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It was the day before the big ball, the first week of October, and Gabriella was so focused on the ballet opening the following Wednesday as a special preview that she did not even realize that all the commotion going around the palace for days before was because of the ball. She had just gotten back from a long rehearsal and a nice lunch with Selena, who was definitely doing much better in so many ways since Gabriella first met the girl, when she slowly started to notice that the servants around the palace were moving at a quicker pace than normal, all heading in the same general direction.
Paul spied the young princess and chuckled at the puzzled expression on her face. "You don't know what's going on do you?"
Gabriella gave him a confused smile before she asked, "Should I?"
He rolled his eyes at her. "Honestly, the way Emma talks about this whole thing, you'd think she was the one this ball was being thrown for in some ways."
"Oh my God! The ball!" exclaimed Gabriella as she smacked herself on the forehead. "I totally and completely forgot!"
Paul chuckled at this. "Somehow, I'm not all that surprised," he returned with a smile. "How are the rehearsals going anyway? Emma said she barely has talked to you the past two weeks because you've been so busy."
Gabriella sheepishly nodded. "I have been and tell her I miss her so much right now. I barely have time to talk to my Little Sister as it is and I know how important it is to keep that relationship going. After this preview, opening performance next week, I think I will be a lot more settled and available to talk. Rehearsals are good but being leads, there is definitely a lot more to remember, execute, and perfect in Rodger's words."
"I'm sure you'll do great," assured Paul. "Well, if you don't mind me saying so, I think you need to take a shower."
She scrunched up her nose at this. "Do I smell that bad?"
"A little," he teased with a smile.
Gabriella rolled her eyes at this. "Fine, I'll go drag myself away to clean up, just for you."
"Thank you," replied Paul, a secret smile on his face as he watched Gabriella leave for her suite of rooms. He spied Annette lingering nearby before she approached him.
"Do you think she suspects?" she asked, not knowing if her daughter had a clue about her surprise.
Paul shook his head. "Not a clue your highness. I would say this is definitely a job well done, on both of our parts."
"Good," replied Annette, grinning at Gabriella's longtime personal bodyguard. Annette walked towards the first receiving room in the second hallway and knocked on the door, laughing a little to herself as she heard the sounds on the other side of the door.
After a long, hot shower to help relax her muscles, Gabriella had just finished blow drying her hair when she saw her mom pop her head into the bathroom via the mirror. "Hey Mom," greeted Gabriella with a smile as she brushed her long dark brown hair to help her natural waves create some volume to her hair.
"Hi sweetie. How are you feeling? Nervous about tomorrow?" asked Annette, walking into the bathroom.
Gabriella shook her head. "Honestly, no. I've been so distracted with rehearsals that I completely spaced on the ball being tomorrow. Don't I have to get a gown and everything?"
Annette observed the panicked edge in her daughter's voice and just gave her a smile. "Gabriella, that was taken care of a few weeks ago remember? The fitting and the withholding of what it looks like you had to endure with myself and your grandmother?"
A blush grew on Gabriella's cheeks as she realized she had forgotten about yet another thing. "Sorry, I really am spacing on things that aren't right in front of me huh?"
"Just a little," soothed Annette with a little laugh. "So, are you done in here so I can show you the dress? I think you are going to love it."
"Sure," replied Gabriella, securing the towel around her body again as she followed her mother out and towards her huge walk-in closet. She gave her mother a puzzled look as Annette stopped short of the closet, which currently had the door closed. 'That's odd, I never close it and I don't think Pip does either.'
"Go on ahead sweetheart. I want to see the look on your face," encouraged Annette, a bright smile on her face now, her brown eyes twinkling.
Gabriella gave Annette one last suspicious look before she placed her hand on the doorknob and threw the door open, only to let out a scream. "OH MY GOD!"
"Good to see you too Gaby," teased Tessa as she rushed forward and hugged her best friend with all the strength she had. "You didn't think we'd let you have yet another fun ball without us did you?"
"Move Tessa! She needs to breathe!" commanded Sharpay, who embraced Gabriella next before she kissed each of Gabriella's cheeks in greeting.
"And you are any different how?" asked Ryan with a smirk as he hugged Gabriella, kissing her on the cheek.
"I didn't squeeze the life out of her like Tess did!" argued Sharpay, placing her hands on her hips.
Taylor emerged out of the closet last, shaking her head. "Gabriella, if you think this is bad, you should have heard the blonde twins arguing on the long flight here! I don't think I could have stood being strapped between them with me and Tessa serving as a buffer," said Taylor as she grinned and wrapped her arms around her best friend, who returned the hug whole heartedly. "Surprised?"
