This story is dedicated to a few different people. People I care a lot about.

Please enjoy:)

Stupid Christmas

She places the bow against her strings, and takes a deep breath.

"Here we go."

Carol Pingrey loves her music. She really does. Anything from the bubblegum pop ballads of Boyz Will Be Boyz, to the ragtime tunes of Scott Joplin, to even the occasional country hits of Alan Jackson.

But during a certain time of year, she's encouraged to express her love of of one her most cherished genres of all.

Christmas music.

So, on this December day, the song she plays is one where she's able to do just that. She's able to use her violin to surge all of the holiday spirit and excitement into her music as she steadily rakes the bow along its strings, creating the magical melody to play… well… Carol of the Bells.

How apropos. And no one really does it better with the style and finesse of one Carol Pingrey.

Especially when the other girl in the room joins her in playing along on her amped up purple Sterrett.

A power chord, strums gradually becoming more forceful to bring about a more bombastic sound, she shows just how much she gets into it with the way she shakes and bangs her head, even sticking her tongue out.

Luna Loud is a rock god. And Carol can't resist, the girl's radiating energy is just too contagious.

So she rocks on too, putting everything she can muster into her slides and transitions, disregarding posture for poise, mind strictly on the rhythm.

Until finally, they've reached the conclusion of their duet. The strumming and the raking reaches fever pitch. Both girls have sweaty brows, teary eyes, and racing hearts. This wasn't about anything but the love of the music, man! But somehow, like everything else…

It became about their love of one another.

They draw out their final respective notes as long as they'll ring out, and simply idle for a moment to catch their breath before look to one another.

It's Luna to break the silence, as she's one to often do.

"That… was…"

"Terrible!" Carol finishes for her.

Luna meets her claim with confusion. "Terrible?" she repeats.

"Not you, obviously," Carol retorts. "I mean me!" she hollers as she takes her violin and bow and carefully lies them on the bottom bunk bed beside of her.

She lets out a tense sigh, and Luna places her guitar to the side as well before cautiously pacing towards her.

"I could have been so much better," Carol continues. "First of all, my bow string is dull. Secondly, I always mess up with that transition into the bridge. Not to mention when we play together I have a hard time keeping in sync with you. I don't know if I'm just being slow or if you're going too fast, but it's like I can't keep up with your rhythm!" she blurts out.

She ebbs on her despondence to meet Luna with a weak expression. "That's… not your fault, by the way."

Luna just shakes her head and smiles. "Chillax, C. We were awesome! You were awesome!"

Carol sighs before allowing herself to deflatedly have a seat on the bed, minding her violin as she scoots it to the side.

"Yeah, but it wasn't perfect."

Luna considers her statement for a moment before taking a seat beside of her. "Is anything, though?"

Carol just looks to her with a bit of an incredulous look in her eyes. "Pilates?"

Luna smiles as she places an arm around her girlfriend. "Well… that might be a stretch."

Carol rolls her eyes at the attempt of humor. "Gag me," she teases.

But Luna just keeps smiling at her until Carol meets her eyes. "Okay, I know one thing that's perfect."

Carol softly smiles, because she already has an idea what Luna will say to her. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

And her intuition proves not to be too far off as Luna answers…

"I'm going to spend this Christmas with you."

Poor Carol, she could melt upon hearing Luna's tactfully tacky response. Like her, it was just too cute.

"Aww… Lu Lu Bear…"

The way they look into one another's eyes, it's clear what they're supposed to do next. It's just the two of them here together, and Carol did convince Luna to start using this new cotton candy lip balm…

"Well, I know there's no mistletoe hanging over us, but…" she trails off, alluringly biting her lip as her cheeks burn red.

"So kiss me," Luna responds.

Without any further ado, the girls close their eyes, pucker their lips, and lean in closer…

Before the bedroom door is swung open to reveal Luan Loud.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly!" she loudly sings.

