I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul
You're the one I wanna chase
You're the one I wanna hold
I wont let another minute go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul...
Beautiful Soul--Jesse McCartney

Tuesday morning came around and no matter if Gabriella and Troy laid around in bed the whole day before, Gabriella was still very reluctant to get up, but in surprise and shock her roommate was up before she was and applying her daily make up.

Sharpay had come from the hospital earlier in the morning, and she stayed quiet. It was difficult as she had to stop before entering their room to take off her high heel shoes so she wouldn't make a noise when entering, but she could've had a whole marching band follow her in as Gabriella was knocked out.

"How's Ryan?" Gabriella asks right away as she feels bad that Troy and her didn't go visit him the previous day, but yet she still won't trade anything in return for what she felt being in Troy's arms the whole day.

Sharpay doesn't falter while recapping her lip gloss as she let out all her emotions before talking to anybody besides Ryan. "He's good."

Gabriella hesitates as she remembers the fearless blank expression that occupied Sharpay's face not even a week ago. "And you?"

The blonde swallows quietly. "I'm good."

Gabriella doesn't believe her.

Schedules still needed to be followed as everyone in the past two weeks abandoned their responsibilities. Classes need to be attended. Homework needs to be done. Tests are to be taken. And studying sessions need to be attended.

"So you have basketball practice until 5:30, right?"

Chad whines, "Tay, do we really need to study?"

She rolls her eyes as she's busy flicking through the Earth Science book that they had neglected for quite a few weeks already. "It's one night a week and it won't kill you."

"It's three hours! THREE hours Tay! Do you not understand?" He questions her as if she's a crazy person.

"It's three hours once a week. I think you'll live." She has been trying to end this conversation for ten minutes already, and so far Chad has found almost all excuses to miss it, but yet none of them worked.

"I could be…I could be…helping Zeke and Jason plan Ryan's homecoming party." Chad states in a rush as the excitement of finding another excuse enters his brain. "You know, since I am the baseball captain and all, I should probably really, REALLY help them out. You know how much trouble Zeke and Jason could get into with the Headmaster attending the party?"

Taylor is stunned as in the middle of Chad's poor excuse of not studying stopped them both from continuing to their classes. She must have been looking at him weirdly because Chad gives her a weird look in return.

"What?" He asks slowly. "Do I have something on my face or something?" He starts touching everywhere.

"No…it's just," she is speechless, but tries to collect herself. She clears her throat a little, and gives him a small smile. "It's just, this is the first time you mentioned Zeke without going all weird."

He kinks an eye brow as he hadn't even realized he mentioned Zeke's name quite a few times. "Going all weird? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, it's just…usually we stay away from him in our conversations."

"And we still do. I wasn't specifically talking about him. I was talking about the party in general, and more about helping Jason than him. Okay?" Chad quips.

Taylor is momentarily stunned with how Chad can go from whining about studying to a bitter tone of denial. She can sense he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, as she doesn't feel like being snapped at either. "Yeah. So meet me in the library?"

Chad sighs, "Yeah. I'll meet you there." He doesn't feel like putting up a fight anymore as he had been thinking about it a lot lately. What if Taylor suddenly decides that they're not good enough together? That her and Zeke make a better couple? He can ruin his chances with her in one mistake of a little fight. So in an unlike Chad fashion, he bites his tongue as he doesn't feel like arguing over something so little as studying. "5:30 on the dot."

Even though she has a mountain of homework to do, a drama club meeting to attend, and a few songs to run through on the piano, she has to do this. She knew she had to go see him ever since Earth Science that day and Zeke was behind her, along with an empty chair. Of course she has Jason who always makes the labs they were doing in that class fun, and not boring, but even after her and Ryan broke up, she is so used to hearing Zeke and him getting scolded by the teacher about doing things wrong, that in their lab that day, she barely even talked as she was on the edge of her seat; nearly expecting the so called blonde boy to walk through the door saying the car accident was all one big joke.

She knocks on the big wooden door softly, and hears a groggy voice allowing her to enter. She didn't tell anyone that she was going to the hospital. She didn't even tell Jason that she was going to be gone from the time allowed after school to when the drama club starts at six.

She walks into the room as this is the first time that she's actually been in his hospital room. It is so white that she blinks her eyes in shock at how blinding it is.

"Hey." She peeps out as in the back of her mind it feels wrong to be there. It feels wrong for not telling Jason that she's with Ryan at the time, but then again, she has to remind herself that she doesn't always have to check things with Jason. They're not even official yet; so it shouldn't matter.

Ryan tries to straighten up in his bed as he was previously just lazily flipping through magazines of different things that Chad brought by the other morning with various other things.

"Oh no, don't move or anything." Kelsi rushes over to him as she can clearly see that he's still in pain. She lays a hand on his shoulder without even thinking about it, "Don't feel like you have to move just for me."

Ryan settles into the bed again as there is an awkward silence between them. He looks down at the hand Kelsi has on his shoulder, and Kelsi must have followed his eye sight as she removed her hand almost instantly.

Ryan clears his throat as their eyes connect again. "So um…what brings you here?"

