Back to the grind of school, Gabriella focused on the yearbook, her fundraiser, and the academic decathlon. She was still anxiously awaiting to hear back from Julliard. She got a big envelope and an unopened email from Stanford waiting for her to open. She also got an email and giant package from Harvard. She applied to Yale but hadn't heard back from them yet.
She was trying to split her time between three houses. Her dad got his house and was in the process of getting it decorated. She sent some of the aesthetics she wanted to his designer. His condo was in boxes so she spent more time at home. Her mom had been more open but was still her mom. Gabriella refused to babysit her sister's unless she was the last resort. She didn't go to dinners with the Evans family. She made sure she would stay the night with the Bolton's those days. She really wanted to be with the Bolton's full time.
She could get her homework done, help Troy if he needed, kiss him and work on her music. The music was coming so easily to her. The last two songs were love songs but she was refusing to show Troy. He would just tease her and tell her that she was in love with him. Her feelings were only growing. Big feelings were scary, especially with Sharpay who was set out to ruin Gabriella's life these days.
They were going off to college. Troy didn't know if he would go somewhere or stay here. She didn't know if they would end up on opposite sides of the country. She didn't want to have him and then be away from him and miss him.
She was just finishing up decathlon practice, they had their first big meet on Friday. Taylor was kind of being high strung trying to get everybody prepared. She put her books in her bag and put her backpack on her shoulder. She wanted to nap but she had some pages to approve for yearbook. She was heading somewhere to look at them on her computer. She didn't know if she wanted to go home or to Troy's. Troy was hanging out with Chad today and today was the day her mother usually goes to Sharpay's for dinner.
"Gabriella!" A voice stopped her as she was about to walk out the door.
"Hey, Taylor. What's up?" She asked, taking off her heavy backpack.
"I just wanted to say, I'm glad to see you back! We weren't sure if you were going to join us this year."
Gabriella frowned. "Why wouldn't I join you?"
"I've just heard some rumors…"
"Like what?" Gabriella asked, intrigued.
"Well you've been hanging out with Troy Bolton a lot. He got kicked off the basketball team and was smoking for a while. I heard that you were pregnant. I've also heard that you got kicked out of your house and were living in your car."
Gabriella had to laugh. "Let me guess, you heard most of this stuff from Sharpay?" Taylor blushed with a nod. "Figures. Well, let me clear things up for you. I didn't get kicked out of my house. I never lived in my car. I'm not pregnant. Troy and I have been hanging out, yes. He is the best friend I've ever had."
"Oh." Taylor said softly.
"I have a four point five GPA, I have honors Trig, Spanish 4, Advanced Drama 4, AP Government, AP English, and I'm editing the Yearbook. On top of that, I was in Cabaret, I'm doing Academic Decathlon, and I'm your VP Taylor. I don't know why you would think anything about what you hear is true. I have envelopes from Stanford, Harvard, and Yale that I need to open at home. What more do you want?"
"I don't-"
"Aren't I enough? I have to work my ass off. I have killed myself for the last six years preparing for college while people had fun. I can't even have a boy like me without all hell breaking loose. I wanted a fun senior year. I wanted to enjoy my last months here at East High and I fucking can't without people like you watching my every move. Let me live!"
"Gabriella."
"See you tomorrow." She said shortly. She grabbed her heavy backpack and walked out of the classroom. She stopped at her locker, shoving her books in. She zipped up her backpack and walked to her car. She took a deep breath before driving to the Bolton's.
Gabriella parked her car on the street and looked curiously at the open garage. Jack was working on the truck. She grabbed her backpack and her laptop before walking up to him. "Hey Gabs." He acknowledged, wiping some black stuff of his wrench.
"Hey, I know Troy's with Chad. Is it okay-"
"You've basically lived here for two months. You don't have to ask to come over and hang out. Just come." Jack said with a smile. "Lucy was showing some houses up in Santa Fe so she won't be home until late. Enjoy the quiet while you can without Troy. I know I will."
"Thank you." She said quietly. He smiled and turned back to the truck. She walked inside and went up to Troy's room. She plugged her laptop in before turning it on. Her eyes glanced over at the keyboard, humming a tune she had stuck in her head.
