Okay, so this one is for new years. It's kind of like my St. Patrick's Day one in the sense that they are in college and there may be a party involved. Chloe and Derek are not dating yet. This is not a continuation of my other one. They still go to the same college, but their relationship is different.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Darkest Powers

"What do you think about advanced journalism?" Rae asked.

"As what?" I asked, looking up from magazine I was reading.

"As a class," Rae said. "I still need one more next semester and I was thinking of taking it."

"You said you had already picked out your classes," I said.

"I did. I just decided against them all after," she said.

I shook my head and looked back down. Even though we were on break, I stayed on campus instead of going home. Dad was on business and I didn't want to deal with Aunt Lauren's constant worrying about my 'social' life. Rae and Liz had gone home over Christmas but Rae had returned early. Apparently her home life wasn't as welcoming either. She spent the entire day that she arrived complaining about her mother. I was starting to get a little frazzled with all her complaining, but I only had to wait until tomorrow when Liz got back and she could complain to her.

I flipped a page and settled back on my elbows. We were currently passing the time in my dorm room being completely lazy. Rae was lying on the floor with a highlighter and a list of classes. Every so often, she'd highlight something, only to scribble it out with a pen afterwards. I was lying on my bed with a magazine that I couldn't care less for. It was some fashion magazine that Rae had forced on me. I think she was hoping I would take a hint, but I resisted. Next to Aunt Lauren, Rae was the worst when it came to my dating, or lack of. She kept trying to set me up with guys. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't mind having a boyfriend, but I didn't see the need to spend every minute trying to get one.

"I need a break," Rae said, tossing her papers aside. "Hand me the magazine. I want to see if we can find anything to dress you in."

"I'm not a Barbie doll, Rae," I said.

"Of course not," she said, flipping through the pages, "You're nowhere near her cup size."

"Rae!" I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"What?" she asked, innocently. "It's a good thing. Can you imagine walking around with those things? You'd be falling over."

I had to laugh at that and I got out of bed to plop down next to her. I spent the next hour saying no to everything she said. She wanted to 'hotenize' me for the party coming up. I tried to convince her to spend her attention on her own outfit, but she refused. She already had a date and apparently it was very unlikely that I would get one between now and Thursday, today being Monday. According to Rae, the only chance I would have at being kissed at midnight was finding a guy that was already at the party, not that I wanted to be kissed. Having some random guy try and shove his tongue in my mouth was not my idea of a good time.

The door burst open and Liz walked in, saying "Au revoir."

"Au revoir is goodbye," I said.

"Oh," she said. She thought for a moment before saying, "Anti-au revoir."

"Hi, Liz," Rae and I said at the same time.

"You're early," I said.

"Flight screw up," she said. She plopped down on my back and leaned over my head, "What are we looking at?"

"My soon to be sore back," I said.

She looked confused and looked down at my back, "Did you fall?"

Rae and I exchanged a look and we rolled our eyes.

"We're trying to pick something for Chloe for the party," Rae said.

"Correction," I said, "Rae is trying to pick something. I would be happy in jeans."

"I was thinking a mini," Rae said.

"It's almost January," I argued.

"You're going to be inside, duh," she said. Then she looked at me with a devious smile and said, "Unless of course you want some alone time with a guy."

"One, I don't even have a guy. And two, no way in hell," I said, counting with my fingers.

"You could be my date," Liz said, leaning over so that her face was in mine.

"Okay," I said.

"No," Rae said. "This is a new year's eve party. There will be kissing. And possibly groping."

"You will be the only one groping," I said.

"Will not," she said. "Brady will be doing just as much."

"Ew," I said. "Change of subject please."

"How about change of location?" Rae asked.

"If you're planning on taking me shopping you can stop right there," I said.

An hour later, I was in a dressing room trying to squeeze into a skirt that seemed to be made for a stick. I gave up after hearing a faint rip and silently set them down, hoping nobody else heard that. I wasn't fat. I was actually just over the minimum weight for someone of my height. However, Rae was always trying to get me into clothes that were too small, hoping it my show off my entire lack of curves. Even at nineteen, I had the body of a twelve year old. I was starting to come to terms with that fact, but apparently Rae hadn't.

