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Chapter Three: We'll Always Be Together

Gabriella's POV

Aydrieah fell asleep on our walk home. When we arrived back at my house, Troy followed me up to Aydrieah's room and laid her gently into her crib. We left quietly so our daughter wouldn't wake up.

I stopped in front of my bedroom door and turned to him. "Well..." I began. I didn't know what to say, so I said, "Bye, Troy. I'll see you, uh, whenever." I started to walk into my room when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back out.

"Gabriella?" he asked nervously. I stared into his eyes, and he stared right back.

"Yeah?" I replied.

Without saying a word, he pulled me closer to him and pressed his lips up against mine. The kiss was soft and sweet, but after a minute, he tried to deepen it. For a second, I thought about pulling away, but finally I let him. His tongue slipped slowly into my mouth, and I let out a slight moan. His hands slid down around my waist, and his fingers played with the hem of my shirt, sliding it up to reveal my stomach. His fingers brushed against my bare skin, giving me goosebumps. It felt so good to have him touch me again.

Slowly, his hand traveled down towards the elastic band on my panties, and I began to panic.

"Troy…" I said, pulling away. "Troy, we can't. What about Sharpay?"

"Didn't you hear me tell Taylor that I was breaking up with her?"

"Troy, it's not just that, it's…well, we…we're just getting to know each other again, and you're just now learning about Aydrieah…we don't want to ruin anything by having, uh, sex again so soon."

"No, we don't, do we?" he asked, grinning. I shook my head. "But when we are ready to, I'm going to make love to you like there's no tomorrow," he added, kissing me again.

I blushed, and he laughed. "It's okay, Gabriella." After a minute, he said, "Well, I guess I should go call Sharpay. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can take Aydrieah out and…celebrate us. The three of us. Our family. We'll go do something together."

I grinned, and he wrapped his arms around me, giving me a quick peck on the cheek. "Bye, Gabs," he said.

"Bye, Troy."

"Uh, Gabi?"

"Yes?"

"I, uh…I love you…and Aydrieah."

I smiled. "I love you, too, Troy. And so does Aydrieah."

He turned and moved slowly down the stairs. I watched him go, and when he got to the bottom, he turned and grinned at me, waving.

I waved back, a tear sliding slowly down my cheek. I backed into my room and closed the door before I leaned against it with my back to it and sighed. Troy loves me. He said so himself. So why do I have the feeling that somehow our relationship wouldn't be that easy to restore?

HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM

Troy's POV

I walked into my house, right past my parents and headed up to my room. I couldn't believe that I had a daughter with my one true love. She loves me, she said she did. But somehow I got the feeling that Sharpay wasn't going to take the breakup so easily.

I sighed, trembling as I picked up my phone and dialed the dreaded number. If there was any one person that could scare me to death, it would beyond a doubt be Sharpay. She could scare even the toughest gang in New York City without even having to say a word. Just her eyes could scare the crap out of a little kid. Suddenly, I heard her answer. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sharpay. It's, uh, me, Troy."

"Well of course it is! Finally you call me! I've only been waiting all day for you to call. In fact, I gave up my free massage at the Tropical Sun just because I was afraid you'd call while I was gone. Why haven't you called me?" she demanded.

"I was busy," I replied emotionlessly.

"Doing what?" she asked rudely.

"Well, for your information, I was working. Gabriella ended up showing up there, and I decided to talk to her for a few minutes."

"So you cheated on me?"

"I did not cheat on you! All we did was talk. And guess what I found out while I was talking to her?"

"What?" she asked, her voice full of sappy sarcasm.

"I have a daughter, Sharpay," I replied, as bravely as I could.

"With that slut? I don't think so," she said icily.

"Yes, Sharpay. And she isn't a slut. She's very beautiful, and…and…" I gulped, knowing very well what was going to happen if I finished my sentence. But my love for Gabriella and my daughter overcame my fear, and I continued. "And I love her."

"WHAT?!" Sharpay screamed. For the next five minutes, all I heard was a volley of four-letter words and insults.

Finally, I decided to step in. "Sharpay, we're over," I said confidently.

