High School Musical || Huke Stemmings

Beside You

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 for Luke Hemmings and his father, Andrew, who was still on the basketball court, playing one-on-one. They were covered with sweat, but they were having too much fun to stop.

Luke had the ball, and he was doing a good job of getting around his dad. After all, Luke 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 Andrew was more than just Luke's dad, Andrew was also the basketball team's coach. So Mr. Hemmings gave his son advice as they played.

"Keep working left, Luke," Mr. Hemmings said. "The guy guarding you in the championship game won't expect that. You'll touch him."

Luke nodded, breathing hard. "By going left—" he said.

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

Luke nodded again. "Like this?"

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

His father grinned. "Sweet."

Luke grinned back. Nothing felt better than playing basketball when you were in the groove!

They could have played all night, but just then Luke's mom walked into the gym. She was wearing a sequined part 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?"

Luke and Andrew 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 unison, they shrugged and said, "Yeah."

Mrs. Hemmings 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. Hemmings 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. Luke, they have a kids' party downstairs in the Freestyle Club."

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

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

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

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

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

Harry Styles was comfortably curled up in an overstuffed chair in the sitting area.

He was enjoying the peace as quiet—everyone else was already at the party—and had totally lost himself in a book called If You Only Knew Me. It was the best book he had ever read since, well, since the last book was checked out of the library, and he couldn't wait to get to the end.