Sharpay was curled up on her couch, reading a magazine when she heard the door bell ring. "Coming!" she called and stood up to answer it.

She smiled when she saw her boyfriend of four years, Troy Bolton at her doorstep. "Hey baby. What's up?"

"The rest of the gang are in my car. We're headed to the mall to buy Christmas presents. Wanna come? Ask your brother, too," Troy said. By 'the gang', he meant Gabriella, who was Ryan's – her twin brother – girlfriend, Chad and Monique, who were also together and Kelsi.

"Sure," she smiled. "Ryan! Troy and the gang are here! We're going to the mall! Wanna come?" she called up the stairs.

"Is Gabriella there?" he called back.

"Yes, now will you just come on?!" Sharpay shouted, frustrated.

"Coming!" Ryan said as he walked down the stairs.

They all got into the car and Troy drove off.

- XXX -

"Ooooh look at that necklace! Doesn't it look beautiful?" Sharpay cried and pointed to a silver locket displayed in a jewelry store with a heart in the middle that could open and you could put a picture inside. The heart had diamonds around it.

"That's a locket," said Chad. "Duh."

"Oh, whatever, Chad! I think it looks great, Sharpay," said Gabriella, Sharpay's best friend.

"Thanks, Gabs. I wish I could buy it, but I need the money to buy presents for you guys!" sighed Sharpay.

The gang moved on to the next shop but did not see Troy going into the jewelry store and buying the locket displayed outside the store.

-XXX-

They headed into a sports store. Taylor saw Chad eyeing a pair of sports shoes. She walked up to him. "See anything you like?"

Chad looked at Taylor. "Yes," he said and kissed her. Taylor giggled.

"I meant the shoes," she said.

"Well, they're cool. They would definitely help me to jump higher and shoot more hoops," he said. "But it's okay. I have enough shoes already."

Taylor laughed. "Are you sure? Because the last time I checked you had only two pairs of shoes and one of them has a hole in it."

Chad laughed too. He put his hand around Taylor's waist and kissed her head. Taylor saw him glance at the shoes again.

"Wait here," she said and walked over to the shoes and picked the one Chad was looking at. She took them to the cashier and paid for them. Then she walked back to Chad.

"Aww you didn't have to," said Chad. "Now I feel guilty for not buying you a present yet."

Taylor raised her eyebrows. "Who said they were for you?" she asked and laughed.

Chad put on a pretend hurt face. "Th- Th- They're not??"

Taylor laughed again and kissed him. "Of course they are, silly."

-XXX-

Kelsi sighed. She was the only single one there. She looked around her and saw Troy and Sharpay holding hands, Ryan and Gabriella giggling together and Taylor and Chad kissing. She missed Jason, but he had gone back to New York. The memory of him brought tears to her eyes. Gabriella saw her and approached her.

She put an arm around Kelsi. "Hey, Kel.. are you okay?"

Kelsi nodded and wiped her tears. "It's just that.." Kelsi started.

All of a sudden, the lights in the mall went off.

Screaming people bumped into all of them.

-XXX-

"Please, people, settle down," ordered a security guard. "There's just a small problem with the lights. I have sent my partner to take a look."

Gabriella heard everyone around her sigh with relief, including her. A figure approached the security guard and tapped him on the shoulder. They chatted for a while. Gabriella guessed that was his partner.

She heard a few words of the conversation like, "Body.. floor.. blood.. shot.. no problem with lights..". Then she saw the face of the security guard turn white.

She nudged her friends. "Guys," she whispered. "Look at the security guard. He's gone all pale."

"How can you see anything? It's all dark!" Taylor said.

"Yeah, but his torchlight's right under him, so you can see that he looks really pale, and anyway, I heard his partner say something to him," said Gabriella.

"Whatever it was, it was probably light stuff or that someone was on his way to repair the lights," Sharpay said.

"No!" Gabriella told them what she had heard.

"This might be serious, there might be a murderer in here," said Ryan.