And of course, it just totally kills the mood, but Luna doesn't seem to mind as her little sister comes in screaming all obnoxiously. Typical.

Better yet, she isn't alone. Behind the fourteen year old girl is another familiar face Carol remembers from Bold Navy, the face of one… uh… dang it… What was her name again?

Oh yeah. Maggie.

The emo girl trudges in with an Eeyore-esque frown, but does nothing until Luan nudges her with her elbow. WIth that, Maggie follows her line with…

"Fa la la la la, la la la plllllllllllll," she finishes with a blow of a raspberry.

Luan shrugs. "Eh, I'd ask if what you're feeling is seasonal, but I already know you're jolly well emo. Hahaha!" she jokes with a laugh.

Maggie says nothing. The anguish and despair in her eyes do all the talking for her.

While Carol does feel a little miffed at the two for interrupting what was about to turn into some quality kiss time with Luna, she gets over it upon seeing the purple clad rocker smiling with their arrival.

"What's up, dudes?" she greets. "Practicing for later?"

"Yup! You know I love me a good-" Luan begins.

"Don't say it. If you think anything of me as a person, you won't say it," Maggie interrupts.

Luan exuberantly grins with glee, however.

"You know I love me a good Christmas Carol!"

"And now I want to die," Maggie bluntly states.

The older girls meet the joke with indifference as well, but Luan of course busts a gut over it as she continues laughing.

"Well, at least she got it out of the way now," Carol says.

Luna disregards the pun to stand up from her bed now. "So, I see you guys are about ready to head out."

"As ready as I'll ever be," Maggie says with her usual cynicism.

"But where's-?" Luna starts before another girl makes her way into the room.

"Who's ready for a blue Christmas?" Sam Sharp asks upon making herself known.

"Finally, someone with some class," Carol jokingly says as she stand up from the bed too. "How's it going, Sam?"

"If I was any better, Lisa would try to clone me," Sam gladly answers.

"Don't let her hear that. She might actually try to," Luna says as she paces towards Sam to give her a fist bump.

The other girl returns the gesture, "Yo, Lunar Eclipse. Are you ready to rock the neighborhood?" she playfully asks.

"Always ready to rock, Blue," Luna replies with a smirk.

Carol's demeanor shifts into that of uncertainty. "Rock the neighborhood? What, are you guys hanging out without me?" she almost accusingly asks with a furrowed brow.

"Chill, babe," Luna answered. "We're going Christmas caroling. All of us!" she explained as she looked to all of the other girls in the room with glee.

"You said chill. It's cold outside," Luan points out with a little snicker. And of course Maggie rolls her eyes at this.

Carol thinks back, "Did we ever decide to go caroling? Nobody told me about it! Or… Maybe they did, and I forgot with everything else going on…"

"Nope. They didn't tell me. Yeah. Definitely."

She tries to meet her girlfriend with stern stare, but her shaky voice and pinkening cheeks cause the cracks to show. "I don't remember anything about going caroling tonight. When did you guys talk about this?"

Luna looks back to her with questioning eyes. "Seriously? We planned it last week. We all agreed on Friday night," she recalls.

"I'm pretty sure you suggested Friday," Luan adds, all jokes aside.

"Pffffft, I wouldn't have said Friday," Carol says, but in her mind, she thinks, "Oh man, I really did say Friday, didn't I?"

She shakes herself though to focus on keeping her composure. Make one wrong move, and everyone will know the truth.

"I'm just not sure if we should go tonight, that's all," she adds while crossing her arms.

The others meet her claim with confusion, but Luna dons a hint of scorn.

"Well we're all already here, dude. Come on! It'll be totally rad!" she argues, trying to hold a sense of optimism.

"Yeah! We'll have a lot of fun!" Sam interjects. "And you have a super pretty voice!"

Carol grins at that. "I do hold my high notes flawlessly," she agrees with pride.

"Wait. I'm supposed to be assertive here. Focus, Pingrey!" she scolds herself, and she shifts back into her defensive gait.

