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Taylor just shook her head as she watched her crazy haired boyfriend stuff another handful of orange, brown, and white M&M's into his mouth from the Halloween bowl right next to him. "Honestly Chad, you've only been sitting down here for five minutes and half the bowl is gone!" exclaimed Taylor.
Chad looked down at the bowl and saw that his girlfriend was right. He looked back up at her and shrugged. "Not my fault they are yummy!"
Zeke chuckled from the seats behind Chad and Taylor. "Chad, you would eat anything that was put in front of you."
Troy laughed at this statement, knowing its truth, from where he and Gabriella were curled up a few spots to the right of Chad and Taylor in the Montez's theater room. "Remember the time that Chad ate that whole cube of butter?"
Jason let out a spurt of laughter from the left side of where Zeke and Tessa were sitting, where Jason currently had his arm draped around Kelsi's shoulders. "I've never seen anyone look more sick the hours after that. Even I was smart enough to say no to that dare!"
"Exactly! It was you Zeke who dared me to do it in the first place," responded Chad, feeling a bit queasy just thinking about the butter stick. "You knew I would do it."
"Guilty but at the same time, I didn't think you'd eat the whole thing. I thought you'd be all macho Chad and show us you could do half before common sense kicked in. I didn't realize you didn't have any of that either!" argued Zeke.
Tessa looked over at her boyfriend and shook her head. "You seriously dared Chad to do this? When was this, in third grade?"
"Try three weeks ago when we were bored," supplied Troy, pulling Gabriella closer to him and kissing the top of her head. "That's what happens when you girls leave us to go shopping."
Gabriella's hand instantly shot up in the air. "I beg to differ! I was here at home, not shopping. Why weren't you here then?"
Troy rolled his eyes. "Blame that one on butter boy. He wouldn't let me leave his house to come and see you, something about me not spending enough time with the boys."
"Which you haven't been!" called out Chad, grinning as Troy gave him a dirty look. "It's always, Gabriella this, Brie that. Come on man, what happened to guy time and all that?"
"It got upgraded by girlfriend time!" retorted Troy, smiling more as Gabriella kissed his cheek.
"I liked that answer," said Gabriella, kissing Troy back as he leaned down and captured her lips for a quick kiss.
A scream echoed through the room which turned all their of their attention back on the big screen that was now showing a pretty blonde being stabbed as she was running away. "Now why are we watching this marathon of horrifying movies again?" asked Kelsi, feeling a bit sick at the sight of the fake blood that was now oozing out of the girl's wounds.
"It's Halloween Kelsi, and since the Evans twins, Shar's boyfriend, and Martha had other Halloween plans, we decided to crash Gabriella's place," stated Tessa. "I mean, we do have everything we could possibly want here."
"But it's no party, I'm sorry guys," replied Gabriella, guilt flooding her again, reminding her that most of the people in the movie room were there just because she wasn't allowed to go to the big Halloween bash their other friends were at currently. "Really, you all can still go, there's still plenty of time."
"And miss watching you and Troy swap tonsils while some poor blonde is being knifed, diced, and gutted? Never!" teased Chad. "Honestly Gab, that party is overrated anyway. Chucky isn't even going and that says something since it is a college party and my brother loves partying."
"So where is he?" asked Taylor.
Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Hanging out with Tom and Sammy probably."
"He still hangs with them despite what Riley did to Gab, Troy, and Paul?" questioned Jason. "I wouldn't be able to man."
Gabriella shook her head, signaling her instant disagreement of this mentality. "You can't blame Tom for having a brother who is as, well, as much of a jerk as Riley is. Tom and Riley aren't the same people, just as Sammy and Alicia aren't. I'd be upset honestly if Chucky ended his friendship and bond with those two over what happened with their siblings."
"Are you serious?" asked Zeke. "You really would want them to be friends like that?"
"Well yeah, it's not like Tom is the one who attacked me and Sammy definitely didn't push me down out on the track and spit lies about me all over East High," replied Gabriella. "If Chucky thinks they are cool enough to be friends with them, I trust his judgment."
"Gab is right you know," added Taylor, giving her best friend a smile. "Siblings are totally different from each other in most cases. Look at Ryan and Sharpay. Both are good people but for different reasons and we all know that until Gabriella came around, we would never have seen the positive side to the Ice Queen while Ryan has shown his caring side here and there. There's also Chucky and Chad. Both funny guys but one has more maturity and wisdom than the other. Same goes for me and my older sister. We may look alike but our personalities are so different."
