Hey guys!!! I have finally decided to write something on here, lol. Sorry it took so long. I'm SO EXCITED that I got so many comments! That may well be because I have a whole lot of Lucas Grabeel fans (LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!) from the website keeping up with the story too. Anyways, I really hope you all are enjoying it, and see y'all later!!

Peace-

Liesl

Christmas Morning:

Sharpay slowly opened her eyes, and looked blearily up at the ceiling. It suddenly struck her what day it was, and she leaped out of bed. Immediately regretting this freezing action, she yanked on her fluffy bathrobe, and noticed that several presents were stacked on the end of her bed. There were two from her mom and dad, but four from Ryan. She let out a loud squeal of delight, raced down to his room, and banged on the door.

"Merry Christmas Ry!" she yelled, shoving it open. He was still in bed, so she jumped on him just as they might have done ten years ago.

"Merry Christmas Shar!" he laughed, looking happily up at her. He grabbed a grey sweatshirt, and pulled it on over his p.j.s. He looked down at the end of his bed, also seeing six presents.

"FOUR presents, Shar?" he asked, laughing, and tickled her playfully.

"You gave me four presents" she responded, giggling. "Come on downstairs, and we'll have our small family Christmas" Ryan scooped up his presents, and followed her down to the family room. Neither of them spoke of the argument between them and their parents the night before, and neither of them spoke about the three missing family members to their small celebration of Christmas. The twins just happily tore open their presents together, perfectly content.

Besides all the gifts from cousins and distant family, Ryan received a crisp new shirt from his mom, running shoes from his dad ("how considerate"), and a fossil watch, a new American Eagle shirt, hair gel ("very funny"), and 2 tickets to the Nutcrackers Ballet downtown from Sharpay. She got a new skirt from her mom, a stuffed animal from her dad (she still liked those), and perfume, several hair clips, fuzzy scarf, and poem from Ryan. Sharpay liked the poem he had made for her the best. When at last they had finished all the presents under the tree, they went over to the kitchen and made themselves breakfast. When that was finished, Ryan told Sharpay to close her eyes, and he ran out to the garage. Sharpay waited patiently, with her hands open, giggling from the mystery. At last, Ryan placed a round box into her hand, and told her to open. She opened her eyes, and it was a hatbox.

"Oh Ryan, you shoul-" but before Sharpay finished her sentence, the lid popped up and a little calico kitten popped its small face out, peering up at her. Sharpay squealed loudly, and scooped the adorable creature out of its box. She hugged Ryan with one arm, and kissed him on the cheek, making him laugh. She cuddled the little kitten, and squealed again softly when it began to purr and go to sleep in her hands.

"The rest of its stuff is out in the garage," Ryan said, smiling at Sharpay's childish reaction.

"Thank you sooo much Ryan!!" she said happily, looking exuberantly down at the kitten. "I shall name it Little Ry" She winked at her twin, and giggled. "But when did you have time to get him, and how did you keep him a secret from me so long?"

"I had to ask mom and dad's permission, of course," he said, rolling his eyes while smiling, "and when they said yes, I ran to the first animal shelter I could find. This one was the tiniest one there, but old enough to leave it's mother. I hoped you might like it. I just brought it home late last night, and stayed with it in the garage till it fell asleep. I'm surprised you didn't wake up- it was meowing very loudly"

"Awww, well he's just a widdle baby," Sharpay cooed at Little Ry, stroking his head with her finger. Ryan carried the kitten's things up to Sharpay's room, while Sharpay said below him,

"I'm afraid I don't have any hidden present to give back" Ryan laughed, and told her he wasn't expecting one. For the remainder of the morning the Evan twins watched the Christmas specials on TV while playing with the happy kitten.

Later in the afternoon, Sharpay dug through the coat closet until she found their old ice skates. Ryan let her talk him into going ice-skating, and they caught a bus downtown to the ice rink. Sharpay had not been skating in a long time, so Ryan stayed next to her while she scooted around the edge of the rink, ready to catch her if she slipped. About an hour later, a big group of kids from their school came in, and it was evident that they were throwing some small Christmas party. Ryan and Sharpay skated off to the side, and sat down at a nearby table while the teenagers stormed the rink.

As soon as Ryan walked off to get them a bite to eat, Gabbi and Troy sat down across from Sharpay.

"What are you two doing here?" Sharpay and Gabbi asked at the same time, hugging each other.

"We just came by for a skate," Sharpay answered first.

"We're here for the party…." Troy said, embarrassed. Sharpay shrugged it off.

"No problem. We don't get invited to things that often"

"To tell you the truth," Gabbi said, leaning in, "we aren't really good friends with the girl who is throwing it. Is it okay if we hang with you guys instead?" Sharpay nodded happily, and then looked around to see what was taking Ryan so long to get back with their food. He was reading a big sign standing by the snack bar, their food in his hands. Sharpay whistled loudly, giggling when Ryan's head jerked up, glaring at her. He walked over to them, smiling when he saw Troy and Gabbi.

"Took you long enough," Sharpay grumbled, digging in to her slushy.

"Sorry, but I was reading this sign back there. They are having a Christmas karaoke contest today" Troy looked up, interested, but Sharpay just said,

"So?"

"The winner gets forty bucks" Ryan said significantly, waiting for her reaction. It was just as he had thought it would be.

"FORTY DOLLARS!" Sharpay pounded her fist on the table. "Ryan, you andTroy need to go up there and sing! We could all split the profits, if that's okay with you guys," she added, and Troy and Gabbi both nodded.

