December 19th -

I don't know what rendered me frozen; the fact that I was expected to clean an already spotless house or that my mother said Christmasize.

"Clarisse, stop standing and sweep!" My mom yelled. She was already heading to the kitchen with a rag in her hand. Coach, the stupid goat, seemed to be more than happy to clean. He was humming some song off-tune as he dusted the window panels. Yeah, hell no.

I threw the broom on the ground. The clatter made my mom turn her head. She saw the broom on the ground, my crossed arms, and raised an eyebrow waiting.

"There is no way in Hades that I am cleaning. The house is already clean." I growled at her. She simply stared at me. Long story short. I swept. I grumbled and cursed and was tempted to break things but I swept.

"Why are you so okay with this?" I muttered to Coach as we moved the couch and armrests to make space for the Christmas tree in the living room. My mom should consider honestly becoming a general. She was demanding and ordered enough. Hedge grinned at me.

"It's Christmas! Don't you worry, cupcake! We'll get you into the Christmas spirit soon enough." I stared at him.

"You realize that Christmas is a time of peace, right?" He looked like I just deflated his balloon animal.

"Who made this holiday?" He demanded in disgust. I tried not to snicker. I really did.

My mom came out of the bathrooms. Why she was even cleaning in there was beyond me. Last I checked, the bathrooms were not decorated for Christmas.

"Time for bed." I glanced at the clock. It wasn't even 9 pm yet.

"Excuse me?" I asked. She gave an annoyed sigh. I found that I didn't care. "You are getting up early tomorrow, Clarisse, so we can start decorating. We only have 5 days before Christmas." These were going to be a long 5 days.

December 20th-

I was in the tunnels again so I immediately knew that this was a dream. That knowledge didn't stop the overwhelming sense of fear, so foreign for a child of Ares. The walls were lined with bones and the air felt dry. I was running from something, I wasn't sure what and I didn't know what would happen if it caught me. I didn't want to know.

The heat was smothering and I felt irrational anger. I wanted to punch something, hurt anything, kill anyone. The bloodthirsty fever was immediately drowned by a wave of icy chills. I bolted up, wide awake, and nearly head-bumped Coach.

"Hedge!" I growled. It took me a second to get a handle on my surroundings. I was in my bed, soaked. Furiously, I flicked an ice cube out of my hair and tackled the satyr.

"Kid! Get off of me!"

The punk was lucky I liked him. If one of my siblings had dunked a bucket of ice-cold water on me, I would have punched them into tomorrow. I shook Hedge's arms angrily.

"What in Ares' Armour were you thinking?"

"Lay off! Your mom tried waking up normally but you kept whimpering in your sleep! Now, GET OFF ME!" I complied but didn't stop glowering.

"I do not whimper in my sleep." He waved me off.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get dressed. Your mom is waiting for us to start decorating."

I glanced at the clock on my dresser. 5 am. Wonderful. Even I know that this is a stupid time to wake up. I could see my mom pacing in the living room next to the boxes from the kitchen. I quickly finished an apple and walked over to her. She frowned at me.

"Dreams?" She asked. Her face was stoic but I could discern some concern. I scoffed no, lying through my teeth. She obviously didn't believe me but she also didn't press. Instead, she just slid a box over to me. It was filled with tinsel and those piney Christmas vines. I looked at my mom with a raised eyebrow. She gave me a small smirk. "You remember how to do this."

Coach came in after finishing a fulfilling breakfast of knives. "Well, I don't. Are they used as lassos to capture your enemies?" I wrinkled my nose. "Christmas-themed weapons?" I thought about it a bit more.

"Not a bad idea." Mom shook her head in disbelief.

"Start hanging the vines." and she went over to supervise Coach before he actually used the decorations as lassos.

The hours passed quickly. Most of it was spent in comfortable silence. It was muscle memory. I had done this every year during Christmas. Then I stopped. We didn't really celebrate Christmas at Camp. Especially the Ares Cabin. Chiron preferred to enforce ancient festivals. December had Poseidea. Guess who was celebrated?

I had reached the final box of decorations. It was so light that I thought there was nothing in it for a second. Then I saw them. A green plant with a splash of red berries and bows. She didn't.

"MOM! I refuse. I will throw them in a bonfire!" I snarled. Bethany turned away from Coach and looked like she was about to throw me out the door. She glanced at the box.

"Clarisse you are over-reacting, just hang -" At the moment, Hedge decided to use the vines as a rope. The next 3 minutes were a flash of dodgings, swinging vines, and yelling. The result was Hedge tied to my mom; both of their arms pinned to their sides. And they were standing right under an arch. I smirked.

