3 months later she updates…

Sorry about that. I'll make this quick…

Dedications to…

ScRuPuLoUs , Pandora147, liv3.in.lov3…they all said positive things about the situation with Kelsi which made me feel more comfortable about the break up.

Belinda…she's always pestering me for the next chapter and encouraging me.

My Hulien Buddy…another one of my friends who's new to FF. If you enjoy Harry Potter FF let me know and I'll send the URL of her new story.

And especially Mya, she took her time to email me and ask for the next chapter and it inspired me to finish.

Disclaimer- As always I own nothing, not the franchise that is High School Musical or the perfection that is Corbin Bleu and Zac Efron.

Enjoy.

P.S. READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE BOTTOM!

--

Part of the Family

"Come on tell us what happened." Sharpay whined. She and the other three girls were currently occupying the music room during their free period.

It had being three weeks since Gabriella and Troy's big one year anniversary date and neither were willing to reveal any information on what had happened between the two.

"No. You know me and Troy made a deal to keep the all evening a secret. And I intend to uphold that deal." Gabriella laughed at her friend's insistence on the matter.

"Gabs you have to tell us something. It can be anything, like what you guys wore to the date." Taylor begged.

"If they wore anything." Kelsi muttered, causing the girls to giggle. Their interrogation ended abruptly with the bell signaling the next lot of classes. Sharpay groaned but never the less gathered her books along with Taylor.

"We will find out Montez, just you wait." Sharpay pointed at Gabriella with narrowed eyes before hooking her arm through Taylor's and walking out the room. Gabriella laughed before pulling a few sheets of Manu script paper out of her bag.

"Gotta love Sharpay." Kelsi laughed, taking a seat at the stool next to the piano. Gabriella giggled before setting out the sheets and taking a place behind the piano.

"Okay so, I've being going over your song, getting a feel of it. And this is what I have come up with so far." Gabriella began playing the simple notes along the piano.

It's been the longest winter without you
I didn't know where to turn to
See somehow I can't forget you
After all that we've been through

Going coming thought I heard a knock
Who's there no one
Thinking that I deserve it
Now I realize that I really didn't know
If you didn't notice you mean everything
Quickly I'm learning to love again
All I know is I'm be ok

Thought I couldn't live without you
It's gonna hurt when it heals too
It'll all get better in time
And even though I really love you
I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to
It'll all get better in time

"I dunno." Kelsi signed picking up her bag. "I mean you have done great with it. It sounds really nice and everything, it's just…"

"Not really what you wanted." Gabriella finished for her, following her outside the music room.

"I guess it's like, we have being broken up for like a 2 months now and it's like I'm lying in that song. It hasn't gotten better in time, I don't really love him and because of that I feel like I don't deserve to smile!" Kelsi groaned, hitting her head on a near by locker.

"So let me get this straight, you don't love him yet he still affects you and you can't smile because of that?" Gabriella asked stopping in front of the senior study hall.

"Something like that." Kelsi sighed again, turning into the hall. "See you later Gabi."

Gabriella waved, turning back around she made her way to the hospitality classes.

--

Gabriella stood looking at the picture adoring the wall. It had being taken seven years previously, and was by far her favorite picture she possessed.

Smiling sadly, she pulled the picture off the wall, and traced its contents. Staring at it, she remembered a time when being happy wasn't something that she would feel every now and again, it was what you felt all the time. Life was simple, it was perfect.

--

Meanwhile, on the other side of school, the four boys (Zeke having a different class to the dismay of Chad) gathered on their spot of the bleachers, where they could hear their PE teacher talking clearly but so he couldn't hear them.

"So dude, you ever going to tell us what happened between you and Gabs that weekend?" Chad asked scribbling down his version of notes.

"Nope. Gabbi and I made a deal not to tell anyone what happened, and I intend to stick by it." Troy answered, also taking notes on what their health teacher was saying.

"You suck. It like the bro code to tell the other bro's about your anniversary date. It's bro culture." Chad said pouting like a child who had their favorite toy taken away.

"Dude, please stop trying to be gangster. No matter how hard you try or how many movies you watch you have never and will never be gangster." Troy said, making Ryan and Jason laugh.

"Seriously dude, this is crazy, like crazy as in when Ryan decided to do health instead of you know drama." Chad said pointing waving his pen in Ryan's face.

"You do realize I take 2 different drama classes as well as work in school musicals." Ryan shot back.

