PAIRING: troy/gabriella
RATING: explicit (just for one scene later in the fic, the rest is more like teen and up audiences)
CHAPTER: 1/6
WORDS: 4,691
SUMMARY: Ten years ago, Gabriella had to come to the terms with the fact that she and Troy didn’t get a happy ending.Now, she has to deal with the possibility that they might get one after all.
When Gabriella imagined her high school reunion ten years ago, she had always imagined that it would conjure up mixed emotions. She had always known it would be difficult to come back and see what she’s left behind, but she also knows that Albuquerque is her home, the place where her roots lie after all these years, both the good and the bad.
However, she has never imagined that it would be this difficult. She can’t face her old friends, not now. She’s still too broken, not ready to face the music and confront her failures.
Of course, she also has had many successes – studying for her PhD in California is not the worst future she could have imagined –, but when she thinks of the ever persistent question of how she’s doing and how she’s been, she can only think of him.
She can only think of the scene she’d found in front of her on that horrific day only a month ago. She can only think of his naked body lying next to someone else and the way he had looked at that other woman – his secretary, no less, what a cliché – in a way that he’d never looked at her. She can only think of the way his blue eyes were void of any emotion, void of any regret as she showed him the door.
She knows that her life is not and should never be defined by a man, but she can’t help the dent that it has brought to her self-esteem. For days, she’d cried and asked herself what she had done wrong to deserve this. And she’s not ready yet to face the harsh reality of her broken heart and to see how satisfied her old friends all are, whether they’re happily single – Taylor, Kelsi – or blissfully married – Ryan.
For a lot of them, she doesn’t even know how they are. She’s heard vague stories about Sharpay from Ryan, but she has no idea how all the basketball boys are. Does Zeke still cook? What has Jason done with his life? Is Chad still as obsessed with basketball as ever?
gabpay tennis au where they're both in mixed doubles (with troy and ryan respectively)
troy has been playing men's doubles with chad for ages, but chad has to retire due to an injury, and troy plans on retiring from doubles too, until he sees up and coming gabriella play and it's not a want, but a need to play with her. they immediately click after meeting and decide to give their partnership a shot.
meanwhile, sharpay and ryan have been dominating mixed doubles for years, but sharpay is restless, and she needs more. she's been trying to get troy bolton to play with her after finding out he's not partnered with chad anymore (he's at the top of the atp and she's at the top of the wta, it just makes sense), but he keeps refusing because, well, he doesn't like her very much. then he suddenly enters the mixed doubles with a new partner and sharpay is furious, because why would he turn her down for a nobody? what does gabriella montez have what she doesn't? she can't be that good.
but then it turns out she is good, and oh no, it turns out she's hot, and oh no, this is a problem.
time travel au, follow up to this, 1.6k words (for @benignbitch19)
In, out. In, out. In, out.
Anthony rubs his temple, ignoring the pounding of his heart in his chest and he tries to regulate his breathing. It’s too much, far too much. Not just the fact that he travelled back in time and is now walking around amongst younger versions of his parents and uncles and aunts, but also this fiasco of an Evans family dinner that he and Sabrina just witnessed. A fiasco that involved his own father.
He had snuck into the dining room with Sabrina in an effort to spy on her family, sitting with her in a far corner as not to rouse suspicion. He would be remiss to deny that it had felt like a date, his heart stuttering every time she looked at him with those maddeningly beautiful piercing blue eyes of hers, but the magic had quickly been broken once Troy showed up.
They had only picked up on bits and pieces of the conversation at the table, as they were sitting too far away and Aunt Kelsi’s music was too loud, but what they heard was not good. Not good at all.
He knows that whatever happened in the summer of 2007 isn’t good, that much is obvious because of how much his parents don’t talk about that stretch of their early burgeoning relationship, but he can’t deny that it hurts to see his father being pushed into a corner by the Evans family and roped into whatever evil plan Sharpay Evans has concocted.
He might have feelings for Sabrina Evans-Leverett that aren’t purely platonic, but he sure doesn’t like her mother, if not just for the sad look on Sabrina’s face whenever the topic of her strained relationship with Sharpay comes up in conversation. And seeing her manipulate his father was far too much for him to bear.
