Summary: On a hiking trip up on Mt. Baker, Troy spots something moving around in a snow filled gully. It doesn't take long for him to realize that it's a helpless woman floundering around in there. So what's he to do, other than come to her rescue? AU-ish Troypay TWOshot dedicated to DanceDORK, xJamey, and zashleysilver.
So, yeah, this one is for xJamey, zashleysilver, and DanceDORK; three talented writers who have also always been three very great friends to me here on fanfiction. Merry Christmas to you guys, and also to everyone else who is reading this!
Also, right here- part one, isn't very 'Christmas-y', but part two is.
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical, or it's characters. I also don't own the song Deck the Halls, which is where the story title came from, or Mount Baker; which is in Washington.
'Fall'-la-la-la-la..
Part I
"Troy," he he let out a tired grunt. "Seriously man, how do you find this fun at all?!"
Troy Bolton rolled his eyes. "It's not supposed to be fun, Chad. It's my job," he let out an exasperated groan when he turned back around and saw his best friend since pre school- many years ago, plop heavily down on the snowy surface of the mountain.
"Duuuuude!" he groaned, kicking impatiently at the ground. A shower of snowdust gathered and shot directly at Chad Danforth's head, neck, and upper back.
"Come on, Troy, just a little break?" the twenty five year old whined before shaking his head quickly to rid his bouncy bush of hair of the snow Troy had kicked at him.
"Chad, you've been taking breaks every ten minutes. At this rate, it'll take hours to get even a third or fourth of the way up the mountain!" the blue eyed man snarled pointedly, his voice drenched with annoyance.
"Well then, this'll be the last one for fifteen minutes! Promise!", Chad said, holding up two gloved clad hands and then patting his chest in a 'cross my heart' way.
"Fine!" Troy gave in unhappily, throwing himself on the ground next to his friend. "You know for a basketball player, you're pretty damned lazy, Danforth," he muttered.
"When it comes to climbing up Mount Baker for hours on end, I'll admit that, yes, I am," Chad admitted. "But seriously man, this mountain is...." he reached into the pocket of his navy blue jacket and pulled out the brochure Troy had given him before they'd started their climb. "Three thousand, two hundred, and eighty five meters high up in elevation, that's...." his dark almond eyes studied the paper a little bit more, "ten thousand, seven hundred, and seventy eight feet. I can't believe you're willing to climb all that all at once, man. You can't be for real!"
"Not all of it!" Troy quickly defended. "Just enough to get some good above and below shots," he said, holding up his camera. Troy was a professional photographer, and his next project was all about volcanoes and mountains- mountain peaks, ranges, snowy or dirty, lava, you name it. Currently he was working on getting snapshots of the beautiful Mount Baker in northern Washington, but it didn't help that his potential partner that he'd warned long beforehand that it wouldn't be easy, had been behind him yapping and complaining about it for the last hour or so.
"Got any gronola bars left?" Chad asked, digging around in Troy's black backpack.
"I don't know, look."
"What does it look like I'm doin', fool?"
Troy shook his head but didn't respond. Instead, he took a quick glance at his water proof watch and tsk-tsked at the time.
"Look man, we've gotta get movin' within the next five minutes or it'll throw us completely off schedule. I wanna be done and outta here at least within the next two or three hours."
"Schedule?! We're on a schedule now?!" Chad exclaimed.
"We have been all along but it's not been working out so well since you just keep on dragging your ass," Troy snapped, grabbing his thermos out of his friend's hand that he'd picked up out of his backpack.
"I'm not dragging anything, Bolton. But I really don't see what your hurry is. We've got all the time in the world, no need to be in any rush," Chad responded, peeling the wrapper off of a chocolate chunk chewy gronola bar.
"Oh sure," Troy remarked sarcastically, "let's just sit around in the snow and freeze our asses off. Then tomorrow morning, maybe when we finally finish, try walking back to the car with frostbite!" he spat and took a short swig of his luckily and somehow still warm coffee. Hooray for metal thermoses.
"Oh, frostbite my ass-" Chad started with equal sarcasm in his voice.
"That's exactly what'll happen!" Troy cut him off.
