Troy was at his locker with Chad as he was busy getting his things for his first two classes and Chad was busy talking about something him and Tay did over the weekend. Troy couldn't keep the smile off his face as he couldn't wait to see Gabriella. They hadn't seen each other after Saturday night as Troy could still feel her lips against his neck in the front seat of his car.
They had gone to McDonalds just like Gabriella wanted and received some pretty weird stares as they were still dressed up to go to the restaurant that Troy originally planned on taking her too. Troy now knew not to listen to Chad anymore and get worried because Gabriella made it perfectly clear that she was perfectly fine going there and having Troy save his money for something more important, like shopping or jewelry which Troy laughed to when Gabriella told him earning him a smack on the shoulder and a kiss to the cheek.
Troy just shut his locker and figured Gabriella must be running late because usually she was already coming towards him. Troy still had his back turned towards everyone as he spun his dial on the locker one more time so no one else could unlock it and Chad was leaning casually against the locker by Troy still going on and on about Tay.
Troy felt a hand tap him on the shoulder as he found it weird that Gabriella would be doing something like this now after three weeks of dating and various make outs in the car and dance studio. Troy turned around and was surprised to see a very pissed off Haley which if he wasn't mistaken which he wasn't, she was still going out with Jake who was Gabriella's best friend so it's not like he could piss off Haley either on accident.
"Hey?" Troy more like questioned as he gave Chad a curious look but saw that he was no where to be seen.
Haley's eyes narrowed, "Don't hey me Troy Bolton." Haley hissed in a low whisper as Troy looked around to make sure that Gabriella was no where in sight so she didn't have to see him obviously getting bitched out by Haley.
"Are you okay?" Troy asked trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with her seeing as he thought that they were on okay terms since they didn't have any problems at the beach a week ago.
Haley let out a loud sigh as if it were that obvious. "No I'm great, but someone isn't."
Troy waited for Haley to keep explaining, but she stopped. "Okay, well you want to clue me in?" Troy hinted with slight impatience.
Haley ran her hand through her hair as she narrowed her eyes even more on Troy and took a step closer as Troy could just feel the anger radiating off her body. "Gabriella." Haley said shortly as Troy looked even more confused. "Gabriella is what is wrong. She and me were talking this morning and what did you do?" Haley exclaimed
"What?" Troy asked. "What do you mean, what did I do?" Troy couldn't believe that he was getting blamed for something he didn't know, unless he did say something or do something that he didn't even notice upset Gabriella.
Haley rolled her eyes. "She says she feels like shit and she won't tell me the reason, but I'm betting it's you. Have you seen her today because anyone can tell that she's pissed off and not to mess with her." Haley jabbed Troy with her finger as he took an instinctive step back.
"Haley, I--" Troy couldn't even get three words in as Haley continued.
"If I find out that you hurt her by sleeping around with other girls I swear I will not let you get away with it like last time." Haley threatened and Troy just nodded never seeing her this worked up before in all 11 years that he has gone to school with her. "I swear Troy Bolton that if you hurt Gabriella then Jake is hurt which means that I'm hurt and out in the dog house if he's in a bad mood with you. Now I already told him about our past together, did you tell Gabriella?" Haley asked as Troy took a gulp.
"Um…I was…not…not yet." Troy admitted as he shuffled his feet knowing where Haley was coming from. It was the same with him, if Haley upset Jake than Gabriella would get upset and Troy would get put out into the dog house.
"Whatever, you probably won't have too seeing as Jake knows and I'm surprised he hasn't done anything yet, so he probably likes you a little which is good since they're best friends." Haley said softening up a bit and then her voice turned dark again. "Don't hurt her Troy Bolton. I swear you'll regret it." Haley started walking away as Troy just stood against his locker with some people passing by watching the two. "Oh yeah, I forgive you." Troy looked at her puzzled. "From last year, now things won't be awkward." Haley gave him a smile and walked off again to Jake who was up ahead of the hallway talking to other guys on the football team.
