Good news, guys! Summer is finally upon us! Well, finally upon me is more like it, because I know a lot of you are still in school. Sorry for the long break in between chapters. I hope you enjoy this one! Again, thanks for the reviews! By the way, if you send me PMs, I won't reply because I never check my emails anymore. Sorry about that. Also, I've decided to change it up a little bit and have Troy and Gabriella's relationship build up more quickly, since I'm starting to think this story is going to be shorter than I'd hoped it would be. I don't like using a lot of filler chapters when you guys probably just want me to get the point anyway. :)

Chapter Five:

"Troy, where should I put this?" Gabriella was standing in the middle of Troy's living room with a large box full of pictures and home videos from her past. A bit of dust flew off the bottom of the box, and she promptly sneezed. She giggled, setting the box down on the floor.

Troy looked up from where he was standing and gently set her computer on the couch before walking over and picking up her box. "What did I tell you about bringing in these heavy boxes, Gabriella?" he asked with a smirk.

"Heavy boxes could harm the baby," she mimicked. "I know, I know. But I just want to get all of my stuff moved in so I can take a nap." She yawned. "I'm so tired."

"Well…" Troy began. He picked her up bridal style and carried her to her bedroom.

She laughed when he scooped her up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Troy!" she exclaimed. "Put me down. I'm perfectly capable of walking myself to my room." He didn't appear to have heard her, so she continued. "Troy!"

"What?" he asked innocently as he sat her down on her bed.

She shook her head. "You know what."

"No, tell me again. What?"

"I can walk to my room myself. I'm a big girl."

The pout on her face resembled everything but being a big girl. A little girl, maybe. An innocent, naive, non-deserving girl with the child of a monster growing inside of her. Troy tried to shove the thought from his mind as he grabbed a blanket out of the closet and walked back to her bed. He looked into her warm, chocolate brown eyes. They were full of a feeling Troy'd never seen before- at least, not in her eyes. "Here," he said distractedly, wrapping the blanket around her. "If you need anything, just holler."

He'd barely set his foot outside the door when he heard her voice. "Troy?" He turned to look at her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He smiled. Her motherly instincts were already beginning to set in. "I'm fine," he replied. "Actually, I should be asking you that question."

"I'm fine, too," she said. "Perfectly fine."

"Okay, well, again, if you need anything-"

"-just holler," she finished his sentence for him. "I know." She smiled and nuzzled her face into her pillow. "I'll be sure to bitch at you if I need anything."

Troy laughed. "Okay, then," he said. "I'll just be downstairs watching something manly, like football or something," he added.

Gabriella grinned as he closed her bedroom door. "But Troy, you hate football," she murmured softly as she drifted off to sleep.

While Gabriella slept, Troy sat at the kitchen table with the box she'd left on the floor. He knew it wasn't right to snoop through her things, but the temptation was nipping at his curiosity. He carefully lifted the lid off the box and placed it in the chair next to him. He closed his eyes, trying to fight the urge to look inside. This action didn't help him a bit. He re-opened them and took out the medium-sized envelope on the top. His finger slid under the lip and pulled out the varsity E he'd given to her just before senior year began. "She kept this?" he asked himself silently. He turned it over in his hand and, written in her small, elegant script, were the words Troy's Championship letter- Junior Year- 2007. It was his Championship letter- the letter he'd gotten after he'd led the Wildcats to the Championship against West High. He smiled as he placed the letter back into its envelope and laid it on top of the lid.

Underneath the envelope was a photo album. He pushed a few papers off the table and set the book atop it. He opened to the first page of pictures- Gabriella's baby pictures. He stared at the little bundle of joy that smiled out at him from the page. She'd been such a happy baby. And a cute one at that. He grinned as he turned to the next page. Her first birthday party was displayed there. In one picture, she sat on her father's lap, a small pink bow from one of her presents positioned awkwardly in her curly brown hair. In another, she was sticking both of her hands into her cake; her clothes, her face, almost every inch of her tiny body covered with frosting. Troy chuckled at this and continued flipping through the book. One picture in particular caught his eye. Gabriella was standing with a little boy on a playground. Behind the two children was a woman holding a sign that read Mrs. Stone's Full Day Kindergarten. He stopped, picturing the day he'd asked her about kindergarten. "Do you remember in kindergarten, how you'd meet a kid, and know nothing about them, then ten seconds later you'd be playing like you were best friends, because you didn't have to be anyone but yourself?" Gabriella's words echoed in Troy's mind.

