Secret Santa (Pt3)
Secret Santa
A Holiday Fan Fiction,
Written by Desinere
Cheap, Flavored Chap Stick=Romance - -
December 19, 2007:
Wednesday brought on poorly hidden suspicion. Ryan was-literally-snapping at anyone who attempted to make small talk with him, including Jasper, the pint-sized, timid-as-hell new Drama Club limb. The poor, fainthearted and surprisingly short junior had only wanted to discuss the Winter Musicale with Ryan, and so began a one-sided game of Twenty Questions. Jasper had wound up hastily, and nervously, making his way out of the cafeteria after the fifth unanswered question fired at him. Ryan had to admit, after that one, he felt kind of guilty and embarrassed.
He tried to keep the suspicions under wraps, really, he did, but it was so difficult not to accuse every passing person of being behind the surprisingly clever scheme! Not to mention the fact that he had been so sure that there would be some other gift waiting for him yesterday, only to discover that there was nothing in his locker: no note, no cutely-wrapped box, nothing!
After he got over his little inner tantrum, he had devised a mental list-if he had actually made a list on paper with one of his favorite pompom-topped pens, that would just be obsessive to the max-of possible culprits, and people who wouldn’t even be considered.
Under the completely free-of-charge were all of the Wildcats, cheerleaders included (though he did have his doubts about the one, Nadine, who mentioned something about having a liking for theatrical arts to him last year…), as well as the majority of the Chemistry Lab Geeks.
The only people he suspected were Kelsi (he always did think she kind of had a crush on him-who didn’t, though?), Sharpay (she loved to play pranks on Ryan, and she knew that he was secretly a hopeless romantic), or maybe, possibly, his mother (she loved surprising him, and of course they had the money to get people to work undercover, even for something as mundane as a Christmas Mystery Game), and so far, there were no real clues that pointed directly at them. This game of guess-who frustrated Ryan to no end.
He had tried to inconspicuously glance at other people’s handwriting during classes, and he had been wrongly accused of cheating during a pop quiz because of it. Still, he had found no one with the same, exact penmanship as the mysterious person’s-he had memorized how the person dotted their i’s, crossed their t’s, and even how their letters tended to sweep in a slightly sloppy left direction.
He wrote out a pass to the bathroom before his final morning class was over, intent on trying to spot someone placing a note in his locker.
Just as he closed the classroom door and walked off in the direction of his locker, someone collided with him. He grunted, nearly falling to the floor had it not been for a pair of arms hastily wrapped around his midsection.
“Watch where you’re-“ He started scathingly, until he looked up at whom it was that bumped into him. Chad Danforth, grinning sheepishly, looked down at Ryan with his warm brown eyes.
“Sorry, dude. Didn’t mean to knock you over like that.” He apologized, righting himself and Ryan at once. Habitually brushing off the front of his slightly wrinkled shirt, he smiled at Chad and shrugged.
“It’s fine. No damage done.”
“Oh, and, um…” Chad said, trailing off uneasily and scoffing his sneaker on the linoleum floor, causing a rather high-pitched squeak to erupt. “Some dude asked me to give you this.” He quickly rambled, his one hand shooting out to Ryan. There was a small slip of paper grasped tightly between his index finger and his thumb.
Ryan gasped involuntarily, quickly grabbing the note. “That’s just my luck! I go out early to try and catch them in the act, and they turn all Bond-esque and use some lackey to give me the next note! Oh, no offense, Chad,” Ryan said offhand at the lackey comment.
“Wait,” Ryan said, stopping his obsessive ministrations, “Did you see who-“ He glanced up, but no one was in front of him. He looked around, Chad nowhere in sight.
“Odd…” He mumbled, but shrugged it off, instead opting to open up the note he still had.
Ask the playmaker for the present after your Drama Club meeting.
It said, and Ryan frowned for a moment, deep in thought. The playmaker? Who was that?
All through lunch, Ryan didn’t touch the lasagna on his lunch tray once because he was so deep in thought.
