Troy fidgeted with his light blue tie. He was currently wearing khaki pants, a white dress shirt, a tie, and soon to be wearing a dark blue suit jacket. His fingers trembled a little as he let his mind wander to what dinner would be like even though Gabriella had been reminding him every second she got that it wouldn't be that bad because Eric would be there hopefully getting all the attention even though Anna and Eric were silently wishing it the other way around.
In Anna and Gabriella's mind though, the situation was kind of funny after you got past the scared nervous feeling. Either way this night turned out, it would end up with one of the males or both of them scared out of their minds, they were just getting anxious.
"You know…you look great." Gabriella's sing-songy voice echoed through his ears as he turned his head a centimeter to look at her through the mirrors reflection with his back to her still.
Troy smirked, "You have to say that…you're my girlfriend." Troy retorted as his hands redid all his five minute work he put in on the tie and were ready to rip it to shreds before he took a calming deep breath and started the tie process over again.
Troy saw Gabriella roll her eyes as she sat up on his bed from laying on her stomach in her white strapless dress that had a black lace strap tying around the waist to a sitting position with her knees tucked under her.
"That may be true, but you really do look good Wildcat." Gabriella said with sincerity as Troy nodded. He wanted to believe her, but…if only he could get this damn tie to actually tie!
"Thanks Gabi." Troy said as seconds later he let out a frustrated sigh and threw the tie down on the ground. "Fuck that." He muttered as he felt all the stress start to collide into his life. First it was practicing for basketball, then it was winning basketball games, then it was his dad talking about college scouts, next it was meeting Gabriella's dad, and now her mom with Darbus, the next thing would probably be marriage!
Troy shook his head as he gathered up his thoughts again and pushed them to the back of his mind as he saw Gabriella slide off of his bed and gracefully reach down to collect his tie. "Here Wildcat, just sit back and let me do it." Gabriella said softly as she stepped closer to Troy within reaching distance and put the tie around the back of his neck.
Troy closed his eyes as he let out a long breath he didn't know he was holding. "Thanks…" He murmured quietly.
He could almost hear Gabriella's smile through her words as she let out a small giggle, "No problem…you're just lucky you're hot."
Troy let out a throaty chuckle as he opened his eyes and looked down to see Gabriella's hands working with the light blue material. "So…last chance to bail." Troy said as he heard Gabriella make a 'tsk' sound with her tongue.
"Troy Bolton." Gabriella chided. "It was your idea to meet my mother and now I am fulfilling what you wanted and you just reject it. There is no way that we're backing out of this."
"But…"
"No." Gabriella said firmly. "We are going to get this over with by getting my grandmother and mom out of the way at the same time." Gabriella said as she took her hands back from his tie and nodded her head to approval of her work.
Troy groaned as Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Fine." Troy finally huffed out after a moment of silence. "But I am not sitting by her."
Gabriella smiled as she pecked him on the lips. "That's my boy."
"And…" Troy said slowly but yet dominantly as his hands gripped her waist and pulled her closer. "I want you to know that I am only doing this for our deal." He kissed her forehead.
"I can live with that." Gabriella said as she smiled sweetly at him before their lips connected in a sweet brief kiss.
Most people thought Troy was a cool collective guy like when it came to meeting people. While most of the time that was true, there were still exceptions like if he was going to dinner with his homeroom teacher that acted like she despised him, and her daughter who was also bringing a date and then her daughter who Troy was falling for.
For some reason that situation just made Troy feel uneasy. And he didn't exactly know why, maybe because these were the people Gabriella was closest with so he wanted to make a good impression because truth of the matter is…Troy was falling. Falling hard and fast for this brunette beauty and he wouldn't trade anything in the world to forget about her.
"Troy Bolton, I swear you are making yourself more nervous." Gabriella exclaimed as Troy's fingers on the steering wheel relaxed from their constant tapping as they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.
"Sorry." Troy mumbled as he turned in the parking lot and found a spot. They got out of his dark blue truck and looked around. Troy all of a sudden noticed that there was not any other truck in the parking lot, there were mostly black expensive looking cars that shines when the lights hit them.
"You know…" Gabriella started to say as she walked over by him and they laced hands. "One of these days I'm going to wash your truck for you."
Troy smirked, "I'd like to see that."
