A/N: All temperatures are in Celsius. Just like what I mentioned in Twin Freckled Trouble, Danville and Middleton are all in New York.
It's the 2nd week of December and snow had just fallen over the Tri-State Area a good 2 feet, forcing a good percentage of establishments to shut down. While the snowfall had already passed, the weather is still a chilly -5 degrees with overcast clouds. That didn't stop everyone at the Tri-State State from being busy preparing for the Christmas festivities, especially the student government bodies of the respective colleges.
In the CICT end, Bella and the rest of the student government crew had just finished setting up the venue for their college's Christmas party, which was at one of the AV conference rooms. From draping Christmas lights to hidden mistletoes up to their snack bar, it looked like it had been set up by a professional events catering team but it was all their work, save for the food, which they had a catering service for that.
"Nice work team!" the SG president, Janice Fez commended as she looked over a clipboard.
"Two weeks, stunted for 4 days, yet we still finished on time." Bella sighed, admiring the work they've put out on the venue.
"And also on budget! This is one of the things Bella decided not to penny pinch!" Peyton Stansfield, the secretary added. The raven haired Latina wasn't amused at that crack, causing the others to snigger. She texted her boyfriend about the party and is secretly wishing he was with her.
Bella: Party's about to start in our side babe. Hope you're having a blast there! I'll meet you around 8 tomorrow :*
A few moments later, Phineas replied back.
Phineas: Enjoy the party! Still here at the garage ATM finishing stuff up. I might skip the engineer's carol if we got a party here.
She turned back to her company of SG officers, "Alright guys, let's get the party started!"
. . . . .
With his girlfriend busy running their Christmas party, Phineas and his colleagues at the bus garage were also busy finishing up repairs on all pending units they have backlogged. They only left out units that require more time to repair such as those due for engine & transmission overhauls, restoring wrecks, and the like. It was also time for their 7th annual Winter Migration Express, a non-profit service provided by JAI Express and the Tri-State University Transport Service Cooperative.
For those who were wondering, the TSUTSC and JAI Express signed an agreement that would have the latter company supply the former with buses that offer campus loop service that ply different routes depending on which colleges they're gonna pass. The terminal also has city routes to Danville, Newark, and Middleton – occasionally, they serve intercity routes
Having obtained his commercial drivers license a couple of weeks prior, Phineas had the honor of driving the Rudolph, a campus-to-doorstep bus service from TSSU to various residential areas in Danville and Middleton. He was due For the redhead teen, it was an early Christmas present and he couldn't stop talking about it to his colleagues.
"Lucky you Phin, you really came a long way from just backyard building." Holly said as she replaced a hub cab on the front wheel.
"The non-profit trips we do is like an initiation phase Phineas." Dawn added, "I did my first trip 4 years ago and now I'm a full fledged garage manager."
"You think I can be a full fledged mechanic as well?" Phineas turned to his boss. She simply nodded.
"With you man, anything is possible."
Just then, a tall, blonde man walked his way towards the three. James Lambert, a 22 y/o mechanical engineering graduate at TSSU, may look intimidating but he's a friendly sort who always has a knack for listening to others' stories. He's also Holly's boyfriend of 6 months and while most of his colleagues tease him for dating a girl three years younger than him, they were nonetheless supportive of their blossoming relationship.
"Say Phineas, don't you have a Christmas party to attend back in school?" he chimed in.
"It won't start til 6. Besides parties there always start late dude." Phineas shrugged.
"Alright guys, we're officially free of our backlog!" Holly interrupted as she raised an air gun.
"No way? That's the last one?" James asked, pointing towards the bus Holly had replaced its wheels. The African-American teen nodded as she passed the job order clipboard to her boss.
"Then we're officially done guys!" Dawn confirmed what everyone in the garage had wanted to hear.
"You know what that means?" Holly suggestively asked, raising her eyebrows.
"CHUG TIME!" the rest of the mechanics cheered. This refers to when the mechanics finished their daily run of job orders, and would celebrate by having everyone in the cafeteria to eat and drink some beer.
Dawn ushered her subordinates to the cafeteria, where unknown to them, she had prepared quite the feast well deserved for the hardworking men and women of the JAI Express Danville maintenance garage. When the mechanics did arrive, they couldn't believe the sight. A Christmas buffet was served in their cafeteria, from turkeys to all sorts of pudding and salads – it was food utopia. Decorations were draped all over the place and even the tables, or tablecloths rather, have a Christmasy feel to it. The karaoke machine had been set up in front of a makeshift stage. She made her way to the cafeteria's PA phone and gave her statement to the crew.
"Alright guys, as we wrap up the year, I wanna say that all your hard work has paid off big time! We just finished our last urgent job order and we have a zero backlog. I know the work here never stops but come Christmas Day and New Year, we're going on a day off. You guys deserve to spend time with your families and enjoy the holidays with them." she said.
Everyone gave their cheers to the young garage manager and to themselves for the blood, sweat and tears they lay down on to finish off the year with a zero backlog. Once they've started off with some icebreakers and games, they settled down and got their meals. Phineas was in the same table as Holly, James, and another colleague named Louis, who's the resident tow truck driver. They had just settled down in the table when Holly looked at the redhead.
"Don't you have another Christmas party to attend?" she asked worryingly.
Before answering, Phineas looked around: people were chatting, eating, singing and having a fun time. He realized that the engineers carol wouldn't match the atmosphere here and so he made his decision.
"They can carol on without me, y'all are all I need tonight." Phineas said, returning to the buffet for another round.
