Christmas Reunion

Summary : Gabriella and Troy have not spoken since they broke up in high school. But when Christmas, meddling friends, a hotel and secret Santas are brought into the picture, they are forced to reunite once again.

Author's note: Thank you for everyone who reviewed, you guys are the best!

December 23rd, 2009

3:06 AM

Troy yawned loudly as he walked outside the cabin he was sharing with Kelsi, Jason and Gabriella. He tightened the coat he was wearing as he was met by the cold winter air and made his way toward the main lodge, which he knew was empty. Not being able to fall asleep that night, he had decided that there was no point in staying in bed. Pulling the door open, he switched on the lights so he could see better and almost jumped out of his skin when he realised there was another person in the room.

"Gabriella? What are you doing here?" he asked.

She was sitting on one of the couches sipping on a cup of hot chocolate.

"I couldn't get to sleep," she admitted plainly.

"Same," he said in return settling in the chair across from her. "I just couldn't get that song out of my head."

"Ditto. Did any of them explain to you why they choose that song for us?" Gabriella asked.

"Not really, after our 'performance' I kind of left before they could've caught up with me. You?"

"Yeah. Taylor, told me it's because they were getting fed up with us trying to hide behind our friendship to avoid talking about the 'important subject' a.k.a. our break up. And because of that, and I quote 'they decided to make us sing this song so we couldn't ignore it anymore.'"

"But that's really none of their business if we want to talk about it or not," he protested.

"I know, but come on TB, you know how our friends are. They love to meddle into our relationship business and take it way more personally than we do. You had to suspect that at one point they would do something like that, didn't you?"

"I guess, but this is our break up from each other, not theirs. We have the right to choose which way to take it, not them."

Gabriella just shrugged in response and took a sip out of her drink.

"Can I tell you something?" he said and when she nodded continued. "The reason I haven't been to Albuquerque for 1 year and a half is because I was afraid to run into you."

"I… kind of expected it yeah," she admitted. "And you know, it's kind of the same thing for me, although I've visited my mom every once in a while, but still, I was scared to see you again."

"But, it's not because I didn't want to see you again because I hated you, no, I was afraid- scratch that- terrified, because I knew if we met up again, I would," his voice dropped a little. "fall in love with you all over again. And this time it would kill me to lose you, because I already lost you once."

The brunette just looked at him speechless, not quite knowing how to respond to that.

"I know you have a boyfriend and I know you moved on, but I just wanted to let you know."

"… And did your suspicion ended up to be true?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, but I think I never even stopped being in love with you."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times only to finally say:

"I… Me and David are on the verge of breaking up. Before coming to the hotel, we had this huge fight and I almost didn't come. I… I don't know, he told me that I should go and when I'd come back, we could figure things out. But, one of the reasons why it's not working out is because we both used each other as a rebound to get over our exes. He got over her, but he said that he realised I didn't. And I told him he was wrong and would prove him so by facing you."

She refused to meet his eyes.

"I guess he was right after all," she whispered.

Troy felt a swell of hope starting to build in his chest and felt like kissing her on the spot. However, he knew better than to do so when she looked as tortured as she did now.

"I'd better get back, get some sleep if I want to stand on my skis later. So, I'll see ya later," he declared getting up, knowing she wanted to be alone.

On his way out, he rested a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze to indicate that he was there if she needed anything.

8:12 AM

"Ready, set, GO!!!" the instructor yelled.

Troy and Gabriella started sliding down the hill at a great speed, using their sticks to manoeuvre around the trees, both head to head. They were both determined to win, although Troy knew he would lose since she was the ski expert between the two. The group had decided to do a friendly competition between the guys and the girls and both, being the best, were the representative of their respective genders.

"Hey would you look at that, I might have a shot at winning this," he thought when he realised he hadn't tripped or crashed into a tree yet.

He took a glance at his competitor, although he shouldn't have because next thing he knew he lost his balance and stumbled over his own skis making him fall head first onto the ground. He rolled for a while until he hit something solid that he knew was a tree.

"Hummff," he groaned.

Fortunately, he was at the extremity of the forest beside the trail or else he would've gotten hurt. He saw the brunette changing her path to come near him and stopped herself by grabbing a tree.

