Chicken (Open, Christmas Party)

Aoife didn't go home for Christmas like last year because her parents were in Switzerland and it wasn't worth going all the way back home just to see her siblings. Hogwarts was great at Christmas though, with all the pretty lights and trees and the party someone would always put on. Christmas dinner was totally AMAZING.

hadn't really made much effort for this party. From what she understood, Darcy was throwing it and it was probably going to be all pretty people in pretty fancy clothes. She hadn't been sure if she actually wanted to go but there would be food so it would be alright. A couple of minutes before it was meant to start, she chose jeans, converse, white top and green hoodie. This wasn't part of a master plan, just her being too lazy to get a nice dress in advance.

When she arrived, she saw that she was right. Everyone did look nice. Shun those beautiful veelas with beautiful hair and beautiful dresses. Shun Aislinn, being all pretty and blonde. Feeling a bit disheartened, she took a seat at one of the tables and stared at the menu. The chicken looked nice, maybe she would have that.

Hunter couldn't wait for Christmas! It felt like a long time since he'd seen Jack, and it wouldn't be bad to see his parents again either. He'd be heading home the next day on the train with the twins, and while he was looking forward to it, he had to get through the Christmas Dance. Hunter had mixed feelings about dances. On one hand, they were awesome, because Hunter had tons of friends and he got to hang out with all of them. And Hunter actually didn't mind dancing. On the other hand, nobody ever actually danced at these dances, which kind of defeated the purpose. And Hunter hated dressing up - or being formal, period.

So, he just didn't dress up. Which Seren would not be happy about. But jeans and a nice button down shirt was way more comfortable than wearing a suit and tie for the entire night. He was supposed to meet his girlfriend outside of the great hall, but she was late and he'd gotten tired of waiting, so he went inside instead. She'd find him when she got there. His eyes instantly swept over those who had arrived. There were plenty of people, and music that only a few people were dancing to, and food! Ariel was sitting at a table with Darcy, and Hunter smiled and waved to her but didn't think he should sit with them.

Instead, he headed straight for the only table that contained a head of blue hair. "Nice dress," he commented as he approached, not surprised at all that Aoife hadn't actually bothered to wear a dress at all. "Wanna dance with me?" he asked her, trying hard to keep his voice as serious as possible. And he succeeded pretty well, he thought, for a few moments, looking at her expectantly as though actually waiting for an answer. And then he burst into laughter and took a seat beside her. "You didn't think I was serious, did you? Though we do match," he pointed out with amusement. "What are you getting to eat? I might get two main dishes - think I can? This is all pretty fancy though. What if I just want bacon?"

Aoife, after a couple of minutes of careful deliberation, decided that the chicken nuggets were the best choice. Chicken nuggets were the best. Not too fancy, like the other menu stuff. It was weird, how you were meant to order, but she did it anyway, sure it would work fine like all awesome magic stuff. Then someone was approaching her table. This meant it was one of few people: a VanDerberg, Derek or Phin. She was too focused on happy daydreams of chicken to look up and find out and since she didn't much care, she didn't hurry to break out of her own little world.

Ah, it was Hunter. Not surprising really. Except he wasn't with his brat girlfriend, which didn't make sense. Had they broken up? That would be good. No it wouldn't. Because she didn't care. And because she didn't care, she didn't wonder aloud about where Seren was. "Thanks, you too," she answered casually. Didn't look like Hunter had made much of an effort either, so he couldn't talk. "I didn't bring any dresses this year." Aoife hated dresses and it was only on very rare occasions that she would actually wear one, so her mother had stopped making her pack one just in case and she wouldn't bring one of her own accord, of course.

She was taken totally by surprise when he asked totally seriously if she wanted to dance with him. For a moment, she actually thought that he meant it and her hands flew to the chair next to her. But it was okay, since he burst into laughter. Trying to act nonchalantly, she rolled her eyes and casually moved her hands away from the chair as though they hadn't been there to start with. "Course not," she said. It was probably obvious what a scare she'd had, still. "Yeah, how come you're not in fancy shmancy clothes? Girlfriend not coming?" Surely Seren wouldn't be impressed with that attire. "Chicken nuggets," she grinned. On cue, her meal arrived, chicken nuggets and chips. "Just get a few fancy ones, try them all and see which is best." Obviously the food was more important than Hunter so she focused on stuffing loads of chicken nuggets in her mouth at once rather than him.

"Yeah, I didn't bring any dresses this year either," Hunter agreed in a very mock-serious voice. "Left them all at home." Then, he cracked a smile. "At least I won't have to spill juice on you this year," he added as an afterthought. "Which I did on purpose, to make you happier about your dress." That was a complete lie. Hunter hadn't had any intention of spilling juice on Aoife way back in first year. He'd just been a clumsy, stupid child and had tripped. But it sounded better to say he'd done it intentionally.