"Oh, you know what Bolton-" the afro-headed man began again. But Troy was no longer listening.
"What the--" he paused midsentence, slowly rising to his feet- taking his camera with him. Was it just him, or was something gray poking out above a snowbank several meters away from them? and was that gray thing....was it....moving?
He blinked, moving closer to get a better look. Gripping his camera tightly in his hands, he raised it to his eyes, ready to take a picture in case this ended up being something interesting and worth it.
"What, Troy? What is it, man?" Chad asked, now aware that something was a bit off because of his pal's sudden change in behavior. Ten seconds ago they were bickering like they were ten again and now Chad was watching cluelessly as Troy advanced slowly toward something with his camera ready.
Ignoring his friend, Troy kept his eyes trained on the gray thing in the snow. As he moved closer, he suddenly became aware that that moving gray thing looked a lot like a knitted cap.
"Holy..." he trailed off, and since he was so close now, that's when he heard the muffled screaming. Realization dawned on him and he quickly dropped the camera and was about to reach out for the moving cap but stopped short when he saw his camera disappear under the snow next to the beanie. The soft area of snow around that spot reminded him a lot of quicksand.
"Chad- camera- someone- quicksnow!?!" Troy screamed back at his friend who then quickly scrambled to his feet. You knew something was wrong when Troy started babbling like an idiot and made no sense.
"What is it?!"
Troy didn't answer, but instead reached out and grabbed what was now undoubtedly a knitted beanie. He tossed it behind him and, careful not to fall into what he now figured was a snow filled ditch (gully), began clawing at the snow. Chad ran to his side.
"What did you find!?"
"Dont'-talk-just-shovel!" Troy grunted. Chad didn't have to be told twice, he quickly began moving snow out of the way.
"Careful, don't fall in!" Troy managed to get out also. Chad gave him a quick look of confusion but continued anyway. It was only a few seconds before they'd unconvered the head and shoulders of a........woman.
"Miss, are you okay?! Are you conscious?! Are you-" Troy instantly started.
"I'm fine!" she spoke. "Please, just...just get me out of here!"
Her lips were a bit on the blue side, and her entire face was pale and wet. The bottom half of her blonde hair was also wet and had clumps of white snow clinging to it....
and still, Troy couldn't help but notice how breathtakingly beautiful she was anyway.
Chad watched the scene in utter shock.
"Can you move your arms?! Can you give me your hand? Can you-"
She wriggled around a little bit, and with some effort, she was able to raise her right arm out of the blanket of snow that surrounded her. Troy immediatley thrust his own arm out, wrapping his gloved fingers around her wrist and pulling her out easily. He was strong, and she was pretty light anyways.
"Whoa!" she cried upon being yanked out of the snow filled pit of what would have been her doom. He'd yanked her so hard that both of them landed backward on the ground on top of each other.
Their eyes locked, brown meeting blue, their faces just inches apart.
"I....um...." she shivered even though she was wearing a heavy black winter jacket as a strong, cold gust of wind blew by.
"Thanks," she managed and rolled off of him. Troy sat up. He watched her carefully as she attempted to brush snow off herself.
"You know, it was a lot easier to lift my arm up when the top half of my body was free," she commented, not really knowing what else to say. She felt stupid, embarrassed, and not to mention- cold as hell, but also thankful, grateful, and lucky at the same time. She could have froze to death or even suffocated or something in that damn ditch.
Chad cleared his throat, finally getting over his initial shock. "Um...you're beanie," he said, picking this mystery woman's cap off the ground and handing it to her. She stared at it in all it's snow covered glory, but took it anyway and dejectedly muttered a thank you.
"What were you doing in there?" Troy wanted to know, standing up and holding his arm out to her once again to help her to her feet. She let him help her up and then snatched her soaked gray scarf that matched her cap off her neck and shoulders before sending Troy an icy glare.
"I just decided to hang out, you know. I love spending all my free time in snow filled gullies!" she told him, her voice dripping with obvious sarcasm. She rolled her eyes. "I fell in, obviously. I thought there was ground beneath that stupid heap of snow, but it turned out to be a pit."
