A virus-ridden laptop that has to be rebuilt plus a test-ridden teenager equals… I'm sure you can guess it – a fanfic writer who is terribly behind on her story. I know you'd all probably prefer an 'Emotions' update, but to be honest I need to remember what my plan is because I swear I haven't seen my laptop in weeks. At least I got it back for Christmas, yay! Right, as for Christmas, merry Christmas, or if not Christmas whatever holiday you do celebrate.

This is a little Christmas fic I wrote today that is awfully bad, but I had to do it because I promised myself last year I'd write a Christmas fluffy oneshot. So, here it is. Review, maybe? If anyone is reading this, that is.

-Steph

A Christmas Eve Miracle

Up until December 24 of her seventeenth year, Gabriella was under the impression that the most awkward moment of her life was that time in sixth grade at her first dance, when she had been so nervous, instead of actually going onto the dance floor she spent almost the entire time standing by the refreshments table, pigging out on chips and dip.

But as the clock struck one o'clock in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, the memory of the dance didn't even cross her mind. Instead, Gabriella was sitting cross-legged on the ground of a random classroom, staring studiously at the wall across from her, because if she looked anywhere else she was sure it wouldn't turn out well.

"So, um, what are you doing here, anyways?"

Gabriella turned to face the boy sitting with his back slumped against the adjacent wall. He was staring straight at her with deep blue eyes, his head cocked thoughtfully to the side, as if she was a mystery he was trying to figure out. He was undeniably good-looking, with his mop of damp brown hair and tanned physique. He wore dark jeans and a bright red basketball sweatshirt that said "Wildcats" on the front. On the arm, "Bolton" was stitched in white along with the number fourteen, as if anyone could ever forget who he was or which basketball player he was on the court. Troy Bolton was not only the most attractive guy at East High; he was also the best basketball player. Those two things combined made him the most popular guy in the entire school.

And Gabriella was stuck in a room with him.

She cleared her throat before answering quietly, "I had a Scholastic Decathlon practice today, and before I left I was just going to clean out my locker – of course, by the time I did that, I couldn't leave."

"Scholastic Decathlon?" Troy asked, and Gabriella was confused about why he looked so interested. "That's cool – but a practice on Christmas Eve is rough."

Gabriella shrugged and said, "Well, why were you here, then?"

Troy chuckled and admitted, "Practice. Not a real one, though. Just one with my dad. Then he left, and I wanted to hang out for a bit, and the next thing you know, it looks like that outside." He waved a hand, gesturing out the window at the sea of white under which the world was hidden. The snow had been falling for awhile, adding up to more than a foot.

Since school had technically ended the day before, the East High parking lot wasn't really a priority, which meant not only were the roads dangerous, but it was basically impossible for Troy or Gabriella to move their cars.

Ironically, they had both figured this out at the same time, standing at the front doors and staring out into the blizzard. Then, as if on cue, the power had gone out. Luckily, it was light enough outside to see adequately near windows, but neither Troy nor Gabriella had any idea what was going to happen. So it was only logical that they found a classroom to wait out the storm in together.

"Is your dad really into basketball?" Gabriella asked, more so that there wouldn't be another awkward silence than anything else.

Troy rolled his eyes, and Gabriella immediately got the sense she had stumbled into a complicated situation as he said with a bit of tenseness in his voice, "My dad's my coach – so, yeah, he's really into it. Which of course means I get to practice everyday, even if no one else does." He laughed bitterly.

"That sounds kind of… difficult," Gabriella ventured carefully.

"I'll say," Troy sighed, shaking his head and glancing around the room. "It sucks. There should be a rule about it, or something – dads shouldn't be coaches. It takes all of the fun out of it."

"I'm sorry," Gabriella told him sincerely. "That's rough."

"It is," he agreed, then laughed, his previous lightheartedness returning. "Sorry about that. Me spilling my entire life story, I mean. And I haven't even introduced myself, have I?" Gabriella knew who he was, but she still shook her head because it wasn't like he knew her name. Troy grinned, "My name's Troy, then. Troy Bolton."

