Disclaimer - I don't own Descendants, it would be gayer if I did.
A/N - Merry Christmas! This is part of my secret Santa gift to evieoftheisle on Tumblr. Sorry it's late, enjoy!
Christmas at Auradon was something almost magical. Especially compared to the dire conditions on the Isle that the Villain Kids were used to. Snow fell lightly and sprinkled the ground and buildings of Auradon Prep, covering everything in white. There was even a whole committee for Christmas who decorated the entire school in twinkly lights, bunting and tinsel. A giant Christmas tree was erected in the grand hall, adorned with tinsel, beads and baubles in the school colours. Everything was practically perfect, something that never failed to amaze the new kids, Evie, Mal, Jay and Carlos, for whom it was their first Christmas in their new home.
Carlos, especially, was like an overexcited child each and every day on the run-up to Christmas day,
"…and did you try some of those… what were they called, Jay?" He practically shouted whilst talking to his friends at lunch.
"Roasted chestnuts? Mince pies? Pigs in blankets? Carlos, you tried a lot of things earlier, I don't know which ones you're talking about." Jay chuckled, smiling fondly at his boyfriend's excitement and enthusiasm.
"Oh, all of them really, they were so good. And we get a whole meal full of stuff like that on Christmas day? And we get presents; isn't Christmas just the best?!" Carlos said to the group, excitedly.
They all agreed, even the teens who were used to Christmas in Auradon and all its extravagances.
"Wait until you see all the desserts, man; they're the best part!" Chad said, almost just as excited as Carlos was.
"I just can't believe you guys have never had a real Christmas before… I don't mean to be rude, but did you not even get our left-overs sent over?" Lonnie asked, as usual, never afraid to ask what she was thinking.
"No… maybe King Beast thought it was an extra form of punishment for our parents not to have anything related to Christmas." Evie offered as a suggestion.
"Plus, I don't think Christmas is really something villains like our parents would be interested in. I mean, all this joy and giving? Absolutely out of the question." Mal added; even she was allowing herself to get into the holiday spirit and enjoy herself.
"Plus," Carlos went to add, "why would anyone leave any of this amazing food to go in the trash? I can't imagine there was much waste to send to us at the end of the day."
"Anyway! Is everyone excited for secret Santa after this?" Jane asked cheerily, trying to change the subject.
"Oh yes! I have the perfect gift for my person! This is so exciting, why did we never do this on Isle, it's so fun, and definitely a little deceitful since we aren't allowed to tell each other who we have." Evie said, just as chirpily, clasping her hands together and smiling sweetly.
"Because we didn't even know Christmas was really a thing until like six months ago. It is a good idea though, I'm actually pretty impressed with myself for my gift." Jay replied, smugly.
"What, did you steal it?" Mal asked, dryly with a smirk.
"Nope! Absolutely no theft went into the making of this gift." Jay replied.
The bells chimed to signify that lunch was over and lessons were about to resume so the group of friends got up from their seats and packed up their things.
"So, we'll all meet in Mal and Evie's room at four for the festivities?" Doug asked before they all went their separate ways.
"Yep, we decorated and everything!" Evie said, proudly.
"Well, Evie decorated, I just handed her things." Mal added.
Everyone chuckled slightly and shook their heads before saying their goodbyes and walking off to their different and final lessons before Christmas.
Four o'clock came sooner than Evie was prepared for as she rushed around her and Mal's room, trying to make sure everything was perfect for their friends arriving any minute.
"Mal! Where did you put that red sparkly bowl we bought the other day? I need to put the little chocolate things in there for everyone!" Evie called through to the bathroom where Mal was trying her best to follow Evie's instructions on how to properly apply blush and lipstick.
"Uhmmm… did you try my side of the wardrobe?" Mal called back.
Evie went over to Mal's side of the wardrobe and dug through the small mountain of clothes that had developed at the bottom of it from where Mal couldn't be bothered to hang her stuff up. She found the bowl she was looking for under a pair of leather trousers and sighed,
"Found it." She called.
