Christmas Reunion

Summary : Gabriella and Troy have not spoken since they broke up in high school. But when Christmas, meddling friends, a hotel and secret Santas are brought into the picture, they are forced to reunite once again.

Author's note: Some of you might know me from writing 'His Dream Girl', some might not, however I hope you'll all enjoy my new story.

December 20th, 2009

6:54 PM

Troy anxiously wiped his forehead where sweat was starting to form; he was late. One month ago he had received an invitation for a week spent at Sharpay's parents' hotel and he promised he would come which is why he was currently driving past the speed limit. The time in the email indicated that he should've been there at 5 o'clock and he would've arrived in time hadn't it been for the fact that he slept in and missed his flight.

"Hopefully Zeke learned how to tame her down," he muttered as he thought about his blonde friend.

With College, part-time jobs and distance, he has not seen his best friends from high school for the past year. And to be quite frank he had kind of been avoiding attending the get together they had been organising because he knew one particular person was there. Parking the rented car in the hotel's parking lot, he realised it was deserted except for a few others. He checked the address on the e-mail he had printed out to make sure he was at the right place and realised he was. He felt speechless to see how beautiful and extravagant it looked. The noise of a car door snapping shut made his attention drift away from the building and his heart started to speed up really fast when he caught sight of midnight curls.

"Calm down Troy, you knew she was gonna be here remember? Her name was on the invitation too after all, you know it; you even stared at it for almost an hour. And whatever you're over her, right?" he thought.

However the pang in his heart told him otherwise. Gabriella Montez, 21 like him, a very promising scientist, his high school sweetheart, his childhood best friend, his tutor, his mentor, his rock, his first kiss, his first love, the one he lost his virginity to and the one who broke his heart. His eyes followed her as she stepped in the hotel in shock and it's only when she was inside that he allowed himself to breathe again. He closed his eyes as his heart continued to beat harshly in his rib cage.

"What the hell am I doing here? I'm clearly not ready for this," he mumbled, miserably.

Everything in him told him to just turn around and drive home, but a little part of him, the one belonging to the organ in his chest seemed to beg him to just give this a try, to go in and not be a coward; told him that he needed to face her to be able to move on for once and for all.

"But what if the moment I see her, it'll just remind me how much I love her?" he wondered.

Obtaining absolutely no response from his heart or from his head, Troy knew there was only one solution for this question. So bravely he pushed open his car door and stepped into the cold air. Closing it behind him he made his way to the hotel's main doors like he had seen her doing so moment before. When he opened the door he was met by a nicely decorated lobby with lots of gold and red, for the holidays and he got warm with the heat exulting from the fireplace in the middle. However he found no trace of the hosts.

"I knew I heard the bell ring," a voice declared behind him.

Troy turned around to face the people he was looking for as his face broke into a grin.

"Hey Sharpay," he greeted his old friend bringing her into a hug.

"You're late," Sharpay stated lightly. "But better be late than never, Bolton."

"Sorry, I kind of missed my plane," he explained before turning around to face the blonde's husband and one of his best friend. "Hey Zeke," he greeted while doing their infamous handshake.

"How you doing man? Duke's been treating you well?"

"Sure, only if you exclude the long essays the professors can't stop handing out in hope we drop out," Troy joked.

"I hear ya man, trust me," Zeke chuckled.

"So anyways, welcome to the Evans' hotel Troy," Sharpay said proudly.

"It's really nice, really extravagant," he praised, knowing it would make her happy.

"Thank you. Daddy really did make a great investment when he opened it didn't he."

"Um ya, sure," he replied, to not make her mad. "So anyways, where's everyone else? Or are we the only ones?" He did not feel the need to mention that he had seen the brunette earlier on.

"No everyone's here, they're just in the dining room. We were just finishing eating," Zeke explained. "But don't worry, there is still food left and plus Gab just arrived too so…" his eyes widened when he realised his little slip.

Sharpay's eyes widened slightly also but she tried to play it off casually so she just grabbed the blue eyed boy's arm and said:

"I've missed you Bolton."

"Me too Shar," he smiled.

They both made their ways into the big empty dining room where all his best friends were sitting at one large table in the middle.

"Troy!" Chad yelled out, stopping to eat long enough to do their handshake.

One by one they all got up, the girls kissed him on the cheek and the guys slapped him on the back. Finally it came down to the person he was dreading the most.

"Hey Troy," Gabriella whispered standing in front of him, trying to muster up one of her infamous smile.

He realised that she still looked the same, except her hair was longer and her face more defined. Also, her curves were all in the right places, as much as it shamed him to say so.

"Hey you," he replied softly.

They both just stared at each other not really knowing what to say or do while everybody watched, adding to the awkwardness of the situation. Eventually he brought his arms around her thin body in an uneasy embrace and she patted him on the back in response, both feeling a lot more queasy about the whole situation. Nonetheless they couldn't deny the sparks they both felt when being into each others' arms once again. The hug was brief and when they pulled away the ex-lovers refused to meet each other's gazes and just sat back down like everyone else had done. However Troy was forced to sit across from her so it was hard not to look at her.

