Chapter Seven

This is Halloween

Amera lay upside-down on her bed with her headphones on, ignoring the blood rushing to her face. She was singing, which she only did when no one else was around. "'Cause you and I both loved, what you and I spoke of, and others just read of, oh, if you could see me now, well, then I'm almost finally out of-" She stopped when she opened her eyes and saw Piotr standing there. "Ack!" she fell backwards off of the bed and toppled on her head, her headphones falling off as well. Piotr helped her back up, fighting his laughter. "I can't believe you heard me singing…" she seemed really perturbed at this.

"Why? You don't think you can sing?" he asked. "Amera, it was beautiful." She looked at him with that look everyone gets at some point in his or her life - a mixture of doubt and embarrassment.

"No one is ever supposed to hear me sing!" Amera said, flustered.

"Not even your boyfriend?" Piotr said, sitting in her swivel chair. He wheeled it over to her using his feet in a scuffling manner, making her giggle. "You sing really, really well," he said.

"Well you will never, ever hear me sing again," she said, still red in the face.

"Never?"

"Well, maybe I will…" she looked at him, directly in the eyes. "For you."

"Sing for me now?"

"Don't push your luck."


"Whatchadoin'?"

A strange boy had popped up on the back of the couch, hanging his hands over the back of it between Rogue and Bobby. He had blonde curly hair and green eyes, and both of them were sure they had never seen him before. "Who are you?" Rogue asked.

"I'm Brandon Schaffer, and I just woke up," the boy smiled, then muttered under his breath, "Darn that guy…"

It took a moment, but the pieces fell together. "You're that kid Gambit had with him!" Bobby said in realization.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go to school here now." Brandon was an extreme bundle of energy.

"Really? What are your powers?" Rogue thought he was such a cute little boy, so she wanted to be kind to him.

"I explode stuff."

The two on the couch exchanged glances, unsure of what to say in response to that. Luckily, to end their moment of confusion, Amera and Piotr came out. Amera, the moment she saw Brandon, squealed in excitement. "Momiji!" she cried, thinking he looked exactly like Momiji Sohma from Fruits Basket, which he did. But he didn't know that.

"No, I'm Brandon!" he giggled in response.

Amera sat on the couch, pushing the couple already there into each other with her butt. She started playfully poking Brandon in the side, making him giggle. "No, you are now my Momiji!"

He giggled some more before toppling over the back of the couch into her lap. "Okay!" he agreed, then pointed at himself. "I'm Momiji!" The other four laughed.


The weeks passed slowly, and not much happened except for the students getting used to the new additions to the school, Gambit and "Momiji". It seemed to take forever, but the day of the long awaited Halloween party had finally arrived.

"Amera!" Momiji cried, racing through the halls to find her. He wanted to show her the costume that he made all by himself. He was wearing it already, although the party wasn't for another three hours. He couldn't find her anywhere, which was strange since her hair was naturally bright blue. "Amera!"

He found her hanging fake spiders on cotton webs in the foyer when she turned around at hearing his voice. He couldn't find her before because she had just dyed her hair black that morning, and he didn't recognize her from behind. "Momiji?" she asked as she heard him yelling her name.

He skidded to a halt and ran to her. "Amera! You look pretty!" he said as she stepped off of a stepladder.

She took a good look at him all dressed in his costume. It was one he had made from a picture of Momiji in the Fruits Basket manga he saw in her room. (For more information, read Fruits Basket Volume 3.) "You're so cute!" she cried, then started hugging his adorable little head off. "But the party isn't for another three hours."

"I know," Momiji said, dancing in place like little kids do so often. "I just wanted to show Amera my costume!"

"Well, it's the best thing I've ever seen!" she said with a wide grin. "Now why don't you go play, I need to finish up here." She climbed back up to the webs as he skipped away happily. She looked to her left where Pierce was helping decorate by putting up a skeleton, but he looked uncomfortable and was rubbing his temples. "Pierce, are you okay?"

He went back to hanging the skeleton in a noose. "Yeah, just a headache," he said, which he hoped was the truth. Even as he said it, the pain started to fade away.

Soon, Amera was finished, and she headed toward the stairs to meet up with Piotr before they got ready. However, she stopped before even touching the rail because she saw Oliver setting up a portable stage and instruments. "Are we going to have a band here?" Amera asked.

He didn't know she had been standing there, and as he stood, he hit his head on a cymbal, making it ring through the halls. He hadn't seen her black hair yet either, and his jaw dropped. He was stunned at how beautiful she looked, even with her dirt-smudged face and messy clothes. He forced himself to look away and continue working on the drum set. "Uh, my sister's band is playing," he answered.

"Sakura's in a band?" Piotr asked. He had stepped up behind Amera without her realizing it and scared the life out of her.

"How did I not know that there was a band here?" Amera asked, then heading to the stairs. "I want a band too!" she said, playfully stomping up the stairs and disappearing to the third floor where the girl's dorms were.

Piotr and Oliver exchanged glances while Momiji mimicked Amera's stomping behind them in the rec room. "Don't look at me, she's your girlfriend," Oliver said as he draped some of the fake webs on the keyboard.

Piotr shrugged and followed her up the stairs, only to be mimicked by Momiji as well.


