Certainly Unexpected
Charlie Bazile is a popular, sweet boy, Amy Smith is a lonely confused girl with a rocky past who no one seems to understand, but what she doesn't know is that the only person who can understand her, is who she least expected
Chapter 7: thoughtful gestures
December 14, 2022
The party had been almost a week earlier. Christmas break was here. Lux parked in front of Amy's house
Charlie sighed "let's just go"
"I thought you wanted to give Amy a Christmas present?" his sister messed his hair
"I did. I do" he said "I just don't want her to think I'm stalking her"
"Because of a Christmas present?" Lux questioned
Charlie shrugged "I found her address on the principal's computer Lux"
"Well, you…" she didn't know what to say. It sounded like something she would do. But Charlie was not a rule breaker and she was confused about why Amy, hadn't told him where she lived, he only knew she lived near school
"This was a bad idea" Charlie said "I want to go to the mall"
"No you don't, you want to give Amy her present" Lux unlocked the car's door "go"
"Fine" Charlie dragged his feet. He climbed up the stairs slowly, rang the bell. No answer. He was about to go back to the car when a woman opened the door
"Hello?" she didn't look anything like Amy. But then again, Lux didn't look much like Cate and Baze. Other than Lux, TJ also had blonde hair
"Hi…" Charlie said shyly "I'm looking for Amy…"
"And who are you?" she asked quite roughly. Charlie hesitated
"I go to school with her…" he looked down at his feet. Amy appeared from behind the woman
"Charlie? What are you doing here?" she climbed down the stairs nervously biting her lip "how did you…?"
"Umm… I brought you this" he said taking the small, awkwardly wrapped up box from his jacket pocket "since its Christmas and we are out of school…"
"Thanks" she mumbled quietly. Charlie gave her a dashing smile
"Sure, no problem" he ran his fingers through his hair "so I'll see you around?"
The next thing that came, he never expected. She hugged him. Charlie turned bright red "yeah" she said breaking the hug
Charlie glanced back at Amy's bright smile. He barely saw her smile. It was nice. As she climbed the front stairs, the smile instantly faded
Baze was planning to take the kids to the mall that day. He was taking Nate to see Santa, something he had tried to do since he was little, but it had never worked. It was time to try once again, although truth be told, he was terrified of the idea
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Baze asked Cate as they were getting ready for their respective later activities
"No, you go ahead" she said kissing him "I told Lux and Alice we'd go out, you know girls night out"
"Oh, that doesn't really work for you babe, you get too carried away" Baze mocked her "make sure Lux is driving"
"Shut up!" she groaned "you make me look like my mom!"
Baze smiled "so Hannah didn't want to go huh?"
"No, she is not really into girl's stuff, in case you haven't noticed; she wears a turned base ball cap and sneakers all the time"
"Oh, don't be so hard on her Cate, she's only 9" Baze said "just because she doesn't like to wear dresses it doesn't mean that she doesn't want to hang out with you guys"
"Let's face it Baze" Cate gasped "she prefers you over me. They all do"
"Come on, don't play that card on me" he pulled her closer to him and lifted her chin "they all love you"
"I know they do, believe me, but when I found out I was going to have a girl, I just pictured myself doing all the stuff I couldn't do with Lux"
"So you want to turn Hannah into someone she isn't, just to prove a point?" he asked "she's just her own person Cate, and she is amazing just like you"
"Oh don't try to patronize me" Cate said "you are saying I just want to use her as my Guiney pig, and I don't, I love her just the way she is"
Lux and Charlie were quiet all the way home. She had been staring at the scene form the car, Amy just seemed shy, Charlie on the other hand, became more worried about Amy, the more he knew about her, and the more he wanted to help her
"So?" Cate asked them as they walked through the door. "Did she like the gift?"
"She didn't open it mom, and it's better that way" Charlie said collapsing on a chair
"Hey little dude!" Baze said excitedly "ready to go?" Hannah and the boys behind him
"Come on Charlie!" Hannah said impatiently "I want to see Santa!"
"I don't" Nate said quietly
"What are you talking about?" Baze said "it's going to be great!"
They had been walking for a while. Nate had run off once or twice
"I said I don't want to!" Nate threw himself to the floor
"It's okay Nate, you are just going to tell him what you want for Christmas" Charlie said. Baze picked Nate up. He was still resisting
"Fine!" he said "we won't go see Santa"
Hannah and TJ groaned "but you said…"
Baze winked at his son. They kept walking. Nate had calmed down until they reached their real destination
"I don't want to!" Nate stirred on Base's arms "let go!"
"You are not going!" Hannah said impatiently "we are!" She and TJ stepped into the line as Baze, Charlie and a teary Nate waited
"See?" Charlie told Nate "he's not scary"
"Yes he is!" the 3 year old said. Baze had taken a seat on a bench while he waited for Hannah and TJ, Charlie was playing with a video game, while Nate tossed a small ball around, suddenly, it bounced out of his hand, making him run after it
"Nate!" Baze called "wait up!" he turned to Charlie "stay here. Don't move" he nodded
Nate turned left on the corner. He was crawling to get a clear view of where the ball was. He bumped into a pair of legs
"Oh" a woman, who was reading a book, lowered her face
"Nate!" Baze called after the little boy. He was nowhere to be seen
Nate stood up, clearly upset about losing the shinny toy. He gazed up at the woman
"Hi, little boy" she said nicely "are you lost?"
Nate didn't know whether to speak or not, his parents had told him never to speak to strangers. Baze caught with him just in time
"Don't you ever do that again!" he said.
"Baze?" the woman looked at the man in front of her. Nate clearly confused, walked back to Baze and grabbed his leg, his father raised his face up, familiar eyes, looked warmly back at him