"I still don't think tonight is any good," she firmly restates.

Luna frowns again. "Why not?"

Oof. Carol was hoping she wouldn't ask that. But, being the mindful, astute young woman she is, she had already begun forming reasons to list off in her head to convince her rocker-chic lover that her way is the right way.

But she'd really rather not do so in front of… uh… certain company.

She intently eyes Luna. Then, she shifts her glare to Luan, Sam, and Maggie, before looking back to Luna.

While this was supposed to be enough indication for Luna to say something about giving them privacy, Luna instead does nothing. She just keeps frowning back at Carol with the same stubbornness she always does when things get like this.

"Ugh. Now I have to look like the bad guy," Carol mentally cusses. But if that's what has to be done, that's what has to be done, and she'll do it. Really, she kind of has to.

"Uhm, Luna?" she tries, assertively yet calmly.

"Mmm?" Luna simply responds.

"Oh don't play dumb with me you grinch," Carol wishes she could say. Instead, she keeps her wits to her, and responds with the following.

"Could we have a moment alone?" she asks, being sure to look to all of the four other girls.

They all exchange concerned looks (well, concerned doesn't exactly describe Maggie) before shrugging.

"Uh… We'll be downstairs," Sam says on their behalf. Before she turns to walk out with Luan and Maggie though, she takes pause to check in with Luna once more. "You guys good?" she asks.

Luna unamusedly sighs. "Yeah. We'll be down in a sec."

Sufficed with Luna's answer, Sam reluctantly follows the other girls out of the room.

"Talk about getting the cold shoulder! Hahaha!" Luan jokes as they disappear into the hallway, and Carol and Luna hear the groans from her companions from the bedroom.

Then, there's a brief silence. Strong, palpable. Luna's brown eyes lock with Carol's baby blues, but not in the way they often hope for that leads to cutesy hugging and kissing. No, this was about to turn into a great debate. And if Carol could do one thing, it was hold her own in a debate.

Even if Luna was the most impossible and bullheaded girl to ever look so stupidly cute in skully T's.

"What the heck is the deal?" she blurts out, not even trying to hold back.

"Alright, good. No point anyway," Carol decides. "I have to pull this off somehow. I really, really do."

"The deal is, I was under the assumption we would be taking it easy tonight," Carol rebuts.

Luna furrows her brow at that. "Yeah, well, I was 'under the assumption' that we were going caroling with our friends!" Luna mockingly retorts.

"Okay, first of all, caroling is a no," Carol begins. "Not only did you say nothing about it all day, but you know I have a ton of important stuff to get caught up on!"

"Stuff that can't wait one night?!" Luna argues.

"No, it really can't!" Carol almost desperately tells her. "I have this… one deadline that's really important to meet. I have to get this thing done as soon as possible, and I've hardly had time between accounting homework, SAT prep, and looking into college scholarships! Don't even get me started with all the stuff we still have to do for yearbook committee," Carol lists off.

"The heck with yearbook committee! Everyone stopped caring about that when Mr. Sunderland left anyway," Luna blurts out. "And what… project are you even talking about? And can't you just put it off for a few more hours so we can go have some fun?"

While already somewhat flustered, now the former homecoming queen now feels totally confounded. "Luna, it's… a commission. I haven't talked about it because I don't want you to accidentally say something to somebody and it get out. It's supposed to be a secret," she explains, almost like she's rehearsed several times in case it would come up.

"Well… Okay, I guess. I get it, you gotta draw something for somebody. That's totally cool," Luna says, ebbing slightly on the aggression. "But this is really important too."

Carol sighs as she considers how to follow through with what she wants to say next without sounding like a total shrew.

"How important?"

Luna scoffs. "It's our friends, dude? You're not supposed to just blow friends off, even if you do have stuff like this to do."

"Well, okay, that's fair. That's totally fair. I'm a bad person for saying no to caroling with your friends because I have more important stuff to take care of," Carol argues in an attempt to guilt trip Luna. But once the words leave her mouth, it's her who feels guilty.

