Richard
It's the best morning of the entire year, Christmas. This Christmas is extra special. They're getting extra attention from the media because of the charity ball. All the kids got to fill out not one, but two wish list tags. His number one item this year is a better laptop. He'll give the old one to Garfield as a Christmas present, since Garfield doesn't have one and asked for stupid stuff like slime and more video games. He feels a little bad for not giving it to Raven, but she never uses the computers and never seems interested in tech stuff.
It's just Garfield and Richard again at breakfast. That's not a surprise though. Breakfast this morning is waffles and fruit salad. Neither is pocket friendly, so they won't be able to sneak Raven anything. It's not the best morning of the year to go hungry, but it is her own fault, so Richard doesn't feel too bad. They sometimes get candy with their gifts, so there might be something she can eat.
Even though they knew she would skip breakfast, Richard is still surprised she doesn't come to the living room with them to get their presents. She didn't fill out a tag, but Richard and Garfield had each snuck one in for her, so she was definitely getting something this year. Or at least he thought she would. Mrs. Huntington never once calls out her name. He watches the other kids open their gifts, looking for the things they had asked for. The other girls all get makeup, clothes and one girl got a sewing machine. The guys all asked for Lego sets, trading cards and expensive sneakers. No eBook reader with a gift card, no calligraphy set or any books. It's as if the tags just got tossed. Even if one of them didn't get picked by someone, the other one should have, but nothing they asked for is here.
Garfield and Richard each have their own small pile of treasure. He gets the laptop he wanted, walkie-talkies, a pre-paid cell phone with a card that has minutes and enough candy to last the entire next month. Garfield gets more games than he'll ever be able to play, slime, candy and comic books. They load their arms up and carry it all to the library.
Raven is sitting at their usual table, reading, like it's any other day.
"Did you get what you wanted?" she puts her book down and marks the page with a scrap of notebook paper. They drop their goods on the table and sit down.
"Yeah," Garfield grins. "Look at this!" he shows her his glow in the dark slime pack.
"Gross." she says.
"You didn't get anything again." Richard says.
"I didn't ask for anything." she moves her hand to her book, but Richard pushes it out of her reach.
"We did though. We both filled out a tag for you." he says. She narrows her eyes at him, irritated.
"Why would you do that?" she asks.
"Because it's the only time of year we can get anything we want." he says.
"Yeah, it's the best." Garfield says. "We didn't want you to be left out."
"Don't ever do that again." Why is she so upset? They were trying to do something nice.
"Why didn't you get anything?" Garfield asks.
"There are things we don't talk about, right?" she leans over the table and grabs the book. "Like where Richard goes when he sneaks out and why you sometimes take off without saying anything." That shuts them up. She's right. They are friends and they have gotten closer, but there are things that they still can't talk about.
She keeps reading, like they aren't even there, so Richard starts setting up his new laptop. While the operating system boots up he goes to their secret spot on the shelf and gets his old one, plus something he picked up when he snuck out a few weeks ago. He puts the laptop down in front of Garfield and a small package wrapped in newspaper in front of Raven.
"Merry Christmas." he says.
"You're giving this to me?" Garfield gapes. Richard nods.
"I don't need two." he says. Garfield hugs the computer to his chest and Richard smiles. He knew Garfield would like it. He'd been giving him envious grins since last year, but of course hadn't even thought to put one on his own list.
"What's this?" Raven asks.
"Open it." he says. She puts her book down, carefully marking the page again before picking up the small package. She turns it in her hands for a minute before slowly starting to tear the paper. Garfield and Richard watch. He can tell by the way Garfield is fidgeting, that the younger boy is equally agitated by how slowly she's opening the gift. Finally, the paper comes off and it's worth the wait. She smiles.
"A book?" Garfield says with the opposite of enthusiasm.
"I thought you would like it." Richard says ignoring Garfield. It's just a beat-up penguin classic, but it's one that the library doesn't have. He found it at a bus stop and almost passed it by, but he remembered that a long time ago, before they had become friends, the other girls had lured her into the basement by telling her there more books in there. He figured she'd appreciate it, no matter what it was and he was right.