“Hey Ry, what’s got you thinking?” Gabriella teased, smiling as she rubbed Troy’s hand affectionately with her own.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing Gabs.” He said offhandedly as he tapped his chin with his index finger. He knew one thing about this person, at least. Well, more like two, but the second was more of a guess. First off, this someone was a guy! That only left a million and one suspects leftover, but at least Kelsi, Sharpay and his own mother were crossed off of his list.
“Hey Chad,” Ryan asked suddenly, startling the darker-skinned jock. “Do you know who the playmaker is?”
“Um…” Chad trailed off slightly nervously, tilting his head to the side. “I don’t think I do. Troy?” He asked, looking to the basketball MVP of East High. Troy, who had been gazing deeply into his girlfriend’s warm eyes for the past ten minutes, blinked out of his love-induced stupor. “What?”
Ryan rolled his eyes and Chad snorted out of amusement. “D’you know who the playmaker would be?” Troy seemed to be visibly mulling the question over in his mind. Ryan wasn’t sure if it was just some overly-done act. “Well, there’s the playmaker in basketball, but… Oh!” He exclaimed, a grin on his face and his blue eyes sparkling. “Kelsi’s the theatrical playmaker.” He stated with an all-knowing smirk. Chad gave a little glare at his friend, which made Troy’s expression melt instantly.
“Right… Thanks, Troy!” Ryan chirped, for once glad that he was associated with the rambunctious Wildcat. He jumped up to discard his now-cold, untouched lunch before hopping jovially out of the lunchroom. Many eyes were watching his leaving form, and Troy shook his head.
“Dude… I swear, he eats magic peppy dust with his cereal every morning.”
Drama club couldn’t have come any sooner for Ryan, and he was bouncing impatiently in his seat the entire time. Sharpay slapped him over his head with her script, causing his beloved pink-with-leopard-print fedora to fly off of his skull and onto the floor.
He hadn’t been very happy after that, which only caused him to feel more eager.
Finally, his club had wrapped up, and he made his way over to Kelsi, who was busily organizing her papers over and over again in a completely obsessive-compulsive manner.
“Oh, Ryan!” She said with plastic surprise. She smiled innocently up at him, her expressive eyes glowing through the lenses of her glasses.
“Hey, Kels. Look,” Ryan started, completely all business-like, “I got this note from some random mystery person today, and it said to meet the playmaker for something after Drama club.”
Kelsi nodded with a warm smile, and reached into her rucksack for something. Ryan was trying to look over her shoulder to see what she was fetching for him without being so conspicuous about it. Before Kelsi leaned up, he made it look like he was standing completely ramrod straight the entire time. Kelsi, however, didn’t look fooled. With a mischievous grin, she passed over a festively wrapped parcel.
“Do you know who gave this to you, Kelsi?” Ryan asked excitedly, momentarily forgetting about the present he held. Kelsi shook her head with glee, and got up from her desk.
“I’m sorry Ryan, if I told you anything, it’d ruin the fun.” He stared in shock at her back as she made her way through the maze of desks, and before she could evade him completely, he quickly danced-literally-around all of the desks and caught up to her, grabbing onto her arm.
“Fun? Kelsi, I’m losing precious beauty sleep over this matter!” He whined, tugging on her elbow for good measure. Maybe if he nearly dislocated her appendage, it would persuade her to tell…
Before he could consider physically harming one of his new friends (which he hoped to keep, so it was probably for the better), Kelsi calmly removed Ryan’s hands from her forearm and, with a cheerful smile, waved and walked out of the classroom.
Ryan pouted and huffed a few times, but then realized it was a lost effort since there was no audience to perform for. He sighed and shook his head, but his bad mood was gone for the time being when he remembered the present. It was sitting teasingly on Kelsi’s desk, and Ryan had to, once again, make his way over to where he’d left it. The school really needed to consider expanding the building!
