AN: Thanks for the reviews! ) I love getting reviews. Usually I don't update this fast – it's been, like, what,two days? – but since I already had this written, and I want you guys to read it, I decided to post it. Most of you have already guessed how they're going to meet again; hehe, I guess I made that kinda obvious.
So I'm writing another HSM fic. If you so far enjoy this story, and/or liked my one-shot, be sure to check that one out when I post it. So far I have 5 chapters done (well, six, if you include the short prologue) and no title (titles are usually the last thing I get). I think it's going to be longer than this story chapter-wise (since those chapters are shorter) but it's too soon to tell.
Okay, I talk way too much in my AN's. So read and review!
Title: Where She Belongs
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: Ms. Montez's company transferred her back to San Diego, California. Troy and Gabriella lost touch after the move, but what will happen when they meet up again in college?
Genre: Romance/Drama
Chapter: Chapter 2
The next morning, Gabriella's set alarm clock woke her up at seven, as usual. She was a morning person; she hated sleeping in as the day passed her by. It just seemed like a waste.
She stretched and breathed in the scent of her dorm room in the morning. It was still winter, so it wasn't yet very light out that early in the morning, but that didn't bother Gabriella. She opened her dresser and pulled out a plain pair of white pants, blue long sleeved shirt, and a blue belt. She went down the hall to the bathroom, both of which were always completely deserted on a Saturday morning at 7 a.m.
Gabriella took a long, hot shower, washed and conditioned her hair, and shaved her legs. She combed her hair and let it hang down her back so it would dry and curl naturally. She pulled on her clothes and fastened her belt. She walked barefoot down the hall and reentered her room, turning on the computer. Looking around, she realized that her roommate, Jessyca, had yet to come back.
Gabriella worked on her term paper for a while until her hair was completely dry. Glancing at her clock, she saw that it was 9:00. She walked back to the bathroom with her makeup bag, washed her face, brushed her teeth, and then applied her mascara and lip gloss. There. All done.
After quickly putting half of her hair up and tying a blue ribbon over the thin hair-tie and putting on a pair of blue sandals, Gabriella grabbed her purse and left.
She hailed a taxi and directed him to the nearest Starbucks and grabbing her usual morning latte. It woke her up completely, making her breathe in the scent of San Francisco in the early morning. She checked the clock on the same phone she'd had for four and half years, which read 9:45. She grabbed a taxi back to the school, where she found Jeremiah waiting for her by his car.
"Hey you!" She squealed with enthusiasm when she saw him. She threw her arms around him and hugged him, not particularly enjoying his Abercrombie & Fitch smell.
"Hi," he said gruffly. "Why didn't you tell me you were getting coffee? I would've picked you up there."
Gabriella gave him a look. "I always get coffee in the morning."
Jeremiah didn't answer; he just slipped into the drivers seat and waited for her to climb into her seat. She sighed and walked around the car to the passenger side.
They rode the first hour or so in silence. After a while, Gabriella couldn't take it so she pulled out her iPod and listened to that for a while.
They'd been driving for around three hours when they got stuck in traffic, Gabriella's long-since-been-emptied-coffee-cup rolling around in the backseat. She turned off her iPod to listen to whatever Jeremiah was listening to on the radio.
A song that she liked, but didn't know the name of, came on, and she cried, "I love this song!", speaking the first words in the car since they'd left the school.
She almost slipped up and started singing, but managed to compose herself in time and just hum. Gabriella hadn't sang a note since she'd moved away from Albuquerque. Not in the shower, not while she was alone, never. She'd never had a reason too.
Jeremiah ignored her. He seemed to be angry about something. Gabriella sighed again and let her head rest against the window. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.
"Gabi? Hey, Gabi! Gabi, wake up, we're here!" An impatient voice said from far away.
Gabriella jerked awake, looking around. They were parked in a huge parking lot, close to a large stadium. She looked around to see Jeremiah's head sticking through the open door, a bunch of his friends behind him.
