A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who actually managed to get through last chapter and reviewed!
To the reviewer atlgirl916: Days of Our Lives is a soap opera that's been on for over forty years so explaining what it's about would take forever, but basically, it's your typical soap opera filled with unrealistic drama.
To those of you who want an iMix: I will be making one, but I just didn't have time yet. Sorry.
Music: "The Christmas Song" by The Ravonettes (it can be found on iTunes and listened to in full on Napster).
WARNING:I was supposed to leave for a vacation about twenty minutes ago. I've been completely blowing things off to get this done and the last ten pages were written in the last hour and are completely un-proofread. Overall it isn't very well checked over either so I am really sorry for any mistakes, but I really wanted to get this up for all of you wonderful dedicated readers before I am away from a computer for a few days.
This is also long again, but not as long as the last chapter.
With fifteen days until Christmas, Malibu was sunny with temperature highs in the low sixties during the day and the high forties at night. In seven days PCA's winter break would begin, but for now students were busy studying for finals. While most students were looking forward to getting to go home, they were also sad to leave. Living at PCA they spent more of their year with roommates and friends than anyone else. The ones that a student was surrounded by at school always became a second family for the PCA student. Things weren't any different for the gang of eight who were looking forward to certain things about having a break from school, but those things most definitely didn't include their separation from each other.
On Thanksgiving Nicole had suggested that they have their own private holiday party instead of attending the one thrown by their dorm, so that they could exchange gifts and enjoy some time with just each other before they had to leave. Plus, as Dana added, the dorm parties were always lame because they were thrown by their lazy resident advisor.
It was just over a month since Zoey and Chase had patched up their friendship and for them everything seemed normal. They sat together at the football games still sharing a blanket. It had become clear that the fact that a secret existed was not going to break them, neither one of them would let it. But there were brief times when Zoey was quiet, wondering, questioning and Chase felt guilty because those seconds where she was somewhere else in her mind never used to exist and now they did because of the one thing he was still too scared to tell her. They were okay almost all the time, but since the fight it had only been almost when it used to be always.
Nicole was a cheerleader again. The cheerleading coach worked with two other schools and had left the team captains she had extensively trained to handle things for whenever she wasn't there. When she returned to PCA and found the junior varsity cheerleading team had gone from fifteen girls the last time she was there to only three left, she took back control of the team. Any girl who had been kicked off by Tiffany was allowed to come back if she wanted. Eight came back including Nicole. Tiffany's power was greatly reduced and the coach warned that she would be coming back much more often and she had better not hear a single complaint from the other girls about Tiffany's lack of fair leadership or Tiffany would find herself banned from cheering for the rest of her PCA stay.
For the most part everyone else was the same. Dana and Logan would break a rule, separate themselves for an agreed upon time, and always end up together again. Michael and Lola continued to hang out and work on their video blog, but like all the others, school work and extra curricular activities kept them from spending much time together, especially alone.
It was Friday night, the football team had just won the game they had all been at, and the girls had declared a girls night in. The last month had kept all of them fairly busy and hanging out and actually doing nothing had become rare. With the whole weekend to study for finals and only a week of half-days of finals after that, the girls had decided that they could afford and desperately needed to take a break.
With the remains of a couple of pizzas laying between them in Zoey and Nicole's room, the girls had quickly found themselves trying to catch up with each other before they watched Love Actually, which they were doing at Nicole's request to get them all in the holiday spirit.
After much complaint about finals, Lola was the first to turn the conversation to a juicer nature. "Where's Jack? I haven't seen him around much lately," Lola asked directed at Quinn.
Quinn gave a noncommittal shrug and picked at the cheese on the slice of pizza in front of her as she replied, "He's busy. He's involved in so many sports and clubs and he volunteers, a lot. Whenever he asks me to do anything though, it's always with other people. So I think he wants to be friends, which was not what I thought back around the dance."
"I think he's still interested, he's probably just busy," Lola offered.
Before any of the other girls could agree, Nicole jumped in with a solution, "Well you'll be able to tell what kind of relationship he wants by what kind of Christmas gift he gets you." Noticing everyone's slightly confused stares Nicole elaborated, "If he doesn't get you a gift then you're just friends. If he gets you something generic that would be an appropriate gift for any girl, then you're just friends. But if he gets you something pretty and expensive like jewelry or perfume or if he gets you something really thoughtful, then he wants you to be more than his friend."
Not only did Nicole's advice help Quinn, but the girls also hoped it would be remembered by Zoey. Then maybe she could finally figure out, when Chase certainly would give her a thoughtful gift, that he never wanted to just be friends.
"What did you get him?" Nicole asked curiously.
"Nothing yet; I haven't had time to go shopping at all. Have you?" Quinn questioned though she knew that when it came to Nicole and shopping, she could have guessed the answer.
"Five times," Nicole answered unsurprisingly and quickly moved on to more important matters, "but what are you going to get him?"
Quinn quickly realized the problem and replied, "I don't know. I need to get him something that doesn't give away what I think or want our relationship to be because what if he wants the opposite of whatever my gift says I want? What can I get him that doesn't fit in any category?"
Nicole smiled and shook her head and answered as if the solution should have been obvious, though the other girls were drawing blanks like Quinn, "You don't have to get him a gift with a confusing meaning, just get him two. Get one that says, 'I'm really glad that you're my friend.' And get him one that says, 'If try to kiss me I'll let you because I really like you.' Then you open his gift before giving him his and give him the gift that corresponds to his desires for the relationship. If necessary you may need to swap it out. Like if you give him a gift and you open first and it doesn't match the gift you gave him, tell him 'Oh, wait, that's not your gift. I forgot to write names on them. You almost got so and so's.' Then change it with the appropriate one."
The girls stared at Nicole slightly dumfounded at the rapid way she came up with a thought-out solution. Zoey asked the question on everyone's mind, "Where do you possibly learn things like that?"
Nicole shrugged and guessed, "TV." After a second of silence another possibility occurred to her and she blurted out, "And Cosmo…and Seventeen, and Elle, and Jane, and…I think that's it."
"Alright oh wise one, what advice do you have for the rest of us?" Lola asked playfully as she pulled her legs up to sit Indian style on the couch at her spot next to Nicole.
Nicole turned to her to her left to Lola and asked a question that she had wanted to ask for a while, but lack of the absence of a certain person whenever she seemed to see Lola hadn't allowed her to ask, "How are things with Michael?"
Lola knew she would be asked, but she didn't mind sharing, "They're good. We don't get to spend much time together alone or without having something to do, but it's good. He holds my hand a lot and he never hesitates to do it, he just does it, I like that. So things are moving slow, but I like that I have this one thing that isn't hectic or drama filled. It's good, me and Michael are good."
Lola did seem good because she couldn't seem to resist smiling as she was filling the girls in and it satisfied Nicole, "Okay then you two do not require my Cosmo inspired knowledge."
"What about you?" Lola asked, "Did Cosmo help you with John Ely?"
"It wasn't really necessary," Nicole replied and explained, "he was sort of like a fantasy guy and when I actually started to learn things about him, like that he would kiss Tiffany, it turned out he isn't the kind of guy I'd want to be with. He was sort of like a pre-mature crush, because the guy I thought he was didn't really exist. So you could say that seeing that saved me from learning it later and potentially getting hurt later. Plus, that guy that Chase introduced me to from his golf team at the dance, Matt, we've been hanging out. He can drive and he has a car and he's been giving me rides to the mall. And he asked me out for when we get back because he actually took all his finals early and left yesterday; his parents arranged it because they're going on a vacation."
"I still think it was Tiffany who kissed John though, not the other way around," Dana told Nicole again since she too had seen the kiss and thought that Tiffany was just that much of a heartless backstabber to do something like that.
"It doesn't matter. I've moved on," Nicole said cheerily. She turned the conversation off of herself again and asked, "How about you Dana? How's Logan?"
"Asstastic as usual," Dana answered dryly from her position stretched out across one of Zoey and Nicole's overstuffed chairs.
"I don't know why you two deny that you're together," Lola commented, though she knew the outcome of such statements because she made them all the time.
Dana sighed, she was so tired of this same argument, and said, "Because we're not together."
"You just spend all your free time with him making out," Lola countered.
"And he always has his hands on you," Quinn supplied.
"Or his arm around you," Nicole added.
Before anyone could add anything to the list they seemed to be quickly compiling Dana retorted, "I do not spend all of my time with him. I spend any time I can with you guys, like now. And I have yearbook and plenty of schoolwork, which I've been doing good on and that takes time. And he does frequently have his hands on me, which is the purpose of putting an arm around me so that he can be touching me, but can you blame him? He's a teenage guy, he's only got his mind on one thing and his actions reflect that. And I stop him. He's still never gotten past first and he never will because I don't want him to because I don't like him and he doesn't like me. So again, we are not together because nothing could actually make us like each other."
"Sure," Lola said doubtfully.
"Oh stop!" Zoey burst out suddenly.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Dana and Lola hadn't been doing anything but stopped from moving anyway. Quinn was about to take another bite of pizza, but stopped. And Nicole was flipping through stations despite the fact that they were going to put in a movie and her fingers froze on the remote.
Nicole was who Zoey had meant to direct her exclamation to, which was cleared up when she said, "I just want to see the beginning of this."
What Nicole had come to stop on thanks to Zoey was an episode of Friends. "But we're supposed to watch Love Actually and we've seen every episode of this so many times," Nicole replied trying to get them to follow the plan so they could get in the holiday spirit. Though she was actually fully in the holiday spirit since starting just after Thanksgiving she started her tradition of watching every Christmas movie ever made and listing to Christmas music constantly. She loved the holiday season.
"We will," Zoey assured, "I just want to see the part with the theme song. Chase says it's impossible to get the clap right that's in it, but I think he's the only one that can't do it because it's really easy. So just try to do it and then we can watch the movie."
As the opening scene ended Quinn put down her slice of pizza and Nicole did the same with the remote in preparation. They really didn't have any reason to try what Zoey was asking, but they didn't have a reason not to either, so they did. The familiar words of "I'll Be There For You" started playing and the clapping quickly came up. All the girls tried and were able to get the claps right.
Zoey noticed and said, "See, I knew it was just Chase." She picked up her phone from beside her from where she was sitting on the floor to the side of, and in front of, the couch with Quinn, but quickly noticed what she was doing and put it back down. Knowing that the action hadn't gone unnoticed she simply said, "I'll just tell him later."
There was a moment of silence as Nicole got up and put the movie in, but Lola couldn't resist asking another question, this time to Zoey, "So how are things with you and Chase? Normal again?"
"Yeah," Zoey quickly responded. But ever since Chase had told her that everyone knew what he was hiding from her she had wanted to ask them something, she just wasn't sure if she was going to like their answer. At the moment though, she was feeling good about her and Chase and she decided to go for it and ask, "You all know this secret he's keeping from me, right?" All the girls nodded in response. Zoey continued, "So…did I do the right thing? I mean, there are just times when I've been wondering if I should trust him. I feel guilty for thinking like that, but whatever this secret it, it seems important and how could he not tell me?"
