Here's the latest chapter! Please review and let me know what you think. As always, I'm open to any suggestions or criticism you have for the story!
Sun streamed through my blinds waking me earlier than I had hoped, and I groaned and rolled over. Then I remembered. Christmas!
I threw off the covers and bounded down the stairs, admiring the beautifully adorned Christmas tree. It looked very traditional from far away, but I knew that the tree was covered in ornaments Ella and I had made growing up with our faces plastered to each one. Three stockings hung above the fireplace, each stuffed to the brim with an assortment of presents framing the fireplace underneath the tree.
"Ella!" I called as I burst into my room grinning from ear to ear.
She gave a noncommittal grunt and rolled over. "Five more minutes."
"Nope," I said gleefully. "Not unless you want me to wake you up as I did last year!"
"Okay, I'm up, I'm up." She threw off her covers and wrapped a fluffy pink robe around her shoulders before following me to our mom's room. "I did not need to be woken up with a pitcher of ice water, Max."
"Clearly, my presence wasn't enough, so I had to think big." I opened the door to where my mom was peacefully sleeping in her bedroom. Not for long.
"Merry Christmas!" Ella called as I went and pulled the blinds back revealing a bright sun that was reflecting off snowflakes falling thickly from the sky.
"Your very first white Christmas," I added gesturing at the sky.
My mom grinned; unlike both Ella and I, she was able to wake up the second her eyes opened. Lucky.
"Merry Christmas, girls," she said grabbing a robe like Ella's and leading the way downstairs. "Who wants chocolate chip pancakes?"
Ella helped my mom prepare the pancake batter from scratch while I was in charge of setting the table and getting the juice ready. I wasn't allowed to cook. My mom had fair reason for banning me from the kitchen – last time I tried to cook, I had managed to catch the food on fire and singe off my eyebrows. It wasn't pretty.
She filled our plates high with fluffy pancakes and we headed into the living room sitting around the fireplace enjoying our breakfast and the peaceful snow falling outside. I was thrilled it was snowing again because Fang had promised that after the next snow, he would teach me how to ski. Between finals, Christmas and everything else in between, we hadn't had sufficient time to devote to the slopes, so I was hoping he would take me as promised tomorrow morning.
"Ella, you start," I said tossing her a soft package. We had already opened our stockings and I was delighted to have found an assortment of my favorite candy and gum, a bottle of dark grey nail polish and a very cool bookmark from the shop where Spencer worked. Ella's had been filled with makeup brushes, lip gloss and a few pieces of dark chocolate. She ripped off the paper to find a large maroon scarf that was connected all the way around for which she squealed and gave mom a hug before embarking on a rant detailing every shirt it would go with.
My mom opened the package that Ella and I had gotten her, revealing the canvas print of all three of us standing overlooking the mountains. We hardly had any pictures of us together, and Ella had decided that the new house could use some personality.
When it was my turn, I tore the paper off of a small wooden box and found an Epic pass inside – it was a season pass for all of the ski resorts in Colorado, and it even gave me access to the best mountains in Utah, Vermont and California. "Thank you!" I wrapped my arms around my mom. I was so excited – now, I just needed a ski jacket and snowpants and I would be ready to hit the mountain.
Ella opened the rest of her gifts which gave her an almost entirely new wardrobe. I had found a navy sweater that was stitched by an older lady who lived way up in the mountains, and she had thrown it on over her pajamas.
I grinned as I looked at the open boxes around me. A pair of burgundy snow pants and a sleek black ski jacket were on the ground with a pair of nice mittens from Ella that even had a spot for handwarmers in them. I was stoked.
My mom popped It's A Wonderful Life into the DVD player and we watched the movie sipping hot chocolate as we did every Christmas morning. The movie credits rolled and I leaned back into the couch yearning to try out my snow pants and go play in the cold like a little kid when the doorbell rang.
"Merry Christmas," I heard a familiar voice call as Ella opened the door.
"Merry Christmas, Fang!" Ella said wrapping Fang in a one-armed hug. "You too, Angel!" She added, picking up Angel and holding her against her waist.
"This is a surprise," I said with a laugh Fang came into the living room along with Angel and his parents.
"Well, your mom and I got to talking and we decided that since we would both be here for the holiday, it would be nice for us all to get together and spend the afternoon together. You know play some games, watch a movie," she said as she pulled back from hugging me. I grinned and gave her a bright thumbs up.
"Wanna play in the snow?" I asked Fang.
"Why not?" He asked with a smirk eyeing my new snow apparel. He ran home to grab snow gear for him and Angel while I pulled mine on right over my pajamas.
"So, Angel," I asked bending down next to her. "Did you get anything fun for Christmas?"
She nodded emphatically her bright blue eyes lighting up. "I got a really pretty doll that looks just like me! And some sweaters. Oh, and a Polaroid camera!"
"Oh yeah?"
She nodded again, and her curls bounced up and down. "Yeah! It's so cool; it even prints out the picture right in front of you." She then told me all about the filters she got so that when she took a picture, the whole picture could be colored, and she had a collection of film that had patterns on the border.
Fang returned decked head to toe in black, no surprise there, in his snow pants and jacket. Angel quickly pulled on her pink jacket and purple pants and then waddled into the snow to make snow angels with Ella. How fitting.
Angel decided she wanted to build a snow castle just like in Frozen, so she and Ella went off to work in the corner promising to kill either of us if Fang or I disturbed their castle.
While Fang was distracted watching Angel carefully sculpting the entrance to the moat around her castle, I rolled a perfect snowball in my hands and threw at Fang catching him on the back of the head.
"You'll pay for that one Max," Fang said with a devilish grin and scooped up some snow before hurling it at me across the yard. I tried to move, but had slipped in the snow and he managed to hit me dead in the face.
