Drowning

You're So Going On The Naughty List

In some form of a Christmas miracle, Finley's parents had agreed to let her go to the not-a-Christmas party that Finley had decided to dub "Return of the Rumble", inspired by Demetri of course and his weird obsession with calling their dojo standoffs, rumbles. Considering it was just her friends and their surrounding friends, Finley wasn't nervous. In all honesty, Miguel picking her, trusting her to be the mediator between the two dojos, well she took pride in it. Granted she also had no idea how she was supposed to keep the peace between them. But. With Miguel in one dojo, and Demetri in the other, she wanted to make this work for them, so she was gonna do what she did best- play devils advocate.

She knocked on the wooden front door of the LaRusso house before taking a step back and looking at the house. It was gorgeous. Apparently owning car dealerships pays really well. Even the lighting on it seemed perfect, as if the designer had spent even longer planning the exact spot that every beam of light would touch, than the actual house itself. The door creaked open and the warm light from inside washed out onto the front patio, slowly extending up until Finley was completely covered in it as the door fully opened. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, the shadow in front of her slowly transformed into Samantha LaRusso.

The girl looked surprised for a moment before she finally spoke, gesturing for Finley to come in. "Glad you're here, the Eagle Fangs got here a few minutes ago and it's not going well."

Finley nodded her head and kept her mouth shut as she followed Sam into the house. Once again, she was taken aback by the sheer beauty of the house, her feet stalling to a stop in the entrance way as she tried to take it all in. She swore that they must have hired a professional decorator for Christmas as she looked around at the Christmas tree straight out of a catalogue, the perfectly wrapped presents, and the tinsel wrapped up the stair railing in perfectly spaced intervals. Sam realized she was no longer being followed and turned to see the brunette standing there with her mouth slightly open as her eyes darted around the room.

When Finley's brown eyes finally connected with her own, Sam raised her eyebrows in confusion. "What?"

Finley's face turned red as she realized how much she had been gawking at what this girl considered everyday normal. "Sorry. Your house is just, really nice."

She quickly walked towards her, just wanting to get to the rest of the people so that this awkwardness would leave. The sound of arguing quickly reached her ears and she found her own eyebrows raising as they walked into the living room. The two dojos were squared off, as if prepared for a fight. In fact, everyone looked like they were itching for the other to make the first move, with the exception of Miguel who just looked exhausted. As they walked into the room, Finley heard a threat that she would never forget.

"If you died, I wouldn't even attend your funeral."

It took everything she had not to laugh at the intensity with which Nate had spoken. Part of her wanted to open her sarcastic mouth and tell him it would be a much better plan to steal a whole bunch of things from Bert's family and friends and then put them all in the casket before they arrived so it would appear as if Bert was a thief and kleptomaniac... just an idea off the top of her head. But she didn't. She kept her mouth shut.

"Ya know what? Screw this." Mitch spoke up as he snatched a green Santa hat off the ground. "Come on, let's go."

As he headed for the door, Finley panicked. Miguel had asked her here to help bring them together, and she couldn't do that if they left. Her mind whirled, trying to come up with something, anything to make them stay. One thought popped in her head, but she quickly wrote it off considering it was irrelevant. At least she tried. The problem was, once it popped in her head, she couldn't think of anything else besides it. It was gonna have to suffice.