"Are you…"

She interrupted herself when she tripped and fell on top of him. However she didn't have enough time to put her hands on the ground to stop her fall and her lips ended up on his. A jolt of electricity passed through his body at her contact and his immediate reaction was to kiss her back. Seconds later she pulled away, looking horrified at what just happened.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, eyes wide in shock.

He only wrapped his arms around the middle of her back to stop her from getting up.

"Don't move," he whispered. "Just stay with me."

"Troy," she said softly looking into his deep blue eyes.

"Shh," he interrupted her. "We have the next three days to talk, can't we just enjoy this?"

"Okay," she gave in, laying her head on his chest.

9:07 AM

"HAHA GOTCHA!" yelled Sharpay triumphantly as the big snowball hit Chad on the back of his head.

Immediately he scooped up a handful of snow and started chasing his rival. For the past 10 minutes the girls and the guys have been competing against one other with a snowball fight. Chucking snow, dumping in coats, snowballs in the face; everything was permitted and the team who was drier won. Gabriella chuckled as she watched it all unfolding from behind the tree where she was hiding.

"AAAHHH!" she screamed when she felt a cold fluffy substance trailing down her back.

She turned around sharply to come face to face with her ex who wasn't even trying to muffle his laughter.

"You think this is funny?!" she barked, trying to look menacing although she was joking. "I'll show you funny!"

He chuckled some more as she chased him around the pine trees and fell when she suddenly jumped on his back.

"Hoomff," he groaned falling in the white ground.

She got up giggling maniacally.

"Twice a day, that's a record!" she exclaimed.

"I'll get you for this Montez!" he threatened before running after her.

All around them a similar scenario was occurring but eventually the guys managed to get the upper hand when they cornered the girls on some snow-less territory.

"Be prepared to get soaked girls," Jason smirked snowball aimed at them.

"Any last words before being declared losers?" Zeke inquired.

The young women all looked at each other and without any other word they charged at the guys before they had a chance to realise what was happening. The males fell down in a thud and their rivals wasted no time piling them with snow. As Troy tried to get up to get away from the missiles, he was stopped by Gabriella straddling him, holding a snowball.

"Do you surrender?" she asked seriously.

"Never," he answered but as he tried to roll them around, she shoved her handful into his face.

"Surrender."

"Pff never," he grimaced spitting it out.

She grabbed another handful and smashed it on his face.

"You can make me eat snow all day Gab but it's gonna take a lot more for me to ever surrender."

Using another strategy, the brunette grabbed him by the collar of his coat and whispered in his ear:

"Surrender and I'll give you a massage when we get back."

She pulled away, eyebrow raised and he started to feel excitement going through his body at her suggestion.

"You got me Montez! I surrender!" he exclaimed to the others his eyes never leaving hers.

All around him he heard his buddies groaned knowing that if one of them gave up, they lost automatically while the girls cheered loudly, high fiving each other.

"Good choice TB," Gabriella praised softly, getting up from him.

She handed him her hand to help him get on his feet and he took it gladly.

"I better get that massage Montez," Troy whispered.

1:02 PM

"Where the hell is Sharpay?" Troy asked as he and the others were all in the lodge's lobby.

"What a hypocrite. She tells us that she'll kill us if we're not standing here at exactly 1 o'clock and she's late herself," Kelsi joked.

After the snowball fight, they had snowboarded and skied before eating lunch and packing up to leave for the Evans' hotel.

"Oh there she is!" Chad pointed out as the blonde ran in with something in her hand.

"I thought we had to be here at one o'clock sharp Shar?" Jason stated.

"Yeah, where were you?" Taylor inquired.

"I had to get this before leaving," Sharpay declared showing them a CD case.

"What is it?"

"The video of the karaoke Troy and Gabriella did last night."

The two people concerned shared a look of embarrassment.

"Why d'you want to take it back with us?" Zeke wondered.

"Yeah, the video was just of us bawling on stage while trying to sing," Gabriella added.

"What are you sayin'? You guys were cuuutee! It felt like we were in high school again."

7: 20 PM

"Guys, WAKE UP!" snapped Sharpay when they finally reached the hotel.

"Stop yelling," Taylor whined.

Next chapter, the breakup will be explained.

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