Hold On, I'll See You Again

Project Mistletoe

It was the day after Dan's and my date and I was filled with the Christmas spirit. Christmas was in two days and I had a lot to get done. For one thing, I had to wrap presents. Another thing was that I had to come up with a plan to get Chris and Peej under the plastic mistletoe. I woke up in my bed and laid there, staring at the ceiling. I just realized that either me or Dan need to talk to Chris. I've gotten Peej's side of the story, but I can't set up an elaborate plan only to find out Chris doesn't love Peej. Peej said Chris was a late sleeper, but maybe I could find out where his room is. Yea, that'll work!

Before I could make any move to get out of bed, there was a knock on my door. Opening it, I found Dan standing there with his towel and a set of clothes. "I though you'd already be in the showers!" he said. "And I thought you'd still be asleep!" I beckoned him in so I could chat with him while picking out my clothes. "So I've been thinking-" "Well that's new." I shot Dan a glare at his cheesy insult. "I've been thinking that we can't do the mistletoe thing yet." "What! Why not? We got the scoop from Peej." "Yea, but we don't have Chris's side of the story." Dan was silent as he realized this. "Oh yea. Hmm." He was still silent as I folded a towel and grabbed a bar of soap. "Well, I mean, we could try to catch him in the cafeteria." I said. "Yea, but how do we know he'll be there?" "Let's stop by on our way to the showers."

So we walked down the hall, thinking about how we would approach Chris. "I could always ask to have a word with him and you can talk to Peej in the meantime? In case they're both together, that is." "Well," I said. "It might seem a bit obvious if you took him away from Peej. We need to catch him on his own." That would be easier than we thought, for after checking the empty cafeteria, we entered the showers to find Chris changing in the locker room area. "Hey dudes! Don't mind me, just changing." "Cool. Hey, we were hoping to talk to you for a bit." "Oh sure, but I've got to warn you that Peej is in the showers right now if that's any problem." I gave Dan a knowing look and he took Chris outside to talk. I undressed and stepped into one of the showers. Turning on the faucet, I stood back from the water until it warmed up. By the time I was able to stand under it, Dan had undressed and come into our shower. "Are they gone?" I whispered. "Not yet." We waited a bit, then Dan peeked his head out to check in the locker room area. "Ok. They just left."

"So, how did it go?" "Easier than you think. We didn't talk about why Chris was here because that seemed intrusive at the moment, but I did find out what we needed." "Spill!" "Ok, ok! Chris does have feelings for Peej, but he's so insecure that he tries not to show them. That and he thinks Peej doesn't like him back." "Chris is insecure? I guess that explains why he lashed out at everyone when he first came here." "Makes sense." "I guess that means I can come up with a plan!" "Yay! Celebratory shower!" And with that, Dan squirted some shampoo into his hands and started washing my hair.

After one final kiss under the hot, running water, we got changed and dropped our stuff back at our rooms. Meeting up outside my room, we walked to the cafeteria for breakfast. "Oh. I almost forgot, Phil! We need to go out and get wrapping paper!" "Oh yea! How could I forget?" "Well it's lucky you have me here." I rolled my eyes, but gave his cheek a quick peck. After getting a bowl of cereal and some milk, I joined Dan at the table and started thinking about wrapping paper and mistletoe. By the end of breakfast, we had decided that Dan would go out later and buy wrapping paper for us, but I still didn't have a plan for the mistletoe. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. It was one of those typical ceilings with the movable rectangular plates. Wait a second.

"I've got it!" I yelled, and Dan jumped at my sudden outburst. "Sorry. I know how to get Peej and Chris under the mistletoe!" "How?" I stood up on the table in order to reach the panels up on the ceiling. "Um, Phil? What are you doing and why are you standing on the table?" I reached up and gently slid one of the panels a bit. I tapped the edge of the metal rungs to indicate where the mistletoe would be, then I slid the panel back into place. Sitting back down, I was greeted with a small round of applause from Dan. "I never would have though of that. I'm impressed." "Thank you! Project Mistletoe is now under way!" "Project Mistletoe?" I shrugged sheepishly at Dan. "I thought it would be cool if it had a name." "Ok. Project Mistletoe it is."

