Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well I guess I own the three annoying random people, but nothing else.

A/N: This'll be a three part story. I went and saw 'A Christmas Carol' a few days ago and that inspired this in a way. It takes place during their senior year. Not much else to say about it really, other than I hope you all like it! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Reviews are some of the best Christmas presents a writer can get, so if you feel so inspired please review. :)

"Kelsi! Are you okay?" Kelsi Nielsen squinted up into the face of a concerned Gabriella Montez.

"Peachy." School hadn't even officially started and already Kelsi was in a terrible mood. Her day had gotten off to a bad start when she woke up and realized that she had missed her alarm due to studying late the night before for finals. She always like to wake up well over an hour before school began so she would have time for her usual morning routine which consisted of a shower, a nice breakfast, and getting to the school early enough so she could spend some time in the music room practicing. She had a piano at home she could practice on, but there was something about being in the music room at school in the morning that she liked. She wasn't exactly sure why that was the case, but it worked for her and so had become part of her routine. On this day, however, she had woken up with just enough time to get dressed and quickly brush her teeth before hopping in her car and driving to East High. She had figured that if she skipped her shower and her breakfast, she'd make it to school in time to practice. She had been wrong.

The night before on the news, the weatherman had announced that there would be a light rainfall tomorrow. The rain had certainly been falling, but it was not the light winter rain that had been forecasted. No, instead, rain was simply pouring out of the sky as if all the rain clouds in the world had somehow conspired to drown their poor city. Kelsi had never seen a rain quite like this in all of her life and had been so relieved to find an umbrella in her car. Because of the rain, the drive to school had taken twice as long as it usually did and by the time she finally arrived, she had less than ten minutes to park and get to homeroom. While she had been grateful for having an umbrella, that gratitude had quickly turned to hatred as the thing had jammed somehow – how she had no idea – and refused to open. It might have been okay if she had gotten a parking spot near one of the doors, but that would have been too convenient. Instead, she found herself parked about as far from the building as possible and had to run across the parking lot as fast as she could to avoid getting completely soaked. Of course, that plan like so many of her others that day had failed. She had become drenched within about five seconds of exiting her car, but had still run for shelter as fast as she could. She had hoped that her bad luck would end once she got inside, but again, she was wrong.

She had entered the building and barely had time to slow down before she slipped on the wet floor, sending her sliding halfway across the hallway before she landed on the hard floor with a thud. She had luckily avoided hitting her head, but most of her weight had fallen on her wrist which was now practically screaming in pain. She had known it was bad when all around her, everyone else in the hallway let out a collective gasp. This had led her to the current moment, with Gabriella kneeling down next to her looking worried. Kelsi's glasses had gone flying when she hit the floor and she wasn't exactly sure where they had gone. As a direct result, she could barely make out any of the people around her. Probably a good thing since most of them were laughing anyway.

"Nice entrance, loser," some random boy said as he walked past.

"Good thing you stay behind the piano at the plays," another boy, most likely a friend to the first one, sneered. "Otherwise they'd have to stop the show every time you fell off the stage." Kelsi could feel her face growing hotter by the second and felt the sting of unwanted and angry tears.

"Wow, that was seriously pathetic," a random girl, who was with the two random boys, added. "Thanks for the laugh though!"

"Ignore them," Gabriella muttered, though Kelsi could tell she was angry. "That could've happened to anyone."

"Are you serious?" the first boy said. "A fall like that could only happen to a geek like her."

"Leave her alone!" Gabriella smirked as Troy Bolton approached them, looking angry.

"Oh uh...hey Bolton..." the second boy stammered. "We were just having some fun..."

"You call verbally attacking someone who happens to be one of my closest friends fun?" At his words, the boy's face slowly turned an interesting shade of white.

"You're actually friends with her?" the random girl spoke up. "I would've thought you'd have better taste." Her face brightened as they were joined by Chad Danforth. "Oh hey Chad," she started. "I don't know if you're aware of it, but your friend is friends with this loser."

"Actually I was aware of it," Chad shot her a smile. "You know who else is friends with her?"

"Who?" the girl asked, watching as the smile faded from Chad's face and was replaced by a more serious expression.

"Me. And as far as I'm concerned, the only losers here are the three of you. Why don't you all get out of here?" he snapped.

"Oh like we're going to leave just because you told us too," the first boy started, but stopped when he saw the glares Chad and Troy were giving him. "On second thought..." he turned to his two friends. "Let's get outta here." Chad watched them go and then turned back to his friends, noticing that there were several other students still lingering around watching them.

"Don't you all have somewhere to be?" he asked the group as a whole. "The show's over, get to class." At his words, the normal commotion and activity in the school hallways resumed and he smirked proudly. "And that is how you do it," he grinned to himself.

