Rating: PG or maybe PG-13-esque…some slight sexual content and slight language as well as some drinking.
Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or any of the Degrassi characters or The-N for that matter.
Feedback: Feedback is always appreciated, yes.
Summary: New Year's Eve party. Throw in a girl from Degrassi and one from Banting. Shaken not stirred.
Author's Note: So, it's been some time since I posted a new fanfic story…It's also been quite some time since Alex has had a decent storyline on Degrassi. (Well, okay, she got one episode where she had more than two lines, and she joined the lacrosse team.) As for Paige, she came home from Banting for a little while too, but nothing extraordinary. So, to try to even out all of such evils (yes, evils), I wrote this little fic about what could have been New Year's Eve.
Oh yeah, and yes, femslash will be in this story between Alex and Paige…if you aren't into that, then simply please don't read it. Ye be warned or promised, depending on how you look at it.
And the random numbers in the story are a countdown, yes, just like a countdown from ten until the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.
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Ten.
Alex Nuñez looked out of her window and cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear. "Yeah, Jay, I see the snow."
Alex could hear his grin over the phone. "First snow of the year, Lexi," which made him sound like a little boy. He was so excited. Of course, most little boys want to go build snow forts and snowmen…This little boy didn't. "This means you have to come party tonight."
"It's not the first snow of the year." Alex pointed out the few little flurries that had happened a week or two ago.
"Well, it's New Year's Eve. You have to come party anyway." Alex had almost forgotten about New Year's Eve, which was crazy. She just had been studying so much lately; she was actually really dedicated for once, and now she was all into school spirit, being in lacrosse and all…Well, okay Alex still didn't really have school spirit, but she liked to win. The Alex in the past never missed New Year's parties; they brought free alcohol and entertainment all around. Her resolution was always the same: to make a good resolution the next year. She never did.
Jay was still rambling on, trying to get her to agree. Lexi hadn't been out to party for a while…She was fun, even if he couldn't date her. At least they could maybe check girls out together. Actually, Jay knew about that blonde chick, Paige, that everyone knew she dated…He had watched her hit on girls and get hit on after that break-up, but she just wouldn't discuss her type. Maybe girls don't have types. "You can stop being such a good schoolgirl for at least one night…unless you want to wear one of those hot skirts anyway."
"Jay, it's not a Catholic school."
"Too bad," he let out an exasperated sigh. "I'll pick you up at eight?"
"Maybe."
Nine.
Alex leaned against the wall. The party was at some guy's house. He was a friend of a friend of Jay's, and the house was actually pretty decent, well, as long as no one trashed it. So far all that was worse for the wear was the carpet; a few drinks had fallen on it so far. Luckily, Alex's drink was still highly intact and in her hand. She took another sip. Well, okay, it wasn't so intact or full really…but the glass was half-full if you were an optimistic kind of person, and that night, Alex was, because no one had been stupid enough to bump into her and spill anything onto her jeans or on her black sweater.
"Oh my God, Alex! So what are you doing since graduation?" One of the girls that Alex had met at a party during the summer was staring at her over oversized sunglasses. Alex briefly considered pointing out that she was wearing sunglasses inside a house…at night, but she didn't.
The raven-haired girl shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm actually trying to get my grades up."
"Ooh. Are you going to like graduate twice then?" Ah, the joys of conversations at parties. New Year's Even was a blast so far. Almost.
Eight.
The host of the event, himself, was standing before Alex now. The girl from the summer had wandered off to dance somewhere. He managed to wrap an arm around her shoulders and grinned. "Are you still dating Paige?"
"No," she glanced at the arm briefly, hoping he'd take the hint to move it.
"She's not worth it anyway. I'm not one for blondes." He smiled and moved in to nuzzle her neck a bit. His breath smelled like beer, and Alex's neck surely didn't need to smell like beer, so it wasn't her fault when she jerked out of his grasp. The host was so surprised that the jolt caused his beer to fall to the floor. "Bitch," he muttered.
"I'm not one for guys," she murmured innocently before trying to find somewhere to escape to.
Seven.
