I’m really excited today. We’ll going to have our class Christmas party and as planned we already have our gift on the table at the center. Pie’s house has a really huge backyard. Chairs are set up around a two long tables on both sides of the center table. Light are a little bit dim perfect for the sound from the big stereo in front. For our gifts, we agreed that we’ll do it in a kris kringle style wherein we will put our codenames in a piece of paper, put it in a jar. It’s like a raffle; everyone will draw a name in it and then they will give their gifts to that person (I’m sorry I’m having a hard time to describe it.) The best part is you don’t know who that person is and you can’t tell anyone your codename. So I bought a gift for Ms. Hazelnut eyes (her codename), it’s a medium sized teddy lavender teddy bear with a lavender ribbon around its neck. I put it in a box and wrote a simple note for the person, it says “Ms. Hazelnut eyes, you can hug me whenever you need a friend – Yuki (the name of the teddy bear)”.

               We started our party; everyone is eating and chatting with each other. I’m sitting on the table at the right with Tyrone on my left and Jane on my right. Unfortunately, Pie is sitting at the other table. She’s sitting between Van and Mark while Mean is sitting in front of her. They’re laughing and chatting. “Hey dude. Stop staring and start eating.” Tyrone whispered to my ear. I looked at him and saw that teasing smile and wiggling eyebrows. Sigh. I already told him about what I feel towards Pie. I needed someone to talk to about this feeling. And I think he’s the best person to talk to right now and besides he had a lot of relationships with girls in high school.  I made him promise not to tell anyone as long as I can help him with Jane. This guy is really crazy about Jane. Well, she’s pretty, tall and bubbly, you will not get bored when she’s around. Any man would love to date her.

Meena, a quiet type girl, was assigned to be the game master. We wanted to hear her voice tonight so we asked her to think of any games. After eating, she walked to the front and grabs the mic. “Okay. Good evening guys and girls. We will start our games now to lose those calories. First we have trip to Jerusalem. In this game we will have a twist, 13 people sitting in 12 chairs while the other 13 people will try to sit on the lap of the person sitting on the chair. Whoever left standing lose. And to be fair, I’m going to draw your name in the jar that I have prepared earlier. So the human chair and the person who will be sitting on his/her lap can be a boy or a girl” “Wow! This is going to be fun” I heard Tyrone saying it while rubbing his hands together. And so Meena started pulling out names in the jar, the first batch of names are the people standing. Jane and Mean was called first. Jane runs toward the front. She’s really excited. As soon as Pie’s name was called to play, I felt an elbow hit my waist. “Dude, I wish you get picked, your Princess needs a prince there.” Tyrone whispered to me again. “C’mon man I know you want to play more than me” I whispered to him too and tapped his back. I don’t know if telling him was a right decision. Sigh. Meena now is calling out names for the person sitting on the chairs. Mark and Van was picked and then 10 other names. “And for the last person, drum roll please” Meena said while holding a piece of paper on her hand. I looked around and checked the on the faces of my classmates, some are looking excited and some are just staring at Meena hoping they won’t get picked. To be honest, I don’t want Pie sitting on the boy’s lap but I don’t want to play the game too. I turned my head to the front when I heard Meena call out my name. I was still looking at Meena when Tyrone patted my back. He gave me that you’re very lucky look. I can’t believe this. Tyrone’s wish was heard. I stood up and walked in front. They set 12 chairs in a circle and we will be moving around the chairs. Human chairs will be rotating clockwise and closer to the chair while the other group of person will be rotating counter clockwise and will be 1 meter away from us. Once the music stop we have to find a chair and the other group should sit on us.

The music started to play and we moved around the chair. “Everyone should dance” Meena shouted at us. The other’s started dancing crazily and the rest just clapped their hands. Me? I just clapped my hands, while focusing on the chairs. Then suddenly the music stopped, I hurriedly sat on a chair and then when felt someone sat on my lap. Don’t get your hopes up guys it’s not Pie. I looked at the person and it was Mean. She was laughing loud. I looked around and saw Pie sat on Monica’s lap. Yes! It wasn’t a guy. Mark and Jane were left standing. Jane put her hand on her waist and looked at me while moving her head from left to right. She went back to her seat and Tyrone sat beside her. I looked at Tyrone sat on my seat and started talking to Jane. Meena pulled out one chair. 11 Chairs are now left.

The music started playing again until only four of us, (Pie, Mean, Van and I), are left standing. The only chair left was moved away from us. So I guess we have to run towards it. Good thing I’m always late in class, I can now run fast. The music started playing and we started moving. Van and Mean are dancing together. I just clapped my hands while Pie was moving every single part of her body to the music. Gosh. She’s really a good dancer and really hot. Wait what am I thinking? I turned my gaze to the chair in front of us when suddenly the music stopped. I run towards the chair as fast as I can. I sat on the chair when suddenly someone sat on my lap and arms tightly wrapped around my neck. I wrapped around her waist to keep her from falling. I looked back at where we were standing before and saw Van and Mean standing still, looks like they were caught off guard. Wait. Van and Mean are standing there, which means. I nervously looked at the person on my lap and it was Pie. She was still laughing at Van and Mean. She’s really slim. I can’t believe this. I’m holding Pie right now. I blinked my eyes trying to regain myself. I can feel a smile form on the face.