She couldn't get distracted. She went through her email and carefully looked through the yearbook pages for any misspellings or errors. She approved them before sending them back to the teacher. It was crunch time for the yearbook. The yearbook team had until March 1st to complete the yearbook. Spring sports were going to be added in a little booklet that could be adhered to the book.
She worked on wording her interview with the Coach downstairs. She gathered her pages of notes and looked through them. She wanted everyone to know Coach Bolton as she knew him throughout the last four years and more importantly the last three months. She had a picture of him, smiling proudly. She was putting another picture of when he was coaching. The final picture was Troy and Jack on Halloween in nearly identical outfits. She giggled for five minutes every time she looked at it.
She emailed her paragraph to herself to put in the page. She saved her documents before working on an upcoming assignment for her Spanish class. She groaned aloud half way through when she couldn't find the right wording. She decided to save and power down her laptop. She flopped down on Troy's bed, hoping her brain would want to work soon.
She got up and went to the keyboard. She turned it on and played with a couple melodies. She started to play something to get her creative juices flowing. "Starting to look like a know it all, Can't take my own advice, can't find pieces of my peace of mind, I cry, more than I want to admit but I can't lie to myself, to anyone. Cause playing pretend isn't any fun." She groaned, reaching for her book to write lyrics in.
"Hey…"
Gabriella jumped in surprise. "Hi, Sorry if I'm being too loud. I have the headphones."
"Don't worry, I forgot you were here until I heard you groan. I made you a snack." Gabriella turned to look at Jack. He was holding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a plate.
"Thank you." She said with a small smile. "It might just make my brain start working again."
"You okay?" He asked, handing over the plate. She took a bite and thought about his question. Maybe she was just hungry.
"Growing up sucks." She decided. "I was never too afraid of the future because my dad had it all planned out for me. Now that I get to choose, it's terrifying. It's like a monster that I have to face. I can't run away or go back in time to being a kid."
"You do have to make some pretty big decisions. Did you open your college acceptance letters yet?"
"I don't know if they're acceptance letters yet." Gabriella defended.
"Come on, Gabs. You are brilliant and every school you applied for is going to be begging for you to attend- especially Julliard."
"I don't think I've admitted this to anybody out loud… I love music but I love a challenge more." Jack chuckled. "I know it's kind of silly for me to assume that I would chew up Stanford or Harvard or Yale and spit them out. I feel like I know I would excel there. Going to Julliard, is like going to an audition for a musical at East High against Sharpay Evans. You can rehearse all you want and be the best singer in the world but there is a 90 percent chance that Darbus already cast Sharpay as the lead. I am going to be the metaphorical Sharpay one day but I want to fight for it."
"What are you scared of?"
"Losing everything that got me there. You, Lucille, and Troy have been a saving grace to my mental health. I'm trying to be a better person without falling short of what I built."
He gave me a sad smile. "You're growing. I watched you and Troy, just in these last four months, grow into these brand new wonderful people. You're still you, but better." He told her. "Unfortunately, growing pains are the pains that hurt the worst. You can't slap a band aid on them or have your mom kiss the pain away. Why do you think babies cry so much? They grow from like this to this in a span of a year. That has to hurt." Jack said, explaining with his hands.
Gabriella sighed then took another bite of her sandwich. "I've seen you grow a lot too." He looked at her, surprised. "I never had you as a teacher but everybody would tell me that you were a hard ass. When Troy started bothering me in detention, he was explaining in his own words why he made the decisions he made. You guys pissed each other off all the time… for the first solid month. You surprised me when you thought I was his girlfriend… you wanted me to talk him into basketball again and I think we both knew at that point that it wasn't going to happen. I saw that moment of acceptance, where you transitioned from what I thought you were to who I know you as now."
"I was too hard on him. I didn't listen to what he was showing me and telling me. I just wanted him to succeed and I mistakenly thought that it was going to be basketball. I've never seen him happier than he is now and it's kind of… shitty to realize that I was the one who was keeping it from him. I wasn't a very good dad when I needed to be. It definitely puts things in perspective."