"Not this one," I said, holding it over the door. It was soon plucked from my fingers and another set of clothes came flying over, causing me to duck and cover. I love Rae, I really do, but she needs to learn the art of subtlety. I picked up one of the article of clothes and saw that it was a black dress that I might actually wear in public. I slipped it on and looked in the mirror. Wow. It actually made me look my age. It was also pretty modest compared to what Rae usually wanted me to wear. It didn't show off too much of my nonexistent cleavage and it didn't go any higher than my knees. I could live without the entire lack of sleeves for almost January, but I could always wear something over it.

"I like that black one," I called. The door burst open and Rae was standing there looking me up and down. I couldn't help but notice the other customers giving us strange looks. I took in Rae's expression and knew this wasn't the one that she thought I was talking about.

"Liz picked that one," she said. I looked over Rae's shoulder to see Liz giving me two thumbs up and I gave her an appreciative smile back.

"I'm gonna go with it," I said, starting to walk back into the dressing room so that I could change out of it.

"How are you supposed to get a guy in that?" Rae asked. "It hides too much."

"I don't have anything to hide," I protested.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms. "Go change. I'm hungry anyway."

I quickly changed into my own clothes and bought the dress. It was more than I wanted to pay for a dress, but it was either that or go with one of Rae's choices. No thank you. After purchasing the dress, we made our way to the food court. Just as we were passing the arcade, Rae stopped dead in her tracks and I ran into her. I expected her to snap at me or something, but her eyes were focused on something inside the arcade. I followed her eyes and saw a group of people surrounding the pinball machine. It was a bunch a college students, only a few that I actually knew. They were mostly girls, but there were two guys there too. In the middle of all the girls was Simon Bae, obviously impressing them with his 'skill.' The sight of the other guy made my breathing a little harder. It was Simon's brother, Derek Souza. Not the most sociable guy in the world, Derek mostly kept to himself when he could which made it hard to make conversation with him, not that I had the courage to do that. I had a class with him my freshman year and that had sparked an interest, not that I told anybody. Over the summer, that spark sort of burned out. However, upon seeing him in my intimate relations class last semester, there was definitely re-sparkage. I only said a few words to him and beyond those brief encounters, I doubted that he knew I existed.

"I wonder if Simon has a date," Rae said, mostly to herself.

"Sure looks like he has a lot of dates," Liz observed.

"Which is why we should keep going," I said, pushing Rae forward a little. She pushed my hand away and starting walking into the arcade. I groaned and followed, keeping my head down.

"Hi Simon," Rae said, pushing her way through to stand next to him. Liz and I stayed on the outside.

"Hold on," he said, not looking up from his game. "I'm close to beating my high score."

Watching him play, I began to wonder if he was in fact trying to impress the girls. He seemed really into the game. He was probably already playing when the girls walked in and gathered around him. I glanced over at Derek, who was leaning against the wall successfully looking bored and glaring at the girl next to him at the same time. She continued to pester him and it wasn't hard to see why. Simon was considered the hot one, but there was something about Derek that went beyond that. Simon was college boy hot, but Derek…he seemed to have a maturity about him. His thick black hair was cut about halfway between his hairline and his eyes. His strong jaw was set. And an obvious different between Simon and Derek was Derek's abundance of muscles. He didn't openly flaunt them, but he didn't hide them either. Today he chose a t-shirt which was just tight enough to give a hint at what was beneath it. With his arms crossed and his biceps in full view, it was hard not to drool.

"Yes!" Simon said, his arms shooting up in victory. The machine flashed and chimed with him.

"Done now?" Derek asked, his voice laced with boredom.

"Yup," Simon said, grabbing his jacket off a nearby machine and turning around. He stopped, though, when he saw the group of girls behind him. Based on the utter look of surprise on his face, he obviously wasn't playing to impress anybody. He carefully maneuvered around everybody in an attempt to get out. Derek didn't even try. He just kept walking and they moved out of his way. Simon stopped at Rae and said, "You wanted something?"

"Yes, actually," she said. "I wanted to know if you had a date to the party on Thursday."

"The new year's thing?" he said. "I wasn't actually planning on going to that."

"What?" Liz burst out. We all turned to her and if I thought my blushes were bad, she just beat me, no question. Laughing nervously, she took a step over and hid behind me as much as she could.

"What my friend meant to say," Rae said. "Was why not?"

"Didn't seem like much fun," he said. "Most people are home for the holidays, so there wouldn't be that many people."

"So?" she asked, her hands on her hips, "There'll be beer, music, a countdown, what else do you need?"

He grinned and said, "Well, if you put it that way."

