Do not open until Ahtnamas.

Big ribbons decorated the small coffee shop that was Casa Nova's. An Ahtnamas tree was stuck in the corner, flashing purple and orange lights wrapped around it, weaving in between bulbs of various colors and shapes. Most of the tables had been cleared out of the room, leaving plenty of space in the center for dancing.

The walls were decorated with paper snowflakes and tinsel. The whole place was very warm feeling, the fireplace was working on over time and casting dancing shadows on the opposite wall. Presents adorned the few tables that were left, along with different types of snacks and several flavours of punch.

Places all over Dahlin were having big Ahtnamas parties, celebrating the new year and new life, but the one at Casa Nova's was always the best. Each year the Overloridians got together and threw a party for everyone. Usually the groups of Eilemaiden came at different times, Aite clio first as to make sure they were home before dark, then the Earalas clio who lived the furthest away, followed by the rest of the Eilemaiden each at their own separate times, but this year was going to be different.

Over the past few months clio in Amelia had gotten friendlier, and while this was still a mystery to most clio the Overloridians had decided it was time for a change. This year there were no time limits for anyone, this year all of the clio, even the ones from different Eilemaiden, were going to party together.

It was nice of the manager to allow Lumi and Rowan to come to Casa Nova's for the Ahtnamas party. They were given a strict warning not to cause any trouble, but otherwise were allowed in without incident.

After leaving his present for his secret santa person on a table, several minutes had passed. Rowan stood near the refreshments table, stalling. He knew he needed to apologize to Lesley, but he was taking his sweet time in preparing himself mentally. It’s not as easy as one would think to apologize to someone for breaking their nose.

“ROWAN!” an obnoxiously loud voice called. Rowan looked over to see Lumi, who looked like she was enjoying herself a little too much, making her way over to him. She stopped in front of him and glared at him suspiciously, as if she had just caught him reaching his hand into the cookie jar. “You’re not GETTING DRUNK, are you!?” she demanded.

It would have been nice if she hadn’t said that for the whole frikkin party to hear. “No, Lumi, I’m not drinking,” he said in a low voice, annoyed.

“GOOD,” Lumi declared.

“You actually seem a little drunk yourself,” Rowan observed, nodding at her.

“Maybe a little,” she agreed. Her eyes suddenly widened. “But I’M allowed to, Rowan! I’m allowed to cuz I’m not an ALCOHOLIC like--”

“Will you keep your voice down!” Rowan hissed, looking around to see if anyone had heard that.

“Sorr’,” Lumi slurred. She lowered her voice dramatically in compliance. “But sersley. Stay away from the brandy eggnog.” As an afterthought, she added, “Which is delicious, by the way.”

“Good to know,” Rowan replied dryly. “Don’t you have someone else to bother?”

Lumi gasped. “YOU’RE RIGHT!” she exclaimed upon realization. She ran off. Rowan watched her warily as she almost crashed into some clio, calling; “Quinn! HEY QUINN! YEAH, I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!”

Rowan rolled his eyes and turned his thoughts back to Lesley. He supposed it was now or never, and made his way through the crowds, searching for the clio in question and praying to whoever the clios worship that he would not find him sucking Charlie’s face.

“Quinn! HEY QUINN! YEAH, I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!” Lumi yelled after checking on Rowan. She had only had three cups of brandy eggnog, but it was enough to get her loopy and obnoxious. Low tolerance, she had.

Her mission right now was to find Quinn. He had been getting away with murder for FAR too long and Lumi was finally gonna put a stop to it! Or, uh, something.

She approached Quinn, not noticing Cray. "Heyyyyyyyy," she greeted, petting his arm. "How's my FAVORITE killer doing? Good? I hope you're having a merry...Ahtnamas!" She laughed.

Quinn and Cray had arrived at the party together. He was glad that he was able to get her to come, she needed to get her mind off of things. It was rather annoying anyways because all she ever talked about now was Triston. Quinn wanted to say, "Triston is dead, lets talk about me." but he could never bring himself to do it.

Quinn saw a pile of other secret santa presents, so he left his there too. He hoped ______ would like what he got. After greeting some of his own clio, and a few others that he knew, he returned back to a mopey Cray. God, what's so wrong with me? I'm totally better looking then that guy!

