Thanks for reading.
I do not own.
Caesar snored softly in his bed.
"Caesar…" a soft voice called him.
Caesar turned around in his bed.
"Caesar!" The voice got louder.
Caesar pulled the covers tighter around him.
Suddenly, someone pinched his nose close. Because Caesar slept with his mouth closed, he began sputtering for air. He sprang up on his bed and came face to face with Rex.
"Hey, bro! You're up! That means we can open presents." Rex said cheerfully.
Caesar glanced at the clock. "Rex, it's 5:30." He said tiredly.
"And it's Christmas!" Rex said excitedly. "We should go open our presents."
"Sure, Rex." Caesar said sliding back into bed. "After the sun comes up."
"No, no, no no." Rex pulled on Caesar's arm. "Come on, I need you… the designated adult to get everyone up."
"As much as it's gratifying to be thought of as an adult by you," Caesar yawned as he pulled the covers back over him. "I'd much rather go back to bed… Besides, I'd rather not be killed by irate people who wanted to sleep in after last night's party."
"But Caesar, it's Christmas day!" Rex whined.
"Five more minutes mom. Don't worry, I can get ready for school in 3 minutes." Caesar was already in a dream-like state.
Rex pouted and crossed his arms. He glared at Caesar's prone form for a while until an idea came to him. An evil grin spread across his face. Rex picked up the alarm clock and fiddled with the knobs. Then he tiptoed outside of the room they shared.
Caesar was fast asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow. His gentle breathing filled the room. All was quiet for all about five minutes. Suddenly, the door in the room burst opened.
"Caesar! Caesar! Wake up! You're going to be late for school!" Rex yelled.
Caesar snorted and fell off the bed with the covers tangled around his legs. His eyes were half opened as he looked at the clock. He gasped. "Aye, Madre de Dios!" He yelped. "He scrambled to his closet throwing clothes on. He hopped around with one leg in his pants while trying to shrug into his shirt. He spun around to grab his jacket while trying to button his shirt. He did all this, while he edged toward the door. When his fly was zipped he shoved his feet into the boots by the doorway and stumbled out of the room. Rex just stood watching. He looked at his watch.
"Huh, what do you know? It was 3 minutes." Rex muttered. A minute later a disheveled Caesar appeared in the doorway. He missed a button on his shirt so the two sides were mismatched. The shirt was half tucked. The laces of his boots were untied and one lace on his left boot was stuck in the boot while the tongue on his other boot was pushed in. His Nehru jacket was inside out. He did not look amused.
"Hey bro, now that you're up, let's open presents." Rex said brightly.
0o0
"Oh Caesar, it's beautiful." Beverly twisted her arm this was and that. Hanging from it was a tennis bracelet. The crystals sparkled under the fluorescent light of the living room. The sun was barely showing in the distance. Since Caesar was already up and was convinced he would get no more rest, he woke up the rest of their group. He didn't bother waking everyone in the compound. If Rex wanted to open presents, then he could do it among his inner circle who Caesar was sure would not end his existence because they were woken up at an ungodly hour.
"He got you, didn't he?" Circe had smirked when he had knocked at her bedroom door.
Caesar didn't answer. He merely walked to the next room to get Annie and Claire.
Noah and Federico dragged their weary bodies and dropped them onto the couch. Noah's head flopped against the back while Federico slump over the arm rest.
"Come on, guys! Where's your Christmas spirit?" Rex asked jovially.
"It's still in bed, sleeping." Noah groaned without lifting his head.
"No, mamá, no quiero ir a la escuela.*" Federico mumbled.
"What's keeping the others?" Rex glanced impatiently at the door.
"Rex, they have to get ready." Caesar said tiredly from the armchair.
"What's there to do? Just get dressed and go!" Rex started pacing.
"You know people… normal people want to clean up before presenting themselves." Caesar pointed out.
"You know you're in trouble, when Caesar lectures you about normal people." Noah told Rex.
"Shut up." Rex snapped.
"Really? That's all you got? You're not even trying." Noah finally lifted his head to smirk at him.
"In the spirit of this day, I choose to ignore your negativity." Rex retorted.
"Ooo, using what you learned in our Psych class?" Noah continued to smirk.
Before Rex could find another rejoinder, the girls walked in. They were considerably less tired looking than their counterparts.
Rex immediately grabbed presents to distribute.
After they were done with opening their gifts, Noah yawned.
"I'm going back to bed." He announced getting up.