"You didn't hit your head, did you?" Gabriella asked the smaller girl.

"No," Kelsi winced at the pain in her wrist. "I landed on my wrist pretty hard though." She let Troy and Gabriella help her up, while Chad moved in front of her.

"I think you may need these," he offered, handing her back her glasses.

"Thanks Chad," she said, taking them from him and slipping them back on. "And thanks for sticking up for me guys," she added shyly.

"Well, hey, we can't have people messing with our favorite Playmaker now can we?" Troy asked her, smiling.

"You should go to the nurse and have her look at your arm," Gabriella advised. "I'll go with you," she added.

"What about homeroom?" Kelsi asked.

"It's the last day before finals. I don't think Ms. Darbus will care, but we'll tell her what happened." Troy assured her.

"Well on the plus side..." Kelsi muttered. Chad and Troy waved to the girls and headed off in the direction of homeroom, while Gabriella led Kelsi to see the school nurse. They had just rounded the corner to the nurse's office when they heard a familiar voice coming from the opposite end of the hallway.

"Move it people!" A few seconds later, Sharpay Evans came into view with Ryan trailing behind her. Sharpay came to an abrupt stop when she spotted Gabriella and Kelsi. "What happened to you?" she asked Kelsi, looking her over.

"Rain among other things," Kelsi answered, timidly. Sharpay had been working on changing since last summer, but the girl still had some work to do. Kelsi couldn't help still feeling a little intimidated by her.

"You're not going to stay in those clothes all day are you?" Sharpay asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Well seeing as I don't have anything else to wear..." Kelsi trailed off.

"I might have a spare outfit in my locker," Sharpay offered, surprising both Kelsi and Gabriella. "The pants may be a little long, but it'll work."

"You keep a spare outfit in your locker?" Gabriella asked, looking at her as if she was some sort of alien.

"Sometimes. In case of a fashion related emergency." Sharpay glanced at Kelsi again. "And this would appear to be one. Ryan, go tell Ms. Darbus I'll be late," Sharpay ordered. "I'll be right back," she added to the girls before darting down the hallway.

"Your sister keeps a spare outfit in her locker?" Gabriella asked Ryan.

"Your sister is willing to let me borrow it?" Kelsi added. Ryan shrugged.

"Sometimes with Sharpay, it's better to expect the unexpected," he said simply. It was then he noticed Kelsi cradling her wrist to her stomach. "What happened?"

"I decided to go hallway skating and fell," she winced. "Not my best moment."

"Let me see," he said softly, taking her hand in one of his and gently running his other hand along her wrist. "It seems swollen," he decided.

"That's uh...why we're here," Kelsi managed. Gabriella shot a curious look at the girl, wondering why Kelsi seemed so nervous all of a sudden. "You um...you better get to homeroom. I think it just started." Ryan smiled at both of the girls and nodded.

"I'll see you both later," he said. "Hope you wrist feels better Kelsi," he added before hurrying down the hallway. Kelsi watched him go and jolted when Gabriella lightly tugged her non-injured arm.

"Come on, let's get you checked out."

"Oh yeah..." Kelsi shot another look in the direction Ryan had gone before turning back to Gabriella. "Right."

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"Open up already!" It was now lunchtime and Kelsi had finally made it to her locker for the first time that day. The nurse had decided that she had suffered a wrist sprain and in addition to bandaging it up, she had also given Kelsi ice to put on it with instructions to come back later in the day for more. By the time she was done there, homeroom was long since over and she had missed part of her first class. Usually the day before finals was kind of a lost day. Most teachers didn't even bother to try and teach anything, usually letting the students having some sort of holiday party during the class time. Kelsi had been looking forward to the idea, but had been unpleasantly surprised to find that all of her teachers so far had decided to do an intense study session in lieu of a party. Kelsi had spent the morning talking to teachers and trying her best to take notes, but it was difficult considering that she had to do so with her left hand. It would figure that Kelsi would manage to fall and land on her right side and the bandage made it nearly impossible to even hold any kind of pen or pencil.

On the plus side, Sharpay had come through with an outfit for Kelsi so at least she was dry. The downside of that was that the clothes were a little too big and the pants were too long, just as Sharpay had predicted. Kelsi had nearly tripped over them several times. The morning had been nothing short of frustrating and now she couldn't get her locker open. She let out an aggravated sigh as her stomach rumbled. Of course. She hadn't eaten anything that morning and now she was starving. She tried to open her locker again and this time let out a small scream when it wouldn't open.

"Need some help?" she turned at the sound of Ryan's voice.

"That would be great," she said gratefully. She moved to step out of the way to let him get to her locker, but somehow managed to trip over the pants again and started to fall backwards. In a lightning quick movement, Ryan reached forward and pulled her towards him to keep her from falling. She looked up at him with the intent of thanking him, but stopped when she realized how close they were. "Thanks," she whispered finally, feeling her face flush.