"Maybe I shouldn't have come," Cray said, miserably.

"No, no, no! It'll be fun soon enough!" Quinn replied, hoping it really would.

He was about to say more when he heard that same familar voice he seemed to have been hearing EVERYWHERE.

“Quinn! HEY QUINN! YEAH, I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!”

The voice bellowed. Quinn sighed and said, "Hello, Lumi."

She appeard to be a little drunk. Maybe her bothering me wont be so bad after all, he thought.

Once she aproached, she petted his arm, screaming, "hey" loudly into his ear.

"How's my FAVORITE killer doing? Good? I hope you're having a marry...Ahtnamas!"

"Yes, I am doing good, Miss Lumi, but it would be nice for once that you didn't accuse me of something I would never do," he stole a quick glance at Cray, worried.

I can't believe I'm here, doing this, Cray thought, as she watched Quinn retreat to the pile of other secret santa presents.

Quinn's right though Cray, Gaston told her, You do need to get your mind off of things.

Whatever.

Once Quinn returned back, Cray said to him miserably, "Maybe I shouldn't of come."

Quinn replied back, saying that it would be fun soon enough.

I wish I could believe that, she thought.

Suddenly, a loud voice started calling out to Quinn from out of nowhere. Cray looked and saw that it was Lumi. She watched her pat Quinn's arm, then say,

"How's my FAVORITE killer doing? Good? I hope you're having a marry...Ahtnamas!"

Quinn replied back with a,

"Yes, I am doing good, Miss Lumi, but it would be nice for once that you didn't accuse me of something I would never do,"

Why does this girl think Quinn killed Triston? She already has the real killer, Cray thought, a little annoyed.

"Yes, I am doing good, Miss Lumi, but it would be nice for once that you didn't accuse me of something I would never do,"

"Oh yes, yes, of course you would never do that," Lumi replied, but then winked in an overly obvious way. She reached up (he was tall!) and pinched his cheeks patronizingly. "Your denial is just soooo cute."

She giggled. Silly Quinn and his silly murderous denial. Silly Cray and her silly ignorance. Silly Lumi and her silly drunkness.

Quinn laughed, This really IS going to be a fun night.

He pinched her cheeks back saying, "Did anybody ever tell you how amusing you are drunk?"

Cray took Quinns hand, squeezed it, and went to talk to a few of her Dian friends that were calling for her, Quinn nodded and watched her walk away.

"BYE CRAY!" Lumi practically screamed as Cray left. Poor girl. Poor sad girl. She turned back to Quinn. "Me? Amusing?" she laughed. "No, for some reason, everyone says I'm really annoying when I'm drunk!" She laughed again as if that were the craziest thing she'd ever heard.

"SO what did you get for Ahtnamas?" she asked. She pointed to a pretty silver necklace she was wearing. "I got this from Rowan. Isn't it pretty? And I got a new pair of boots with stiletto heels, but I'm not wearing 'em now, from my other friend." She looked at him. "So what about you, Mr. Killer? What did you get?"

She petted his arm again.

"Well," Quinn began, "I got a nice wool scarf from Cray, a ring from an anonymous Dian that they made, and a few of my clio's from Ughdarras brought me food."

Quinn was glad that she wasn't asking him questions like, "Why did you kill Triston?" He was getting rather sick of those.

"A wool scarf from one's own beloved! How SWEET," Lumi gushed, moving on from petting his arm and instead stroking his chest absent-mindedly. She played with the zipper on his jacket. "Did you feel GUILTY accepting a loving gift from her? Huh? Didja? Didja? Huh? Huh?" She poked him.

She sure did love the holidays.

Rose looked around nervously .She was so bad when it came to paries.It was obviously because she was clmsy as you could get.She had all the band aids to prove it.She looked around "Pretty!" she said admiring the glittering decorations.She had liked them alot in fact.

Jezabell who padded in after her nudged her in the back."Look its your friend" he growled amused '

Rose looked over to see Quinn and smiled.He was with another girl who seemed to know him well.She smiled and walked over then said "Hey Quinn...Hey Rhiannon " she scrunched the end of her long jacket .

Alecis walked into the party, her Secret Santa gift wrapped in gold ribbon tucked into her arms, plus a few others for other clio. It was frigid outside, the snow was really picking up, and she was bundled from head to toe.

