Ok, here's my very own Christmas one-shot, written on Christmas Day itself! It might be a little confusing, but if you read it carefully you should be able to understand it.
I've worked really hard on this, and I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own SoR... or maybe that's just what I want you to think...
Dedicated to Dolphin Stebbs, the bassist in The Annoyances.
You'll know why.
(And if you don't, e-mail me).
I sigh, as I pick up the last few remnants of my happy memories. I gather the crumpled twists of wrapping paper, the delicate baubles that spin wildly on their fragile threads, the discarded gifts. I hold the candy wrappers up to the light, remembering when my sister and I used to make cards and pictures out of them. She enters the room, and I turn to greet her. The candy wrappers float gently to the floor, unnoticed. A ghost of happiness flits across her face, but no smile graces the perfect lips. I haven't ever seen her smile.
As a child she was nicknamed 'Ice Queen', as she always seemed so distant, so aloof. I was the only one to go near her, the only one to speak to her. As a result of that I, too, became quiet, afraid, a loner. I was a solitary loner. I was not much disturbed, and to me it became usual. I never again had friends, and never knew what I was missing.
'Zack,' she says quietly, 'what is it?' I sigh softly. I love her, very much so, but somehow also hate her.
'Nothing, Katie,' I reply, 'I was just thinking back to last Christmas.' I see the sparkle of recognition in her eyes, then the dull flush begins to creep up her face. I know I have hurt her, but I can't bring myself to regret it. She turns and sweeps out of the room, gone no doubt to gaze at her pictures once again. I kneel on the floor, looking at one of my daughter's broken toys.
How can I even begin to tell you about last Christmas? It was the beginning and the end of everything important to me. I ended something important to me, but discovered something priceless. Fatherhood. And as for my dear sister? It was the day when her heart of glass shattered into thousands of tiny, sharp edges. There is one who can mend it, but he's gone from here.
'Daddy?' As if she has felt my pain, my tiny girl comes into the room, hoping to heal me of it. I sit back, and lift her onto my knee.
'What is it, honey?'
'I feel a pain, Daddy. Just here.' I touch her tiny hands, taking them in between my own. She screws up her face. 'It... It feels like... appendicitis,' she says, bringing the big words out with an effort.
'Appendicitis? Who taught you that word, honey?'
'Mrs Jones.'
'Do you mean Auntie Katie?'
'No,' she says, as if it were obvious. 'She told me not to call her that. She told me I was... I can't remember the word, but... I don't know,' she finishes up, with a bewildered look. 'But am I going to die, Daddy? Mrs Jones said I might.'
'No, you're not, dear,' I say, before sending her out of the room. I don't want her here for what I'm going to do next. 'Katie,' I call. 'Katie!' She comes sauntering, not a care in the world.
'What is it, Zackary?'
'You've told my daughter she's going to die. Again. What is it with you, Katie? Why are you so bitter, and twisted?' She starts to speak, but I cut her off with a wave of my hand. 'Don't answer that. I know what you've been through – the same thing happened to me, remember?'
Her dark eyes flash, as she instinctively raises her hand and clutches the shining silver locket hanging around her pale neck as if it were supporting her life. 'You didn't see them,' she hisses. I'm impressed that she took notice, she normally pretends it never happened, that they never lived.
'I know I might not have seen them,' I shoot back, 'but I felt it. Ohhh, I felt it. And it hurt, Katie. It hurt right here,' I add, hitting my chest for emphasis.
'I know where it hurt, Zack,' she snaps. 'It hurt me. It hurt him, right before he died. I saw him die.' I shake my head in anger, my dark hair flapping around my face, but she ignores it, as she has done so many times before. 'And it still hurts me, every time I look at her. Spitting image of her mother. The one that killed my love, and with him a part of me. So I do the only thing I can do. I hurt her back.'
'Why, Katie?' I can only ask helplessly. 'Why?'
'Because it's not fair that you have something to remember her by, when I have nothing to remember him by.' She speaks his name with particular care, reverence almost. Very different to the tone she used to spit out the word 'mother'.
'You do, Katie. You have your pictures,' I point out softly, not wanting to hurt her anymore.
'My pictures,' she hisses. 'Oh, I have my pictures. My pictures aren't proof of the fact that it happened.'
'You admit it happened?'
'Probably. Right before he died.'
'My love died, Katie! Yours didn't! He didn't die, Katie! Why can't you accept that he left you?' She begins to cry silently. She looks like a queen standing there, tall and regal. She'd be perfect if it wasn't for that tears sliding down her face. But they're somehow perfect as well, small and perfectly formed. I suddenly regret it all, and take a step towards her. 'Oh, my sister. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' I move nearer, but without warning she whirls around and slaps me hard across the face, her long, dark braid flying.
'It's a little late to be sorry now, Zack.'
NME
Never Expecting.
In memory of Summer Hathaway.
Dedicated to Mary Mooneyham.
Remember last Christmas? This year we hope torefresh your memories about that chaotic day when, in a strange twist of events, the week after Freddy Jones (drummer) left the hit band School of Rock together with Summer Hathaway (manager), Zack Mooneyham (guitarist) became a father! Yes, we're confused too, so hopefully this article will sort it all out. Here's the facts.
> Freddy Jones left School of Rock.
> He was going out with Katie Mooneyham (bassist) at the time.
> He left her for Summer Hathaway without telling anyone.
> Summer also left the band. There was apparently no connection between her and Freddy both leaving.
> Summer was was married to Zack Mooneyham when she began cheating on him, but she had kept her own name (who would have thought that Summer would cheat on him?).
> Neither Summer or Freddy had planned this – it was supposedly as much a shock to them as to everyone.
> Summer had secretly had a baby with Zack a while ago, but had been ashamed because they weren't married at the time.
> She demanded that the band have a nine-month break to help them get over fame. While that was going on, she escaped to her mother's to have the baby.
> When she had the baby she couldn't bring herself to tell Zack, so she left it with her mother.
> It all got too much for Summer, so this time last year, on Christmas day, she ended her life. Zack still didn't know about the baby, but Freddy came clean about the secret affair.
> Freddy couldn't 'live with himself', so he moved away and is now living his days out under a fake name, to avoid publicity.
> On the same day that Summer ended her life, her mother decided the baby was too much to care for, and handed her over to Zack.
The baby was named Mary, and she was the best Christmas present Zack could have got. Says Zack when we spoke to him, "I was shocked to hear about Summer, but in her suicide note she asked me to forgive her, and I have. She never meant for it to turn out like this, and if she'd known then I'm sure it would never have happened. Mary is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I love her."
Katie Mooneyham, who has allegedly been calling herself 'Mrs Jones', says "Freddy loved me. He was lying when he said he'd been having an affair – it was all the drugs. He'd proposed to me when Summer introduced him to the drugs, and he would've wanted me to be Mrs Jones. I think Mary is, uh -" Here Katie looked a bit uncomfortable, "- is wonderful. I think that you've got your facts a bit wrong, though. Please change them."
When we asked Zack about this, he said "Katie is having a few problems right now. I'd appreciate it if you took that into account when writing this."
Well, we hope Katie gets better soon, and wish Mary a happy Christmas!
I slowly raise my hand to my face. Katie has never physically hurt me before.
'Katie,' I say softly, 'did you forget to take your medication again?'