Secret Santa
To: Splitster7
Love: Secret Santa
"It's quite simple Troy," Taylor explained as she held out a red Santa hat filled with little pieces of paper "All you've got to do is pick a name out of the hat and then buy that person a present!"
"But I don't want to buy something for this person – I have no idea what to get for them" Troy whined as he refolded the slip of paper and attempted to put it back in the hat, much to the dismay of his friend.
"Troy stop being stupid" Taylor said as she held the Santa hat to her chest to stop Troy "Maybe this is your chance to get to know them better!"
"Look can't you just let me put this name back in the bag and I'll pick another one, no one will ever know!"
Taylor looked around quickly, making sure none of the people taking part in the Secret Santa were around. She knew that if anyone found out, they would all want to change their person. "Fine, but you're not changing it again! Do it quickly and don't tell anyone!"
Troy plunged his hand back into the hat and picked out a new name, "I won't need to change it again, I know that I'm going to get who I want this time".
Confidently he unfolded the piece of paper, "Aghhhhhh".
"Taylor, the first name out of the hat was better than this one. Can I..." he whined as he looked up again.
"Nope" she said with a smirk before turning on her heels and skipping happily down the corridor!
Sighing, he shoved the slip of paper in his pocket, slung his bag over his shoulder and slammed his locker closed – shopping for this person was going to be difficult! __________________________________________________________________________________
After two weeks of endless shopping and random conversations with their "Santa" in the hope to gain some sort of insight into what to buy them, the gang had all brought their gifts. They had arranged to meet in 'Benny's', a restaurant overlooking the park in the centre of Albuquerque at 7pm that evening, for a Christmas meal so they could exchange their gifts. Taylor, the organised, studious person that she was, had arranged for everyone to put their Secret Santa gifts in a specially designated locker at school and had picked them up on the last day of school ready for the meal. This would mean that none of the gang would be able to sneak and see who had brought their present already and who their "Santa" was.
After a few hours of eating, drinking, laughter and loads of photos, Taylor had brought the sack of presents to the table and the gifts were slowly being given out!
Sharpay had given Martha a lesson with a professional choreographer – apparently this would enable her to "perfect her 'pop, lock, jam and break' ". After spending the first few minutes slightly offended by Sharpay's gift, Ryan slyly mentioned that she had spent 2 hours looking at pink clothes at the mall before realising she didn't know Martha's size, so she should be glad she got given something she could actually use! Martha had agreed!
Rather predictably, Ryan had received a hat from Kelsi, but in order to personalise her gift she had written him a song and had the lyrics specially printed onto it! He loved her gift and had immediately swapped the hat he was wearing with that one.
"Okay, so next is Kelsi!" Taylor took her medium sized, square present from the bag and handed it to her! "What do you think it is Kels?"
"You'll never guess what it is" Chad said excitedly as he bounced up and down on his chair!
"Urm it's a picture frame – Chad you better not have brought me an obscene picture!" As she unwrapped the packaging and turned the gift to view the image she gasped, tears came to her eyes and she held it to her chest before putting it down and throwing herself at Chad! "Thank you... soooo... much... it's...incredible" she gasped between sobs as a huge smile came to Chad's face!
He whispered in her ear, "It's so you don't forget us when you're a rich songwriter!"
"What is it?" Gabriella whispered in Troy's ear as he leant over to pick up the frame and see what all the fuss was about. As he turned it over Gabi gasped "Chad that's so sweet!" In front of her was a framed copy of the "Senior Year" programme with her name on the front - messages of gratitude from all of the gang were written around the side of it, with a special one from Principal Matsui, congratulating her on her amazing work for the musical and wishing her all the best in the future.
"Was this Taylor's idea?" Troy asked accusingly.
"Nope, I thought of it all by myself!" Chad replied smugly.
"Wow", Troy said, shocked that he could think of a gift so touching to give to someone. For a while Troy had worried that whoever Chad was 'Santa' for would probably be receiving a basketball related gift.
After Kelsi had calmed down and returned to her own seat, she read through each and every message and thanked each member of the gang personally! Everyone knew that she would treasure it forever.
Next was Zeke. Ryan had found out his Grandma's secret recipe for cookies that Zeke had been pestering him to get ever since he tried it at the Evans household and had given that to him as his gift, along with the ingredients for his first batch! Zeke promised to make them the very next day and said he would give all the members of the gang one each!
Next was Sharpay. As Taylor passed the gift over to her, Troy realised how nervous he was. He had spent the whole day on the previous Saturday at the mall buying family presents and gifts for friends and had thought that getting something for Sharpay would be easy, so had left her gift to the last minute. His plan was to buy her something pink, wrap it in some pink wrapping paper and buy her a card with lots of pink, but once he got to the shop and started looking for pink gifts, he realised how highly embarrassing it was for a man of his age to be looking at this kind of stuff! The shop assistants kept laughing quietly at him and he was surrounded by small girls the whole time! After a few minutes of searching, he abandoned the idea and went to find something for his next idea – musicals. He went into his local DVD shop and stood in front of the section with DVD's from all of this genre – after a few minutes of searching, he gave up- not knowing what ones Sharpay would have (if not all of them!) and he didn't want to waste his money on something that she already had! Apart from knowing about her obsession with pink and musicals, Troy knew she had her infamous pet dog "Boi", so had decided that this was the only theme he could buy for without being highly embarrassed or extremely confused.
The spoilt girl that she is, Sharpay didn't want to guess what was inside and instead ripped off the paper immediately and sighed.
