Disclaimer: I still do not own the X-Men or any other Marvel owned characters mentioned in this story. I do however claim full ownership over the warriors and the mutants and humans within it, and I will continue to do so until someone supplies me with their own Original Character that they would like to see in the story. In which case I will not own that character, they will, so I can no longer claim ownership over all the warriors, but for now, I still own them all. So ha!
Ldypebsaby: I'm glad that you think this is cool, I think it is too. Not all the girls go after him, but one does, to the anger of Rogue, but it's not Danielle, can you guess who it is?
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Chapter 4: Traditions
"Alright!" Thomas called, still standing on the small coffee table in full Santa regalia. "The moment you've all been waiting for... The drawing!" He took the Santa hat from Mike as Rogue and Scott watched, now really getting into this, wanting to see who would be picked. "And the one that gets the important job of delivering presents to those that couldn't make it here tonight... The one that gets to bring Christmas cheer and happiness to faces all over the city..." He spoke loudly so everyone could hear him as he dug his hand into the Santa hat, and pulled out a single strip of paper. "Is... Joseph McKinley!" And the gathered crowd clapped and gave a few yells of congratulations.
Joseph nodded, it wasn't really an award, but it was considered an honor to get this job among the Warriors. Something Thomas devised so that people would actually want to do it, and not quit if they were assigned it, which was fairly clever of him.
"Now, just give Danielle and Elise a few moments to get everything set up, and we'll have the eggnog drinking contest!" Thomas called out, and was responded to by a bunch of the guys, including James and Joe giving hoots. "Who are these year's contestants?" Thomas called.
"I'll do it!" James called out as he nodded his head back a little. "I won last year, don't see why I shouldn't try to do it again!" He yelled with a laugh.
Thomas chuckled. "Man. Look at the size of him, does anyone here think that they can beat this giant of muscle? He can pack a lot of eggnog into that stomach of his!" He said with a laugh.
"I'll try it!" Will called from behind Scott and Rogue a bit. "He might be big, but I'm thirsty!" A few of the crowd gave a laugh.
"Anyone else?" Thomas asked. "This is your last chance, if you want to join in, raise your hand."
No one seemed to be raising his or her hands, but Rogue had an idea, and leaned over to Scott. "You should do it." She whispered.
"What?" Scott asked looking over to her.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun. Plus it'll impress those girls over there that you like so much if you show them you can loosen up and beat that big guy." Rogue said with a slight smile.
Scott seemed to think about it for a second, hell, it would be fun, and in the Christmas spirit, why not? "I'll do it!" He said raising his hand, although the second after he did it he couldn't remember why he had agreed to it.
"Alright! The new guy!" Thomas called as he waved Scott over, for Scott to join James and Will who were standing near the coffee table now. "How about it, anyone else?" After a brief silence it was obvious no one else was going to volunteer so Thomas looked towards the back of the room, where a small table was now set up, with three chairs, and cups full of eggnog all over the table. "You girls ready?" He called over.
"Not yet!" Elise called as she continued pouring more cups. "Just give us a second!" Elise and Danielle were working as fast as they could to get cups of eggnog onto the table.
Thomas paused for a brief second, but only a brief one. "How about now?" He asked with a slight chuckle.
Elise nodded. "Sure. Bring 'em on over, I think we're ready for 'em now!" She called as she and Danielle stood behind the table.
"Alright you three, get over there." Thomas said, giving James a slight nudge. The three walked over, and took their places, with Scott sitting in the middle, feeling slightly nervous about the whole thing.
Danielle smiled at him from where she was standing on the other side of the table. "Good luck Hun, you'll need it to beat this guy." She said giving James a playful pat on the arm as she walked by.
Scott smiled nervously as Danielle walked away, and looked at all the cups of eggnog before him. This wasn't going to be much fun for him, but at least he had loosened up a little.
Thomas came over to the side of the table, and spoke loudly again so the whole room could hear him. "Alright, for those of you who weren't here last year, and don't know the rules of the game these are them. Each contestant has fifteen cups of eggnog before him. The first one to drink them all wins! Simplistic isn't it?" He said with a slight laugh. "Now are you all ready?" He asked turning towards the table. James gave a nod, Will gave a nod, and Scott following the pattern gave a nod, though you could tell he was feeling uptight. "Alright... Hands on your laps... Ready... Set... Go!" He shouted as he waved his arm down as if he was waving a flag at a race.
Scott picked up his first cup really quickly, and downed it as fast as he could without getting any on him. He set it down to find that James was already on his second, and Will on his second but had gotten some eggnog on his shirt. Scott picked up his pace, downing as many as he could as fast as he possibly could.
Rogue watched with interest, this is the most laid back she had ever seen Scott. Normally he was all up tight, almost as if he was afraid to have fun. James was moving quickly, and wasn't getting anything on him, Scott was moving a little quicker, and Will was moving as fast as he could, but had already gotten a little eggnog on his shirt from his first glass.
