Gabriella sat at dining room table looking at all the Christmas ornaments the Montez family owned.
This would be her first Christmas with out her father.
To top everything off, Troy would be gone visiting family the whole holiday.
"Gabi honey, are you okay?" Mrs. Montez asked sitting down with her daughter.
Gabi nodded, but didn't look up from the ornament in her hands.
"This one was dad's favorite." She whispered.
"Yes, yes, it was. Do you know why?" Mrs. Montez asked.
Gabi shook her head.
"That was the ornament he bought the day you were born. He knew it was early for Christmas, but he just had to get you an angel, something to protect you from all harm." Mrs. Montez said; her voice shaky.
Gabi had tears in her eyes as she sat down the angel.
"I need some air." She said grabbing her car keys and jacket.
"Honey, please, drive careful."
Gabi nodded and walked out the door, closing it behind her.
The roads were slick and the moon was blanketed by a think layer of snow clouds.
Gabi turned her headlights on bright, but only come to find that it was snowing too hard to see anyway.
She would have sworn on her life that Taylor's house was only a street away for her current location, but she wouldn't have been able to tell anyway.
"Maybe I passed it…," she wondered out loud.
Her cell phone rang and she leaned over to pick it up.
"Hello?"
"Ella! It's Troy."
"Hey, how are you?"
"Busy… my cheeks hurt SO bad, all my aunts have done today is pinch my cheeks, you would think they had crabs (no offense to anyone who does)."
"Troy, crabs is a sexually transmitted disease."
"Oh, well anyway, how was your day?"
"Good…,"
"I miss you."
"I miss you too."
"I love you."
"I love you t…,"
A car spun in front of Gabi and, though she tried to stop, smashed into the driver's side of her car.
"Ella? Gabi are you there? Gabriella?"
Troy's face was panic stricken as the line when dead.
The last thing he had heard on her end was the sound of screeching tires and shattering glass.
"Troy, come down for dinner." His Aunt Dolly called up the stairs.
He couldn't move though, he was frozen, glued to his spot on the bed.
There was a knock at the front door and Mrs. Montez leaped to get it, praying it was Gabi.
A police officer stood at the door instead.
"Mrs. Montez?" he asked.
"Yes,"
"May I come in?"
"Of course,"
"Have a seat,"
"Excuse me?"
"Ma'am, please sit down."
Mrs. Montez did as she was asked.
"I am sorry to inform you, but your daughter was in an accident."
"What?"
"Gabriella Rosa Montez is your daughter, correct."
All Mrs. Montez could do was nod.
Taylor sat at the front window looking out, but all she could see was flashing lights next door.
"Mom, I'm going over to see what happened." She called before throwing on her jacket and leaving the house.
"Officer, excuse me, sir!" Taylor called over the sirens.
"Yes miss."
"What's going on?"
"There was an accident."
"Who was in it?"
"Miss that is confidential information,"
"I apologize."
The snow began to let up as Taylor turned to leave.
She told herself that she would take one last look over her shoulder and then go inside.
One of the cars was totaled, mangled beyond repair… on the contrary the other came out with only the trunk crunched against the back window.
She walked away from the scene slowly, her feet dragging, making tracks deep in the snow.
Then her feet hit something, a piece of metal.
Taylor lifted the metal from the ground and eyed it carefully.
It was a license plate…. Gabi's license plate!
"Oh my God," Taylor yelled, as she dusted every particle of snow off of the plate.
"Ma'am, we need you to please go inside your house." The officer said coming up to Taylor.
She couldn't talk or breathe or see or anything.
All she could do was shove the plate into the officer's hands before passing out.
Chad's phone rang off the hook.
"Troy, dude, it 11 o'clock, cut it out!" he groaned into the phone.
"It's… not… T-tr-roy… its T-t-tay-lor,"
"Taylor? What's wrong?"
"G-Gabi… c-car ac-accident…,"
"What?"
"Gabi was in a car accident." Sharpay wailed as she burst through her boyfriend's bedroom door.
Ryan was waiting in the car when Chad and Sharpay finally got outside.
Chad's cell phone kept manufacturing groans and wails.
The car sat idle for a few moments before Ryan shut it off and got out of the car, slamming the door behind him.
Sharpay got out of the car and chased behind him.
Chad sat in the back seat listening Taylor cry.
"Sharpay, I am not driving anywhere, I'll walk." Ryan yelled.
"Ryan, its freezing, come on, I'll drive."
"No!"
Ryan stalked off without another word.
Sharpay went back to the car and drove off.
It had began to snow again and Ryan was in just his pink shirt and jeans.
Snow speckled his blonde hair, and froze to his face.
This was going to be a long Christmas