The Holidays Can Change Everything

by: LunarEclipse360

Disclaimer:...it's still on my Christmas list along with Zac Efron and the HSM 2 DVD

A/N: I don't know if you guys have noticed but the titles of my chapters are Christmas songs...though the last one was sort of a sad Christmas song. Not This Year is a song by Aly & A.J. on their Acoustic Hearts Of Winter CD. It's a lovely but sad song.

White Christmas

December 8; 17 more days until Christmas

Troy awoke early the next morning, earlier than usual. He quickly turned his head to look over at Gabriella's bed, only to find her sleeping soundly. He got up and quietly made his way downstairs. He guessed that it couldn't have been no earlier than four from the lack of light outside. He sat down on the sofa and leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

"What are you doing up so early?" he shot his head up and sighed in relief when he saw Kelsi staring at him.

"I guess my body had enough sleep." she nodded and took a seat next to him.

"You wanna tell me what's been going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well one, Gabriella said that you started acting strange after she got a call from Will. Two, you've been in that bed for over twelve hours. Three, you wouldn't talk to Gabriella." he stared at the floor instead of looking at Kelsi. "You really hurt her yesterday. She didn't want to admit that you did but we could tell."

"I don't mean to hurt her..."

"Then why do you?"

"I don't know. I guess...finding out that she has a boyfriend has just had a bigger effect on me than I thought."

"Then why don't you just tell her how you feel?"

"Because she seems happy with Will. I don't want to ruin that."

"But you're not happy."

"My happiness doesn't matter when it comes to her. She deserves to be happy."

"And you don't?"

"Like I said, my happiness doesn't matter. As long as she's happy...I'm happy."

"Are you sure she's happy though? I mean have you ever seen her smile when she's talking to Will?"

"No but that's because she usually just goes off somewhere else to talk to him."

"Next time she talks to him just...see what she does." Kelsi lightly touched his shoulder and he looked at her. "She cares about you, Troy. She cares about you more than anything in this world. Don't give up on her." he smiled and nodded.

"Thanks Kels."

"You're welcome. Now go try and get as much sleep as possible." she said as she stood up.

"Why?"

"Cause Shar says we're leaving today."

"Why does she keep telling us at the last minute?"

"Actually she told us last night but you were to busy sleeping." Troy blushed in embarrassment and Kelsi smiled. "Night Troy."

"Night Kels." she walked back down to her room. The smile slowly slipped from his face and he sighed. He sat there for a few minutes before getting up and going back upstairs. As he reached the landing, he spotted Gabriella sitting up with her legs tucked under her chin. "Gabi?" she looked up and he could see fear in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I saw a spider." she said lowly. "It was crawling on me." she looked as if she were about to cry and he walked over to her, taking a seat in front of her.

"Shh. It's okay. It's not going to hurt you." Troy pushed her hair out of her face and smiled softly at her. He knew of her fear of spiders...well more like phobia. He remembered one time in high school when she had seen a spider crawling on the lockers, she nearly fainted. "Why didn't you scream for someone to help you?"

"I couldn't. My voice wouldn't come out." he nodded and looked away briefly before her voice brought his eyes back to her face. "C-Can I sleep with you...please?" he nodded and held out his hand. She took it and he pulled her out of her ball. She quickly threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and rubbed circles on her back.

"Calm down Gabi." he said as she began to dry heave and hyperventilate. He picked her up and brought her over to his bed. He set her down close to the wall before climbing in next to her and wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Thank you Troy." she whispered as she slowly drifted in and out of sleep.

"You're welcome Gabriella." he whispered and she smiled before letting her exhaustion take over. He smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before falling asleep.

"Why do we always catch them like this?"

"Cause we know they know that they like each other but refuse to say it."

Troy's hearing was going in and out. He didn't know if those voices were real or not but they were starting to annoy him.

"Will you please shut up. I'm trying to sleep here." he mumbled and heard a loud 'hmph.'

"Well excuse me Troy Bolton but some of us want to leave." he opened his eyes and saw Sharpay, Taylor and Chad standing over him.

"What do you guys want?"

"Well we were coming up here to get you and Gabriella up but instead of finding Gabriella in her bed and you in yours, we found both of you snuggled up together in yours." Troy looked at Sharpay in confusion before remembering earlier that morning. He looked over and there, plain as day, was Gabriella, still sleeping. His face softened as he looked at her serene face but soon remembered his friends.

"Uh...this is not what it looks like." he said and propped himself up on his elbows.

"Uh huh. Save it for the birds, Bolton. I just want to get back to Long Island. So if you don't mind, get a move on." Sharpay left followed by Chad and Taylor and Troy sighed. He looked back over at Gabriella and shook her gently.

