Welcome, everyone to "High School Musical: Remixed." In my version, the characters have slightly different traits (ie, Gabriella is a world-class snowboarder), the songs are different, and some of the plot has been changed to accomodate this. Hope you like it, and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I don't own iPod or Journey. But I do own a pickle fork. Nevermind, there are no pickle forks in this story.

Gabby Montez pulled her goggles off her helmet and over her eyes, then slipped a pair of iPod earbuds into her ears. She whipped her snowboard around and charged for the nearest jump in the terrain garden. Wind swooshed past her head as she cleared the jump, completing a three-sixty. Indie music rang in her eardrums.

"WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed. This was Gabby's heaven: pristine powder and corduroy, familiar rails and jumps, and the looks of reverence she got from her fellow (male) snowboarders. She skidded to a stop on the side of the run as she waited for her friend Mark to clear the jump. He didn't manage the landing quite as well as she had and went tumbling down the slope. Gabby laughed and rode up to him, where he was moaning in a snowdrift.

"Nice one, Mark," she laughed.

"Eh, shut up."

"Aw, don't feel bad Mark. We've still got the halfpipe and that's always fun."

"Urg… I don't even want to think about the halfpipe right now."

Gabby slid a few feet down the mountain and stared at her friend, who was just standing up. "You coming?"

"Sure, just lemme' get up."

"As if! Eat my dust! Woohoo!" Gabby tore off down the mountain. Mark stumbled to his feet and started riding after her.

"Wait, Gabby! Gosh…"

Three hours later, Gabriella slid the card key into the door of her mountain home. The door clicked open and she walked inside, stomping the snow off her boots.

"Hey mom, I'm back."

"Gabby, honey!" Mrs. Montez appeared and gave Gabby a reluctant hug. "Where were you? This morning when I asked you you said you were coming home at three and it's already five." She waited expectantly and Gabby rolled her eyes.

"Look mom, me and the rest of the gang stopped at Dusty's for après. That's all."

Gabby's mom slumped down on the leather sofa. "I need to discuss something with you."

"Well, go ahead. Shoot."

Her mom was about to begin, but interrupted herself with a "Gabriella Angel-Luise Montez, take off those boots right now!"

Gabby sighed and started roughly unbuckling her boots. "KK, start again."

"Gabriella, you know that times haven't been great at work. The Rec. Centre has to lay off their workers because, of course, it doesn't attract many tourists when the snow is this good."

"Yeah…" A large lump was developing in Gabby's stomach. This wasn't good news, she could tell.

Mrs. Montez sighed. "Basically, I got fired."

Gabby's boots fell off her feet and thumped onto the hardwood floor. "Why?"

"Rec. Centre's going to stop doing daycare. Going to stop doing storytime. No more library, even." Mrs. Montez curled into a ball on the couch and started whimpering softly.

Gabby couldn't believe it. Why would anyone fire her mom? Mrs. Montez was a good worker and she'd been at the Rec. Centre before Gabby had even existed.

"Oh, mom," Gabby sighed, her eyes watery now. "It's okay, you can find another job, Dusty's is hiring for spring break already-"

Mrs. Montez shook her head. "No use. I've made arrangements to sell the apartment."

"WHAT? No!"

"I'm sorry, nena, I'm sorry…"

"So we're gonna' be homeless bums now, are we?"

"N-n-no," Mrs. Montez managed to squeak out. "We're moving to… to Albuquerque. Janet knows some people down their and we can get a cheap apartment."

"Albuquerque? But isn't that in, like, New Mexico?"

"Yes…"

"Well, mom, there sure as heck aren't ski hills in New Mexico."

Mrs. Montez' shoulders heaved with sobs. "We're going to have to sell your snowboard too."

"NO! My snowboard is mine! I'm not selling it!"

"You're going to have to, or else we'll never get a decent place in Albuquerque. We'll be staying in some crappy motel with ticks in the beds if you don't! Do you want that?"

Gabby was walking into her bedroom, fingers in her ears. "Blah, blah blah, NOT LISTENING!"

"Gabriella Angel-Luise…"

She was interrupted by the slam of a door as Gabriella left the apartment, guitar in one hand and sheet music in the other.

"I'm leaving now!" Gabby yelled over her mother's angry cries. "And who knows, maybe I'll be back. Maybe I won't. But whatever you do, don't come looking for me!"

A few hours later, after a long sobfest and walk around the village, Gabriella was sitting in the hotel's gym while some guys were setting up for that night's New Years party. She was off in a corner by herself, strumming random notes while tears streamed down her face and splashed onto her mahogany guitar.

"You're just a small town girl, living in a lonely world…" she started singing. She stopped after noticing some of the handymen looking at her funny and went back to playing random notes.

"Hey! You, you with the guitar!" Gabby cringed at the voice of Harper, the incredibly annoying concierge and valet for the whole hotel. Apparently he was now MC of the New Year's Eve Youth Party, too. "Get over here!" She reluctantly got up and walked over to where the hands were setting up.

Harper nodded at her guitar. "Can you play that thing?"

Gabby rolled her eyes. "No duh," she wanted to say, but opted for just a "Yeah?"

"Super! Can you sing?"

"Sure."

"Great!"

Gabby set down the guitar and set her hands on her hips. "Look, what is this about?"

Harper chuckled. "You'll see."

New Year's Eve, 2005. Time: 11:30. Location: Boulder, Colorado.

Troy Bolton meandered around the hotel's gym, a little starstruck by all the glitter and bright lights. He held a San Pellegrino, which he had long since stopped drinking because it had a tendency to drip onto his shirt. The one his mom had made him wear for this stupid party. Sighing, he plopped down on a bench near the stage and rubbed his temples. He looked up and saw a girl with her long, dark hair up in chopsticks, playing the guitar and singing with whoever was doing karaoke at the moment.