"He hasn't told you because, as he said, he's not ready to," Nicole reminded.
"Which I think is really stupid. I mean, seriously, he has nothing to be afraid of. It's not like it's at all bad," Dana said putting in her opinion.
"It isn't?" Zoey asked. Chase had assured her that it wasn't bad, but maybe he just didn't think it'd be, maybe everyone else knew it was though.
"No," all the girls answered at once.
Lola elaborated, "It's not bad and if you paid attention, really paid attention, you could figure it out before he even tells you. That's how all of us figured it out. Chase really isn't good at being subtle."
Zoey was lost in thought trying to think of what they could possibly be referring to. She couldn't think of anything. Really, if she hadn't found out that Chase was hiding something, she never would have suspected.
Nicole started the movie and effectively distracted all the girls from their thoughts.
Thirty minutes into the movie Dana stood up and Nicole asked, "Do you want me to pause it?"
"No. I've seen it before. And I'll be right back I'm just going to the bathroom," Dana said as headed for the door and left.
The girls sat for about a half a minute in silence before Lola asked, "Who's going to check?"
"Well, give her a minute. She's fast, but she's not that fast," Nicole replied.
After another thirty seconds passed Lola stood up and said, "I'm going to go check. Anyone else coming?"
All the girls shook their head and Zoey said, "What's the point? We know where she is."
Lola left to check anyway and Zoey, Quinn, and Nicole continued to watch the movie.
"That little boy is so adorable," Nicole cooed as the little red head boy on screen declared to his stepfather that he was in love.
Lola re-entered the room after only a minute.
"Logan?" Nicole asked.
"Yep," Lola confirmed just having come from her room and looking though her window with the binoculars pointed at the boys room. She added, "And she probably won't be returning soon because he didn't look like he was going to be letting her go."
By the time Dana returned Love Actually had ended and they were just about to start Miricale on 34th Street, another of Nicole's requests. No one asked her about it or mentioned her long absence, trying to get her or him to admit to anything was pretty much a lost cause. She knew they knew exactly what she had been doing and she didn't want things to be that way. She wanted to be able to leave for a minute and not have them know where that minute was spent. But a minute with him always seemed to turn into so much more and she couldn't seem to control it. And what she hated about it was that despite all the things telling her that it wasn't right and it wasn't what she wanted or what they planned, she didn't care. She didn't care about the changes or the lack of control or the times when everyone gave her those annoying knowing looks. Right now, she completely didn't care what the cost of not stopping may be.
After taking Friday night off, everyone spent Saturday studying. Well, Logan didn't study as much as he slept, but for the most part everyone had to concentrate on passing the difficult tests their teachers had in store for them.
Sunday was mostly spent the same way, except for Sunday night. At the beginning of the year Zoey had noticed that Dustin didn't seem to come around of his own free will, unless he needed something. Since he didn't seem to appreciate her popping up when he was with his friends she had suggested, and he had agreed to, Sunday night dinners together.
After a pretty normal meal between the two though, Chase got a surprise and disruption from the study break he had been taking, when Dustin knocked on his door.
Dustin let himself in promptly after knocking and joined Chase on his couch.
"Hey Dustin. If you're looking for Zoey she's not here, she's probably waiting for you wherever you were supposed to meet her for your dinner," Chase supplied, thinking that the only reason that Dustin could have come by was to find Zoey.
"I know where Zoey is. She's probably back in her room by now. We just finished dinner," Dustin replied. Chase sat silently waiting for Dustin to tell him why he came over. It wouldn't have been that unusual last year or the year before, but this year Dustin had barely spent any time with them, instead spending time with his own friends as he should.
Finally Dustin said, "I need your help. I absolutely can't come up with anything to get Zoey for Christmas."
"What makes you think I could help?" Chase asked confused.
"You're the one in love with her," Dustin answered as if his reasoning should have been obvious.
Chase didn't bother denying it since he was far from even the tenth person that seemed to know. He simply countered, "You love her too."
"Yeah but only because she's my sister and I have to," Dustin replied with a sigh. He added, "But, you love Zoey and you know everything about her. You've always been good about getting her gifts she likes so you can help me. Will you?"
Dustin appeared desperate, which made Chase want to help, but unfortunately, "I don't know Dustin. I don't even know what I'm getting her."
Dustin's face fell in disappointment for a second, but perked back up when he realized, "But helping me find a gift would be easier than thinking of one to get her from you because my gift just needs to be something she'd like and you probably should get her something thoughtful and not the usual kind of meaningless stuff you usually get her."
"Yeah, I know I should get her something better this year, after what I've put her through, but I just don't know what," Chase said with a slight hopelessness to his voice. He had actually been having trouble concentrating on studying for his finals. Him and Zoey had been through a lot, because of him, and he wanted to get her something that showed that she was…important to him. Something that said that he was still so sorry that he was lying to her, but he couldn't come up with anything that he thought was good enough.
"I can try to help you if you help me," Dustin offered with a hopeful smile.
"Sure," Chase agreed and they decided that they'd go shopping together Tuesday. Chase figured at the very least, Dustin could get her something she'd like, something that was appropriate from a brother. And maybe, hopefully, he'd be able to come up with something that was a good gift from a best friend who happens to be secretly in love with her.
After a half-day of finals on Monday, Nicole tried to remain full of holiday cheer as she headed to a meeting of the cheerleaders that Tiffany had called. Cheer hadn't been that bad since the coach had been popping up every few days to ensure Tiffany's cut in power. But though she was abiding by the new rules, Tiffany seemed angry, but more than that Nicole thought she seemed sad and actually felt sorry for her. Of course this wasn't a feeling any of the other girls who had re-joined the team shared; as far as they were concerned if Tiffany was sad, mad, hurt or whatever, she deserved it.
Nicole entered the gym with Erika and Kath at her sides and approached and sat in front of the bleachers that Tiffany was, typically, standing on with Jenna and Morgan at her sides.
Once all the girls were seated before her, Tiffany gestured to the gift bags lined up in front of her on the bleachers and directed, "Take the one with your name on it."
The girls rose and grabbed the bag with their name on it hesitantly. They all returned to their previous places on the floor, but none of them opened their bags afraid it was a trick or somehow something bad since it did seem to be from Tiffany. Normally a gift bag would mean a gift, which would be good, but with Tiffany the chance that it wasn't were better.
"Well open them," Tiffany said more than a little frustrated at how long this was already taking.
Each girl opened up her bag and pulled out a purse.
"A bag?" Erika questioned.
"No," Nicole was quick to counter practically bouncing with excitement, "It's a Coach signature stripe denim small hobo!"
"Is it real?" Bria dared to ask.
Before Tiffany could reply, Nicole cut in and answered, "Yes. It is absolutely not a fake. It has the right lining and everything." Nicole was hugging the bag at this point, while taking in its fresh new scent.
At Nicole's immense pleasure at the gift and the some of the other girls' excitement, Tiffany almost forgot that she didn't want to get them anything, she was just bribing them into thinking she was nice to stay on the coach's good side. She remembered who she was and the fact that that person wouldn't want to be around the rest of the girls unless she had to be. And now that the gifts were given, she didn't have to be there anymore. "See you next year," she said as she gracefully descended the bleachers and exited the gym with Jenna and Morgan trailing behind her.
The worst thing about Tiffany's day would not be spending a bunch of money on gifts for people she didn't like. Instead it would come hours later when John Ely reluctantly knocked on her door.
Tiffany promptly opened her door assuming it would be someone she actually wanted there. There was silence between them for a few seconds. For very different reasons, they had been avoiding each other for the past five and a half weeks.
Tiffany came to her senses and did what was expected of her. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded rather rudely.
"Wouldn't have come if I didn't have to," John assured. He hurried on, wanting to get it over with, "My mom said that I'm supposed to give you a ride back, but if you don't want one or you don't want to leave when I'm leaving, then I need to know. So I'm leaving Thursday after finals are over. Do you want a ride?"
"Thursday? So you're skipping all the Christmas parties?" Tiffany asked because most people weren't flying out until Friday morning. Though she was always driven home because she lived only a little over an hour North, depending on traffic, in Santa Barbara. And she didn't know why she was actually asking, it wasn't like she wanted to go to the parties, especially without Morgan and Jenna who were leaving directly after finals on Thursday afternoon.
"Yeah, there's never any point to going to those," John replied quickly and like he couldn't wait to just get out of her presence.
"Right," Tiffany agreed and answered, "Well, my dad told me that since you're here with a car he shouldn't need to send a car for me this year. So if I don't go with you I don't think I'll have a ride."
"Fine. Be ready. I won't be waiting," John said as he turned his back and began to walk away.
"Fine," Tiffany said, anger creeping into her tone, but it definitely got into her actions since her door slammed to his retreating form.
Down the hall Zoey eyed John curiously, but he didn't notice as he headed for the stairs. She had caught the end of mini scene and decided maybe she also agreed with Dana; she hadn't seen the kiss, but they didn't seem like two people who liked each other.
The next time Zoey saw Nicole was at dinner with everyone, but everyone already knew everything else that had happened since Nicole shared everything about herself, too much information sometimes. Zoey began her tale, "So I had to see Annie Wu today about some student council stuff and I met her up in her room, on the fourth floor, and I caught the end of a conversation."
"Between who?" Nicole immediately asked. She couldn't help herself, she loved gossip. Though it was weird that Zoey was the one telling her and not the other way around. Usually she was the one repeating gossip with everyone else looking bored like they were now.
"Tiffany and John," Zoey answered and paused waiting for some kind of reaction out of Nicole to see if she should continue. But Nicole was only looking at her waiting for her to say more and so were the rest of the girls and Chase and Michael now, so she continued, "Well, it didn't seem to go well. If they were ever together I don't think they are anymore. Or if they are together then they're seriously fighting because they both seemed really angry."
"I thought she's seemed kind of sad lately too," Nicole added since voicing that thought was much safer around her friends than the other cheerleaders who, justifiably so, had absolutely no sympathy for Tiffany. She shrugged as she said, "Oh well." Grabbing her bag a smile quickly returned to her face as she said with another excited squeal, "But look at the wonderful bag she got all the cheerleaders!"
Later on that night before they went to bed Zoey caught Nicole saying, "Goodnight Charlie." With Zoey giving her a very confused and curious look, Nicole explained with a gesture to the bag, "I named him Charlie."
That actually made sense. After all, Nicole did name one of their walls Jared. Her bed was Sammy. And their television was Francesca. Those were the only names that Zoey knew, but she was pretty sure that Nicole had given names to many more things.