Evie thought about putting the clothes she'd moved back in some sort of neat pile but then decided there was no point – it wasn't as if Mal would notice or it would last very long. She put the bowl on their desk and filled it with a large packet of small chocolate treats she thought her friends would enjoy.
Mal stepped out of the bathroom, looking for Evie's approval of her make-up and instead found her stressing over where to put the bowl she'd just filled that would compliment the colour scheme of their decorations.
"E, I think you need to calm down a little. You know everyone's going to have fun no matter what the room looks like!" Mal said, trying to comfort and reassure her friend.
"I know. But Christmas is such a big deal here, I just want it to be perfect for everyone." Evie said, leaving the bowl on the side and taking a deep breath to steady herself.
"They'll love it, the room looks great, you look great and besides, everyone is going to be too excited over the gifts to notice an out-of-place bowl."
"So, it is out of place?" Evie asked, panicking again.
"E! Chill. It's fine. More importantly, how is my face? Do I look like a clown?"
Evie giggled, she brushed her thumb across Mal's cheek to blend in the pink blush she'd applied a little too liberally and then stood back a little to examine her friend's work.
"Looks good, you're getting better at this!" Evie said, proud that Mal was learning something about make-up from her.
Mal smiled and thanked Evie, relieved that it was only the two products she'd picked out and made her apply.
A short minute later, there was a knock on the door. Mal walked over and opened it to see Jane and Lonnie standing there with their gifts and some snacks in plastic bags.
"Hey, come in, just put the food on the desk and presents in that big sack thing over there." Mal said, letting the two girls slip into the room, greeting Evie and complimenting her on the décor as they did.
As everyone began to arrive, the room started to fill up and so did the desk with food people were designated to bring. It was becoming a real little party, and everyone seemed to be having a good time just chatting and gushing over how good Evie's decorations were. Mal could almost see Evie's pride glowing from across the room and she was happy that she was having fun and no longer stressing about what everyone thought.
The way everyone had agreed they should handle the gift giving was that everyone put the parcels in a bag with tags, they get handed out and opened by the recipients and then everyone had to guess who their secret Santa was. That seemed a lot more fun than simply handing over the gifts.
"Okay, everyone." Evie called to her friends from the centre of the room, "everyone ready for presents?"
Everyone muttered and nodded in agreement and sat in some form of circle on the rug in the middle of the room, with the bag of presents, like Santa's sack in the middle.
Once everyone had their gifts, they settled down and waited for Evie to say who should go first. No one had explicitly said she was in charge of the whole thing but since it was her room and Mal seemed to not mind so much about the whole thing, she was elected unofficial queen of secret Santa.
"So, who wants to go first?" Evie asked, sitting back next to Doug who instinctively put his arm around her.
"Why don't you go first E, since you put so much effort into getting everything ready?" Mal suggested, to which everyone agreed.
Evie smiled brightly and began to unwrap her presents, two small parcels in red, shiny wrapping paper. The wrapping was a little sloppy and covered in tape, so it was difficult for her to get into them. Looking at the group, she was sure that this was done purposefully as a joke and narrowed down her pool of guesses for who her Santa could be.
'A guy. Not Doug or Ben. Or maybe Mal actually.' She thought to herself.
Once she had finally gotten into the first package – the slightly bigger of the two – she pulled off the paper to reveal a small, silver tiara, the front including little red jewels to match the majority of her wardrobe. Jane and Lonnie both gave little gasps and 'ooo's' as she revealed her gift to everyone and commented on how pretty it was. She grinned widely and immediately placed it on her head. It was more of a dainty hair accessory than a real tiara, but it fit perfectly to one side of her neat bun.
Before giving any thanks, she moved onto the second, smaller present in front of her. Rather than attempted to tear the paper, she went straight for just removing the tape that was almost wrapped around the whole object. She got into that one a lot quicker than the last and revealed a silver locket, the colour and pattern matching the tiara she'd just opened. Evie opened the locket up and saw that whoever had given her the gift had already put two tiny pictures in there. On the left was a picture of her, Mal, Jay and Carlos and on the right, one of her and Doug. Evie almost teared up at how thoughtful the gift was ('not Chad.') and how much she loved it, putting it on immediately.
