Cam Fisher looked up from his Pre-Cal book as he heard a distinctive but crude instrumental rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, performed by mechanical pencil hitting mahogany desk. He smirked at his girlfriend of two years as her carefully carved charm bracelet joined the symphony with occasional clacks of expensive silver against cheap plastic.
"Mass?"
She looked up from her MacBook, only half shocked, and took to fiddling with the purple cover she just had to have. ("White is so, like, last season.") There was a pause. Then, she murmured, "Hmmm?"
"Massie, you do know this is Study Hall, right?"
"As opposed to what, Cameron?" she asked, closing her laptop and leaning forward.
"Well, Block. It seems like you're having your own little orchestra there."
Massie uncharacteristically blushed, and drew back. "What are you suggesting?"
Cam shook his head and went back to studying— he did have a math test tomorrow, after all. Soon, he found any hopes of him learning the material being dragged away as Massie reached out and grabbed his textbook, before placing it in her chair and sitting on it. "Now, Cam, what were you talking about?"
He leaned back in his chair, and cracked the smallest of smiles. "I just never knew you liked The Twelve Days of Christmas before, is all," he responded.
She gasped and jumped up, as if offended. But Cam had learned after knowing this girl for three years that she probably was. "Cameron David Fisher! I do not!"
He just laughed and took the opportunity to rescue his Pre-Calculus book from his girlfriend's chair. "It's okay, Mass. Really," he said. "Everyone has loved that song at one point. Heck, I still sing it with my family every year."
She scoffed and returned to her seat, re-opening her MacBook without a glance at him. The sudden but minor silent treatment was driving Cam mildly crazy. The way she was typing, you would think she was attempting to write a novel in a month or something crazy like that. He kept trying to sneak a peek at what her fingers were furiously entering into the computer, but every time he attempted to look at the screen, she would turn it away, shut it, or make the screen go black. That's just ten minutes later, she emerged from her typing world and looked up at him, the common fierce glow in her amber eyes. "What is it this time, Massie?" he asked, a hint of exasperation in his voice.
She turned in the in his direction, and at the top of the Word document was the title "Fifty Reasons Why The Twelve Days of Christmas Is a Stupid Song." He obediently read the list, making mental notes of stuff he'd never say to Massie's face. She's said "it's cliché" about twenty different times; Jessica Simpson didn't do a cover of it, blah, blah, blah.
He stopped at number thirty-eight. "Hey, Massie. You do know that the list could easily be modernized, right?"
She turned the MacBook back toward her, aggravated that he had ruined her perfect list with his "ideas." "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, I bet I could shift the list to make you like it."
"I don't even you could do that, Cam. The only thing good on there is the five golden rings thing, and even that's getting old."
"I still bet I could," he said, packing up his supplies before the bell rang.
"You're on, Fisher," she said, closing her laptop.
"What does the winner get?"
"A kiss," she responded, walking away.
Cam Fisher had been working on this list for a week. Here it was, on the fifth of December (what? He had to start early because school would be out in December), and he was standing in front of Massie's locker, silently thanking every god in the sky for having let her give him her locker combination that one day she forgot her Civics book in her locker.
He was confident that he had created a simple list that would both please his girlfriend and not completely break his father. Because Cameron Fisher was cocky like that, and he might have called his ladies'-man brother at college for a bit of help and advice.
As she walked up in her True Religion jeans and Ralph Lauren blouse— not that he would know, of course. Oh, be quiet, he's the sensitive boyfriend — he couldn't help but smirk a little. When she arrived, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and turned to mess with her lock. He waited patiently as she had to do it over twice because of mess-ups. And when she finally handed him her Coach bag so she could open her locker door and reached in to pull out the single purple rose, his victory sat in. She slowly brought the rose to her ski-slope nose and sniffed.
"Is this for today?" she asked, looking into his green eyes. He simply nodded. "Okay," she said. "You passed. For today."
"Cam! I love them!" Massie shrieked, throwing her arms around his neck. He just chuckled.
"So I passed, I take it?" Was his only response. She drew away.
"Wait. Where's the other pair?"
"Mass, it's two earrings. It counts. I'm being creative, remember?" he chuckled.
She drew away and daintily (if possible) stomped on his foot. "It's creative, not cheap, Cameron."
As she walked away, storming down the hallway, he called after her: "It's Tiffany's though, Massie!"
Each of the next nine days was either a pass or fail, with some very fine lines that blurred into the little laughs and smiles of Cam's love. On the twelfth day, she received the usual purple rose, the pair of Tiffany earrings, and an assorted variance of things that made Massie gasp in surprise and Cam feel the need to put his leather jacket— his own leather jacket, thank you very much— around her bony shoulders.
"So, Cammie, what do you have new for me today?" She said as he wrapped his arms around her. He chuckled into her apple-smelling hair.
"You'll just have to wait to find out, babe," he replied, unlocking her arms from around him and walking off to his third period English II class.
Exactly one hour and thirty-four minutes later, Massie Block was waiting eagerly outside of Mr. Anderson's classroom waiting on Cam Fisher to come out. He chuckled when he saw her standing there and came to a halt in front of her. "Ready for lunch? Mind if we eat in the quad today?"
She just huffed and walked alongside him into the cafeteria. They quickly got their lunches— it was Salad Day— and took their trays outside. Massie damn near dropped the lunch as she saw what was waiting for her. The whole high school band was waiting for them there, with a banner that read "Merry Christmas, Massie."
She, just like the alpha she was, tried to cover her shock. She turned to Cam: "And how, exactly is this themed around the song?"
He pointed to the front line of the band. "Twelve drummers drumming. Just like in the original song. See, you can like this song."
As he finished this speech, the band started to play. She walked forward, sitting her tray down on a table on her way. When she was out of earshot, his best friend, Derrick Harrington walked up to him. "So, how much did this cost you, Fishie?"
He sighed and slugged Derrick in the shoulder. "You don't wanna know, Harrington. You don't even want to know."
Solikehai. Oh, how many people to thank? Thanks to xXIceshadowXx, Theia 47, and Kaleidoscope Flowers for betaing.
This is for Casa; Merry Christmas!