AN: You guys are lucky. It's only been a day in a half since I posted chapter 4, and you're already getting chapter 5! I guess you're begging for a new chapter worked on getting me to post faster.

I know, I know, you all hate Jeremiah and want them to break up. But... well, stayed tuned. :).

This story has become one of my most popular: 22 people have it on their alerts, which is more than any of my other stories, and 14 people have it on their favorites, which is second most of my other stories. Thanks for all the support!

Remember to check out my new story, Basketball Superstar's Diary. The title sucks, but I couldn't think of anything else. Anyway, it's a humorous story about Troy's diary that he keeps through the events of the movie. Check it out!

PS: 9 days until my birthday!

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 5

Finally, in late afternoon, Jeremiah and Gabriella reached Stanford. After parking the car, Jeremiah walked Gabriella up to the door outside her dorm room to say good-night.

"Thanks for coming with me," said Jeremiah earnestly, which made Gabriella wonder if Jeremiah had a split personality or something.

"Oh, you're welcome," beamed Gabriella. "And thanks for putting up with me," she joked.

Instead of Jeremiah laughing with her, he rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah," in an exasperated tone. Gabriella furrowed her brow but said nothing else on the subject. She quickly kissed him before going in her room and shutting the door in his face.

"That was weird," she whispered to herself. Once she was sure he was gone, she grabbed her pajama pants, tank top, and a pair of slippers and went into the crowded bathroom. She got into a shower and savored the feeling of the hot water all over her body. She slowly conditioned and shampooed her hair, but couldn't keep her thoughts straight and ended up conditioning and shampooing twice. Finally, after being in the shower for forty-five minutes, Gabriella got out, dried herself, and dressed. She quickly combed her hair before padding back down the hall to her room.

She pulled on a Stanford sweatshirt over her tank top, as it was quite chilly in her room, before going reaching around under her roommates bed for a bag of popcorn. At the foot of Jessyca's bed, she had a mini fridge and, on top of that, a microwave. She kept all her microwavable food under her bed, for reasons unknown to Gabriella. All she knew was that Jessyca had told her she could help herself to the food, so Gabriella did.

She microwaved a bag and poured it into a bowl she retrieved from under Jessyca's bed. Then she gabbed a Sprite and turned on her TV. 'My Super Sweet Sixteen' was playing on MTV, which was the channel the TV was set to, so Gabriella settled down to watch it, occasionally laughing at how completely selfish the people on the show were. For her sixteenth birthday, Gabriella had thrown a pool party for her closest friends. At least, that's who it had been meant for. Instead, over half of the school showed up and the first hour was spent with Troy, Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Ryan threatening them to leave 'or else.' It was been one of the best day's of her life.

Gabriella's phone started vibrating again. Switching off the TV and glancing at the screen, she saw that it was, ironically, from Taylor's place.

"Hey," she said happily into the phone.

"Gabriella!" exclaimed Taylor loudly. "Don't hang up!"

Laughing, Gabriella assured her, "Don't worry, I won't. I'm alone right now."

"Okay, good," Taylor sighed in relief. "Now, before we talk about anything else, I want to know – what were you doing at Troy's last night?"

Gabriella grinned. "Trust me, Taylor, nothing happened," but she went on to explain the weekend's events anyway. "-and then the next morning, Chad woke me up by calling and I forgot where it was so I answered it." she finished. "That's all."

"Hmm," mused Taylor.

"Gabriella, Troy is so totally in love with you, I can't believe you don't see it," came Sharpay's voice.

"Sharpay?" asked Gabriella and Taylor in unison. "I didn't know you were on the line," said Gabriella perplexedly.

"Well, I was gonna call you but then when I turned on the phone, Taylor was already talking to you," said Sharpay offhandedly. "I came on when you started explaining about last night. But anyway-,"

"I thought I heard something," muttered Taylor.

"Anyway," said Sharpay again, sounding annoyed. "Gabriella: Troy. Likes. You. A lot. How do you not see it?"

"Because... he doesn't?"

Sharpay sighed. "Gabriella, I thought you were smart."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Gabriella, offended.

"Why do you think Troy seems to not like your boyfriend that much?" challenged Sharpay. "I mean, from what I've heard about it, he seems like a nice guy. But no, Troy doesn't like him. Why's that?"

"Um, I don't know," Gabriella stuttered, sounding flustered. "Maybe Troy and I have more of a, um, brother-sister relationship. You know, he feels the need to protect me."

Taylor and Sharpay both laughed. "He wants to protect you, but not for that reason," Taylor remarked.

"Yeah, he wants you all to himself!" giggled Sharpay.

Gabriella rolled her eyes, grinning now. "Whatever. You guys are insane."

They spent the next half-hour catching up, pausing only briefly for Gabriella to greet her roommate, Jessyca, as she stumbled in for some clothes before a shower. Gabriella got details on Taylor and Chad's homecoming Queen and King win, Sharpay's engagement, prom, separating for college, etc. And the other girls got information on life back in San Diego and going to college. There was an awkward silence; Gabriella didn't really have anything to share with them.

After a couple minutes, Gabriella yawned and said, "Well, guys, I gotta go. School tomorrow." Sharpay groaned on the other line. Giggling, Gabriella said, "Oh, come on."

"Yeah, it's not that bad!" agreed Taylor.