Troy sighed as Gabriella came into view down the hallway, walking towards him with a straight face on. Troy would never understand the mind of girls. He thought things were already clear between Haley and him, but apparently not and now things were. Whatever, he didn't care, unless it had something to do with Gabriella and Jake. They almost came in like a pair, you buy one then you get the other free, whether you want them or not.
"Hey." Troy greeted as he pecked Gabriella on the lips and knew something was up since she didn't try to deepen the kiss. "What's up?" Troy asked as he put an arm around Gabriella and they both headed off to Darbus'.
When Troy and Gabriella got to homeroom they still had ten minutes before the actual bell rang, but yet Taylor, Chad, Sharpay, and Zeke were all in the room. Gabriella and Troy walked over to Gabriella's desk as Taylor and Chad were nearby, Zeke and Sharpay were over in the front of the room flirting, and Troy sat down on top of Gabriella's desk.
"So what did you two do yesterday, I couldn't get a hold of either of you?" Chad asked as he turned on the top of his desk to look at the two girls and Troy.
Taylor rolled her eyes as she gave his knee a squeeze. "I told you that we went shopping in the afternoon."
"And what were you trying to call my girl for anyways?" Troy asked in a joking way.
Chad rolled his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing. "Well obviously Troy, if your girlfriend was with mine who wasn't answering her phone than I could've tracked them down."
Gabriella felt Troy's thumb rub over her knuckle as she sat in her desk thinking about the previous day. She woke up with a smile on her face, but it all turned around once Gabriella heard her mom talking, well more like yelling on the phone and Gabriella just knew that she was talking to her dad.
Gabriella let out a small breath as she heard her three friends talking and joking around her. She didn't even tell Taylor about what she heard her mom say on the phone and how her mother was trying to stay strong when she was yelling at her dad that he couldn't buy their daughter over with gifts. Gabriella had been racking her brain all morning and yesterday after shopping wondering what gift her mom was talking about, and what gift her dad could possible get his daughter that he hadn't seen in 12 years.
Then there was the one person Gabriella saw ealmost veryday that her mother was on the phone with last night. It was the one person Gabriella knew her mom would never go to asking for help unless she was that desperate…Gabriella's grandmother. It wasn't that her grandmother was a bad person, in fact to Gabriella she was very kind outside of work, but when her grandmother was working it seemed to Gabriella that she was under some kind of tight radar.
Gabriella knew that the relationship between her mother and grandmother was bad, ever since Gabriella's grandfather died when she was ten years old it seemed as if Anna and Gabriella's grandmother kind of fell out of tune and since then their relationship was rocky, and it didn't help that Gabriella and her mom were still living in Wisconsin at the time. But ever since Gabriella and her mother moved back to Anna's hometown Gabriella almost saw her grandmother everyday even though no one knew about that except for some of the teachers, and Gabriella and her were planning on keeping it that way.
Gabriella's head shot up as Sharpay's and Zeke's conversation got louder as the two started walking over to the four. "No Zeke, are you sure you don't know her first name because I would really love to know it instead of just make up something and hope I got it right." Sharpay said as she plopped down in an open seat that wasn't her own.
"Well I know it's not some big shot name like Candy because I seriously doubt that someone as old as her would have that name. I bet it's like Betty." Zeke said with a sigh.
"What's up with you two?" Chad asked with a laugh as more kids came into homeroom.
"It's Darbus' 57th birthday on the 28th." Sharpay sighed.
"So?" Troy asked as Gabriella just watched her friends and a smile came onto her face. It was homecoming week and their school always did some new activity everyday and each day of the five day week usually the upperclassmen would pull pranks. But Gabriella and Jake did their own thing, so coincidentally, on October 28th each year they would pull some prank that the teachers all knew that it was them, but they never had enough proof to turn them in.
"So?" Sharpay let her voice get higher as you could tell she thought what Troy said was stupid. "It's in two days on Wednesday and as the drama president I am supposed to get her a present."
