DECEMBER 6

"Hot Chocolate"

When Cassandra ran up the bus steps and picked her way down the aisle past knees and backpacks leaking out of bench seats on either side, she became aware that half the bus peered out at her front yard. There were some smiles and some slack jaws.

"Wow," Sharon said, as soon as Cassandra joined her in the rear seats. "And here I thought you were done putting up every Christmas decoration ever made. Someone had fun making the snowmen."

Cassandra didn't register the vague insult. "Yeah! I did that yesterday with Jack. The little one is me, and the others are my foster mom's friends."

Sharon's mother was in the Air Force and worked in Cheyenne Mountain too, but in NORAD, not the SGC. She wouldn't know any Janet's friends, or have even heard anything about them, so Cassandra didn't elaborate.

"So are you auditioning today for the winter play? It's A Christmas Carol. It's my favorite Christmas play too. I want to play Belle."

Cassandra had read the script their drama teacher Mr. Owens had handed out to the entire seventh grade class whether they took drama or not the week of Thanksgiving, and she'd tried to read the book by Charles Dickens too over the break, but ended up just watching a movie because Charles Dickens didn't seem like a very good writer to her.

"Umm, no. I don't think so. I wouldn't really like to be up on stage in front of everybody. Miss Bradley said they would need some students to help make and paint the sets, so I'm going to do that."

Sharon looked highly skeptical about this choice. The bus rolled to a stop in front of the school and the students filed out, pushing and shoving the whole way. On the way to her locker, Cassandra heard students talking about little else besides the winter play or the winter concerts. Everyone wanted a part in the play or a solo, either with the choir or band, it seemed. Only a few students, too shy or not artistic, didn't want to take part in the winter festivities at school.

Like every day, Tessa came to find Cassandra by her locker. The younger girl looked excited and nervous. She had the script of A Christmas Carol on top of her first period books and a lot of sticky notes peeking out of the pages.

"I'm trying out for The Ghost of Christmas Past," Tessa said breathlessly, "because that ghost is supposed to look like a child, and well, I'm smaller than almost anyone else who has a shot at getting a part. Will you help me rehearse over lunch?"

"Of course I will, Tessa. Not that I think you need it. You'll be really great."

"Thanks, Cass. I haven't forgotten about doing Christmas traditions, you know. I just wanted to learn my lines. What have you done so far anyway?"

Cassandra listed off all the fun things she'd done in the last five days while she collected her language arts books and a leisure reading novel from her locker. When she looked at Tessa again, she found the other girl staring at her curiously.

"Oh. I, umm, well, I thought you meant things less … usual. I mean, don't they have Christmas decorations in Toronto?"

Sensing they were nearing a very dangerous line of questions, Cassandra took off down the hallway to buy some time and think up an excuse. She thought it was a good thing she hadn't told her other friends about the traditions yet because they probably would have pressed for a similar answer too.

"We did, yeah … but, umm, my family was, umm … Amish," she blurted out. It was the best she could come up with on the spot, but she hoped Tessa didn't push for more detail because Cassandra had only heard about the Amish once. The most she knew about them was that they didn't have electricity.

"Oh! I didn't know there were Amish in Canada. But why didn't another Amish family become your foster parents? I mean, I'm glad Dr. Fraiser did and you're here, but I thought the Amish kept their communities together."

Cassandra felt a growing panic. She couldn't keep up the cover story – Janet had explained telling a lie for national security was a cover story – but she also couldn't tell Tessa the truth without getting into trouble. She mumbled some nonsense about her Amish community owing Janet a favor and said good-bye quickly before heading into class.

She worried that Tessa would want a better answer than she could give and spent most of the day dreaming up excuses to share with Tessa. They ranged from semi-believable to more outlandish even than the truth about her origins. Tessa, however, didn't ask about it the rest of the day. She was more worried about the auditions.

The day passed in a blur, and before Cassandra knew it, the fifth bell rang. Everyone auditioning for a part or solo in the winter play or concerts was dismissed from last period. She stored her books in her locker and filed to the auditorium with what seemed like three-quarters of the school. Mr. Owens, Miss Bradley, and the choir and band teachers separated the students into groups depending on what they wanted to do.

Cassandra and a handful of artistic students followed Miss Bradley to the storage space underneath the stage where sets and props were kept when the theater students weren't using them. She instructed each student to put together a small set for a different scene in the play. She assigned Cassandra the Cratchits' house.

"Use anything you can find under the stage. You have fifteen minutes starting now."

It was the strangest experience of Cassandra's life rushing around to decorate a poor family's historical dining room with odds and ends used for other plays over the years. She didn't lose her head like Madeleine or James, but she didn't think she did quite as well as Jordan or Alex. This Earth custom of trying to outdo everyone else was new to her still, and she didn't think to watch what her peers did and copy them like her classmates did.