Gabriella let out a laugh as they neared the restaurant and were now on the side walk that lead to the doors instead of the black top. Gabriella sighed as Troy looked down at her. Something about her eyes told him that she was slightly nervous too, but what would she be nervous about? She was the one telling him that Darbus wasn't going to attack him with questions because Anna and Eric were going to be there and she would be preoccupied by that.
"Now…just remember that whatever my grandmother says is out of love for her granddaughter and I really love her so try to get along with her." Gabriella said with hope laced within her voice as her two hands played with the tie around Troy's neck.
Troy nodded. Even without Gabriella reminding him he could tell that she truly did value and respect Darbus's opinion on things. "Okay." Troy let out a big breath as he turned his head to see the restaurant that was just waiting to eat him alive. "Shall we?" Troy asked offering Gabriella his arm.
Gabriella beamed and replied in the cheesiest way, "We shall." Gabriella linked their arms together as their hands laced. Troy put on a brave smile showing his white teeth as they started walking towards the front doors.
Troy opened the door for Gabriella like any gentleman would as Gabriella just smiled and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's now perfect behavior. They walked in and took in the soft atmosphere of the place. The music was some quiet Italian music that hardly sounded like Italian as the walls were deep reds and browns that blended together with a dark wood work and dim lights to make the air seem shaded.
The tables were set with cream colored cloths with at least six different forks, spoons, and knives. Two different cups, plates, little saucers and on some tables there were actual tea cups too.
Troy and Gabriella walked up to the podium that the person who took reservations stood by as there was a book also resting on it that had little scribbles of people's names down on the white blanks or lists.
The guy looked up with his brown eyes that were lighter than Gabriella's. He had brown hair that matched his eyes perfectly as it was cut short and combed down so it didn't look like he had bed hair. He looked to be only about a couple of years older then Gabriella and Troy himself so Troy was guessing he was probably a U of A student.
The guy who's nametag read, 'Nick', nodded at Troy and his eyes traveled to Gabriella as he smirked. Troy had to do a double take, was this guy checking out his girlfriend. Troy looked at Nick and saw that his eyes were traveling up and down. Well…he definitely wasn't getting a tip.
Troy cleared his throat. "Hi, we're here for the Darbus party." Troy said to get Nick's attention back to himself rather than his girlfriend who's grip became a little tighter around his arm.
Nick's face faltered, but quickly recovered as he looked down at the guestbook in front of him and nodded his head. "Right this way." Troy rolled his eyes when Nick's back was to them and was leading them to the table. Troy figured he was probably trained to say that.
Troy looked around the restaurant and saw Darbus sitting at a table in the center of the room with Anna and Eric. They didn't look like to be in a conversation as Eric took a sip of his water.
"Here you go Miss." Nick pulled out a chair by Eric as Darbus was on her other side at the head of the table. Troy kept himself from rolling his eyes as he figured Nick put Gabriella there so that he had to take the seat across from her since no one else was there. Anna gave Troy a small smile from the other head of the table spot as he took his seat with Darbus on his other side and Gabriella and Eric right across from him.
"Gabriella, you look wonderful." Ms. Darbus complimented as Gabriella smiled.
"Thanks Grandma." Gabriella replied as her eyes connected with Troy's and her cheeks flushed a tint of pink.
"So…I hope you two don't mind but I changed the meal timings to fit in with being late." Ms. Darbus said as Gabriella winced a little. That was her grandmother's way, she would act all nice and have manners while getting her point across in like…cryptic messages or at least cryptic sound in her voice.
Troy looked at Gabriella nervous, they were only like…what?…five minutes late? "Mom, not everyone gets here twenty minutes early like you." Anna pointed out as Gabriella gave her mom a thankful smile.
"I think introductions are to be made. Honestly Anna, you act as if you've never had to do this." Ms. Darbus said as Troy looked around a quick second to see Eric looking just as nervous as Troy was feeling, but he was able to conceal it a little bit more. Although, maybe Darbus already had a round of questioning with Eric?
Anna put on a gritted smile as Gabriella looked down at her plate before looking up and gave Troy an uneasy smile. "Mom, this is Eric…and Troy." Anna motioned to both guys.
Ms. Darbus rolled her eyes and Troy had to wonder what Anna did wrong because from what he saw and heard she did nothing wrong. "I know that, but do they know each other?"
"Well if they were listening and had ears…which they both seem to have, then yes. They know each other now." Anna said in a confirming voice.