"Shar!" Taylor scolded. "That's in less than two days and you haven't gotten her anything?"
"No, it's just I found this really nice antique picture frame and we all decided that we wanted to engrave her name into it and we have this great looking picture of the play from last year, but we don't know her name." Sharpay complained and Gabriella looked up.
"Ellen." Gabriella said and everyone looked at her strangely.
"What?" Troy asked in a soft tone.
"Ellen Darbus. That's her name." Gabriella confirmed feeling at least somewhat happy that she could help out.
"How do you…?" Sharpay started but trailed off not wanting to question how Gabriella actually knew something no one else knew.
Gabriella shrugged as the bell rang and Jake came rushing into homeroom right before Darbus entered. Troy leaned down to kiss Gabriella as she kissed back this time.
"Glad to see someone is better." Troy said with a perfect white smile as Gabriella just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, just not a morning person." Gabriella said as she kissed Troy one last time before Ms. Darbus slammed the door shut making them jump apart.
Troy felt Gabriella shift in his arms as they were laying in the bed of his truck on top of a blanket at night time. They were halfway through with home coming week leading up to the big game on Friday night and the dance on Saturday, but before the dance; Chad, Taylor, Jake, Haley, Gabriella, and Troy all decided to go out to dinner, and then Jake was also having another crazy all night party at his house that weekend for Halloween.
Troy remembered how crazy that particular Wednesday was. It was Darbus' birthday so she had presents all over her desk from some students and teachers. Then during his math class Gabriella was called to the principals office for questioning along with Jake since someone that day toilet papered the principal's office even though Gabriella and Jake denied it all day in school.
Troy felt a laugh escape his mouth. "What's so funny?" Gabriella asked as one side of her face laid on his chest as the cool air started to pick up some wind.
"Now tell me the truth, did you and Jake pull the prank today?" Troy asked as Gabriella sighed with a smile playing on her lips.
"Promise you won't tell?" Gabriella asked. Troy nodded as he put a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah." Gabriella admitted for the first time.
Troy let out another laugh. "You're so carefree. How do you do it?" Troy asked not really realizing how serious his question sounded and Gabriella tensed up in his arms for a quick second before becoming comfortable again.
Gabriella sighed, "Years of practice." Gabriella said as she pecked Troy on his shirt covered chest briefly as she looked contentedly up at the dark sky again.
Troy's hand found it's way into her dark locks as he gently stroked through her curls. They were silent for another couple of minutes as they both reached the point where they could be comfortable around each other without having to try to make conversation. After all, they spent two years of silence towards each other, extra minutes wouldn't hurt.
"When's the next dance competition?" Troy asked out of the blue.
"It's in February." Gabriella answered as she remembered how her mom and her still had to sit down and work out some schedule that they both could accommodate with.
"That's kind of a long time." Troy said as he kissed her on the top of her head loving the way she felt next to him.
"It's the biggest competition that I will have ever danced in. There's gonna be scouts coming from Julliard and other colleges, and…it's gonna be big." Gabriella said. "And I don't know if I want to dance." Gabriella admitted out loud in a soft quiet voice.
"What? Why?" Troy whispered back as his thumb was running over her temple and Gabriella's hands played absentmindedly with the hem of his shirt.
Gabriella sighed again. "Do you know what you want to do in the future?" Gabriella asked and to Troy it sounded like she was changing the subject.
"I want to play basketball." Troy answered simply.
"Why?" Gabriella asked and Troy found this kind of weird. Why wouldn't he? It's the best sport for him, it was like he was made to play, why wouldn't he chose it.
"I love it." Troy simply said in the quietness of the night.
"I love dance, I love the feeling of being on stage and knowing no one could touch what I have, I loved the pressure and competition others gave me, but now…I don't know." Gabriella said and it got silent again.