"You're welcome," he murmured, studying her with an intensity that made her nervous.

"You can...um...let go of me now," she managed.

"Oh right," he said sheepishly. She pulled away and rattled off her combination for him, trying to figure out why her stomach suddenly felt like it was doing flips inside of her. He held her bag for her while she switched around some of her books and then they headed off to the cafeteria together.

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Kelsi's afternoon classes had followed the example of her morning classes by having intensive review sessions instead of having parties. By the end of the day, she was so tired of school and couldn't wait until finals were over the following day and Christmas break could start. But at the very least, she figured that the worst of the day was surely behind her. And once again she was wrong.

She was at her locker, when her cell phone rang. It was her mother calling with bad news. Apparently the company her dad worked for was sending him on an urgent business trip to Washington, D.C. As a result, he wouldn't be home for Christmas. Her mom then told her that her grandparents wouldn't be able to make it out for the holiday either. By the time Kelsi hung up, she was fighting tears. She had been looking forward to seeing her grandparents, as she hadn't seem them in a couple of years due to them both having various health problems that made it hard for them to travel and Kelsi's parents being unable to afford airplane tickets so they could go out for a visit. This year, her grandparents were both in good health but apparently weren't able to find a flight to fly them out.

"Kelsi?" It was Ryan. "What's wrong?"

"Everything!" she exclaimed. "Everything has gone terribly wrong all day and now..." she trailed off.

"What happened?" he asked.

"My dad has to go to D.C. on business," Kelsi sniffed. "And now my grandparents won't be able to make it for Christmas either."

"Aw, I'm sorry Kelsi," he said softly. She shook her head.

"Finals are going to be impossible tomorrow and I still have Christmas shopping to do. The traffic is going to be insane and the malls are going to be crowded," she said, shaking her head. "It's going to be awful."

"You don't know that," he started.

"How can it not be?" she cut him off. "I'm just waiting to see what else can go wrong now."

"I know you've had a bad day and are understandably disappointed, but..." he paused, choosing his words carefully. "It's still a magical time of year and anything can happen." She let out a huff.

"What's so magical about it? This time of year is supposed to be this like wonderful time, but have you ever noticed how people start acting this time of year? It's supposed to be, you know, goodwill towards man and all that. But instead, it's almost like people look for new ways to be mean to other people, most of which they don't even know. How's anyone supposed to feel the magic of Christmas when things are the way they are?"

"Christmas is about believing, regardless of what our circumstances are," Ryan said after a moment. "Little kids believing in Santa Claus, people believing and finding joy in the birth of a Savior on a silent night. Believing in things like goodwill towards your fellow man, even if no one else acts that way. It's a time for miracles, big ones and small ones. It's about believing in the impossible and being with your family and friends..." he trailed off at the look on Kelsi's face. "If not in person, at least in spirit," he added. Kelsi gave him a small smile.

"Those are all beautiful statements, Ryan. And I know you're right but...right now, if Christmas is about believing, I can't help believing that it's going to be awful this year. Bah Humbug and all that," she sighed. "I better go...my mom sounded upset on the phone. Tell your sister I'll bring this outfit back to her tomorrow." She started to leave, but he stopped her.

"Hold on, I'll walk you to your car." he said, glancing outside. The rain had actually stopped around lunchtime but was starting up all over again. He quickly took off his jacket. "Here. So you don't get soaked again."

"What about you?"

"I'll live. Besides I have an umbrella." He waved it at her. He then grabbed her backpack and set it at her feet, indicating for her to turn around. "Come on, I don't want you to get drenched again. I mean...it won't keep you completely dry, but it'll help." She couldn't help smiling as she turned around so he could help her into it.

"Thanks Ryan." He reached down for her backpack and slipped it over one of his shoulders. He stepped outside first, opening the umbrella before she joined him, and the two of them walked quickly across the parking lot to her car. He waited patiently while she unlocked it. She offered to drive him back to the building as he still had to wait for Sharpay, so he got in the passenger seat and they drove back towards the building. "Here, you can take your jacket now," she said as she pulled to a stop. He shook his head.

"That's okay; you can just bring it to school tomorrow. You still have to get in your house," he reminded her. "I'll be fine."

"Well...thanks...I'll see you tomorrow." She gave him a small smile and he surprised her by leaning across the console and giving her a quick, but soft, kiss on the cheek.

"See you tomorrow," he said, as he got out of the car and headed back inside, pausing to turn around and wave at her as she drove away. As he got back in the building to search for his sister, his mission for the holiday season was clear. Somehow he would get Kelsi into the Christmas spirit. No matter what it took.