"I never really liked oranges."

xXx

My eyes snapped open. Heart pounding and goosebumps prickling my skin, a sudden, terrifying need to find a mirror overwhelmed me. Immediately, I scrambled out of bed and ran straight to the bathroom. I switched on the bright, fluorescent light and stared intensely and the reflection that stared back.

Deep, dark-wood hair glimmered quietly. Dark, amber-glass eyes searched madly all over the mirror, trying to find something—anything—that seemed off. It was a few minutes before I calmed down. I realized that I didn't even know what I was looking for anymore.

Splashing water on my face was enough to wake me up. I brushed my long, thick hair and tried to remember the dream I just had. There must've been another person in it, because I could recall a quiet, monotonous voice: "I never really liked oranges." Then there was something shiny and long, like a window. I laughed uncertainly. The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous the dream seemed to me.

But the one thing I did remember was that I had been scared. I had been very scared.

xXx

"Tomorrow in the library, for an hour. Only an hour," Natalya had said. No doubt, the girl had better things to do than discuss the means of our extremely important performance when we hardly had a day to prepare. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and everywhere, I saw signs of people getting ready. Students were running in and out of dorms, laughing and flinging paint at each other. Down one hallway, I heard someone playing a flute. Down another was the sound of pots and pans banging.

I traveled from the dorms to the parking lot where a friendly white van was waiting for me near the school curb. Checking my pocket to confirm that I didn't forget my wallet, I jogged up to the van and knocked on the passenger door.

"Hello, Tope," rumbled Ludwig.

"Good morning," I replied, climbing inside.

Ludwig started the engine and we pulled out of the school parking lot. I glanced at the mirror, just in case a psycho teacher decided to run at us with a handgun and start shooting. Fortunately, no one else was in the parking lot, and soon it was just Ludwig and I on the highway, making our way down to the mall. Last night's conversation came to mind:

"Ludwig! Are you doing anything tomorrow morning?"

"Um…no."

"So, you and Francis finished with your contest preparations and stuff?"

"We're putting things together tomorrow after lunch. Why are you asking me this?"

"Uhh, because I wanted to ask if you could please, please drive me to the mall tomorrow morning? I didn't get to buy any Christmas presents for you guys…"

"Uh…I—think I can take you." He had nodded. "Ja, I can."

"Awesome! What time can you take me?"

"Anytime after six."

"…that's pretty early. How about I meet you in the parking lot at…6:45?"

"Sure."

And so here we were, in the white van, driving at unspeakable speeds on the highway to the mall for Christmas presents.

"Do you have any money for yourself?" Ludwig asked, just as we pulled into the mall driveway.

"Yeah, I found some in my wallet. I also found a debit card. I hope there's money on that, too."

"Will it be enough? I'm sorry, but I won't be able to help you money-wise."

"It's okay, I have enough." I eyed the few hundred bills safely tucked in their pocket. "How do students get so much money?"

Ludwig directed the car to park in reverse. "The school gives allowances to students depending on their finals, which is why studying for the best grades is vital. You can also earn money by winning awards or working out of school."

"Interesting… Did Utopia work out of school?"

"Nein, she didn't have to. She always got perfect marks on her exams."

My spirits fell. "Oh, she did?"

"Ja. She was the top in everything."

I rolled my eyes. Little Miss Perfect.

xXx

Skimming down my mental list, I checked off the presents that I had bought so far. There was a bag of bowties and a package of angel hair for Felice; a manga artbook for Kiku; gift cards for McDonalds and a video game store for Al; a tin canister full of fresh tea for Arthur; books for Ludwig (including Math for Dummies to help him tutor Felice); rich chocolates for Francis; an adorable Hello Kitty pillow for Yao; a new red hoodie for Matthew; and as promised, a sunflower and a bottle of pure vodka for Ivan (Ludwig bought the alcohol, because he looked a lot older than me).

A couple of hours of roaming around, and I finally finished shopping. Ludwig was reading on a bench when I walked up to him, a decent amount of bags hanging from my arms.

"Hi!" I said. "I'm done."

Ludwig looked up and closed his book. Without a word, he took all the bags in my right hand and made a move to take the rest in my left, but I pulled away and shook my head.

"I can carry these. Thank you, Ludwig."

"You're welcome," he replied.

xXx

"You're late," came a venomous hiss.

Natalya was sitting in a chair, eyes narrowed, long nails tapping impatiently on the wooden library table.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was hardly five minutes past our pre-planned time, but I hesitated to point this out to her. Though we were far from being friends, she had agreed to cooperate—and I didn't want to jeopardize that cooperation.

"I'm sorry," I said, not offering any excuses because she would just brush them off anyways (wrapping the boys' presents took longer than I thought, and I still hadn't finished with Ivan's!). Taking a seat on the chair next to her, I handed her a piece of paper. "This is the script. You can change it however you want."