"Gabs time to get up. We gotta go." she opened her eyes and smiled when the first thing she saw was him.

"Morning." she said groggily.

"Morning. Come on it's time for us to get up before Shar has a tantrum." Gabriella nodded and sat up to stretch. As she stretched, her shirt slightly lifted and Troy could see slivers of some of the skin on her back. She looked back at him and smiled. He smiled back and moved so she could get up. He stood up after her, ready to get his stuff ready to leave when she turned towards him. She looked at him before leaning up a placing a soft kiss on his cheek. "What was that for?"

"For last night. You really helped me calm down." 'You always do' she thought to herself as she looked down, finding her feet to be interesting. Troy put a finger under her chin and lifted her head, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"You're welcome." he said and smiled, causing her to smile back. "You better go take your shower. I need to pack."

"You don't actually."

"Why?"

"I kind of did for you before I went to sleep last night." his smile widened and he chuckled.

"You're a life saver, you know that?"

"So I've been told." he shook his head and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry about yesterday."

"It's okay Troy. I'm not mad at you...I never was."

"Can you two hurry up." Sharpay yelled and Troy rolled his eyes.

"Better hurry before the ice queen comes back." Gabriella nodded and grabbed her things before running downstairs. Troy sighed and sat on his bed. He had to get used to the fact that she was off limits or he would lose his mind. His eye caught sight of his suitcase and he noticed clean clothes sitting on top of it. He smiled and shook his head. 'She really is a life saver.' he thought and grabbed the clothes from off the suitcase before heading downstairs.

An hour later, everyone was ready to hit the road. Troy retook his place as the designated driver and Gabriella retook her place in the passenger seat.

"So Chad did you ever get to try out the Jacuzzi tub?" Jason asked.

"Yeah me and Tay had a little fun last night...if you know what I mean."

"Chad." Taylor whined and hit his shoulder.

"What?" everyone started laughing before Gabriella spoke up.

"You're not supposed to tell people about that Chad."

"Oh right...forget I said anything Jase."

"Too late for that Chad." Troy said, looking through the rear view mirror at his best friend.

"Yeah Chad now we know." Kelsi said and Chad groaned. Another wave of laughter erupted and Chad sank down in his seat.

Two hours later, the group pulled up to the Evans' beach house. Troy followed Sharpay into the garage and turned off the engine. Stepping out of the car, everyone felt happy to be back at the beach house, even though it meant going back to separate rooms. They walked into the living room and plopped down anywhere they could. Chad took a seat on the Lazy Boy and Taylor sat in his lap. Ryan and Destiny sat on the love seat, Sharpay, Zeke, Jason and Kelsi sat on the couch and Troy and Gabriella comfortably sat on the floor.

"I'm so tired." Destiny said and leaned her head against Ryan's shoulder.

"Same here." Taylor said and leaned back against Chad.

"What are we going to do for the next two weeks?" Destiny asked Sharpay.

"Well for today we can stay here. Tomorrow we're going to Madison Square Garden to see the Cirque du Soleil."

"Ooo we're going to see Wintuk?"

"Yeah."

"Yay."

"Then the day after we're going to Central Park for the winter festival. Then the day after that we're going to go to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and do a little ice skating and then to Radio City Music Hall to see the spectacular. From the eleventh to the thirteenth we'll just be hanging around here. On the fourteenth we're going to the movie to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. And for the rest...I haven't planned that out yet."

"So you basically have the next week planned out?" Kelsi asked.

"Yeah."

"Well I'm going to get some sleep." Zeke said and stood up. "Wake me up at dinner." he went upstairs and went into the room he shared with Chad and Ryan.

"So what are we going to do for the next four hours?" Chad asked.

"Anything you guys want." Sharpay said and went into the den. The ones left looked at each other before Chad called to Sharpay.

"Hey Shar you wouldn't happen to have a hot tub?"

"Actually." she said as she came back into the room. "I do." Chad smiled and ran upstairs, coming back down a few minutes later with only his trunks on.

It didn't take long before Chad, Taylor, Sharpay, Ryan and Destiny went out to the hot tub that sat on the back porch of the house, only two feet from the sliding door. Jason and Kelsi decided to play guitar hero while Troy and Gabriella stayed in the living room and to watch tv. Their minds were focused solely on the television and nothing else. It would only be certain times when they would look up to comment on something. They really were just enjoying each other's company.

When dinner came around, they ordered out. The pizza came forty-five minutes after Troy called and everyone gathered in the dining room to eat. Afterwards, Chad and Taylor went back to the hot tub, Ryan and Destiny joined Jason and Kelsi in playing video games, Zeke and Sharpay cuddled up on the love seat, Gabriella went into the game room to watch the others play and Troy went to sleep.