Author's Note: First of all, I'M SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! So I'll give you guys FOUR UPDATES today to make up for it. =3 Oh, and read the preview at the bottom of the page. I warned you people! .
WhiteOokamiKiss: No! Minor characters aren't really mentionables 24/7. =3 I like how you look at it like that. And I hope you enjoy their Christmas dinner! It's got more fluff, kinda? .
midnightstorm111: Thank you for the review darling! =3
Chapter Twelve:
Christmas Eve Dinner
"Why do we have to have the dinner at our house?!" Natalie hollered, running around the house with presents in tow.
It was the later part of Christmas Eve and we were expecting all of our friends from Seigaku and Rikkaidai over, or at least most of them. Meaning we had all bought our gifts for them. And guess what? The entire house has a knack for procrastination.
"Shut up and pass me the ribbon!" Tiffany, who was in the living room with the couches and coffee table pushed aside to make room for mounds of wrapping paper and other necessities of wrapping presents, screamed out. Plus boxes upon boxes upon boxes, all empty for waiting gifts were littered throughout the crammed room, "I can't believe we waited this long to wrap!"
The gifts for each other were already wrapped in a huge pile under the tree and sprawled everywhere else. The team would not open their gifts until tomorrow, but we had to have them wrapped before tonight.
"Ai-ya! The world just spun a little!" I screamed a familiar phrase of mine as Paige zoomed by, causing my body to spin in a circle.
I leapt over the couch and into the insanity of the living room, carrying a big amount of white ribbon rimmed in gold and red sparkles. I had bought it just for wrapping my gifts.
I stick the nametags on the presents, shoving them in a huge pile right in the middle of the living room like everyone else was doing. Finally, we finished up the madness and took a moment for peace.
"We're finished!" Aylin pumped her fists exuberantly.
"No, we still have to clean this before the end of the hour and the tennis teams are here." Serenity was motioning around the room to the extra paper, ribbons, boxes, and sliced up pieces of all three.
It was finished in no time, and then we get in groups of two and begin tossing gifts from the middle of the living room to the corner to our partners, who caught them and stuck them under or around the tree. It was a long job, but with all the teams we had it finished fast too.
"Everyone get pretty, now!" Coach Lilly zoomed in, dressed in nice jeans and a white button up shirt, her short hair styled and makeup on her face for once, "Now!"
We filed to our rooms and slammed the doors simultaneously. Serenity and I begin throwing things from our closet to choose from. I finally decided on a sheer gray winter shirt, a nice pair of light blue jeans, and a yellow tank-top with black lace over my long-sleeved one. Serenity simply put on a Japanese-like outfit she found comfortable. It was the black and puffed pants with a white shirt tucked into her waist line loosely, showing her top figure off and quite comfortable.
"All right, we're done," I sighed in relief, putting on only a little mascara and lip balm.
We made our way downstairs, the house seemingly beautiful with the setting sun shining in and illuminating it.
The door was opened and Coach Lilly began welcoming in Yagyuu, Bunta, Kirihara, and Masaharu. Sanada had skipped out, obviously. I did not expect him to come when he found out Seigaku was here as well. Jackal must not have been able to come either, for he was blissfully absent. I do not even hang out with that other member much, the creepy brown-haired one, so his named escaped me for the moment.
"Masaharu!" I leaped from the last step of the stairs and literally attacked him with a hug. He grinned, squeezing back proficiently.
"Kimmy-chan!"
"I haven't seen you since the Christmas Holidays started!" I am pulled off by Bunta, who nearly killed me with a squeeze to my shoulders. Yagyuu had the decency to let my feet touch the ground before giving me a friendly side-hug. Kirihara grappled the hardest out of the Rikkaidai players though, and I found myself out of breath already.
"Hello," Serenity spoke up from the back. "Let's go to the living room while they wait for the Seigaku team."
We sifted into the living room, sprawling around on the arranged couches. We had moved everything back to the rightful places long before our guests arrived.
"Holy cow! All the presents!" Bunta pops his bubble-gum. "You have a living room full of presents!"
"A corner actually. It's hard buying for so many people. Our Dean continues to dip into the school's funds for us, or his personal funds. We aren't really sure."
Harmony flew over the couch and attacked Bunta with a hug, "Bunta-kun!"
"Harmony!" He hugged the living daylights out of her. The next person to fly over a couch was Tiffany, who tackled Masaharu from the couch and onto the floor, sitting on him and grinning.
"Ha! I got you that time!"
"We're tied on surprises then!" He folded his arms with a grin. "It's seven-to-seven now."
"You just wait and I'll get you again before the night's over!" she smiled, jumping off him and pulling him up. They had a game going ever since they met of who could surprise who the most. They had restarted it countless times, from losing count.
"Thanks for bringing me soup the other day," I beamed at Kirihara.
He scratched his head, "Too bad you left the dance. I would have actually danced if you really wanted to."