"Me too." Caesar followed his lead.
Federico had already curled up into a ball and fallen asleep on the edge of the couch.
"What? You can't go back to bed." Rex protested. "We have to go do Christmassy stuff."
"Like what?" Caesar asked.
"Like eating." Rex said.
"Rex, eating is hardly Christmassy." Circe told him.
"It depends on what you eat!" Rex said triumphantly.
"So we're going to have candy canes and egg nog?" Annie asked confused.
"Uh, no." Rex said. " We are going to have pancakes."
"Pancakes are not Christmas." Noah said.
"These will be!" Rex declared.
"You're putting candy canes and egg nog in them?' Annie asked.
"No, you'll see." Rex said as he strode into the kitchen.
Annie got up to follow him but he popped his head back in.
"Um, not you Annie. Circe? Can you help me?" He grinned.
Circe rolled her eyes but got up nonetheless. She disappeared into the kitchen with Rex.
0o0
"What is that suppose to be?" Circe stared at the lumpy shape in the pan.
"It's a snowman!" Rex said.
"It looks like it had a horrible accident." Circe noted.
"Everyone's a critic." Rex grumbled.
"I'm not sure making pancakes in the shape of Christmas objects make them Christmassy." Circe observed.
"Sure it does." Rex argued.
"Maybe you should throw in candy canes." Circe shrugged. "They throw it into everything else on Christmas… cookies, lattes, pizza…"
Rex made a face. "Who puts it on pizza?"
"Your brother." She answered.
"Figures. Anyone who eats pizza with salmon and pineapples has no taste buds." Rex said.
"I think the pancake is burning." Circe nodded to the smoking pan.
"Ah geez," Rex grabbed the pan and flipped the pancake. "It's a little… dark. It'll give it more flavor."
"Since when is burnt a flavor?" Circe wrinkled her nose.
"It's not burnt… it's crispy." Rex corrected her.
"Bacon is crispy. This… this is burnt." She shook her head.
Caesar poked his head in. "Are you done?"
"Caesar, what does this look like to you?" Rex asked.
"Pancake shaped like a zurullo*." Caesar answered without hesitation.
"It's a snowman!" Rex snapped.
"Could have fooled me." Caesar said. "Listen, if it's going to be a while, we're going back to bed."
"No, no, no… here." Rex grabbed a plate full of pancakes. "Start on these. More are coming." He shoved the plate at Caesar and the syrup.
Caesar took the items and left.
"What's a zurullo?" Circe asked.
"Nothing important." Rex grumbled pouring in more batter.
Circe decided to look it up later.
0o0
"What is this suppose to be?" Noah stabbed the mess on his plate.
"It looks like a headless reindeer." Claire said.
"No, it's a jellyfish." Annie said.
"I think that's the jellyfish." Noah pointed to Annie's plate.
"You don't want to know what I think they look like." Caesar said.
"I thought it was an abstract interpretation of a postmodern Papá Noel." Federico peered over at the plates.
Everyone stared at their plates, then in unison said, "Oh, sure, yeah, that makes sense."
Rex and Circe came out.
"Well? How do you like the Christmas pancakes?" He grinned.
"It's a little… dark." Noah said still poking at his.
"Added flavor." Rex beamed as he sat down with his plate. He began wolfing his food down.
"Mijo," Caesar addressed him. "I realize that you still have a present left."
Rex perked up. "Yeah?" He said spitting out food.
"Eww, seriously Rex, don't talk with your mouth full." Circe gagged.
"What is it?" Rex asked after swallowing.
"Well, it's not so much a new present but Abuela found it one day and kept it around to give to you when next you came." Caesar explained. "It use to be yours."
"Yeah, yeah, lemme see." Rex said excitedly.
Caesar pulled a rather large box from next to him.
"How did we not see that before?" Noah whispered to Claire who shrugged.
Rex immediately went over. He pulled the cover off and looked inside. His face went from happy to confused.
"Well, what's in the box?" Noah asked impatiently.
Rex pulled out an accordion.
"You loved that accordion." Caesar said. "You named it Pedro and use to bring it to bed with you until it got caught in your hair. Mami had to cut off to remove it from your head. You had a bald spot for weeks."
Noah burst out laughing.
"Not cool, bro." Rex growled.
No, mamá, no quiero ir a la escuela.= No, mom, I don't want to go to school.
Zurullo = turd
So ends Christmas morning. One more chapter to go.
