I do not own American Girl, or Samantha, or Nellie, or any of the characters :)
December 21, 1911
Samantha and Nellie walked through the bustling city streets, snow falling softly onto the pavement below as they zigzagged in and out of the rushing crowd. Four days before Christmas, people were everywhere snagging the last minute gifts they had neglected or forgotten to buy before. Bridget and Jenny trailed behind them, chattering about boys and their friends and snacking on the peppermint candies Samantha and Nellie had just purchased for them and William from the candy store. Usually the girls walked home alone from school, but today Samantha and Nellie had surprised them at the end of the day to take them to get a treat, it being their last day of school before the holiday break.
Every once in a while, Nellie would look back to make sure the girls were still behind them and not lost in the swirling crowd, and often she and Samantha had to wait for them to catch up. On one such occasion, Samantha stopped in front of a shop window and glanced at the display.
"Nellie, look!" Samantha said excitedly, and tugged Nellie's coat sleeve. "Look at that hat!" She pointed through the window of the shop and leaned in closer to the window, her breath fogging up the glass. "Wouldn't that be perfect for Grandmary?" Nellie smiled at the deep purple velvet hat, adorned with a cream ribbon and faux light pink lilies and baby's breath. It sat peeking out of a black hatbox in the display.
"It's lovely, Samantha. Do you think you should get it, though? You already bought Grandmary those hankies."
Samantha's fingers, red with cold, curled on the glass as she recalled the lace hankies she had purchased the weekend before. "That's true, but I think Grandmary would like the hat much more. I could give them to Cornelia, along with some of the Jolie Chocolates we bought today." Samantha gestured towards the box in Nellie's gloved hands.
Nellie shrugged. "Alright, Samantha," she said. "You run in and get it while I wait for the girls." Nellie stood on her tiptoes and peered over the bobbing heads as Samantha ducked into the store.
After making polite small talk with the clerk and carefully counting out the seven dollars needed to purchase the hat, Samantha exited the shop satisfied with her purchase to the girls and Nellie. They rounded a corner and approached the tall brownstone house that housed the Edwards family. Samantha slid her key into the lock and opened the door, and the girls piled in. Instantly, they were all struck from the warmth of the house. Cornelia lounged in a chair by the blazing fire, opening the mail, while William sat in the floor, playing with toys. Cornelia looked up and smiled brilliantly.
"Hello, girls!" she said, standing up and giving them all hugs after they took off their coats. "How was school?" she asked Bridget and Jenny. Bridget and Jenny chattered excitedly as Samantha and Nellie began to sneak up the stairs. "Wait, girls," Cornelia shushed Bridget and Jenny and called to Samantha and Nellie. "I have some news for you!"
Samantha and Nellie stopped midway up the stairs and peered down over the railing at Cornelia. "Grandmary phoned earlier this week, asking if we would like to spend Christmas with her and the admiral in Mount Bedford. Gard and I told her we would love to, but we wanted to make sure that it was what the rest of you wanted."
Bridget and Jenny began clamoring with excitement and Samantha and Nellie smiled to each other. Even William screeched many a loud "yes" because of all the excitement the girls were creating. Nellie looked down at Cornelia and smiled broadly. "Oh, yes, of course! We would love to!" Samantha nodded in agreement, and was suddenly very happy she had bought the hat.
Later that night, as Samantha ducked into her hot bath, her excitement built. She had not spent Christmas in Mt. Bedford since she was twelve (every year afterwards Grandmary and the Admiral had come to the city), and at the time she had been so fixated on the differences of that year and her previous Christmases in Mt. Bedford. It had been the family's first Christmas in Mt. Bedford all together, the first one at Mt. Bedford with the Admiral. It had been so different from the ones when she was younger when it was just her, Grandmary, and Uncle Gard. Now there was Cornelia, Nellie, Bridget, Jenny, William, and the Admiral, along with herself, Uncle Gard and Grandmary. She loved the chaotic holiday she had presently that she had always had to envision in the past.
She missed living with Grandmary in Mt. Bedford sometimes, but nothing ever changed in Mt. Bedford; it was always just like when she had left it, and she knew that had she stayed there any longer after experiencing life in New York City, she would have gone absolutely crazy. And besides, she had never realized how really lonely she was when she was an only child. Now she had four siblings and could not even imagine life without them.
Still, what Mt. Bedford lacked in city bustle, it made up for in small town charm. She began looking forward to sledding on Fairwind Hill, and Mr. Carruthers' Candy Shop; the Ice Cream Parlor and Schofield's Toy Store. William will love Schofield's, she thought, and couldn't wait to bring him there to look at the model trains and toy soldiers. She even became excited to see all of her friends and her old neighbors- Ida Dean, who hadn't responded to her letters in months, Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, Mrs. Van Sicklen, Ruth Adams, Jessie and her family, Eddie Ryland-
Samantha groaned and sank down further into her bathwater til it reached well over her chin. She had completely, blissfully forgotten of Eddie Ryland's existence. The last time she had interacted with Eddie in the slightest was at least two summers ago, when he had yelled an insult about their hats to herself and Nellie from an upstairs window. Last Samantha had heard, he was attending a university, which explained his delightful absence from all of her more recent visits to her childhood home. But this was the biggest holiday of the year; there was no way that he would not be home with his family for such an important holiday. Samantha groaned again and stayed in the bath for a long time.
"He'll probably have a fresh snow-covered rock to pummel at us the moment he lays eyes on us," Samantha complained, as she sat on the bed, carefully wrapping the hatbox containing Grandmary's gift. Nellie stood in front of the vanity in their room, carefully combing her dripping wet, shoulder-length strawberry hair by the light of the single gas lamp.
"I'm sure it won't be that bad, Samantha," Nellie said. "We probably won't even see him, we'll be so busy."
"He'll find ways to see us, Nellie. Specifically so he can pester us." Samantha tied a ribbon to the hatbox carefully, then surveyed her work. "He'll probably follow us when we take William and the girls sledding. He'll probably have snow-covered rocks to throw at us THEN, too."
Nellie smoothed her hair with her fingers, and put the comb down on the vanity. "Maybe he's grown up," Nellie said, turning to Samantha. "He has been away at university. And it's been two years since he made that awful comment about our hats," Nellie continued. "People change with time. Maybe he's changed."
Samantha was struck by this thought. What if Eddie had changed?
But Samantha had thought that every time over the past couple of years, and until very recently had been disappointed every time to learn that Eddie, indeed, had not changed. At all.
"Eddie Ryland doesn't change, Nellie. Eddie Ryland will never change."