Natalya hardly even glanced at it. "It's corny."

"…okay then, what do you want to do to change it?"

"I don't want to do it at all."

A frustrated sigh escaped me. "Okay. Is the story itself alright? We can just change the script around."

"The story makes sense," she allowed. "But I don't see how this has anything to do with the holidays."

"It takes place during the holidays."

"It's too depressing for the holidays."

"The holidays aren't necessarily a time for joy. It's a time for family and friends, and togetherness."

"Where exactly in this skit is the concept of 'togetherness'?"

"At the very end." Natalya gave me a doubtful look. More determinedly, I said, "Look, this skit has drama, action, and talent. It's not your average Christmas story. I'm pretty sure that everyone else is gonna sing Christmas Carols or paint a pretty picture. What we're doing is…something different. We're telling a story that's raw and emotional and real. I guarantee that this'll get us first place."

This was when her eyes narrowed.

"My brother wants to get first place," she said pompously.

I wanted to shout, 'SO DO I!' But an outburst—no matter how well-deserved—wouldn't solve anything.

"What if," I said, giving it some thought, "you won and gave up your Council seat to your brother?"

She shook her head. "They do not allow methods like that."

"Then hope that he has a better performance than us. Don't you have enough faith in your brother? Or do you doubt his abilities to win?"

"I have complete faith in my brother," she said defensively. "It's the American that will make him lose.

"Alfred is perfectly capable of putting in his fair share of the work—"

"He is dimwitted and fat."

"He's energetic and smarter than you think!"

"SHHH!" someone hushed from downstairs. Their voice broke us out of our private argument. I realized how long we had been there, just glaring at each other and not working on our skit.

"Fine," I finally huffed. "Alfred's stupid, and your brother will lose."

"He will not!" Natalya hissed.

"Then what's to worry about?" I demanded. For once, the girl hesitated. I pounced right on her. "He could win, or he could lose. Will it matter either way? If we win and you take a seat on the Council or whatevers, then your brother can make all the decisions through you! Then you and Ivan can spend all the time you want together, planning out the future of the universe. You can be your brother's little puppet for as long as you want." She and I looked at each other in the eye. "I don't care what you do after with the Council or your brother, but I will not let you just quit on our performance."

I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat, waiting for Natalya to respond. Her icy eyes dared me to blink first, but I was determined to win this. She didn't say anything for the longest time, until…

"Fine," she said. "But we don't use your script. My sister will provide background music, and it will be a skit without words."

My mouth curved into a smile before I could stop it. "Thank you," I grinned.

Natalya ignored that. She picked up the script and scanned the list of props.

"…I won't be cleaning up the stage after we're done."

"Fair enough."

xXx

After finalizing the details with Natalya, I headed straight to my room to wrap Christmas presents. Music from my speakers filled my room as soon as I walked in. Singing along, uncaring whether anyone could hear so long as I could relieve some left over stress, I journeyed all around the room in search of supplies that would help me in wrapping presents.

Lost in the music and hands busy, I didn't hear the visitor at my door until there was a loud, thunderous pounding.

I quickly hid the presents in the bathroom and turned down the music.

Alfred was at the door, and he looked exasperated.

"I was knocking forever!" he complained. "Come on! We're late for dinner!"

Behind him, Kiku was blushing in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, that he was hitting your door so hard, Tope-san," he apologized immediately. "But there will be an announcement in the dining hall soon."

I gave them both a sheepish grin, saying, "Sorry, I had my music on," while running back inside to grab a jacket for the cold. I locked the door behind me and we hurried to the dining hall.

We were just in time, too, because as soon as we raced to the top of the stairs, the TV by the couches had just switched from the school's logo to a view of Headmaster Rome.

"Good-a evening!" he greeted cheerily. "I hope that everyone is ready for Christmas Eve tomorrow! I have a list of-a times when we will be judging your entries. From 3:30 P.M. to 4 P.M., we'll be judging all paintings, drawings, sculptures, and visual art in the auditorium. From 4 to 5, it's spoken word, stories, poems, and videos. After that, we'll have our live performances—singing, dancing, music, and skits.

"To save time and judge as quickly as possible, please have your preparations in the auditorium an hour before you perform or take a seat." The Headmaster winked. "I hope-a that you all enjoy tomorrow's competition! Good luck to you all! Buona notte!"

With that, the old man signed off and the TV switched back to its regular channel.

xXx

A/N - Hallo, again. Just a quick note to my FF readers:

I'm actually a Quizilla user, and I'm known for notoriously long updates. xD Well, kinda. Please don't expect quick updates. :) Also, if there's something wrong/bad with the formatting then please contact me! That is all. Thank you for reading, everyone~! :)))