12/20/10

Christmas dwellers One and All! The time of Christmas is almost near. Get your presents, wrap them up, stash them away from kids a muck. This beautiful time of year is one favored by most especially for one teenage girl with four hockey playing friends.

"Oh my gosh guys!" Charloette Seth Matthews exclaimed. "Christmas is only 5 days away!"

"Yeah, we kinda noticed." Kendall said referring to her outfit. She was wearing green pants with red sparkles on the side of her legs, a red shirt with a Christmas tree on it, decorated and with presents under it, a red headband with the number 5 springing on top, and elf shoes.

"Too much?"

"Just a little." Carlos said inching his fingers.

"Well, that doesn't matter because I just LOVE Christmas!~" she sang jumping up and down. They were currently on their way home from the boys hockey practice.

"We know." The boys groaned in unison.

"Don't have to get all grumpy about it." she said crossing her arms and pretending to be upset.

"We're not upset, we just know how much you love Christmas." Logan reasoned.

"We've known for 10 years." James added a little harshly. Charlie was surprised with his tone, but decided not to make a big deal about it.

"So what do you guys wanna do now?" she said standing in front of them, causing them to halt.

"We could go to my house." Kendall offered.

"We always go to your house." Carlos stated.

"Yeah cause it's fun, plus my mom is gonna need some help decorating the tree." he said looking at Charlie, who's face lit up.

"Let's go!" she said taking their hands. James pulled away harshly causing them all to stop and turn around.

"Aren't you coming with us?" She asked. He shook his head.

"I'm just gonna go home." She got closer holding his arm.

"Why? When you can have Christmas-y fun with us." she started to tug on his arm pulling him closer to them but he once again pulled away harshly, which stunned Charlie.

"Sorry, I...just don't...feel good." he said coming up with an excuse.

"Oh, well okay." she said looking down. He started to walk off in the direction to his house.

"We'll see you tomorrow James! Hope you feel better!" she called to him before walking away towards Kendall's house with the others.

When James arrived to his house, we walked through the door and straight to his room, ignoring his mother question of how school was. He slammed the door shut and threw his stuff aside. He hopped onto his bed, laying his head against his pillow. He turned his head to look out his window, where he saw little kids playing in the snow. Then one of the boys dad came out and played along with them. It was beautiful sight. A beautiful sight that made James upset. He got up from his bed and closed the blinds harshly.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, now in the dark. He leaned forward and put his head in his hand, pushing his hair back. He sighed solemnly and leaned back to lay down on his bed. A single tear escaping from his eyes and sliding down his face. He stared up at the ceiling in the dark for hours. Didn't move when his mother called him down for dinner, didn't move when she knocked on the door, didn't move when she said he had a call from Charlie. He stayed on that bed the entire day, while one teenage girl was decorating a tree with her friends feeling an empty feeling because he wasn't there.

"Do ya'll think James is okay?" She asked while Kendall put the star on top.

"Of course, why wouldn't he be?" Carlos asked.

"Well, I don't know, he was acting kinda weird today."

"He said he wasn't feeling good, that was probably it." Logan told her.

"I don't know, I still have a bad feeling."

"Why don't you go down there tomorrow morning?" Kendall said stepping off of the step ladder. "Maybe bring him some soup." She thought it over in her head.

"Sounds good. I'll make cookies too! You guys wanna tag along?"

"Can't, me and my family are getting our tree tomorrow." Carlos said.

"Family's flying in early." Logan said.

"Mom's having us clean up for her Christmas party." Kendall said.

"Fine, I'll save ya'll cookies and come by later on." she said putting her jacket on. "Well, I gotta go. My mom's leaving early tonight and I need to be there before she leaves. Bye guys!~" she called from the door. They all waved back at her and continued decorating the tree. She walked back home arriving just as her mother was about to leave.

"Hey mom." she called coming into the house to see her mom putting on her lipstick in the mirror hanging on the wall.

"Hey sweetie!" she said giving her a peck on her forehead leaving a lipstick smudge. "Listen, I'm gonna be working for the rest of the week."

"Even Christmas!" she exclaimed her heart dropping.

"No, thank goodness. I was able to get off for Christmas, but I am gonna have to work on Christmas eve."

"Oh," she said disappointed. "that's still better than you working on Christmas at least."

"Yes, plus I don't go in until late on Christmas eve, so we can decorate the tree before I leave."

"Sweet!"

"Okay, I really have to go. Be safe, don't break anything, lock all the doors and.." she trailed off getting her purse. "There's something else."

"Uh, I love you?" she asked.

"Oh! Right, Love you sweetie." she said giving her another kiss, leaving another smudge.

"Love you too mom." she said laughing at her mother's forgetfulness. She closed the door once her mother stepped into her car and drove off. She locked the door and plopped onto her couch turning on the tv to some Christmas specials. She watched for a while before turning her thoughts back to James. She decided she would call him. She picked up her house phone and called James house number.

"Hello?" a cheery voice answered.

"Hello Mrs. Diamond, it's Charloette."

"Oh, hello Charloette, how are you doing?"

"I'm good Mrs. Diamond. Is James there? I was hoping to talk to him."

"Yes he is here. Let me get him." shuffling noises were heard as she suspected she was going up the stairs. She heard knocks on the other side and a request for James to come out but no reply came.

"I'm sorry Charloette he won't get out of his room. Do you want me to leave a message?"

"No it's okay, I was just going to let him know that I was gonna come by in the morning with Soup and Cookies."

"Oh how sweet. Well, I leave a key under the mat, I'll probably be at work by then. Just come in when you get here. I'm sure he'll appreciate this."

"Thank you Mrs. Diamond. Well I have to go, if you can, please tell James."

"Will do hun." She hung up the phone.

"Now, I'm starting to worry." she said to herself, wondering what was with her friends mood. "No, I'm probably just being paranoid. He said he wasn't feeling good, that's probably just it. Tomorrow I will see that James is back to being his normal self." she looked around the room and sighed. "I have got to stop talking to myself."

So yeah, James won my poll by one vote. I hope you like this, I'll update when I can today and tomorrow. It won't be very long. A chapter for each day until Christmas. Next one will be on the 21st. Hope you like it.