Here's the next part 2, the next chapter will be the celebration. Ugh, I'm not sure about this bit, it just seems...wrong. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Anyway, keep those awesome reviews coming! I love reading them, and there would really be no story if not for you guys. You rock!

~*Twelve Part II*~

Luna examined the minor chips in her bubblegum pink nail polish as she feigned interest in a story about this, like, totally hawt guy Stacy had met over the weekend. Don't get the wrong idea or anything—Luna loved gossip as much as the next preteen, but Stacy's habit of lying bordered on pathological thus making her sordid stories amusing, but not very credible.Besides, Luna just wasn't into it today, and she was heavily tempted to scream at her friends to just shut up already. Needless to say, the normally bubbly girl was not in a good mood this morning.

Simply put, Luna didn't want to be here right now. It was the day of the solar eclipse, a rare phenomenon, and she was going to miss the celebration, just like she missed out on everything cool that her family did.

I'm missing a vampire party for this, Luna thought to no one in particular, Do you know how much fun vampire parties are? They're awesome.

She had, after all, attended at least a few in her twelve years. Not nearly as many as her twin brother, of course, or even her younger brother, but enough to know what she was missing out on.

"Hey! Earth to Looney Toons!" Carrie-Anne knocked her knuckles lightly against Luna's head, "We are requesting transmission, space cadet."

There were a lot of giggles until Luna snapped her head towards Carrie-Anne, "What?"

"You were way zoned out," The other girl shrugged, blowing a few strands of hair out of her eyes, "Don't flip."

"Yeah, take a pill, Looney Toons," Beryl grumbled.

Luna sighed; there was that nick-name again. Only her friends called her it, and it was an affectionate name, but it still got on her nerves. Somehow, it was different from when Jagger called her Loon, but maybe that was just because she didn't hear that particular moniker pulled into use all that often thanks to the whole night-day thing.

"Whatever," Luna rolled her cerulean eyes, before looking up at Stacy with a huge fake smile, "please continue."

Stacy gave Luna a wary look before moving on with her story, "Annnyway..."

And the blabber started again.

Luna turned her gaze toward the discolored sky and let out a slow breath. As if in response, a gust of wind assaulted her face like a slap. Luna huddled tighter into the hoodie she'd...borrowed from Jagger's room whilst he was dead to the world. It was plain black with a garish logo for some obscure band on the chest—simple, not too boyish, and Luna liked it. She realized she'd zoned out again, but she didn't think it was worth the effort to tune back in. She was restless.

Honestly, at this moment, Luna didn't really care if her friends thought she was being spazzy. Luna wasn't sure they were even her friends, really. Sure they called each other friends and had sleep overs and were practically glued to each other at school, but they didn't even really like each other. From what Luna could tell, the group had just been lumped together since kindergarten because they got good grades, looked pretty, and boys liked them. Weird, but that was just how things worked.

"Whoa. Cutie alert," Stacy stopped abruptly and pointed toward the front gate of the playground.

Imagine Luna's surprise when she followed the other girl's finger to see her twin brother shifting unconsciously from foot to foot as he took in the school grounds with a critical eye.

"That's my brother!" Luna blurted, waving happily toward the boy at the gate. Jagger caught Luna's eye and grinned, slipping easily through the gate.

"Whoa," Stacy repeated emphatically.

"Geezums, where's he been hiding," Carrie-Ann breathed.

If she'd known her friends would react this way towards her brother, Luna would have brought a gag bag. It was creepy. Opting to escape the prepubescent mush-fest, Luna stood up without another word and trotted gracefully across the blacktop towards Jagger.

"What are you doing here?" Luna demanded, delighted and confounded at her brother's appearance.

"Busting you out," Jagger replied, seeming surprisingly at ease with the setting, "Come on, you're ditching. Mom's orders."

"Yay!" Luna cheered, then she frowned slightly, "but it's recess, the best class of the day. Let's just stay until it's over."

"Well..." Jagger's mismatched eyes wandered over toward a soccer game taking place a little ways down the blacktop, "just a few more minutes, then."

"Coolness," Luna said before heading towards another group of girls playing MASH with chalk. She wasn't sure she could take her sort-of friends for much longer.

On the opposite side of the blacktop, Valentine had found himself in the center of a circle of adoring eighth grade girls who cooed and fussed over how adorable he was as he showed them tricks on his skateboard. Things could definitely be worse.

Jagger watched with great interest as the soccer ball rolled and flicked from foot to sneakered foot in front of him. His naturally intense gaze was particularly focused at the moment as he tried to absorb all of the rules and tricks of the trade involved in this rather mysterious game. For quite a while, none of the players even noticed the skinny, black clad ghost of a boy standing just a few feet away from them. However, attention inevitably shifted to Jagger.

