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Two and a half weeks later, on a clear but cold Tuesday night, Troy found himself laying on Gabriella's bed with her focused only on her book as she sat next to him. East High was in the middle of finals week and Troy was a bit frustrated that he couldn't get Gabriella's attention on anything more than a quick kiss if it didn't involve scholastics. Troy had a final every day this week plus an additional one on Thursday while Gabriella had had two a day so far with one tomorrow and one last one on Friday.
"Troy, aren't you at all worried about your history final tomorrow?" asked Gabriella when she caught him staring at her again. "Honestly, staring at me, as flattering as that is, is not going to help you pass, sweetie."
Troy grinned at the little love name before he said, "I know, but I can't concentrate on my boring history book with you right there. Besides, you need a break. You've been staring at your textbook and notebook for like two hours straight. Why don't we go outside for a bit? On the balcony so we aren't far from your study materials."
Gabriella looked at Troy and realized that he wouldn't relent until he got his way. "All right, but only for a little bit."
Troy quickly got up and offered his hand to Gabriella to help her up from the bed. They walked out onto her balcony and stared out at the changing sky as the remainder of the sun disappeared to be replaced by a light, then dark, sky with twinkling stars. When he saw Gabriella shiver a little, Troy ducked back inside momentarily and came back out with a blanket to wrap around her shoulders. Gabriella gave him a grateful look as she settled down next to him on the bench to the left of the doors.
He wrapped his right arm around Gabriella and brought her closer to him to kiss the top of her head. "Mmm, that felt good," murmured Gabriella as she snuggled closer to Troy. "You must have super therapeutic powers or something. You always seem to be able to relax me or soothe me when I need it the most."
Troy chuckled as he brushed some of her hair away from her face. "No, just love. Love for a young woman who has stolen my breath and my heart away in one easy swoop."
Gabriella pulled away a little bit to look at Troy. All she saw on his gentle face was that one emotion he mentioned, love, reflected in his smile and especially in his blue eyes. "God, how I have come to love you this much, I'll never know," stated Gabriella as she met him halfway in a sweet kiss. Eventually, it morphed into a more passionate set of kisses as they drew themselves closer together on the bench.
After a while, Gabriella gently pulled herself away as she smiled at Troy. "As much as I love this, Troy, I really need to get back to studying and so should you. I may be your girlfriend now, but I'm still your official tutor. How's it going to look if you fail an exam and your only excuse is that we wanted to make out?"
After a laugh, Troy nodded his head. "All right, you win, but only because you are so adorably cute and smart. Throw in sexy, which you always are, and you have a winning combination," stated Troy as he captured Gabriella's lips once again.
Before she knew it, more time had passed while she kissed her boyfriend but Gabriella forced herself to pull back and stand up this time. "All right, seeing that you seem to be a bit more passionate tonight than normal and I can't seem to resist you, we are calling reinforcements for this study session."
"What?" questioned Troy. "Reinforcements?"
Gabriella smiled as she went into her room and picked up her cell. She waited for it to ring and then said, "Hey, Taylor. Listen, can you come over to my house? Troy and I are studying but since we don't have the same final tomorrow and you and I do, I thought it would be good for us to study together… Oh, Chad is there? … Yeah, I think the boys could study together too… Uh huh… Okay, see you in a few."
"Did you just invite Taylor and Chad over on our little study date?" asked Troy.
"Yup," answered Gabriella. "It's clear that as much as I love our alone time, Troy, that we can't study together like this, not tonight. We both need to do well on the finals tomorrow. Remember, grades are key to scholarships."
"True," admitted Troy. "Fine, but can we make a deal?"
"What type of deal?" asked a suspicious Gabriella.
"Cuddle with me before they come?" suggested a hopeful Troy.
Gabriella raised an eyebrow at this. "Just cuddle?"
"Well, we'll have to see but it's a start," replied Troy with a grin.
"I so did the right thing by calling Taylor," commented Gabriella as she felt herself walking back to Troy and hugging him around his waist as he wrapped his arms around her.
Eventually, the two did start to kiss, as Gabriella had predicted, but she found she didn't mind. She enjoyed the feeling Troy gave her every time he kissed her and the feeling of being in his arms. Troy gently moved them towards her bed and slowly pushed her backwards onto it, lying on his side next to her while they continued to kiss. Just as he was running his fingers under her top, the doorbell rang and Gabriella sprang up.