Once the excruciatingly long dinner came to an end, he had all but fled from the dining room, needing some air outside, while Sabrina’s curiosity got the better of her and she had stealthily followed after her mother, uncle and grandparents.
Which leaves him here, in the far too humid Albuquerque summer air, all by himself and hyperventilating.
He’s so focussed on his own panic that he doesn’t notice that there’s someone else present, until he suddenly feels a soft hand on his shoulder. A touch so soft and comforting that he recognizes it instantly and feels his shoulders relax slightly before he turns to face the woman it belongs to.
Once he does, the panic heightens to levels he’s never known before. Because right in front of him, staring at him with concerned yet kind eyes, is 16-year-old Gabriella Montez. His mother.
“Are you okay?” she asks, and Anthony almost breaks down right there and then, just at the sound of her soothing voice in these dire circumstances.
No, he wants to scream. I really need my Mom right now, but you’re not her yet and you can’t know who I am, he wants to say.
Instead, he just nods shakily and puts on his fakest smile. “Yeah, I just think I just ate something bad.”
The look she gives him is a mix of pity and understanding as she gestures to the pool chairs. “Do you want to sit down?”
He nods, offering her a quick thanks, before making his way over to the chairs, hoping that this will be the end of their encounter. However, she follows him and plops down on the one next to him.
“I’m fine, really, you don’t need to stay with me,” he says to her as he lies down and stares up at the night sky, while keeping track of her from the corner of his eye.
Gabriella shrugs in response. “I’m the lifeguard, it’s my job to make sure the pool guests are okay, even if said pool is closed. Besides, I’m waiting for a date. He’s running late.”
Anthony feels his stomach drop as the memory floods back in of Sharpay fixing Troy’s tie as Uncle Chad rolls his eyes behind them, but he manages to keep his face neutral. Before he can say anything else, Gabriella continues, “You know, I haven’t seen you around before. I’m Gabriella.”
Turning to her, Anthony smiles. I know, he thinks. “Anthony.”
“Nice to meet you, Anthony,” Gabriella replies, her own smile warm and soothing like the cups of tea she pushes into his hands on cold winter days. “So, what brings you here?”
Anthony purses his lips as he considers this. He and Sabrina haven’t thought of a story to explain their presence here, because they didn’t think they’d need it. At least not so soon.
“Just celebrating summer vacation,” he offers. Gabriella nods, and a silence befalls them. He can see that she feels slightly uncomfortable with his short answer. He hates seeing her like this, like a sad baby animal with her doe eyes and deep frown.
In the back of his mind, he thinks about being on the golf course with Sabrina, having just realised the full extent of the situation. He thinks about promising that they would stay as far away from meeting the Wildcats as possible, as the consequences might be far too great if they change the course of the events of this summer.
He should know better to engage further with Gabriella, but he supposes the damage is already done.
So, he ignores the voice nagging at the back of his head that urges him to run away, and he asks, “What made you sign up to be a lifeguard here?”
“Troy, the guy who I was just talking about, got me this job,” she replies, and Anthony notices the flicker in her gaze, a mixture of wistfulness and hurt when she sighs, deflated. “He told me that we would spend every waking moment together this summer, but I haven’t seen as much of him as I wanted and now it seems that he’s stood me up, so I guess I’m a little disappointed.”
Anthony winces at her words, unsure what to say to that – the best he can come up with is an encouragement that she and Troy will be fine, that if anyone knows how much their love will persevere, it will be him, but that’s obviously not something he can say. Luckily for him, Gabriella doesn’t seem to notice his discomfort, playing with the hem of her white vest as she continues, “He’s trying to get a scholarship to University of Albuquerque, which I get, the future is important, but I guess it’s just not what I expected or wished for. But I also feel like I’m being harsh on him. I’m lucky that I don’t have to worry that much about college admissions, I’m pretty much already a lock-in for Stanford.”
“Stanford,” Anthony repeats, trying to suppress his smile at the pride he feels for her. “What are you planning to major in?”
“Pre-law,” Gabriella answers, before looking down at her lap for a second and biting her lip. Looking back up, she asks softly, “But can I tell you something I’ve never told anyone before?”
Anthony raises his eyebrows with curiosity and nods. She takes a deep breath, before admitting nervously, “I actually want to be a doctor.”