He craned his neck and said, "You up for it, bro?"

Derek grunted an answer which apparently meant yes. Simon turned back around and said to Rae, "Aren't you dating Brady Hirsch?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Then why did you ask me if I had a date?"

"Well, I have a date," she said. She turned to me and Liz and I had a bad feeling. "But my friends here do not."

"Rae!" I said. "I never agreed to you trying to set me up with someone."

"Well, somebody has to and you obviously aren't going to do it," her hands back to her hips, defiance evident in her stance.

"I don't need a date," I argued.

"You'll have more fun if you have one," she said.

"Okay, ladies," Simon said. "I'm sensing a conflict of interests here and I think I have a solution."

We looked at him and he said, "Liz. Want to go to the party with me?"

Her eyes went wide and she looked to me to see what she should do. I gave her an encouraging nod and looking anywhere but Simon's face, she said, "Okay."

"Problem solved," Simon said, smiling. "I'll see you ladies later."

He walked past us, Derek right behind him. When Derek walked past me, I stole a glance up and our eyes met briefly. I quickly looking away and was worried that I was blushing. I looked over at Rae and she didn't look too pleased with me.

"What?" I asked. "He was the one who asked Liz."

"I'm getting you a date," she said, walking past us towards the food court.

"Something tells me this isn't over," I said. I looked over at Liz, who was playing with her hair and looking off into space.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Hmm?" she said, looking over at me. "What?"

"I asked if you were okay," I explained.

"Of course I am," she said. She bit her lip and looked like she wanted to say something.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this," I apologized.

"It's not that," she said. "It's about Derek."

I straightened and said, "What about Derek?"

"I think he likes you," she said.

"Because he looked at me?" I said. "That doesn't mean he likes me. I was probably just in his way."

"He's looked at you before," she said. "Last semester in class. He sat two rows behind us. Remember all those times I was late and you couldn't save me a seat next to you? Well, I sat in the row behind Derek and he watched you a lot. And he had this look on his face. I think he likes you."

Not wanting to get my hopes up, I said, "It was probably nothing."

She sighed and nodded. "Come on. Rae is probably already eating."

I followed her out and thought about what she had told me. He watched me?

…,,,…

"You know, we should really do something about your hair," Rae said, taking a step back to study me. "I could curl it."

"You might as well not even bother," I said. "It won't stay that way. My hair never stays curled long."

"Oh well, it's not there's anyone to appreciate it," she said, turning away. I just sighed and looked in the mirror. She still wasn't happy with me about what happened at the arcade. I looked at myself and saw that I didn't look half bad. Liz did my makeup, meaning I didn't have much on, just enough to bring out my eyes a little more. She was currently sitting on my bed, fiddling with her hair again. I knew that she was nervous. It was hard to get a date with Simon and I'm sure she was worried about his expectations.

"Okay people, time to party," Rae said, waving us to the door. I grabbed my keys and phone and left with them. It didn't take long to get there. Walking in, I was glad that I didn't bring something to wear over my dress. It was like stepping into a sauna. And based on the sweat pouring off of some people, it was only going to get worse.

We found Brady standing with his friends and Rae asked, "Why is it so hot?"

"There's something wrong with the furnace," he explained.

"Well, shouldn't somebody open the windows?" she asked.

"Babe, they are," he said, pointing to a set of windows which were wide open.

"I'm going to go find Simon," Liz said, "What to come with?"

"Sure," I said, following her. I had to dodge a few people who were so drunk that they were falling over. I could already tell that I wasn't going to enjoy myself. It was too hot, the music was up way too loud, and almost everybody here was drunk off their gourds.

"There he is," Liz said, pointing. I looked over and saw him talking to Peter, a guy that was in my government class.

"Hey Simon," she said when we finally got to him. He looked at her and smiled, "Hey yourself. You look great."

She blushed and looked down. He looked at me and said, "You look great, too. And I'm not just saying that to be polite."

I smiled and said, "Thanks."

"Want to dance?" Simon asked Liz.

"Okay," she said timidly. She looked at me and I said, "Go ahead."

I watched them walk over to an empty spot and start dancing. Looking around, I found an empty seat and I seat and I sat down. Just another hour until midnight and then Rae will let me leave. I spent the next half hour watching everybody, from Simon and Liz dancing to something that I would have liked to keep to the imagination, which was Rae and Brady groping each other in the corner. I was asked a few times to dance, but I refused. After another ten minutes, I couldn't take the heat anymore and found an open door to outside. Walking out, I instantly felt a chill and I welcomed it. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes, breathing in the cold air.

