i made a web page where you can go and cechk out the music from this story, and my other troyella story 'best of me.' the link is on my profile :) i'm starting new story called 'the guardian' here soon, so make sure you keep an ice out for it!

Against All Odds

Ice Cream Magic

The next three weeks passed by in a blur for both Gabriella and Troy. Practice for the musical was now in full swing, and was becoming more and more grueling by the day. The almost kiss was shoved under the rug, neither of them wanting to bring it up, although both of them thought about it constantly. The flowers that Gabriella had received were also something forgotten. Gabriella asked all her friends, and Troy secretly went on mission to find out who sent them out of jealousy, but he too failed. Currently, everything revolved around the musical, and the musical only.

"I cannot do that routine again. I will seriously go crazy if I do." Troy said falling into one of the chairs set up backstage.

"Tell me about it! Is she trying to kill us?" Gabriella said as she took off her stage heels and began to rub her feet. Troy winced as he saw the blisters forming along both heels. "Are we still good for Saturday?"

"Yes, we are." Troy replied happily. "I spoke to Chad right before I came in for practice. He and Taylor are going to meet us at my house at seven. Zeke, Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi, and Jason are meeting us at Susie Q's. After dinner, we'll all drive to the theater."

"I'm so excited. We haven't even been able to just stop and relax for ten minutes since this whole musical started."

"No kidding. Besides, I haven't been to a drive-in since I was a little kid."

Gabriella looked over at him sheepishly.

"What?" Troy laughed as soon as he saw her expression.

"I've never been to a drive-in before."

"What?!?" Troy exclaimed. "Tell me you're joking me?" He laughed as Gabriella shook her head. "How in the world is it possible for you to have never been to a drive-in before?"

"I don't know. I just haven't." Gabriella suddenly felt embarrassed, and lowered her head.

Troy felt bad as he noticed this, and spoke up. "Well, then." He said matter-of-factly. "I, Troy Bolton, am honored to take the Gabriella Montez to her very first drive-in movie." He said as he knelt in front of her bowing his head and holding out his hand as if he were a knight.

Seeing this, Gabriella giggled, completely forgetting why she was even embarrassed. Just as she took his hand, they were both startled by a loud clapping noise followed by a voice they had grown to hate.

"Act II, Scene 3 people! Let's get a move on!" Ms. Darbus called out.

They both groaned as Gabriella reached down to put her shoes back on. She stood up and was pulled by Troy onto the stage.

The next day, Gabriella, Troy, and the rest of the gang sat at lunch eating their food and discussing their day's events.

"I still can't get used to Zeke and Sharpay." Gabriella whispered to Troy, nodding her head over to the googley-eyed couple across from them.

"Yeah, me neither. But it gets her off my case, and she's definitely been less 'ice-queeny' lately. I can't complain about that."

"I agree with you there." She said, biting into her sandwich.

"So, aren't you glad it's Friday? No musical practice today."

"Thank God. But you know what else it means don't you?" She said wiggling her eyebrows.

"Hmmm." Troy pretended to think. "Drive-ins tomorrow?"

"YEP!: She said loudly causing the rest of the table to glance her way before turning back to their own conversations.

Troy laughed at Gabriella's expression. He loved it when she laughed or got excited like this. Her entire face lit up making her incredibly beautiful.

"I see you're just a little bit excited." Troy joked.

Gabriella opened to her mouth to respond but they were interrupted by a figure standing behind them.

"Gabriella?"

She whipped around to see Tim standing behind her.

"Hey Tim! What's up?"

Tim shifted nervously, and looked from Gabriella to Troy. He had hoped that Troy wouldn't be around when he came to talk to Gabriella, but he wasn't about to let the overrated basketball star stop him. Gabby was his friend with or without Troy Bolton. Still, he wished he wasn't around so much.

"Uh, I was, uh, wondering if maybe I could talk to you for a second?" Tim blurted out.

"Oh, sure Tim." Gabriella said and then stood up. She gave her friends one last look before leading Tim off to an empty corner of the cafeteria. She didn't entirely feel nervous around Tim anymore – they didn't really actually talk anymore since the project was over – but she knew that everyone deserved a chance to prove themselves. Troy had given her a chance to show her self almost two months ago, and she knew that because of that, she couldn't deny anyone else that either.