Fondness rushes through him as childhood memories flash in his mind of seeing his mother at work in the hospital, competent and caring and all around wonderful. Before he knows it, he’s telling her, “You’re a great doctor. I mean, I’m sure you’d make a great doctor.”
Gabriella blushes at his compliment and he feels the tips of his own ears heat up at the almost slip up. For a second, an awkward silence sits between them, before Gabriella asks, “What do you want to be when you’re older?”
Anthony closes his eyes for a second, his mind filled with flowers of all colours, planted by his mother in the Bolton front yard. A daisy in his sister’s hair. A bouquet of flowers squished between his parents as they kiss. “I want to become a gardener.”
When he opens his eyes again, Gabriella’s eyes are lit up with pleasant surprise. “Wow, that’s amazing. Why gardening?”
Because of you. “My mother instilled a love of flowers in me.”
Gabriella’s face melts into something soft at that, and she smiles as she tells him, “Your mother sounds wonderful.”
Anthony returns the smile, and he hopes that years from now on, when they’re back in the present, she’ll remember this moment. He hopes she’ll remember how much he loves her. “She is.”
Despite the sheer insanity of the entire situation, there’s something magical about being here and seeing his mother like this, he realises. Suddenly, he has the urge to stay here forever, to get to know this new side of the incredible woman who birthed him, who cherishes him fiercely and unconditionally, whose warmth carries him during his darkest days.
He doesn’t want this moment to end, so he asks, “Do you like flowers?”
And with that, they fall into a long conversation about everything and nothing, caught up in the moment. So caught up that he doesn’t notice his phone buzzing in his pocket with Sabrina’s incessant messages about a bizarre pineapple-inspired performance that Sharpay and Uncle Ryan put on for Troy, and about Sharpay flat-out asking out Troy on a date. He doesn’t notice Troy stepping outside and seeing Gabriella and Anthony laughing together by the pool chairs. He doesn’t notice Troy make a decision and retreat, off to accept Sharpay’s offer.
He doesn’t notice that he just screwed up the entire timeline.
troy/gabriella, lifeguard/hotel guest au, 700ish words
When Troy comes to, his head is pounding. Groaning as the memory rushes back in of what happened, he rues the day he met Chad Danforth and curses the fact that he let Chad rope him into doing a cartwheel on the slippery tiles at the edge of a swimming pool.
Troy is not clumsy by any means, being an athlete and all that, but that does not mean he can defy gravity when slipping. The last thing he remembers is losing his balance and falling headfirst on the tiles before losing consciousness at the impact.
Now, he’s lying on his back and he vaguely registers a soft, unfamiliar touch on his neck. Slowly cracking open one eye, he winces at the bright sun up above and closes it again.
Above him, he hears a faint, feminine chuckle, and the touch becomes stronger, two fingers pressing against his pulse point.
“I think he’s okay,” he hears a female voice say, and in the distance, he hears Chad breath out a sigh of relief. “Can you go grab an ice pack for me? Looks like he might get a nasty bruise on his forehead.”
He hears footsteps disappear and then it’s quiet. After a minute, he tries to open his eyes once more, now with more success, and he immediately feels his face flush as he registers the face hanging over him.
Long, raven-coloured curls are framing her face and her eyebrows are furrowed with mild concern as she watches him with large, brown eyes. Her face is heart-shaped and her lips are supple and pink.
He’s seen the pretty lifeguard around in the past couple of days, and he’d be lying if he hadn’t stared at her bright smile in the sunlight and ogled her long, tan legs and curves, perfectly on display in her red bathing suit, from a distance. She’s even more stunning up close, a notion that makes him feel a little dizzy. Or maybe he feels dizzy because of the fall. Yeah, definitely the fall.
“I’m such a fool,” he groans, and his heart flutters as she giggles, the sound angelic to his ears.
“Can’t argue with you on that,” she teases him. “But you’ll be fine.”
“Other than that nasty bruise?” he fires back, quirking an eyebrow and hissing at the sharp pain that shoots through him at the movement.
Her lips pulling into a sympathetic grimace, she nods. “Other than that nasty bruise. Are you okay to sit up?”
He considers it for a moment, registering that his back is starting to ache from the hard underground, before he sighs and nods. Her hands grab his, and he ignores the chill that runs down his spine at the contact as she carefully pulls him upright, Troy grunting in the process.