"Heat stroke?" a voice asked.

I gasped and pivoted to see Derek sitting in a chair, his legs propped up on a bunch of stacked crates. I took deep breaths, trying to get my heart rate back to normal.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked.

"It was too hot in there," he said. "I'm just waiting until I can slip out without Simon noticing."

"Ditto," I said, "Except I have a Rae where you have a Simon."

He looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. Realizing how stupid I sounded, I blushed and looked away.

"It's cold out," I said, making small talk.

"Then why not go back inside?" he asked.

"It's too hot in there," I said, echoing his earlier words. "Anyway, I don't really mind the cold. A nice change."

He nodded, but didn't say anything. The next few minutes were filled with awkward silence. A sudden wind picked up and I rubbed my bare arms. I heard Derek get up and a second later, I felt something warm around my shoulders. I looked back and saw Derek putting his jacket on my shoulders, protecting me from the cold.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'm good," he said.

"Thank you," I said, pulling it closer around me.

"Ever find a date?" he asked out of nowhere.

I looked up at him and said, "No, why?"

"Just thought the Rae would have asked every guy she could find in order to get you one," he said.

"She basically did," I said. "But they were either already going with someone or not interested. Not that I mind, though. I like going by myself."

"Why?" he asked.

"If I go with someone, I'm obligated to spent time with him, you know, dance and stuff, and I don't want to be obligated," I said.

"Makes sense," he said.

"Why don't you have a date," I asked.

"Didn't ask anyone," he said.

"You don't like someone?" I asked.

"Sure I do," he said, looking down at me. "But I'm not about to announce that I like her in order to get a date to a stupid party."

"Well the stupid party could just be the beginning," I suggested. "You could go on an actual date later on."

"I could," he said, looking off into the night. There was a commotion inside and we looked to see what it was. "Guess it's time."

"Want to count down?" I asked.

"Sure," he said.

Together we started.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two

One

On one, Derek leaned down and I didn't know what he was about until I felt his lips press firmly to mine. I sharply sucked in a breath and raised my cold fingers to his neck, pulling him down farther. He obliged and answered by grabbing my waist, pulling me to him. My arms traveled the rest of the way up and around his neck, completing our link. I had spent countless nights imagining what it would feel like to kiss the mystery that is Derek Souza, and now that it was happening, I realized how off I was. I had imagined that it would feel great, but it was amazing. Pressed against him, I finally felt how muscular he actually was, his strong arms wrapped securely around me. And he was warm. Really warm. The exact comfortable warmth that I never wanted to leave, like a warm bed on a frosty morning. And his lips. Oh, his lips. Those wonderful, soft, enticing lips. If only I could forever feel those lips against mine.

We both pulled away at the same time, each needing to restock our oxygen. He didn't let me go, though, and I didn't pull away. I pulled my arms down so that my cold fingers could rest against his warm chest. I leaned my head against that same chest and inhaled deeply, breathing in the smell of him, which smelled oddly like cinnamon. He rested his head on mine and took deep breaths.

"Good party," I said.

His rumbling laughter vibrated his chest and I smiled. I felt his breath on my ear and he said, "So, about that date later on."

I pulled away slightly and looked up at his face. "What date?"

"Well, you said the stupid party could just be the beginning and that there could be a date later on," he said.

"I was talking about the girl you liked," I said.

He gave me a look and I finally got his meaning. Grinning stupidly, I pressed my face into his chest and started giggling uncontrollably.

"The date?" he asked.

"I'm free tomorrow," I said.

"It is tomorrow," he pointed out.

"Well then, how about breakfast?" I asked.

"It's 12:15 in the morning," he said.

"They have twenty-four hour places," I said.

"Alright, breakfast it is," he said.

"Good, cause I'm in the mood for pancakes," I said. He laughed and kissed me again.

And…done. Well, here it is, 25 days late. Hopefully you guys are catching on to my updating pattern. The next holiday one-shot will skip ahead to July. It'll be more American themed. They will be little kids. And I'd just like to point out that the Barbie conversation actually happened to me. My family has the weirdest discussions at Christmas, from the horrible back pain Barbie must have to the world record for weight lifting using the vaginal muscles…like I said, weird.