"To say the least! I can't believe you guys came out here for the weekend!" exclaimed Gabriella, an ear to ear grin on her face. "This is great!"
Tessa shook her head, clearly disappointed. "Gaby, like we would come out for just the weekend and just for the ball! We got Taylor to take a vacation from her all important medical schooling and I took a week and some odd off of work to spend the entire week with you! Sharpay and Ryan, well they do what they do."
"Hey!" protested Sharpay, playfully hitting Tessa on the arm, who stuck her tongue out at the blonde in return. "You make me sound like the pampered princess here!"
It was Gabriella's turn this time to mock offense. "I am not pampered! I think you have me way beat in that category Sharpay!"
"Oh please, you live in a palace!" exclaimed Sharpay.
"And you have five cars yet you insist on driving in that pink Mustang of yours, the newest version," threw back Gabriella. "Here I am with a little old compact that I am more than happy with. Oh, and your closet, or should I say closets, are way bigger."
Sharpay arched a finely shaped eyebrow at this. "Oh really? That may be so, put all together, but my clothes, don't still have tags on them, especially when they came from the designer themselves, unlike a lot of clothes I see in here!"
"Girls!" shouted Ryan, not wanting to see how bad this conversation could get. "Let's just call it a tie, shall we?"
"Me, tie, with her?" scoffed Sharpay before she broke out in a grin. "That would be a honor!"
Gabriella laughed with Taylor and Tessa as Gabriella and Sharpay shared another hug. "So where are you guys staying?"
"Here, they are all set up with rooms in the East wing. I thought it would be fitting," volunteered Annette, who had felt her heart warm at the vision of the happy meeting of the close and best friends.
"Very much so Mrs. Montez… Err, what should we be calling you now? Princess?" asked Tessa, who looked very complex by this. "I remember calling you Mrs. M and Mrs. Montez even after Gabriella's royalness came out."
"And you are all very grown up now and we are relaxed around here so I expect you all to call me Annette, and Stephen will be Stephen," stated Annette, kindly smiling at each of the four before resting her gaze on her daughter. "Maybe we should allow Gabriella to change and get you four settled into your rooms?"
Gabriella, having forgotten she was only wearing a towel, blushed making her friends laugh at her, well everyone except for Ryan, who blushed himself and looked away, realizing too that Gabriella wasn't properly dressed. "Umm, I'm going to go outside," he mumbled, quickly leaving the room with the others following him out after rolling their eyes at his embarrassment. Her mother also left with them to help navigate them back to their rooms.
'They'd probably get lost on the way, despite the rooms being on this floor, the second floor, and there only being two floors to this place. It may not be tall but the palace is wide and long,' thought Gabriella as she surveyed her clothes for something appropriate for an unknown day with her best friends, her thoughts jumbled again as she realized just how much was going on in her life at the moment. 'The ball tomorrow, the sneak peak and opening night next week, Chris's birthday party on Monday, and Patrick. That's quite a bit.'
"Gabriella, may I assist?" asked Pip, startling Gabriella from her thoughts.
Gabriella smiled back over at the older women and nodded her head. "Thanks Pip. I normally can pick out clothes but for some reason I just can't stay focused on one simple task today."
"Don't worry, I completely understand," replied Philippa as she went directly to specific parts of Gabriella's closet to collect a long, flowing khaki colored skirt with a nice white top and matching jacket. "Will this work? It will give you the layers in case it gets cold and also looks trendy."
"Brilliant Pip, thank you," replied Gabriella, who had grabbed some underwear a moment before and now rushed to the bathroom to change. Once satisfied with how she looked, Gabriella grabbed her purse and cell phone before she headed towards the East wing where everyone was waiting for her.
Ryan, who was leaning against a wall, smiled at her. "Ready to go Gab?"
"Sure. Where are we going?" asked Gabriella, unsure of what they wanted to do on their first day in Copanvy.
Sharpay rolled her eyes at this. "Umm, hello! Ball tomorrow? You may have a designer, custom made gown but we do not and packing said dress would have been hell. We need dresses and Ryan needs a suit."
"No I don't, I brought my own," protested Ryan.
"Shut up Ry, you are not wearing that wrinkled old suit! You need a new one or my Mustang isn't pink!" exclaimed Sharpay as she began to walk off, dragging Tessa along with her.
"Man, she hasn't changed has she?" murmured Gabriella, an amused smile on her lips.
"Are you kidding? Shar change? That's like asking the moon to stop orbiting around the Earth," teased Taylor. "She is still her fun self though. Oh, before you find out in some weird way, Sharpay and Zeke have kind of started flirting and have gone on a few dates."