"Yeah, well, shut up, your suppose to be on my side on this. Seriously Troy-"

"Mr. Danforth, would you like to share with the class what is so important that can't wait till the end of lesson." Chad looked up to find his very fit, ex-army PE teacher towering over him.

"Well Mr. Copeland, I was actually discussing the concept of having safe sex with Troy." Chad said.

"Mr. Danforth, Mr. Bolton, I don't care what you do with each other outside of my classroom, but while you are here you will listen." He turned around, walking back to the front of the room as Chad realized exactly what he had said.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I didn't mean me and Troy having safe sex, together, I meant you know him and his girlfriend. Not me. Me and Troy don't do that. I'm not gay!" Chad yelled above the laughter.

--

Placing the picture back to its rightful place, Gabriella picked up the bag that was sitting next to her.

"Ready?" Troy smiled comfortingly at her, taking her hand as she nodded.

"Go wait in the car; I'll lock up for you." Troy kissed Gabriella on the forehead as she made her way to the taxi at the front of her house.

Setting the alarm, Troy wished that she would be a little happier, a little more excited, for what they were about to do. It was a big step for their relationship and one he didn't want to go into with half of the relationship not fully ready to do so.

--

Gabriella waltzed into the hospitality rooms, very happy with herself for choosing to start at Berkley early so that she was able to personally test taste all cooking creations made by the seniors of the school. Especially Zeke's crème Brule. It was the most talked about dish in the school, and only she and Zeke ever got to taste it, much to the dismay of both Sharpay and Chad.

"Zeke my boy." Gabriella dumped her bag on the table located near Zeke's cooking bench before wondering over to give him a hug.

"Gabby, so nice of you to join me." Zeke laughed as Gabriella tried to reach for the bowl of mixed ingredients.

"So what are we making today?" Gabriella jumped onto the bench, as Zeke began mixing.

"Well there was no set food choice so I am making chocolate chip cookies with M & M's."

"You know Zeke, you are going to have to stuff up sometime or I'm gonna end up fat. And I will hold you responsible." Gabriella said as she spooned a bit of the mixture into her mouth.

"Yer well you won't have to worry about that. You won't get to taste any of my creations once we graduate."

"Wait, why? I though you got into UCLA with Troy." Gabriella looked at Troy who was refusing to look back at her.

"I did. I just got a better offer, somewhere else." Zeke continued placing the mixture on the tray in front of him.

"You got in?!" Gabriella exclaimed, grabbing the attention of the whole class.

"I most certainly did." Zeke smiled proudly at Gabriella before she wrapped him in a hug.

"Oh my god! When did you find out?"

"This morning. But please don't tell Sharpay, I kind of need to do that myself." Gabriella nodded, giving him another hug.

"I'll miss you Zeke."

--

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't seem to stop her legs from shaking. She had no idea why she was so nervous. It was inevitable that this day was going to come; she just hadn't expected him to surprise her with it the night before their anniversary.

"Brie, they just called our flight." Troy wondered over to where Gabriella was sitting in the terminal. "Come on."

Lacing their fingers together, Troy pulled her to the gate where they would have to board.

--

Chad slid down in his chair, trying to hide his still red face. He could still see his friends out of the corner of eye laughing at himself and Troy, who had moved to the other side of the room.

The sound of the bell, sparked Troy from his seat, he quickly wondered over to meet up with his friends.

"So I'm going to go make out with Gabriella, Chad I won't be talking to you for a few weeks. Fare well." Troy quickly jogged out of the room, leaving behind a laughing Ryan and Jason.

"Oh laugh it up you two. But you will not tell anyone what transpired here today. Got it." Chad stormed out of the room.

"Sir yes Sir." Ryan yelled after him doing an army solute.

--

Troy looked over at Gabriella who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He would occasionally squeeze her hand, whenever he began to feel nervous.

He knew today they would be taking a major step in they're relationship, the biggest one they would probably ever do for the next few years. But he was adamant that they were ready, and whenever he wasn't sure he would only have to look at the ring on her right hand (Mr. Matsui had asked that she swap the ring back as questions were beginning to get asked) to prove that this was something they had to do sometime.

Squeezing her hand again, he felt proud that she was willing to do this not just for their relationship but for him. It meant the world to him, that he could share this with her.

--

Racing in to the lunch room, he spotted his girlfriend looking at Sharpay's phone, along with Zeke, Kelsi, Taylor and Sharpay, watching something that sent them all laughing.

