FIRST RUNNER-UP

The "Shocking" Christmas written by I_am_honey_senpai

          It was a snowy Christmas night. The Kubdel household was brightly lit with Christmas decorations. Colorful lights were elegantly strung out across the rooftop. Everything and everyone in the house was bright and merry, other than Alix Kubdel. She could be found lying on her bed, dreading the moment her father's friends arrived. There wasn't a problem with the people themselves, for they had helped her father's company rapidly expand over the years.

The problem was their son, Kim. The Kim that was in her class, always making up stupid dares and challenges for them. It all started when they were seven, the very first Christmas Eve their families celebrated together.

~flashback brought to you by Chat's hilarious cat puns -_-~

Alix and Kim had been sent up to Alix's room while the adults talked about business. After ten minutes of awkward silence, Kim finally spoke up. "You up for a dare, Alix?" Kim questioned.

"No thanks," Alix stated bluntly. The boy pouted and let out a sigh.

"Whatever, you're so boring." Alix's head shot up at the word boring. She absolutely hated being called boring.

"Fine! I'll do your stupid dare!" Alix shouted. Kim grinned, already knowing what he wanted to dare her.

"Okay then! I dare you to... eat a spoonful of cinnamon," Kim challenged. Alix ran out of the room, and dashed down the stairs, into the kitchen. She grabbed the cinnamon from a cabinet and a spoon. She didn't want to do this dare, but she had no choice! If she didn't, Kim would think she was boring. She climbed back up the stairs, and dashed into her room, where Kim was patiently waiting.

Alix hastily piled cinnamon onto her spoon, not noticing the smirk Kim had on his face. After screwing the cinnamon closed, she shoved the spoon in her mouth, swallowed it, and grinned in defeat. 'Wait for it,' Kim thought. All of a sudden, Alix started wheezing, and coughing out brown clouds of powdery cinnamon. Kim started laughing hysterically. Alix ran out of the room, trying to find a source of water close to her. "I can't believe you fell for that!" Kim yelled at the poor girl.

~present time~

Ever since that very first Christmas Eve dinner, Alix and Kim have had a tradition to ask each other a ridiculous dare, hoping the other would fail. This year, it was Kim's turn to ask the dare first. As Alix remembered the memory of their first meeting, the doorbell rang. The quiet house was suddenly filled with greetings and laughter. Alix sighed, knowing she was expected to greet the guests. Going down the steps, she prepared herself for Kim's stupid display of pretending that they got along.

"Alix! It's so good to see you!" Kim's mother chirped, embracing Alix into a warm hug.

"You too, Mrs. Lé," Alix responded, plastering a fake smile onto her features. She looked around the woman, hoping Kim might be sick, or something along those lines. Alix mentally sighed, seeing Kim smirking behind his mother, looking her directly in the eyes.

"Alix, honey, while Mr. Lé and his wife are talking to us, could you be a sweetheart and go with Kim to the recreation room?" Alix's mother politely asked, even though Alix knew it was a demand. Instead of responding, Alix huffed and dragged Kim upstairs to the room. After the adults were gone, Alix finally spoke.

"Race you to the rec room!" She yelled, already running.

"That wasn't fair, Alix," Kim whined, after catching up to Alix, who was waiting for him. "I challenge you to a game of air hockey!"

"Challenge accepted, loser," Alix jeered, which pissed off Kim. The two teens decided to play a variety of games, while keeping score when someone won the round. After an hour of playing air hockey, ping-pong, and billiards, Alix and Kim were still tied, it was 8-8. This always happened, seeing that neither wanted to lose to the other. "I guess it's time for your dare, Kim," Alix suggested, hoping his dare was an easy task to complete.

Kim was silent for a moment, pondering on what he should dare Alix. "Okay Alix," he started. "I dare you to–" right before Kim could say his dare, the lights started flickering, and went out at. There was a silence until Alix spoke up.

"What the fuck did you do now, Kim?" She whispered. (A/N lol same Alix same) Alix was a generally fearless individual, but she was absolutely terrified of the dark.

"I swear Alix! For once it wasn't me!" The boy exclaimed. "It is icy out tonight, maybe the electricity went out?" Kim got his phone out, and turned the flashlight on, searching for the lightswitch in the room. Upon further inspection, he finally found it after banging into furniture countless times. He tried flicking the light on and off, which didn't work.