Luna takes a moment to digest her girlfriend's words, nodding with understanding.

"Alright. I get it," she begins. "You've got more important things to do."

She takes another pause to think about how else to react to what's been said to her, and Carol can see the shroud of despondence that now hangs over her. "Nice going, idiot," she says to herself.

"Luna, hold on-" she starts, but Luna cuts her off.

"I'm gonna go back downstairs. I don't want to keep our friends waiting anymore," she states before grabbing her coat and walking her way over to the door. She stops there, and looks back to Carol. Where there seemed to be anger in them before, there now seems to be more sadness than anything.

"If you decide you can make some time for us, you're more than welcome to come along," she tells her.

With that, she turns to make her way out the door, leaving Carol alone in the bedroom.

Carol heavily sighs with a blend of many conflicting guilty emotions. Guilt for staying behind, guilt for keeping secrets, and a shallow sense of guilt for wanting to stay behind as a way to get back at Luna for trying to guilt trip her.

Which, news flash, it worked.

Even so, she got what she wanted. Now she's alone, and she has some time to do what needs to be done.

She makes her way over to her backpack, and unzips it to pull out her drawing tablet and get it set up. She then takes a seat over on Luan's desk with it, and lies it down on the table until the image of her latest art project manifests on the screen.

A roughly sketched drawing of her girlfriend Luna Loud with rock mega star Mick Swagger.

"Stupid Christmas…" she utters to herself with a heavy heart before deciding to get to work.

Lynn Sr. is in the kitchen singing along to the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album with the twins as they make Christmas cookies.

"Christmas, Christmas time is near… Time for toys and time for cheer…" he joyfully sings as he mixes the batter in his bowl.

Suddenly, he feels a tugging at the hem of his sweater.

"Ugh! Daddy! I want to lick the spoon!" Lola cries. Shortly after, Lana yanks her by her hair to take her place at her father's side.

"I never get to lick the spoon!" she whines as she reaches up for the coveted confection covered spoon.

"Settle down, girls. Remember; Santa is always watching," he reminds them, failing to realize that Cliff the cat has made his way up to the counter to try and sneak a taste of the cookie batter himself.

"Dang it, Cliff," Lynn cusses, grimacing with a sense of defeat.

Meanwhile, Lynn Jr. and Lisa make their way into the kitchen, making a beeline for the refrigerator.

"Okay, I know all of that mathematical hullabaloo already," Lynn remarks regarding Lisa's argument. "But bear with me here, Lis. Santa. Has. Magic," she finishes with a clap.

Lisa rubs the bridge of her nose as she allows her older sister to open the fridge door for them. "I would continue refuting your preposterous claims about the supposed mythological phenomenons regarding that of the Coca Cola product that is Chris Cringle... but I'll refrain from doing so. I'm far too famished, and pie sounds good," she long-windedly tells Lynn.

Lynn rummages through the contents of the icebox with a conflicted look on her face. "Pi? Stop thinking about math for once. Let's get some food."

Lisa meets her with stoicism. "I walked into that one. Move over, Lynn dog," she jokes.

"Hey! You know how I feel about that stuff!" Lynn retorts.

"Pish posh, applesauce. Speaking of applesauce…" Lisa ripostes as she maneuvers her way through Lynn to get her small hands on a treat.

They disregard all of the Dr. Pepper they keep in the fridge, and the many fatty foods the other siblings share an affinity for in favor of an unfamiliar pitcher of… milk?

Lynn takes it, and she and Lisa both study it.

"What is this?" Lynn asks as she takes a whiff of it. It doesn't smell so good, and she cringes.

"Let me see that," Lisa instructs, because weird smelling things usually mean there's something fascinating to discover about them.

She scrutinizes it for a moment before shrugging and deciding to take a sip of it. Once she swallows it, her face scrunches up all sickly like.