"I need to talk to you." Troy pulled Gabriella up, crashing his lips upon hers. Probing her mouth open with his tongue, Gabriella happily obliged, raking her hands through his hair. Once air became too much of an issue, they pulled away, breathing heavily.

"What was that for?" Gabriella asked once her breathing was back to normal.

"What, can't I just kiss my very gorgeous girlfriend, whom I am very much in love with, in the middle of the cafeteria?" Troy answered taking a seat pulling Gabriella down with him, noticing that everyone in the group was now present.

"Oh so it had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Copeland called you and Chad gay?" Gabriella questioned suppressing her laughter, as everyone else at the table went red trying to hold it in.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Troy looked down, trying to hide his burning face.

"Really? Because Ryan sent Sharpay the weirdest video message." Troy looked up with wide eyes before glaring at Ryan. This tipped the group overboard, bursting out in laughter.

"You all suck" Troy stubbornly got up, making a grand exit.

"Baby come on." Gabriella picked up her bag and lunch. "I'll see you guys later."

"Wait Chad aren't you suppose to chase after him?" Sharpay asked innocently through her laughter.

"I'm going to go get my lunch." Chad marched away, quite hilariously, to the lunch lines.

"I better go talk to him." Taylor said still laughing.

"Actually, Sharpay can I talk to you?" Zeke said wiping his eyes of the tears that had gathered. Sharpay nodded, taking his hand, giving a slight wave to the three remaining.

"I think that's the quickest a room as being cleared in a while. You two don't wanna wonder off and do something couplerly?" Ryan looked between Kelsi and Jason who were sitting opposite each other on the spacious table.

"You know what I have a song that I need to work on. So I'm gonna go." Kelsi jumped up grabbing her belongings, leaving behind Jason and Ryan.

"Yeah and I have, umm, homework to do. So see ya Ryan." Jason picked up his tray of food, leaving behind Ryan.

"Okay then, I guess I'll just sit here by myself." Ryan said switching on his Ipod.

--

Gabriella gazed out the window watching as the scenerary passed by. She would back at Troy every now and again to give him a reassuring smile; he would in return squeeze her hand. No words had being exchanged since they boarded the plane, about two and half hours ago. No words were needed to be said.

"Here we go3668 Imperial Avenue" The driver announced, leaning back to accept the money Troy handed him through the glass slot.

"Thanks a lot." Troy jumped out of the cab, running to Gabriella's door to help her out.

"You ready?" It was Gabriella's turn to ask him now.

"As I'll ever be."

--

"Troy! Wait up." Troy stopped and turned around waiting for Gabriella to catch up to him.

"It was just a joke babe." Gabriella wrapped her arm around his waist as he continued walking down the deserted hallway.

"So your not going to talk to me now?" Troy shook his head, placing an arm on her shoulders, tugging her up the stairs, to the rooftop.

"Well we can talk if you want, but I had other things in mind." Troy answered, bringing Gabriella down onto the metal seat, where she straddled him.

"Oh and what might they include?" Gabriella asked leaning down to meet his lips.

"I think you know." Troy grabbed the back of her head, forcing her onto him.

--

"Its so weird being here." Gabriella broke the silence that had being in place for so long.

"You still want to do this?" Troy asked as Gabriella began to lead him to their destination. She simply nodded, coming to a stop.

"Troy Bolton, I would like you to meet my parents; Diego and Julieta Montez."

--

"So this will probably make you even angrier, but Ryan started the video as Mr. Copeland said 'what you do outside of this classroom', now what I don't know is how that led to homosexuality." Chad turned his head away, irritation written all of it.

"Can we please just drop it? I have had enough humiliation today." Chad looked at Taylor pleadingly. Sighing Taylor linked her arm through his and lent her head against his arm.

"Fine, now you better not have French fries, you know I can't have them." Chad smiled kissing her on the forehead.

"Of course dear."

--

Taking a seat in front of the tomb stones, Troy suddenly felt like he was intruding on family time. It sounded weird thinking about it like that but since her mother passed that this was probably what Gabriella did to spend time with her parents.

"I don't really know what I'm supposed to say." Gabriella looked at her hands. Troy looked at her sympathetically, taking one of her hands in his.

"Tell me about them." Troy said, gently squeezing her hand in reassurance, something he was doing a lot of that day.

"What do you want to know?" Gabriella looked up at Troy, as tears began to fog her vision.

"Anything."