"How long where you in there for?" Troy wondered, keeping calm and sincere while she had just snapped at him. But hey, she was the one who'd just been trapped under a gigantic pit of snow, so she did kind of have a right to be pissed off. But still, he'd kind of also just saved her life. Maybe he'd remind her of that later, though...once she calmed down a bit.
"I don't know. Ten minutes?" she shrugged, ripping off her wet gray gloves. "Fifteen, maybe?" She seemed to have a black and gray color scheme going. Her hat, scarf, and gloves were all gray, while her coat and boots were black. The only other-colored thing was her skinny jeans, which were a dark denim blue.
Troy stared at her, knowing that she was obvious very cold. Who could stand being trapped under snow for fifteen minutes?
"That's horrible...um...don't you have a backpack or anything? If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing up here all alone, miss?" he asked politely.
"It was dragging it along and it fell in with me. I let go of it when I was in there and I don't know where it went," the woman who looked about Troy's and Chad's age explained, half feeling that she owed the man who just saved her life some kind of explanation about something.
"And anyway, this was my first time hiking...I just thought it might be fun...boy, was I so freaking wrong!" she said bitterly, shaking her head.
"And you didn't think to bring anyone with you? You know- in case something like this happened?" Troy asked, gesturing to her wet, shivering self.
"Okay is this like twenty questions or something?! 'Cause I'd really appreciate it if you would not point out my stupidity," she snapped, firmly planting her hands on her hips. Troy stared at her, trying to hold back his smirk. She was pretty hot when angry.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to," he muttered, glancing over at Chad who was staring down into the pit of snow Troy had pulled her from.
"I'm Troy Bolton, and I don't think you're stupid," he said, politely offering his hand to her after taking his gloves off. "That, over there, is Chad."
She gave a short sigh and shook Troy's warm, open hand and instantly felt a little bit warmer herself. She could only imagine how cold and clammy her own hand felt to him.
"Sharpay Evans," she told him. "And thanks. Look, I'm sorry that I'm probably acting like a bitch, I'm just... not feeling well."
"Yeah, being trapped under a bunch of snow has been known to do that to a person," Troy smirked, an amused twinkle appearing in his eye. She quickly dropped his hand, noticing they were still holding each others. Troy casually shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
"Are you making fun of me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Troy chuckled, taking off his own cap and running a hand through his hair. Sharpay watched him do that and had to hold herself back from doing it to him herself.
"A little bit, yeah," he admitted. "Hey, how about some coffee?" he offered quickly before she could say anything. Without waiting for an answer, he turned away from her and walked back over to where he and Chad had left their backpacks and other junk.
"You have coffee?" she asked, following him.
"Yep. Here, you look like you could use some," he said, pouring a cup from his thermos and handing it to her. She smiled at him gratefully for the first time and gladly accepted his offer.
"Thanks," she said, raising the cup to her purple-ish lips.
"How about you, Chad?" Troy then called over to his friend who for some reason was still staring at the pit of snow. "You want any?"
"No thanks man, I've got my own, it's cool," he responded.
"So, what about you, macho man?" Sharpay asked Troy with a small smile and an eye roll. "Why are you up here?"
"I'm into photography," he explained while reaching into his backpack and pulling out a small rolled up blanket.
"So you're taking pictures of the mountain?" she asked, taking another drink of her coffee and watching as he unrolled it and set it down on the snow. He sat down and motioned for her to do the same. She eagerly plopped down next to him.
"Well, I was, but I kind of dropped my camera somewhere in the snow," Troy told her, drinking from the thermos and not mentioning that he probably wouldn't of dropped his camera had it not been for saving her.
Meanwhile, Chad was over still in the same spot trying to figure out how to retrieve his friend's camera for him. He'd watched it fall from his hands earlier, and wanted to get it back for him. After all, they didn't come all this way up Mount Baker for nothing! But the problem was, he didn't know how deep the pit was, and didn't want to risk falling in as well as Sharpay. But since the camera was just a medium sized piece of equipment rather than a person, it couldn't have gone in too deep, right?
Maybe if he just reached in....
