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Silver White Winters

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Troy chuckled as he watched his friends Gabriella, Chad and Kelsi run around in the first snow storm of the winter. They looked genuinely happy as they played in the silver-white kingdom that was Albuquerque.

"I'm not doing this!" He heard Gabriella call out to Chad and Kelsi who were already sledding down the hill of Mountain View Park. The park had the highest and steepest hill of all the parks in East Albuquerque and it was just perfect for sledding.

"Oh, yes you are. In fact, I'll go with you," Troy said walking toward her and grabbing two spare trashcan lids. He placed them next to each other and then sat down, holding on to the curb. "Sit."

"I'm scared. I'm such a klutz, what if the thing flips over and I break my face and die?" Gabriella asked, referring to the trashcan lid, as she sat down on it, making sure she wouldn't fall.

Troy laughed. "You won't break your face and, Gabriella. Here," he extended his hand and grabbed hers, interlacing their fingers and squeezing her hand gently. "I won't let you go until we get to the bottom."

Gabriella squeezed her eyes closed, both afraid of falling and relishing in the fact that Troy was holding her hand.

"I can't do this," she said after a few moments.

"Come on junior," Troy joked, calling her by her class year. "Stop being a punk."

"Oh, do you think you're all high and mighty because you're a senior?" Gabriella asked sourly, eyeing him bitterly. "And no, I can't do this because I prefer to not die. I'd really like to make it past my junior year of high school, thank you very much."

"Gabriella, you're just sledding down a hill, you're not skydiving," Troy tried to reason with her, still not letting go of her hand.

"No!"

"I'll tell you what," Troy started after a few moments. He grabbed her by the waist and placed her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her tightly and pushing off the curb before she could argue.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gabriella screamed clamping her eyes shut.

"Now, you really won't fall!" Troy shouted over her screams

"AHH! I HATE YOU!" Gabriella shrieked. Although she was scared out of her mind, she couldn't help but feel little butterflies in her stomach because Troy was hugging her so tightly and protectively and their fingers were still interlaced.

"Just open your eyes, Gabriella. You're going to feel so free!" Troy encouraged.

Gabriella's eyes fluttered open and found the most beautiful view of the Sandia Mountains from her place on Troy's lap. She did indeed feel free. And for some reason, she felt complete happiness for that mere nanosecond right before they reached the bottom.

"Nice job, Bolton!" Chad joked.

"Yeah! You got her to go on," Kelsi added.

"It wasn't easy. She was being a little punk about it." Troy laughed. Gabriella scoffed before rolling her eyes and getting up.

"Screw you!" she said as she walked over to the steps near the hill to get back up it.

"I'm sorry, Gabriella," Troy said catching up to her and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. "I was just kidding! Please forgive me. I'll buy you hot chocolate."

Gabriella turned in his arms looking quite angry before emitting a smile. "Gotcha!" she giggled.

Troy gasped. "That was mean! I thought you were really mad at me!"

"Oh hush, silly," she giggled. "And by the way, bribery will get you nowhere, Bolton. But still, since you offered, I'll take one hot chocolate."

Troy just chuckled before hugging her. "You are some character, Montez."