She quickly fixed her hair and looked at Troy with a small smile. "See, we need them here to get any work done," stated Gabriella before she left her room to answer the door.
Soon, Gabriella came back to the room and giggled a little as Troy was now lying on the bed with his history book open but with a pout on his face. Taylor and Chad came in after Gabriella and greeted Troy as they took a seat on the couch in Gabriella's room. Taylor caught Troy's pout though and shot Gabriella a look.
"Hey Chad, I think I left something I need in your car. Can I have your keys?" asked Taylor as she took them from him. She then grabbed Gabriella's arm and dragged her outside as they stopped on the Montez's porch.
Gabriella warily looked at Taylor and knew that she wanted details. "All right, yes, I invited you over to help me study but not just in a scholastic way," admitted Gabriella.
"Needed supervision to stop the making out, huh?" teased Taylor with a smile. "No self control around him anymore?"
"Well I do but, well, he's too dang tempting," replied Gabriella with a smile. "Then again, I think that's what attracts me to him. Anyway, it's not like you haven't done the same to me."
Taylor nodded her head in agreement. "Actually, the same thing was going on at my place too so I guess we are saving each other."
Both girls looked at each other and burst into laughter. "A great pair of best friends we are, huh?" stated Gabriella.
"The best," returned Taylor. "How long are you into studying for the final tomorrow?"
Gabriella thought for a moment before she said, "Probably a little over halfway, you?"
"About the same. Good, we really can help each other study for the rest together then. Speaking of, we better get back inside so the guys don't start to wonder what we are doing," commented Taylor.
The best friends entered Gabriella's room and were honestly shocked when they saw that their boyfriends were actually studying. Troy lifted his head up from the textbook and returned the girls' stares. "What?"
"Nothing," replied Gabriella as she kissed his forehead before he turned back to his textbook. Gabriella and Taylor grabbed their books and notebooks and sat together, Taylor on the desk chair and Gabriella at the end of her bed. They started skimming through a chapter while they made notes and then quizzed each other on it.
After an hour of silence and talk strictly about the next day's finals, Chad signaled that it was break time for at least the guys by talking hoops with Troy. Gabriella and Taylor shared a look before they went back to their studies.
"Speaking of college hoops, where did you apply, man?" asked Troy.
"Umm, UCLA, Ohio State, U of A, and UNLV. You wouldn't believe how close I got to not turning in the applications though. I honestly thought I was going to get my behind kicked by Taylor because they weren't done until the very last minute," revealed Chad. "Like seriously killed."
"Dude, how long did you wait to finish them?" questioned Troy.
Chad paused for a moment and then admitted, "Two days before they were due."
Troy did the calculations in his head before he snapped his attention back to his best friend. "But you were applying to non-local schools. How did you make sure they got there before January first?"
Chad grimaced. "Very expensive priority overnight, certified mail. Cost me an arm and a leg, totally. I finished sometime on that early afternoon after Taylor asked me about them. I totally forgot about them, man. You know how I am."
Troy just shook his head. "I do and you are very lucky to have Taylor. If not, man, I don't want to think about it."
"Hey, it's not like I don't know that Gabriella has been helping you keep on top of this college application too. Don't go that high road with me," stated Chad.
"You have a valid point, Chad. I never said I didn't have help from her," admitted Troy. "Gabriella actually made sure that I had mine turned in a week after she did, hounded me until she watched me drop them in the mail to UCLA, USC, Berkeley, Duke, U of A, and NYU."
"Wow, I didn't know you applied to so many. Maybe we'll end up at U of A together or UCLA. I think those are the common schools for us two," said Chad. "I know Taylor applied to UCLA and U of A as well as MIT, Stanford, and Dartmouth. Sounds like we all may be pretty spread out too."
"There's a chance of that, yes," agreed Troy. "But I don't want to even think about that possibility, not yet."
"I hear you, man. It'll come when it comes, right? No need to rush it," replied Chad.
Troy turned his gaze to where Gabriella, with that cute little look on her face she always had when she was concentrating, was still sitting on the bed studying with Taylor and smiled. "If the reality is separation, I never want to see it come," returned Troy. "I've got something too good now to let it go because of college. No Chad, if that's the truth, there is absolutely no need to rush it."