Austin & Ally / High School Musical

Chapter One

It was a magical New Year's Eve at a vacation resort in the mountains. Gleaming white snow covered the ground, stars sparkled in the crisp, clear air, and everyone was beginning to get in the party mood.

Everyone, that is, except Austin Moon and his father, Mike, who were still on the basketball court, playing one-on-one. They were covered in sweat, but they were having too much fun to stop.

Austin had the ball, and he was doing a good job of getting around his dad. After all, Austin was on the high school basketball team. Not only that, he was the team captain. He had the smooth moves and explosive action of a real star.

But Mike was more than just Austin's dad. Mike was also the basketball team's coach. So Mr. Moon gave his son advice as they played.

"Keep working left, Austin," Mr. Moon said.

"The guy guarding you in the championship game won't expect that. You'll torch them."

Austin nodded, breathing hard. "By going left" he said.

"He'll look middle, you take it downtown," his dad - and coach - explained.

Austin nodded again. "Like this??"

He spun past his father, jumped, and sunk a reverse layup. The ball whistled cleanly through the basketball. Nothing but net!!

His father grinned. "Sweet."

Austin grinned back. Nothing felt better than playing basketball when you were in the groove!! They could have played all night, but just then Austin's mum walked into the gym. She was wearing a sequinned party dress and clearly had things other than B-ball on her mind.

"Boys? Hello?" she called. Once she got their attention, she went on. "Did we really fly all this way to play more basketball?"

Austin and his father glanced at each other slyly. They knew she didn't really want an answer to that question, but they gave her one anyway. In perfect union, they shrugged and said, "Yeah."

Mrs. Moon gave an exasperated sigh. "It's the last night of vacation. The party...? Remember?"

Actually, they had both totally forgotten the big New Year's Eve party that the resort was holding, but they knew it wasn't wise to admit that.

"Oh, right, right," Mr. Moon said quickly. "New Year's Eve." He hesitated, then asked, with some fear, "Do we have to wear funny hats?"

"Absolutely," she said firmly. "And we're due in half an hour. Austin, they have a kids' party downstairs in the Freestyle Club."

"Kids' party?" Austin protested. That made him sound like a toddler!

"Young adults," his mum quickly amended. "Now go shower up."

With heavy sighs, Austin and his father did as she said .

As Austin took one last glance at the basketball court, he thought, The championship game is in a couple of weeks! I should be practising, not going to some stupid "Kids' party"! Besides, how much fun could hanging out with a bunch of kids possibly be...

Meanwhile, in another part of the lodge, another mother was about to tear her daughter away from a different fascinating activity.

Ally Dawson was comfortably curled up in a overstuffed chair in the sitting area. She was enjoying the peace and quiet - everyone else was already at the party - and had totally lost herself in a book called 'If You Only knew Me'. It was the best book she had read since, well, since the last book she checked out of the library, and she couldn't wait to get to the end.