"Is it milk? Is it expired?" Lynn questions.

"That's… not milk…" Lisa answers, shaking her head a little because of the concoction.

"Uh girls, that's for me and your father," Rita lets them know as she walks into the room with Lori and two year old Lily at her side. Their mother goes over to the fridge, takes the pitcher from her second youngest daughter, and then puts it away before making her way over to Lynn Sr and the twins.

Lori smiles at Lisa. "I see you found the eggnog. I remember my first time trying some, haha," she recalls with a little laugh before making her way to the dinner table for a seat with little Lily.

Lynn Jr looks to Lisa for a moment as well. "You good, Dexter?"

"I… ahem… I'm going to go… uhm… science…" Lisa stammers before making her way out with a little fumble in her step.

Lynn makes sure to go escort her back to her bedroom, but not before filching a snack wrap from the fridge.

Rita taps her husband on the shoulder, and he defensively tenses up before realizing it's her. "Hey beautiful," she flirts.

"Oh, hey handsome," Lynn Sr. jokingly says with a little less vigor before returning his focus to the cookie batter before him. "Uh, sweetheart, can you please tell our daughters to give me some space," he asks.

"You've got it, Super Dad," she jokes. "Alright, come on ladies. I think they're playing Frozen in the living room," Rita tells the twins, motioning them along.

"Aww! Frozen!" Lana happily cries, running into the living room.

"Aww! Frozen…" Lola groans, trudging along.

"You're too good for us, dear," Lynn tells his wife as she makes her leave as well.

"No… you," Rita tells him with a wink.

Lori sits Lily in her chair, and offers her spoonful of sugar. "Is that good? Yeah?" she asks with a cutesy voice.

"I like it!" Lily happily announces.

"D'awww," Lori gushes with glossy eyes.

Shortly after, her cell phone rings, and it's none other than her beloved…

"Bobby Boo Boo Bear!" she greets as she pecks the answer call dial, revealing his handsome face.

"Heeeey babe," he draws out with a smile. "How's everything going?"

"It's loud," she chuckles, "but I like it that way. How are you guys?" she asks.

From the other end of the line, her only brother Lincoln makes himself visible. "Hey Lori! It's awesome over here!" he answers on their behalf. He turns back to look at the long line of people behind him all gathered to donate their canned goods to a certain Ronnie Anne Casagrande, who smiles as a charitable patron drops off her contribution in a bin.

"Thanks so much! Merry Christmas!" the eleven year old girl cheerfully expresses.

Lincoln and Bobby both look back to Lori through the phone screen. "It's really great, babe. I can't believe how many people showed up for the food drive."

"Yeah, it uh- It's really great," Lincoln says, wiping a single tear away from his eye with a sniffle.

"I'm really happy to hear it, guys. This is what Christmas is all about. Giving to others without asking for anything in return," she tells them before smiling at her infant sister, who just looks unarguably adorable as always.

The smiles wane from Bobby and Lincoln as they feel a presence nearing them, and they turn to see who it is.

"Uhm, is that Lori?" the faceless voice nervously asks.

"Yeah! Do you wanna say hi?" Lincoln asks the stranger.

"Is that who I think it is?" Lori asks with a sly smile, "Tell him to get in here!"

Clyde timidly makes himself seen on the chat, and despite a little trepidation, musters words to say to her.

"H-Hi Lori. I hope you're doing well," he politely greets. No nosebleeds, no robot sounds, just well mannered salutations.

"I'm doing great. I hope you're having fun!" Lori tells him in response.

"Oh, yeah. It's always fun helping others," Clyde says with a little more pep, warming up to the casual conversation a little.

"It literally is," she agrees.

Clyde simply smiles, and the other boys do too.

"Well, I just wanted to check in and let you guys know we might be staying a little later than planned. I hope your folks are okay with that," Bobby tells his girlfriend.

"Trust me, they won't argue. Besides, we have enough going on over here with the twelve days of Frozen and Alvin," Lori wisecracks.

