Disclaimer: I do not own Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the films, or any of Lewis' work. I hope only to pay him tribute with my small meaningless attempts to appease my obsession. Narnia writers...I salute you!

Chapter Quote: "Have you been nicking Elora's school books again?"

Chapter Two

A...uh...Surprise?

It was a cold day in December where our story begins. No one wanted to go outside and neither did any of the horses. Christmas was only two weeks away. Uwey had contented himself with curling up in the center of the living room floor and sleeping quite contentedly. Cecilia and Tyler were amusing themselves by giggling whenever he twitched as he dreamt. While Anthony, Grace, and Maria were all sitting in the kitchen finishing up eating the last of the gingerbread house they had made the day before.

Elizabeth was practicing her music up in her room. Alysia was on the phone while Elora had retreated grumpily downstairs with her laptop to finish typing her essay for her last final. Michelle was helping Mom cook dinner and Dad was still at work.

All in all, it was a normal day- even for the Campbells and the house was strangely quiet. Bored with giggling at Uwey, (who was still twitching) Cecilia and Tyler ran to find Anthony, who was their unspoken leader, and began to prowl about looking for some trouble to cause. Elora had only one day left of finals and had stuck to her school books and laptop like glue.

During the last week she had sort of stopped talking as the last days of her semester had come up. She moved from her seat only to eat, sleep, and to sometimes go to the bathroom when it was necessary. Presently, when bothered, her ability at communication was limited to a glare and deep, guttural noises in her throat which sounded something like a growl. Needless to say, the Campbells avoided her whenever it was humanly possible.

Anthony, Cecilia, and Tyler were not so cautious. In a corner of the living next to the TV and the floral pattered couch was where Elora was currently hibernating. She was hunched over her computer, her eyes latched onto the screen. Grinning, Anthony gestured for Cecilia and Tyler to follow him and the three of them positioned themselves on the couch directly behind Elora while Anthony looked over her shoulder to where words were appearing like fireflies on the screen.

The really great thing about Elora was that she'd get so absorbed in whatever she was writing that she'd just tune out everything else in turn making her excellent prey to sneak up upon.

"Why is Legolas hurt?" Anthony asked as he read over her shoulder. Elora jumped, her fingers pausing for only a moment as she turned to see who it was who was bothering her. The dreamy expression vanished from her face and she narrowed her eyes.

"What's this?" Anthony continued, his eyes quickly scanning the fanfiction she had up onher screen. "She ran her fingers over his chest to stem the bleeding of the wound and could not help but notice how well built his muscular-"

Elora snapped the laptop shut, blushing furiously. "Shouldn't you be doing school work or something?"

"It's nearly suppertime!" He scoffed. "I thought you were suppose to be studying?"

Elora growled at him, the guttural noise rousing Uwey from his dream-like sleep.

"I've got a muscular chest too, Elora. Why don't you stem the blood from my wounds?"

"OUT!" She roared in a bellow that made the windows rattle. The three ran off, sniggering as they heard Uwey start barking angrily at Elora who was, in turn, shouting back.

"How am I suppose to get any sleep around here?"

"You are our guardian, why aren't you guarding me from them?"

"You sound like a dying cow."

"Like your growl is so much better Mr. Ferocious." She retorted angrily, a blush creeping onto her cheeks again.

In the kitchen, glasses rattled in the cabinets and Mom shook her head. "I'll be glad when finals are over." She said, then went back to stirring the sauce she was cooking. "Elora sounds like a bear!"

Michelle, smiling innocently, smirked as Mom looked the other way as she thought of the growls her older sister had been making the last few days.

"Your father will be home soon." Mom continued. "We have a special surprise for you kids."

"What surprise?" Asked Elizabeth as she waltzed (literally) into the kitchen, still humming the tune "Think of Me" as she did so.

"It wouldn't be a surprise now if I told you, would it?" Mom answered mysteriously, a smile on her face.

"Will it be a fun surprise?" Asked Maria as she followed Elizabeth in. A College Student's Guide to Chemistry, clutched in her hands.

"I make no promises." Replied Mom gravely, glancing at the book in Maria's hands and then frowning."Have you been nicking Elora's school books again?"

Maria slammed the book shut and hurriedly hit it behind her back. "She's already taken the final for Chemistry!" She protested, her glasses sliding to the edge of her nose as she looked pleadingly up at Mom.

"But she still has to sell it back. Besides, she gets very attached to her books- and she's still not out of the woods yet."

A pout weaseled its way onto Maria's face as she took the book out once more and looked longingly at the cover.

"Where's Anthony, Cecilia, and Tyler?" Mom asked Elizabeth, who was now doing something that looked like an elegant attempt to swing her hips as she hummed a song from the opera, Carmen. She paused as Mom spoke to her and glanced around the kitchen as if she half expected for the tree to appear out of the cabinets or to leap from the oven. "Sorry, haven't seen them."

