(A.N. sorry it has taken me so long to update, I've had a really bad stomach bug so I wasn't really able to do any writing so thank you for your patience. Thanks to everyone who has given feedback or comments on My Girls and I hope you'll continue to let me know what you think, I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy this next chapter :) )
Troy and Gabriella were sitting in their maths class a few weeks later, keen for it to finish so they could go to the rooftop for free period. They were in the middle of doing some exercise questions from the textbook when their teacher got their attention. "Alright everyone, I've gotten a message from your grade coordinator about free period. I know that many of you have your own schedules for this period but your coordinator has decided to run some cohort activities for today and tomorrow, not wanting to take all too much of your time away since it's an important year and I'm sure you're all quite busy. Today you'll be visiting the younger kids and I'll read out your groups next but tomorrow you'll have to bring your gym equipment." The teacher read out the assignments and Troy and Gabriella's homeroom was assigned to Charlotte's class, making their eyes widen.
When the class went back to their work, Troy whispered to Gabriella. "What am I going to do? No one can know about Charlie but the second she sees me, she's gonna come running and call me Daddy."
She placed her hand on top of his. "Hey, it's ok. If you stay outside, I can go in first since she only calls me Gabi so there's nothing wrong with that and I can talk to her first, she just might find it a little weird to call you Troy." He nodded and she cupped his cheek. "Look at me, it's gonna be fine, don't stress."
He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. "Thanks Brie."
Their moment was interrupted by their teacher. "Mr Bolton, Miss Montez, back to work." They could see that it was a sympathetic reprimanding and knew they had to get back to the questions for the remaining of the period. They kept one of their hands intertwined while they did their work.
Their homeroom class walked to the daycare and the couple stayed back until the rest of the class entered to partner up with one of the kids. "Alright Wildcat, I'll go in and talk to Charlie, come in in about two minutes." Troy nodded and Gabriella walked in, Charlotte and Addison immediately ran to her. "Hey girls, Charlie can you do something for me?" The little girl nodded and the senior started whispering. "Alright Baby Girl, Daddy's gonna be coming soon but you can't call him that ok? We'll explain why later but just for today while all the big kids are here, you have to call him Troy, do you think you can do that for me?"
"Ok Gabi."
"Good girl, I'll go get him." She walked outside and saw Ms Darbus – their homeroom teacher – talking to Troy. She overheard her question why her boyfriend was still outside. "Sorry Ms Darbus, that's my fault, I volunteer in this class every afternoon and one of the little girls is quite shy so I just wanted to prepare her first before I introduced them."
Ms Darbus looked skeptically and Troy whispered. "Gabriella knows but she's the only one who knows so I'm just trying to keep it a secret for Charlotte's best interest."
"Very well, you two should go inside now."
They nodded and followed the instruction, they walked over to the two girls and sat down. Charlotte crawled into Troy's lap making him smile and he hugged his little girl as she leaned into him. After the kids were told that the seniors would be spending time with them for the hour, they were dismissed to play or do whatever activity they wanted. When the teacher stopped talking, Charlotte tugged on his jersey and he leant down so she could whisper to him. "Why do I call you Troy with the big kids?"
"I know it's weird but Grandpa Jack doesn't want any of the big kids to know and if he finds out that they know then he's gonna be very angry."
The little girl looked down. "He's scary when he's angry."
He pulled his daughter closer and stroked her hair. "I know he is Bubba but it's ok, I promise. How about we just play with Gabi and Addy for now." Charlotte nodded and he smiled softly at her. "Good girl."
After a few minutes, Riley and Maya walked over to them, the former speaking. "Addy, Charlotte, can we swap with you? We want to play with Miss Gabi and our buddies are only talking to each other but you're both girls so they'll talk to you."
Gabriella sighed as she looked over and noticed that it was Taylor and another girl from the decathlon team. "I'm sorry that you feel left out, how about you stay here with us and we can all play together because I don't think they're going to stop talking anytime soon so Riley and Maya, this is my friend Troy."
The little boy looked at the senior's jersey and pointed. "What do you play?"
"I play basketball."
Riley's face lit up. "I want to play basketball too."
"Well maybe we can come and play sometime?"
He felt his daughter tug on his shirt and turned his attention to her. "Can I play too?"
Before he could respond the little boy did. "Girls don't play basketball."
"Daddy taught me."
Gabriella intervened before something was said that would ruin their cover. "Ok guys that's enough, Riley, there's nothing wrong with girls playing basketball and that wasn't very nice of you to say to Charlotte. I'm sure if you ask very nicely, Troy would come and play with you both sometime."
"Sorry Miss Gabi." The little boy saw that she hinted to Charlotte. "Sorry Charlotte."
"It's ok."
Troy stroked his daughter's head from her place in his lap. "I'd love to come and play with you guys some time." He turned his attention to the boy. "You wanna know something else?" The boy nodded. "Girls can play basketball too because I've played with Miss Gabi before and she's very good."
Maya went to speak, having been very quiet during the conversation but was interrupted by Ms Darbus's voice. "Miss McKessie, Miss Jackson, where are your buddies?"
Taylor looked over at Troy and glared. "Bolton took them, they're over there with him and Gabriella."
Gabriella huffed. "Troy did nothing wrong, you two were in your own conversation and were ignoring them so they came over here so they'd actually be included." She grabbed both Riley and Maya's hands and walked them back to the seats across from the two senior girls. "Taylor, Nora, this is Riley and Maya, spend time with them since it's the whole reason why we're all here." She turned to the two kids. "I'll be in the quiet corner if you need me."
They smiled brightly. "Thank you Miss Gabi."
She walked away as the seniors glared at her. She sat down beside Troy who pulled her into his side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and kissing her temple. "I'm sorry about them Brie, they've always had an issue with me."
She shook her head. "It's not your fault, it's theirs." She squeezed his hand in reassurance before turning her attention back to Charlotte and Addison where they spent the rest of the free period together.