So I had every intention of finishing this off before Christmas. But, as you can most certainly tell, that is not what ended up happening. As it turns out, the holidays make your life just the tiniest bit hectic. Wow, who knew? But aren't we all still in the Christmas spirit here, and a holiday story after the fact isn't that bad, and still welcomed, right? In any case, I'm going to post it regardless. Oh, and thank you so much to my newcomers! Your reviews were greatly appreciated, and now moirariordan doesn't have to feel obligated to review this thing since nobody else does. Of course, I still hope she does review...but hopefully some of y'all will pick up the slack on the off chance that she doesn't. But anyway, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and here is another installment of my belated gift to everyone! I don't own Degrassi!

Oh what a pity, her glass was empty again.

But that's okay, she was too busy singing to drink the stuff anyway. It's strange how the words to every Christmas carol she had learned as a child had stayed with her.

Yeah, that's right, she was joining in with the festivities.

She was a music fanatic after all, and Christmas carols technically were music, weren't they? Not particularly great music, of course, but she had to admit, they certainly were catchy.

Oh well, 'tis the season, right? I mean, when in Rome (or Marco's living room) and all... It was just too damn bad that Jimmy couldn't be there to enjoy everything with her! He would be so upset that he missed singing O Holy Night with everyone, it was his favorite!

What a shame.

Because she positively knew he was wishing that he could be here instead of at his aunt's Snowflake Ball for charity! Golly gee, how she missed him! Why hadn't she gone with him? Umm, well, you see...

Yeah...

She swore to God, if one more loony asked her where her "boyfriend" was, she was going to stab them through the heart with a stake of holly...

Wait...wasn't that Dickens? Oh no, it was getting to her too!

Although, when it came down to it, she had always admired his writings...

But honestly, her inner sarcastic comments weren't the whole truth. She really wasn't having half as horrendous a time as she was dictating to herself. Once she got up off of the couch of exile, the need to frown at everyone seemed a bit childish, and she felt her stiff demeanor loosening up a bit in spite of herself. But then again, she wasn't enjoying herself quite as thoroughly as she was telling everyone else either. She was nowhere near a right jolly old elf. It was kinda nice though, her gay little best friend Marco was fun, playing makeshift drums to goofy Christmas songs was fun, and a good little buzz that prevented awkwardness between Craig and her? Well, that was fun too.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned with a smile (a genuine one, at that) to face a classmate. As she faced the girl though, the odor of alcohol emanating from her mouth was overwhelming.

"Ellieeeee!" slurred a very intoxicated Heather Sinclair (Umm, yeah, Sinclair. Who the hell invited her?) "Do you know how to like, you know, ddddrum that Christmas song?"

"What song would that be Heather?" she asked carefully

"You know, that ONE!" the girl exclaimed vehemently, throwing up her hands (one of which held a half-full glass of nog, obviously not her first) into the air to emphasize her point.

"Umm, no I don't think I do..."

"Of course you do, everyone does. You are just being mean to me!"

"No Heather, I really don't but hey, you know maybe you should lay off the eggnog and get yourself some wat-"

Great. Lovely. Ohh, this was just perfect.

Heather BLEEPING Sinclair launching projectile vomit everywhere. All over herself, and on Ellie, and Marco's spotless carpet, and Jesus, even a little bit ended up landing amongst the ornaments on the Christmas tree. Wouldn't Mrs. Del Rossi be absolutely intrigued as to how a nasty little combination of regurgitated cookie dough and whiskey ended up flung upon her miniature nativity? Hmm, Ellie would love to see how Marco got himself out of that one.

She told him having a party was a risky situation. And look at that, she had been right. Let him deal with explaining the mess to his parents, she had to deal with actually having the stuff on her person. Ho, Ho, Ho, and a Merry Christmas to all. What was fun about this again?

"Ohh, nice aim there Heather!" an out of range Craig playfully remarked, observing the scene before him with an expression of bemusement as the crowd backed away from around the girls. Shaking his head slightly, he placed his guitar on one of the clean chairs that had been out of Heather's line of fire and bravely made his way to the messy center of attention. "You feeling any better now Sinclair? Yeah, I didn't think so. Okay Elle, as lovely as I think you two girls look covered in vomit, what do you say we get you and Heather here upstairs and cleaned up a bit? He said, placing a hand on each of the girls' shoulders and smiling sympathetically.

Damn him, Ellie cursed as the trio made their trek upstairs. How in the world was she supposed to get over that boy when he had to go and be so damn nice, even to Heather Sinclair? No one in their right mind was nice to her! But then again, maybe that was it, Craig wasn't exactly in his right mind. But then again, neither was she. (Ellie, of course, not Heather. Though Heather probably wasn't in her right mind either, at least not at the moment, but that was besides the point.)

"You're so nice Craig. Nice, nice, nice. Isn't Craig nice Ellie?" Heather inquired as her caretakers propped her up on the rim of Marco's bathtub, regretfully using Mama del Rossi's nice guest washcloths to sponge her off as best they could.

"Whatever you say Heather." came Ellie's coy reply, giving Craig a sarcastic look from around Heather's profile as she wiped an unidentifiable chunk off of the girl's chin. Craig chuckled softly as he rinsed his loaded washcloth off under the spigot once again and went to work on Heather's arms, returning Ellie's look with a menacing smile.

"Aww, thanks! I agree, I am a pretty amazing guy, aren't I? I mean, I have the looks, the charm, the talent...Wow, you know, sometimes I even amaze myself. Don't you think so Ellie?" said the smirking wonder boy, stripping off Heather's damp, putrid sweater and wrapping her up in a fuzzy bath towel.

"Sure, that certainly is one way to put it." Ellie replied as they stood the inebriated girl up between them and each steadied her with an arm around her waist. Of course, this meant that their arms were touching across Heather's back, but Ellie tried not to think about that part. Slowly they walked (well, Craig and Ellie walked, Heather stumbled), into Marco's guest bedroom where Miss Sinclar could sleep off her condition.

"No I mean it! He's such a nice guy! Manny is so lucky!" Heather continued as the two laid her down on her side and propped her up with pillows on the guest bed. The very mention of that name caused Ellie's stomach to turn slightly, and the fact that Craig Manning was not available came charging back to the forefront of her mind. "Hey...where is Manny anyway? What is a nice guy like you doing at a Christmas party without his girlfriend?"

As much as Ellie really, really didn't want to talk about Miss Santos right now, she had to admit she had been wondering the same thing herself. Why was Craig here by himself? Why had Marco brushed Manny off so easily at the shop the other day? And why had Craig's expression darkened just the slightest at the mention of his beloved's name? And most of all, why had her heart begun to beat a bit faster when she noticed it?

But only a little bit. And that was probably due to the whiskey. Surely.

"Just because she's my girlfriend doesn't mean that we have to spend every waking moment together. I mean, I have my own life you know, my interest, my own friends..." he replied in an irritated tone before he trailed off, catching Ellie's gaze with what she tried to tell herself was not a meaningful expression. It just couldn't be, she had to be misinterpreting it in the darkness of the room. After all, Craig and her were only friends, hadn't he just said that in so many words himself?

But then again, if it didn't mean anything, why hadn't he looked away yet?

One more chapter to go, let me know what you think before it's too late!