Chapter Twelve
New Heart For Christmas
"Are you ever going to talk to him again?" Oliver asked, sitting and reading Amera's mangas on her bed. She sat in her computer chair, playing Panic at the Disco's "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" on her guitar. She was playing it rather harder than she normally would, since she was angry at Piotr and Piotr was the one who had gotten her the guitar for her birthday a month ago. "He didn't really do anything wrong."
Amera glared at Oliver. "There was an attack on a government building last week, a government building that held dangerous mutants. You don't think that Piotr helped Magneto? Oh, and the whole thing about him going against his own morals-" she hit the strings forcefully. "-and-" even harder. "-breaking up with me!" She hit the strings so hard that her first E string broke. "Damn it."
Pierce was sitting on Danel's bed, practicing his Japanese characters. "Let me fix that," Pierce said, getting up and walking over to her. Amera looked confused, but he placed his hands on the string, put the broken ends together, and they mended.
"What the..." Amera said, staring at him amazed.
"Another power. I kind of wonder how many I'm going to have," Pierce said. "I discovered it about a week ago, when we were at the mall and Kylia dropped that ornament in the Hallmark store." He smirked. "She's adorable."
"Yeah... too bad you aren't attracted to her," Amera stated, then gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that!"
"That's okay... It's true." Pierce said, then after a moment of awkward silence, they all returned to what they were doing.
After a while, Megan, the cat-girl we haven't had in the story since chapter two, came into the room. "Hey, guys?"
"Hey Megan," Oliver said.
"What's up?" Amera asked.
"Well, I'm heading the Christmas party committee, and I was wondering if Auto Focus would play it?" Megan said, a pleading look on her face. "Because we've already heard King of Hearts, and the school is kind of wondering how you guys are," she added when nobody answered.
Amera looked at her slyly. "And Sakura wants to hear her competition, right?"
Megan's glance shifted side to side. "Well... yeah..."
"Okay, that's settled. We'll do it, and we'll blow King of Hearts out of the water."
The day of the Christmas party arrived, December 20th, and Auto Focus spent the entire day practicing in the basement since none of them were on the decorating committee like they had been for Halloween. They weren't going to do any of the songs that they were preparing for the competition, but they had a pretty solid set ready. The party would be at seven o'clock that night, so they had agreed to go get dressed at 5:30. Before going upstairs, however, they had to set all the instruments up on the stage, just like at Halloween.
They all wore black and red, but they had to be nice clothes. Amera wore a red plaid pleated skirt and a black lace up top with beaded embellishments. Danel wore black pants with pale red pinstripes and a red shirt with the shoulders cut out. Pierce wore all black, a nice button down shirt and pants, along with a red tie. He had his hair parted to the side, emo style. Oliver was wearing a red shirt, black pants, and a black tie. Aykra wore a black dress that reached her knees, which tied like a halter top behind her neck.
Vaughn acted as DJ once again, and everyone was gathered in the foyer for the party. The decorations were beautiful, with wreaths and a huge Christmas tree in one corner, where everyone had put their presents over the past week. Amera danced with Oliver when "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling was played, but she keep shooting murderous looks over towards Piotr, who sat alone on the staircase. Oliver, knowing that she was doing so, turned so she was now facing where Pierce was dancing with Kylia. She couldn't be sure, but she could have sworn that he had been watching the two of them, but looked away quickly. Whatever, she thought to herself, and returned to dancing in peace. Soon, a Britney Spears song came on, so she made an excuse to leave the room. "I have to pee," she told Oliver, then ran off, leaving Oliver to laugh silently.
She left the dance floor, heading towards the hallway by the staircase, because there was a bathroom that way. She didn't even glance in Piotr's direction, but he saw her heading in his general direction. Seizing this opportunity to try to talk to her, he followed her to the hallway. He grabbed her arm gently, not wanting to hurt her, and spun her around. She was pressed up against the wall. "Amera!"
"Let go of me," Amera demanded.
"No, not until you talk to me," Piotr said just as forcefully. "I've been back for almost an entire month-"
"Let me go, Piotr!" she repeated.
"Amera, I love you!"
She stopped struggling against him and stared at him in awe. "This isn't about you loving me! It's about you going against everything you believe in to save me! You really think I wanted you to compromise your own morals? I've been angry at you because you decided I was more important than everyone else!"
Piotr let go of her, but neither of them moved away. "I... I'm sorry."
"You helped Magneto. You helped dangerous mutants escape from where they were being held, and-"
"I said I was sorry. I didn't want to help him." Piotr said, looking at the rug.
"Well, you did." An awkward silence ensued. Suddenly, Piotr kissed her. For a moment, she kissed him back, then pushed him away. "Piotr!"
"You're underneath mistletoe," he shrugged, then with a smirk went into the boys' bathroom.
