AN: Yay, an update! You should be happy, I never update this much. Well, that might be because this story is already completed. But oh well.
I'm brainstorming yet another HSM story. I'll let you know if I decide to write it!
Read! Review! And someone please criticize me. I mean, your reviews give me the impression that my writing has no flaws, which I know it does. So if you see any errors, even something like a misspelled word or grammar mistake, please let me know.
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 7
The plane ride down to San Luis was very tense. Gabriella and Troy didn't talk much; the only time they did was just idle chit-chat, but they didn't actually talk about anything. Gabriella felt bad about how she was always getting annoyed with Troy. No, he's the one that's being degrading about mine and Jeremiah's relationship, Gabriella told herself firmly. It's not my fault.
Finally, after an awkward, two-hour flight, the plane landed and Troy and Gabriella left the plane.
Troy had again insisted that he wheel Gabriella's luggage, being the gentleman he was. "Um, do you have any luggage?" asked Gabriella, eyeing the small duffel bag slung over Troy's shoulder.
"Yeah, we need to get it," Troy glanced at her. He saw where she was looking and laughed. "What, you think this is all I'd need?"
"Well, you are a boy," smirked Gabriella.
Troy grinned back and didn't answer. They went to the luggage retrieval and, after a few moments, Troy found his suitcase. As his also had wheels, Gabriella refused to let him wheel hers, so, each pulling their own suitcases, they stepped out of the airport.
"Wow, it's beautiful here," breathed Gabriella, looking around. The sun was shining and a warm breeze was hitting them. Gabriella closed her eyes and breathed in. She could definitely get used to living here. Maybe when she and Troy married they could live here.
Oh, my God! screamed Gabriella to herself. I did not just think that... I meant when me and Jeremiah get married.
"Where's everyone else?" wondered Gabriella out loud, trying to clear her mind.
"Don't know," said Troy, looking around.
"So, um, how are we going to get to Kelsi and Ryan's place?" asked Gabriella. And then another thought struck her. "Where are we going to sleep tonight?"
"Kelsi and Ryan have an apartment," explained Troy.
"Do Jason and his girlfriend have an apartment?" asked Gabriella.
"Yes. Oh, and for future reference, her name is Brooke," grinned Troy.
Gabriella nodded. So, she was the only one who still lived in the dorm. Great.
"We all usually just crash on the couch or the floor," continued Troy.
"Fun," muttered Gabriella absently, glancing around some more. "Anyway, how are we getting there?"
"Well, usually whoever's apartment we're going to would take us," said Troy. "But it doesn't look like Kelsi and Ryan are here. Or they took everyone else already."
"They forgot about us?" asked Gabriella indignantly.
"No, they just thought we were getting here later than we did," said Troy patiently. "They probably took Sharpay, Zeke, Taylor, and Chad to their place and are coming back for us."
"What about Jason and Brooke?"
"They drove. Santa Barbara is about three hours away from here."
"Oh,"
They stood next to each other silently, looking around for a familiar face. After a moment, Gabriella said, "Why don't you just call them?"
"There's no need to," smiled Troy, pointing. "There's Ryan." Gabriella looked over to where he was pointing and saw Ryan sitting in the driver's seat of a red BMW, waving over to them frantically. He had a huge smile on his face, probably from seeing Gabriella again after so long.
"Come on!" said Troy, grabbing her hand with one of his own while wheeling his suitcase behind him. They maneuvered themselves from in between the parked cars waiting to drop off or pick up others before reaching Ryan's car. Troy opened the trunk and stored his and Gabriella's suitcases inside of it while Gabriella opened the back door and climbed into the backseat.
"Hey Ryan! It's so great to see you!" exclaimed Gabriella, no longer nervous and just plain excited.
"Gabriella!" cried Ryan, twisting in his seat to give her a quick hug. "It's been way too long."
"Yes, it has," agreed Gabriella.
Troy opened the passenger door and seat himself in the front seat. "Ready to go?"
"Yup," answered Ryan, starting to move.
There was a few minutes of silence as Ryan maneuvered his car through the others to leave the airport. Finally, Gabriella, "So. Where's Kelsi?"
"She's at our apartment," answered Ryan. "We picked up Taylor, Chad, Sharpay, and Zeke about an hour ago."
"You were right," said Gabriella, grinning, to Troy. "So I guess Jason and Brooke haven't arrived yet?"
"Nope,"
Another silence. "So how long have you and Kelsi been dating for?" asked Gabriella.
"We started dating in May, right before graduation, so about a year and a half," said Ryan. "It was cool, because we knew we were both going to Cal Poly."