"I'm Gabriella Montez."

He gave her a sort of lopsided grin and said, "I know who you are."

"Really?" she was honestly surprised. Had she even spoken to him before? Sure, Troy was in her French class, but as far as she knew he didn't even pay attention to her. He just fooled around in the back of the classroom.

"Yeah," he shrugged sheepishly, and Gabriella thought it was kind of cute how he blushed slightly. "You're in French with me – and you should probably be in a much higher class.

"I'm just good with languages," Gabriella said, and now she was the one blushing. "But thanks."

Troy glanced at his watch, frowning and saying, "Wow, it's already past noon. I'm starving – do you want to go and see if there's food in the kitchen, or something?

"And who knows," Gabriella added, "maybe there's someone else stuck here."

"Maybe," Troy brushed it off, and it gave Gabriella the impression that he didn't want them to run into anyone else. She guessed that made sense – it wasn't like any of his friends were there, because he had already said they hadn't had practice. At any rate, she assumed he'd want to get rid of her. Troy was being nice and all, but if there was one thing Gabriella knew about East High, it was that it was as a whole very into stereotyping and cliques. The basketball star wouldn't want to stay with the resident geek unless there wasn't another option. "Right now, I'd be okay just with a bag of chips, or something. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's no one else here. If there was, we would've seen them."

"Chips would be good," Gabriella agreed. Troy stood up, and automatically reached out a hand to help her up. It wasn't the best plan, because he stepped to close to her, so that when Gabriella stood up they were maybe two inches apart, with his face right in front of hers.

Before she could even look into his eyes, Gabriella hastily stepped backwards, blushing. Why did she have to be so awkward?

Troy cleared his throat. "Okay, so the kitchen, then."

"Yeah," Gabriella agreed faintly, "the kitchen."

She let Troy take the lead, only noticed once they were in the hallway that he hadn't let go of her hand.

------

Troy felt kind of guilty. In the hour or so that he had known Gabriella Montez, he had already lied to her three times.

Lie Number 1: The practice actually hadn't been a one-on-one with his dad.

Lie Number 2: When had said he didn't think there were any other people at the school, he had known for a fact that he was wrong.

Lie Number 3: He didn't really need to go to the bathroom.

"Dude, this is ridiculous. Be a man and do it!"

"Chad," Troy hissed, "not helping."

Chad rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and glaring at his friend, snapping, "Could you stop whispering – she's in the cafeteria, and we're in the bathroom. She's not going to hear you! That's why you lied about going to the bathroom in the first place!"

"She'll hear you if you don't shut up!" Troy responded hotly. He considered giving Chad the death glare, but it wasn't really worth it because the bathroom had no windows, and because of the power outage there were no lights. Those to things combined meant it was nearly impossible for Troy and Chad to see each other. They could see the vague outlines of the other body, but that was pretty much it. Troy decided this was a good thing, because otherwise there was a good chance that Chad would throttle him.

"That's beside the point. Are you going to be a man and ask her out, or what?"

"I can't ask her out now," Troy said in a this-should-be-obvious voice. "She'll think I'm a creep! She's only known me for an hour or something like that."

Chad huffed and said flatly, "You've got to be kidding me. If you're not going to make a move, then I'm coming out. There's no way I'm hiding out in a bathroom of all places in the middle of a snow storm, in a school with no power, while you have meaningful conversations with your damsel in distress!"

"Damsel in distress? Are you kidding me?" Troy asked in disbelief. "Chad, you know I've wanted to talk to her since the beginning of the year when she first moved here, but I didn't want to freak her out because she looked so shy and stuff. Now I have a chance to make a good impression, and you're going to ruin it?!"

Chad snickered and said, "Dude, if you haven't made a good impression already, chances are you're never going to."

"Shut up," Troy muttered, crossing his arms and turning to face the mirror. He couldn't really see much, but he could see the shape of his hair, which seemed to have finally dried from the shower had taken after basketball. And of course it had dried all messed up so it was sticking out in all directions, like he never brushed his hair. Great.

Troy uselessly tried to flatten his hair, ignoring Chad's comment off, "You do realize you are acting like a chick, right?"