"Hey, Night of the Living Dead," A bulky boy with dark brown hair called out after a while as the other boys formed a loose semi-circle behind him. Jagger looked up with intentional slowness, piercing the other child with his gaze. The other boy felt a strange shiver pass over him, but he wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, so he ignored it, "Whaterya doing?"

"I'm watching you play," Jagger refrained from adding anything else onto that, knowing that a fight with a mortal boy would go over with his parents about as well as a lead balloon. Besides, his tone alone implied how he felt about his potential antagonizer.

The latter failed to get the message. He took a step towards Jagger in hopes of intimidating him; no dice, "You want to play, or something?"

"Yes, I do," Jagger answered honestly but in a rather bored tone.

"Well then c'mon and play," The boy invited warmly. Jagger didn't move; what kind of an idiot did this kid take him for? It didn't matter because the bigger boy changed his mind, "or maybe you should go play hopscotch with the girls." Jagger gave him a dark look, "Nah, I'm just kidding you can play," The kid seemed to find this very funny because he was still laughing when he finished with, "Get out of here, freak."

"Whatever you say," Jagger muttered and turned to leave, "you indecisive moron."

Well, apparently the other boy was intelligent enough to know that Jagger had just insulted him, so he reached forward and shoved Jagger, who barely budged. Still, it was enough provocation to make Jagger whirl around in fury.

"You really shouldn't have done that," the boy hissed, a small, strange smile appearing on his cadaverous face.

"Dude...your eyes!" Another player with sandy hair gasped, ever-so-observantly noticing that Jagger's eyes had gone red.

However, before anybody else could give Jagger closer inspection, Luna was standing in front of her brother, her porcelain skin flushed red with anger. She had caught sight of the standoff a little while back, and she wasn't happy. It was funny; Luna never would have thought in a million years that she could feel protective of Jagger, but the sight of her brother being picked on, however ineffectually, infuriated her. Besides, she knew that her twin couldn't do anything about the harassment without getting in trouble with their parents at best, or revealing vampirism to humans at worst. Finally, Luna had something to take her bad mood out on.

Luna stalked forward, easily breaking up the loose huddle of boys. A few steps, and she had singled out the kid who'd started it all. The heavy boy's eyes drifted to Luna's pink leather miniskirt, and Jagger wanted even more to ring the mortal's worthless little neck. But Luna wasn't paying any attention to this. Another step, and she lunged forward impulsively to push him. Surprised, the stocky boy stumbled back a bit. Adrenaline hit Luna's bloodstream hard, and she realized that this was kinda-sorta fun.

"Hey--!" He started to cry out, amazed that pretty, petite Luna Maxwell had just shoved him.

"You vant to mess with my brother?" She was so angry her accent poked through. She gave another shove, "Huh?"

The dark-haired boy was suddenly aware of the mistake he'd made, and he was also all too aware of the fact that he couldn't shove Luna back because she was a girl, a girl that he—like every other sixth grade male in the school—had a crush on. He was now in a similar position to the one Jagger had been in just moments before.

"Do you know why my brother doesn't go to school like me?" Luna was going on, suddenly inspired, "He's crazy. He once sent a kid to a hospital using his bare hands. He could crush you like a bug."

Well, that last part was true, anyway.

The bigger boy paled, and his circle of friends slunk back away from the twins.

"So ya'd better watch out," At this Luna turned around sharply and started walking back, "Come on Jagger, let's go."

The players had broken up now, eager to be away from the allegedly unhinged Jagger, except for the heavy-set boy, who was still glued to the spot, eying Jagger fearfully. Unable to resist taking advantage of this silence, Jagger smiled evilly. With a swift movement, he pinned the bigger boy to the chain link fence.

"She's right, you know," Jagger snarled in his ear, "I could rip you limb from limb, so watch your...neck."

Abruptly, Jagger let go, and the boy slumped on the ground, stunned. Luna, who had been waiting patiently for Jagger to finish up, smiled at her brother once he was beside her. The pair wordlessly exchanged high fives as they went to retrieve Valentine from the doting teens.

"Luna!" Valentine exclaimed happily upon catching sight of his seldom-seen sister.

"Hey baby bro," Luna grinned at the younger boy as the three siblings slipped through the school gates without a glance back.

"So what were you guys doing? Did Jagger beat anyone up?" Valentine wondered excitedly.

"Oh, I didn't," Jagger assured him, glancing at Luna.

Valentine's jade eyes widened, "Did Luna beat anyone up?"

"It was more of a duffing and a verbal castration, really," Luna answered offhandedly before meeting Jagger's eyes, "You know I got your back, twin."

"What's cas-tur-ay-shun?" Asked Valentine, utterly confused.

The twins pretended not to here and continued to talk amongst themselves. After a moment, Valentine shrugged and linked hands with his brother and sister, content to listen to his siblings' thoughts as they drifted along down the road.