I do remember, he thought to himself. But it wasn't the first day of kindergarten. It was the day I met you… He stared at the photo a little longer before he finally turned the page again. He felt a tugging at his heart. It was a pleasant tugging, like…like he'd imprinted on her or something. He shook his head. He really needed to stop reading books about vampires and werewolves and human girls torn between them. Troy stop thinking about her that way, he scolded himself. She probably doesn't even like you anymore. Not the way she used to. Not even almost like she used to. Maybe not even as a best friend. Just as a…a…a jerk who never returned her phone calls or tried to get her back. His heart dropped when he reminded himself of the stupid things he'd done. He sighed and closed the book. He placed it back into the box and slid the box to the floor. Why am I so stupid?

After a few moments of staring at the wall, he got up, grabbed a can of Coca-Cola from the fridge, and went to the living room to watch television. He flipped through the channels quickly, pausing for seconds at a time, only to regret even turning the damn thing on. It was soap opera time. He didn't want to watch a soap opera. Hell, he was practically living one himself. The man sees the woman of his dreams, his high school sweetheart, come into his office, pregnant by some son of a bitch who was probably tracking her down right now to murder her. He turned the television off in disgust and sat there, drinking his soda. He felt the cushion next to him shift, and he looked down to see his dog, Lilah, staring up at him with hopeful eyes. She lay next to him, her paws on his lap, and rested her head against them. He ran his hand along her soft fur as he spoke to her.

"The life of a dog must be wonderful," he murmured. "Not a care in the world. All you have to worry about is whether or not I'm going to feed you bacon for breakfast in the morning. Why can't I be like you?" Lilah's ears perked up at the word bacon, and she licked his hand eagerly. He chuckled. "Sorry, girl. We ran out of bacon this morning, remember? We'll have to go get some later."

Lilah barked happily and jumped down from the couch. She pawed at his knee, looked over toward the window and then back up at him. "Not now. Let's wait for Gabriella to come with us. That way she can pick out some of the things that she likes." His eyes lit up. "But we can go for a ride," he added. "Come on, girl." He grabbed his keys and ushered her out the door.

He drove around town until he found the place he was looking for. "I'll be back in a few minutes," he told the dog before he got out. With a smile on his face, he headed inside.

Less than an hour later, Troy returned home with a small box. He stashed the box in the room with her other boxes and went to the fridge in search of something he could make for dinner. He wanted Gabriella to feel right at home when she woke up from her nap. He figured this would be a good start. He sighed. He slammed the door shut and took a pen from his pocket. On a piece of paper, he wrote, Buy actual groceries from now on. He stuck the note into his pocket. Oh, well. They'd just have to go out for one night. Still, he scolded himself. He knew that Gabriella preferred home cooked meals over restaurant food. But there was nothing he could do about it now. She'd been sleeping for close to two hours. She'd be waking up soon.

He busied himself by tidying up the living room and brushing Lilah. It wasn't long before he heard a stirring behind him. He turned around quickly, and his breath caught in his throat. Gabriella stood at the bottom of the stairs in one of his t-shirts. Her legs were bare; the shirt only just covered her panties. He had seen her dressed like this many times, when she used to secretly spend the night with him and she hadn't remembered pajamas. His mind wandered momentarily to what had usually happened when he saw her like dressed in one of his shirts. He shook his head and grinned. "Did you sleep well?" he asked, trying to get the image out of his head before he would have to excuse himself to take care of a little problem.

She nodded sleepily. "I did," she replied. "Did you enjoy your football game?"

Her smile was gorgeous enough to dazzle him for the evening, but he forced himself to focus. He grinned sheepishly at her. "You don't honestly think I was watching football, do you?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Not at all. You hate football. You hate every sport besides basketball. You didn't fool me."

He laughed. "Of course not. No one can fool the all-mighty Gabriella Montez."

Her cheeks flushed a bright pink color and she laughed with him. "If that's how you think of it. So what have you been doing, if you weren't doing what you said you were going to do?"

"Well, I was going to make dinner, but I looked around my kitchen and decided that we'd better go out tonight. And then we could stop at the grocery store and grab some real food."