Kelsi wants to scream at him for asking that. Isn't it fairly obvious why she's there? She's there because she hasn't spoken to him in over two weeks, and usually friends don't do that; not to mention that he was just in a car accident.

But she doesn't scream as she musters a brave smile and says, "Considering you have missed A LOT of school, I brought you some things." She manages to stay chipper, and if he is seeing right through her little facade, then he isn't saying anything. She untangles her arm from her book bag and lays it out on the bed where his legs aren't occupying.

"You brought my schoolwork?" He asks slowly with no amusement.

"Yeah. Do you know how much you have? It's bizarre as I never realized how much stuff can build up over two weeks, but you're proof of that now. You have a lot of things to do, and I thought it would help if you could get a head start in it." Kelsi explains while pulling out folder after folder from her bag.

Ryan knows she means well, but doing homework in the hospital isn't his idea of fun, but then again she is thinking of the right thing so that when he does go back, he won't be totally swamped by it all.

Ryan sighs while slowly letting himself agree with Kelsi's actions. "Okay, then…let me see some of this stuff."

She hands him a manila folder that holds his math homework filled with notes, worksheets, and various other handouts. He goes through it as she is still pulling out his notebooks, and personal school items that he keeps in his room instead of leaving them in the classroom.

His mind goes blank as he sees all the assignments he missed. "I don't think I'll be able to understand half of this stuff." He mumbles absentmindedly.

Kelsi stops what she's doing and stares at him. She lets his eyes lock on his body as he's looking down, flicking through various papers, and mumbling to himself. She almost forgot what it feels like being this close to him for this amount of time as they are alone. They really hadn't been alone since their break up. They've always been outside with other people walking around, or in the dining hall with various people swarming around the tables.

"I can help you." She finds herself offering without even processing what that means.

He snaps his head up in surprise as he looks like a deer caught in headlights. "You don't have too. I can probably get Tay or something like that."

"Why go through the trouble when you have someone right now willing to do it?" Kelsi asks as if it's that simple.

He knows that it's risky with her just dating Jason for now, but he shouldn't have to worry about it as it's Kelsi's job to do that.

"Okay. How about we start on my math right now." Ryan agrees as Kelsi smiles brightly at him.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

Sharpay packed her bag for the evening as it just consisted of her putting her drama club papers together. That night she was expected to work with Ryan's understudy as it is clearly obvious Ryan isn't going to be ready for the show. She expected to just go to the meeting, inform everyone what is happening to her brother, and then go back to her room and maybe, MAYBE; which is a big maybe, ask Gabriella for the notes in their English class that she missed.

She wasn't expecting to bump into Zeke walking out of her room and into the girls' lobby. "Hey Sharpay." He greets quietly as this is the first time since they talked in two weeks, and he told her he believes in her.

It was a game of avoidance, and Zeke chose to be the first one to break the rules, and wait for Sharpay to leave her room that night.

"Zeke? What are you doing here?" She snaps.

"I was just wondering if you were okay?" He looks her over as he genuinely did just want to know if she is okay or not.

Sharpay is so used to being Miss. Independent that the only other person she can remember who remotely ever asks her if she's okay or not is Ryan, and now Gabriella and Zeke are slowly making themselves onto her one person list, and she doesn't like it.

"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" She snips like usual.

By now Zeke has come accustomed to her snippy comments. He almost finds them funny if half of them weren't directed at himself.

"Maybe because your brother is in the hospital." Zeke states with narrowed eyes. He's tired of always being the one she can complain to, but yet she can't have a descent conversation with.

"Then you should talk to my brother. I'm not the one with the broken leg." Sharpay icily says before walking past him and out of the lobby.

Gabriella's practice ended at 5:00 p.m., but she didn't get out of the locker until 5:45 that night as after a two hour soccer practice with double the amount of girls since the varsity practiced with the JV team, the locker room showers had a shortage of stalls available, and Gabriella being the captain of the varsity soccer team took it upon herself the duty of helping the coach put everything away with Kelsi. So by the time she got into the locker room ten minutes later, every girl was scrambling around to get changed in time for dinner or studying.

But the last thing Gabriella expected to see when she was walking out of the locker room by herself, the occasional girl or two left behind since they took longer than everyone else, was Troy standing outside the door to the stadium.

He is leaning against the wall with his one foot propped up casually and his arms folded across his chest. His smirk says it all as their eyes meet.

"What are you doing here Troy? Didn't you just get done with practice?" Gabriella asks as she walks closer to him so that she's standing directly in front of him. "I'm glad that you're here though."

"Believe it or not Brie, some people don't take forty-five minutes in the locker room like others." Troy teases as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her in for a much needed hug; anything to get closer to her. "My practice ended fifteen minutes ago, so here I am; showered and dressed."

Gabriella pulls back as their eyes lock, and their fingers interlace together. They start walking down the hall as they both simultaneously somehow know where the other one is going without talking. When they walk outside Gabriella shivers as the cold air hits her like a ton of bricks.

"When did it get so cold this year?" Gabriella asks as it seems like yesterday that it was just the summertime.

