Back to the Dream Page
At the beginning of lunch period on Friday, one week before the scholastic decathlon team journey to California for the National Championship, Gabriella climbed the stairs up to Troy's secret spot on the roof. They had both mailed their acceptances to their chosen school yesterday and agreed to meet here for the revealing.
She smiled as she saw Troy already sitting on the bench, a yellow rose in his hand. "Hey Wildcat," greeted Gabriella.
Troy looked up and grinned as he saw her. "Well hello, beautiful. This is for you," said Troy as he handed her the rose. "I don't know what you are going to say for sure, but I wanted to give you at least one sweet thing to make this moment a little bit better to think about in the future. Have a seat."
Gabriella nodded as she sat down next to him, still smiling as he slipped his arm around her, a habit he had developed lately that just seemed so natural to her now. "So today is the big day. How do we do this?"
"Straightforward and honest," replied Troy. "That's how it has been with us for everything else. First though, I want you to know I love you, Gabriella, and that you mean just so much to me."
"I love you too, Troy, and you mean just as much to me," returned Gabriella before she leaned over and kissed him sweetly on the lips. "But now that we have reminded each other of our feelings, shouldn't we do what we came up here to do?"
"Right," agreed Troy. "So, I sent in my letter to Duke to accept my admission there and the full scholarship."
"And I sent in my letter to U of A because I thought you were going to go there," said Gabriella.
Troy stared at Gabriella, shocked. "You so did not! Please tell me you didn't!"
Gabriella returned his look. "Would that be so bad if I did it out of love?"
"Oh my God, Gabriella. I thought MIT was your dream! I thought we agreed to decide on our schools for each of us, not us together! Why didn't you tell me before I sent in my acceptance to Duke?!" exclaimed Troy.
Gabriella broke her serious look and started laughing. "I'm sorry, but you made this whole thing so serious that I had to put a joke in there somewhere! Yes, I did accept my admission and scholarship to MIT yesterday, not U of A. Why would I want to go to school with Sharpay for another four years?"
"YOU ARE HORRIBLE!" shouted Troy before he started laughing with her. "I can't believe you did that to me. You made me feel so bad that I could have made that bad of a judgment call as to where I should go in the fall!"
"Sorry," apologized Gabriella before she kissed him lightly. "I know, it wasn't a funny joke but I couldn't resist. I'm glad both of us made our own decisions though as we promised each other. That's really, really good."
Troy nodded before he realized what it also meant. "But that also means that we are going to be separated by over 705 miles between us. What are we going to do?"
Sadness filled Gabriella as she thought about their next four years apart. "I don't know," admitted Gabriella while tears gathered in her eyes. "I hadn't really thought that far after I made my decision. I admittedly was too excited about that."
"Then maybe we shouldn't, not yet," replied Troy as he wiped her tears away and then kissed both of her cheeks. "Live in the moment, right now, not the future?"
Gabriella nodded her head. "I can do that. Right now makes me much happier than the future will."
"You don't know that for sure but yes, let's just enjoy what we have today. Let's go enjoy lunch with the rest of our friends, all right?" suggested Troy.
He took her hand in his as they walked down the stairs and picked up their lunches from their lockers before they headed to the cafeteria.
"Hey lovebirds, we were wondering where you two were," greeted Zeke with a smile.
"Oh, you shared college decisions, didn't you?" concluded Taylor as she saw some sadness in her best friend's body language.
Gabriella and Troy both nodded as they took their normal seats at the round table. "Yup, we did," answered Troy.
"Guess it's not to the same place," stated Ryan.
"Nope," replied Gabriella. "We did decide though that we are living for the moment and not for the future, at least for right now."
Martha nodded her head in approval. "I think that is an echo of our group agreement for our senior year and holds true through graduation, right gang?"
Nods were exchanged all around the table. "So, I think everyone here has a good idea of where they are going if they haven't already sent in their acceptance of admission letters. Why don't we share?" suggested Taylor.
"I guess we'll go first since we started this discussion," stated Troy. "I accepted Duke's offer of admission while Gabriella here has accepted MIT's offer."
Taylor nodded and smiled. "Dartmouth for me."
"UCLA," said Chad.
"University of Albuquerque," chimed in Jason.
"Sharing the Beantown area with Gabriella, I'm going to the Berklee College of Music," stated Kelsi.
Martha said, "University of Albuquerque too."
