A/N: Thanks for the reviews. You know, a couple people suggested that she have twins or triplets later. LOL Well, can you believe: 30 chapters! Woo hoo! Okay, I don't have a specific number of chapters left that I'm going to do, and I'm kind of stuck. So, I'm going to keep going for now and see where I'll get when I want to end and possibly start a sequel. Okay, enough rambling. Here's chapter 30!
The Next Week:
"Troy!" Gabriella called from their bedroom. Aiden, Luke, Abby, and Dylan were lying on the bed in their carriers. "Do you have the babies' clothes and bottles... and toys?"
It was her first day back to work, and she was worrying like crazy. She was excited about going back, but now she didn't want to leave her babies with people she didn't even know. It hadn't really dawned on her that she had never met the daycare person. Now she was stressing over nothing.
Troy came into the room, panting from the stairs, "Yes, Gabriella. Well, not the toys."
"What! Why?" She yelled.
He came behind her and put his arms around her, "Calm down. If they are a daycare, then don't you think they would have plenty of toys? Maybe even bottles."
She sighed and sat on the bed, "Yeah, you're right. Why can't I just... I don't know. But why are you so calm?"
"I guess I'm not the mom," he chuckled and put his hands on her shoulders. "Of course I'm worried about them, but they're going to be fine. We'll pick them up at four, okay?"
She nodded, slowly, kissing him lightly, and then getting up to pick out her clothes again.
"I'm going to take them downstairs. You just get ready," he said, picking up Aiden and Dylan in their carriers and left the room.
She wanted to look good on her first day back. The only problem was there was only a week left of school before summer vacation. She wouldn't get much time to spend with her students, but at least they would get to see her before their three months of vacation. Her mom told her that she should just let the substitute take over the last week, but she didn't want to.
She ended up picking out a lavender shirt with a black skirt. She pulled her hair in a half-pony using a barrette. Troy came back up and picked Luke's carrier up. "Ooh, you look nice," he said to her.
She smiled, straitening her shirt, "Why, thank you." She then picked up Abby and brought her downstairs following not too long behind Troy. She set her down next to Aiden, who had a smile on his face.
"Look, Troy, he's smiling," she said, pointing to Aiden. She picked him up and kissed his head. "They're just too cute."
"I agree," he said, "Now let's go before we're late."
Gabriella took Aiden and Abby in her car, and Troy took Luke and Dylan in his. They both pulled up to they daycare, unstrapped, them, talked with the daycare lady for a few minutes, and left, feeling assured that Marie (the daycare lady) would take good care of them.
When she arrived at work, she stopped in the principal's office. She softly knocked.
"Come in," he grunted, obviously glad this was the last week.
She stepped in, and smiled.
"Gabriella," he grinned at her. "Wow, you're back. How are you doing?"
"Pretty good," she kept her smile on her face. "I just gave birth to quadruplets about four months ago."
"Congratulations. That's a lot of kids, Ms. Montez," he said. Gabriella changed her name to Bolton, but she allowed people in her professional life to continue calling her Ms. Montez.
"Yes," she laughed. "Yes, it is. We put them in a daycare for this next week, since I only have a week left before the break."
"Yes, and I assume you will be back next year, resuming your spot as a third grade teacher?"
She nodded, "I hope too."
"Great," he clapped his hands, and sat up strait. "Now get to your class. They've missed you."
She smiled, getting up, "Yes Sir."
When she got to her classroom, everyone was talking and sitting at their desks. Their heads spun around when they noticed Gabriella walked in the door.
"Ms. Montez!" Most of them screamed and came up to her, asking her questions. Some even hugged her.
"How are your babies?" Willie, one of her students asked.
"They're doing very good. Thank you for asking," she said, walking over to her desk. For the rest of the day, they talked about what they've been learning, what Gabriella has been doing, and what they were doing on their summer vacations. Pretty soon, school was over. She was gathering her stuff, happy that she was back, and also ready to see her kids. Suddenly, her cell phone rang.
She fished it out of her purse and answered it. "Hello?"
"Hi," Sharpay said. "How was your first day back?"
"It was good. It just ended. I just caught up with everybody's past few months," she folded her papers into the file cabinet. "What are you up to?"
"Well, Gabriella, I listened to your advice on taking things slow with Zeke, and I talked with him, and he's taking me out to dinner tonight."