Ms. Darbus sighed and Troy was starting to see what Gabriella had been telling him the past week at school and at home. They really don't get along that well.
"Grandma they knew each other before." Gabriella said as Ms. Darbus' face faltered a bit before smiling sweetly at Gabriella.
"Oh, I didn't realize that. No one tells me these things anymore." Troy could already tell that she was directing this towards Anna.
"So today Troy and I saw that action movie that just came out. You know with the President--" Gabriella started to take away the awkward silence.
"Oh." Anna said with a chipper tone. "You saw that one without me." Anna mocked hurt and Troy could tell that was just how Gabriella and Ann acted together. They would have these little bickering, or get along really well and just keep adding dramatically onto the story. "I am truly disappointed…Oh well, you'll just have to make it up to me." Anna smirked.
"I am not going grocery shopping."
"Come on, it could be fun." Anna said with amusement. "You know, you get to pick out the dinners…or well, the boxes for dinner that the frozen food comes in, but the pictures on the boxes could be pretty." Anna said.
Troy and Gabriella let out little laughs. When Anna has been gone at work and Troy was over there for dinner with just Gabriella, she would comment almost every time how the food never looks as good as the box shows.
Ms. Darbus rolled her eyes as she jumped in to change the subject from boxes of food. "So Troy, can you cook?"
Everyone looked at Troy. "Um… well I'm trying to learn. I got stuck in a cooking class with Gabi so hopefully I'll pick something up." Troy said as Gabriella nodded her head subtly to show that Troy gave a good answer.
"Oh, that's gonna be a shame if you don't because school is a very helpful thing to prepare yourself for the future." All of a sudden Darbus's tone changed and Troy almost sunk back into his chair, "What does your future look like?"
Her voice was so demanding, so punctual, so sly as her eyes narrowed on Troy expecting an answer.
"Grandma, Troy is an amazing basketball player." Gabriella cut in as Troy stared back at Ms. Darbus. What did his future hold? Obviously he couldn't say that he hasn't thought about it since he has. He always assumed that he could try for a scholarship for basketball, hopefully U of A, and then go pro. He never expected that he would start getting attached to a girl before he was even counted as an adult.
"Hey, did you here about the Lakers victory?" Anna asked trying to get someone's attention.
She looked at Eric who caught on. Troy figured he was more at ease that the old lady wasn't picking at him now that Troy was there to take his spot. "Yeah, I had friends who were betting on that game."
"Well?" Ms. Darbus continued.
"Well…" Troy said slowly as he was wishing that the first course of the meal would come already, honestly, who sets times on the courses? "We'll be having scouts come for basketball games towards the middle of the season and end so I guess we'll just have to wait to see what happens."
"Oh…" Ms. Darbus seemed taken aback and Troy looked at Gabriella with slight wide eyes. What did he do now that offended her?! "So you dabble around a bit with a basketball." Ms. Darbus commented nonchalantly. "How long?"
"Mom--"
"No Anna, these are perfectly well rounded questions, he's a young man and he should know what he wants to accomplish…so how long?"
"Since I could walk." Troy said. "I have been dabbling since I could walk." Troy said with a forced smile. He couldn't lose his cool on his homeroom teacher and his girlfriend's grandma. But weren't grandmas supposed to be sweet and bake cookies, or even sew?
"Interesting…" She concluded as she took a sip of her water and her eyes skimmed over Troy like a hawk as she lowered her glass and Troy was relieved that the salads finally came and the waiter put the dark green leafy vegetable down in front of him.
"You know what else is interesting?" Anna cut in again as the waiter walked away. "Did you hear about that thing, and the other…thing." Anna fizzled out as she couldn't think of anything.
"Oh yeah, and that boy who…" Gabriella trailed off as she offered Troy a sheepish smile.
"Right, and he did that one thing that lead to that person." Eric said as Ms. Darbus rolled her eyes.
"Anna, do you honestly have to start these little useless conversations?" Anna and Gabriella both knew that wasn't a question but a comment.
"If I didn't then that would just mean more talking from my daughter." Anna said with a smirk as Gabriella bit her bottom lip trying to keep the smile off of her face.
There was a silence that was smothered by the five of them eating. At least there was no time for asking Troy questions, although he was slightly intimidated by Darbus using her knife in a sawing motion to cut her lettuce in slightly smaller pieces. She had her beady little eyes narrowed on him as Troy felt like he was an open target with the precision she was using to grind her knife into her food.