Alex had decided to avoid people for a while and settled herself into a chair in the kitchen. Most of the people were in the living room or upstairs in one of the bedrooms doing…whatever. The kitchen held a few empty cups and silence for once. Studying must have made her soft, that or people were just stupid. "Breaking hearts everywhere tonight, Alex?"
"Paige. Hi," she shifted in her seat, so that she could look properly at the girl in the doorway. Suddenly Alex realized that Paige was probably around when Alex had given the guy the brush-off; she almost blushed. "How much of that did you hear?"
"Enough of it to hear you outing yourself to everyone."
The brunette cracked an easy smile and took a sip of her drink. "He's not everyone; he's just stupid."
Paige smirked and settled herself into another chair at the table. "Ooh, you're not as cynical as last year. Last year, you would have said that he was everyone, because everyone was stupid." The blonde pretended to wipe away a tear. "They grow up so fast."
"Knock it off." Alex chuckled nonetheless before noticing what the other girl was wearing. Well, okay it was just a pair of jeans and a light pink long-sleeved shirt, but the long-sleeved shirt actually advertised a good local band in sparkly black lettering. Alex was definitely pleasantly surprised at that. It was probably a gift from Ellie or Marco. "Why are you here anyway?"
"Emma wanted to come here, because Sean wanted to see Jay. I'm with them, because Manny is with Craig, and Manny wanted to see Emma." Paige took a breath, trying to connect it all. The world was all about connections. "I'm with Craig, because I'm hanging out with Marco and Dylan and Ellie and her new boyfriend."
"New boyfriend?" Alex raised an eyebrow. She really had missed a lot while making up schoolwork.
"Jesse. He's the editor of the paper she's on."
"Scandalous," Alex commented before seeing the look on the blonde's face. "What?"
"No, Hun. Just…no."
Six.
Jay sauntered into the kitchen to refill his drink. He glanced at Alex then Paige then Alex again. He smirked easily, "I see you found someone to play with."
"Hi Jay," Paige waved.
"Ladies," he grinned at them and wiggled his eyebrows before stooping next to Alex's ear. "Seriously, Lexi, you okay?" He might still try to hit on her sometimes, but really, it was all in jest. He wasn't about to let some girl hurt Lexi again though, and if that's what Paige was gonna do…
"I'm a big girl now, Jay. I'm okay." Paige raised an eyebrow curiously, having only heard what Alex said, but missing what Jay had said.
"Good," he gave a swift nod and carried his drink back out into the living room just as something crashed onto the floor. Might have been a lamp…
Five.
"So, did you ever figure things out with that girl on the lacrosse team?" Paige twirled the little umbrella in her drink; Alex had found her one to put in her drink at some point during the conversation. Neither girl was really sure when that had happened.
Alex shrugged, "She hasn't punched me yet, if that's what you mean."
"Sounds like sexual tension to me." Paige grinned.
"It's not." Alex rolled her eyes, "Definitely not."
"You sure?"
"She's some girl that I used to torture."
"And you remember?"
"No," Alex paused, feeling guilty for a moment. "She did."
"You are turning soft." Both girls chuckled.
Alex, of course, was quick to change the subject. "What about you? New boy in your life? New girl?"
"Yeah, her name's Banting. She's also the place where no one, at least no one decent, has been discovered by me." Paige mock-fainted in distress and in turn, almost tipped over the chair. It was funny at the time.
Four.
"This hat, it was hideous." Paige tried to make a few demonstrations with her hands as to how hideous the hat really was. She was holding her hands a few feet apart to aptly describe how large a brim it had. "I'm describing it to Dylan, and then in walks Marco. I felt so horrible." It was Marco's new pride and joy. Paige had tried to warn her brother about his boyfriend's new purchase, but it had apparently failed.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Did you tell him earlier that you liked his hat?"
"Maybe…"
"Paige!"
"It's not my fault. Everyone else was staring at his hat too. I just…felt bad, like I had to compliment him. He loves that thing." Paige looked dejected. Really, Marco was gay, but sometimes, his fashion…Well, gay fashion clichés just didn't always work for the poor boy.
Alex snickered, "Karma's a bitch."
