Fueled by Ramen's High School Musical

New Year’s Eve. Not only New Year’s Eve, but New Year’s Eve in the mountains. Gabe Saporta could have been doing a number of things with his New Year’s Eve in the mountains. Snowboarding, skiing, chatting up the hot hotel hostess in hopes of steamy sex in the janitor’s closet, or maybe even attempting to start getting ready for the New Year’s Eve “teen party” that would be held in the hotel’s lobby later. But, no. Gabe Saporta was spending his New Year’s Eve in the mountains doing what he did at home -- or anywhere else, for that matter. He was running around, sweating like a pig playing basketball with his dad.

“Keep working left, Gabe.”

“Okay, like this?” Gabe panted, turning left and tossing the ball towards the hoop.

“That’s it!”

“Oh, sweet, that’s money.”

“Better see that in the game!”

“Boys!” Gabe’s mother called out from the doorway, and they both paused to look at her. “Did we really fly all this way to play more basketball?” Gabe and his father both turned to glance at each other, then back towards the woman, nodding.

“Yeah,” they said simultaneously.

“It’s the last night of vacation. The party!” she reminded them, gesturing towards the festive dress that she was wearing.

“Right. The party. New Year’s Eve,” Gabe’s dad said.

“Gabe, they have a kids’ party downstairs.”

“Kids’ party?” he repeated skeptically.

“Young adults. Now go! Shower up!”

“Come on, one more!” he begged, bouncing the basketball on the floor. His mom sighed and without waiting for her to say anything else, he turned, passing his dad and throwing the ball towards the hoop again, passing it straight through the net.

***

William Beckett laid stretched out on a couch, enjoying his New Year’s Eve in the mountains with a book. Until, of course, his mother walked up right in front of him, grabbing the book away.

“William, it’s New Year’s Eve! Enough reading!”

“Oh, but Mom!” he exclaimed, sitting upright. “I’m almost done! And--”

“The teen party? I’ve laid out your best clothes. Come get ready,” she said, reaching to grab her son’s hand, who sighed in defeat.

“Can I have my book back?” William pleaded. His mom gave him a considering look for a moment before finally handing him the book. “Thank you.”

***

The lighting was dim, banners and balloons and decorations all over the room, and everyone else around seemed to have on some sort of ridiculous hat. Gabe walked farther into the ‘party’, glancing around at everyone, kind of wishing that he wasn’t there. Basketball had been much more fun than this.

The crowd around him cheered as a couple on the small stage set up in the middle of the room finished singing a karaoke song and a guy who appeared to be the one directing the karaoke took the stage.

“Who’s gonna rock the house next?!” he called out. Gabe yawned, bored, and leaned up against a wall just as a spotlight shined directly on him. His eyes widened and he furrowed his brows as everyone turned to look at him, a boy standing next to him grabbing his shoulder and pushing him towards the stage. Gabe shook his head, looking around wildly.

“No, dude, I don’t sing,” he said. Noise came from the other side of the room and Gabe looked over to see that the spotlight had chosen another victim -- a boy who was intently reading a book and seemed to be just as thrilled about being picked as Gabe was. The guy directing the karaoke grabbed the other boy -- who looked an awful lot like a deer being caught in headlights -- and pulled him towards the stage, while Gabe was still somewhat fighting going up there.

“I don’t sing!” he said again. “I can’t, I, no, guys!” But before he even knew it, he was on stage, a microphone stand in front of him and the other boy next to him. The other boy had his arms crossed in front of his chest and was staring hard at the ground looking as though he was trying his hardest to disappear.

“Hey, you know, some day you guys might thank me for this,” the karaoke-director-guy laughed, handing Gabe the microphone that he had just been using. “Or not.” Gabe sent him a glare that went unnoticed just as the music started playing.

He glanced towards the boy next to him, but he seemed intent on not making any eye contact with anyone other than Mr. Floor, so Gabe just looked away, sliding the microphone into the stand and looking towards the screen with the lyrics on it.

“Livin’ in my own world,” he began to sing. “Didn’t understand. That anything can happen…when you take a chance.” He backed away from the microphone, his part over and looked away, feeling almost nervous for the boy next to him.

“I never believe in…what I couldn’t see.” Gabe turned to stare directly at the boy, astounded by the voice that was coming from him. “I never opened my heart….”

“Ohh,” Gabe added into the microphone.

“To all the possibilities. Ooh.”

