Chapter 30

"Who's ready to go Christmas caroling?" Jaz yelled. I glared at her as Gazzy and Nudge cheered, "Me!"

"Not me," I muttered. Of course, Christmas caroling had been Jaz's stupid idea, and she'd managed to talk everyone else into it.

"Come on, Max! It's going to be fun!" Nudge shrieked as I helped Gazzy put on his boots.

I rolled my eyes. "Sure."

"She said yes!" Nudge squealed as I stood up. Jaz grinned and grabbed my arm, starting to pull me out the door.

"What?" I protested. "That's not what I meant-"

"You're going to love Christmas caroling!" Jaz cut me off.

"Can I at least put on a jacket or something?" I asked in an irritated voice. Jaz glanced over at my jeans and T-shirt.

"Okay, fine. But make it quick!"

I ran up the stairs and into my room, then closed and locked the door. I grinned. There was so way they could get me to come with them now.

"Max? Are you in there?" a voice called, pounding on the door. I rolled my eyes – did Jaz ever stop being annoying?

"No, I'm not," I replied sarcastically.

"You should come! Please?" Jaz begged from the other side of the door.

"No," I replied, grabbing the handle and swinging the door open. "Now go away."

"Pleaaase?" Nudge asked from behind Jaz, and I made the mistake of looking at her. She was giving me the Bambi eyes.

No one can resist the Bambi eyes.

"Okay, fine," I muttered. The two girls cheered.

"Max is coming!" Nudge hollered, jumping up and down. Jaz was grinning at Nudge.

I frowned. I am really going to regret this…

~~::~~

"It's Christmas eve!" Nudge exclaimed happily as we walked down the sidewalk. "That means Santa's coming!"

"I bet he's going to bring us a zebra!" Gazzy replied, grinning.

I stared at him. "A zebra?"

Gazzy nodded. "I wrote a letter to Santa and told him that I wanted a zebra! And a Ferrari, and a treehouse, and an ice cream truck-" I started tuning Gazzy out as he listed everything he wanted for Christmas.

"I want some nail polish since Max, Fang, and Iggy stole mine and gave it away as a birthday gift," Nudge said, turning to glare at us. Iggy and I burst out laughing, and Fang smirked.

"Don't laugh! It's not funny!" she yelled.

I rolled my eyes. "Nudge, Santa isn't real. And if he was, he wouldn't be bringing you nail polish."

"How dare you say Santa isn't real!" Nudge shouted.

"Yeah!" Gazzy complained. "Max is just jealous because Santa's gonna give her a big stocking full of coal!"

"Guys! Shhh!" Jaz told us, then pointed to a house. "Let's go sing to whoever lives there!"

The younger kids bounded up the steps to the front door, led by Jaz. Iggy followed closely behind Gazzy, his hand on his shoulder.

I stood on the sidewalk next to Fang, holding Angel in my arms. Angel had wanted to go caroling, but she'd gotten sleepy after just a couple minutes of walking.

I glanced over at Fang. "You're not going with them? I thought you loved to sing," I teased him. He just rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, I heard shrieking. I turned, looking to see who it was, and then realized that the shrieking was really the noise of four people screaming Jingle Bells at the top of their lungs.

I groaned. This was a terrible idea. Angel blinked her eyes open sleepily. "What's that?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

I sighed. "Angel, you don't even want to know."

The woman who had answered the door looked pretty freaked out. Poor lady. Then I decided it was time to take action. I put Angel down and strode towards the others, grabbing Jaz's shoulder.

"I think it's time to leave," I hissed at her, then looked at the lady. "Uh. Sorry. About my siblings. And my…friend." I hesitated before calling Jaz my friend, because that was something she was not. "Wehavetogonowbye!"

Then I grabbed Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge and marched them back down the steps towards the sidewalk and Fang, who was just standing there, smirking.

"Okay, I think it's time to go home," I began, but Jaz, seemingly ignorant, shouted, "On to the next house!" Gazzy and Nudge grinned and ran ahead, with Angel following behind them.

I sighed as Iggy laughed. "Great. Apparently, she's deaf."

"Come on, Max!" Jaz yelled, running back over to me and grabbing my arm. "Let's go!"

Of course I was stronger than she was, so her efforts to pull me towards the front door of some random stranger's house weren't that effective. But then Iggy and Nudge grabbed my other arm and started to pull me forward, along with Jaz.

"Hey, I didn't agree to this!" I yelled, trying to yank my arms out of their grip. But against four kids – Gazzy had grabbed my arm that Jaz was holding – I couldn't get away from them.

Angel stood on her tiptoes to ring the doorbell, giggling. I just glared at everyone. "This is not fair."

"Okay, this time, we're going to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!" Jaz announced, right as a lady opened the door.

"Yes? Can I help you?" she asked.

"Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!" Jaz belted suddenly and I winced.

"Reindeer!" Gazzy echoed.

"Had a very shiny nose!" Nudge, Jaz, and Gazzy all started screaming. Iggy was just cracking up and Angel was still giggling.

While they were distracted with singing, I pulled away from them, running back to the sidewalk where Fang was standing. I stood there, my arms crossed, while Fang snickered.

Finally, the song was over and the others ran back to us, Angel stumbling after them. I picked her up, putting her on my shoulders.

After a few more houses and a lot more singing, aka shrieking, I was more than ready to go back to our house.

"This is so much fun!" Nudge squealed.

I rolled my eyes. "You have a weird definition of 'fun'."

"Can we go home now?" Fang murmured, and I glanced over at him. At least someone else here had some sense.

"No way!" Gazzy yelled. "Let's go sing some more!"

I grabbed his and Nudge's arms. "Nope, we're going home."

"Awww! Why?" Nudge whined. "I liked Christmas caroling!"

"Yeah, but I'm not so sure our neighbors like your Christmas caroling," I pointed out. "Come on, let's go. Otherwise 'Santa' won't come."

Nudge's, Gazzy's, and Angel's eyes all widened. Apparently, they were convinced because Gazzy nodded and Nudge shrieked, "Santa has to come!"

"He won't if you don't stop bugging our neighbors," I told her.

"Let's go!" Gazzy yelled. "No more singing!"

I grinned, unfurling my wings. "That's what I thought you guys would say." Then I took off, knowing the rest of the flock wouldn't be far behind. And yes, we did leave Jaz all alone. Oops.

"Flying is a lot better than singing," Iggy said, catching up to me, relying on the sound of my wings flapping to tell where I was.

I grinned. "That's for sure."

Nudge, of course, had an idea. "What if we sing while flying?"

Fang and I groaned. Nudge started singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as loud as possible.

Gazzy looked upwards. "What if we see Santa while we're flying? That would be cool!"

"Santa isn't…" I trailed off. It was Christmas Eve, after all, and I didn't want to ruin it for the younger kids. It was our first real Christmas, after all. The whitecoats in the School hadn't exactly put up a big Christmas tree and given us presents or anything.

I smiled at him. "Yeah, Gazzy. That would be nice."