Chapter 8: The Gift
The time between the train ride home and Christmas had passed soon enough. Angie spent most of her time with her family as they neared the holidays, engaging in snowball fights with Cetus quite frequently whenever they entered or exited the house. Quite soon, however, Angie feels herself being jolted awake from her sleep from the rhythmic impact of Cetus' feet crashing on the mattress before being airborne.
"Wake up, Angie! It's Christmas! Presents! Presents! Presents!" Cetus yells as he continues jumping on her bed.
"Ugh… What time is it?" Angie asks.
"Six o'clock! Time to get up! Up! Up! Up!" Cetus continues to jump.
"… mrr…." Angie mumbles before she trips Cetus on his last landing.
The eleven year-old sees that the ceiling is in the wrong place as he lands on his back on the mattress. "Hey! What'd you do that for?"
"Shut it, sea monster. I'm trying to sleep." An angry Angie growls before turning over once more to sleep.
"I'm going to tell mommy you called me "sea monster" again." Cetus whines.
"Have you ever bothered to look up the meaning of your name? Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology." Angie snaps before attempting to fall back asleep again.
"And what does Angelica mean? 'Nasty scum-sucking bottom feeder'?" Cetus retorts.
"No. Angelica means 'angelic'."
"…. Aw… Liar!" Cetus responds. As if by second thought, Cetus gets up and resums jumping on the bed. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
Half an hour later, a groggy Benson family finds themselves in the living room, watching the only entity with energy whiz about the room, dividing the pile of presents among them.
"Cetus, dear, remind me why we have to do this at 6:30 again." Mrs. Benson begs of her son.
"Because, mommy, you named me after a sea monster," Cetus answers as he continues moving about the room, "And, it's Christmas morning."
"Yes, I know, but why at six thirty?" Mr. Benson inquires of him.
"Because it's fun. Jeeze!" Cetus answers. "There. All done. Let the unwrapping begin!"
With that, Cetus happily tears into the wrapping paper enshrouding his gifts. Angie opens James' gift to find a record in her hand: Elton John's Madman Across The Water. There is a note on the gift that says, "Merry Christmas Angie! I wish I knew what this does or who this Elton John character is. Sirius said you'd love it so I trusted his judgment for it. Who knows you better than Sirius, right? Have an excellent holiday and I expect to see you soon. James." Angie smiles at James' note and begins with the next gift.
A small box from Lily was wrapped perfectly in red paper with a white bow on top. Upon opening the box, Angie finds a silver bracelet with the words "Best Friends" engraved on the inside. Angie smiles and knows it would go perfectly with the Celtic friendship ring she had given Lily.
From the corner, she hears her mom gasp. "Angie, it's beautiful!" She gushes as she holds the fire opal pendant in front of her.
"Merry Christmas, mom."
Angie turns her attention to the multitudes of thin, square gifts before her. Each of them is a record from her parents. The big box holds the gifts together: it was an enchanted record player. "This is awesome!" She springs up and hugs her parents.
Soon after, they begin to clean the wrapping paper off the floor. They had finished the great unveiling of Christmas. … Or so they thought.
"Angie, you forgot one." Cetus says as he brings over a large, white rectangular box. "It was buried under the wrapping paper."
Angie takes the box and sits down. She looks it over for a card but the only thing written on the box was her name. Gingerly, she removes the paper and opens the box. On top of the tissue paper is a card- an invitation.
"You are hereby invited to the Potter's annual New Year's Eve Ball." The invitation says. Angie smiles. She turns the card over and reads the second message: "I expect to see you there. Sirius." Angie sets the invitation aside and delves further into the box.
Inside is a white square pendant. When she lifts it, it changes to the same shade of light blue as her pajamas. He had given her a chameleon pendant. She places the pendant next to the card and watches it turn the same shade of crème as the couch. She pulls out the dress that was in the bow as well and regards its asymmetry and the sheer purple fabric over the white base. The very last objects in the box are a pair of shoes. Lavender dancer's shoes.
Angie replaces the contents back into the box and brings it up to her room. She places it on the desk and thinks about it before she realizes that she is probably just over-thinking the whole scenario, most likely getting ahead of her herself in her love fantasies. She quietly closes the door and rejoins her family.
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The day passes without further incident until exactly five o'clock comes around. Through the fireplace steps Mr. and Mrs. Benson… Senior.
"Granma! Granpa!" Cetus exclaims as he runs towards them with open arms. The two elderly people brace themselves for the impending impact of the eleven year-old boy. "Merry Christmas!"
"Cetus, dear, I don't know why you insist on making me heal my ribs every time Christmas comes around." Granma Benson smiles at the jovial twelve-year-old before she pulls out a wand and mends the fractured bones.
"When you're done with yourself, I could use a little healing to, Love." Granpa Benson gasps. "I left my wand at home."
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"So, Angie, what did that wonderful boy of a best friend that you've got give you for Christmas?" Granma asks.
Angie blushes slightly at the overly zealous compliments her grandmother made before answering, "a complete outfit for a New Year's party at the Potter's."
Granma smiles knowingly, "That reminds me of the way a certain couple I know… I think I'm getting ahead of myself there, dear."
"Not to be rude or anything, Granma, but I think you were." Angie says as her face turns a lovely shade of chartreuse.
"Well, Angie, I think it's time we've had a certain discussion."
Angie looks at her grandmother in horror. The last thing that she wants to her from her grandmother is the discussion about 'the birds and the bees'. The discussion would only lead to unwanted images of her grandmother and grandfather-
Granma's laughter cuts through Angie's thoughts of horror and embarrassment. "No dear, not that discussion. I'm only supposed to give one of those lectures in my lifetime and that was for your mother." Angie remains horrified. "Look dear, you and I have to talk about who you are."
Angie exhales with relief.
"You, your mother, myself, we're all one of a kind. That isn't to say that your father and brother are clones or something like that. No. What I meant to say is, have you chosen a profession yet?"
"Well, I was actually thinking of becoming a healer. I guess that's what you get when you'd rather heal bones than break them, right?"
Granma Benson smiles. "Whether or not you realize it but all of the Baxter, that's your mother's side, women are healers. Some of them work here in London while others work in Ireland and Australia or somewhere just as far away. Your godmother Lucy just finished her training to become one. So you see, you were born to heal. Maybe not broken hearts but maybe ruptured ventricular walls."
"Well, I'm glad this was the big talk and not something else." Angie sighs with relief. "Why did you bring up Sirius though?"
Granma smiles again and says, "Well, the maternal side tends to marry either an auror or a fellow healer. I'm not implying anything… I'm just saying… Look out for those two professions, will ya, honey?"
A/N: So, I promised this chapter for yesterday but I kinda forgot about it in favor of my homework. March Break is a disguise, an excuse for teachers to load up unsuspecting college students with mountains of homework (I swear, the Hymalayas are on my desk! I can't see over the papers and books!)... Subsequently, it's a catalyst for procrastination. Yay! So, I give you a really short, filler chapter that I don't really like... I like the next chapter alot better. I'll post it after I finish writing chapter 10...
So, um, please write me a nice little review... It powers my ego to write more, improve, whatever.