"Oh my Gosh! Thank you… whoever. I love them so much!" She said, aimed at everyone, touching the locket to her chest as she did.
"They're super cute Evie, your secret Santa did such a good job!" Jane said, leaning forward to get a better look at the locket.
"Definitely! I did not expect this, oh I just love it." Evie said again, surprised that someone could know her so well and get her something so touching.
"So, who do you think got you them?" Doug asked, also smiling at the fact that he was in Evie's locket.
Evie thought for a moment. She had narrowed it down to Carlos, Jay or Mal but not that she thought about it, Doug was maybe back in the running. She looked at them each in turn, looking to see if their expressions would give them away but they all kept a strong poker face and weren't letting anything slip. Carlos was her first real friend out of them all and he could be really sweet and thoughtful towards the people he cared about so she decided to lay her bet on him.
"Hmm… I think, it was… Carlos?" She half-asked, half-said into the circle.
Carlos looked at her and smirked,
"Are we telling straight away or waiting til the end?" He asked.
"I think just do it as we go, it will get too confusing otherwise." Lonnie offered.
"Yeah, I agree." Jane added.
"Okay, so… it wasn't me." Carlos said, chuckling in and fidgeting with excitement.
"So, who was it?" Evie asked.
Jay raised his hand and smiled, content that he hadn't been found out and his secret-keeping skills were still very much intact.
"It was me, I'm glad you like them! I knew I had an awesome gift!" He said, just a little smugly.
Evie moved over to Jay and wrapped her arms around him, thanking him again as she did and telling him how much she loved the presents. He hugged her back, extremely pleased that she liked them. Whilst this exchange was happening, Chad leaned over to Doug and whispered,
"Dude, I think Jay might be trying to steal your girl, look."
Dough just chuckled and shook his head,
"Thanks for the heads up, Chad." He said, stifling a full-on laugh which he thought would be kind of mean.
"Chad, Jay isn't into… I mean, I don't think Evie is his type. You know?" Lonnie said, also finding the whole thing kind of hilarious, trying to hint at Chad that he had nothing to worry about with Jay and Evie being a thing.
"Why not? She's hot. Sorry man, just stating a fact. But you know, I'd never go for another guy's girl. Bro code and all that." Chad said, still keeping his voice down and aiming the last part at Doug.
"No, Chad. Jay is with Carlos… Evie's not his type." Lonnie continued.
"Yeah, so?"
"Never mind." Lonnie said, shaking her head. Doug and Jane both chuckled at Chad's obliviousness and focused back on who was next to open their presents.
"Doug, you wanna go next?" Evie asked once she had taken her seat back next to him.
Doug nodded and began to open his gifts; wrapped in shiny, gold paper was a small box-shaped parcel and a slightly larger strangely shaped one; it was kind of round and felt like there was a hole in the middle of it. Doug was viably confused and put that one aside to be opened second. He took the first gift and tore off the paper to reveal a new, state of the art scientific calculator which not only handled math and science equations but also had more keys to include potion ingredients and spell check (for grammar and casting – of course all only theoretical, of course). Doug was actually very pleased with this gift as his current calculator was old and the buttons were getting worn out, plus it was no were near as up to date and sophisticated as this one was.
'Okay, this is a cool gift and very me. Maybe one of the girls had me? Jane! This seems like a Jane thing to get me.' Doug thought, trying to guess who could have been his secret Santa.
Doug placed the calculator box down next to him and picked up the second, more confusing gift. He inspected it quickly once more and looked around at everyone, trying to see if everyone else was just as confused as he was to what it could be. They were. Or at least they all looked like they were, he couldn't tell who was just pretending to not give themselves away. Once he was sure he was not going to guess what it was from outside the wrapping, Doug started to undo the paper and quickly discovered that the weird thing in the paper was a crown. It was gold and jewel encrusted and way too extravagant for Doug to ever wear but it did at least tell him who the gifts were from.
"Oh wow, Doug, that's… something special." Jane said, perkily, "the calculator's so cool though! Who do you think got them for you?"
"Well it was a tough one, but I think… it was Chad." Doug replied, turning to look at Chad, sitting next to him.
