The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Gingerbread Halves

A knock at the door woke me the next morning.

"Hey, Max?" Ella called.

I stretched my limbs and pulled myself into a sitting position, still hugging the blankets to my chin. "You can come in…"

She opened the door slowly and peeked her head in.

"How are you?" she asked with a nervous smile on her face. "You seemed a little… upset at dinner last night."

I motioned with my hand for her to come in and sit by me, which she did, looking almost relieved.

I took a deep breath. "I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting Angel to say that. The others, I could give them what they want for Christmas. I could go out right now and buy an enormous television and the newest video game system, an iPod, make-up, anything. I still have that bank card… But Angel wants something I can't buy her. I can't give it to her, as much as I want to. I can't even promise her she'll get it in the future…" I blurted out quickly.

Ella was gazing at me with a surprised expression. It was obvious she hadn't expected me to just spill my feelings to her. Heck, I hadn't even expected to do that, but she was my sister and it felt good to share my thoughts with her.

"Don't talk like that. I mean, hasn't it already been two months since you've seen or heard anything from those people? What if it's over and you just don't realize it?" she asked, trying to sound encouraging.

I laughed humorlessly. "Two months doesn't mean anything. Actually, no, it probably means something big. Terribly big… As in, they're building an army to track us down and bring us back, dead or alive."

The slightly horrified look I'd put on her face alerted me that I probably shouldn't have chosen those words… I thought about saying, "Just kidding! Didn't really mean that," but I didn't want to lie to her. She deserved to know what her half-sister was up against.

"Sorry, Ella," I sighed. "That's the truth."

She swallowed loudly, then opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when nothing came out.

"It's okay," I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's talk about something else." She visibly relaxed a bit, so I continued, "So how's it going with you and Iggy?"

Apparently I'd suggested the right topic because she beamed at the mention of his name. Seeing her this happy, I couldn't help but shrug off the apprehension I'd felt about the situation before.

"I kissed him last night, Max!" she squealed. "And it was perfect! We were just sitting together for a while, talking about how you guys never get to do this kind of stuff and how this is your first Christmas. He's really a lot more excited about it than he's letting on. Oh, and then I started to fall asleep in his arms, so he said he'd leave so I could get rested. I don't know what came over me, but right as he was saying goodnight, I kissed him, right on the lips! It was short and sweet and felt like… microwave popcorn," she concluded.

"Like microwave popcorn?" I chuckled, trying to figure out whether that was a good thing or not.

"You know, the little bursts of popping… like tiny little fireworks." Good thing, I decided. "Is that what it's like for you, too?"

"What?" I asked, slightly taken aback. "I've never kissed Iggy. Why would you think that?"

Ella laughed as though I'd missed some hilarious joke. "No, Max! I meant with Fang, silly!"

With wide eyes, I stared at her. "I… I wouldn't know, actually," I finally managed to say. I wasn't going to let her know that we had kissed before, even if she was my sister.

"But… Wait… The other night… I thought…" she stammered, finding it hard to form coherent sentences suddenly. She looked genuinely confused.

"You thought…?" I pressed.

"You and Fang. I thought maybe you were finally together. You're not? You were all over him the other night…"

"I was not," I quickly defended myself. "Besides, I don't think he was okay with that whole thing anyway. He pretty much just ignored me afterwards," I added, remembering how annoyed I'd been because of that.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid, Max. That boy is crazy about you."

It was my turn to roll my eyes now. "Yeah. The voice in my head tells me the same thing. I'm sorry, but I don't believe either one of you," I snorted. Luckily, because she was my well-informed sister, I didn't have to explain why there's a voice in my head, much less why it's giving me relationship advice.

Ella sighed and stood up, grabbing my blankets and yanking them off of me.

"Get up and go talk to Fang," she commanded.

I shooed her with my hands hoping she'd drop the subject, but of course she wouldn't.

"Come on. I already thought you were together. That's saying something, isn't it?" she continued.

"That's only saying that you assume too much," I replied, smirking.

"He's sitting on the porch again. Go. Talk," she continued, completely ignoring my comment.

I stared at her relentlessly, determined to not give in. "Ella, why do you even care if I go talk to him?"

"Because I know you want to," she grinned. "You were mad when Iggy and I distracted you from… well… you know."

"Speaking of Iggy," I tried to change the subject, not wanting to address the almost-kiss with her. "Why don't you go wake him up?"

I gave her a light push towards the door and she scowled, but obligingly left my room.

After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying desperately to fall back to sleep under the confines of my cozy blanket pile, I went downstairs to find some breakfast. Before I got there, though, I was stopped by Iggy.

"Max?"

