Author's Note: Alright! I think this chapter is an improvement over the last, I hope you enjoy it! Once again, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes!

Me: Eve, you get to sing this one.

Eve: Sure! Ahem;

On the second day of Christmas, the Founder gave to me...two nosy boys

X

"Dude, I do not feel comfortable with this." Michael said, for what must have been the umpteenth time. Shane rolled his eyes and took some pots and pans out of the cupboard.

"Whatever, Linus. If you don't want to help, then just go somewhere else. You don't have to whine and be a girl about it." he said, peeking into the cupboard. "Dammit, not here either." he grumbled, putting the pots and pans back. "C'mon, Mikey, if you're going to be in here, then you should at least contribute. If you were Eve and Claire, where would you put our Christmas presents?"

Michael sighed. "Somewhere where our nosy boyfriends wouldn't be able to find them." he answered.

Shane scowled. "You are no help. And we're not nosy!"

"What would you call this, then?"

Shane shook his head and sat down at the table across from Michael, giving him a serious, stern expression. "Look, don't you want to know what Eve got you this year?" he asked.

Michael shrugged, then glanced over his shoulder, like he was afraid Eve herself might be in the kitchen with him. She wasn't; both she and Claire were at work now, hence their (well, Shane's) idea to tear the house apart looking for this year's Christmas gifts.

"Yeah, of course I do...but I don't want to ruin it for her!" Michael said finally.

Shane gave his best friend a solemn look. "Mikey, we all love Eve, but do you remember last year's gifts?" he said darkly. Michael winced.

"Oh, come on, man, they weren't that bad." he said, though his tone betrayed his true thoughts.

"Not that bad? Those chain-mail chokers had jingle bells on them!" Shane said indignantly. Michael winced again.

"Okay, you've got me there. But still...how is seeing the gift going to help, if it's really that sucky?"

"For starters, it might help you prepare your poker face." Shane pointed out. "Though, if we're trying to be practical, here, then you can see how it stacks up to what you got her."

Michael nodded slowly. "I guess you have a point, there..."

Shane nodded. "I know I have a point. Which leads us back to the original question: Where did they put the gifts?"

Both boys pondered this for a minute. "Well...what's the last place we would be, and the girls know it?" Michael asked.

They looked at each other. "Laundry." they said together.

Which was how they ended up in the basement, searching around the washer and dryer for any would-be gifts. Shane was peeking into a large box of powdered detergent when Michael said "Aha! Found them!"

He triumphantly held up a laundry basket with some dirty clothes in it. "They hid them on the bottom. Sly. What were they going to do if one of us actually decided to do laundry?"

Shane raised his eyebrows at him. "Right. And while we're at it, I think I'll grow wings and help Santa deliver presents this year." He looked over at the basket as Michael set it down on top of the dryer. "I can't believe they put it right here, after we just spent and hour and a half tearing the rest of the house apart," he grumbled.

Michael shrugged, then pulled a flat white box out of the basket. "Hey, this one has my name on it!"

Shane reached in and felt around until he came up with another box. It had a UPS label on the side, though the seal had been broken. "Guess that means this one is mine." he said. He pulled the side open, and slid another box out of it, this one with a colorful picture on it. "Sweet! It's a Wii-U!" he cried. "Look, Mikey! And there's even a few games in the bottom of the basket, here!"

Michael looked up from his open box, a blank look on his face. "A sweater? Wait, you get a Wii-U, and I get a sweater?"

Shane looked over as Michael pulled said sweater out of the box and held it up for him to see. "Uh, it goes with your eyes?" he suggested.

"It looks like something a middle-aged man would wear! And we live in Texas, in the middle of a desert! Why would I need a sweater?"

"For those chilly December nights?" Shane replied. Michael scowled at him. Shane shrugged. "Look, all that's in here is the game console, some games, and the sweater. Maybe the Wii is for both of us? Like maybe Claire bought this for us, and Eve got you the sweater and hasn't gotten my horrible gift yet?" he said.

Michael nodded slowly. "That would make sense," he said, staring at the offending garment. He looked over at the game console, then picked up a few of the games. "These do look pretty cool...and I bet Eve's far from done with her shopping." he said with a grimace. "Plus that does sound like something Claire would do."

Shane nodded enthusiastically. "Yep, my girl rocks when it comes to gifts. I mean, look at this, man!" he held up one of the more violent looking games in delight.

Michael groaned all of a sudden. "I'll have to go out and get Claire something decent, then. What did you get her?"

Shane froze, turning slowly to Michael with a look of panic on his face. "Oh, crap."

"You didn't get her anything?"

"It was on my to-do list, okay!"

"Well, now we've both got to get her something, and it's got to be something good, after seeing this."

They looked at each other. "Oh, crap." they said in unison.

They scrambled to put the presents back, shooting ideas back and forth all the while. "Wait, what about that new place I heard the girls talking about the other day? The one that used to be the old gym?" Michael asked.

"The big one that opened up last month?" Shane said. It wasn't a huge department store or anything, but it had been pretty nice for Morganville. He hadn't been there yet, but he'd heard a lot of people were doing their Christmas shopping there, and it had a lot of things to choose from. Word on the street was, they even had a small North Pole section with Santa, where kids could sit on his lap and get their picture taken. That sort of thing had never happened in Morganville before, and it was quickly becoming popular.

Michael nodded. "I'll drive," he said.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day...

"Hey, Eve, did you get that package sent back?" Claire asked, sitting down beside Eve on the couch.

"Yeah, just a little while ago. What a rip-off." she grumbled in answer. Claire shook here head. "I can't believe they sent you an empty box! And after we bought all those games for it, too."

"Yeah, well, at least they let us return them without any hassle. Did you get the sweater sent to your Dad?" Eve asked.

"Uh-huh, it should get there by Christmas. Thanks for the idea. It looked just his style. Oh, the guys at the music store were okay with holding the guitar for a few days, weren't they?"

Eve nodded. "Yep, especially with the extra cash they got once I returned the games. There's no way we could keep it here, not with as nosy as the boys are."

"Yeah, I'm glad you thought of the guitar, though. I had no clue what to get Michael. Thanks for letting me chip in." said Claire.

Eve grinned. "No problem, CB. I couldn't afford to get it by myself, anyway. Between that and the X-box Kinect those idiots that screwed up the Wii order are giving me, I'm going to be the Gift Goddess this year! Michael and Shane won't see it coming. What did you get Shane, anyway?"

"Well, there was a sale when I bought Dad's gift, and I thought he might like them, so..." Claire said, smiling broadly. "Some t-shirts with some sarcastic and ironic Shane-like comments on them, and a sweater."

X

And a play I hope no one will see!

Eve: How was that?

Me: Great! Next chapter up: Myrnin, Oliver, and Amelie!

AN: And there you go! Hope you liked it!

Song suggestion for this chapter: 'I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas' (I have no idea who sings this, but it's a cute old song my local radio station plays every year...and this was what was playing in my head as I pictured Michael and Shane tearing the house apart in their frantic search, hee-hee)

Please please please review, I need the feedback! Thank you!

Edit (December 2014): Caught two spelling errors and fixed a few little things that were bothering me sentence-structure wise. Also swapped out some periods that should have been commas and vice-versa.