"It takes forever to wake you up," He mumbled irritably as he withdrew himself form the car.
"Sorry," said Gabriella quietly, running her fingers quickly through her hair and fixing her smudged lip gloss. She stepped out of the car and closed the door behind her. She looked around. "What time is it?" She shivered slightly, but Jeremiah made no move to warm her put, offer her his jacket, or even put his arms around her.
"Six," answered Jeremiah. "Come on, let's get to our seats." He led the way to the entrance, he and his friends talking animatedly as she trailed behind them. She took out her phone and found herself looking through her numbers until she found Troy's.
The second time in less than 24 hours; was this a sign?
She suddenly got a huge desire to just press the "Call" button and see what happened. Perhaps he still has the same phone, or the same phone number? What if he answered it, and they talked for hours and fell back in love?
Too bad she never fell out of love with him.
They entered the stadium and went right to their seats. Jeremiah had the best seats of all of his friends; he and Gabriella were in the fifth row. Gabriella sighed out of boredom and took a book out of her purse to read. Without saying anything, Jeremiah left for a few minutes and came back with a huge bag of popcorn, two hot dogs, nachos, and a soda.
Gabriella, her stomach aching with hunger, stuffed her face with popcorn as she read. She ate and read, ate and read until the game was twenty minutes away from starting and the teams were warming up.
Gabriella got the sudden sensation of being watched, and she looked up sharply at Jeremiah. But he was chewing his nachos greedily as he watched the teams warm up. Gabriella scanned the stadium but couldn't see anyone looking at her.
She continued to read and eat popcorn before she felt it again. She looked up irritably and found herself staring into the eyes of a familiar-looking UCLA basketball player.
Gabriella looked back at her book, convinced she must have seen him once while watching a game with Jeremiah before she snapped her face up again.
She'd seen him before, but not on TV. In person.
Troy.
He was staring at her with wide eyes. She stared back with her mouth slightly agape. "Gabriella?" he mouthed.
Gabriella stared back for another minute before she felt all the popcorn she'd just consumed start churning in her stomach. She clapped a hand to her mouth, rose from her seat – which was luckily on the end of the row – and ran up the stairs to the nearest bathroom.
"Gabi?" Jeremiah called after her, seemingly forgetting that he'd been angry at her for whatever reason earlier. But Gabriella ignored him. No way was she going to throw up ten pounds of popcorn in the middle of the stands at a nationally televised basketball game, in front of her ex-boyfriend whom she just happened to still be in love with.
No way.
She kept running, keeping her hand fastened over her mouth, until she reached the bathroom, threw open the stall door, and puked her guts out.
Gabriella retched for what seemed like hours, but was probably only a minute or two. Gagging at the sight of her projectile, she flushed the toilet after wiping her mouth on toilet paper.
She heard someone enter the bathroom and Jeremiah called, "Gabi, are you okay? The game's about to start!"
"Don't call me that," She growled before standing up and leaving the stall. She strode over to the sink, turned on the faucet, and stuck her mouth under it. She swished the water around in her mouth before spitting it out again.
She hated throwing up; it was one of the worst feelings ever.
Jeremiah sighed in annoyance. "Why do you always give me grief for that? It's a nickname!"
"A nickname that I don't like," Gabriella snapped. "Why don't you just stop calling me that, then I wouldn't give you grief for it!"
Jeremiah just rolled his eyes, as if she was being completely ridiculous. "That game's about to start. Come on, let's go."
"Because that's all you care about," Gabriella murmured under her breath so Jeremiah couldn't hear it. Troy would just stop calling me that, she told herself. And then she remembered why she'd thrown up in the first place; her stomach rumbled again, but there was nothing left to throw up.
Gabriella sat the rest of the game in a trance. She stared at her book the whole time, trying to ignore the screams and cheers of the sports-fanatics around her, and the fact that Troy was playing right now. She just couldn't believe he was there, of all people.
He was probably let in on a basketball scholarship, Gabriella thought.