Hunter's laughter only doubled when he saw Aoife's reaction. She actually was reaching for the chair next to her. "Don't you dare!" he choked out. "You actually thought I was serious! You know, you're really starting to think too highly of yourself, I think. You should know by now that nobody in their right mind is stupid enough to ask you to dance and mean it." For a moment, Hunter wondered if she'd take that as an insult, but quickly decided that she probably wouldn't. Because she'd be happy to know that particular fact.

"You know, this is just a suggestion, and I'm sure you'll completely ignore it and continue to attack people with large inanimate objects - but you might want to find a better reaction to things you don't want to hear than grabbing the nearest chair as a weapon." Because that was just wrong. "I mean, even if I had meant it, you would really be jumping to conclusions. I could just be asking you platonically. If I asked Ariel to dance, she'd probably say yes. And not throw things at me."

Hunter rolled his eyes when Aoife asked if his attire meant Seren wasn't coming. "She doesn't tell me how to dress," he pointed out. "Well, okay, she tries to for things like this. But that doesn't mean I listen. And she's late. I got tired of waiting for her. She'll find me when she gets here." Oh, chicken nuggets. That sounded good! Hunter plucked one deftly from her plate when they appeared while deciding what to order. "Entrecote," he decided. You couldn't go wrong with steak. Ever.

Phin had already learned several things from his Uncle.

1) ALWAYS arrive late to a party to make an entrance
2) Act smooth, don't freak
3) Dress with Swag.

Chad had explained "swag" to him several times but he still didn't understand the term. He guessed that as long as he wore the nice leather jacket Chad gave him, it would be swag enough. So that's what he did. He was already 20 minutes late to the party. He dressed in a pair of black slacks, a purple shirt, and a black tie, with his leather jacket to complete the look.

He had considered not even going, but Chad insisted. Phin was just now becoming sociably acceptable and needed to show off what he learned. Chad had talked him out of combing back his hair, so he just put a little gel in it to give it a little shine, and called it quits. There really was no messing with it, it would be a mess anyways.

He walked in the room and noticed people where already there. Of course they where, he was late. He looked around for a certain girl with blue hair. She was easy to spot, and he found her. Talking to him. Good... he thought. This might push their relationship a little bit. Phin had high hopes for this.

He decided to walk over and say hi. He realized that Hunter was Aoife's friend too, and he wanted to be the bigger person and accept that. He plopped down and popped one of Aoife's chicken nugget's in his mouth with out asking. He said, "Hey guys! Whose ready to party?!"

Phin smiled. He loved parties. He couldn't help it.

Aoife decided to eat more chicken, as much as she wanted to throw a chair at Hunter even if he hadn’t meant it seriously. “Too highly of myself?” she repeated incredulously. “You’re just so unpredictable I never know what you’re going to do next. It has nothing to do with my own opinion of myself!” She was quite pleased when he said that nobody would ask her to dance. “If a sheep that could speak English asked me to dance, I would say yes,” she said. “One time, I had a dream that a zebra asked me to dance. I said yes, of course. And if Isaac from The Fault in Our Stars asked me to dance, I would say yes. In a friendly way, obviously.”

“That’s actually a good idea!” she beamed. “I totally get your point! Because I DO have a plate which I could throw at your head instead! Although, I usually have more access to chairs. Still, I’ll try! Maybe I could carry around a plate or something...” Obviously she understood that this wasn’t Hunter’s point, but that was what he got for trying to put an end to her violent ways. After that bit, she stopped listening properly, more interested in her chicken. “What does platonically mean?” He couldn’t just use words that she didn’t know in conversation! “Ariel isn’t me. She’s Ariel. She has good manners and she is a good person,” she pointed out.

Whatever he was saying next, she didn’t listen at all to, as she was far too busy staring at that interesting wall. But she did notice when he stole a chicken nugget and tried to swat his hand away, to no avail. Before she could say something to him about it, Phin had turned up too. And was STEALING A CHICKEN NUGGET. Aoife glared at him. “Hands off! Why don’t you two just get your own chicken nuggets? I’m going to have to order more food now, since there’s hardly any food left on my plate!” That wasn’t true, but it gave her a good excuse for more food. Not that she needed one.

Phin looked… different. “I like your leather jacket,” she complimented. And the tie was cool too, but she couldn’t overwhelm anyone with loads of compliments in the space of a few seconds. “You’re clearly ready. But I plan on spending the night stuffing my face.”

"There's nothing wrong with being unpredictable," Hunter pointed out. "Predictability is boring. If I was predictable, I could never have any fun. People would always know when I'm joking and when I'm not." Which would be boring. "This way's far better." He toned her out a bit when she started talking about sheep asking her to dance. It was a pretty predictable reaction from her, and he was sure she would just ramble for a bit about things that didn't matter at all. So he could afford to ignore her and look around some.

