Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.

A/N: I've got three words for you: Junior Year Sucks. I'm so sorry this chapter has been a long time coming, my life has been crazy this month. Before I start though, I have several birthday wishes to give out. Two of my favorite people on FanFiction have their birthdays within the same week! 123Hsmluver's birthday was on Thursday. Then, zvforever's birthday is today! I hope both of you had an incredible day – you both deserve it! Enjoy…

Last Time…

A comfortable silence fell over the pair as their eyes searched the night sky for more pictures. All that Gabriella could hear was Troy's soothing heartbeat.

"It's a new moon tonight," Gabriella remembered aloud.

"Yay?" Troy wasn't sure if that was some great revelation he was supposed to respond to.

"New moons symbolize new beginnings, you know," Gabriella explained quietly, "Everything is changing now."

"Everything is changing for the better."

Chapter Thirty One - Bliss

It had only been two days since Gabriella's return. Their belongings had finally arrived. Gabriella, Mariana, Lucas and Lily had flown while the moving truck had driven across the country, thus causing the delay.

Today was a big day because today was the day the gang was meeting Mariana for the first time, face to face. The whole gang was coming over to help the Montez family unpack.

As Gabriella pulled a simple t-shirt shirt over her head, she couldn't help but feel nervous about the upcoming day. She knew that her grandmother would love all of her friends, and her friends would love her grandmother. Yet, there was still this feeling of anxiousness that resonated throughout Gabriella's body.

Gabriella watched herself in the mirror as she carefully braided her hair, so it fell on her left shoulder (it was better that her hair stay out of her face for the day).

Maybe what she was really afraid of was that her friends wouldn't like her anymore. Though she'd seen them on Saturday, and had been e-mailing them constantly, she hadn't had to hold a conversation with them for any extended period of time. She was worried that things could be awkward between them.

She shook her head. Why was she working herself up? She should be excited for the day that lay ahead of her, not worried. She refused to let herself be worried.

Just then there was a knock at her door,

"It's open!" Gabriella called out. She heard the door open and Lily came bounding in, holding two ribbons.

"Will you braid my hair for me?" Lily asked hopefully, holding up her two red ribbons.

"Of course. Stand here, "Gabriella positioned her younger sister just in front of her mirror, while Gabriella stood right behind her.

"So Lily are you ready for a hard day of unpacking?" Gabriella asked, as she parted Lily's hair.

"I don't have that much stuff to unpack. I'll probably finish before you!" she exclaimed.

Gabriella laughed, "You probably will, don't forget though, your new furniture is coming today. So you get to decide where that goes in your room."

Lily grinned, "I know! I'm so excited! I can't decide if I want my desk facing the window, or in the corner though."

Gabriella thought for a second as she tied one of Lily's ribbons, "If you put it facing your window, you'd be able to paint the nature as you see it. Right?"

"But what if it gets sunny?" Lily asked worriedly.

"Draw the blinds," Gabriella responded simply shrugging her shoulders. Lily smiled,

"I never thought of that. Good thinking!"

Gabriella grinned, just as she finished tying the other ribbon,

"There! All done!"

Lily turned her head so she could see both her braids. She beamed as she looked up at her sister,

"Thanks Gabi!"

"Anytime. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Not yet, I was waiting to eat with you," Lily answered.

"Let's go now then, I'm hungry," Gabriella said, motioning for her sister to go downstairs with her.

A few minutes later, Gabriella and Lily were in the kitchen gathering bowls, utensils, cereal and milk. Mariana was already there, making tea for herself and Gabriella. By the time Lucas walked into the kitchen, Gabriella was pouring her Cheerios.

"Morning Luc," Gabriella greeted, "You want Cheerios?"

"Do we have anything else?" he asked hopefully.

"None that I would be willing to pour for you. You could look in the cupboard though." Gabriella suggested. Lucas followed his sister's advice and walked over to the cupboard to search for a sugary cereal.

"Are you excited for today Grandma?" Lily asked Mariana when she sat down at the table.

"Very much so," Mariana grinned.

"Me too!" Lucas chimed in as he sat down at the table with his Lucky Charms, "I've been dying to have someone to play ball against!"

"Gabi and I play with you!" Lily reminded her brother.

"I meant someone good," Lucas replied shortly.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed. "That's the last time I'm playing basketball with you."

"Fine. I won't you need you anymore now that we're back in town," Lucas shot back.