Tuesday's finals were brutal for some of the gang and easier for others depending on the class that they happened to be testing for. Though they hadn't made any plans to do anything together, they all managed to end up in the same place.
Chase, as he promised, accompanied Dustin to the mall to try and find Zoey a Christmas gift.
Chase decided to let Dustin lead the way and he followed him as he entered Best Buy. As Dustin started heading for the video gaming area Chase had to ask, and he figured remind, "And what are you planning to get for Zoey from here?"
"Oh," Dustin said stopping suddenly seeming to realize that in heading to the video games he a was actually looking for himself. He glanced around and suggested, "I could get her a CD."
"Which one?" Chase asked.
"Um…a Christmas one?" Dustin responded completely clueless. Chase simply shook his head and Dustin made another suggestion, "A movie?"
"Hey guys," came a voice from behind them. Both Chase and Dustin turned around to see Lola. She was smiling sweetly but said, "You've got to get out of here please."
"Why?" Chase asked as Lola began directing him towards the exit into the mall.
"Because I'm buying gifts and I can't have you knowing what I'm getting you. And if you see Michael waiting outside tell him I'll be done in fifteen minutes," Lola replied as she shooed them from the store.
Chase and Dustin didn't get three steps into the mall before running into Michael who guessed that they had been forced out and asked, "How much longer?"
"Fifteen minutes," Chase responded.
"Good, then I have at least twenty," Michael said a little relieved. But not completely because he needed some help as well, "Can you come help me out for a second. I'm trying to decide what scarf Zoey will like."
"I'm helping Dustin out right now," Chase said, politely declining due to his previous agreement.
"It's alright with me. Maybe I can get Zoey a scarf too," Dustin said hopefully.
"No," Chase immediately responded, "Too much of the same thing is not a good thing."
"It will only take a minute," Michael said as he lead them into a store.
Chase didn't at all recognize it, never heard of the name or anything. But it was clearly a store for just girls because it was littered with girls clothing and accessories, as well as many girls.
All Chase had to do was look at the various scarves to know which one Zoey would like. As Michael said, it only took a minute and they were on their way.
They walked through the mall and as they came across different stores Dustin kept making suggestions, but they were all rather random and clearly desperate. After thirty minutes Chase had told Dustin "no" so many times that he had lost count.
Finally as they passed Bath and Body Works, Dustin suggested, "Something from there?"
Chase thought about it. Zoey did like stuff from there and it had been a while since she had come to the mall, actually the last time was with him and that was almost two months ago, she would probably be getting low on the stuff she liked. While perfume was a gift that was thought of as "more than friendly" he figure much cheaper lotions and scents could be appropriate from a brother. He said, "Sure. Let's go."
They entered the store and Dustin stared in awe at all the scents they had. He began smelling them and he thought they all smelled pretty similar. This would be a difficult task, unless, "Chase, do you know which one she likes?"
"Sweet Pea and Pear Berry and Blackberry Vanilla and some of the seasonal ones," Chase responded not even needing to give it a second of thought.
After Dustin purchased a couple of lotions, sprays, and travel sizes, Chase and Dustin were headed out of the store when they saw Nicole towards the front of it. She was singing along with the music playing in the store.
"Giddy up jingle horse, pick up your feet, jingle around the clock, mix and a mingle to a jinglin' beat, that's the Jingle Bell rock," Nicole sang along merrily as she searched through gift sets.
"She doing a Mean Girls impersonation or something?" Dustin asked not knowing what to make out of her singing.
"Nah," Chase replied knowing Nicole a bit better, "Sometimes she sings aloud without realizing it."
Chase approached, figuring he'd let her know that she was singing out loud. He greeted her, "Hi Nicole."
She turned around and said, "Hi Chase. And Dustin, oh my God it's been so long." She gave Dustin a bone crushing hug as the many bags in her hands served to smother him completely.
As she let Dustin go, Chase informed, "You know you were singing out loud just a second ago."
"Oh I know," Nicole replied with a smile, "its Christmas music, how can you resist not singing along?"
Chase and Dustin left Nicole to her shopping and as they did they could hear Nicole singing along with the next Christmas tune that came over the store's sound system.
"She's kind of weird," Dustin commented.
"Yeah," Chase agreed because earlier that morning Zoey had told him about Charlie, but knowing Nicole for over two years now he also knew, "But I think she has a lot more fun than any of the rest of us."
Chase and Dustin began doing some shopping for their respective groups of friends since they were already at the mall. As they passed Ritz Camera they saw Logan inside looking pretty peeved with the sales clerk. They went in because Chase hadn't found anything for Dana yet, but he knew she liked photography.
"Hey Logan," Chase greeted.
Logan looked slightly alarmed for a second, but it passed and his expression become vacant as he said, "Chase, Dustin."
Dustin gave him a nod as he played with one of the cameras on display.
Chase realized the reason he was in the store, and the fact that that reason happened to be someone Logan was spending an awful lot of time with and asked, "So, uh, what are you getting?"
Logan didn't answer immediately, clearly trying to avoid suspicion knowing that being caught here was really bad. He responded, "One of my cameras is acting funny. I brought it here to get it fixed."
Chase had caught the pause before his response, but he also knew that Logan did have a few cameras so it was a plausible reason. Plus, he claimed he didn't like Dana so why would he pay attention enough to know what she liked?
Chase decided to just let it go and see what happened. He looked around the store for a minute. He had heard that slide film was supposed to be really good, but some of it was so expensive and maybe he heard wrong and Dana knew better and wouldn't like it. He realized camera stuff was out of his league and he should try and find something else to get her. But before he and Dustin left he couldn't help glancing back at Logan who was still at the counter waiting for a sales person to return. If he didn't know better he would have said that Logan looked nervous, but he had known Logan since the third grade and he couldn't remember him ever being nervous so he had to be wrong.
After two hours at the mall Dustin had gotten everything he needed, something for Zoey and something for each of his friends. But Dustin knew that though Chase was carrying bags as well, he wasn't done. Dustin said knowingly, "You haven't gotten anything for Zoey yet, have you?"
Chase shook his head and replied, "I can't think of anything good enough." Dustin had tried making suggestions as they shopped and though Chase would concede on some things that Zoey would like them, he still maintained that none of them were enough. Feeling rather hopeless Chase said, "Let's just go. I'll come back when I know what to get."
As they headed for the bus stop they ran into three familiar faces, Zoey, Quinn, and Dana.
Zoey approached them smiling curiously, "Hey, what are you guys doing here together?"
"Just hanging out with my pal Chase," Dustin replied grinning and laughing nervously as he gave Chase a pat on the back. Clearly the kid didn't know how to lie, at all.
Chase offered a better answer that still protected Dustin desperate plea to him, "Dustin required some assistance. What about you guys?"
"Well, we were at school and none of us could find anyone else and we were trying to think of something to do," Zoey explained.
"And I suggested studying because we have more finals tomorrow," Quinn supplied.
"But I suggested shopping because I haven't gotten anyone anything yet," Dana jumped in.
"And I realized I haven't either and Quinn needed to find something for Jack still so, here we are," Zoey finished.
"No one was at school because everyone's here, we've run into everyone," Chase supplied. He could have just said "Alright, see you later," but he hadn't seen her in hours and it had only been less than a minute now. A little more time with her was always better.
When Chase mentioned that everyone was there Zoey got an idea and said, "Oh well if everyone's here and since it's almost five, if you guys wanted to hang out a little longer, we could just all grab dinner together here."
Chase knew that Dustin would probably want to get back to his friends and he didn't want to let him go back to school unaccompanied, plus he knew Zoey wouldn't like that. But before Chase could say that he couldn't, Dustin said, "Sure. You should check that everyone's still here, but I could actually use Chase's help for a bit longer."
Zoey was surprised to see her little brother actually willing to hang out with her and had to check, "You mean you're actually going to have dinner with me more than once this week?"
Dustin shrugged and replied, "Well, I am getting something out of it. And I'm out of money so you're paying for me."
Zoey, Quinn, and Dana left them to get some shopping done before they met for dinner and they were left with the task of making sure everyone was still there.
But Chase was utterly confused and after a minute alone with Dustin he still hadn't began calling everyone because he really couldn't believe what had just happened.
Dustin noticed Chase stuck state and explained, "I told you I'd help you out for helping me out."
"Thanks," Chase replied sincerely.
"No problem," Dustin replied with a shrug. It turned out, when he was trying to help someone, he could lie perfectly well.
Everyone was still actually at the mall and they all met in the food court for dinner. But when Logan showed up, carrying many bags that Dana noticed all happened to be full of stuff for himself, a fight ensued.
After Dana had called him every form of selfish she could think of, Logan retorted, "Well why should I have to buy everyone a gift? I don't even celebrate Christmas."
"You don't?" Nicole asked, voicing the question everyone was thinking.
"No. I'm Jewish," Logan answered as if this was something that he had told them many times before.
Chase and Michael had known each other and Logan since the third grade and neither could ever remember Logan saying anything about being Jewish.
"Really?" Chase asked surprised.
"Yeah. My mom's even super into it. She even made me have a Bar Mitzvah a few years ago," Logan answered, still not understanding how this was new to anyone since he was pretty sure he must have mentioned it before.
But Michael realized why he thought that Logan celebrated Christmas. He accused, "But a few years ago your dad invited us to a Christmas party at your house."
"Yeah but," with everyone eyeing him suspiciously, Logan folded and said, "Okay so my mom's Jewish and my dad isn't really anything so we celebrate both." With everyone now talking back to him about what a lame attempt it was to try and get out of their gift exchange he said, "But technically I can't believe in Christmas so I shouldn't have to participate."
Everyone was still continuing with there talking and saying things like, "Well if you don't want to give gifts then you shouldn't get them either." But Dana wasn't, not anymore. She leaned over and whispered something in his ear that made a big smile appear across his face. She finished, leaned away, and he got up saying, "Fine, I'll go get you guys stuff."
Logan left and Dana sat not able to refrain from the proud smile she wore at his reaction.
Lola asked, "We don't want to know what you said do we?"
"Probably not," Dana said shaking her head and trying to return to eating so she wasn't smiling anymore. Not only did she not want to repeat what she said in front of everyone because even Logan was on the verge of blushing at her words, so it would be pretty embarrassing. But also, she knew they didn't like having the more…illicit details.
After dinner, just as he had before dinner, Chase wandered the mall a bit more trying to come up with something to get Zoey. The next day after more finals he was still completely clueless. So, while Zoey was in a meeting with Dean Rivers, Chase assembled the gang in his room and decided to ask for their help.
He had told them that he wanted the gift to be really special, really meaningful, because of everything that had happened in the last month or so. He had told them that ten minutes ago and they were still sitting in silence.
Logan seemed to be getting impatient and whined, "Why am I here? You know I'm not going to be able to help."
Dana, who was sitting in his lap despite the fact that there were other places in the room to sit, wrapped an arm around his shoulder and hit him upside the head.
