A/N: This was going to be longer, but if I had've written the second half, then it would've been another week or more until you got it, so the lovely Michaela voted I post this much tonight so the thanks goes to her, especially for her help with the conversations. And huge thanks to Stacey for her wonderful knowledge about the locations discussed in this chapter and the upcoming chapters, and her lovely offer to house Troy if he needs a place to stay ;).
I have another week of working 60 hours, and then I'll hopefully be back to weekly updates! I hear reviews make sneezing fits vanish, so you should all get reviewing ;)
Gabriella smiled up at Troy, his confession making her heart skip a beat and her brain scream with excitement.
But just as she opened her mouth to make her own confession, the sounds of angry shouts coming from their brothers sounded and the pair found themselves once more interrupted.
As Gabriella had a now sleeping Charlie in her arms, Troy quickly broke out into a run, bridging the short space between where he had been and the boys in only a few seconds. Logan and Will's had each others sweatshirts in their fists, their angry, loud voices drawing the attention of the other campers around them, and Connor's voice shouting his encouragement didn't help the situation.
Troy quickly pulled the pair apart, using his arms as a barrier between the two boys who were still arguing loudly.
The shouting had woken Charlie and she was now crying, but Gabriella had to help Troy with the situation because he couldn't keep all three boys separate from each other.
Shifting Charlie back to her hip Gabriella grabbed Will's wrist, pulling him away from the Bolton boys. Troy gave her an appreciate smile before he turned to his brothers, scolding them quietly as Gabriella did the same to Will.
"Honestly Will! We've been on vacation for only a few hours and you're already fighting with Connor and Logan? Do you want to spend the whole time we're here grounded because I'm sure I can arrange that," Gabriella hissed, trying to comfort Charlie at the same time. "Not only are you making a scene but you're giving off one hell of a bad impression."
Gabriella could hear Troy giving a similar lecture to the twins, and she decided to head over to the campsite with just her siblings to try and stop another fight occurring.
It wasn't until almost three hours later, when dinner had been eaten, Charlie was asleep, the boys had been sent to bed early for fighting and the parents were discussing plans for the next day that Troy and Gabriella were able to get a moment alone.
"Wanna go check this place out with me?" Troy asked Gabriella, his bright blue eyes begging Gabriella to say yes.
"Is that okay?" Gabriella asked her parents quickly, her Dad nodding in reply. Gabriella stood up quickly from her spot on the slightly damp grass, ready to take off with Troy but her Mom had other ideas.
"Take a sweater," Maria told her daughter, and it took all of Gabriella's energy not to roll her eyes. Instead, she went inside and quickly picked up the first hoody she found, slipping it on before she went back outside. Not wanting to give anyone a chance to once again ruin any alone time, Troy and Gabriella quickly rushed off away from their camp site.
Within a few quick minutes the pair were out of their parents' sight and Troy boldly took Gabriella's hand in his own. Gabriella felt her heart start to race as Troy laced their fingers together, their hands fitting perfectly together.
As Gabriella opened her mouth to speak, Troy beat her to it.
"I'm so sorry for just blurting that out before, I understand if you think I'm crazy 'cos we haven't known each other for long and… why are you laughing at me?" Troy half pouted as he saw Gabriella giggling softly.
"I don't think you're crazy," Gabriella admitted, taking a small step towards Troy. "But if you are, then I'm crazy too."
It took a few seconds for Troy's mind to get around the subtle hint of Gabriella's, indicating that she too felt what he did.
"You mean?" Troy stammered, unable to get the words out as his eyes locked with Gabriella's sparkling brown eyes.
Troy swallowed deeply as Gabriella nodded her head of dark curls, biting down shyly on her bottom lip.
"I don't know how, we barely know each other, but I feel like," Troy started.
"You've known me forever?" Gabriella finished off, neither of the pair realising how cheesy and cliché their conversation had become as Troy nodded his answer.
The pair sat down on the slightly damp grass, stretched out next to each other, their hands laced together and their eyes saying all the things that they didn't need to speak, putting big grins on each of their faces.
"So tell me about East High, what's it like being a wildcat?" Gabriella asked, breaking the silence.
Troy rolled onto his side and Gabriella followed suit so that they were sitting face to face while they talked.
"It's like a giant bucket of pep," Troy laughed. "Everyone is full of school spirit so I hope you own lots of red and white."
"I might need to go shopping for some more wildcat appropriate clothing," Gabriella giggled. "My old school didn't have much school spirit. So are you Mr. Big Man on Campus?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, I kinda am," Troy replied sheepishly. "I don't look for the attention, it just happens, sometimes I wish that everyone knew me for who I really am, not just as "the basketball guy" you know?"