Of course, he had to open the card first; maybe he had an OCD as well? He paid it no mind, instead nearly ripping the note in half because of his enthusiasm.
Candy cane flavored kisses being spread on my lips…
Ryan looked disappointed. That was it? He frowned before opening the wrapped package. Revealed was a small drugstore brand of lip balm. Ryan inspected the Peppermint-flavored Lip Smackers tube, and snapped the cap open before hesitantly sniffing at the revealed stuff inside. Mm… peppermint!
He looked around for a moment, as if seeing if there were any hidden cameras to capture him putting on such a girly, cheap lip product (well, he didn’t really care so much about the girly part) before putting a light smear on his top and bottom lips. He cautiously rubbed them together, and smiled at how cool it felt on his skin.
He whistled as he left the classroom; he still had a few more periods of the day to go, so maybe there’d be more presents!
As he expected, there was another little something left for him. It was the end of the day, when someone knocked his poor, tarnished cat-printed fedora to the ground again! He grumbled, but didn’t make any other comment as he bent over to snatch the hat up before it was stepped on.
He was surprised when he saw a small evergreen-colored envelope nestled in his hat like a baby bird in a nest.
Quickly tossing the hat upon his head, for once not worrying if it was tilted at that precise angle, he looked around to see if he spotted someone making a hasty getaway. Nope, there was no one in the premises except for Chad. Oh well. He looked back down at the card he was holding, and shoved his index finger underneath the flap of the envelope and wrenched it open.
Inside was a merry little Hallmark Christmas card, complete with a cute, snugly dressed penguin on the front. When he opened up the card, he childishly grinned when “Jingle Bell Rock” played once more.
Getting over the nostalgia that the song brought on, he quickly read what was written inside.
A wonderful feeling of delight from a card,
The little snowflake that you catch on your nose…
He smiled, feeling an inner warmth radiate throughout his system like he was some kind of humanoid radiator. What was it about holiday cards that made him so smile-y? Or was it just because this… person was incredibly thoughtful? Who would waste so much of their time and effort on him?
A Holiday Fan Fiction,
Written by Desinere
Cheap, Flavored Chap Stick=Romance - -
December 19, 2007:
Wednesday brought on poorly hidden suspicion. Ryan was-literally-snapping at anyone who attempted to make small talk with him, including Jasper, the pint-sized, timid-as-hell new Drama Club limb. The poor, fainthearted and surprisingly short junior had only wanted to discuss the Winter Musicale with Ryan, and so began a one-sided game of Twenty Questions. Jasper had wound up hastily, and nervously, making his way out of the cafeteria after the fifth unanswered question fired at him. Ryan had to admit, after that one, he felt kind of guilty and embarrassed.
He tried to keep the suspicions under wraps, really, he did, but it was so difficult not to accuse every passing person of being behind the surprisingly clever scheme! Not to mention the fact that he had been so sure that there would be some other gift waiting for him yesterday, only to discover that there was nothing in his locker: no note, no cutely-wrapped box, nothing!
After he got over his little inner tantrum, he had devised a mental list-if he had actually made a list on paper with one of his favorite pompom-topped pens, that would just be obsessive to the max-of possible culprits, and people who wouldn’t even be considered.
Under the completely free-of-charge were all of the Wildcats, cheerleaders included (though he did have his doubts about the one, Nadine, who mentioned something about having a liking for theatrical arts to him last year…), as well as the majority of the Chemistry Lab Geeks.
The only people he suspected were Kelsi (he always did think she kind of had a crush on him-who didn’t, though?), Sharpay (she loved to play pranks on Ryan, and she knew that he was secretly a hopeless romantic), or maybe, possibly, his mother (she loved surprising him, and of course they had the money to get people to work undercover, even for something as mundane as a Christmas Mystery Game), and so far, there were no real clues that pointed directly at them. This game of guess-who frustrated Ryan to no end.
