Part 1

"PRESENTS!"
Mia shot out of bed and landed flat footed on the floor, panicking before she remembered where she was. In Isaac's house, in the guest room, safe and sound.
"Presentspresentspresentspresents!"
"And that'll be Garet," she smiled to herself. She pulled a robe over her nightshift and climbed down the stairs...
...To find Ivan cavorting around in his brand new purple pajamas amid bits of brightly colored wrapping paper, an empty box covering his head. Apparently he had gone on a rampage, shredding and ripping anything with the name "Ivan" on it, and now seemed to be having more fun with the box than the actual presents.
She couldn't help it. She started laughing.
"Ivan?" she gasped out, leaning against the banister for support. "WHAT are you DOING?"
Ivan pulled the box off of his head, not the least bit embarrassed. "It's Christmas, stupid. Come down here! We all got presents!"
And he stuck his tongue out at her.
"Mature, Ivan," she grinned. "Real mature. Last time anyone let's YOU sleep on the couch on Christmas Eve."
"Hey! I had a horrible childhood!" Ivan protested. "My parents gave me away to some egotistical freak that made me call him 'master' and his scary wife who used to dress me up in pink dresses and do my hair in curls! And THEN I'm dragged off on some crazy quest! I'm ALLOWED to be immature!"
Mia started laughing again. The image of Ivan in a frilly pink dress with lots of lace and curls in his hair was enough to send anyone into hysterics. The fact that he was now acting completely out of character only added to her humor.
"Wha's goin' on?" Garet asked groggily, coming down the stairs, Isaac right behind him and looking very dead. The two had roomed together for the night. "Oh, Chris'mas."
"Uh huh!" Ivan nodded enthusiastically. The three Adepts reached the bottom of the stairs. Isaac promptly crawled up onto the couch, pulled Ivan's blanket over his head, and presumably fell asleep. Garet sat on the floor.
"Here, Mia!" Ivan pushed a rather long package into Mia's hands. "It's for you! I picked it out 'specially."
"Why, thank you, Ivan," she managed a rather painful smile, carefully untying the string holding the entire thing together.
"No! Open it faster! Here..."
And before she could protest, Ivan had ripped the blue wrapping paper into confetti, which ended up decorating the entire living room. Mia sighed, and opened the box.
"See!" Ivan pointed excitedly. "See! It's a new staff! Do you like it? Do you? Do you?"
He bounced up and down with excitement.
"Yes, thank you," Mia twirled it in her fingers. The staff was long, thin and silver, topped by a blue orb surrounded by silver filigree and trailing, blue ribbons. "It's beautiful."
"Yeah, and it kicks some major-oomph."
Garet had pushed a present at him, knocking the wind out of him. "Here ya go, li'l buddy! You missed
one!"
"Whoops!" Ivan exclaimed, a silly grin on his face. "Stupid."
"Alright," Mia growled, poking the head of her staff into the soft skin underneath Garet's jaw. "WHICH abysmally STUPID person gave Ivan CHOCOLATE for Christmas?"
"Chocolate?"
"Yes, chocolate," Mia's eyes narrowed dangerously. "It's the only thing that can set Adepts off like this, remember? Now, which one of you did it?"
"I gave him the cloak," Garet protested, raising his chin so as not to be impaled by Mia's new staff. "And Isaac gave him that book on Alchemy."
"Well it wasn't ME," Mia said, as if they were accusing her. "I gave him those pajamas!"
"We know, you gave us all pajamas last night and made us wear them," Isaac sat up, green pajamas revealed. "It might of been my mom. Or Kraden."
"Ivan..." Mia said slowly, keeping her words clear and precise. "Exactly how much chocolate did you eat?"
"None! I only ate the raison cookies Kraden gave us! And Isaac's, 'cause I know he doesn't like raisons," Ivan answered, unable to sit still for more than two minutes. He leaned in over to Mia, smiling sweetly, and poked her shoulder with one finger. "Tag. You're it! You're it!"
And he was running around the room again.
Mia pushed her staff into Garet's hands and dropped into a crouch, searching the piles of presents. "Ah ha! My present from Kraden! This will clear matters up!"
She didn't bother to try to keep the wrapping paper intact, taking a leaf from Ivan's book and ripping the entire thing to shreds. The box underneath contained raison cookies, just as Ivan had said. Still not trusting their innocent appearence, she broke on in half. The center of the cookie contained her worst fear.
"Chocolate," she whispered. All Adepts were highly allergic to chocolate, and in the right amounts horrible, terrible events occured. The Adept consuming the chocolate gained the mentality of a four-year-old, and unlimited Psynergy. A very, VERY bad combination.
Particularly when it was a Jupiter Adept.
Particularly when that Jupiter Adept just happened to be Ivan.
"Stupid old man," Mia muttered. "All right. We're going to go over and have a chat with Kraden."
"Go see Mr. Kraden!" Ivan mimicked her in a singsong voice. "Go see Mr. Kraden, have a chat!"
"Ivan, go upstairs and get dressed," Mia ordered him. "You can wear that new cloak that Garet gave you."
"Need help," Ivan turned his big, purple eyes to her, blinking innocently. "Need your help, Mia. I don't know how to put my clothes on."
Isaac and Garet burst out laughing. Mia tried desperately to keep her temper under control. "Ivan, you know how to dress yourself, I promise. Just go upstairs and GET DRESSED."
"Please help?"
"NO."
"Please?"
"No, no, and NO!"
"'Kay," looking slightly hurt, Ivan trudged his way up the stairs, head down and obviously sulking.
Mia turned to the other two boys, who were still laughing. "It's NOT funny."

Part 2