"I guess that's the best part about starting at a new school, nobody has to know that I was a geek at my old school, but I always wanted to do track, and I love taking photos of everything," Gabriella admitted.
"You should try out for the track team!" Troy encouraged. "You certainly don't look like a geek so I'll keep that a secret from everyone for you, just don't go reciting pi or anything around school, okay?"
"3.14159265358," Gabriella quickly rattled off, bursting out with laughter at the look on Troy's face.
"Is that really pi?" Troy asked in shock. "How the hell do you remember that?"
Gabriella shrugged, "how do you remember all your basketball things? If you're captain I'm sure you remember a lot of little tricks to help your game, your body probably just knows how to do it."
"Brain-box," Troy shot back simply. "So what do you like taking pictures of Brie?"
"Anything. Charlie, my parents, Will, flowers, trees, water, animals, people at the park," Gabriella said sheepishly. "I took a photography class and I can develop all my own pictures and stuff."
"Wow, that's impressive!" Troy grinned. "Well you happen to be on vacation with this super photogenic guy, so feel free to snap away, I always wondered what it was like to be a model."
Gabriella giggled at Troy's dramatic, high-pitched voice, "where did you learn that voice?" She managed to get out through giggles.
"My friend Sharpay, she's head of the drama department and dates my best friend Chad. She is the biggest drama queen you'll ever meet, but she's harmless if she likes you," Troy said, instantly missing his friends back home, wondering what they were going to be getting up to over Summer without him.
"She sounds… interesting," Gabriella giggled, stifling a yawn as they quietened down, going back to shyly watching each other in silence.
"We should probably get back before you fall asleep," Troy said quietly as Gabriella yawned for the 5th time in only a few minutes.
"It must be like the middle of the night back home," Gabriella said through a yawn as Troy helped her to her feet, his arm slipping around her waist as they started the short walk back to their motorhomes.
"Pretty much," Troy answered simply as he stopped walking, taking a small step so that he was standing in front of Gabriella, his hands resting lightly on her hips. "I was so mad at my parents for dragging me on this vacation, but now I wouldn't swap being here with you for anything."
"Me either," Gabriella whispered, her hands resting gently on Troy's chest.
"Do we have to head back?" Troy asked gently, pulling Gabriella flush against his own body. "It's so nice to get a peaceful moment with you."
"Our families seem pretty intent on ruining any second we get together, don't they?" Gabriella replied, screwing her nose up a little as she pulled back to look up at Troy.
"I think they," Troy started, interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller id. "It's my Mom."
Gabriella giggled as Troy flipped open his phone, his voice sounding highly annoyed with his Mom as he gave her quick, one word answers before he hung up.
"We gotta get back, our parents are waiting to go to bed," he announced sadly, taking Gabriella's hand in his own.
"Like we were saying, interrupting every second we get together," Gabriella sighed. "I wonder what we're doing tomorrow."
"Mom said they have a proposition for us, since we seem to be getting along so well," Troy said, remembering back to the conversation and the comment from his Mom that he had brushed off in his annoyance.
"Really? Ooh I'm excited," Gabriella squealed happily making Troy laugh.
"Come on then, let's get back," Troy laughed, slipping his arm back around Gabriella's waist and turning her in the direction of the campsite which was only a few minutes walk away.
When they were just about back in their parents line of sight Troy dropped his arm from around Gabriella, smiling down sadly at her as they kept walking over to their parents who were eying the pair a little suspiciously.
"Have fun?" Jack asked with a smirk, making Gabriella blush even though she willed herself not to give anything away to their parents.
"It was alright," Troy filled in. "There wasn't too much to see, but it was interesting enough."
"Yeah," Gabriella agreed, glad Troy was a quick thinker. "Did you decide what we're going tomorrow?"
"We thought that your Dad, Jack and the boys would go up to this little island, Kawau island, and go fishing, me and Lucille and Charlie are going to go shopping and stock up on food and stuff like that," Maria answered, glancing over at Lucille with a smile at what they had planned for the teenagers.
"And me and Brie are going to?" Troy asked in a slightly worried tone, knowing that the parents had something in mind for them to be doing.
"There's some walking tracks on the island, we thought you two might like to go for a little wander, have a picnic lunch together or something, get to know each other a little better since you'll be going to school together in the fall," Lucille answered, the adults all watching the teenagers for their reactions.
Troy looked over at Gabriella, seeing her brown eyes sparkle at the idea of spending a few hours alone with him and his heart skipped a beat as he remembered back to her confession about her feelings for him.
Being halfway across the world isn't so bad if I have such a beautiful girl with me, Troy thought with a smile.
A/N: I'll be loading some pics to my profile of the motorhome I have in my mind for this story, but photobucket is hating on me right now so I'll do it tomorrow or something.