Hey again! Here's the next
chapter… I wasn't going to update today, but I decided I couldn't
help myself, lol! Also this was only supposed to be short chappie, a
kind of teaser for the next one, but I got carried away and decided
to treat you guys to some mega fluff instead, hope you enjoy! Oh and
by the way, I seem to have gotten into a habit of replying to most of
your reviews… I hope you guys don't mind but if you do, let me
know and I'll make a mental note not to message you. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own HSM or any of the characters featured in this story. I only own the plot.
CHAPTER 3: Fun with Breakfast
Troy and Gabriella both sat on the picnic blanket, a little bit apart but still half facing each other. Troy reached out and started carefully pulling of the gladwrap that covered everything… he held out a plate of muffins to Gabriella, who took one smiling. He continued with what he was doing but couldn't help glancing up at her eating the muffin, she saw him watching her and blushed slightly, Troy blushed too, looking away. When he looked back up a second later, he was surprised to find the muffin gone! He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Wow! You sure finished that in hurry, Miss Montez… Gee, you must have been pretty hungry!" said Troy grinning as Gabriella blushed again. A sudden thought occurred to him and he smirked playfully, eyeing her suspiciously.
"… Hey, wait a second… you finished that a little fast, are you sure you actually ate it or was it sooo bad you chucked it away when I wasn't looking?" he asked, pretending to look around for evidential muffin bits on the ground.
Gabriella laughed and punched him softly on the arm, "Haha, of course not! How could you ask me such a thing?" she replied in mock offence.
Suddenly Gabriella became playful, giving Troy a suggestive look and dropping her voice in a flirty manner, "Actually, the truth is Troy… I enjoyed it sooo much that I couldn't get it down fast enough," she batted her eyelids at him, giggling like a love-struck schoolgirl and continued softly in the same tone, "You're a really good baker… you're sooo… talented."
Troy tensed, forgetting for a second that she was joking, he returned her look with an intense one of his own, "Oh really… even better than Zeke?" he asked leaning towards her instinctively.
"Oh yeah… definitely better than Zeke," she replied, also leaning forward and looking deep into his eyes. They were soon mere inches away, so close that they could both hear the other's sudden quickness in breath and the increased rapidity of heartbeats in their chests. 'This is it…" thought Gabriella… 'Here we go,' thought Troy and just as they closed their eyes and leaned in, Troy's stomach proudly demonstrated its perfect timing, by rumbling loudly. Their eyes snapped open and Troy cursed his stomach silently, thinking 'Why God? Why?'. Meanwhile Gabriella started laughing, moving away from Troy, shaking her head. Troy looked at her, also seeing the funny side and started laughing too.
"Haha! It looks like you spent too much time scrutinising the way I ate my muffin, that you neglected your own stomach!" laughed Gabriella, handing him a muffin, "You better feed it quickly I think it's angry with you!"
Troy took it from her laughing, "I guess I better keep my opinions to myself next time," he replied taking a bite.
The two were silent then, Gabriella taking a plate of pancakes for herself and handing one to Troy, who took it gratefully, smiling at her. They ate in silence, both replaying the events of the last 5 minutes in their minds, their brains thinking fervently, 'Did that just happen? … I mean did that ALMOST just happen? Oh my goodness, I think we were gonna… We almost… I almost… kissed Troy Bolton!' thought Gabriella, eyes wide; she couldn't believe what almost happened. Sure he almost kissed her on Triple Threat Day, except Chad interrupted, but he hadn't tried again since, both seeming to fall into a comfortable friendship. Gabriella covertly glanced at Troy, hoping he wouldn't notice… he was looking down at his food, his eyebrows furrowed; he seemed to be in deep thought. 'Does he feel the same way, or did he just get caught up in the moment? I think he feels the same way as me, but who knows? He never says anything or does anything about it if he does…' she thought to herself, 'But we did almost just kiss, just then… so maybe there is something there…'
Meanwhile Troy's brain was thinking just as frantically… he was heavily cursing his stomach for its timing, almost screaming at himself, 'Why! Two minutes! Just two minutes! Actually one would've been fine, or even 30 seconds… 10 perhaps, is pushing it, but even that would've been better than... than... that! … Though on the bright side, she had seemed just as willing as me. Should I just come right out and say it now?' he thought, confused about his feelings, he glanced at her quickly before looking away again. He thought she looked confused, uncertain… 'Maybe she's just as unsure as me… we make such good friends, she's probably uncertain about whether we should be more… Okay I'm gonna wait… wait for just the right time,' and if everything went the way he planned, he knew when the right time would be... Troy smiled, suddenly feeling happy again, pleased with his decision.