"Very funny," he retorted, rolling his eyes. "Though I might prefer a plate. At least I have a chance of catching it. Actually, it would just be nice if you threw things at someone other than me for once, but I'm not getting my hopes up for that." She didn't know what platonic meant? He sighed and shook his head. "Don't you know anything? It's a kind of dance where you stand five feet apart and turn your backs to each other and basically dance by yourself, while at the same time letting everyone around you know that you dislike your partner. It represents mutual hate." He managed the whole way through without so much as a grin, but if she believed him she was dumber than Hunter thought.

Oh, look who had turned up. The git who Hunter had so nicely refrained from punching in the face. Hunter just glared at him as he sat down. When Aoife started complaining about them stealing her chicken nuggets, he used her momentary distraction to lean over and mutter something in Phin's ear. "Five sickles if you ask her to dance and act like you mean it," he said lowly. That was one good thing about Aoife. She was easily distracted and you could talk about her right in front of her without her noticing.

Phin laughed as Aoife yelled at him. He suspected none the less. And he also suspected the glare he received from Hunter. After all... He did lock them in a closet together... But then.. Hunter did the unexpected. He said he'd pay him if he asked her to dance.

He couldn't pass up this opportunity. He was about to show up his worst enemy. He didn't think things through. He never thought things through. So... He stood up, nodded at Hunter and bowed a little bit like her seen in the muggle movies from his lessons with his uncle, and said very serious, so serious he couldn't even tell if it was him talking, "come on, let's go dance! I want to show you some moves I learned from my Uncle."

Bam. He just won five sickles.

Aoife shrugged. “Nobody else is as constantly infuriating as you,” she smiled sheepishly. “I don’t get that angry much anymore. Mainly just at you.” Because of his stupid unpredictability. And not good unpredictability. Also his efforts to make her look dumb and tell her things that weren’t true. Like right now. If he thought she was believing anything he ever said since earlier when he had asked her to dance, he was an idiot. “I hope there’s a real word for that. Sounds fun.” But she still didn’t know what platonic meant. “Oi Phin, what does platonic mean?” Maybe she would get a proper answer from him.

But before that could happen, he was speaking directly to her. And asking her to dance. Freaking hell. Did the world just hate her? Was it because she was “weird”? For a moment, she sat in shocked silence. Had Hunter done this? Did they have some sort of telepathic communication link? No, Hunter was too dumb for that. It seemed a bit too much of a coincidence, though. That, just as they had been talking about this and how she didn’t want to dance with anyone but a zebra or Isaac.

Then she was back to normal and shot a glare at both Hunter and Phin. She didn’t know if this was partly her housemate’s fault, but he deserved the look anyway. Aoife let out an exasperated noise, shoved the last chicken nugget in her mouth and picked up the plate. Then she chucked it with all the force she could muster at the floor. “No,” she answered, just in case her answer wasn’t obvious enough already. Looking back at the floor, she saw the plate shattered into a load of sharp, angry pieces. Good thing she knew that cleaning spell from work. She grabbed her wand from the pocket of her jeans and muttered, “Tergeo,” at the floor to see it clear itself up.

Hunter flashed Aoife a grin when she pointed out that he was more infuriating than everyone else. "Better than being boring and normal like most people, right?" he replied with a nonchalant shrug. "See, you're just too much fun to infuriate. Because you're such an easy target - a predictable easy target," he added matter-of-factly, absentmindedly leaning his chair back on two legs. "Only you would think that sounds fun," he told her, rolling his eyes and shoving a piece of steak in his mouth. He glanced over at Phin to see if he'd provide the answer to her question - probably. The kid was a boring git who didn't know how to have any fun by messing with Aoife's head.

Hunter watched on as Phin seemed determined to take him up on his bet. He was almost concerned that the kid would get away with it for a minute - he had asked in a much different way than Hunter had. Mostly because Hunter had been trying to get a rise out of Aoife, and Phin was just trying to get the sickles Hunter had bet him. But then, Aoife glared at Phin, and Hunter had to fight back the smirk threatening to spread across his face. And then Aoife was glaring at him too, as though she suspected him of something, and Hunter did his best to feign an innocent look and shrug as though he had no idea what was going on. But he probably failed.

It was strange, actually - he'd kind of expected her to have a slightly stronger reaction than that. But it turned out that Hunter wasn't wrong. Almost as though she was attempting to prove just how predictable she was, Aoife stood up and threw her plate at the ground, shattering it. Hunter couldn't hold his laughter back at that point. "You know, I thought you were only talking hypothetically about throwing plates earlier - guess not." Then fishing into his pocket, Hunter pulled out the sickles that he owed to Phin. "Here kid," he said, pushing them across the table and not bothering in the slightest to hide the transaction from Aoife. "You win."

Phin smiled from ear to ear. He knew she would react that way. Hell...She threw a chair at her EX-best friend. So, why not chuck a plate at the wall? Phin laughed a little bit. He said, "You know, this violence thing.... It's getting a little old. You're getting to predictable."

He was done for he knew it, but she needed to hear it. Hunter wouldn't have the guts to say it, so he had to. He awaited for her reaction. Or, should he just run now? She'd probably just react more violently if he didn't. So he stood up and prepared to make a run for it.