Then, when half-time came, Gabriella was starving again. She told Jeremiah she was going to get something to eat and quickly left the stadium.
Standing in the middle of the crowded, food-filled lobby, holding her bubbling stomach, Gabriella found nothing that would do well, or even okay, with her stomach. Even though she was still dying of hunger, she instead decided to go outside for a quick breath of fresh air.
She walked out and cool, March air hit her clammy face. She breathed in deeply through her nose, and out through her mouth. She felt better already.
"Hey,"
Gabriella whipped her head around, her curly hair flying, to come face-to-face with none other than Troy Bolton, wearing a UCLA tracksuit. Her stomach churned dangerously again.
She stared at him, blinking slowly. "Hi," she said quietly.
"Wow, I can't believe it's really you!" Troy exclaimed, his face shining.
Gabriella smiled a little. "Why aren't you in the locker rooms?"
"I told the team I needed some air," said Troy offhandedly. "It's been so long!"
Gabriella forgot to be nice and instead, in an icy voice, she said, "Yeah. Over two years. Whose fault is that?"
"What?" asked Troy, taken aback.
"On New Years Eve, you texted me to say that Zeke and Sharpay got engaged," Gabriella said angrily. "I responded to that right away, but you never texted back." She paused for a second before adding, "And, oh yeah, thanks for telling me about two of my old friends getting engaged when I wasn't even invited to the wedding!"
"The wedding?" asked Troy dubiously. "They haven't gotten married yet."
Gabriella blinked again. "Huh?"
"They're waiting until their out of school, or at least until senior year," Troy told her.
"Oh," Gabriella felt a little embarrassed. "But still, how come you stopped texting me?"
"Because..." Troy faltered. "Hey, well, you could've called me too!"
"Wait, don't put the blame on me!" exclaimed Gabriella.
"Why does it have to be my fault?" countered Troy.
"Because I texted you last. You should've responded to me," Gabriella explained. "I figured that if you didn't wanna talk to me, you probably didn't want me texting and calling you all the time."
"But I did want to talk to you," muttered Troy.
Gabriella sighed in irritation. "I really don't understand you, Troy," she turned back around.
"It-," Troy stammered. "It just hurt to much to talk to you."
There was a silence. Gabriella finally turned back around and said, "What?"
"It hurt to much to talk to you, knowing I would probably never see you again," Troy elaborated.
"We could've seen each other again," said Gabriella softly. "Over vacations. My mom was always asking if I wanted to visit you guys in senior year, but I never went because I hadn't heard from you all in so long." Gabriella felt a lump grow in her throat. "I-I thought you'd forgotten about me."
"We could never forget about you, Gabriella," Troy wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. Gabriella leaned her head against his chest, breathing contentedly. Jeremiah never did this to her...
Oh wait, Jeremiah. Oops.
"No, wait," Gabriella untangled herself from Troy and took a step back. "We can't do this."
"What, this?" asked Troy as he bent down to kiss her lips. Gabriella moved her head to the side so that his lips brushed her cheek.
"Well, that guy I was sitting next to – he's my boyfriend," said Gabriella, somewhat apologetically.
A look of comprehension dawned on Troy's face. "Oh," he simply stated. After a few moments of them just staring at each other, Troy said, "Um, well, I better get going. Bye." He turned around and went back into the stadium without even waiting for her response.
Gabriella, instead of feeling sad as she followed him, felt rage build up inside of her. Why was he acting like that? It's not like they made a pact that they wouldn't see other people or anything. She was sure that Troy must have dated since the last time they'd seen each other, considering how popular he was. How hypocritical of him to get angry with her at something like that!
She sat back down in her fifth row seat, next to said boyfriend, who asked where her food was. "Nothing agreed with my stomach," Gabriella answered shortly, staring determinedly at the court.
Troy seemed to be doing terrible. He didn't seem into the game; he kept missing shots, free-throws, and rebounds. Gabriella also noticed he was refusing to look at her.