"Nowhere, good old East High for me," threw in Audrina as it got to her, which made everyone laugh.
After Ryan finished chuckling, he said, "NYU, as close to Broadway as I could get!"
"University of Albuquerque with Martha and J," stated Charles after another laugh.
Zeke paused for dramatic effect before he grinned and revealed, "Institute of Culinary Education in New York! Bet I surprised all of you!"
The group laughed. "Not me, not so much anyway," replied Gabriella with a smile. "I knew you'd follow your heart's dream of becoming a world famous cook and baker combined! You already have a jumpstart on your competition!"
"Yeah Zeke, I don't know what we're going to do without your baked goods and delicious main courses," added Taylor.
"The girls do have a good point. Dorm food will make your cooking seem like a dream come true," teased Chad before getting smacked on the arm by Taylor. "Just kidding, man!"
"Haha," bit out Zeke. "Joke all you want, but you are going to be begging to have a special table reserved for you in my fine five star restaurant in New York in the near future, mark my words man."
"Hey Zeke, I still get to taste your creations right? After all, we are going to be living in the same city," said Ryan.
Zeke smiled. "See Chad? Ryan knows a good thing when he tastes it. Of course Ryan, you can have all you want."
"So we are pretty much East Coast heavy it sounds like with a bit of West Coast, mid-USA counteraction going on," summed up Kelsi. "That's not too bad."
"Except for all the distance and what, three time zones, to deal with," commented Chad. "Man, why am I the only one in California when all of you guys are with someone!"
"Hey, I'm not near anyone either," defended Troy. "I guess it's just you and me Chad, again."
"Aww, look, the two co-captains are now planning their long distance best friendship. Although, with them being on competing teams now, anything is up for grabs as to how they'll fair, huh," teased Jason.
Charles chuckled at this. "That's true. How are they going to do when they face off for the first time?"
"Guess we'll just have to wait and see," remarked Martha.
Just then, a red haired cheerleader came by their table and said, "I don't think I need to remind this group of seniors, well mostly seniors, but don't forget to cast your votes for our senior year superlatives! The forms were handed out in homeroom two weeks ago but the committee has only received ballots from twenty seniors as of this morning. Oh, and don't forget to put your name on the sheets of paper, they won't count unless we have a valid name so we can check you off to help with duplicate voting and all that. Thanks!"
The gang just looked at each other while some of them laughed after she left. "Did she really just ask us to fill out those silly things?" asked Taylor. "For the popularity contest?"
"Well it's not that bad of an idea," replied Chad. "I mean, some of us are even on there."
"That's right, I have a copy of it in my bag," said Martha. She fished through her bag and pulled it out. "Actually, a number of you guys are."
Kelsi had pulled hers out too and scanned it. "Oh guys, we so need to vote!"
"Why Kelsi?" asked Jason.
"Cutest couple! Troy is on here twice, once with his current and one with a former," explained Kelsi. "If for no other reason, we need to make sure Sharpay does not win this particular category."
"Wait, how did Troy and Sharpay end up in that category together? They aren't a couple now!" exclaimed Taylor as she looked at her own ballot she found in a binder.
Gabriella paled a little at the thought of it being Troy and Sharpay. Troy noticed and gently rubbed the small of her back. "Hey, I'm with you now, no matter what the outcome is from that stupid superlative thing," soothed Troy.
"Do I really need to be the bad guy here and point out that Sharpay, my guilt ridden but still devious twin, still crushes on a certain boyfriend of Gabriella's? I wouldn't put it past her to do this," stated Ryan. "Probably promised a guy on the committee that runs this something like a date or something."
"That's sadly believable," agreed Audrina. "Sharpay herself probably saw this as one last blow to attack you two with. How else to immortalize herself than in superlatives?"
"But she promised me when I first got back to school that she wasn't going to pull any more tricks," said Troy. "Sharpay apologized, owned up to her responsibilities, and told me she would stop interfering."
Gabriella pulled away from Troy's touch at these words. "I may sound paranoid but it just sounded like you actually defended Sharpay, after everything she has done."
Troy let out a frustrated groan. "Come on, Gabriella. You even overheard that conversation and agreed that she may be on the mend!"
"And let me remind you that you agreed to kick her right out of our lives if she tried to interfere again," returned Gabriella. "And she has!"
"She's got a point, man," said Chad.
"God, everyone just back off!" exclaimed Troy.