"That's not necessary Dana. He's right," Chase knew when he asked Logan to be there that he wouldn't probably be able to contribute, but he didn't want him to feel left out.
Though Chase's agreeing could have meant that Logan could leave, Dana didn't move so neither did he.
Finally Michael offered a suggestion, "You could get her those personalized M&Ms they've been showing commercials for them. You could even get them made so that they tell her that you love her."
"No," Lola immediately shot down and explained, "Zoey loves chocolate as much as I do and that means she's going to eat it faster than she can read it."
Chase knew she was probably right, but he didn't like the idea for a different reason, "Plus, I want the gift to just be a really great Christmas gift not a guess-what-I'm-in-love-you type of gift."
They would have tried to talk him into actually telling her, but quite frankly they had spent a lot of time trying to this semester and they were tired of it. So instead of arguing they simply made more suggestions.
"You could get her a pretty bag," Nicole suggested, practically petting her new Coach bag.
With the way Nicole was handling her bag Chase was eerily reminded of Dr.Evil and the way he would pet his cat. But remaining focused at the task at hand he replied, "Just two things wrong with that. One, I don't have that kind of money. And two, does Zoey even like designer purses that much?"
After many mumbled "no" and "probably not"s, Logan contributed his only thought towards the matter, "I'd say you should get jewelry because it fixes everything, but like you said, you don't have that much cash."
"He's right, jewelry would have been great," Nicole agreed nodding her head in approval.
"No, jewelry is just shiny and pretty, not thoughtful," Dana countered.
Chase put an end to the debate continuing by saying, "It doesn't matter, I can't afford it anyway."
"Well, how about something that shows you listen to her. Is there anything she's mentioned wanting?" Quinn proposed.
"She wants Dustin to actually like spending time with her. She wants to get an A on our English final. She probably wants everyone to really like the gifts she's gotten for us. She wants to travel. She wants to go to Stanford or maybe stay down here. She wants to be married before she's twenty-six and she wants to have at least one of the three kids she wants by the time she's thirty. She wants Friends to come back and have a wedding for Ross and Rachel. She wants Harry Potter to live. And I can't do any of those for her. The one other thing that I know that she wants is for me to tell her the truth, and I can't do that yet either. Especially not now, not right before we leave for a couple weeks... just not now," Chase rattled off with anxiety filling his voice and hopelessness consuming it by the end as he sunk down on his bed.
No one knew what to suggest to Chase to get her and really they knew everything they could possibly come up with wouldn't be what Chase wanted, not would it be as good as what he was capable of. As Chase laid back on his bed staring at the ceiling, the others seemed to converse with their eyes and decide that it would be best to give him some space.
Michael took the role of saying what they all knew. Before they all exited he said to Chase, "You know Zoey better than anyone. She's probably given you tons of options for perfect things that you can actually get her. All you have to do is pay attention. I know you're going to find her something perfect, we all know that. Just give it time."
Chase was glad everyone else was so sure that he'd come up with something because he definitely wasn't.
Later that evening Chase found himself studying for their English final the next day with Zoey, well they were supposed to be studying but had gotten distracted talking about what gifts they got everyone.
"So Nicole likes this Sephora, you're sure? Because I just saw a bunch of make-up in there and guessed," Chase asked for the second time.
"Yes she love Sephora," Zoey assured. Moving on she asked, "What'd you get Logan?"
"A mirror," Chase replied with a chuckle.
"Me too!" Zoey exclaimed.
Laughing along with Zoey, Chase said, "It was the only thing I could think of."
"Well he does like himself better than anything else," Zoey said explaining her reasoning for the gift as well.
"I'm not so sure about that anymore," Chase said thoughtfully.
The way Zoey's eyes seemed to be locked with his across her little coffee table where they were both sitting on one side on the floor with their legs to their sides, Chase was sure she must have been able to read his thoughts. She absolutely understood his meaning and said just as pensively, "I know."
"It's kind of weird isn't it," Chase heard himself say, but he didn't remember even thinking it.
"No actually, not really," Zoey said with a slight shake of her head.
"Yeah," Chase agreed, but added, "But that's what's weird about it."
"Does it snow where you're from?" Zoey asked completely out of no where.
"What?" Chase asked in response to the random question.
He had been so caught up in her that he didn't notice that her eyes left his and were staring out the window. At his return question her eyes returned to him as she explained, "I know you're from North of here, but I don't remember where you've said, and I was just wondering if it gets cold enough there to snow."
"No, Ripon is kind of in the middle of California, it doesn't get snow," Chase answered.
Zoey's glance returned to the window as she said seemingly lost in thoughts, "It doesn't snow for me at home either. I've never actually seen snow, but I've always wanted to. That's actually kind of why I wanted to have a formal, so we could have a winter wonderland theme and it might actually feel sort of…snowy."
If Chase was a cartoon one would have been able to see the light bulb go off above his head. Michael and everyone was right, he just had to wait and listen. He knew exactly what he would do for Zoey. Of course he couldn't afford to bring snow to her nor could he take her to snow, but he knew something he could do that would make her happy.
He couldn't help smiling since his problem was solved, but he tried to hide it as he said, "Well, if you're going to get that A you want and I'm going to get that C I was shooting for, we should probably get back to work."
"You're going to get better than a C," Zoey encouraged.
"You're going to get better than a C, I'm going to pray for a miracle and hope that I pass," Chase said returning to his playful yet pessimistic self, a self that made Zoey smile with quips like the one he just made.
Despite returning to work, they both enjoyed the rest of their night, together.
Nicole stayed away from her room, leaving Zoey and Chase alone, by doing some last minute errands. She had three cheerleaders to hunt down and give gifts to. None of the other girls on the team were doing it, and she wasn't planning on telling any of them that she was, but she didn't like to get a gift from a person who she didn't give something to. Of course she couldn't spend as much money as Tiffany, but she wanted to get her and Jenna and Morgan something, since she figured they must have been in on the gift, because she wanted to show her appreciation for their gift to her. She had gone to their door, but no one answered and she didn't want to leave gifts out in the hall because you never knew what some of the other girls were capable of, thus the hunting.
She found Jenna first. She was with a guy at the cafeteria and Nicole didn't want to interrupt so she just dropped the small gift bag on the table with a "Merry Christmas" and continued on her way. Jenna eyed the bag and Nicole curiously as she walked away, but returned to flirting with the guy she was with in no time.
Nicole found Morgan next. She was sitting by herself on a bench near the theater. Nicole approached, held out her gift and said, "Merry Christmas."
"What?" Morgan asked rather baffled at the gesture of the brunet in front of her.
"Well I figured that you and Jenna were probably in on the gifts Tiffany gave us and I wanted to get all of you something in return," Nicole explained with her friendly smile not fading from her face.
Morgan shook her head and said truthfully, "We really didn't help. Tiffany doesn't really accept help. Or listen to opinions or advice."
"Well then you get something for putting up with her more than the rest of us," Nicole said offering the gift again and an encouraging smile to go along with it.
Morgan sighed and took the bag with a smile. She said sincerely, "Thank you Nicole."
"It's no problem," Nicole replied perkily and left to hunt down her last recipient.
After wandering around the entire campus Nicole decided to try the three's room again. This time when she knocked the door was answered by the girl she was looking for. Tiffany looked utterly confused at Nicole's presence and she had her cordless phone in one hand covering the end of it.
"Merry Christmas," Nicole said cheerily holding out the gift to Tiffany.
Tiffany took the gift warily and managed to say despite her complete shock, "Uh…thanks."
Nicole smiled and said, "Have a good break." Nicole was quickly on her way towards the other end of the hall where the stairs were and she didn't here Tiffany's muttered, "That's unlikely."
Tiffany shut her door and returned to listening to her father on the phone, but was distracted from what he was saying by the gift. She opened it up and found it to have a pretty cheap, but cute, clutch bag filled with a few travel sized lotion, spray, and shower gels of Warm Vanilla scented Bath and Body Works presents. She was horrible to Nicole, yet she got a gift from her, and no one else besides her friends, when she knew Nicole was someone who couldn't afford to be wasting money like her. Of course John would like her, she was clearly the better person. But she pushed the thoughts of her repeated rejection away and tried to listen to her father, it was just easier if she pretended her life wasn't most of the things it was. And denial was a rather old and well practiced habit of hers.
The next morning Chase had a lot to get done and, with the interruption of finals, not much time. As soon as they got up Chase enlisted both Michael and Logan's help and asked them to get the girls together after school too because he really had a lot to do.
Naturally since they all knew Logan would be the first one to see Dana alone, Chase asked Logan to ask her for help. But Logan replied, "Nope. I can't do that. That would be a conversation and then she'd make us go on a break for breaking the rules and I don't want to go on a break on our last day here."
Chase and Michael were actually amused at the vehemence with which Logan refused; he must have really come to miss certain things, or a certain someone, when he was forced to be away. But Chase and Michael were also confused because well, it sounded kind of…stupid.
Michael asked, "So if you two talk about anything at all you consider it breaking your talking rule?"
"Yeah," Logan replied, completely missing the problem with that.
"But, you have that rule so you don't actually get to know each other or, God forbid, start to like each other, right?" Chase asked with more than a hint of sarcasm to his voice.
"Yeah," Logan repeated.
Chase shook his head and tried to explain, "Okay, but in discussing necessary things or passing on a message, how would that result in…bonding?"
"I don't know. All I know is that the first conversation consisted of me asking her a question about our English class and if wasn't her there and you or Zoey instead, then I could have just asked either of you because you're in that class too. But she was there so I just asked her. Then we were suddenly on a break because she said we broke a rule and I just followed along with it," Logan recalled.
"Well maybe you should argue that only personal information, pointless conversations, and talking about your feelings should count towards that no talking rule. Because passing on messages and asking a question about a class really isn't going to lead to you actually learning anything about each other," Michael advised, finishing up his and Chase's point.
As they headed to breakfast Logan seriously doubted that making the argument would work, but as time to get to class was approaching forty minutes later, he found he didn't really need to argue. She just agreed, apparently he had a good point. Well, actually Michael and Chase had a good point, but he took credit for it.
Right after finals ended Chase quickly put his plan into motion. He delegated tasks, but also made a rotation for tasks because he wanted someone to be with, and distracting, Zoey constantly, but he didn't want it to be the same person because then she may get suspicious as to where everyone else was. They were all supposed to meet in Zoey and Nicole's room at five thirty, which only gave Chase four and a half hours to get a lot of stuff done, hence the need for the help. The gang all willingly pitched in, they knew how important it was to Chase and for Zoey.
Chase's family wasn't particularly wealthy, especially since both his parents decided to quit their jobs and finally fulfill their life long dream of opening up a restaurant, so he had to do some…unsavory things to get all of the things he needed. He put Logan in charge of the more shady business, which was quite convenient since he probably wouldn't be much of a help in some of the other areas.