“Hahahahaha! We have a winner.” Meena shouted while holding two gift certificates from Starbucks. Pie looked at me, our face are really close. I can feel my heart beat insanely again. I wished Pie can’t feel my heart pumping so fast. She’s really a breath taker. This is the second time I looked at her really close. She smiled at me and now I can’t breathe. Oh my God! “Hey. Are you alright? You stopped breathing.” I heard her say. “I….. uhm…..I…… I’m fine” I managed to say stuttering.  She laughed and stood up. I almost die. Seriously. This girl could kill me. I can’t believe her effect on me. I released a big breath and stood up.

Meena gave us the gift certificates. We walked side by side towards Tyrone and Jane. “We should go to Starbucks together” she said looking at me smiling. I nodded my head in agreement. Tyrone stood up and dragged me at the corner. “Dude you’re really lucky. Congratulations.” he said to me while offering his hand for a handshake. I grabbed his hand and shook it. “Thanks dude. But I just wish Pie didn’t notice me back there.” I told him Pie’s effect on me while Meena is continued with the games.

“Dude, you’re a worst case scenario.” he said to me while laughing really hard. “Dude, what should I do.” I grabbed his shoulder to turn his attention back to me. He put his arm around my shoulder and whispered to me “Don’t worry Kim. You know what you might have not noticed this but she actually asked you out.” I looked at him in confusion. “Pie said you should go to Starbucks together” he added. “What?! You’re crazy she just don’t want to go alone I guess.” I removed his hand around my shoulder. “Okay. Believe whatever you like but for me I think she just asked you for a date” he said while giving me that teasing smile again. “Let’s stop this okay. Let’s go back to our seats”. Tyrone and his crazy conclusion.

We went back to our seats just in time for the exchange gift. Pie is standing in front holding the microphone “Okay so we’re going to give our presents. And this is how we’re going to do it. One by one, we will call the codename of the person we picked and whoever that is will stand up or raise your hand. Before giving your gift, you have to ask them truth or dare. If the person picks truth you can ask him/her one question. If the person picks dare, he/she will pick a piece of paper in our dare jar. The paper will have the dares that you have to do. Once they’ve answered your question or finished with their task, you can give him/her your gift. Then the person who received their gift will shout out the codename of the person he/she picked and ask truth of dare. Then, it’s the same rules. Everyone wants a gift right so answer or finish your dare guys. Let’s begin. I have a gift for Minnie Mouse.” I looked around and saw Jane raise her hand. Pie asked her truth of dare and she answered dare. Everyone was cheering for her. “Okay. Jane here’s what you need to do you have to run around the center table five times while raising both of your hands in the air” Pie said. Jane did as what she was told. It was funny seeing her running around on her 2 inches heels and dress. I bet that was tiring. After her last lap around the table, she excitedly walked towards Pie. Pie gave her a small box tied with a pink ribbon and the mic. “Phew! That was easy. Okay so I have a gift for Kill Joy.” I looked at in front and raised my hand. (I know it’s a lame codename but I don’t want to have a gift that I don’t like so I used a very obvious codename. Kill Joy stands for KJ, my initials.) “Truth or dare?” Jane asked me. I really don’t know what to pick. “Dare! Dare!” everyone shouting. “Okay I pick dare”. Jane grabbed a paper in the jar and read it “Sing in front of everyone”. Wait. What? I looked at Pie whose walking towards me. She smiled and gave me a guitar. I bet she wrote that for me. Well thanks to her smile, I got my courage. I went to the front, fix the mic on the stand and plug the guitar to the amplifier. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I gaze around everybody and stopped at Pie. “This song is for you” I said staring at her then I started plucking the strings of the guitar and started singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAqc2I529RM (you can listen to this. Credits to the owner of the video)

I can’t take my eyes off of Pie. As I sing the song I feel like we are the only one here. I can’t let everyone notice that I’m staring at her, so I closed my eyes instead. After the last strum to the guitar, everyone clapped their hands. “Whooooooooohooooooo!” I heard someone scream. “Bravo!” another one shouted. I opened my eyes to see Pie and looked at everyone. I smiled at Jane whose walking towards me. She handed me my gift and I thanked her. “Thank you everyone. I hope your ears are not bleeding. Hahahahahaha. Okay so I have a gift for Ms. Hazelnut eyes.” I said as I moved my eyes around the crowd looking for a hand lifted up. I stopped when I saw a hand raised at the back. As the hand moves in front of the crowd, my eyes grew bigger. It’s….