Chapter 32

"Santa came!" Gazzy screamed in my ear the next morning. I bolted up in bed, then looked at him with an irritated expression.

"What was that for?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Angel and Nudge, who were jumping on my bed, shouted, "Let's open presents!"

I rubbed my eyes, then actually got a look at the clock.

"It's three in the morning!" I yelled at them. "Go back to sleep!"

"We can't!" Nudge whined. "That's the problem!"

I sighed, pulling my blanket back over my head. "Then go bug Jeb or something. Or Fang. Fang loves being bugged." I heard the pattering of their feet as they ran out of my room.

A few minutes, I heard Fang complaining, "Go away!"

I smiled, then drifted back to sleep until….

"Max, it's eight 'o' clock now and Jeb says you have to get up, because then otherwise we're never going to open presents and I'm going to die of waiting!"

I yawned, slowly getting out of my cozy bed. "Okay, fine. Let's go." I let them lead me into the other room, where Fang and Iggy were already sitting on the floor.

"Santa ate all the vegetables we put out for him!" Gazzy said excitedly, pointing at the empty plate on the table next to the tree.

I snickered. Poor Jeb.

"This one's for you!" Gazzy said, shoving a small gift-wrapped box into my arms. "I got it just for you!"

"Oh," I said, smiling at him. "Thanks." I tore off the wrapping, only to find some of Nudge's nail polish inside.

"That's mine!" Nudge wailed, snatching the box from me.

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't want it anyway!"

Gazzy didn't seem too upset. "That's okay, Nudge can have it!"

"They were mine in the first place!" Nudge retorted, hugging the box close.

I turned my attention to Angel, who, with Fang's help, was opening the teddy bear I'd bought her. She giggled and wrapped her arms around it, then climbed into my lap. "I'm naming it Beary!" she told me with a proud smile.

"Look at these Hot Wheels I got!" Gazzy shouted, racing the toy cars I'd given to him around the room. "I wonder what would happen if I threw them down the stairs! Or at Nudge!"

"Don't do that!" Nudge shrieked, ducking behind Fang, who was busy opening the CD I'd got for him.

He gave me a weird look, glancing back and forth between the CD and me. "I don't even like this band."

"You know what?" I yelled in exasperation. "No one cares!"

Iggy had let his rat out and had put it on his shoulder. That day at the mall, I had had practically no money. I still owed Fang so money for that rat that I would be in debt to him forever.

"Say hi to Ash, everyone!" Iggy told us. Nudge squealed in disgust and tried to hide under the Christmas tree. She'd already opened her gift from me – and no, it wasn't nail polish. I had bought her some Barbie she'd been begging for all year long.

"Max, you should open something!" Iggy told me as everyone else tore through gifts from each other and from "Santa," aka Jeb.

"I already did," I pointed out. "Nudge's nail polish."

Iggy laughed. "No, you should open the one from me! Right here!" He handed me a box that was sitting in front of him.

I shrugged. "Oh…okay!" Looking at the tag on the box, I realized it was from him. "You got this for me?"

"Just open it!" Iggy told me, grinning. I nodded and tore the paper off.

"What did you get?" Nudge asked, wrapping her arms around me. "I wanna see!"

I held it up. "A camera?"

Iggy nodded. "Yeah. That way you can take pictures, and always look back at the memories we shared." He looked like he was about to cry, but he was also smiling. Happy tears, I guess?

I hugged him. "This is awesome! Thanks!"

"Smile!"Gazzy yelled, grabbing the camera and aiming it at the two of us. We smiled…and smiled…and kept smiling until Gazzy added, "Oh. I think it needs batteries."

"Jeb!" Iggy called. "Do we have batteries?"

Jeb, who was in the process of making breakfast, poked his head out of the kitchen. "No, sorry."

Iggy looked disappointed. "It's okay, we don't need a camera to remember today," I told him, shrugging.

"Imaginary camera!"Gazzy announced, pretending to take a picture. Then he scrambled over to the pile of presents and began tearing more gifts open.

Somebody poked the top of my head, causing me to look up. Nudge was dangling some sort of plant over Iggy and me.

I arched an eyebrow at her. "Nudge, what are you doing?"

"Mistletoe!" she replied, with a triumphant smile. "It means you're supposed to kiss someone!"

I rolled my eyes. "Nudge, I'm not kissing you. Go get Fang to do that." Fang, overhearing the conversation, made a horrified expression as I snickered.

Nudge tapped her foot impatiently. "Not me! You're supposed to kiss Iggy!"

My face heated up. At least Iggy couldn't see my face, which I'm sure was bright red. How was I supposed to kiss him in front of everyone else! Well, I guess I'd kissed him on the cheek in front of our class before…but that was different. This was in front of the flock.

"Fine," I murmured, looking at Iggy. He didn't move, so I slowly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, blushing furiously.

Nudge wasn't satisfied. "No! You're supposed to kiss him on the-"

"Goodbye, Nudge!" I yelled, shoving her aside. Everyone else cracked up, breaking the silence.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Iggy teased me.

I rolled my eyes. "You're the one who was just sitting there frozen in horror."

He laughed. "No, I wasn't!"

"Too bad we didn't have any batteries for the camera," Nudge was saying. "Then I could have taken a picture and put it on Facebook."

"You don't even have a Facebook thing!" Gazzy yelled, throwing one of his new Hot Wheel cars right at Nudge. She shrieked, ducking out of the way.

"Come on," I said, standing up. "It's getting boring in here. Let's go do something fun."

"Like Christmas caroling?" Nudge asked.

I made a face. "No. Like…." I trailed off.

"Snowball fights!" Iggy offered, taking my hand.

"Building snowmen!" Angel shouted, jumping up and down and clinging to my other arm.

"Sledding?" Fang offered, shrugging.

"Don't forget hot chocolate and cookies!" Gazzy reminded us.

I nodded, laughing. "Yeah. That's right! Let's go!" I led the way outside, laughing as I realized we were all still in our pajamas.

"Attack!"Gazzy yelled, starting to hurl snowballs at everyone. I grinned as we fought back against him. Looking around, I saw the rest of my flock was smiling and laughing too.

This was the best Christmas ever.