While all the gang was busy helping Chase, on the fourth floor of the girls' dorm two other people were preparing for something much less pleasant.
John banged, rather than knocked, on Tiffany's door only thirty minutes after finals ended because as he warned her, he wanted to leave promptly after they ended.
She opened the door and walked away back into her room without even glancing at him. She was still packing a few things.
John looked at the massive pile of bags in the middle of the room and asked, "Is this all yours?"
"Who's else would it be? Jenna and Morgan are already gone," Tiffany replied waspishly.
John ran a hand though his hair as he sighed and continued to eye the pile, "I don't think my car can hold all that."
"Big surprise that that heap of rust is disappointing," Tiffany said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She still hadn't actually looked at him though, avoidance had really become a talent for her. She scattered back and fourth around the room gathering things and putting them in an open suitcase on her bed, she didn't need everything she was putting in, but she did need the distraction. She tried to turn things more normal, or just angry, anything but the weirdness that just seemed to exist, "My dad offers to buy you a car and you get that piece of crap. That's just more proof of why you're here on an athletic scholarship and not an academic one."
"A '67 Chevy Camero is a classic. And I couldn't just let your dad spend a ton of money on a car for me. I paid for half of the car so far and I fully intend to pay him back the rest and fix this car up," John argued
Tiffany began muttering as she continued to pack random things and one word John could definitely make out was "idiot". Since she was clearly occupied he figured he might as well get started hauling her bags to the car. He picked up a few shopping bags and peaked inside as he did so. He asked, "Did you do enough shopping?"
She had caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye and what she saw made her look at him fully for the first time since he had gotten there. He was looking through her stuff. That was so rude! "Stay out of there!" she snapped.
She made a move to grab the bag, but he held the bag above his head and since he was taller than her it was out of her reach. She tried to jump for the bag, but he kept moving around making sure she didn't get it. He found the frustrated expression she was wearing really amusing, he had never seen her so riled up.
To antagonize her further he started taking things out of the bag. The first thing he pulled out was a bag that had a Hawaiian print on it. He narrated as he went along, "A bag." He pulled out a cute watch and read the box, "A Nixon Vega watch." He pulled out a small make up kit and read, "Mix Tape." The next thing he pulled out seemed to be some kind of kit accompanied by a book and he eyed it confused, "Rainbow hairstyles?" Tiffany had given up and stopped jumping for the bag, resigned to the fact that he was going to find out. Now he was confused. Sure neither the bag or the watch seemed like her taste, but he also didn't know her that well. But the hair thing definitely couldn't be for her and neither could the next thing, a slip of paper that read, "A two year subscription to Teen Vogue?"
Tiffany took advantage of his baffled state and took the paper and kit from his hands first as she said, "They're for Hailey."
Hailey? As in his thirteen year old sister? That they could possibly be for her somehow didn't occur to him. "For my Hailey?" he questioned.
"Yes. It's Christmas, you get people gifts," she replied angrily as she took the rest of the things from him and sat down on her bed as she carefully returned them to the bag.
"I didn't know you were going to get us anything," he said honestly.
"Of course I did," she said keeping her eyes downcast on her task of re-packing the bag. She revealed, "I got your brother a Ducati Monster Motocycle that Toys 'R Us is delivering next week. I got your mom a day at my favorite spa." She looked up and her eyes met his where he was at in the middle of her room and she said quietly, "And I got you something, I just have to pick it up."
He seemed stunned in silence. It wasn't that he didn't think she'd get them anything, he hadn't actually assumed that she wouldn't, he just didn't really think about it at all.
Tiffany, her eyes downcast again focusing on finishing off her suitcase, added in the silence, "Don't worry about not getting me anything though. I wouldn't expect you to." She didn't mean for it to sound like she wouldn't expect him to be that thoughtful, but with her constant lack of friendliness towards him she just didn't think she deserved it.
"No, I got you something," John quickly replied. Her eyes snapped back up to meet his, completely surprised. He continued, "And I got you something for your birthday that's coming up in…five days, right?"
Tiffany simply nodded in response, unable to do anything else or have a single comprehensible thought. Her eyes had left his again, trying to not get hopeful at the fact that after everything he was being so nice.
John gathered up as many bags as he could take and said, "I'm going to take these down to my car. I'll be right back."
Tiffany nodded again, her back now to him as she carefully folded a top and placed it in her case. Once she heard the door shut she couldn't help the small smile forming on her face. She knew it was a really bad idea to even let herself think of him as anything other than a horrible annoyance for even a second, but she couldn't help herself. He was the only guy she ever came across that didn't show any type of interest in her, but he did get her gifts and it was small and probably didn't mean anything, but it could. It was a tiny possibility, but it was the first time she ever noticed any type of possibility with him. She never let herself be the girl that was into the guy, especially this one, except for this small second when she was alone in her room and she smiled. Maybe winter break wouldn't be so bad after all.
At five Chase's only tasks left were ones that he could only do on his own so the gang left him to change into more appropriate clothing for the activities the night would hold.
At five thirty Zoey sat in her room alone wondering where everyone was. She expected at least some of them to be early, but since none of them had anything to do anymore she couldn't understand why they'd be late.
At five thirty-three, Zoey received a knock at her door followed by Chase entering. She immediately smiled, not having seen him all afternoon she was glad he was the first to arrive.
"Hi. Everyone's late," Zoey said with a small pout as she got up from her seat at her desk.
"No they're exactly where they're supposed to be," Chase said cryptically as a mischievous smile spread across his face.
Zoey couldn't help continuing to smile, especially with him smiling, but she also couldn't help being completely confused.
When her brow crumpled in bewilderment, Chase's lopsided grin got wider. He instructed, "Turn around and close your eyes."
Zoey did so because despite everything that had happened between them, she still trusted him completely. She could feel Chase's presence close behind her and then her eyes were covered by what she was pretty sure was a scarf. And then something plastic was being slipped over her head, but it did have a hole for her head. A trash bag with a hole cut out, maybe? It came down to about her knees and she could hear and sense Chase moving behind her, it sounded like he was putting on a trash bag too. Zoey was getting more confused by the second.
"Come on," Chase said as he guided her with his hands on her shoulders. He turned her around and walked her out her door and she could hear him shut the door behind them. They turned right down her hallway and then right again but then they went up the stairs. Up? She thought. But only more rooms and the roof was up and their roof was horrible.
"Step up," Chase instructed at the first stair, but Zoey's sense of measurement was horrible and her step way to big. Chase had assumed that the stairs wouldn't be a problem, but he was wrong. Zoey was stumbling and they hadn't even made it half a flight.
At Zoey's first step she had missed the first stair and found one foot on the landing before the stair and one on the third stair from the landing, which caused her to fall forward a bit, but she caught her self. Chase took her hands from the stairs and held them in his as he pulled her up. "Take smaller steps," Chase instructed as he tired to lead her up the stairs, walking backwards so he could keep his hands holding hers and watch her to ensure she didn't stumble again.
Zoey lifted her right foot and searched blindly for the next stair this time and advised, "Maybe it would have been a better idea to put the blindfold on after the stairs."
Chase chuckled slightly and replied, "But I can't have you knowing where were going."
"We're going…" Zoey faltered as Chase took both of her hands in one of his and gently grabbed her bent knee to her searching foot and guided it down to the correct step. His hand brushed down her jean clad calf as he firmly set it on the step. If the stair well wasn't so poorly lit then Chase might have been able to see the blush that creeping into her cheeks. Zoey realized she was saying something and tried to ignore the wonderful tingling sensation that was occurring in her entire leg. She continued after what felt like an hour, but in reality was at the most a minute, "We're going up, hence you telling me to step up."
"But you don't know where we're going up," Chase said and she could hear the smile in his voice.
"There aren't that many options," she reminded. But he didn't continue to discuss what they were doing, he just continued to slowly and carefully lead her up the stairs.
It went much quicker with Chase leading Zoey and guiding her leg to the correct step, but though it was quicker and safer than the initial Zoey falling and Chase simply saying, "Step up," it still took them almost thirty minutes for them to get to the door that Chase stopped them at.
Zoey knew that they stopped at the door to the roof because she knew how many flights it was from her floor to the roof. Though she could have complained about the blindfold so far being useless, after that first misstep, she really didn't feel the desire to complain about anything Chase was doing.
Zoey heard the door creek as Chase opened it and felt the cold breeze of the December night air on her face. With his hand on the small of her back he guided her forward, but instead of stepping out onto the concrete of the roof like she expected, Zoey found herself stepping on something light and small and that flew up a bit around her feet when she stepped on it. Confetti maybe?
She could feel the brush of Chase's arm behind her head and suddenly the blindfold fell off. The once rather crappy roof had tons of fake and real trees with hundreds of little lights on them completely illuminating the roof. And everything was absolutely covered in fake white snow, the light tiny confetti white pieces seeming to even pile in places. At the center of it all, all wearing ponchos which was what Zoey suddenly realized had been put on her, were her smiling friends.
"Welcome to your very own winter wonderland," Chase said quietly from his position next to her and suddenly awaking her to his presence because she had been lost in taking everything in.
She turned to him and asked completely surprised, "You did all this?"
"Well I had help," he replied with a nod to their friends.
She threw her arms around his neck and hugged tightly, as if doing so would get rid of her shock. "Thank you so much. This is the best gift," Zoey said sincerely.
"Oh no, this isn't all," Chase said, which made Zoey pull away from the hug and look at him curiously. He smiled and explained, "Well, first, one of the best things about snow is snowball fights. This fake stuff isn't so good for that, so I had to improvise." Chase walked to the nearest tree a couple of feet away and pulled out a bucket from behind it. It was overflowing with sugary pink balls. Looking down at the bucket in his hand and not at her he said, "I got Snowballs, so we could have a snowball fight. And in case any of them burst open in the fight we have the ponchos so our clothes don't get chocolaty."
Hearing the rustling of plastic from the ponchos behind her, Zoey leaned toward Chase and whispered, "Do they have Snowballs too?"
"Yep. It looks like they're loading up," Chase replied quietly as he glanced over her shoulder.
"Think we can take them?" Zoey asked with a playful smile.
"Oh definitely," Chase said, his lopsided grin widening. "On the count of three," Chase said priming one of his hands over the bucket. Zoey nodded and did the same, smiling still. Keeping eye contact with him, she knew what he was going to do and at the same time yelled, "Three." They both grabbed snowball and launched them at their friends. A screech was quickly let out by Nicole as the other side returned the attack.
The good natured act of pelting their friends with a processed dessert product went on for almost an hour before all the Snowballs were in pieces and further use not possible. Then the blankets that Chase stored up there were brought out and placed on the ground and Kazu treated them to sushi that was promptly delivered at the time Chase had asked.