Troy didn't care if Gabriella danced or not. That's not what attracted Troy to her. He liked Gabriella because she was different, he might not of been able to pin point what it was about her, but he knew it wasn't dancing. And if not dancing made Gabriella happy, then Troy would support her, and if dancing and going to Julliard made Gabriella happy next year, then Troy would support her.
"So when does basketball start?" Gabriella asked as Troy shivered slightly from Gabriella's finger tips tracing patterns onto his six pack through his t-shirt.
"About mid November." Troy knew that this topic was going to come up eventually. He knew that if Gabriella was the girl that he thought she was then she would take this news okay, but if not then they were gonna have a problem. "We should…um talk." Troy stammered out. He had no idea why he was nervous as this seemed to get Gabriella's attention and she sat up slightly, leaning on her elbow to prop herself up.
"Shoot." Gabriella said.
"Well, try outs are gonna be from Monday thru Thursday and we'll find out who's on the team Friday. And then practices will be every night after school." Troy said. "Sometimes it will be doubled and I don't know if we'll get to see each other as much especially if you have your own dance practice." Troy said as he to turned his body to the side so that his elbow was propping himself up.
Troy sighed out of relief as he saw a smile take over Gabriella's face and perfect lips that always left him wanting more. "This is gonna work." Troy heard Gabriella say.
"What is?" Troy asked as he wrapped one of her curls around his finger and his eyes connected with hers.
"Well, my mom and I'll just do dance practice whenever you have basketball and then I'll continue doing my homework in the library and free period since I won't be leaving school anymore, or at least not until January comes around and then we can just do whatever after practice." Gabriella said.
Troy smiled knowing Gabriella was right. Since Gabriella probably wouldn't have such a hectic schedule anymore with dance they would still have night times sometimes and it's not like they always had to go out, it was about time Troy actually invited Gabriella over to his house, and they could make their own fun, but it was what Gabriella told him next that kind of stung.
"I mean, I probably won't be going back to training 24/7 until January and that's only gonna be for a month and a half and by that time you guys are done playing in the state championship it will end around the same time as my competition." Gabriella must have seen Troy's face as she stopped talking about all the good. "What?" Gabriella asked sub consciously.
"It's just…I don't want you to go back to training and leaving school early. I like seeing you at lunch, I like having you as my cooking partner."
"Troy we're failing that class." Gabriella cut in as Troy put his finger over her mouth.
"Let me finish Montez." Troy said with a smile. "I like having an open target at gym class." Troy joked as Gabriella rolled her eyes thinking back to the third gym class she went to that year and Troy accidentally hitting her in the foot with his hockey stick as they played floor hockey. "I like kissing you in front of people, letting them know that you're mine." Troy said as he neared closer to Gabriella.
Gabriella smiled as she rolled her eyes again. "I like all those things too, but…" Gabriella knew that this would be hard on both of them, but it was two months away, why start getting depressed now? Gabriella put on a cheerful smile. "Hey, let's not think like this. We still have two months until we both get really busy, let's just live in the present." Gabriella said as she connected their lips again and Troy nodded.
Their lips stayed connected as Troy couldn't help smiling causing Gabriella to pull back with confusion again. "What?" Gabriella asked innocently.
"You said I'd be playing in a state championship." Troy smiled liking how Gabriella already had so much faith in him.
Gabriella shrugged as Troy could feel her breath on his lips. "That's because I know that you'll go far."
"How cliché." Troy smirked as he brought his body over Gabriella's and laid halfway on her as their lips stayed connected, moving against each other in a sensual way. Just then, Troy had no idea how the question popped into his head at the exact time he was in the middle of a make out session with his girlfriend, but something possessed him to ask it.
"Who do you think will be on the homecoming court this year for our class?" Troy asked as he stared down at Gabriella with his hands on either side of her head so all his weight wasn't on her.
Gabriella looked up at him and let out a small laugh as one hand reached up to trace one side of his face, "You're making out with your girlfriend right now who's basically letting you take advantage of her right here and now and you ask that?" Gabriella teased.
