Troy said quickly, and trailed after Gabriella into the kitchen.

The minute that the pair passed through the entrance into the kitchen, Gabriella felt a pair of hands on her waist. She squealed lightly as Troy spun her around in his arms, pulling her close and facing him.

"I missed you," he murmured, warm breath tickling her lips.

"You saw me last night," she remarked, both amused and aroused by the intensity of his vocal and facial expression.

His lips formed a lazy smile before leaning forward and pressing them to hers in a soft peck.

"So." Peck.

"Long." Peck

"Ago."

She felt the tension in her body immediately drift away as the final peck became much more than a peck. Her back pressed up against the refrigerator, she vaguely registered a magnet digging into her shoulder but it didn't matter because she was lost in the intensity of his kisses.

They were interrupted by a clearing voice, a sheepish Troy and a mortified Gabriella pulling apart and looking up at Elena Montez with raised eyebrows.

"How are you, ma'am?" Troy asked, standing up a little straighter.

"Troy, you've never called me ma'am before, no need to start just because I caught you with your hand on my daughter's backside," Elena said wryly, raised eyebrows. She wasn't naive, and it wasn't the first time she'd seen the pair in a compromising position. However in her own kitchen up against the refrigerator was not a place she deemed it acceptable for the couple to engage in sneaky trysts – or not so sneaky, to be particular.

"Err, sorry mom," Gabriella stammered, face flushed.

"So, an afternoon for the girls?" Elena said, looking pointedly at Troy.

"Um, Chad and I just dropped by to say hello, we're not staying," Troy offered, not wanting Gabriella to get into trouble, and added cheekily, "And Ryan fits in perfectly."

Elena laughed; Troy's comment succeeded in diffusing the slight tension. "You're welcome to stay, I don't mind," she said, before adding, "As long as you're all downstairs."

"Of course, we will be, mom. Thank you," Gabriella said, giving her mom a quick kiss on the cheek. "They're not all staying long anyway, Troy and I are going out tonight, remember?"

"Ah yes, I recall."

"She'll be home by 11," Troy promised.

Elena pursed her lips. "You can have until midnight."

Gabriella smiled broadly, giving her mother a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you!"

"I'm going to duck out to the office quickly just to grab some paperwork and to buy a few things at the grocery store. Do you want anything, Gabi?"

"No thanks, I'm fine."

Gabriella ducked her head into Troy's shoulder as Elena backed away. "So, freaking, mortified!" she exclaimed in a whisper.

Troy was embarrassed but grateful that Elena hadn't been too annoyed. He pressed a light kiss to her temple. "It's fine, babe, she's not that mad. If she was, she'd have kicked me out," he pointed out.

Gabriella knew that he was right but this didn't make her feel much better.

"Hey," Troy murmured. "Since she's going out…" he kissed her again.

"Our friends are still here," she reminded him.

"We could totally kick them out. She said we had to stay downstairs, she didn't say we couldn't get rid of people..."

She shook her head. "You'd really do that?"

"Hey, no kicking us out," Chad said disapprovingly, overhearing the tail end of the conversation when he appeared in the kitchen door to find out what was happening with the drinks.

"You know I'd never do that," Troy deadpanned.

"You've done it before, don't lie," Chad said with a roll of the eyes. "We really are just dropping by, Hoops and I have to go train. We wanted to finalise plans for tonight."

Chad quickly assisted in locating glasses and pouring out the drinks.

"Whatever you guys want to do is fine by me," Gabriella said agreeably.


Later than evening Troy returned to pick up Gabriella – just an ordinary date, knocking at her door, making small talk with her mother as he awaited Gabriella's descent downstairs. The grin on his face was broad, lips met in a sweet kiss, not caring about Elena's presence. Promises to have Gabriella home safe and sound - it was routine, it was welcome routine, it felt familiar and wonderful to be back in that place.

Their date for that evening felt somewhat of a novelty, although if they actually went back and thought about it, it hadn't been that long since they'd been on a proper date. But in recent times, life had been so chaotic, between a period of ongoing awkwardness and just the general business of life. It was nice to make plans with their best friends, to go out and to enjoy themselves on a double date. Neither pair exactly had experienced an easy run and yet somehow they emerged from it all, able to be sitting in a booth at Blake's Lotaburger, both couples present, all of them friends. Gabriella pushed the niggling feelings as a result of Ryan's criticisms away – how could something that felt as easy as this be wrong?