"Wow, I'm surprised. I'm happy for you," she smiled. "Where's Ariella going?"
"She's staying with Ryan."
"Oh. How is he by the way? I haven't talked with him lately."
"Well, not much really. I want him to get a girlfriend, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen any time soon. He's so... preoccupied with his job."
She laughed, "I'm sure he'll go for it when he's ready."
"So, I just called to tell you about Zeke."
"Well, you promise to take things slow?"
"Gabriella, I told you. Zeke and me are going out to talk about things. I told him that I wanted to take things slow, and he agreed, and then asked me out to dinner," she said. "Well, I have to go pick something out to wear."
"All right, bye," she giggled. She was happy for Sharpay, and was glad that she agreed to take things slow with Zeke.
With Sharpay:
Sharpay was walking around her apartment living room. Ryan had come about a half an hour ago to pick Ariella up. She had decided on something not too fancy, but not too casual. I mean, this was kind of their first date.
She wore a light pink, button down blouse, and a tan skirt. She curled her blonde locks, put on her diamond earrings, and applied her makeup perfectly. She didn't want to seem too desperate by looking nice, but she wanted to show Zeke what he's been missing out on.
She sat on the couch, waiting, nervously. Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the door. She quickly sprinted up, checked herself in the mirror once more and opened the door.
"Hi," she smiled.
"Hey," he grinned. "You look great."
"Thank you," she blushed, looking down. She felt like this was their first date ever. Like they were in high school, and he had asked her out by giving freshly baked cookies.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah," she nodded.
When they arrived at the restaurant and were seated, they began looking at the menus immediately. They both felt shy and didn't know how to bring up a conversation. Sharpay knew she needed to talk with Zeke about why they divorced, but... it was too hard to bring it up.
After they ordered and the waiter took the menus away, there was no reason not to talk. She took a sip of her wine, and played with her fingers.
"So... how have you been?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence. He looked just as nervous as Sharpay.
"Good," she said quickly, and then sighed. "Listen, Zeke, we need to talk... about things."
He nodded, "Yeah, I agree."
"Okay..."
He took a deep breath but didn't say anything.
"Do you know why we got a divorce?" She asked.
He paused and then answered, "Because... we didn't get along?"
"Well... yes, but do you know why we didn't get along?" She asked, feeling like she was talking with a five year-old.
"Um... not really anymore. I forget."
She sighed and put her head in her hands, shaking her head.
"Well, do you know?" He asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" She piped.
"What?"
She calmed down a bit, so nobody else could hear. "I just... I felt like you didn't appreciate me."
"Appreciate you? Sharpay, of course I appreciated you."
"Well, I didn't feel like it. I did so much. I gave up on my dream to have a family," she said, hoping he can understand how she feels. "And you know, I'm glad I did."
"Well, I'm glad you did too."
"Well, do you realize how I felt?"
He sighed, "Yeah. I do. I'm sorry."
"Good."
"But... I loved you, Sharpay. I don't know how we just... fell apart."
She looked down, feeling shocked he said that. I mean, she knew he loved her, but he hasn't said anything like that since forever.
"I'm glad we had that talk."
She gulped, "Me too."
After they talked a little more and dinner was finished, he brought her back to her place.
"Well, here we are," he said, as they were inches away from the door.
"Yeah. So, um... thanks for taking me out," she smiled, holding her purse.
"Oh, yeah, it was great. We should do it again."
"Yeah," she said, trailing off. She closed her eyes, and felt his lips touch hers, softly. He pulled away after a few seconds.
She unlocked her door. "I'll uh... call you later," she shut the door, smiling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back with Troy and Gabriella:
"There you go," Gabriella just finished changing Dylan's diaper, kissed his head, and put him in his crib.
Troy came into the room after putting Abigail to bed. When they went back into their room and lay on the bed.
"So, you had a good day?" He asked, kissing her.
She broke apart after a while, "Yeah. You could say that." She kissed him again.
He put his arms along her back, "Good, I'm glad." He continued to kiss her passionately, every kiss deeper than the last. (I'm going to stop there, because you know what happens next).
A/N: Thanks for reading! I really do appreciate it. What did you think of it? What about Zeke and Sharpay? Were you glad I added a part of them? Oh, and if you haven't, please read my new story "One Last Chance". I would like that very much. Okay, so please review!