"WHAT?" Gabriella almost screeched, stopping her walk and staring at Taylor. "Are you serious?"
Taylor nodded her head. "Tessa is cool with it though. Guess the saying is true, you can't help but fall in love with who you do."
"Wow," muttered Gabriella, hearing for the first time Ryan's chuckle. "And what exactly are you laughing at Ryan?"
"Oh, just your reaction. I felt the same way when I found Sharpay and Zeke making out one night. It's casual though so nothing major yet," stated Ryan.
"Speaking of, where's Chad Tay?" questioned Gabriella, noticing that Taylor was here without her husband. "Didn't run away already did you?"
Taylor laughed. "No, he did say he wanted me to send his love to you though. Chad had a business trip come up last week and was due to come back this weekend but since he was missing the ball didn't want to come out. He has catch up work and all that. I hope you don't mind."
Gabriella nodded her head. "Not at all! I'm just glad you're here, all of you."
"Will you three get your cute little behinds moving? They are going to close the shopping plaza Annette recommended before you three make it to the front door!" exclaimed Sharpay, now glaring back at them before dragging a reluctant Tessa behind her.
"Still glad all of us are here?" joked Ryan as the three picked up the pace before Gabriella realized that they were going the wrong way.
She stopped their walk and called out to the two in the front. "Unless you have some secret GPS that will show you a secret passageway, you might want to follow me out of here."
Taylor and Ryan burst into laughter at this, seeing the smug look on Gabriella's face and the embarrassed one of Sharpay's while Tessa just rolled her eyes. The three stood there as Tessa now dragged Sharpay behind her before the group of friends walked down another hall and finally down the main stairs.
"Do you all mind squeezing into my car?" asked Gabriella as they walked out the front doors, her car keys in her right hand.
"No need, I'd be happy to take Tessa off your hands," stated Chris from where he was leaning up against his own car. "Hey Tess."
"CHRIS!" yelled Tessa, breaking out into a run towards the man who had kept her attention since Taylor and Chad's wedding weekend.
Chris instantly swept Tessa into a big hug, kissing her deeply before coming back up for air and looking at Gabriella, Taylor, Sharpay, and Ryan. "Hi everyone else," he replied, a sheepish smile on his face while Tessa wrapped her arms around his waist and looked back at her friends.
"Hi," Taylor, Sharpay, and Ryan returned, amused looks on their faces.
Gabriella though, had an entirely different look on her face. "Christopher Sonders! You are so dead! You knew this whole time and you didn't say a word to me about them coming!"
Chris quickly threw up his hands in the air, moving so that his car now stood between him and Gabriella, who had just recently narrowed her brown eyes at him. "Well, in my defense, I only knew about Tessa and she said she'd, well, not do such good things to me if I slipped it out that she was coming. I almost did today too in my excitement."
"So that's why you were so distracted and DROPPED me at least seven different times today," remarked Gabriella, crossing her arms over her chest. "Over Tessa Grainger!"
"Hey, you make me sound like some… Never mind," started Tessa, realizing as Taylor put out a hand to stop Tessa's words that she didn't want to get in the middle of the dance partners.
"Whoa, I thought you'd be happy that I was happy and excited to see your best friend," defended Chris. "She was going to hurt me otherwise!"
If Gabriella could have narrowed her eyes any further without closing her eyes, she would have in that instant. "Like I won't? All I can say Chris is for your lack of loyalty to me, your supposed close friend, you better watch your back at rehearsals. You may be in control of dropping or not dropping me but there's plenty else that can go wrong for you out on that stage, in front of hundreds of people," replied Gabriella, instantly dropping the angry look and putting a sweet smile on her face.
Despite the sudden mood change, Chris swallowed, hard, because he knew that Gabriella was already conspiring something in her mind for him. "Umm, Tessa, why don't you go with Ella?"
Gabriella immediately axed that suggestion with a shake of her head. "No, you came here specifically to see Tessa, I'm not going to deprive you of that. Meeting us at Kinsley Plaza?"
Chris groaned. "Shopping? Ella!" he whined.
She shrugged in response. "That's where my friends have chosen to go so deal."
Ryan let out a low whistle at this, knowing Gabriella well enough to know that Gabriella was enjoying every moment of torture she was inflicting at that very moment. He watched as Tessa gave Chris a sympathetic smile before running a soothing hand over his arm. Ryan got into the backseat behind Gabriella and closed the door, starting the burst of laughter from everyone over what just happened.