"That's true," agreed Kelsi. "And I have lots of experience with the Evans twins to confirm how different they really are even though they appear to be in synch with each other."
Another scream filled the room, reminding the friends that they were there to watch movies. They all turned their attention back to the screen and watched as the killer came after a red haired guy in the woods with a chainsaw, having previously cut down a brunette girl seconds before. Gabriella snuggled into Troy's embrace as his arm tightened around her shoulders, allowing her to rest her head on his left shoulder while his left hand absently went up and down Gabriella's left arm as they continued to watch the movie.
After two movies, the gang began to get restless in their seats so they started talking to each other again, not putting another movie in, which is the state they were in when Annette and Stephen found them. "Well, good to see you aren't totally focused on the horror tonight," commented Annette, a smile on her face. "We just came in to let you know that there are Halloween surprises in the dining room, most of it sweet."
Stephen let out a chuckle as all the guys in the room immediately got up and ran to the dining room's direction, leaving the girls behind. "I guess I can see where their interest lay," joked Stephen, getting elbowed lightly by his wife. "Sorry, but I think I was that way too when I was that young. Good to see things haven't really changed that much. Food still is the way to distract any teenage boy."
Gabriella rolled her eyes at her father. "Oh Dad, what am I going to do with you?" asked Gabriella as she got up and walked towards where her parents were standing.
"I guess we'll find out another time, another day," returned Stephen with a smile as he returned Gabriella's hug. "You girls better get out there to get some of the dessert for yourselves. I don't know how much will be left after those guys are done."
The girls quickly left Gabriella's parents behind as they walked down the halls towards the dining room, three of the four screaming as their boyfriends popped out at them, Taylor smacking Chad hard on the arm for scaring her while Tessa just glared at Zeke and Kelsi warily eyed Jason. Troy looked at Gabriella who was just staring back at him with a smile on her face.
"Was I not as scary as the other three?" asked Troy, confused as to why Gabriella didn't jump and scream as the boys jumped at them from around the corner, some chocolate on their lips as they had already dug into some of the desserts before coming up with the plan to scare the girls.
Gabriella shook her head. "No, I guess some part of me had a feeling you four would try scaring us like you just did. Besides, how could I ever be scared of you?"
Troy grinned down at her, somehow touched by what she said. "Well that's a good thing then. I'm glad you aren't scared of me or jumpy. How did you suspect our secret plan though? We came up with it like two minutes ago."
"You're guys and I have a great sixth sense," teased Gabriella, kissing Troy on the cheek before tugging on his hand that was in hers. "Come on, we better go to the dining room before all the treats are gone."
Troy nodded his head and followed Gabriella into the dining room, chuckling as he saw that Jason, Chad, and Zeke had dug back into the chocolate cupcakes while Tessa, Kelsi, and Taylor were making sundaes with the fresh brownies Annette had made herself with all the toppings, including orange and black sprinkles. "Wow, your parents went all out for a last minute get together."
"They just try to make up for me being unofficially under house arrest," replied Gabriella, giving Troy a little shrug. "I don't mind it so much when you guys are around but I also feel guilty we can't be like a normal couple, a normal group of friends who can go hang out at the local pizza place or go bowling. The only exception may be only to go sky diving as that's a reserved place where no one else could follow us or start a fight."
"True, it would be hard for West to sneak onto a plane only to harass us or even paparazzi for that matter. Hmm, maybe that could happen," thought Troy out loud.
Gabriella saw the thoughtful expression on his face and shook her head. "No way! Troy, I was just joking about the sky diving! I'm scared of heights, remember?"
"Well yeah but you have to conquer that fear eventually Brie. What else are you scared of? I know spiders are on that list but I can't think of anything else," stated Troy.
Gabriella's expressions sobered a little as she thought of the big thing he was missing. "I'm scared of losing my parents and I'm scared of losing you Troy," confessed Gabriella, catching Troy's attention as he was just about to bite into a warm brownie.
He gave her an astonished look. "Seriously? I rank as one of your fears?"
"Well not you but the idea of losing you. Call me silly but I've been thinking about the inevitable a lot lately and it scares me more than you know to accept the fact that one day in the future there's going to be a whole ocean plus lots of land separating us. Emma has reminded me that you won't always be here and I know that but it's tough to accept," revealed Gabriella. "But the idea of losing you permanently, losing you in some stupid fight with the West boys or something like that, that's far worse than knowing you are living a happy life in another country from me. That's really what my fear is."