Gabriella nodded. "It's gorgeous here," she remarked as she looked out the window. "Is it always warm here?"
"Yup, pretty much all year long," Ryan told her.
"So I bet you guys get to go to the beach all the time," smiled Gabriella.
Ryan laughed. "Yeah, almost every weekend. It's awesome."
After a few more minutes of driving, they reached an apartment complex.
"Well, here we are," said Ryan, entering the complex and driving around a little before parking.
"Wow, these apartments are beautiful," said Gabriella earnestly, and then laughed. "Everything here in beautiful."
"Yeah, Kelsi and I love it," said Ryan as he led Troy and Gabriella up a couple flights of stairs before leading them into one of the doors.
"Honey, I'm home," called Ryan jokingly through the apartment after he'd let them in and closed the door behind them.
This apartment was pretty big too. They were standing in the entryway, and to their right was a medium-sized kitchen. In front of the kitchen was a large living room, with two couches that had been pulled into beds with suitcases piled on top of them. To their left was a hallway with five doors leading into various rooms.
Out of one of the doors came Taylor, Sharpay, and Kelsi, all running towards them. "Gabriella!" they all squealed in unison as they engulfed her in a huge embrace.
Laughing, Gabriella hugged them back. "It's great to see you guys too!" She looked over their shoulders to see Chad and Zeke standing there, grinning widely.
"Hey Gabriella," they said together.
"Hi guys," she smiled as the three girls untangled themselves from each other.
"I can't believe you're here!" exclaimed Taylor.
"We've been so excited!" Sharpay said earnestly.
"It's great so see you," agreed Kelsi.
"I feel the same," laughed Gabriella. Studying each girl more closely, she saw how much they'd changed. Taylor had been pretty in high school, but now she was beautiful. She only wore a little bit of makeup, if any, but she didn't need it. Her hair was no longer pushed back in a headband, but hung down her back, silky straight.
Kelsi's hair had grown a lot since Gabriella had last seen her, almost six inches. It wasn't straight anymore, but curly, and she had side bangs. Also, she'd gotten contacts and she seemed to have much more confidence.
Sharpay, of course, had always been gorgeous. Now, however, she actually looked the age she was dressing. Everything about her was pretty much the same, except for the length of her hair, which had grown a little – and, of course, the pink diamond on her left hand.
"Wow, is this it?" gasped Gabriella, reaching for Sharpay's hand to examine the ring closer. It was absolutely magnificent – just the kind of ring Sharpay probably always wanted.
"Oh, yeah," Sharpay let out an off-hand laugh, but Gabriella knew it was an act.
"It's beautiful," smiled Gabriella, letting go of her hand.
"Thanks," Sharpay smiled back.
Chad side stepped the girls and pulled Gabriella into a hug. "It's good to have you back, Gabriella," he said honestly into her hair.
They pulled away and Gabriella said, "It's good to be back."
After a quick hug with Zeke, Kelsi said, "Here, we'll give you a little tour."
"Sounds great."
Kelsi pointed to the kitchen. "That's our kitchen-," and then she pointed to the living room. "-and that's the living room, where Taylor, Chad, Jason, and Brooke will be sleeping. Hey, we're halfway done!"
Gabriella laughed. Kelsi pulled her down the hall alone, as everyone else had already been to the apartment and didn't need a tour. There were three plain white doors on the left wall, and two matching doors on the right wall. She opened the first door on the left and Gabriella peered into it. It was a small little bedroom. "This is where Sharpay and Zeke are staying." Gabriella nodded as Kelsi pulled her to the next room, where everyone had emerged from a few minutes earlier. "This is mine and Ryan's room." It was a large bedroom, with an open door than led to an adjoining bathroom. "And here is where you and Troy will be staying." Gabriella felt her cheeks heat up as she saw that there was only one bed. She couldn't help but think that this had been planned somehow.
"Um, where do these two doors lead to?" asked Gabriella, trying to cover up her embarrassment.
"Oh, this one is the laundry room," said Kelsi, opening up the closest door. "And here's a second bathroom." She opened up the last door. Then she laughed. "All eight of you will be sharing this bathroom."
Gabriella made a face. "You and Ryan can't share yours?" she joked, laughing.
Kelsi laughed too. "Maybe if you're extra nice." The two girls giggled.
"Hey, are you two done over there?" called Ryan. "We need to plan our day."
Gabriella and Kelsi looked at each other and rolled their eyes playfully. "Coming!" Kelsi yelled back in fake exasperation. The two girls approached the rest of their friends.