After setting the presents down on the appropriate tables she started to take off the many layers she had worn for her trip to the coffee shop. She stowed them in her side bag and stashed it behind the counter so no one would feel the need to go through it.

Looking around, Alecis saw a few clio she recognized, already. Namely Rowan, who was walking around as if looking for someone. That was a confrontation that could wait, she decided. So she opted to snack on a few chocolate covered pretzels, while waiting for someone else to arrive.

Poor Henry had no idea what to get for his Secret Santa. He knew s/he would probably like what he got him/her, but he couldn't be sure and he was always so damn nervous about gifts anyways.

It was a small box with a red and white candy striped bow on it. He would take the credit for the wrapping, but it was really Lucas in all his loving, joyous, extravagant, Ahtnamas-y glory. To be completely honest, Lucas had also picked out the gift. From Eli's store. Ah to support a lover.

Henry led Lucas, whom he had come with, over to the table. Gracefully, Lucas placed it down with the other ones.

Silently, Henry hoped the clio would like the gift. It would make him a nervous wreck all night. =/ Sigh.

Lucas had stars in hs eyes. HE WAS SO IN LOVE. His Eli wasn't there yet though. So he had come with Henry, whom he hadn't been paying too much attention to in the past few weeks.

Henry let him lace his arm in his. He was such a sweet boy. Lucas totally would have dated him without all things to consider. Henry was straight and Lucas was SO IN LOVE.

Henry handed him the gift he'd so carefully picked out. He'd been the only one who knew Henry's Secret Santa recipient. Of course he had picked the gift out from Eli's store after they had finished making out in the back room as an early Ahrnamas gift. It was definitely not something that came with or needed a reciept.

And thus the stars.

"Henry, I think I'm going to get something to drink. Do you want anything? I need to loosen up. Come to think of it, you should get something too. Loosen up." Lucas offered his BESTIE a sweet smile, indicating he was teasing. "Maybe some rum and coke. Something sweet."

Politely, Henry declined, so Lucas got his own rum and coke and leaned against the counter where he worked. It didn't feel strange at all. Lior came over to the bar.

"Hi, Lior, it's me, Lucas." He said, politey.
Lior responded with a nod, and then proceeded to ignore him.

Lucas didn't find this strange. When he dated Aven Lucas never had anything real to do with the two of them anyway.

Which was plausible. Aven and Lucas never had anything real to do with each other either. Just kissing and the like. Aven didn't compare to Lucas' Eli. Lucas WAS SO IN LOVE.

Careless. Completely careless. Lior jut hadn't been the same clio. Myrrh had noticed too. Lior leaned heavily on Myrrh's antler as they made their way into the party.

He looked around, warily at the other clio, gift haphazardly "wrapped." In simplest terms, the gift was still in the bag it had been handed to him in the store.

Lior couldn't say it bothered him. He got to the table with the other gifts on it, tied the bag in a virtually un-untiable knot and tossed it on the table, a little less than gently.

The young Overloridian limped awkwardly to the bar and ordered himself a shot. He glanced over at the other boy at the counter. He looked a little young. And a little familiar. He looked at him again. Then the boy spoke to him.

"Hi, Lior, it's me, Lucas."

Lior didn't know why the boy spoke to him in such a babying manner, but he assumed he was taking pity on him. He was a sad sack. But at least he recognized Lucas now that he'd introduced himself. But he wasn't in talking mood. So he nodded, took his shot and found a chair.

"No, I didn't feel guilty accepting a gift from her," Quinn told her.

Rhiannon gently nudged Quinn on the neck with her nose, and pointed towards the crowd. Quinn looked to where she was pointing and saw Rose coming towards them.

"Hey Quinn...Hey Rhiannon"

Rhiannon nodded politely, and Quinn smiled, "Hello, it's good to see you here."

Lumi looked over at the girl who approached. "Hello there," she greeted. "Are you a friend of Quinn's? Careful--" she lowered her voice into an extremely audible whisper. "He kills clio."

Charmaine walked into Casa Nova's, holding hands with her current best friend, Peyton. Of course the two were stoned, as always, but at the moment Charmaine was really stoned, mostly because she wasn't one for parties and social events. Strangely enough (or not at all), the pot reversed that effect, and she had been both looking forward to the party (when high) and regretting the decision to actually show up. Well, at least she was with Peyton.