"He was okay when he wasn't doing basketball but he really just changed as you two got closer again. I think he's never been happier because he has your love and support." She said with a small shrug. She took a bite of her sandwich. "You and Lucille should have had like ten kids. The world would be a lot better of a place."
"Troy is more than what me and Lucille can handle." He joked with a laugh. "I'm going to go look what I can make for dinner and try to talk myself out of ordering out."
Gabriella laughed. "Alright."
She finished her sandwich and went down stairs to throw her plate away and grab a drink. She came back up, taking a drink of her soda before using the restroom. She took a deep breath as she shut her eyes tight. She started playing on the keyboard. The only thing she could think about was Troy. She missed him and she saw him five hours ago.
The door downstairs opened and closed. She took a deep breath and started sing.
"Some nerve you have,
To break up my lonely,
And tell me you want me
How dare you march into my heart
How rude of you,
to ruin my miserable,
and tell me I'm beautiful
cause I wasn't looking for love, no
Nobody asked you to get me attached to you
In fact, you tricked me
And I wasn't trying to fall in love but boy, you pushed me
So all that I'm asking
is that you handle me with caution
cause I don't give myself often
But I guess I'll try today
Cause I've had my heart broken before
And I promised I would never let me hurt anymore
But I tore down my walls
And I opened my door
And made room for one
So baby, I'm yours
So baby, I'm yours
But I tore down my walls
And opened my doors
And made room for one
So baby I'm yours
I'm mad at you
For being so cute
And changing my mood
And altering my rude
What's wrong with you?
You make me sick for being so perfect
What did I do?
What can I do?
And I wasn't trying to melt this heart of iron
But the way you hold me makes the old me pass away
And I would be lying
If I said I wasn't scared to fall again
But if you promise me you'll catch me then it's okay
Cause I've had my heart broken before
And I promised I would never let me hurt anymore
But I tore down my walls
And I opened my door
And made room for one
So baby, I'm yours
So baby, I'm yours
But I tore down my walls
And opened my doors
And made room for one
So baby I'm yours
Oh, I hate that I
Spend my days just wasting time
Daydreaming till I see you again
I'm not used to this
Oh I used to be so used to boys just using me
For you to be you to me
Feels new to me
Cause I usually cheer for the bad side
Love under a bad sign
So it makes me mad
I'm falling again
falling again
But I tore down my walls
And I opened my door
And made room for one
So baby, I'm yours
So baby, I'm yours
But I tore down my walls
And opened my doors
And made room for one
So baby I'm yours"
"Who sings that song?" She heard a voice behind her ask. She jumped about what felt like three feet in the air.
"She does. She wrote it." Troy said softly. Her head whipped around to see Troy and Chad standing in the doorway. She felt her cheeks heat up.
"Nice." Chad said, with a nod. "Oh man, is this your old keyboard? I think it still has fart sounds programmed into it."
Gabriella moved out of the way for Chad to mess with the keyboard. She avoided looking at Troy. She felt like she was a kid that got caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. She grabbed her soda and took a drink. "Hey." Troy said softly.
"Oh, man it does! Listen." He pressed the keys and a melody of fart noises came out of the keyboard.
Gabriella forced a laugh. "I'm going to go help your dad with dinner." She rushed out of the room with her soda down stairs. She turned into the kitchen to see Jack looking through stacks of take out menus. "Didn't find anything for dinner?"
"I did, I just don't want to cook." Jack said with a small smile. "Chinese or Thai? Chad will eat anything, I'm assuming he's staying. Troy said pizza but I don't want pizza again."
"Thai." She said, he was clutching the menu for Thai pretty hard.
"That's what I was thinking too. Do you get anything special?" He asked, looking up at her. "We usually get rice, a couple curries, pad thai, the noodles with the beef and broccoli.. I don't know what they're called."
"Maybe some soup? The coconut milk one. Have you tried it?" She asked.
"No, but I'm sure it's good. I'll ask." He shuffled the other menu's putting them back into the drawer. "You sounded good."