"Um, shouldn't we wait until Jason and Brooke get here?" said Taylor.
"No need!" said a voice from outside. There was a knock and Ryan, being closest to the door, opened it to reveal a much older and mature looking Jason and an extremely attractive redhead, green-eyed girl with exceptionally white teeth standing there wish their bags.
We stood back to let them in, and, after they'd put their stuff in the living room, Jason cried, "Gabriella!" before rushing over to hug her.
"Nice to see you too, Jason," grinned Gabriella as they broke apart. "You look great!"
"As do you," grinned Jason. "Oh, and this is Brooke, my girlfriend."
"It's very nice to meet you," said Brooke in a thick Australian accent, holding out her hand. "I've heard so much about you from Jason."
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine," said Gabriella politely as they shook hands.
"Alright, great," Ryan clapped his hands together. "It's only like, noon, so we have an entire day ahead of us. What should we do?"
Troy spoke up. "I think we should like Gabriella pick what to do, since we haven't hung out with her in three and a half years."
Everyone muttered words of agreement to this statement, but Gabriella said quickly, "Oh, no, it's okay. I'm fine with anything."
"No," protested Chad. "Troy's right, you pick."
"But I really don't-,"
"Come on, Gabriella, we're wasting time!" said Sharpay loudly.
Gabriella sighed in defeat. "Um, well, okay. I don't know what you guys usually do, but... well, I'd kinda like to go to the beach."
"Done!" said Zeke. "Alright you guys, let's get ready." Zeke grabbed Sharpay's hand and dragged her to their room.
"That might take a while," warned Taylor. "I mean, we all have to share a bathroom."
"We can just strip right here!" said Brooke enthusiastically, pulling her shirt over her head. Gabriella looked away quickly, but obviously Brooke was always this outgoing, since no one else batted an eye.
"She takes some getting used to," muttered Troy in her ear.
Gabriella looked up at him and grinned sheepishly. "I guess."
"You can use the room first," he offered. "It won't take me very long to get ready."
She beamed up at him. "Thanks!" she said and grabbed her suitcase, wheeling it behind her into their room.
Once she was inside the room and had closed the door, she put her suitcase on the double bed that she would be sharing with Troy that night – her face heated up at the very thought – and picked out a pink and white-polka-dotted bathing suit she'd bought at the end of the last summer but had never had a chance to wear and slipped is on. Then she pulled a short, white halter-top sundress she'd also bought last summer but had never worn, and then stuck her feet into a pair of white rubber flip flops.
She opened the door to see if the bathroom was occupied and was not surprised to find that it was. Gabriella looked around the room for a mirror but couldn't find one. Finally she stepped into the walk-in closet and was relieved to see a full-length mirror behind the door. She examined herself, fixing her curly, braided hair quickly, and noticed all too late that her mascara wasn't water proof. She used makeup remover and a couple of tissues from the night stand to take off the mascara before applying some water proof. Gabriella smeared another coat of her lip gloss and looked at herself in the mirror again. Done.
She flip-flopped out of the room after packing her beach bag with spare clothes, underwear, a bra, towel, her iPod, phone, gum, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a book, in case she got bored, and went into the living room where the guys were sitting on one of the pull-out beds.
"Finished already?" asked Troy, surprised.
"Yup," There was no room on the bed they were all on so she situated herself on the other one, all alone. "So you can use the room now."
Ryan and Zeke were the only guys to have changed, while Chad, Jason, and Troy hadn't.
As Troy left to go change, Ryan stated, "Wow, that was pretty fast."
"Huh?"
"It didn't take you that long to change," he clarified.
"Oh," Gabriella shrugged. "It never takes me long to get ready for the beach."
"You know," said Chad thoughtfully. "Taylor might be a nerd, majoring in Chemistry and all, but it takes her as long as it takes Sharpay to get ready to go out."
They all laughed.
"Well, it takes me a long time," explained Gabriella. "But not for the beach. I mean, we're going swimming, so we're gonna look like shit anyway."
"True," said Zeke. "I wish Sharpay would realize that."
Troy padded back into the living room, wearing a pair of orange and yellow fire-print swim shorts and an orange Hollister shirt, with black sandals.
"I like the bathing suit," smirked Gabriella.
But before Troy had a chance to answer, Gabriella's cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag to answer it while Chad and Jason dug through their suitcases for bathing suits before shuffling off to find a spot to change.
"Hello?"
"Hey baby! You make it alright?"
"Hey, Jeremiah," said Gabriella happily. "Yeah, everything's good."
"That's great. Why didn't you call me earlier?" His tone suddenly became accusatory.