"So, what's up?" She asked as they reached the corner. Her nerves slightly jumped when she realized they were out of view of the people in the cafeteria, and she was curious as to what Tim would need to talk to her alone about.

"Well, I was – I was wondering, if uh, you could tutor me in math?"

Internally, Gabriella let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh! Of course Tim. I'd love to help you. We could even start today after school if that's okay for you."

"Yeah!" Tim said loudly, startling Gabriella. "That would be great!"

"Alright, well, just meet me in the library after school okay?"

"Okay."

"See you later Tim." Gabriella gave a big smiled and waved before walking away.

"I can't wait." Tim said when she was out of earshot.

Gabriella sat back down at the lunch table and picked up the half-eaten sandwich she had left. After swallowing her first bite, she looked up to notice all of her friends staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

The group that surrounded her glanced at each other than back at her.

"What was that all about?" Sharpay blurted out, knowing she would be the only one blunt enough to find out details.

"Tim needs help in math." Gabriella said timidly. She felt as if she were being lectured by her mother.

"Why didn't he ask you that here?" Taylor spoke up. "And why would Tim Nichols need tutoring?"

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I just remember Tim actually being good at math. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else."

"I'm sure you are. Looks guys, I'm tutoring him. It's not like he's dangerous or anything."

"He gives me the creeps." Kelsi said quietly. The entire table looked at her. It wasn't every day that Kelsi spoke her mind like that.

"Ditto." Chad said.

"Okay, he gave me a weird vibe at first too. But just give him a chance, okay? The same chance we all gave each other after the Triple Win. It's not that hard. I don't know why Tim didn't ask me here. Maybe he's intimidated by all of you." Gabriella smiled, trying to encourage her friends. They all muttered some sort of 'okay' or 'whatever you say.' She felt discouraged until she felt a hand on her own giving it a tight squeeze. She looked over to Troy who gave her a smile.

"Don't worry Brie, we'll always stand by you. They just need to warm up."

"Thank you Troy." She looked back up at the group. They had already relaxed and fallen back into their conversations.

"I told Tim I would meet him after school to help him with math. I just wanted to let you know so you weren't waiting on me to give me a ride home." Gabriella said, turning back to Troy.

"How long will it be? I don't mind waiting on you Brie."

"I honestly don't know. I'd feel awful if you were waiting a long time. I'll just walk home, it's not really a big deal." Gabriella said. In fact, it was a big deal to her. She always looked forward to the rides home with Troy. Sometimes, it was her only time in a day to see him alone. But she wouldn't tell him that and make him wait on her. He definitely had more important things to do.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay, well. If you're bored later, I mean, after you're done tutoring, you should give me a call. We could hang out or something." He smiled at her.

"I definitely will." She said as the bell rang dismissing them from lunch. "I'll talk to you later, Troy."

"Bye Brie."

Gabriella sat completely and utterly bored in the library and watched as Tim finished the problem she had given him. This was the tenth problem similar to this, and as many times as she had explained it to him, he still didn't get it. He was always making the same mistakes. She glanced down at her watched and groaned inwardly when she realized it was past five thirty. Had she really been sitting here for over two and a half hours?

"Hey Tim, why don't we call it a day?"

"Oh, okay." He said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I'm just a lost cause aren't I?"

"No, you're not. How 'bout we work on this some more Monday during free period?"

"That sounds great. Thank you, Gabby. You're the nicest person I've ever met. I've never really had a real friend before."

"Well you're a great guy too Tim." Gabriella said as they made their ways to their lockers. "Got any good plans for the weekend?"

"No, not really. You?"

"Um, I'm going to my first drive-in tomorrow with some of my friends. So that should be fun."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun. I haven't been to a drive-in in years."

Gabriella felt guilty wondering if she should invite Tim along too. She then decided against it, knowing that she really just wanted to spend time with her closest friends, and especially Troy.

"Well, have a good weekend Tim!" She called as she got her last book out of her locker and walked down the hall.

"Yep! I'll be seeing you Gabby!"

Gabriella walked out onto the sidewalk in front of East High and sighed as she began to walk down the sidewalk. She was startled when she heard a car pull up beside her, followed by a familiar voice.

"Care for a ride?"

Gabriella turned on her heel to face the car.

"Troy! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood, and saw you walking." He said sarcastically with a wide grin.