"Darn it! Now I really do wish I hadn't left," I laughed, rubbing his hair. I felt bad that I was lying to him, but it was necessary right now.
"Everyone's here that's coming!" Trinity bounded into the room, the Seigaku Regulars behind her. Kaidoh, Syusuke, Ryoma, Tezuka, Kikumaru, Inui, and Momo were here. Oishi and Kawamaru must have not been able to show up. Sakuno was with them since she had been invited and amazingly enough, she did not have Tomoka with her.
"KIMMY-CHAN!" Kikumaru bounds over the couch and tackles me as Tiffany had Masaharu. "HUG-BUDDIES!"
"Eek! Kiku-"
"EIJI!"
"Eiji! Get off me!" I laughed, squeezing him back.
"Okies," he jumped off, helping me to my feet.
"Let's go monsters! Time to eat dinn-a!" Coach Lilly skipped to the kitchen as everyone watched her, a sweat drop on all our heads. We followed her without a word and sat at the tables.
We had taken about four fold-out tables, plus the large dining room table, and put them together to make more than enough room. A table cloth concealed the tables and where they were put together though, if only to look a bit nicer.
I sat at the opposite end of the table as Coach Lilly, both of us at the heads. My team had forced me into the seat and took their respective places nearby. The Rikkaidai team was on the opposite side as the Seigaku and our friends were scattered about to fit. That meant nine people were on each side of the table, plus Coach and I.
"Chow down!" She began shoveling food on her plate, and soon the entire table had gone wild on the delicious meal that had been spread out before us.
A rule in our house: grab food or do without. Our team had a tendency to be quite ravenous for a pack of girls, and we had occasionally fight over the last roll or such.
:{Out of Focus}:
The dinner ended with little or no complications. Yes, the usual arguments over food were in place, but we still enjoyed our time.
"I guess we can open gifts tonight," Coach Lilly sighed as she saw the gifts the teams had brought with them, her guilty side taking over. Plus, Trinity and Harmony were begging like little kids. "Just get away from me! I'll be in my room blaring music and working on some things. Vipers, don't open any gifts from anyone other than the teams. You can open them from each other when everyone leaves and the ones from other people in the morning." She exited to her downstairs room.
"I have to be getting home," Sakuno smiled shyly. "I'm sorry." She handed us our gifts, asking us to open them. We each do and find monogrammed ribbons. They all had our first initial on them in a various color, since the ribbon colors varied. We hug her and give her our gifts before she left so she could open them at home.
Ryoma, who was walking her home, gave us the gifts from him. It was a gallon of his favorite drink he had gotten us absolutely hooked on. We hand him his gifts, also agreeing to open them at home. They left with fond farewells and quick footsteps.
"All right, here comes the long and fun part," Paige giggled. "Everyone move all presents to the living room!" Everyone followed her orders, and soon we were all sprawled across the living room floor, a mound of presents from the Seigaku and Rikkaidai teams on the table. "Geez! That's a lot of presents!"
"I love Christmas," my eyes were sparkling. Okay, I hated gifts on my birthday, but Christmas was a special occasion! "Okay, who wants to pass out gifts?"
"Me!" Trinity ran out of the nearest room, dressed in a cute and girly Santa outfit. We laughed, holding our sides, our stomachs, and prayed the food did not come back up in our mirth, "Sit, sit, sit Captain Kimmy!" She pushed me between Kirihara and Masaharu on a couch. Trinity quickly sorted all the gifts into piles according to names. First up was Natalie.
She received gifts from the Seigaku players only, since the Rikkaidai did not really know her. She tore into her gifts and reveled in them, loving every last one. Next was Harmony. She received gifts from mainly the Rikkaidai team, since they were her friends. She did receive a few gifts from Inui and Momo though.
After her was Aylin. She was given things from all the Seigaku players and from Kirihara, since he knew I loved my little sister and did know her pretty well. She had a pleasant array of presents. Tiffany was given the gifts next. She received them from Rikkaidai and then a few from Momoshiro and Syusuke. After her is Trinity herself, who just could not wait any longer. The Seigaku Regulars had gotten her gifts, along with Bunta. Of course, he had given her candy which she did not need.
After her is Paige. I was scared of this one actually, since she was pretty good friends with both teams. Rikkaidai gave her smaller gifts though. From Bunta she received more candy. Kirihara gave her a small bracelet to go with her rainbow stockings and Yagyuu gave her a matching pair of hoop earrings. Masaharu, all ways the jokester, gave her a damnable top hat and magic wand. She loved it the most, I think. Tezuka, whom had been decently awkward around her, as she did him, gave her a bunch of lilies and a stuffed animal. Syusuke thought the idea of a certificate for more candy at a local store sufficed and Kikumaru gave her the exact same. They had not planned ahead, not at all! Inui, thinking he was sweet in doing so, gave her a whole package of his special energy juice. She smiled, trying to hide a gag effectively and failing. Kaidoh bought her a stuffed snake, which fitted. Momoshiro got her a necklace that had a big 'P' on it.