"We only have each other! It's just you and me! What are we gonna doooooooo?!" Lana carelessly sings from the living room, totally out of tune and time with the TV. Lola just buries her face in a pillow, praying for it to end as soon as possible.

"Are you seeing this Santa? I better get everything I want this year!" she hollers.

Luan, Sam, and Maggie all watch on from the foyer. While the former two find it amusing, the emo expectantly frowns.

"Your sister is my spirit animal," she jokes to Luan, who simply laughs in response.

Finally, Luna makes her way downstairs to join everyone, wearing the despondence from the argument with Carol on her sleeve.

The others pick up on her depressive display, and are quick to ask about it.

"Is everything okay, Luna?" Lola is first to ask.

Luna dismissively waves at her. "I'm okay, Blondie. Got lost inside an adorable delusion, I cannot hide."

The others frown. "Aww, is Carol not coming with us?" Sam questions.

"She… said she had some stuff to take care of," Luna skittishly answers. Her disappointment is obvious, but she does her best to put on a front by fixing her posture and letting out a sigh before forcing a smile. "So hey, are you dudes still down to go caroling?"

"Sure! But you left your Carol upstairs, hahaha!" Luan jokes, but she quickly realizes it's not the best time even before she notices everyone glaring at her. "Sorry… Bad time."

Luna shakes it off again. "Naw, it's all good dude. Tonight's about having fun. I don't wanna worry about it."

The others exchange worried looks, but decide not to be so fretful with Luna's encouragement.

"Well, alright dear…" Rita starts. "You guys are gonna be home at a decent hour, right? You know how Flip feels about the neighborhood getting so Loud," she reminds them.

"Flip can cool his tits," Sam scoffs.

"Sam!" Luna blurts out.

"I like her," Rita whispers to Lana, who nods in agreement.

"She has a pretty voice like you," Lana comments, and Rita just smiles at that.

Sam continues her elaboration. "Yo, real talk. This is a night for fun and adventure. Anyone who isn't into that stuff can either stay upstairs and do whatever, or go home," she declares.

Maggie casually turns to make her way out the door, but Luan stops her.

Rita thinks over Sam's declaration. "Wait a second… Carol has her own house…"

"I like Carol! Don't make her leave!" Lola practically begs, jumping out of her seat.

"Relax… No one is making her go anywhere…" she assures the excitable tot.

The carolers all look to Luna, who fixes her eyes on the stairway. She wistfully considers the possibilities, but ultimately comes to the same conclusion as everyone else.

"Yeah… No one is making her go anywhere…" Luna somberly agrees. The thought is saddening, but she refuses to dwell on it. Or at the very least, she won't let it keep her where she stands.

So she puts her big girl panties on and bucks up.

"Alright dudes. Who's ready to rock the Christmas spirit!" she cries with a smile.

"Yeah!" Luan and Sam cheer.

"Yaaaaaaaay," Maggie sarcastically, lethargically moans.

Luan just smirks at this, then grabs her by the wrist to maneuver her towards the door. "Come on, sunshine."

"Be safe you guys. Have fun! Keep your coats on!" Rita tells everyone.

"Everybody be quiet! First Time In Forever is about to play!" Lana demands of them all, practically shaking with excitement in her seat as she glues her eyes to the television.

Sam smiles at her display of childish wonder, then starts to make her way out the door. She notices that Luna isn't quick to follow though, and looks back to her with a forlorn expression.

"Luna?"

The other girl lifts her head to meet Sam's eyes, and after a moment of consideration, perks up a little.

"Yeah. Let's roll," she says with a weak smile before walking to the door.

Sam returns a smile of her own, and with that, the carolers make their way into the night to spread Christmas cheer.

Minus a Carol.

I really missed writing for these two, and I knew I had to do something for Christmas. Hopefully I can get the whole thing finished before the 25th, but either way, I'm far from done.

So please stay tuned for more, and thanks for everything, true believers.