"I thought it was revenge that was a bitch?"
Three.
Their conversation had slowed. The other people filtering into the kitchen were partially to blame; the house was filling up as the night droned on. Alex was concentrating on refilling their drinks, and it was during the last refill when the girls realized that they couldn't talk to each other while the drinks were being filled, or chances were that the one pouring the drink would laugh, which would end up with a large amount of it being spilt all over the place. They wanted their drinks shaken, maybe stirred, but definitely not spilt. So, Paige was silent as Alex maneuvered the various liquids into their cups, at least until she noticed something special. "You painted your nails."
"Yeah," Alex admitted as she forced herself to focus on the pouring. They were white with a black stripe down the middle; nothing special really.
"They look professional."
"Thanks?" Alex glanced over at Paige briefly, almost knocking over one of the glasses in the process. "Damn it," she muttered.
"It's just…" Paige couldn't let it go; she wanted to understand it. "I didn't know you painted your nails…ever."
Alex had finished with the drinks by that point. Proudly, she placed the umbrellas back into the drinks and handed Paige hers. "There's a cherry in it," she quipped before realizing that Paige still wanted other answers. "I can be girly too."
Two.
"Are you two having fun?" Ellie and her date had sauntered into the kitchen. Jesse's arm was around her shoulders, and both of them looked happy.
Paige smirked, "Looks like you guys are."
"Yeah, I'm introducing Jesse to everyone." Ellie looked proud of herself for such a feat.
Jesse winked at the two girls at the table as he admitted, "Half of the people she doesn't know."
"So I introduce myself to them too. It's something." Ellie shrugged nonchalantly; she did what she could. There were too many people there to know everyone anyway. Plus, it was New Years…which meant you had to relax.
One.
Paige nodded her head to the music and glanced around the room. They had ended back up in the living room. The whole house was pretty packed at that point, and they had been forced to abandon their perch at the table, due to a game of strip poker that had started. Only, in the living room there wasn't much room either, so they had settled for leaning up against the wall. The music was loud, so it made sense that they had to stand a bit closer than normal to each other to be able to hear the other properly. "Guess it's almost the New Year."
"Yup," Alex said it simply.
"You suddenly lost your voice."
"No, I just." Alex looked around the year. People were pairing off, and anyone who was alone at the moment, had a noisemaker in his/her mouth, ready for 2007. "Everyone is counting, so it's hard to talk while they are."
"We could always count with them." Alex made a strangled-looking face; that meant no. "Point taken," Paige laughed lightly.
Alex shrugged, "We could just wait until next year to talk to each other again."
"Funny," Paige rolled her eyes.
"What? It had to be said. Tons of people are going to be using that joke tomorrow. 'I haven't seen you since last year!' "
"Cynical," Paige persisted.
"Realistic," Alex insisted. Suddenly, there were noisemakers being blown loudly and twirled vigorously in the room. People were making-out throughout the house in celebration of 2007, and there were two girls standing closely, just talking. The two had sat down their drinks quite some time ago, because it was obnoxious to have to hold the drinks as they leaned against the wall; people had kept bumping into them, which threatened to spill either drink. So, it was easy when Paige turned a few inches to her left and kissed Alex, and it was even easier for Alex to kiss her back, without worry.
When they broke apart, their conversation was drastically different. "There's always visiting each other."
"Breaks. Weekends," Alex agreed.
"Movie premieres," Paige continued with a quick kiss to Alex's lips.
"Exactly," the brunette muttered and took the opportune moment to continue the kiss and slip her hand underneath the back of the other girl's band shirt. Alex moved back a few inches to whisper into Paige's ear. "Tons of time for me to be a girl on your bed."
"Alex!" Paige swatted at the other girl's arm before laughing.
"Lexi!" Jay shouted just as loudly as he wandered over to his friend. He had his own kiss at midnight, but, damn, two girls kissing… "Is that how you celebrate bringing in the New Year now?"
Before Alex could reply, Paige spoke up, "Jealous much?"
"It could be fun…" Jay wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively, knowing that neither girl would agree to it, but it was such fun to see their reactions…He was such a guy.