Naia's POV

For the first time, I felt restless trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. I now knew what everybody at school meant when they said how they couldn't fall asleep the night before Christmas. Only took me twelve years. Closing my eyes, I pulled the blanket up to my chin but sleep just wouldn't come.

"Struggling Munchkin?" Matt asked me sitting down on the edge of the couch I was sleeping on.

I opened my eyes and grinned at him. "You bet. Usually I don't have a problem falling asleep on Christmas Eve but this year it's different. I'm...I'm..." I faltered trying to find the right word to describe how I was feeling.

"Excited?" Matt suggested and I nodded.

"Yeah, excited." I said nodding. "Now I know what everybody means by not being able to sleep the night before Christmas."

Gabby, who was sitting on one of the arm chairs looked over at me and smiled. "My parents used to make Antonio and I go to sleep early and when we got up, we'd have to first force some cereal down our throats before opening presents. I hated it so much but that has taught me a lot of patience."

"Which you don't use." Shay said from her spot on the other arm chair.

Gabby scowled at Shay, making me laugh. When I was done, I shifted myself into a comfortable position on the couch and tried to fall asleep but nothing seemed to work. I tried thinking of nothing, I tried thinking of what my parents would look like, I tried to fool myself into thinking that I was sleepy. I even tried counting sheep.

"That's it. Nothing's working." I said as I threw the covers off my me and swung my legs off the couch. I then crossed them and pulled the blanket around me. "I can't fall asleep."

Sylvie, who was reading from the other couch book marked her page and looked at me, "That's alright, the later you sleep, the later you'll wake up. More time for us too sleep in the morning."

"And you are not to wake us up in the morning, we wake you scums up!" Mrs. Samual shouted one Christmas Eve when Ellie and I were five. "If either of you make a peep while we're still sleeping, I'll make sure that you won't do it again. Understood?"

Both Ellie and I nodded and I clutched her hand, terrified. Mrs. Samual then sent us up to bed and Ellie and I ran upstairs to our room and crawled onto the mattress on the floor. There was one blanket to share between us and it wasn't very thick so the whole night, we clung onto each other for warmth. The next morning, I woke up early but remembering Mrs. Samual's words the previous night, I tried to be as quiet as possible.

"Merry Christmas Ellie." I whispered as I shook my friend awake.

She groaned rather loudly so I cupped my hand over her mouth, shushing her.

"What was that for?" She asked, not bothering to keep her voice down.

I shook my head. "Remember?" I whispered. "We're not to be loud. Merry Christmas Ellie!"

"I don't care what they say." Ellie said, her rebelling starting at a very young age. "It's Christmas, and I can be loud on Christmas if I want." Before I could stop her, Ellie got up and walked out of the room and down the stairs. Terrified of what she would do, I hurried after her. To my dismay, I found Ellie in the kitchen with a pot in one hand and a metal ladle in the other.

"No, Ellie!" I whisper screamed but Ellie was already walking around, smacking the ladle against the bottom of the pot. Of course, this woke up the Samuals very quickly.

Mr. Samual was the first one downstairs, with Mrs. Samual on his heels. He walked over to Ellie and grabbed the pot and ladle out of her hands and tossed them onto the couch. He then picked up Ellie and threw her against the wall.

"What are you doing?" He screeched and her and I flinched as I watched him slap Ellie across the face. Without even thinking, I ran over and laid myself over Ellie, starting to regret it my actions a little bit when Mr. Samual kicked me.

"What are you doing?" He repeated but this time his words were directed at me.

I paused for a moment but then a thought came to mind. "It was my idea." I blurted out. "I wanted show Mrs. Samual that I could make noise on Christmas." This of course of not true, it was Ellie that wanted to do that but for once, they believed my lie and I was punished. Ellie was whipped with a belt three times and was told 'no breakfast' and I was locked in the basement with no food for the day.

It was awful. The basement was dark and musty and I was starving. Once in a while, one of the Samuals would come down with some water but that was it. Luckily though, the basement had a renovated bathroom which was good, but it was not an ideal way to spend Christmas.

"Yeah..." I said when I realized that I hadn't said anything yet. "Uh...excuse me for a moment." I then mumbled something about having to use the bathroom and hurried off to the bathroom where I locked myself into the third stall and slumped down against the wall.

I felt sick to my stomach. My head was turning and I was dizzy, probably from how fast my breathes had become. Burying my head into my hands, I started crying which just made it even harder to breathe. I felt the contents of my dinner start to rise into my throat and I grabbed the side of the toilet to steady myself as I emptied my stomach.

I threw up. Then again. And then again before I heard the bathroom door open followed by footsteps. My head started to hurt and my stomach fluttered as I threw up again.

"Naia? Are you okay sweetie?" I heard Shay's voice ask before I threw up again. I heard the footsteps come closer and I immediately panicked. I was trapped. There was a knock on the stall door and I pressed myself against one of the walls, clenching my fists.

"Naia, it's just us." I heard Gabby say. "It's just Shay, Sylvie, Stella, Foster and I. Can you unlock the door."

I reached up to twist the lock but suddenly felt panicked and I turned around to threw up into the toilet again. I flushed and then twisted the lock, letting the door swing open.

"Come here sweetie." Gabby said opening her arms and I fell into them, sobbing. I felt someone's hand gently rubbing my back.

"You're not sick are you?" Gabby asked, putting a hand onto my forehead and I shook my head. "No, you don't have a temperature."

Eventually, I calmed down and I rinsed out my mouth before letting Gabby carry me back to the couch where I laid down and pulled the blanket up to my chin. Letting out a final sniffle, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.