"Oh Brie, don't let that be a fear, please," begged Troy, seeing her brown eyes fill with tears. Troy placed the brownie in his hand down on a plate on the table and brought his girlfriend into his embrace, running one hand up and down her spine in a comforting gesture while the other held the back of her head close to him against his chest. "Nothing is going to happen to me Brie. I know I'm not invincible but I won't go down without a fight. I made a promise to you the night of our little Homecoming Dance to always be with you and to be here for you. Absolutely nothing can make me break that promise Brie."
Gabriella nodded her head, glad her face was turned away from the rest of their friends as she blinked back tears. The truth was, Gabriella had been having dreams lately about losing Troy in a fight and had discussed this with Emma, who diagnosed it stemming from a mixture of the memory of Troy fighting in the past, especially with Riley on that night, and Gabriella's dependency on him. After that session, Emma made Gabriella promise her to work on trying to rely more on herself, which Gabriella had tried doing and was getting better at as each day went by.
Troy felt Gabriella tighten her hold on him and returned it, trying to wrap his mind around what she just confessed to him. 'I know I'm scared of losing her too, and I know that day is always looming over my head when she will have to leave for Copanvy, but I didn't know her fear was so close to the surface. How long has she been internalizing this?' wondered Troy. He looked to his left and saw that their friends were discreetly watching while they continued to talk to each other, worry on each of their faces as they saw a little bit of a break down from Gabriella for the first time in a long time. Troy mouthed that Gabriella was fine, which washed away the worried looks from the guys but the girls were still concerned. When he felt Gabriella start to pull away, Troy looked back down at her and saw that she had gathered her composure again.
"Sorry," apologized Gabriella, looking back up at Troy.
Troy shook his head. "Don't be, there's nothing to be sorry about. Remember, that ring on your right hand symbolizes my promise to you to always be here for you, and I always will be, honest. I'm not going anywhere close to another realm anytime soon, I promise."
Gabriella was about to say something back when she heard two familiar voices she hadn't heard in a while. She spun around and grinned as she saw Beth and Sarah standing in the entryway to the dining room. "You came!" exclaimed Gabriella, quickly walking to the two girls she hadn't seen in ages.
Beth and Sarah both returned her hug and then Tessa's before they came further into the room. "Well, we realized after talking to Tessa how very long it has been since we've actually seen you and thought we'd stop by for a little bit. The invitation is still good right?" responded Sarah, looking around at the other teenagers in the room.
"Of course! I'm just glad you two came and yes, it really has been a long time but I know life gets hectic," stated Gabriella, happy that her only two friends from West besides Tessa were now there with the rest of Gabriella's friends.
Beth smiled at Gabriella, noting how much better Gabriella looked from a few months ago when they last saw each other. "You really do look happier. I think East has done wonders for your stress level."
"Something like that," murmured Gabriella, giving Troy a small smile before she turned her attention back on Beth and Sarah who were now being introduced to the people they didn't know by Tessa.
"Good to have them back?" asked Taylor, walking over to Gabriella, her bowl with her sundae still in her hands. "I know you've missed them in the past months."
Gabriella nodded her head. "I have, no offense to you and the rest of the friends I've made at East, but I kind of figured it was just an example of what's to come, you know? People growing apart when you don't conveniently see each other every day."
"Are you talking about college or something that is uniquely tied to you?" questioned Taylor, knowing both scenarios would eventually come, it was just a matter of which would be first.
"Both," replied Gabriella. "I'm just hoping I can see you guys off to your different colleges before I have to leave to the life waiting for me in Copanvy."
"So college here in the U.S. is out already," stated Taylor. "Parents already axed that?"
"In their own way, yes. We haven't had the talk about me not being able to stay but I know I've been on borrowed time that may not have even been mine had it not been for the trial. If nothing else, this trial happening has allowed me to be here longer than I think I would have been otherwise," revealed Gabriella.
"Well don't start saying good-bye to all of us. I can only speak for myself here really but Gab, I don't see our friendship vanishing just because we're a long distance apart. Remember, you and I were close even when you were a West Knight," teased Taylor as she scrunched up her face at the last part before laughing with Gabriella.
"I won't be but it is something that has been on my mind. Anyway, enough of this dark thought process. Let's dig into these treats!" exclaimed Gabriella, grabbing a plate and filling it with various treats from cupcakes to cookies to her mom's brownies before she was handed their special sundae by Troy, giving him a kiss on the cheek for making it for her again.
"Dude, what's in those special sundaes of yours?" asked Chad, already on his tenth brownie in addition to the other cupcakes and cookies he had consumed.
