Hey everyone

Hey everyone!!

Dedications for this chapter are to isaczac, zvforever, wildcatgirl101 and luvinNaley741. They were all a great help for dates of Spring Break. Also to my friend Belinda!! Her continued support means so much!! (also I finished the third book).

Now I would like to clear a few things up…

This story is a Troyella based story. This means I won't always be talking about Troy's family and such because if I did it would be boring with a capital B.

I know in the last chapter the bounce between the JOKE of Chad and Gabbi been spies to the huge decision Gabbi was given, was sudden. I know it was but I didn't plan that, I actually had a totally different idea for the rest of the chapter. I only changed it because the idea was in my head and bugging me as well as there been a good lead off to it.

Lastly, this story is kind of the transition between high school and college. Yes the group has part time jobs but who in their final year of high school doesn't?

Lastly, I have decieded to write maybe 5 or so more chapters before ending this, I do have an idea for a sequel though.

I hope that cleared a few things up, if you have any questions feel free to PM me or just leave a note of it in a review!!

Now on with the chapter….

--

Part of the Family

It hadn't been an easier decision. In fact after 4 days of studying each college with a fine tooth brush, talking to most of the teachers in the school about where they went to college, as well has all her friends, decathlon members, some college students that worked at her restaurant and of course Troy, Gabriella had not yet gotten closer to a decision.

Still, determined not to let it get to her, she didn't stress. She figured the answer would come to her or at least she was hoping it would.

--

"So Kelsi, how's the graduation song coming along?" Sharpay asked her musical friend as she joined the rest of her group at their lunch table.

"I haven't had time to start it yet. I have like a sugar-honey-ice-tea load of homework and assignments as well as writing the spring musical." Kelsi let out an aggravated sigh before dropping her head into her hands.

"Just tell sir you can't write it." Chad advised her through a mouthful of his mum's meatloaf.

"Okay, one don't eat with your mouth full, it's disgusting." Taylor slapped her boyfriend upside the head receiving an 'ow' in response. "And second, Kelsi we can be like every other school in the world and have the normal graduation song."

"Yer Kels you shouldn't stress, just talk to sir I'm sure he'll understand." Sharpay smiled encouragingly at her friend.

"I know I could guys but it's just that sir seemed really hopeful about the idea and I'll feel really guilty if I don't do it." Kelsi once again dropped her head on her hand letting out a second sigh.

"What will you feel guilty about?" Everyone turned their heads towards Gabriella and Zeke who took the spare seats in-between their friends.

"Kelsi reckons that she has to write the graduation song even though she is obviously too stressed to do so. And she isn't taking our advice of just telling sir that she simply doesn't have time too." Taylor informed the two.

"Look seriously guys I'll find the time, I just need to start some of my homework and assignments and I won't feel so stressed. Ok. Now can we please change the subject." Kelsi pleaded with her friends, not really want to talk about it further.

"Fine. Gabriella, how is the college decision coming?" Jason asked receiving a grateful smile from Kelsi.

"About the same as this morning when you asked." Gabriella replied.

"Have you thought about talking to some of the grads from each college?" Taylor suggested.

"I did but they won't much help. I'm pretty sure that the college was paying them to say how great the school was. But seriously I'm not stressing I'm just going to go into Mr. Matsui's office tomorrow and hope that answer comes out of my mouth." Gabriella spoke in an oddly carefree voice, surprising the group.

"Hey Troy, isn't Matt like dating a doctor?" Ryan asked turning his attention to his comrade currently occupying the seat next to his sister. Troy nodded before going back to his turkey sandwich.

"Gabbi why don't you talk to her? Ask her how she came to her decision of what college to go to." Ryan recommended. Gabriella's head shot straight up, with a huge smile on her face.

"Ryan you're a genius! Of course. How could I of thought of that?" Gabriella quickly pulled out her phone, scrolling through her contacts till she found Cassie's work number. Pushing 'call', Gabriella got up out of her seat, heading out of the noisy cafeteria.

"So Troy what are your big plans for Saturday night?" Kelsi inquired, speaking of the Saturday night which happened to mark Troy and Gabriella's one year anniversary. Troy looked at his interested friends before letting out a chuckle.

"Please." Troy smiled shaking his head (for any 'How I Met Your Mother' fans Troy said that like Barney does when asked about his job).