"That was smooth of you," Sharpay said with light sarcasm. Troy just shrugged, deciding to change the subject.
"How much farther up the mountain are you going?" he asked.
"Zero. I lost all my stuff and I'm not really in the mood for taking any more falls, if you know what I mean," she replied.
"Well, you could go on with us, if you wanted. I'm already hero of the day, so why not fulfill my duty? I wouldn't mind helping you out again if such a thing happened," Troy grinned. "Really, hon, it's no trouble."
"Hero of the day? Wow. Someone thinks a little much of themselves," Sharpay giggled. "Besides, didn't you just finish saying you lost your camera? So what's the point in continuing?"
"A little hike never did anyone harm."
"Um, HELLO?! Yes it did! ME!" she exclaimed in a "duh" tone of voice.
"Yeah, but you're just a newbie. Me? I'm a pro at this climbing stuff," Troy said with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "It's a piece of cake, really," he teased.
"Quit trying to make me feel helpless and pathetic," Sharpay said, brushing him off and quietly drinking her coffee. She was beginning to feel a lot better now.
"I'm just messin' with ya, Sharpay," Troy told her. She didn't respond, she just ignored him and kept on sipping her drink, avoiding his eyes.
"Aw and now she's mad," Troy said playfully.
"I'm not mad," Sharpay insisted, "I just don't believe in engaging in conversation with immature men that are full of themselves."
"Oh, so I'm immature now, huh? Thirty seconds ago I was your hero!" Troy laughed.
"Yeah, according to you, tough guy," she responded flatly.
"Well, you're certainly not wrong about the tough guy part."
"So did you just grow up loving yourself?" she cracked, "Or did you just randomly become that way?"
"Well actually," he gave a short sigh, "I usually only act that way around beautiful women."
"Oh really?" she smiled, softening up a little more. "Why is that?"
"How else am I supposed to impress them?"
"Hm, well I guess saving their life could probably get you brownie points ."
"Yeah, I guess I would say that's pretty important....Frosty."
"Frosty?" Sharpay repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Did you seriously just compare me to a talking snowman?"
Troy shrugged, his smile growing. "Well, you might as well be."
"What is that supposed to-" Sharpay started.
"Hey Troy!" the voice interrupted their playful teasing- otherwise known as flirting. Both of their eyes shifted over to Chad.
"I got your camera, man!" he told his friend, proudly holding up the snow covered photo taker Troy had lost, as if it were a trophy made of gold. "Still works too!"
"Dude how'd you get that without falling in!?" Troy wondered in amazement.
"Very carefully," was Chad's response.
"Falling into what?" Sharpay asked Troy, that's when she was struck by realization. "Oh no...the gully?" she shook her head. "You said you dropped that thing in the snow....you didn't say you did it trying to save me. Did you?"
"Guilty."
"Well, thanks, you must be a pretty decent guy if you were willing to sacrifice your camera fulll of pictures to save some random stranger," she smiled.
"It's OK Sharpay, you're really not that strange, only kind of," Troy said and laughed at the partially offended look that crossed her face.
"You're not very good at handling compliments, are you?" she mumbled, taking a long sip of coffee.
"Well, actually, I-"
"In that case, I think you're an obnoxious, self-righteous, big-headed, stuck up, immature little-"
"It's good to know you think so highly of me," Troy interrupted with playful sarcasm.
"Glad I could help boost your self image," she spat with actual sarcasm.
"Thanks, it means so much," he replied, pouring more coffee into her cup.
Meanwhile, Chad was standing over in his usual place messing with Troy's camera. He accidentally pressed the button to take a picture, he knew because he heard the click.
"Oops," he mumbled, wishing there was some way to look at all the pictures taken on the roll of film in the camera so far. He figured, hey, why not look at them now? It's not like he had anything better to do while he waited for Troy to finish chatting it up with barbie girl in a winter wonderland over there.
But since it was one of those big fancy weird professional photographer type cameras, there was no way to see the pictures taken until they were developed back in Troy's office.
"Hey, we done for the day or are you still looking to climb up further?" Chad asked, walking up to Troy and Sharpay, sick of playing around with the camera.