Chad was already grinning and barely able to hold back his laughter; if the gift hadn't given him away, his sucking in air to keep him from bursting would have.
"Yeah man, it was me. Pretty great right? The crown was something I wanted for myself, so I figured anyone else would like it! And the best part is, because I liked it so much, I got another one for myself; we could go to the next royal event wearing them, that'd be so dope. And hey, since you're dating like the best designer in the school, she can make super cool outfits for us. Ahh, I can picture it now." Chad zoned out for a second and then continued, "the calculator was the one I was a little worried you wouldn't like to be honest. I hope it's alright, you're into all that science stuff."
Doug laughed and gave Chad a friendly clap on the back as he thanked him, assuring him they were great gifts and whispering to Evie that she should never ever agree to make him and Chad matching outfits for any event. She agreed.
"Okay, Chad, your turn!" Evie said.
Chad's gifts were a medium sized box-shaped present, wrapped in the same red, shiny paper that Evie's (and a couple of others') presents were wrapped in and small envelope with his name scrawled in large letters across the front. Chad shook the envelope to see if there was anything solid in there, but nothing made any noise. He went with opening that first. He picked open the envelope and tore off the top, holding it upside town and shaking out the contents. Three small pieces of paper fell out and onto the floor and Chad picked them up to see what they were, the confusion evident on his face. He read them out loud, one at a time.
"Coupon for 1 3D print. Coupon for 1 3D print. Ooh and a coupon for Sebastian's seafood-alternatives restaurant. Nice. I think I can guess who got me these." He said, grinning widely.
He then moved on to the actual present and began unwrapping it quickly, eager to see what we inside. Once he'd got the paper off, he found a plain brown box.
"Wow, I needed a box. This is… great." He said, looking unconvinced.
"Open the box, Chad." Mal called from across the circle.
Chad looked at her as if to say, 'oh right' and found the opening of the box and pulled out a small, action figure. At first no one could really tell what it was of, the crown on its head make them think it was maybe King Beast or even Ben if they'd made an action figure for him yet. But that was not something anyone thought Chad would appreciate and from the huge grin that was spreading across Chad's face, they were sure it couldn't be figures of those two.
"This… is… AWESOME! The best thing I've ever gotten!" he almost screamed.
"What is it a figure of?" Ben asked, leaning in to get a closer look.
"Oh my God, it's Chad. It's a Chad action figure." Mal said, letting out a quick cackle afterwards.
Everyone immediately burst into fits if laughter and Chad just looked so pleased, he was in his own world.
"Chad, man, that's literally the perfect present for you." Jay said through laughs.
"I know, I freaking love it. Thanks man!" Chad replied, still smiling so wide.
"I had Evie, I didn't get you that. Oh, but I wish I did."
"But… it had the same wrapping paper… and you have the 3D printer!" Chad said, not visibly confused.
"Yeah, but Lonnie and Carlos's also have the same paper. I share a room with one other person, think about who else it could be." Jay prompted, thinking that surely even Chad couldn't be that oblivious.
"Carlos!" Chad called, opening his arms out wide and signalling for Carlos to bring it in and hug him., "come on." He prompted, gesturing again for Carlos to come over to him.
Carlos rolled his eyes and reluctantly moved over to Chad and gave him a quick, one-handed hug and pat on the back.
"Thanks man, you're the best!" Chad said once he released Carlos.
"No problem, I'm glad you liked it. Oh, and as for the printing coupons, they're both only one use only, just to let you know." Carlos chuckled as he moved back to his place in the circle next to Jay.
"Gotcha." Chad said, flashing some finger guns Carlos's way.
Once all the excitement of Chad's gift had died down, it was Lonnie's time to open her present. This was also wrapped in the same red paper but was unmistakably different to everyone else's. It was very long and thin and had some weight to it. Lonnie had no idea what this could be as other than long and thin, the wrapping made the whole thing kind of shapeless and it was difficult to make anything out and it wasn't something she could easily shake. She quickly pulled off the wrapping paper, getting the satisfaction of tearing all the way through it. Once she had ripped all the paper off, she lifted the object out from the paper and revealed a silver sword with a gold handle that seemed to be engraved with a floral pattern on the top and something else – writing – in the underside. Lonnie took a closer look and examined the whole sword, shocked that anyone would even think to get her something so great. It was perfect and exactly what she wanted – even if it had been kind of secret since sword fights weren't exactly common or thought highly of in Auradon. The engraving on the inside of the handle was Lonnie's name and 'strength' written in Chinese.