"Oh come on, you have to a least tell us something about it. We always tell you what we plan for dates." Zeke insisted, the rest of the males nodding their head in agreement.

"You don't tell me, you ask me if I think it's the right thing to do or in Chad's case ask for some ideas." Troy chuckled as he saw the flare light up in Taylor's eyes.

"What!" Taylor exclaimed standing up, immediately making Chad sink back. "You have your best friend plan our dates?! Am I not special enough for you that you have to make someone else put the effort into our dates?!"

Chad quickly stood up, sending a glare Troy's way, and attempted to wrap his arms around a furious Taylor.

"Baby, it was one time. Honest." Chad looked in Taylor's eyes silently pleading her believe him.

"Well what date was it?" Asked a now calmer Taylor.

"Our first." Chad bit his lip slightly stepping back from his once again furious girlfriend.

"Excuse me! Wait, wait, and wait. So let me get this straight, it wasn't your creative thinking that got me to like you it was Troy's?! For our very first date you couldn't sum up even the smallest of ideas?!" Taylor's voice gradually grew in frequency, almost coming inaudible by the end of rant.

"Well yes. But only because I wanted it to be perfect for you! Every idea I had was totally crappy and I just wanted to give you the best date you would ever had." Chad smiled shyly at Taylor who blushed.

"Really?" Chad nodded drawing her close to him.

"I really, really, really liked you and I didn't want to blow my only chance of going on a date with you." Taylor smiled, crashing her lips onto Chad's, wrapping her arms around his neck. This slowly turned into a full blown make-out session that the disgusted friends had learnt to ignore.

"What did Chad do now?" Gabriella asked her boyfriend, rejoining the group.

"The usual." Troy answered pulling her into his lap, lightly kissing her forehead.

"How did talking to, I wanna say Anne, go?" Zeke asked trying to think of her name.

"Her name's Cassie and it went well. We're going to meet up this afternoon to talk about it." Gabriella giggled feeling Troy's nose nudging her neck. "But for now… Troy stop it! ...Kels you have free next right?"

Kelsi nodded at Gabriella who was desperately trying to get her boyfriend to stop tickling her.

"Great." Gabriella smiled elbowing Troy in the chest immediately making him stop in his actions.

"That hurt." Troy pouted, rubbing his chest. Gabriella giggled pulling him for a kiss.

"All better?" Troy shook is head in response and pulled Gabriella back to him.

"I don't know what's worse, the couple that fights then sticks their tongues down each others throats in a way which is simply not healthy or the couple that are so mushy that you just want to vomit." Ryan joked, swapping his gaze between the two couples.

"You know what, I'll say unhealthy couple, only because we see them make out more, at least Troy and Gabs have their 'moments' every once in a while." Sharpay nodded laughing has Chad put up the rude figure, his mouth never leaving Taylor's.

Suddenly, the bell sounded, escalating a serious of groans from around the entire cafeteria.

"I seriously bet by the end of the semester the entire student body will have perfected the groan before class." Gabriella chuckled, looping her arm in Kelsi's.

"You willing to bet on that?" Chad asked coming up on the other side of her.

"Oh you know I am." Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him, giving him and intriguing look.

"50 says that they don't because eventually they will just stop complaining." Chad held out his hand to Gabriella, which she promptly shook.

"You're on. But in the mean time Kelsi and I have a free period to attend." Both Gabriella and Kelsi sent a wave to their friends, heading out to the music room.

"I still don't get why they don't just go home at the start of lunch." Jason noted, also heading out of the cafeteria, everyone else following behind with a shrug.

"Whatever, I have to run. I don't particularly want a detention." Zeke quickly kissed Sharpay's forehead before running down the hallway. The rest of the group eventually went in their different ways as well.

--

Meanwhile with Kelsi and Gabriella…

As soon as they reached their humble haven, Kelsi and Gabriella both headed to the grand piano in the middle of the room. Both sat down on the piano stool, lightly pressing the keys on their particular end of the piano.

"So are you going to tell me the truth or will I have to beat it out of you?" Gabriella asked breaking the small silence they had been sitting in.

"What are you talking about?" Kelsi responded, syncing her voice with the high keys she was playing.

"You know the whole lie about having stacks of homework and assignments, when the truth is that you're stressed because you and Jason broke up and you are refusing to talk to anyone about it." Gabriella looked at Kelsi who had stopped playing.

"How would you know that?" Kelsi asked her voice wavering slightly.