Elora followed the suit into the kitchen, brown eyes blazing as she started growling at Mom and pointing to somewhere out of the kitchen. Elizabeth and Maria took hesitant steps away from her, Elizabeth still swinging her hips.

"Sorry Elora...yes I know sweetie, finals are very hard...think of it this way, lay out your life and when you think about it, will finals be all that important?"

Elora let out an angry bellow and everybody flinched. Mom, immoveable as ever, frowned, "Don't you go talking that way to me, missy. College..."She grumbled "...kids think they know everything just because they pass a few classes."

Elora retreated into the next room while Michelle sniggered with Elizabeth behind Mom's back. Mom shook her head. Uwey started barking and all the kids ran down the stairs like a herd of elephants.

"DAAAAAADY'S HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!" They screamed.

Uwey, running courageously to the front of the ranks until they told him to shut up.

"Good." Mom said delightedly, wiping her hands on a towel. "Your father is home...and it looks like dinner is ready now too."

"Bless us our Lord, for these thy gifts. Which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen. St. Joseph pray for us and bless the hands that made this wonderful food." Recited the children with their heads down and their hands folded. (Their eyes would have been closed if they hadn't been fastened hungrily on the steaming plates in front of them.)

"Amen." Said Dad.

The children began to hungrily attack the food with vehemence, it was Pasta. And all Italian children, such as the Campbells, know that pasta is the God of an Italian mother's table. They all fell silent as they began to eat.

"Silence." Dad said contentedly. "Surest sign of a good meal."

Grace had already finished her first plate. "Done." She said, glancing up at him. "Can I have some more?"

Dad blinked in surprise. "Already?"

Grace looked insulted. "I'm a growing girl."

Mom shoveled some more pasta onto her plate and with a happy sigh, she set about to eating again. It was amazing how she never seemed to get any bigger with the amounts of food she ate. But then again, Tolkien never mentioned any fat elves in his books...though the elves in his books never tripped either- but we'll save that discussion for another story.

Campbell meals are generally like this, the first minute in silence before everyone starts talking again. Uwey paced up and down the table, looking for scraps and Cecilia tried to feed him some of her Broccoli.

"Won't work you know." Alysia whispered to her. "He doesn't like it anymore then you."

Cecilia offered the vegetable hopefully to her instead but Alysia only smiled and shook her head. "You like Broccoli!" Cecilia protested.

"Yes, but its much more fun watching you eat and two, I wouldn't eat anything from your plate anyway."

Cecilia scowled and turned back to her plate but not before her Broccoli fell 'accidentally' to the floor which she didn't realize until dinner was over.

"So...did Mom tell you all about the surprise?" Asked Dad.

"Not really." Grace answered. She had finished her second plate and was trying very hard not to ask for thirds. "All she said was that it was a surprise."

Tyler's face brightened. " 'her's gonna ee a suhprise?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Dad said, glancing at him.

"His mouth isn't full." Replied Cecilia.

"Oh." Dad said, frowning as he tried to sort out what Tyler had said.

"Have you been working on his speech Alysia?" Mom asked, she payed Alysia good money to help Tyler speak better. Alysia had a bit of a lisp and Mom said teaching Tyler would help herself to speak better as well.

"Yeah...a couple times a week." She turned to look at Tyler who was scowling at his vegetables. "He's really improving."

Tyler leaned forward towards Dad and glared at Alysia. "Me no like hur." He said sullenly.

"Yes...I can see that." Mom said encouragingly, she looked at Alysia. "Perhaps it could be going better?"

Alysia glared at the back of Tyler's blonde head. "Is-snot." She grumbled.

"Anyway," Dad said brightly. "About the surprise..." He looked genuinely pleased about what he was going to say right up until Cecilia spilled her juice in the pot of noodles and Mom started scolding her and Cecilia was yelling back...and Uwey started barking...and Elora roared off with Stress Relief for the I-think-I'm-a failure Finals College Student in her hand...and Grace sat back and tried to watch everything serenely without giggling...and Maria and Anthony both ran to get towels...and quite soon, everyone had entirely forgotten that Dad was going to tell them anything at all.

A/N: Merry Christmas all! I had an excellent day yesterday and made out like a thief! The highlight of my gifts was the gorgeous Narnia calender I got that has pics to die for of my darling Peter Pevensie. Its awesome:) And the food was great and I loved every moment of it.

Anyway, here is another chapter and I apologize before hand for any and all grammatical errors. Again, the Campbells are my family and if you desire to know what is fiction about them and what isn't, feel free to ask in your reviews! I truly hope some more of you will review because I do so love when people comment on me and my family. :)

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

TO BE CONTINUED...