"Oh my, this is perfect. Who even knew I wanted something like this? It's amazing." She said, holding it up to everyone, not taking her eyes off it even if they were misting up a little at how much she loved her gift.
"Who do you think your Santa is?" Jane asked.
Lonnie really had no idea; the only clue was possibly the wrapping paper since it was the same as Carlos and Jay's. But that also didn't help much. Maybe Jane since she was so thoughtful but then this wasn't something that she thought Jane would feel comfortable buying and hiding from her mother. But there it was, it had to be either Evie or Mal since they wouldn't have had to hide it from anyone and would definitely have no trouble going out and actually buying it and they were close with Jay and Carlos so it would make sense for them to use the same wrapping paper.
"Okay umm… I think… it was Mal?"
"Yup, it was me! I knew you'd love it! I just figured, after what happened on the Isle, you needed a weapon that was as badass as you!" Mal said, smiling, pleased with herself.
"Aw well thank you so much Mal!"
"No worries. Okay, Jane, you're up."
Jane picked up the first of her gifts, a large squishy parcel wrapped in blue paper with snowflakes scattered across it, a ribbon tied around it and a big blue bow in the centre. It looked perfect and a part of Jane didn't want to ruin the immaculate wrapping but an even bigger part of her wanted to tear it all up and see what her present was. She took another few seconds to enjoy the pretty parcel and then tore into it delicately, being careful to only rip when necessary.
Jane held up the present to get a good look at it, unfolding the garment which turned out to be a stunning, baby pink short ball gown with a slightly puffy, glittering skirt, pinched at the waist and strapless with a sweetheart neckline. Jane gasped in happiness and clutched the dress to her chest. She then folded it back neatly and placed it on the wrapping paper as to make sure it didn't go on the floor and get dirty. She picked up the next gift, a rectangular box-shaped one, wrapped just as perfectly as the last and opened it slowly. Inside was a shoebox, black and plain. Jane opened the box up slowly to reveal a pair of pink heels, the same shade as the dress she'd just received. They sparkled ever so slightly in the light but weren't so shiny that they were tacky or over-powering; they were lowkey as Jane tried to be but cute and classy all the same.
"Oh my! These are just wonderful, I know what I'm wearing to the big Christmas meal now! And basically, every other big occasion there is for the next… forever!" Jane smiled so wide that her cheeks hurt a little, "Evie was this from you? Did you make the dress?" She asked.
"Guilty! It was so fun to design a dress for you! I went and picked out the shoes and then made a dress that would match. I hope you don't mind that I went a little different with the colour to what you usually wear but I thought a little change would be good and that pink is definitely your colour! Oh, you're going to look so good in that! Are you sure you like them?" Evie spoke quickly, having held in her excitement the whole time Jane was opening her presents.
"Evie, I love them! Thank you so so much!" Jane replied.
Jane practically skipped over to Evie and wrapped her up in a quick hug before sitting back down in her spot and looking to Jay, waiting for him to open his presents.
Jay didn't need to be asked, he was tearing into his gold and deep blue coloured wrapping paper as soon as Jane sat back down. The first one he attacked was square and flat and he had it open in seconds. Once he'd pulled the wrapping paper off, he held up the picture frame that was inside. It was facing him so no one else could see if there was a picture in it or what it was but the look on Jay's – and Carlos's from his place right next to him – said there was. The frame itself was kind of beautiful; it was dark oak and the sides were carved intricately with various patterns. As Jay turned the frame around to inspect the back and get a good look at the whole thing, his friends got to see what was actually in the frame. It was a hand-drawn and painted picture of him and Carlos. It was so well-drawn that it looked like a photograph and even though Jay put on a tough-guy front and wasn't really into mushy stuff, he was rendered speechless.