"Well I wasn't sure at first but I have begun to notice over the last few days. So you wanna talk about it?" Gabriella watched as Kelsi shook her head and restarted playing the piano. The duo stayed in silence for about 10 minutes simply harmonizing their two sections.

"It was just after Christmas. It wasn't a nasty breakup or anything, we just simply decided that it was working like it used to, you know?" Gabriella only nodded letting her friend express feelings that she guessed had been hiding for quite sometime.

"On Christmas all of you guys went over to each other's houses, if only for a couple of hours. But you simply put the effort in to see each other. Jason and I well, it didn't even cross our minds to walk a whole 2 minutes to see each other. He did call, and we talked for about an hour or so, but it wasn't like a boyfriend talks to a girlfriend, it was like how two best friends call each other to discuss the boringness that is Christmas with the family."

"We knew we had been drifting apart, but it was a different drifting. It was like instead of not spending time with each other or talking or something, it was like we drifted from been best friends to boyfriend/girlfriend back to best friends. Anyway, we got together the day before New Years Eve, and we talked and talked and talked, till eventually there was nothing more to be said. The ending conclusion was that we wouldn't tell any of you guys, because we didn't want to bum your holidays out, and well I guess nobody ever asked so we just didn't say anything." Kelsi had stopped playing and was now just staring at her hands, silently pleading with herself not to cry.

"You can't ignore this, you know that right?" Gabriella asked turning her body so she had a better view of Kelsi's face.

"I know, it's just its working you know? Jason and I can stand being around each other, we can still talk. It's like there were no deeper feelings before what-so-ever. Like we have always being best friends." Kelsi stood up and began walking around the room.

"But you can't look at it like that Kels. Because as much as you may want it to go back to how it was in middle school, it won't. You and Jas dated for 3 years. 3 years! It's okay to be upset; it's okay to feel angry that you couldn't work it out. But whether you're willing to admit or not, there were deeper feelings, much deeper feelings. You can't ignore it. If you do then you may lose him altogether." Gabriella looked sympathetically at Kelsi who had stopped walking and was now just standing still.

"3 years. Can you believe that we were together for 3 years and we still drifted apart? You know what I think was the saddest thing, no offence, but when you came and you and Troy acted more couplerly when you won't even a couple, then me and Jas." Kelsi let out a dry chuckle before sitting back down on the piano stool next to Gabriella.

"I don't want to feel upset about it. I couldn't have asked for a better way for someone to break up. We still get to be friends. That's great." Kelsi's voice began to crack as silent tears fell down her face. Gabriella immediately pulled her into a hug, pushing Kelsi over the edge as her sobs filled the room.

"Is there more to this Kels? Coz look I may not be at all experienced in this type of thing but did something a little bigger happen that made you two realize where your relationship stood?" Gabriella gently rubbed Kelsi's back as her friend tried to compose herself.

"Kind of. I mean the boys like always talk about other girls and it's like a big joke, its what boys talk about, if you get what I mean. But when we were talking he openly started talking about how attractive this girl was that he saw. I mean I was his girlfriend not one of his best friends!! It hurt but I didn't tell him that, I guess that's when I finally looked at our relationship and discovered we are in two completely different places." Kelsi looked down, her sobs turning to hiccups.

"How am I supposed to move on if every time I see him I wanna cry?" Kelsi hiccupped. Gabriella sadly looked down.

"You need to get closure." Gabriella moved away from Kelsi, turning her around so she was face to face with the piano. "You and Jas may have talked for hours about it, but you need to get closure in the way you see fit."

Gabriella moved to her bag where she pulled out several sheets of manuscript paper and a pencil, placing it in front of Kelsi.

"Write a song, write what you feel. I'm going to go so you have some time to just thrash the piano but Kels don't stress okay, it will get easier." Gabriella sent Kelsi a small smile, before picking up her bag and heading for the door.

"Gabriella!"

"Yer?"

"Thanks." Kelsi smile gratefully at her before turning back to her piano. Gabriella smiled before leaving the room.

--

"Hey mum. Troy." Lizzie smiled walking into the kitchen.

"Hey Lizzie how was your day?" Julie asked her daughter as she took a place next to her son.

"Good." Lizzie smiled reaching for the chocolate brownies in the middle of the island.

"Where's Gabbi?"

"She's out with Cassie." Troy said taking another bite out of his own brownie.

