Gabriella lay on her bed, scrunched in her comforter and watching an old Christmas movie. She sighed as the family in the movie sat down to eat Christmas dinner, and began to wish her mom did not have to work on Thanksgiving. The holidays were Gabriella's favorite time of the year; they were a time for family and gatherings. However, so far her season was not going as well as she hoped it to be.
To start, she was hopelessly in love with her best friend. The playmaker, as the entire school called him, but more commonly known as Troy Bolton, was the star of East High's basketball team. The two had met over Christmas break the year before, starred together in the spring 'musicale', and ever since been a tight-knit duo. Gabriella supposed that falling for Troy was probably inevitable, but it was still painful when events like proms came up and he went with another girl. Now in senior year together, Gabriella was not sure if she would ever inform Troy of her true feelings for him; the friendship they shared was too precious to even think about ruining.
As if that problem were not bad enough, Gabriella's mother had informed her the week before that she would have to work on Thanksgiving, meaning no large, turkey meal, no blessings, not even a sit-down dinner with her mom present. Instead, it meant Gabriella bringing in take-out for dinner and watching her old movies, wishing that she could live the lives of the perfect families portrayed.
The movie ended, and Gabriella stared blankly for a moment as the ending credits scrolled up the screen of the small television in her bedroom. She sighed deeply, then picked up her remote control and pressed eject.
"What to watch now," she muttered softly, gazing at the towering stack of DVD's that sat next to her on a pillow.
Her query was cut short, however, when her cell phone started to vibrate on her desk. Kicking her sheets from her legs, Gabriella walked to her phone and glanced at its screen. The picture of Troy that had been taken almost a year before the night they first met still came up when he called, and she smiled at how young he looked.
"Hello, Troy," she said once she had snapped the cell phone open.
"Gabs," Troy said anxiously. "I need your help."
Gabriella smirked at the nickname and sat on her bed once again. "Hi, Gabriella! Happy Thanksgiving, how are you?" she asked sarcastically.
"Okay, okay," Troy muttered. "Hi, Gabriella, how are you?"
"I'm okay, but you know my mom isn't home, so --"
"I know, that's why I know you can come over here," Troy said hastily, cutting her off.
"Troy, it's Thanksgiving. Don't you want to spend time with your family?" Gabriella asked, envying Troy for being able to spend dinner with his entire troop of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
"Gabs," Troy whined. "That's why I need your help. My mom said she's tired of me 'not helping around the house' because of basketball, so she's making me cook something as part of the dinner."
Gabriella tried not to laugh at the tone in Troy's voice. Her friend had trouble with making anything that weren't his famous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "Well," she started. "I guess I can come help. But you know I'm not much of a cook either, right?"
"Does the word 'pancakes' ring a bell?"
This time Gabriella did laugh, and Troy scowled into the phone. The 'pancake' incident was something that had happened on one of the many weekends that Gabriella had spent the night at Troy's house. He had attempted to make the breakfast treat, and ended up spraying himself, Gabriella, and most of the Bolton kitchen with flour.
"Alright, I'll be over soon," she said, already sliding a pair of jeans of a hanger in her closet.
"Make it sooner than soon," Troy said, laughing slightly as he hung up.
Gabriella was ready and dressed within the next ten minutes, and she quickly grabbed her cell phone and car keys before heading out her front door. Troy lived less then five minutes away, and she was surprised to find that only Troy's car resided in the Bolton driveway. Troy stumbled outside just as Gabriella finished parking, and he practically pulled her all the way up to the front door.
"Where are your parents?" Gabriella asked as she stepped into the warmth of Troy's house.
"They'll be back within an hour or two. Apparently Dad forgot to buy cranberries, so now they have to search all the stores in Albuquerque to see if one actually has some in stock."
The two friends finally reached the kitchen, and Gabriella leaned against the center island. "So, what are we making?"
"Uh," Troy turned, and grabbed something off the counter behind him. Gabriella could not help but notice how good he looked in plain jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. "Stuffing."
The look on Troy's face was so helpless and lost that Gabriella could not help but burst out laughing again. "What? WHAT?!" Troy shouted, and grabbed Gabriella and squeezed her until she could barely breathe.
"Trooooy," she droned, squirming as she attempted to escape his strong arms. "Let me go!"
"No," he replied simply.
Gabriella sighed, part of her guiltily liking the feeling of being wrapped in his arms, even if it was in a platonic way. "I won't help you if you don't!"
His arms loosened slightly. "So you know how to make stuffing?" he asked hopefully.
Gabriella huffed, breaking away from his grip. "Why is it guys constantly think that all girls know how to cook? I mean, really."
Troy blushed sheepishly, and shrugged. "I dunno, it's instinct, or something."
She glared playfully at him for a moment before reaching across his body to grab the bag of croutons that contained the stuffing instructions. "Well, I've never made stuffing before," she started. "But, I guess we'll both have to try it."