"Just stay in here, okay? I'd do it for you," Troy pleaded.

Chad groaned, finally relenting by saying grudgingly, "Fine." Troy pumped a fist victoriously in the air as his best friend complained, "Dude, I'm never going to those one-on-one practices with you and your dad every again. Look where it got me!"

Troy ignored him. He had more important things to think about.

He ran as fast as he could back to the cafeteria, stopping just outside of it before walking in, as if he wasn't desperate to spend time with the girl he had been crushing on for months.

"Hey, they have soda, too, you know," Gabriella commented from her position sitting on one of the cafeteria tables, her feet perched on the bench below her. Around her were scattered various items of foot – as she and Troy had found out, the kitchen at East High was well-stocked with nonperishable foods over Christmas break.

"Awesome," Troy said, grinning widely. "At least if we have to stay here for ages, we won't starve, right?"

"God, I hope we aren't staying here for too long," Gabriella laughed. "My mom will be furious if I don't go to my grandparents' house."

"Why?" Troy asked, interested despite himself.

"Well," Gabriella shrugged, taking a sip of her Diet Coke, "that's where my mom, and her entire family, is right now – that's where we always celebrate Christmas. The thing is, it gets kind of hectic, and if my mom's stuck there while I have an out, well, she's not going to be happy."

"Fun," Troy laughed sarcastically.

Gabriella wrinkled her nose in distaste before asking, "What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Oh, you know," he shrugged casually, reaching for his own soda and opening it, "just low-key stuff, really. We're having a Christmas dinner at my house with my grandparents, but they probably won't come because they hate driving in bad weather. My aunts and uncles might come over with my cousins, but I really hope not because I'm not good with little kids."

"Really?" Gabriella looked surprised. "You look like you'd be good with kids."

Troy scoffed, grabbing one of the small chip bags they had found and opening it. "Not at all – I'm so awkward with them, and I don't know what to say. It's so embarrassing sometimes."

She giggled, finding that it was surprisingly easy to conjure up a picture of Troy awkwardly trying to entertain a little miniature of himself.

Troy ran a hand sheepishly through his hair, making it messier than it already was. Gabriella thought it was kind of cute.

As her laughter faded, the two lapsed into a silence that was a lot more comfortable than their initial silences. Gabriella glanced out the window, and as she did her forehead creased in worry and anxiety.

"What?" Troy asked worriedly.

"It's going to get dark," she admitted, looking down. "I don't really like the dark, as stupid as it sounds."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Troy said soothingly, wrapping an arm around her. A thrill shot through his body as she shifted so she was leaning against him. That was a good sign, right? "It won't be dark until four something – before then we can head over to my dad's office. He has one of those emergency kits that has flashlights in it."

"Yeah, okay," Gabriella smiled thankfully. "That would actually be really great."

Troy felt another thrill shoot up his body.

------

"What did she say?"

Gabriella flipped her phone shut and slipped it back into her pocket, letting out a sigh of relief now that she had finally told her mom what was going on. She turned towards Troy as she confessed, "She was pretty mad – but she's my mom, she'll get over it. And it's the weather's fault, not mine."

"Exactly," Troy agreed. She had to squint to see him now, but that was okay because they had two flashlights from Troy's dad's emergency kit that he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk, in case of, well, emergencies. Troy handed Gabriella one of them, and she flicked it on.

"Thanks," she said, shivering slightly from the cold. She hadn't thought to bring a coat – she had on long sleeves, and that was usually enough when all she had to do was walk the distance from her car to inside the school.

The next thing she new, Troy was slipping off his sweatshirt and telling her seriously, "Take it – I don't need it, swear. And I have others if I need them."

"Are you sure?" she asked, although she couldn't deny that a thrill went through her at the thought of Troy letting her wear his sweatshirt.

"Gabriella, just take it," he ordered, and she knew he wasn't being mean. It was somewhat baffling, how after only a few hours with each other they were already acting like they had been friends for ages. Gabriella knew it would be tough for her, once it was all over. She really liked Troy, she had to admit, but there was no way a jock would hang out with a brainiac at East High. That sort of thing didn't happen.