"So basketball must be pretty important to you." Ms. Darbus didn't ask again, she just commented in her sharp piercing voice that if someone had to draw the sound in her voice, they would probably draw Troy's piercing blue eyes that looked like a dark blue right now.
"I would hope so." Troy said as he forced another smile on his face and could see out of the corner of his eye from narrowing his eyes on Ms. Darbus that Gabriella was looking at her mother with a worried look. Troy shook his head as if he was clearing it and his eyes went back to normal color and normal size.
"What's more important, my granddaughter or basketball?" Ms. Darbus asked as Troy swallowed what was in his mouth as he heard Gabriella and Anna nearly choke on their foods.
"Mom!" Anna exclaimed.
"You don't have to answer that." Gabriella said to Troy.
"No, it's okay." Troy said even though he was far from okay and more like freaking out. "Gabi is very important. She's a special girl and I care for her a lot. So with that said I don't think that it would be fair to compare her to something such as a sport." Troy smiled as Anna smirked at her mom.
Gabriella felt a blush go up on her cheeks as she finished her salad and within a minute of silence and Ms. Darbus contemplating what he just said the waiters came and cleared their plates as two more waiters came out with the next course of soup.
"So Gabriella, darling…" Ms. Darbus turned towards Gabriella. Troy took this time to take a sip of water since his mouth felt dry from his nerves. "How's Jake? I know that you two are very close right now, and I just think it's wonderful that you two decided that dating wasn't the right way for you guys."
Troy nearly gagged on his water as Gabriella's eyes went wide. How could her grandmother be doing this?! Was she trying to ruin her relationship with Troy?
Troy was in shock. Gabriella dated Jake? How could he of missed that? They were always talking to each other…except recently since Troy and her were practically joined at the hip. But then they would text each other constantly, she had a photo album just dedicated to Jake and her, and they were neighbors. Gabriella would make the perfect girl next door and Troy would be damned if he let anyone take Gabriella away from him. He was willing to fight for her.
"Grandma, we're just friends. We never dated." Gabriella said as she bravely looked up at Troy to see him loosen up a little.
"Oh…it's a shame, he's really good at football." Ms. Darbus said with faint interest as Gabriella knew that she really didn't like either one of them, but Gabriella was willing to try to make her grandmother see what Gabriella saw in Troy and show her that he is a really great guy.
"So Eric here is head of the company I work at mom." Anna said as she looked around nervously. It was usual for her to be glaring and sulking at the dinner table when her mom was around, but for Gabriella to be glaring at her food all caused by her grandmother has never happened before.
"That's right, I actually work with Troy's mom too." Eric said as Gabriella and Troy silently nodded their heads indicating that they heard as they were both wishing this dinner would be over soon.
"If you don't mind me asking Troy…" Ms. Darbus trailed off indicating that Troy was supposed to give her some sign that he heard.
How could he say to Gabriella's grandma that he did mind that she was talking to him? "No, please ask anything you want." Troy's fists were turning white around the spoon that he was holding as he put on a gritted smile and looked at Ms. Darbus expecting the worst.
"How many past girlfriends have you been serious with?"
"Mom…" Gabriella groaned silently indicating to her mom that Gabriella wanted her to do anything to change the subject off of Troy to Eric or even herself.
"Mom, did you know Eric got to go to Paris over the summer?" Anna asked as Ms. Darbus raised her hand in the air, silently saying 'whatever'.
"Anna, it's rude to interrupt." She turned towards Troy who was staring at Gabriella helplessly. "Because I've seen you at school and you're never with the same girl."
"Yeah, I got to go to Paris and their pastries are to die for." Eric added as he truly felt sorry for Troy.
"I now know why you two are good for each other, you both are rude." Ms. Darbus said to Eric and Anna. "So Troy? Unless you feel uncomfortable about your answer?" Ms. Darbus was looking at him as Troy knew that she was waiting for him to break down and completely lose it, but he wouldn't give in so easily.
"Actually, I just have a lot of friends that are girls, and I haven't really spoken to them in a while now." Troy answered honestly since most of the girls were on the cheerleading squad and they would always try to flirt with him, but since he told off Kristin at homecoming they kind of all backed down and found their own boyfriends again. "Anything else?" Troy asked as the waiters came and took their soup bowls that barely anyone ate and gave them their main meal which was some kind of fish with some pasta and sauce with vegetable mixed in and parsley for color.
