-~= C'mon, it's Christmas =~-

Chapter 2

Melissa's eyes fluttered open. She was in an unfamiliar room. Her heart started to pound. Where am I? She remembered the crash, the crazy sister, the cute boy, the blood... woah... ugh... She was getting dizzy again. Don't think about the blood. Then, the next thing she knew, she was in some random living room on a couch. She turned her head a bit and saw the creepy sister standing there, staring at her.

"Um... I..." she mumbled.

The girl... Cameron... Yeah, that was what the cute boy called her. She said, "I fixed your car."

"You what?"

"I smoothed out the wrinkles in the hood and front bumper."

"What? How did you...?"

The boy rushed over to the couch. "She means there was just a little dent in the hood that she popped out with a hammer." He gave Cameron a glare. He turned back to Melissa, "Are you feeling better? Any dizziness?"

"I-I'm better now, I think," she responded. She rubbed her nose, and found that her nostrils were plugged with wads of tissue. Mortified with embarrassment, she quickly covered her nose with her hand. "This is so embarrassing! You must think I'm the worst driver in the world!"

Cameron chimed in from the background, "Maybe not in the world, but definitely in the region."

"Cameron! Shut. Up," John said through gritted teeth. He turned back to Melissa and asked her, "What's your name?"

"M-Melissa. Melissa Dayton," she responded.

"I think I recognize you from school."

"You do?" She was confused. "Are you sure? I don't think I've met you before." Trust me, I'd remember, she almost said.

"I just transferred in yesterday," he said. "I remember seeing you. You were one of the few girls in school that wasn't dressed all slutty. You probably didn't notice me though, since you had your face buried in that 'Twilight' book."

"Oh, huh... well..." she stammered. "The book is way better than the movie. Have you read it? It's about a hot new guy in school that falls in love with the nerdy girl, but he turns out to be-."

"Something more than she bargained for." John interrupted. "Yeah," he grinned at her. "I know how the story goes."

"B-But that kind of stuff never happens in real life though. I mean... the hot new guy never falls for the nerdy, clumsy girl, right?" Holy shit... did I just say that? Melissa felt her face get hot as it turned red.

John laughed a little, and smiled at her. "Well, sometimes truth is stranger than fic-."

Cameron interrupted again. "Did you get to the part in the story where the hot new guy's girlfriend slices open the nerdy girl's abdomen and chokes her to death with her own small intestine?"

All the blood ran out of Melissa's face. The butterflies in her stomach suddenly turned into a baby alien trying to punch its way out. Her voice was barely a whisper as she croaked out, "I-I don't know. Maybe in the sequel..." She turned to John and spoke up to her normal voice. "I need to get going. I... my mom is probably worried sick. What time is it?" She checked her watch. "Oh Jesus. She's gonna kill me!"

John glared at Cameron. "Don't you even say it."

John followed Melissa to the door and saw her out. As she walked to her car in the driveway, he called out to her, "Drive safe, Melissa. If you mom doesn't ground you, you owe me a date!" he chuckled. "It's the least you could do for almost killing me!"

Oh my God! Did he just...? She bit her lip and grinned as she waived back as she got into her car. She keyed the ignition and put it in reverse. She watched him lean against the pole on his front porch as she backed down the driveway. Her night had gone from mundane, to horrific, to the best night in recent memory, all in the course of an hour or so. She bounced in her seat and squealed to herself. She couldn't wait to text her friend Sharon and tell her.

Oh hell. Why wait? She reached into her purse on the passenger seat and fumbled around looking for her iPhone. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flashing amber light on a large vehicle approaching. Instinctively, she slammed on her brakes, and the car's wheels locked up on the slick driveway. The car only skidded a foot, but it seemed to keep going and going. Melissa gripped the steering wheel, and shut her eyes, waiting for the passing snow plow to slice her car in half with its giant guillotine blade.

When the plow passed harmlessly by, she took a deep breath and sighed. She released her death-grip on the steering wheel, reached behind her shoulder, and pulled out her seatbelt. "OK. No more texting while driving. This time I mean it," she said to herself.

John stood on the front porch and watched in shock as Cameron stepped up behind him. Without turning to her, he said, "Damn, that was a close call."

Cameron tilted her head. "Yes. Damn."

A/N: I know I'm making Cameron out to be kind of an evil bi#(h, but despite being a Terminator, she's not all bad. Maybe badass, but not bad. :D So don't worry, she'll eventually get a chance to show she has a heart (or would that be a synthetic blood pump? LOL).