Let's just get down to the point: I don't own Drake & Josh characters or anything like that. "Collide" is sung and written by Howie Day.

To answer some questions: To the best of my knowledge, new episodes of Drake & Josh start January 1, 2006. I've also heard through the grapevine that Drake and Josh are hosting TeenNick that night. Is that part true? I don't know. According to a Yahoo! article, the Drake & Josh movie should air January 6, 2006 (which also happens to be my birthday :-) ). It's supposed to air the two days afterward as well. Then, it's scheduled to be released on DVD for January 31.

So, here's Christmas. Glad you guys like the story. Like I said, this chapter is longer than the last. I know I said this story is probably longer than the last one. I don't know what I was thinking. It's the same number of chapters. I think the lengths of the chapters may make it longer though. Anyway, chapter five.

Christmas morning, Megan ran into the guys' room.

"Hey, Drake! Josh! Wake up!" Megan yelled. "It's Christmas morning!"

"Yeah, and it will be for another six hours, so let me sleep, okay?" replied Drake.

"Come on," said Josh, sitting up. "Presents!"

"Which reminds me," said Megan. "My gift to you guys is no pranks for the next two weeks."

"Really?" asked Josh.

"Yep," she said. "Really. I even put it in writing." She handed Josh a sheet of paper and left the bedroom.

"Hey," said Josh. "She meant it."

"Cool," said Drake. "Now can I go back to sleep?"

"Oh, come on Drake. Get out of bed!" said Josh. He walked over to Drake's bed and pulled the blanket off of him.

"Hey!" exclaimed Drake.

"Dude," he said. "Would you just get up." He glanced down at the contract Megan had given him. "Drake, this says if you're not up by 6:05 am on Christmas morning this is null and void."

"What?" said Drake. He jumped out of bed and went flying down the stairs.

"I know you far too well Drake," said Megan when he landed at the bottom of the steps.

"Very funny," he said. "Ha, 6:04. You can't do anything to us for the next two weeks."

"That's fine," she responded. "Planning time."

"Good morning you two," said Walter. "Excited this morning?"

"Yes Daddy," Megan replied sweetly.

"Well," Walter said. "Your mother should be downstairs soon. We'll open presents then. Wait, where's Josh?"

"Still upstairs I think," said Drake. "I'll go check."

Drake ran back up the stairs to his bedroom and found Josh frantically searching their bedroom.

"Something wrong?" asked Drake.

"I lost Mindy's present," said Josh. "I thought I had it in the closet, but it's gone!"

"Dude, that's a problem."

"I know! What am I gonna do?"

"Where'd you leave it last?"

"I last had it out when I wrapped it. Then I put it on the table next to the bed when Mom called me too..."

Josh glanced at the table next to his bed where his gift for Mindy sat.

"Well look at that," said Josh.

Drake rolled his eyes and dug out his present for Cassandra. He had kept it between a couple of blankets in the closet so nothing would happen to it. He was going to her house for lunch later that day and would give it to her then. He really hoped she'd like it. It had taken a while for him to find.

"Boys!" called Audrey. "Come downstairs. We've got lots of presents to open!"

The guys headed downstairs to see what their family had gotten them.

After opening their presents the family ate breakfast.

"Drake, Josh," said Audrey. "When are you going to your girlfriend's houses?"

"I'm going at ten o'clock," said Drake.

"I'll probably head out at 10:30," said Josh.

"Alright," said Audrey. "Just be sure you're home in time for dinner. Josh's grandmother will be here."

"Really, Grammy will be at dinner?" asked Josh.

"Yes," said Walter. "She thought she'd come by for Christmas this year."

Drake swallowed the food in his mouth. Grammy had hated him up until she'd learned he could be responsible. Drake remembered her last visit. It hadn't been so bad. Well, she paid a fine for him when he got in trouble, which he'd paid back, and she didn't tell his parents what happened. She even gave him his money back. She wasn't so bad.

After breakfast, Drake and Josh headed upstairs to get dressed. It was about 8:30, but they both wanted to shower before they left. Drake was still nervous about spending time with Cassandra's parents. He remembered what he had told Josh a while ago though. The only way to conquer his stage fright, was to get onstage in front of everyone. He felt the situation was similar.

Josh walked into the room and said, "Shower's all yours."

"Thanks," said Drake. He headed into the bathroom. He was glad mail didn't come on the holidays. He wouldn't have to worry about intercepting it. If the letter he was waiting for didn't come soon though, he was going to freak. Paul had told him a few weeks after they'd mailed it, they might not get a reply until April.

Josh was pacing his bedroom. He was slightly concerned about Drake. He'd been acting odd lately. He tried to get the mail before everyone else and always asked if there was anything for him when it did come, and someone else got it. Josh decided to ask Cassandra if she noticed anything odd. Josh thought about asking Drake, but if he was just antsy about something, he didn't want to bother him about it.
Drake walked up to Cassandra's house with her gift and some cookies his mom had made in hand. He rang the doorbell.