"We literally spend every day in a library..." Garfield says unimpressed.
"Thank-you." she ignores Garfield and flips through it, still smiling.
"Oh! I'll be right back." Garfield gets up and runs out of the room so fast that Richard isn't sure if it's because he's transforming or if he needs to go get something. It'd been about three months since the last unplanned transformation. They're both hoping that he has it under control, but since Garfield doesn't know why it was happening, they can't exactly say it's over for sure.
A few minutes after Garfield gets up, Raven gets up too. She goes to one of the shelves and he hears her moving some books around. When she comes back, she has two large book size packages wrapped in construction paper. One green and one red. Garfield comes through the door as she puts them on the table with two small gifts under his arms wrapped in green paper.
"Here." He hands a long flat package to Raven and a small square one to Richard. Raven puts hers down on the table and passes Garfield the green package. He grins.
"Here." She hands Richard the red one. He opens it, faster than she opened her gift, and frowns. It's an old encyclopedia with graffiti on the cover. Someone wrote swear words in black sharpie on the cover.
"Thanks?" he frowns. He looks at Garfield who is equally disappointed.
"Open it." she rolls her eyes annoyed. He opens the cover and smiles. She carved out the inside and glued the pages together creating a secret compartment.
"You cut up a book?" Garfield asks. He has to admit he's surprised to.
"They were old, we have newer copies and they've been all but destroyed by idiots." she says. "I figured you might need more places to hide your new things." A thoughtful gift. Richard looks at his new things to decide what might fit. The walkie talkies might. The phone definitely will.
"A feather?" He looks up and Raven has unwrapped her gift from Garfield.
"Seriously?" Richard asks. Garfield had clearly not thought much of Richard's gift, but all he had was a feather? It was a big feather and a pretty one. A dark color that gleaned iridescent when she turned it in the light, but it was still just a feather.
"For a bookmark." Garfield stammers. Richard reaches for his package, catching a nervous look on Garfield's face. The way it's wrapped, it could almost be mistaken for a piece of garbage, crumbled paper. Underneath it is a small silver whistle.
"What's this?" Richard asks.
"It's a dog whistle. If you ever get in trouble or need help you can blow it and I'll know you need me." Garfield says. "Like if you get locked out when you sneak out or if the guys in your room are giving you a hard time." Richard smiles.
"Thanks." He doesn't think he'll ever use it, but it's comforting to know that if he did need help, he could count on Garfield to show up. He catches Raven raising an eyebrow, but Garfield doesn't notice, so he won't try to explain. She won't ask how he can hear a dog whistle anyway. That's the nice and sometimes inconvenient thing about her, she doesn't ask sensitive questions.
"Sorry it's not as cool as the laptop." Garfield says.
"It's priceless." Richard says and he means it.
"I feel like I'm interrupting something." Raven says.
"Be thankful you get to witness the bromance." Garfield says giving her a light punch on the shoulder. "I was going to get you a whistle too, but I figured you would rather have a bookmark."
"This is nice. Thanks." She replaces the piece of paper in her book with the feather.
"So, how come Mrs. Huntington is making you go to the ball all of a sudden?" Richard asks. He and Garfield had been so excited when they first told her, that it didn't occur to him to ask why. The other girls had all been excited about their new makeup and jewelry, about how they could wear it to the ball. It triggered his memory, that they had never asked.
"There won't be anyone to supervise me." she says without looking at them. "Everyone has to go. It's mandatory." It sounds reasonable, but something still feels off.
"I'm glad you're coming." Garfield grins. He's right, that's the important thing. They're all going to be there, together. It doesn't really matter why. It's a holiday, so he'll cut her some slack and not press the issue.
"Me too. It'll be our first field trip together."
"And you'll get to see me perform!" Garfield adds.
"That is a bonus," she says without looking up from the table. They spend the rest of the morning enjoying their gifts and eating more candy than they should. It really is the best Christmas.
Author Note:
Sorry, I meant to post this a while ago, but I've been a bit busy. Thanks for reading, favoriting and reviewing. Next chapter or two we'll finally meet some other characters #yay. I hope you're not tired of these three yet, but I'm sure it'll be nice to see the others.