"Troy Bolton! Did you wait on me?"

"Of course I did. Riding home isn't the same without you Brie. Now get in the car! How does ice cream sound?"

Gabriella laughed and got in. "That sounds great."

She buckled her seat belt and smiled over at Troy.

They chatted about the rest of their days, and especially about Gabriella's rough time trying to tutor Tim.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of Shiner's Ice Cream Shoppe. Gabriella looked up at the unfamiliar old fashioned building.

"I've never been here before."

"Well, this is the best ice cream place in the entire world. Trust me, it's amazing." Troy said getting out of the car.

The two stood in line for several minutes while they chose their ice cream.

"I don't know what to get! It all looks so good." Gabriella sighed,

"Do you want me to order for you?" Troy asked, receiving a nod from Gabriella.

"Okay." Troy said turning to the server. "We would like two scoops each in a cup of the black raspberry chip."

As the young man behind the counter began to scoop their ice cream, Troy got out his wallet.

"Troy, please let me pay." Gabriella begged. "You already drive me around practically everywhere."

"First off, it was my idea to get ice cream so I'm going to pay. Second, the passenger seat in my car is labeled especially for the Gabriella Montez. Chad isn't even allowed to sit in it. It'd be a waste if you didn't ride in it. So go, find us a seat and I'll bring us the ice cream." Troy said, smiling so sweetly it made Gabriella's stomach do flip flops. She found her way to a booth and waited for Troy.

She sat there completely confused. Her and Troy did everything together, and acted as if they were a couple. They had several close calls kisses, and had plenty of moments where they were definitely closer than friends should be. But Troy had still not asked her out. Did he really even like her, or was he just playing with her? Gabriella wasn't really sure she could handle that. Everyday she was falling more and more in love with Troy Bolton.

She was shaken from her thoughts as Troy sat down next to her and slid the cup of ice cream over to her.

"You okay?" He asked, noticing the far off look in her eyes.

"Yeah. Just thinking I guess."

"Anything in particular?"

"Not really anything worth talking about. So, how are you Troy?"

"Now that I've got this ice cream I'm great!" He laughed.

"No, I mean. In life? We've been so busy with this musical I haven't even stopped to ask how you were."

"Oh." Troy said, his expression slightly more serious. Should he tell her how he felt? How everyday he woke up knowing that something was missing from his life? That he couldn't be near he without his breath catching and his heart rate speeding up?

"I guess it's okay."

"Just okay?"

'Alright this is it Troy. Just do it.' Troy mentally coached himself.

"Brie, I need to tell you something." He said looking her straight in the eyes.

"Troy, are you okay?" Gabriella said, suddenly worried.

"I've never been better Brie. Every single day just gets better and better and I know there's only one reason. Everyday I wake up and there's one thing I look forward to, and there's only one thing on my mind at night. I've met this girl, and she's completely stolen my heart. Everything I do, it's for her. I'm doing everything I can to be this perfect guy just so I can try and be the guy that she deserves. I'm completely mesmerized by everything she does. When I hug her or get close to her, I feel like there's no way I could ever get as close as I wanted, no matter how tight I held on. I can't even explain it Brie. I'm a mess!" He laughed.

"I can see that." Gabriella tried to laugh. "She seems amazing Troy. I say go for it."

Troy realized that Gabriella had no idea who he was talking about. "You sure Brie? Your opinion means everything to me."

"Yeah, Troy. If she means this much, then go tell her how you feel." Gabriella still hadn't looked up since he started talking about this 'mystery girl.'

"Okay." Troy said, then paused for a moment. "I think I'm in love with you Gabriella Anne Montez."

Immediately, Gabriella's head shot up. "What?" She gasped.

"Scratch that. I know I'm in love with you, and I really don't know what's taken me this long to tell you. I just hope you feel the same way."

Troy was surprised by two lips crashing on his own. As their lips parted, he kept his forehead attached to hers.

"I love you Troy. So much." Gabriella said smiling.

Troy leaned in to kiss her again, this time less rushed, so perfect it sent shivers down each of their spines.

"Now, I told you you'd love this ice cream shop." Troy laughed as they pulled apart, putting his arm around her and pulling her close.

"I love this place!" Gabriella shouted, causing others to look at her. They both laughed, and Gabriella laid her head on Troy's shoulder, trying to get as close to him as she possibly could.