"But Troy and I have never sung together before!" Ryan protested, not minding the idea so much as singing in front of everybody. "I'm a tenor and he's a base."

"There's no problem at all," Gabbi said, smiling at the two skeptical boys, "just pick out a Christmas song you both know and wing it. Ryan sings the high parts and Troy sings the low. You guys can do that much, can't you?" Troy and Ryan looked doubtfully at each other.

"Of course they can" Sharpay said, pushing them out of their seats and over into the karaoke line, "Have fun you two! We'll be watching!" The two girls skated out onto the ice, leaving the boys looking after them. Troy and Ryan looked at each other, shook their heads helplessly, and looked down the list of options to sing.

Gabbi and Sharpay, who both stunk at skating, eventually clung to the edge or the rink, waiting for the boys to go. The competition soon started, and it was a very painful experience (literally). The only one that seemed worthy of the microphone was a kid with a huge, fake afro and big sunglasses. At last, Ryan and Troy were handed the mike. Gabbi and Sharpay cheered loudly, making them both turn red.

They told the DJ what song they were going to sing, looked, at each other, took a deep breath, and plunged into Holly Jolly Christmas. They did a fairly good job for winging their first duet, and the audience could tell. When Ryan and Troy hit the ending chord, the rink burst into applause. Laughing at the reaction, Troy and Ryan took dramatic bows before handing the mike to the next kid, who was shaking like mad. Still laughing, the two skated out to their waiting girlfriends and hugged them.

To no surprise of anyone, Troy and Ryan made it into the "elimination round". It was them against the afro kid. Afro man sang "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", and got very loud applause for it. Smiling cockily at them, he handed Troy and Ryan the mike. Covering it up with his hand, Ryan asked Troy,

"What are we going to do—I mean sing? We have to beat him out" Troy flipped through the list of song dubiously.

"We shall choose carefully and scientifically" Troy closed his eyes, and threw his finger onto the page, and they both bent down over the page. The rink was getting restless, but Troy and Ryan picked up their mikes, crossed their fingers, and began to sing a cappella (without music). Everyone started laughing as a harmonized Frosty the Snowman rang out of the speakers. However, when they actually stopped to listen, slowly people began to cheer. They had never heard the old Frosty song so jazzed up before. Ryan was having fun going to town in the jazz department as Troy sang a beautiful melody. Sharpay put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly while Gabbi cheered them beside her. When the last words "he'll be back again someday" echoed into silence, the big room was swamped with applause and deafening cheers. The afro kid just shook his head, laughing. He handed them the envelope containing forty dollars, but whispered in Ryan's ear,

"I knew I could never beat you again" Ryan stared bewildered at the teenager, before he took of his wig and sunglasses, making him laugh with recognition.

"Drew, you scumbag!" Troy said, playfully putting his former-teacher into a headlock. "Why did you hide from us like that?" Andrew easily broke free of the lock, smiling his signature, cocky grin.

"I wanted to see if I could beat you two;" he said seriously, "it would have been fun rubbing it in your faces. Besides; I wanted to observe my student anonymously. You rocked up there man" Drew laughed. "As for Ryan…" he just shook his head. "Dude, you are way too freaking talented. Now I have even less a chance with Gabbi than I had at the Country Club" Assured of Drew's good intentions by now, Ryan smiled.

"Coming from you, that means a lot…" Drew raised an eyebrow.

"Your good manners are rubbing off on me Ryan," he said, lightly pushing him away, "I haven't lied to anyone for two weeks now. You've contaminated me!" He pretended to break down crying, making Gabbi and Sharpay, who had just walked up to congratulate the boys, immediately run over to him, yelling at Troy and Ryan for making this "poor kid" cry. When Drew started laughing and then showed them his face, Gabbi immediately shoved the boy over, making him roll on the ground laughing. She rolled her eyes, and leaned up against Ryan who was watching on amused.

"I thought you guys didn't like him," Sharpay whispered in her brother's ear as Gabbi yelled at Drew for tricking them.

"Well," Ryan said, looking Drew, "I think he's changed. Gabbi thinks so too." Sharpay raised her eyebrow.

"Something happened the other weekend, right?" she asked, being able to read her brother like a book. "Something that made you and Gabs trust him?" Ryan nodded, thoughtful. "I see…..but how can you be sure?"

"Hey Evans!" Drew yelled, standing up now. Ryan looked over at him, surprised to see the singer have his arm around the waist of a cheerleader from their high school.

"Everyone, meet Charlie," Drew said, gesturing towards the cheerleader, who giggled, and nodded at the group, "my new girlfriend". Gabbi's smile widened, and she shook Charlie's hand, and the two went off in conversation. Drew looked at Ryan, who gave him half smile, and raised his eyebrow. Drew just grinned, nodded, and went off to see to his girlfriend. His smile widening, Ryan turned to Sharpay.

"See? That proves it" Sharpay shrugged, threw up her hands to the ceiling, and walked over to meet Charlie. She would tell Troy about it later.

Drew finally offered them all a ride home, with they gladly accepted. Gabbi got shivers sitting in that back seat again, but this time she had Ryan to lean up against instead of the side of the car. Drew dropped off the Evans, Gabbi, and Troy off at the Evan's house for their party, and then he dropped off Charlie. She thanked him for the lovely evening, but before he kissed her goodnight, she asked him a question.

"You seemed in a really good mood tonight. Why is that?" Drew paused, and then told her the answer as he leaned down towards her.

"I guess it's just good to have things the way they should be, for once in a very long time"