"So we've got our location, but how do we get them there? You said Peej normally comes and brings food back for him and Chris." We were now sat in the lounge area on two armchairs. There were a few people reading or on the computers, but it wasn't that busy. "I don't know, Dan. We could always try to invite them to have dinner with us on Christmas." "You'll be gone." "Oh. Yea. Well that cancels out breakfast as well." "Not necessarily." I frowned at Dan, confused at what he meant. "See, we will see them more often now that we know they Peej takes showers in the mornings, and I bet we can ask them the day after Christmas to have breakfast with us. I'd ask them while you stake out a table for us and hang up the mistletoe." "That'll work! Let's do that!" Just in time, we finished our conversation right as Peej and Chris walked in.

~Sonic.exe content. If you get scared or disgusted easily, then please skip until I say it's good.~

"Hey, guys! Didn't know we'd catch you here." Chris exclaimed. "Yea. We don't normally come in the lounge often. Right, Dan?" Dan nodded. "Well, how about we crowd around the computer! I've got an awesome website for us to check out." We gathered around Chris as he started typing in a random website and downloading an exe file. "Umm. Peej? Do you know what he's doing?" "Not a clue, mate. Sometimes when he does this it turns out fine, but..." "Hey! Take a chance on me, will you? This should be cool." After Dan had scolded him for downloading a "strange exe file," Chris double clicked on an icon that appeared on the desktop. Immediately, a Sonic the Hedgehog arcade-like screen popped up, and Sonic shook his finger as arcade music played in the background. "See! It isn't so bad." Right after Chris said that, the screen changed to Sonic with blood dripping out of his eyes for a millisecond before going black. We all stopped and stared at the screen in shock.

A menu-ish screen popped up for the data/character select, except only Tails was available. "Well this is strange. Only tails is unlocked." "Chris. What have you done?" Peej asked. Chris ignored his comment and selected tails. An ominous, electronic noise was emitted before the screen went black once again. The title for the level popped up on the screen. "Hill, Act 1." Chris read aloud, and just like that, we were sent into a typical Sonic game world with the pixilated jungle-like environment. Chris pushed down the right arrow key and Tails moved across the screen. There was nothing scary about this, so I didn't know why we were all still on edge. I probably thought too soon, for we soon came across two dead plants and what looked like a dead and bloody animal body. Chris immediately took his hands off of the keyboard and stood up, muttering "No no no no." Peej slowly sat down and took his place. I noticed Chris put his hand on Peej's shoulder for a second and then moved it. Hmm... I focused my attention back to the screen. We all were silent as Peej moved Tails onwards. More dead plants and bodies appeared, and now some looked like they were hanging by their intestines off of the trees. Peej stopped moving Tails as we came across the first one that was hanging. Peej looked a bit shocked as he studied the dead body, Chris was covering his mouth with his hands, and Dan was staring open mouthed at the screen. I leaned forward to get a better look, but I wish I hadn't. Pixels aren't that scary, but the content was freaky enough. Peej moved forwards slowly as more and more dead plants and animal bodies appeared whenever the screen shifted right. Peej stopped moving as the screen shifted and Sonic appeared with his eyes closed. The screen went static-y and Peej no longer had control over Tails, who was now slowly walking towards Sonic. The arcade music had been replaced by white noise, which got louder and louder as Tails neared him. Right before Tails reached him, his eyes opened to show black orbs with blood dripping out of them and the screen went black. A little ominous, electronic noise was emitted as the words, "Hello. Do you want to play with me?" appeared on the screen. "Uh. No thanks." Dan murmured, breaking the silence. We chuckled nervously a bit before continuing with the creepy game. Hide and Seek was the title of the level that popped up. Tails then appeared onscreen along with a background of the jungle on fire. Peej immediately moved tails to the right as fast as he could. After running for no more than ten seconds, the screen went static and Sonic moved around in the background. It went back to normal, but now Sonic was chasing Tails. We started yelling at Peej to go quicker, for Tails wouldn't outrun Sonic at the current pace. "It won't work! This is as fast as it goes!" We watched in agony as Sonic reached Tails, disappeared when she started crying, and then appeared again and stabbed her. Blood spurted out of her body and an agonizing scream emitted from the speakers.

~All good from here, people.~

Peej jumped so much that he started to fall backwards. Chris was thankfully there to save him and put the chair back up. Dan turned off the computer afterwards, saying "Nopety nopety nope nope nope." We all stood there in shock until Chris said, "Well, it's about lunch time. I'm not that hungry, though." We all murmured in agreement with him, and Dan and I said goodbye and went back to our rooms to bundle up a bit and head outdoors.