"Good! Don't ever speak to me again!" Sharpay continued, still swearing right and left and accusing Gabriella of being a slut and a whore. I heard the phone slam, and there was silence on the other end of the line.

I sighed, letting out the breath that I didn't realize I was holding in. I'm glad that's over, I thought to myself. Just then, Shadow padded slowly into my room and jumped up on my lap. I smiled at her. Gabriella had left her here with me when they had moved because their apartment complex didn't allow animals. I had promised her that I'd take good care of the puppy, and now she felt like she was my dog.

"Your Mommy's home, Shadow. And you have a sister. Her name's Aydrieah. I just met her today. She looks exactly like her mother, very beautiful," I said, running my fingers through the yorkie-malt's delicate hair. She licked my hand, and I picked her up. She still looked like a puppy to me.

There was a knock on my door, and it opened enough to reveal my father standing there. Gulping again, I asked, "Dad, uh…how long have you been standing there?"

"Since I heard you say something about cheating on Sharpay. She's a pretty girl, Troy. I don't understand why you let her go."

"If you were standing there since I said that, you should have heard what my reason was," I said, averting my eyes to the floor.

"A daughter?"

"Yeah…about that…" I began.

"A daughter, Troy?" he interrupted loudly. "I don't understand how you could be so stupid!"

"Dad, we didn't mean to-"

"Didn't mean to what? Get pregnant? Troy, haven't you ever heard of a condom?"

"We used a condom, Dad. It…just didn't work."

"So is that what Gabriella wanted to talk to you about that day she ran out of the house?"

"Yeah," I said sheepishly.

"So let me get this straight. Gabriella tells you that she's moving, so you decide to have sex with her. She leaves, not bothering to tell you that she's pregnant. Now, almost three years later, she comes back with a little girl, who she claims to be your daughter."

"She didn't know she was pregnant, Dad…and Aydrieah is my daughter. She loves basketball."

My father started raving again, but stopped abruptly, perking up. "Basketball? She does?"

I nodded, finally reaching his bright side. My father loved anyone who played basketball. He grinned, and I grinned back.

"You think maybe I could teach her some things?" he asked hopefully.

"I don't know…she's my daughter, after all. Shouldn't I be the one to teach her about basketball?" I asked, my grin doubling in size.

"Please, Troy?" he pleaded. He was desperate, I could tell. He hadn't even met Aydrieah yet, and he was already in love with her.

"I think I'll leave that up to Gabriella. Shall I call and invite them over for dinner?"

He nodded before standing up and heading downstairs to tell my mother about Aydrieah. I couldn't believe that he had gotten over it so quickly.

Smiling, I picked my phone back up. I dialed Gabriella's number, and she answered on the third ring. "Hello? Troy?"

"Hey, Baby."

"Did you call her?"

"Uh, yeah."

"How'd she take it?" she asked uncertainly.

"Well, let's just say that she took it a lot harder than my parents."

"Your parents know?"

"Yeah, uh, that's kinda why I was calling. They wanted me to invite your family over for dinner tonight. My dad wants to ask you something."

"Really. Well, I guess so…Aydrieah's still sleeping, but maybe we could come when she wakes up."

"Okay…oh! What do you guys like to eat?"

"Aydrieah pretty much likes what you like. Her favorite is pizza, like yours, but she'll eat whatever you feel like having. And my mom and I eat everything."

"Pizza…from where?"

"Same as you. Hungry Howie's."

"Does that sound good to you?"

"Yeah, it's fine. She likes sausage and bacon, we eat whatever."

"Sausage and bacon it is, then. My favorite. We'll get Mountain Dew for the drink."

"Um…that's fine for us, but maybe I should bring her some juice. She can have pop, but I don't think she should have a lot of it. I'll bring her a sippy cup with her favorite juice in it," Gabi said happily.

"What's her favorite? Maybe that's the same as mine too," I said curiously.

"Mmm…Tropicana Twister. The Orange Strawberry Banana kind."

"My favorite! She takes after her father, you know," I said proudly.

"I know, Troy. That's why I know that we're going to be the perfect family."

I smiled. "Family?"

"Yeah…maybe?"

"Of course we're going to be a family! She needs more siblings though, but we can do something about that…"

"After we're married," she added.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Shadow's ready for her walk. She can't wait to see you. Bye, Gabs."