Troy grinned in triumph, and leaned over Gabriella's shoulder to read the instructions with her.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound Bob Evans or Owens® Savory Sage or Original Recipe Sausage Roll
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 (14 ounce) package cubed stuffing
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup melted butter
DIRECTIONS
In a large skillet over medium heat, crumble sausage. Remove from heat. In another skillet, sauté onions and celery with half the butter. Pour chicken broth into saucepan and combine with butter. Carefully add cubed stuffing. Add sausage mixture. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning. Toss carefully with fork to combine. Do not over toss, or mixture will become mushy. In a 9 by 13 inch casserole dish, pour mixture evenly. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
"Poultry seasoning?" Troy asked. "Why would you put poultry seasoning in sausage stuffing?"
Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know, but these people obviously know more about the art of stuffing making then we do, so lets just get out the ingredients."
"Whatever," Troy muttered, and the two opened the large refrigerator. "Okay, uh, here's the sausage . . ."
Three minutes later and all the ingredients were lined up beautifully on the counter. Half the contents of the refrigerator stood beside them. "Do you think my Mom put all the stuff in the back on purpose so I'd have to take everything out and put it all back in?" Troy asked as he shoved the huge, packaged turkey aside to make room.
"Stop complaining, Troy," Gabriella laughed, and she placed the last item on the shelf and closed the door. "Okay," she breathed. "Where are your skillets, Troy?"
"Uuuuuh," Troy said, biting his lip. "I don't exactly know."
Gabriella chuckled at his expression. "Men," she muttered, just loud enough for Troy to hear.
"Gabi!" Troy exclaimed, shaking his head jokingly at her before her head disappeared into a cabinet.
"Find one?" Gabriella asked, her voice muffled slightly.
There was a pause, and then a loud clattering noise. "Shit!" Troy shouted, and he quickly pulled out of the cabinet. "The entire stack of Tupperware and pans fell on my face!"
Gabriella started to giggle, "Aw, you poor baby."
Troy looked up at her with fake fear. "I was so scared . . ."
It was only a matter of seconds before the two were laughing hysterically, and Gabriella squatted next to Troy to help clean up the mess of cooking pots. "We seem to be laughing a lot more than cooking," she said amid giggles. And then she spotted a skillet. "Eureka!"
"That was the one that fell on my face, so technically," Troy said, grabbing the skillet from her. "Technically I found it before you did."
"I wasn't aware that we were having a competition," Gabriella said.
"Oh, but we were and I won!"
"Whatever, arrogant boy!" she replied, and glanced back at the instructions. "Okay, so we have to crumble the sausage."
"Crumble?" Troy asked blankly, and the two stared in confusion at each other. "You know what? I'm just going to open it and we'll go from there."
Troy grabbed the sausage roll, which was wrapped in plastic and secured at the ends with a small piece if metal. He first attempted to slide the metal off, but it was proved impossible after several tries.
"I'm getting the scissors," Gabriella said, and handed them to Troy a few seconds later.
"Why do they wrap these so tightly?" Troy asked as the scissors slipped against the plastic. "It's not like someone would go to the store and try to steal it, or something. YES! Finally!"
"Congratulations, Troy. You successfully opened the sausage," Gabriella said sarcastically.
"Hey, it was hard!" Troy defended. "Okay. Heat on medium."
"I already turned the stove on, so the pan's nice and hot," Gabriella stated, and watched as Troy turned the plastic over and the sausage landed with a splat in the pan.
"Well, that's done," Troy said, rubbing his hands together.
"Troy, you idiot!" Gabriella said. "We have to crumble it until it's brown."
"But I don't know how to do that!" Troy whined, crossing his arms.
Gabriella shook her head and grabbed a wooden spoon from the utensil cup on the counter. "I think we just, like, chop it up and move it around until it's not pink anymore."
"Smart ass," Troy scoffed playfully as Gabriella started to cut up the meat with the spoon.
"You're right about smart," she replied, turning the sausage over as it sizzled in the pan.
Troy leaned against the counter, smelling the heavenly scent that was now filling the kitchen. "Who's arrogant now?" he countered.
The sausage was soon cooked, and Gabriella removed it from the heat. "Now we have to chop the onions and celery."
Troy groaned, eyeing the ingredients. "By hand? Can't we just use that chopping machine, or whatever it's called?"
Gabriella grinned. "Yeah! The Cuisinart! Wow, Troy, that was the smartest thing you've said all day."
"The Cuisin-what?"
She laughed and pointed to the food processor that was sitting next to the coffee maker on the counter. "But we have to wash the celery first. Lucky for you I make tuna salad all the time, so I know how to cut and prepare celery."
Troy grinned, sighing as he watched Gabriella wash the celery and chop off the ends with a sharp knife. "Ah, your tuna sandwiches . . ."
Gabriella had soon cut the celery into pieces that would fit in the Cuisinart. "And now for the onion," she said, drying her hands on a paper towel. "It's your turn, Troy."
"Alright, then," he replied, taking the knife from Gabriella. "What do I do?"
"Well, first you peel it. Then just cut it into four pieces because we'll just be putting them into the Cuisinart."
Troy nodded and started to peel the onion. He was a fourth of the way done when he said, "My eyes are starting to hurt."
"Troy, don't --"
He reached up to rub his eyes with a hand.
"-- rub your eyes," she finished.