"They're at ten!" Thomas shouted as the crowd watched with anticipation as Scott set a cup down. The few seconds went by quickly for all, suddenly, Scott found himself without anymore cups full of eggnog, and stood up quickly to signify that he had won, just a split second or two before James had stood up. "Whoa, that's a close one." Thomas said with a laugh... "Let's see... Judges?" He looked over to see Gracie and Elise who were standing on the other side of the table then the rest of the crowd, in perfect view of the guys and the contest.
"I think it was Scott that won it there, he put his last cup down before James did." Elise said with a slight smile to Scott.
Scott smiled, and wiped his face with a napkin to get rid of any eggnog mustache. Will kept his eggnog mustache for a bit as a joke, and James smiled. "I know when I'm beat." He said and shook Scott's hand. "Good run there, for a while I doubted whether or not you'd even be classified as competition." He laughed as he said it, and even Scott laughed, man this was a fun Christmas.
Only problem was now that the eggnog-drinking contest was over, and the rush was done, Scott felt like his stomach was going to explode. "Ugh." He said sitting back down, feeling as if he was going to be sick.
"You okay?" Rogue asked coming up behind him and putting a gloved hand on his shoulder.
"I think... I think I drank all that eggnog a little too quick for my own good." He said with a slight groan as he stood up.
"Danielle! The prize!" Thomas yelled as Danielle came from the front of the large room.
"Here ya go." She said with a smile as she handed Thomas a small carton of eggnog liquid.
"To the winner!" Thomas said and the crowd cheered as he placed it in front of Scott.
Scott meanwhile looked like he was about to be sick. "Hey, uh... Where's the bathroom?" He asked with a funny look on his face.
Thomas laughed and pointed to a door on the far end of the small back room. "Straight through that door, and it's the first on your right." Thomas said with a small smile. "Don't worry, we'll wait for ya for the mistletoe toss."
Scott was up and running towards that backdoor before Thomas had even said that sentence. "You think he'll be alright?" Rogue asked turning to see Joe next to her.
"Oh, he'll be fine. Eggnog don't make ya throw up really, it just sort of... goes right through ya. He'll be out in a few minutes, and he'll be fine." Joe said with a nod. "Hey Thomas. I'm sitting the mistletoe toss out like usual, and Rogue better too." He said to the man who was talking to a few other people about four feet away.
Thomas gave a nod. "I understand. That's fine, be sure to watch and laugh at the rest of them though." He said with a smile and then went back to talking to the others that he had been talking to.
Joe turned back to Rogue. "I guess there's an advantage to having an uncontrollable power." He said shrugging.
"Hi there Joe." Said a voice Rogue didn't regocnize. Rogue was about to say something, but this other girl talking to Joe, not bothering to introduce herself to Rogue of course, interrupted her.
"Oh... a hi there Gracie." Joe said with a nervous smile. "Grace, this is Rogue, and Rogue this is Gracie." Joe said introducing them.
"Hi there." Rogue said with a slight nod.
"Oh, you're the girl that came with that Scott fellow right?" Grace asked looking to Rogue. "Some of us were happy to find that you weren't his girlfriend, at least those of us who were still single."
Joe shook his head a little and looked to Rogue. "You see Gracie here likes to rub it in the other girl's faces that she's got herself a man, and most of them don't."
Rogue raised a brow. "You got a boyfriend?" Rogue asked not really making it a big deal like this girl seemed to try and do.
"Ya. He's not a warrior though." She said shrugging a little.
"Alright everybody!" Thomas called out again. "It's time!" He laughed. "All you little teenagers get lined up! Girl's on this side, Boys on this side!" He yelled gesturing. "Now, we're going to wait for the new guy, Scott, so I can say the rules and things, but in the mean time, Girl's hold out your hands, and James and Amanda will tie on the blindfolds for everybody."
Rogue watched as James and Amanda went down the line of younger girls, all the girl's participating were eighteen and under, as were all the boys, and tied on blindfolds to the girls. "No peeking." James said to each of them with a laugh as he tied their blindfolds on.
Scott came back out, and was placed in the line of boys. "Alright now." Thomas said. "Now that we're all here I'll explain the rules." He began. "All the guys will get into a tight circle, facing inward, towards the center of the circle. Now, the girl's have blindfolds, and soon to be placed in their hands are a handful of plastic mistletoe, with a tag tied to each. The tag has a girl's name on it, but not the name of the girl that threw it, so there is virtually no way to cheat at this game." Thomas said with a smile. "Now move the girls into position, in a circle around the guys here." He said as James and Amanda guided the girl's into position since the boys were already in their circle.
"Lemme guess, the girl's toss the mistletoe into the air, and the boys catch it, and they kiss whose name is on the tag?" Rogue whispered to Joe since they were standing there by the food table just watching, both unable to participate.
Joe smiled. "Yup. It's a lot of fun, but I've never been able to participate." Joe said with an even tone in his voice.
Rogue could relate, she could never do something like this at a party, or anywhere for that matter.