The following day, also known as the last day of the term before Christmas break. All classes, regardless of schedule are half day at 1pm. Students and staff would return by January 7 for the resumption of classes. Phineas is more than excited, not only it's the last day of school but in the next couple of days, he and his colleague James Lambert would rotate in the driving duties.
After their last class, him and Kelly were packing their stuff they'd bring back home for the holidays, especially the latter. He was due to catch his flight back home in Birmingham. December is a busy time for travelers of all means of transportation as they wanted to return to their hometowns or going to vacation hotspots for the holidays.
"How long is the flight from here to Birmingham?" Phineas asked, while packing a suitcase.
"About 6 hours, plus the delays." Kelly replied as he finished packing a couple of boxes filled with his stuff.
"What time's your departure?"
"6:25, but I have to be there around 4 coz the lines are gonna be hell for sure!"
"You know, you can drive my truck to the airport and I'll just get it once I'm done with my trip." the redhead offered, much to Kelly blushing.
"Thanks man! I'll bring Stacy with me so she can drive it back here. She does know her way around an A/T car." the dark haired teen replied.
After packing up, the two friends walked to the parking lot where Phineas' truck was to load Kelly's luggage. Eventually Stacy arrived to drive her boyfriend to the airport.
"Well man, see you next year?" Kelly sighed. Phineas nodded and embraced his roommate.
"Don't miss me too much!" he mock warned, then turned to the brunette sophomore. "Just leave my keys to the guard when you return. I'll be leaving as well, got to do my inaugural bus drive"
"You're legal to drive buses now?" both Kelly and Stacy were stunned.
"Yep! After the guys over the garage learned that I got my CDL, they let me drive." Phineas explained. Stacy was happy for her boyfriend's roommate and pulled him into her embrace.
"Bella owes me one for this." she said, causing the two roommates to laugh. Phineas pulled away from Stacy's embrace as she got on board the truck.
"Well Kelly, it's time you hit the home run. Merry Christmas." the redhead added.
"Merry Christmas to you too, man." Kelly answered.
The couple got in the truck, with Stacy driving. After they disappeared from view, Phineas hitched a ride to the TSU Campus Loop Bus terminal near the main entrance. He saw the unit he'd be driving the run to Danville and Middleton – JAI Express 5228 was a 12 meter long MAN Lion's Coach that can seat 51 people, including the driver and conductor. He opened up the door, looked around the cabin and sat down on the driver's seat. He scanned the layout of the dash and the 7 speed manual shifter it comes with before starting it up; he's very familiar with the workings on the cockpit, only this time he's about to hit the open road for real, with passengers. As he gave the bus some revs, James patted the redhead teen on the shoulder – he's starting as the conductor for this leg.
"Nervous much dude?" he asked.
Phineas nodded, hands still gripping the massive steering wheel. This ain't nothing like driving the truck! "It's just, I'm used to driving these around the lot but now I'm driving this out on the open road with passengers behind me."
"Just keep calm. Focus on the road, and the rest would fall into place." the blonde man advised. This immediately lit up Phineas' mood by a mile.
"Alright man. Let's get these people home." Phineas firmly announced.
James called out the route of their trip and before they knew it, their bus was jampacked with a few standing passengers who managed to squeeze in. Once they were full, the redhead driver set off towards their destinations. While still nervous, Phineas got the hang of bus driving pretty quickly and before long, he was enjoying himself. He drove at a brisk yet safe speed, stopping at the houses James had listed on his clipboard.
The two JAI mechanics did a couple of roundtrips, before returning to the campus terminal empty – James drove this leg back. Bella had already been waiting there for a while after getting a text from Holly, saying that Phineas would be driving the Rudolph. The moment he stepped off the bus, the Latina teen flung herself to him and sharing a quick kiss. Phineas gave in lovingly, wrapping his arms around her slender waist.
"You ready for our Christmas night?" he said.
"Oh honey, I'm always ready when you're here." Bella replied seductively.
"Seems like you two have a little holiday celebration." James smiled, observing the lovestruck couple. They both blushed.
"You can say the same for you and Holly, dude." Phineas smirked, earning a hearty laugh from his colleague.
"True enough," his colleague agreed, "We're going to Brooklyn tonight to catch this Nets game against the Lakers."
"I'm a Nets fan but I'm taking the Lakeshow tonight."
"You wanna bet on it?" James offered.
"Ten bucks." Phineas extended his hand and James shook it firmly.
"It's settled then," the blonde man added, "And I believe your lady's waiting for you."
Phineas looked to his right, where Bella was waiting a bit impatiently. "Yes, yes she is indeed."
. . . . .
The lovestruck couple headed back to Phineas and Kelly's unit, where a romantic candlelit dinner awaits, courtesy of Gretchen. Afterwards, they made their way to the redhead's bedroom and Phineas was pinned against his bed, with Bella on top of him. She was uncharacteristically sultry tonight and Phineas loved her for it.
"How about you give me some of that Phinny energy and make me feel like your woman?" she purred, running a hand on her boyfriend's face.
"Babe, you ARE my woman. And nothing's gonna change that." he smirked, before pulling her in for a warm ecstatic kiss for the nth time.
Eventually, soft moans and groans filled the room, which thankfully was heavily soundproofed, otherwise the neighbors might call in the security to deal with the roughhousing. When Bella pulled out, she felt like the luckiest girl on the planet with her wide smile. Phineas stared at her dark blue orbs, glowing as bright as the deep night sky.
"I love you so much." he muttered.
"I love you more."
The couple slept soundly that night, fully clothed and in each other's arms.