My mom must have read my expression. "Clarisse, no." I grinned at her.

"I'm hanging them up." She groaned.

"Fine. Go burn them. But I swear on your father's name if you hang them over me." She let the threat hang. There is nothing more satisfying than a bonfire made of mistletoe.

December 21st-

I received a full night's sleep with no dreams and woke at the humane time of 8 am. The morning was fine which means the Fates must have been waiting to make my day bad. Coach wasn't in the house. He had left a note. He was going to find us the perfect natural tree. I scoffed. Didn't he realize we were in a desert? My mom was trying to get Chris to eat breakfast. I could hear her calming whispers and his whimpers. I tried to tone it out.

I busied myself by starting to get breakfast. "Don't bother Clarisse. We're going out for breakfast." I frowned at her. Mom was moving to put Chris's empty dish in the sink.

"What about our not-so-sane patient?" I asked. As usual, her face was emotionless but I swear I saw a flicker of mischief.

"He'll be out for a few hours; a peaceful sleep. It must have been something in the food." I raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed. I strode over to the closet and picked out two jackets.

"Why are we going out again?" I asked.

"Christmas shopping." Styx.

Phoenix hadn't changed in the past 5 years. It was still a bustling city like Manhattan and it was still filled with idiotic punks. I saw a group of boys with whom I used to go to school with. Those brats hated me and the feeling was very mutual. I'm not even going to mention their parents who were unfortunately with them. One of the mothers saw us and immediately began alerting everyone with her. I knew that my mom had also noticed them by how she tensed next to me.

"Bethany!" One of the ladies called, her voice sickeningly sweet. "It's been so long! And Clara, you've grown! Where have you been for the past five years?" Without so much as a glance at her, my mom and I walk past. She humphed. "So rude." One of the boys, I wasn't going to waste mental space on his name, tried to 'accidentally' bump into me. I easily spun out of the way and fixed him with a glare that dared him to try anything. He paled momentarily and I smirked. His mother was having none of it.

"Still need to teach your daughter manners, I see, Bethany." My mom crossed her arms and moved forward.

"First, Delilah. My daughter's name is Clarisse. Secondly, she's just fine. It's people like you who are the problem. Now, leave." So that was her name, Delilah Parks, making her son Joseph Parks. He tried to shove my head down a toilet but I turned the tables on him. One word about the Prissy Incident, just one. Miss Delightful Delilah faltered under my mom's stare and turned on her heel, dragging her son behind her. I grinned at Joseph.

"Merry Christmas." My mom gave me a small amused smile.

"Come on, Clarisse. We still have shopping to do." Styx.

December 22nd-

Hedge must have learned his lesson about waking me up with cold water because this time he used a megaphone. I also now owe Hedge a new megaphone. The reason the stupid old goat needed to wake me up was to decorate a tree. I glared at him as I picked at my waffles and fruit.

"I thought you didn't like Christmas anymore since it's a 'peaceful holiday'," I spoke with my mouth full of fruit.

"Nah. You get free presents on this holiday. What's not to like?" He paused and glanced at me suspiciously.

"You did get me a present?" I rolled my eyes. "Of course." I looked at the tree that was standing in the living room. Coach had refused to get a live one after a (gagging alert) pretty dryad had asked him not to and who was he to refuse another member of nature? She had him stay over for dinner which was why he hadn't returned until morning. I decided to not mention that dinner doesn't take all night. I wouldn't know whether to laugh or throw up and Hedge would probably take it the wrong way.

"So how are we going to decorate that thing before my mom gets home from her patient?" My old friend grinned and grabbed a box of ornaments.

"Start warming the popcorn." I snorted.

"I'm sure that's not how it works." He wasn't listening. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to humor him. Three bags of popcorn later, I walked in to find Coach eating a red ornament like an apple. I threw a kernel of popcorn at him.

"That goes in the tree, punk, not your mouth." I turned my back on him for just a moment and felt something hit my back. I spun back to face Coach who was smirking. There was an ornament in his hand and another one rolling at my feet.

"It is on, punk, and you are going down." I lunged towards him, scooping the bobble off the floor as I did so.

After that, it was a rush of yelling, running, dodging, hiding, and flying colors. Eventually, popcorn began being thrown as well. Amongst the chaos, some of the decorations managed to actually get on the tree. It wasn't perfect, if Silena, the Aphrodite neat-freak, was here she would call it an abomination but it seemed perfect to me. The living room however looked like a warzone. Normally I wouldn't care but I doubted my mom would have the same sentiment when she got home.

"Hedge?" I grumbled. He got his head out of the popcorn bag and surveyed the room. His face fell.