--

Zeke and Sharpay made their way through the school, in slightly uncomfortable silence. While Sharpay kept looking at Zeke, trying to figure out what had put him in such a serious mood, Zeke was doing everything he could to not look her in the eyes, knowing if he did telling her would be so much harder.

"Do you remember what my New Years goal was for this year?" Zeke asked breaking the silence.

"Kind of. Wasn't it to apply to different cooking courses around the world or something?" Sharpay looked questioningly at Zeke, curious as to where this was going.

"Yeah, I wanted to apply to all the cooking courses that offered a chance to work with the best of chefs around the world." Zeke answered keeping his eyes to the ground.

"What's going on Zeke?" Sharpay stopped walking, tugging on Zeke's hands, silently asking him to look at her.

"Well about a month ago, I got a letter asking for me to send up a few different of my baked creations, with the recipes. From these the board decide who is going to be accepted." Zeke paused, finally making eye contact with Sharpay.

"You got accepted?" Sharpay asked, receiving a nod in response.

"That's great sweetie! I'm so proud of you!" Sharpay pulled Zeke into a hug, gripping him tightly.

--

"I have only being to their graves twice. Once when mum was being buried, and the second time was just before I moved to Albuquerque. I never really felt the need to be sitting in front of their graves in order to talk to them. If I ever felt the need to talk to my dad I would go to the river where we would fish or at the local studio where I watched him and his friends play their music."

"My mum's a little different though, as strange as it may sound but me and mum weren't as close as my dad and I. It's not like we never spent time together we just never had that close relationship that most mothers and daughters have. Even after my dad died, I became the mother of the house; it was me who had to help her get through this devastating tragedy. I was the one who hugged her when it got too much to handle. I was nine and I was expected to be the grown up."

Gabriella paused, looking at the framed picture of her parents which had being placed there just after her mother's burial.

"I don't blame my mum for acting the way she did, she had just lost her husband, the man she loved with her whole heart. But I think I have always slightly resented the fact that she received so much sympathy, had the friends come around to make sure she was doing okay, when all my friends abandoned me 'coz for some reason my dad dying left them to be scared of me. The friends I lost that year made me stop talking to anyone. I thought I had done something wrong so I refused to get close to anyone. I started to put myself fully into my school work, to the point by my twelfth birthday, there wasn't anybody left around me, I had become the weird loner that nobody really knew anything about."

Troy could do nothing but listen. He didn't really know everything about the seven year time span between her fathers death to her mothers. She never had opened up the way she was now. And he was shocked to hear what she had gone through. How could someone be so cold as to ignore a girl who had just lost her dad?

"I think the saddest thing about my parents is that, I don't have many memories of us being a family, you know like on family outings. With my dad being a cop he constantly had other places he had to be, I understood that because he always made it up to me. But my mum it was always she had a friends cocktail party that she had to be at but me and my dad's attendance was not needed or a book signing, I mean I know my mum wrote one good book but it was impossible to have that many! I have lots of them separately but it's like any we had together had being banished from my memory. Although there is one I remember perfectly. We were on holiday to this really nice beach. I would have had to being 6 or 7 at the time, anyway I remember us all sitting in front of the fire playing some board game. And for its simplicity it was the most fun I had had with my parents in so long. Pretty pathetic that that's the memory I hold onto?" Gabriella looked up at Troy and sighed.

"That's how you choose to remember your parents, and that's fine, it's your choice. Hold onto that memory as tight as you can. Brie, after everything that you have being though the last few years, you should be proud that you can still find a happy memory." Troy pulled her into him, holding her close as if to protect her.

"Your parents would be so proud of you."

--

"Shar, that's not it." Zeke reluctantly pulled away from his girlfriend. "I leave three days after graduation, for a two and half year course."

"So? That's what would have happened anyway. Remember we aren't going to the same college? I knew we would be separated. There are still holidays and long weekends." Sharpay smiled up at Zeke, taking his hands in hers.

"Shar the course is in Germany."

--

Can you believe it took me three months to write that!

Okay I have a favour to ask

I have being looking for ever for a particular story. I can't remember the title or summary so maybe you guys can help!

The oneshot is Troyella, it is set at a basketball gala for the wildcats, Troy talks about how he dislikes them but the person on his side makes it worth it, Gabriella gets drink spilled on her, goes to the bathroom where Troy meets up with her.

If you may know the story, please let me know! Its killing me!

R&R

Nikki