Luke's PoV

The next few days of school went without any problems for Julie. I still accompanied her throughout the day mostly to make sure she didn't eat in the washroom any more. On Monday she had tried to hide in there to eat her lunch but I stopped her. Thankfully no one was looking in her direction or it would have looked odd with her trying to open the washroom door with no success. She glared at me and walked to the library instead to eat.

After lunch she had been called to the gym where a few tables had been set up with all the kids from Friday night including Lori and their families and the teacher board. The kids had been made to apologize to Julie sincerely and afterwards it was announced that they were expelled from school. The parents lost it, started yelling at the teachers, at their kids, at other kids' parents but the board didn't change their mind. They were under the impression that an apology would be sufficient and a few weeks off of school but the principal made it very clear that this kind of behavior was not acceptable. They could at best hope to get into a public school but the actions of these kids had been informed to every school across the country and similar boards were not impressed and had sworn not to take them in either. What was done was on their public record for universities and schools across the world to view as it was incredibly dangerous.

With one swing Reggie had ended their future careers, they at best could hope to be home schooled and possibly get into a correspondence university. I did my best to keep quiet but it was hard not to snicker at the adults yelling at their children. They were dismissed and I walked Julie back to her next class.

The rest of the week went by without any issues. Julie had decided she preferred eating her lunch in the car with me, that way she could talk all she wanted as it would look like she's just talking on her phone in her car. We would hold hands in the back seat or cuddle if the parking lot was empty which was often since it was snowing now. We just had to be careful not to hurt the battery by having the heater on so we started piling blankets into the back seat and I would poof in hot tea for us.

Alex and Reggie either decided to be oblivious to the change in our friendship or chose to look the other way. So far on the outside not a lot had changed, I hadn't kissed Julie yet so it was just more cuddle time that we spent together really or we were deep in my notebook writing songs. We had finished writing Finally Free, both deciding on the name at the same time then dived into other songs. In the evenings we still spent time with Reggie and Alex watching movies under a blanket where sometimes we would just hold hands or sometimes my arm would be around her shoulders.

Christmas was around the corner, literally in two weeks and we hadn't organised anything yet. Bobby had given Julie an extra five thousand dollars to buy a tree, decorate the house and for us to all buy presents. I couldn't even be slightly mad at Bobby when I realized how generous he had been. Reggie had filled me in that he actually taught Julie how to play a little guitar and saw her as a second daughter. He used to spend a lot of time with her when her mother was alive but that had ended the moment Rose had passed away and regretted not checking in but didn't want to overstep her fathers wishes.

It was Friday again and we were trying to choose a tree without making Julie look crazy. We had decided to go with a fake tree as we didn't want to deal with bugs everywhere over the beautiful house. Julie and I both wanted a dark green one that had frosted tips to look like snow while Alex was eyeing up a deep purple one and Reggie was looking at a traditional green one. In the end we looked at the prices and worked out we could buy two of them if we wanted so Alex got his massive purple tree while Reggie settled on the one me and Julie wanted. We then chose a lot of decorations and made a few trips to the car to unload and come back. The house was massive and we wanted to make sure we had enough to decorate everything.

Reggie, Alex and I had already ordered our presents to be delivered to the house. Since Julie was still in school for half a week more, it meant we would have the opportunity to hide them before she saw them. Julie decided she would do the same but had them deliver it into the garage and told them what the password was. I wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of people we didn't know having the password to our garage but Reggie pointed out we could change it easily from our phones.

We were going to pick up food tomorrow before our gig that I had booked at the same venue. This time we were going to sing Finally free. I wasn't sure what I was looking forward to the most, performing or digging into a Christmas feast. Christmas for all of us was a solemn affair with all of our parents arguing and yelling at us for not living up to their dreams. Even Julie admitted that once her mother died, Christmas was painful, Carlos would be sent away to spend the holidays with family while her dad abused her for all she was worth.

This Christmas though, we all would be with our real family, one of love, support and strong friendship. We had two kitchens so Reggie was going to cook two roast chickens in each oven, a slow cooked lamb in a slow cooker, while Alex worked on frying fish, seafood, sausages, chicken kebabs and lobster tail on the barbecue. Julie and I were going to work as a team the day before to make our favorite desserts. So far we had decided on Pavlova, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate mint log, chocolate steamed pudding and fruit mince pies.

We were currently lined up for the third round at the Christmas store about to pay for the last of the tensile and decorations.
"I'm hungry, should we grab food on the way home?" I asked?
"Nah we still have to unload everything then decorate. How about you go ahead with Alex, poof the big stuff out of the car home so we can fit the last of this in and start setting up the trees. Alex, I pulled out meat for tacos tonight that we could eat by the time we get home?" suggested Reggie.
I reluctantly agreed, I still didn't like letting Julie out of my sight but she would be with Reggie at least. I squeezed her hand before I poofed off to help Alex move the trees inside.

Once home, Alex made a start on tacos while I worked at setting the trees up and putting the lights on them. Once Julie and Reggie came home, we quickly ate then worked at decorating the tree while listening to some classic Christmas music. It was a memory we all had when we were younger, when we were kids and everything was happy and one we all sat back at some point throughout the night to drink in.

Julie and I worked together to decorate the trees on the separate levels of the house while Alex and Reggie raced around decorating banisters, tables, walls, anything they could get their hands on. The only place we agreed on that should be left off limits was above our beds and in the kitchens since glitter wasn't a great addition to food or our lungs. My hands were covered in glitter and I had chased Julie around the house multiple times trying to smear her cheeks in it, Alex and Reggie joining in to help trap her, we eventually cornered her in the laundry and fell down laughing after we had all smeared glitter on each other's cheeks. It was a memory that was pure, magical and ours forever.

I was currently twirling Julie around in my arms as we danced to Michael Buble, 'It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas' while Alex took Reggie for a spin around the kitchen. We had pulled off decorating the house in one night and were currently on our third drink of eggnog mixed with baileys.

"This is perfect Luke, you guys are perfect, I love you so much!" Julie said before leaning up to kiss me gently on my lips. It was our first kiss but that wasn't what caught me off guard, I kissed her back gently before pulling back and feeling my cheeks, they felt warm.