Discussion inevitably drifted around the usual topics – school, their extra curriculars, the basketball regionals that both boys were a part of during the upcoming spring break, their families, and college.

"Now, Taylor needs to give up on this Harvard notion and our lives will be set. California bound for all of us," Chad said with a grin.

Taylor shook her head. "Chad. Come on, you know what Harvard means to me."

"I know, I know..." The air went a little quiet. Chad and Taylor had an unspoken understanding that they'd give the long distance thing a go regardless of what happened, although both were a little uncertain as to how it would work in practice.

"Are you definite about Sacramento?" Gabriella asked Chad.

"Pretty much. I mean nothing is signed and won't be for a couple of months but I do feel it in my gut."

Troy nodded - he understood, he felt the exact same way. There was a great deal of value to that gut feeling.

"Not long until I'll know for sure what's happening with Harvard. In a few weeks I'll be waiting every day for the mail," Taylor said, gnawing on her thumbnail. Chad thwacked her arm lightly – she'd requested he prevent her from biting her nails if he could, as she was hoping to grow them for prom.

"I believe that everything happens for a reason and if Harvard is where you're supposed to be, it'll happen," Gabriella said wisely.

"Yeah yeah. I know. Don't get your hopes up, blah blah," Taylor said, with a roll of her eyes and making a talking motion with her hand.

"Good to see you've been learning from our advice, babe," Chad said cheekily.

"Hey, so, were we gonna go catch a movie?" Gabriella asked.

Taylor and Chad exchanged a look. "Um, actually, do you mind if we bail on that?" Chad said.

"My mom is out..." Taylor said, ducking her head a little, and allowing the implication of the statement to hang.

"Say no more," Troy said, palms raised.

"You know, Taylor's house does have a guest room," Chad mused. "Um... I guess... you guys could..."

Troy and Gabriella exchanged a brief look – they'd yet to be together since Gabriella had returned from California. Troy would be lying if he said he wasn't hanging out for when Gabriella would feel ready, and a part of him perked up at Chad's suggestion. Gabriella's face however was one of slight disgust.

"Um, we're close but not that close," she said, eyes wide. "So thanks, but no thanks."

"What's the difference between that and doing it at a party when everyone knows you're doing it?" Chad pondered.

"Totally different!" Taylor said.

"Completely different," Gabriella agreed.

"The man has a point," Troy mused.

"How is it different?" Chad asked the girls. "If we were all at a party and both went to go... get a room... that would be the exact same thing as if you guys came over."

"The party environment is different. There's alcohol and music..." Taylor began to say.

"I can get alcohol. You have music," Chad interjected.

"And dancing..."

"We can dance."

"And..."

"Guys," Gabriella interrupted. "Pointless discussion. Troy and I aren't coming over with or without music and alcohol and dancing. You go though. Enjoy the... privacy."

They all finished up the remainder of their sodas, chatting a bit longer before heading out to the parking lot where Chad and Troy's vehicles were parked side by side. A little bit of small talk in the parking lot longer, Taylor and Chad headed off, leaving Gabriella and Troy to decide what lay ahead for the evening.

Troy glanced at his watch. "It's not even 9pm. Did you want to catch a movie? Go bowling? Mini golf? Umm... laser tag?"

"Hmm... could we maybe just go to your place? Hang out in your room – door open, of course," Gabriella said with a smile.

Troy nodded. "If that's what you want, sure."

Gabriella's hand rested on his knee for the drive back to his house; when he wasn't changing gears he had his hand over hers, thumb rubbing over the back of her palm. When they arrived back at his place, he pulled into the curb to park outside of his house, looking suspiciously at his fairly dark house.

"Hello?" Troy called out into the house, frowning at the lack of lights turned on. He flipped on a few switches as they entered the house and walked through the corridor.

"Looks like they're out," Gabriella observed.

"Weird. They didn't mention going out," he mused.

"That may have been strategic," she pointed out with a wry smile.

"True," Troy said rolling his eyes. They reached the kitchen and he found his mom's notepad where she would write phone messages and notes in the middle of the bench.

Troy,

If you come home before we're back, we're next door at the Anderson's having dinner.

-Mom

"There you go, that solves that mystery. Looks like we have the living room then. You wanna see if there's anything on TV?" Troy asked.

