A/N: Sorry again for the lateness in chapters, been a busy few days but things are calming down now and I'll be all caught up tomorrow. Huge thanks to Corii for helping me with the location in this chapter. Hope you all enjoy!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

Gabriella yawned as she reached over to turn the heat up in the car some more. It was 8am on Sunday and Troy had woken her an hour earlier, practically shoving her into the shower and then into some clothes before directing her to the car.

"Where are we going?" Gabriella asked for the hundredth time since Troy had woken her, and for the hundredth time, Troy shrugged.

"I dunno," he said casually, not taking his eyes off the road but reaching over and taking Gabriella's hand in his own.

"Liar," Gabriella pouted.

Although Gabriella loved surprises, she loved trying to convince Troy to tell her about them before they happened even more, though he hardly ever budged.

"Are you going to pout for the whole two hours it takes for us to get there?" Troy asked with a smile.

"Two hours? Are we going to the beach?"

"Why would we go to the beach in the middle of winter? It's like 55 degrees out right now," Troy pointed out. "And even if you guessed where we are going, I wouldn't tell you that you were right."

"I'm not sure I want to marry such an evil man," Gabriella announced. "I think I'm going to go and find me a nice actor man, I hear they're nice."

"Have fun with your actor man who isn't giving you 21 days of gifts."

"I will," Gabriella took her hand from Troy's hand, crossing her arms over her chest as a smile played on his lips which Troy caught out the corner of his eye.

"Fine."

"Very fine."

"Extremely fine."

"Tremendously fine."

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, until Gabriella sighed and reached out to take Troy's hand in her own again, lacing their fingers together and resting them on his thigh.

"Silence is boring," she complained and Troy smirked.

"So are we engaged again?" He teased and Gabriella nodded.

"If you tell me where we're going, I'll marry you tomorrow."

"I'm willing to wait," Troy grinned. "Come on, let's play eye spy."

"Me first!" Gabriella exclaimed. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…. C."

"Coffee?"

"No."

"Car?"

"No."

"Umm cow?" Troy gestured to the cow air freshener.

"Nope."

"Console? Chocolate? Curly hair?"

"Nope, not even close," Gabriella grinned.

Troy continued guessing for a few more minutes before he gave up and Gabriella grinned in triumph.

"Clicker," she cried, pointed at the seatbelt buckle.

"Babe, that's a buckle, not a clicker."

"Is not," Gabriella cried out. "I've always called it a clicker!"

Troy shook his head, this was going to be a long drive if they continued to play eye spy.

---

Troy thought he was going to go deaf from Gabriella's squeals of excitement as they pulled up to Big Bear Lake and she jumped from the car into the snow.

"Gabriella!" Troy scolded as he got out too. "You need to put on warmer clothes, silly."

As Troy finished speaking a snowball hit him and Gabriella's giggles washed over him.

"Sorry, I just had to get you first," Gabriella giggled. "You packed warmer clothes?"

"Of course, I'm prepared like that," Troy grinned, wrapping his arm around Gabriella's waist and leading her to the trunk of the car and getting out the backpack that was inside and the two thick jackets that were there as well.

"Ooh, new jacket!" Gabriella squealed, kissing Troy quickly before grabbing the item and quickly shrugging into it. "Thank you, Troy!"

"You're welcome, but you might want to put on the rest of the warm clothes I have here for you, otherwise you'll never live to see your wedding day, whether it is tomorrow or in ten years."

Gabriella allowed Troy to lead her away to get changed into their thermals and waterproof pants, gloves and boots before she dragged him back outside, her excitement contagious which lead to her and Troy engaging in a long, serious snowball fight which left them both breathless as they lay in the snow.

"I miss having a white Christmas," Gabriella sighed as they lay in the cold slush.

"Me too, and I couldn't bring you here for actual Christmas, because well, I'm sure our parents would be annoyed if we screwed off for Christmas, so I figured putting it as part of your gifts was the perfect solution."

"So thoughtful," Gabriella murmured as she sat up slightly, turning to face Troy. "I love that about you."

"I love that you love that about me," Troy grinned cheekily. "Do you want to go innertubing?"

Gabriella was up on her feet in seconds, holding out her hands for Troy who got to his feet a little more slowly.

"Come on, Troy! Tubing!" Gabriella cried excitedly, tugging on Troy's hand even though she had no idea which way they were meant to go. Troy let her tug him along for a few seconds before he scooped her up in his arms, not caring that her clothes were damp as he held her close.

"We need to go that way," Troy said gently as he nuzzled his cold nose against Gabriella's equally as cold cheek.

Gabriella didn't even notice that Troy hadn't given an actual indication of which way they were meant to go, in fact, she hadn't even heard him speak a single word, all she could think about was how lucky she was to be in the arms of the sweetest guy in the world.

11 hours of winter fun.