Troy chuckles deeply while removing his lightweight zip up jacket, and puts it around Gabriella's shoulders as a shield. "You heard what Mrs. Gribble said--Seasons happen because of the Earth's tilt." Troy flashes Gabriella a smile before she bursts out laughing. He studies her as her face crinkles with giggles, and her nose scrunches up into a very cute button type shape while her eyes dance with happiness.

"That has got to be the WORST impersonation of Mrs. Gribble ever!" Gabriella bursts out into another fit of giggles. She's unaware of Troy's studying eyes as their hands that are connected swing back and forth together while they continue walking into the chilly night.

"You're cute when you laugh, you know that right?" He asks.

She momentarily stops laughing, and all thoughts of Troy mimicking their Earth Science teacher leaves her mind as her cheeks heat up. "You're just saying that." She modestly looks away or else she knows that her cheeks will get even redder.

"Am not." Troy protests like a little kid before he pulls their connected hands to his mouth and lightly lays a soft kiss onto her knuckles. "I love your laugh Brie." He whispers against her skin.

All playfulness leaves the tone as they momentarily stop walking and look at each other. Gabriella knows that she loves him. She knows that what she's feeling is real and alive. She just never knew that what she is feeling could keep on growing and growing. In ways that scares her, but being scared is outweighed by her want and need for Troy.

She pulls their connected hands towards her, and opens his hand to reach his palm. She gingerly lays a kiss upon his flesh and looks up at him through heavy eye lids. "I love you too."

Kelsi and Ryan are in a middle of a laughing fit as Kelsi is nearly on the ground with tears in her eyes, and Ryan is holding his side in pain, but he can't stop.

"That date was so HORRIBLE that I thought Zeke wouldn't be able to get the ketchup out of his hair for days!" Kelsi exclaims as she somehow manages to gasp a whole sentence without breaking off.

They had worked on some of the math homework, ordered dinner through the convenient menu brought in by one of the nurses, and worked on some of his English homework, but in the middle of when the food came and eating, they started talking about how the ketchup and fries resembled the food that Taylor threw at Zeke when the two couples back in the beginning of February went out on a double date, and Zeke and Taylor were in the middle of their first fight with each other. It resulted with Taylor throwing fries and ketchup at Zeke.

In the moment that Ryan finally is calming down he let's his thoughts slip out. "That was a good date…but things change," he sighs.

Kelsi looks at him softly. "Some for the better." She didn't mean for it to sound harsh, but it is the truth that they both have to come to realize.

Ryan meets her gaze. "And some for the worst."

"It depends on your line of intake." Kelsi counters.

Ryan looks away from her and over at his side table next to his right side. He sees the digital clock. "Shit!" He curses as Kelsi looks up alarmed. "You missed the drama meeting."

Kelsi's eyes go wide as she knows that Sharpay's going to kill her. She jumps up and looks around at both of their scattered papers. "Um…I'll just have to come back tomorrow to pick these things up. I have to go Ry." She says it so quickly that she doesn't notice the slip up of his nickname she gave him junior year.

Ryan is in a daze as the only thing Kelsi does grab is her empty American Eagle bag. "…yeah. Bye Kels." With that, Kelsi rushes out of the room, not turning back as she is also supposed to meet Jason at his room after the drama meeting, which ended a half hour ago.

"I don't think we'll be able to come here anymore during the nighttime." Troy states as he feels Gabriella shiver into his arm.

"But it's so pretty." Gabriella gushes softly while snuggling into Troy's side even more, and looking up at the sky. Her hand reaches up and her finger points at the stars. She slowly connects them in the air. "See, this is the Big Dipper."

"That's the Big Dipper?" Troy snorts.

Gabriella thwacks him in the stomach before settling her hand there again, "Are you making fun of me?" She accuses with a pout.

He places a kiss on her head. "No. I could never make fun of you." This is such a different side of Gabriella that he's rarely ever seen, and he knows he will never get sick of her. Gabriella shivers again and no matter if she's wearing his jacket, and she's snuggled up to his warm side, they are still laying on the grass out in her 'safe haven' next to the woods and drop off cliff. "But I do think that we should get going before we catch colds."

Troy starts to get up, but Gabriella places her hand firmly on his upper chest, "Wait," she whispers, "just a minute. Please?"

How can he say no to the big innocent eyes pleading with him. "…Okay Pretty Girl, but after this, we have got to get you inside or else you'll miss the basketball game tomorrow."

Gabriella holds in her squeal of delight as Troy's basketball game was originally supposed to be the Saturday after the accident, but the other school had to cancel for some bus mix up. "I can't wait to see you play." Gabriella praises as they snuggle back down into the ground and look up into the stars again.

Troy smiles proudly as he rubs light patterns on her clad covered thigh. "Good, because I need my good luck charm in the stands."

"There you go again with the compliments." Gabriella scolds lightly as this is what it's supposed to feel like. Love is supposed to feel like something you can't even explain, and it just keeps growing. She can't believe how different she feels, and it's all because of Troy.

"That's because you deserve them. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Author's Note--Comments? Suggestions? Review please?