Non-Denominational Secret Santas

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Higher Ground characters or locations. The only thing I made up was the plot.

Chapter 2: Daisy Lipenowski

[AUGGIE]

Daisy was in a bad mood even before she drew the name. The holiday season was never very jolly to her. Moreover, she hated Secret Santas, denominational or not. She hated worrying about getting just the perfect thing for someone, worrying about whether they would like it, worrying about whether she had spent the right amount of time or money on it. This worry only served to worsen her already bad mood.

She had no idea what to get Auggie. It had to be something at least semi-meaningful if she had to give an explanation of it when she handed it over. Great. Just great. What a perfect thing to eat at her mind.

Frustrated, she threw down her tarot cards and stood up, wondering where Auggie would be. There was no way she could clear her mind enough to read the cards with the stupid assignment bothering her. She would have to do something.

Auggie was out on the basketball court playing ball with Scott and a few of the Trackers when Daisy marched up to him purposefully. The ball whizzed around her, just barely missing a collision with her head. Scott caught it and held it as the students looked expectantly at Daisy.

She looked directly at Auggie. "I'm your Secret Santa."

"Uh, not so secret anymore, is it?" Auggie raised his eyebrows.

"What do you want?"

"Dais, I don't think you're—"

"What do you want?" she persisted.

"You're not supp—"

"Auggie," Daisy interrupted. "It's not a particularly difficult question. I simply asked what you want for Horizon's non-denominational holiday gift exchange. You can probably answer that. It isn't that challenging."

"Can you take care of this later, Morticia?" The old nickname was said lightly, almost teasingly, but it agitated Daisy.

She spun around to face the speaker. "Butt out, Scott. This is none of your business."

Scott tossed the basketball to Auggie. "Isn't it?" he asked mockingly. "You're the one butting in. We've got a game going here."

"Just as soon as Auggie here answers my question, I will leave you to it."

Auggie dribbled the ball a few times, watching it instead of Daisy. It looked safer. "Daisy, this isn't a—"

She cut him off again, still addressing Scott. "I don't see how you can play ball with that thing anyway. It's not much of a ball."

"It's the best ball left," Scott informed her. "They're all flat."

"With tight funding, basketballs aren't the first thing that Peter worries about," a Tracker added.

"Go figure," Daisy shot back. She leveled her eyes back on Auggie. "Well? Let me warn you, I hate the holiday season, and I hate Secret Santas. So let's get this over with, or I'll make you underwear."

Somehow, Auggie didn't think that Juliette would appreciate him wearing underwear made by the resident Goth, so he thought fast. "Uh, how about a basketball pump?"

"Are you joking?" Daisy demanded. "Where the heck am I supposed to find a basketball pump? And then afford it?"

Auggie sighed heavily to let her know how much this was putting him out. She didn't seem to care. "How about a basketball then?"

"A basketball," Daisy repeated, her face contorting into her patented incredulous expression that always made the recipient feel especially stupid. "How am I supposed to find a basketball?"

"Rubber," Scott said. "Get some rubber, melt it all down, make it into a sphere, and pump some air into it."

The others laughed. "That was terribly funny, Scott," Daisy said. "Glad you have such a highly developed sense of humor."

"Can we play?" he asked, gesturing at Auggie and the Trackers.

"Fine," she replied, frowning and leaving the court. Behind her, she could hear the players laughing and making fun of her.

How was she going to figure out Auggie's gift? A basketball? Peter said they had to make do with the resources they found at Horizon. But making a basketball? Impossible. The whole assignment was horrible. Daisy frowned again, wishing December twenty-first was already over, wishing that she had not drawn Auggie's name, wishing that she had drawn her own name and could blow the entire assignment off.

Oh boy, she hated gift exchanges.