A Pocketful of Miracles

By Lillie Bell, Alicia Blade, and Kaitlyn Fall

Chapter Seven

Darien whistled to himself as he strolled down the street, hands tucked into his coat pockets. It had been a particularly peculiar Christmas Eve. Between the lunatic Santa, Serena falling out of nowhere, and then her getting all cooky in the florist shop about a silly potted plant, Darien found himself in a very odd mood.

A very odd mood indeed.

One might even call it . . . merry.

Which made no sense. The morning had been nothing but pure annoyance while Andrew dragged him around to shop after shop, even that hateful bubblegum pink store, Victoria's Secret. He cringed just thinking about it. And Santa Claus and his little elf friend had definitely freaked Darien out a little. All things considered, Darien should have been cranky. He should have been hating carolers and ornaments and twinkling lights. He certainly shouldn't have been feeling this carefree joy. And yet he was.

Perhaps it was because he knew he had succeeded. Andrew had assigned him an impossible mission and Darien was going to come through. He was supposed to get a gift for Serena, and by darnit, she was getting her gift, and she was going to love it.
Darien Shields had gone from Inept Gift Giver to Master of Presents.

He was going to give her the box of miracles.

Not that he thought there was anything actually magical or even special about the little glass baubles, but he knew that once Serena heard the story—Santa, elves, and all—she would be delighted. She would get all superstitious and wishful and think it was the greatest gift ever. She would probably tuck them under her pillow or something.

There was the problem of the one broken "miracle," the one Darien had dropped right before Serena's descent from heaven, or wherever. But, even then, his eminent genius had pulled through. Smile widening, he fingered the white glass marble—a real marble this time—that he would use to replace the single missing miracle.

No one would ever have to know.

Except Andrew. But Darien was pretty sure he could blackmail him into silence.

He must have picked up on some Christmas music from a storefront as he walked, because all the sudden he realized he was whistling Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Imagine that. He glanced up at the sky, wondering if perhaps the miracles had done their proper job yet, but no—only clear blue skies greeted him overhead.

Like he thought. No magic here at all.

Reaching the arcade, he sauntered through the glass doors. The usual crowd was diminished on the holiday as the arcade neared closing hours. Only a handful of patrons were lingering in the café booths, and some teenagers banging away on the game machines near the back.

Still in his good mood, Darien took a minute to look around the arcade. For once, the sight of green tinsel and candy canes didn't bother him one little bit. He was looking forward to tonight's party. He was looking forward to Serena's face when she opened his gift.

Even thinking about it brought a peculiar warmth to his chest.

There it was again—that weird merriment thing. What had gotten into him?

He heard a sudden yelp and glanced toward the café, just as Amy slipped off a ladder. Darien tensed, but quickly saw that Amy was not hurt—she'd been caught by some boy with brown hair.

"Huh," he muttered to himself, not sure if he was more relieved or curious. "I wonder who that is."

"Darien! I didn't expect you here already. Did you get a gift for you-know-who?"

He turned his attention to the counter, where Andrew was hanging ornaments on a small plastic tree. He meandered toward him, shrugging off his jacket.

"Did I get a gift?" He snorted and threw his jacket over a stool. "Does this look like the face of a guy who would come back empty-handed?"

"Um . . . yes?"

"Oh, have a little faith."

"So? What did you get her?"

Darien could not keep the proud smile away as he sank onto the stool. "The miracles."

Andrew's eyes widened in an expression Darien couldn't quite make out. "Don't tell me that Santa gave you more of them."

"Nope. We're going to give her that box."

Andrew blinked. "Uh—"

"Now, I know what you're thinking," said Darien, holding up one hand while digging through his jacket pocket with the other. "You're thinking, 'What about the missing marble? The one that broke?' Well, think no more of it, because brilliant me has come up with a solution." He pulled the new foggy-white marble from his pocket. "A replacement. Really, this is even better than those dinky blown-glass things because you could actually play marbles with it."

"Dude," said Andrew, shaking his head very seriously. "We can't give her those miracles."

Darien's grin stiffened, then slowly began to fade. "What do you mean?"

"They're evil."

"What?"

"I'm serious. They attacked Raye. You should have seen it. She was just sitting there at the counter, all innocent and stuff, eating her hamburger, and out of nowhere that box just lunged at her and, like, glued itself to her hand. It was freaky. Her hand might need to be amputated for all I know."

Darien gaped at his friend and gently set the marble down on the counter. "It attacked her?"

"Yes. I was right there when it happened."

"Well . . . where is she now?"

"She had to go back to work."

"But I thought you said—"

"The box was still stuck to her hand when she left. I'm not kidding, that thing is possessed."

"Great, so Raye has the box now? How are we supposed to give it to Serena if Raye has it?"

"Are you listening to me? We couldn't give it to Serena anyway! It would probably eat her alive! In her sleep! Or something really bad like that!"

Darien hunched over and thunked his forehead on the countertop a few times. He was sure Andrew was overreacting to whatever it was he'd seen, but that didn't change the fact that Raye now had the box of miracles. And he could not give them to Serena if Raye had them. He held up the marble. "Do you still have that label maker? Maybe we can just label this one a miracle and call it good."

"That's a horrible gift idea."

