Chapter 3

Eponine was more than happy when History was over, not only did she get a stern talking to from the bitch of a teacher but Enjolras kept sending her worried glances from across the room. Clearly he was not satisfied with the excuse of 'I got lost', they had been at the school for five years now she knew the school like the back of her hand. The bell rang for the end of the day and there was there a lot of noise and chaos, students ranging from the first year to the last were running around wishing everyone they saw a Merry Christmas, people were screaming (not singing, screaming) out Christmas songs everywhere you turned, Eponine couldn't help but laugh when she saw Montaparnasse getting pulled away into the ruckus his eyes pleading for help. She shook her head with a smirk and watched as Montaparnasse disappeared down the halls, finally giving in to the festivities.

"Hey can I talk to you?" She heard Enjolras whisper into her ear, she turned around just in time to see the worried expression on his face,

"Yeah sure." She sighed, to be honest she would rather talk to Enjolras about what happened than the others, at least he would have a sensible response. They walked back into the empty history classroom to get away from the growing noise, the teacher was the first to jump ship after the bell rang wanting to get away from the class, therefore they knew they would get no interruptions. Enjolras shut the door and stared at the girl who had now perched herself on the teacher's desk waiting for her to explain herself. After a minute of silence his was slowly losing his patience,

"Ep come on I know you, and you would never miss the first fifteen minutes of a lesson just because you were 'lost'!" Eponine's lip twitched as she watched Enjolras attempted speech quotes. It didn't suit him, but it was cute to see him try. "What really happened?" Suddenly her feet seemed a lot more interesting to look at and with a quiet mumble she started talking

"You're going to think I'm crazy."

"Of course not, you're already crazy enough." Enjolras teased as he joined her on the desk nudging her to continue, Eponine gave him a smirk grateful for the icebreaker and felt a lot more relaxed as she continued.

"Well I was getting my book out of my locker when this first year came up to me, she was worried that she had lost her friend, apparently she hadn't come out of the changing rooms. Anyway I offered to help, we walked to the changing rooms but then the lights went funny, it was freezing, the heating must have gone or something, and for a first year standing in big room alone where the lights are flickering on and off is pretty freaky especially after that visit form the police. I then saw a figure in office so I assumed it was the friend Emily, that's when the lights went out. I looked down to see if Casey- the first year- was alright but she was gone! It freaked me out, only because I was holding her hand the entire time so I would have felt something right? Anyway I ran out and came face to face with the old caretaker, and you know how creepy he is. But the creepiest bit was when I leaving the corridor he- he called to me saying I should be careful because apparently 'The school has eyes." Eponine looked up from her feet to face Enjolras, expecting him to look confused or skeptical but she saw something completely different. His eyes were deep in concentration taking in every word. "Told you I was crazy."

"Ep, that's not crazy. Believe me if Courf or Taire would told me that yeah that would be crazy they would take anything and try to make it into a story. But coming from you isn't crazy, what happened was probably just some kids pulling a sick last day of term joke, their attempt of trying to beat Courf and Taire's at their own game, anyone could easily flicker the lights from afar. As for the caretaker, we've known years that he's creepy, it's just a coincidence he turned up at that point making sure theres no students bunking. Trust me when we come back in January those girls will come up to you and have a good laugh." Enjolras smiled, the whole situation with the missing student was getting to everyone, this had never happened before in Musain, so people were dealing with the situation in different ways, and of course there were some people making sick jokes. He wanted to make sure Eponine wouldn't get to affected by this,

"Yeah, you're probably right." Eponine sighed,

"I always am."

"Hey be careful or I'll have you on dishes duty tonight at the café. Remember your shift starts at six tonight." Enjolras groaned, of course she was 'his boss' tonight he still hadn't gotten used to doing everything she said, he was about to lean in and kiss her on the forehead when suddenly a loud cheerful voice.

"Dudes why are you still here, come on get out of here before Enjolras here starts to become one with the building!" Courfeyrac ran into the room and dragged them out into the hall both Eponine and Enjolras were careful not to look too guilty.

"Enjolras seriously man, you are never going to get laid if you keep hanging around with old Eppy here! You need to go out and find yourself a real girl!"

"Wow thanks Courf, I feel flattered!"

"You know what I mean! Right this is it, were finally free of this hell hole for a few weeks, here take these!" Courf forced a packet of confetti into both their hands. Enjolras was puzzled,

"What are-" His question was suddenly answered by the sight of Jehan upon Combeferre's back throwing glitter in the air and Taire running forward to tackle Courf. When Combeferre finally reached the four of them he dropped Jehan to the floor and just shrugged. Enjolras just stared at Combeferre, waiting for an explanation.

"What? It's Christmas and like Taire said I am not being the humbug this year!"