Gabriella was agreeable, and so she and Troy collapsed on the couch, curling up together as Troy flicked through the stations. Finally they landed on The Devil Wears Prada which had started about ten minutes earlier, and he settled – he knew Gabriella liked the film and he had seen it and in his opinion as far as a romantic comedy went, it was watchable. They watched through until the second commercial break, and then Troy found himself feeling a little distracted by his attractive girlfriend tempting him with her soft skin and the sweet smell of her perfume. He pressed a soft kiss to her neck, then another, then a nibble and a nip of her skin.

"Is this a movie that you're dying to watch again?" he murmured.

Gabriella smiled, drawing in a breath as he sucked the skin just below her ear. "Um, if it was and you're going to distract me from watching, will you agree to watching it with me another day?" she asked teasingly.

"Of course," he murmured, warm breath tickling against her skin.

She tilted his chin up with her index finger, gazing into his eyes.

"Just kiss me."


Sunday night came, Gabriella wasn't sure how they'd all wound up at her house – it hadn't been the original plan for their Sunday evening - but gradually in singles and pairs, the Wildcats had trickled in across the afternoon, one texting the other and discovering where the Sunday afternoon and evening hangout was taking place. Elena Montez was in the study – claiming she was catching up on some work, but Gabriella knew the truth that she was actually tending to her crops on Farmville. Gabriella wasn't used to her place being the social hub, but that weekend the big house currently occupied by just the two people had been alive with activity.

There wasn't actually any plan of what they were doing. The Wildcats had watched a movie, and then Zeke and Jason had popped out to Zeke's house to drag over Zeke's PS2 to hook up to the Montez's television. Later on, the group headed out in two cars to the local pizza store to pick up an order, before all driving back to Gabriella's place to sit around in the living room and devour their purchases.

In a moment of supreme cheesiness, Gabriella was refusing to eat more than a couple of slices of pizza which Troy simply wasn't accepting. He located the smallest slice of pizza left, and with the crust in his mouth, shoved the slice in her direction.

"Ew, Troy, don't be gross!" Gabriella squealed. She did, however, accept the slice when he handed it to her and took a bite, before handing it back to him. He rolled his eyes but was happy to eat the remainder of the piece himself.

"Disgusting," Chad said, with a roll of the eyes.

Taylor who was close by his side also rolled her eyes – not at Troy and Gabriella, but at Chad's indignant reaction to the display. She would never sell him out, but Chad had his moments of embarrassing cheesiness when not surrounded by his buddies.

"Did you guys hear about the brief careers session being held in the gym on Tuesday instead of homeroom?" Kelsi asked the group conversationally.

Her remark was met by mixed chorus of annoyance, disappointment, apathy and excitement.

"It was only a few months ago when we were all stressing out about getting our college applications in. Now almost half of us know officially where we're going to be next year," Martha commented.

"Almost half?" Jason said, eyebrows raised.

"Well, Troy and Chad are pretty much close to signed with their teams, Gabriella's now set on Stanford, I've got my early decision to Sarah Lawrence," Martha explained, going through the group methodically.

"I'll be in New York City no matter what," Sharpay said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Have you applied to other colleges in New York?" Chad asked her.

She paused. "Well, no, but it doesn't matter."

"I think with a fee sometimes you can submit late applications," Martha offered.

"Daddy wants me to put in an application to NYU, I don't think it is at all necessary though," Sharpay commented.

"NYU is a great college, and it's in a really pretty part of town," Gabriella offered.

"Not as pretty as the part of town Juilliard is in," Sharpay shot back, a little defensively.

"Well if you wanna technically talk about how 'pretty' it is..." Ryan began to say, before Sharpay shot him a look. Ryan rolled his eyes, before adding, "Actually, I'll be in New York, somewhere in the state, too, I'm pretty sure. Every school I've applied to but one is in New York."

"Nearly all mine are in California," Jason offered.

"Cali, hell yeah!" Chad declared. Chad and Jason did a boy-ish fist pump handshake, which Chad and Troy then exchanged followed by Troy and Jason. Troy turned to Gabriella who he was seated beside. "You want in on our California handshake?"

She gave him a smile. "That's okay, I'll let you guys keep it to yourselves."

The group continued with their conversations, drifting away from the topic and breaking into a couple of separate discussions, Troy and Jason turning back to the PlayStation. Gabriella took the opportunity to collect a few items of garbage and some dirty plates to tidy up, taking them back to the kitchen.