"Let's not argue guys," Mariana intervened calmly. "What about you Gabriella? Are you excited for today?" Mariana asked, changing the subject

"Of course I am," Gabriella replied quickly. "I mean, naturally, I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, because I want you to like everyone and visa versa, not that I believe that you won't, because I know you're going to like everyone, and when I say you, I mean you abuela, because Lucas and Lily have already met everyone and I know that they get along and-"Gabriella rambled nervously.

"Aye Dios mio Gabriella. Calm down mi cielo," Mariana placed a comforting hand over Gabriella's, "I'm sure everything will go smoothly," she assured Gabriella.

Gabriella smiled weakly, "Yeah," she mumbled, looking down at her cereal

Just then the doorbell rang. Gabriella's head shot up from her bowl as she eyebrows furrowed, "What?" Gabriella whipped her head around, looking for a clock, "They're not supposed to be here until 10! It's only 9:30!"

Lily quickly put more cereal in her mouth, as she looked guilty down at her bowl,

"Uh...I may or may not have answered the phone when Troy called and told him to come at 9:30…" she trailed off.

"Lily!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"I thought it would help!" she defended.

Gabriella sighed, "Sorry, I'm just nervous. It's probably better this way, you're right." She stood up from the table, "I'll be back in a second."

As she walked out of the kitchen and down the front hall to the door, Gabriella smoothed her shirt and quickly patted her hair, to make sure it was in place. As she got close to the door she could see Troy standing outside through the glass side panels. He obviously hadn't seen Gabriella yet, because his back was facing the door and Gabriella could see his hands in his pockets.

He was nervous too, she could tell by his body language. He only put his hands in his pockets if he was nervous.

Finally, she reached the door and pulled it open. Troy whorled around and looked thankful that it was only Gabriella at the door, grinning widely. His charming smile instantly calmed Gabriella as she smiled back at him.

Why was she nervous again? This boy was going to blow her grandma away.

Gabriella flung her arms around her boyfriend's neck, hugging him tightly. After a few moments, she released him from her tight grip and looked up at him,

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi," he replied.

"Come in," Gabriella insisted, motioning for him to step inside. Troy shut the front door behind him after he stepped inside.

Gabriella took his hand and started to lead him into the kitchen, "Everyone is excited to see you," she told him.

"And I'm excited as well," Troy answered, "But I just need to do one thing before we go in there."

Gabriella stopped and looked back at Troy, confused, "And what's that?"

"This," Troy answered simply before he pulled Gabriella back towards him and kissed her sweetly. Although she was shocked at first, Gabriella soon melted into his arms, letting her lips move softly against his. She caught herself smiling, almost giggling, as she kissed him. The best part was that she could feel Troy smiling as well.

The kiss was short because they both knew Gabriella's family was waiting in the kitchen, but even after their lips parted, Troy's hands were still planted firmly on Gabriella's hips,

"I missed you," Troy whispered. Gabriella smiled,

"Me too."

Troy leaned back in, to kiss Gabriella again, but Gabriella promptly giggled a gently pushed Troy's chest back,

"My family is going to start wondering where we are," she giggled.

"So?" Troy muttered, leaning back in to kiss her. Gabriella quickly put her index finger up against his lips.

"So, we'll have plenty of time to do this later. Now come on," Gabriella reminded him, taking his hand again.

"Fine, fine." Troy smiled, following Gabriella into her kitchen. As soon as the couple entered the kitchen, Lily and Lucas got up and ran towards Troy, crashing into him with warm hugs.

"Woah!" Troy exclaimed, laughing and taking a step backwards to steady himself, "It's good to see you guys too."

"You owe me a lot of games," Lucas reminded Troy.

"Oh I do, do I? Well we'll have to get started today if we ever want to catch up. Later, when all the guys are here we can have an intense game," Troy suggested.

"Cool"

"What about you, Miss Lily? All better from that fall?" Troy asked.

"Yup! I'm doing fantastic!" Lily beamed.

"Good to hear," Troy smiled.

By then, Mariana had made her way over to the small group. Lily and Lucas stepped back from Troy, so he could finally meet their grandmother.

Mariana was a small woman, only a few inches taller than Gabriella. Her gray hair was pulled back into a low bun, so it stayed out of her soft, rounded face.

"Abuelita, this is Troy. Troy this is my grandmother," Gabriella introduced gesturing between the pair. Troy held his hand out,

"It's nice to meet you, Señora Ortiz."