"What's cookin', Ig?" I noticed Ella standing behind him with a contented smile, holding a bag of flour.

"I know how to cheer Angel up," he said matter-of-factly. I stood in the doorway, staring at him and waiting for him to continue… "We'll build a house."

His expression and tone both made him look like he was being serious, but I chuckled at him. "Good one, Iggy," I said, patting his arm as I brushed past him into the kitchen.

"I mean a gingerbread house," he quickly added. "We could build a gingerbread house and decorate it with candy and frosting and stuff."

Once I understood what he meant, a smile crept over my face. Angel would love that, and so would the other kids.

"Oh, and Max, you can help us decorate, but… we don't really need any help with the baking part," Iggy joked. I was sure he was referring to the sugar cookies I made last week. They reeked of vanilla when I took them out of the oven, and after one bite, they were declared hazardous waste.

I smacked his arm, with just enough force to say, "Don't make fun of your leader," then headed back up to the girls' rooms to wake them and tell them about today's plans.

;;;;;;;;

Iggy was setting up all of the ingredients on the table, all measured out to the precise requirement of the recipe Ella provided. Okay, so I had to give him credit. He was much more organized than I had been, which never ceases to amaze me, considering he's blind.

Gazzy, Nudge, and Ella were working on the task of whipping together some sticky frosting that would hold the pieces of gingerbread together, while Angel and I had been given the duty of separating the candy into piles based on the different shapes, sizes, and colors. Total was curled up at Angel's feet, snatching any of the candy that she accidentally dropped. And Fang… was still outside. I had asked him if he wanted to help and he just shrugged… I figured that meant he would be in soon, but we were still without Fang in the kitchen.

He's just thinking, I heard Angel in my head.

Thinking about what? I instantly replied, knowing I shouldn't have given her an ounce of permission to listen to any of the Flock's thoughts, but I really wanted to know what was going on with him. He hadn't said a word to me since yesterday at the diner…

You.

My eyes quickly flicked to Angel.

I was just about to ask her why he was thinking about me – was he mad at me? – when I noticed Ella leaning over the table to reach the bag of sugar…

"Ella, watch…" I warned too late, "… your hair."

Her hair drooped right into the measuring cup full of molasses. She grimaced as she leaned back and saw the thick brown glob dripping from the end of her hair. I know I shouldn't feel like laughing, but that's exactly what I did. I burst into a fit of near hysterics and soon, everyone else joined me, except for Ella, who was simply glaring at all of us, Iggy in particular.

My laughter halted abruptly when I felt someone behind me…

"What's so funny?" Fang asked, placing a hand on my back.

"Uh… Ella's hair," I filled him in, pointing at my sister and stifling another round of laughter.

"Why are you laughing? Do you not remember the Crisco?" he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up and help us sort the candy."

An hour later, we were constructing the gingerbread house, quite poorly I might add, but it was fun and Angel had a huge smile on her face the entire time. We also ended up making gingerbread people that we made from all the leftover dough.

;;;;;;;;

Later that night, I couldn't sleep, so I crept down the stairs for a late night snack – gingerbread.

We had decorated each other's gingerbread person because we thought it would be funnier that way. I had picked Fang's… I gave him two little black licorice eyes, a chocolate chip nose… and that's it. No mouth. I thought it resembled his personality quite well, although he wasn't very amused by it.

I scanned my eyes over the others. Angel had picked mine to decorate. She made me look so cute… But I now noticed something that wasn't there before. In the center of my gingerbread person was a big heart drawn in red frosting. She must have come back and added it after we'd finished… My little girl certainly knew how to make me smile.

I took the cookie and broke it straight down the middle, putting half back on the plate to save for tomorrow, and taking the other half to the fridge with me to get some milk. I took a bite as I was reaching in to grab the container… Mmm…

I heard a quiet noise behind me and nearly dropped the milk and the cookie. I spun around, but saw no one.

"Someone there?" I whispered, my eyes searching every inch of the room. There was no answer, so I shrugged it off, but… the plate of cookies caught my eye.

I had just broken my cookie in half, yet it was whole again… I walked closer and my eyes widened in surprise when I saw that it was still broken, but had appeared whole because another cookie half was next to it… Fang's…

What the…?

Big thanks to the people who gave suggestions for this chapter:

I'm in a big rush to get somewhere right now and don't have time to see who suggested gingerbread… But you know who you are, so Thanks!

Do you see now what I mean when I say I'm running out of material? lol It's not even edited, but I've gotta gooooo...

Please review. :-) I love hearing everything, whether you love it or wish I would just stop writing and set my laptop on fire.

Two more chapters… until the END. You'll probably get them after Christmas day, though. Still want them?

Speaking of which, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!!!!