Gabriella continued to eat, absentmindedly picking at her food… she glanced at Troy again and saw that he was smiling again. She smiled too, 'Oh good, nothing's changed, I was afraid he'd get all awkward on me.' She continued watching him eat but soon got sick of the serious feeling in the air and decided to lighten it. She felt suddenly playful again and smirking she picked up a muffin, broke off a piece and she chucked it at him, hitting him the chest. He looked up in shock to see Gabriella laughing at him and a broad grin spread across his face.
"Ohhh... Gabriella Montez! You did NOT just do that!" he cried in mock anger, she laughed in response, picking up the muffin portion he chucked it back at her, accidentally overthrowing it.
She laughed hysterically as it missed her, flying over her shoulder to hit the grass. Troy watched her, as she rolled around laughing on the picnic blanket.
"Haha, Troy the basketball superstar can't even hit a target less than a metre away!" she laughed, wiping away some tears that had appeared on her cheeks, "I don't know how you managed to win the championship with an aim like that, you must have fluked it!"
"Aww… whatever Gabriella! I'm just so strong that I misjudged the throw," he replied grinning and flexing his biceps. Gabriella laughed again, rolling her eyes at him.
"Yeah okay muscle man, whatever you say…" suddenly she put the back of her hand up to her forehead, as if she was checking her temperature and dramatically feigned awe at Troy's manliness, "Oh, Troy! What a big strong man you are! Just look at those biceps… their massive!"
Troy laughed, she sounded like a gushing cheerleader. Gabriella laughed too and chucked another piece of muffin at him, this time it hit him in the cheek.
"HEY! Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's bad manners to play with your food?" he asked sternly, successfully keeping a straight face.
"She tried, that's the only lesson I ever failed," she replied winking, and threw another piece of muffin. It hit him on the nose.
"Okay that's it! Someone's got to teach you a lesson and it might as well be me!" declared Troy, advancing towards her. Gabriella saw him move and got up to run away, letting out a squeal of laughter.
Troy reached out for her but she moved just out of his grasp, laughing and running off across the park. Troy smiled chasing after her, 'Where does she think she's going? She can't get away from me!'
Gabriella ran, laughing uncontrollably, towards the playground equipment, looking for some sort of escape from Troy. Troy was gaining on her and the closest thing around was a teeter totter… so she moved around it until the teeter totter was directly between them. She laughed at Troy on the other side of the equipment and poked out her tongue at him. He widened his eyes and dropped his jaw in mock disbelief at her action. He faked movement to the right, as if he was going to come around and Gabriella moved to her right as well, instinctively keeping the play set between her and Troy. He laughed and moved to the left, Gabriella also moving to the left.
"You think you can stay away from me, Montez?" he asked laughing. Gabriella looked pensive for a second before looking him in the eye and nodding cheekily. Troy laughed again.
"Well, sorry to disappoint you Miss Montez, but… you're wrong!" he cried, springing over the top of the teeter totter and taking Gabriella by surprise. She squealed, astonished by his action and turned to run away again. She wasn't able to get very far before he caught her, putting his arms around her waist and lifting her in the air, spinning her around.