"When did she have time to bake these then?" Lizzie got up and went in search for a glass.

"She came home earlier." Julie informed her daughter.

"Okay then, just as long as I get my brownies and milk." Lizzie reached for yet another brownie dipping it into her glass of milk.

"Hey princess." Jack Bolton walked into the room placing a kiss on his daughter's head.

"Hey dad. Bye dad." Lizzie replied picking up her bag as well as her plate of brownies Julie had just made for her, and heading out of the kitchen. The knocking of the door brought Troy to attention, hoping to get out of the site that is his parents kissing. Running to the door, Troy was surprised to find Kelsi.

"Hey Kels. What's up?" Troy casually leant against the door frame.

"Nothing really. Is Gabbi home?" Kelsi smiled at Troy who shook his head.

"No not yet, you can come in if you like." Troy moved aside, but Kelsi smiled and shook her head.

"No its ok I have to go anyway, I jut wanted to drop this by." Kelsi gestured to the manila folder in her hand.

"Okay, I'll give it to her for you." Troy grabbed the folder out of her hand, placing it on the small table just behind the door.

"Thanks. See you later Troy." Kelsi gave a small wave before turning around and heading home.

"Okay then." Troy closed the door and curiously picked up the folder.

--

"Kids dinner!" Julie's voice rang through the whole house. Within the time it took to place each bowl on to the table, Troy, Lizzie, Jack, and Gabriella, had all taken their place in their respective seats.

"Looks great Julie." Julie smiled.

"Thank you, it's nice to know some people at this table still have manners." Julie eyed her family has they practically gorged into the food.

"It amazing honey." Jack complimented his wife who just simply rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, so Gabriella did talking to Cassie help?" Julie asked, breaking the temporary silence.

"Yer it did. I'm pretty certain on what I'm going to choose now." Jack, Julie, Lizzie and Troy all looked at Gabriella, signaling for her to continue.

"I'm not going to say until I have defiantly decided. So you will have to wait till I tell sir tomorrow." Gabriella smiled, and began picking up her plate. "Excuse me, I'm going to go look over the colleges again, you probably won't see me till morning."

"Okay sweetie. Night." Julie sent a small wave to Gabriella as she walked out of the kitchen.

"So has she told you?" Lizzie asked her older brother, after making sure the coast was clear.

"You heard her; she ain't saying a word till she has told Mr. Matsui." Troy continued eating, his mum, dad and sister followed.

--

The decision of which school to go to had plagued Gabriella's mind the entire night, eventually she had to go down to the basement and go over the song Kelsi had wrote that afternoon, so she didn't wake Troy. While she knew what school she was going to choose, everything was still up in the air.

"Hey Troy." Chad greeted as Troy entered into homeroom. Now with the gang going to so many different classes with their lockers spread out over the school, they had decided to meet up in homeroom early to talk.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Troy replied taking a seat on his desk. Turning his attention to his friends.

"Nothing, we are just trying to figure out which school Gabriella has chosen." Sharpay said from her place on Zeke's lap.

"Yer we have being weighing out what each school possesses, but now you're here you can just tell us what she has chosen. So?" Taylor asked.

"Well don't ask me. The only person who knows is her and Mr. Matsui. But you will be pleased to know that right now she is actually telling him what she has chosen so we should know by the end of homeroom." Troy turned into his seat as Ms Darbus made her dramatic entrance just on the bell; she was followed by a smiling Gabriella.

Troy raised his eyebrows at her as she started excitedly jumping in front of him. She calmed down quickly, noticing the stares she was receiving before jumping onto Troy's lap and giving him a hug. Raising her head from his chest, she whispered in his ear.

"Berkley." Troy smiled and tightened his grip on her waist. After a few minutes of the intimate embrace, they both noticed the silence the classroom held.

"I am now an official student to Berkley University!"

--

Well there you go… is it sad that I actually started this chapter directly after the last one yet it took me nearly 5 weeks to finish it?

I don't like how I ended it but I couldn't think of anything else to say…

Next chapter well bare with me!! Lots of assingnments but I do have an idea for a sequel for this story as well as a separate story. However I won't be think about thatr till this story is wrapped up.

I am thinking that there will only be 5 or so more chapters to this could be more.

Anyway R&R as usual!! Critisicm is welcome.

Nikki.

P.S on a weird note if anyone is looking for a great series to read I highly recommend the 'Tomorrow When the War Began' series by John Marsden.