"IM NOT A HUMBUG!" Enjolras exclaimed ignoring the laughs the rest were attempting to hold back, "You doubt me? I'll show you all." And with that he gave Eponine his bag of confetti and gave her a knowing look "May I?" Eponine smirked and nodded, she jumped up on his back and when she finally comfortable Enjolras ran off down the hall. Courf, Taire, Jehan and Combeferre were frozen in shock but after realising they were stealing the spotlight Jehan got back onto Ferre's back and Courf onto Taire's. It didn't take long to finally catch up with Enjolras (he wasn't that good at running) but Eponine was doing a very good job at throwing the confetti, purposely getting it into people's hair!

A few corridors down Joly was emptying the contents of his own locker, making sure he didn't forget anything like food wrappers that could potentially turn into mould over the holiday. The hallway suddenly started to get louder and louder as children were running down making room and cheering on the stampede that was Enjolras, Eponine, Courf, Taire, Jehan and Combeferre. Joly watched and laughed as Eponine chucked confetti all over him and Jehan as he finished him off with a handful of glitter. Soon the corridor was empty again apart from the few children still at their own lockers. The floors were covered in glitter and confetti, he heard a giggle and looked around to see Musichetta walk towards him brushing off the mess Eponine and Jehan had created off his shoulders.

"I'd never thought I would see the day Enjolras would act spontaneous!" Joly shook his hair knowing that it was full of small pieces of paper and shiny sequins.

"Well with Enjolras you get a blank page, I guess now anything is possible." Joly smirked, he was trying to pick out the remaining confetti shapes from his hair when Musichetta brought her own hand up to meet his.

"Let me." She giggled, Joly took the opportunity he was given with Musichetta being so close and leaned in to press his lips against hers.

"What would I do without you?" He asked after finally pulling away,

"You would still be hiding under the table because three people sneezed around your lunch no doubt, come on I want to get home! The last episode of Graceland's on tonight and I promised Ep I would text her throughout!"

"Fine, fine! I'm done anyway." He said while shutting his locker tight, and after checking his bag one last time took Musichetta's hand and began walking out of the building. Just before they walked around the corner Joly spotted something in the corner of his eye.

"What's that?" He asked stopping in his tracks to look up at the ceiling, Musichetta followed his eyes and soon found what he was looking at,

"Looks like black mould to me."

"BLACK MOULD!"

"Joly, calm down! It's the holidays by the time we get back it will have been dealt with by the caretaker, its his job."

"But what if it doesn't get dealt with and it spreads? Where did it even come from?!"

"The school wouldn't let that happen now come on, or do you want to go to Courf's party without a date?" The look in her eyes told him see wasn't kidding.

"Fine but can I at least report it, they might no know about it?"

"NO!"

Marius was waiting outside Cosette's religious studies class, Cosette had asked her teacher for some extra work and was taking some time asking her questions. Marius just smiled, he hadn't guessed Cosette would be the one asking for more work, he always figured it would be Enjolras. But things are not always what they seem, after all he did just see a laughing Enjolras leading a stampede of all his friends throwing confetti and glitter everywhere. Maybe Grantaire spiked his coffee or something?

"Hey baby sorry you had to wait." Came Cosette's voice from behind him, Marius turned around and pulled Cosette towards him by her waist planting a soft kiss on her lips before answering

"That's okay, I just don't get why you would want more work!"

"There's nothing wrong in wanting to do well. Are you going to the café tonight?" She asked as they began walking down the corridor hand in hand.

"Of course, we need a pre-party meet up after all! And it's Eponine and Enjolras's shift tonight so we get discounts on the drinks!" The halls were empty now, not even the teachers were still in their lesson rooms. "So what are you doing for Christmas?"

"Well my Dad's coming up for the holiday so probably spend some time together as we hardly get to see him. We've invited Eponine and her Mother over for Christmas dinner so that will be fun. What about you?"

"Oh you know the usual, dinner with Grandfather. Try and put on a smile." Cosette gave Marius's hand a soft squeeze, Christmas was always tough for Marius. It was the one time his Father and Grandfather were forced to be in the same room, and they did not get on well. They were close to the buildings exit when the lights flickered on and off. To Cosette's surprise Marius shrieked!

"Pardon me! What was that?!" Cosette asked hiding her smile, Marius blushed and looked straight down muttering a small

"I'm scared of the dark alright!"

"Well that's something new I've learnt about you!" Cosette giggled, "Come on I'll buy you a hot chocolate for being such a brave boy!" She teased causing Marius to blush even more.

"I'm not a brav- Thank you!"

As the pair walked out of the building to meet with the rest of the group the entire school building had been cleared out. All that was left was glitter and confetti in every nook and cranny, and a few notebooks that had been thrown in excitement, there was no doubt that one of them belonged to Grantaire. There was a perfect silence until heavy footsteps broke the silence echoing across the halls, and a dark shadow filled the darkened halls headed deeper into the building not wanting to be seen, shovel in hand.