"What?" She asked, after she swallowed her drink of soda.
"I was just saying you sounded good… when you were singing up stairs. I know you sang well cause of the play but that was different. It was really good."
"Oh, Thank you." She said with a soft smile. "I'm kind of embarrassed, Troy and Chad caught me singing to myself upstairs."
"You shouldn't be. You were like one of those evil mermaid that lure people with their voices. Troy just stopped what he was doing and had to go upstairs, Chad followed."
A giggle slipped from her lips. "I think you're talking about a siren."
Jack shrugged. "Probably." He chuckled. "I'm going to go order two hundred dollars worth of Thai food before my wife comes home and kills me."
"Alright then." Gabriella laughed. She took her soda into the living room and curled up on the couch. She turned the TV on and flipped through some channels.
Gabriella got sucked into a show, thankfully and broke out of it when the door bell rang an hour later. "I got it." Jack said, walking over to the door with money in his hands. She turned off the TV and watched Jack grab three bags of food. He handed over cash for the tip and closed the door with his food. "Gab, come grab food before I tell the boys its here."
She giggled to herself and followed him in the kitchen. "Holy shit." She watched him take out containers and containers of food. "You weren't kidding when you said you were spending two hundred dollars."
"Tom Ka." He grinned, sliding the soup over to me.
"Thank you." She smiled, picking up the container. "I need a bowl."
"That's yours, I got a big one too."
She shook her head. She grabbed a plate and put a little bit of everything on there. She had to take two trips to the table to get everything over there. She had silverware, her drink, napkins, and food. She was set. "Do you want me to go get them?"
"Nah, I'll yell for them." Jack said, moving to the living room. "Boys! Food!"
"Food!" She heard Troy and Chad grunt from upstairs like cavemen. She couldn't help but laugh as she opened her soup. They came down the stairs, sounding like a stampede. "Yes!"
"I love Thai food." Chad groaned happily. "My dad doesn't order it anymore because he gets heartburn from everything now. I've been stuck with vegetables, bland ass chicken, and everything that isn't acidic."
"Go crazy." Jack said with a smile.
Troy came over to her at the table. "Is it good?" He asked, leaning down, kissing her cheek gently.
"it's so good." Gabriella replied, taking another bite.
"Oooh, what's that?"
"Soup. Wanna try?" She offered. He reached over for her spoon and tried some. He hummed happily. "Good, right?"
"Yes, I'm going to go get some." He went back toward the food as Chad came to the table with two plates.
"So, Gabriella Montez." Chad started.
"Yes, Chad Danforth." She replied before she took a sip of her soup.
"So Troy tells me you're on a quest to take his virginity."
Gabriella choked out a laugh, inhaling a mushroom in the process. "I never said that!" Troy defended, practically running back over to the table.
She choked before she started laughing. "Are you okay?" Jack asked, his face red with laughter.
"Yes." She croaked out. She took a sip of her drink. She looked up at Troy and he shook his head vigorously. "Technically no, he's too scared of me."
"I was just joking." Chad said laughing. "Tell me about Taylor McKessie."
Gabriella made a face. "Taylor McKessie? What about her? Other than she's going to be the new pain in my ass. Jack, put your teacher earmuffs on. She needs to either get laid or snort Xanex."
"I don't think I should be here for this."
"But she's single?" Chad clarified.
"I don't know… probably. You want me to ask her? Do you like her?"
Chad shrugged. "She's hot. She has big boobs."
"Chad." Jack scolded.
"I told you to put your teacher earmuffs on." Gabriella said. Troy was laughing in the kitchen. "I'll see if she's single and or interested."
"It can be serious… or not serious… Whatever she's looking for, let me know."
Gabriella giggled, nodding her head. "Okay, I'll find out." She took a bite of her Thai food as Troy came to sit down next to her.
Hello Friends,
I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! The first italicized part is from a song coming up at the end of the story. Growing Pains- Alessia Cara. The main song in italics is I'm Yours-Alessia Cara. Her voice is so wonderful. I hope you are all staying healthy and safe.
Don't forget to Review :)