Ms. Darbus narrowed her eyes a little. "What if Gabriella stopped dancing, would you still be with her?"
"Mom, that's not even something to discuss. Of course she's not going to stop dancing." Anna said and Gabriella didn't exactly know what she was feeling with this new conversation.
Of course she was still furious with her grandma for treating Troy like this, but then dancing? Sometimes she thought her grandma knew more about what she wanted in life than her own mom, but that was okay, just as long as someone knew. But she didn't like how her mom always thought she wanted to dance for a career, maybe Gabriella wanted to start her own studio rather than dance herself?
That was actually something Gabriella had been thinking a lot about. She enjoyed creating new routines, and performing them, but she still wanted to have a life where dancing didn't take up every single minute, and if she was going off of her life right now she would say that it was perfect. She was creating dances for the dance team at school and she still got to see Troy, it was win-win.
"Why not?" Ms. Darbus asked and for some reason Troy got a feeling this conversation wasn't even about him anymore for which he was thankful for. "Just look at me and you? We're lucky we had fall back careers."
Troy looked up curiously at where this conversation was going, but saw that Gabriella was looking down and he couldn't tell if it was from anger, sadness, or a little of both.
"Gabriella is different. She has scouts coming already for Julliard."
"Anna, I used to dance on Broadway, and then my knee gave out. I was just lucky that East High was looking for someone to teach and then you…" Ms. Darbus trailed off and looked down at the table. "You worked so hard only to get married at such a young age and have a kid even before you were done with college. You could've gone far, we all knew that, but…just look at how many things could still go wrong for Gabriella." Ms. Darbus finished up and for once Troy saw sincerity in her eyes.
Anna scoffed as Gabriella leaned back in her seat with her head thrown back and a pained expression on her face. Troy knew Anna used to dance, and she was good, but he never knew why she stopped and now it was because of Gabriella. He didn't know how Gabriella was feeling and he knew that he would never experience it knowing the fact that his mom wasn't a dancer, but…that didn't mean that not seeing Gabriella like this didn't hurt him.
"Gabriella isn't going to make mistakes like me."
"And that's why she's with some boy." Ms. Darbus retaliated. "Do you know anything about him? His grades, family, past, present? Where he takes your daughter when you're not home which has been very often recently."
Anna huffed, "She's smart, and I trust her 100 percent and you should too. I believe Troy is a good kid since he obviously has enough courage to stand up to you." Anna hissed.
"But can you actually guarantee that Gabriella is going to dance when she's older? That she won't hurt herself and never be able to perform again? And if she does, then what is she supposed to do? Troy…" Ms. Darbus barked all of a sudden. "What would you do, would you leave her if things got too rough and she could never dance again?"
Gabriella looked up and glared. She was so fed up with her grandmother's questioning. Troy didn't deserve this. He did nothing wrong except was crazy enough to agree to this dinner which Gabriella practically forced him into. She definitely owed him big time, but she was only hoping for the best to come out of this dinner, but obviously that didn't happen.
"Grandma, cut him some slack." Gabriella said lowly as her dark chocolate eyes turned darker. "Troy has done nothing but play your little 'let's see how many questions I can ask him before he leaves' game." Gabriella snapped. "I'm sorry mom, but we're gonna go. I'll see you at home." Gabriella said as she stood up and Troy followed her lead.
He stood up awkwardly as he looked over at Eric and Anna. "Um…it was nice seeing you two again." Troy said in an unsure voice at what just happened. "Thanks for having us." Troy pulled his dark leather wallet out from the back pocket of his pants and threw down a fifty to cover himself and Gabriella.
Troy didn't say anything else to them as Gabriella walked over to him and they walked out of the restaurant hand in hand. Once they were out of the place and on the sidewalk leading to the parking lot Troy all of a sudden felt like he could breath again.
"Wildcat, I know that she has been showing nothing but dislike to you at school, I just thought at least for tonight she would be civil. I really don't know what was wrong with my grandma." Gabriella said.
Troy nodded as he let out a big breath and disconnected their hands only to put his arm around her bare shoulders and start heading over to his truck. "I know." Troy kissed the top of her head. It would be a lie if Troy said he wasn't worried about school the next day, from what he saw of Darbus that night, it was enough to last him a life time plus more.