It was now around seven in the evening and the Café was in full swing, Madam Thenardier left Eponine and Enjolras to take and serve the drinks while she went upstairs to spend some time for herself. The radio was lightly playing Christmas tunes in the background and Eponine whistled to the melody of 'Baby its cold outside'. The Café wasn't as busy as usual just a few couples sharing a romantic cup of coffee and the occasional individual wrapping last minuet gifts while scoffing down a muffin. But the main noise from the Café came from the booth in the back corner where their group had taken full claim over, everyone who walked into the shop knew to never sit in that corner of the room. Eponine was now perched on Taire's lap as she was telling the group of the incident that had happened earlier, she wanted to get another perspective on the whole situation. Just so she was sure she wasn't crazy.

"Nah, Enjolras is right it just sounds like a sick practical joke to me!" Courf said as he took a bit from the choc-chip muffin Eponine had just placed on the table before him.

"Well if it was a joke, that's horrific! What if someone who knew Megan was victim of that?" Cosette stated.

"It's one thing to talk about children vanishing from thin air, but to make a joke about it. It just doesn't sound right." Combeferre added from the corner,

"Exactly! Now you see why I'm kind of freaking out about this! I mean if it was a joke why pull it on me? What have I done? I didn't even know the two kids"

"Forget about it Ep, you'll just work yourself up. Now can we please just talk about how ridiculously nerdy Enjolras looks in that uniform?!" Taire exclaimed looking in the direction of Enjolras who was currently placing cups of coffee at a table on the other side of the room. He must have heard them teasing him as he turned to give them a cold stare trying not to give the group the finger, after all what would the other customers think. In all honesty Eponine thought the uniform was fine, it was just a simple white shirt, black trousers. Yes they had to wear horrible brown ties and aprons that fell to their knees but apart from that…

"Right I better get back to work, does anyone want a refill?"

It was ten to ten and the café was all but empty. The small gang where the only ones left as it was tradition, Eponine and Enjolras were placing the chairs on the tables while the group were putting on their coats and paying their tab for the night.

"Eponine my dear you've out done yourself tonight! Those muffins were divine!" Courf shouted across the room.

"Glad you liked them Courf!" Eponine chuckled, he had eaten at least four over the past three hours so he was more excited than ever.

"Yeah and I'm sorry for Joly asking you about how clean your hands were Enjolras! You know what he's like, needs to know every detail." Musichetta said a little more quietly.

"Its fine Chetta we all know!"

"Well Merry Christmas guys" Cosette called from the door "have a good one this year! Ep I'll see you in a few days. And well I'll see the rest of you at the party!"

"YES COSETTE!" Everyone just laughed as Courfeyrac ran up to Cosette and chucked her over his shoulder, "See guys even Cosette here is hype for the party! And MERRY CHRISTMAS!" And with that he ran out, carrying a squealing Cosette out of the door. Marius said a quick goodbye as he chased after the pair. The rest of them hadn't moved from their current positions still trying to catch their breath when suddenly Jehan squealed!

"OMG OMG OMG!" Everyone looked at him with confusion, he was jumping up and down on the spot clapping his hands together!

"What!?" Taire finally asked, Jehan just rolled his eyes and pulled Taire towards him,

"Okay look over their where Ep and Enjy are-" he started to whisper,

"Don't call me that!" Came a almost angry remark for Enjolras,

"And tell me. You. Don't. See. It!" Suddenly it all made sense and Taire, Combeferre, Joly and Musichetta all giggled. Eponine looked over to Enjolras who was staring towards the ceiling looking annoyed. Eponine looked up as well and soon realised why he was annoyed. Mistletoe. Eponine swore she had taken it all down. But her mother must have put it up again!

"Come on Enjy! This is the first step in the plan to getting you laid!" Taire cheered "If you can Eponine you can kiss anyone!" Both Eponine and Enjolras just stared at Grantaire as he just smiled cheekily at them, behind him the others were chanting them on. Well this isn't awkward at all! Eponine thought. She looked over to Enjolras who just nodded, they leaned in quickly putting on a good show. It was over quickly and felt nothing like all those other times Enjolras remembered, but then the others didn't know about that. Speaking of the others they were cheering and Jehan started bouncing again.

"Alright guys you've had your fun, now get out I need to lock up!" Eponine chuckled, chasing the guys out. Once she was sure they were out of sight she shut the blinds and locked the door, Enjolras started to make his way over to the till and made sure everything was in order when he was tugged from behind.

"Urm, where are you going?" Eponine teased nodding in the direction of the mistletoe, Enjolras soon got the message and pulled her towards him, this time they knew exactly what they were doing. It wasn't awkward at all.