"Woah, this is cool." Was all he said, in a low, hushed tone.
He tilted it towards Carlos for him to see better who rested his chin on Jay's shoulder and put his arm around the other one, in a similar position to the one they were sporting in the painting. The only differences being that they were looking at one another, completely unaware of anyone else in the world in that one captured moment and the autumn leaves that surrounded them.
"It's from that day in the park back in September. Someone must have taken a picture." Carlos said, feeling almost as grateful as Jay was.
He kissed Jay on the cheek as Jay set down the picture frame carefully and began to open up his send present. As with the first, the wrapping paper was off almost immediately, and another black shoebox was revealed. He threw open the lid and got out a brand-new pair of leather boots. They were dark brown with matching laces and just what Jay needed since his were getting a little worn down and didn't do the best job at keeping out the snow that had been falling recently. He put the shoes down next to the picture and began to look at people questioningly. The only people left who had not been exposed as secret Santa's already were Ben, Doug, Jane and Lonnie and if Jay was honest, any one of them could have been thoughtful enough to get Jay something so great. He quickly eliminated Ben and Doug since they weren't there that day at the park but then didn't know which one of the two girls got him. He let his eyes drift between the two of them, hoping their facial expressions would give them away but they both remained looking impartial and he couldn't tell.
"Okay, I think… Jane got me these." He said finally, making a decision.
Jane smirked and chuckled and then shook her head no.
"Nope, not me. It is really super adorable though." She said.
"It was me. Surprise! Do you like them?" Ben piped up from the opposite direction Jay was looking in.
He was shocked and only slightly annoyed that he didn't guess it was him since he was so looking forward to getting it right.
"Ben, man, they're great! How'd you get hold of this picture of us though, you weren't even there that day?" Jay asked.
Ben chuckled, "I knew that would throw you off with your guess. Well when I knew I got you for secret Santa, I kinda cheated a little and told Mal who I had so she could help me out with the idea. I knew I wanted to get you a painting done but none of the pictures on social media felt right so I thought Evie would have something and Mal could find me one and pass it on. And I was right."
Both Jay and Carlos looked at Evie and raised an eyebrow.
"What? You were both being too cute for me to not take a photo. I have a bunch of pictures of everyone; you never know when you're gonna need photos of your friends and I think this is a great example of that." Evie said defensively.
"Not creepy, not creepy at all." Chad whispered.
Evie flashed him a look that could kill and quickly Carlos piped up to change the subject.
"Okay! My turn!" He said, excitedly.
If it was possible, Carlos ripped through the paper that held his present even faster than Jay did. He was the most excited about everything Christmas and had to wait nearly the longest to get to find out what his gifts were. The first one was large and soft and the same red paper he'd used was easy to tear through. Carlos quickly discarded the paper and held up two sweaters. They were both black and white striped, but one was remarkably smaller than the other and had four arm holes where there should only be two. The other was normal and quickly everyone worked out that they were matching sweaters for him and Dude, his dog. Carlos grinned, and everyone laughed, Jane and Evie agreeing on how cute and what a good idea that was. Carlos carefully placed the two garments down and got started on unwrapping his next present, a smaller one that was rectangular and made a rattling noise when you shook it.
He quickly opened this gift too and pulled out the newest release of 'Zombies', part of the video game series he, Jay and Doug had come to be obsessed with. It was what it said on the tin, about zombies and included some truly awesome (and gruesome) 3D and virtual reality effects.
"Awesome!" Carlos said, happily.
Out of Jane, Doug and Lonnie, it was kind of easy to guess who Carlos' secret Santa was.
"Okay so Doug, is this from you?" He asked.
"Yup. I guess they're both kinda half-presents though since one of the sweaters is obviously for Dude and you know I will be trying to beat you on Zombies as soon as I've given you a chance to have a go." Doug said.
"No, I they're both great, thanks man."
"Alright, me next!" Mal proclaimed.
