AN: Yes, I'm still alive. I've been writing a lot, just not typing it up, so expect a lot in the next week. Also, please ignore the fact that this is two weeks late. That is all. ^^ Now on with the unbelievably cliche story!

"Sheena, could you help me set these out?" Hannah asked from the kitchen, gesturing to the multiple bowls of snacks.

Her older sister looked up from where she was sitting, across from me. "Yeah, sure." She set the book she was reading on the table and brushed her butchered-backed black hair out of her eyes before getting up and helping the ginger. I leaned forward to look at the cover and saw a girl with long, red-brown hair and almost purple eyes that was wearing a ridiculously short skirt and was surrounded by blood and claw-like hands reaching for her.

The heck? I thought, silently debating picking it up. I'm a sucker for horror stories, but, dear God, that outfit…

"Hey, Star?" Sheena asked, pulling my attention to the petite, booty short-clad 7th grader walking by. "Could you stay in your room?"

The smaller girl scoffed. "Fine, whatever. C'mon, Kenzie." she grabbed the arm of the young-Barbie-esque girl next to her and marched up the stairs.

"What are the odds of her actually staying up there?" I asked as soon as she was out of earshot.

"With Kenzie and a box of Oreos, surprisingly good," Sheena said, setting a bowl of peanuts on the table before grabbing a handful.

Hannah grabbed a sprig of mistletoe off of the countertop, walked to the door, and stood on her toes to tie it to the frame. "So, Matty," she said, walking back over and sitting down next to me, "you excited?"

I frowned. "Hannah, seriously, how many times have I asked you to stop calling me that?"

She sighed overdramatically. "Fine. Matheus Julio Fernandes," she said in the worst Hispanic accent I'd ever heard, "you excited?"

"That's still not my middle name," I pointed out.

"But it should be!" she declared.

I rolled my eyes, though I was smiling. "Whatever you say, Hannah. And yeah, I'm excited. Your Christmas parties are always fun." The two of us had lived next door to each other since we were ten, when I'd moved to the country.

"And this year the Glee Club's coming," she pointed out.

"Yes," I said, grinning. "As fun as it is with us, Sheena, and JD, I think it'll be more fun with–"

"Ellis?" she asked, cutting me off.

I stiffened. "What do you mean?"

She grinned. "You know you like her!" she teased.

"I do not!" I said for the millionth time, lying through my teeth and sure I was blushing.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, silly Matty, you know you can't lie to me!"

Before I could say anything against the nickname or the sentence itself, the doorbell rang.

"I got it!" she said, jumping up and running to the door. "Hey, Mar! Hey, Em!" she exclaimed in her ever-so-joyful way.

"Hey, Hannah!" Marissa said, wrapping her arms around the larger girl.

Emily rolled her eyes, smiling, and walked over. "What's up, Matt?" she asked, plopping into the chair next to me and propping her feet up on the table.

I sighed. "Not much."

She raised an eyebrow. "You can't fool me, little guy."

I glared. "No comment."

She chuckled. "Whatever you say, boo. Something's up."

I opened my mouth to explain, but shut it when I sensed a presence over my shoulder. "They're right behind me, aren't they?"

"Yeppers!" Hannah said happily, sitting on my other side as Marissa sat across from me.

"Matheus, what's wrong?" the thinner girl asked, the motherly quality of her voice making it extremely tempting to tell her, though I managed not to, simply because doing so would only prove Hannah right.

"Oh, he has a giant crush on your little Ellie," Hannah said easily, smiling.

I stared at her, shocked that she could be that blunt.

"But don't worry," she continued, "I have a plan." She leaned closer to the thinner girl's ear and whispered a quick phrase before leaning back.

"You know how cliché that is, right?" Marissa asked, amused.

"Yeah, but cliché works!" the freckle-covered girl pointed out.

"What?" I asked, trying not to sound as scared as I was.

"You'll find out!" Hannah declared, making me more nervous.

"I'll tell you later," Marissa assured a curious Emily.

The Latina shrugged and turned to me. "So, Ellis?" she asked, smirking.

I turned bright red. "Shut up," I grumbled.

"You two would be really cute together!" Marissa assured me.

"Thanks," I muttered, sinking down in my chair. Anything they were going to say was cut off by the doorbell.

I sighed. "I'll get it." I got up, walked over to the door, and opened it to reveal Bryce, McKynleigh, and, go figure, Ellis.