He had tried to inconspicuously glance at other people’s handwriting during classes, and he had been wrongly accused of cheating during a pop quiz because of it. Still, he had found no one with the same, exact penmanship as the mysterious person’s-he had memorized how the person dotted their i’s, crossed their t’s, and even how their letters tended to sweep in a slightly sloppy left direction.
He wrote out a pass to the bathroom before his final morning class was over, intent on trying to spot someone placing a note in his locker.
Just as he closed the classroom door and walked off in the direction of his locker, someone collided with him. He grunted, nearly falling to the floor had it not been for a pair of arms hastily wrapped around his midsection.
“Watch where you’re-“ He started scathingly, until he looked up at whom it was that bumped into him. Chad Danforth, grinning sheepishly, looked down at Ryan with his warm brown eyes.
“Sorry, dude. Didn’t mean to knock you over like that.” He apologized, righting himself and Ryan at once. Habitually brushing off the front of his slightly wrinkled shirt, he smiled at Chad and shrugged.
“It’s fine. No damage done.”
“Oh, and, um…” Chad said, trailing off uneasily and scoffing his sneaker on the linoleum floor, causing a rather high-pitched squeak to erupt. “Some dude asked me to give you this.” He quickly rambled, his one hand shooting out to Ryan. There was a small slip of paper grasped tightly between his index finger and his thumb.
Ryan gasped involuntarily, quickly grabbing the note. “That’s just my luck! I go out early to try and catch them in the act, and they turn all Bond-esque and use some lackey to give me the next note! Oh, no offense, Chad,” Ryan said offhand at the lackey comment.
“Wait,” Ryan said, stopping his obsessive ministrations, “Did you see who-“ He glanced up, but no one was in front of him. He looked around, Chad nowhere in sight.
“Odd…” He mumbled, but shrugged it off, instead opting to open up the note he still had.
Ask the playmaker for the present after your Drama Club meeting.
It said, and Ryan frowned for a moment, deep in thought. The playmaker? Who was that?
All through lunch, Ryan didn’t touch the lasagna on his lunch tray once because he was so deep in thought.
“Hey Ry, what’s got you thinking?” Gabriella teased, smiling as she rubbed Troy’s hand affectionately with her own.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing Gabs.” He said offhandedly as he tapped his chin with his index finger. He knew one thing about this person, at least. Well, more like two, but the second was more of a guess. First off, this someone was a guy! That only left a million and one suspects leftover, but at least Kelsi, Sharpay and his own mother were crossed off of his list.
“Hey Chad,” Ryan asked suddenly, startling the darker-skinned jock. “Do you know who the playmaker is?”
“Um…” Chad trailed off slightly nervously, tilting his head to the side. “I don’t think I do. Troy?” He asked, looking to the basketball MVP of East High. Troy, who had been gazing deeply into his girlfriend’s warm eyes for the past ten minutes, blinked out of his love-induced stupor. “What?”
Ryan rolled his eyes and Chad snorted out of amusement. “D’you know who the playmaker would be?” Troy seemed to be visibly mulling the question over in his mind. Ryan wasn’t sure if it was just some overly-done act. “Well, there’s the playmaker in basketball, but… Oh!” He exclaimed, a grin on his face and his blue eyes sparkling. “Kelsi’s the theatrical playmaker.” He stated with an all-knowing smirk. Chad gave a little glare at his friend, which made Troy’s expression melt instantly.
“Right… Thanks, Troy!” Ryan chirped, for once glad that he was associated with the rambunctious Wildcat. He jumped up to discard his now-cold, untouched lunch before hopping jovially out of the lunchroom. Many eyes were watching his leaving form, and Troy shook his head.
“Dude… I swear, he eats magic peppy dust with his cereal every morning.”
Drama club couldn’t have come any sooner for Ryan, and he was bouncing impatiently in his seat the entire time. Sharpay slapped him over his head with her script, causing his beloved pink-with-leopard-print fedora to fly off of his skull and onto the floor.
He hadn’t been very happy after that, which only caused him to feel more eager.