"Now... Are you ready?" Thomas asked with a slight smile. And the participants nodded. "Girls, on your mark, get set... Toss!" The things of mistletoe flew up in the air, Rogue noticed that Scott's hit him in the head before landing in his hands and she just had to laugh slightly at that. "Alright, girl's remove your blindfolds." Thomas said as he came down from the table he was standing on and stood amongst them. "Let's see... We'll start with Will here." Rogue noticed that he had gotten a clean shirt since the eggnog-drinking contest. How exactly she didn't know.
"Alright Will... What's the name on the tag?" Thomas asked with a slight smile.
"I uh... I got my girlfriend actually." He said with a slight smile. "Elise." He laughed; since the two were already going out they kissed all the time, a stroke of luck for him. Elise came up and the two kissed quickly in front of the crowd, and then moved to the side as Thomas called more people up.
"Let's see... The new guy!" He grabbed Scott by the arm and led him to the table. "Alright Scott. Who's the owner of your particular mistletoe?"
Scott blushed, he really wasn't given a choice to enter this game, he was forced to. He almost felt envious of Rogue for not having to do this. "Uh... I got um..." He looked at the tag and raised a brow. "I actually can't read that handwriting." He said giving it over to Thomas.
Thomas laughed. "Yeah, James has got to work on that penmanship there." He said with a slight smile. "Let's see... And the winner is... Megan!" It was a girl that neither Scott nor Rogue had met yet, but she came up to the front. She was very beautiful in face and figure, with a nice skirt and blouse on.
"Hi there." She said softly as she came up to the front. She and Scott looked uncomfortably at each other for a moment until a certain voice started the crowd chanting.
"Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss." James started, getting the rest of the guys to go along with it and start chanting it too.
Scott blushed and Megan leaned in quickly and gave him a kiss on the lips and the crowd stopped chanting and clapped. By the time the applause was over Megan had pulled away from the kiss and it was over.
Thomas smiled. "There, now was that so hard?" He asked with a chuckle. "Alright... Next up... We have... Christian Van Hart!" And Scott and Megan moved off from the front of the crowd to make way for the other teen coming up. And the game continued on while Megan and Scott were talking.
"Well uh... That's an interesting tradition." Scott said with a slight shrug.
Megan giggled slightly. "I think Thomas likes it cause it gets people to lighten up a bit and have fun. Plus he knows that most of us teens dread it." She said with a slight smile. "You're a good kisser by the way, except that I wouldn't want to kiss you again with that eggnog taste in your breath." She giggled as she said it and looked over to see Rogue coming up to them, with Joe behind her.
"Oh uh... Hi Rogue. This is Megan. Megan this is Rogue." Scott introduced them, not knowing what else to do or say.
"It's nice tah meet you." Rogue said with an obviously forced polite smile.
"Same here." Megan said with a slight smile on her face. "Sorry if I kind of stole your boyfriend here, it was just a game." She said noticing the way that Rogue seemed to be really ticked off at her.
"He's not mah boyfriend." Rogue's voice rose ever so slightly, as if she was defending herself. "We just came together because we live at the same boarding school."
"Oh." Megan said with a slight smile. "So you're not taken then?" She asked looking to Scott. "Well that's good to know." She said with an ever so graceful smile. "Well, if you'll both excuse me, I have to get back to my friends over there, I hope to see you around Scott." She said as she left the small group.
Scott stood there for a moment silent, unsure of what to say or do, this whole kind of predicament was new to him. "Well uh... She's nice." He said shrugging and turning back to look at Rogue and Joe. "So... uh...anyway..."
Rogue stood as one betrayed, but said nothing, and there was an awkward silence, broken by Michael from the front of the large room, after the last guy went up and got his kiss in the game. "Hey Thomas! It's almost time!" He yelled out as Thomas looked up.
"So it is!" Thomas called looking at his watch. Suddenly to the amazement of both Rogue and Scott Thomas vanished from the table he was standing on. It was as if he just up and disappeared, he just simply wasn't there anymore. No smoke, no noise, and no Thomas. Suddenly he appeared in the front of the large front room. "Come on everybody!" Rogue noticed that he had a clock in his hands. "Mike, get the music ready!" Michael was already at the stereo, getting ready to press a button. Thomas put the clock on the wall, and it was then that Rogue noticed that it was two minutes from Midnight. "Chris! Get the lights!"
"I got them!" Chris hollered as the lights went off, all except for the lights on the Christmas tree in the front of the large front room, on the right of the door. The lights from the tree illuminated the clock enough so that you could see it.
"Ready people! Here we go!" Thomas called and Scott and Rogue noticed the entire room was doing a countdown till Christmas, the crowd speaking in unison.
"Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Merry Christmas!" The whole room erupted with a cheer as the music started to the tune of 'Silent Night.'
Then those in the room gathered around the Christmas tree and began singing the Christmas song, Scott and Rogue joined in too. It was a beautiful moment, and a great way to end such a great party.
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Coming Soon... Chapter 5: Santa's Delivery Boy