"For what you've done for my grandchildren, you may call me Mariana," she insisted taking his hand to shake. Troy nodded.

"It's nice to finally be able to match your voice to a face," Mariana commented, "I'd heard so much about you, but I've never had a face to match it to."

"Same here, Gabriella's told me a lot of good things about you."

"I'm glad it's all good things," Mariana chuckled, "Why don't we sit down and I'll get you some breakfast."

--

Later that afternoon, the entire gang was spread around Gabriella's new house. The boys had been helping Mariana move furniture around, while the girls helped decide on furniture placement and where to hang pictures.

Now, the boys had gone outside to play basketball because most of the heavy-lifting had been completed. They did agree however, to come in and help if they were needed.

All the girls were up in Gabriella's room, helping her unpack her things and arrange her new furniture. Currently, they were piecing together a collage for Gabriella's wall. Gabriella had found old photos from her childhood and Taylor, Sharpay and Kelsi had brought pictures of the gang and their memories. There had to be at least 100 photos on the floor, surrounding a giant cork board. Carefully, the girls were deciding where the pictures should be placed and which ones were the best.

"I'm so jealous of your balcony Gabriella!" Kelsi proclaimed.

"Me too!" Taylor agreed. "It would be fantastic to just sit out there and read all day, wouldn't it?"

"It's perfect for a reenactment of the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet," Sharpay pointed out, "Can't you see it?" she held one hand over her heart and the other out, as she recited the famous lines, "'O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?'"

"Except Gabriella doesn't need a reenactment, she has her own Romeo, who'll be wanting to climb up her balcony," Taylor reminded the girls.

"What? No, I don't think that's going to happen," Gabriella protested.

"You're kidding right?" Sharpay chuckled, "That boy is going to be up and down that tree, which is quite conveniently placed by the way, practically every day."

Gabriella blushed; she really, really, liked the thought of Troy climbing the tree to come see her. Not only did the whole thing relate to Romeo and Juliet, her favorite Shakespeare, but that would mean she could see Troy more often.

"You totally want him to do that don't you?!" Taylor squealed.

Gabriella could feel herself reddening further, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Of course not" Taylor smiled.

"What girl doesn't want her Romeo climbing up her balcony, proclaimed his love for her!" Sharpay declared dramatically.

Gabriella smiled, "I just like the idea of being able to see him whenever I want again. I feel like we've been apart forever sometimes."

"You're back together now right? I doubt Troy plans on going anywhere, anytime soon," Kelsi pointed out.

Gabriella nodded, "And neither do I."

--

Everyone had gone home, except Troy. Troy and Gabriella lay together on top of Gabriella's bed. Gabriella was lying on her stomach, with her legs bent above her, so her feet were almost touching her butt. Troy lay on his side, facing Gabriella as she showed him the collage she'd made with the girls. The large cork board was propped up against the bottom left bedpost, while Troy steadied it with his left hand. Gabriella had been telling Troy about the pictures they'd used in the collage.

"Why on earth do you have green paint all over you, in this one?" Troy questioned, smirking.

Gabriella buried her face in her hands, in embarrassment, "You know Toy Story?" she asked Troy, lifting her head, only slightly, from her hands to peek at Troy.

"Yeah, I used to watch that all the time."

"Do you remember the green aliens?"

Troy nodded.

"That was my favorite part of the movie. I really wanted to be a green alien," Gabriella began, "So, one day after I'd watched Toy Story, I went into our craft closest, got out the green paint we had and started painting myself – the idea being that I would turn into a one of the aliens because I was green," she confessed.

Troy burst out laughing.

"I was four!" Gabriella tried to defend herself.

"I think I love you a little but more now," Troy laughed, "You were clearly an amazing kid."

"Now don't tell me Little Troy didn't do silly things."

"Oh trust me, I was a handful of a kid. I did the normal trouble maker stuff, you know drawing on everything – the walls were my favorite. I thought I could fly, so I jumped off my dresser. And Chad and I, don't even get me started on the things we did as kids," Troy explained, "But when I was 4, my dad let me watch Batman, you know the one from 1989 with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton?"

"He let you watch that?" Gabriella sounded shocked.

"Mmhmm," Troy nodded.

"Wow."

"Yeah, so I watched it and I became absolutely obsessed with Batman. I wanted batman everything, batman clothes, batman bedding, batman action figures, everything. Eventually, my parents saw a batman costume in a store and bought it for me. I loved that costume and instead of putting on my regular clothes one day, I put on my batman costume. My parents didn't think much of it, until I refused to wear anything else."