"Hey, you! Kid in the blue shirt!" a high-pitched voice whispered.

Troy groaned. That was him. "Yeah?" he said. A guy with a sparkly top hat appeared and smiled.

"You wanna go next?" the man said.

"For what?"

The man smiled. "Why, karaoke, of course!"

Troy didn't even have time to respond before he was thrust onstage.

"OK, here for your listening enjoyment is…"

"Um… Troy Bolton."

"Everyone, put your hands together for Troy Molson!"

The audience started to clap. A microphone was shoved into Troy's hands. "Um…it's actually Bolton. Not Molson. Bolton."

"Whatever. Go ahead, kid," the guy in the top hat smiled. "Sing your heart out."

The dark-haired girl shuffled over to Troy, her grey camo cargo pants brushing against his leg. "Do you know this song?"

Troy looked down at the sheet music. "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. Wow. His favourite song, though he'd never care to admit it. Chad and the rest of the squad would laugh their heads off and make him listen to more Nelly and Snoop Dogg.

"Yeah, I know it."

"Good," the girl answered and shoved a sheet of lyrics into his hands. She plunked down on a stool and picked up her guitar. "The highlighted words are yours, underlined we both sing, and everything else's mine. Understood?"

"Sure."

"Good," the girl started to strum the opening chords of the song and looked at him expectantly.

"You're just a small town girl, living in a lonely world. You took the midnight train, going anywhere." Troy began testily.

This Troy Molson person was good, Gabby thought as she mindlessly breezed through the accompaniment on her guitar. She realized a little too late it was her turn and burst in with:

"You're just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit. You took the midnight train, going anywhere."

The two teenagers looked into each others' eyes, then looked away awkwardly. Troy kept on singing.

"A singer in a smokey room…"

"A smell of wine and cheap perfume…" Gabby's voice soared on the high notes. OK, so what if she was trying too hard to get this guy's attention? He was cute.

"For a smile, they can share the night…"

Both sang the end of the hook. "It goes on and on and on and on…"

"Strangers waiting! Looking down the boulevard,

Their shadows searching in the night."

Gabby sang, "Streetlights!"

Troy returned with, "People!"

"Living just to find emotion

Hiding, somewhere in the night."

Gabby resumed mindlessly playing the guitar with Troy's vocals. They had actually sounded pretty good together, she thought. He must have been some geeky band nerd or something. No boy she'd ever come across could sing that well. Not even Mark, she smiled, remembering Mark's famously horrendous karaoke version of "Oops, I Did It Again." She chuckled and turned her attention back to Troy.

"Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill.

Paying anybody to roll the dice, just one more time." Troy finished his solo and Gabby began hers.

"Some will win, some will lose, and some were born to sing the blues.

Oh! The movie never ends…"

Troy chimed in.

"It goes on and on and on and on…

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlights, people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night!"

Gabriella broke into the longer guitar solo, playing hard to match the intensity of the music. Such a great, great song. She loved it. And though she'd never thought it would have made a good duet before tonight (actually, Harper had suggested it), it made quite a good duet. And Troy certainly did it justice.

"Don't stop believing!

Hold on to this feeling!

Streetlights! People!

In the night!"

Gabriella went off on her own little "Whoa, ooh, ooh, ooh, oh man yeah…" in time to the music, causing Troy to give her a funny look. She stopped.

"Oh yeah!

Don't stop believing!

Hold on to this feeling!

Streetlights! People!

In the night!"

The two finished singing. Thunderous applause and cheers arose from the audience. Gabriella laid her guitar on the stage and shakily stood up. Wow. First standing ovation. Maybe she was a better musician than she thought. She took a quick little bow and Harper jumped onstage.

"Well, folks, that was un-be-lievable! Please, give another round of appluase for Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez."

Troy looked at the girl beside him. So that's what her name was. Gabriella. She was pretty. He watched as she slid the chopsticks out of her hair and it cascaded down to her shoulders. OK. Scratch pretty. She was beautiful, and he was pretty sure she knew that he knew it.

Harper looked sideways at Gabby. "Do you want to do another song or shall we call it a night?" He said the last words glancing nervously from Gabby to Troy. Something was up between Gabby and this Troy-boy, he knew it.

"Erm… I think I'll call it a night." Gabby bent down and started packing up her stuff.

"Uh… Gabriella? That's your name, right?" Troy asked her.

"Yeah, but everyone just calls me Gabby."

"OK, sure. Hey, um, listen…" Oh boy. He was new to this. What if Gabby thought he was a creepy idiot weirdo? But those looks she'd given him while they were singing…

"Do you want to go somewhere for nachos or something?"

Gabby stood up, hands on her hips. She let out a long laugh. "Look, you're not from around here, are you?"

Great. So she did think he was a dork. "No, I'm not from around here."

"Thought so. Because on New Year's Eve in Boulder, the restaurants are all packed. And usually full of drunk people, too."

Troy laughed. Gabby smiled. "But I do know this one place," Gabriella began, but then fell silent and started running her hands through her hair rapidly. "Shoot. Oh, shoot. Oh, a thousand bloody shoots."

"What? What's the matter?"

"I left my apartment, like 7 hours ago! My mom doesn't know where the heck I went." She shot Troy a desperate look and hurriedly picked up her stuff. "I gotta run, sorry, Troy. See you tomorrow, maybe?"

She didn't wait for a reply. "Bye!" she hollered, and ran off the stage through droves of teens.

"Bye," Troy whispered, shuffling off the stage. "Bye, Gabby."

To be continued...