Although she was quick with her unwrapping, she was delicate and careful. She had one parcel, but it felt like it was a bundle of things. She had no idea how someone could wrap something that felt so mismatched and strangely textured so well. The paper was thick and red with gold patterned piping all over it. Mal pulled out each object one-by-one and placed them neatly on the floor in front of her. There were three cans of spray paint (black, purple and green), a pair of purple leather fingerless gloves and a pack of oil paints in all different colours. They were amazing gifts and exactly what Mal had wanted. Only Jane and Lonnie remained to choose from and either of them could have brought her these, they were very good but very generic gifts.
"Okay, I really don't know which one of you got me these but thank you, they're wonderful, exactly what I wanted. I think I'll wait for Ben to open his before I guess so that he gets a shot at guessing too." Mal said, turning her head to look at Ben to show him to open his presents.
Ben smiled at Mal like she was the most remarkable thing he had ever seen in his life and, as if he couldn't bare to not be looking at her for even a second. He leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on her lips, telling her how thoughtful she was as he did so.
He then tore his eyes away and focused his attention on the presents in front of him that weren't going to unwrap themselves. He picked up the biggest of the three parcel's he'd been given and carefully and slowly ripped the blue and white spotted paper off to reveal a box of what appeared to be home-baked chocolate chip cookies. This was a surprising gift but one he was grateful for. Chocolate chip cookies were Ben's weakness. But all his friends knew that, so it wasn't really helpful in giving him a hint as to who had given them to him. He then moved his attention to the smallest one which was oddly shaped, sort of like a long, stretched out pyramid. As before, he methodically pulled the paper away and revealed a plaque that people of importance have on their desks with their names on it. Like teachers or school principles. 'Benjamin Florian' was inscribed in cursive on the face of the gold plaque and was definitely a lot nicer than the one he already had on his desk. He placed it down next to the cookies and then worked on the rectangular, flat package remaining. Once he'd taken the wrapping off, he revealed a photo frame containing a photo of him and Mal that he loved from cotillion.
Mal shuffled up closer to Ben and rested her head on his shoulder, looking at the picture as well. She also loved that picture and knew that Jane knew that. By process of elimination, she had worked out who her gifts were from. She smirked that she was about to get it right but also smiled at the picture and how she knew Ben had wanted to get it framed for a while. She decided then that she truly loved her new friends. She loved this little group of mismatched, strange individuals. Of course, she had decided that a while ago but right in that moment, she was overcome with a wave of affection for them all which was strange for her but not something she hated. She was very happy in that moment and glad that they had done this.
"Wow, these are so great. Mal do you want to guess first? I think I know who my secret Santa is." Ben asked, kissing the top of Mal's head which was still resting on him.
"Hmm" Mal said quietly, kind of zoned out, just taking in the moment.
She sat up and whispered in Ben's ear,
"So, you know it was Jane, right?"
Ben laughed and nodded, glad to know they were on the same page.
"Okay, well Lonnie, thank you very very much for my paints and gloves, they're perfect!" Mal said.
"And Jane, thank you so much for mine, I cannot wait to dig into these cookies and these will be going on my desk first thing tomorrow."
"You're welcome." Both girls replied, smiling sweetly.
Now that everyone had unwrapped their gifts and said their thank you's, the festivities were over, and everyone seemed happy. Everyone was kinda surprised with how well they all knew each other and how good they all were at buying gifts – even Chad, although it may have been an accident. No one said anything for a moment, they all just sat there, taking each other and their gifts in and just being grateful for everything. It was a good Christmas and the main event hadn't even started yet. And for the Isle kids, it was the only Christmas they had ever known, and their first Christmas and they were grateful that it was such a special one.
"Merry Christmas everyone." Ben announced, getting to his feet as everyone else followed suit.
"Merry Christmas!" They all echoed and resumed their previous chatting and snacking on the food people had brought with them
It was a good Christmas. A really good Christmas.
A/N - Okay so this is so extra and very long but I just couldn't stop writing once I started. It's now 3:50am and I just finished this and am kinda proud of it. It's v detailed kinda unnecessarily but I hope everyone liked it. Again, it was my secret Santa gift to evieoftheisle on tumblr so I hope you liked it if you could be bothered to read the whole thing, I know it's long, ahh. Okay, thanks. Merry Christmas (even though it kinda late)! Leave a cute review if you feel like it lads and ladies.