Diesel sat on the shoulder closest to Peyton, running his tail along both Charmaine and Peyton's backs. He absolutely loved hanging out with Peyton and George. Then again, he absolutely loved anything when Charmaine smoked that stuff.

"Let's go get something to drink," Charmaine whispered for no reason. You'd think in a place with so many clio, she'd need to yell. Oh well. x]

Charlie and Lesley had been at the party for quite a while now, just chatting it up with other clio. Charlie had set the present for the exchange on the table, as everyone else had (even though she would've forgotten the present if Lesley hadn't reminded her x]). At the moment, Lesley and her were talking in an area not completely filled with clio, drinks in hands and smiles on faces. They were a cute couple, you had to admit.

Charlie giggled at something Lesley said, swirling her drink around in her cup. She wondered where Rowan was, and then remembered that she shouldn't even care, especially after the way he acted here earlier. Then she wondered if they'd even let him in...

Finally Rowan spotted Charlie and Lesley. Together of course. They looked so happy it made him feel sick.

Taking a deep breath he approached them. He half-expected them to walk away the moment they saw him, so he walked up to them and started talking without giving them the chance to react. He had his hands behind his back in a pacifying gesture.

"Hi," he said without pretense, "I know you probably don't want to see me right now and I don't blame you. I want to apologize for..for...you know, hitting you..." He looked at Lesley briefly. His face looked a little bruised, but nothing too noticeable. He looked back at the floor. "It was...shameful, how I acted...and I've felt bad about it ever since...So I'm sorry."

He kept his eyes lowered. He hoped they accepted his apology.

Charlie looked over to see Rowan, and it was obvious that they let him back in. She listened to what he said, looking at him with respect and hope that this wasn't some drunken trick. He seemed sober and genuine, and this was the Rowan she knew.

She looked to Lesley, who seemed to be debating his reaction. When he made eye contact with Charlie, it was obvious that he chose the better path.

He looked to Rowan with a nod. "Thanks, man," he said, putting his hand out for Rowant o shake. Whether he actually did or not was up to him, but he wanted to be polite. "I appreciate, respect, and accept your apology."

A little cheesy, but it was nice. Both of them were being really nice, and Charlie was glad.

Rowan looked up. After some hesitation, he reached out and shook Lesley's hand. "Thank you," he murmured. "Believe it or not, your respect means a lot to me."

He looked over at Charlie, and the look she was giving him was so happy, yet it pained him to see her looking at him that way. It reminded him what he had lost. He took a step back. "I'll, um, I'll leave you guys alone now. Okay, bye," he said, leaving as quickly as clioly possible.

"He doesn't seem so bad," Lesley said after Rowan left, elbowing Charlie playfully. "Maybe I should be worried." He laughed a little, but stopped after noticing the fact that Charlie didn't appreciate the joke much. "Sorry...I know he meant a lot to you."

Charlie nodded. He still meant a lot to her. She was really worried about him, so she figured she'd leave Lesley to talk to someone (which she was sure she could do) and go talk to Rowan on her own. She hadn't gotten the chance to since she had told him about Lesley. It was as if everyehwere she saw Rowan, Lesley was with her. It actually wasn't "as if" that was happening. Because it actually was. So she turned to Lesley for now, taking another sip of her drink, thinking about how she was going to approach Rowan later.

Quinn laughed out loud, a fake, loud laugh.

"Oh, Lumi you're such a kidder!"

He yanked her back from the waist of her pants, and pushed her behind him.

"I'm sorry Rose," he said apoligetically, "She's a little drunk, and she also believes that I killed that man Triston."

Rowan sighed and sat down in a random empty seat. He looked around the room miserably. Parties really sucked if you had no one to talk to, apparently. Strange. He was in a room full of clio, and he was completely alone.

He looked for anyone he knew. He saw Lior, but didn't want to talk to him because he was drinking, and Rowan didn't need that temptation right now. He saw Peyton, but Peyton was being all touchy feelly with some chick and Rowan did NOT want to be around any couples. He saw Alecis but really didn't want to talk to her, especially after their little...erm, encounter a little while ago.

So he just sat by himself, feeling like a loser. Nym wasn't talking. She was giving him the silent treatment.