Sighing, Darien lifted his head, setting his chin on his forearm. "Well that's it. That's the only idea I had. Well, that and flowers."

"Oh, flowers! Now there's a nice idea. Why don't you go back to the mall and pick her up a nice potted plant or something?"

Darien squinted his eyes shut, misery and self-pity washing over him. "Please don't make me go back there."

"Who's getting flowers?" said Mina, slinking onto the stool beside Darien.

"There you guys are!" said Andrew as Lita claimed the stool on Darien's other side. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Eavesdropping," Mina chirped, pointing toward the windows. They all swiveled to see Amy and the mystery boy sitting opposite each other in a booth, deep in conversation. "His name is Scott, he's afraid of heights, and he plays the guitar."

"Not to mention the fact that he's gorgeous," added Lita, "which means we both pretty much hate Amy right now. Look how he's staring at her! A girl could get heatstroke from a gaze like that."

Darien risked a glance at Andrew, who looked mildly offended by being forgotten by two of his biggest admirers.

"It's the skirt," said Mina longingly. "When she was up on that ladder, even I couldn't help checking out her legs in that skirt."

"Oookay," said Darien, shoving the marble back into his pocket. "Fascinating as this is, it sounds like I'm—" shudder "—going back to the mall."

"Were you guys talking about a gift for Serena?" said Mina, spinning back to face Darien and wiggling her eyebrows. "Because I know what you could get her."

"You do?"

"Mina," said Lita, dropping her voice to a very stern warning. "Don't you dare."

"Mmmmhmmmmm. But . . ." Mina heaved a dramatic sigh. "Lita's right. I shouldn't say anything. Serena would never forgive me. Unless, of course, you actually did get it for her, in which case—"

"Mina!"

Humming innocently, Mina cast her eyes around the arcade. "You know what we're missing? Mistletoe."

"That's a good idea," said Andrew. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Serena's bringing some," said Darien, very quietly as Mina's batting eyelashes were making him uncomfortable. "I saw her buying it at the mall."

"Oh, really?" said Mina. "I wonder who she's hoping to use it on."

"Yeah, right. It's a huge mystery to us all," Darien grumbled, refusing to look at Andrew.

Mina looked at Darien not looking at Andrew, then cast a pleading glance at Lita. "Please can I tell him? Pretty pretty please?"

"Mina, hush. Serena would kill you!"

Mina crossed her arms and huffed down on her stool.

Darien furrowed his brow, his curiosity officially piqued. "What? What is it?"

Mina tugged at one of her heart-shaped earrings and glowered at the mini-Christmas tree on the counter.

"What does she want?" said Darien, looking at Lita now, but Lita was staring resolutely at the exit sign. "Come on, I'm at a complete loss. You don't want her to not have a present to open, do you?"

"What kind of friends do you think we are?" said Lita, straightening. "We brought gifts for her to open."

"Okay, but Andrew and I didn't."

"Technically," interrupted Andrew, "you didn't get anything for anybody."

"That's not the point. If you two know of something she would like, you should tell me." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "There's still time for me to go buy it before the mall closes."

"Oh, this kind of gift comes free of charge," said Mina, her mischievous grin returning.

"Mina," Lita growled.

Mina scrunched up her face in an effort to keep from spilling her secret.

"We all want Serena to have the best Christmas ever, right?" Darien prodded. It seemed suddenly very important to know what gift Mina had in mind for the Meatball Head. "We want her to have everything her heart desires, don't we?"

"Oh my god," said Mina, clamping both hands over her mouth. "If you had any idea how spot-on you are—"

"All right, that's enough." Hopping off her stool, Lita grabbed Mina under her armpits and pulled her off her seat, dragging her toward the break room. "You need a time-out before you say something stupid and Serena hates you forever."

Mina's face had turned cherry pink with the effort to hold her tongue. Tears were forming at the corners of her squeezed-shut eyes.

"What if I promised to get it for her?" said Darien, standing from his stool in his last effort to find out what could be that important to Serena.

Even Lita paused, with Mina dangling in her arms. They both stared at Darien, then traded awkward glances with each other.

"Whatever it is," continued Darien, taking a hesitant step forward. "No matter what. I mean . . . as long as it's nothing illegal. Or dangerous. Which, most things are dangerous in the hands of Serena, but other than that . . ."

Mina gulped and cast a hopeful gaze up at Lita.

Biting down on her lip, Lita released Mina, letting her slump to the linoleum floor. "You would have to promise not to use this very valuable information in any way that could potentially hurt Serena—got it?"

"Promise," said Darien, placing a hand over his heart. "Nothing that will hurt her. I just . . . want to get her a gift. That's all."

"And you'll promise to give her what we say?" Mina said.

Darien hesitated, his imagination suggesting all sorts of random things—a diamond necklace? A Caribbean cruise? An elephant? But no, Mina had said it was something that wouldn't cost a dime.

Sucking in a deep breath, he nodded. Once. With feeling. "I promise."

"Well . . ." said Lita, holding Mina's stare. She was clearly unconvinced. Clearly afraid. And yet, clearly tempted. Finally, she shrugged.

Beaming, Mina stood and clasped her hands in front of her heart. "It's simple, Darien. She wants you!"