"Hey put me down!" cried Gabriella. Troy moved as if to do so, but at the last second he started tickling her madly, causing her to contort in surprise and squeal hysterically. As she twisted away she turned towards him and Troy lost his balance, effectively making him fall down on top of her. The two of them continued laughing on the ground, not realising their position. Gabriella was sprawled on her back on the grass her hands on Troy's shoulders, which she'd seized to stop her falling (not that it helped much), and Troy was laying on top of her, his hands on either side of her body, propping him up.
"See what you did, Montez? You made me fall over!" he laughed looking down at her.
"Me! I didn't make you chase me!" she replied smiling up at him.
"Yes you did! You chucked a muffin at me! Didn't you know that that translates in English as 'chase me, I'm asking for it'?" replied Troy in a high-pitched girly voice, making her laugh again.
The two of them looked at each other intently, once the laughter had subsided, both realising their respective positions, but neither making any effort to move. 'Oh my goodness! Here we are again… and in the space of less than half an hour! How does this keep happening!' screamed out Gabriella's mind, she bit her lip and Troy smiled as he watched her to do so. 'Dude! What happened to your plan! … she happened' he thought, answering his own question. He saw a piece of hair stuck to her face and reached his left hand up to move it away and as he did so he saw the time on his watch face. His eyes widened and he froze, 'Oh crap, look at the time! It's almost 11am! I almost forgot about the…'
"Oh God, we're gonna be late, we've got to go now!" cried Troy getting up off her, breaking the moment again, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Gabriella looked at him, confused.
"Late for wha…" began Gabriella but Troy yanked her to her feet before she could finish.
"C'mon let's go," said Troy pulling her by the hand.
"Bu… But what about the food, you can't just leave all that stuff there!" cried Gabriella, as Troy pulled her away.
"Don't worry about it, I'll call Chad to come and get rid of it," answered Troy hurriedly, pulling out his phone to call Chad. Gabriella just sighed and followed him, she had no choice, he was still holding her hand.
"Hey Chad!" greeted Troy, when Chad picked up.
"Troy… aren't you supposed to be with Gabriella?"
"Yeah I'm with her now… listen I lost track of time at the picnic and we're now running late for the…" Troy quickly glanced at Gabriella before whispering, "… the 'thing'."
"What 'thing'?" answered Chad, adding emphasis to the word 'thing' just like Troy did. He wasn't catching on.
"The thing!" hissed Troy, exasperated. Gabriella just looked on, confused. "Stop being dumb Chad, you know what I'm talking about!"
There was silence for a moment before, "Oh! Right the 'thing'… sorry!"
"Well anyway we kinda had to leave in a hurry so I was wondering if you could go to the park and clear up the picnic?"
"Yeah sure, no problem… I'll get Taylor to come with me."
"Thanks man, I owe you one."
"No problem… and goodluck! … Oh and Taylor says to tell Gabriella happy birthday from the both of us," said Chad on the phone, "she says she wants all the details later!"
Troy laughed, hanging up. "Chad says to tell you, happy birthday from him and Taylor, and Taylor wants to hear all the details later," relayed Troy to Gabriella.
"Oh okay… Troy where are we going?" asked Gabriella, not really expecting an answer but trying anyway. Troy wouldn't tell her anything about what was happening today, "What are we late for?"
She was surprised to see Troy suddenly start twitching nervously, he lifted his free hand and started rubbing his neck, "Erm… you… you'll find out soon, I promise… it's a… a… surprise," he replied. Gabriella found his tone a little disconcerting.
Gabriella felt nervous all of a sudden, "Is… Is this going to be… a good surprise?" she asked, a little bit unsure.
Troy looked around as he walked, as if looking for an answer to the question in his surroundings, "Erm… erm… I… I don't know… I think so…" he replied vaguely, "You'll find out soon enough..."
Okay that's it for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave a review and stay tuned for the next chapter! What has Troy got planned now? Dun dun dun… (dramatic music ensues) Thanks for reading:)