"Hey!" McKynleigh said with enough perkiness to rival Lindsay, thankfully keeping me from saying anything.

"Hey, boo!" Emily exclaimed, running over and placing her hands on Bryce's shoulders.

He laughed. "Hey, Em." He leaned down and kissed her.

"Dude, at least wait until we get inside!" McKynleigh half-complained, looking both annoyed and amused. She grabbed his arm and dragged him in, of course bringing Emily along. She pulled them all the way over to the table, immediately starting a conversation with Marissa.

"Hey, guys!" Ellis called, stepping in and looking like she was about to laugh. She noticed me and her expression instantly warped into something I couldn't read. "Hey, Matheus."

"Hey," I said, trying to interpret it. Did I do something wrong? I pushed the thought away and glanced over at the table. I couldn't believe they'd already left me alone with her. I stepped back and gestured for her to come out of the doorway.

"So chivalrous," she said, raising an eyebrow. She stepped in and kicked her shoes off.

I closed the door, careful to avoid going under the mistletoe still hanging from the frame. Hannah wasn't going to get me that easily. "Uh, thanks."

She scoffed, smiling a bit. "C'mon, follow."

I complied. She led me to the couch, since the other five plus Sheena took up the table.

"So, how's life?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

I managed not to laugh. "Oh, same. You?"

She shrugged. "Same, I guess. What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Not much," I said, shrugging. "You?"

She rolled her eyes. "I have three younger brothers. What do you think?"

"Oh, right," I muttered, nervously scratching the back of my neck.

She smiled. "Aw, you're so cute when you're flustered."

I blushed hard, willing myself to respond.

"Hey, Matheus?" she asked after a moment, saving me.

"Yeah?" I said too quickly.

"Have you been avoiding me?" She suddenly looked completely serious.

My jaw dropped. "What! No! Why would you think that?"

She raised an eyebrow. "We haven't talked in a month, Matt."

"We haven't?" I asked, surprised. I hadn't even noticed. Now that she mentioned in, though, I realized she was right. I guessed I'd just been thinking about her so much that it hadn't seemed like it.

She looked a bit hurt, but quickly wiped the expression away, groaned, and threw her head back, hitting it on the back frame. "I miss you." she looked at me out of the corner of her eye with what looked like annoyance, but it slowly softened into something sadder and she looked away.

My heartbeat sped up and I was blushing, my mind stuck on the words instead of the action. I felt my lips move, but no sound came out. I'd never seen her like that. I had no clue what to say.

What is wrong with me? I thought, silently debating whether or not to reach out and touch her. It's just a little bit of a crush. Granted, on one of my best friends… who thinks I'm avoiding her… and probably hates me right now. Oh, God.

"I-I'm sorry," I stuttered, gently placing my hand on her arm and silently willing her to look at me. "I didn't mean to. I've just had a lot on my mind."

She glanced down at my hand, then looked back up at me, curious. "Like what?"

I froze. Idiot! How did you not see that coming?

"Well, hello," Hannah said, grinning as she popped up in front of us.

I held back a sigh of relief as she handed us each a mug, giving me an excuse to move my hand, the positioning of which was quickly becoming awkward.

"Enjoy," she said, winking at me before going back to the table.

"Thanks," Ellis called after her as I finally managed to think up an answer to her question. She turned to look at me, looking almost concerned. But it was her and that would've made me blush, so I decided to consider it curiosity instead. "So what's been on your mind?"

I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Well, my mom's been pushing me to get better grades." That actually wasn't a lie, but didn't take that much time. "That plus guitar lessons from Cameron…" I thought of something. "Speaking of Cameron…" I twisted to look behind me and saw Bryce, Marissa, Alex, Damian, Cameron, and Samuel at the table, McKynleigh hovering over Bryce's shoulder, Emily hovering over Marissa's, Lindsay hovering over Alex's, and Hannah hovering over the bowl of cashews on the counter and, not surprisingly, leading the conversation, "looks like the gang's all here." I turned back around to see Ellis looking at me skeptically.

"Seriously, what's up?" she asked, ignoring what I'd just said.

"Really, that's it!" I insisted, throwing my left hand up and balancing the mug on my left leg with my right.

She raised an eyebrow, giving me a look that said, Out with it.

I hesitated a moment, then sighed and slumped forward a bit, grasping the mug with both hands and staring at the ground. "Can we just… Can we not get into that?"