“I know,” they sang together.

“That something has changed,” the boy sang, and Gabe glanced at him again and they made about half a second of eye contact before the both looked away again.

“Never felt this way.”

“And right here tonight…”

“This could be the start of something new. It feels so right to be here with you. Ohh. And now, lookin’ in your eyes, I feel in my heart…” the two looked at each other and smiled slightly, “The start of something new.”

“Oh, Yeahhh,” Gabe sang, grinning. “Now who’d have ever thought that…” The crowd cheered as he unzipped his jacket, pulling it off of him.

“We’d both be here tonight,” the sang in unison.

“And the world looks so much brighter!”

“Brighter! Brighter!” Gabe added, pulling the microphone out of the stand and turning so that he was facing the other boy, both of them grinning at each other.

“With you by my side!”

“I know that something has changed, never felt this way”

“I know it’s for real.”

“This could be the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you. Ohh. And now, lookin’ in your eyes, I feel in my heart…”

“The start of something new,” the boy sang by himself.

“I never knew that it could happen ‘till it happened to me!” Gabe crooned into the microphone, getting closer and closer to the other boy dramatically. “Oh, yeahh.”

“I didn’t know it before, but now it’s easy to seeeee, OHHHH!”

“It’s the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you, oh,” they sang together as Gabe kept taking steps closer to the boy who was smiling and blushing.

“And now, looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…” Gabe not-so-casually reached out, brushing the boy’s hand with his own, causing him to back up, wide-eyed and blushing to the very edge of the stage, nearly falling off, but a person next to the stage pushed him back up.

“That it’s the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you! Oh! And now, lookin’ in your eyes! I feel in my heart!”

“Feel in my heart!”

“The start of something new.”

“The start of something new.”

“The start of something…newww.”

The song ended and they were standing mere inches away from each other, both of them smiling while all of the other kids and teenagers in the crowd cheered for them.

“Gabe,” Gabe said, extending his hand.

“William,” the boy said, taking his hand in his own and shaking it.

***

“Seriously, you have an amazing voice. You’re a singer, right?” Gabe asked, him and William walking outside, mugs full of hot chocolate (unfortunately nobody had spiked any of the drinks yet) in their hands.

“Just church choir is all,” William laughed. “I tried a solo and nearly fainted.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“Well, I took one look at all the people staring at me, and next thing I knew, I was staring at the ceiling. End of solo career,” he admitted.

“Well, with the way you sang tonight, that’s pretty hard to believe.”

“Well that was the first time I’ve done something like that! I mean, it was so cool!”

“I know! Completely!” Gabe agreed.

“Well, you sounded like you’ve done a lot of singing, too.”

“Yeah, sure, my shower head is very impressed,” Gabe smiled, and William laughed.

“NINE. EIGHT. SEVEN.”

Gabe and William glanced at each other, silence falling over them as everyone around them chanted the countdown until the new year.

“SIX. FIVE. FOUR.”

The looked away from each other, both of them shifting awkwardly.

“THREE. TWO. ONE!”

Fireworks went off over the mountains, and the two of them both watched silently. Gabe glanced at William again, marveling at how the lights from the fireworks reflected off of his skin and in his eyes. William’s eyes darted back and forth to and away from Gabe, finally turning to look at him awkwardly, smiling.

“…Well…I guess I’d better go find my mom and wish her a happy New Year!” he said.

“Yeah, me too!” Gabe agreed, nodding. “I mean, not your mom. My mom. ….And dad.” He continued to nod even after he had stopped talking, mentally scolding himself for sounding like a complete idiot. “Um, I’ll call you!” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. “I’ll call you tomorrow!”

“Yeah!” William smiled, pulling his own phone out.

“Here, put your number in,” Gabe told him, holding out his phone, but pausing for a second to take a snapshot of William’s face to save in his phone before handing it to him.

“Yeah, you too,” William said, handing his own phone over to Gabe. They programmed their numbers into each other’s phones, then handed them back to each other.

“Oh, just so you know,” Gabe started, looking down at his phone. “Singing with you was the most fun I’ve had on this entire vacation. So, um, where do you live?” he asked, turning to look at William again, but when he turned his head, William was nowhere to be found. He glanced around, trying to find where he had gone, but didn’t see him anywhere.

He sighed, looking back down at his phone again, William’s picture up on the screen.

“William….” Gabe mumbled, smiling.