Next it was my turn. I didn't want to open some of the gifts, but I was forced to. Like, for instance, Inui's doom present. I had already pegged what I would find inside.
I tear into Inui's, finding the juice he had given Paige. I set it aside, thanking each person as I go, regardless of whether it was poison or not. Next was Masaharu, whom had finally gotten me that oriental fan he was promising. Bunta, as he had promised, bought me a HUGE chocolate bunny that came to my knees, completely solid chocolate. I nearly cried when I hugged him. Yagyuu gave me a little backpack that had the head of Kyo Sohma, one of my favorite anime characters on it. Tezuka gave me a simple set of black tennis balls and Kaidoh gave me a pair of black wrist guards. Momo handed off a sweatband to accompany the guards and balls. Kikumaru, one of my best friends, gave me something I just had to laugh at. It was a cute but short skirt that had a red studded belt with it. I just start cracking up.
"This is really short, you realize?"
"It'll look good on your cute butt!" he grinned as I hit him with the nearest couch pillow.
I had two gifts to go. Kirihara's, whom I opened happily, was a bear that came up to my waist. It was holding a cute tennis racket and was in a tennis uniform, a cap on its head. Best of all was it was black with silver clothing.
"Ah! Thank you Akaya!" I grappled him, knowing this probably cost a good amount of money. It was, after all, a huge bear.
I finally get to the last gift, Syusuke's. The last gift he had given me for my late birthday nearly made me cry and I had already uploaded more pictures to it, some of which had us in it and other people. I was handed a small box this time though, eyes blinking.
"There's not a million boxes are there inside this one right?"
"No, I couldn't fit them."
I carefully opened it and gasp. It was a beautiful necklace on a silver chain. It had an old charm, a bit Victorian even. The charm on it was a little silver locket that had a cursive 'K' written across the metalwork.
"Thank you Syusuke!" I snatched him up and hugged for all I was worth, adoring the gift immediately.
Serenity was the last girl to go, seeing as we had all opened ours. She received things from both Rikkaidai and Seigaku.
Bunta gave her a lollipop to 'cheer her up', as he said, and Masaharu gave her a t-shirt with 'I know I'm better than you' written across it. I laughed with her at that. Kirihara simply gave her a set of tennis balls while Yagyuu gave her an entire collection of books. She smiles warmly at him, since she'd been wanting this series for a while. Syusuke gave her a little stuffed cat and Tezuka gave her a certificate to the nearest book store, which him and Momoshiro had gotten as a joint gift. Inui gave her his nasty energy juice and Kaidoh also gave her a stuffed snake. Kikumaru, on the other hand, gave her a little stuffed kitten.
"I think you might like her!" he gave a cat-like grin, "Do you like it? Her name is Kiki."
"I love it," she kissed his cheek sweetly in return.
The guys get their gifts next. They were all fairly nice, though it showed who the greater of the friends were with people when they opened their presents. For instance, I had given nicer gifts to Syusuke and Kirihara and of course, my Hug-Buddy.
"It's been long enough everyone," Coach Lilly scurried into the room. "It's around midnight and I can't play the Santa act until everyone's gone and my girls are dead asleep."
The guys get up, Rikkaidai saying their goodbyes first. I kissed Kirihara's cheek, thanking him again for the stuffed animal. He only blushed and thanked me for his gift, then hurried off with his friends. Next is the Seigaku team, all of which are shown off fondly as they bundle up in their clothing again. It was freezing outside and hard to believe a few days earlier I had been walking around in a skimpy costume.
"Thank you so much for the locket, Syusuke," I blushed, feeling a bit awkward again since I was alone in the hallway with him. Everyone was saying their farewells outside, but I was not stupid enough to go out in the cold. "It was really sweet of you."
"You deserve it Kimmy-chan." That smile that annoyed me so was not that painful at this point in time. I must have gotten used to it, yeah that was it.
He leaned down and kissed my cheek, letting the gesture linger a second longer than I expected. I returned the favor by leaning up and giving his nose one as a thank you. We both laughed, red dancing on our cheeks. When had it come to this with him of all people?
"I'll see you on Monday, Syusuke." I blush profusely as I walk him all the way to the gate where all the other girls were.
He immediately turns, his lips brushing against my knuckles after he picking the hand up. He swiveled and walked off with a, "Good night."
"Ooh!" All the girls mocked playfully.
"Shut up," they could probably see I was tomato red. "Get in the house and go to bed. I want to open our gifts in the morning really early when 'Santa' comes."
"Fine," they groaned, hurrying up to their beds.
REVIEW!Next in 'Out of Focus':
NixxH has formally decided that from this moment on, if one wants a 'sneak peek' or 'preview' for the chapter-to-come, they will review the chapter and she will PM it to them. Terribly sorry for this, but it was warned.