When he’s comfortably seated, his legs pulled up, he releases his hands from hers and lets his left one fly up to rub at his forehead.
“Sorry,” he says sheepishly and she smiles at him, her brown eyes glimmering with amusement, as she shrugs.
“It’s okay. At least you seem to respond well to my help. The other day, I had to help this girl who fell into the pool and she couldn’t stop screaming and cursing at me when I tried to bring her to safety.”
Troy winces and nods. He’d been there. The girl in question, blonde and clad in a tiny pink bikini, had been livid at the lifeguard for some reason. Later, inside the hotel restaurant, the very same girl had been leering at him and throwing him flirty smirks from across the room, but he had chosen to ignore her advances. Too much trouble, he’d reckoned.
“Well, I do appreciate your help,” he tells the lifeguard, before offering her the most charming grin he can muster in his current state.
He’s not sure, still partially blinded by the sunlight, but he swears her cheeks are suddenly tinted pink, and suddenly, his pain is all but forgotten and he feels like he can lift a car. He wants to make her blush again and again and again.
Still grinning, he extends his hand to her. “Troy.”
She looks at his hand for a split second, before smiling back at him and shaking it. Again, a spark rushes through him, and god, she’s beautiful and he thinks he just fell in love.
“Gabriella.”
“Nice to meet you,” he says sincerely, before letting go of her hand.
troy is in his late twenties when he and gabriella have the karaoke moment, and he's on the verge of a burn out. he went to u of a and did everything right, but his life is meaningless. he has a high-paying corporate job (he blew out his knee in college, so his nba career never took off), but it's so boring. he has a nice apartment, but it's void of life. he has a perfect girlfriend (some girl he met in college, sweet but completely uninteresting), but he doesn't love her, only stays with her out of obligation.
he ends up spending new year's eve partying with chad at a ski lodge, but he loses chad in the crowd and suddenly the spotlight's on him, and on quite possibly the most beautiful woman he's ever seen in his life. the rest would be history, except it isn't. he doesn't get her number, and he goes back to his boring life, his night with gabriella nothing but the ghost of a memory.
a few months later, on a random tuesday morning, he runs into her at the reception at the office. it turns out that gabriella is a new hire for the legal department of his company, having just moved to albuquerque.
he offers to take her to his favourite place in his favourite park during lunch, because obviously, he's a nice person who likes to show new people around. it's not because his heart stutters when she smiles at him shyly.
it becomes a regular occurence for them to hang out during lunch and troy finally has something to look forward to, a beacon of light in the darkness. he gets to really know her. he learns what makes her tick, her deepest fears and insecurities, her dreams and desires, the things that make her so happy she shines brighter than the sun. he falls hard and fast.
in an effort to get herself out there - troy is her only friend here and she's kind of lonely -, gabriella decides to sign up for a choir. when she tells troy about it and he sees how nervous she is, he offers to go with her.
their first rehearsal, when he gets up there to perform, it's like the world has tilted on its axis. suddenly, his life has meaning again. this is what he was meant to be doing all along.
an idea that has been running through my mind since yesterday: what if troy and gabriella had their karaoke moment, say, 10 years later, after they have graduated college. how would it change their experience of that night and how different would the aftermath be? the karaoke moment shaped both of their lives, and i'd like to think it would still do that, but it's interesting to think how different it would be if it happened at a different stage of their lives
after that balcony response, i have an image of Ms Montez asking Gabriella why she has nothing on and opens the wardrobe and points out all her clothes going "oh hi troy" when she notices him and continuing like nothing happened
So real talk is that I find it hard to get a good read on the characterization of Gabriella’s mom. Cause like most of the time, she seems quite sweet and gentle in her parenting of Gabriella. But there’s one single clip in the whole trilogy that makes me think she could be super strict when she wants to be. And that’s in HSM3 when she comes in to Gabriella’s room while she and Taylor are talking. The look on her face specifically. She looks like she’s about ready for a lecture. Idk
That all to say, I feel like Troy’s parents, or at least his dad, know more than they let on, but they kind of accept that Troy is responsible (and in my headcanon he’s 18 for most of senior year, so likes he’s an adult too), so they let it be. But idk how Gabriella’s mom would react knowing if her daughter is having sex. It’s so hard for me to get a read on her. And most fanfics write her as sweet and gentle, and half the time I feel the same, but then that one scene makes me think she could go nuclear.
