It was sort of awkward between me and Nathan as our parents quietly made small talk. Prue was too busy playing with her peas to even pay attention to what was going on, and Nathan kept on stealing glances of me when he thought I wasn't looking.

"So," Nathan's dad -or Matt- coughed loud enough to get both of our attentions. "When were you two going to tell us you were dating?"

The bite of food I was chewing got stuck in my throat and I coughed violently as Nathan coughed out his lungs as well. Not a good time to bust out news like that when you are drinking water.

"We are not dating," I finally managed to say and Nathan nodded in agreement.

"Then what is this all about?"

"I don't know. Ask our moms," I answered, staring at mine. She looked down at her food for a few seconds before finally looking up and gave me "the look." You know that "look" your parents give you when you did something wrong or even embarrassed them in front of other people, but they couldn't do anything about it? Yeah, that one.....

"I just wanted to meet your boyfriend."

"I really hope you separated the last word into two," I groaned and she grinned.

"Sure. Why not."

I groaned again as Nathan's mom spoke. "Where did you two meet?"

"School," was all Nathan said.

"Okay..... how did you two meet?"

"She helped me out with my schedule -you know what? Let's just skip the twenty questions and eat dinner please. I don't want my food to get even colder than it already is."

"I agree," I murmured as I looked down and I could feel two pair of glares.

"May I be excused?" Prue finally sighed.

"Yes. I guess dinner is about to be finished," her mom sighed and she bolted out of her seat. Lucky kid.

"May I be excused?" I asked.

"No," both my parents said and I pouted. I heard a laugh which was quickly covered by a cough and I looked up to see Nathan covering his mouth. I glared at him and he smiled enough for me to see it.

It was quiet as forks scraped plates and I just moved my food around. It wasn't until a couple of more minutes when the adults excused us and we both bolted out of there as well.

"Can this get any more awkward than it already is?" Nathan murmured to himself as we made our way to the living room.

"Ummm yeah. I swear, my mom is crazy for even planning this."

We sat in silence as we watched Prue play with a phone and the only noise there was was when one of us sighed ever so often.

"Want to play something for me?" Nathan broke the silence. I snapped my eyes over to him, only to find him looking at the piano. I felt my eyes go wide and I shook my head.

"Nooooo. I don't play in front of people, remember."

"Oh come on! It's too quiet in this place and there's nothing else to do."

"Nope. Sorry."

"I'll give you a dollar....."

"A dollar? Really?" I laughed as he smiled.

"What? It's not like I brought my wallet with me!?"

"But you have a dollar?"

"Maybe. You never know when the ice cream truck will pass around."

"In the middle of winter? Are you serious?" I couldn't stop laughing. He shrugged and pouted playfully.

"Don't make fun of my dollar. I was going to share but I guess I'm not anymore."

"Oh shut it," I laughed as I dragged him to the bench. I randomly hit notes and only stopped when he grabbed both of my hands. I froze, looking down at them and saw as he slowly separated my fingers and moved them apart, laying them on separate keys.

"Play. Please."

I was staring into his eyes as he breathed those two words and I couldn't help but to shiver. I quickly looked away and after taking a deep breath. I began to play a song.

Angel by Sarah McLachlan began to play out in both my head and on the notes and I couldn't help but to close my eyes. This was a beautiful song, and it always got to me, but I never played it for anyone. I didn't know what got me into playing, but I was already getting halfway there so there was no point into stopping.

I could feel our parents staring at us and I shuddered, skipping a few notes. After a few measures, I got my rhythm back and not that long after, I finished the song. There was immediate applause all around me and I blushed, turning around as the voices joined the sound.

"Wow! I didn't know she played like an Angel!" Matt gasped, dragging out the word angel, making us all laugh. "No wonder my boy likes you. You're beautiful and musically talented."

"Matt, don't embarrass the kids. We already did that enough tonight. Let's just enjoy the next couple of hours we have of this year getting to know one another," Nathan's mom -I still didn't know her name!- murmured.

And that's how we found ourself playing Pictionary. Our laughter and frustrated groans as we tried to guess our drawings had me crying the entire time, and for a while I forgot the reason we had this dinner in the first place. What I learned in those few hours from all of us was that no one could draw, so we were always guessing the same thing each round when we were way off.

"Last game! And then we have to get the fireworks ready. It's almost midnight," my mom announced. We all agreed and I stood up as it was my turn. I picked out a piece of paper from the basket of words, and then once I read it, I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"Who the heck even wrote this? I don't know how to draw this in a minute?!"

"Just try it. It can't be that bad," Nathan laughed and I sighed.

"Fine. But remember, don't laugh."

"We make no promises," everyone but Prue said in unison. I laughed and stared at her sleeping form before turning my back to them and picked up the marker.

"Go!" my dad said and I began my drawing.

I drew a big rectangular box and of course, everyone started to scream out "BOX!" Or "Rectangle!" I shushed them and continued to draw as they shouted stuff behind me.

Next I drew what I hopefully thought was a convincing ladder and right underneath it, a long line that then swirled around in a wide circle. I added four big wheels at the bottom and then drew a small box close to the edge on the left side. I tried drawing another ladder on top of the whole thing, but their shoutings and guessing had me laughing so hard, I didn't finish in time.

"It's a snake trapped in a box with a ladder!" my mom shrieked and I stared at her with a "are you serious?" look.

"No mom. It's just one or two words like all the other ones. And in this case, it's two."

They all cocked their heads to the side, scratching their temples as they thought of the word. I looked back at my artwork and winced, laughing at what I saw.

I thought I had drawn a decent fire truck but apparently, I have never seen one in my life by the looks of it. I smiled as they all talked in a group and then agreed on one choice.

"We don't know."

"It's a fire truck." I laughed and they all joined me.

"Well if that's how you see a fire truck, then I don't want to know how you see all the other emergency vehicles," my dad laughed after he chuckled for a second time. We took a few deep breaths and then after cleaning a bit up, we gathered around in the backyard and started to count down as we finished up preparing for the fireworks.

"10.....9.....8.....7....6....5....4....3....2....1 HAPPY NEW YEARS!"

We began to laugh again as we popped the fireworks and then we took a second to admire the sky as it lighted up into a million colors.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw my parents embrace quickly before looking back up at the sky and not a few feet away, Nathan's parents did the same.

"Claire," Nathan's soft voice whispered right besides me, making me jump. I turned to face him and saw his dimpled smile before he continued to talk. "Happy New Years."

"Happy New Years," I murmured back and did something I would have never done before.

I hugged him. Yeah we had hugged before, but he always started it and it never lasted more than a couple of seconds. This time, I found myself burying my head on his chest as he buried his nose on my hair and we stood like that until I heard someone clearing their throat. We separated to see our parents staring at us with different expressions.

Great.