Troy grinned back at his best friend. "You'll never know but trust me, Brie and I love them," replied Troy, smiling more as he saw that twinkle back in Gabriella's eyes.
"Wow, I can totally see what you mean now Tessa, they really do seem that much closer," commented Sarah, smiling as she saw the couple gaze at each other. "Guess things are easier now?"
Tessa shook her head. "I wouldn't say easier but I think they have grown that much more individually to be that much closer together."
"Hmm, talking about us again?" joked Zeke as he moved to slip his arms around her waist from behind, nuzzling her neck a little.
"No, we're still the new kids on the block compared to Troy and Gabriella over there," returned Tessa.
"True, and we have far less drama which is a very good thing," agreed Zeke. "So Beth, has Tessa been behaving over at West?"
Beth looked at her good friend and grinned, seeing the look Tessa shot her. "I think for Tessa, she has been on her best behavior. No more fights or crazy things, at least at school. Sarah and I attributed that to you actually."
"Hmm, did I tame the wild Knight girl then?" teased Zeke.
Tessa rolled her eyes. "More like I tamed the Wildcat, just like Gabriella and Taylor have done. Check out Taylor and Chad," replied Tessa, indicating the couple that had been bickering a moment ago only to now be feeding each other a cookie and a brownie. "You have to say, those two are a great example of how different we all are yet share this same bond."
Zeke agreed, then pointed out Kelsi and Jason, who were holding hands while talking to Gabriella and Troy in another corner of the room. "Kelsi too seems to have found her Wildcat. I'm glad they got together finally. I didn't know if they would since they are both so shy."
"No, more like Kelsi is shy and Jason, well he just isn't as quick to be with the program as the rest of the team," replied Tessa, earning a laugh from other three. "I'm happy they are happy too. Now, if we could just hook up Beth and Sarah here, as well as Martha and Ryan, everyone would be happy in world of high school love and infatuation."
Tessa, Beth, Sarah, and Gabriella started to chat again as they got caught up with each other's lives after Gabriella came over, Zeke and Troy talking about professional sports while they watched the group of girls continue to animatedly talk to each other, chuckling at times at the expressions on Gabriella's and Tessa's faces at various times. Eventually, the rest of the gang gathered together in that area to talk for a while before Chad decided it was time to head back into the movie room to watch more movies.
"Come on! We haven't even gotten to Grudge and Grudge 2! Oh, and The Ring!" exclaimed Chad, getting excited at being able to watch those movies now instead of listening to the girls chat among themselves.
"Umm, slight problem, we don't have those," pointed out Gabriella before seeing the grin on Chad's face stay on his face.
"I figured as much, I brought them myself!" responded Chad, earning a groan from the girls. "What, I thought tonight was Halloween, the night of screams and fright?"
"Chad Danforth, I swear if any of us get horrible nightmares it's all going to be your fault," stated Taylor, shaking her head at her boyfriend.
"I'll die laughing if it's Chad that gets them," added Tessa.
Zeke laughed at this. "I'm actually pretty positive it will be Tess."
"Well then what are we waiting for? I want to see Chad get nightmares brought on by himself!" exclaimed Jason.
The gang moved back into the movie room and settled down into the seats, this time Gabriella and Troy sitting together with Sarah and Beth to their left so the three girls could still catch up here and there while Taylor and Chad were seated on their right. Tessa and Zeke were seated in the row of chairs behind Gabriella and Sarah while Jason and Kelsi were snuggled together in chairs a few to the right of them, more behind Chad and Troy. There was talk going on between the friends for the first few minutes of The Grudge until the action started happening, which is when Chad made them all quiet down.
"Come on! I'm trying to watch the movie," complained Chad.
"Sorry horror movie freak," replied Tessa, laughing a little at how serious Chad was about his movies. "I had no idea you were such a movie buff."
"Shh," returned Chad, turning his head back to the screen.
Tessa just shrugged her shoulders and gave the screen her full attention, seeing that everyone else was back to watching the movie. She smiled at Zeke a few minutes later as he slipped his arm around her shoulder, letting her lean her head back against his shoulder until Tessa jumped along with Kelsi and Beth a few minutes later in reaction to what was going on in the movie. Zeke chuckled a little at this and felt Tessa elbow him hard, sobering him a little before she turned back to watch the movie again.
'Note to self, don't laugh at Tessa's fears,' thought Zeke as he rubbed his side where she had made contact. 'Man she has a hard jab.'