Troy shrugged as he rubbed his nose against hers before thinking out loud. "I won last year along with Sharpay for the girls, but this year junior class needs four people and hey!?" Troy exclaimed. "Weren't you runner up to Sharpay last year?"
Gabriella nodded weakly. "I actually told Darbus that I didn't want to represent my class so Shar won." Gabriella said as Troy's eyes went wide.
"You mean I could've walked down the stairs with you at my side instead of the pink Barbie?" Troy asked as Gabriella slapped his bicep lightly.
"Don't call her that." Gabriella scolded.
"It's true, that's what she dressed up as. Personally I think it looks real cheesy when kids dress up in costumes."
"Note to self: wear costume." Gabriella teased as Troy rolled his eyes.
"I think it will be Sharpay, then maybe Chad, and if you won last year then of course you'll win this year, and then me." Troy said. "Which means I'll get to make an entrance with you." Troy nuzzled his face in Gabriella's neck affectionately with excitement. "Which means some other guy will have to walk in with pink Barbie."
Gabriella let out a laugh. "Whatever you say wildcat." Gabriella patted his back as her hand then rested on his neck, playing with the little hairs.
"Wildcat?" Troy asked as he saw Gabriella nod her head with a smile. "I like it."
"You're gonna have to like it either way." Gabriella said as Troy was about to speak but she put her mouth over his drowning him out. Her hands pulled Troy closer by the neck as one of Troy's hands trailed down the side of her body, inching their way closer to the hem of her shirt before slipping inside to caress her flat stomach.
Troy pulled away and kissed down Gabriella's jaw bone as Gabriella was catching her breath. "So…did you hear Chad…and Tay's plan?" Troy asked between kisses as he kissed his way up to Gabriella again and to the side of her mouth.
Gabriella looked at Troy like he was crazy. "What is with you tonight? We're making out and all you can do is ask off topic questions." Gabriella teased as she sighed and looked up at Troy once more. "No, I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to Tay since my phone's not charged. But I'm sure you'll fill me in."
"You know me too well Montez." Troy said as he kissed just behind her ear and back down her jaw bone before pulling back and looking down at her again. "Chad's getting them a hotel room."
Gabriella had a small confused smile on her face. "I thought people only did that for prom?" Gabriella lifted one of her hands up to Troy's bangs and pushed them aside.
"Yeah, and I guess now they're doing it for other dances too." Troy connected their lips again and just as Gabriella traced her tongue against his bottom lip he pulled back.
"And how do you know this Troy Bolton?" Gabriella asked in a joking strict voice.
Troy shrugged, "Locker room talk."
"Well…" Gabriella smirked seductively as she brought her lips up against Troy's again loving the way her felt against her. "My mom's going out with Eric on Friday and all the way through Sunday afternoon." Gabriella smirked even more as Troy's face matched her own.
"I see what you're talking about Montez." Troy slyly said as Gabriella nodded.
Gabriella at first didn't know how to feel about her mom leaving for business trips before a couple of years ago, and then Gabriella just sort of got used to them seeing as she rarely went anymore since dance practice used to be number one in their house, but I guess Gabriella's mom was wrong. Distractions could be a good thing. And now Gabriella's mom wasn't gone on business trips over the weekend, she was gone on some short three day vacation with Eric.
Gabriella bit her lip innocently as she looked up at Troy. "I'm glad we're on the same page."
Their lips connected again making Gabriella forget how her day had started out. She woke up late, missed homeroom which she thankfully didn't get a detention for since it was her grandmother's birthday and she was too busy getting picture frames from her 'prize' students, she toilet papered the principal's office, and got a phone call from her dad who talked to her for five minutes before Gabriella could gather enough will power to convince herself that she shouldn't be talking to him, even though she and him both knew that she would be cracking soon and soon enough her dad would be apart of her life again. And Gabriella didn't know how she felt about that.