I glared at him from afar, "You better watch it Ride." I threw another snowball that he easily dodged, but I was ready for the next one he aimed at me too, quickly side stepping away from where the snowball was heading. We were soon immersed in an intense snowball fight with us each somersaulting across the yard through the snow to avoid being fit and to access the fresh snow on the side. Laughing, I dodged another snowball and fired one over at Fang which he easily side stepped until he turned toward Angel who was explaining her castle to him when I took my shot and nailed him on the side of his head.
"That wasn't fair!" He called from his spot next to Angel.
"All's fair in love and war," I responded with a smirk. I bent over to make another perfect snowball and looked up to see Fang barreling at me through the snow. Unable to sidestep him in time, he went straight for my knees and tackled me, falling on top of me into a pile of powdery snow.
"Get off," I muttered, suffocated by his sheer weight on top of me. He rolled over, so we were lying side my side in the snow – Fang panting and me laughing as snowflakes caught in my eyelashes.
"Merry Christmas, Max."
"Merry Christmas, Fang."
And just like that, this Christmas was one of the best I had had in a long time. No fighting, no arguing, no boring awkward time between opening presents and Christmas dinner.
"So," he asked after a while of us staring up at the white sky. "Do you like it here now?"
His question was so out of the blue, that I wasn't sure how to respond.
"I do," I found myself saying. "I really do."
"You didn't seem so intent on staying when I met you at first."
I nodded, "Well, I didn't want to stay when I was here. My mom had uprooted us again to move, and I was tired of having to make new friends and start over every couple of years. It would be nice to just pick somewhere and stay."
He nodded slowly, letting the snowflakes fall onto his eyes and nose. He looked incredibly peaceful just lying in the snow, much happier and more carefree than at school understandably.
"Don't go then," he said simply, his eyes still closed.
"What?" I turned towards him, watching.
"Don't go," he repeated.
I smiled. "Okay." If only it were that easy.
"What are you two weirdos doing over here?" Ella asked coming over to join us.
I shrugged. "Thinking."
"About?" She prodded.
"Nothing."
She rolled her eyes, but laid down in the snow next to us anyway embracing the cold and the new winter we would experience for the first time.
My mom called us in shortly after, and had steaming mugs of hot chocolate waiting us topped off with whipped cream and marshmallows. We were corralled to the kitchen table where the game Catchphrase was waiting and our three eager parents wanted to play.
We joined them at the table, but I was sitting next to Fang which meant we would be on opposite teams. Much to everyone's surprise, we only got into one heated argument the whole time which was a true Christmas miracle. Fang and I did not do well when we were on opposing teams – we're both too competitive and too stubborn to admit that we're wrong, so games like this could go on forever if we refused to go to the next round. A few rounds later, we switched teams and Fang and I had the ability to practically read each other's minds when trying to describe the items in "Everyday Life." It was a little uncanny how well we could tell what the other person was trying to say, especially when we were so much worse when paired with our actual family members. Funny how stuff works out isn't it?
After we had eaten our fill of Christmas dinner, Fang pulled me aside, "I have your gift."
"I told you not to get me anything!" I protested. He just rolled his eyes and pulled out two packages wrapped in matching paper. We were sitting on my bed, and I pulled out his gift from under my bed.
"We both go on the count of three?" He nodded, "One, Two, Three."
"No way," I murmured as I ripped off the paper to reveal a ski helmet. It was beautiful. It was sleek and dark grey with fur along the ears and chinstrap, and would match my ski jacket perfectly. "Thanks, Fang!"
"Where did you find this?" Fang asked, his voice barely audible as he held up the Catcher in the Rye book I had gotten him. It was a vintage edition, and there were only a few copies that existed in print. I shrugged. I didn't want him to know how much trouble I had gone to in my attempt to locate it somewhere I could pick it up in person. He let out a soft sigh as he flipped through the book, letting each delicate page fall between his fingers. He stopped when he got to front cover which was signed by J. D. Salinger.
Fang gave me a bright smile as he opened the ski goggles lens replacements I had gotten him with the book. Iggy had mentioned that his were pretty scratched, so I figured he wouldn't have any excuses not to teach me now.
I pulled out three books from the other wrapped package from Fang. The first one was a new copy of The Shining.
"It's also by Stephen King," Fang said gesturing at the book. "You liked Shawshank so much, I figured you'd like this one too. It has a really good movie adaptation." I grinned at him.
The next one was a small leather-bound edition of The Great Gatsby. He insisted that I had to have The Great Gatsby on my bookshelf even if I didn't like it; it was a classic. I traced the gold stitched writing with my finger.
Finally, a tattered copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn fell out. I flipped through the pages, and each one was dark yellow with age and the pages were wrinkled – it had clearly been read over and over again. "It was my grandmother's copy. It's the book that got me into reading. Literally," he said with a lopsided smile. "She gave it to me when she died, but I think it'll be a good edition to your new book collection."
I stood up and wrapped both hands around Fang's waist. Maybe because wasn't so surprised this time, or maybe because it was Christmas, his hands found their way around my back and he hugged me back with minimal hesitation.
I was so touched by his book selections for me, and I think he was more excited than he was letting on about the new Catcher in the Rye.
"Merry Christmas," he murmured, and I could feel his chin pressing into the top of my head.
"Ooh," Ella said with relish as she opened the door. I rolled my eyes, but pulled back from Fang where he happily released me. "What's happening in here?"
"Gift exchange," I said following her lead downstairs. "Get a grip." She just laughed.
"Come on, we're going to watch the How the Grinch Told Christmas," she said bounding downstairs. "Maybe you can relate, Max." I just scowled as I followed her and curled up on the couch.