Satisfied that everyone was okay, she slipped away and headed upstairs, thinking that no one had really been paying attention to her. However she should've known that there was one blue eyed boy who constantly paid her attention, even when he was across the room with a play station remote in hand, out of the corner of his eye he had her in sight. He sensed her very presence, and equally would sense her lack of presence.

It was a clear night, no cloud coverage, only the slightest of breezes causing a rustle in the trees. Her friends were still downstairs, laughing, joking, talking. She heard the balcony door behind her pull open, but she didn't move, didn't react. She knew who it was, without seeing or hearing. Warm arms embraced her figure and she felt herself relax into his touch, body melting back into him.

"Hi," he murmured, and swept her hair away to press a soft kiss to her neck."Why are you hiding up here?"

"Not hiding. Just needed to think for a moment."

"Everything okay?"

She nodded, her hands resting on his arms and squeezing lightly. "Fine," she said simply.

Her mind was a swell of emotions. As her friends sat around, talking and laughing, she couldn't help but have doubts in her mind as to how long the perfection was going to last. It seemed to slip away from her frequently, just as everything started to make sense, she'd be hit with a new found onslaught of confusion – bliss was merely a temporary state. She would never have labelled herself as a glass half empty sort of person, but in contrast to Troy's eternal optimism and faith, it would be easy to label her as a pessimist, filled with doubt.

"You shouldn't be up here, my mom wouldn't be happy," she murmured.

"Mmm, won't be long. We're not doing anything. Not breaking the spirit of the rule, anyway."

"This is true."

Somehow, standing in the comfort of his arms and feeling tender kisses lightly pressing against her skin, it was easy to make herself believe that everything was okay.

"I know you're nervous, but you're gonna see Gabriella, everything is going to be perfect –or as close to perfect as it can be. You and me, babe, that's all that matters. We'll make it work. Yeah?"

She swivelled around, turning to face him. Troy's hands came to rest on her waist, and her right hand cupped his cheek, thumb caressing the side of his face. There were times when gazing at Troy she'd be overcome with the perfection of his features or the brightness of his smile or a fixation upon the way his hair was getting a little too long. As they stood on her balcony in the cool, clear night with their friend's downstairs discussing hopes and dreams for the future, she gazed at him and could only see the hope and belief in his eyes.

"I love you," she stated.

"And I love you," he returned, unnecessarily but wanting to return the sentiment regardless. He sighed, before saying softly, "I should go back downstairs."

Gabriella hushed him, a finger pressing on his lips to silence him. She kissed him softly before pulling away and requesting, "Can we stay? Just a little longer."

He kissed her forehead gently before replying, "Of course. We can stay as long as you want."

"How about forever? Right here, just you and me, can we stay right here forever?"

"Sounds perfect to me."

Realistically, they couldn't stay there forever. But for a while at least, reality was being cast aside in forever of fantasy. And so Gabriella simply turned back around, once again relaxing into Troy's embrace. They stood in silence, gazing out into the night sky, up at the stars and the moon, and existed in the essence of that moment.


Can you imagine what would happen if we could have any dream

I'd wish this moment was ours to own it and that it would never leave

~ Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, "Right Here, Right Now."

~ fin


AN: I have an undefinable volume of gratitude and thank you to everyone who is still here following my fan fiction. I have every intent to see through the entirety of my series; just life has taken a brand new turn living in a brand new city in a job with a 50+ hour work week and life gets in the way of fanfiction. I've learnt the value of my real life and of prioritising real life and my future and my friendships over any sort of fantasy land. Troy and Gabriella will always be in my heart, they're always on my mind, and I'm not planning to let them go - but I think they would be happy to see me embracing the real world.

My beta reader Audrey has become so much more than a beta reader: she has been a chauffeur, a tour guide, an inn keeper and most importantly, a friend. Thank you for committing to see this through with me; I wouldn't have come this far without you and I know I couldn't see it through without you.

Thank you to every single person who has assisted along the way, everyone who has messaged me with advice, given me tips about colleges and basketball, suggestions for fashion, tips for grammar, guest beta readers and every morsel of general moral support whether it be via review, at a forum, on Twitter, or at an event I've met you at in real life.

This is the end of This Moment but not the end of my Someday series: there will be the third and final installment. I am planning to write the whole thing in its entirety prior to posting, to allow for a fluid posting and reading experience. I've already started writing bits and pieces and have whole segments and chapters completed so I'm hoping 2011 will be my year.

Until the next part of the journey commences, thank you, and hope to see you all soon.

~Danielle xo