Finally, his club had wrapped up, and he made his way over to Kelsi, who was busily organizing her papers over and over again in a completely obsessive-compulsive manner.
“Oh, Ryan!” She said with plastic surprise. She smiled innocently up at him, her expressive eyes glowing through the lenses of her glasses.
“Hey, Kels. Look,” Ryan started, completely all business-like, “I got this note from some random mystery person today, and it said to meet the playmaker for something after Drama club.”
Kelsi nodded with a warm smile, and reached into her rucksack for something. Ryan was trying to look over her shoulder to see what she was fetching for him without being so conspicuous about it. Before Kelsi leaned up, he made it look like he was standing completely ramrod straight the entire time. Kelsi, however, didn’t look fooled. With a mischievous grin, she passed over a festively wrapped parcel.
“Do you know who gave this to you, Kelsi?” Ryan asked excitedly, momentarily forgetting about the present he held. Kelsi shook her head with glee, and got up from her desk.
“I’m sorry Ryan, if I told you anything, it’d ruin the fun.” He stared in shock at her back as she made her way through the maze of desks, and before she could evade him completely, he quickly danced-literally-around all of the desks and caught up to her, grabbing onto her arm.
“Fun? Kelsi, I’m losing precious beauty sleep over this matter!” He whined, tugging on her elbow for good measure. Maybe if he nearly dislocated her appendage, it would persuade her to tell…
Before he could consider physically harming one of his new friends (which he hoped to keep, so it was probably for the better), Kelsi calmly removed Ryan’s hands from her forearm and, with a cheerful smile, waved and walked out of the classroom.
Ryan pouted and huffed a few times, but then realized it was a lost effort since there was no audience to perform for. He sighed and shook his head, but his bad mood was gone for the time being when he remembered the present. It was sitting teasingly on Kelsi’s desk, and Ryan had to, once again, make his way over to where he’d left it. The school really needed to consider expanding the building!
Of course, he had to open the card first; maybe he had an OCD as well? He paid it no mind, instead nearly ripping the note in half because of his enthusiasm.
Candy cane flavored kisses being spread on my lips…
Ryan looked disappointed. That was it? He frowned before opening the wrapped package. Revealed was a small drugstore brand of lip balm. Ryan inspected the Peppermint-flavored Lip Smackers tube, and snapped the cap open before hesitantly sniffing at the revealed stuff inside. Mm… peppermint!
He looked around for a moment, as if seeing if there were any hidden cameras to capture him putting on such a girly, cheap lip product (well, he didn’t really care so much about the girly part) before putting a light smear on his top and bottom lips. He cautiously rubbed them together, and smiled at how cool it felt on his skin.
He whistled as he left the classroom; he still had a few more periods of the day to go, so maybe there’d be more presents!
As he expected, there was another little something left for him. It was the end of the day, when someone knocked his poor, tarnished cat-printed fedora to the ground again! He grumbled, but didn’t make any other comment as he bent over to snatch the hat up before it was stepped on.
He was surprised when he saw a small evergreen-colored envelope nestled in his hat like a baby bird in a nest.
Quickly tossing the hat upon his head, for once not worrying if it was tilted at that precise angle, he looked around to see if he spotted someone making a hasty getaway. Nope, there was no one in the premises except for Chad. Oh well. He looked back down at the card he was holding, and shoved his index finger underneath the flap of the envelope and wrenched it open.
Inside was a merry little Hallmark Christmas card, complete with a cute, snugly dressed penguin on the front. When he opened up the card, he childishly grinned when “Jingle Bell Rock” played once more.
Getting over the nostalgia that the song brought on, he quickly read what was written inside.
A wonderful feeling of delight from a card,
The little snowflake that you catch on your nose…
He smiled, feeling an inner warmth radiate throughout his system like he was some kind of humanoid radiator. What was it about holiday cards that made him so smile-y? Or was it just because this… person was incredibly thoughtful? Who would waste so much of their time and effort on him?