So, originally I wasn't going to say anything as an author, but I feel I need to. This is a bad time for fandom, and for me as well. That's why I wanted to do something not about the bad to try to recapture the good. Still, this is just a drabble, as are most things I write, I might come back and add more later, make this a collection.
One order of business that I'm going to go off on, something I need to get across. If you skip the rest of this note, read this part please. I have issues with death, in all forms. I think it can be romantic at times and altogether beautiful, but that doesn't mean I like it. High School Musical saved me. Troy and Gabriella saved me, but most of all their love saved me. Therefore I have particular issues with them dying. As a result, I've come up with a somewhat unique way for them to not die.
The way I think of them is as Royals, who to all intensive purposes are mostly human. They are immortal and governed only by fate. The only other thing you might need to know is that Soulmates are Royals literally made for each other, which is how I think of Troy and Gabriella. It's not all that relevant to this story, but I feel obligated to tell you because that is the context I wrote it in.
This authors note is now probably longer than the story itself, so I'll stop writing now.
She loved spring. Not that I ever got to see her face light up when she caught sight of the first bloom. Being sure I'd seen that very thing before but been too young to cherish it, I cursed our circumstances. English with Rottburg was not all that bad, but I'd read Romeo and Juliet before, enough times to almost know it word for word. And hadn't we done a whole semester on it freshman year?
Times like these were some of the few I could lose myself. My current location wasn't terribly bad in the moment, except now Tiffany was bored and that meant she'd surely be after me soon. Left to my own devices of distraction my mind automatically took me to my reluctantly labeled "happy place". A memory I knew so well I could phase into it with no thought on the conscious side of things. One where I could take the place of my former self, aware that nothing had changed substantially since that day.
Summer, and we were together. For the best part of the year. Or maybe that's because we were together. In the meadow where we may or may not have first met (she refused to shed light on the subject, despite my being sure we'd met on a playground not far from there).
This was our place. The name was in French, translating exactly to "meadows by the sea", but referred to mostly as Sea of Meadows, or, if being especially lazy, merely Sea Meadows.
We were waiting barefoot in the grass. We could feel it, something tangible, apart from the heat, maybe because of it. We swore we could smell it too. The summer rains were coming, but her excitement had already made it's appearance.
Then in a rush, they arrived, and she flew from her place among the pied wildflowers and long grown grass. Throwing her arms out, with the light from behind me and the dark sky behind her, she looked like an angel. In fact, I'm almost positive she was one, is one.
"Dance with me Wildcat!" Pulling me up, smile on her face, hand in mine, heart on her sleeve and in her eyes (reflected in mine I'm sure). How could I refuse?
We frolicked until she suddenly stopped, looking at me with her head cocked to the side.
She sighed happily, "Troy Bolton, you are my everything. I will love you until there are no more summer breezes or starry nights."
Just as abruptly as it started, the memory ends. I'm gone from my happy place until I can visit again in my dreams.
"Troysie, do you know what zephyr means?" Tiffany is at it now, again, just as I predicted. The word catches me though, one of Gabriella's favorites.
"Yeah, yes I do."
I am her summer zephyrs, she is my starry nights, everyone knows those go together, everyone knows those go on forever.
I debated a long time about that last statement, mainly about the order of summer zephyrs and starry nights. As you can see, I decided that for Troy and Gabriella this way was best. My reasoning was that Gabriella would be more focused on feeling Troy, whereas Troy would want to see Gabriella. Obviously the both appreciate the feeling and sight of the other, but this way suited the story best.