Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying your winter vacation; I know I liked the skiing trip. Even though that lodge's track was pathetic…

I wasn't planning to do a New Year's fic at first, but a reviewer suggested that I do one and I thought it was a great idea.

Enjoy! Reviews are appreciated as usual.

"This cannot be happening to me."

Zane Truesdale sank back into the soft couch and groaned softly.

Syrus looked hopefully at his big brother. "Oh c'mon! I know it's only been seven days since that Christmas disaster—"

"—six, Sy, six—"

"—but a New Year's party would really be great!"

"Oh, so you want to celebrate me getting closer to being an old geezer now?!"

"I never said that, you—I mean." Syrus switched to the "I'm a cute puppy, look at my eyes!" trick. "Pleeeeeeeeeease????"

Zane sighed. He had the feeling that he was making a BAD choice. "FINE."

"WOOT! I love you!" Syrus gave his big brother a hug and ran off to call Jaden.

Zane groaned. Definitely a bad idea…

The next day, Zane was starting to contemplate taking "Puppy Eye Resistance" classes. He wasn't going insane.

Almost everybody else was.

Actually, Zane had to admit that he was pretty damned stupid too. Since Alexis was one of the saner people, he'd decided to invite her to come over earlier than everybody else. He'd completely forgotten that Atticus would come over earlier too.

Well, you can imagine what happened when Zane opened the door…

After everybody else had arrived at the party and proceeded to mess up the house Zane spent the past 5 days cleaning up after Christmas, they quickly got bored talking to each other, so Syrus showed them the Wii his parents got him for Christmas that Zane had specifically told him to not show them because he was afraid of what Atticus might do if he got a little too absorbed in the video game.

Whew. What a long sentence…

As Zane had feared, Atticus and Jaden were so fascinated by the Wii and the virtual tennis video game Syrus popped in the Wii that they forgot where they were.

"DIE YOU LITTLE DICKWEED!" Jaden screamed as he raised his arm and smashed the chandelier that Zane forgot to hide in a box. Damn!

"NOT LIKELY!" Atticus's player tried to block Jaden's player's smash, but Atticus himself tripped on his own sock and fell forwards, smashing his head straight through the TV and effectively ending the game.

"Crikey, did summat happen, mates?" Jim asked as he ran into the TV room.

Bastion joined them. "What the bloody devil was that? Did Jaden smash something made out of glass with a baseball bat?"

Zane pressed his pulsing vein with his left hand to keep it from exploding as he used his other hand to point to the mess. Jim and Bastion's jaws dropped open.

They had a beautiful view of Atticus's rear as he kicked his feet, one sockless, into the air wildly and tried to pull his head out of the remains of the TV. Jaden was laughing his ass off nearby as Chazz repeatedly bashed his head against the wall.

"Zane, I'm going to sue you for not restraining your savage TV!" came Atticus's muffled voice.

Alexis growled in anger and picked Mr. Truesdale's golf club up from the floor. "You ungrateful bastard!" She swung the club at her older brother's head. It clunked as though the head was hollow.

Hm, wonder what that means…

"OW! Not so hard, sis!"

"How can anyone destroy so much stuff so quickly and then have the audacity to threaten to sue their poor victim?! You, of course!"

"Hey, sis?"

"…Now what? This had better be good!"

"Is aw-dah-sih-tee a sex toy?"

"All right then," Zane muttered to himself. "That's one shattered chandelier, a broken TV, a bent golf club, and a concussed Atticus with 2 missing canines…I wonder if insurance covers all of this?..."

"Hey, if we don't have a TV does that mean that we can't watch the Big Apple drop?" Blair asked, yawning widely.

"Holy shit! You're right, it's 11:50 already!" yelped Adrian as he looked at the kitchen clock. "Hey Zane, got any other TVs?"

Zane sighed. Luckily insurance had covered everything. What was one more TV to them, anyway? Load of rich people.

"Yep, in the lounge, it's the room right next to me."

By now it was 11:58 and the gang turned on the TV in time to watch the countdown. Jaden was so excited to see the Big Apple that he fainted and had to be revived by Jesse fanning him with a book.

The Apple dropped. It was 2009.

Everybody except Chumley cheered and started blowing noisemakers and wishing their neighbors a happy new year.

Chumley, instead, pointed to the giant ball and turned around with a confused look on his face.

"Hey, where's that giant apple?"

Zane looked into the lounge and sighed, then started to speak into the phone again.

"Sorry, but could you make that two TVs?"