Hello, folks. Here's the second chapter of the newest story to hit the Net! The funny thing is that I started this story around Christmas, planning to put it out then, but things almost never go the way I want them to. Oh well, huh!

chyp: Thanx for the review. You are, as usual, awesome.


"Aren't you finished with this one yet?" James asked, climbing down the ladder. "I'm ready for the next bunch."

"I think six will have to do, Jimmy," Wesley said, peeking his head from beneath the monstrous web of lights covering him.

"Well, hurry up," James said. "I'd like to finish putting the lights up before it gets too dark."

"I don't see why we need lights at all," Matthew called out from the front door. "We're only gonna take them down."

"We leave them on year round," Wesley commented. "I come from a lazy family."

"Lights make Christmas fun," James said, beaming. "And I'm glad we'll get to spend it here this year, together."

"Not that I'm complaining," Wesley said, "but you seem a lot more cheerful lately. What's going on?"

"I'm just in the Christmas spirit," James said.

"I'll believe that one when he gets those lights untangled," Matthew said to James, pointing at Wesley. He attached the last decoration, a large, round wreath, onto the front door of the house, positioning it symmetrically around the peephole.

"Really," James repeated, "Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, you know? A time to be with family. I just think it's great that I get to spend it with y'all, that's all. Here, I'll help you with these."

"I'll get it," Matthew announced as he heard the telephone ring inside. He ducked inside the house.

"Why don't you just…you know?" Wesley asked James, flapping his hand like a wing.

"No," James said firmly, but still with a smile. "No magic. We've been magic free for a while now and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as we can. Besides, that just takes the fun out of it."

"Fine," Wesley said, handing James the rest of the jumbled lights. "Here, why don't you double your fun!"

Wesley left James in the center of the lawn and walked into the house to fix a snack. All of the time he spent on the Christmas lights made him hungry. James shrugged his shoulders and worked busily on unknotting the seemingly hopeless mass of lights, whistling 'Jingle Bells' as he worked.

Inside the house, Wesley busied himself with something much more enjoyable, making three sandwiches for himself and his brothers, when Matthew hung up the phone and joined him, taking more ingredients out of the refrigerator. Judging from Matthew's over exaggerated actions — he forcibly slammed the refrigerator shut, let the jar of mayonnaise fall onto the table with a loud thud, and almost bent the knife in an effort to cut a tomato — he guessed that Matthew's phone conversation had not fared well.

"Careful," he said to Matthew. "It's a tomato, not a coconut."

"Oh," Matthew said, shrugging, "sorry."

"Who was that?" Wesley asked as he stacked slices of ham on the bread.

"Kathleen," Matthew answered, gripping the knife a little harder as he mentioned that name. "We just broke up."

"Haven't y'all been dating for a year?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah," Matthew said, "but apparently this long distance thing is getting to her."

"So she broke up with you?" Wesley asked. "Right out of the blue?"

"Apparently," Matthew replied. "Merry Christmas me, huh?"

"Aww, don't say that," Wesley said, throwing extra cheese into his own sandwich. "Pass me the ham, though."

"What was it I did?" Matthew asked rhetorically. "I thought we were fine."

"Women," Wesley explained, "are complicated. Very complicated. If they weren't, they'd be men. Let me tell you some things I've learned in all my years."

"You're eighteen," Matthew said flatly.

"Shut up and listen," Wesley said, putting his sandwich into the toaster over. "I've been around enough women in my life to have picked up some very helpful news. First of all, never buy them a dress. There's a reason they spend all day at the mall and come home with nothing. If they can't find it, you'll never be able to. Second…"