They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes, and there must've been a unspoken consensus to go to the front doors to see if the parking lot had been plowed so they could go home, because both of them headed there.

The walk was about five minutes long because of the general enormity of the school. Gabriella wasn't sure, but she guessed that at about the second minute, Troy started to walk about closer to her, and by the fourth minute his hand was wrapped around her shoulder, maybe to keep her warm because she had been cold before. Gabriella would've liked to believe that he had another reason, but she didn't want to get her hopes up. That was the last thing she needed – to actually believe that Troy liked her when he really felt nothing but a sense of obligation.

They reached the doors, and when they did Gabriella wasn't sure whether she was happy or sad, because the parking lot had been plowed which meant they were free to go home.

"Wow," Gabriella tried to muster up some enthusiasm. "That's great, they finally plowed it."

Gabriella took a few steps forward to get a better look out the window. Sure enough, there was her car. The plows hadn't hit it, thank God, but there was a bit of snow around it. She'd probably have to shovel it or use her feet to kick it out of the way.

"Yeah," Troy echoed, not sounded at all excited either.

Gabriella inwardly groaned. This would happen to her – she would spend a few hours with a guy and then completely fall for him and want them to at least continue their friendship if not more. But she had no idea if that would happen, so in that moment all she wanted to do was stay right there and never leave.

"Uh, Gabriella?"

"Yeah?" she asked uncertainly, turning around and wondering why Troy was still standing awkwardly behind her. He was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, his eyes glued on the ground.

After a brief moment of indecision, Troy looked up and his eyes met hers. His hand seemed to instinctively rise to rub the back of his neck as he confessed, "I might know you for a reason other than the fact that you're in my French class." He paused, taking a deep breath. "There's a chance that I sort of stare at you during class a lot, and during lunch. And I kind of already knew that you were on the Scholastic Decathlon team, because I had asked around about you a bit."

"Oh." Gabriella's voice was barely audible. Was she dreaming? Was this a sick, twisted joke? Or was Troy Bolton actually saying all of this to her face?

He took another shaky breath and considered, his voice even softer now, "And I really, really wanted to ask you to ask you to the Winter Formal last Friday, because I really, really wanted to go with you, except I didn't really have enough guts to and then some girl asked me and I didn't want to hurt her feelings."

"Okay," Gabriella said slowly, her mind not finished processing the information.

Troy looked really nervous now. "That probably just really freaked you out, but I was thinking that maybe you could come over to my house for Christmas, since you can't really go to your grandparents' house. If you want to," he added quickly.

"Really?" Gabriella asked. "I could really come over to your house?"

Troy nodded, hope cautiously filling his eyes.

She smiled softly. "That'd be really nice. Better than spending Christmas alone, definitely."

Troy laughed, taking slow steps towards her. "So I didn't freak you out?"

Gabriella shook her head, biting her lip nervously as Troy got closer and closer to her.

"And, if I were to say that I really, really like you, and want to talk you out sometime, would you feel the same way?"

He was really close to her now, his face inches from hers like they had been before when he had helped her stand up. She shivered, and his arms wrapped around her, maybe to warm her up, although now she suspected it was for another reason entirely.

Still mutely, she nodded slowly, and all the while his lips leaned closer and closer to hers, until they met in a sweet, tender kiss that was full of uncertainty and caution, but gradually led way to bigger things, their arms wrapping around each other's bodies and their lips moving as one in a slow and sensual explosion of new feelings and excitement.

Troy pulled away reluctantly after several seconds, his nose nuzzling against Gabriella's as a wide smile stretched across his face.

"So you asked around about me a little bit?" Gabriella questioned, unable to prevent herself from smiling.

He blushed slightly and admitted sheepishly, "Okay, maybe a lot." Gabriella giggled, and Troy leaned in and gave her another soft, lingering kiss that sent pleasant butterflies down her spine.

"We should probably get going," Gabriella whispered, smiling softly despite herself.

Troy laughed slightly. "I just need to go to the bathroom, first."