After eating, they decided that instead of everyone opening all their gifts at once, they would all take turns opening their gifts while the rest watched. It had been Nicole's suggestion/request because she really wanted to know what everyone got.
Logan opened his gifts first declaring that the order that they went in should be in order of attractiveness and since he was the hottest one, he got to go first. "Two mirrors? Score," he said, delighted after opening Chase's and Zoey's gifts first. Next he opened an envelope, it was a gift card from Michael, "Sportsmart, always useful. Thanks Mike."
Continuing on he opened Quinn's gift. Quinn had gotten everyone the exact same thing. Logan pulled out of her bag what appeared to be a legal document that said that she would not be performing any experiments on any of them without their prior knowledge and agreement to. It was actually a gift they all really appreciated. She also gave them a banana-apple, which she swore were perfect now and she had been eating them for months and had found absolutely nothing wrong with them. And she got everyone a small gift certificate to the campus movie theater.
After thanking Quinn, Logan opened Nicole's gift. "Beef jerky?" he said a little confused because it was an unusual gift.
"Well, I couldn't really think of anything to get you guys. I know you like sports and video games, and we all know you like yourself and hair gel Logan, but I didn't want to get any of that stuff. And the only other thing I could think of that you guys enjoy is eating. So I got you food," Nicole explained.
Logan, feeling a bit peckish, had already opened the package and said with a mouthful and showing everyone what half chewed beef jerky looked like, "It's great. Thanks Nicole."
"Ladies Man," Logan said reading the cover of the DVD Lola got him. "You got that right," he said cockily with a smirk. And with a thank you to Lola he moved on to his last gift, from Dana. He opened the box and found a T-shirt. He read the front of it out loud, "I'm unreliable, disorganized, inefficient, unmotivated, and immature, but at least I'm fun." He turned to her, she was sitting right next to him which was where she always seemed to be lately…or maybe it was him. He revealed with a slight chuckle, "I thought it was going to say, 'Dropped on my head as a child."
She shrugged and replied, "Well it's Christmas, I thought I'd be nice." As an afterthought she added, "ish."
"Well this is really nice. Good compliment," he said seriously.
"You would think that," Dana said with a snicker because of course he would think being called any of the opposites of the first half of the list as a bad thing and them in their as printed form actually good.
Logan was done with all of his gifts and continuing with decided the order the way he proposed he said glancing around the circle, "I don't know. You guys are all about the same." He lifted his hand as far above his head he could reach it and said, "I'm up here at super hot." He moved his other hand down around about the middle of his chest and said, "And all of you are all down here at mediocre hot. I know what you're thinking. Why do I, super hot, hang out with so many mediocre? Well, even you guys deserve something great to look at."
Ignoring Logan's egotistical rant since they were oh so common, Lola jumped in and suggested, "How about we just go around the circle and, Dana, you go next?"
No one had any objections so Dana started opening her presents. She got a black and white checkered scarf from Michael, hand made beaded earrings from Zoey, and an assortment of eye shadows, lip glosses, and blush from Nicole who said all her selections would look really good on her. From Logan she got what Logan got for everyone, a fifty dollar iTunes gift card. Chase gave her a T-shirt that said Save Ferris, because he knew she liked the movie it referenced, Ferris Buller's Day Off, and T-shirts.
But Dana was confused by Lola's gift. "A Lot Like Love?" she read from the DVD case.
"Yep. Think about it," Lola said quietly beside her. She was going to get a gift that wasn't hinting at anything, but it was a good movie, in her opinion at least so she gave into the desire to try and break through the denial.
Since Lola was next to Dana her turn came next. She went directly for what she knew was Michael's gift and received a red rose colored scarf that she immediately put on because it was getting increasingly freezing on the roof. Like Dana she got specially picked out make up from Nicole, pretty hand made earrings from Zoey, and the same gift card from Logan. From Chase she got a DVD, South Pacific, which was near the top of her favorite musicals list and she didn't actually own it yet so she was glad to finally have it.
Noticing that Lola had opened all her gifts, Dana said, "Okay, I guess I should tell you what I got you. Well, actually I got all the girls the same thing. I got us one day all access passes to Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier. I couldn't think of any really good gifts so I thought we might enjoy a girls' day of fun at an amusement park and that we could take the bus down one day next semester. I bought the passes; they're holding them under my name for whenever you guys want to go."
All the girls loved the idea and immediately thanked Dana.
Returning to opening gifts it was Michael's turn next. He opened Lola's gift first and got Rudy. He loved sports movies, which she knew, and he hadn't actually seen this one in a while so he was looking forward to it, it had always been one of his favorites. After opening Quinn's combination gift and Logan's gift card, Michael opened Chase's gift and found what appeared to be a statue of Jesus in a box.
Seeing Michael confused, Chase explained, "It's an Ask Jesus. It's like a Magic Eight Ball, but instead of an eight ball it's a Jesus."
"You know my mom who spends every Sunday in church is going to hate this right?" Michael asked reading the back of the box.
Chase hadn't actually thought of Michael's mom, but knowing her somewhat he said, "Yeah I have the receipt-"
"No," Michael cut him off, "I said my mom wouldn't like it, but I've got some questions for it. Thanks man."
"Your welcome," Chase politely replied.
From Dana, Micahel received a T-shirt that said "Mr. Potato Head." Next Michael opened Zoey's gift, which was a football helmet of his favorite team, the Miami Dolphins, that held chips and dip. And it also went with Nicole's gift, which was four bags of chips. "Did you guys collaborate?" he asked as he ripped into the chips.
"No actually," Zoey answered for them.
"This is a great gift. Thank you," was what it sounded like Michael said through his mouthful of chips.
Nicole, next to Michael, began opening her gifts since he was done. She first cooed over the earrings Zoey made for her. Then she opened Michael's gift to find pale pink scarf that had bright pink hearts on it. "Yay pink!," she said with an excited clap of her hands before she too, like Lola, put the scarf on due to the cold weather. She got the same gift card from Logan and package from Quinn as everyone else. She went for Lola's gift next and received a DVD of Sugar and Spice, the tale of the cheerleaders who robbed a bank, but whenever she watched it she concentrated more on the hot guy who played Jack. And finally from Chase she received a Sephora gift card and she already knew a lot of things she wanted to buy with it and choosing was going to be so difficult.
Quinn opened her presents next. She had noticed a theme in Lola's gifts and she was curious to see what DVD she got. She opened it up and saw the box read Love Potion Number Nine. "I've never seen this," she said flipping it over to scan the summary on the back.
"It's about two scientists who fall in love," Lola said and added as a bit of an after thought, "and this mysterious potion."
"It's super cute," Nicole added having seen the movie many times.
Quinn continued to open her gifts and found the same gift card from Logan, pretty beaded earrings made by and from Zoey, and a specially picked out make up selection from Nicole. From Michael she received an orange and white striped scarf, which she liked because orange was one of her favorite colors and it was super soft. Chase's box was rather large.
As she tore into the box Chase prepared to explain, he began, "It's a-"
"A Harry Potter hat," Quinn finished excitedly as she finished pulling it out of the box. She tried it on and said, "This is going to be great for when I dress up to see the movies or buy the next book at midnight when it comes out. Thanks Chase."
"Your welcome," he replied politely and relieved. When he bought the hat he was only about seventy five percent sure that Quinn was really into Harry Potter.
Zoey was next and she opened the gifts she knew first, the gift card from Logan and package from Quinn. Next she received her specially selected combination of make up from Nicole. She opened Michael's gift and found a dark green plaid flannel scarf and she knew Chase must have had a hand in its selection. She got The Princess Bride from Lola, which had always been one of her favorite movies and books.
She still had one more package in front of her and it said it was from Chase. As she opened it she said sincerely grateful, "You didn't have to get me anything else Chase, you already did so much." Chase didn't reply, he just let her dig her gift out of the box. She pulled out a stuffed giraffe, her favorite animal she once told him. She smiled and said earnestly, "Thank you Chase, he's adorable."
Chase didn't say anything for fear that if he spoke he would blurt out that he had more gifts in store for her once they were alone.
Finally, it was Chase's turn to open his gifts. Like Zoey he went for the gifts he knew first, the ones from Logan and Quinn. He opened Michael's to find he got the same gift card to Sportsmart that Logan had, which as Logan said really was useful. From Nicole he got a tub of giant chocolate chip cookies, but unlike Logan and Michael he resisted digging in and showing everyone what half eaten food looked like. Dana got him a T-shirt that had a picture of a chicken beating an egg with the question "Who came first?" printed above it. Say Anything was the DVD he got from Lola and the reference was not at all lost on him. He opened his gift from Zoey last and was happy to find a plaid flannel shirt, blue this time.
"Thank you," he said turning to her with an enormous lopsided smile.
"Your welcome," Zoey replied politely, but like Chase she was hiding the fact that she wasn't done giving him stuff yet, she was just waiting until they were alone.
Meanwhile, somewhere between Malibu and Santa Barbara, Tiffany awoke with a start knocking her earphones out of her ears in the process, but was somewhat restrained by a seatbelt. Geez, it seemed really dark out. She glanced at the clock in the dash and saw that it was just after seven. Then she remembered why she was still there and how they were still surrounded by cars. She felt like she had been asleep a while, but it didn't look like they had moved very far. She could have sworn that the VW van with the Kerry 04 sticker on it was by them when she fell asleep and it was still there.
"In the hour and half or so that you've been asleep we've only moved about eleven miles," John said answering the questions on her mind.
Tiffany let out a frustrated groan, they had left for Santa Barbara five hours ago and it was only supposed to take about an hour and a half to get there. She complained, "I could have walked there faster than this."
"Probably more than once," John added good naturedly and just as frustrated with insane amount of traffic.
Tiffany noticed the iPod in her lap had a blank screen, and it seemed darker than usual. She realized that she fell asleep with her iPod on and muttered, "Damn it." She knew that letting that slip probably got attention and sure enough when she glanced up John was looking at her curiously. She explained with a gesture to her iPod, "The battery probably ran out while I was asleep."
"It shouldn't have," John said shaking his head. He revealed, "Once you fell asleep I turned it off so it wouldn't die."
"Thanks," Tiffany replied, surprised by his niceness again. So an awkward silence wouldn't settle over them she commented, "It seems darker than usual out."
John suddenly burst out laughing but Tiffany was completely baffled. He managed to calm down somewhat after a minute and managed to point to her eyes.
Tiffany reached up and was horrified to find that she was still wearing her sunglasses, thus the cause of the darker darkness. She slid them up onto her head as a completely embarrassed blush rose on her cheeks. "I'm such an idiot," she said describing exactly how she felt.
John had calmed down from his fit of laughter and said, "It's alright. You just woke up, weren't fully alert yet."
That made her feel a bit better, but why was he being so nice?
Tiffany decided that maybe she shouldn't put her iPod back on and completely ignore him. He was being nice and she could try being friendly as well. He was supposed to be her brother now, right? They should be able to talk.
