Disclaimer: I own nada! Not even Nickelback...

A/N: Thank you all again for your kind reviews. I'm glad that you all are enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it. This just might be one of my shortiest chapters, but I promise I will have longer ones to come. And I guess a few of you have a ton of questions like "What the heck happened that one fateful December evening?" which I will give a sneak peek in this chapter... and also "Chad and Sharpay are together?! Fanfiction writer say, what?" Well maybe you're not channeling the Miley Cyrus but you get the gist. I promise that all will be explained in due time but until then I hope you'll continue (much like the characters in this tale) to take a leap of Fate and enjoy this story!


"I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long…"
(Far Away; Nickelback)

PRESENT DAY -- NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

"…3, 2, 1."

Ryan opened his eyes, blinked at the page that was practically mocking him, then exhaled a heavy sigh.

Blank.

Nothing.

A single blank page.

"I'll give you a good deal for that," the merchant beamed, breaking Ryan from his concentration. Which, for the moment, seemed such a great distraction from his heart tearing once more.

"Hardcover books last a lot longer than paperbacks."

Ryan shook his head, gave the guy a half-smile and declined the sales-pitch.

"You sure? It's a first edition…"

He shook his head once more, "Nah. Thanks anyway… Besides, I've seen the movie."

"Yes, but have you read the book?" The young merchant was insistent, a quality that Ryan found himself confronted with much too often in his Quixotic quest.

Weary from the night's events, not to mention the recent glimmer of disappointment; he declined the man once more before apologizing and turning around to head his way back home.

As the cool air nipped at him, Ryan couldn't help himself but recall a night almost quite similar to this one not so long ago.


PRESENT DAY -- SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

"Did she give us the wrong change?"

A voice interrupted her busy thoughts of disappointment and confusion. Gabriella tore her eyes away from the blank canvas of the ten dollar bill and up into the loving, albeit concerned, eyes of her fiancé.

She shook her head, focusing herself back into this reality as opposed to the fantasy she kept going back to, "No…"

"No she did give us the wrong change or no she gave us the correct amount?"

"She gave us the correct amount," Gabriella replied, rubbing her temple a bit, more so because she was inwardly cursing herself for her spacing out like she had.

"Baby, you're okay?" Conner kneeled by her side, worry written all over his face.

As much as she hated keeping that part of her life from Conner, though she still to this day never figured out why, Gabriella shook her head and feigned a smile. "I'm just tired, is all. It was a long day at the research center… and then the whole excitement of tonight…"

It wasn't a lie. She was genuinely tired from her day at work, and the elatedness of being recently engaged only added to her growing fatigue… Gabriella just couldn't verbally factor in the added rush of disappointment, yet again for practically the thousandth time, she had felt upon flipping the ten dollar bill over.

Conner leaned over and gave her a kiss on her forehead. He lightly caressed her cheek and said, "Then let's get you home, Gabs."

As they descended on down the elevators, despite enjoying the warmth of her fiancé's arms, Gabriella found herself briefly thinking back to one cool December night a long time ago.


A FEW YEARS AGO…

He cursed himself and his procrastinating ways. He just had to wait until four days before the actual holiday to pick up Sharpay's Christmas present. Now here he stood, on a bustling sidewalk, trying his best not to become road-kill amongst the other last-minute shoppers weaving in and out of the many stores on 5th Avenue.

"Online… next year I'm all-out Amazon-ing." He murmured. Ryan Evans heaved a reluctant sigh, ran a nervous hand through his blonde hair, and dove right into the crowded New York City department store.

As the young man made his way through the crowd and towards the department store's upper level, another young shopper hesitantly made her way through the store's rotating entrance.

This was a new experience for her; shopping alone in New York City during that crazy time of the year called Christmas. Her college roommate, Jaime Lynn, had warned her about it.

"Good luck," she had told Gabriella Montez, "because after that experience you'll want to start Amazon-ing all your gifts for the next couple of Christmases."

Quickly assessing her surroundings, she was beginning to see the wisdom in her best friend's words. There was this slight stress-level that she found that if she didn't get out of there soon, Gabriella herself would succumb to it. Quite honestly that was the last thing she wanted! She was spending winter break with her mother in, what has got to be, one of the most interesting and infamous cities in the United States. Vacations, especially between those college years, were supposed to be fun and relaxing!

However, she knew that she could never truly relax if she remained a second longer in this department store. Her plan was to simply go in, purchase the black cashmere gloves that she had caught her mother eyeing a few days back, then be on her merry-way. Gabriella took a deep breath then began weaving her way up towards the store's upper level.

Meanwhile, Ryan bobbed his way towards the side of the floor that held the cashmere gloves. Despite his years of taking yoga, none of it seemed to sustain his inner urge to strangle frantic customers. Before taking another mental breath, he silently cursed his sister and her constant "hinting" -- though quite honestly it seemed more like nagging -- of a particular pair of black cashmere gloves. If he ever survived through this afternoon's hell, he was going to start asking Santa for an early Christmas gift for next year: A victim-- err, boyfriend for his twin sister, a guy with a love and an unwavering patience, to deal with whatever Sharpay brings into his life.

It was a job requirement that Ryan was all too happy to give up to whomever wanted it… "God bless the unfortunate bastard…" he quietly smirked to himself. "Now where are those gloves?" His eyes scanned around, and above, the many moving bodies until…

"Bingo." He exhaled with a smile. His blue eyes landed on the rack sitting on the glass counter that laid a few feet away from him.

Trying to restrain a yelp of joy and relief, for the sooner he gets out of this overtly commercialized holiday-induced traffic jam the better, Ryan began making his way towards the gloves.

The petite frame of one Gabriella started pacing around the floor level. She began scanning around the crowds until her eyes lit up with joy and relief. "Bingo." she breathed and started heading towards the glass counter that held the glove rack.

Contrary to the belief that reality rarely ever mirrors fantasy the likes played out in movies, it is found that there is the purely rare occasion life starts to imitate art. If you look hard enough, you'll begin to see that most of the defining moments in one's life, that moment in time where a part of you is forever changed, Hollywood has at least done that "scene" in one form or another. Thus the gift and curse that storytellers bear… having the same story being told but through different eyes, different lives, different souls.

Unaware of the collision course their lives were to take; both individuals, with their eyes solely on the prize, reached for the singular pair of black gloves hanging from the rack.

They felt the surprising tug, which will ultimately pale in comparison to the emotional tugs to come, and each exclaimed a startled thought as they wondered why their pair of gloves was still stuck on the rack.

"What the--?"

"Oh!"

And that's when Fate first stepped in, if only to start laying the ground work for things to come…