"What?"
"You said you'd call me later, remember? Before your flight?"
"Oh," said Gabriella, remembering that comment. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot."
"So you forgot about me, huh?" said Jeremiah angrily.
Gabriella raised her eyebrows. "No, it's not like that! Everything is just really hectic. I mean, I was just reunited with friends I haven't seen in over three years and now we're all getting ready to go to the beach-,"
"The beach?" exclaimed Jeremiah, as though he'd never heard of anything quite ridiculous before in his life. "But you're not wearing a bathing suit, are you?"
She paused. "Um, well, that's what most people wear to the beach." She was uncomfortably aware that Ryan, Troy, and Zeke were all listening closely to her side of the conversation.
"I don't want all of those guy friends of yours seeing you in a bathing suit!" said Jeremiah furiously.
Gabriella's mouth dropped open. "Jeremiah, they're my friends! They're not checking me out, or whatever!" She blushed at the comment.
"That doesn't mean they aren't attracted to you," he pointed out.
"Well, if they do, that doesn't mean I am to them!" she said, hoping that the guys didn't know what she was talking about. I don't want Troy to get upset... wait, what!
"What if they attack you tonight, or something?" spat Jeremiah.
"Jeremiah, will you get a grip? They're not going to attack me!" cried Gabriella. "What's going on with you?"
"Nothing! You're just being impossible!" shouted Jeremiah. And then he hung up.
Gabriella's mouth hung open. What was going on with him? She removed the phone from her ear and pressed End. Was he popping pills, or what?
There was a small, awkward silence aside from the movement in the hallway beyond.
"Um. What was that about?" asked Ryan uncomfortably.
Gabriella shook her head furiously. "Nothing," she said angrily, as her eyes filled up with tears. Did Jeremiah not trust her? "Uh, I'll be right back." she said quickly, getting up and crossing the distance from her to the front door as fast as she could without alarming them. She opened the door and stepped over the threshold, nearly slamming the door behind her.
She took a deep, shaking breath and slid slowly down the wall next to the door. She was sort of worried about Jeremiah. What was with his sudden mood swings? It seemed as though his personality was constantly changing. When they'd first started going out, he'd been the perfect boyfriend. Then he became a distant boyfriend. Then a good boyfriend. Everything had kept rotating for the entire six months of their relationship. And now he was being an overprotective boyfriend?
Gabriella realized she really didn't know that much about Jeremiah. She'd never met his family; she just knew his mother was dead, he was an only child, and his father worked on a farm in Indiana. But she'd never been invited to meet him before.
She was half-worried that he was doing drugs, or gambling, or something along those lines, that caused these constant mood swings. She didn't want to believe it, but his sudden change from her-dream-guy-to-overprotective-boyfriend in just three hours was very suspicious.
Next to Gabriella, the front door opened and Troy poked his head out. "Gabriella? Are you okay?"
Gabriella had managed to control most of her tears while she was out there, but a couple had escaped. She quickly wiped them from under her eyes before smiling up at Troy. "Yeah. I'm great."
Even so, Troy stepped outside, closed the door, and sat down next to her. "What happened?" he asked, sounding like he was genuinely interested.
"Nothing happened," Gabriella tried to convince him in a cheery voice.
He narrowed his eyes at her, making Gabriella sigh. "Okay, yes, something happened..."
"Care to tell me what?" he prodded.
Gabriella hesitated. "Well, Jeremiah has a lot of mood swings. For a while, he'll be an uninterested boyfriend, and then he'll be a great boyfriend, and now he's suddenly an overprotective boyfriend. I don't understand it, and I'm starting to worry."
Troy nodded understandingly. "I see. Was he being overprotective on the phone just now?"
Gabriella nodded. Then she laughed a little. "As if you couldn't tell from what I was saying."
He smiled a little. "Yeah, but I'd thought I'd ask anyway."
Nodding, she said, "Yeah, he thought you guys would check me out if I went to the beach with a bathing suit, and then he thought you guys would attack me." She shook her head in disbelief. "I mean, just this week he was being the perfect boyfriend. I don't understand it."
"Maybe he's just worried," said Troy soothingly. "I'd be worried if my beautiful girlfriend went to stay at a place with five college guys in it, even if they were just her friends."
There he goes again with the compliments, thought Gabriella bitterly. But this time, she decided, she wasn't going to get mad. Troy wasn't hitting on her or anything, he was just being friendly and trying to cheer her up. And stick up for Jeremiah, she suddenly realized. So instead she just smiled at him and said, "Thanks."