"Gab, you still got it! I can't believe how quickly you turned the table on Chris!" exclaimed Taylor, smiling as she saw Chris worriedly look over at their car.
"I know! I am so fucking proud of you Gaby! That was my work, right there!" added Sharpay.
Gabriella just laughed and shook her head, feeling as if nothing in the world could get her down now, especially because she had her best friends with her. She had just put the car in reverse when Sharpay screeched from the passenger seat.
"Shar, what's wrong?" asked an alarmed Ryan as Gabriella had slammed on the brakes in reaction the Sharpay's scream.
"I totally forgot! The bracelet Patrick gave you! I need to see that close up," demanded Sharpay, taking Gabriella's left hand in her own two and admired the way that the diamond bracelet continued to sparkle brilliantly in the sun as it had when Gabriella first lifted her hand up to the steering wheel. "Gabriella, that's serious money!"
Gabriella self-consciously tried to take her hand back but felt Taylor gently hold onto it so she and Ryan could also take a look. "It is gorgeous Gabriella. Patrick really most care for you," remarked Taylor, observing the way Gabriella smiled at the mention of Patrick's name. 'Is it possible? Gaby is actually moving on?'
Seeing that her hand was let go of finally, Gabriella took her hand back and placed it back on the steering wheel while she looked off into the distance. She turned back around and smiled at Taylor. "You make it sound like he gave me an engagement ring Taylor."
Taylor shrugged. "He may as well have, at least from my stand point. Girl, you've got more diamonds on that little hand slash wrist there than I do in my entire jewelry collection. Patrick had to have spent a lot on that."
"And guys never do that without being serious about a girl," remarked Ryan, feeling he had to throw in his own two cents. "So, when do we get to meet this prince of yours?"
Gabriella laughed, finally succeeding in shaking the odd and nervous feeling she had off. "Tomorrow at the ball. Shar, you have to promise me you will behave though okay?"
Sharpay scoffed. "Me? I always behave! It's that friend of yours and Tessa you will have to stop from having sex on the dance floor!"
Gabriella looked in her rearview mirror and saw Taylor and Ryan both holding in their laughter so she tried to do the same, failing moments later causing everyone else to laugh with her. "Oh man, this feels so great to be back with you guys. Thank you," said Gabriella as she finally gained control over her breathing again and instead focused on successfully reversing this time and following Chris to the plaza where they would spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening at until every person had something bought there for the ball, except for Gabriella, who was now excited to see the gown waiting for her back at the palace.
Troy flipped his longer than normal brown hair out of his cerulean eyes as he placed the last box down in his new apartment. He surveyed the once empty apartment he had moved into only late last week and smiled in satisfaction that the place started to feel like an actual home instead of the emptiness it radiated days before. After grabbing a clean glass and drinking some water, Troy moved to the first of two bedrooms in his apartment that served as his bedroom while the other was his study. Having just received the cherry wood bedroom furniture that morning, Troy got to work on unpacking his clothes that were mostly in his luggage, pushing aside those clothes on the floor that he knew were dirty already.
About two hours later, Troy looked around and was satisfied with how everything seemed to fit in the right places in his new home. With all the clothes put away and the boxes and suitcases broken down and stored in his closet, his bedroom actually looked spacious, even with a queen bed sitting in the cherry wood frame against the far wall. Next he went out to the hallway and picked up a box marked bedroom and put it down on the bare mattress. When he lifted the lid, his heart beat a little faster as he viewed its contents. This box now in his hands was the box dedicated to his year with Gabriella. Troy reverently lifted out the turquoise sweater Gabriella had worn the night they had met at the lodge and put it up to his nose, smiling that it still smelled a little like her. He put the piece of clothing down on the bed and began looking through the box, smiling more as he saw things and pictures he had almost forgotten were packed away, like the napkin of the first fine dining experience he and Gabriella had shared and so many pictures that Tessa and Taylor both had given him after Gabriella left as leftovers from their scrapbooking project they gave her. On the side of the box was a wooden picture frame that held a collage of pictures that Gabriella had left behind for him to find via Chad the night he returned from saying his final goodbye to her all those years ago. Troy ran his fingers over the glass, over some of his favorite pictures, before he looked up and around to find a place for it.
He found it almost immediately and walked over to his bedside table, placing the large frame next to one that was smaller but meant just as much to him. Troy sat down on his bed and looked back at the smaller frame, a gift Chucky had recently given him with a note of encouragement. Slowly he reached out and picked the frame up and gazed down at the two pictures in the frame, knowing that for the first time in a long time, Troy had made the right decision in his life with no questions about it.