A minute passed in complete and total silence. Tiffany didn't want to speak first, plus she had no idea what to say. That never happened to her with guys, she was great with them usually. She figured it was the whole he's supposed to be her brother thing throwing her off. But she was ridged and completely nervous as she sat still in her seat staring at the unmoving cars in front of them. It was only a minute of silence, but it felt like forever.
Finally John said, "There's something I've been meaning to tell you." Tiffany glanced at him, he had his eyes on the road and was inching the car forward as they barely got to move forward. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting since, well, we met basically. I haven't treated you very well and-"
"What?" Tiffany cut him off confused, "You've been nice, I'm the one that's been a bitch."
John didn't deny that she was right about her behavior, because she really had been a bitch, but he continued honestly, "I haven't been great to you, not at all. It was just…this time last year I come home and my mom was spending some nights out, but she didn't say where or with who. Then New Years morning she came home engaged to some guy I've never met. I come back from school for spring break and she marries a guy I've met briefly before the ceremony and he happens to have a daughter who I recognize from school because they met at orientation over a year and a half before that, and she just never told me. Then I come home for summer and it's to your house where my mom and my sister and my brother are all comfortable and have a routine because they've been living there with your dad for months. This situation is just really weird and I think I took my lack of adapting to it out on you and I'm sorry."
"Yeah well, I've been doing the same with you," Tiffany revealed. She looked away from him as she explained, "When I came home last year I found a poorly hidden jewelry box. I thought my dad got me earrings for my birthday or Christmas and when I opened it I found an engagement ring. Imagine my surprise; I didn't even know he was seeing someone, he never told me. I didn't ask him about it, I just waited for the day that he came home and told me he was getting married. I didn't find out that I would be getting step siblings until the wedding, he was sure he had mentioned it, but that's something I would have remembered. And I came home in the summer to a house full of people I didn't know. I haven't adjusted well either, maybe not at all. I've taken it out on you and the team and I'm sorry."
John appreciated the apology and he understood it. He understood that they both had been thrown for a loop with their parent's sudden marriage and neither one of them was dealing with it well. He intended to try and adjust from now on. But to make both of them feel better he commented, "Well, we probably shouldn't feel too bad. I mean, I blame our parents."
Tiffany laughed a little and had a small smile on her face when she turned back to him and said, "You know that just because I'm sorry doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to be nice. I've never been that nice."
"Yeah you are," John quickly countered. Tiffany looked at him doubtfully, because really she knew that most people considered her to be completely heartless and she never did much to change their minds. He explained why he thought she was nice by saying, "You taught Trevor how to swim. That was nice."
"Everyone was letting him run around the backyard with the pool there and he didn't know how to swim. It was completely unsafe. He's six he could have fallen in and hit his head and drowned or something," Tiffany quickly retorted as if it excused her actions and made it not a nice act.
He smiled at her and said, "It's still nice. Plus, if you weren't nice, then how did you become Trevor and Haley's favorite person?"
"I am not," Tiffany promptly denied, though she had come to really like them quite a bit. Trevor was probably the most adorable six year old she had ever met and Haley was just nice and unique and she seemed to really like hanging around Tiffany.
"Yes you are," John countered, "You are their favorite because you're really good with them. And if you keep buying them gifts like the ones you got them this Christmas then I don't think I'm going to be able to compete. You will forever be their favorite older sibling."
"Sibling" seemed to put a damper on things. She was glad the kids liked her and all but…for a minute there she forgot that he was supposed to be her "sibling" now.
She didn't respond. She was lost in thought as she stared out the passenger side window.
He glanced at her trying to decipher if she was okay or if he had said something wrong. He didn't really know her that well, so he couldn't really read her. She was pretty beautiful though, when she was being real like now. He shook his head and returned his eyes to the road full of unmoving cars in front of them. He wasn't supposed to have thoughts like that. Sure he didn't have romantic feelings towards her and the thought was innocent enough, but still not appropriate given the fact that they were supposed to be family now.
"Did you ever hear a traffic report?" she asked suddenly in the silence having remembered that before she fell asleep he had been searching for a traffic report on AM radio.
"Yeah," he replied coming out of blocking his thoughts, "there were two over turned semis just North of our exit. But that accident kind of cause five others, two small and three big. There's a lot to clean up apparently. But our exit is only about ten miles away so we should finally be getting off the 101 and hopefully there's no traffic in town, they didn't report any when I caught the traffic report about twenty minutes before you woke up."
She nodded, but he was keeping his eyes forward and didn't see her. Silence settled over them again, an awkward silence this time.
He finally came up with something to say after a couple of minutes and said, "Well, if there's traffic on the way back to school I guess you'll be stuck in it in the Mazarati your dad's probably getting you for your birthday."
"Being stuck in a Mazarati would probably be nice. This," she said with a glance to the torn vinyl seats, "is torture."
Tiffany continued to poke fun at his car as John continued to defend it. They somehow got talking about her birthday plans and eventually their family's holiday traditions. It wasn't necessarily sibling like, but it wasn't like they were flirting either. It was somewhere in between, somewhere comfortable and good. The rest of the ten miles on highway 101 and hour of stop and go traffic, actually seemed to pass rather quickly as they continued to talk. And the thought Tiffany had had in her dorm room would turn out to be true, winter break wouldn't be bad for either one of them, not at all.
Back at PCA, Chase and Zoey had finally been left alone together on the roof. Everyone else had left claiming that they had things to do, which was true, but also wanting to give the two time alone in the hopes of progress.
As soon as they were alone they blurted out at the same time, "I have more stuff for you."
They both laughed and Zoey repeated her earlier claim, "You didn't need to get me anything else."
"You didn't need to get me anything else," Chase retorted and Zoey rolled her eyes.
"Well…" she said and trailed off as she got up and got five boxes she had hidden behind a tree when she came back up with her presents earlier that evening, "you go first."
Chase did as she asked and opened the first box to find another plaid flannel shirt, green this time. The second box had a lighter blue one, the third a black and white one, and the fourth one that looked like the school's colors. "This is great," he said genuinely liking each of the shirts.
"Really? Because a couple of weeks ago Nicole had mentioned something about how you always wear that plaid flannel shirt, the red one from the dance and stuff, and then I noticed that you do wear it a lot so I thought you may like these," Zoey rambled still nervous and unsure about her gift selection.
"Yeah, I love these, they're perfect," Chase assured with his crooked smile.
Chase grabbed the last box and was expecting another shirt, but pulled out a pink sweater. He didn't want to sound like he didn't like her gift so he said slowly, "This is uh…nice."
"It's not for you," she laughed because it was a woman's sweater, how could he seriously think that she would want him to wear it? She explained, "You said you didn't know what to get your mom and I saw this when I was shopping for my mom and from what you've said about her I just thought she might like it. And from your pictures I guessed that she was a medium. But if it doesn't fit or she just doesn't like it, the receipts in the box."
Chase still wasn't sure exactly what it was. Sure he got the part about it being a sweater for his mom, but, "So you got my mom a gift?"
"No, I got you a gift to give to your mom," Zoey revealed, now nervous about whether he would like this gift.
Chase didn't hesitate to hug her and say, "Thank you so much. I had no idea what to get her and I think she'll really like it, like I love the shirts."
Chase pulled away and said, "Now it's time for your gifts."
"Gifts?" she questioned, "But you've already gotten me gifts." She kept emphasizing the "s" because he was really doing too much, always humble by nature she didn't feel like she deserved it.
Chase, like Zoey, had hidden the other gifts behind one of the many trees and brought out two giant bags before joining her on the blanket in the middle of the roof again. "Merry Christmas," he said with a smile as he set them down between them and sat facing her.
Zoey dug into the first bag and pulled out a role of Brawny paper towels. She smiled despite the cheesiness of it.
Chase commented, mostly out of nervousness that she wasn't going to like any of his gifts, "Just to you know…remember the dance and how we ended up there dressed in matching red plaid flannel."
Zoey nodded in understanding, but her hands were back in the bag and she pulled out a cup of noodles, and another, and another, and another. She raised her eyebrow at him curiously as she pulled out what turned out to be twelve cups.
He answered her unasked question, "Just in case you get all busy and neglectful again, you won't run out of food."
"Well I shouldn't run out now," Zoey said with a smile as she reached into the bag. She laughed as she saw that the entire rest of the content of the bag were, "Snowballs?"
"To remember tonight," Chase explained.
"I'm not going to forget," Zoey assured.
Zoey moved on to the smaller bag and found a small box, it looked like a jewelry box, which caused her to once again eye Chase baffled. She peered into the box and saw a thin silver chain.
She actually knew why he got it, but before she could say so he anxiously explained, "You had mentioned that your chain for your key seemed to chunky and-"
"You got me one that's thin and perfect," Zoey said cutting him of and smiling.
She reached for the last thing in the bag and unwrapped it. As soon as she saw what it contained she stopped opening it, too caught up in it. It was an eight by ten black and white picture of them together at the dance in a black frame. They were dancing and Chase was looking down at her and she was smiling up at him with her arms wrapped around his neck and his around her waist. The other people seemed to be a dark blur of dark gray around them, with them brighter than everyone else.
She was quite and Chase was getting increasingly fearful by the second. After almost thirty seconds passed he couldn't contain himself any longer and started explaining, "At the dance Dana saw us dancing and she borrowed Hank's camera and took a picture. She gave it to me a while ago and I thought you might like to have it."
Zoey found her voice and her thoughts and replied, "Yeah, I really would like to have it. But not if it leaves you without a copy."
Chase smiled a little, starting to believe that she liked it, and replied, "We'll get me a copy made when we come back."
Zoey set the picture carefully to the side and leaned forward closing the space between them. She hugged him tightly again and he decided he didn't mind if she was suffocating him, he'd let her squeeze the life out of him any time she wanted. She said quietly and sincerely, "Everything was just…beyond perfect. I could never thank you enough."
"You don't need to. You're worth it," Chase whispered in response.
Eventually they separated and continued with their last night together before break, but even when Zoey would replay his words in her head she still didn't see their meaning. She thought he was a great friend, a great guy, who was genuinely sweet and she knew she was lucky to have him in her life. But what she still didn't see was what everyone else was saying could easily be seen if she paid attention. Like how she would have seen him look like he missed her when she left his arms. She knew from everyone that she was looking for something in him, but not knowing what, all she could find was a really terrific person that she would hopefully have in her life for a very long time.
Downstairs in her and Dana's room, Lola and Michael exchanged extra gifts they had gotten each other. Lola got him a Sportsmart gift card because when he purchased his for the guys he had kept stopping to look at things in the store. And Michael got Lola the Audrey Hepburn collection because she had recently gotten into classic movies and Audrey had become her favorite actress.