"Fine, I will," returned Gabriella as she got up from the table and quickly walked out of the cafeteria, Taylor and Ryan following right after her but not without giving Troy one last nasty look.
Troy groaned again and looked up at the ceiling. 'How do I always get myself into these situations?' he wondered as he looked back down at the gang who still sat around the table. A familiar girl caught his eye though. Troy saw Joanna and Tara sitting beside their leader, Sharpay, who currently had what could only be interpreted as a victorious smirk on her face. When Sharpay caught Troy staring at her, she didn't even have the audacity to drop her current expression. 'I did it again, I fell for the trap!'
"Hey Troy, what's wrong," questioned Chad, who noticed Troy had a panicked look on his face. "If it's about Gab…"
"Oh it is, but it's about Sharpay and her tricks and how I'm always stupid enough to fall for them. I have to go find Gabriella," stated Troy as he got up and ran out of the cafeteria.
Troy failed at finding his girlfriend though before the end of lunch and unfortunately, didn't have her in a single class after that period. As soon as the final bell for the day rang, signaling the weekend, Troy dashed out of his classroom and over to Gabriella's locker where he saw she was already at with Ryan as an escort.
Ryan saw him first and moved from standing beside his best friend on the other side of her locker to standing in front of her, between Gabriella and Troy. "Not so fast, Bolton. She doesn't want to talk to you."
"As much as I appreciate you sticking up for your best friend, Evans, she's not your girlfriend anymore. She's mine and I need to talk to her," responded Troy, annoyed Ryan was preventing them from talking.
"I told you man, she doesn't want to talk to you right now. Actually, both of us can't believe that you defended my twin at lunch today," returned Ryan. "Have you somehow gotten twisted in the head or something?"
"No, everything is clear now but I need to talk to Gabriella. Please, Gabriella, call Ryan off and let me talk to you. Just hear me out," begged Troy.
Gabriella closed her locker and finally turned her face towards Troy. "Ryan, give us a moment, I actually want to hear what Troy has to say for himself this time."
"All right, I'll be down the hall with Audrina," responded Ryan as he left, squeezing her shoulder as he passed.
"So?" questioned Gabriella. "How did you come up with this epiphany, or did Sharpay just run up to you in an episode of guilt and beg for forgiveness again after confessing her scheme?"
"You aren't going to make this easy, are you?" asked Troy.
"Give me one good reason why I should," responded Gabriella.
Troy thought for a moment before he said, "Because we love each other, true untainted love that has endured the test of time and interference. Because I'm an idiot and a jerk who can't seem to wise up to the antics you have always pointed Sharpay out of being capable of. Because without you, I am nothing."
Gabriella eyed Troy before she nodded. "Maybe you have learned something after all this time. What made you see reason?"
"I'd like to say it was me being smart, but it was seeing that calculating look on Sharpay's face when she overheard our argument probably and then saw you run out," admitted Troy. "What can I say, I'm a dumb guy."
"At least you are an honest dumb guy," replied Gabriella with a small smile. "Look, I know I was a bit of an unreasonable teen girl at lunch, jealous girlfriend too, but it just disturbed me that it sounded like you were defending what she did with this superlative poll thing."
"Trust me, I may have sounded like it but I would never really defend Sharpay, especially to you. I just wanted to believe she meant it those weeks ago. I mean, she hasn't pulled anything since then," reasoned Troy. "I guess I just didn't want to believe that Sharpay would stoop so low to try to get her and me voted for a category we don't even fit anymore. Maybe she hasn't really changed."
Gabriella shook her head. "As much as your big heart wishes Sharpay did, it looks like she hasn't. So do I need to worry about you and Sharpay?"
"Beyond what gets printed in the yearbook, no. You, Gabriella, have my full attention and my whole heart too. I do think that we should go vote for ourselves or some other couple that's nominated so that I don't have to share that title with her," responded Troy. "That's one superlative I don't want to win at that cost."
Gabriella laughed. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Love me? Kiss me? Forgive my stupidity?" suggested Troy with a grin.
"I think I can do all three as long as you keep to your promises," replied Gabriella. "No more Sharpay and her foolishness for one, right?"
"Right," agreed Troy. "Now kiss me!"
Gabriella giggled as Troy pulled her body closer to his and then leaned down to capture her lips with his in a deep, sensual kiss. When they pulled apart, they smiled into each other's eyes and then grabbed each other's hands as they walked down the hall to go cast their own vote for the senior superlatives.