"Ugh, whatever," said Sharpay. "Maybe I'll skip my morning class so I can sleep in."

"Oh, I forgot to ask, but what are you guys majoring in?" asked Gabriella.

"Theatre," said Sharpay predictably.

"Chemistry," answered Taylor. "What about you?"

"Business,"

"Whoopee," said Sharpay in a bored voice. "So you guys are both gonna have boring old jobs while I'm a famous actress in Beverly Hills and Zeke is a world-famous cook with his own TV show."

Gabriella and Taylor laughed. After a couple more minute of chit-chat, they hung up.

"Who was that you were talking to?" asked Jessyca as she came back into the room after her shower. Her brown hair was freshly blow-dried and her toenails newly painted.

"A couple old friends from high school," answered Gabriella. "I met up with a different old..." Gabriella paused slightly before continuing. "Um, friend, over the weekend, so I decided to get caught up with everyone."

"Old friend, huh?" smirked Jessyca. "Or old significant other?"

Gabriella grinned back but didn't answer.

The next morning, Gabriella got up, once again, at seven. She grabbed some clothes, her makeup bag, and shoes and padded barefoot down the hall to the bathroom, which was more active on school mornings.

Gabriella didn't shower in the morning on weekdays, as it always took too long to get a shower and her hair took too long to dry, so she just brushed her teeth, washed her face, applied some makeup, and then got dressed and put on her shoes.

As per usual, Gabriella hailed a taxi from school to get her usual latte at Starbucks. Her eyes caught sight of the same type of muffin that Troy had eaten the day before. Grinning slightly, Gabriella bought one of those too.

She sat down to eat her muffin before heading back to school, since she still had a half an hour until her first class, when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag, wondering who would be calling her this early in the morning. But she wasn't expecting to see Troy's picture flashing across the screen (which looked strange, since he looked so much younger in that picture). Her mouth dropped open. Why was Troy calling her?

She pressed the call button and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Gabriella! You pumped for school this morning?" asked Troy energetically on the other line.

Gabriella laughed. "Troy, why are you calling me?"

"What, you sleep in my bed but I can't talk to you anymore?" He pretended to pout. "Are you in Jeremiah in the middle of something?"

"Nah," shrugged Gabriella. "Just wondering."

"Well, guess where I am?" asked Troy.

"Where?" inquired Gabriella, taking a bite out of the muffin.

"Guess!" cried Troy.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. He's acting like he's seven, she thought. "Um, your apartment."

"No!"

"Then where?"

"Starbucks!"

Gabriella blinked. "Really? Me too."

"Well, I know you're there," said Troy. "You told me you go there every morning."

Giggling, she said, "You remembered, huh?"

"I remember everything you say," said Troy offhandedly. Gabriella blushed, even though he couldn't see her. "And I'm eating one of those muffins again."

"Me too!" exclaimed Gabriella again, laughing some more. "Wow, how weird is that?"

Troy laughed too. Gabriella looked up at the clock in Starbucks and saw that it was 8:10. "Sorry Troy, but I gotta go. I have a class in twenty minutes."

"Same here," said Troy with a full mouth. "What time can I call you later?"

"Um," said Gabriella, taken off guard. He was going to call her again? "How about around noon?"

"Great!" said Troy enthusiastically. "Well, talk to you then. Bye."

"Bye," As soon as Gabriella pressed the End button, it started ringing again. Looking at it perplexedly as she stood up to leave, the number flashed 'Jeremiah'. "Hello?" she picked up.

"Hey sweetie," cooed Jeremiah over the phone. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Um, okay," said Gabriella, confused. Jeremiah never called her in the morning. His first class was at nine, so he usually wasn't awake before 8:30. Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, she grabbed the bag with her muffin and her latte, and left the café, waving to catch a cab. She climbed into it and started to eat again, waiting for Jeremiah to start.

"I wanted to apologize about my behavior," he said finally. "I've been terrible. If you don't like being called Gabi, then I shouldn't call you Gabi. Next time, if we go to an out of town basketball game and you wanna head back to school, I'll drive you back. And the joke I made about putting up with you was uncalled for. I'm really sorry, Gabriella, and I hope you can forgive me."

Gabriella's mouth dropped open, a piece of muffin sitting in her mouth. Jeremiah, apologizing? He'd never apologized to her about anything before. She didn't know what had gotten into him.

"Of course I forgive you, Jeremiah," said Gabriella earnestly.

"Oh, good," sighed Jeremiah out of relief. "You know, I got back to my room last night and I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about you. I kept thinking about how inconsiderate I was being of your feelings. I feel ashamed."

Gabriella smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it."

"Alright, well, you have a class in fifteen minutes, so I better let you go now," said Jeremiah. "Bye, honey. I love you."

The taxi pulled to a stop in front of the school. Hesitating only for a couple seconds, Gabriella said, "I love you, too," before hanging up.

She paid the driver and got out of the car, slowly walking to her English class. She threw away the bag that had held her now-ingested muffin and thought. She'd just said 'I love you' to Jeremiah. Finally. What had made her do it? What had changed?

Was it his heartfelt apology? Was it the fact that meeting Troy had made her realize that she really did love Jeremiah? Was she trying to prove to Troy that she really did love Jeremiah?

Was she trying to prove it to herself?