"Hello Drake," said Mr. Blane pleasantly. "Please, come in!"

Drake walked into the house. There were a few people he hadn't met before in the living room.

"Oh," said Mr. Blane. "Can I take one of those off your hands?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks," said Drake handing him the package with the cookies.

"Oh, these smell delicious," said Mr. Blane. "I'll go put them away."

Drake stood there, a bit unsure of what to do. He felt a soft hand slip into his.

"Merry Christmas," Cassandra whispered in his ear.

"Merry Christmas to you too," he replied. "Um, not to be rude, but I feel really out of place."

Cassandra chuckled and said, "Come on Drake." She pulled him over to a man who looked familiar. "You remember my grandpa. He was here the night of Homecoming."

"Oh right," said Drake. "How are you sir?"

"Fine, thank you son," replied Cassandra's grandfather. "Good to see you again. This is my son, Bradley," he continued, motioning to the young man beside him. "He's Sandy's uncle."

Drake looked a bit confused. Cassandra giggled.

"So," said Bradley. "You're the boyfriend of Sandy's. Well, nice to meet you," he said holding out his hand.

Drake shook it. He managed to figure out that "Sandy" was Cassandra.

"Nice to meet you too," said Drake.

"Come on," said Cassandra. She took him to someone else. "This is Bradley's wife Linda and their daughter Melissa."

"Hi," said Drake.

"Hello," said Linda. She looked behind her for her daughter. Melissa appeared a bit shy. She looked at Drake from behind her mother. She looked about four. "I'm sorry," said Linda. "She's just shy sometimes."

"That's okay," said Drake. He got down close to the floor and looked at Melissa. "Hi," he said. "I'm Drake. You must be Melissa. I bet a pretty little girl like you got a lot of presents from Santa Claus."

Melissa smiled and said, "Yeah, he brought me a doll, a Candy Land game, and a guitar like Sandy's."

"I'm supposed to teach her how to play," said Cassandra. "When she's a little older."

"Oh," said Drake. He turned back to Melissa. "I play guitar too," he said. "It's a lot of fun. Make sure you practice a lot okay? That's how you get good at it."

"Okay," said Melissa.

Drake smiled and stood up. Cassandra brought him over to meet her grandmother.

"This is my grandma," she said. "Grandma, this is Drake."

"Hello Drake," said Cassandra's grandmother. "I've heard a lot about you. You're a very lucky young man. By the looks of things, my granddaughter is a very lucky young woman."

"Grandma..." said Cassandra.

"Don't let me keep you," said her grandmother. "It looks like Drake has a present for you anyway."

Cassandra turned to Drake and said, "Come on, let's go upstairs."

Drake followed Cassandra to her bedroom.

"So," said Drake. "Sandy?"

"Hey," she said. "It's the nickname my family calls me, except my parents, and you and Matt are the only ones who have ever called me Cassie."

"I see," said Drake. "I just keep thinking of Little Orphan Annie's dog."

"Drake Parker!"

"I'm kidding. I'm kidding. What'd your parents get you for Christmas?"

"They got me some time in a recording studio."

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah."

"Here," he said, handing her the gift he'd bought her. "I really hope you like this."

"Drake," she said. "It's from you. Of course I'll like it." She carefully tore off the wrapping paper and found a small, portable writing desk. "Oh, Drake," she said. "Oh, I love it. How'd you think of that? How'd you find it?"

"Well, you mentioned a little while ago you liked writing outside but hated that you couldn't write on a hard surface. I remembered that Little House book you told me about too and thought of this. As for finding it, that took a while. I finally found it in an antique shop."

"Oh, thank you Drake," she said. She hugged him and gave him a kiss. "Here," she said. She pulled out his gift.

Drake looked into the gift bag she'd handed him. Cassandra had given him tickets to the next Zero Gravity concert in January. They were playing in L.A. and the tickets were pretty hard to scrape up, not to mention not too cheap. She'd even gotten backstage passes.

"Cassie," he said. "How did you get these?"

"I've got ways," she smiled. "I thought you'd like them."

"Yeah," he said. "This is great, thanks."

"You're welcome Drake."

"Hey, if I see Devon Malone, maybe he'll remember me."

"What?" asked Cassandra.

"Wow, I can't believe I never told you," said Drake. "I played in Devon Malone's place at one of the Zero Gravity shows."

"You did?" asked Cassandra.

"Yeah, because Josh crushed his hand in a guitar case. I don't bring Josh to concerts anymore."

Cassandra laughed, "I see. Well, I'm glad you like it. I thought we ought to give the Zero Gravity show another chance. Come on, we better go downstairs. Lunch will be in a few minutes."

The writing desk...I had Drake know about if from where I first heard of one. It was in one of the Little House books, but it was a book about Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter Rose. I can't remember the name of the book (pretty bad of me since I own a copy). I'll get the name later for you. I read on a web site that portable writing desks are old and not very common anymore. So, Drake finds it for Cassandra in an antique shop. Okay, that being said...please review!