"How long did that last, a week?" Gabriella asked, not really impressed with his story.

"7 months," Troy answered quickly.

"What?" Gabriella questioned skeptically.

"You heard right, 7 whole months," Troy stated proudly.

"And your parents allowed that?" she asked in disbelief, shifting onto her side, so she was facing Troy.

"Well eventually they started to get worried. They tried taking it away, but I would just keep taking off any clothes they put on me. I was a stubborn little kid."

"Why'd you suddenly stop wearing it then, Mr. Stubborn?"

"Alex said I wouldn't be allowed to play on the big kid's basketball team," Troy said quietly.

Gabriella smirked, "Of course," she laughed, "That would do it for you, wouldn't it?"

"You know it," Troy replied cockily

Gabriella shook her head, laughing quietly to herself. She let herself fall gently back onto the bed, this time on her back.

"So this is what you guys were doing all day?" Troy asked curiously as he carefully placed the large collage on the floor.

"Not all day, just most of the day. We spent a lot time on it, but we also arranged the furniture and discussed my balcony," she answered.

"Your balcony hmmm?" Troy wondered aloud.

Gabriella propped herself up on her side again, mirroring Troy.

"Mmhmm. Apparently, you are going to be making a daily trip up the conveniently placed tree to come see me," Gabriella explained.

"I don't know Brie, that's a lot of physical labor…" Troy trailed off, rolling on to his back.

"But it's for me," Gabriella whispered in a sing-song voice as she inched closer to Troy.

Troy turned his head to look at Gabriella, "I was being sarcastic, of course I'm going to be climbing that brilliantly placed tree. I saw it while we were outside and I've spent the rest of the day figuring out how I'm going to climb it."

"Do you think it'll be easy?" she asked.

"Pssh, I'll be fine. I'm a pro tree climber," Troy assured her.

"Good to know," Gabriella smiled moving, yet again, closer to Troy until her head was resting on his chest. She let her arm drape over his stomach and she closed her eyes contently.

Troy was truthfully a little bit surprised by Gabriella's actions. He knew Gabriella loved him just as much as he loved her, but she was never the type to be overly affectionate, or at least initiate it. Though he still saw the Gabriella he had known lying on him, there was this more confident Gabriella imbedded within her.

"You're different," he murmured.

Gabriella's eyes snapped open and she quickly pushed herself up, so she was sitting, "What do you mean?" she asked fretfully. What If her worst fear had come true? Troy didn't want her anymore?

"No, no, no," he said quickly, sitting up, as he saw disappointment flash across Gabriella's face, "I didn't mean it in a bad way."

Gabriella still looked confused and scared.

"I mean," Troy began slowly, taking Gabriella's hand, "that I used to look at you and see worry written all over your eyes, even when you were happiest. But now all that worry has disappeared. You just seem happier."

Gabriella smiled, "You know this morning I was nervous about you guys coming over. I wasn't sure if it was that I was worried you wouldn't like me anymore or that you wouldn't get along with my family. But then I saw you when I answered the door and as cliché as it sounds, all my worry, it just washed away," she explained softly, "It's you, who has managed to make me feel this…feel this bliss. I'm so happy now and I wouldn't be if it wasn't for you. You saved me from everything Troy and I don't know how I can ever thank you enough."

"I get to see you happy everyday now Gabriella, that's more than enough for me," Troy whispered, closing the gap between them, capturing her lips in a sweet, passionate kiss.

The End

A/N: Guys…that was last chapter :( All you authors out there know that we're just as sad to see a story end as you readers are. I want to thank all my faithful readers again, I know my updating schedule is terrible, but I'm so thankful that you have stuck with me!

I have good news though, there WILL be a sequel. I don't want to give too much away but you're going to meet some new characters as well as see some old ones. It's going to kick off after the summer, so the beginning of the gang's senior year. I'm going to be trying something new though this time around. I'm going to try to get 3 or 4 chapters written before I start posting the story. Hopefully this will allow my updates to become more regular. HOWEVER, that does mean you'll have to wait a little bit to see the story. Truthfully, I don't picture posting until January, maybe even after that….I know it sounds far off, but it's really not. It's already November and we all know December flies by. Just keep your eyes peeled!

Thank you again for all your support! I wouldn't have been able to do this without you!

~HSMLUVER218