They sat quietly together on her couch for a while watching Sabrina, but Lola couldn't help letting thoughts creep into her mind. When she had thanked Michael for her gift she had hugged him, she had pulled away and stayed in his arms staring up at him, she thought they had a moment. She thought he would finally kiss her. And she wasn't lying the other day when she had told the girls that she liked the slow pace, but when he didn't take the opportunity she couldn't help but wonder if he really wanted to.
Eventually, they headed down to join Nicole at the Christmas party. Lola had needed the distraction and Nicole had called saying that they needed more people to enjoy the holiday fun.
Quinn had been taken somewhere by Jack, as his gift to her. She didn't really know where they were, but he had brought them to an observatory with a giant telescope. She decided it was a thoughtful gift and she employed Nicole's suggestion and brought two gifts, but she gave him the non-generic one as well. She was assured it was the right choice when he thanked her and kissed her cheek in a very gentlemanly fashion because he was ever the gentleman and never one to move in a direction without proper consent. Quinn appreciated it, but since she wasn't going to see him again for over two weeks she was feeling a bit daring. In his car when they returned to the parking lot of the school later that night after hours stargazing, she kissed him quickly on the lips and wished him a merry Christmas, which, once he regained thought and came out of shock, he realized it was going to be a very merry Christmas.
When Dana and Logan reached his room for some time alone, he stopped them before even kissing her by confessing, "I kind of got you something else besides the gift card." She was a little surprised, but more amused because he rambled on, "I thought that I should show my appreciation for this" he gestured between them and struggled for a description, "no strings, make out thing." He reached under his bed and pulled out an box and opened it up as he said, "I didn't actually buy you anything, but I had it and I don't use it because I have a bunch of them and I thought you might want it since you don't have one." He pulled out a digital camera and said, "Because it's just insane that you're on yearbook and all into photography and you don't have a digital camera."
He was holding it out to her and as she took it from his hand their fingers brushed. She already wasn't breathing because the second she saw the camera she knew what it was, "A Cannon PowerShot G7 with a zoom equivalent to a 35 to 210 millimeter and facial recognition, continuous shooting, and it's waterproof!"
"Uh okay," Logan said, not really understanding what anything she said meant. "Is it good, because I was using another one I have but if this is better maybe I should keep it for myself," he said, but he wasn't serious.
"No, you're not getting this back," she said stepping a step back to get it out of his grasp. She was playing with it and turned it on as she said, "I mean, I completely shouldn't accept this because it's like five hundred dollars or six, but you said it was an extra and you weren't using it so I'm going to pretend that it's okay and I'm not giving it back. You'd have to beat me to get it away from me now." She was completely serious too. She knew the gift was too much and under normal circumstances she wouldn't have accepted it, but he had given her an excuse to and she really wanted it. And she wasn't even going to let herself think about the fact that it was the best gift she had ever gotten and it was from Logan.
She was already smiling, really happy with the gift, but she got an idea and a smirk appeared across her face. She came up to him and said, "I think my first picture should be of my latest hobby."
"What's that?" he asked with a furrowed brow, looking down at her.
She replied by leaning forward and kissing him. He responded immediately and wrapped one arm around her waist pulling her closer and held her jaw gently with his other hand. She had one arm around his back and the other held out and they could see the flash going off, despite their closed eyes, as she kept pressing the button on the camera to keep taking pictures of them. Later it would be seen in the pictures that neither one of them could seem to stop a smile from forming on their faces as they continued with their newest hobby.
When Dana found her hand with her camera in it wrapped around Logan's back and the camera forgotten and Logan stepping in the direction of his bed, she realized they couldn't end up there, not yet.
She pulled away and explained, "I almost forgot, I got you something too. And I didn't spend money on it either, I don't have any more money."
"You stole it?" he guessed as he saw her reach into the back pocket of her jeans.
"People don't call me danger for nothing," she said as she held out a sprig of mistletoe that she had taken from the cafeteria, which was actually where they had gotten some to the decorations for the roof earlier that day.
"Mistletoe, awesome," Logan said taking it, "This'll come in handy."
"I thought you'd like it," Dana commented, knowing well what his favorite activity was. She pulled out a film case from one of her other pockets and opened it and dumped its contents into her hand. It was a tack and she explained, "This came with it."
He took it from her and pretended to contemplate where to hang it, but pulled up his desk chair, climbed on top and put it in the ceiling right above her head. She smiled to herself as he climbed back down and pushed the chair away.
"Good choice," she complimented, trying not to smile more because it already felt like she was so much. He shrugged, playing it cool and acting like it was nothing. She continued, "Now you get the rest of your gift."
"What?" he demanded immediately.
She walked him backwards to his bed and said cryptically before kissing him, "With how persistent you are I'm sure you'll figure it out soon."
Ten minutes later Logan pulled away and sat back up on his bed. He explained, looking as though he'd really rather not, "I kind of have to talk to you and I should really do it before I get completely distracted when I figure out what you meant by the rest of my gift. I know talking is bad, but I swear I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to."
Dana sat up from where she had been beneath him, a little annoyed, and said, "Fine."
"Alright," Logan said with a nod. He took a deep breath and explained, "Every year right after Christmas my parents go back to work. Around New Years I go to Big Bear, because the plan is that they'll join me for skiing and whatever, but they never do, at least not lately. They're usually still off working somewhere far away on New Years eve and they just don't make it. I am usually really bored because the only girls there are ones on vacations with their families and they're not so easy to convince to make out."
"I thought the devil was supposed to be bewitching," Dana cut in, delighting in the opportunity to hassle him.
"Apparently girls are immune to it when their entire family is nearby," Logan replied. He moved on to his original task quickly, "Anyway, since we have this arrangement, I was wondering if…" he trailed off because damn this was exactly as hard as he thought it would be. He took a deep breath and said quickly, "If I pay for your room and your flight, all very nice, if you would come and be my make out person there to." He saw the complete shock that she couldn't hide from her face and he rushed on, "I mean, we wouldn't actually be there together, it's not like I want you on my vacation and I really don't care what else you would do there. I just want someone to make out with when I want to, like I have here."
Dana asked what she saw as the most obvious question, "And how exactly am I going to do this? I mean, what would I be telling my parents?"
"I don't know, it's not my problem," Logan answered really not having thought about things from her angle because as usual he was only thinking of himself.
She was quiet for a second and he was getting ready to try and retract all of it, claim it was some kind of joke. He was nervous and he didn't know why. She finally said, "Alright."
"What?" he asked, the nervousness suddenly fading.
"It's a free trip. I won't have to see you anymore than I do now. I'll figure out something to tell my parents, though I can't guarantee it will work. But if it does work, I'll go," Dana said because it wasn't a good idea, she knew, but she told herself that rationally she'd be really stupid to turn down a free vacation and more time away from her crazy family, because by New Years she knew she'd really want to get away from her family. And she would tell herself that she also agreed because she was caught up, and to have such little control around him was bad. But as they resumed their previous activities and Logan managed to figure out that his gift was that she wasn't calling him on some of the hand restrictions, she couldn't think of it as bad at all, and even if it was, she didn't care.
A few minutes before curfew Dana tried to leave, but Logan informed her that he had paid off both of their resident advisors for the rest of this semester and the next so that them and all their friends wouldn't get in trouble for being places they weren't supposed to be. Earlier that night he had also informed Chase of the same thing, so he could stay out with Zoey if they wanted.
It turned out that they did want to disregard the rules like Logan and Dana. Though they weren't ignoring them for the same reasons, well to stay together yes, but Dana and Logan were staying together to make out and argue, while they stayed up on the roof and talked. The closest Logan and Dana came to talking after she agreed to go with him on his vacation was when he told her not to expect him to call her or anything over break. She assured him that even if he did call, she wouldn't answer a call from him because she didn't want to talk to him.
Zoey and Chase felt exactly the opposite. They were laying on the blankets next to each other, with one draped over their legs, and gazing up at the stars as they talked about anything and everything. Chase had taken the shirts from Zoey out of the boxes and made her put two on because it was freezing outside and he said he had been really scared of getting hypothermia ever since he saw an episode of ER about it. But he insisted that she would absolutely have to give the shirts back when they left because he really wanted them.
All the lights are coming on now
Silence had settled between them. Zoey said honestly as she continued to stare at the stars, "I'm going to miss you."
How I wish that it would snow now
"I'm going to miss you too Zo," he said as he glanced at her quickly, and he knew that she'd have no idea how much he really would miss her. After all, she was the best thing about his life.
I don't feel like going home now
I wish that i could stay
A shooting star was passing and Chase said to her, "Make a wish."
All the trees are on display now
And it's cold now
Zoey thought for just a second, but with how everything had been, how wonderful this night was, she knew, "I don't have anything to wish for. Everything is perfect."
I dont feel like going home now
I wish that I could stay
Chase turned his head to look at her and found she was looking at him. He smiled and she smiled back. Trying to not let things get awkward, and trying to tell himself that now was not the time to tell her no matter how much he wanted to, they were leaving in only a few hours so now just wasn't ideal. Chase said, "Well, I guess I'll have to waste the star on the only and pretty lame thing I can come up with."
I wish that I could walk
I wish that I could walk
You home
He glanced back up to the star that was fading from their sight, but he turned back to her when she asked, "What'd you wish for?"
All the lights are coming on now
How I wish that it would snow now
He laughed and admitted, "That my grandpa would keep his pants on through Christmas day this year."
I don't feel like going home now
I wish that I could stay
Zoey joined him in laughing and it was how they spent most of their night. They stayed on the roof talking, laughing, and just enjoying each others company until morning came and traveling in different directions home finally separated them.
Santas coming to town
With sequins in his hair
Santas coming to town
With sequins in his hair
They said goodbye but tried not to dwell on it. Yes, it was goodbye, but only for a relatively brief amount of time. Soon they would find themselves back together again and back in the completely content world that the winter wonderland created, at least for a while.
A/N: I really have to leave so I'm making this quick.
Again, sorry for any mistakes. I included what everyone got and I hope that part didn't drag on too much because I thought of what everyone was getting everyone just so I could develop certain peoples and I figured, why not included it? You guys might like to know too.
If any of you have read my profile then you know I'm from California, but before you ask, no not Ripon like Chase, though it is a real place and I am familiar with it. I chose a place I'm familiar with because it will play a role much much much later.
Hint (for much later): Despite what Nicole says in this chapter, don't rule John out from her romantic future yet.
Next Chapter: Yes, it will be mainly Dana and Logan and the trip to Big Bear (a real place here in California). I don't want to give anything away and I haven't decided on a chapter title yet, but I promise plenty of DL goodness.
Please give my new story, Head Trip, a chance. If you're already reading, thank you, and the next chapter should be up in a week or so because as I said, I will be away for a while and without my or any computer.
I will be able to check e-mail on my phone and I hope that if you've gotten this far you'll take the time to let me know what you thought of Christmas at PCA.
Thank you for reading and please do review!
-Sarah