" I know you think that I'm like really hot and like have like a tiny figure but I really don't think I'm going to fit into this!" she said as she held up a tiny pink t-shirt that was covered in fake crystals!
"Sharpay, that's not a shirt for you"
"Why did you get me a present that I can't fit into," Sharpay whined, before saying quietly to Ryan, "I'm going to have to go on a diet, I can't not use the gift that troy has got for me with all of his hard earned money!"
"Sharpay," he interrupted "It's a shirt for your dog!"
"Oh yeah, I knew that" she said apprehensively "Awww it's sweet. I'm sure Boi will love it" she said in a way that seemed like she was trying to convince herself of that too!
Quickly and in order to save Troy from the clutches of Sharpay, Gabriella reached into "Santa's Sack" and got out the next gift. Zeke had baked a batch of his infamous chocolate brownies for Taylor. Taylor, being Taylor, had immediately handed out one to each member of the gang and for a few minutes at least, the table was silent whilst they devoured the chocolatey goodness!
Martha had brought Chad a car air freshener in the shape of a basketball and had told him to "put it up as soon as we get out of here cos your car stinks worse than you guys do after basketball practise"! Chad had protested, but when Taylor explained that she would go in his car if he did this, he shot out of the restaurant and put it up immediately.
Taylor was Gabi's "Santa" and had brought her a set of college textbooks explaining that Gabi should start studying now if she wanted to get good grades at college! With a subtle roll of her eyes and a quick flick through one of the books to please her "Santa", she had shoved them into her bag when Taylor wasn't looking!
There was only one member of the gang without a gift now – Troy. His Santa, Gabi, had spent hours upon hours deliberating over what her gift should be. Troy was one of her closest friends and she knew that he would find out eventually that she was his Santa so she wanted to make it really special.
"So last is Troy" Taylor said as she handed him his present. He unwrapped it slowly and to his disappointment found inside a Lakers jersey.
Putting on a fake smile, Troy said "Thanks!"
"Who got Troy this?" Chad asked, "Do you not know how much Lakers stuff he has?"
"Unfold it and turn it over" Gabriella managed in the smallest of voices, whilst the rest of the gang argued. The group quietened. As he did so, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open – in front of him he held a Lakers Jersey, with his own name and number and personal messages from all of his favourite Lakers basketball stars! Immediately, Troy pulled Gabi to himself and held her tightly, no words were needed – both of them knew exactly how the other felt.
As the rest of the gang rushed to look at the "amazing jersey" Chad shouted, "Dude, I want Gabi to be my secret Santa next year – Taylor can you sort that out!"
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A few hours later, Gabi and Troy were sat in the park. Their presents were stored in Troy's car, but Troy had another surprise for Gabriella. He had to speak to her about something that he had been trying to tell her for ages and after some persuasion from Chad, Troy had realised that now was the time. Both would be leaving for college the following summer and after seeing what Gabriella had brought him for Christmas had only confirmed his desire.
Nervously he started, "So I know that we were only supposed to buy one gift this year because of the Secret Santa, but I really wanted to buy one for someone else."
"Oh really who?" she asked nervously, desperately hoping for the answer she had wished for, for a long time!
"You" he whispered and paused for a few seconds before continuing, "I was so desperate to pull your name out the hat because I had such a good idea for a gift and when I didn't get you, I tried to bribe Taylor into letting me change, but she wouldn't let me! So I figured I'd get it for you anyway." He pulled it out of his coat pocket and handed the small rectangular gift to her. "Merry Christmas"
Troy sat in his seat, suddenly finding the floor way more interesting than conversation with Gabriella. He played nervously with the end of his scarf as she started to unwrap his gift. Within a matter of seconds the wrapping paper was on the floor and Gabriella held the present in her hands. In front of her was a DVD box with the title "Senior Year" imposed on the front above a picture of the musical's cast that was taken on closing night of the performances. Right in the middle of the group photograph, and surrounded by their closest friends, Troy and Gabi clung to each other with huge smiles on their faces.
"What's this?" she asked, shocked at the tenderness of the gift!
"I know it's not much but I really wanted to get you something." He said quietly.
"No.... it's amazing" she whispered, almost inaudibly as he looked into the deep brown eyes that he got lost in every time their gazes met.
He looked up and was encouraged by the shocked expression on her face "It's 'Senior Year', our final night. I hired a guy to record it and I brought my handycam with me and filmed a bunch of behind the scenes stuff of you and me and all of our friends- I just, I know it's our last year in Albuquerque and, well, I just don't want you to forget me!"
Gabriella smiled; the feelings that she had locked up inside herself were coming to surface and knew at that moment, that she wanted to be with him. Nervously she leaned forwards slowly, hoping that Troy would feel the same way. Her eyes closed and she felt butterflies in her stomach as their lips connected for the first time in a soft, delicate embrace. It took a few moments for Troy to realise that the moment he had dreamed about for so long was finally happening, but as soon as he did, joined her in a slow, sensual kiss. Troy cupped her face as Gabriella's whole body shivered and she moaned quietly. Their hands came together in between them and their fingers intertwined, almost like they were always supposed to be there as their lips slowly massaged each others. Gabriella's first kiss.
After a few minutes, a reluctant Gabriella breathlessly pulled away and rested her forehead on his. Stroking the soft skin from his jaw line to his collarbone, she slowly opened her eyes and looked deep into his ocean blues, "I'll never be able to forget you Troy"