"OW! What the hell? Gabriella, it hurts! Ow, crap!" Troy dropped the knife and ran to the sink where he washed his hands. He had tears forming in his eyes, and was half laughing, half scowling.
Gabriella was laughing so hard, she too had tears in her eyes. "Oh, my god, Troy! The look on your face was priceless!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he muttered sheepishly, and brought a now clean hand up to his eyes to wipe away his tears.
Troy finished peeling the onion with caution while Gabriella tried to compose herself once again. He then cut it into fourths and placed them next to the celery. "Now what?' he asked.
"We have to find the plastic cup-thing that goes on the Cuisinart, and the top." Gabriella answered, already going through drawers and cabinets. "You, know what, Troy? This would be a lot easier if you actually knew where everything WAS."
"It's not my fault, Gabs. I never cook," he replied. "Hey, wait, is this it?"
Gabriella looked up to see Troy holding exactly what they were searching for. "Yup," she said.
Troy grinned playfully. "And that's two for Bolton, zero for Montez."
"Oh, shut it," Gabriella replied stiffly, and grabbed the equipment from Troy. "You want to do it?" she asked when she finally placed the celery and onion slices inside the Cuisinart.
"Sure."
Several minutes passed filled with Troy and Gabriella pushing the button of the Cuisinart with glee, laughing over how something so small and insignificant could be so fun. The two scooped out the mixture into another pan and sautéed it with the butter, just as the instructions had said. Generally, Gabriella thought things were going pretty well.
"This actually isn't that hard," she said as she opened a can of chicken broth.
Troy nodded. "Yeah, I know. It smells freaking awesome, too."
"What do we do next?" Gabriella asked, stirring the butter together with the broth.
Troy grabbed the insructions and read for a moment. "Now all we have to do is combine everything."
"Really? We're almost done?" she smiled, and took the instructions to read for herself. "We have to be careful not to over toss it, though."
Troy frowned. "Wait, what? How can you be sure or not if you over toss it?"
Gabriella shrugged and proceeded to open the bag of croutons. "We'll just have to see, I guess."
She and Troy poured the entire bag into the pot where the vegetable mixture and sausage already resided. It instantly began to absorb the broth and butter, and they both moaned.
"Oh. My. God. That smells --"
"Fantastic?" Gabriella finished. "It does, doesn't it? Lets finish this up, then."
"I want to stir it!" Troy exclaimed, playfully pushing Gabriella away from the pot. He grabbed two forks and began to toss the stuffing like one would toss a salad. However, after five tosses, the forks slipped against each other and he accidentally tossed some of the stuffing at Gabriella.
Both teens stared at the mess that was now seeping into her once clean T-shirt. Troy seeemd to be in shock, and Gabriella took his momentary lapse in time to scoop the stuffing off her shirt and chuck it at his face. It hit his nose, dripping down onto his chin.
"You did not just do that, Montez," Troy said, trying not to smile, but failing.
Gabriella's hand had flown to her mouth when she realized what she had done, but now she was watching Troy with wide eyes. Neither of them moved. They just stared at each other, Gabriella with her dirty shirt and Troy with stuffing falling from his chin. Within a flash, both teens had made a bee-line for the pot of stuffing. Troy managed to pull the pot out of Gabriella's reach, so she settled for the ends of the celery she had cut off before and started to throw them at Troy.
"Hey! Gabi, would you -- Ouch!" He scooped a handful of their masterpeice and dumped it onto her head.
"TROY!" she screamed, and tackled him to the ground, all the while rubbing her head into his sweatshirt, smearing the stuffing onto his torso.
Troy had released the stuffing in surprise when she had attacked him, and Gabriella managed to grab two handfulls before he finally pushed her off him. She threw the stuffing, aiming for his head, but missed. It hit the refrigerator with a splat; but both of them didn't notice.
Troy had gained control of the pot again, and was slathering Gabriella with the stuffing while she was scraping it off herself and throwing it back at him. Slowly they both became covered in food. Slowly the kitchen became a disastrous land of sausage stuffing.
Troy grabbed Gabriella in an attempt to shake his stuffing-filled hair on her, but instead the two went crashing down to the floor where they lay, panting. Gabriella couldn't help but notice that Troy was on top of her, and that their faces were very close to one another.
"Well," she started breathlessly. "We kind of ruined the stuffing."
"Yeah," Troy said softly, looking down at her food smeared face. They were quiet for a moment, brown eyes meeting blue.
"It's too bad we never got to taste it," Gabriella finally said, smiling slightly.
Troy didn't say anything. He took a deep breath, which Gabriella felt beneath him, and the next thing she knew he had bent his head down kissed her. It was soft at first, hesitant as if he wasn't sure she was okay with him kissing her.
"Tastes pretty good to me," Troy said when he finally pulled away.
Gabriella giggled, and swiped a finger against his cheek, tasting the stuffing. "It is good," she said briefly.
Troy grinned, and bent down to kiss her again. Their kiss only lasted a few minutes, however, because the sound of the front door opening filled their ears.
"Troy, honey, we're home!" Mrs. Bolton called into the house.
Gabriella and Troy looked at each other, eyes wide.
"Oh, crap."
A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review!