An ice sculpture of Dracula, provided by Trent Marcus and Bobby, graced the refreshment table that sat near the entryway in the foyer. Strobe lights flashed everywhere, creating a jerking illusion for everyone in the mansion, who were dancing to the techno music that was currently playing over the sound system, compliments of aspiring DJ Vaughn. However, you could barely tell it was Vaughn at all, since he was wearing a long red trench coat and a large red hat, along with sunglasses and white gloves. He got the idea to be Alucard (Hellsing) from Amera, who loved the anime and manga alike. (Mostly because she loved Crispin Freeman's sexy deep voice.) Rogue and Bobby, who were Sally and Jack, respectively, were near the refreshments, talking to a very gay Batman and Robin, who were holding hands. Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who were actually the troublesome trio of Kylia, Trent, and Tabitha, were running around like lunatics bothering people, that is until Lock (Kylia) saw Edward Scissorhands (Pierce) on a couch and began to blush. Link was sitting on the edge of the stage he had built earlier, watching with jealousy as the Grim Reaper danced with the Angel of Death. Crystal, dressed as the one and only Captain Jack Sparrow, was talking to Aykra, who was dressed as Legolas, and Dante. Khadrim hadn't really dressed as anything, but his new girlfriend Aykra had begged he at least say he was Dante. A very tall Luke Skywalker, who was actually Brian, was dancing with Tinkerbell while Sango of Inu-Yasha fame (Jubilee) was dancing with Bam Margera (Riley, of course) Raven from Teen Titans (Sakura) and a random fairy (Ayrin). GIR and Dib, really Harley and Keifer, were talking next to Pierce's hanged skeleton.

Padme Amidala, actually Kitty, approached the Angel of Death. "Have you noticed Danel isn't down here yet?"

Amera and Piotr stopped dancing and looked around to find Danel, but Kitty was right. She hadn't shown up yet. "Well, maybe we over looked her, there's like a hundred kids in here-" She stopped mid-sentence as she saw John. "What is he doing here?" Amera asked the other two.

"Well, he is your sister's boyfriend," Piotr said. She glared at him. "Shutting up."

John walked right up to Bobby and Rogue, who were now just talking next to the staircase. "Is Danel here?"

"What are you doing here?" Rogue asked harshly, but Bobby shushed her.

"Why do you care?" Bobby asked.

"Oh come on, she's my girlfriend." He said, looking Bobby in the eyes, but all the kindness between the former friends had vanished. "I love her. Is she here or not?"

"She hasn't come down yet," a cold voice said from behind him. Amera had stormed over to give him a good talking to against Piotr's protests. "I can't believe you'd show your face here again, you low life son-of-a-" she trailed off as Piotr pulled her away before she beat him to a bloody pulp.

It took him a couple of minutes to calm her back down, and still she kept glancing over to where John was sitting on the stairs every so often. The techno soon faded into a slow song, one that Amera knew and loved. "I love this song," she said to Piotr as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You won't sing it for me though, huh?" he asked.

"Maybe if you're a good little monkey," she said, then the words started. Very quietly, she began to sing into his ear so only he could hear. "I'm standing on the bridge, I'm waiting in the dark, I thought that you'd be here by now, there's nothing but the rain, no footsteps on the ground, I'm listening but there's no sound…"

And so went the song. When it ended, another slow song soon began, but no one started dancing this time. They were all staring at Danel, who had appeared at the top of the staircase wearing a long, flowing white gown. She looked extremely beautiful, and everyone watched her descend the stairs. When she reached the bottom, everyone came to their senses and started to dance to Clay Aiken's crooning. "There's something 'bout the way you look tonight, something 'bout the way that I can't take my eyes off you…"

John stood and took Danel's hand and they walked to the dance floor. Amera watched them in silence. "I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill him…"

"Shh," Piotr said, steering her away so she could no longer glare at John. "I think he really does love her," he said.

"I don't doubt that, but he was stupid to leave her," she answered, her gaze now burning holes into the wall. "He's just gonna leave again."

"You know, moaning about John is not having fun. You worked too hard to help put the party together to not have fun," Piotr said, trying to get her to stop worrying about everything.

Danel was having the best time that she had had in a long while. "Funny how we came as Cinderella and Prince Charming, isn't it?" she said as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "I knew you'd come."

"I couldn't wait to see you," he replied. He just wished that he could kiss her.

The party went on for hours, everyone laughing and dancing. Suddenly, silence swept the room. Couples stopped dancing as the strobe lights died and a single light over the stage was lit. Oliver was at a microphone and behind him were Trent, picking up his guitar, Sakura, waiting behind her brother for the microphone, Riley, getting her bass over her shoulder, Ayrin, sitting down at the drum set, and Kylia, who was waiting patiently at the keyboard.

Amera watched them jealously. Everyone in the room looked slightly confused and apprehensive, since few of them knew how the band sounded at all. Oliver cleared his throat and pulled the microphone toward him. "I am pleased to introduce, in their first ever performance, King of Hearts!" Mild applause met the introduction as Oliver left the stage. Only minutes later, it was apparent that the band was really good. Amera turned to Piotr. "I want a band!" she yelled over the loud music and cheering.

It was during their second song that everything went haywire. Pierce had been having a blast one second, listening to the awesome music, then the next second he was in excruciating pain. Without warning, an extremely strong psychic blast went through the room, knocking everything and everyone over. He screamed, his head had never been in more pain. Logan, who hadn't bothered to wear a costume, ran and picked up the thrashing boy and rushed him down to the infirmary, Ororo, Kurt and Professor Xavier following close behind as everyone else was standing back up after being thrown to the ground like that. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but all of Pierce's friends worried about him.

Everyone headed upstairs after that at the persistence of Scott, they'd worry about the decorations and clean up in the morning. Amera couldn't sleep, and she worried about Pierce, especially since every so often the mansion would shake, which was obviously Pierce's doing. After an hour, most of the students had fallen asleep and Pierce's outbreaks had stopped. Then Ororo came into the girls' room, having known that Pierce was one of Amera's friends. "Is he okay?" Amera asked.

"He'll be fine after a few hours sleep," she answered. "His powers are growing, that's all. Kurt's down there right now, keeping an eye on him, so don't worry." She smiled at the young girl. "Get some sleep."


Ugh. It's so… girly. *barf* R&R!!!