"Actually I think I'm gonna make sure this one here makes it back to her car OK," Troy answered, standing up. "Then we can leave, too."
He held out his hand to help Sharpay up, but she waved it away and stood up herself.
"I'm not a pregnant whale, Bolton. I am perfectly capable of standing and walking to the parking lot by myself," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not totally helpless. I don't need you or your help," she scoffed, handing him his cup back.
"Ouch," Chad commented with a smirk, leaning down to pick up his backpack.
"Fine, then you have fun falling in a pit of snow again, and this time, I won't be around to save you," Troy said, capping his thermos. "But that shouldn't matter, since you don't need me or my help anyway."
He then stuffed the blanket back into his own backpack, zipped it up, and stuck his arms through the straps.
"See you around, Sharpay," he said and started walking back down the mountain. Chad was already a few fet ahead of him.
Sharpay stared after them, her breath quickening in panic. The thought of being alone hadn't bothered her yet until she realized just then that she was alone, and what if another ditch filled with snow did take her by surprise and she fell in again on the way down, like Troy had said? And even worse, what if she never ended up seeing him ever again? Especially since they'd ended it just now on that not-so-friendly note?
So, maybe he seemed a little conceited to her- then again, he had just been playing around anyway, right? Either way, he still actually was a pretty nice guy who had saved her life, and maybe even though he didn't seem to handle recieving compliments well- he wasn't all that bad at giving them. Not to mention the fact that he was extremely handsome.
She did want to see him again, sometime after today.
I wonder where he lives?...
"Wait!!" she called after him, he was a lot farther away now and barely in her line of vision. She quickly ran after him without thinking.
Troy turned at hearing Sharpay calling out to him. Somehow he knew that she'd change her mind- he wouldn't really leave her there like that. He'd saved her once, and somehow he had a feeling he'd have to do it again...
He was right, because then, right at that moment he saw her running quickly down the icy, snowy, slippery mountain...and she fell.
Troy quickly dropped his backpack and ran back up to her. When he reached her, she was lying on her back in the snow, groaning in pain.
"Are you OK?" he asked, squatting down to her level.
"I hit my head on something hard," she groaned, closing her eyes tightly.
"It was probably a rock under all the snow...either that or a chunk of ice," Troy guessed. "Can you sit up?"
"No."
"You'll be fine, I promise," he said, standing back up in front of her. He grabbed her arms and pulled her into a sitting position.
"Hey!" Sharpay exclaimed, taken off guard. "Are you trying to make me puke, Bolton? 'Cause I'm feeling a little light headed and it doesn't help when you yank me up like that."
"If it weren't for my 'yanking', you'd of been a frozen popsicle under ten feet of snow by now," Troy replied, sitting back down next to her. Sharpay opened her mouth to respond, but he quickly started talking again so as not to hear whatever sarcastic comeback was sure to have come from her mouth.
"Let me see your head."
"Why would you want to-" she started.
"Okay, you have a small bump on the back here but it doesn't look like anything serious. Like I said already, you'll be fine," he interrupted her, inspecting a small bump on the back of her blonde head.
"Does this hurt?" he asked, pressing it ever so gently.
"Ow! Yes it hurts, you idiot. Quit pretending like you know what you're doing. No one's asking you to play doctor here," Sharpay snapped, hoisting herself to her feet and attempting to brush clumps of snow off the back of her now slushy, white coat.
"You know, if I weren't afraid you'd fall or something again, I would walk away right now," Troy smirked, adding emphasis to 'again.'
"Haven't I already clarified that I don't need you?" Sharpay said. There was a difference between need and want. But, maybe she was somewhat in denial.
"Then, you wouldn't care if I did just leave?" Troy asked, his smirk growing. Oh, he had her now!
Sharpay didn't respond at first. She just turned away from him and started-- in a slower, more careful manner then before, down the mountain. Troy smiled after her retreating form.
After several seconds of her careful pace, Sharpay turned back to him with a small smile and asked in her sweetest, most inviting voice;
"You coming?"
Troy chuckled to himself and followed after her.
Part II should be up soon..
and we skip a bit into the future.
:)