She looked surprised, then shrugged it off. "Sure," she said, giving me a small smile that made my heart skip a beat. "What do you wanna talk about?"

I shrugged. "Well, have your brothers done anything interesting?"

She scoffed. "Oh, this is gonna take a while."

We talked for a while, though I wasn't sure how long, mostly about the insanity of her family, but about other things, too.

"So, what are you thinking of doing for this week's assignment?" she asked, finally taking a sip. "Hey, this is really good."

I shrugged. "I don't know much 80's music. 90's, yes. Possibly too much. 80's… not so much. I'm thinking about doing 1985, as a joke. You?" I took a sip. "This is good."

"Thank you!" Hannah yelled over, making us both jump.

"Oh my God!" Ellis cried, trying to get her breath back. As soon as she did, she glared at the other girl. "What, are you trying to kill us?"

"What the…?" I managed, overlapping her and ignoring the still-scalding hot chocolate now staining my shirt. "How long have you guys been listening to us?"

"Long enough!" Hannah said happily. She grinned evilly. "Look up."

We looked up to see a piece of mistletoe hanging from a thread strung between the lamps on either side of us.

"Hannah!" I yelled.

"Hey, I didn't hang it up!" she said, smiling. She pointed to McKynleigh, who shrugged, sitting where her brother had been, her feet on the table.

"McKynleigh!" Ellis yelled. I wasn't sure if she was blushing or red from anger. "We talked about this!"

McKynleigh rolled her eyes. "You weren't gonna do anything!"

What? I thought, confused.

"It's true," Bryce said, standing behind her.

Ellis scowled and I tried to slow my rapidly beating heart. I didn't know what to do. I was the perfect opportunity to kiss her, but that meant it was also the perfect opportunity to get brutally rejected and have her hate me.

"I'm not doing it," I spoke up, making everyone turn and stare.

"Why not?" Hannah complained.

"You know why not!" I yelled back.

"Would it really be that bad to kiss me?" Ellis asked, offended. But I looked at her and saw something different in her eyes than her tone.

"Wha– No!" I said, shocked. How could she think that? "I-I just…" I tried to think fast, knowing I had just put myself in a corner and one of the worst possible situations. At the same time. Well, one of the worst except maybe… "Oh, fuck it," I thought out loud before leaning over and catching her lips with mine.

There was a big round of cheering, but… she didn't kiss back.

I pulled away after just a couple of seconds. She looked like she was in shock. "I-I'm sorry," I said quietly, panicking a bit. "I-I didn't mean–"

She leaned over and kissed me.

I froze up for a second before summoning just enough brain power to kiss back. I couldn't process a single thought, my mind clouding. I felt almost drunk.

She pulled away far too quickly. "Oh, my God," she breathed, looking horrified. "I can't believe I just did that." She shook her head quickly and raised her voice a bit, letting me know that she was actually talking to me, as well as slowly moving away from me, obviously trying to keep it subtle. "I'm sorry, I don't know what–"

I grabbed her hand, making her stop both talking and moving. I gulped and resisted the urge to close my eyes, looking into hers instead. "Look, I like you," I forced out. "And… Well, that kinda made it seem like you like me, too."

She still looked shocked, but a smile slowly spread across her face. "Uh, yeah," she said, seemingly trying not to laugh. She smirked instead. "A little." She leaned in and kissed me again, surprisingly softer this time. I cupped her cheek in my free hand, adding a bit of pressure to her lips until we heard a catcall, making us jump apart from surprise. Honestly, how could we have forgotten them?

"It's about time!" Hannah and McKynleigh yelled at the same time, making everyone laugh harder.

"Ellie, good luck, boo!" Alex called, making me roll my eyes, though I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.

"Alex!" Marissa half-scolded. "C'mon, he's a good guy!"

"And you know what they say about short guys!" Emily added, making us both blush and everyone else laugh.

"Can we pretend that we didn't hear that?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that we were both trying not to laugh.

"Yes!" Hannah yelled, managing to tone her own cackling down a bit. "Now who wants more hot chocolate?"

AN: See, I'm fully convinced that Hannah's the matchmaker of the group. Anyone agree? Anyway, Sheena and Star amuse me... They're from TMN, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Hannah has a very interesting family. XD By the way, the book Sheena's reading is High School of the Dead. If the girl Sheena's based off of can be trusted, it's definitely... Something...

So, this isn't the best thing I've ever written, but I'm thinking of writing what was happening between everyone else at the same time. Anyone think I should?

Review!