CHAPTER 20

((hey everyone I know I told you that I would write 2 chappies today, but I just cant…it's really hard writing with a 100 degree fever…im gonna write one chapter for both of my stories tonight…hopefully I can write a lot more tomorrow…we'll see…I haven't decided yet if this chapter will be long or short so we'll see…R&R…XOXO, Christine))

If You Were My Father

Two weeks later, Haven went home. She was a bit of a handful for Troy and Gabriella. They hardly ever got any sleep. They had been warned before by the doctors, but they didn't think it would get this bad. One particular night, Haven was keeping the two of them up all night long.

"You can go back to bed, Troy," said Gabriella. "I'll stay with her."

"No," replied Troy. "I'm not gonna do that to you."

"Really, Troy, it's okay."

"Gabriella, I'm not going back to bed. Now you, on the other hand, need some sleep."

"How about we both stay up."

"Okay." It had been like this every night. Every night, they both would get up and get Haven. Every night they would both tell each other that they would take care of her. Every night they both stayed up with her.

Troy and Gabriella had gone back to school. They had put Haven in a daycare group for teen parents. They had tried, at first, putting Haven in a regular day care, but, the amount of rumors spread about them caused them to find a different place.

Troy's dad had been hinting to Troy that he wanted to talk about the basketball thing. Every time, Troy would carefully avoid the subject. One day, Jack finally cornered him.
"Troy, we can't avoid the subject any longer," he said. "We have to talk about the whole basketball situation."

"What basketball situation?" asked Troy. "There is no basketball situation. What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Troy," snapped Jack. "I have waited too long for you to sit there and play stupid. We have to talk."

"What is there to talk about?" Troy asked.

Mr. Bolton pounded his fist on the table. "You've been avoiding this ever since Christmas dinner. We have to talk about your future."

"My future doesn't concern you!" Troy was beginning to yell now.

"I'm your father!" screamed Mr. Bolton.

"You are not my father!" Troy was yelling at the top of his lungs. "If you were my father, you'd be supporting me at this time! If you were my father, you wouldn't be putting so much pressure on me! If you were my father, you'd understand me! If you were my father, you would know exactly what it's like to be me! But you don't, you won't. You won't accept the fact that I have a different idea for my future! You won't accept the fact that I'm not gonna model my life the way you want me too!"

"Troy, having that baby proved that you don't know what's best for you! That is why I am telling you what you will be doing! You don't even know what you wanna do!"

"Wrong!" Troy yelled back. "I know exactly what I wanna do! I have it all planned out!"

"What's your plan, Troy?" asked Mr. Bolton. "What, is your plan to skip college and hope and pray that you can make enough money to support a family?"

"I plan to go to college!" yelled Troy. "Gabriella and I both want to go to college!"

"You can't have a baby in a college dorm!" Jack Bolton yelled.

"We can have one in an apartment!" Troy wasn't going to back down.

"An apartment?" spat Jack. "You don't have enough money for one! And don't ask me for any money! I disapprove! I won't help you in any way."

"Fine!" yelled Troy, "Be that way! I couldn't care less!"

"You will when you discover that you don't have enough money!" raged Mr. Bolton.

"I'm gonna prove to you that we don't need your help!" Troy was madder than ever. "We are gonna get a nice apartment without any help just to show you we can!" Troy stormed out of the office. Chad was standing outside. "What are you doing here?"

"I could hear you two down the hall," Chad replied. "You okay?"

"I don't know," said Troy. "I just don't know. I don't know what to do, Chad, part of me just wants to say screw you to my dad, but the other part of me tells me that he's my father, and I should make up with him, and reach some agreement."

"What were you yelling about?"

"Well," replied Troy, "at first we were just gonna yell about basketball, you know, because he wants me to play next year, but I just don't have the heart to dedicate so much time to something other than Gabriella and Haven. Then, he started yelling about my future and all that crap. And then I pointed out that he's trying to hard to control me, and that was like the end of it."

"You really love Gabriella don't you?" Chad asked smiling.

"Yeah," replied Troy. "I really do. And I love Haven too."

"I love you, too," Gabriella whispered into Troy's ear from behind.

Troy turned around, shocked. "How long have you been there?" he asked laughing.

"Long enough," said Gabriella. "I heard yelling when I walked by the stairs. I recognized the voices, and I wanted to come down and check that you're okay."

"That's so sweet of you," said Troy kissing her.

Taylor ran up behind Chad and threw her arms around him. "Hey," she said. "What's up? I heard yelling."

"Troy and his dad," Chad said. "I heard it too and came down here to see if everything was okay."

"Me too," chimed in Gabriella.

"And is everything okay?" Taylor asked Troy.

"I'm not sure," replied Troy, "it's hard to tell."

Mr. Bolton came storming past them. "Troy, Chad, Taylor, Gabriella," he mumbled in greeting as he stormed past in fury.

"He'll get over it," Taylor said.

"I sure hope so," replied Troy.

((How'd everybody like it?... I would love some reviews…im not sure how many more chapters im gonna write…could be two…could be twenty…I just don't know…it depends on when I stop having ideas…I hope everyone likes what there is so far...XOXO, Christine))