"Bye, Troy. I love you."

"I love you, too."

As soon as I hung up, I grabbed Shadow's leash and took her out for a walk. I grinned as I walked past Gabi's house. I couldn't wait for us to become a family.

HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM

Gabriella's POV

When Aydrieah woke up, we went over to Troy's house, where Aydrieah played with Shadow and his parents.

Jack looked at me for a moment before beginning. "Gabriella, we want you to know that we're very happy for you and Troy. We know that you two want to get married someday, and we know that you'll be happy together."

"Really?" I asked, surprised that he wasn't mad.

"Really. In fact, Troy told me that this little princess likes basketball. Is there any truth to that statement?"

I looked over at my daughter, who was giggling at the faces Troy was making at her. She had on the shoes with the sparkly basketballs again, and she even had on the basketball outfit my mom had gotten for her last month. She was still carrying around the little stuffed basketball that she had gotten for her first birthday. "Yeah," I said, beginning to giggle.

He looked at her and noticed why I was giggling. "Oh! Well, in that case, might I ask permission to give her basketball lessons?"

"Sure!" I exclaimed happily. "You and Troy could teach her together!"

They both smiled, and Aydrieah grinned at them both. She started to sing again, only this time, it was her adorable rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".

When she was done, Laura (Troy's mother), and my mother started to clap. The rest of us soon joined, so Aydrieah, who was enjoying the attention, sang the sunshine song again.

"She has some of her mother in her, too," Laura said. "You know, if there was such a thing as American Idol for Kids, she'd win in a heartbeat."

"She did try out for a part in a Broadway play when we lived in New York, and they loved her, but they decided that they wanted someone a little older," I said proudly.

Troy's eyes widened. I hadn't told him about that yet. "Wow!"

Just then, the doorbell rang, indicating that the pizza had arrived. We all sat down at the dining room table to eat. By the time dinner was over, Aydrieah was getting tired. Since our parents wanted to talk for a little while longer, Troy and I took Aydrieah home and put her to bed.

"Come in my room," I whispered to Troy. He followed me in, and I closed the door for privacy. I reached into my closet and pulled out one of the boxes that hadn't yet been unpacked. Opening it, I took out the little photo album that I had kept of all of Aydrieah's special moments.

Troy sat next to me on my bed, and together we turned the pages of the book. We laughed at the first picture, which was of me when I was still pregnant. "Geez, I looked like I had a real basketball in there!" I exclaimed.

Troy laughed and turned the page. The next picture was of me and Aydrieah, just three hours after she was born. We had been taken to the hospital, and we sat surrounded by balloons and baby stuff.

The next few pages were of her first birthday, her first bath, her first step and other stuff like that. Finally, we came to the pictures I had taken of her audition. Troy grinned as I showed him the picture of her with the little girl who had gotten the part.

"They're gonna be bumming when they see Aydrieah's name in Hollywood," Troy said.

I stared at him for a moment before saying, "Huh?"

"I thought maybe when she's a little older that we could take her and our family out to L.A. She could easily get something small, right?"

"Well, it depends on what she tries to get. But we could try. We won't know unless we do."

Troy smiled before leaning in and kissing me. Before long, we were making out, and Troy was on top of me. We almost went all the way, but my mother came back home before we could. I guess maybe that's a good thing, and that's what I told Troy. He agreed, putting his shirt back on and kissed me goodnight. "I love you, Gabs. And remember, we'll always be together from now on."

When I was alone in my room, lying in bed almost asleep, I thought about Troy. I thought about our relationship, and the final thought that I had before I went to sleep was, Troy and I are in love. We're getting married someday, we'll have more children, and most of all, we'll always be together.

Thanks for reading! Wow, I actually wrote a longer chapter! Gasp! I bet you're all surprised! Okay anyway, please review! What should happen next?

A.) Troy and Gabriella sleep together and get pregnant again…

B.) Troy sets Chad and Taylor up and invites them on a double date with him and Gabriella…

C.) Neither (Please give a suggestion for this answer!)

Both of these will happen, but which one should happen first? Or if you chose C, I'll add something else too! Sharayah