Everybody else seemed to fall in an easy conversation about whatever topics they could find but Troy didn't join in, not really feeling well. He realised to his surprise that Gabriella apparently felt the same way 'cause she was silent also. Not wanting to act childish and give her the silent treatment the whole week, he broke the ice.

"So, uh how've you been doing Gabriella?" he inquired, casually.

"Um, good you?" she replied, trying not to look taken back by his acknowledgement.

"Good too, except exams are kind of kicking my ass right now," he admitted, making her smile by his vocabulary that she found was still the same.

"You still at Duke?"

"Yep, still studying to be a doctor too what about you? Still want to be an evil scientist?" he joked, which made her giggle.

"Nah, I changed my course for teaching," she declared taking a sip out of the cup of wine set in front of her.

"Oh really?" he asked, genuinely surprised. "But you always said you wanted to study science."

"Well technically, I'll still be working with science since I want to teach it in school."

"Our school?" to which she just nodded. "Well that's surprising, although I kind of expected it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, back then you always loved to tutor everyone in need and so I always imagined you would become a teacher. But anyways, I know that whatever you do, you'll put your heart in it one hundred and ten percent and become the best."

Gabriella smiled blushing softly, reminiscing him of the old days. He knew it would not be like before, that he could not just kiss her right then to make her blush even more because they were in public, but just for a moment, it felt great to be like this with her; carefree and light. It also made him proud to see that he could still manage to make her turn red.

"So are you taken?" he asked out of the blue and immediately he wanted to take his words back when he saw the tiny sparkle in her eyes fade.

"Uh, yeah," she mumbled, looking down at her hands resting on her laps.

"Oh, uh what's his name?" Troy inquired, trying to swallow the big lump forming into his throat.

"David," she answered, still not meeting his gaze.

He knew by her demeanour that she was in the process of beating herself up interiorly for whatever reason and he shut up, not wanting to make her even more distress than she already was.

"Who wants desert?" Sharpay's voice boomed from the other end of the table seconds later.

When the cake was served, they were back to being silent toward each other, but joined in more with the rest of the group, trying to distract themselves from the person across from them.

10:43 PM

Later on when the group piled up into the living room area where several couches were, the atmosphere became more relaxed and eventually the whole group fell into easy conversations and laughed a lot (although it was probably due to the wine served during that dinner).

"And then my stupid roommate decided it would be hilarious to try to do it too and ended up with his head stuck in the toilet," Chad told the group which made them burst out in laughter. "Stupid kid."

"Hey guys, listen up!" Sharpay interrupted hitting her glass lightly to get everyone's attention. "So welcome to this first of the many Christmas reunions where none of you and I really mean, none of you can't miss. This year to make it fun, we're going to do Secret Santas," she said enthusiastically showing them a fedora hat where little papers with their names on it could be found.

"What are we, 12?" Jason blurted out, jokingly with the group agreeing with him.

"But," Sharpay continued glaring at the interruption. "instead of picking out one person to buy a gift to, it's gonna be two."

"Wait let me get this clear, one person picks two names out of the hat and has to buy them each two gifts?" Chad asked.

"No, one person picks two names out of the hat and has to buy them one gift each," Zeke explained before his wife could.

"But why two?" Taylor inquired.

"It's simple, if you don't like the gift someone buys you; you always have another one to make up for it. Any more questions or can I pass the hat around?"

Upon seeing her getting impatient, they all shook their heads no and each one of them picked out two random papers.

"Oh and no one blurt out the names you got or else we all pass it out again," Sharpay ordered.

"But Sharpay, aren't you a little late about this? I mean, if you'd told us earlier, we could've had time to buy gifts," Kelsi stated.

"Nah, you have all day tomorrow so make good use of it. The price can vary from 5 to 500 dollars and you must wrap it," the blonde clarified making all the boys groaned since none of them could wrap a present decently. "Take a look at the people you picked and tonight start to think about what to buy them. Your room keys are in the lobby and me and Zeke are going to bed so see ya guys tomorrow."

"Good night guys," Zeke declared following his wife.

One by one they all opened the folded papers.

"This is gonna be soo easy!" Jason exclaimed excitedly.

"Ahh shit, I have the person who's the most difficult to buy for," whined Taylor.

Troy curiously opened the first one and was relieved to see: 'Chad'.

"Piece of cake," he thought.

He opened the second one, which basically made his eyes bugged out: 'Gabriella'.

Um hi! So this story is going to be a 6 shot, I'll post one chapter everyday until Christmas. I know my grammar or my sentence structure might not make sense but it's because my beta's on vacation and my first language is French so bear with me here.

So, um review please? I really want to know what you think.