Right before he was going to tell Alix, she got a text from her father. Unlocking her phone, she stared at the text. 'It seems like the ice messed up the electricity,so we are going to have no power for a bit, okay? While workers are fixing the power, it would probably be best for you and Kim to stay put. Love you.' Alix seemed calm and composed, but on the inside, she was having a panic attack. Why did she have to stay in the dark? She was even more scared that Kim would be there, worried Kim would do something stupid, as usual.

"Hey, Kim?"

"What do you need?"

"My dad said the power was going to be out for awhile, and said we should stay put," Alix explained, trying to make sure her voice didn't tremble, "so don't do anything stupid."

"Why are you going to listen to your dad? It's not like we're going to die if we go out of the room. Besides, it's kinda like an adventure, don't ya think?"

"No, I don't, actually. We could get injured by trying to walk around!" Alix stalled, hoping Kim would give in, but she knew him too well. He would keep on persisting until he got his way.

"That's so boring, though," Kim paused, then smirked, "or maybe you're just scared of the dark?" Alix's eyes widened slightly, not knowing what to do. She hated when Kim said she was scared or boring, and she had a good feeling he knew this.

"Fine, I'll go with you, happy now?" She demanded, even more pissed at Kim than she already was. Instead of answering, Kim just smiled. Alix was taken back, noticing it was a genuine smile, with a bit of a teasing look to it. The girl would never admit it, but she had a slight tint of red spread across her cheeks.

As Kim started heading out the door, Alix turned on her phone's flashlight, and ran to catch up with him. As the teens walked through the the house, it was eerily quiet. Alix wondered why her usually talkative parents were not able to be heard at all. "Where are we now, anyway?" Alix asked.

"How should I know? It's your house, isn't it?" Kim retorted. Alix mumbled under her breath, annoyed that Kim was right

"Well, most of the time I'm either out of the house, or on my room," Alix explained. More focused on Kim's comment, she didn't see the piece of furniture right before her. She slammed her right thigh into the furniture, and said some rather choice words.

"As much as I enjoy hearing curse words coming from your mouth, I'd rather hear ideas of what we should do coming out of there instead," Kim waited for the girl to stop cussing.

"Maybe we should go check and see if they went outside?" Alix pondered out loud. "It could be something wrong with our house specifically..."

"Let's go then." The teens continued walking through the enormous house, with Alix being a bit more cautious of her surroundings. Kim would look back every now and then to make sure Alix didn't stare off into space and hurt herself again. As they walked down the marble staircase, Alix caught him staring, and stopped where she was.

"Why do you keep looking at me?" Alix whisper-yelled.

"I don't need to hear you cuss again."

"It's not gonna happen again, my god, Kim!" Alix sighed. She wasn't completely helpless, she just had her moments.

"Whatever. Why are you whispering, by the way?" Kim wondered. Alix didn't respond, but instead shoved Kim and told him to keep walking. She hadn't realized she had been whispering, and was embarrassed.

For a good while, it was completely silent, other than the sound of Kim and Alix walking. Kim paused, causing Alix to bump into him, making them both fall over. Kim was groaning from the impact of falling, while Alix was completely silent, trying hard not to blush from embarrassment. Alix jumped off of the boy, offering a hand to help him up, which he declined. "Sorry about that," Kim started, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think I heard voices coming from somewhere." After that statement, Alix saw a faint light that was getting brighter.

"Dad!" Alix sighed in relief. She started running towards the light. Kim didn't notice this happening, and started running after Alix a few seconds later..

"Are you okay?" Her father said, concern laced in his voice.

"I'm fine, dad. We're fine." Alix turned around, impatiently waiting for Kim to catch up. She didn't expect to see Kim running straight at her, which resulted in him knocking the small girl over. "Kim! Get off!" The girl gasped. Kim was a great amount larger than her, and had the breath knocked out of her when Kim fell on top of her.

Right after this happened, the lights flickered back on, revealing that Kim and Alix were under an archway. But this was an archway decorated with mistletoe. Alix gasped, which caused Kim to look up and see the mistletoe. Kim grinned, and started to speak. "I never did get to dare you anything tonight..."