This is way longer than it should have been. This was prompted by Lolalove123. Enjoy!

Jerome rubbed small circles on his temples as the deafening noise seemed to increase. For the first time ever, all of the students in school, that hadn't left early for the holidays, were snowed in. Either they were at the school or in their house, they were all stuck. Jerome's nerves were closed to snapping; the other Anubis house residents were fighting, Mara with Amber; Patricia with Eddie; Nina with Joy; Fabian, Mick and Alfie. Jerome was the only sensible one in the house and the two adults weren't doing anything about it. Jerome's eyes shot open as his anger overflowed and he stood from the couch.

"Shut up!" he roared.

The others turned to him sharply, surprise and fear clearly written on their faces.

"You know, when I heard the roads were closed, I was happy. For the first time since…ever, I was going to spend Christmas with people I care about. But, you all just ruined it for me. Go ahead and fight, I don't care. While you do that, I'm going to go to my room, lock the door and think about what I must've missed. Drowning in my self-pity. Just like every year. Merry Christmas, everyone." He sneered and stormed out of the room followed by the slam of his bedroom door.

"What's he talking about?" Amber asked softly.

"Jerome doesn't get to go home for Christmas. His mum is always traveling. He spends Christmas by himself or with Victor. He thought he was going to have an awesome Christmas with us and now his hopes have been shattered in a second." Alfie said shamefully. He wasn't telling the whole truth, but they didn't need to know everything. If Jerome wanted them to know, he would have told them already.

"I don't even remember what we were fighting about…" Eddie mumbled.

Everyone agreed and apologized to each other.

Mara rose from her seat. "I'm going to go speak to Jerome."

She knocked gently on his door and called his name. When he didn't answer or open the door she tried again. "Jerome, it's Mara, please let me in."

He once again, didn't answer and she felt tears form in her eyes. He was ignoring her, he'd never done that before, and it hurt. She felt like it was her fault. Was it? She was a part of the fighting. She was at fault just as everyone else was. Stepping away from the door, she walked back to the common room and sniffed.

"I have an idea."

Jerome's eyes fluttered open and he groaned, slamming his hand down on his alarm clock. He then realized it hadn't even gone off. He scoffed at himself and sat up. Light poured in through the uncovered windows and he frowned at it. It sparkled against the snow outside, making it look like a thousand diamonds, scattered on the ground. The sun was a promise of a new day, more specifically, Christmas day.

He threw a pillow at Alfie's bed but he didn't receive a moan in response. It just fell on the floor. He remembered he had locked the door and Alfie had left his keys in the room. Jerome looked at the hardwood floor and rubbed the back of his neck in guilt. Alfie, his best friend, had been locked out of his own room by him and most likely slept on that lumpy couch in the common room. He changed out of his clothes from yesterday and grabbed a shirt, peeking out of the room into the hall. Jerome knew for a fact that the others wouldn't be up so early on a holiday and proceeded into the kitchen for breakfast. He slid on his shirt and jumped back in surprise.

"Merry Christmas!"

"What's going on?" he asked slowly.

"Um, dude, shirt." Eddie grunted.

"Oh, right." Jerome mumbled and buttoned his shirt up to the fourth button. "So, what's going on?"

"How does a twig have a six-pack?" Joy mumbled.

Jerome raised an eyebrow at the brunette. "Moving on, what's this?"

Amber was the first to snap out of her haze. "Well, Alfie told us about you not being able to go home because you mother is always traveling, and we decided to apologize. We didn't know you've never had a real Christmas before and it was insensitive and rude of us to ruin it like that. We just wanted to let you know that we're here for you, whenever you need us. Whether we like to admit it or not, we're a family, and you're our big brother. You know the one that we can always talk to and trust if we need to, and look up to and be defended by you. Because you've done it before. I know this as a fact. You are a brother to us and especially to me."

Everyone stared at her surprised and she scoffed, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"What? I can be deep when I wanna be."

"I'm not someone you should look up to." Jerome said lowly.

"Dude, you're six foot two, we kind of have to look up to you." Alfie pointed out jokingly.

"Yeah, I mean we can trust you. I'm sure you know almost everything about us but you don't blab about it. But probably just so you can blackmail us…" Joy mumbled.

"Yeah, Slimeball, you know a lot about us but we don't know a lot about you, and we're okay with that. So, come on, what are you waiting for? Sit down and eat." Patricia grinned.

Jerome let out a long, slow breath. "Alright, let's give this a shot."

"Woah, girl," Jerome chuckled, hauling Mara to a stop. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere we can talk and not get interrupted." She said thoughtfully, looking around.

"I know place." He said after a moment.

Five minutes later, they were seated in Robert Frobisher's secret study, Jerome's arms wrapped around Mara's waist as she sat on his lap, resting her head on his shoulder.

"How do you know about this? What's it doing here?" Mara mumbled.

"Secret." He replied.

"Jerome…"

"Dangerous answer, Mara; what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

"I called my parents last night and…I was wondering if you would want to stay with my parents and I this summer, if you're not doing anything, of course. My parents are fine with it and you know how much my mum loves you…"

"What?" he whispered.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she gasped, jumping out of his lap.

Jerome lurched at her and pulled her back down into his lap, making sure she couldn't get away.

"I was so worried about asking you. I was nervous. I'm sorry if I freaked you out or if you don't want to. I totally understand. It's a—"

"Big step." He finished for her.

"Yeah…"

"You're adorable, Jaffray. Of course, I'd love to spend summer holiday with you and your family." He smiled, kissing her burning cheek.

"Great." She breathed out a sigh of relief. "So, how was your first 'real' Christmas?"

"Fantastic." He murmured, resting his chin on her head. "We'll have to get snowed in more often…"

Well-p, that's how it goes...I actually got a little carried away and wrote something at the end but I'm thinking about making a one-shot out of it instead. So, I cut that part out. Anyway, sorry if that's not you were lookin' for. I love the whole friendship/family thing between all the teens. Also, the Jerome opening up to everyone thing. That was good...

Oh, I also just realized, I've got over 400 reviews on this story! And I'm like 9 drabbles away from reaching a 100 drabbles total! Y'all are so incredible! I couldn't have done any of this without y'all, thank you so much!

Alrighty, REVIEW AND PROMPT AND CHECK OUT THAT POLL!

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. -Romans 8:1-2

Love y'all! God bless!

-Rachel