It was a little more chaotic than she'd hoped for, but everything was perfect.
She recalled the year before, everything was much calmer as people enjoyed their presents. Reagan and Madison had been polite – polite! – enough to go outside to mess with their new sports equipment instead of stay inside; Natalie had stayed in the love seat as she felt the designer clothes Amy had gotten her; Ned, Ted, and Sinead had all bugged Amy to help them with their Experts Only Chemistry Set (something about gingers sticking together) but they had stopped when she said no; Dan, Jonah, and Hamilton didn't throw anything at the television simply because the boss would not die, Amy, gosh! for a change; Alistair and Nellie had been in the kitchen, exchanging culinary experiences; and Ian and Amy just stood in a corner near the tree and talked.
Given the circumstances, Amy could accept the fact that this year would be nothing like the last.
But throwing the book Evan had gotten her at the TV was just unacceptable.
"But, Amy, this boss just won't—"
"Daniel Arthur Cahill," She hissed at her younger brother, clutching the expensive leather bound edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in her arms, "you will not throw anything at the TV!"
"But!"
She gave him a glare before moving off to the kitchen. She expected Nellie and Alistair to be in there like last year, but she was met with disappointment and fear.
Sinead had taken over the kitchen for her experiments.
"Can you click the skip button," she didn't make any move to look at Amy, "I don't really like this one."
Amy quickly found her friend's iTouch and did as she was asked. "Too cool to use the iPad you got?"
"Oh, man," Sinead chuckled, "I completely forgot about that thing."
"Oh, that's just great."
"It's not like I didn't buy it; therefore, it's okay that I forgot because I'm the one who bought it."
"Wonderful." She gently pushed aside the door leading into the dining room, uncertain on what might await her on the other side.
Ian and Evan were the room's only inmates; they seemed to be as far way from the other as possible. Judging by the fact that Evan was clawing at his hair and Ian was scowling at a stain on his shirt, Amy had just missed the food fight.
"My god," She moaned, "not you two, too!"
Both of them attempted to open their mouths in protest, or explanation perhaps, but Amy gave them no chance. She held up her book as if it was a Bible and they were demons. "This is Christmas, guys, at least act like you like each other!"
Ian's face briefly twisted in remorse, but he looked the other way before it became truly noticeable. Instead of looking regretful, Evan's face lightened up. Amy figured that he liked to see Amy use the book her gave her, even though it probably wasn't in the way he imagined.
"You like the book?" He asked, still clawing at whatever was in his hair.
Amy sighed and walked over to her boyfriend. She expertly pulled out something that looked suspiciously like a crumpet from Evan's hair. She shot Ian a glare before returning her attention to Evan.
"Yes, it's lovely." She readjusted Evan's shirt, which seemed to have managed to get damaged in the brawl. "It would be even lovelier if you two could stop fighting for just today." Something in the back of her mind seemed to twitch – a sudden memory of Ian's almost confession.
She wouldn't think about that, not with Evan standing right in front of her.
"Can you two do that for me?"
Evan gave her a thoughtful look for a few moments before saying that yes, he could. She turned expectantly towards Ian, but he seemed to have made an escape.
She shook her head and looked back at Evan. "I have to check on everyone else," she leaned up and kissed his cheek, "see you later."
"Under the mistletoe?"
She chuckled, but gave no other response as she walked out the door towards the front room. A soccer ball flew past her head. She barely had enough time to duck.
Hamilton yelled out an apology, but he was too slow to fetch the ball before Amy got to it.
"Outside," She hissed.
Jonah and Hamilton recoiled. "Yo, Ames, it's not—"
"Now."
Someone much taller than Amy grabbed the ball from her hands. "C'mon, Amy, let the guys have some fun. He apologized, it's not like he was trying to hit your head."
Amy immediately relaxed when she recognized her father's voice, then tensed again when she realized what his suggestion would cause. "No, they'll break something—"
"Hey!"
"Like their own skulls!"
Arthur took a moment to think. "Yeah, you got a point." He tossed the ball back to Hamilton. "Outside, guys." They quickly scurried out of sight under Amy's glare.
Arthur wrapped his arm around his daughter's shoulder. "C'mon, Ames, you gotta be a little more fun than that."
She was going to retort with something sarcastic, it's what she would've done with Dan, but she found herself hugging Arthur instead. "I'm still not used to you being here." She mumbled into his shirt.
He chuckled. "You're gonna have to get used to it soon, Angel."
She smiled and hugged him tighter before letting him go. "Would you mind looking after Dan? Just to make sure he doesn't throw anyone's presents at the TV?"
"Kid's getting more and more like me each day!" He exclaimed as he walked towards the living room.
"Great."
Although there wasn't anything to look at, Amy took a moment to glance around at her surroundings. It was snowing outside, which was a pleasant addition to the somewhat-quiet of the house. She could see Hamilton and Jonah messing around with the soccer ball (which was thankfully neon orange), Dan and Arthur's screams at the video game were audible, and Sinead and Evan seemed to be in the middle of an experiment because there were two shouts coming from the kitchen. That or they just found the nutella.
"Sorry about that fight with Evan." Amy twisted to look behind her. Ian was avoiding eye contact with her; she took special noticed that he had changed his shirt.
"Its fine, I guess, but I really wish you two would try to get along for once."
"We were trying, but one thing led to another…." He ruffled his hair. "Anyway, I'm sorry."
"You already said that. So one thing led to another and you threw a crumpet at him?"
He sat down next to her on the stair case. "Well, actually, he threw it first."
"Oh, I'm sure he did!"
So they talked, just like they had the year before – though they were sitting on the front room's staircase instead of standing in the living room. Amy loved that she could talk with Ian and not freak out like she used to (when he wasn't being a dunce, of course). The fact that she could have a refreshing, no-yelling conversation with someone was nice.
"Well aren't you two cute?" Sinead and Evan walked out from the dining room exit, both looked windblown. Amy was fairly certain they hadn't gone outside.
Evan scowled at Ian. Ian glared back.
"Hey!" Amy yelled. "What did we just talk about, Ian?"
He raised an eyebrow. "We just spoke about how you wish Sinead would quit stealing your nutella." Sinead offered an apologetic smile.
"Before that!"
He rolled his eyes but didn't answer.
Evan journeyed up the staircase to where Amy was sitting. He took the stair behind her as his own and wrapped his arms around her neck. "Well, hello there, Ian."
Ian gave one last glare before getting up and moving towards Sinead.
Slowly but surely, all of the residents of Grace's house began to gather in the front room as if some foreign force was moving them against their wills. No one spoke, they all just looked at each other.
"We're not gonna start singing, are we?" Dan said with a sneer.
Arthur chuckled. "No, but two people are gonna have to do something you're gonna hate even more than singing."
Everyone in the room murmured in confusion until Arthur pointed up. Dan made a gagging sound. Right above Sinead and Hamilton was a sprig of mistletoe.
"Go on, then." Ian said with a smile, a genuine smile.
Hamilton and Sinead both blushed.
Amy smiled, she'd known her friend had a not-so secret crush on Hamilton for a while. It was nice to see her get a small taste (haha, Amy laughed in her head) of that.
Maybe the hostages weren't back yet, maybe Amy and Dan were still not used to their father being alive, maybe Ian and Evan would never get along and Sinead would always steal her nutella, maybe Amy had lied and Ian's almost confession was still ringing in her ears - but none of that mattered.
They were together now, and that's what mattered.