After Miss Bradley inspected each of the students' sets, she handed out the assignments. Alex, Jordan, and James got be set decorators. Madeleine had done a pretty poor job putting her set together, but had found all the stuff quickly, so she was the Props Master.

"And Cassandra will be our set designer," Miss Bradley said. "That means Cassie will tell us what all the sets should look like and make drawings of them. The rest of you will fill the sets like you just did now. If you need some props you don't have, I'll let you use the art classroom to make them."

Finally, she handed out a form for the students to have their parents sign saying it was okay for them to stay after school an hour every night and one whole Saturday. Cassie folded up her form and put it in her pocket so she wouldn't lose it, then went to find Tessa.

"I think it went really well!" she said. "Mr. Owens said he'll post the cast list tomorrow morning."

"That's great, Tessa. Guess what? I'm the set designer!"

The girls chattered excitedly the whole way back to their lockers and out to the buses.

Cassandra could hardly wait to get home and tell Janet, but then she remembered her foster mother was working an overnight shift at the SGC. She had been so looking forward to the auditions that she had almost forgotten she would be staying at Sam's place and doing another holiday tradition.

When the bus dropped her off at home, Sam was wrestling an overexcited Homer into the backseat of her car and sporadically promising to throttle Jack for buying such a hyperactive dog while Teal'c loaded Cassandra's overnight bag into the trunk.

"I am not familiar with all of your military's rules, Captain Carter, but I believe that would be a court martialable offense," Teal'c said sagely.

"Okay, then maybe I'll accidentally misdial the gate and send him to the – Cassie!"

Cassandra threw her arms around Sam's torso and ordered Homer to get into the car. Her dog obeyed without delay. After greeting Teal'c, the girl hopped into the backseat with her dog and strapped herself in. She told Sam and Teal'c her good news immediately and launched into an explanation of what set designers did. Once they exhausted the topic, she turned to the question only scarcely less exciting.

"So what's the Christmas tradition for tonight?"

"How do you feel about hot chocolate?" Sam asked, in a tone that clearly suggested Cassandra and Teal'c should be thrilled about it.

"I have no particular feelings about it," the Jaffa said, straight-faced as always.

"Well, you should," Sam informed them.

Cassandra found out why after dinner. Sam showed them how to warm up cocoa and sugar in a pan on the gas stove and add in the boiled water before the milk. A touch of vanilla flavoring, some whipped cream, and a pirouette cookie finished off the drink. They carried their mugs into the living room and sat down in front of the electric fire.

"This is the only way to enjoy hot chocolate," Sam said matter-of-factly. "It has to be this recipe, in front of a fire, when it is freezing cold outside. Otherwise, it's no good."

"Is that a rule like all kids on Earth have to have a dog?" Cassandra asked skeptically. After Jack had told her that, she'd found over half of her classmates did not have, nor had they ever had, a dog.

"No, but it is a Carter family rule."

Cassandra tested the piping hot drink tentatively. It was totally unlike the Snow Cream. Rich and creamy, it trickled down Cassandra's throat and warmed her from the inside. It tasted even better as the whipped cream started to melt and mix with the thick chocolate.

"This is amazing! How can you not drink this every day?"

"Because if I did, I wouldn't fit into my uniforms," Sam laughed. "So I take it you like this tradition."

"Definitely!"

After savoring a few more mouthfuls, Cassandra asked, "Sam, are all the Carter family holiday traditions about drinks?"

"No!" The woman waggled her eyebrows playfully. "There is cookie baking coming up too."

"I also find this tradition very enjoyable," Teal'c agreed. The Jaffa had given himself a whipped cream mustache that sent Sam and Cassandra into peals of giggles. "But perhaps it is one best enjoyed alone."

"No, come on, Teal'c," Sam said. "Holiday traditions aren't any fun if you do them alone. That's what this whole season is about, being with your friends and family."

She realized a beat too late that Cassandra had no family left and as a traitor Teal'c could not return to his. Her smile slipped, and she struggled to find a suitable segue. She accepted after a moment there was no changing the subject just yet.

"And that's why we've planned to do these traditions with as many of us together as we can manage. Janet, Daniel, Colonel O'Neill, me, we all understand how hard it is to lose family or be separated from them."

"It is difficult," Teal'c said gravely, "though the presence of my friends and our just cause has made my exile bearable."

Cassandra answered by leaning her head against Sam's shoulder and giving her a one-armed hug. "This is your mom's recipe too, isn't it?"

Sam nodded with a sad smile. "I think most of my holiday traditions were hers. Snow Creams, Hot Chocolate, Cookies …. In fact, I can't think of a single Carter family tradition that actually comes from the Carter side of the family and doesn't involve food."

"Captain Carter," Teal'c said seriously, "I will make myself available for all of your holiday traditions."

A round of laughter and second helpings of hot chocolate eased the conversation back into lighter subjects and kept them gathered around the electric fire until well past Cassandra's bed time.