Amera growled, then turned to head back to the party, forgetting her ruse of needing to pee, and saw Oliver standing there. "Oliver?"
"I knew that you two would get back together." he said, a faint smile on his face. "I'm just glad I got some attention while I did."
"What? No, we're not - what are you talking about?" Amera said, flustered.
"I had a crush on you since you came here, but you never even noticed. Then perfect Piotr..." He turned red. "Well, we're still friends, right?"
"Oliver, what-"
"I knew we wouldnt last, Amera. You don't need to say anything," he said, then hugged her. "Besides, I don't think either of us were in love anyway." He looked at her with a wide smile. "You still love him. So forgive him for being an idiot and get your man." He left her in the hall feeling immensely confused.
"And now, I have the pleasure of presenting to you the band the entire school has been looking forward to hearing, Auto Focus!" Vaughn announced.
"Damn!" Amera said, then ran from the hall and up to the stage.
She immediately started playing Three Small Words, from Josie and the Pussycats. "It took six whole hours, and five whole days for all your lies to come undone, and those three small words were way too late, can't you see that I'm the one..." From there they played Silver and Cold by AFI, Bring Me To Life by Evanescence, XO by Fall Out Boy, When September Ends by Green Day, Sadie Hawkins Dance by Relient K, Addicted by Simple Plan, and finally Helena by My Chemical Romance, all to great amounts of applause. Their set ended at 9:00. At 9:30, the gift exchange started, so the foyer was filled with talk and laughter and the opening of gifts instead of techno music and dancing. The twins sat with all their friends, including Piotr, although Amera avoided him like the plague. "Um, hello?" Oliver whispered while everyone was distracted with their presents. "Why are you still avoiding him? Did you miss the break up in the hallway?"
"No, but-" Amera stopped.
"You love him. Just accept it. Ooh, thanks for the Cowboy Bebop manga, that rocks." he added as he unwrapped the gift from her. "Besides, I think I might like someone else." And with that, he stood and sat next to Gambit. (I'm not saying that's who he likes! That would be weird!)
Amera sat and agonized in her head a few more minutes, subconsciously opening her presents at the same time. Suddenly she stood and walked over to where Piotr sat on the floor with Rogue, Bobby, and Khadrim. She sat next to him and looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry too." She took a deep breath. "And..." she glanced at Oliver. "And I love you."
He grinned widely then kissed her. "You're underneath mistletoe," he said with a smirk. Amera looked up, and sure enough, there was mistletoe attatched to the stair railing above them.
Amera looked back at him. "Fuck the mistletoe." she said, then kissed him passionately, to many catcalls and cheers from all over the foyer. A moment later, they were being lectured by Ororo for not keeping it PG and letting their hands roam. Oh, and Amera saying "fuck."
After a ten minute talking-to, the gift opening resumed. After all the packages were opened in their group, Momiji suddenly stood from where he sat next to Oliver. He was holding envelopes, and he handed one each to Amera, Danel, and Pierce. "Merry Christmas!" he said quite happily. The three of them opened their packages. Amera nearly fainted when she saw what was inside.
"Two round-trip tickets to Japan?!" she cried. "How can you afford that? And for each of us?!"
"My dad is a millionaire business mogul," Momiji said with the straightest face. "And you each get to take anyone else you want!" he said.
Danel didnt question for a second the fact that she was going to take Gambit. That is until Amera said, "Hey, this means you can get some real time with John!"
"Oh," Danel said, looking at the floor. "Yeah..." She glanced at Gambit from the corner of her eye, and he looked almost disappointed. She turned to him instantly. "You're going to go with me, okay?" He perked right up after that.
"Well, now that I've made up with my hunky boy toy, he's of course going with me!" Amera said.
"So who's Pierce taking?" Rogue asked. "Kylia, right?"
"Nah," he replied. "She broke up with me out on the dance floor tonight. Said she likes this Jay kid or something." He shrugged. "No sweat though. We weren't really into each other at all."
"The question still stands: Who are you taking?" Bobby said.
Pierce was silent a moment as he thought about it. "Well, I'll take my best friend, Oliver."
Oliver looked shocked. "What? Really? Awesome!"
"And, of course, me!" Momiji said, swinging his legs back and forth in his chair. He was holding his ticket and waving it like a fan. "The flight is in two days, so we've gotta pack tomorrow!" He looked over at Amera. "I asked your mom if it was okay already, well, I had Professor Xavier ask you mom for me, and she said it was okay, so that's why I went ahead and got the tickets!"
"Well, I'm gonna go ahead upstairs then," Amera said, and some of them protested. "If I dont go start packing now, I'm going to end up forgetting something!" she smiled and sprinted up the stairs.
Review review review!
Don't forget to vote in the poll for the Battle of the Bands!