"It doesn't surprise me at all, Troy Bolton, that you didn't have any food in the house. You never did. I mean, all you ever used to eat was macaroni and cheese." She laughed at the memory of his dorm room at the University of California and his multitudes of boxes of macaroni and cheese. "And the off chance that you might have ordered a pizza or two."

"Hey, now, don't criticize my mad skills with the stove," he teased, laughing.

"I never said that I didn't like it," she replied, winking at him.

"Good. And since I don't have any macaroni and cheese right now…where do you want to eat dinner?"

"I'm not really hungry …" she began.

"Gabriella, the baby needs to eat. Which means that you need to eat. Where to?" he persisted.

"Fine, she complained. "Um, why don't you choose? I've never really been anywhere except the deli where we had lunch."

Troy thought for a moment. "Well, there's…do you like Chinese?"

She nodded. "Chinese sounds good."

"Let's go to Empress of China. You'll love it there."

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll go get ready." She was only halfway up the stairs when she turned around. "I left my clothes down here," she admitted sheepishly. "I borrowed your t-shirt to come downstairs in because my clothes were wet."

"Wet?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah…I, um, I accidentally turned the shower water on too high and…you probably know the rest."

He laughed. "Ahh, that shower. I should have it looked at. I'm sorry about that," he said sympathetically."

"It's okay. I just went into your room and stole this from your closet after I finished my shower," she said, grinning. "I figured you wouldn't mind."

He stared at her for a moment. If she'd gone into his room after her shower, she'd probably just been wrapped up in a towel…Damn it, Troy, stop that! He shook his head. "Of course not. Be my guest. Steal my clothing whenever you feel like it."

She giggled. "I'll take that as permission to do so." She rummaged through one of her boxes before she pulled out what she'd been looking for. She grabbed her purse and went back up to her room.

Ten minutes passed before she came back down the stairs in a white sundress and sandals. "Is this appropriate?" she asked him shyly.

For the second time that day, Troy's mind wandered. "Uh, it's perfect," he replied, finding his voice again. "Ready to go, then?"

She nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be," she replied.

He smiled and opened the door for her. "Then off we go."

Inside the restaurant, Troy ushered Gabriella to his favorite table. "It's close enough to the food so you can smell it, and close enough to the window so you can see out the window," he explained as they sat down.

The waitress came over with two glasses of water. After she'd set them on the table, she handed each of them a menu. "Can I get either of you a drink or anything?" she asked, smiling at them.

Troy spoke first. "I'm just going to drink water tonight."

Gabriella nodded in agreement. "Same here."

"Okay, then. I'll be back in a few to get your order."

Gabriella sifted through the menu before looking up at Troy. "What's the best thing you've had here?" she asked him. "I can't decide what I want."

"Well…the orange chicken bowl is pretty good. And their chicken and beef fried rice is the best in town."

"What are you going to have?"

"I'm going to go with the fried rice," he decided. "I haven't had it in a long time."

She laughed. "Then I'll go with the orange chicken bowl and steal some of your rice," she concluded.

The waitress returned and took their order. Fifteen minutes later, she brought their food and left them to eat. Gabriella had just eaten her last bite of chicken when she dropped her fork to the table and stared across the restaurant in horror.

"Gabriella?" Troy asked impatiently. "What's wrong? What is it?" She pointed shakily to a table near the rear of the restaurant, and Troy turned to look. A man and a woman were at the table, talking. "What about them?" he pressed.

"It's…it's…it's him," she managed to whisper. She bent her head towards the table when the man looked up and met Troy's gaze. "I want to go home," she pleaded quietly.

Troy's brain registered the information now. "Ryan?" he whispered, turning to her. She nodded. "Shit," he cursed under his breath.

The man had excused himself from his table and was quickly approaching them. "Gabriella, when I say go, I want you to run to the restroom and call 911. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded weakly. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to move her legs at all. She reached for her purse under the table and fumbled around for her phone. Her hand brushed against her pepper spray first, and she grasped that as well. She pulled her hand out and readjusted the two items in her hands. She looked up and instantly regretted it.

The tall man had reached their table quicker than they had anticipated. "Gabriella Montez," he said with a dark smile on his face. His scar illuminated off the lamps in the dimly lit room. "It's been awhile."

Definitely not my favorite chapter, but I was stuck on this one for a long time. Literally, it took me probably a month and a half to write this chapter because I kept hating what I'd written and re-doing it. Let me know what you think! :)