You didn’t ask for this rambling rant but you’re welcome anyways lmao
I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk about why she is the hardest character for me to write. Granted I barely ever write her so it doesn’t really matter anyways but you know
I've always imagined that she absolutely knows Troy climbs the tree to Gabriella's balcony but that she also knows Troy is a very sweet guy and trusts him so she lets it happen
It's very easy to imagine that Gabriella's mom has been Gabriella's best friend until they move to Albuquerque. They moved a lot and Gabriella was always the weird brainiac and seems like she didn't make any lasting friends and her dad is gone, probably passed away, so the two of them are probably very, very close. Potentially this could mean that her mom wants them to stay this close forever and potentially she's scared Troy (and Taylor) get in the way of that. I don't really get that feeling though, it feels more like she really wants Gabriella to thrive and have friends.
At the same time, it also seems as if her mom pushes her academically, e.g. making a huge deal out of Stanford which Gabriella doesn't really seem too fond of her doing. (It could also just be that she's incredibly proud, which is also very likely.) Being pushed academically often pushes you into maturity as well though and it makes it seems like she trusts Gabriella and her decisions.
Gabpay inspired by emison from pretty little liars is the au I need ! Gabriella being in love with Sharpay since childhoods and Sharpay being in denial for a long time until she finally admits her love
oooh i can see this, but i also don't see gabriella continuing to pine for someone the way emily pined for alison tbh
two versions: regular, with above songs - short enough to listen in one go and follow a story
and extended, with a bunch of extra songs that didn't make the final cut
Okay, but HSM character reunion headcannons? Honestly just fuck me up. All of them- what happens, what's everyone been up to? What's been the hot gossip? What's the 4-1-1?
Okay, this is definitely not all the headcanons, but hopefully enough? I tried to limit to dynamics between characters and actual reunion stuff, because otherwise there would be a lot of overlap with that future headcanons post I did a while back.
Also, speaking from own experience, everyone always seems to go back to old patterns rather quickly at reunions, so I’d say that what happens and who hangs out reflects the dynamics we’ve seen in the movies. So, here’s a few things I can see happening.
I honestly think Troy and Gabriella are the only couple that survive post high school, so seeing all the old lovers together would be interesting, if not awkward. I think Chad/Taylor and Zeke/Sharpay would be the most awkward, because Chad and Taylor didn’t really stay friends after their break-up and Zeke is deep down still in love with Sharpay (although she has long moved on and wasn’t that into him to begin with).
While Troy and Chad are still best friends, Chad might harbour some weird feelings towards Troy since Troy got offered a spot in the NBA, but didn’t accept it because he wanted to teach. Considering Chad himself really wanted a spot and never got offered one, it’s something Chad doesn’t really know how to deal with. All in all, it’s a pretty rough night for poor Chad, lol. That is until he ends up hooking up with Taylor.
Troy himself also feels like a failure to some extent though. He loves teaching and he wouldn’t choose any other profession, but he never quite lived up to the potential everyone thought he had. He’s always had trouble with that pressure to prove himself, so everyone’s surprise that he didn’t become a star is difficult to dealt with.
Sharpay comes to the reunion, even though she hates everyone except Ryan, and she ends up ignoring everyone who doesn’t fawn over her and admire her for becoming a Broadway star.
Gabriella follows Sharpay around all night because she feels bad for how hostile they were to each other in high school, but Sharpay will not have it.
Ryan has come out and has a boyfriend and all of his friends are super happy for him!!!
Jason gets really drunk and ends up throwing up on someone’s shoes.
Martha has kids and will. not. shut. up. about them.
Also, for old time’s sake, Taylor agrees to help out with the organisation of the reunion and Kelsi and Zeke take care of the music and catering, respectively.
There’s karaoke. Troy and Gabriella pretend to hate it, but secretly love it.
I have this wild theory that this fake hsm4 plot is them testing the waters for an actual hsm4 and see if anyone wants it
honestly, this was my first thought when the plot for hsmtmts season 4 was announced, but i honestly don't know if i actually believe that anymore? i think it was probably more of a way to unite the og and the series.