"Cleaning?" He asked dejectedly.

"Yeah. Find a broom."

December 23rd-

"Is this the last box of lights?" I shouted. My mom exited the house after me.

"Yes. Where is Gleeson?" I didn't even bother holding back a laugh at Hedge's first name. Mom rolled her eyes at me.

"Up here, you non-goats." We craned our necks to see the satyr. He was standing on the roof. My mom frowned up at him. Naturally, she had sunglasses. Even though the air was cold, Apollo was still shining like he had nothing better to do.

"You do know how to do this, Gleeson? We are not burning down my home for some Christmas lights." I yelled up at him. Hedge scoffed.

"I've got this! How hard can it be?" I crossed my arms.

"You could burn the house down," I repeated. He waved us off. My mom shook her head.

"I'm going inside to find the fire extinguisher and to check on our guest." I didn't need clarification on who she was talking about. "I think the reindeer set is the garage. Get it." As she walked back inside, I glanced at Coach. That old goat better not burn down the house. I left all my weapons inside.

The day ended with good and annoying news. Coach Hedge did not even start a spark and the lights looked fine. A bit crooked and I'm confident that he tried to eat one but they looked fine and my mom was pleased. The annoying news was that the satyr decided that the fact that Santa used reindeer was unacceptable and that goats were the superior choice. By the time I went to bed; he and my mom had had 5 verbal spars and we had fought with weapons 3 times to get him to shut up.

December 24-

I was woken up at 6 am. Marginally better than 5 but I still complained and shouted. Were you expecting something different?

"Hey, Clarisse! Keep it down! Some of us are trying to sleep!" Hedge yelled from his makeshift bed in the living room. I considered making goat stew. My mom crossed her arms.

"You are being overdramatic. Come on. We have to cram all the Christmas cooking into today." It took my brain a moment to process what she said. Christmas cooking? What was I? A daughter of Demeter?

"Couldn't you just order some?" I asked. She raised an eyebrow.

"On Christmas Eve?" I grumbled but followed her into the kitchen. She was right, unfortunately. What place would be open? "Doesn't explain why we are baking at 6 am." She smiled at me.

"Morning is always the best time for baking. Let's start with cookies."

I quickly realized that I could not cook. The first two batches of cookies were practically black blobs. My mom must have realized this too because she put me on Hedge duty. The old satyr kept trying to take some batter. Soon enough, the house smelt like Christmas, and we were laughing and talking, actually enjoying each other's company. I could almost believe that I was a normal kid, making Christmas cookies with my mom and weird uncle (not that I see Hedge as family) and not a trained warrior and demigod daughter of the god of war.

"I don't suppose that you still believe in Santa?" My mom said. Her face was so serious for such a stupid question, I couldn't help but snicker.

"Yes," I responded just as seriously. "And the tooth fairy as well." Even someone living in the world of gods, monsters, and half-bloods knew that Jolly Old Saint Nick wasn't real.

"So I don't get to eat all of the cookies!" Hedge shouted. In his hands were the 2 trays of my failed baking. We let him eat all of them.

You can't say that satyrs are good for nothing.

Christmas Day-

For all the days of crazy preparation, Christmas was a pretty calm affair. The largest highlight was probably an Iris message from my siblings that scared my mom so badly she dropped her eggnog. You could hear Christmas music playing throughout the house. Hedge sang along but he kept changing the words to have to do with fighting and death. I liked his versions better. My mom didn't agree and duct-taped his mouth.

Together we had gotten Hedge martial arts films and now I was slightly worried that he was obsessed. He gave me a club which I threw in the fire when he wasn't looking. I appreciated the gift but I preferred spears for fighting and wood for roasting people or marshmallows, depending on my mood. He had gotten my mom some sort of plant. I didn't care. It was a plant. My mom and I didn't exchange gifts. We didn't feel the need to and had no time to shop without the other. Besides, there was one person who I was more anxious about if he liked his gift. Even if he wouldn't be awake to see it.

Coach Hedge and my mom didn't comment on me going to his room though my mom did briefly squeeze my shoulder. I slowly opened the door then scoffed at myself. It's not like I'm fighting monsters. It's just Chris. He can't even do anything to me.

"Hey." I'm stupid.

"I know you probably don't know what time of year this is, punk." Yet I'm doing this anyway.

"But it's Christmas." I reached into my pocket and brought out a deck of cards.

"You always liked card games. They were practically the one thing you could beat me in." He was still twitching in his sleep. He couldn't even hear me. I don't know what I was expecting. I laid them on his stomach.

"Merry Christmas, punk." I paused at the door. "Please get better," I said softly before I left.